Apologies if it's been mentioned already but the best moves from patterns are when they fail and do the opposite of what most expect.
But it's not that cut and dry, as it all depends on the situation, doesn't it? A reversal pattern that fails near the end of a trend will not be as attractive as a continuation pattern that fails at the end of a correction. The very fact that a reversal pattern formed before failing is an indication of weakness, while the failure of the continuation pattern puts the price movement back into the direction of the primary trend.
Isolating trading patterns without context is a big marketing gimmick in the trading-teacher market, not to imply that anyone is doing that in this thread.
First of all, this is a trading forum where people share any aspect of their trading. They are not required to share everything they do although doing such (sharing everything) would be nice but in reality is not possible. If you don't like that aspect of this forum that its impossible for any trader or teacher to share everything at this forum or any where else... Get lost and be a troll elsewhere. The fact and reality is this. Nobody can give you everything you've been complaining about since your arrival here at this forum. You're talking about a book that is 10,000 pages and I'm confident nobody will do such for you here or anywhere else because most of that stuff is your responsibility as a trader to learn on your own...mainly because there's a ton of stuff involved in trading that just can not be taught. It must be learned on your own. *****Simply, you must fill in the blanks on your own. If you can not do such on your own or you do not want to do such or you don't know how to ask questions about such in a respectful manner...trading is not for you while you hang out at a forum full of traders that share or teach their trade methods.***** Thus, I find your above statement that's quoted to be hilarious and a lie considering I've seen the opposite stated by many people that have a constant beef with other members here at the forum that share their trade strategies and have a constant beef with mentors that charge a fee. Statements like the reason why mentors or teachers or gurus teach market context is because their patterns have no merits. Lets be clear, anybody that teaches or shares their trade strategies for free or do such for a fee is what you really have a beef against regardless to the fact that both are doing exactly the same thing...sharing their trade strategy. The difference is that those that charges a fee usually are not anonymous whereas those that do it freely at Elitetrader.com or any other forum are anonymous. Seriously, I can name +50 ET members at this forum that have freely shared their trading strategies (patterns) here at this forum without or with very little info about market context, without or very little info about risk management, without or very little info any statistical reference of the patterns in specific markets, without or very little info about a trading plan for patterns, without or very little info about their own profitability in using such and so on. My point, this is really not a market gimmick as you have just intentionally lied about. In contrast, a lot of folks that share their trade methods...they make the error or assumption that the trader will learn that stuff on their own or already have learned that stuff considering its something that most traders should have already learned prior to trading some pattern. If you thinking I don't know what I'm talking about...take a look at the following threads @ http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index.php?pages/hall-of-fame/ The above threads are just a small percentage of the "teaching threads" here at this forum that involves someone "teaching" a trade method. There are many more "teaching threads" here at this forum that are my favorite that's not even in the above list... The teachers in many of those threads that didn't make the Hall of Fame didn't talk about any context although they went into specific details about other aspects involving their trade method. Heck, I remember someone here by the name of Anekdoten teaching his trade strategy and he gave what looks like a very detailed explanation of his trade strategy in the very first message post. http://www.elitetrader.com/et/index...itable-strategy-for-struggling-traders.99283/ Note: The above is one of my favorite threads because its a perfect example of someone sharing info about what he thought was important although many members felt was missing critical information. Several veteran traders showed up in that thread and complained he didn't go into any specific details about risk management, market context, discipline, suitable broker platforms and so on beyond just mentioning generalities. Anek's response - if you didn't know that stuff already...you should not be reading my thread. Someone else responded to the veteran trader...if you need specific details that's lacking in this thread...just politely ask a question about such instead of complaining that its missing and hopefully someone else can share their details about context or risk management or discipline or proper broker platforms. Simply, a lot of folks that share their strategies believe there are aspects of trading that you should have already learned or plan to learn prior to applying the details of a trade pattern or strategy that they are sharing with you. Others showed up to demand proof that it works. Oddly, the complainers refuse to test the method themselves beyond just looking at a few charts here and there. Q3D, I wish I was a moderator at this forum...I would BAN your butt for your trolling with the constant attacks on anyone that shares their trade method, shares their trade strategy, shares their pattern here or anywhere else via these subtle attacks you make along with statements like not to imply that anyone is doing that in this thread. Of course that's exactly what you're implying because market context or risk management or anything else you constantly b.i.t.c.h about at this forum that isn't being shared reminds me of teenage girls walking around saying things like..."oh, you're wearing that but I'm not implying anything". P.S. Someone failed to teach you in your upbringing that if you're not implying something...don't say it at all.
