I sim traded for about 6 months, lots of counter-trend strategies, and I learned what was not good for me to do (don't fade moves in CL, don't average down, don't trade without a stop, and don't fight the trend unless you enjoy wasting time and money). Then I worked on trend-following setups and breakouts (CL is a great breakout instrument). Eventually I started trading live, and undertook a 6-month intensive study of CL by reviewing every day's 5-min and 1-min chart, bar-by-bar, and tracking setups, survivable stops, profit target tactics and intra-trade price movement results on a spreadsheet until I had the confidence to trade every setup using pure price action instead of picking and choosing trades and forming opinions about where price should go based on news.
It would be helpful and educational to all if more people posted a chart or call of the obvious setups ahead of time, either longer term or short term setups/patterns Notable mentions - Ammo, IV, RA, Big snack, keep it up
"CBO: Budget deal cuts this fiscal yearâs deficit by just $353 million, not $38 billion touted" http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...billion-touted/2011/04/13/AFFJnkWD_story.html
I always gave the "triangulating" alert when I was logged in during the trading day. It's someone else's turn Today was pretty cool because there was a descending triangle that failed to break out (turning into a bullish ATM setup), and then the later the one that broke out. So memorize this pattern (and its lovely twin, the acsending triangle): The symmetrical triangle pretty much annoys me.
EON, the best I can give today is another post mortem, since my afternoon hours have been busier lately at the 9-5. I took two trades on CL today, which I will note with vertical lines. All I do with CL is watch for volume spikes / increases, and then wait for a break of the current trend line that is in play. I haven't been keeping an eye on longer time frame support / resistance, but I have been keeping track of specific times of day for entries. So far, I am doing well between 5:30 - 7:00 PST, and 10:30 - 11:30 PST. I generally get chopped and hammered between 7-8 PST, and I don't know enough yet about the CL to understand why that tends to be a tough hour to trade (on the ES, that is a terrific hour to trade). I missed this afternoon, which seemed to have the some great triangles and two terrific trends
I have no idea about triangles, wedges etc. I was simply tracking the price as it was falling, realising there was a major support level at 655, and if it took it out, there might just be a good move down. NoDoji, do you make money every day? My aim, from intraday trading, is to make at least 100 ticks per WEEK. I lost money last week, but have recovered it plus more this week.
http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFN1360218920110413 NYMEX-Crude rises as U.S. gasoline stocks plunge Wed Apr 13, 2011 8:56pm GMT * U.S. gasoline stocks plunge, crude up -EIA * Dollar bounce limits gains by crude * Coming up: U.S. jobless claims data, 8:30 a.m. Thursday NEW YORK, April 13 (Reuters) - U.S. crude futures ended higher on Wednesday after diving nearly 6 percent in two days, led by gasoline gains fuelled by government inventory data showing the biggest drop in stocks since 1998. U.S. gasoline stocks fell 7 million barrels last week as refiners lower capacity utilization 3 percentage points and emptied winter-grade gasoline inventories to make room for summer blends, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed. [EIA/S] The EIA said crude stocks rose 1.6 million barrels, more than the 1.0-million-barrel rise expected, while distillate stocks fell 1.7 million barrels, against an expectation supplies would be marginally higher. Front-month May RBOB gasoline futures RBK1 surged more than 2 percent and May heating oil HOK1 also settled higher. Traders and analysts said crude briefly came under pressure when the dollar index .DXY bounced on expectations President Barack Obama's deficit cutting proposals would be supportive to the greenback, but ultimately ended near the day's high. Crude futures found support in the area near Wednesday's $105.31 intraday low, which was near the area of resistance around the $106 level on crude's recent rally above $113 a barrel and Tuesday's intraday low of $105.47. Trading volume topped 900,000 lots for a second day, more than a third above the 30-day average after a sharp slow-down in activity in the latter half of March. FUNDAMENTALS * On the New York Mercantile Exchange, May crude CLK1 rose 86 cents, or 0.81 percent, to settle at $107.11, trading from $105.31 to $107.43. * President Barack Obama proposed cutting the U.S. budget deficit by $4 trillion in 12 years or less. [ID:nN12216395] * U.S. retail sales posted their smallest gain in nine months in March, as auto sales plunged and consumers felt the sting of higher gas prices. [ID:nN13249074] * The U.S. economy continued to improve over the past month on gains in manufacturing but companies are feeling the effects of higher energy and raw material costs, the U.S. Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book summary. [ID:nN13282942] * A group of Western powers and Middle Eastern states called for the first time for Muammar Gaddafi to step aside, but NATO countries squabbled publicly over stepping up air strikes to help topple him. [ID:nLDE73B27Q] * Rival Yemeni forces clashed, killing five, as the opposition awaited clarification from Gulf Arab mediators on the timeframe for a proposed transfer of the president's powers. [ID:nLDE73C0OE] * Kuwait temporarily halted oil export operations due to bad weather, an oil sector spokesman said. [ID:nLDE73C06D] * Hundreds of women from a Syrian town that has witnessed mass arrests of its men marched along Syria's main coastal highway to demand their release. [ID:nLDE73C0VU]
Had Obama stuck with his public pledge to remove Gaddafi from power, the whole damn mess in Libya would be done by now. Democrats are the biggest pussies. I've been a democrat all my life and this is one crap I can't stand about this party. Consider Bush. He couldn't care less what others thought of his policy but still got re-elected at the end of the day. Obama, on the other hand, is too damn busy monitoring public opinions and being conciliatory (after all, you can't piss off those fickle independents). In the meantime, the clueless morons at NATO squabble with one another while the poor Libyans are being killed.