steve46

Hello Sorry but I did not see your post until just a short while ago. I was able to contact OEC by phone just now...You should be able to verify your position and close any open orders.... I suggest you verify your order status ASAP Good luck Steve

OK so now (almost an hour later) I have established connection to the brokerage software I am able to connect to the website however when trying to connect via phone to customer service all I get is a busy signal. I think that about covers it.. Naturally I won't be trading through this broker again

Yes, For the last half hour, I have been unable to maintain connection with the brokerage. Fortunately I have no positions on, however this is the last in a series of problems (for me). My experience is simply that these folks are not motivated to maintain the business....my reports of difficulties get kicked to the next person who makes some lame excuse (we cannot find a problem in our logs and we have no report of problems like yours).... I think I have given OEC plenty of opportunity to get their act together. This has been happening over a period of about 6 months.....so I will remove the account now. Too bad Good luck everyone Steve

Actually "Bro"....I have been as specific as I can be....simply put it is impossible to teach on a website because the "tape" rolls by so fast (the result of automated execution). Telling someone what to look for means very little....in my class (which is closed to new students) I show them while it is happening... and even then we have to replay and go on to the next situation quite a bit before they get the idea...like most things that are worth doing, it takes effort and a lot of time to get right.. My suggestion is find a good skilled professional and instead of acting like an ass, ask if you can watch while they trade. by the way, I am doing this as a one time thing and I am not going to do it again....I have 4 students and my class is closed...my class was never intended as a commercial venture, but as a favor to my teacher.....Sorry I can't be of more help. Good luck to you Steve

Reading the tape = Time & Sales Strip....$VOLD/$ADD (Esignal or equivalent) and NYSE TICK. I monitor all three data points.

Josh You have hit the nail on the head I wrote about supply/demand zones in my thread "An Institutional look at S&P Futures". I do it differently than Mr. Seiden..but I am guessing that the concept is similar...what I know to be true is that drawing the nodes (my term for "zones") isn't a magic "set it and forget it" deal.... In fact all those nodes do is project previous areas where trending has occurred or where there was (past tense) a transition from balance to imbalance in the order flow. What is left out of the equation is the need for participants to come in and make it happen once you initiate the trade. That is why I need not only confluence, but a specific type of confluence ("time based pivots") that is provided by bigger fish (institutions and funds), and EVEN THEN you still have to deal with the influence of automated execution that can come in at any time and change the picture.... Ultimately even with these nodes (if you use my method) or "zones" or whatever else you call it, you still have to have a way to confirm that you are on the right side (if you want to make consistent money) and in my opinion the only way to do it, is to learn to read the tape. As I have mentioned once you get that skill down it is (relatively speaking) a walk in the park...because you can see when the institutions come in to buy or sell, and you can see the influence of automated execution as it enters the market (it shows up on the tape in a number of ways). Steve

Tams Thats the nicest thing anyone has said to me....So that you know, I do have a course...and I have 4 students....they are going to study with me for about 18 months and at that time, I am asking them to stop....and prove to themselves that they can do this on their own...I have told them that when the class ends I won't be doing it again...I leave it to your judgement whether that is a scam.... Thanks again for the kind comments. Steve

This is one point where we can agree.....to bad you did not do some homework before you spoke about me previously... The threads I have authored here include "An institutional look at the S&P Futures" and "Ideas for Struggling Traders"...also "Trading Adverse Events".....in those threads I have quite a lot of "intellectual property including the concept of "time based pivots" which have not been published before....If you look at the page views, you cannot help but conclude that members are making good use of the material. Finally within the threads themselves, members have posted their "thank yous" periodically.. It will be interesting to see if you possess the character to apologize. Steve

Once again for those capable of abstract thought....if you are trying to read the tape, and you are using the DOM, you are using the wrong tool for this purpose...the first "quote" talks about "thick offers".....referring to the DOM....apparently the poster doesn't understand the difference....bids and offers on the DOM can be faked, can be pulled, and they can be disguised in a number of ways.....in contrast, data appearing on the time & sales strip represents ACTUAL transactions...thus those of us who actually trade use it instead of the DOM..... I think we are done here.... As an aside, I take some pleasure in thinking that this person is continuing (in the presence of evidence to the contrary) to trade using a DOM to read the market...by all means continue as you were......

