snowbird

Try using "tics" as the interval instead of 1 minute

nice chart TAMs 4 or 5 distribution days on higher volume in the past two weeks Volume on down days typically higher than on up days but market still supported by 50 day MA MacD and stoch both putting in possible divergences pop or drop should be evident shortly!

Steve46, What is the overhead supply, and "offset" supply, and what do you mean by retail/wholesale limit? Ant, Are you considering each box a period of auction, and "excess" is similar to what Steve46 calls "offset supply? snowbird

so basically 3 months of free margin with the option to bank 5K if you trade a LOT of lots and don't loose a lot 8-)

well said I often struggle with the "bigger picture" especially in this new connected world where news. policy and government decisions across continents can affect inter-related markets, often instantly and opposite to 'expectations" I'm sure this is why so many of the experts on this forum recommend beginner traders start out and focus on: 1 market or 1 system or 1 chart pattern or 1 time of day or 1 quantifiable edge or price only/order flow only/etc. in essence... the goal is to be able to understand a particular aspect of human emotion that repeatedly drives a market behavior one can both recognize, and potentially profit from. snowbird

Your response confirmed many of my own thoughts... Now I'm going to have to see if I can get the code working on TS to start the analysis (which is is the fun part for me!). If it works, I personally will start with three periods (treating the eastern "lunch" session 11:30 to 1) initially as a separate period. My expectations of this period, would of course be different than the other two. I would expect lower volume, consolidations, market drifting in the "general" direction of the "pre-lunch" session etc. Don't know yet... but if the opposite occurs... "high volume", "large range", "dramatic price reversal", etc., I imagine that there could be some "learnings" from those situations (what was so important to keep traders engaged during lunch!) Questions I currently have about the morning and afternoon sessions... do they have different characteristics in up vs down markets? What does a high volume afternoon session tell you in terms of probabilities/expectations for the morning session, etc. I'd be willing to post findings, if any. I believe this could be a cool thread if others are interested as well. snowbird

one of the best recommendations regarding SIM trading I've seen on any site! I will add one recommendation: At the moment you take each trade, "WRITE DOWN" exactly what you are "feeling" i.e. are you excited... this market is going to the moon! worried... this trade might work out.... but I've got a bad feeling about it incredulous... WTF this CAN'T be right... this particular trade will fail ! etc. etc. you get the idea If you monitor the trade... and have any strong feelings as it plays out "WRITE" them down as well. Now... here is the critical part. Review each trade at the end of the day... and if you passed on the trade, exited early, did not exit when you system said you should etc... then you must donate 3x the $/tic to your charity... EVEN if that feeling resulted in you making or saving more money on that particular trade. At the end of the three weeks... summarize your results (You will be amazed), make a plan as to how you will address what you have discovered, and incorporate that plan into your system. Do not go live until your 3 week "treats" jar exceeds the "charity" jar. Your "charity" of choice will be very grateful 8-) snowbird

pctman, You have piqued my curiosity. What "do" you want to do with the resulting chart/data. For instance.... I can think of one thing someone may want to do. If you only traded,say, the first two hours in the morning... and wanted a simple historical look at the range and volume, just during that time frame.... this would be a quick birds eye view way to get it. What type of applications are you interested in exploring with this? snowbird

why midnight? what is so important about that particular time.... most traders are sleeping.

pick a number,,, how about 8's and 1's Dow - 8888 S&P 500 - 888 Nasdaq - 1111 still the 22nd here on the west coast so hopefully this makes the cutoff~ snowbird

1-2-3 could go either way, with profit potential on both sides of the trade if it breaks up, only one more resistance level then on to new highs if it breaks down... a nice vacuum below as well. trend is still up.. I'd wait and trade a break either way, but if forced to pick a position before the break I would go short,,,, absolutely no other reason other than the chart looks heavy.... almost like it's about to tip over. snowbird

As I was re-reading the thread... this struck me a a gem that could bear more discussion. Atilla (the race) mentioned that his trading went south basically as the market volatility "changed in the summer months. You yourself started out the race with a completely new system which adjusted stops and targets with the "volatility" of the market. Even the targets and stops you set in this reading charts in real time thread have some inherent basis in volatility since you are targeting support and resistance levels set by the market, and these change within the session, day-day and month to month. At one point you even mention that you "wait" for the market to begin swinging before looking for trading opportunites. So... what keys should one look for on a daily/session basis to evaluate volatility and adjust accordingly.... a simple ATR?, daily or session range averages, low/high volume based adjustments, visual adjustments to where session noise is eliminated and swings and S/R levels become more prominent. Simpler the better.. just seems like this is appears to be an important key in constantly changing markets. snowbird

