MC

I have enough in my Tradestation account should the eCBOT freeze that I can grab 1 ES contract to offset each 1 YM contract. ES will work ok since they are on a different exchange and move in decent harmony to the YM. I know the OP was saying his computer froze. My point was so will the exchanges sometimes and there has to be a disaster plan otherwise you can go a$$ up real quick. If it's your computer call your broker ASAP and get flat. If it's the exchange you MUST have a hedge or risk a blowout. I'm not picking a fight, I respect your knowledge but this thread was a good chance for me to bring up hedging regardless of what froze up. Cause if YOU freeze up when there is an issue it's curtains for ya. :o Ya dig? I'll see you in chat in a lil bit...thanks for the input.

Well if you're in a YM position and the eCBOT freezes your can call your broker all day, they can't do anything either correct? Tradestation will answer the phone very fast, but if the exchange is down how could they flatten me? And if you have limited funds and can't open a few spare offshore accounts there has to be a backup or "oh $hit" plan. To not have any hedging plan when trading leveraged is a blowout waiting to happen. And to hedge on an ETF isn't that bad an idea IF you have enough in your spare account to throw at it to effectively hedge the leveraged position. I don't have enough for a 2nd account at this point so I'll stick to my disaster plan till I can afford to get a backup account (I do intend to do this ASAP).

Nice...reliability is a great asset for a network carrying billion of dollars.

The whole point is drastic issues call for drastic measures though right? So the key is the hedge should offset most if not all of of a move that went against you. Does anyone else have any other ideas or thoughts on how to hedge?

Good point, is that a confirmed move? I know I've heard of the talk about it. Also is Globex redundant at all or does it also freeze from time to time? Thanks

Great, that makes sense. Thanks for the insight.

I get duped from time to time on a small spread on low volume when it's just a breather or test and I think it's no demand. Do yall have any tips for helping me to be more clear on what's just a pullback or "test" as we call it in VSA? I get the concept of no supply and no demand but have trouble being accurate since big volume on a narrow spread usually shows shares handed off to the herd BUT low volume narrow spreads could be just a test OR no professional support. Thanks

I only asked him for the 6 period setup. I'm sure he has the shorter timeframe and will share that also. These guys are great, you're in the right community for great info.

I think some of the core concepts of VSA are easy but you're right it can get way out of hand for a pea brain like mine. I'm tuned in to Brown and your new threads because I think the exit can have less to do about volume and more to do with WRB or other candle based exit strategies. Let's keep these puppies rolling, I'm hungry for knowledge and you guys have plenty of that.

IMO I think you should ALWAYS have some kind of hard stop in, even if it's below your mental stop just as a worst case scenario should your connection or computer crash so your brokers server will have you covered. (Be sure your broker offers serverside orders) And rehearse and plan what you will do should the eCBOT freeze and execute. I've never had to so I dunno how I will handle this when it pops up but I know what I "should" do. This is what will separate the retail and the more professional trader, and who blew out an account or who just had another day in the market. I'm with The Shadow, that was a helluva drawdown and am curious how leveraged and what trade was put on? Sorry for the loss as well.

That's where I get duped from time to time. A small spread on low volume when it's just a breather or pullback and I think it's no demand. Do yall have any tips for helping me to be more clear on what's just a pullback or "test" as we call it in VSA? I get the concept of no supply and no demand but have trouble being accurate since big volume on a narrow spread usually shows shares handed off to the herd BUT narrow spread on low volume could be just a test OR no professional support. Thanks

What I've been taught was to hedge the YM (which is what I trade) with the ES in the event of an ecbot outage. Overall consensus seems to say for every 10 YM points the ES moves roughly 1 point so it's an easy conversion with a 1 to 1 contract ratio. Granted the YM is $5 per point and the ES is $50 per point so it is potentially more per tick being risked if the 1:10 point ratio gets out of wack. BUT anywhoo...what you would do is this... Should you be in a YM position and the ecbot goes down and locks you into a position you would put the opposite order on the ES at your YM stop loss so that if the YM goes against you while trapped the ES trade fades and hedges your losses on the YM.