Ok So you have to take few moments to tune this to the local volatility. For me that means manually backtesting using both 15 min and 2 min charts with candles (no bars please) Also the standard setting is fine to begin with, but you should do some research on the technical basis of Bollinger Bands, and what I mean by that is....the statistical properties that you want to exploit should be understood before you try this strategy...I go over these elements in my class....however there's no reason you can't do this homework for yourself.. For the current vol (average about 33 over the last few days on the S&P Futures) I have been using 2 min with BB set to 3SD most of the time..... and finally, I read the tape....I have said this often and it bears repeating....I never pull the trigger without reading the tape..once you learn how to do it....it becomes pretty easy to confirm your entry.... Hope this puts you on the right course... Good luck Steve

Dr. Steenbarger is a very nice guy...but human as are the rest of us, and his opinion doesn't jive with my experience. What I see in my classes is that students seem to "get" the basic concepts quickly, but lack the confidence to pull the trigger....because they don't believe what they see on the screen...when this happens, what they experience is disappointment as the market pulls away without them... As we do this on a daily basis, the student gets to see that once they have a decent understanding of what really moves markets, the only thing that stands in their way is their own mental attitude...as they see me take those entries, they eventually come to understand that it is mostly about confidence, focus and discipline... Clearly mental attitude is an important, and perhaps critical part of trading success. Good luck everyone Steve

We also "nailed" the high, based a simple use of the Bollinger Bands As you can see price comes to a point of exhaustion...this is characterized by a close outside the band...with the next open inside... At this point to confirm our entry, we read the tape...and from there its a walk in the park.... Today the market was propped up by commercial activity but the broad market didn't participate much, as a result when the commercials stepped back the market dropped... If you had some experience to call on, it was a relatively normal Friday. Good luck everyone Steve

I for one, would like to read something better....at least something more accurate than what you have posted. I read the tape every day in front of my students...in fact reading the tape is the way we confirm that our trade selection is valid....We have no problem finding favorable entries as long as we stay within our rules.. Reading your comment, the first thing that strikes me is that you don't know what "read the tape" is.....it is certainly not reading a DOM display...and second, you do not seem to have information to share but are simply offering a tease in the effort to get someone here to supply you with information....how about providing something of (current) value instead of outdated commentary.. Thanks Steve

So I posted this earlier in the thread and thought today particularly it would be a good idea to look at what happened when I put that technique into use (see the attached chart) If you were watching the S&P futures you saw it come down, hesitate, then resume its move down....and I am guessing that some of you either tried to take a long trade, or wanted to but did not know where to get in with a reasonable risk... Look at the chart. As you can see price closes outside the BB several times however it doesn't open INSIDE on the next candle (my setup)....when it does, you are near to a bottom and at that point it is a matter of deciding what kind of stoploss you can afford and whether you think the retrace will justify the risk.... In this case the entry could have been anywhere in the range from 1135.50 down to 1134.25 It sure beats getting chopped to death on the way down... Steve

If you have something to say about the subject of the thread please go ahead otherwise, move on to a website where children are allowed to post...

