Greetings, Sprout: It seemed Howard was asking you, .... I wouldn't mind seeing a screenshot of your screens .... if you would favor him and all the rest of us, with your trading setup rather than your verbiage which is impressive.... but a pix is worth lots more.... NO, you really do not have to do it.... it is your right to do whatever pleases you the most.... really! Happy trading Sprout and everyone....
who would want the market to know when they are buying and selling....what about market orders how do you track those
Yes, it seems like it. For some reason, I'm still attracted to the Jigsaw platform and find that SC has a really eighties feel and look to it. That said, there's no way I can justify paying $600 to get a DOM when I already have a lot of overhead and can use the SC DOM for $25 bucks per month. Not just that, but I'm not yet convinced it will become an integral part of my trading, so $600 is a bit much to swallow. A lease plan would be better similar to what NT have. I actually talked to a guy who went from Jigsaw to SC.
Why even waste time to see how they trade today? It's much simpler, you have a teacher selling you a course and he's saying he's been trading for over 10 years? GREAT! SEND ME YOUR TAX RETURNS FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS WITH THE BROKER STATEMENTS OF THE LAST 10 YEARS! They won't do that. Why? Because if they would been making money then they wouldn't be selling courses to idiots for $99 or $1000 Traders trade, they ain't got time to teach. You only sell your edge when your edge is gone. Not a day earlier. End of story.
I hope you don't consider me an idiot. I think what you're saying is correct - at least if you're a very successful trader. As for John Grady, I don't doubt he's making some kind of money, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't make big money. It seems he's basically scalping for a few ticks here and there. So, his trading education is probably supplementing his income. I don't see any harm in that.
I'm closing in on the end of the course. I'm not sure how much new stuff I will learn by the end of it. What I'm learning is that this (or his) approach is very subjective. You're basically guessing what will happen based on your interpretation of resting limit orders, speed, market orders being transacted, volume and volume profile. The biggest revelation for me have been that my current basic DOM (and probably most basic DOMs) are very lacking since it doesn't show the necessary detail to better understand what's happening and what HAS happened (yes, order flow traders also use price history). In my opinion, order flow trading isn't really that different from chart analysis. I find it a big turn off that these guys are busy bashing technical analysis and charts when essentially they're doing much of the same thing. I guess it's part of their sales pitch... You're basically looking at what price has done in the past (could be the last 5-10 seconds, it's still the past. What does price do moving from level to level? Does it slow down? Does it accelerate? Is the level respected? Does S/R hold? With a Jigsaw DOM (or Sierra or similar) you can see areas of high volume which are hypothized to slow down price movement and create support or resistance. The same thing can be visualized in charts... So, to me, or maybe I have got it all wrong, there isn't a huge difference between reading order flow and reading charts. It's variations of the same theme. That said, I will probably add the DOM to my workspace as I can see that it has added value for reading the market on a more detailed level. Knowing the current volume being transacted and available can also be useful when entering and exiting the market.
If you are good, sooner or later you will find out the deficiency of DOM tradings and why majority of DOM traders end up selling something. Likewise footprint sellers.
I really feel like repeating myself here. One order flow educator said that 'The chart trader is not paying attention to the activity and speed of activity and the overall bigger picture (are bids/offers getting 'crushed') or is a specific level holding or not. Or missing out on the ebb and flow of the market. Paraphrasing. As a chart trader/quantitative trader I strongly disagree with that. Even when I was a pure (time) chart trader I would always be paying very good attention to the upticks and downticks of price. Basically reading order flow as upticks and downticks and the speed of movement. Charts also very nicely illustrate recent ebb and flow, while the DOM trader needs to rely on 'memory'. Some of these DOM traders also use a volume profile which again is a chart. These days, I'm also using tick charts and volume charts which certainly acts as a very good proxy of activity. Possibly better so than the DOM. And bids and offers getting crushed? Well, price moving one way or the other (as shown on charts) is the evidence of that happening. I wish these vendors could sell their stuff without the bashing of charts and instead market it as offering extra information (which is true) that could supplement or replace charts for those who prefer that. I'm part of the first group. I now use the Jigsaw DOM and it's a tremendous improvement of most other DOMS I use. There's also some other bells and whistles which I might be interested in using. The T&S tools also seems interesting. In particular the reconstructed tape. So, I can highly recommend it on that basis. But for me currently, it's just supplemental information which I find interesting to display and watch and I'm still learning to use it. But my core methodology is still based on statistics/charts and I swing for points, not ticks. Jigsaw also have some gauges and meters, but personally, I think I'll stick with my tick/volume charts for that. They show very nicely volume transacted and the pace of the price change.
For those of you utilizing the DOM or even consider yourself DOM only traders - do you also use the Time & Sales a lot?