biegea

I agree with others who questioned the wisdom of sitting out the last hour. Oftentimes, some of the best trades of the day occur in this time -- especially between 3-3:30/3:40 or so. I do agree to be extra, EXTRA careful in the final HALF hour, however. I don't believe in many absolutes about what is ok or not ok with regard to trade ideas as various contexts make almost any trade idea viable in the right conditions, but one of the few hard rules I do believe in is to NEVER fade price in the final 30 mins. It absolutely will cause you to miss some winners, but overall it is a highly low-probability trade for all but the very quickest and most skilled traders IMO.

Thanks for the quick reply, mystic. I wonder if you could address the first part of my question in a little more detail. I had said: "Perhaps you could share some of the things with the TL community that were most valuable from the time you spent with your mentor?" No doubt you're right - we live in an age where the need for instant gratification reigns supreme. Still, I am confident that many traders reading this thread have put in plenty of time and still intend to put in as much more as it takes to find success. I'm sure that you could offer everyone some good food for thought as everyone continues forward and thinks through their own personal search for the right form of mentorship or coaching... or about what someone who has been through that process feels were some of the most valuable realizations or experiences that came from it. Thanks, biegea

Hi Mystic, Thanks for sharing your experiences. Perhaps you could share some of the things with the TL community that were most valuable from the time you spent with your mentor? I am also curious to hear your thoughts on whether you feel the same kind of value could have been achieved in a class like the one you described the mentor as offering. I would tend to think that there is no substitute for the somewhat-extended one-on-one experience and I find it hard not to be very skeptical of any kind of group offering that involves a one-time experience with little-to-no follow-up individual time. Cheers, biegea

Thanks for the reply, Sanchez. First, I am an ES trader, and second, I hear you - and I am not talking about managing on the 1-min for the lifetime of the trade. I am, however, talking about using it and any other micro-timeframe tools to help me decide if it's "working" following an initial push in my direction or away from my direction. If the move is in my favor, I want to know if the following pullback looks "healthy" or like something with greater odds to fail, thereby turning the trade into a more likely loser. If the move is against me, I want to know if the move implies true failure of the trade or if it's just a stop-run at the level. Basically, I want to read the micro-PA after a solid entry to gauge on an ongoing basis if the odds of success of the trade are getting better or worse than they appeared at time of entry. If they're getting worse, I want to be out for a small winner/loser rather that waiting for the full stop. I'm looking to improve my skills in this area in the two specific scenarios I described before. Any additional thoughts are welcome and appreciated! biegea

Hey sanchez, SRspider, My approach to markets seems to be very similar to both of yours. I am particularly interested in refining my reading of what is happening on the micro-timeframes at key longer-term S/R. I am comfortable with various entry techniques, mostly focusing on 1-min price and volume, but my approach from there involves watching ongoing micro-PA closely to determine whether an exit for small gain/loss/BE is appropriate if price isn't behaving right or if it's worth sticking through. Two common scenarios I am looking to improve my micro-read on are as follows: 1. good 1-min sig against key S/R area fails and we get what looks like S/R failure. Question is what rules, guidelines, or principles can we look for if this apparent failure goes a point or two (or more against longer-term levels) to gauge whether it's just stops and essentially the end of the move before the previously-expected reversal ensues, or whther the break will stick and we continue down to the next level 2. good 1-min buy signal against key S works and we bounce say a few points. Now price pauses a bit and begins to pullback. The 1-min pullback amplifies and on its own it looks quite bearish, even though in bigger context it's just noise and no new lows are made yet, but volume is increasing, etc. Many would say there is no edge here, you set your stop and roll the dice. I believe we can read micro-PA to gain edge in reducing stop to minimize the trades that don't play out as desired while staying in the ones where things continue to look good. These two specific scenarios is where I am now looking to find insights on what makes the micro-PA "look good" vs. not. Thanks in advance for any thoughts you can share. Regards, biegea

eiger, thanks so much for the thorough analysis. Great points, I clearly overlooked a number of much bigger-picture items here. Cheers, biegea

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could give me an interpretation on RSX. Until Tues, 7/1, this chart sill looked like it was merely undergoing a reasonable pullback. On Tuesday, we gapped down, albeit on low volume. This told me that while we have clearly broken support, we have not done so on heavy volume, and this could mean that the selling was approaching a possible end. Today (Wed, 7/2) is where it got particularly interesting. The daily chart looks dreadfully bearish with a wrb red candle closing on lows on heavy volume. Most smaller time periods support this view. However, if you go to the 5-min, you can see that heavy trading all happened at one time, and it was on a WRB up, going into HOD. The ensuing decline was on nothing compared to the buying on that one 5-min bar. How is one to interpret this -- when the larger timeframes all look ugly but the volume on the smaller timeframe shows that the heavy volume was not in the direction of what the larger timeframes seem to imply? Thanks in advance for your thoughts. biegea

True - it paints in the past, but TTM acknowledges this, and John Carter still considers it valuable -- it typically paints 2-3 bars after the fact but recognizes what some would argue is a conditional change in the state of the market. Thanks to all who have commented on this thread. It appears a more recent submission may be exactly the same as JC's. I have not validated it yet but at least one other forum meber has and says it's great. Good luck to all, biegea

Please disregard previous question, I just read your previous post with the paint bar studies where you say you have validated it matches JC's charts. I look forward to giving this indicator a try. Thanks for sharing! biegea

