Fedeo

I use IB and I think that's pretty usable for Scalping. Compared to many others IB has just higher margins (both for European and US Futures for example) so if you plan to scalp few ticks and big size that can be an issue.

Hi mbfromla, could please explain me your reasons behind the long entry at around 7:15 of your chart? i am asking you this as from a mental point of view yesterday after the big red candle covering all the previous move up my mind switched to 'short' and I got trapped with that for a while (that's probably also my issue to easily adapt to market conditions)... Thanks Fedeo

I also really hope the "moderation" issue can be resolved. In any case just want to let you know that I really appreciate this thread as well as all the material in the forum....

Hi BF, I have just a question (and maybe some advice you can give me). Based on this thread and other posting I understod you are simultaneously trading Bond and ES, and as far as I can see from the trades in a quite actively way. Don't you have any problem to daytrade different items at the same time ? Does it happen to you also to have position open at the same time in ES and Bonds? I ask you this as I tried to trade at the same time the DJ EuroStoxx and the German Bund but I never managed to keep a good focus on both and more than often I was missing opportunities and managing the trade in a terrible way. By now I decided to focus on the DJ EuroStoxx only but I liked the movement of the Bond so I would be happy to trade both. Thanks Fedeo

You have to think somehow at 2 different kind of volume : volume on horizontal axis and volume on vertical axis. "High volume represents acceptance of price, and can be found in balancing areas" this is true on the horizontal axis (so basically when a price has many "letters" and doesn't move too much). Generally in this case the volume on vertical axis is low, and that's why price range. "..trends have to have increasing/fair/healthy volume to be sustained" this is true on the vertical axis (the classic volume you have on all chart) and is normally associated with low volume on the horizontal axis (as price has the momentum to move and not range) as Dalton says "low volume represents rejection". Hope I managed to explain myself .... Fedeo

Hi, I am quite familiar with the Haggerty methods, I can say that the formula is exactly the same as the one highlighted by Steve. I can just add that Haggerty normal use that formula in the first 30-60 minutes of trading to "evaluate" an excess on the up/down side due to some news. After getting those levels he expects then for some patterns to happen to trigger the entry. Honestly I would say nothing really new if compared to most of the methods and strategy that can be found on TL. Fedeo

Thanks to TL community... great place with great people..... Enjoy yr christmas... fedeo

Hi James, as you asked for "everyones thoughts" ..here I am... Commenting the first chart from the beginning I would have "probably" taken the first and second entry of the 20ema while i would have probably skipped the third one (white candles don't help but I suppose first one to be green second red ). Reason why I wouldn't is that I normally try to enter a trade on a pullback (whatever it is EMA20 or other S/R)evaluating the momentum of the trend and I "normally" do this comparing the length of the legs between the swing high/low (a zig zag function). I arrived to evaluate momentum this way after trying all possible indicators and failing using them..so, in this case, for the first entry I would have compared the leg from 250 (Swing High) to 180 (Swing Low) with the one from 180 (Swing Low) to 220 (Swing High) and entered the trade. So for the second where the ratio is even better. For the third one the length of the leg down is very close to the length of the leg up so, based on the momentum, and unless there was some old strong support in that area I wouldn't have taken it. Based on this, my analysis is first telling me to wait before trading short along the main trade. I personally also consider the hammer on increased volume you outlined a good potential reversal signal...however, based on my trading strategy I wouldn't take it and waited for the classic double bottom to materialize. Basically I think in this case I would wait until it breaks 150 and then wait for candlestick pattern on a pullback area (EMA20 or other main S/R). Can I ask which stock is that one ?? ...so that I can monitor the behaviour in the next days and maybe if something happens we can try a follow up to any potential trade (simulated one for me in this case as I am no more trading stocks from last year).

Hi James, thanks. Well regarding the third trade in "normal condition" i would have probably also tried to enter the hammer at 15:00, basically I didnt cos 15:00 is 9:00 NY time and I have decided to avoid to enter all the markets between 14:15 - 15:15 (8:15-9:15 NY) as volatility increase too much for me and market can go crazy (especially in these last months). I know that lots of "great" trader manage to do their days mainly in the 1 hour of trading but unfortunately I am too far from them......maybe one day....let's say in this case it saved me..... Regarding the stop let's say that's the case where you follow exactly your plan...you are proud you did.....but inside your stomach everything is moving .... Ciao Fedeo

