1 min would be too short bar duration in order to teach yourself. You could try on 5 and 30 min. Bar-bar analysis means you start with 1 bar but then extend analysis from that, to 2 bars, then 3, then 4, then 5, etc. This way you build an aggregate from the fastest data-components first, thus not having to wait 21 or 65 bars for signals. Straight lines will be preferable due to accuracy, ie. like zig zag above as a suggested exercise. If someone posts charts we can together build on from own standpoint and see what can be infered further. Concluding before 20 days of inference and focused work would be premature.
CL and NQ are my trading horses so... try this 1. remember both futures are very fast, especially CL which is full of hedgers who operate with huge volume per transaction. So try 30 sec timeframe and compare with 1 min. For NQ also try 'long term' 2 min. 2. for time based chart put the range of the bar histogram versus volume histogram. Do you see a lot of differences? May be you see how volume is leading? If so, do not forget to share your observations... 3. try to couple time based chart with range bar chart. Use 8 to 12 ticks for NQ, 3 to 5 ticks for CL
Simples, you trade ES if I understand correctly, and may be (I do not know) for ES it is good timeframe. ES is 100% speculative. CL is totally different. The volume distribution across time scale is extremely far from uniform. The spikes are sudden and huge, because of hedgers activity. For any 5 min high volume bar 80% of volume are in 15-30 second interval. So 1. 5 min timeframe seems to be 'long term' for intraday short term traders. 2. pro rate volume is totally misleading for CL BTW, reason for the minute about the activity on CL. Hedgers and big speculators step in when and if they get proper PRICE to activate the trade. Firstly, the proper price level is seen, and than the activity manifests. PRICE first, VOLUME second, RSI&MACD&others are third. Price leads, volume follows. Is the ES differnt? May be...
Thank you for sharing your experience and inspiring investigation. The JHM method is traditionally for ES 5 min and 30 min, so such chart would probably be best for training. Though other markets and timeframes should follow the same principles - with some natural variations of course. I've trained on QQQ EOD-bars for instance, and not yet fully incorporated ideas from JHM. For intraday/CL/NQ you know your specifics better than me. Factual charts is helpful for differentiation. For differentiating JHM one needs to adjust/shelve some of what one already knows in order to "fill the cup" with additional, different knowledge. It doesn't destroy what you already know, just provide more practical efforts on the differentiation aspects of trading. There are some misunderstandings floating around. According to my aquired/current understanding of JHM: In JHM price is definately most important. Price will make or break your account from actual trades. As making money is most important in JHM, price-fluctuations naturally are of utmost importance. SCT is all about staying on the right side of the market, but also sidelining when required to preserve capitals. Though, if one only analyse price, such can not always lead, and only do so by necessity/proxy. So this is why volume is always part of JHM, as the independent variable, in order to gauge price, the dependent variable, and pace. A start is: With zero volume, there's no more price! Charts with volume can assist clearing up the ever-present confusion in price and provide insights into dominance and non-dominance. Update to latest post with attachments: Looking at your newly posted charts, one of them has very much fewer bars. Both TFs / instruments look as expected, with squiggly lines and appropriate volume colors. Now could a manual "Zig Zag" infer insights when looking at the whole chart? Noting that the last Z*g would not be "final" yet, and no need for perfection, just hindsight estimations. For now: The manual differentiation-process itself more valuable than any results and conclusions. So no need for indicators or programming. ATR could be removed for now, just to provide even more focus on price and volume with minimum distraction.
funnily enough i see no difference see my chart the bar which is marked with yellow arrow and the volume for that bar is indicated with yellow arrow happens to be the lowest volume in the last 10 bars:this is called a test and is a strong buy signal. Why? for that you have to read Tom Williams book 'master the markets' it is not that volume will give you signals on every bar sometimes it confirms the price action as valid. it is difficult but possible to explain here but is the effort worth it when it is told in the book?
volume has it's place in the analysis but very often the volume signal is over ruled by momentum especially when the trend is strong and like everything else in technical analysis has to be put in context. do not forget volume like momentum or trendlines is relative and low volume may get even lower ......so what is low and high is very subjective. often volume will signal weakness which will turn out to be temporary.....so taking ANY SELL SIGNAL including that of volume in a strong trend should not be done if the context is not right declining volume is as sign of weakness but as any trader knows the market can get weaker and weaker and still continue trending. but used correctly it does provide an edge
perhaps ....if you can read price action you do not need anything else..but what happens to the less talented folks?
It exactly means, "they don't know what they're talking about". At best, volume is coincidental with price. At worst, misleading. Do yourself a favor and forget volume entirely.