Head2k

Since your question seems to be related rather to VSA than to Wyckoff how he is understood in the Wyckoff forum, I suggest you post your question into the VSA forum.

Doesn't this return an error? Your line should be written like this: Plot (TimeFrameExpand (CCIW, inWeekly), "CCI Weekly", IIf (TimeFrameExpand (CCIW, inWeekly) > 100, colorGreen, colorBlack), styleHistogram); If you want to add the red color, then try this: TimeFrameSet(inWeekly); CCIW = CCI(20); TimeFrameRestore(); CCIWexp = TimeFrameExpand (CCIW, inWeekly); Plot (CCIWexp, "CCI Weekly", IIf (CCIWexp > 100, colorGreen, IIF (CCIWexp < -100, colorRed, colorBlack)), styleHistogram);

To get the price of the last tick you need to have tick data. It means that 1) your data provider must provide tick-by-tick data 2) you need to save the data in a tick database in AmiBroker, which means that in menu File > Database Settings you need to set the base time inerval to Tick. 3) you need to run the indicator on a chart with interval set to 1 tick. Otherwise AmiBroker has no way to determine the price of the last tick. The indicator operates on an active chart and cannot reach for more detailed data (talking about an indicator in a chart, because I don't remember what AA does since I don't use it). Then, if you have the tick data, you can run the following code on it: UpTick = C > Ref(C, -1); DnTick = C < Ref(C, -1); // then, say you want to count all upticks since the selected bar in a chart SelBI = SelectedValue(BarIndex()); TotUpTick = 0; for(i = SelBI; i < BarCount; i++) { TotUpTick = TotUpTick + UpTick; }

John Magee: Winning the Mental Game on Wall Street: The Psychology and Philosophy of Successful Investing

Ondrej, I didn't mean you should watch only the 1 tick or 5s chart. But I think you should watch a fast chart in addition to the 1 min chart. The fast chart then gives you additional information and it also serves for observing behavior on the test where you are looking for entry. For example, If you watch only a 1m chart then the whole test can be shown as one bar. I think it is more useful to look inside of this bar. If you look inside, then you can possibly see a sharp rejection or quick double bottom. Or you can find a slow round or flat bottom or whatever. In other words, while 1m chart can show you behavior on larger scale (the DB as a whole), the fast chart can show you behavior on the test and can serve for defining triggers. Last but not least, volume is largely useless in fast charts. You need to focus on pace instead. That is on how fast price is rejected.

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Nazdar Ondreji, You can use double bottom / top as a setup. When defining this setup, there are several things you should focus on (IMHO): - the trend which brought price to the S/R and the DB/DT scale in relation to this trend - defining what is a DB/DT and what not, i.e. defining the test extent in relation to the original extreme - judging rejection (or a lack thereof) from the S/R, both on the first contact and on the test, and even on the bounce in between - choosing an entry point; stop loss placement; if, when and how to reduce your stop... And if you want to judge acceptance vs. rejection or if you want to learn how to spot a climactic activity in real time, then I would recommend you to open a fast chart instead of watching 5 or 1 minute bars together with volume bars. Don't be afraid of 1 tick chart (you must zoom out so the chart displays several thousand ticks).

I own the book and I know of several other forum members who have it, too. However, I do not feel free to spread it without Db's permission and, unfortunatelly, I do not know how to reach Db either. Db's blog here at TL contains a great part of the book, some chapters are exactly the same. I suggest you to study the Db's blog and the Wyckoff's Course and you should be fine.

Even though I am a daytrader, my own risk management rules are more conservative than the overnight margin requirements set by the exchange. I have never attempted to open a position which would be more leveraged than the marging requirements, or even anywhere near to them.

...unless you are a day trader. You definitely can open a larger position, but you have to close it within the same session.

Well, OK then. The $2813 Initial Intraday Margin for the ES is the same as day trading margin, as there is the word "Intraday".

