stevio

hi Tiki and Phloid, you guys are dead-on about the "coolness" factor of Vbox and that it will be the future. I work in a research lab where that's pretty much all we do is fiddle with Virtulized O/S'es. If you like playing with this stuff, there is another thing you can look at called Ringcube. (I think it's just ringcube.com) there should be a free version of ringcube out there called "Mojopac". Anyway, what it does is re-uses the running XP kernel to create a whole additional XP desktop. It's neat... However, I've not tested enough to testify to it's durabilty for a trading environment. And, btw, I am in NO WAY affiliated with vbox or ringcube. - Steve

OK James, I don't know if this is a good enough example. But this is just the kind of example that I used to fall for all the time when I first started incorporating tape reading into my trades. This is chart of the ESZ8 at about 8:30 EST. See how at 8:28:56 there was a splash of large-lot trades hitting the bid? Well, in the past, I would have shorted that with a market order and sat back to dream of the profits soon to come my way. But, after having those not work out several times, obviously I dont' do that anymore. Now, notice on my 30min chart (yes, I read 30mins - I'm weird that way), that price just kinda sat there? infact what you don't see is that later the price just kept going up (to 907 as I write at 8:44) OK, maybe this is not the best example, but like Doug, I do see this phenomena occur often enough to not want to try to tag-along. - Steve

Dougr, I am glad you brought this up because I have been thinking the exact same thing. I watch the T&S on my sierra charting s/w with a data feed from Interactive Brokers. But, let me back up a second here. I have been a member of the lab forum for while now, but have kept my mouth shut because I am wannabe trader. However, having seen you mention this, I realize that this phenomena is not just a mis-interpretation because I am inexperienced. I trade the premarket ES and the EUR between 7-9 Eastern everyday before I start my office job. And I noticed this pattern too. Where you would see big block trades on the ask, and the price would go down (and the other way to when big hits on bid). So, after losing money a few times trying to follow what I believed were the big boys, I just simply started ignoring the big trades. However, that hasn't stopped me from trying to learn to read tape to support my entries/exits. My main style is looking for confluence of MP, Pivot points, Fibs, and Dynamic Trendlines, but I'm trying to use the Tape as a means of supporting my decission to avoid the fake-outs. - Steve

Hi Reaver (and everyone else), :-) (I'm new to the board - read my profile to learn more about me). I'm in your same boat - trying to develope a swing trading method (using Profiles) while working a day job. I use MP to identify Supp/Res levels. Problem I'm having now it learning to (and stop procrastinating) put in logical orders to act on those levels while I'm not around to watch. One idea I had was to use "Order-Cancels-Order" orders that I could enter in the morning and then just check back later in the day to see what happened. Here's my conundrum using some data that relevant to what going on now: the ES mini is looking lofty to me(1455). So, like many traders, I'm expecting a pullback to 1436 area, which is by my calucations a nice longer-term upper VA edge. I want to get long here. However, if it begins to trade lower than 1436, now it has entered the VA range which (according to MOM) would mean it might trade all through the entire range - taking it down into the low 20's. At which point now, I want to be out (or short). Add-in a little usual market chop and you can see my delemna. I feel as though I should be there during the day, watching to pull the trigger in the appropriate direction depending on what I see. I guess this is all part of being a newbie. Oh, and this might be redundant, but I found that after studying Don's course for a while, the Mind Over Markets (MOM) book makes a lot of sense and helps tie all that course work into a useable framework. - Steve