TinGull

If you ever wanna do anything with cooking...let me know I'm constantly in the kitchen.

For a clear mind...just wanted to share something I started up again. My life had been consumed with trading for the past year or so, and I've gotten to where things seemed simple, but weren't as simple as they had been 6 months ago. not terribly more complex...just not as easy on the eyes. Late last week I had a bit of frustration with my trading start to creep into the ol' psyche and was asked a question by both MrPaul and my girl. "How much time do you spend with the markets in your head?" I had never really thought about it. Music is what my life is about. I used to be a recording engineer in Boston and in Nashville, wrote songs, played drums for big wig jazz names here and there and I thought...what was I doing when I had my 2 best weeks this year? I was playing drums every morning!! This past weekend I didn't pull up a chart, didn't read a book, didn't do anything with the markets. I spent all the time outside, tending to my seedlings for the garden and making music again. Having a clear mind can be accomplished easily by having other things in your mind besides trading. I'm looking forward to trading today, as I know it's going to be great going into it with a mind filled with music instead of a mind filled with more market stuff that will start to confuse the very system I worked hard to design. Just my thoughts

What I learned from my mothers will is nothing can be left to interpretation. If you specify that the money in said futures account is to be given to the beneficiary free and clear once all positions are liquidated, that has to happen by law. There's no if's and's or but's about that.

Also to your comment before...it didn't change the way I trade, this particular book anyhow. MoM was the book that changed the way I traded. This book carried on and as I said...solidified things. I guess I kind of got caught up in my getting called an "inexperienced trader with MP". I feel my understanding of it goes much further than being an inexperienced user of that way of understanding markets.

Very very sleek and very stylish, classic, and all those other terms that I identify with Aston Martin. also...Yummm!

It can be very tricky. My mother had passed away in June, and just recently were all of her stocks transferred out of her name into mine and my sisters, and eventually transferred into other assets. A lot of work with accountants and lawyers before hand definitely made it easier, as my grandmothers' accounts took much longer to deal with because she had been fussing with it just before she passed. Definitely talk with your brokerage first, and then an account/lawyer team. I don't know how things get executed, I just know it can be tricky.

It did help to solidify things. Also, I'd love for you to post more on your experiences with MP and what you trade using it since I'm the "inexperienced" MP trader around here. I'm always up for learning from the pros that use it.

I'd die to have a Skyline.....

And just now, a quick 10 pointer from 87-77. Price was outside of its previous balance area and wanted to come back to it.

Thanks to Paul for helping me on yet another pretty frustrating day for me. Always helps when people are willing to share their insights. Balance. That's a new strategy of mine now. When price opens far away from value after a balanced day, chances are high that price will revisit that area to see if there's any more business to be done there. Case in point...today. Yesterday was a pretty balanced day. Heck, the last few have been balanced. On 3/7 there was a nice distribution, and yesterday price went on to seek out business in that value area in the mid-day. What Im currently watching is 60 minute value areas on the 5min chart. I'm treating each 60 minutes as it's own daily profile, and each 5min bar as it's own 30 minute candle, if you will. Seeing candlestick reversal patterns when price is outside of it's previous 60 minute value area (this is based on volume, not time) combined with the delta divergence has been signaling a nice drop of 10-20 points (sometimes more) over the past couple days. I still need to research this a little more on the back end, but so far it seems pretty neat. Plus, how cool would it be when someone asks about your strategy and all you say is...man, it's just about balance.

Yea. I helped rebuild a Shelby GT350. And got to drive a 67 Ford Fairline with 1700 (no misprint) original miles on it. That thing was PRISTINE! Muscle is definitely sexy!