As I wrote before, IB are conservative. AFAIK, they do not offer lower margins than the exchange. But check e.g. Mirius: Day-Trading Margins | Mirus Futures

Actually, IB are quite conservative and they have higher margin requirements. For the ES, the intraday initial margin is $2813 and the initial overnight margin is $5625. Source: http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/p.php?f=margin ------- For estrader: Margin requirements are indeed set by the exchange, but you, as a retail trader, do not interact directly with the exchange. Your broker places your orders on your behalf. Therefore, I'd say that in fact it is the broker who must meet the requirements set by the exchange. And the broker can have different, usually softer, requirements for his clients, while he must bear the risk resulting from the difference. If the client wids up with negative account ballance, the broker clears the debt with the exchange and then demands the money on the client. Therefore, the margin requirements set by the exchange are only very loosely related to the margins required by the brokers. They serve merely as reference. Some brokers have initial intraday margin for the ES as low as $500.

When you trade you need to decide what scale of waves / trends you want to trade. This decision must be based, apart of some other factors, on the resolution you need so you are able to spot your entry and exit signals. Here, Wyckoff entered off a major selling climax and he doesn't want to exit on a signal of smaller importance and to look for a re-entry on a pullback where spotting the exact turning point might be more difficult than in the case of the big climax. If there is a rally, at some point new buyers become reluctant. They might be afraid that they are too late to the party, and the higher price isn't so attractive. Then the rally loses power and a pullback follows. Pullback is in fact a test. It tests if new buyers are just reluctant and want just a bit lower prices to enter with new force or add to their holdings. It also tests if the old buyers (who are holding) will start to get rid of their holdings and how much. And if the price decline attracts new sellers. To sum it up: If price pulls back on light volume, it means that there is little selling interest (sellers are not very aggressive) and buyers are reluctant. Sure, price isn't supported much by buyers, but in case of a mere pullback it is supported enough so it doesn't make a new low. Without this behavioral pattern price wouldn't move in waves. It is a cycle: Price rises too much and attracts some selling while buyers become reluctant. So a test of selling interest follows. If there is not enough pressure, then price resumes advance as lower prices attract new buyers and the apparent lack of selling pressure reassures them of direction.

For sending orders to IB, try this: AmiBroker DevLog » IBController (auto-trading interface) 1.3.8 released I haven't tried it myself since I do not use automated systems, but you can have a look at it.

The only way to find out if something works is to test it yourself, not starting polls about it.

It is your thread, so continue at will. If it was a problem for me, I simply wouldn't post here

mikew, if you want to understand the inter-relationship between price waves and trends on different scales, then I suggest you should study AMT (Auction Market Theory). Most of the material about AMT is focused on MP (Market Profile), but you don't need to bother with MP, as MP is just a way of applying the AMT. It is important to understand the concept of AMT, and then learn how the principles of this theory are demonstarted in markets. You should study DbPhoenix's blog. It will show you the basics in a very structured and clear way. Use the list of content on the left side to navigate, and start from the beginning. And to the first one or two motorway's posts... IMHO, too much thinking about "who is doing what" is useless. Because you can't know who, anyway. The important thing is the result of all actions, actions of sum of all traders. The Composite Operator, as Wyckoff calls it. In other words, don't bother with thinking about "who", just watch buying and selling pressure and their changes.

If you trade a particular market, you know how it usually moves, you know what is "normal". Climax is something extraordinary, something violent. Perhaps it might be difficult to distinguish climactic activity in a static daily chart, but if you watched price move tick by tick, you would see the pace and aggressiveness. Also, in practical trading it is helpful to have some concept of support and resistance, i.e. prices or zones where you anticipate a turn, and some concept of what constitutes and invalidates a trend. Then you would be able to place the seeming climax into some broader conext.

That's correct. It is also useful to realize that a climax is not one point in space and time, it doesn't need to be represented by one bar. It is a process. In fact, the 16th can be viewed as a part of the climax. During a selling climax, buyers first absorb heavy selling during the last part of decline (16th and 17th) and when the selling pressure is exhausted (i.e. it climaxes), they actively compete for the remaints of the supply. That causes the bounce from the lows (17th). Don't focus on single bars. Focus on the activity (processes) which they represent. Price doesn't move in bars, it flows irrespective of the bar interval you choose to display it.

