Reading Charts in Real Time

[thalestrader 14]

Target Hit. Entry was 06.75, target filled at 1110.00!

 

Nice, Forrest! Great work!

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Gabe2004 10]

Hi Folks,

 

Well, I was right in that the short side looked better. In fact, it was the long side that triggered and immediately reversed to take out a -40 but the short triggered and hit the +100 PT1. Took the second 50% off just now at 1.6377 as price has triggered a long ("dance with the one that brung ya', and go home with her to," as my old Texas trading buddy always told me).

 

Final result for a night of sleep = -40 (100%) + 100(50%) + 91(50%) = -40 + (191/2) = -40 + 95.5 = +55.5 ticks.

 

The potential long was enough to take me out, but I did not outright reverse. There will be other opportunities later today.

 

I'll be back closer to the NY open.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

It looke like you have put on a BRACKET trade.

when you do somethinig like that, do you put the entry of the short below the STp of the long and the entry of the long above the STP of the short by a few pips or it is a STOP and REVERSE where size of the orders cancel the previous trade which means you have to decide wht will trigger first.

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

[Cory2679 11]

BTW, with FXCM, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Right now, the tightest spread (EU) is 2.5 ticks!! I don't think I've even seen a spread of less than 2 ticks since I've opened it. Maybe it's just because of news today...

 

I know this is rather random, but since I made this discovery I figured I'd might as well correct myself on here...

 

The spreads I was referring to were with an FXCM standard (demo) account. The FXCM micro spreads are much better...I didn't realize there was a difference but there is.

 

-Cory

[Marko23 10]

FDAX Long triggered, maybe with a smaller degree

 

Resistance hit, was smaller degree.

 

Long closed for "free trade".

Edited December 7, 2009 by Marko23
Chart update

[Marko23 10]

Long closed for "free trade".

 

This was neccessary because an anticipated HL had not been seen at that time.

[thalestrader 14]

It looke like you have put on a BRACKET trade.

when you do somethinig like that, do you put the entry of the short below the STp of the long and the entry of the long above the STP of the short by a few pips or it is a STOP and REVERSE where size of the orders cancel the previous trade which means you have to decide wht will trigger first.

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

 

Two separate trades, Gabe, but each is the mirror image of the other Long entry = short stop, and vice versa.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Hi Folks,

 

I did not trade this as I was away form my desk as it presented itself, but the ending diagonal on the GBPUSD did indeed auger an interuption of the immediate downtrend, and it was followed by a nice long that has hit PT1 and PT2 at 1.6450 is still outstanding.

 

This is what I meant in the prior post when I said that I do not use the ending diagonal patern alone as a reason to trade. I will use it to take profits, and it puts me on notice that I shouldn't walk away from my desk for an extended period or time as an opporunity for profit may be ready to launch.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Gabe2004 10]

Two separate trades, Gabe, but each is the mirror image of the other Long entry = short stop, and vice versa.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

So there is no slight offset between the long a dn the short-stop or the short and the long-stop.

I cannot do that in Oanda because one will cancell the other.

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

[Gabe2004 10]

So there is no slight offset between the long a dn the short-stop or the short and the long-stop.

I cannot do that in Oanda because one will cancell the other.

 

Thanks

 

Gabe

 

My spelling is not the best today.

We had a death in the family yesterday and everything is upside down.

Trying to get distracted from one reality using another one.

 

Gabe

[india quant 10]

@ thalestrader

rarely i've seen any pro disclosing his life long experience in an open forum.

even they dont disclose the chart tf (forget about setup).

salute you for ur helping hand.

regards

[Marko23 10]

The last hour shows how important it was to close the Long trade.

 

Otherwise one would hold (a minor loss) and wait for an uncertain outcome.

[hunnybunny 10]

My spelling is not the best today.

We had a death in the family yesterday and everything is upside down.

Trying to get distracted from one reality using another one.

 

Gabe

 

 

Gabe, i am so sorry to hear that. Please accept my condolences ... and do take care.

 

And, Thales, i'm glad you're feeling better. Please do let us know the results of those tests. May God keep you and your loved ones in the pink of health.

[thalestrader 14]

Hi Folks,

 

If the GU were to flip to short, this is how it would look. Price stalled at a reasonable resistance level, but the first PT on this little swing is less than the initial risk. So, I would have to be reasonably convinced that price was about to decline to lower lows on the day for me to take this short at this level.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Gabe,

 

You have my condolences. Our family will pray for your family.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Hi Folks,

 

Here is one that also got away from me, but it is a good example of why I am as agressive with my stops as I am - there is always another opportunity. The EJ short that I did take was stopped at break even (you can go back to today's earlier posts and see how that trade unfolded), While away, you can see that the break to new lows was an opportunity for a trade that resulted in 50% at 1R, with a +55-60 tick PT2 depending upon your bookie's spread, etc.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

the ending diagonal on the GBPUSD did indeed auger an interuption of the immediate downtrend, and it was followed by a nice long that has hit PT1 and PT2 at 1.6450 is still outstanding.

