Soultrader

Thank you Jerry. I have never used this reference point but sounds very interesting. I will definitely look deeper into this.

Great article Torero! I was quite interested in the way the candlesticks are plotted thick on high volume and narrow on small volume. Is there a tool available for Tradestation with the same function?

Excellent point Jerry. I have to agree with you completely on this. I was in a pretty intense debate a few weeks back on how I thought technical analysis was useless in trading. Didnt quite want to start it here but oh well.... might as well. My honest opinion: technical analysis is useless. There, I said it. I dont think I have ever used TA to day trade the markets. By this I am reffering to price patterns and not TA tools such as pivots and S&R. I am reffering to common patterns that everyone knows such as triangles, flags, pennants, etc... Im sure there are traders who trade these patterns successfully. However, I find it pretty useless in intraday trading the index futures. Jerry, I want to ask you a question. Can you elaborate on your point of normal distribution? I would like to understand this concept a little better. Thank you

Hi Daniel, Im sooo sorry. I attached the wrong file. Please check the attachment again. Also, thank you for the compliments James

Hi Daniel, Sorry about that... I must of forgot to attach the .EDL file. I changed the attachment on the first post so please check it out. Thanks

The exchange fees are the fees you pay for the data. Each exchange has their own fees for Tradestation. So if you want Level 2 you pay level 2 data fees. If you want emini's, you pay emini data fees. I dont clear with Tradestation so I pay for the software fees. My combined fees monthly including platform and data (exchange fees) are roughly $150. I subscribe to various exchanges because I like to watch different things. Similar to when you buy a car... the more options you want the more it will cost you. Take a look at the link. I took a picture of the fee structure for TS. http://www.traderslaboratory.com/Pictures/tradestation%20fees.jpg

Hello Robin, Welcome to Traders Laboratory Are you looking for a data feed vendor? Or are you looking for a black box (trading system)? Alot of traders here use Tradestation for charts and platform. If you are looking for a trading system, I wont be able to help you with that because I am not familiar with any. Let me know. Thanks Soultrader

It certainly has been a great learning experience watching your charts Texxas. Its got me more intrigued to start learning Forex on a serious level.

I had thought market profile was used by traders mostly for the futures market. HOWEVER, I just recently saw a stock trader plotting market profile charts for IBM and others. I was quite surpised to see this. I am not sure how effective MP is with equities but I finally met one trader who uses it on stocks.

Pretty interesting introductory book to trading and trading strategies. The book covers several methodology with interviews from many respectable traders. It brushes various topics related to point and figure charts, intermarket analysis, market profile, elliot wave theory, contratry thinking, etc.. I personally enjoyed the section on Linda Raschke and John Murphy. Overall its definitely a book novices should pick up. It will introduce you to various important trading strategies and forms of market analysis. Of course this book is just an intro. It is required to dig deeper in the methodology you choose.

Very interesting approach to the markets MrPaul. I never though of this but seems like a good way to discipline yourself in taking quality setups only. Pierre, I also do my daily analysis and approach the markets with a slight bias. I dont have basic rules as to look for long setups if price is above the opening price, POC, or daily pivot. What I usually do is to see if a low or high is in place. What I especially like to watch for the early opening reversal and if price can make a higher low or lower high, I will use this information to focus on long or short setups. Of course market sentiment constantly changes so its important to be able to adjust with the fast changing environment.

Tune in to Commodity Classics with Michael Yorba: Talk Show from Nov. 10, 2006 Direct Streaming Radio Link

A short tutorial on setting up your premium charts. CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO Presented by Traders Laboratory

I am thinking of doing a short tape reading chat seminar sometime this week. The seminar will be held most likely during lunch hours from 11:00 - 11:30am. If members prefer to have this over the weekend I can hold it on Sunday. Here are some of the topics I will be looking to cover: 1. What is the tape? How do you setup a time of sales on your charts.... 2. Little guys vs big guys: Understanding the power of these two seperate groups. 3. Understanding the flow of the tape. Identifying chop from trend through tape. 4. What to look for in the tape. Learning to filter out noise and information. 5. Using tape at key price levels such as S&R levels and pivot points. 6. Price rejection vs price acceptance. 7. Looking for false moves through tape 8. Anticipating breakouts with tape and bid-ask pressure (may need more testing but I will go over this briefly) 9. Using the tape to exit or scale out of winning positions. I may decide to add more topics on tape reading. (still planning) If you are interested in attending please reply here and I will setup a time and date for this session. Thanks.

