Thank you for this comment. There are times where I wonder if this isn't just dumb luck and that one day I will set about my trading to find the rug has been pulled out from under me. I feel more confident now that I am indeed looking at the right things, observing the right things, and acting correctly, for the most part, based upon those observations.
I do not trade crude oil futures, but reading nodoji's posts have piqued my interest in observing it on a one minute bar interval. Here are some observations I made this evening. The yellow rectangle should be self-explanatory. The attempt to breakout would have garnered a buy stop (noted by the small blue hexagon) had the retracement been a retracement. Instead, it was a reversal, and the sell-stop position I would use in this situation is the red hexagon. A secondary short entry is represented by the second red hex. I have observed similar price action on the NQ, especially just before the market opens, where a range sets up, the market opens with an attempt to breakout of that range, but quickly reverses.
Niko was also trading crude oil at one time. I am not sure whether he's into it or not anymore but wouldn't harm to get some input from him. I think his reason was that on days NQ wasn't moving crude might provide opportunities but as time went on I believe he started getting distracted as to which instrument to use. Now this last part may be a figment of my imagination. Gringo
It's very encouraging to see your performance and more importantly, the thinking behind it. That long on the open had such a simple rationale and yet it was so powerful.
I beg to differ. Using 1m charts seem like a great way to get a jump on an impending move. Thus the signals used are BASED on the 1m as entry. In my experience, using a 1m for entry means the exit STOPS should also be based on the 1m chart. It is not easy to take a signal in a smaller timed chart and NOT be taken out on the same 1m chart and then see a directional move take off on the 5m. It is like taking a date to a show or a dance.........."you are obligated to leave with the one you brung" I am a BAD scalper, I know that, I tried to fight that, it never worked for me, PERIOD. Last year I gave 1m charts another look, I gave it a huge try, no-mas. What happens is very simple, I get caught up in the small stuff and missed the good stuff................ the 5m is my main squeeze and shall remain as such. Those that can use the 1m as entry and not get caught up in micro managing, they are better than me in that category... :eek: OHH, a little brag.........197 ticks today, all off 5m... lol trade well guys. PS: A signal that sets up on a 5m chart has a far better chance of working and producing "follow-through" because that is the main chart used by directional players seeking a "runner" and not just a scalp move.......... The earlier entry on a few 1m signals is like a slot machine drawing you in to lose your money.....
Price moves continuously, trade by trade, tick by tick. How we choose to summarize it -- 12t, 15s, 1m, 3m, 8m, 37m -- makes no difference to the market. Reading bars is not the same thing as reading price movement. Those who know only the former may regard much of the latter as "noise". But there is no such thing as noise. Every trade contributes to the picture.
Sounds logical and easy but how many times do we see price break resistance and suddenly reverse ? How about failing to continue during its very first pullback ? I'm not market surfer, I believe in TA but you try to make it sound easier than it actually is, and the fact is, that it never is.
So here is how today went for me: Overnight price showed that the 72 level +/- a point here and there is a level that is being watched, and thus bears watching. The thick cyan blue line on my chart is drawn at 72. If you remember, this was the level of yesterday's premkt and opening low that set up the "dod didn't bark" long entry. Yesterday's afternoon selling hit 67 during NY PM hours, bounced back toward that 77.50 +/- level that was noted here yesterday, and thden dropped to a lower low at 64, back to 72 (73.50) then to test 64 (63.50), and then back to our friend, 72, where I noted a nice little hinge sequence 6:44 - 7:19, with price breaking up at 7:20 AM. The next stop was around the 80 level. The dark blue dashed lines on my charts, such as the one shown at the 80 level, are used to mark a midpoint of a range, hinge, or a daily Hi/Lo. In this case, 3080 is the midpoint between Monday's overnight 3060 low and yesterday's high. So, during my breakfast, I had plans for two trades depending upon what the market did first: 1) I would short a LH on a retest of 80, or 2) I would buy a test of 72 as support. Here is how I considered it (and this is why I spend so much time on the overnight/premkt price action: Once price was back above 72, having knocked against it so often in the last two days, two things would not be surprising. First, a rally to 80 midpoint, and second, a test of 72 as potential support. Having rallied to 80 +/- premkt and pulled back, it became a game of wait and see which would come first. I bought at 72.50 during the 9:38 bar interval on a limit order that I set almost two minutes earlier after the first test of 72 (72.25). I held the long through the first consolidations/pullbacks of 9:41 through 10:06, where I stopped out of my long and reversed short at 79.75. I stayed short as a hinge-like hinge within a hinge sequence developed between 9:49 to 10:13, with a break down during the 10:14 bar. Then, a funny thing happened. The dog didn't bark! Not only did the dog not bark, but price through it an additional bone in the form of a higher low during the 10:20 bar interval. This had me once again closing one trade and opening another as I switched from short to long at 77.75. This time, price went straight through 3080, and thus I set my sights on a test of yesterday's 100 high. I added to the long at 81.50 during the 10:32 bar intervaal, and again at 89 during the 11:39 bar interval. By noon, I had to get going to work, so I placed my stop at 93, and a limit order at 100. I was stopped out of the whole position at 93 during the 12:12 bar interval. I do not know if the lines I drew around what I perceive as "hinges" or at least "hinge-like" behavior are properly called "trend lines." I have not been accustomed to using trend lines, or supply/demand lines before encountering this thread. I do not draw these lines on my chart as I trade. I do draw the horizontal levels, e.g. the lines at 72 and 80 were on my chart before the NY open. I drew the other lines around the hinges after the fact at the request of another ET member's PM. Comments, as always, are welcome.
Sounds like a symphony, but reality is chop does exist and it kills. Again, you keep making it sound like trading or reading price is a walk in the park, it is not.