Thanks for all your help Db. I hope I'm not being too much of a bother. My questions just come up as I experience different situations that arise. I just wanted to know what you do when you get into a position before 10am on a day when eco news is expected like today. What I did today was short the NQ after the 983 breakdown slightly after open. But as I've had bad experiences with 10am eco news, I covered it at 975 right before the 10am announcement. Then just wait to see if there was a new breakout after 10:05 or so, which didnt happen. Do you stay with the position and be ready w/ stops or do you avoid holding positions over the announcements? Also, I think this would entain other strategy tactics. But hope you dont mind my asking. The NQs made a breakout from a pretty good base in the afternoon upwards. I wasnt able to get this because I wasnt really sure that was the 'move'. What would you be using to differentiate that move from the small bases that just remained in the range between 10am to early afternoon. Thanks again Db.
First, I don't enter before an important 1000 report unless the gap is at least 1% and it fills quickly. The gap strategy, however, has nothing to do with the breakout strategy. Second, an early entry could have been made on the NQ due to the fact that it had established resistance at 979 and that it broke through that resistance at exactly the same time as the ES made a new high. However, one could also have waited to enter until the NQ made a new high itself and still made a successful trade if he wanted to wait around for almost five hours for it. --Db
Scroll up to NihabaAshi's post from 2/18. Ordinarily I wouldn't have mentioned it, but somebody said I only point this stuff out in hindsight, so there it is. --Db
Since nothing's going on, I've uploaded a chart of yesterday's 2B. Note that the uptrend is broken at "8:12". Price then makes a new high and drops below the previous one (1001). What makes this particular 2B higher probability than usual is that resistance had been established at 1003 on three occasions during the previous two days. It could, of course, have wound up being nothing more than a retracement on its way to new highs, but that's what stops are for. --Db
I'm glad the chart helps to clarify. That trade was worth 19 to 25pts yesterday, depending on the exit strategy. Today, of course, the 2B hasn't gone anywhere, and anyone playing it would probably already be out, depending on his stops and his patience --Db
The 2B looks very interesting. I've mostly been using double tops/bottoms and some candle signals to look at reversals. I'm wondering though, where would the entry of the 2B be? Is it the break of the previous high (for tops) and previous low (for bottoms) or is it better to wait for the break of the 1st candle under that like described in dacharts.com? Also, what signs show a 'better' 2B formation or a 'weaker' 2B formation that is likely to just be a pullback? Thanks again.