FWIW, I'll tell you my interpretation from reading, but consider that I generally do not exit with stops and have not practiced this. The stop log is a list of every price that that you consider significant for some reason... be it a peak or trough, price at BO or FBO, a flaw, etc. So depending on the current conditions of the market you can use the log to offset your stop by several entries on your log from the current price. Refer back to Jack's posts for advice on this. Also, the log must be maintained throughout the day. As price moves through points you identified as significant they may no longer be significant and should be crossed off the list. Here is another link where he goes into more detail. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?postid=225892#post225892 If anybody has a different understanding or more to add, please do so.
From Jack's post (4th down the page) on "The Stochastic Indicator" thread: You need three points to define a channel. The right side is where the channel will come to an end. Point 1 and 3 define the right side. You draw a line parallel to line 1-3 through point 2. By doing this you define a lot of things See this chart too (2nd down the same page).
Are we still in the right left thingie? In a down trend the right line is on top, in an uptrend the right line is on the bottom. Of course the new downtrend can be a short pullback in an uptrend and vice versa. Anyhow price and volume rule. You dont really need anything else. Each and every day this truth is driven deeper into my brain.
maybe you could put up notes on the left and right side of the screen so you don´t forget which is which? Since the channels sometimes are horisontal you might wanna add up and down too
I had not really thought too much about horizontal channels as I am usually on the sideline before they come into effect. No right or left there is there? I was thinking overnite that the PV equation should really be PVT. Time is an essential component of the relationship, imo. Channels actually portray the time element by the slant of the trendlines. Jack is always stressing the importance of pace which is time and the longer I trade the more important this becomes. I do not want to be in the market when it is pussyfooting around.
I think time is maybe the most difficult component for a beginner, to evaluate what is happening now in comparison to what happened the last minute, 10 minutes, hour, day. I feel like I sometimes zoom in too much and sometimes I zoom out to much. For me it´s easy to get too hyper if I constantly watch every tick and at the same time I don´t wanna miss a move cause I don´t follow the market actively.
Today there was a lot of horisontal movement where the "up and down" trendlines or price levels were the most important ones all through lunch and afternoon.
If you figure out how to play the horizontal channels please let me know how your doing it. I am usually done by noon. That afternoon crap will drive you nuts.
Ask me in a year or five I don´t think it´s impossible, but I think people who have worked as floor traders or has managed funds or something similar has a huge advantage. With the low volume you want to know how the big guys are thinking, cause a big order can hit the tape out of no where.
One thing I couldn´t figure out today was what happened at 1.40. 1294 had held as support for over an hour, then as soon as the market breaks through to 1237.75 there is suddenly huge volume, and then nothing, no follow through at all. It seemed like no one was really interested in driving the market down. So where does a strong volume like that come from? Is it bracket orders waiting under support, some one taking out stops, or what? If MAK is around it´s probably a question he knows the answer to...