One thing that I noted from the day was the turn at 88 that happened away from any expected turning point. Need to watch for the changes in buying and selling wherever they happen and not just at extremes.
The TCs may give us favorable areas to trade but when there seems to be no reason for price stopping in the middle of nowhere,that's where SLA really helps, can't get hurt to badly if your tracking supply and demand.
Yes, it is important to remember that a change at extremes will give more confidence of entering, but taking the SLA when it happens is still valid especially if we can manage the trade correctly.
Thursday 20th Mar 2014 NQ100 1 min chart review Premarket highs of 77 and comimg off a low of 60. Testing earlier support line just before open. 1. Opened with an SL break from some hours back, and a long which may be scratched depending on rules. Niko made the point of re-entering because no lower low was made. Another item added to my notes for testing. 2. We moved up to just below 76 and were rejected lower than the premarket highs. The parabolic move ended and we had a lower high then break down. 3. Short triggered then scratched. another case where a re-entry is possible on the 2nd retracement which makes a lower high. 4. Moved down in a parabolic manner and easily through opening lows, where it stopped and reversed at 57. SL broke for exit of short 5. Retracement for long, and a scratch straight away. 6. Got to 82 retraced and then allowed a long entry above 82 which refused to move above 87. 7. If we disregard the 2 bars at 10:01 and 10:02 as freak bars, then we are testing the DL from 9:53. I would count it as a short triggered and a scratch. 8. DL with the 2 bars at 10:01 and 10:02 being tested. Db mentioned a stealth short at 86, but I would wait for the congestion exit below 84. Price Vs Information risk again. I believe that I have enough understanding to test the SLA. Exits and scratches still need fine tuning, but another week should put me a lot closer to fixing that. I will add the plans & goals in the next post.
I found myself writing paragraphs about goals for this and where I want to go, but instead i will summarise what I want from the next week. 1. To test the SLA enough so that I will trust myself to enter and exit when the rules require it. 2. To investigate scratch and re-entry points once a trade has been triggered. Testing is currently in progress according to the simple SLA rules. Scratches will be investigated on the same 1min charts. If this is not good enough, I will look at other options.
Friday 21st Mar 2014 NQ100 1 min chart review We have trended upwards overnight and reached the highs of recent day. Settled into a trading range for the last few hours before the open. 1. Opened and shot up from 2 to 13 in a flash. Rejected here and moved down to top of morning range. 2. We broke through the DL from 9:09am and then through the low of 700 in the next bar. Also we had not been below 700 for about 5 hours, so it is a potential short, but maybe not by strict SLA. These kind of trades are a hangover from testing that I did before researching SLA. 3. We had a retracement at 9:47 to allow a short entry around 95, and this continued down forever until we finally had a support line break, double bottom and higher high around 10:30. 4. This also allows a long entry at the same time as the exit if 30 points isn't enough for the day. If everyday was like this we could all be day-trading heroes. Any entry after the madness at the start would have worked today.
Monday 24th Mar 2014 NQ100 1 min chart review All the lines and levels that I drew up in the morning were quickly dismissed by price today. Ended up working with mainly hourly and daily levels today, to find the lower support levels, and channel limits. 1. At 9:35 price broke a demand line from around 6am, and at 9:38 also broke the recent low of 46, to allow a short entry below 46. 2. Price fell 20 points very sharply, until it paused at 9:45, and then we had our first higher high at 9:47. 3. Price continued to fall to 22 and rose again without any retracement to 35. No long was possible. 4. Eventually we had a fall with a demand line break and retracement for a short at 25, or could pick a short further on past the LSL at 22. It seemed to me to be a low risk option to short before the LSL, because any bounce off 22 could most likely be exited at breakeven. 5. The support line from the open held for a long time today, and falling about 1pt a minute on average. We stopped eventually at the bottom of a daily down channel around 75, which isn't shown on my chart. This was a similar day to Friday. Lots of supply and very little demand. Sellers had to keep lowering their prices to get any interest. There are very little obsticles in the way of a big drop from here. But as always, we have to wait for price to decide what it wants to do. It may be an interesting week. Testing is going well using IB with Ninjatrader. I definitely need to do this to practise as much as possible, to allow this process to become fluid and natural. Obviously I can't replicate years of real time trading experience doing this, but I will be happy if I can elliminate all major errors, and start fine tuning everything.
Tuesday 25th Mar 2014 NQ100 1 min chart review Currently price is rising and approaching the middle of the hourly down channel. Ready for a descision on up or down from here. 1. Opened sharply upwards and stopped at 40 and moved into a hinge. 2. Broke below the hinge giving a possible short. Price stopped and reversed at 28. 3. Broke through support line, and moved up to 37 with a retracement for a long at 38. 4. Rejected strongly at 48, and moved into a hinge above opening highs. 5. Broke upwards and rejected at 52. 6. Broke demand line and retraced for a short below 44. Much like yesterday, the short moved steadily downwards, until eventually hitting the 4am low at around 6. 7. Break of recent support line and a higher low. Still some distance from major support line at 10:12. Similar day to yesterday. Good day for the folks trading real cash. I guess we are due a more challenging day soon.
Todays Morning Chart First time posting any prep charts. Thanks Niko for the push. We are well above the midpoint of the hourly down channel from March. May head to the top above 70. If we make it to that high, we can watch for reactions to the channel top. At 9:20am we are just touching the demand line from 4am on the 1 min chart. Wait and see if it holds for the open.