I'm cross-posting this here from my current journal in order to explain why I'm opening this thread: I want to thank those of you who responded to my question about intraday trading. As you know, there are four prior journals. These were devoted to explaining and illustrating and answering questions. Even so, even those who actually read the material and worked with it still had problems. So I reversed the process with this journal, addressing principles only without regard to specifics. In that respect, it's been successful. But there are only so many principles -- the range, the channel, the retracement, the AMT context -- and there are only so many ways to illustrate them. At a certain point, either one gets it or one doesn't. I've also been concerned about clutter. There are the trolls, of course, but there is also a lot of intraday chatter here, largely because there's no place else for it, and to those who aren't trading intraday, it's pretty much meaningless, and it's all hindsight by then anyway. But if so many of you are trading this intraday, either for real or in sim, then the intraday "clutter" is worth having. Just not here. So I'm going to reserve this journal for its original purpose -- though I really don't know what more to provide beyond the weekly chart showing where we are with regard to the upper and lower limits of it and any future changes in trend direction -- and start a new thread in the Trading forum specifically for trading the SLA/AMT intraday. In this way, those who are trading or trying to trade this intraday can point stuff out to each other without feeling that their posts are off-topic. If it flies, fine. If not, that's fine too. God knows I've started plenty of threads that went nowhere.
Just a suggestion to those who are still struggling with intraday Support and Resistance: only take note of the Prior Day's High and Prior Day's Low. These levels are seen by most everyone, if not everyone, in the market. Most charting programs have an "indicator" to plot them automatically, just confirm you are using globex hours. A few months ago I came across an old post of DB's from 2003 saying that if one were to limit his trades to these two areas, he would likely save himself a lot of dough. Take it for what its worth...
I remember that. I was pretty frustrated with the crap that people were using to make decisions. And it's still true. However, since futures trade 24/5, there's more to look at, particularly with regard to ON highs and lows. Therefore, at minimum, I'd note the PDH and PDL as well as the ONH and ONL. They may not provide launching levels for trades, but price will often (nearly always?) stall or pause or even range at those levels. Knowing why price is doing that can reduce the need for heart medicine. I'll be posting charts of ranges here unless there's just nothing to look at. The charts I posted in the journal really had no place there other than to illustrate what a range (box) looks like. But one can often find a nice 15m range, for example, that narrows into a 5m range as we near the NY open, and it pays to know about both.
Do you apply the Wyckoff Tape Reading section of the course in your intraday trading? Or do you just use the principles from part 1 but break it down to intraday?
The latter. I've never gotten into P&F. I've seen no advantage to it. In fact it's a serious disadvantage given the speed of transactions today, though some people love it. His daily bar chart, though, is simple to use intraday. So, no, I haven't benefited much from either Section 2 or The Daytrader's Bible. Even so, there are nuggets here and there, just like RSO.
When you say it "pays" to know about both the 15m and 5m ranges, I'm assuming you mean that these levels can serve as launching pads for trades? Or are they just there to ease the blood pressure with ONH and ONL? I'm just scratching my head a bit here because I thought only the levels that most everyone in the market can see provide the best opportunities (i.e. Hourly or greater). Seems like I remember reading a post of yours somewhere saying "the levels that everyone can see puts meat on the table".
I can't believe that people remember this stuff. The levels that the greater number of people can see will generally provide some of the best opportunities but not the only opportunities. If one isn't trading intraday, he won't even see anything else (making a new weekly high will even make the news). But the trader who follows price at a small interval will have a better appreciation of what price is doing just as a man who walks a property will have a better appreciation of what's underfoot than he would if he were to drive it, much less fly over it. But as we near the opening, price will generally tighten its range in preparation. There was an example earlier this week of a 15m range that tightened to half its width closer to the open. This tightening was better seen with a 5m interval. One can always wait until price breaks through the larger range, or the range larger than that, or the range larger than that, but why? If one can be in profit before most even know there's a trade, why not? (This is what W was talking about with his stealth entries, anticipating a move, usually off a "springboard", one example of which is the hinge.) Those charts won't be difficult to find, but this comes up often. Maybe tomorrow morning. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. And the smart guys get their hindsight in first. Lee Child
I see which day you're talking about (2/9... right?) and the respective ranges you're talking about. We're also at the bottom of the 60m range from the move on 2/6. Maybe it's too late at night and my brain is already half way shut off, but I'm not really seeing how its an advantage since I'm already looking to get long, unless of course a breakdown occurs. I can see, however, how you may want to have those levels marked as price may stall at them on the way up. Probably just too late at night