Ladies/Gentlemen Statements to the effect that "real" professionals make mistakes "all the time" are simply fantasy......Think for a moment...in what business that you know of, would a person keep his job if he/she made mistakes all the time...? NONE.... I have been visiting this website now for a while and one thing that stands out is the enduring self deception that goes on....look everyone makes mistakes...professionals less so that others, and that is why we are still here, when the amateurs have blown their accounts and are commenting loudly on websites about "how it really is"... Another issue that bears comment is the core issue that no one seems to get....WHY so many fail.....in my opinion the problem is that professionals, people that aspire to do this for a living, learn that the most important aspect of trading is learning to manage risk, and that means not only learning how and where to place a stop, but how to evaluate each trades risk potential, how to decide WHERE to place stops, what size stop to use, how to decide on position sizing, whether to scale in and out of position, etc. These are just some of the elements of trading that I seldom see people posting about, probably because they don't have a clue as to how to approach the subject..... Another issue that newbies never seem to deal with is volatility...and how to handle the dynamics of volatility in particular.....Just one example...you see folks talk about indicators and provide examples of how they are used, but NEVER does someone talk about how to use an indicator to manage swings in volatility (again probably because they simply don't know how its done) To manage high volatility one might want to use Bollinger Bands tuned to a specific size and using a specific ema.....your choices (and the effectiveness of the technique) would depend your ability to diagnose and respond to variations in vol and the way you would do that is to learn to read the VIX.....ask yourself "when I see a chart of the VIX, how do I interprete it...what is a high or low reading and what can I do with that information"? These are just some of the important issues that separate the pros from the retail crowd and when you read about it, I think you can start to see that it is not simply a matter of trying to find good setups to trade.... I hope that some of you take this to heart and try to find good quality education before you put your accounts at risk... Best of luck to you Steve

My comment was about OEC....you and MM decided to detour to other topics of interest (to you)...I am glad to go back to the original subject if you like... For example, I have approached OEC asking about discounts for volume traded. I know OEC is willing to negotiate pricing based on volume...I hope this helps a previous poster with his/her question Thanks

I think the post was infantile....Further if you "don't want to turn this into a vendor bashing thread, simply stay on the topic....if you do, so will I... Thanks Steve

No need to explain. And I will make a similar comment to the public at large. Those of us who have had to deal with difficult children will be able to put your comments in perspective.

In response to Negotiator's comment I always defer to the tape...that is to say, I am always reading the tape to confirm not only my entry but whether to stay in the trade and where to exit.... Also in past I have put a DAX chart in place to guide my trade selection. Until recently the DAX has lead the ES....now unfortunately with mounting concerns about sovereign debt it seems that the DAX no leads and that means that I have to look less to that index and more to the ES alone to make my decisions.

Yes sir you are correct, I want to position my stop just outside the node boundary. The way I position them I generally do not see price come back to take them out if I am on the right side of a trade.

Hello Jerry Saw your post...As far as the military vet part, thats nice, I am former Navy (diver), and except for reunions, I haven't noticed that it matters one way or the other as regards trading. The setups you describe seem reasonable and if you have the discipline to wait for them, I would keep trading them...to continue the theme I suggest you also look for continuation trades based on both upside and downside earnings surprises....research indicates that both types of setups display what you would call persistence...and that persistent behavior seems to "continue" for about 6 months from the origin of the "surprise" announcement. The setup on both sides is common sense. For the upside surprise you wait for the announcement and then buy the first dip down to an area of previous demand...and for the downside you sell the first retracement up to an area of previous supply. Before you decide on a candidate issue to trade, you might want to research back and see how it acted the last time it surprised on either side. That previous action can help you to time your entry and exit.... Good luck Steve

If you take a moment to think about it.....the confirmation box offers several advantages to students (those are folks learning to trade) Because it takes additional time to use, students using the confirmation box have to anticipate and prepare in advance for a trade. We find that using the confirmation box keeps them from acting preciptiously. Also when they setup their entry and they see the entry order sitting there ready to be activated, they have a chance to review the data and make sure the setup is right... Finally I have noticed that students tend to want to take profit prematurely...by taking the time to setup their order to get flat they give themselves a few moments to consider whether it is really time to get out....often the act of taking a moment to reconsider makes all the difference...most of the time they make more money waiting..... We continue to use the confirmation box as long as if helps students advance their skills. Thanks for your comment.

Yep, sorry about the typo 1183.75 The attached chart makes it easier to see what the mechanism is....basically you want to let the market show you a reversal of momentum, and from my point of view the best display of a change of momentum is seen when price tests a BB extreme, closing at or outside the BB then reverses direction moving back inside the band. In terms of my approach, I want to see this happen at the top of an overhead supply node (blue horizontal block). Preferred entry is just below the red arrow...