sep34

Price action is like a Movie or a Book and each day is a new chapter that is connected to the prior day as chapters (i.e. chapters of a book) usually build on a prior chapter. In short missing the morning price action or not paying attention would be to me the same as starting a movie by skiping the first 30min or starting a novel from the 2nd chapter. You will evetually be able to understand whats goign on...but you will be playing catch up and doing a lot of guessing for some time until you figure out whats going on. Thats ok if you are reading a book or watching a movie, unfortunately with trading one will most likely pay a penalty until they catch up. Even if one is waiting for some levels to be reached. That does not mean that new level will not be created in space between where price is now and where the nearest level one is waiting for is reached. In short I hate to miss the opening price action...feels like a handicap. Other benifits of focusing and paying attention...one will learn a lot durring the time span between trades. I learn something new every day...seriously. Everytime I think I know it all, I will learn something new that humbles me and reminds me that a lifetime of learning may only scratch the surface. Exceptions are systematic/automated trading. That said everyone has there own methods and if what ever you are doing is working for you... more power to you. The Market is willing to reveal Her secrets, but one must be willing to meet Her half way.--xyz

Absolutely. Best regards

Nice trade Thaletrader, That DTV chart is showing a beautiful breakout...I was curious so I took a closer look-I wanted to see more of the left edge. In a vacume, 5min chart almost tempting to wait for a big correction and step in to buy some as a swingtrade. Yet when I looked at higher intervals -looks like it should test $19ish unless there is some important news discovery that Im not aware of. Higher interval charts are looking bearish and its been goiging down as NQ daily has been goign up, Thus Im not tempted any longer . Regards

By the Way.....while your waiting for others to respond, do a search in this forum for screener, radarscreen , filters etc. to see if you can find the information your looking for. You may find somthing that meets your needs for free.

Certain charting platforms have a screener. Similar to a quote screen that you can insert your strategies, studies i.e. costum studies/code or if your using default indicatores like those you mentioned--along with the instruments that you want to follow. You can also set them up with Alerts. TradeStation has that type of screener(radarscreen). Im sure other platforms have something similar, but Im not familiar with them, maybe others can chime in.

I understand. Too often we forget how important a solid, pure, humble attitude is to being successful. I dont believe you have that problem. By the way in my judgement Your posts are solid, honest, and substantive, specially-but not exclusively-for anyone that wants to learn price action trading-worth scanning your posts. Best regards

Hi thalestrader, Good spot on the ES, Im not familiar with the trader Vic or person you mentioned regarding stalled at previous High, but thats not important, key is to understand price action in contexct regardless of how you go about it. FWIW the retrace @ 11:19 EST of that swing high 10:41 EST made for an excelent short opportunity incase one wanted to wait for buying pressure to decline or missed the first trade that Thalestrader previously mentioned--Of course ones analysis had to put him in a place to have anticipated a possible trend continuation, other wise one would most likely have missed that trade in real time. Best Regards

Dont listen to them use what works for you. Recently my average protective stop has been less then 1 point...Of course thats because volatility has been low--Too often traders use stops that are much to wide.

Will keep this breef because I have to pack for trip out of town this evening. Considering yesterday and its price action near the close and the follow through in the overnight price action I started the day with a bearish bias. How I approach each day is not to trade my bias, instead I flow with price action and only adjust my position size based on my bias. Most of Today was creeper down trend. Volatiltiy was low and the best volatility presented it self at the end of day... sadly I was not there to take advantage of it. A picture is worth a thousand words...at least thats what they say and I understand that there is no explanation of what is a shift. The goal is to show that a creeper price move down or up may still present trades in both direction--because a Trend has many subgroups (High/Low volatility/ seasonal etc.)... Also it is a follow through of my first post (#2) and what I mentioned about understanding the current supply/demand situation and noticing shift in supply/ demand in real time as the day continues--for in the Emini's most of the time we dont have a trend day with a straight line from open to close pointing north or vice versa.

86834, I agree with everything you said, I either have not the patience or ability to communicate it like you did. In any case your post clearly explains what is needed to consistantly daytrade profitably. here is the paradox...not sure if anyone will really appreciate your comments until they reach that level on there own, but I may be wrong. Learning how to read price action and momentum(volatility) is key to being a consistent day trader, but unfortunate it's also the hardest aspect to get a feel for and the only way to learn it is to put in the screen time. There are no indicators that are going to do it for you, you gotta put the hard work in This paragraph in italic or bold, literly is the key and for anyone that is interested in trading as a job and source of income generation , needs to understand that this is the level they need to reach....wont put any time limits on it because everyone is different. however, To think that you can reach that level in a few months is most likley not going to happen for most, there are allways exceptions, every person has exceptional potential, but people that tap into there exceptional potential are not that common. Lastly 86834 great post and I would encourage any one that wants to be a trader to read and reread your post #5 & #7. Ragards

Ahh the frustration stage...been there, it is normal and most will experience it. Also I agree all those addages can seem trite, but there is some wisdome behind them, which becomes evident as you progress with your trading endeavor. Simply understand what the Supply Demand situation is so you can determin what type of trade you are getting involed in. Type of trades (Trend continuation trade, Counter trend trade, Trend reversal trade, by the way there is diference between counter trend trades and Trend reversal trade and most traders dont undertand the difference, at times even seasoned traders too). So the importance of understanding the trend is so you can understand what price is doing, therefor you will be better informed and you understand the current price action and now you can begin to implement your trading plan with eyes wide open as opposed to operating in the dark. In an uptrend buy the pullbacks in a down trend sell the rallies...as you can see the above paragraph about understanding the supply/Demand situation i.e. Trend is crucial else you wont know to buy the pullbacks or sell tehr rallies. If you make mistake trade get out and... cut your loses. If your long and your analysis changes and you are no longer bullish get out.. cut your loses The key is for your loses on average to be smaller then your winers. Again the key is your average winners should be larger then your average losers. As you can see understanding the supply Demand/Situation "trend" is at the heart of the "traditional trading advice" as you call them. Understand the current supply/demand situation and be able to see the supply/demand shifts as they occur in real time then trading will suddenly be much simpler.

