brownsfan019

Steve's bio (in my words) is basically he came across the charts and decided to study them overseas for quite awhile. He then brought the knowledge and ideas back to the US and now we have candlestick charting.

cooter - just b/c something originates in a different country does not mean people in other countries cannot use it and/or perfect it. See the car industry for an example. Good ole Ford, Chrysler, etc is where it started and now the foreigners are over taking the 'experts'. How dare they!

Reaver - start with Nison. He's the godfather of candlesticks if you will. Here's 2 reviews I did on TL for a couple books: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f8/japanese-candlestick-charting-techniques-second-edition-1561.html http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f8/the-candlestick-course-by-steve-nison-1560.html Steve's website is: http://www.candlecharts.com/ Keep in mind that 1 or 2 books is just the tip of the iceberg. I would strongly suggest taking a look at his DVD's as well and/or attend a live event, if you are/get serious about learning more.

Easy there tin, you have to be initiated first. This gang ain't open to just anyone. Note - just a joke! Everyone is welcome to the Candlestick Corner!

Click the human head looking thing and click from there.

Welcome to the Candlestick Corner everyone! I asked James if we could start a sub-forum for the main purpose of discussing candlesticks, candlestick analysis, etc. in one part of the forum. As many of you know, candlestick analysis is my bread and butter. I also know that good discussions can hopefully lead to a learning experience for everyone! I am going to be out a good part of this weekend, so I apologize that I won't be able to participate much in our little candlestick corner till Sunday. Turns out that today is the start of Browns Training Camp and Sat is my best friend's bachelor party.... so, I won't be here much. I'm not sure where we will take this part of the forum. I going to leave it up to discussion. Even though my title is moderator, I have no intentions of acting like an unbiased moderator. I hope that's ok. Being a neutral moderating moderator is just not for me. :thumbs up:

Exactly. OVER TIME. Just hide the P&L for now. Give it a try on simulation and see how it goes. Just humor us.

Abe - don't let your software be the reason for not using hard stops. There's plenty of brokers and software packages that will in fact do what you want. For example, Open ECry has a nice bracket feature where once your order is filled, your exits (profit and loss) are placed on the dom. You set all the parameters. It's pretty nice in my opinion. I just like that your orders are ready to go as soon as you get filled, so it speeds up the process of your place in the queue. Not a big deal on the YM, but if you dive into the ES, that can make a small difference. Here's an example of a sell bracket on the OEC dom. What I like about it is that you see in orange where your brackets will be.

It is tough, that's for sure, esp if you have a group of traders all trading different setups. One idea, which is taken from this thread on et, is to start a thread for real-time (or close to) postings for the sake of some sort of chat during the day. Again, it may be just as distracting as a chat room, so I don't know. Just an idea. I enjoy the camaraderie of talking w/ other traders, but it can hurt your trading as well. A fine line to walk. Any other ideas besides the chat room, which obviously has lost interest, or an ongoing thread?

Tin - well, at least you are being honest with yourself! I would say the important thing is you saw the trades. Of course we all want to be in our winning trades. Today is Fri, so I would suggest to keep monitoring today, get your sh*t together over the weekend and be ready to go live on Monday. Your charts and annotations look good this week, so stick w/ it and be ready Monday!

Abe, Great job on keeping the log. Few things: 1) Get SnagIt to make your chart annotations MUCH easier!!! It's the best 40 bucks you will spend for a trading related software. (http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp) 2) I have one big concern right now - 15 trades for 23 pts = 1.5 pts gain per trade. 1.5 pts = $7.50. $7.50 - $4.26 (commission) = $3.24 in gains. My concern is that if your gains net out under 5 ticks on average, it's not going to take much in the form of a losing day to take all that right back and then some. If you average 1.5 pts in gains, that means you should not risk more than 1-2 pts per trade. Obviously that's not realistic, so hopefully you see where I am going with those #'s. 3) Also, not sure how you got your net to be $101 after commissions. Gross = $115 ($5 x 23) - $63.90 ($4.26 x 15) = $51.10 net. Did I miss something?

That open interest you see is the big boys. Most retail accounts couldn't hold overnight if they wanted!

Yes, swing trading is a different animal; however it appears most here are daytrading futures. Maybe I'm wrong there, but the majority of posts are about the ES, YM or ER2. Those are daytrading vehicles primarily. Look at charts posted here, most (if not all) are daytrades and most are for minutes. So, working under the assumption that most are daytraders of the US indexes, then focus on these market(s) is necessary to become successful. I doubt many here are swing trading US index futures contracts. It would probably be useful to take a poll to see what types of traders are here.

I don't know... I guess if you JUST trade volatility (or lack thereof) then you could look for something new to trade. That doesn't make much sense to me though. I mean, you can try to be a jack of all trades or an expert in a few. And if you plan to be an expert, you NEED to watch and learn your market(s), regardless of conditions. I'm having a hard time seeing how you can become good at trading something if you jump from one contract to another b/c you don't like the current conditions. Why not study and learn, so when this happens again (and it will) you can make money?!?!?!

