mister ed

The best setting is going to depend on what it is you are trying to achieve, such as what size moves you are looking for, what market(s) you are trading - stocks, futures, fx? What instruments are you trading within those markets - tick size vary vastly between YM and ES for example. So, more information is needed, and at the end of the day you will make the decision based on your own observations and research.

Thanks BlowFish, appreciate it, thats good food for thought. Agree with you on the Wyckoff, VSA is just a subset of his whole analysis approach. It is not easy finding Wyckoff info - there are Hank Pruden articles here and there.

That's good stuff ranj - thank-you. Tin, well done on that trade, really well spotted and executed.

BlowFish - if you have time could you elaborate on what you mean by "looking for continuation/change" please? And how VSA is useful for this? Thanks

Note to self - engage brain before pressing "enter":o

BF, it has closed nearly on its lows, which is positive for shorts - is your concern the red dotted support you have drawn in?

Over the weekend eh? Would have to be quite a few pills. I'm still getting used to holding for 5 minutes...

Walter, I have come late to reading your posts - truly impressive work, on so many levels. Is this the first recorded instance of a chimp training people?

Great idea - I have a list of 14 important points that i got for somewhere that I can't remember, it may even be from earlier in this thread!(EDIT: It is from a post by Tasuki, thanks Tasuki!). It is certainly not my original work and I would love to give credit where it is due but I didn't note down where I got it. It is not a bad starting point if you want to expand briefly on each point and use that as your cheatsheet. I think some of the points are more important than others. -- First – what is the background? 1) Tests (successful and unsuccessful) 2) Shakeouts 3) No demand 4) Stopping volume 5) Pushing through supply 6) Upthrust 7) Selling/buying climax 8) Climactic action 9) Support/weakness coming in 10) Trap up/down move 11) No result after strong effort 12) Selling/buying pressure 13) Bottom reversal 14) End of a rising market -- Love the nickname sleepy, might have change mine to Iamsleepy2...

I agree with your points here RAVIN, especially regarding time pressure in real-time trading, and not having the luxury to go into detailed analysis. Which is why threads like this are so important - use this time while the market is closed (or at least RTH is closed) to really learn this stuff, or as much of it as you find valuable. If recognizing the signs can become second-nature then using this process in real time is much easier. Your second point regarding probabilities - spot on.

Thats some great observation in there guys. Will have a play with this concept too and see what I can come with.

Ok - yes the second one was the query - thanks Sparrow.

Hi all, they say the only dumb question is the one you dont ask, so I guess this is not a dumb question (probably meets all other criteria though). What does this little graphic mean that I see next to some threads? TIA

Hello Gavin, try barchart.com, type the symbol in the box near the upper left and it will load the past 5 days OHLCV. Works for US stocks. There is also bigcharts.marketwatch.com, if you go the the "Quotes" page and type in the symbol if will give you CHLV. Works for US stocks and also for other countries (Australia at least).

I reckon thats a pretty good observation.

Tech, yes sorry sidetracked your post and the thread. OK, to this latest chart. It is a bit difficult to get a read on the volume, the scale being thoroughly distorted by that massive volume bar. But by looking at the relative volume, while the volume has plummeted it is still healthy looking. The previous massive volume day I don't think was absorption buying (I think thats the right term) as it really hasn't cleared much supply to the left. The price is showing a lower high and a low close on the day, there is still selling happening, on still healthy volume. I would say then the latest day is showing a lack of demand.

Mods, would it possible to change the name if this thread? It might be more helpful to others searching with similar questions to mine if it was renamed "Multi-monitor display question" or something like that?

Hehehehehe, it helps to look at it as a learning experience... And seriously, for me it is. Already this thread has given me an idea of what is and isn't possible. Getting a dual monitor display seems to be the low-hanging fruit, easy to do. Now its just a matter of going a little further up the tree...

Geez tech, I can't even keep up with this thread, it is moving so fast. OK, so a contribution, this will be more along the lines of execution/trade location comment - from your questions put to Tin I suppose the implication is you would have been buying earlier, would you have bought on the breakout or even before then? (Do questions count as contributions?) When you use Elliot in combination with VSA does the Elliot analysis give you more "confidence" (for want of a better word) to buy this VSA set-up on the break above the high (approx the 82 cent level), or even earlier? The big advantage of an earlier entry, and not just the obvious one that you buy at a cheaper price and therefore make more money, but in the big picture, across numerous trades, doing so consistently is going to skew the risk down (your stop is closer if the set-up doesn't play out) and you skew the return up (you've got a lower entry price, so assuming the exit price would be the same irrespective of your entry price there is a greater profit). So from a risk/reward perspective the earlier/lower the entry the better. Also, from a momentum perspective, an entry before the break, or as it is occurring, gives you the benefit of that burst of momentum working in your favour. If the burst is enough to cause you to raise your stop loss, even better again. I suppose this is also where your question "what sort of trader are you?" comes into play. If you are playing this set-up for a short-term swing in price, say you are looking for 5 to 10 cents profit, or whatever, then entering a cent or two earlier will again make a big difference, and again not just on this trade, but done consistently over numerous trades - better risk/return ratio. On the other hand if you are playing for a longer-term move, say 50 cents on this 80 cent share, or again whatever, then a 1 or 2 cent difference in the entry price may not be judged as important, it being judged better to see a re-test of the breakout before committing to a longer-term hold? Then again (this is where I need a third hand) an earlier entry even with longer-term holds in mind will give you the benefit of that initial momentum burst (if it comes) and the opportunity to raise the stop loss - on the numbers with holding the position for a longer term move the benefits to the risk return equation could be even greater than with short-term holds. This is not VSA, sorry, but is related to the combination of VSA with Elliot and the potential benefits of an earlier/cheaper entry from a risk/reward perspective.

Thanks Jerry - that site looks to be very helpful. Abe, yes I think talking to the manufactures before committing is a good idea, this is getting complicated!

Ohhhh great, so I'm short vol. now - thanks for that Tin......LOL

I'm with ranj, like to see volume too - but I would go with the high odds and short - nice close stop too.

One more thing...just re-reading your post PP, "In other words, just because price moves down towards s1 you should not go long" No, dont go long just because price is moving towards S1, this would definitely be a cause for :doh:

Hmmmmmm, your 1st point (me mocking using these price points) - guilty... I will often use a humourous (hopefully) approach to discussion points. Your 2nd point, using pivots to focus attention on price behaviour, i.e. using them as reference points in assessing current price action - I think Linda BR has an article about doing just this - I fully agree with you. I do wonder though that if just picking a random price point and using this as a refernce point might not very well be just as valid...food for thought. I suppose some elaboration on my initial post might clarify my ideas a little, to me if to no-one else at least! I use reference points generated by price activity - this is why I place more credence on yesterday's high, low and close, and today's open as against derived prices, whether that be through floor pivot calculations or MP calculations, or Fibs or whatever else is derived rather than direct. I also use prices generated through the sessions trading - swing highs or lows for instance, i.e. prices from where the market changed character, swing moving from up to down for example. These to me are more valid "pivot points" (for want of a better term) and useful as future reference points.

OK Abe, might be a question of giving it a try then using the 2 PCI card solution as a fallback, thanks for that. MciChoki, where you say: "Since my mental trading state isn't where I want it I'm still on the grind learning." Yes, I'm there too. I like your sig, and yes WE WILL get there.