brownsfan019

If you have a Multicharts key that you are no longer using, I would be interested in it. I have a few things I'm working on that might not be able to run via oec. Drop me a PM and we can discuss.

6-29-09 Alot of work for 100 bucks. Just one of those days. 6-30-09 Much easier today. Trades worked as planned but I exited the ZN trade too soon. Got a little nervous when the ZB hit a support level and looked like it might be putting a bounce in, meanwhile the ZN paused (I flatten) and then proceeded down to my initial profit target. One of these days I'll let all my winners run fully... maybe...

BF - post a few charts if you get chance. I can't even fathom having a 15 sec chart up! lol

That's good stuff Thales! Amazing how things can look when you keep it simple AND don't know any better. No trades here today, slept in and then didn't do much on the charts today. Have a good wknd all.

Wow, thread really got going. Amazing how some great things can come out if you just let them. No need for overzealous mod's to shut threads down. There's some great info presented here and that's all my intention was. I thought the other thread on volume had some promise but it was quickly shut down so I started this one. Keep it up guys. If my little area & this thread is beneath you DB, please feel free to show yourself the door and head back to your area. As my first post stated, this thread is to discuss volume where a mod isn't going to shut it down. A place where people can post w/o worry of a thread being closed, moderated or changed in any way. I'm trying this new radical thinking when moderating an area.

6-25-09 I didn't trade Tue and Wed was a good day but no screenshot. Trying to keep the thread as real as possible so won't quote days where I am too quick to turn my machine off. Today was just ok. Nothing special on the ES. I do have a quick update on my trading plan here - as I've mentioned before, I try to watch a few different markets to see where the best opportunities lie. Lately the ES has been kind to my trading, so I may throw a few more contracts there and see where we go. With the margins at $500 (or so) there is some flexibility there to trade a few more lots and still stay w/in risk parameters. That was part of the reason for only ES trades today as I had my focus there today.

pim - I've mentioned before that I pretty much have done the same thing. Looking to take a handful of trades per day spread over 3-5 different markets and take my best setups. Since starting this thread it has worked out nicely. Keep us posted.

This thread tells you how to post pictures. Welcome aboard.

Here in the CC, your 'pin' bars can be referred to as a few titles: 1) Hammer (one of my personal faves) 2) Doji From there, you can get offshoots such as inverted hammer, gravestone, doji, etc. I could care less that we call them but wanted to get them out of the way. In your example, you are basically looking to buy hammers. Easy enough in theory. From there it's a matter of defining what type of trend we are in. If my analysis says we are in an uptrend, I would look to buy as many hammers as I could, as you've done here. That's contrary to the standard candlestick work out there that says hammers are reversal points. Here we are using pin bars / hammers to buy in an uptrend, which is a good idea IMO. So the real question at hand is - when do we buy the pin/hammer? How is the trend going to be identified? Once you have decided that it's time to get long, then it's a matter of looking for our pin/hammer friends. We can call them PAMMERS or HINS.

To my friends at TL - if you see an affiliate ID on my Amazon links, the commission of your purchase is forwarded to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I would appreciate your consideration of using the link as your cost/price is the same and your purchase will help a good cause. Thank you.

6-22-09 A little too early on that 6B short. I was correct in wanting to get short, but the move up at 10:25am EST grabbed my stop. Good news it that I was able to get short again and at least get back most of that. We'll see how these trades would play out as my initial profits have not been hit but my trigger finger took them out when it looked like the 6E was finding some support at a level I had previously been watching. Will update if any bond or index trades fire off. Unfortunately not able to jump on this down move as my level was a tad higher than where the indexes got too.

Good analysis so far in deciding whether to trade w/ the trend, against it OR both. Most people head in 1 direction, but that's not necessary. Keep it going, good work.

Interesting spyder. How about some charts to illustrate the idea being presented here?

Very true James. The key IMO is determining your S/R. In my example, that was a quick one I did to help the thread get started. In my actual trading, I would be looking at a few different charts to see S/R - whether that be a daily, weekly, previous day(s) movements, etc. Would love to hear more about this James. Not sure this thread is the best spot, but feel free to join me in the candlestick corner as you got a nice looking candlestick hybrid thing going on here!

I agree Monad. And here in a discussion forum, we can discuss - at least in the part of the forum that I moderate. I have no desire to shut down threads when there's a viable discussion there. I like your point that volume drives the market b/c obviously nothing would be going on if there was zero volume. Makes sense. The next question that a trader must make is whether or not that volume that is there is a worthwhile thing to be tracking intraday. Personally, like your mention of Al Brooks, I have not found any use in it.

Personally, I love candle patterns @ major support/resistance zones. My setups aren't as cut & dry as what you've presented here, but the idea is simple - look for bullish candles near my support zones and look for bearish candle patterns near my resistance zones. here's a quick example: That's an example of using intraday s/r and candle patterns to find some possible points of entry.

Interesting thread. This thread shows how to post a chart in your post. It puts it larger as well so it's easier to see w/o having to click on it.

That looks like a decent list. You just need accurate buy and sell signals, major indicators that work each day, pivots and something that resembles VSA. If you really believe that certain indicators, pivots and VSA is the way to go, then you could end up creating your OWN version of buy/sell signals. As for some prepackaged product just sitting on the web for you, I doubt it exists. Maybe it does, but I'd suggest that it does not. If that's the case, then it's time to roll up the sleeves and do some dirty work.

