Reading Charts in Real Time

[thalestrader 14]

...BTW, I hope you are managing through your heavily business workload and look forward to that ending so you can back to posting here

 

I hope to be back to a more regular though likely diminished level of participation soon. I will probably do a new thread, or perhaps a blog, as this thread has, I fear, long since reached that stage known as "thread bloat," whereby there is much useful information in the thread, but it has become terribly difficult to find it. A new thread would allow me to cut,paste, repeat, condense, and catalog some of the more useful ideas posted in this thread; and a blog may be even better for such purposes.

 

I doubt I will be back to full time day trading before the fall, so I was thinking of doing two "trading the Small Account"-type threads. I would trade a small stock account

for one, and a small microFX account for the other. The stock account would aim to double in a year, while the FXmicro account would aim to win FXCM's "King of the Micro," which is a monthly contest.

 

For the stock account, I was thinking to start with 5K, but I would probably use 6.5K as a starting equity, and use a 25% draw down as a "stop trading for 20 days" level. For the micro, I'd start with $500 at the start of each month, as that is FXCM's minimum to be considered for the contest.

 

In the meantime, I am going to start going through this very large thread to identify concepts, ideas, and posts that I feel are of particular value. If anyone has a favorite post, or group of posts, please fell free to send me a PM with the post number(s) and I will try to include those in the new thread and/or blog. I will try to reply to PM's as time allows, but time is something I have been net short of lately, so it may be some time before I can "cover."

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

Edited July 26, 2010 by thalestrader

[thalestrader 14]

For old time's sake ... current view of the daily EURJPY ... either long on the BO above current levels (and by "above current levels" I would mean "above 113.50 or so"), or long on a BO and subsequent pullback. In either case, it looks like a 600 pip PT to a 200 pip SL, and I would personally use the 200 pip SL as a "disaster" stop only, and would cut at any failure to hold within 25-50 pips of the BO level ...

 

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

For old time's sake ... current view of the daily EURJPY ... either long on the BO above current levels (and by "above current levels" I would mean "above 113.50 or so"), or long on a BO and subsequent pullback. In either case, it looks like a 600 pip PT to a 200 pip SL, and I would personally use the 200 pip SL as a "disaster" stop only, and would cut at any failure to hold within 25-50 pips of the BO level ...

 

Two days later and price is now trying to rally above the 113.50 level. If the breakout holds, target is 119.00-119.50.

 

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Two days later and price is now trying to rally above the 113.50 level. If the breakout holds, target is 119.00-119.50.

 

Long 113.50, stop and reverse 112.70, add to longs at 114.50 ...

 

 

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

Two days later and price is now trying to rally above the 113.50 level. If the breakout holds, target is 119.00-119.50.

 

Breakout followed by pullback ... nothing to do but wait and let the stop loss and take profit orders do their job.

 

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Justaguy 10]

Great thread!

This is the GU from today. 24R chart. Perfect 1-2-3 reversal setup with a Ross Hook setting up the long resuming the overall uptrend (zoom out). Trigger was @ 9:54 edt

Real time price action. Takes some discipline but the cleanest was to trade imho.

[thalestrader 14]

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...

 

Hi Folks,

 

I've been going through the Reading Charts in Real Time thread, from which the above snip'd post was culled. The thread itself is quite a bit thicker and denser than I had realized. Rather than trying to cut and paste everything from from there to a new thread, I think I will go ahead and start a blog where I can bring up the topics I think important in a logical order and then rely on a very liberal use of links back to relevant posts in the original thread.

 

My thought for the blog is for it to repeat the process I used to introduce my daughter to trading that is more or less outlined in the above quoted post. I'll move through one book at a time, and anyone interested can share his or here thoughts, ask questions, discuss the books, etc. through blog comments. As far as actual trading goes, I'd probably use daily stock charts initially and perhaps track a "William O'Neil-like" or "Gerald Loeb-like"starter account (basically a 5K[O'Neil] to 10K[Loeb] account where commitments are limited to one stock/5k or 10k unit of capital, and any one commitment must be closed out at either a profit or a loss before a new commitment is opened).

 

After we move through a few of the first books, perhaps I'd introduce a small forex account that would trade more frequently, or, if my other time constraints loosen, I'll go back to calling futures day trades trades in a new Real Time thread, and then just do a nightly or weekly re-cap in the blog.

 

At any rate, that is what I am thinking of doing, and anyone interested is welcome to participate once I get started. I would ask though that cranks refrain from joining in. Opinions and approaches contrary to my own will be most welcome to the discussion, so long as they are offered in a spirit of high-mindedness rather than meanness.

 

I'm hoping to get started in the coming weeks, and I'll be starting with Darvas's How I Made 2,000,000 in the Stock Market. It's a quick but important read, and while we should be able to move through it in a week or two, I think it does a fair job of laying the foundation of how I trade. I will try to give a week or two "heads-up" as to what the next book will be so that everyone can have a chance to get a hold of a copy of they do not already have it.

 

I hope to see some of our familiar "faces" join in, and look forward to meeting some new ones as well.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[snowbird 10]

Looking forward to this.

 

Either as a cap to this thread, or part of the new blog, I was hoping you and others who have posted charts here real time could capture the essence of the "edge" to their methods (both core and contributing factors).

 

It appears that 1-2-3 and 2B price action at S/R are core to the way you trade, but that there are many other contributing factors that in reality are also edges, that you have come to internalize as second nature over your years of trading. These may or may not be many things you have listed throughout various posts, such as "waiting for the market to start swinging, not trading certain times of day, moving to BE at a certain point, cutting losses short when the price does not move in the way you expected, etc.

 

A short summary post from traders who have posted live charts would be very beneficial.

 

snowbird

[daedalus 10]

Can't wait to see and join in on the new blog. Maybe we can all make the new venture even better than the original.

[MidKnight 12]

I'm keen to see this topic continue and look forward to participating as well. You won't be able to keep out the cranks unfortunately, after all, this is the Internet - haha.

 

With kind regards,

MK

[Marko23 10]

[Marko23 10]

Stopped

 

[Marko23 10]

[Marko23 10]

Cancelled, up signal not possible

 

[Marko23 10]

Leaving the sideways region gives NO signal.

 

[Marko23 10]

Waiting for confirmation

 

[Marko23 10]

Back in the sideways region

 

[Marko23 10]

Waiting....

 

[Marko23 10]

Short for me

 

[Marko23 10]

One covered (not sold) at LOD, one covered (not sold) at gap close, last stopped at break even.

 

Edited August 2, 2010 by Marko23
Editing error.

[Marko23 10]

Downtrend

 

[Marko23 10]

Two covered at LOD, one stopped at be.

 

[ziebarf 10]

Found a good .pdf on 1-2-3's on a different forum. It doesn't mention support or resistance, but I thought it would be relevant to this thread anyways..

 

Thales a blog would be great, keep us posted.

123_Trading_System_Set_Up.pdf

[Marko23 10]

First signal with open. Price moves to 2DH.

This is a valid 1-2-3 signal on a 60m-chart.

 

[Marko23 10]

Waiting for trend continuation