deepblue27

Could a poll be in order by any chance? As opposed to constantly kicking up the mud with the same old arguments. I think the thread has a lot of good food for thought issues and it would be nice to see the more experienced members put their bias/opinion in some form of vote if thats feasible. Quicker than writing half a page too! I don't have the requisite knowledge to decide fair options to choose from though. I dunno maybe: a) I profitably trade VSA circa '93 (rather than that of post 2003) b) I pick n mix elements of all VSA for profitable trading c) I profitably trade VSA post 2003 rather than circa '93* d) The only thing I spread is butter on my toast *Is it a required improvement for profitable trading. I think you all know what I'm hinting at regarding the dates Although for some its pretty obvious where they stand .

Well its certainly a fine line between the evolution of a methodolgy (hybrid system), and the unnessecary adding of 'filtering' indicators. I think a lot of people have been there, done that, and wasted a lot of time doing so. But you should be free to discuss anything without someone spitting their dummy out on semantics. Now I suppose the harsh reality of trading that something either makes money or it doesn't begs the question whether a methodology is a lot of hot air. But I see all potential analysis (whatever it is) as a means to an end. However what would concern me more than a system not making money (I can simply move my attention else where like i have done countless times) is whether a methodolgy is peddling misinformation that I take to be true! (Since this will effect my knowledge base for the future.) So this is the crux surely of whether parts of VSA are crock or not. Threads like this are vital, especially to newbies (like myself.) It is a well known fact that if you put a group of people who all believe the same thing into a room; all they end up doing is reinforcing said beliefs and patting themselves on the back. They are never challenged to re-evaluate those beliefs or try to improve on them. In that vain, for those that do, could anybody summarise the main bones of contention they have regarding VSA? Be it technical or principled.

Well I for one would love to see a discussion on any bastard child of VSA hybrid technique, even if in a separate thread. Debating whether something is wyckoff or VSA, or non related, seems rather moot at times. I don't believe one should have to pigeonhole ones method for such a prediomentally discretionary and deeply interpretational thing as price action (with volume.) I would imagine most peoples trading styles are the culmination of all the knowledge they've learnt anyway. Having said all that you've got to stick the damn stuff somewhere on the forum Re the thread. I wouldn't put it past TG VSA being a load of crock; especially bar by bar intraday. I would imagine doing that, you risk missing the forest for the trees.

I've been testing a similar system that uses an 21SMA (not ema); it doesn't make much difference. Perfect bouncing is a coincidental rarity for either. I've been using an indicator developed for metatrader to give an arrow alert as soon as 1 (2 min bar) exceeds the wick of another 2 min bar in the opposite direction. Not my own, but developed from someone on FF. I've noticed that waiting for a "bounce" off the 21 in trending conditions does give a higher probability trade on certain conditions. But personally the time and effort involved in monitoring such low time-frames is very labour intensive for what is often a pretty rare signal indeed. And totally dependent on a trend which may never occur. I don't believe its tradeable as a standalone system but something that can be added to the traders repertoire should the oppotunity present itself. The danger I've found in the backtesting/forward testing that I have done, is that the winners with hindsight are so easy to spot it gives a false sense of success rate. Everybody can see that lovely trend bouncing off that 20/21 MA a mile off. But there are plenty of hidden losers. On closer inspection I personally have found it very difficult to guage a correct stoploss for such bounce trades on entry. Such bounce trades can often come after a consolidating ranging period oscillating around a particular MA such as the 21 or 200 MA. But can often continue to range after entry. I've found it dangerous to assume that just because it has seemingly just 'respected' the MA that it will continue to do so; it often does not. This is demonstrated in some of the failed trades shown by learningtotrade. Taking that in mind, I like to see that price has previously shown a tendency to take the MA as support/resistance before the signal I intend to take. That is, a consistent retracement to the MA that is easily indentifible. These events maybe too rare occasions for sufficient trading oppotunities though. In my opinion this is tantamount to restricting your trading to the coincidental times that price retraces to an MA which at the end of the day is a lagging indicator. I hope someone proves me wrong and finds something sufficiently profitable in this and has the patience for it!

That's the spirit!! :rofl: . Well its not half as bad as those companies with competitions aimed at children in the same vain. AND they only have to give them a token prize. Anywaaaay... Does anybody else like the irony of google (in particular) querying for ideas.

From the UK, been researching the forex market for 3 months or so. I've ended up here for some VSA analysis (As you do.) Hopefully can pick a few things up in market profiling and the like too. I have elementary C++ experience that has not been used for making financial indicators as of yet. I have a background in electronic engineering. And my current status is still research, read, and read some more. Trying to expand that knowledge base as much as possible. Since you can only act (aka trade) on the knowledge that you know, not what you don't know. I also have a hobby for stating the obvious. I believe that if you take the figure that 79% of retail traders lose money in the long run, and that retail brokers offer in most cases free charting packages for demo trading often with no time limit (other than logging in once a month) with all the technical indicators under the sun; one can presume technical anaylsis on its own does not give a sufficient trading edge due to their overall lagging nature. As such I am moving out of the phase of using CCI and stochs etc etc. And am developing a greater bias towards price action trading, coupled with candlestick analysis, money management blah blah blah. My research has also currently directed me to the possible significance of volume in taking trading decisions. However I have not fully worked out whether I wish to partake in markets of lower liquidity with volume information as opposed to the spot forex market without or both! Due to the fact that the forex futures market may indeed be used for hedging positions by the smart money and thus cause conflicting signals. I feel it could be a case of damned if you do, damned if you don't... Anyhoo, nobody said trading was easy. So game on!! Oh and thanks go to soultrader for setting up a great forum! Cheers. Steve