I wanted to start a thread about VSA and how it can be used to trade. I had kind of put this off, to be honest...didn't think it held anything for me. I decided to expand my horizons last night and am I glad I did!! This VSA stuff is intensely amazing to see. What is Volume Spread Analysis? From my meager understandings...here it goes: VSA is a sound methodology to show you when professional money is taking advantage of an imbalance in the marketplace in an attempt to move it in the opposite direction. By using volume per bar and the spread of that bar (the hi to the lo) and the close of that bar, you are able to see that professional money is entering the market. From what I've been looking at you are able to see that money start moving into the market in bars prior to the actual high volume/hi spread bar. For example...a trade I took yesterday would have absolutely been avoided had I put this methodology to work. I watch a 5min chart as well as a 233t chart of the Mini Dow. This 5min chart shows you something...Notice how that bar prior to the "spinning top" (last bar pictured) has a major increase in volume from ANY bar in the prior 4 hours. With VSA we know that strength is shown on down bars and weakness is shown on up bars. Kind of counter-intuitive...but when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. The professionals have to buy SO much at a time that they need the market to be liquid enough to support their buying, so they MUST buy on downward bars. Exact opposite for selling. The "late to the party Charlies" are buying when they can't possibly stand to not be long, and who is liquidating so they can buy? The Pros. Notice what happened in the next bar...price shot up. The trade I took was sell that retracement to VAH/R1 cluster. Had I been privy to what VSA has to offer, I would have seen that volume was increasing DRAMATICALLY, we had a VERY widespread bar and we closed in the upper half of that bar. Is that a sign that pros are buying? Sure as heck is!! So, please...let's add to this discussion. This is a powerful way to look at things in conjunction with Auction Theory and Market Profile.

You're right. MP is not supposed to be a rule based system...it's a way to think. That was the biggest thing I got out of the book. I had been trying to set up rules to trade value areas and POC's and all...and now I look at the chart and volume relationships at key levels and can see the auction participants feelings. For me, MiP was all about changing my mindset rather than giving me rules to trade with.

very nice. This is what my old boss had recently (2 yrs ago I think) added to his garage...

No, I haven't really been watching the inside bars lately. I'm concentrating efforts on this VSA stuff....

Ummm, so James, you're awesome. You are thy holiness!

Yes PivotProfiler, I'm getting kinda interested in this VSA stuff you're writing about. Any place you recommend to learn a bit more of the basics of it? Thanks!

I would advise you to speak directly with James regarding the link of any content that may have been "stolen". This matter is for you and James to speak about directly, not for discussion on a public forum. This thread has been closed.

Oh, so you've decided to just open it up on a public forum instead of speaking directly with James? How is that professional?

I believe the content in question was a tutorial video.

?? I guess I'm missing the point to that statement. Care to clarify why that's of importance and how you even know that fact? Just curious. Thanks

And also, the forum admin is the person in those videos. He owns the videos, so it is HIS content. If proper credit was not given to him, then it is considered "stealing".

That is the correct way to use libelous, FYI. One can be held liable for libelous comments.

Thanks for the reply. With regards to some things you say...I would assume video and audio copyright laws for internet based content remains quite similar. The video content here is an "original work of authorship" which would be protected under the copyright laws. If someone takes a video, does not give proper credits to where the video came from or claims it as their own, then YES it is against the law. Regarding RSS, I suppose you hadn't spoken with youtube.com about their RSS feeds? And please please please learn to use certain words correctly. Libel and liable are not the same. That is a term a legal advisor would very certainly not get wrong. PS, for my background, I worked in music publishing in Nashville. I was there when Dreamworks got bought out, Warner Chappell's VP was fired, when the whole industry was turning upside down because of internet based content. I'm very aware of copyright laws and try to stay abreast of all the latest happenings.

I completely agree with you. You had just mentioned in a previous post that 70% was arbitrary. There is no one way, thats what is awesome about the markets. MP gives a great way to look at the markets, and I do use MP levels for my trading. I also use floor trader pivots and the basic hi and lo of the current and previous day. I don't use fibs or anything else, though. That stuff starts to get a little esoteric for my palette, but lots of people have success with it. Didn't mean any offense, so hope none was taken.