BlowFish

Here are are a couple of charts of the DAX that I have wanted to post for a while. There is a 3 minute and a 10 minute to give a couple of perspectives of the action. One of the two remaining questions I find I ask myself asking frequently is "was that enough volume to stop the move (rather than just pause it)". The charts show the last two legs of a down move. To me they look very similar. You have a down move with high volume and then a test of that area over two bars (point 1) on diminished volume. The only small clue is at point 2. Apart from that one bar before the final drop I would say the first 'bottom' looked weakest to me! I'd really welcome comments as it seems the differences between the two are really subtle. Of course if we could read supply and demand with crystal clarity on every occasion then we would never have losing trades. I believe this is impossible so it is probably safe to say that it is not possible to read supply and demand with crystal clarity on every occasion!! I've left the charts fairly 'bare' in case people wanted to draw on them. Cheers.

I found it a pretty nice book it actually made me want to incorporate (or even replace!) my charts with P&F. At the time that wasn't appropriate but I'm sure I'll revisit it one day. One of the nice things was that it discusses shorter time frame charts. One of the nice things about P&F is that I think you can probably come up with more disciplined (even mechanical) ways to trade fairly simply. Cheers,

Certainly didn't mean to suggest it was though there is a subtlety there. It is definately to do with mime types though I am not exactlys sure what why or how. It seems as some images are being stored as mime type unknown/unknown those where the ones giving me issues. Getting rid of the file described here fixes it http://kb.mozillazine.org/MimeTypes.rdf this re-set that particular mime type to 'prompt' fro action. I actually used a more complete document that described re-setting a couple of internal paramaters but I cant find it just now. I also installed a Firefox add on called mime edit though I dont think this is strictly neccassary. You can however achieve the same effect with this without deleting the associates file. Cheers.

I have a couple of books on PF http://www.amazon.com/Definitive-Guide-Point-Figure/dp/1897597630 Is arguably the best. It is also probably the most up to date. There is a 'classic' but its name escapes me and I am not by the library right now but I though the one linked covered everything the other did and then went a wee bit further.

OK kinda fixed it. Suspecting it was to do with mime types I downloaded a FF plugin called Mime edit. I set unknown/unknown to always ask and its fine! I suspect you can do it with FF's hidden config stuff but as I cant even remember to get in there I didn't explore that. I wonder if it was another plugin that messed things up. My hunch is 'flash got'.

Thing is its not all .PNG's which is why I wondered if its an incorrectly set MIME type or something? Drives me potty :mad: or I wouldn't bother mentioning it.

Hi I am tearing my hair out as some images like the one attached to this thread http://www.traderslaboratory.com/forums/34/vsa-volume-spread-analysis-1369-30.html#post15283 just refuse to 'open' for me...a dialogue box always pops up asking where I wanna save the image. Other sites (and sometimes .PNG images here) offer the choice of what I want to do. I do not have an entry for .PNG in tools>options>content>manage file types in Firefox so should be prompted each time. Cheers. I wonder if it might be something to do with the board incorrectly tagging the Mime type but am no expert in that area.

The problem comes (I suspect) even if you 'truly madly deeply' believe this at ever concious level - and - even if work diligently to ingrain it into your subconscious. Many of us still have this basic 'protection' mechanism that things it is helping us. Very interesting concept that money is the last great taboo, it is no wonder that if trading has stripped large portions of money away from us that the subconscious believes it is helping by protecting us from the market. Of course it usually gets us in late or out early in its effort to reduce our exposure. As yet I have not found a truly effective way to re-train those subconcious 'protection' mechanisms.

Its a long time since I had Neoticker but one of there selling points is if you have a fast machine and good bandwidth you can build your own indexes in realtime (I never did that!) In theory thre is no reason why you could not do that for the delta of an index. Neoticker is a prety fine product if you are doing 'heavy duty' indicators, coding and/or system based stuff. To be honest my style is pretty discretionary (how is price behaving around S/R) I still keep looking for excuses to buy a copy of NT though (I only leased before). Cheers.

I would concur with volume though I am not sure about the range. It just kind of feels a bit thin and skittish. The DAX is similar so I presumed summer had officially started. Cheers.

I recommend speed to keep you alert and focused with a good hallucinogenic to aid the creative process a couple of tranquillisers will probably stop it being to stressful. All these pills are likely to leave you with a dry mouth, Vodka is a fairly neutral beverage to wash it all down. You may need heavy duty sleeping pills at the end of the day. If you fancy a recreational spliff at the same time, sure why not :rolleyes::rolleyes:

I'd be interested to hear what people are planing switching too? I guess YM NQ or ES are the obvious candidates? Cheers,

Jerry, A couple of questions if I may. What if the gap between VWAP and PvP is 'large'. By large I mean placing the stop at the PVP would be too far away. I also wonder what newbie would do if the PvP jumps mid trade :o (I believe I am right in thinking you use today's developing PvP rather than yesterdays static one?) Very much enjoying your posts, simple but elegant. Chomping at the bit for newbies next steps. Cheers.

