The Optimal System

Your digital co-pilot for navigating ES/MES markets

Built around seven powerful tools that assess the market, define the trend, map session structure, and pinpoint entries, Optimal System adapts to the environment to help you find the best entries and protect you from hostile markets.

Whether you're navigating volatile conditions or riding a powerful trend, it offers a logical, common-sense approach to ES and MES trading -every day.

And because it's a defined trading method, you'll receive end-of-day chart analysis straight to your inbox -so you'll quickly learn to spot set-ups on our chart template.

A screenshot of the Optimal System for NinjaTrader 8 in action.

Inside the Optimal System

Optimal Market Assessment
Optimal Snap Bars
Optimal Trendlines
Optimal Entry
Optimal Patterns
Optimal Round Numbers
Optimal Session Zones

01 Optimal Market Assessment -your on-screen trading mentor

Imagine having an on-screen trading-mentor that advises you about the live market.

Optimal Market Assessment evaluates the current trading environment to determine if whether it is Favorable for discretionary traders (smoother trends, slower movement, levels respected) or Hostile (choppy, unpredictable, dominated by HFTs).

Based on this diagnosis, the on-screen meter suggests your strategic posture:

Aggressive entries when conditions align
Conservative entries when the market turns dangerous.

Adapt your trading strategy in real time: switch between aggressive and conservative modes as the market changes.

02 Optimal Snap Bars -renko bars that lock to a fixed grid

Standard Renko charts misalign between sessions, making it impossible to exactly compare support and resistance across different trading sessions. Optimal Snap Bars solves this by generating Renko bars that auto-snap to a fixed grid, ensuring optimal alignment from day to day.

This creates a perfectly-clear visual structure where you can instantly compare support and resistance levels, identify repeating patterns, and measure price action with precision.

A chart of Optimal Snap Bars by Optimal Ninja for NinjaTrader 8

03 Optimal Trendlines -trendlines that flex with the market

Still drawing static trendlines? We have a better way.

Optimal Trendlines dynamically adjusts its slope, position and width within a live trend based on trend-strength. This gives you tighter, more aggressive entry-points in strong moves and wider, more conservative levels when the market is softer.

And when a trendline breaks, trend-end markers flag exhaustion and convert into actionable support and resistance levels.

A chart of Optimal Trendlines by Optimal Ninja for NinjaTrader 8

04 Optimal Entry -pullbacks that sharpen in strong trends

Optimal Entry calculates precise pullback levels within a trend to identify the zone where algos are likely to enter in the trend's direction.

These levels auto-adapt their width to the strength of the current move—so you can instantly see which zones carry the most weight and place your entry with confidence.

A chart of Optimal Entry by Optimal Ninja for NinjaTrader 8

05 Optimal Round Numbers -psychological levels that flip with price

Markets gravitate toward round numbers.

These psychological price points act as magnets for order flow, creating natural support and resistance that institutional traders watch closely.

Optimal Round Numbers automatically plots these critical levels on your chart, automatically switching color based on price action.

Instantly see when a round number flips from support to resistance.

A chart of Optimal Round Numbers by Optimal Ninja for NinjaTrader 8

06 Optimal Patterns -classic price action patterns that matter

Price action is the foundation of market structure.

Optimal Patterns scans price action in real-time to identify the patterns the most reliable patterns -double tops, double bottoms, head and shoulders, and inverse head and shoulders.

No manual drawing. No clutter. Just classic patterns identified as they form.

A chart of Optimal Patterns by Optimal Ninja for NinjaTrader 8

07 Optimal Session Zones -areas that map the session structure

Every trading session has a structure, and understanding it is critical to timing your trades.

Optimal Session Zones combines three essential session-based tools into a single overlay: multiple Prior Sessions Highs and Lows define the battleground, Midpoint and Quarter Lines reveal internal structure, and Adaptive Bands highlight the boundaries of normal price behavior.

Together, they give you a complete map of where price has been—and where it's likely to go.

A chart of Optimal Session Zones by Optimal Ninja for NinjaTrader 8

Seven tools. One unified approach. End-of-day analysis to get you spotting trades quickly.

The Optimal System brings it together.

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What is Quartz?

At the end of 2022, we imagined what the next-generation of trading indicators might look like.

Single-function indicators had been around for decades. Most were not very helpful. And even the best ones really only did one thing. So you always needed to load several on your chart, which meant following multiple plots or colors to make trading decisions. Or even multiple charts. It could be tough work.

Suppose instead, we thought, there was a single indicator capable of analyzing dozens of complex conditions in the background and telling us the result.

But not just a dumb number-cruncher. Something with an edge. Something that could really help trading decisions.

Now that would be cool. But that's what a Strategy does, right?

Well, kind of.

What we really wanted was an indicator that blended the sophistication of an automated strategy with the control of discretionary trading.

A kind of super-class indicator optimized for the market it was running on.

That was 15 months ago. And that super-class indicator is now Optimal Ninja Quartz.

NinjaTrader indicator properties box for Optimal Filter showing user inputs

What does Quartz do?

Quartz is built around a powerful signal-processing engine capable of analysing multiple information-streams including:

Price action patterns
Orderflow
Volume
Volatility
Speed-of-tape
Time-of-day

This data is then weighted according to our most successful trading simulations and when it identifies an exploitable-edge it sends a single color-coded signal to your price bars: long or short or stand-aside.

This level of real-time analysis is near-impossible for a human trader and gives you an immense edge in the decision-making process.

What signals does Quartz produce?

All trading with Quartz is built around the 12-tick system using Optimal Ninja Snap ES Bars. Find out more here.

Quartz produces both momentum signals and fade (countertrend) signals and is smart enough to try to keep you out of the dumb trades that everyone takes from time-to-time, such as shorting a major uptrend or trying to buy the low of the day.

That isn't to say that all entries Quartz highlights will go in your favor. Of course not. But experienced traders know the difference between a sound trade that doesn't work out and a bad trade they never should have taken.

So a significant element of Quartz's logic is assigned to filtering out low-probability setups. Bars that are gray-colored are stand-aside bars, where we recommend not entering.

Empower your trading decisions with Optimal Ninja Quartz

Standard Renko charts misalign between sessions making it impossible to exactly compare support and resistance across different trading sessions. Optimal Snap Bars solves this by generating renko bars that auto-snap to a fixed grid ensuirng optimal alignment from day to day.

This creates a perfectly-clear visual structure where you can instantly compare support and resistance levels, identify repeating patterns, and measure price action with precision.