Kairos Scalper. NY-Morning Futures Scalping.

How To Use Kairos Scalper.

This guide covers what Kairos Scalper does and how to set it up on NinjaTrader 8. It walks through the daily guardrails. It ends with how to check it on your own chart.

In 60 Seconds

• What it is. Kairos Scalper is our futures scalping algo, the third of our four. It runs as a strategy on your own NinjaTrader 8 chart.
• What it does. It takes short, frequent trades when several checks agree. Each trade carries a target, a stop and a trailing stop. It places those orders itself, on the account you pick.
• Who it is for. Futures scalpers who automate. It also suits prop-firm traders who want daily limits and cooldowns. Manual traders can take its entries by hand.
• Plans. Kairos comes with Yearly Pro, $270 a year. Yearly Pro also includes Paradox Algo, Aurum and six indicators, on 2 computers.
• Version. v1.6, for NinjaTrader 8 (8.1.8.4 or newer, on Windows).
• What it does not do. We do not trade for you or manage your account. You run the software on your own NinjaTrader platform. It does not predict the market or promise results. It only knows the daily limits you enter.

How It Behaves

• Entries. Every entry is direction-aware, so Kairos waits for a pullback. It does not chase a move that has already stretched. It enters only when several different checks agree. Entries go in at market when a bar closes, never mid-bar.
• An adaptive target and stop. Every trade carries a target and a protective stop. By default, both adapt to live market volatility. The distance changes from trade to trade, but your contract count never does. Prefer fixed sizes? Turn on Use Manual Brackets for a fixed target and stop in ticks.
• The trailing stop. When a trade moves your way far enough, a trailing stop follows price. Live, Kairos moves its stop order as price moves. Keep NinjaTrader open and connected while a trade is live.
• Forced exits. Two exits do not wait for the bracket. Max Hold closes a trade that stays open too long. The end of your Active Hours closes any open position. NinjaTrader's own Exit on session close starts off; turn it on if your firm needs you flat at the close.
• Daily guardrails. The Daily Trade Limit caps how many trades it takes in a day. The Daily Risk Limit stops new entries once the day's losses reach it. The Daily Profit Target does the same for gains, and 0 turns it off. The Loss Circuit Breaker pauses new entries for the day after a losing streak. It resets at the next session, or on a win. The Recovery Period waits a set number of bars after each losing trade. These limits stop new entries, but they never close an open trade. An open trade keeps its own target, stop and trail. The daily counters reset when a new day starts in your Session Timezone.
• No repaint. Entry signals are decided on closed bars, so they do not repaint. Live fills can still differ from the backtest. The Check It Yourself section below explains why.
• Account checks. It won't open a trade while your account already holds a position in that market. It waits until the account is flat. If its stop is cancelled outside the strategy, it places the stop again. The Output window and the Log tab say what happened.
• Profiles. Kairos ships ready to run, with the Profile set to Custom. Conservative, Balanced and Aggressive are presets you can opt into. Conservative trades least, and Aggressive trades most often. A preset overrides some of your inputs while it is selected.
• The dashboard. The on-chart dashboard shows which profile is driving. “preset locked” means a preset is in control of the tuning. “CUSTOM” means your own input values are live. It also shows the session, the cooldown and the day's trade count.

Markets & Timeframes

• Timeframe. We recommend a 3-minute chart, and 3 to 5 minutes is the supported range. Kairos runs on minute or second bars only.
• Markets. Kairos is typically run on MNQ, MES, ES and CL futures. Other liquid futures markets work too, such as NQ. Chart the current contract month, such as MNQ 12-26. A continuous contract (##-##) can't trade. Paper trade any new market on a Sim account before you trust it with real money.
• Exchange settings. The NinjaTrader · Exchange settings start on CME index futures hours and holidays. On another market, such as crude oil, check them first.
• The session window. Active Hours ships as 08:00 to 12:00, New York time. New entries fire only inside that trading window. Any open position closes when the window ends.
• The time zone. Pick New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Sydney or UTC. Your Active Hours are read in that time zone, not your chart's. Set it to your market's home exchange, and the window stays right all year.
• Weekdays. Monday to Friday are on by default, and the weekend is off. For markets that trade all week, turn the weekday filter off.

