Reading Charts in Real Time

[MidKnight 12]

Really really solid drop on usd/cad yesterday. A part of me would like to look for a long on a 15m break of 1.0575 area because it is at support after a large large drop and could at least bounce back to test the recent congestion in the 1.0600/50 area, but the other part of me sees this is part of a bigger down move in which I should ultimately be going short. I'm in conflict, and this is where trading simple price action and looking at multiple time frames puts me into conflict.

[MidKnight 12]

Hey, I just saw Thales eur/usd chart. It seems pretty similar to my last usd/cad post. So by Thales preference, it seems that my entry area (blue line) would be premature....

[thalestrader 14]

Gabe, IMO you must have exit rules in place before the trade takes place. Preferably have some very solid guidelines for all trades. Why? Because cash and the need to be right raise emotional levels and while they distort perception before a trade they distort it far more once in the trade. Unless you are a robot you should determine your rules when you are not affected by fear, greed, or the desire to be right.

 

Great post, Kiwi!

 

The desire to be right is perhaps the most pernicious to the trader. Your above paragraph has been duly copied, pasted, and printed, and now occupies a place in my notebook.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Dinerotrader 10]

Everytime I think through whether to use tick charts or time charts I always come back to the same conclusion which is that time charts conceal how price reacts to various price levels within an abitrary bar length and since price is what I care about, watching a time chart would prove detrimental to trading price action.

 

However, I understand that there are much better traders than myself which use time charts instead of a tick charts but I never can figure out what I am missing. What am I missing?

 

Range charts seem interesting but again, don't those just end up concealing the price movement?

 

The only reason I can think to use a range or time chart is if you are trying to conceal a lot of the smaller price movement so that your focus is only on larger swings. But even then, don't you still want to know if price has been just sitting a support for 14 minutes and only travel down on the last 1 minute of the 15 minute bar?

 

I still stuggle with the decision of what chart to use on a daily basis so I am very interested in other's thoughts.

[thalestrader 14]

Here is a similar situation on the EURUSD from 10/29/2009.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Kiwi 16]

LOL (at me) ... I didn't recognize the TS symbols so withdraw the "not representative of the markets" comments.

 

Not wishing to hijack the thread on the range/tick/vol/time/exotic representation question here's my view:

- except on spot forex then tick and vol can be useful for stretching out action to make recognition easier and compressing slow periods.

- the concealment issue is choice as all choices conceal something (tick charts conceal slow (but maybe interesting) periods and also the volume to time relationship)

 

IMO the choice depends on a couple of things:

- what do other market participants do (so you see what the important ones see)?

- what do you want to achieve?

 

In most things I use time because the big boys use time if they use anything. So if they happen to look at an ma they see what I see with the same ma. And if they draw a trendline or a channel then these are time invariant and I see what they see.

 

In forex the "big boys" use time if they chart at all so if you want to perceive how they are thinking about the market you should use ...

 

But, for fast entry into a fast market I have used tick charts because they spread the action at that point and you can see the resistance test more clearly. Vol would do that too but slightly differently.

 

I've just never felt good about range or the exotics.

 

All just one persons views and the differences are what make the market interesting

[daedalus 10]

Same chart thales - anything wrong with this entry?

[thalestrader 14]

Same chart thales - anything wrong with this entry?

 

No, nothing at all wrong with that entry. It looks a lot like this short on the 6J I posted a while back.

 

As you noted in your post yesterday, these patterns occur over and over and over, and I believe that they are relatively easy to learn to recognize.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[Kiwi 16]

Not thales view, but mine with hindsight.

[thalestrader 14]

Hi Folks,

 

GBPUSD looks like a decent short at 1.6755, with targets at 1.6720, .6693, and .6643.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[thalestrader 14]

GBPUSD looks like a decent short at 1.6755, with targets at 1.6720, .6693, and .6643.

 

Hi Folks,

 

We were waiting for a 1.6735 print to go to break even on the stop, but enough is enough as this a slow mover, and the stop is now break even. Limit orders are in for profit targets, and it is bed time here. Good night, folks.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[forrestang 10]

...........................

 

---EDIT(22:23est)----

Adj stop to 150.85, may be a tad tight but this is moving too slow for my liking.

Edited November 10, 2009 by forrestang
forgot to add pic

[thalestrader 14]

...........................

 

 

A man of few (if any) words ...

 

But the chart says it all.

 

Thanks, Forrest.

 

Best Wishes,

 

Thales

[MidKnight 12]

EUR/USD may have broken down out of that chopzone made in the R from my prior post.

[daedalus 10]

^ I agree with that analysis MidKnight. Looks like a good opportunity for a potential entry.

[MidKnight 12]

Hi guys,

 

I'm not going to trade this one, but I see it is an either/or situation now that it has left that chopzone. The long version is like my prior gbp/jpy trade but in reverse. The short version is....well....continuation after breaking lower.

 

With kind regards,

MK

[forrestang 10]

...........................

 

---EDIT(22:23est)----

Adj stop to 150.85, may be a tad tight but this is moving too slow for my liking.

 

Holy moly!!! I guess P1 and P2 where hit!

 

I wasn't even looking at my screen when this happened, or else I might have adjusted that P2 a little bit.

[MidKnight 12]

EUR/USD may have broken down out of that chopzone made in the R from my prior post.

 

Took a loser of 14 pips from this short.

 

All my best,

MK

[MidKnight 12]

Holy moly!!! I guess P1 and P2 where hit!

 

I wasn't even looking at my screen when this happened, or else I might have adjusted that P2 a little bit.

 

Nice one forrest. For some reason the pound moved good. Euro barely budged. So much for slow moving :P

[Dinerotrader 10]

Holy moly!!! I guess P1 and P2 where hit!

 

I wasn't even looking at my screen when this happened, or else I might have adjusted that P2 a little bit.

 

What a move! Like usual, I stepped away from my computer before the big move. Once I saw it had made that huge move I switched to a 1 minute chart and looked for the 1-2-3 breakouts with much smaller targets and was able to pull out 14 ticks with 2 trades. I was going to try to post a chart as it was happening but the price movement was so quick I couldn't get anything up. Nice call Forrest.

 

 

Make that 21 ticks. The pound just keeps movin'.

 

Edited November 10, 2009 by Dinerotrader

[furtrader 10]

Can this one treated as LH?

[Kiwi 16]

Can this one treated as LH?

 

I'd say yes.

 

And it has the benefit of being with the 4hr trend. And having dug back into resistance on 4 hour before continuing.

The only downside is that it stopped at fairly serious support (from thrust out of congestion back on 10/26) before this bounce up.

 

[MidKnight 12]

USD/CAD could be good....Bigger picture (240m), I see it pulling back and just touching the edge of the decent consolidation it smashed through yesterday. Worth a shot I think.

 

With kind regards,

MK

[furtrader 10]

Thank you guys

I begin liking this strategy rather than mechanical now... its simple although there is sometimes difficult pattern to read.

[furtrader 10]

Thank you guys

I begin liking this strategy rather than mechanical now... its simple although there is sometimes difficult pattern to read.