*Thank* you. For derivation?? Go wayyyyy old school. NYSE TRIN (first, with 15min candles and 6-period SMA) and TICK (second, with 1min candles and possibly 6-period SMA). The oldest advice re TICK and TRIN remains: much less important than their absolute level, is their direction. (Hence, the SMA.) Even as an option writer, I work tactically like the recovering tick scalper that I am. Pays the bills. FWIW, I regularly go through *all* my indicators and tune them -- adjusting the various periods to what works best in big (2-hr??) slices of US-open, euro-close, and US-close. For the past 4-5 years, I end up in about the same place, but I wouldn't have confidence if I didn't test.
I don't know how you guys can read those tick or time-based charts and plot over them. So much noise! Isn't this smoother? (This is a capture of the same timeframe as yours Spectre, on ES 3-17
These graphs are visually quiet by virtue of the fact that the cardinality of time is obliterated -- thus, if you were trying to work market dynamics in the least little bit, you're handicapped. (This is the analogue of time-based graphs, where volume {instead} is lacking, and demands it's own graphical representation on the immediate graph, or one nearby.) It's *interesting*, but for a wide graph, it's too dangerous to have the time dynamics lost from one side to "that hard right edge." One thing I like?? I often preach that time frames and candlesticks are grossly applied and willy-nilly misused, in that the cuts between one period and another are entirely meaningless, and you have 4 cites of price data out of what could be very few, or could be *thousands*, of such potential cites. How can you tell useful timeframes from not?? Check the "wicks" -- useful candle lengths have wicks that demonstrate actual utility: the market just could not hold a price {up or down}. The price-by-volume set up (at least, that one depicted above) is maybe 90% good in its wicks suggesting trend substantiation (same color candle), or a coming turn (opposite candle). 90%! Not bad! I still need that time, though....
I keep this daily chart as simple as possible, but good enough to help me finding out market direction within short-term time frame in order for me to use swing signals to trade along. The only thing I'd like to point out from this live daily chart is that I'd be very careful to bet on the upside each time when I see red histogram crossing above 0 while green histogram crossing below. Today is an example where chart shows red histogram stays above 0 while green histogram is close to cross below 0, which is a sign to suggest bulls are in danger soon. Therefore, I'd not bet on the upside for the next couple of days. If I do, I'd only bet with a very small position that I could afford to lose some. This is how I manage risks day in, day out.
A plain chart is like a modern art which depicts the market sentiments as is. Technical chart is like a digitized version of the modern art which most of the times dilutes or loses the picture of market psychology. People talk about EDGE in the strategy. The real real "edge" is in reading the plain chart. Do you have that habitual edge ? Note : Even if we assume that 99% of the traders use technical charts, probably 1% of them automate. It means the market is still dominated by psychological intervention than analytical one. Because manual trading is guided more by intuitions and instincts than the indicators on the technical chart. The unfortunate part is that the trading mass "give" psychological inputs into the market and yet they are reluctant to "take" the psychological guidance given by the plain chart. This is where a handful of traders, who depend purely on plain chart, stand out of the trading mass and their very approach becomes the "edge".