If all I do is criticize, bash, and fuck with people on ET, or do I ever try to help. Answer: Not really since I love giving crap to all the so called gurus who do nothing more than lure innocents and newbies into their costly lairs because they cannot trade themselves or just to stroke their own worthless egos, but..... I will attempt to help those who have asked. So here goes: Lets use this example of Tuesdays close on the e-mini S&P: Draw a line across the two obvious swing highs (or lows if that's the case) <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.tinypic.com/o8z03a.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>
Next-copy the line and put it roughly across the lows forming somewhat of a channel---keep in mind this is not the only way to trade it's ONE way to trade. I am identifying the areas that the market triee to penetrate and failed. If you want you can draw some horizontal lines across those points and see at what price the market failed to penetrate. In the picture below they are the green lines. <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.tinypic.com/oa3pyr.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>
By now you should see where price has to go for an upside breakout or to the downside for a breakout. In this scenario Wait for the breakout somewhere around 847-848. <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.tinypic.com/156yhk8.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>
You should always be looking charts in this manner. Try to define if the market is trending up, down along a line or is it in a wider channel bouncing from one line to the other. Stare at the fucking charts and make notes. I would use Snag-It or some other screen capture software. Make lots of notes. Print them if you want and tape them in front of you to look at. Price action does a few things consistently (these would be called set-ups). Wait for one you personally see or can identify with and god from there. Repeat and rinse--repeat and rinse until see it in your dreams. Do not send me $299 dollars/month. I donât want or need your fucking money. Just practice and stop looking for the grail--the grail is in your head.
Here is another example from last Friday. I made the two point ( or three or whatever) swing point connections and then copied the line and threw it underneath. <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i43.tinypic.com/2ltsnbo.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>
Look what the prics is doing --it tagged our trend/channel line again and fail to penetrate which would tell me to short if I'm bored and then wait for an upside breakout later on <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i39.tinypic.com/s3097c.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>