sep34

Price Action alone + Ample Screen Time, however if you need to use other indicators, then you need to ask and answer from your self what diablo272 proposed in post #2 "This is completely dependent on what you want to use the indicators for. Each indicator needs to serve a purpose--what do you want the indicator to tell you? How will each indicator improve your strategy?" Good Luck...

That shows that good things can happen to anyone provided that they want something bad enough and they can be honest about it. Glad to hear that and I hope it was helpful to you. One of the bigest mistake,begining retail traders make, is to not be honest about their performance, costly to the trader and the to the trading community at large, because they help perpetuate the illusion that to trade successfuly is too hard. Regards..

I use several Dell PC and they last a long time for me, my current main trading PC is a Dell(3 years old)... Most that use the same platform as I do Also like and use Dell. Note: I'm not implying that Dell is the best PC. Regards..

Doji's by them self are not enough to confirm a trade . Ask any veteran trader that trades by price action only and they will more often then not... say what I said. What eludes most is that its not the doji line by it self that is important--rather the price action that it(doji) involes; sometime the preceeding price action, somtimes the price action that follows and sometimes both. FYI...most articles and books on candle patterns, give you just a hint of the information they use as their method, and thats understandable, its up to the trader to do the rest of the home work to comlete it as a trade worthy strategy. Regards..

Some good information has been made available by many already. Here is my point of view. Don't trade with a self built comupter if its your first PC you have built on your own. however if you have the experience of building many PC since personal computers have been made available to the public, then you have already had enough trial and error, thus you can trust your home made PC. Until you reach that point you are better off buying a Dell or somthing simillar and then beefing it up your self or by the manufacturer. Even if it means paying several hundred dollars or more. Again By beefing it up I mean Increasing the RAM and installing better Video cards etc. , obviously if you have never done this before better off letting the manufacturer do it for you. Think of it this way... If you miss one day of trading what will that cost you? If your PC crashed in the middle of trade what will that cost you? compare these costs with the initial saving that you would enjoy if you built a PC on your own. By the way, recently a trading pal had to miss a couple trading days because his main home made PC whent down, later he discovered it was a hardware that had become loose.. Cosider this...HE lost Two days of trading and the time lost trading while he was putting the PC togather; I wonder what the cost of all that time was. I never asked him...no point in doing so. Again, just sharing my point of view. Regards..

If you had said "that most beginers trying to make a go at trading fail because they dont have a solid edge" I would have agreed with you. In my view, You cant call someone a retail trader..if they dont have the skills to be profitable i.e. they dont have an EDGE. As for the account size, well thats too relative/personal and it depends on many variables to each person trying to make it as a Trader. If you have an Edge and the right work ethics i.e. disciplin to stick to your edge and only your edge then account size does not have to be huge...again account size depends on many variables.. so I cant be specific. All I can say is if you have a solid Edge and have enough confidence in that edge..as in you have spent screen time watching it and you have a proffessional attitude and work ethic you dont need a huge account. Having the ability to stick to your edge is very important for a beginer trader that is making some consistant progress. It is an almost sure way to be consistant and at the same time allow your self the needed time to become a vetran trader. You allow your self the needed time to mature like a good bottle of wine. Unfortunately many dont have that kind of patience. In contrast... if you are just starting to trade ( newbe) and you are trading without any solid edge and you only have enough capital for a minimum futures account...and plan to earn an income from trading.....well let me just say all the best to you. Thats like me walking into the Redskins practice and thinking I can keep up with these professional Footbal players, why?? because I was pretty good player in my school days. Regards..

Hope its appropriate to post this here.. I was doing my part and checking some of the Folks that support TL and came across this Web ssite. Its s a cool web site. Although I have never used nor plan on using them or similar services. Non the less very nice site and more importantly the music as the page is loading has a very cool beat And thats what prompted me to post this thread, I listen to music while I trade and I can definitly trade whith that beat. Types of music I prefer Anything that raises my energy, however there are types of music that assist me to focus zone in sorta speak and those are my favorit to listen to while trading. Im trying to figure out the name of this Group or Artist or CD name. Any one out there know them??? here is the link http://www.perfectstockalert.com/?gclid=CPfA_cPJgpgCFQrAGgod2CXvDg Regards..

