brownsfan019

James, I took a look at the blog and wanted to provide some feedback here, so we can discuss it if you would like. First, awesome job! I like the layout and everything. I don't care for blogs where the writing is squished between a left and right border, so I like your layout. Not sure if it's perfect blogging technique, but who cares! Second, it looks like candles are making an impact on your trading and that's awesome (in my opinion)! With that being said, I think you need to really study them if you want to learn them better. Here are my suggestions for candlestick study (and the order in which I do them): 1) Steve's Free Newsletter 2) The Candlestick Course 3) Japanese Candlestick Charting Techniques, Second Edition (Hardcover) 4) Nison DVD workshops 5) A Live Seminar. Make sure it's a seminar where he is the ONLY one teaching. You do NOT want a seminar that is partnered up with Calhoun, Headley or any of the other marketing whores Steve is now aligned with. A few notes about my suggestions here: 1) The cost goes up incrementally, so keep that in mind. 2) I've actually fallen out with Steve, so as much I don't want to suggest you purchase his materials, they are the best out there. My beef with Steve, in case anyone is reading this wondering, is that he's recently partnered up with some other trading 'gurus' that I don't think very highly of. So while I think Steve is basically a marketing whore, the materials listed above are very good. --------------------------- With that being said James, I think the main focus of your attention right now is how you are defining your support and resistance zones. Right now, it appears some moving average combo is doing this for you. My suggestion is to take a harder look at PAST candles to help you here. See some of my posts all over the board where I've outlines S/R zones and there's ZERO moving averages on them. Now, when the moving averages line up with your S/R zones, even better. For example, our ES example here this week was just that - a hammer at/near two standard SMA's (50 and 200), along with some candlestick support. Nice confluence there. I think your journey into the candles is going well, but I think how you define your S/R is absolutely critical and just using moving averages could provide some false signals.

Just wanted to give a little update here on the OEC front - in the next release and a few after, they are implementing some changes/fixes and additions that I was providing feedback on. Here's an important thing to note - if you contact OEC with some suggestions, they will listen to them. It does not mean everything you suggest will be done, but these guys are listening to their customers. Since I have provided feedback to OEC, I was told that our discussions found at least 3 bugs that have been fixed. I recently submitted a 9 page feedback of the dom and charts and a good portion of these are being included in the next release and the one after. Also, for those wondering about TraderDNA, the last email I received said this is progressing and DNA's programmer is trying to write to OEC's API. Whatever that means. Just looks like progress is being made. Up to this point, I've never had a broker and software program that were so willing to actually listen to me. The problem in the past is that many brokers have outside trading softwares that they use, so there's only so much each can do on their end. You can make suggestions to Ninja or whatever, but then you also need the broker to be on board with some suggestions as well. Now you have 2 co's that have to agree to work on something simultaneously... Not easy to get done. With OEC, since everything is in house, it's much easier for the charting guys and the execution guys to talk.

Reav, I love PokerStars. It's just for fun for me right now. I seem to do well in the 5/10 no limit hold'em tables, but this is just play money and I realize that. I enjoy playing in local tournaments with a low entry fee. I enjoy the rush of playing poker, esp when you catch that A high flush and need to extract as much $$$ from the table as possible. There's some serious correlation between trading and playing poker as evidenced in the other thread, so it's a nice transition. Let me know how it goes if you start playing for real money on there as I'd like to know how that goes. I'm tempted to give myself a little 'allowance' from my trading income to put into a PS account and see how it goes...

Car - your posts seem awfully familiar to some posts I've seen at elitetrader. I think this post was verbatim from a thread. I'll be upfront - so far, your posts are rocking the boat. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, as I have done that myself, but just keep that in mind. Referring to trading as correlated to gamblers anonymous is a stretch if trading is your livelihood. For some, myself included, this is how we pay the bills and create wealth for ourselves and families. So, am I 'addicted' to trading, I'm sure many would say yes. And that's fine with me b/c in order for me to be at the top of my game (and you must be when trading), I need to be 'addicted' to the markets. I would also argue that the more 'addicted' the trader is, the greater the success. I realize that's debatable, but I will take the trader that studies before and after the markets, studies and documents over the weekend and busts their ass during the day over the guy that just casually goes at it. Even though the casual guy is not 'addicted', I think his potential for success would be next to 0. So, is it good to be 'addicted' to your 'job' as a trader? I would say yes, esp in the beginning. Anyone that goes into this thinking they will just conquer it with casual work hours is sorely mistaken. If it takes being an 'addict' to get there, so be it.