The fact that PROPERLY understanding trading patterns requires context is an important distinction that must be acknowledged, usually this realization comes after the extreme loss of retail trader's capital. I see you as a troll in your post.
You were identified as a troll by others within your first 10 message posts at the forum based upon one topic only...your repetitive message about one person. I doubt you will stop and will soon be back at it again. With that said, do you seriously think someone talking about patterns is going to discuss instead "market context". Just the same, as stated in your other discussions elsewhere in another thread...do you think someone talking about patterns is going to talk about risk management. Just the same in another thread here...do you think someone talking about if TA works that they should be talking about something else you're interested in or complaining about ? Its simple, if you have a sincere interest in talking about market context...start a thread about such or ask a question (respectfully) about such instead of implying this thread or any other like it is a market gimmick. Doesn't that make sense to you ? As you can see, the issue is your market gimmick statement along with making subtle attacks towards anyone sharing their method, strategy or pattern at this forum. In contrast, you pretend this was about properly understanding trading patterns when you have not provided any information about such yourself. If the latter was true in which you have an interest in market context, you would have not made your subtle market gimmick attack commentary. Trolls do the latter and you've been repetitive about such in other threads from context, risk management, discipline and so on...a troll does such whenever someone shares. Seriously, prove me wrong if this is about properly understanding patterns via context and not about a market gimmick of patterns via starting a discussion about context of the patterns discussed in this thread...go for it. Start your conversation about market context. Help me understand the context you're alluding about to prove to me you're not making another blanket attack statement whenever someone shares something here at this forum involving patterns or TA. P.S. There's a very nice thread here at ET about market context. You can link to it if you want after you research the topic. You can also restart the conversation in that old thread.
For me market context is based on moving averages of price and VWAP and price action on the monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, 15 minute, 5 min, and 1 min charts. It's based on the size of orders coming in at the bid and the ask, the macroeconomic and reports due that day, volume being traded and resting orders on the DOM and the overall momentum of the market and market sentiment / seasonal and cyclical context as well.
Q3D, There's a lot of gurus and teachers here that mention something similar via a simple statement here at ET as you just did but they don't discuss such in every single message post they make when they're talking about patterns or TA nor will they correlate such with any price action on their posted charts when talking about charts. They just "assume" you'll understand it and correlate with the chart by yourself without any examples of all the details working together in a specific trade even in hindsight. Its just too much info to get into beyond just mentioning the names of what's being used. Market context is defined many different ways. To me, my context only involves macroeconomics, global events, geopolitical events, schedule reports and any seasonal/intraday tendencies to give me the context before I trade. In fact, as a trader that uses TA via price action, I don't trade if I don't understand the context regardless if my perspective of the context for the day, for the hour or for whatever duration is correct or incorrect. Once again, you can not possibly discuss (explain) in detail all of that you stated beyond just mentioning their names with your chart analysis. This is why most traders do not do that type of discussion because the mentioning of one door leads to another room that requires detailed explanation. Simply, they prefer to only talk about patterns...its a very easy topic to discuss. Seriously, I'm sure discipline is an important aspect in your trading but its a very difficult topic to talk about for most beyond just stating that I use discipline and its important in my trading results. Thank you for sharing your definition of context and its a very tough topic to discuss in comparison to a pattern discussion.