Congratulations @volpri I always enjoy reading your post. I really appreciate all you taught me. Thank you.
Some asked me about trading 1m charts. I do if I don't have much time. Like today I need to travel several hours to go to a funeral. So, I took three quick trades. Here they are. All winners on a 1m chart.
Aloha volpri, I'm very sorry for your loss. Wishing you strength during this time. Thank you for the 1 minute post. I'm wondering if you see any differences between PA on a 1 min chart compared with that of a 5 minute chart. To me, the one minute is harder to read. I do, however, have a chart of it open because it helps me with the context of some moves from the 5 minute timeframe. I see: -More sharp turns and 2nd leg traps on the 1 min. -Shorter TRs at reversals on the 1 minute -Bars with more wick and less body on the 1 minute (unless volatility if high that day). This causes a lot of difficulty for me. - More inside bars on the 1 minute I'm big on fractals and believe all the same principles should apply across both timeframes... Mahalo!
Last night was visitation. Today the funeral service. I only had time today for 3 quick trades and since I was short of time I took them on a 1m chart. First was a profit 2.5 on each contract (3c's). Second trade I was averaged down long 6 contracts and got stopped out for a loss. I saw the direction had changed so I took the loss and reversed short 6 contracts to better align my position with what the market was doing. When ones read is wrong one has to adjust. So how do I get back my loss quickly without going through the whole session? I simply reverse with same size position or even double up. In this case I did the former. Then I waited for around 15 minutes as the market worked it's way down. On the exhaustion bear bar I took profits on all 6 contracts I had shorted. I got back all my previous loss plus made 9.25 points on each of the 6 contracts. This is scalping. Here are the same trades but on a 5m chart for different perspective. When scalping if I am wrong I have to be nible and change quickly. Especially, when averaged down.
Rules for Trading Tight TRs. 1) Most of the individual bars should be as large or larger than a minimum scalp in the ES or MES (min scalp is 1 point) 2) The height of the TR should be at least three times bigger than a minimum scalp. (So at least 3 points tall) 3) The height should be at least three times the size of the average bar. (just glance and pick a bar appears to be average size.) I want to show a technique I sometimes use to meet the above rules in tight trading range environments. Look at this first 5m chart. look to right half of the chart. We see a bear channel. Remember the market cycle: TR ....Trend (can be a combination of spike that morphs into a channel with after a PB) ...finally TR again. So around 9:40 we get a spike down that begins a bear channel. At the bottom that channel flattens and goes into sideways movement as if forming a TR. However, I cannot trade this on a 5m chart as a TR because it meets rules 1 and 2 above but it doesn't meet rule #3. In addition, it is not 20 bars sideways duration so it could just be a PB with continuation of the previous bear trend. It needs to be 20 bars or more sideways movement to be classified as a TR. So, on this 5m time frame it should not yet be traded as a TR, using TR techniques. However, I can dial down to a 1m chart. This sideways movement on the 1m chart meet the three rules and in addition be at least 20 bars in duration so on a 1m chart this is tradeable TR PA trading opportunities. Below is a representation of the developing TR on the above 5m as it appears on a 1m chart. So, as you can see from about 10:15 on this second chart (1m charts) to 11:01 all the rules are met for using TR techniques and more also more than 20 bars in the TR. Therefore, on this 1m TF it no longer a PB but a TR. So, I can trade the 1m chart as a TR and keep doing so as long as it continues that way and at the same time keep an eye on the 5 min chart as once it meets TR criteria, I can swap over to trading range techniques on the 5m chart, if I like. I show the 1m chart below indicating where I took the trade appeared on the 1m chart. It was a 6 contract short trade and then covered. Gain of 2.5 points per contract as price moved in my favor towards the middle of the range. Therefore, I was able to break the rules not met on the 5m chart by dialing down to a smaller TF where they would be met and trade that until they are met on a 5m chart.
Text and pictures is one thing - but you offering video with actual commentary is priceless. I truly hope you do more of these (rare) and know that you are truly appreciated for the time you put in to helping those of us trying to do well in trading via PA. Looking forward to hopefully many more of these video / commentary offering!
Hey Traders, I am trying something new (at least new for me). At my age and health issues it is getting harder for me trade ..post charts..type commentaries..do all that at the same time..etc. Several days ago someone suggested I just make a running video of me trading and record my comments thus saving me a lot of work. So, today I created a YouTube channel (took me a bit LOL) and am posting some trades I took today in MES. These are just one contract trades on this video. I may post another video with more contracts later on in the session. So here they are with my commentaries. Maybe it will be helpful to understand how I view the markets (especially ES and MES). Many traders will not trade such tight sideways move in a TR when price is meandering around back and forth in the bottom half of a TR on a 1m chart. They would say it is noise. I subscribe to the posture that there is no noise in the market. Only movement! And bulls and bears are both active on every bar. And money can be made on most any bar. Remember, I am a scalper 1 to 8 points. I grab what the market gives me. Liquidity is fine for doing this type of scalping on the ES. I consider a scalp to be a min of 1 point. That doesn't mean I will not get out with less but that means I am always attempting to get at least 1 point. I apologize for my weak voice as I am not feeling well today but wanted to test this out anyway. If you find it useful shout out at me. I would appreciate that. The trollers who seem to want to say "hindsight or after the fact trading" concerning my charts with the typed commentaries ...well I guess they will get to see the trades go down live here and see it live BEFOREHAND with commentaries BEFOREHAND. We will see what they say about this? Probably find something wrong LOL. I hate to be a pessimist but it gets tiring when so much work is done to help hopefully give traders some idea as to how I trade by scalping. Remember, I am selling nothing. Nada..Zero...AND I have no secret sauce to hid. I fear not even one iota that I am giving away my edge. My only edge is PA and how to read it. I simply care not how many traders figure out how I do it. It will only make it MORE profitable for me if they figure it out. Besides PA is what we all see. Nothing to hide about it. It there in the open! Again, apologies for my voice. This is a test run.