I agree - that 6E just didn't want to move till later in the session. And of course I flattened my short position WAY to early... If you are going to focus on the trend trading part and can avoid days like today, that's a winner in my book! Days like today are exactly what a trend trader needs to avoid or take minimal losses. So job well done there! The next question or step would be - do you want to remain a trend trader only or can you identify days like today w/ consistency and then make some money there too? If you can identify range bound days like today, then it's a fairly easy trade - buy lows, sell highs. Easy enough IF you can decipher days like today vs. the big trending days that you know the 6E can deliver.

Here in the candlestick corner, I enjoy having discussions and let threads run where they may. There are some good threads here that may have started w/ talking about candlesticks and later diverged into something more. And that's great! It's kind of the point of a discussion forum - to have discussions. So this thread will focus (initially at least) on discussing volume and whether or not it is important in your trading work. I think there's 2 simple sides people can take here: 1) Volume is important and can play a huge role in their analysis 2) Volume is unimportant and/or just another useless indicator Alright, you probably guessed I am a little biased here, but allow me to explain how I view volume in intraday trading. In a nutshell, volume can be a tricky thing when watching intraday - as you may have seen, there are plenty of games being played on the dom, and that includes FILLED orders. You can see bids/asks being flashed all over, some fill and that may look great on your screen, but the real question about that volume you are watching is - is that true buying or selling volume/pressure/interest/etc OR is that some entity attempting to get you to believe price is moving in some direction OR is that simply an entity exiting a previous trade? There's more reasons, but it's getting late here; you get the idea. In addition, how many times do you see low volume areas for an extended period and then bam, a big surge on volume? Quite a bit on the futures markets. That's all well and good, but do you really want to wait to get into a trade AFTER the real volume has come through? ... Personally, I'm looking to get in BEFORE the real volume comes through and if I am right, I get to ride the wave and hopefully a big one. I personally spent quite a bit of time working w/ volume and seeing if there was something there for me. After many long hours, I concluded that using volume on intraday charts was not for me. That's not to say it can't work, but it did not work for me. In the end, there is no right or wrong answer regarding volume and it's importance in your trading. You do need to find what works for you and I'm here to say that you don't need volume anywhere on your charts whatsoever - no volume based indicators and/or volume itself. And that is my

To answer the OP's question of 'how important is volume really?' my reply would be - it's not important at all. I have no indicators of volume nor volume itself anywhere on my charts. So that's one side of the coin for you. Others would say the exact opposite.

I found this post on "Re: A Look at a Stock Trader's Day" interesting and have nominated it accordingly for "Topic Of The Month June, 2009"

Thales - awesome stuff w/ your daughter there btw. The fact that she's interested at such a young age is incredible. I just found this site - http://www.weseed.com Take a look, maybe it would be of use for you and her. My significant other teaches family & consumer sciences and she might use that in her teachings to discuss stocks.

Been very busy here after trading so can't post blotter daily. What can I say, it's summer in Ohio and there isn't much time to enjoy this weather. 6-16-09 6-17-09 6-18-09 Not much on Tue and Wed to say. Today however... I dropped the ball big time on that 6E short. I got short around 10am (HOD) and held. And held. And held. I actually could have tripled up if I wanted to as the same signal saying SELL appeared three times. I did not triple up though. But that was not the issue. The issue on this trade was my planned exit in advance was the LOD. Around 1:30pm, the 6E began to drop as I expected but b/c it took so long, I flattened. Shortly thereafter it not only hit the LOD, it collapsed through it like it did not exist. What to say... held that damn thing for well over 3 hours and then I didn't make what I should have made on it. Profit should have been about more than double what I reported here. Moral of the story - if you got a good plan, follow it. I almost just put the trade on and walked away. I should have. Instead, I sat here babysitting the damn thing and it cost me a good $500 or so. I don't care what other people say, but this job never gets 'easy' IMO. I would expect a rookie to make this move, but Mr. Market does not care whether you are a seasoned trader or novice - it will mess w/ your mind beyond belief. The biggest challenge I face is what goes on between my ears. My system said take this trade out at the LOD. There were so many reasons to exit there, but that's not the point. My system said to short the HOD, which I did. But when you can only follow 1 out of 2 components of your trading plan, you are setting yourself up for some serious frustrations. Hopefully this little rant of mine will help someone else facing the same situation. Prognostication - I'm going to give a little prognostication too here... sometime soon (maybe Fri), this same thing will happen - but this time I'll tell myself 'stay in, remember what happened on Thurs?' - and the end result will be a full stop out. Why? B/c the market can and does do that to you. It will teach you how to beat yourself up for 2 similar trades and teach you to either follow your plan or continue to give yourself more frustrations. When that happens, I will have turned a winner into a small winner and a loser into a full loser... Again, hopefully that will help someone not make the same error I did here today.

Thanks Mickey. I'm trying to let my winners run more, so this was a good example. And I needed that win. As for moving stops, I'll say that for me it constantly proves to be the wrong idea. I almost moved my trail on that 6E trade and had I done that, would have cut that profit in half. Personally, I've never found much good to come from moving my stops. I guess the argument there is that the stop is to stop you when you are wrong, not when you feel like 'protecting' your position. That's what I've found at least. Others would say different. Good to consider multiple options though.