I'll be guilty here of commenting on a book that I only read a small part of: I believe Mark Fischer's book provides specific rules for a specific trading strategy. Al Brooks' book(s) provide an advanced level course in price action mainly as applied to short term intraday trading. A non-trading comparison would be the difference between a book that explains step-by-step how to build a house and a course in residential architecture.
No, it's not possible. I have had this material looked at by the best minds in the business--- its like Nostradamus. You see what you want. GIVE up now or waste years trying. Best, surf
But I found other ways of creating profitable systems. The attached is "Crude-Oil Always-In" trading 1 contract from Jan-2007 to Dec-2012. (as usual, 1-tick slippage on entry / same on exit & commissions included)
Ahhh, now there are two delusional people who believe it's possible to earn a decent living trading a single lot of oil
May not be a decent living trading one contract, but see what this system can do trading multiple contracts ... 26,000 unique entries in 6 years.
We are getting a bit sidetracked from the topic, but I guess I need to look more closely into CL. I only trade ES and FX as of now. Seems a lot of people are making good coin using CL.
ES is a classically technical instrument. You can count on "textbook" technical analysis of price action to trade it. With regard to CL, I'd like to be able to say to you "Come on in, the water's warm", but the truth is, it's different from anything else I've ever traded (stocks, ETFs, stock options, 6E, and ES) and if you don't have a well-tested plan and the ability to stick to it, the sharks will come out of nowhere and devour you piece by piece. That said, several of Brooks' concepts work beautifully with CL, and Volman's setups are golden for the intraday scalper.
1. I have never read Crabel, so can't comment. 2. I don't have hard numbers (maybe I should). However, a few specific things made an important difference: a. Focusing on a 5 minute period has helped me crystallize the implied risk of a trade. It is no longer subjective and that has been very important to me. b. A 5 minute period is very useful to identify a headfake or a signal failure of some kind as general signal stability is significantly better (assuming sufficient liquidity) than that on the lower time frame. Additionally, 5 minute bars are still fast enough to offer plenty of intraday opportunities. c. Certain Brooks setups have shown me another way to look at things that I already knew and found to work. I.e., I understood *why* they work better. d. Range trading. His work on this subject is excellent. No holy grail there but if you choose to trade in a maker (as opposed to taker) style, you will gain a lot of insight. e. Many other things - really just about any type of trading, be it reversals, trends, etc. Every chapter has something that makes you go "aha", assuming you are willing to re-read the page. f. Copious examples throughout his texts really solidified the building blocks of his methods and how he thinks - all of which let me formulate/augment my own strategies. Again, as I said earlier, Brooks shows you in concrete terms how markets operate and why they operate in certain ways. What to do with that is up to you. I do strongly believe that no matter what you learn, read or accept as gospel, there is a standing requirement for you to create your own method of trading. That takes a lot of focused, relentless effort. I remember reading something Lescor posted a long while ago: it was something along the lines of "I kept on losing money for years until I decided that if I was going to make this work I had to really apply myself". I doubt it was something he read that made him finally tick. It was the elbow grease he decided to put into his trading. So, bottom line is, you can study Brooks or anyone else who shows depth in understanding markets. Regardless, it is still very hard work and there are no shortcuts to making whatever you learn your own. /Wulfrede
Tried ES myself, but it just... doesn't move. I must be used to higher volatility overall. Euro on the other side has enough volatility most of the time plus liquidity is truly bottomless. Also like NQ very much, even more than Euro maybe.
BINGO!! This chick has her Ducks in order and knows from where she speaks. In daytrading the mind fixates to the instrument at hand. There is an old market axiom that states: TA allows a person to trade any instrument the same way. That is easier said then done because EVERY different instrument has unique waves to be followed before hitting the beach, your plan must be tuned that way also. Volman's setups are in a nutshell classic breakouts and MUST be ingrained in every traders mind. The first 3, "WITH TREND" are all a trader needs to master. 6E, 6J compared to ES CAN be traded the same way as long as the profit targets in E/J are tighter relative to the STOP LOSS. Financial mkt's are "back and fill" mkt's which mean when presented with a decent profit, BOOK IT before it goes PUFF!! PS: 6E/6J like any other toy trade best in their primary home mkt, you know! when we on EST are sleeping..