Soultrader

Hello Nvesta, Personally I don't think you need anything else but the instruments you trade. The question is what is your setup/strategy based on? If it requires instruments like gold or oil to act accordingly in order for you to open a position on the index futures, then you will need it. If your setups are based on chart patterns, regardless of what stock ABC or oil is doing it will not matter. For stock traders, watching the futures would be recommended. For futures trading... especially for intraday trading I have found the more junk of my monitors the more confusing. What setups are you playing? Breakouts? Retracements? Reversals? etc... Do you really need to watch gold or oil for these plays? (I am sure there are traders that have strategies based on other markets but I also think one can trade without them) What works for me to understand the bigger picture is to analyze other markets like Asia and Europe. As US session starts after the two big economies end, you have an advantage in understanding the sentiment of traders worldwide. I have also started watching currencies, mainly the USD/JPY to trade the Nikkei. But these analysis only guide me on potential market direction and not entry or exit points. For example, lets say on Monday the Asian markets rallied followed by a decline in the US. However, USD/JPY stood strong despite the US markets, showing some signs of strength for the Asian markets on Tuesday. If the markets open with a smaller than anticipated gap down, I am immediately going to look for a long setup. Or if I missed the opening surge, I will wait for a retracement setup in the afternoon. So what am I looking? Technicals and fundamentals on a more global perspective... followed by familiarity with the instrument you trade and then having valid setups that you take systematically. I dont recommend throwing a ton of stuff on your screens, mainly because I used to do just that which lead to paralysis at times. It only leads to frustration and the constant search for the "holy grail" by switching items on your screen every week. One week it was bonds, next week commodities, next week stocks, etc...

With 2008 being a fascinating year for TL and for the markets, I want to wish everyone here a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. It's time to plan and make goals for 2009. I will be spending the upcoming days with family, friends, and the gf as well as reflect back on what happened this year. Thank you for making TL a wonderful trading community and will look to implement further enhancements and improvements to the site. Best of trading for 2009!:beer:

It seems like spammers are posting 3 posts in order to use the pm system. Ive managed to ban and remove all the junk but if I have missed anything, please let me know. I appreciate the notice guys. Thank you.

To answer your question, in my case throughout the entire day. I have strategies that focus only on specific time zones. Let me explain. I have a opening range strategy which I play only in the morning for a specific market. Then I have an evening session only strategy for the same market. I also have a strategy for a different market throughout the morning and afternoon session. So different strategies apply to different time zones for different instruments. The only time I do not establish a position is into the close from around 2:50pm to 3:10pm (close). The above example strategies are based on technical patterns incorporating volume, open-close spread, and bear/bull control based off opening range. They consist of retracements, momentum, and reversals. This can come regardless of news. The above strategies are for the Japanese markets and different from the US because we have a lunch hour break when the markets close. As a result liquidity is present all throughout the session. (most of the time)

Hi Christophe, The ability to download a thread as pdf has been added now under thread tools. Not sure why this had disappeared. Unfortunately the rest of the options can not be done at the moment.

Hi Christophe, Let me see what I can do. I know I can make it into a pdf. Just not sure about the attachments though. Thanks

Oops... yes low accuracy is what I meant.

You're right... I should of read her post more carefully. Susana, how about pit noise to determine whether commercials are coming in or not? You have levels you watch for already.... all you require is the additional institutional participation to confirm your trade. And perhaps consider moving your stops up/down to break even to protect yourself as your strategy is extremely high risk (but high reward).

Support and Resistance, technical and psych levels, and indicators can add structure to your trading in order to minimize risk. (stop levels) This is because you can use these values as a guideline to know when to get out if wrong. My old boss was an amazing countertrend/reversal type trader. He did this by not looking at technical setups but by looking at the overall market sentiment in combination with tape. What are the movers of today? For example, he would look at financial stocks to sense reversal signs. (of course one needs to be aware which sectors to look at at different times of the market cycle) This is an idea that you can look into. Also, for all reversal plays I always look at volume. A classic setup for me would be a high volume followed by a test on low volume. This has to be in line with a S&R level I am looking at. An example from todays trading session:

Hi pmxgs, His nick is Seb Mandy. You can also visit the Videos section as he has posted some vidoes there as well. Also, go through this entire thread... many great contributors on this thread so you are likely to find gems everywhere. Good luck.

Hi Ryan, Thank you for your insightful post. I was particularly enlightened to read your comments regarding scalpers. A completely different type of game comparing a scalper on the floor vs a scalper trading electronically. On the floor, do how many ticks do scalpers usually aim for per trade? And how many trades a day do they make on average? How quick are they to get out of a losing position? Any insights would help because I am working on applying some scalping strategies as well at key psych levels. Thanks.

Hi ChicagoTrader, Welcome to TL and glad to have you hear with us. I am sure many of us can learn a great deal from your trading experiences on the floor as well with futures options trading which is a subject barely covered here. Looking forward to your posts!

Hi Papa, Would it be okay if you release this officially at the forum here? http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f46/ Would appreciate it. Thanks.