There is a difference between breakout from a horizontal range and a climax after accelerating decline. You need to see the psychology behind the price movement. In a climax, the rise in volume is caused by panic. The growing panic is demonstrated by the acceleration. Almost everybody is freaking out and wants get to get rid of the stock, while there is just a few buyers willing to buy for current prices. Price thus accelerates down, causing even more panic and more selling pressure. Then, a strong buyer or buyers enter to buy the stock from the panicking traders for cheap price. A breakout from a range is something different. The rise in volume is caused by sellers pushing through all the demand which defends the support and also by triggered stops. There is no phase of developing panic demonstrated by acceleration. Yet even in this case, you can learn to make a distinction between a breakout and a thrust. A thrust occurs if the push attracts no follow-through, but the lower prices are quickly rejected instead. It means that a strong buyer took advantage of price poking through the support and quickly absorbed all the selling incl. the triggered stops and aggresively returned price into the range.

First, I'd like to know what you mean by "last support buyers being taken out". Every trade is a two-sided transaction between a buyer and a seller. So if there is a buyer who buys and holds, but then gets shaken out as price continues lower, then there is always another buyer at the lower prices. If there wasn't any buyer at these lower prices, there wouldn't be any trade there, thus these lower prices couldn't be even printed. It implies that no spike can "take out the last buyers". And it doesn't really matter which price you consider to be the support. Perhaps you meant that the price and volume spike could have represented the last people willing to buy there, and if price re-approaches the low then there might exist no further demand, correct? That, of course, is perfectly possible. Notice what Wyckoff writes in your second quotation: Either temporarily or more lastingly. You don't know. All you know is that there was a decline, this decline accelerated, that seemingly freaked out some people so they started selling more. This behavior, after all, caused the acceleration and increase in volume. Furthermore, you know that at certain price or zone, this increasing selling pressure stopped accelerating price further down. Instead, at these prices the stock or whatever it was became so appealing for buyers that they entered the market with force, absorbed all the selling and even competed among each other as they wanted to buy even more than there was to sell. This competition caused prices rise. Since there was so high volume, you know that a lot of people were involved at these prices, hence the prices are now important. The climax establishes a tentative support. Tentative. Only if and when price re-approaches this price again, then you can observe and judge whether the selling pressure re-appears and overwhelms the remaining demand, or whether the selling is exhausted and buyers compete to buy more. Now to poor vs. good quality. You can expect that an experinced operator buys low and sells high, while an inexperinced trader buys high (late), and sells low (late). The inexperienced trader sells because he freaks out. He sells while price is falling. The experienced trader waits at low prices and takes advantage of panic of the others. He buys cheap when the panicking traders sell. The experienced operators represent demand of good quality, that is demand which is less likely to be withdrawn if price re-approaches their entry price. Demand of poor quality, on the other hand, is more likely to be withdrawn at first sight of trouble, because inexperienced traders are not sure and consistent with thier decisions. But you cannot really make the distiction between good and poor demand in advance, i.e you cannot tell in advance whether the demand will or won't be withdrawn. Therefore, in most cases you must wait for a test to see if the demand is still present and if the selling is exhausted, or if the buyers who bought the seeming climax are getting rid of whatever they bought and almost noone seems to want it.

The very first sticky in Wyckoff forum is called Wyckoff: The Original Course. In the first post in this sticky thread, there is a link to a post in another thread, called Wyckoff Resources, where the complete Wyckoff's original course, with all sections, is attached as pdf.

I don't know of anybody who knows where DbPhoenix is or what he does now. Furthermore, I doubt he would return in here if asked. Everything you need to know about Wyckoff and AMT is here. I don't know why Db left, but I would guess that one of the main reasons was that he had said everything what had to be said. If Db was still here, he would be answering the same questions again and again, explaining the same theories again and again, and providing the same or similar examples again and again. The Wyckoff forum would have hundred threads with repeating subjects, the old threads would have hundreds of pages with repeating questions and as a result, the forum would just become confusing for a newcomer and the important stuff would be harder to find. In other words, further posting wouldn't add value, just mess.

For the OP: As some wrote here before, you shouldn't have initiated a position without an exit plan. Also, I wonder why did you post here. The title says you are "Stuck" in a bad position. That's nonsense, you aren't stuck anywhere, unless you choose to. Have you already decided that you are stuck? Are you seeking confirmation for your attitude? As a matter of fact, nobody here knows what the stock will do next. So I'd recommend to you to think of different scenarios. First, imagine that you sell it now and the stock instantly turns to reach your breakeven without looking back. Second, imagine that you hold it and it continues falling, say to $10. Now think of what these scenarios mean for you and what is worse for you, both financially and emotionally. Then pick the less bad option.