Here's a few things I use for the YM: -If the moving averages are FLAT (9/20 EMA) -If advance/declines are between -200 and +200 -Candles. If we've been in a narrow sideways pattern for hours If any of these things are present, I wont even trade. Or I'll wait for a break out. And of course you should always look at relative volume. CajunSniper / Puretick.com Administrator-Trader
John Carter discusses it in his book. One of the ways to identify a chop is to put bollinger bands (20, 2) and keltner channel (1.5, 20) on any chart, and when both BB get inside keltner channel it is chop.
on the ES, if it opens inside yesterdays range and volume is less then about 150k contracts total in the first 35-45 min. of RTH, then it usually means big players are not around (yet) and ES will probably get pushed around by the locals on the floor of the big S&P.....but that can/will change in an instant as soon as size moves in. i look at other things as well, but none that i can share here.
Volatility Analysis and those days you call chop or flat usually have a couple of good moves for a few points before reverting back to the chop or flat price behavior. Mark (a.k.a. NihabaAshi) Japanese Candlestick term