Here's a link to where you can get pivot #'s and how to calculate them - http://www.mypivots.com/dn/?symbol=41 There's Classic, Wooddie, Camarilla, DeMark. I've personally only used the classic when using them, but there at least 4 varieties out there!

I think Paltalk or whatever is fine if you are mainly looking for audio. I do not believe you can share charts, but it's been awhile since I've been on it so who knows. A discussion room during the day is hard to do in my opinion. But as Tin has suggested here, something after hours, could work for many if the interest is there. If not, something like what Tin has done here could do wonders as well. Another idea would be for anyone interested to create their own blog, like James_gsx has mentioned here. There's a few different ways to do this and while the weekly chat idea is probably the best idea in terms of interaction, accountability, etc. it may also be the hardest in my opinion. One other suggestion Tin - the chat room can be run more smoothly if everyone in there trades the same way (or very similar). That was one thing that kept the discussion group going that I was in and what keeps this one in Columbus thriving - there is a commonality among all traders. For example, if I know candlesticks are going to be discussed, I will be there. If not, the interest will dwindle for me. That's just an example, but hopefully you get my point.

Fish - That is where I first learned about them and quoted the source here - http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/34/volume-based-candles-and-how-to-1414-3.html#post7813 Just giving credit where credit is due. As you said, there's many ways to construct your chart and many ways to interrupt them so it's a matter of personal preference and what produces profitable trading opportunities for each trader. For me, it's been b/c of VBC's. For others, they prefer other settings. It really doesn't matter as long as it makes YOU money!

I think that's what the forum is for Raj. You can do that now, whenever you want.

Tin, First good idea. Second, don't be surprised if this catches on at first and dies slowly. In my experience these types of things can catch on early and then die a slow and painful death. You'll have to grab it by the horns and run it smoothly. You'll have to make people responsible for actually doing what the group is asking each week. I was running a stock discussion group a few years ago and at first, it was great - many members, everyone contributing. It soon became obvious who was doing the work - me and a couple others - and I shortly thereafter bailed on it. Why should I do all the work if no one else is going to contribute, right? Ok with that being said, I would be game for this to see how it goes. If there's some good interaction and value for everyone, that works for me. Ideas of software to use depending on what exactly you want in terms of features: FREE OR LESS EXPENSIVE SERVICES: PalTalk AIM Pro Yahoo Messenger Skype MORE COSTLY: Omnovia Hotcomm SUGGESTIONS: And if you get this going, I would strongly suggest you start a discussion group area here or on yahoo so that members can discuss trades as they are occurring during the week. The weekly call would be more of a here's what happened last week and here's what I am looking at playing this week. I've seen one of these groups that was very successful and it had one trait that I just could not get from ours - accountability. You, as the leader, must hold people accountable or those that do work will feel slighted and those that are just tagging along are not needed. While not an easy task, if there's enough people really committed to it, it will work beautifully. If there's a bunch of tire kickers, it can get frustrating very quickly.

EZ as in EasyLanguage?

For starters, the thread is about VBC's, not moving averages. As has been stated throughout the thread, there is no perfect starting point for where to set your VBC. It depends on YOU. No one can answer the question for YOU. YOU have to spend some time with them and see what works for YOU. Get the idea? You can go as low as 2000 up to 50,000+ on the ES in my opinion. That's a big range obviously, so there's no way for myself or anyone to tell you where to start. If you want to see how they look, you'll have to spend some time playing with them.

Hmmm... Maybe I should take my own advice sometimes... :\ I'm pretty sure I asked for a hammer at the new support level and bam, there you go. Candlestick analysis is about as solid as it comes on dailys, I am convinced of it more and more each day. This is just too easy sometimes. I know, it doesn't always work and how can you possibly play every stock out there, but this was right on with TSO. I just said let's see a pullback to test the new support level (old resistance that was SOLID). This resistance finally broke and then price retested the area and was respected. And then when you get a nice gap up like this... That's just gravy. Tin, you play anything here? I hope someone made some money on this.

And not surprising, the YM looks very similar:

James, Sorry I haven't chimed in, just real busy lately. Here's my take on the ES: At least 3 nice hammers near the 50 and 200 SMA. There's nothing bearish about this price action at all. Now, there's a few ways to interrupt the current chart... 1) The multiple hammers suggest that the bears are trying but the bulls are defending this area well. Could result in a break to the upside. 2) There's so much fighting taking place here that one side is going to roll over sooner or later and give up. Either the bears are going to say enough is enough and stop fighting or the bulls will simply run out of steam to keep pushing the bears back. Could result in a break to the downside. What I am trying to say is that I normally would feel great about 3 hammers but watching these charts intraday as I do, I'm not totally feeling the bullish love here. I would normally like to see a hammer and then a push up. Not a whole bunch of fighting back and forth. This price action would also indicate that there are probably some large long and short positions being built up here as well. Sooner or later one will win and when that happens, the amount of stops that could be taken out could be large. Looking just at the daily, I would remain long and be cautious around 1550 or so. There's no reason to exit a short currently if just using the daily as your guide.