This is normal, for anyone new to trading or if they have been trading for some time--yet they are trying new methods. Fear is not entirely a bad thing. Off-course its not good to allow fear to dominate us to the point where we can not follow the plan, However it is what it is and what you state above is very normal..... the more you fight it the worse it gets. It (fear of losing) will naturally evaporate once your confidence in your trading plan out powers the fear(very normal for 99%) of losing. possibly...Accepting it and being aware of it (I dont want you to be in denial) However dont speak too much of it or give it too much of your attention..instead, singularly focus on what your plan is and everyday try to do it even better. Regardless of any hesitations you had the previous day...leave it be and dont dwell on it, focus only on following your plan as best as possible.

Enough screen time with my trading plan/strategies which created a solid ground to stand on durring the realtime fast paced action of what is intraday trading. Simply, confidence in what your doing and knowing there is very little if any ambiguity, which is directly linked to sticking to a method and staying committed for X period of time. X varies from person to person.

Generally speaking, I use the same methods that I use on the 1, 2, & 3min to trade intraday, on 15min,60min etc.., Daily, Weekly interval--It makes no difference for me.

johnbig04, Just a suggestion...You might want to provide a clear definition of what your definition of Fractal is before this thread gets going. You might get better more accurate to the point response. FWIW I used to think that there was market noise, however that has changed now. I no longer believe in market noise. I only believe that there is price action that I understand and price action that I dont understand. IMO this(market noise) is one of those things that gets shoved into our heads before we have a chance to make a independent determination if such exists.

Chart patterns are reliable-- Mastering them is another subject....so too is Trading them profitably . The problem that many have with patterns or their claim that chart patterns are not reliable is usually linked inexperience of understanding Price action or other variables like not enough time to master a pattern...to truely know it like the back of your hand and that takes time. Part of the mastery is realizing that many variables influence any particular chart pattern that is trying to form. Because of this fact Programmatic back testing via a code usually will miss the value and the true reliability of chart patterns--In contrast a trader that has mastered his favorit chart patterns knows exactly when to trade them and when to let them go by. He has learned to be aware of the influencing variables and understands their impact on what he is trading , thus he can make appropriate adjustments on the fly. Asking a Code to do the same thing is near impractical, unless you have a team of top notch programmers at your disposal and even then I dont think you would get the same results....some things just cant be communicated through code.

The word professional is used by some to mean only institutional traders and by other to include all traders that are consistantly profitable (including retail traders). When you think with the above context as possibility, then you will understand why I used the word "implying" "your implying its mostly institutionlal trading durring the night session". The point is I dont know you or what your definition of professional trader is. Now I do know what your implied meaning by the use of the word "professional" because in your response you used the term Commercial instead of Professional. If I decide to ask questions then I ask detailed questions else its a not useful for me. Regards.

Thanks for your post. Your implying its mostly institutional trading durring the night session? Why 15K volume as the arbiter? Is there some logic behind the 15k ?....Would you expand on this. Best Regards

Thanks for your post. It would be much easier to comprehend if you post 2 charts with 3indicator and annotations explaining your original posts. I understand its time consuming, considering the time you have already spent the charts would surely complement your original post. Best regards

Yeah that will work too

DAX ,TF(ER2), HSI, are all very volatile markets within the relm of Equity Index Futures...therefore One really has to understand and respect The inherent nature of these markets. Also I believe DAX is a favorit of lots of veteran traders retailer & professionals alike--so you better be good or it wont be fun. As others have mentioned the Euro-stoxx 50 is a behaved Market and better suited for someone new to daytrading...but it all really depends on your Strategy and the effort you put into backtesting some data to see how you would have done on any of these instruments...thats how you really will get your answer and thats how you can make the optimal choice of which to trade. For example I need volatility for my trading approach so the DAX would be better suited in comparison to Eurostxx 50. I can achieve positive outcome on both but I would make more on the DAX for the same time spent. Regarding Margin: I hate to comment on this because it really depends on your Strategies and your personality. Do some searches on your favorit Forums on the subject Money management or margin to get some ideas of what considerations to make.

Cowcool, Your notice of "big green/Red" (White & Dark) candles or as BF refered to them as "WRB" is not in vien, However its not as simple as just being a buy/sell signal. There is not a software that Im aware of that deals with this...Therefore you can go at it. There should be some posts around this forum about "WRB" as well ... I remeber seeing them a long time ago, more then a year or even longer. You can search for it.

Hang Seng is a great market too bad its hours don't work for me....not willing to trade at night after finishing with the US markets, however if its hours were compatible for me HSI would be my main trading instrument. If your are new to trading...and want to jump into HSI make sure you understand how volatile it is and keep a protective stop on the book.

Look forward to it...it was a good movie. It would be nice if there was TV series about traders. we have them on almost most proffessions Police, Firefighter, Lawyers, Doctors, Athletes....why not traders. Any producers out there listen up, it would make for a good TV Show. Just think prior to the OJ court trial there were barely any TV shows based on the everyday lives of lawyers...and suddenly tons of them poped up on TV and it proved to be a success.

I agree..........................................