Interesting that the more we "discuss" this the more spaces you put in your responses. My whole point is that you see a tick (transaction) as a whole single item. I agree, if you are using Tick Charts, where the whole item you are assessing is instrumental. I simply take that transaction to its smaller part, the share or contract. Sorry, time is still irrelevant for the reasons given and I will add that velocity and acceleration is irrelevant as well (TO ME & MY research and trading). I see directional strength perfectly in my charts without time. I don't care what time it is when it happens, I just care that I see it as it triggers. Triggers NEVER happen at the exact same moment each day but they do happen within the exact same oscillation parameters, whatever time they occur. Your examples of the guy executing trades at lunch or after market is irrelevant to me because their volume simply adds to the overall reflection of price movement. The guy executing trades at lunch doesn't do it daily nor does he ONLY execute his trades only at noon on a specific tick of the clock, so time isn't relevant. Time bounded theory is pre-CVB charts so not relevant either. The difference between you and I is that I look at data & information and say that NOTHING is impossible until I can PERSONALLY prove it wrong. You look at something and say it is impossible because it is against your sensibilities but you refuse to PERSONALLY validate anything you don't understand. As I said, until you set up a chart and see it for yourself you won't beleive it or trust it. You are referencing old research as current fact. Nuff said.
I trade off a naked, standard chart. No volume. Works fine. Lots of ways to skin a cat. I see the market as an ecosystem. Each profitable method has an extraction potential that defines its hierarchy on the foodchain.
Here's the best pattern I know: 1. Find a market whose price is clearly in a bull or bear trend. 2. Find a market player who has a strongly held opinion contrary to the price trend of the market. 3. Wait for the market to enter a short-term pullback or correction against the trend 4. Wait for the trend-fading trader to start bragging or cheerleading their position vociferously - saying how much they made, how the market is about to have a huge move in their favour, how the people on the other side are wrong and are going to lose their shirts. Ideally, the trend-faders should actually start insulting the trend-following crowd. 5. Fade the noisy trend fader, entering in the direction of the long-term trend and against the short-term pullback or correction. 6. Repeat until the trend fader capitulates or goes completely silent/AWOL - then book your profits. This is one of the most reliable patterns you will find in the markets.
Interesting analogy and I agree with the ecosystem viewpoint. Also agree with, "lots of ways to skin a cat".
Sorry but if you researched what I'm talking about you would understand the differences in our views. You don't and this isn't leaping to any conclusions that is a simple elementary observation.
The debate between tick charts vs. volume charts is something I've been mulling over the past two years. Here are some thoughts I have on ES (the only product I trade). I started using tick bars because I noticed the charts were cleaner. I trade using pattern recognition (100% automated). The CME decided to provide more ticks in their data in October 2009, so I switched over to volume bars. There wasn't much of a difference in performance. For very short-term trading, I've concluded that it doesn't really make a difference. I believe it's because there's a pretty constant mix of big and small traders making trades at any given moment. Just pull up a 5000 volume bar chart and a 900 tick chart. Hard to tell the difference. It will be interesting to see if the ratio of volume per tick stays fairly constant over time. D