Today, I tryed to let my trades run out longer but it seemed that I left out to much profit whenever they trade only moved a point or 2. It also didn't help that I was getting stopped out by alot of nasty wicks today. They were killing me. I did end the day with a nice profit so I am happy but still. How do you guys and girls deal with wicks stopping out your stops?? Thanks.
Anek, this noob needs some help with the terminology. What does "2B" and "OR-L" mean? On a side note, allow me to point out that the "M formation" in your chart looks more like a pennant or a triangle. Now, granted that you nailed the breakout to the top. What kept you in the trade despite the "head fake" that initially pushed the price below the pennant? (Truth be told, I'm asking more out of cynicism than curiousity, but in good spirit towards another fellow trader nonetheless.)
Let me answer: OR-L = open range low , it's range from 9:30 to 9:45 OR-H = open range high 2b - it's a reversal formation http://www.dacharts.com/2b.htm
I think the first thing we can do is try to find intelligent places to enter our stops...as Anek has said ...protect your stops as if they were your children. Having said that, I think it is just one of those things we have to learn to live with. Better to get wicked out and take a small loss, rather it turn into something larger small losses, small profits, big profits....all acceptable.
2B = Trader Vic's 2B, look it up its quite popular ORL = Opening Range Low, can be 15 or 60 min, in this case 15 min I call Ms imperfect D-Tops, in come cases they can be bearish 2Bs, if the PA applies, that one was unconfirmed. I did not trade the morning was gaming, taking a break, the chart was just a hindsight analysis, did a few scalps in the afternoon and still remain short on a balance from a swing from 912 from Friday afternoon that had brutal confluence. Anek
It's a ruler, just a tool, nothing special without the trader. Combine with PA and it might serve you well, helps me. Time for some relaxation, less forum, less charts more recreational activities. Good trading. Anek
My two cents on this topic from studying Anek's past charts. (I saved nearly all of them and refer to them from time to time). If you go back on your own trading system and plot horizontal lines corresponding to the 15 minute opening range of ES or any stock, you will find that quite frequently the ORL/ORH lines serve as support and resistance throughout the day. Given today's trading, you can see ORH act as resistance at 9:38am (original range defining moment), 9:59, and 15:45 EST. the 15:45 EST resistance point at 864.25 was the last gasp upwards before the end of the day dump. 864.25 ORH also acted as support a few times during the afternoon narrow range/triangle. ORL at 854.75 was support at 9:41, 9:46, 11:37 and 11:44. It resisted at 10:35. I often leave the prior day's ORL and ORH as S/R lines on my charts for further reference. I change the color to a drab olive so I know it was yesterday's range. I have the current day's ORH/ORL in hot pink. In general, I like to see ORh or ORL "flip" before taking a direction on the day. Today was a pain as we had a morning reversal as well as an afternoon triangle that reversed direction again. I think the ORH/ORL was an evolution of Anek's style somewhere along the AHG trail. Anek's original AHG post discussed 2 HH's and 2 LL's defining the trend. After reviewing his charts from summer 2008, it seems that he lets the ORH/ORL be his first guide on direction for the day after the bell rings. With experience, it seems that the confluence of major S/R levels w/ reversal pattern formations and support/resistance level flipping help define and confirm any change in direction. Anek is "faster" than simply looking for 2HH's or 2LL's. For instance, see the top of Friday Nov 14. First thing is, the high of the prior day broken but had not turned into support. After the subsequent retrace from 918, prices failed to make a higher high despite trying twice. The new high failure coupled with a trendline break might have given you either a 1-2-3 basic reversal signal or even an inverse dragon. You could have shorted off the trendline break before witnessing two LL's. If playing an inverse dragon, you might have been adding to your position as the lower low's formed to confirm the major reversal. Paying attention to PA would have let you get short from about 908 as opposed to waiting for 2 LL's & LH's. Better entry, less heat, more money. I am trying to get there too... given that I'm recently unemployed, I figured now would be a good time to learn as quickly as possible. Thankfully, the AHG thread has been around for over a year and I wish I had been a part of it in the making. Otherwise, I would probably be trading MACD crossovers. Thanks for everyone who contributed to the success of that thread and especially to Anek himself. Hope that helps, Stone