DbPhoenix

You're assuming that professionals are supremely skilled and retail traders are supremely clueless. If you're going to compare the two fairly, you'll have to control the variables. As far as indicators and tick charts, I don't recall bringing either of those up. I don't use them. As for scalping, if one wants to, fine. But scalping isn't all there is. I've been trading for 15 years, and I'm not going to switch to scalping just because it's de rigeur. But whether scalping or not, I agree that futures are superior to forex. But not so much that I want to argue about it. Just making a comment.

But I did not say "last" September. My mistake. I apologize. And, no, something that isn't an an all-time high isn't necessarily ranging. It can reverse and begin a downtrend. Look at '00-'02. But if price bounces up and down repeatedly within a range, then it's range-bound, i.e., it's bound by the upper and lower limit of the range. Gold has been bouncing up and down in a range for nearly two years. As for a lower low today, that depends on what it is lower than. It has yet to reach the last swing low on the daily chart. As to whether or not others look at different intervals and timeframes, of course. But it pays to know where and when price is most likely to reverse. Some people like to be in and out, in and out. I'd rather short at resistance or buy at support and just hold it.

It's also worth noting in your example that sellers were unable to break the swing low, i.e., buyers halted the decline. This has implications for their being able to reverse it and drive price up.

Perhaps one wants to ride the move to its natural conclusion? You're assuming that that's the only difference. Perhaps the average professional trader does better than the average retail investor because the professional behaves like a professional. The average retail investor does not.

Yes. Yes. What do you suppose sellers have in mind when they're doing that? And why are buyers letting them do it?

It may be that you're the only one who can see them. I discovered a new options page in the User CP for the chat. Just uncheck the PMs option. Mine are no longer there.

May I suggest putting it on the home page, or at least the link to it, preferably in the main tool bar (Home, Forums, Indicators . . . ). Otherwise, guests may never even see it. Also, why are my PMs posted to it?

No bias. An instrument is either trending or ranging. Gold stopped trending in Sep '11. The chart I posted is of that period. You may be referring to some other post when you refer to "last" Sept. Since then it has been bouncing between 1800 and 1535+/-. Each trip from top to bottom within the range may be considered a trend, but it is not the same sort of trend that price is in once it departs from the range, such as the trend beginning in July '11.

I don't know that I can help you with this. I see nothing here that I would bother with. It appears that traders are just trading to keep busy, without any kind of goal. Whatever S&R levels there may be don't seem to be particularly important. Don't make things harder on yourself than they need to be. Look for something easy to trade, something reliable and predictable.

You can create setups on the tick chart, but that's not necessarily the point of the exercise, which is to become sensitive to price movement (as an aside, it may help not to think so much in terms of price movement but rather trader behavior, i.e., price isn't moving, traders' behavior is being illustrated by prints; the movements may seem less random that way). For those who are just beginning, this may all seem like a duh. But for those who have spent a lot of time with a bar approach, this may take quite some time. If you see something that looks like it might be a setup, whether in this interval or a larger one, don't become fixated on the setup itself. Look as well at what happens afterward. Did it pay off? Why? If not, why not? There are, for example, spectacular reversals. Others will just fizzle out and lie there. If price is just a bouncing ball, these differences may seem random. But if they're viewed in terms of trader behavior and motive and goal, the characteristics of both muscular and wimpy setups may become more clear.

Please clarify. .......................

Buying and selling waves are characterized by extent and duration, i.e., a move can rise or fall quite far in a very brief period of time, or it may do so over a more extended period of time. Clearly the faster it moves directionally, the more urgency. If there is a lot of activity but little movement, then you have a lot of effort but not much if any result. You don't have to "do" anything with any of this. You can't see any of this activity in a bar, though you may see at least some of it if the bar interval is very short. The point of this is to become sensitive to what traders are doing to move price, if anything. What seems directionless will seem much less so when price gets to a level where traders see opportunity and it suddenly bursts through resistance. If you are able to detect these levels in advance, so much the better. Wouldn't hurt to re-read The Daytrader's Bible

It was quite a crew back then.

MC's post is six years old. He hasn't been around for a couple of years.

- Depends on how one defines "trading range":

Gold, however, has been in a trading range since September, and the limits of a trading range can hold for quite some time. You should know by Monday or Tuesday. Don't know if I'd wait for 50.

If you're set up for 1kt bars, then the probability that any given set of bars is going to be followed by another of the same type is 100%, if that's all you expect, which has nothing to do with whether or not 2 rising ticks are going to be followed by another uptick. What is more important is the message you get from two upticks followed by an uptick rather than a down tick. Which leads back to what you're looking for in the first place. If, for example, you're looking to trade breakouts thru resistance, then you'll watch the ticks to see where they stall and retreat, stall and retreat, stall and retreat. Then if and when they break through that level, there's your entry. This will depend in part on the activity level, i.e., is there a sudden increase in tick activity just before the next attempt to break through whatever level price stalled at? Or are the ticks just drifting aimlessly? If you follow bars that are aggregates of multiple ticks, not only will you not see any of this, you'll be too late to take the scalp, if that's what you want to do. If you decide to do more than scalp, then a time bar may be of greater benefit.

There you go, changing the subject again.

I wouldn't call it "Master's advice", just an acknowledgement of the reality of an auction market. No, a 1t move is not representative of where price is headed, but then neither is a tick bar, regardless of the number of ticks it represents. By following the trades, however, you will get a sense of what price is doing at the moment, which, if you're sensitive to it, will suggest where the support and resistance levels are and whether buyers or sellers are exerting the greater pressure. A tick chart is, after all, just a graphic representation of a time & sales display, which can be used as well.

Before you start, a word of advice. Actually, several words. If you don't know why price moves one way or another, it won't make the slightest difference whether you use 20t or 44t or 140t or 233t or 3675t. If you do know why price moves one way or another, all you need is 1t. Anything else is a bar. And if you know why price moves, you know that price doesn't move in bars. If you don't know why price moves one way or another, then you need . . . a 1t, in order to find out. If you never figure it out, then you ought to find something else to do with your time and especially your money.

Actually the thread is about why futures are better than forex, not about how better to trade futures. But then threads often lose their way after about the tenth post.

RULE #22: Don't get overconfident, egotistical, arrogant. The reason: The Big Comeuppance (the Big Meltdown, the Sky Falling In, Your Worst Nightmare) can always be lurking around the next corner...

RULE #21: Don't expect a certain card to appear. Bad players do this all the time - expect the best possible outcome to occur - and then are crushed when it doesn't.

Or the NQ. 5 bucks. And it moves much better than the ES.

Well, it's moved around over three threads. This thread is as good a place as any. If you're interested in the previous discussion, do a search using "waves" and my name. Edit: Just checked. There are too many. Suggest you start with the posts from Jan 9, '13.