Hi Texxas, Sounds good to me Texxas. I should build a forum called Texxas Can you try attaching the chart again? I looked into the attachment permissions of your account and everything seems to be working fine. James

Thanks for clearing it up wrines. I will spend some time observing this indicator and will keep you posted if I find any further insights. I tried using it in two occasions yesterday, one of which I used it to trade. I will explain further once I am convinced this indicator can help. Note: Should never be used alone. The indicator should be used as confirmation only.

This is a bid-ask pressure indicator for Tradestation trading platform. All credits go out to the author of this indicator from the Tradestation forum alias lleibfarth. Here is a description from his post: Description: This indicator is a smoothed version of the TS indicator Bid & Ask Vol Ratio and works with real-time, intraday charts. The intent is to provide more usable information about the current ratio of bid/ask volume. This indicator will not work on historical data (it must be used during a live intraday market) and is relative to the chart interval on which it is used. I have found this indicator to be most useful in shorter charting intervals. How it works: The data is smoothed using a double-smoothed exponential average that heavily weighs the most recent ratios. This provides a relatively predictable curve (or histogram) that tracks changes very quickly. In addition, a logarithmic ratio is used to provide a zero-line reference (and color change). " Screenshot: 20060726114402BA PRESSURE.ELD

This is a new strategy that I designed today on anticipating breakouts from key pivots. This is a momentum play and not to be mistaken with a homerun trade strategy. I exit at the first sign of momentum loss. The indicator used in this video is located in the indicator forum. It is a Bid-Ask Pressure Indicator for Tradestation. CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO Charts created by Tradestation Presented by Traders Laboratory 20060726114402BA PRESSURE.ELD

Hi farkasb, Here is a smaller list: Major U.S. Indices - Yahoo! Finance You can click on the specified indices and on the left hand column you will find a link called "components." It will show the components of the major indices. Hope it helps.

Been observing this strategy on the YM. It seems to be less effective on the YM compared to the ER2 or ES. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thank you guys There are so many similarities in poker and trading. I know wrines is also a poker player. Would be interesting to hear his thoughts on poker and trading.

Clip on using TICKS and pivots to understand the strength of the market. Some basic pivot plays shown here. CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIDEO Charts by Tradestation Created by Traders Laboratory

I was in a small 6 hour poker tournament today with 110 other players. (which is why I didnt trade today) During the game, I was reflecting on my poker style and how I can apply it even further to my trading. Are you a S&R based trader? Do you follow your setups that give you an edge? Do you follow a trading plan? I normally do fairly well in tournaments. I am pretty stable and conservative poker player but will mix aggressiveness whenever I see an opportunity. One poker insight that came into mind today was based on my style of playing: LET OTHER PLAYERS MAKE MISTAKES. As long as you play perfect poker without any mistakes, you will place in the tourneys. After making it to the final table, it is based on psychology, skill, and luck. There are plenty of new fish in poker and in the financial markets. There are plenty of impulse based players, gamblers, no trading plan traders, and clueless traders. MAKE THEM MAKE MISTAKES. If 90-95% of all futures traders lose money, this means that 90-95% traders are making mistakes. Profit from their mistakes. Focus on only your setups. Learn to filter out the band hands (bad setups) from the high probability hands (good setups). You can have the perfect strategy, system, or methodology. But I think what is more important is DISCIPLINE. The discipline to follow your trading plan/setup and to stay away from the "noise". By taking high probability setups you are playing "good trading." You are letting other traders make mistakes. Although I still make 5+ traders a day, I realized that 2-3 is really all you need. 2-3 high probability trading setups will put money in your pockets as long as you minimize your losses. By the way.... today's poker tournament, I placed in 1st. Which is why I decided to write this thread.

Surfer, If you want to really learn price action you will not find this in any book. What you need to do is to take all indicators off your charts. Plot a bar or candlestick chart. (I prefer a 233 tick chart) Open up a time of sales and then plot support and resistance levels. Now here is the best part. Simply stare at this for a few months. If you dont understand it good. Just stare until your eyes hurt. This will probably bore you to death but you will start to see how prices move and act. This is price action. Look at the time of sales and price when they reach a key S&R level. Do they hold? Do they break? Study the pullbacks... decide what is a healthy pullback from one that is too deep. Observe for higher lows, lower highs... are price going to reverse or continue? Once you truly understand price action, study market internals and start developing setups. Go from macro to micro. Find your trading style and find your edge. Hope it helps.

Excellent job Torero! This will come in handy. Thank you