ptcman

Please see attached image. Is this correct? If so, what about lowering the steps? Instead of 9, what about 4.5? Not all days are high range days, and lowering the steps would make us more aware of intermediate price zones.

Hi AlgoFutures. Where are those free real-time charts published? Regards

Hi. OK, let's see if I understood you. We add to the current trading day the number 9 to give us the S/R for that day. Let's imagine the following dates for ES: -> 6th = 6 + 9 = 15... ... 1239, 1248, 1257, 1266, 1275... -> 13th = 1 + 3 = 4 + 9 = 13... ... 1237, 1246, 1255, 1264, 1273... ... and so forth... Is this correct? Regards.

Hey guys, your answers are being very useful. Like I said at the beginning, I've always used minute charts, and those are the ones that I always felt good trading. Having said that, we are in a constant learning process when dealing with the markets. Always searching for new tools to enhance our system/strategy. I liked the idea of having tick charts to help us reading the volume that has been traded, and here is where I've been stuck for the last couple of weeks. It's been hard to read and understand the concept of tick charts. Maybe the fact that I always associate price movement with time is blocking my perception towards tick charts.

Hi Max. How to choose a tick number that correspond to a 15 or 60 minute chart? Is this choice made by a simple eye comparison or there is some math calculation behind it? Regards

Crude currently traded contract, the front month (?), is G, February, expiring on January 21st, correct? I read that rollovers are made every Thursday's prior to the expiration week. It's logical do assume that from that day on, volume start to decline on that same contract, correct? So a week prior to the expiration we should switch contract to the new front month, though at least 'til the expiration day itself the volume should be sufficient to trade. Can you explain what you meant when you said the implications that the limit moves can have? Are you talking about when an exchange suspend trading activity due to an excess volatility such the one seen at the May's flash crash? Regards.

Talking about terminology, what about when we hear something like..." they are bidding up de stock"...? If we want do sell, now, we need to accept markets price, whatever the bid is at that moment, correct? So when we hear something like bidding up makes no sense. I've always found difficulty in understanding the terminology used by the markets. Isn't this much more simple to understand: - If I want to buy, I need to buy from a seller. - If I want do sell, I need to sell to a buyer. Well, maybe Bid and Ask are easy to understand, the problems is the way they are explained to the world :doh:

Hi. Time frames. Which one? I've always traded using minute charts. 1 minute for signal a trade and 5 and 60 min to follow the short and medium trend. Now, I read and see many people talking about tick charts, using whatever number they fell is the best, 1 tick, 50 ticks, 144 ticks, 256 ticks... What I'd like to ask you guys, are your opinions regarding tick charts. When dealing with time, regardless of 1 minute or 60 minute frame, we are measuring something real, that is, time. When dealing with ticks, I feel that it's not real. Let me explain. Each ES tick equals to 0.25 point, so a 8 tick chart equals to a move of 2 points, meaning that a new bar would be created every 2 point move, correct? Isn't this an arbitrary number to choose at which we will trade? I just remember something while writing this, a tick chart would help us measuring the length of each swing in terms of $. An 8 tick bar would mean a $100 bar worth. At the end, all comes to the same, what to think about tick charts? Are they better than minute charts? Are they compatible with each other? Please leave your thoughts on it. Regards.

Thank you for your answer.

Hi. I'm sort of "new" when trading with futures. I've always traded CFD's, but got tired of the big spreads when compared with futures spreads. The problem that I'm having at the moment is the contract being traded. There are those that are simple to understand. ES, NQ, YM, 6E. March is the contract being traded at this moment. No problem here. But then we have the ones that confuses me, GC, CL, NG, ZW, ZC, ZS. I never know which contract/month is being traded at this moment. For example, GC December contract is still being traded, despite last Friday had been a futures close day. Where or how can I know the correct contract being traded? Regards.