 

Rather than flip to short, the GU continued to rally and has now filled what would have been a reasonable PT2 at 1.6450.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Marko23 10]

Rather than flip to short, the GU continued to rally and has now filled what would have been a reasonable PT2 at 1.6450.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

 

Elliottians would call it "5 up" .

[thalestrader 14]

rarely i've seen any pro disclosing his life long experience in an open forum. even they don't disclose the chart tf (forget about setup).

 

Thank you for the kind words. I have not disclosed anything here that hasn't been in the public domain for years, shared by those with names like Livermore, Wyckoff, Schabaker, Darvas, O'Neil, Sperandeo, and I'll even throw Joe Ross in there as well. As I have said many times, I am a remarkably unoriginal trader.

 

For every one person who happens across this thread and tries this approach, a hundred others will pay it but slight attention and move on without ever giving us a second thought. And for every one who does become successful with it, there will be at least a handful or two who tried and gave up, moving on to the next thing.

 

Many more will try to apply it but will try to improve it, and in the process, ruin it. As Robert Prechter once said, "most traders take a good system and destroy it by trying to make it into a perfect system.”

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[forrestang 10]

Just an observation, i wouldn't take this because of the blip to the left.

 

And particularly not till HOD was broken OUT of this range.

[jonbig04 10]

I wasn't going to post these trades in here because I'm not using the 1-2-3 method for break outs, but I thought it was kind of funny that the euro did this to me again. This is only my 2nd trade with the euro, is it always this wild? I thought the other day was an anomaly bc of all the economic data.

 

[forrestang 10]

I wasn't going to post these trades in here because I'm not using the 1-2-3 method for break outs, but I thought it was kind of funny that the euro did this to me again. This is only my 2nd trade with the euro, is it always this wild? I thought the other day was an anomaly bc of all the economic data.

 

 

Post away man! If you look back there are dozens upon dozens of trades that are not using that hook for an entry.

 

I'm looking forward to some big picture "Jon ES trades myself!"

[thalestrader 14]

I wasn't going to post these trades in here because I'm not using the 1-2-3 method for break outs

 

Post away, Jon! I have said repeatedly that this is a "Reading Charts ..." thread not a "Thales Way or the Highway" thread. There are probably folks here who can't get a handle on what I'm doing but they might see something you post and all of a sudden they'll be on their way.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Hi Folks,

 

Current look at the EURUSD.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Cory2679 11]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm going to be taking a little time off from trading.

 

Since I began working with this approach, I've done better than I ever have. Even though I haven't traded too awfully consistently, I had a solid 50% return my first week of sim trading (the week prior to my first post on this thread), struggled a bit going live the next week, and I'm up 44.5 ticks this week (mostly between Sunday night and Monday morning). I'm not trying to brag or anything like that...I just want to share my experience.

 

I feel like this approach really fits me. I feel like it's what I've been searching for...I feel like I've picked it up pretty well and sort of have a knack for it...

 

Up to this point, all of my "education" concerning this method has been strictly from reading this thread. So at this point in time, I'm going to essentially clear my mind and start from scratch. I'm going to begin the "course" that Thales set out in the following post:

 

If I were to train a new trader, I would do it very much as I taught my daughter. While it wasn't formalized before we started, this is more or less the path we took:

 

I'm looking at it like this - the trading performance and education up to this point with this approach was essentially a test run, and I like the approach and want to move forward with it...and I want to do it right. I want to take 100% full advantage of what I've discovered here, rather than rush into it. So I'm not doing this in spite of my performance, but because of it.

 

I have in my possession all five books mentioned in Thales's post. They're short reads so it won't take too much of my time to go through them, especially if I devote my entire day to it.

 

SO, I'm beginning the Thales "course" tomorrow. I'll begin by reading Nicolas Darvas's How I made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market.

 

Cheers!

 

Hey guys,

 

I'm just chiming in to give an update!

 

Well, I've read Nicolas Darvas's How I made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market & Edwin LeFevre's Reminiscences of a Stock Operator...twice!

 

Excellent reads.

 

That does it for "I. Psychology & Emotions" and now I'm moving on to "II. Reading Price - Theory."

 

So, tomorrow I'll begin by reading Stikky Stock Charts.

 

-Cory

[jonbig04 10]

Post away man! If you look back there are dozens upon dozens of trades that are not using that hook for an entry.

 

I'm looking forward to some big picture "Jon ES trades myself!"

 

Haha thanks man, I'm hoping to get some setups tomorrow on ES. I just started watching the euro (6E).

 

From what I've noticed so far, ES is like the charming, polite, and soft spoken girl you take home to meet your parents. 6E is the spontaneous girl you met in the club who smokes constantly, has a tongue ring and is going to break your heart the first chance she gets.