tried to post this but it looks like it didn't work..I try again.... Today I had another very good example as, especially in trending days, candlestick combined EMA20 and other stuffs can be very profitable...in many different markets. Below the Eurostoxx 50, as you can see for all the morning the 20EMA (in the charts you can see it with the 2std Bollinger Bands) has been a perfect support. The first 2 trades are, from my point of view, a very nice combination of many useful stuffs I found here in TL and around. The retracements find in fact a support both on the 20EMA and on the last high swing (something similar to what Walter here on TL call the "Flip Trade")..there is so a confluence of supports in that area. From a candlestick point of view approacching those supports the bodies of the candles (and also the ranges) start to be very smaller and, as also mentioned here in the candlestick corner (sorry I tried to find out the thread - from James_GSX as far as I can remember- but I was not successful)that can be a powerful signal the trend is going to resume. I normally consider these candles as a small congestion and play the game at the breakout of the high with a stop placed 2 tick below the bottom of the range. I have also added a third red row. This was a great trade I didnt manage to be successfull with as I moved my stop to break-even too early :crap:. In these case the support was done by the previous S/R and met at that point the lower Bolling Band with a series of "hammers". I have personally started to use Bollinger Bands from few months as I have seen that in Europe they are quite used and provide quite good reference point both on trend conditions and range conditions. I am now combining them with candlestick...maybe soon, when I will feel a bit more confortable about the topic, I can start a thread on this. Thanks to All.. Fedeo

Today I had another very good example as, especially in trending days, candlestick combined EMA20 and other stuffs can be very profitable...in many different markets. Below the Eurostoxx 50, as you can see for all the morning the 20EMA (in the charts you can see it with the 2std Bollinger Bands) has been a perfect support. The first 2 trades are, from my point of view, a very nice combination of many useful stuffs I found here in TL and around. The retracements find in fact a support both on the 20EMA and on the last high swing (something similar to what Walter here on TL call the "Flip Trade")..there is so a confluence of supports in that area. From a candlestick point of view approacching those supports the bodies of the candles (and also the ranges) start to be very smaller and, as also mentioned here in the candlestick corner (sorry I tried to find out the thread - from James_GSX as far as I can remember- but I was not successful)that can be a powerful signal the trend is going to resume. I normally consider these candles as a small congestion and play the game at the breakout of the high with a stop placed 2 tick below the bottom of the range. http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=8528&stc=1&d=1225826704 I have also added a third red row. This was a great trade I didnt manage to be successfull with as I moved my stop to break-even too early :crap:. In these case the support was done by the previous S/R and met at that point the lower Bolling Band with a series of "hammers". I have personally started to use Bollinger Bands from few months as I have seen that in Europe they are quite used and provide quite good reference point both on trend conditions and range conditions. I am now combining them with candlestick...maybe soon, when I will feel a bit more confortable about the topic, I can start a thread on this. Thanks to All.. Fedeo

Hi, this is my first post on the Forum after I spent few months trying to get the more I could from TL. First of all I want thank all of you that are joining their knowledge with person as me (that by now can give almost nothing back). I want to share now my view of the use of candlestick in day-trading and how I have used the knowledge I got from this thread/corner. As I was doing in swing trading I have mainly focused on 2 entry signals the Hammer (as often mentioned here in the previous reply) and the bullish/bearish engulfing. I want to focus more now on the second one as it is the one I am using more and we had two interesting opportunities yesterday on the ES on 5 min charts. For example in an up-trend I am basically looking for for a bullish engulfing that 'develop' under the EMA20 but with close above it . As also stated by Nison, the more the volume on the second bar the better. The 5 min chart shows 2 possible entries (I personally got only the first one as I was leaving the office when the second one appears). What I find also very interesting, and this is something that happens quite often, is that a bullish engulfing as shown above in the 5 min charts is also an hammer that retrace under the EMA20 in the 15 min chart (it basically depends from the candle before the engulfing). From my point of view this makes the pattern even more powerful. In our case this was especially true on the first entry and for example I think it was the same in the post from BF of "09-30-2008, 11:11 PM" for the entry at around 11:30. As always stated here there are many times when the pattern can fail.For example in the 5 min I can see a failed one at around 11:30, even if in that case I don't know if I would get it or not as a lower high developed few bars before and EMA20 was quite flat (I only take the pattern in clear a trend market). To make my post o a bit more consistent (and open to everybody critics) these are the "basic" rules I follow for the pattern: - When the engulfing appear I "generally" entry on the bar after a tick above the close of the second bar and place the stop loss one tick below/above the close of the second bar. - I normally set the target based on market profile or S/R analysis - I move the stop to B/E normally when the price touch the latest swing before the engulfing. As always said here these are generic rules that I try to follow to have a consistent plan but that can be changed based on live osservation of the market. Sorry for my long post...but as this was the first one I had lots to say...:-)... Still many thanks to all ...and a bit more to BF for all the great job done here in the candlestick corner and everywhere in the forum...