Hi. I always found difficult to divide the data produced during the floor session and the overnight session, Globex. With the global markets, traded almost 24h on Globex, how meaningful can the floor session data be? How traders which trade only during the floor session deal with the Globex session? When they are compiling their data to generate whatever signals they use are they using the floor OHLC or the entire day, including Globex, OHLC? At this moment, Crude is trading on Globex at $0.94 above yesterday's floor session close. This will generate a up gap at the floor session open. The point is, is it better to look at the trading day as a all, meaning, floor and Globex together or separate both sessions, using their data separately. What can be the better way to read them? Regards.

First of all let me thank you all for your insight. I confess that I never had consider that. You guys really know how to open our minds. Thank you

But can't those trades that might be taken for just a couple of minutes, be related to time? For example, every time you take a position, your system/strategy says that your maximum gain is during the first 5 minutes of that trade. Won't you, maybe on a implicit way, take that in consideration and act on it?

Yes, that is one of those truths that are undeniable, but than the one million dollar question is, what is the true significance of time? Are you saying that there is a true pattern in the markets that the retail traders just can't figure out? That all of that talk that says that we make our own market perception is BS?

Hello. I'd like to know which type of relation you guys, daytraders, have with time. Do you consider time more important than price when daytrading? Usually, we say that we trade prices, not time, so time is secondary when compared with price, but let's stop for a moment and think about this. Daytrading, as the name specifies, deals with trades taken only for that day, so like it or not, we are assuming right at the beginning of that trade a stop loss based on time, that is, we must close the position by the end of that trading day. So, aren't we, based on what was said above, put the time factor in front of price? No matter where prices might be, above or below of our entry point, we will close the position by the end of the session. But lets see this by another perspective, lets say we've just open a long position and at the same time we put a stop loss 3 points below of the entry, and at the same time, we also say that if in the next 30 minutes prices haven't broken a certain price, we close that same long position. Again, we continue to put time in front of prices. What about news? Have you noticed how things really slow down near a news release and explodes right after the release? Some traders wait for the news to be released to act on it, others prefer to anticipate and others just seat aside and watch what happen. Again, we continue to put time in front of prices. This is what we can typically read on a book related to technical analysis. What I'd like to know though, is the opinion of you, real daytraders. Best regards, ptcman

Hi snowbird. You really catch the idea. But this is just the beginning, a very small part of a much bigger picture. When dealing with futures, we MUST include the overnight session. Even if we only trade the floor session, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm EST, what prices did during the overnight MUST be taken in consideration. Why do prices retest the overnight high or low the majority of time during the floor session when prices are trading outside of that range? Why traders like to confirm those values? Also, if we trade the ES futures, despite the prices being traded accordingly to the supply and the demand of it at that moment, prices are still indexed to the cash market, hence, to the 500 stocks that constitute the index, meaning that the big caps performance not only make the cash market move, but also the futures. For this I like to follow the S&P500 GICS sector indices. The big four are Technology, Finance, Healthcare and Consumer Staples. The premise here is that following the sectors we are able to confirm the S&P movements, hence, the ES movements. There are people that prefer to use the industries instead of the sector due to their ability in grouping companies that really operate in the same industry, like Banks, Brokers, Semiconductors, Software and so forth. The easiest way to do this, and in real time, is to use their ETF's counterparts since the S&P doesn't distribute the GICS indices in realtime to any data provider. Note that all of this must be analysed always taking human psychology in consideration. Behind each price movement exists people, traders with fears, hopes, expectations that must be reached in X time. When they aren't met, emotions take control and these same emotions leave marks on the charts that can be measured by the length of the move. Regards