I'll take a stab. Personally I think the cup is quite deep/steep, breakout from the handle came straight out of an a/b/c retracement, and volume in the handle was actually much higher than average. In comparison... if one were to analyze the breakout that occurred on this very same stock back in late July, there are three note-able differences: 1. Longer basing time in both cup and handle 2. A strong 1-2-3 pattern that formed in the handle prior to the breakout 3. Volume contracting in the handle and expanding into the breakout. On the other hand, even the formation back in late July was not perfect, as it appears O'Neils rules of thumb regarding the handle not retracing more than 1/3 of the cup depth were not met. just my 2 cents snowbird

I have always been curious about the 15 min time frame charts you typically use throughout the thread. I assumed you were using these for real time examples and education throughout the thread (since 5 minute or shorter time frames were too fast for "near real-time" posting), but that the principles still applied to shorter time frames and in your personal day trading you did not limit yourself to 15 minute charts/swings (often finishing the day in the morning session). But your comment on focusing on capturing the "main intra-day swing" for the day, makes me wonder if the time frame one chooses to chart and trade is a critical element and has advantages as well? snowbird

bakrob, appears you have a very simple method of defining consolidations. just curious as to your definition of 4 overlapping price bars. Do you mean 4 bars (3 of which are inside bars as compared to the 1st? or do you just look at the last bar printed, and if any part of it overlaps the previous 3 bars you deem a consolidation and trade only breakouts of the high or low of this consolidation? snowbird

We all fall into the trap of believing the key to trading is just waiting for us to grasp. I fall into the slow learner camp! snowbird

Looking forward to this. Either as a cap to this thread, or part of the new blog, I was hoping you and others who have posted charts here real time could capture the essence of the "edge" to their methods (both core and contributing factors). It appears that 1-2-3 and 2B price action at S/R are core to the way you trade, but that there are many other contributing factors that in reality are also edges, that you have come to internalize as second nature over your years of trading. These may or may not be many things you have listed throughout various posts, such as "waiting for the market to start swinging, not trading certain times of day, moving to BE at a certain point, cutting losses short when the price does not move in the way you expected, etc. A short summary post from traders who have posted live charts would be very beneficial. snowbird

Go to the Market Profile forum in mypivots.com and look under "value areas and point of control." Value Areas and Point of Control 2010 Q1 good luck snowbird

For those of us that don't have the book yet, does anyone have a brief description of the theory behind the Waldo2 pattern/indicator. Coincidentally, is Jason Perl the same JPERL that posts in the market statistics thread. Love those VWAP videos!... I'd buy the book today! snowbird

TraderWill explains this very well... and as for squeeze divergences, he also captured one in the above chart in the blue area highlighted. You will see at ~10:40, price makes an equal low or double bottom, while the squeeze indicator rises putting in a higher low (diverging from price). This would be the indication to go long, and in a ranging market would likely work. However, in the chart posted, price is in a strong downtrend, and the long quickly falters as price peters out and the downtrend resumes. snowbird

TraderWill explains this very well... and as for squeeze divergences, he also captured one in the above chart in the blue area highlighted. You will see at ~10:41, price makes an equal low or double bottom, while the squeeze indicator puts in a higher high (diverging from price). This would be the indication to go long, and in a ranging market would likely work. However, in the chart posted, price is in a strong downtrend, and the long quickly falters as price peters out and the downtrend resumes. snowbird

Squeeze divergences work well in ranging markets, but will fire off multiple false divergences in a row in strongly trending markets. For those that have found it useful for determining strong trends, I would be curious as to exactly how you are using it (i.e. No reversals when around the "zero" line, monitoring squeeze momentum on a longer term time frame, etc.) snowbird

If you sincerely value the current TL users, you will need to do the majority of the experimenting somewhere else. I kid you not... when all the floating adds started popping up, I thought for sure I'd gotten a nasty virus, and spent precious time searching for it until I realized it was only on TL. The site was unusable because you couldn't read the content. snowbird

This could turn out to be a great thread. I'll throw out two nuggets to chew on, and hopefully spark further input. 1. Gap days where the gap never closes within the 1st half hour. I personally avoid reversals on this type of trend day. 2. Wave counts... three is average, four is not uncommon before significant reversals... but once the market charges beyond five waves, often the trend just continues like an energizer bunny... (with a few a-b-c's thrown in for good measure) Taking every reversal that presents itself in this type of situation can take a real toll on your equity curve. Often times the best thing to do is just back out a time frame to look at the bigger picture for more significant longer term points of support or resistance the market may be driving towards. snowbird

What is the Tradestation equivalent for TL_New ( I assume this is an array or variable for the new "reverse divergent" trendline to be plotted next... but is undefined and therefore unrecognized in TS. snowbird