You may already have played with this, but, if not, when faced with a substantial expansion bar (wide-range bar), consider using the "pivots" on a 1 or 2m chart to trail the stop rather than the bottom or top of that 5m bar. This may get you out too early if the move has more left in it, but you're after quick profits anyway, and this would get you out closer to the turn if it becomes a reversal.
Well in that case it MUST be better, and of course you got all 11 pts didn't you? When are you going to add something, I mean ANYTHING, of value to this thread? Let's give it another two hours and see how many people are willing to tolerate your stupid groupie ass attempting to destroy yet another thread. In short, either put up or fuck off.
Just for an example: BUY pivot formed at 14:50, ten bars later SELL pivot was formed at 15:40, buy one point above SELL pivot high with stop at Sell pivot low. Pullback trade basically. Providing , that trend is up . Walter
I think it would very difficult to define the Sell Pivot high. I have a whole different set of rules for pullback trading but let's not discuss pullbacks, until breakouts have been mastered! Pullback trading is much harder than breakout trading in my opinion.
Just to crystallise for the first time readers: we're talking about where to trail your stop-loss after you enter and you get sharp sudden move in your favour. Yep I've played with trailing behind the 1 and 2 min bars, this but I've never been very good at it! What I tend to do instead is 'eyeball' that big 5 min bar and place my stop in the lower half or third of it. A big bar like that should never be retraced too much. By accident, I may end up trailing behind your 1 and 2 min bars. But the problem with watching such bars is the sheer distraction factor. You start seeing all kinds of shit that you shouldn't be. You start bailing too early when you "think" you see a reversal. So I prefer to stick with the 5 min and use my discretion where to trail the stop, after a big bar. I'm also eyeballing the other 3 markets and watching for strength/weakness. It's enough for me to watch the action on 4 charts without going to 8 or 12!! I think it's more important to give these trades 'wiggle-room' on a 5 minute than to start guessing the end of the move on a smaller timeframe.
I understand your point. We've all experimented with stops and tried to come up a compromise between giving away too much and getting out too soon. But before I abandon this, I just wanted to clarify that I wasn't talking about trailing the 1m or 2m bars per se, but the endpoints of the reactions. For instance, if long, and faced with an expansion bar on the 5m, one could follow the reaction or "pullback" on the 1m/2m and move the stop up just below the bottom of it. The objective of the trade matters, of course: whether one wants a quick profit or is trying to catch what might be a trend. Just a thought.
Sim, Sorry if I read thru this too fast and am missing something but on your example, you said the 16:10 bar was the trigger however it's the initial bar that breaks the upper BB. the 10:15 bar defines the pivot but I don't see a subsequent lower lo that I thought you were looking for to confirm the pivot. What am I missing here? I apologize for the catty comment earlier to ditch. bad way to start out but I must admit the reason I haven't posted up to now was because of all the bs. I think open discussion to learn from what others are doing should be enabled rather turned into a pissin' contest and I'm sorry I lowered myself to his level. Gene
You're right, you could trail behind any 1 min or 2 min pullback pivots. My problem is that I'm not good at looking at this timeframe! The attached is a trade I made yesterday in the DAX selling under the 10:15 EST (16:15 chart) bar. At the time, the ES and YM were really saying they didn't want to go down! It was hard enough trying to stay with this short. Had I been watching the 2 min chart and seen that 10:44 (16:44 on my chart) reversal bar I would have convinced myself that that the move was over. As it was, it pulled back but made another dip to new lows and I just squeezed out the 15pts. I know my own weaknesses too well to look at these timeframes. But a better trader than me might have use for them!