Sledge

It appears he has ventured away from TG and has started his own gig. See this thread, it is an article browsfan posted of Todd's latest offering. At the bottom it gives his soon to be website and an email to contact Todd. http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f104/follow-the-smart-let-candles-and-5211.html

Happy 2009 to the UK Crew. I have not been around at all lately. Wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous 2009! Aaron

For anyone not aware of Todd's work with Tom Williams and his style vs Tom Williams this may help: Todd has ALWAYS presented himself as a more cautious trader than Tom. Tom sees a bar form of his liking and takes a position right away. Todd had said in many VSA materials that "I'm not as agressive as Tom- I want the market to prove it to me- I want to see the proof." Thus if he saw a long legged Doji at a bottom, Tom would go long on the bar right away. Todd would wait to see the market move upward and prove it. He misses out part of the move- but he gains the "more solid" position. If you play the probabilities, if you see a long legged Doji at an area of Support- chances are you are smart to go long, but how many times have you seen this doji form on a 1 hr or 4 hr chart, gone long and they test that bottom again- when you are sitting long? Todd would wait for the upward movement to confirm his stance- Tom would ride the drawdown and still be correct. Both would be right. Over time I realized that I used to trade like Tom, and have adapted my trading style to be far more like Todd's. Hope this helps anyone who may not be aware of the Todd/Tom difference! Aaron

I found this post on "T-shirts" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Topic Of The Month December, 2008" 7 posts that if read, digested and followed will bode well for ANY trader- great reminders!

TRO- Hey I loaded the SweetSpotsGolden Indicator to give it a whirl. The only thing I can't figure out is that it is drawing a golden line every 3 pips instead of every 25, tried turing the one field to false- but still get a whole bunch of lines. Any "more simple" version of this that just adds a line every 25 pips instead of every 3? Or can I configure this differently on your set-up? Thanks! Aaron

Bootstrap: Did you ever go forward with the experiment? Sledge

Very interesting experiment- would love to keep tabs on this throughout your journey! Aaron

herkfsu- VSA is a vast and in-depth topic/course of study. I read "Master the Markets" 5 times. It is a very worthwhile course of study if you want to learn it- but it does take time- & a lot of it. Best advice I can give- is read a section or portion of a section, then look at a real chart to see if you can find real-trade bars and examples to reinforce your learning. It will take time, and it will take dedication- but if you do this- you will see your trading take off in ways you have not seen up until now. Aaron

I found this post on "The Selling Climax" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Topic Of The Month October, 2008"

Anna- Thank you, I sort of figured it was the USD Index, but was too sleep deprived to be certain :o Have a great weekend! Aaron

Can you tell me what "index" you are referring too? :\ Thanks, Aaron

Been doing some quick 12-18 hour hops and have done better these past 16 days than I ever have in the past. I think it was a combo of: 1. Watching the freight train bars- you see a weekly bar with bears fully in control- you'd be a fool to do anything other than short 2. Spotting exhaustion and cashing out. 3. Patiently waiting for opportunity (even if it takes 12-24 hours) and THEN pulling the trigger. Aaron

We must be on the same "away from TL" schedule, I just stumbled back in the door a couple days ago. I think I only had about 2400 unread posts though Good to have you back around! I enjoy your posts quite a bit! Aaron

Feel like I'm back into a comfy shoe, Good to see all of you back and some newcomers on crew to boot. Anna- I looked at that 60 min and 15 min on the AUD, there really were no clear signs of a major move back upwards as I anticipated there would be on the chart, no fast down move, no hammer, no real trigger bars to speak of. Actually you got a lot of bars with wicks coming in and rounding on the bottom. But no clear signs of exhaustion before the take off. I suppose that with reduced action at that level it would constitute a nice area to bounce as it didn't have any muscle to punch through and that it was a major major support zone the last time it travelled to that area. So that part I understand. Bobby- Oh I really appreciate the charts, the repeating of information is what makes it stick. These zones and the action in, on or around it has been my main focus. Andre had kindly traded some PM's with me and let me in on the fact that this isn't the hardest thing out there- and he is correct (as everyone has been) I think seeing it from this perspective makes other forms of analysis look foolish. Counting candles Trying to memorize 1000 different patterns Plopping 100 indicators on the screen and the list goes on and on. It looks silly and is a waste of time- but it takes time for someone to grasp the TRUE meaning of Supply and Demand. Oddly enough, this is what I was studying- without truly understanding what it meant. To see the market from this perspective is life altering. I have had the best month of my trading to date this month- I actually have made more $ this month alone than I made in my first 6 months of trading- and it is only the 16th. I try to keep my wits about me, be patient and wait for the right time to make the play- it is preached over and over- but to finally master it- changes your trading perspective in a way nothing else can! So Welcome to the topic- I am most appreciative of your posts and it is good to see all of you back here! Aaron

Bobby- WOW- What a post, that is an outstanding representation of the zones and how they play out. Wonderful wonderful post, that really is a nice synopsis of the topic. Do you feel that in your last image that .7015 to .7106- right now that is the zone of focus? I suppose that was my intent of my post saying that longer term ALL the zones are of importance, but for the near term that particular zone is the one I will focus on as important- and be looking to read the price action at that zone: Will it blow through it? Will it exhaust again and return to the bottom of the chart to re-test supply? As I was told by someone very wise- I'll watch price action "at" and "in" that zone to decipher how it is acting. If it blows through it- time to cash out my shorts. If it shows signs of exhaustion, I add in to my short position. Hopefully, this makes sense and I thank you for your insight! Aaron

