BlowFish

Never thought of it that way Nick. There certainly seems to be evidence that some of the shots are fake (e.g. registration marks behind objects) but that of course does not mean that it did not happen.

Nice video James really describes how you trade pretty well.

So really you want to hedge against price changes rather than speculate? Either way your company is likely to end up loosing money or is this some sort of 'test' to see if you are suitable for the job? I'm kind of confused why a company would put this in the hands of someone with no experience.

Whatever works for you! In all seriousness. If I can quote Tim Morge from medialine (though he was talking mainly about pitchforks). "Draw Draw and then Draw Some More" Normal place is between last swing high and swing low the retracement allowing you to guage the retracement of that swing. On your chart you should draw from the high just before 9.45 to the low bar around 12.45. The current high (just in) should fall at a retracement. The one you drew looks valid but price failed at all levels (notice it did react-at them).

.....:dito.....

Just been trialling zenfire, seems top notch, free with the appropriate broker. Contrary to what some say IB is not too bad though it aggregates ticks I think every 200ms. If you use tick charts it probably wont do, constant volume are fine. Actually I quite like tick charts with IB data they have a smoother characteristic. There historical backfill is kind of sluggish but it is quite workable. Free too. In fast markets a lot of the premier feeds (eSig DTN) lag. Well thats my experience. Last time I tried OpenTick it just didn't quite do the job for me, I hear its improving. I may be wrong but I think you will have to pay exchange fees wherever you go (unless you settle for delayed data!)

Hey Brown I had a quick look at OEC site looks quite nice. I understand AMP have a new platform that looks very similar was wondering if that was the case. I have been messing round with Ninja & Zenfire thats pretty impressive though a few things irritate. Isn't there always. Guess OEC is next up.

There are people that have successfully challenged TT (e.g. E-SPeed) . Personally I think how they tried to strong arm the industry was shabby in the extreme. For smaller guys its easier just to roll over I guess. Seems clear to me that it is patent misuse (though as things stand this has not been ruled).

Do they pay interest on balances?

I had a dumb trading moment yesterday. I keep the DOM open and on top down the right hand edge of my laptop. I size other window in the remaining space. Well I'm using firefox engrossed in some fascinating article and I hear "Doyyng - Order Filled". I look at the DOM and my mouse has slipped off the firefox scrol bar and into the DOM - I am now 2 ES points in the red on a new position. <DOH> Have done it on the odd occasion before but not done that much damage before. New rule, minimise DOM when surfing.

Nick, Whilst I too love action flicks I would have to say maybe (IMVHO) those are perhaps not the 'best' of the genre. What about The Matrix, Leon (aka the Professional in the US), Swordfish, Crouching Tiger. As you say the list is endless, all good (if you like that sort of thing).

Darthtrader mentions a Documentary called the trap on the movies thread http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/18/official-movie-talk-thread-2952-2.html I have only watched parts one and two so far (its 3 parts) but Im really enjoying it. Funnily enough it provides credible (to me) answers to that question in great depth. I think you might enjoy it too. Wiki:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trap_(television_documentary_series) 3 film parts http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8349032228301471543&q=The+Trap+-+What+Happened+to+Our+Dreams+of+Freedom&total=43&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4191382246884244677&q=The+Trap+lonely+robot&total=18&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0 http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4486343328817737043&q=The+Trap+-+What+Happened+to+Our+Dreams+of+Freedom&total=44&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=5

Wow old thread having said that an interesting one. To me reading PA and the tape are kind of different things, though related. To me PA is about how price moves. Higher highs/lows, ledges, ranges etc. I think in the past I have posted a whole bunch of references. But a couple of quick (free) ones of the top of my head...check out Joe Ross' law of charts and The first couple of Fibonacci trader journal entries about Gann swing chartist. 'Buffy' did an article for Ensign Software too. Theres a whole bunch of stuff by market 'old timers' (like Dunnigan for example) that are of value and 'grandfathered' this stuff. If you want to learn about the 'tape' (which rolls volume into the mix) then as DB says Whycoff is the guy to start with. To be honest I would start with 'plain' PA as its somewhat more straightforward. Cheers

Interactive Brokers start at $4.80 a RT for most futures. They are certainly not the cheapest but they are a good yardstick.

Tasuki try, http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/private.php?do=newpm&u=8353 Trade2win is at http://www.trade2win.com/ can't link anything more specific as the site seems to be down right now. Cheers.