Traderlu, Thank you for sharing this. I was wondering if you have closely confirmed the markings with various charts actually presented by John Carter, using his actual signal. I found that when I tried to reproduce this indicator, I got quite close, but still missed a few as well as still painting a few erroneous bars. Interested in knowing how closely you have validated your indicator's results with his. Thank you! biegea

Took me a little while to figure this out too, even though the comments in the indicator's code actually tries to help us! Go to Format Symbol > Settings tab. If you've set the Interval as type "Tick," you'll have a drop-down labeled "For volume, use:" -- set it to tick count. Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to accurately count ticks as well as track volume in the same chart. Irritating, but so it goes, I guess.... biegea

Yessir (or yes ma'am). Paintbar study. Looking forward to any feedback or assistance anyone can provide. It would be exciting to get it 100% matched with TTM's.

Torero, it works on any timeframe. My approximate percentages were based on charts I compared it to in various TTM videos. Dovetree, here's the code: inputs: BarWidth(3); variables: UpTrend(false), LowPainted(false), HighPainted(false), ExtremeBar(0), TriggerBarLow(0), ExtremeBarHigh(0), TriggerBarHigh(0), ExtremeBarLow(0), counter(-1); // Compare the 9-period MA to the previous bar's value as the basis for determining // if we are in an uptrend or a downtrend at this moment. // // We will NOT check for the presence of a trend if we are // "waiting for a confirmation of a trigger (i.e. Extreme Bar <> 0)" ?? //Downtrend -- Look to paint a low bar if (AverageFC(Close[3],9) < AverageFC(Close[4],9) and ExtremeBar=0) or ((AverageFC(Close[3],9) = AverageFC(Close[4],9) and ExtremeBar=0) and (UpTrend=False)) then begin UpTrend=False; HighPainted=false; if low[3] > low then LowPainted=false; end; //Uptrend -- Look to paint a high bar if AverageFC(Close[3],9) > AverageFC(Close[4],9) and ExtremeBar=0 or ((AverageFC(Close[3],9) = AverageFC(Close[4],9) and ExtremeBar=0) and (UpTrend=True)) then begin UpTrend=True; LowPainted=false; if high[3] < high then HighPainted=false; end; //Check for triggers and paint the extreme bar on confirmation //Uptrend if UpTrend = True and HighPainted=false then begin if high[2] < high[3] and ExtremeBar=0 then begin ExtremeBar = 3; ExtremeBarHigh = high[3]; TriggerBarLow = low[2]; end; if high[1] > ExtremeBarHigh then begin ExtremeBar = 0; ExtremeBarHigh = 0; TriggerBarLow = 0; counter=-1; end; if ExtremeBar <> 0 then counter=counter+1; // Paint an "Extreme Bar" if it exists based on the two if blocks above // OR if the earlier close was above the 8-EMA and the later close was // below the 8-EMA) if (close[1] < TriggerBarLow and ExtremeBar <> 0) // or ((Close[3] > XAverage(Close[3],8)) and (Close[1] < XAverage(Close[1],8))) then begin ExtremeBar = ExtremeBar + counter; PlotPaintBar[ExtremeBar](High[ExtremeBar],Low[ExtremeBar],"ScalperSig",white); SetPlotWidth[ExtremeBar](1,BarWidth); SetPlotColor[ExtremeBar](1,white); alert("Scalper Sell Detected!"); HighPainted = true; counter=-1; ExtremeBar=0; end; end; //Downtrend if UpTrend = False and LowPainted=false then begin if low[2] > low[3] and ExtremeBar=0 then begin ExtremeBar = 3; ExtremeBarLow = low[3]; TriggerBarHigh = high[2]; if ExtremeBarLow > low[4] then ExtremeBar = 4; end; if low[1] < ExtremeBarLow then begin ExtremeBar = 0; ExtremeBarLow = 0; TriggerBarHigh = 0; counter=-1; end; if ExtremeBar <> 0 then counter=counter+1; if close[1] > TriggerBarHigh and ExtremeBar <> 0 then begin ExtremeBar = ExtremeBar + counter; PlotPaintBar[ExtremeBar](Low[ExtremeBar],High[ExtremeBar],"ScalperSig",white); SetPlotWidth[ExtremeBar](1,BarWidth); SetPlotColor[ExtremeBar](1,white); alert("Scalper Buy Detected!"); LowPainted = true; counter=-1; ExtremeBar=0; end; end;

cheers, torero!

Hi everyone, I'm new to this forum but I thought I'd try to make a small contribution while I can. What I'm including here (if my upload goes as planned) is my current best effort at the TTM Scalper Buy/Sell -- the indicator that paints a white bar on the recent high or low, 3 bars after it happens. In my analysis, 95%+ of the bars that get painted appear to be valid and accurate bars. Once in awhile, it's not the lowest or highest bar that is painted, but rather the one next to it -- I haven't been able to figure out why, but it's still close enough to be useful. Additionally, about 85%+ of the bars which should be painted are. That means that as best I can tell, TTM's indicator will paint 10 white bar lows or highs for every 8.5 or so that my indicator paints. If anyone can figure out how to tune this indicator to match TTM's exactly, please feel free. I'll also re-post if I ever figure it out. Best Regards, biegea TTMSCALPERALERT.ELD