James, I've read that the new version of MultiCharts has some nice backtesting capabilities. The nice thing is you could just purchase it one time and then own it. You'll still need a data feed though. I personally just plug Open ECry data into it, but eSignal and others will work as well.

Not sure why this thread was dug up, but since it was - your statement could not be more wrong. Just b/c something backtests well does NOT equate to a profitable system going FORWARD. Contrary to what you read in the books, backtesting may help (or could actually hurt) a possible new system but since it is based on purely historical data that means little when the future is unknown. There are plenty of possible systems out there that backtest well and perform poorly live and vice versa. If it was this easy, we would all be multi-millionaires here. I'm amazed at what I read sometimes...

No prob Nick, glad to share and hopefully save someone the frustration and money. I told Price in my last email to him that whenever possible I was going to tell as many people as I could that his services were terrible and should be avoided. I wasn't lying. I've posted on elitetrader whenever I see his name and now here. I haven't brought it up myself, but I will not hesitate to share my experience when I see his name mentioned at all. And before anyone thinks I am simply a vendor basher, please keep in mind that I did in fact purchase services from Price and can provide an informed opinion. I thought Price was a nice enough guy to at least follow through on his promises to me, but I was terribly wrong. He knows how to sell and preys on that. In my time with his services (1 year) I never saw anything even remotely profitable over time. Yes, there were some winners here and there, but nothing compensated for the many, many losses. And I was using 5 or so of his services as a gold or platinum member. This was not just one service that hit a losing streak. At the time, this was his best 5 services they had... If that was the best, I could only imagine what the worse ones were doing... :\ I revisit his site now and again and he's got a good system in place - when a system dies, just get rid of it and find a new one. The smoke and mirrors being done here is just amazing b/c he remains in business somehow. It's a shame that people like this are even allowed to operate a business, but to each his own. I learned my lesson and as I said, I hope my posts serve as a reminder to others that the grail is not out there and if it was, you cannot purchase it.

I'm glad that you didn't get the hook line and sinker like I did Tin. That was a few years ago, but it's still a hard lesson learned. And I posted that more for some of our new traders more so than you and Reav.

Could be at the same time this larger order was filled that enough smaller orders hit the bid or ask at the same time to minimize the movement of the larger order. That'd be my guess. Example - a 100 lot hits the YM on the bid. At the same time, 5 x 20 lot orders sell at the market at the same time and price flinches b/c there is a 100 lot bid and 100 lot sell market. In the end, those cancel each other out.

Guys, Allow me to save you some time and money if I may re: Headley. A few years ago I met Price and one of his salesman at the NY Traders Expo. They both talked a great game, as you've seen Tin. Looking for the 'set it and forget ATM machine', I signed for $5000 worth of auto-trading services from bigtrends.com which Price runs and operates. So, I put out 5 grand for his services b/c the track records (most hypothetical) and his acceleration bands, etc. all looked like gold. So, I funded my options xpress account and off we went with Price's services. Long story short - let's just say Price provided me with A TON OF LOSSES that I was able to use at tax time. I kept in touch with Price while my account was dropping hard and while I was friendly, he was friendly. He reassured me things were ok and that if need be, he would extend my subscriptions out to get my account back up. Well, when that time came, Price was no where to be found. He refused my calls and would not return my emails. It was bad enough that I was taking a bath, but this snake just ran and hide. I am often reminded of Boiler Room when I think about this experience. While it was not exactly like that, the sales pitch was heavy and promised the world... just like Seth did for Harry Renard in the movie. I obviously learned my lesson and learned it hard. Please do not repeat the same mistake I made. Price Headley and bigtrends.com are a joke and should be avoided at all costs.

James, I think you are thinking of Trader Monthly. This magazine is called Futures and has more behind-the-scenes stories.

That was my point MC. Until you are confident in your trading, 'only losing' $5/tick is the most attractive option.

My view is simple Bear - if you can make money trading, would you rather have $12.50/tick or $5/tick? All things being equal, I want $12.50. This is assuming of course your system makes money over time.

Up to this point Reav, I've been one of the 'exit everything by 4:15pm'. Thoughts are being considered to hold positions overnight if warranted however.

Well, video poker is proving to be a house game. :o