Thanks a bunch Walter, and Blu-Ray for doing all the great programming he's helped out with. You guys are great.

Nope, that's the risk we all take. Don't forget the added $20 most brokers charge to phone in an order. Who is his broker? Most brokers keep the order serverside and if your connection or platform goes down they still execute assuming a hard stop was in place (IMO serverside with at least a worst case scenario hard stop in place is a great idea). Now if the broker has an outage or worse yet the exchange freezes, well then you MUST be prepared to hedge on another vehicle or a backup broker to offset any move against you. This should be part of any sound trading plan, how to hedge in an outage.

I was sharing Walters enthusiasm and can't wait to see some more of your candle magic. Good stuff.

It's all good indeed. To me VSA can be used standalone like some of these guys if your real good on spotting key levels naked or reading VSA. Otherwise MA, pivots and other additions could help pick where VSA seems to have an even greater chance of working. This is FWIW cause I'm not profitable yet, but that's due to my inexperience and emotion control which I'm working on now. I don't expect to work for 13 months and be some super duper trader. Again thanks to you all and let's keep it civil cause theres no wrong way to make green right?

Awesome, can't wait to install it at home later. Funny to see how they buy in at the bottom with no disguise and then sell stealth mode on the way up.

I'm middle notch but thanks to you guys I'm on my way to climbing to the top notch with you all. Awesome thread, you guys really opened my eyes to what I believe is the best way to make sense out of supply and demand. :beer:

Any chance you could post a pic of a 1 year DJI daily chart with that sweet indicator? I'm away from my comp and would like to see something. Thanks

Incredible, but damnit you're making me a reason to give Tradestation my business still. I guess I may just have to throw them the 10 rounds a month to get the free platform and use a different broker for the rest of my executions.

I'm stuck between OEC since I love their chart trading. OR--- IB with quotetrader software as a free platform. OR--- Infinity AT and Tradestation for charting. I love TS charting and would have to throw them 10 trades per month. I really like the OEC setup but then I'm stuck in the same boat as Tradestation and can only trade futures. I do like with IB that I can have a universal account and trade equities as well as futures with one account. I'm going to be leaving Tradestation this month so I can start the new year fresh so I'll be doing some heavy research.

Congrats Walter, great stuff you've helped others with and shared.

Here's the thing...this appears to be net -30 point slippage on 49 trades which is probably not that bad but I don't like the limit orders they are showing. Why, because I only do OSO bracket orders and the exits are all stop market orders not limit as indicated on the uncounted trades. So I have no way to gauge slippage on any "limit" order which seems all too convenient for Tradestation. Also they have market orders that show no stop price which I can't factor for. The other dilemma is their commissions which are not what they publish as the advertised price. I almost wonder if they have so many reports and numbers floating around so they can dick people over. I can guarantee there is more slippage I can't account for and I've been ripped on the real price of commish. Anyhow ya live and learn, hate to give up their nice charting but I don't trust them anymore. From the chart data error where their trade desk told me to "trade off time and sales" and not to trust charts, to the suspect commish and the slippage issues the charts just aren't worth price of admission.

Yeah no doubt, I almost grabbed a short as the momo started but it wasn't a signal and I opted to try and stay on course of the plan. Then as I saw it didn't bother to come up for air I was like whooops. Then I got a divergence signal and despite saying 2 trades a day I took a 3rd and ended up breaking even on the day on the loss. I'm ok with a scratch though cause I'm getting more comfortable with letting the trade do it's thing and I'll keep working till I nail my discipline. No bias other than in the moment for me either, I know daytrading is the hardest thing to do till you dial it in and then IMO it's probably the safest way to trade. I'm going to try and get in the chat tomorrow, It was nuts at work lately so I've had to skip out. Side note, in regards to my Tradestation "slippage" I looked and got a perfect fill at market today despite the Matrix window showing it bobbled the order so I'm thinking its the DOM style order window having issues. I might have blamed TS for something that is a visual issue but not a real problem fill wise.

This was no TS data error, I came back from gettin my food and nearly crapped. Insane $hit.