Mak, how about an early look at the new tool? Your PRV & Squ/Str tools are VAST improvements over what I had been using to monitor those values and they have become an integral part of my monitoring. But prior to their release I at least had something to monitor the values and I could visualize their effect. AD on the other hand is a mystery to me. I know it is there as the micro cycles within the larger P/V cycles but I have no way of seeing it in a measurable way. Maybe it won't make sense to me YET but I'd love the chance to see how you are visualizing it. It's affect on CPU performance is not even a remote consideration for me.
SCT (seamless continous trading) = hold/reverse right? What advantage does this offer over the stop-loss/profit-taking approach? I think many traders perfer the stop-loss/profit-target approach because it offers greater control over the equity curve and the ability to sit out the chop.
Yes, if you consider putting a governor on your equity curve "greater control." Why do you need a stop-loss and profit target plan in order to be able to sit out the "chop?" There is no connection between the two. If you can't trade during those times, then it's simply a recognition of your knowledge, skills, and experience, and you watch the market until you can trade it. Food for thought - since there are always two parties to a trade, who is taking the opposite side of the losing trades during the "chop?"
I agree. The number one thing all new traders are told is "cut your losses." I think this promotes too much emphasis on money, on the result of a trade, and on exits - kind of like putting the cart before the horse. Whereas the real emphasis has to be on your body and on current market action. I am moving towards a hold/reverse approach, just wanted to get some ideas on it compared to the stop-out/profit-target approach.
In a broader sequence of things, the objective is to reach a point of continually knowing exactly what is going on at ALL times. Knowing what is happening allows the trader to be relaxed and participate with the activity. In the spectrum of things, most traders look at 3 items enter/hold/exit where the exit is both a target and a stop loss... After some time, a trader may find themself at the point where they recognize that there is oppurtunity during the ENTIRE space of the market and perhaps recognize that entries and exits can collapse into a single entry/exit action since the end of an existing opportunity is simultaneous with the beginning of the next opportunity. Additionaly, a trader may begin to realize that having a profit target is a limiting problem of sorts since in a sense it is the same as saying even if the market continues to extend profits beyond some threshold, I will not take more then a predefined threshold amount which is trader specified as opposed to market specified. It is like finding a wad of cash in the street and only take a $20 bill from the wad. Shifting to an orientation in which the market identifies that the opportunity has completed is very different from the orienation in which the trader determines what is enough. It also requires the trader to recognize that which the trader does and does not know... It is very different stuff for the majority of folks to step back and consider this alternate orientation. Regards, MAK
"When can you reverse? Not until you are making about 150,000 a year per contract on the ES. Its best to do a wash trade several times a week as a warm up for reversals. Once you can do wash trades any day of the week you can then see where revrersals are possibilities and how to extract yourself when you need to." The Stochastics Thread Jack Hershey You might approach it like this. IF the majority of your trades are profitable and IF your exits on the majority of your trades are within a few ticks of actual reversal points, THEN you might consider adding reversals to your arsenal.
I didn't have camtasia running on the particular day of the attached gif, so here's a snapshot. This is circa Monday's close. I did not trade Monday but I had the tool running nonetheless to ensure that there weren't any glitches. Take a peak and look, think, and overlay the "sexy idea" thread with this chart which streams (as opposed to snapshots) in realtime in this particular version of the tool (ie. an intra bar DOM chart)... This shows everything that is on the table exclusively wrt to AD... Once you put the pieces together, it should be blatantly obvious as to what is imminent and thus will soon come into the present on this chart... The rate of change of these variables are even cooler... This is why the folks who show their cards on the DOM are screwed with regard to the next opportunity. There's a fork sticking right out of these DOM folks. MAK PS... Grob109, the realtime stream and snapshot version of this chart tool is a KILLER!!! I know you do not grapple with the memory issue most folks will initially and continue to struggle with wrt to this variable (ie. "did I just see what I was monitoring for on the DOM happen or was I just imagining what I believe I saw" followed by the crippling decision to "let me wait and see"???). The chart is just a broadening of the context from which to observe it, and hence does away with the user's DOM data gathering limitations as noted above.
yes... unless someone hits the bid at the last second for 300+ contracts very nice illustration... I can see that this far better than watching the numbers on the DOM grid, which I often do. I'll make another pass through sexy with this in mind. I've just got a new weekend project. Thank you!