They are not for making trades. They are for telling you what type of trade setups you should take, and how far you should set your stops, and etc... Internals are rock solid at telling you how much different volatility levels are from the day before, especially tick.
I really have no clue what I'm looking at in the charts from the previous posts, as there are no labels to indicate what the charts are describing. You chose a straight down day, and a straight up day (trend days) to illustrate your theory. The fact that there are no corresponding trade entries shown on these charts proves the difficulty of using such a lagging indicator to make real-time decisions. Not saying you are wrong, but any lagging indicator will serve as confirmation of a decision, and not as a predictor of what decision should be made. That is what live trading is all about...looking at the chart, and deciding whether or not to pull the trigger based on what is on the screen at that moment. Certainly internals can give you an indication of which side to trade in trending markets such as the charts you posted, but such days only occur 20% of the time, according to all the studies I have read. What about the other 80% of the time, when the internals continuously swing from long to short and back again?? If all it took to make money was reading the TICK/TRIN/UVOL-DVOL, would anyone with less than a ten figure capitalization even stand a chance in the markets?? You have found a method that works for you, and my kudos to you for your confidence in that method. To say it is akin to raping the retail trader may be a bit of an overstatement.
I dunno man. I have been watching internals a long time. They confirm which direction the market is currently moving, how fast it's moving. Etc... Look at 4-26... With internals like that you instantly know that any down move is fake. Take any buy setups and win! Of course, internals might not be too useful to people who are not futures traders. I am in a trade for at most 30 minutes. Usually 10-20 minutes.
4-26 was really easy to see technically... To say the least! To have internals confirm that the market was solid really helps me hold my trades longer. It's just another dip in an uptrend that will end early May. Then things get complicated again once we near the highs. When the market is in a solid trend... It never stops on a dime without warning. There is always a warning.
You don't need internals to trade in a market this predictable, but they do help confirm your trades and the trading strategy you should use for the day. I mean look at this daily/4d chart... When this market is in a rally it NEVER collapses unexpectedly without a solid divergence or breakdown of range/momentum loss weeks beforehand. It's nice being a trader because you don't have to worry about black swan events. If there is any truly terribly bad news governments make sure to announce it over a holiday/weekend to lessen the effect. Either that or it's a announcement that everyone already has marked on their calendars.
I have watched internals for a long time myself. About fifteen years to be more precise. I found that since I removed them from my decision-making process, my trading has improved. Again, not saying you are wrong. If it works for you, then more power to ya'.
How long do you hold trades? And, are you a futures trader? If you have any other style of trading other than 15-30 minute long short term futures trades... Internals and Tick are probably not that useful for you. I also use Tick to help time trades better.
Another day where internals NAIL it. Internals are the best... NQ internals were weaker today than the ES. If internals are weak, all pops will fail until a uptrend is established again. Enough said. Hey, don't frown at my small size. This is my first time trading the NQ. Once I get more used to it ill size up to 2-4 or so. Trades a bit different than the ES... Rippy mother!
As for overall market internals... NYSE Tick far left, then Nasdaq tick, then UVOL-DVOL. As the market gapped a couple points, the volume will be very slightly bearishly biased today, but still mostly accurate. Kinda hoping for a little capitulation before we start trending up again, but whatever... Just gotta trade what the market gives you. The real tell is going to be the 1PM hour when some big players should get back from lunch.