Retail trading is not as sophisticated as it may appear to the new incoming trader. Traders are glorified factory worker doing almost the same thing day in day out, with less physical labor and for the most part better incom.... ok, ok, maybe Im playing it down a little....but mostly because I want to take some of that unrealistick view that most outsider have about trading to earn a living. If my point is still not clear.....Do this, search for Huburt sentors and listen to one of his free nightly video, I think he used to be a car repair man or truck driver from Kentucky. Nothing against him or his prior proffesion..god bless that sweet southern accent . Just trying to make a point... you dont have to be a rocket scientist to be a profitable trader. Illuminati....most who do this and are good at it.....enjoy trading verymuch, have an independant personality, like their freedom, and would probably disagree with your claim that there are safer jobs....Im sure there are tons of other reasons but they are probably too personal. Note:My comments above are based on the assumption that a trader has gone through the period of trial & error and has produced a legitimate Edge. Regards..

correction... just noticed this error on my part. If you want to reference data2 close (of most corrent bar that has completed) you would say. data2 close Regards..

Brian the line I posted above is not a code {If data2(60min chart) Close> Average then begin} the stuff in the parnatheses is not part of the code. so lets say you want to reference data2 close of 1 bar ago, you would say. data2 close[1] data2 close of 1 bar ago, you would say. data2 close so lets say you want to reference data2 close of 1 bar ago when its greater Then 9 moving average, you would say. If data2 close[1]> data2 average(close,9)[1] then.....bla bla bla ....just wanted to give you some examples. Two ways to learn; get some books or take some EL classes...the third way is to open some/all your built in TS codes(stategy or indicator) and read them until they make sense to you. (you can do that by going into-- File--> open easylanguage document) By the way because I dont do much programming thus, my EL skills are not so hot , Infact very baisc. I will let other with more experience help you in the future. GoodLuck

Yes, you can have more then 1 sysmbol in a chart. e.g. symbol one is a 15min chart as data1 and symbol two is a 60 min chart as data2. then you would refer to each symbol in your strategy as data1 and data2. there are lots of resources on TS forums, if you have access check them out. for example, If data2(60min chart) Close> Average then begin regards..

I cant understand at all what you are saying. If you need a response then clarify your statement. Regards..

Agree with the good stuff posted above, thanks soultrader..happy new year. Regards..

I dont have the skill to predict chop with accuracy that will occure in 15min or 3 days etc.., however I can stay out of choppy price action as price is unfolding...anyone that tells you its not possible...well they are telling you their experience, not a fact of point about technical analysis. Its up to you which you decide to belive. Learn about ease of movement principle, or volatility, or study characteristics of price when its choppy vs. when its moving free/smooth, or define swing points and then compare swing point price composition to next swing point price composition, or even better do all of these. Take notes and see what you come up with. Eventually Im sure you will be able to see chop as its unfolding and before you get trapped in it. Price can leave a lot of clues, but you wont see it if your not paying attention or even worse, if you have already decided that its not possible. Regards..

Brian you need to define exactly what this means before it can be coded. " I would like to get out before it crosses below the 9 " for example if you were doing it manually would you trail you trade by the 9 period average and close it if price was = or < then average?? or would you want a close = or < the 9 period average? etc.. you also said BEFORE it crosses below the average....again how would you define before if it was a manuall trade you were managing? Define what you want exactly (all details) in English first then begin the coding process, it will be much easier. by the way, I could not see the chart ..couldnt open it. Regards..

Take a look at the following chart..looks good to me but idid this very fast...make sure to check it. remember your exit strategy will change the strategy. code --------------------------------- value1=average(c,20); if c[1]>value1[1] and c>value1 then sell next bar at market; if c[1]<value1[1] and c<value1 then buy next bar at market; --------------------------------- Regards..