Hi Dave, Let me get back to you on this tomorrow. Ill ask around and see I can come up with.

Hi Papa, @ simply means value I think. So a -1 would indicate volume one bar back a -2 would indicate volume 2 bars back. You can change this in the toolbox area. Also, in order to change the parameters.... simply highlight the line and hit the setup button. (see pic below)

Hi Papa, Let me see if I can find it. No guarantees though. I guess one could write it but im no coder. (tried over and over again but still cant seem to figure out how to program!) I do have a coder who builds conditionals, studies, backtests, etc... for me so will ask if he's already got it.

There are systems that automate entries based on economic numbers in which the retail trader does not have a slightest chance against it. For example, check http://www.needtoknownews.com/. Some systems incorporate the numbers as it comes and then executes instantly. On a wide range up bar... the prop traders with access to such systems are the ones entering at the lower end of the bar. The retail traders are most likely entering the the upper range of the bar. The difference? Execution speed and the speed of information that gets passed to these prop or institutional traders. Also, there are reasons why institutions spend a ton of money on connectivity, server locations, etc... in order to improve latency. A retail trader trading via internet connection is always slower than an institution trading through a dedicated line next to the CME for example. Regarding inside knowledge, institutions use this all the time. It would be naive to believe that this is illegal so they must not practice it. Trust me.. front running, market manipulation exists all the time. Did you know the CME charges a hefty fee if one modifies orders hundreds of times a day? You can see this on the DOM... bots flashing bids/offers and then disappearing... appearing... disappearing. Pure manipulation. I stopped trying to figure out the markets a while ago. A good understanding of technicals, price action, and fundamentals... and all you need is basic knowledge of risk management and then a VALID strategy that produces results. A strategy can be a pattern that you can exploit over and over again. Some strategies are geared for insitutions, some for retail traders. There is enough room to make money in the markets... all one needs is to take a tiny piece of the pie to trade for a living. Through time and experience, one will gain enough wisdom and understanding to develop further strategies. A profitable strategy provides a trader with confidence to wait patiently and execute systematically. I know that once I stopped caring about all the extra moves and focused only on what I was looking for... trading became alot easier and made more sense. Bottom line is make money... no one is going to reward you because you caught the perfect technical setup. For new traders, I think one of the biggest challenge is to gain enough experience to understand what strategy development is all about. Forget all the textbook setups.... strategies must be developed on your own. However, there is room to gain insights from an unprofitable strategy (or even a strategy that works in a market different from yours). One does not need 10 different strategies as a retail trader. You can trade 1 profitable pattern across several markets, setup alerts to recognize when this pattern is developing, and then execute based on your feel or understanding of market strength/weakness. Fear of execution comes because of the lack of confidence in your strategy. And for those who are too caught up in the tick by tick, bar by bar action.... look at the bigger picture. Look at the overal market formation.... if you dont have a sense of whether the markets are strong or weak today you should be educating yourself and not trading. Like bootstrap mentioned somewhere... it takes tons of screen time. Stop caring about missing moves. Stop caring about trying to figure out the markets. The markets is what it is... your profits come from the probabilities your strategy gives you. Take the trade, take the profit or loss, and move on. A profitable strategy will allow one to not care about the losses. Because you know the strategy is valid and you will come out a net winner. (as long you have a solid risk plan!) Now the tricky part is knowing when the strategy stops working all together... this imo comes only from experience.

Hi Papa, I was able to obtain Chaikin and MFI for CQG. Please see the below threads: 1. http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f46/chaikin-money-flow-for-cqg-5135.html 2. http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f46/money-flow-index-for-cqg-5136.html Unfortunately the ATR trailing stop is not available... I can not seem to find anyone with this.

Money Flow Index for CQG. Created by a CQG specialist and available to the public. Screenshot is attached. mfi.pac

Chaikin Money Flow for CQG. Created by a CQG specialist and available to the public. Snapshot is attached. Chaikin.pac

"Developed by Larry Williams and first described in a 1985 article for Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine, the "Ultimate" Oscillator combines a stock's price action during three different time frames into one bounded oscillator. Values range from 0 to 100 with 50 as the center line. Oversold territory exists below 30 and overbought territory extends from 70 to 100." Created by a CQG specialist as well. Calculations can be found here. Snapshot is attached. UO.pac

Relative Momentum Index (RMI) by Roger Altman published 1993 in "Tecnical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities" Did not create this.... was provided by a CQG specialist but available to the public. Snapshot is attached. Enjoy! RMI2.pac

Hi Papa, Are you familiar with the CQG formula and toolbox. If you have the coding behind the indicators, you should be able to replicate them as custom study. Let me search around to see if any of my buddies have those available.

Its on huge list of things needed to get done. Im going to be modifying the review system and rearranging the design. After the current projects Im working on for the site, I will make this a priority. Thanks Hlm.

Please dont mind this post but this is by far the most popular thread on TL. Just a reminder that today marks the 100,000 view count of VSA Part II. For all the contributors, well done and congratulations on making this an amazing thread.