You don't have the "Vol With Direction" indicator. But you can construct a similar chart using TradeStation's built-in indicator called "Momentum". Their shapes look very similar. I like "Vol With Direction" better because it incorporates the volume information in the indicator instead of just price. Note those trading opportunity points are pretty much the same.
Today is the reflection of my weakness-bad reading on the bear market. Still took a few âimpulsive tradesâ. But I think I am doing a tiny better than I did before from emotional control side. I am slowwwwwly learning to tell myself that âeveryday is the opportunity for practicing to find my weakness and hone my skillâ. âEmotions screw up trade decision and make me not listen to the marketâ. âI could care less or none about the result. The more and sooner the errors and flaws I find about me and my system, the sooner I can fix so that I donât grow a bad habit that hard to erase. On the top of that, the more after-market data I can collect, the better my edge will be defined.â Okie. Todayâs trades. Trade 1: 7:20. short. Short below the Doji signal bar. I had this type of bad trade before. I took it because I saw the large void area to the left. Price broke the support level. I wanted to join the Momentum. Took the trade out when I saw no FT. The intention of the trade is mostly due to âchaseâ. But I am glad that I had the common sense to take the trade out. Trade 2: 7:48 short. Pure lack of the experience. The signal bar has too much over lapping with previous doji bar. 8:15 a perfect 2 leg pullback short with double signal bars as confirmation. Lack of experience and focus, I did not read it right. It fell down without me quickly. Trade 3: 9:55short. Now this is an emotional/impulse trade that I have to cut them out from my trades. Why I got in to this low prob trade is I didnât have the setup for the earlier 125pts sell off that started at 8:45. I also couldnât get in on a smaller time frame to look for a failed H1/LH to at least catch half of the move at 9am. So I took this bad looking setup. Trade 4: 10:14 short. This trade I really donât see anything wrong with it. Unless my read is off again here. The only problem is the move is pretty extended, but the day presented to me at that time is a hard selling down day and more down could come. And the reversal signal bar at 9:30 is a weak doji bar. More likely it might test LOD. Trade 5, 10:46 short, an even better 2 leg pullback to EMA. Got a scalp points when see the buying pressure is picking up. PnL: -19Pts, 5 trades Weekly: 16Pts, $34 Winrate: 50% Avg trade per day: 3 Largest losing trade: -9pts Largest wining trade : 29Pts Have a great weekend, everyone!
very cool. icic, how you incorporate them. Yesterday is an easy day. I will give you an example on the days that I got confused. I am getting very comfortable now with my 5 min--center of universe. Ha! I now only look at 15 min for trend and momentum. The smaller time frame will be added when I am more experienced, so I can get a better entry price. The only time I will dial down to smaller time frame is to "chase" the momentum when price clapses or spikes up. But so far, no success yet.!
Macha, Just curious, why do you think this is a bear market and not a correction? To me it is a correction, the daily trend is still up, we need to break 1281 to signal a change of trend. Anyway if you trading 5 minutes, you shouldn't care if it is a bear a bull market. Every time I come in the morning with that conviction I end deep in red.
gosh, sorry. mis typo!! I meant to say bear day. I don't do well recently in bear days! we are still in a bull market from large time frame. No signs of topping yet. IMHO
"...you shouldn't care if it is a bear a bull market. " Well said. The choice of the written word reveals the depth of the writer's understanding/experience or lack thereof...
Hi Matcha, Glad that you are making progress in the emotional front. Fixing this part of the equation is critical in this phase of our learning. Today's market was tricky in those 2 congested areas where you had your trades. I didn't do well either. Took 5 trades (2+, 3-), net -2 ES pts. Have a nice weekend everyone! --po
Hello Masters, As a new trader, I always made the similar trades as Matcha did - we put on trades in the trading range, and we are out of trade when the real trend comes. Why do we like to trade in the trading range? Because bars are small, more trading signals, like Al Brooks said to trade on High 2 or Low 2, and we stuck here, either lose or break even with tight stops. In a word, we afraid of loss and we feel comfortable trading in this area. Why can't we trade when the trend presents? Because the bars are so big, and we feel so risky, we can't find a Perfect entry point, High 2 or Low 2, that is why we missed the best trades. We need to train our Mind to think correctly to play with the market, at the same time, how do you enter the trending area and how to manage risk? Do you use some kind of indicator to tell you market in trend? Thanks!
The initial short entry was much earlier, break of the descending triangle. Once you miss a move, wait patiently, the next entry will come. Chasing momentum is great if you chase it early on, as soon as price breaks. Chasing momentum once a move is well underway is low probability; you'll mainly end up scalping or scratching, then waiting for the next entry anyway. Now that doesn't mean you absolutely shouldn't chase, because sometimes the momentum is very strong and you're positioned for a good trending move. You have enough experience to do it, then exit quickly, as you did here. Inexperienced traders can end up with a bad losing day if they chase momentum, the trend reverses and the strength of the previous move convinces them price will eventually turn back their way again, They hold the loser, or add to it, long after it's clear the move has fully reversed and a new trend is on. Or they'll keep jumping in and out of trades in the same direction as the momentum move, taking loss after loss, again long after price has stated clearly, "I'm going the other way now!" Chasing, then revenge trading, very common. After a leg in a trend, there may be indecision (usually if the larger time frame is bull and the move was bear, or vice versa), or a nice clean lower high/higher low, followed by a subsequent move. As day traders, we like to stay positioned if a trend is on, or reverse if a reversal signal is put in. Looking at your chart, if I wasn't already short the triangle break, I would've been looking to short a break of the 7:30 pivot low, or if price moved back to the 20-bar MA, I'd look to short a previous bar's low. Keep your eye open for 2-leg pullbacks to the 20, very common, as it was here. That's why I personally use the either/or for entering. Either price doesn't make it to the 20 bar MA, meaning the downside pressure is strong, so I short the breakout of the previous S level; or price works its way back to the 20 MA via a little 2-leg pullback, so I short the break of a previous bar's low IF price doesn't break through the 20 first. If price breaks through the 20 and a bar closes above it, on it, or only a little bit below it, that is a red flag for me and I may then wait for a bear trap long setup. So I would've likely shorted off the 2-leg pullback, BUT I would've covered when that failed breakout of the previous S brought price back up through the previous bar's high. I also would very likely have reversed long at the same time, looking for break through previous R in what may now become a range. If long, I would then reverse short again when price broke the 20 MA, failed to break previous R, and broke back down through the 20. That small red bar with the low at the 20 MA is my setup bar, and a break of its low is my entry trigger to the short side. If price found support again near previous S in the range, I wash, rinse and repeat until finally positioned for the break either direction (though down was most likely, because one should always assume continuation until proven otherwise and we're still remaining closed beneath the moving average). Once that range breaks, a possible measured move is in play. Take the distance from the opening spike high to the 8:30-ish pivot low, then subtract that number from the range high around 8:00am. I can't tell exact numbers from your chart but it looks like an initial target for a measured move would be about 12100.
The simple answer is that you are all followers of somebody else's system which is intrinsically lacking. If any system was intrinsically self evident, there would be no necessity for all the second guessing. Hence, those who know, never reveal their edge. As such, you need to realize that you are at the kindergarten level and should begin by viewing the market activity sans system. You will be able to judge if you are progressing when you notice that you are recognizing price activity in a manner that becomes intuitive to yourself. This is no easy task and may never be realized. However, if there is recognition, further development/evolution will manifest itself naturally through the identification of parameters and construction of a setup that becomes one's own. Only then, you will know that you have arrived.