Dog, Err I am not sure how to say this without appearing argumentative but I think you are just plain wrong. The modal volume point often as not is the same as the modal TPO point. Providing you sample the data in the same way of course (both in price and time). Actually the volume profile will generally be more accurate as commonly it is sampled every tick rather than every half hour. Market Profile is simply a way to 'map' market structure. The stuff it is maping (supply and demand balances and imbalances etc.etc.) is best represented by volume as this actually is where traders met and agreed value. Order flow (volume) is the underlying stuff you are mapping. When Steidlmayer 'invented' Market Profile he ingeniously came up with using time as a proxy and it works remarkably well. Even PS acknowledges that it is "volume that extends time" and "It (volume) is therefore the closet measurement possible to the start of non-randomness." I guess I should I should read the second PS book. Most of the work he was doing between the books was more about detecting order flow and was an interesting departure from MP. Cheers.

A small price to pay

Ahh Ok I thought I had woken up in some strange groundhog day scenario. It would be great to know what the market was going to do! Actually I wondered if it was just my cookies but figured probably James had to do a restore from an earlier backup. Cheers.

Is it my imagination or are a bunch of messages missing from the last couple of days? This is the strangest thing. Cheers.

Hi Cooter, Perhaps the offending post was sniped or perhaps it was in another thread and I was imagining it all...stranger things have happened. In any case the Docs reply is a view of why 'the inner game of trading' is important (probably in response to thebramble) rather than about fear, ego and validation. I would really be very grateful of her views on those issues. Personally I think the fear of failure is a key issue often mis-identified (as fear of loss for example). This is especially true amongst people who have already been 'succesful' at some other profession. For them money is less (not) an issue but some sort of 'professional validation' is. Cheers.

Is there a way to mark all thread/new posts read. If I have been away I like to catch up my favourite threads and mark the ones I am less concerned about as read? Cheers.

Doc, I wrote this post just after you had joined here. Seemed like a couple of people hijacked the thread to ask about your status here. The original post got somewhat forgotten. James' recent post over in trading psychology reminded me of this thread. I wondered if you had a moment if you might comment on my malaise I would be very greatful as it has been hampering my trading for what seems like an eternity. Cheers.

James I really empathise with what you (could almost be talking about me). You know what? I came to completely the opposite conclusion. I was (actually and still am) scared of failure. I don't want to let all those friends and family down, I don't want to let myself down I don't want to waste all that 'talent' all that potential. Must be hard to live up to all those expectations right? Perhaps the reason you 'get close to a goal then step back' is because it is more comfortable say to yourself "I haven't tackled that yet", easier than "I tried and failed" (letting all those people down in the process). I think you might enjoy the Carol Dwek Mindset book (Soul reviews it elsewhere). It deals with this sort of stuff from a certain point of view but tackles it head on. Its good. I think you would find it very interesting and relevant regardless whether its failure or success that is bothering you. Cheers.

This is a great idea but I cant help feeling that there is a whole lot more to accountability than just taking (and reporting trades). General journal forums can 'drift' a bit but the value comes in the comments by others. 'Peer pressure' if you like. I can't help feeling that reading a dozen traders entries and exits is going to make kind of dry reading! Not sure what the answer is but I'll try and support the venture.

Hi Dog, I'm struggling to understand what you mean here what you say seems to support the abrupt PoC point of view. As you say the PoC requires time to build (as it is defined as the 'most common' or modal point) When a new area of value has been build (by price staying there for long enough for more TPO's to build than at the old PoC) the PoC then moves abruptly (i.e. jumps) from the old PoC price to the new PoC price. In most instruments price moves up and down tick by tick this is relatively 'smooth'. It is seldom (never for all intents and purposes) that price jumps from the old place of value to the new one. Of course as price moves from one area of value to another it tends to do that fast and volatile but it does at least move through the intermediate price levels. The PoC does not. Once new value has been built it jumps (moves abruptly) to the new level. Actually Jerry's point was to do with VWAP rather than price. The same argument holds. As more and more volume is done in the new area of value the average is slowly drawn to that level. It is the difference between a modal function and average function. The latter can never be as abrupt. Looking forward to the next video if a picture is worth a thousand words a video must be worth at least ten times that Cheers.

I suffer from the same thing. For me the pattern is this I trade badly (closing good trades early - very early). I pull away from trading (cut back on hours, taking more and more time off - I often miss trades when I am there) The plan is to get my head together. The final step is finding it hard to return to trading thinking there is a good chance I am going to make the same errors (sadly I have made them for quite a long time). Actually my whole 'undertrading' issue is knowing that I have not dealt with the psych issues that cause me to mis manage trades. The advice given here is great to get you back in sync with the market. However if there is a more fundamental problem (which is very likely imho) then you may be better off not trading until you identify it and deal with it. If there was not (a problem) I cant help feeling that you would not be able to wait for Monday morning to come round. A final thought. The success = effort = number of hours worked way of thinking can be detremental to your trading. (actually it almost certainly will as you become more succesful). Depending on the time frame you focus on and your aproach you can be done in a very short time each hour/day/week/month . I know a couple of break out traders that have there days trades planed and orders in within 10 minutes of opening a chart. Its off to the golf course or beach for the rest of the day then. Trading is not an endeavour where the reward is proportional to hours worked (except when learning I guess). I know that is not your problem but there are a couple of replies here that hint it might be, that can result in all sorts of guilt trips and self sabotaging behaviour. Cheers.