got the gap fill at the open on 1st 5m bar. i seem to have the best trades at the open. sometimes i wonder if i should just do that and call it a day.
one of my favorite setups. 1st swing after crossing SMA(200). got one on and will see if there are any opportunities to add. also watching higher time frames as they are still wishy-washy around their respective 200.
stopped out for about $110 loss. down about $212 for the day. MNQ struggling to hold above EMA(20) on daily.
the mixed signals between time frames is a real bass-o-matic blender so this chop fest is probably to be expected.
one thing i try to keep an eye on, actually one of many but i do watch the VIX which IMO can be a good bias indicator. basically if it +/- 4% or greater than that is a fairly reliable bias pulse if you will. "+" is bearish and "-" bullish. if it is hovering anywhere in-between then it's likely chop range bound and if it flips from one to the other then possible reversal. ymmv.
just got back to break-even scalping on 1 min. also wanted to highlight the nifty Time & Sales trend indicator in Ninja. between this and the quote trend indicator in TOS i can see what's happening with order flow under the hood. took me awhile to understand it but once you get the color scheme down it can come in handy. i'll post a pic of the TOS quote trend in a bit.
screen shot of my "quick panel" on TOS and the quote trend. also, on the VIX and $TICK i have a LRC (auto linear regression channel). the blue chanel lines. all they do is give me a general direction at a glance. all this stuff is free within TOS.