Doesn't matter whether it is the same or not - Just make it your own and don't worry about whether someone else calls it something else or if someone else doesn't see it at all and instead sees something different. If you have identified a behavior that repeats and which signals something meaningful to you, then what more can you ask?
Ok so here is the 9th of Jan 2015. The upcoming charts I post won't be as detailed, I'm just wanting to show the prep that goes into the day. Hopefully it will show my thought process. First up [PreMkt] prep leaving me with this leading up to the [Open] I'm trying to keep the trading screen as minimal as possible. So whilst there are other levels I'm aware of such as the longer term Weekly trend Channel, I don't have them on the chart as too many lines just get in the way. The Hinge that price has just broken out of kind of fizzled out prior to the open; leaking out to the topside after travelling right to the apex. Greater than 2/3rds of the length of the hinge. Not very decisive from either party; [Buyers] or [Sellers]. At any rate, the levels in blue are the closest rejections of price that I am tracking out of interest at the [Open]. This is a perfect illustration of the range narrowing that DB has spoken of occurring closer to the NY open.
And now on to the session itself. I used to be commenting on price rather than doing what I should be doing which is taking note of the trader behaviour at certain levels. So what follows isn't commentary, it's basically bullet points of what I'm thinking at the time its happening. You can tell that I've borrowed heavily from Wyckoff's vocabulary, it was the only way that I could find my voice when doing this... Seems a bit weird but we're all different I guess. The trolls will no doubt have a go at me for using terminology from larger timeframes, but they are a better crutch to fall on than "buyers pushing price" etc Besides to me Price is fractal, and the market can be oversold in a 1m chart just as easily as daily, it all boils down to the behaviour of the traders in the market. A) Supply comes in to the MKT. Confirms a false BO of the Hinge. B) Oversold Position. Volume dries up. Transfer of quality. A good quality Supply overcoming poor quality Demand. C1) Overbought position after the rise from 26. Volume dries up, Spread narrows, progress is halted: Bearish C) A good quality Supply meeting poor quality Demand D) Supply absorbing orders from Buyers and closing below the Opening Low Level E) Volume drops off - Sellers exhausted. No follow through. The MKT is now ready for a reaction. Demand emerges @ 0901 with Price heading back inside the intraday RNG. F1) No Volume pick up on the reaction. Supply isn't hitting the market in sufficient size. This opens up a move back to test the prior swing high. F2) the HL @ F2) signals again that Supply is insufficient to move the market lower, accordingly we rise again. F) Important. Volume and Activity at this point all pick up to the downside (within the 1m bar), little Demand present in the move up through the last swing high. Supply picking up. G) Volume now increases on the move through the Globex Low signalling Sellers are willing to follow price lower. Just for kicks, here is the rundown of the Ranges I was tracking: I'm usually keeping an eye of the Buying and Selling waves as well, though with this days action it is quite easy to glean the balance between Buyers and Sellers
Just a couple of points. Using W's vocabulary is fine. I had to use something more graphic -- such as "buying pressure" -- because so many people couldn't make the connection between what they thought were W's abstractions with the realities of price moving up and down. Not that "buying pressure" accomplished anything more than W's vocabulary would have, but what's done is done. Too many lines and ranges and channels defeat the purpose of annotating the chart at all. I look at the weekly once a week, then the daily and hourly every day, eventually getting to something small enough that it tells me what to do at the open. But unless something is immediately useful, I delete it or leave it off to begin with. Thus, at the open, the only thing I'm looking at are the range boundaries of whatever range is being created immediately prior to the open. I'll wait until the trade arising from that resolves itself before looking at anything else. Incidentally, your journal nicely illustrates the difference between those who've studied Wyckoff and those who haven't.
Cheers, thanks for that. This is good. I can always revise my trade plan by looking left again based on what traders are doing... As usual, the application of common sense beats all other concerns.
Once I realized what W was doing in terms of AMT (I won't tell you how long it took for this to dawn on me), I then combined the two, or at least more consciously incorporated AMT into wht W presents in his course, particularly Section 7. Thus I know going in what my expectations are in terms of where price is most likely to go, and when it approaches that level, I can then zoom out or click to a larger bar interval to reorient myself. The simpler something is, the more easily one can focus on it.
DB, What kind of market returns have you experienced of late? Like YTD, past several years. I'm considering paying closer attention to you but this is my sniff test...