Trading Markets Without Indicators?

[nycdweller 10]

Is it possible to day trade the markets without the use of any indicators ? What I'm referring to just a chart with bars or candles and nothing else. Do you know of anyone that can personally trade effectively this way?

[TinGull 10]

candles and volume. That's all one really needs. You can draw your own S/R lines from market generated price action (which is the best anyways).

[walterw 10]

If you are a very smart fellow you can.... I am left brained... lol... :crap:

[torero 10]

I do it everyday along with lots of other people. When you stuff too many things onto the charts, you later realize you lose the most important piece of information: price. One or two is good, but I only use trendlines and sometimes 1 max. Try it and it'll set you free.

[carcanaques 10]

If you're using candlesticks and "reading" them ala Nisson with all those names for every possible configuration, than they are defacto indicators. I use candles simply because they are easier on my eyes than barcharts, but you should be able to understand price action even without looking at volume per bar. Just zero in on the time & sales or the "print" in real time.

 

And remember, it's not about support and resistance, trendlines, or pivots. It's all about supply and demand, period. That's what moves markets. It couldn't any simpler. Why people make it complicated is perplexing. Probably has to do with tweaking and modifying this that and the other thing to find the Grail. My experience with traders is they pay great lip service to acknowledge there is no Grail and then proceed to tweak all knid of systems, methods, and indicators to find it. And that's why forums like this exist.

 

The input on this forum should be 80% on psychology and 20% on setups, not the other way around, imho.

[torero 10]

True but the first step is understanding the market and price action before taking the second step (psychology). This in itself takes a while to figure out. I think this is the majority of people are interested in because most don´t have enough patience (ie money) make it to the second part.

[brownsfan019 17]

In the end, we are all using some sort of 'indicator' - whether that is the tape, candlesticks, trend lines, etc. The real question is HOW MANY indicators do you want/need on your charts?

 

There's no good answer really.

 

Here's a good example of what I am talking about - http://charts.dacharts.com/

 

Click through some of those and you'll see what I mean - some charts with so many indicators you can't even see the current price and some basic ones.

 

I think it's finding what fits for you. It's true that many new to trading rely to heavily on the indicators initially, but you still have to find your groove. For example, I love candlestick formations but I also know (b/c I've proven it to myself) that the lower the timeframe, the less reliable a candlestick formation is in and out itself. So, there needs to be something else, whatever that something else is to help filter those trades. There's no right answer here, but hopefully you get my point.

 

I know many books and sites out there would say indicators are useless but I think you could find something that works for you. In other words, if your goal is to make $100/day in the markets, I would bet you could eventually find an indicator(s) that could do that for you over time. Now whether you can stick with it during a drawdown is a different story.

[RAVIN 10]

Is it possible to day trade the markets without the use of any indicators ? What I'm referring to just a chart with bars or candles and nothing else. Do you know of anyone that can personally trade effectively this way?

 

Check out the following links:

 

1. http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=27069&page=3

 

Sebastian Manby trades only by VSA , no other indicators.

 

2. http://www.futures-day-trader.com , Malcolm also trades the US markerts again by reading volume and price (not VSA method though).

[ryounkin 10]

Just for the sake of opening up the discussion, my answer would be that it is impossible to trade without indicators. Price is an indicator. Volume is another. The time frame that you choose to trade in is probably a third. Choosing to use candle-sticks or bar charts is a fourth. Looking at a chart and deciding the trend is fifth.

 

Buck

[TinGull 10]

I would disagree that price and volume are "indicators". Indicators need to indicate information that is based on something...since price can't exist without volume and volume can't exist without price and neither can exist without time, then I would say those 3 items can't be counted as indicators. Now, one could say volume is an indicator of activity...but volume IS activity.

 

So...I would disagree about price and volume and time being indicators. They are the baselines that indicators derive their information.

[walterw 10]

Correct Tin... Price and volume are data... any mathematical algorithm derived from this data is considerated an indicator... (classic TA concept)...

 

NOW a candlestick formation its an indicator because there is some biased reading and interpretation of the raw data... same with volume, an x interpretation of volume makes him an indicator already...

 

So there is a fine line there between data an indicator actually... my two cents... cheers Walter.

[TinGull 10]

Thanks Walter