Just looked at your first post in this thread with the chart of the YM and trying to enter short on a pullback. If you had entered on the 3br signal it would've been nearly a perfect entry short
Hey IF, Spent four hours reading through your thread, cracked up a few times, rolled my eyes a few times to some typical forum type of comments, and learned a few things as well. I'm sure since you started this thread you have picked up quite a bit and are getting more familiar with price action and getting that much closer to putting it all together. I figured I'd add my bit of helpful info as well incase it might help anyone who reads your thread. I've learned the hard way to do my best to enter in the beginning of a trend. Sounds smart ass, but what I mean is this. When trading the index's one of the most important things I'll watch is the Tick index. I have a 1 min chart of it with horizontal lines at -1000, -800, -600, 0, +600, +800, +1000. I also have audio alerts that play a wav file for each level with a female voice (not trying to point out that the voice is female, but the fact that I know what Ticks are at without having to look all the time, lol). I try to keep the bars smooshed together as close as possible to be able to view as much of the day as possible, however I keep the bars wide enough to see easily. I feel that unless the market is hitting +800 or more/-800 or less then there is most likly a lot of chop and chances are getting on a strong trend are less probable due to no real strong buying or selling pressure. If Ticks are hitting +800 or more and are only pullling back to -600. then I do not want to be looking for a short entry, I only want to be looking for a long entry, same for short but hitting -800 Tick and hittting head at +600 Tick. As soon as I see +800 and and Ticks don't pullback to more then -600 then I'm looking for an entry, either a pullback to a 20 or 21 EMA on a 1 or 2 min chart, an 8EMA on a 5 min chart, a 50-62% Fib retracement of the previous low/ most recent high, any of these. Then I'll pull the trigger on a green/ higher bar. With the Ticks hitting +800 or more and not falling past -600 you have the wind behind you, and if you are getting in the beginning of the trend, you have a less of a chance of getting stopped out verses after the move has already been through a few waves. If you can nail your entry at the beginning then you can hit your first couple targets, move your stop and sit back and give the trade room to work. Keep your stop at BE (if I'm using at least a few lots then I'll put my stop at entry -10 on the YM -1 on the ES after I hit my first couple targets. I'll leave my stop there until I have 30-40 YM Points/ 3-4 ES points, and then move it up to below the newest low made on a pullback. If you can get in the beginning you will have the ability to give it plenty of room to breathe without having to risk your own money, verses other traders who where late to the party might get wiggled out. The goal then is to let it run until it stops you out after breaking structure, you'll end up leaving 20-30 YM/ 2-3 ES points on the table leaving your stop below a recent low from a pullback, but you'll catch some 75-100 Ym/7-10 ES point runners. If you want to take profit at a Gap fill or PH/ (PL for short) you could as well as long as you have a decent size runner (50-75 Ym/5-7 ES). Watching the TICK this way keeps me on the right side of the market. Many times I'll have an MA crossover and I'll think (oh trend reversal, get ready to enter on a pullback) but I'll look up at the Tiicks, and I'll see that Ticks didn't hit -800 and are not pegged down, therefore I will ignore the first pullback to the MA's after the crossover. I'll stand aside and wait until the Ticks tell me which way the market wants to go. Many times the MA crossover would have been a fake out when ticks don't change sides as well (dive to -800 or more and not come come up past +600), and if I entered on a pullback to say for exmaple the 21EMA, I would have been ran over as Ticks went back to the trend they were in which was +800 with -600 pullbaclks. The main trend was just taking a breather with some profittaking and unexpecting traders jumped in short. ( I remeber saying your not sure sometimes when to tell if price is just pulling back or reversing). Now on the other hand if price fell and the MA's crossed over and Ticks switched to the downside as well with -800 Ticks and couldn't get up past +600 then there is more of a probable chance of a trend reversal and then a short entry on a pullback to the 21EMA on a 1 or 2 Min or 8EMA on a 5 Min after they've crossed to the downside or 50-62% Fib retracement from the recent high to the new low would be a good spot to get in at the beginning of the possible new down trend. Anyway, thanks for starting a great thread IF, I've read many Threads over the year or so I've been in here and off the top of my head I think yours is the only one I've posted on. Wish you we'll in your trading. Aaron
Hi Aaron, I was trying to configure a similar thing myself with eSignal, but it's not very effective for me. Each time the alert goes off in eSignal, I have to reset it manually. How about you? Which software are you using that allows you to receive audio alerts at these levels? Do you have to reset the audio alerts manually each time they go off? Thanks, +-*/ Math_Wiz
Hi Math Wiz, I use Esignal as well. I set the alert for each level and I check the Re arm box under (Edit). To allow the alert to re arm at the level you want enter 0 under the precentage change. This will allow the the alarm to reset at the level you want and go off again as long as the Tick reading is say for example higher then +600. It will keep going off until either Ticks go below +600 or Ticks go up to +800 which then would trigger the +800 Wav file to play. Thankfully Esignal's alert is smart enough to only play one alert at a time and plays the most extreme reading. I've tried creating this in NinjaTrader and IB and couldn't do the same thing. Not sure who else has this capability, but it sure comes in handy. It's great because I can turn up the alert and step away from the computor and not worry about missing out on any action. As soon as I hear at least a +800/-800 reading then I know something worthwhile might be going on and check it out. If you need the Wav files send me an email at aaron@globalonefinancial.com. Aaron P.S., Thought you might find this handy as well. I run 6 monitors on my charting computor with a haldful of the charts being Tick charts and during high volume times my charts freeze up. If your Esignal boggs down in high volume times and you know that the problem is not your comutor, router, internet, etc then do the following. I have asked Esignals tech department if there was anything else I could do to help things run faster and told no. Did some Google searches and found this in a Esignal forum post. Figures, just about every tech problem that I've had I end up figuring it out myself with no solutions from Esignals tech department. This will decrease the amount of resouces Esignal uses and help speed things up. On the Esignal toolbar go to tools-EFS-Settings, Uncheck (Enable performance monitor), and check (Make all formulas compute on close rather than tick by tick).
Hi Aaron, Hey, that WAS helpful, lol. Who would have guessed? And btw, I've got plenty of WAV files, but thanks. In particular, I've started using family member's voices in my WAV files, especially the females: "Hey Honey, the TICK reading is above 800!!" lol. It seems to add a feminine touch to the brawl-like trading day, sort of like balancing out the yin and yang. +-*/ Math_Wiz
LMAO, funny about the female voices. Glad that the info helped, it used to frustrate the heck out of me to when my Tick alerts didn't work right. See you around.
I looked at $Tick after reading about it in John Carter's (I think that's his name) book. I didn't find it to be helpful or reliable. Maybe it's just me. Glad you deemed my thread worthy of making a post
Feel free to share some quantified $Tick strategies. As I said I was unable to make it work by applying the mechanical rules given in John Carter's book.