Here are my non-expert answers: I believe you should note which time frame offers you the best setup and then trade that particular timeframe. The best setup will be the one that offers the least risk. You want to be aware of what The Generals look at, and then if you see something happening at that point you can deduce that they are going to work. You don't want to trade exactly as you think they trade. Just want to be aware of what they may or may not be doing. Volume can be misleading. It's probably best to concentrate on price. Studying volume can turn out the same as studying TA.
I appreciate what you're saying Mac, but on both of the charts you've posted reading the ramp up in volume is integral to identifying and anticipating the BO.
3, of course , yes I can count, sometimes images don't immediately load and can be missed. Obviously you are using BDX just to illustrate a few points rather than as any form of recommendation to trade. I won't be doing any trading on Monday, just hoping my stops hold, no internet access during the day. It will be interesting to see how markets react tommorrow. I always liked the older Jom & Jerry cartoons and Foghorn Leghorn, bit dated now but still funny, but some would regard them as too violent in todays politically correct world.
I've just twigged as to the meaning of your name I started looking through the info on The Generals a while ago but didn't complete it so I need to have another look and try to filter out the relevant bits. I got the impression from various posts that we need to understand what The Generals do, but not do as they do, so that we can recognise their fingerprints in past price action and identify their levels, as knowing their levels will help us decide (on the day for daytrading) on entry, exit but as TE said "never always". Volume may well be used by The Generals when they trade, but as we intend to trade intraday we don't need volume, again thats the impression I have got from various posts. Regarding levels, its pretty obvious from monthly charts that some levels can be easily seen, but are those the ones associated with The Generals, I don't know. I need to go through the info we have to understand their levels and how they operate.
I agree that "The Generals" will use longer TFs weekly and monthly, so you need to keep tabs on those to see the potential S&R levels (or potential inflection / reaction points if you prefer) that The Generals are looking at. I wouldn't have said that they necessarily use volume themselves as such, but rather they are visible in the volume (or their foot print / finger print is), because they go in so heavily they are unable to disguise their actions in the volume sub graph. But I'm starting to think that this may not be so relevant to TE's particular methodology, since both yourself and Mac are discounting it's relevance somewhat.
I was brought up on Tom & Jerry and the like, "too violent? Political correctness my a***!!" as Jim Royale would say. I always thought Droopy was funny.
You'd know all about that being the king of drivel. What's up? No one to accuse of being a shill today?
Moreover Mac, on a basic level, why not take advantage of all of the data that the market is making available to you? IMO if you're only looking at price, then you're only getting half the story. That said, intraday volume patterns tends to be quite uniform and are most often cup shaped, peaking at the start and end of the day and drying up through the lunchtime hours. However, if you are looking for potential set-ups on the dailys and taking entries intraday when there is alignment between the timeframes, then volume can be invaluable in your analysis.
I think if you determine volume helps then you should use it; if you determine it doesn't help you shouldn't use it. You shouldn't dwell on it and study it though. For one thing you never know when somebody is going to put a huge order in the market. I know what your talking about with the cup pattern and the volume; I've seen the pictures in books, but I've seen price move with little volume and stay stagnant with big volume. If you use volume in the way you speak of you should probably find a different way of looking at it. Everyone looks at it in the same way, and if the majority are doing something, or if something looks too obvious you need to run in the opposite direction. PS. By the way I've never had a profitable year, so maybe you shouldn't listen to me just yet; just trying to be polite and answer your questions.