This is a bit off topic but since were consolidating a bit here I thought I'd share a pic of my hunting dog. He won an award recently.
LOL... You ought to let your hunting dog out a little more. Looks like it has been a little bit lonely lately...
LOL ...I've been away from the screens most of this week -- this AM I was able to monitor... caught a piece of the up swing from 11 - 11:30 My game is finally getting to be complete... '06 is clearly the year when I bring the house down. For anyone who is interested it took me about 5 years -- 2 of those studying Hershey -- the first 4 FULL TIME. I didn't lose much money to the market -- but spent a lot on room and board. Just before the crossover point (about a year ago) was probably the lowest point of my life on earth so far. Slow learner I guess Anyway when BA_Trader hits 666 posts - I kill him ....but I'll be back.
Congrats BA. 2006 is going to be a great year. To get back on topic, this volume thing is really tricky. Doing the prv thing along with some other stuff and everything is not always what it seems. Lots of red bars actually have more volume on the ask than the bid and vice versa. You can have a huge red bar of volume on a bar that closes one tick below its open but from a distance it appears as huge down volume. This is just repeating what Mak said awhile back but Im beginning to understand what he was talking about. You have to be really careful what you read into it. Quote tracker has pressure bars which you can place below the volume and it is pretty instructive to watch it for awhile as they show the percentage of volume at the bid and ask for a bar.
BA, this post surprised me. I've read most of your posts and I had the impression that you had a strong handle on things a long time ago. What finally made the difference for you? I applaud you for sticking with it through the toughest of times. Every week since I began studying the markets I've had moments where I exposed another layer of understanding, feeling a bit closer to clarity. Looking back, I didn't have a clue what I didn't know... I just had to get where I am one iteration at a time. In the process I'm slowly learning how to learn. Looking forward there is no way of knowing how many more layers I must work through... I only know to press on until I get there. Congrats on your progress, and best wishes in '06
The market: ES Start with 125% of full margin ($5000). Trade the minimum (1 contract). Grow account to $15,000 (200 pts net). No time limit. I call this exercise "triple x". Start with x and get to 3x. Use "rockets", "icebergs", "sct", edges, tea leaves, chicken bones, whatever you want, but with 1 contract from beginning to end. Reversal orders are allowed. Usually I don't like applying bright line tests but I think this one pretty much ends all drama about "when am I gonna finally get this (insert emotion)?" Sounds simple? Easy? A person who's never done it simply does not know. Oh, and there's one last requirement. After you grow the account to 3x you have to take out x and spend it on something stupid. Very important.
OK guys - disclaimer here - not trying to OT this thread... but it is Friday. Yup - there is a big chasm between knowledge and skills - it's experience. I picked up the knowledge quickly - but it was getting to the point where I could apply it and make money that was a b*tch. I still in no way shape or form trust my skill as a primary income source. Icarus and easyrider have the right idea... take your knowledge base and make some simple skill based thing work for you. Don't confuse knowledge and skill. Many thanks for the good will!
Yup - I look back at the maze I navigated and I think "THAT is not what I expected my route to look like" Everyone's route will be different - which is pretty cool... some will move on to other maze's. Such is life.
Downloaded the latest version of Quotetracker the other day and was very pleasantly surprised to find some improvements that Ive been wanting. You can now modify the color and thickness of indicators and trendlines. I also discovered another neat feature that I found by accident. You can go into preferences and uncheck "unique per chart" and your trendlines will show up on all timeframes for that symbol. This means your LT channels will show up on your shorter timeframes. You can then go in and rightclick on the trendlines and change the thickness and color using different colors and thicknesses for your different timeframe channels so your five minute chart will show all the channels in different colors. So cool. I love this program. I am amazed that it is free. I have the registered version but that is only $60 a year. I would lock it in for a couple of years at that price if I could because I know they are going to start charging for this thing. I may sound like a shill but I have no connection to these guys. I do like to pass on a good thing to my freinds.