I found this post on "Busy Day Tomorrow" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Topic Of The Month October, 2008"

I'd like to possibly get this thread going again and further discuss the "Zones" if I may. I have been away for a while and in that time I have taken to reading this entire thread that I printed-- twice. After studying it over and over the "zones" that are discussed have absolutely changed my trading career. All of the information discussed here was a pile of gold, and I could see that it was something very valuable, but could not FULLY wrap my head around- just how amazing this information is. Taking a step back, reading and re-reading these posts has completely opened my eyes to a different perspective of the market, what it means, how it reacts. It was all there in black and white- I just needed to digest all of it in my head and mold it to the timeframes that I personally trade. If I didn't say it enough already I thank Milliard, Art, Anna and the others on UK Crew for the insight they have provided in this thread. It is a wonderful slab of information if someone takes the time to dig into it, read it, understand it and implement it. It has changed the way I trade- without a doubt! Maybe we could have some discussions about these said zones? Items such as: 1. Travel from the exhaustion point to the previous zone. 2. Realizing that the last zone above or below you is of most importance etc. Aaron

Hats off to you for having the insight to demo trade for as long as you did! Many folks try to build their learning curve with real cash from the get-go and wind up never being able to make a post about success.. as they crashed and burned long ago! Bravo! Sledge

I'm not sure if I have ever done it before, but for all the lull times in this thread, the bantering, the bashing, the B.S.- EIGER is the one who has kept it going. He is the one that just when you think this "thread is dead" Eiger comes out and makes a brilliant post to show another example of what he studies, uses to trade, and explains it for those who may not be anywhere near his level of expertise. He must live by the "pay it forward" mentality. He could just as easily sit at his PC, make a ton of cash all day and keep the years of hard work it took for him to get to his level of mastery to himself. Instead he shares what he can with anyone who asks. He takes the time to answer questions for folks who ask. Long of the short- even if VSA isn't for you, you gotta admire a guy who would do what he does for the thread and for the VSA camp and doesn't ask for a thing in return! My hat is off to you Gary! Sledge

:rofl: Nice! Yeah I thought it was funny as well. Need to get back into some chart posting over here. Had plenty of teachers- time to give back some more!

I will second this post by Taz in full. I learned VSA the "hard way" and I have read "MTM" 5 times through. It is tough to do- but if you study the concepts and apply them to your own charts- things start to be more clear to you. Relying on the VSA software to give you signals of trades is against the very teachings of VSA as it started. Many times I heard things said by TG staffers that "well you don't want to use indicators to trade- if you do you have no idea of what is REALLY going on" Well if you utilize their software for "trade signals" and only trade off of them without understanding WHY it is doing what it is- then you have no better system that any other indicator you could apply (MACD, Stoch, etc. etc.) Aaron

I may be back trying to submit a few more items for discussion here from time to time again. Been away for a while. Working on a "back to basics" approach of bars and the context of them in the market- something sparked by VSA, thought maybe we could discuss in the candle version in another corner of the TL, but thus far it hasn't blown wide open to fruitful discussion. Aaron

sevensa- I think you are correct that their is a misunderstanding. I didn't want to bring any VSA "schtuff" into the Candlestick Corner, but maybe to help with the clarification side of it- I can utilize a VSA example to clarify this topic. Ok we have in VSA a "No Demand bar" as you stated. That is an up bar with volume less than the previous two bars. That bar- by itself means virtually nothing. But if you place that bar in the context of the chart after a wide spread bar up- it has a lot more significance. That exact bar placed at the bottom of a bear run means that we are not ready to rise just yet. That same bar at the top means we are exhausting. Add a few more of those at a market top together and we get a stronger justification for going short. I am not shooting down ideas of candles or candle formations at S/R- I know they are significant and VERY worthwhile. Any spotting of exhaustion at either S or R is significant. So please do not think I am trying to shoot down the idea in any way. Not sure if that helps. Aaron

Thus the reasoning for looking at an individual candle first. Then placing it into the greater context of the puzzle. I had little reason to believe that a simple concept of discussing candles, their formation and what that candle says to the trader looking at it would ruffle so many feathers.

I'm not trying to spark debate with anyone, I'm just attempting to view this landscape a bit differently than it has been done in the past. Let me try to explain it this way: When you learn to play an instrument. You go through the almost painful experience of learning- one note at a time. That one note you have to learn what it not only looks like, but also what it sounds like correct? Ok after you master the one note (reading it and playing it)- you can move onto another note. Over time you have all of the "notes" learned and memorized. You know what they look like in print and you know what they sound like in your mind. After your training of each individual note- you can pick up a piece of sheet music and can acutally read the paper and hear the song start to play in your mind- long before fingers meet the strings. Without the "boring" part of learning each individual note- a piece of sheet music may as well be a foreign language to you. I'm just trying to spark further conversation about the "notes" before I attempt to play the entire piece. Aaron