Try this..see if it works. if c[1]>value1[1] and c>value1 then sell next bar at market; Regards

This post is in reference to Soultraders post #4 or #5...just wanted to show a chart that may look like what that post was mentioning. Before it starts sounding like Im hard core Trin Breakout Trader...let me say the following. Primary Im a price action trader and I dont stare at the internals all day long. In fact I can trade without them just fine and do so 95% of the time. The only internals I have on my screen are $Trin and $VIX(Not very good at using Vix). I take my Q's from price action and my primary analysis is based on price action. In short I need to see something in price action to make me look at the Trin and not the other way around. ....may need to zoom to see the chart clearly, sorry about the size. Also Im showing the Trin on 2min only because of size restrictions, else it would be same time fram as the YM chart. Regards..

ItalianSharp, In hindsight i.e. after reading your explanation, what you said makes sense to me and its simple . I have learned to stay so focused on my trade plan ...Trade setups and block everything else out e.g. why we have high or low volatility. The problem with that is that your brain only thinks of supply and demand and has a hard time figuring out anything else, curse of the screen trader I guess Great Explanation....Thanks

Susana... Patterns that form at key areas have a higher probability of producing a significant move which will effect your accuracy, patterns that form outside of key areas have a higher probability of failure because they are most likely noise and will not attract lots of market participation. Understanding what are "key areas" (regions) can shed a lot of light on why some patterns take off witout looking back and others fail. A good starting point is to study past patterns that where sucessful. Regards..

Brownsfan, Are CandleStick a primary method for you...or a secondary part of you overall method/system or something else? Simply, are you one of those Hardcore Candlestick traders or you just use them in conjuction with your overall methods. ------------------- nevermind... saw one of your post that answered my question.

I have heard this statement many places" Institutions have cut back on their overall trading size and that the Bid/Ask is thiner then before, thus causing volatile markets". Im curious...then why has the volume, e.g. on the Daily charts of Emni's, increased so much durring this extreme volatile period. Anyone care to take a stab at this? Regards..

The best way to know where to put your stops...is to Know and understand your setups so well...that way you will Know at what point your trade idea is wrong and that point should be your stop. The chart you show, I agree most would place there stops there. An important factor, that most traders dont pay attention to, is when to put their stop there. By the way Im a big believer (specially daytrading) of attaching a stop with every position, even if its a wide stop... at the least, it will be there in case something unexpected happens. Regards..

Either I did a poor job of explaining what I meant in writting or you really didnt read the entire post clearly.. regardless. By the way pure price action traders dont need to use volume, they can see it in the price action it self.... its called volatility. If I could edit my post I would add this line that your wrote (They are seeing in price what indicators attempt to see in price. ) instead of this linewhich i mentioned in my original post-->" they have learned to see the indicators in the price action ".... because it say sexactly what I meant to say at the top of my post. Thanks for the line I will borrow it. Regards..

Just wanted to add something, Traders that I know that trade price action only and dont use indicators on their charts............. are really using indicators. This is what I mean, they have learned to see the indicators in the price action. For example. They dont need a moving average to tell them the trend. They dont need a oscillator or timing indicators to time there trade. They don't need a momentum indicator to gage volatiltiy. They dont need Bollinger or other similar bands to determine a breakout or for expansion/contraction of price. They dont need indicaors for divergence. They dont need pivot points for support/ressistance. Why??? Because over time they have learned to see all of that above in the Price action it self and its simpler for them to just watch the price action. So my point is this, just because they dont have indicators up on their screens it does not mean that they do not see the same thing that another person would see with indicators.... they have become the indicators. I personaly dont have a stigma about indicators. If something is useful I would gladly use it. For example if you like to trade stocks, an indicator used in a scanning tool can be very efficient way to scan a large group of equities(or favorit markets) in a short period of time and then do your normal analysis on the screened findings. indeed, many ways to skin a cat...so far I like the naked way.