Your First Day

1. Install it. Import the zip from your welcome email: Tools, then Import, then NinjaScript Add-On. The install guide has every step.
2. Add it. Open a 3-minute chart of your futures market. Open the Output window first. Then right-click the chart, pick Strategies…, pick KairosScalper and click Add.
3. Pick a Sim account. Start on a Sim account. Leave the Profile on Custom, the default. The presets can wait until later.
4. Set your size and limits. Set Contracts to what your account and your firm allow. Then tune the daily limits to your account and your firm's rulebook.
5. Check your session. Confirm Active Hours and the Session Timezone in the Session group. On a prop account, end the window before your firm's cutoff.
6. Enter your license. Scroll to License at the bottom. Enter your checkout email and your PA- license key. Turn the algo on and click OK. The Output window shows KairosScalper: License active.
7. Paper trade first. Run it on the Sim account for at least one full week before real money.

Prop-Firm Playbook

Kairos enforces exactly the limits you enter, and nothing else. Match each one to your firm's current rule sheet.

• Check your firm's frequency rules. Kairos trades often, and trade counts can clash with some firms' rules. Read your firm's consistency and frequency rules before an evaluation. For evaluations, our flagship Paradox Algo is the steadier choice.
• Your firm's day may reset at another hour. Kairos starts each new day in your Session Timezone. Your firm may reset its trading day at a different time. Check that your daily limits still fit your firm's day.
• Presets lock some settings. On Conservative, Balanced or Aggressive, the preset drives some of these settings. The dashboard then shows “preset locked” next to the Profile. Stay on Custom to use your own values everywhere.
• One algo per account. Running more than one algo? Give each its own account. Two algos on one account share one position.
• Prove it in sim. Paper trade one full week on a Sim account. Trip the Daily Risk Limit once, on purpose. Confirm that new entries stop and the account is flat. Only then should you trade a live account.

Check It Yourself

You never have to take our word for it. NinjaTrader's Strategy Analyzer shows every trade, on your own data.

• Open the Strategy Analyzer. In the Control Center, click New, then Strategy Analyzer. Pick KairosScalper, your market and your dates, then run it. It lists every trade and every metric.
• Stay inside your tick history. A signal that comes before your tick history starts is not traded. The Log tab says how many were skipped, and from what date the results count.
• Treat it as research. A backtest runs on past prices and does not predict future results.

• Fills and timestamps. Fills can land a few ticks away, from normal slippage and delay. Your account's fill history is the source of truth.
• Speed matters for a scalper. A scalper needs fast, reliable execution at your broker. It also needs NinjaTrader running and connected. If your connection drops, check your positions once it's back.

1. Paper trade one full week. Use a NinjaTrader Sim account or your firm's sim account.
2. Check the orders. Did every entry carry its target and stop? Check the Orders and Executions tabs.
3. Check the fills. Did fills match the chart's entries? Did slippage match what you expected?
4. Test your limits. Trip the Daily Risk Limit once in sim, and confirm new entries stop.
5. Check the trail. On a sim trade that moves your way, confirm the stop order moves with price.
6. Then go live small. Start with the smallest size your account allows.

Mastery Path

• Day 1. Add Kairos to a 3-minute chart of your futures market, on a Sim account. Leave the Profile on Custom, and run the Strategy Analyzer. Set Contracts, your daily limits and the session.
• Week 1. Paper trade the full week. Check every order and fill against the chart. Trip your Daily Risk Limit once in sim.
• Month 1. Change one setting at a time, then re-run the Strategy Analyzer. Try the Conservative, Balanced or Aggressive presets for a different pace. Leave the Advanced Engine alone unless you run your own custom settings. Go live only after a clean month in sim.

Updates

• Step 1: remove the old copy. In the Control Center, click Tools, then Remove NinjaScript Assembly. Pick ParadoxAlgo and remove it.
• Step 2: restart, then import. Restart NinjaTrader. Import the new zip the same way as the first time.
• Step 3: check each chart. If the algo is gone from a chart, add it again and load your template.

Full steps: updating to a new release.

Questions

Pairs With

Kairos runs on its own. Yearly Pro also includes these tools. Each one gives you its own read, beside the algo.

• Paradox Algo. Our flagship algo, and the steadier choice for prop-firm evaluations.
• DeepWave. Shows how active the market is for the hour, with an expected range.
• TrendScore. Scores trend strength and marks choppy, range-bound stretches.
• EdgeFlow. A bounded momentum-and-flow gauge for timing your own entries.
• SignalWave. Grades trend-regime flips, for higher-timeframe context.

For education and research. Kairos Scalper is trading software, not advice. Trading involves substantial risk of loss. Past performance does not predict future results.