ATR is simply the range (H-L) adjusted for the last bar close (If the close is outside the range of the current bar (market gaps) you adjust the range to last bars close. 14 ATR will be a moving average of the last 14 ATR's. This can result in rather tight stops so people use a multiple of this, 1.5 to 2.5 is common depending on how tight a stop you want. Lets say the ATR is 10 pips for a 5 min bar. (ATR is in the same units as price because it is a range) Lets also say you determine you want to use 2*ATR to keep you in trades through some small wiggles. Obviously you will need to risk 20 pips (2 * 10) (actually it may be a little more as I believe you would add the stop to the bottom of the current bar). Once you know the absolute number of pips you need to risk (20) you can calculate the position size based on how much of your account you want to put at risk. Google should reveal nearly all you could possibly want to know though Katsz is a good reference to get an idea of what changing the multiplier might do to your results. Cheers.

Indeed it is. I sent a copy of the Maltese Falcon in the days you had an amazon list for people to show appreciation. Wanted to send Bach but they where out of stock.

Ekhardt & Sekoyta are my favourite market wizards, clever guys. Probably time to dust of my copy.

Most charting packages have an ATR function. People tend to use a multiple from memory about 1.5 to 2.5 times the ATR are common. Katsz discusses this at some length in The Encylopedia of Trading Systems, probably available from a Library. Chandelier stops are quite highly thought of I believe. You could use the last SH SL (swing high swing low) to hide your stop behind. Or even simpler just use the last 1 2 or 3 bars low. Or 2 consecutive down bars or or or Anyway hopefully there's a couple of useful ideas in there for further research.

Amen Amen Amen. Its quite easy to find the path but following it can be very hard. Seems to me we erect our own barriers, guess its some misplaced protection mechanism. Can a mentor help ? I think so but they need to be focused on this side of things rather than the 'technicals'. Again firstly you must be accountable to yourself however having someone else hold you to account might be valuable for some. Actually a good trading room can perform a similar function a "peer review" type thing. Actually I could just do with someone to kick my arse when I behave foolishly. You know sometimes I enrol on courses or sign up for study as an excuse not to deal with what needs dealing with. That's a sobering thought.

I'm also reminded of Robert the Bruce and the spider. Try try and try again.

Hi Brown by floor pivot I mean yesterdays (H+L+C)/3. Short answer is no I cant. Funny, it was exactly the same sequence that got me to check for myself. Basically someone said to me 70% of the time blah blah blah... I thought hmm thats intresting and went anyway thinking about how I could prove it for myself. I got a few years H L C data into excel, put the calc into another cell then tested to see if H or L hit the calculated pivot. I guess theres an outside chance the spreadsheet is hidden away somewhere, I'll keep an eye open for it. Cheers, P.S. Sorry that this is still a bit off topic but couldn't resist this chart of todays ES showing price turn of the PP to the tick. Obviously this is partly self fulfilling but its kind of neat when its this clean. PP is horizontal red dashed line.

Yup absolutely agree you can end up with lots of lines depending what you use. Just using highs and lows off an hourly can end up with lots. Picking the right lines can be a bit of an art. It's not hard exactly as with all things it needs experience (work) Looking for 'clusters' is not a bad idea, these form if a price has been tested a lot. The answer to that is an un-qualified YES. Are they good for predicting todays action the answer would of course be NO. My favourite example the good old floor pivot, yesterdays H+L+C/3 is a simple but effective sentiment indicator. Price above bullish price below bearish. Simple.The 50% spot 'works' good too H+L/2. As does the PoC. etc. etc. No predictive value but gives a clear and un ambiguous indication of "where you are". As an aside. In the S&P, 70% of days, price will come within 2 ticks of the floor pivot. Heres the interesting thing the stats are very similar on an hourly chart or a 30 minute chart (using the previous bars 'pivot') this suggests to me there is some inherent usefulness in the number rather than being self fulfilling because everyone is watching. Anyway sorry for drifting off topic but you did ask the question. Personally I think using PA (be it candles bars or maybe VSA) to determine what is happening in areas where things might happen (previous S/R, MP etc.) Is a fantastic way to trade. Cheers.

Good post Zdo, some real important stuff in there.

Interesting that there are 4 downside and only 3 upside levels. I can see some correlations (47.50 is a weekly PP using 'classic H+L+C/3 for example). I wonder if they are coming from some sort of advisory service and been done by someone in a partly discretionary fashion? Certainly wouldn't be the first time.