Trade #4 was the only trade with 4 contracts. Bar 10:12 was a huge BO spike, certainly not an an exhaustion spike. It was the biggest bar of the last 29 bars or so. I missed the initial move because that is when I had chart troubles aka the “disappearing chart” Lol. When I finally got my charts back up I quickly did trades 2 and 3 each of those, 2 contracts. That leads me to trade#4 the 4 contract trade. A big spike such as bar 10:12 will likely have more than 1 leg up therefore it makes logical sense to load up a little heavier capitalizing on the second leg. Bars 10:16 and 10:18 are what are called “implied” PB bars meaning on a smaller time frame (like 1m or 30 sec) they are actual PB’s. Bar 10:20 was an actual PB on this 2 minute TF AND it ALSO closed above it’s midpoint thus making it an entry bar too (entry for bars 10:16 and 10:18). AND it was signal at the same time for a long entry on bar 10:22. For me in this trade bar 10:20 was my signal bar and My entry bar was bar 10:22. Bars 10:24 thru 10:30 were good places to average down but I did not because I was already long 4 contracts from my bar 10:22 long entry. Bottom line, the second leg up from the spike was starting. PB’s are being small. It makes logical sense to load up a little more. Therefore, a 4 contract position. Since I am trying to show how a small account can be traded I didn’t want to make the position size any larger than 4 contracts although there was good reason to average down with more on bars 10:24 thru 10:30. As far as the open goes I will often trade larger right off the bat. The chart doesn’t show it but I think we had a gap up open at 8:30 chicago time. Then it traded down and by the time I got my lazy carcass out of bed and took a few swallows of coffee (I drink the brand…8’oclock coffee…and it is a real eye opener) I could see several consecutive bear bars (bars 9:14 thru 9:22) so it made sense to take a small short position and add to it should any PB occur, and if no PB, then it would just be a straight scalp. It ended up there was a PB and I dutifully added to it (averaged down) careful to observe that 50% PB area of the down move as it pulled back to the 20ema. If it were to pull back 70% to 75% and I had been averaging then time to dump it for a loss. As it was, the pb never made it to 50% before it resumed south on bars 10:36 and 10:38 with enough move for me to get out with a profit on my averaged down position. So to make a short story long ROFL ….PA and account size determines my size I trade BUT on some days, with some trades, I just feel giddy and lucky, so I up the size. I do pay attention to “how” price is made and not just “that it was made.” MOM often determines if I will press a trade even scaling up by adding to a position that is already winning because it moved in my favor. But I prefer scaling in or averaging down once price has shown me some MOM that indicates to me that any averaged down position would likely very soon move in my favor for a profit. Bars 9:14 to 9:22 showed me MOM. Yes, price could have retraced the entire move down even retracing the entire bar 9:14 but the more likely scenario is either a continuation on bar 10:22 of that multibar down move, or a PB then a move back down. So, I have to consider those scenarios and what I will do. It is certainly BEST to at least have a position on on bar 10:22 in case of an immediate continuation of the MOM on bar 10:22 but have that position small enough to add to it should there be a PB. I did the former then completed the latter. How is that for making a short explanation long?
Yes much of it is Al Brooks concepts adapted, twisted, modified for how I like to scalp. I personally recommend his teachings. But most folks are not going to invest the time to wade through them. As Al Brooks says in his introduction to his trilogy: “I am metaphorically teaching you how to play the violin. Everything you need to know to make a living at it is in these books, but it is up to you to spend the countless hours learning your trade”.
“The previous bar(s) are gone. The future bar(s) are a mystery. The present bar(s) make a difference.” Volpri
Sorry to hear about you dealing with cancer. You might want to look into this? Tom Kerber is the inventor of that light they use in dentist offices all over the world to harden filling material. That is my understanding anyways. https://www.illumacell.com/
I have spoken of implied PB's before in this journal so they have been covered however, to refresh one's memory: In a bull trend such as 10-1-21 1) An actual PB is when a bar has a low lower that the previous bar. 2) An implied PB is a PB that the low of the bar doesn't actually go below the low of the previous bar on the TF one is trading (in this case 2 min TF) however it is an actual PB on a lower TF I mentioned in my post #1551 above that bars 10:16 and 10:18 were implied PB's on the 2 min TF. But were actual PB's on a 30 sec TF. So since it is a 2 min chart bar 10:16 would include 10:16 and 10:17 and bar 10:18 would include bar 10:18 and bar 10:19 and any smaller interval TF's within those time numbers. In the chart below I dial down to the same PA as the 2 min TF but we will look at it from a 30 sec chart. The circled areas show that the implied PB's on the 2 min TF chart (bars 10:16 and 10:18) were ACTUAL PB's on the 30 sec chart. The same thing was true between the 10:32 and 10:34 bars on the 2 min TF. There it was an implied PB but an "actual PB" on the 30 sec chart. The same thing was true on the 2 min charts between 10:40 and 10:42 bars. There an implied PB but on a 30 sec and actual PB. There are other examples on the chart but I wanted to highlight the concept using these three examples. When trading live any time you see a significant "overlapping" of an adjacent bar by the present bar but the low of the present bar does not go below the low of the adjacent bar you just know that if you dial down to a smaller TF that there will be an actual PB taking place on that smaller TF. The same thing is true on say 5 consecutive bull bars on say a 5 min chart are really just a BO spike on a LARGER TF chart such as 15 min or 30 min chart. In this case you bump up the TF to see the spike. However, when trading live once you understand these concepts you don't have to bump up or down to a different TF to see the concept occurring. It is better to keep your focus on the single TF for reading PA and execution purposes, otherwise, a trader can get too much info and that hinders scalping with binary decisions. Scalpers like myself have to make quick decisions especially if it is a a lot of volatility in the session. That said I will look at larger and sometime smaller TF's momentarily when looking to get a better feel on the larger/smaller context of things like is PA in a BO spike phase, in a channel phase, or in a trading range phase. Ok here is a 30 sec chart depicting the implied PB's on the 2 min chart as actual PB's on the 30 sec chart. Enjoy the concepts. Look for them and learn to apply them in live trading on a SIM. Burn them SIMS up! LOL