Hi snowbird. Yes, that is one of the ways we can use the data retrieved from the indicator, but countless others may be used. Our imagination is the limit. I don't believe in automatic systems. I believe in strategies, in probabilities, in statistics, all due to past behaviour. I believe that "today's" trading day should be divided in 2 halves. The first half is the conclusion of the previous trading day. All trades/businesses that couldn't be done til the end of yesterday trading the day, will be closed at the beginning of today's trading day. There are many reasons for this to happen, the majority due to our own behaviour, human behaviour. The second half, well, the same pattern repeats itself. The second half will initiate new trading business that will be closed... the next day. Naturally that we are speaking of very short term trading / daytrading, an area where, when things are well studied and structured, can generate a very nice monthly income till the end of our lives. I try mainly to follow human psychology and incorporate that into time and prices. There are periods when time is a factor far more important than the price itself. The beginning of an hour, a day, a week, a month, a quarter. The end of an hour, a day, a week, a month, a quarter. These are all time periods that have importance for us humans, in all aspects of our lives. We don't have the notion of it, but we react to all of this in one way or the other. This creates patterns that can be exploited. There are studies saying that the first day of every month, mainly in the S&P500, but also tested with good results in the German DAX, has a very, very high probability of being a positive day (I'm not certain but I think the reading was made on a close to close basis). Now, knowing this, we can try to exploit it, but through other ways (ie. psychological ways). Analysing only the close is misleading. We should analyse the highest and the lowest points where traders were able to push prices. These will show the real strength behind of each move. OK, the first day of the month tends to be positive, but when that happened, how the first half of the day traded relatively to the previous day? Naturally, before we can answer that, we must first determined the time period for each half of the day? Can we consider noon the time that should divide each half? There are readings that lunch time should be the one to be considered, which spans between 11:30 am to 1:00 pm (EST). I confess that a lunch time period makes perfect sense since we humans, when dealing with other humans, we tend to share experiences, ideas, thoughts that, although we try not to be influenced by them, by the simple fact that we took knowledge of it, they will be taken in consideration in one way or another. Also, humans, we need time to absorb all news things that are brought to us. Time must always be taken in consideration. Example: the markets are acting weird, not really making sense, we have a position that is laying there, and lunch time is arriving. We decide to close it, so we can enjoy the lunch period without the morning stress. During lunch we heard an idea, a gossip, some news event just been released. Traders come from lunch to see how the markets reacted to that period, hence, the beginning of the second half period. All of this are ideas that MUST be studied and structured before any trade can be executed. Regards.

Saying that to a guy that considers time as the most important thing after price..... You really want me to have nightmares during this year Halloween

Tams, Is it possible for you do give and explanation with simple examples when we need (must) use resets and when that is not a necessary? Also, it would be nice to know the many (?) ways to reset variables. Regards

Yes Tams, that was the problem with today's open price This is surely one of those problem that almost everyone steps on when dealing with time, no? regards and many thanks for your help

Thanks for the explanation Tams, but.... If you plot what you wrote: if time = yesterdayStTime then prevDayOpen = Open; if time = todayStTime then dayOpen = Open; if time = yesterdayEnTime then prevDayClose = close; if time = todayEnTime then dayClose = close; ... you'll see that today's open will plot zero. I reset today's date... if date <> date[1] then begin todayTradeDay = true; end; if todayTradeDay then begin if time >= todayStTime then begin todayTradeDay = false; dayOpen = Open; end; end; ... to see if that would resolve the problem, but when I compile it, today's open plotted OK, but today's open plotted zero. :doh: Why when we resolve the problem of one plot, another one creates another problem? :crap:

Using the indicator as show below: inputs: todayStTime (830), todayEnTime (900), yesterdayStTime (1430), yesterdayEnTime (1500); variables: dayCounter (0), dayClose (0), dayOpen (0), //dayHigh (-999999), //dayLow (+999999), //prevDayHigh (0), //prevDayLow (0), //dayHigh (0), //dayLow (0), prevDayClose (0), prevDayOpen (0), prevClCounter (0), prevTradeDay (false), todayTradeDay (false); // confirms the beginning of the day with true/false conditions if date <> date[1] then begin prevTradeDay = true; todayTradeDay = false; dayCounter = dayCounter + 1; end; // resets the new day to give the previous day open time interval if prevTradeDay then begin if time = yesterdayStTime then begin prevTradeDay = false; prevDayOpen = Open; end; end; // resets the new day to give today's open time interval if todayTradeDay = false then begin if time >= todayStTime then begin todayTradeDay = true; dayOpen = Open; end; end; // resets the new day to give the previous day close time interval if prevTradeDay then begin if time = yesterdayEnTime then begin prevTradeDay = false; prevDayClose = close; end; end; // resets the new day to give today's close time interval if todayTradeDay = false then begin if time = todayEnTime then begin todayTradeDay = true; dayClose = close; end; end; plot1(DayOpen); plot2(dayClose); plot13(prevDayOpen); plot14(prevDayClose); The result can be seen on the attached image. That is the problem. Both closes (today and yesterday) are plotted with a value of zero. Regarding the resets, don't I need to reset for each day the open and close prices? How can the computer recognize which open and close am I referring to?

But Tams....... I did that. I wrote: // resets the new day to give the previous day open time interval if prevTradeDay then begin if time = yesterdayStTime then begin prevTradeDay = false; prevDayOpen = Open; end; end; then... // resets the new day to give today's open time interval if todayTradeDay = false then begin if time >= todayStTime then begin todayTradeDay = true; dayOpen = Open; end; end; then... // resets the new day to give the previous day close time interval if prevTradeDay then begin if time = yesterdayEnTime then begin prevTradeDay = false; prevDayClose = close; end; end; then... // resets the new day to give today's close time interval if todayTradeDay = false then begin if time = todayEnTime then begin todayTradeDay = true; dayClose = close; end; end; Each statement plot the requested data. The problem is that when they are plotted together, something happens with the close statements. The "something" is the problem......

Hi Tams OK, in the image you can see both open and close prices on the same chart because I used 2 indicators since the problem is that together (open statements and close statements), the close statements don't work (they plot a zero price). How the lines are plotted have no interest to me. What I want is to be able to use yesterday's open and close prices, based on the time interval chosen, and do whatever calculations I want with today's open and close prices also based on the time interval chosen. Example: If yesterday last trading hour the close was higher than the open then, if today's open is higher (or lower) than yesterday's close then, what is the probability (in percentage) of today's first hour close to be higher (or lower) than today's open. Regards

I'd like some help here, please. I have the following formula: inputs: todayStTime (830), todayEnTime (900), yesterdayStTime (1430), yesterdayEnTime (1500); variables: dayCounter (0), dayClose (0), dayOpen (0), //dayHigh (-999999), //dayLow (+999999), //prevDayHigh (0), //prevDayLow (0), //dayHigh (0), //dayLow (0), prevDayClose (0), prevDayOpen (0), prevClCounter (0), prevTradeDay (false), todayTradeDay (false); // confirms the beginning of the day with true/false conditions if date <> date[1] then begin prevTradeDay = true; todayTradeDay = false; dayCounter = dayCounter + 1; end; // resets the new day to give the previous day open time interval if prevTradeDay then begin if time = yesterdayStTime then begin prevTradeDay = false; prevDayOpen = Open; end; end; // resets the new day to give today's open time interval if todayTradeDay = false then begin if time >= todayStTime then begin todayTradeDay = true; dayOpen = Open; end; end; // resets the new day to give the previous day close time interval if prevTradeDay then begin if time = yesterdayEnTime then begin prevTradeDay = false; prevDayClose = close; end; end; // resets the new day to give today's close time interval if todayTradeDay = false then begin if time = todayEnTime then begin todayTradeDay = true; dayClose = close; end; end; plot1(DayOpen); //plot2(dayClose); plot13(prevDayOpen); //plot14(prevDayClose); I want to plot yesterday's open and close prices based on the time interval selected in the input and also, today's open and close prices also, based on the time interval selected in the input. As it is, plots today's open and yesterday open prices, but If I also plot today's and yesterday's close prices, these will be zero, though, if I remove the statements regarding the opening prices, the close prices will be correctly plotted. What am I doing wrong? Please see attached images. Thank you.