I feel the exact opposite James. This has been great. Getting 5+ pts on an ES trade in minutes is killer. I know it will stop, but hopefully not soon!!! Kill or be killed is appropriate for the current daytrading environment.

So much for the summer doldrums is very true Cooter! Good stuff this week. Welcome to the jungle.

These are the kind of days that weed out the wannabe's and bring in a fresh batch b/c of 'all that money that was made today'... Days like today remind of the Guns N Roses song 'Welcome to the jungle'. We all need to enter the jungle on some days and either kill or be killed. Part of the biz we signed up for.

WOW WHAT A WEEK THIS HAS BEEN!! Hope everyone has enjoyed this ride. I wish I could get that 'feeling' every week!

Blu & Nick: 1) I never had much luck or spent enough time using tick charts and candlestick patterns. I'm sure w/ enough study there is a good combination based on the market being analyzed, but I haven't found one for me. 2) Good question. My view is that I cannot wait for 2-3 candle patterns to appear back-to-back. I LOVE seeing multiple hammers AFTER I am long already, but I can't wait for that much price action to take place and then enter in my opinion. Not to mention, you don't see back-to-back candlestick patterns that often, at least on the ES (which is my primary trading vehicle). Now, there are patterns that encompass 3 candles as well. For the pattern to be valid, 3 candles must form together; whereas a hammer is 1 candle. Keep in mind guys that you cannot just run out there and grab every hammer you see. It depends on the context of the market at that time. What I mean is, if the market is flat lining, hammers mean nothing to me. If you get a hammer on an extreme price level, I'd pay attention. Also, you'll see others refer to selling/buying tails, which in my view, is basically a hammer. That's the power of them - I call them a hammer, someone else calls it a buying tail and we both buy. That's a good thing.

Well, you said it - trailing stops can be very dangerous as far as I am concerned. If you routinely get trailed out, then going for a fixed target(s) may be best. I don't trail at all. I have my initial stop, which is a level where I am proven that I was wrong on my trade. Being taken out for 1 or 2 ticks does not prove I was wrong, it proves that I was too afraid of taking some heat. I understand some trades a trail works, but I have found for me that the majority of the time, the trail does nothing other than lock in pathetic gains. That's it. My feeling is that if you are going to stay in until a reversal signal appears, then that's exactly what you need to do. It all comes down to high reliable your setups are and how often you get a decent reversal that 1) locks in profit on previous trade and 2) initiates new position.

gcb - good questions. I should try to update threads that I started or participate in, but can't always hunt down old threads! Here's my current trading setup - trades are not being taken off at a fixed level. That was working well in a low volatility environment, but as we've seen, volatility is expanded and therefore I've adjusted my exits accordingly. I think that's part of being a trader that is in the markets daily. You see it yourself and you can react based on what you see. I am currently exiting trades when a reversal trade appears. That's it. No scaling or set profits, just stay in the trade until a setup that goes the opposite direction appears. Again, this is a function of current volatility. I've never been a fan of scaling out as it just never worked well for me. I mean, if you exit at 2, 3, and 4, why not just exit all at 3 since that's the average of your exits? As you said, it seems like additional risk just to get you to the average price of all exits. As for candlestick analysis, home is where the heart is. As much as I've looked at many different things, I end up back at candlestick analysis. Now one thing that I sometimes have to refresh myself on is that it's hard to use candlestick analysis in and of itself, by itself (esp in the more traditional sense). So that means different things to different traders, but that is something that Nison hit on a number of times in books, dvds, etc. and I can sometimes stray from that trying to make things even easier. My setup is rather simple and many would say too simple to work, but it works when I stick to my plan.

And for those that are just dying to know how I trade, here's the teasers that you will get: 1) Start with these books that I reviewed here on TL: http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f8/japanese-candlestick-charting-techniques-second-edition-1561.html http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/f8/the-candlestick-course-by-steve-nison-1560.html Click the Amazon.com link on each review if you decide to purchase as I donate proceeds from my Amazon sales to charities. 2) If you get serious about trading with candlesticks, we'll talk more. Till then, study the Nison books.

Abe - thanks for the compliments. I am by no means at a level that I at least envision myself getting to. I still have some of the basic struggles, that most seem to be mental issues. I really think that you are your own worst enemy in this biz. That's part of the hardest part in trading - you first have to find a method that makes money and then be able to execute it all day, every day. I can't tell you how many days were in the crapper till the last 2 or 3 trades of the day. Without those trades, the day would have ended down. But, that is easier said than done some days.

I think it shows that you are confident in your trading plan, which is obviously a good thing! Just keep up the good work and realize some days it'll feel too easy and other days you'll wonder why you got of bed. The only problem is that you won't know till after the fact.

GCB - My exact trade methodology is not here verbatim, but there's quite abit on the forum. Exact charts w/ annotations will not be provided. Not only is that labor intensive, you can call it a 'trade secret'.