wally, I saw your post over at the futures forum and wanted to post my own thanks here too for the 62% FR tactic. Very nice. As with most new ideas to me I watch them for awhile to get comfortable with their characteristics. I have been watching that one and it definitely puts you in a good position. Thanks again.
Okay it is early in the day on a very pretty Sunday. It snowed most of the day here yesterday but not all that much accumulation. Maybe 4-5 inches tops. Simply beautiful to look at though. The thread started with some excellent contributions re: moving average crossover, fib retracement, and progressed to opening range breakout methods. Clearly one can see that simple does not necessarily mean easy or mechanical. Simple in trading probably refers to the number of subjective decisions that need to be made. A totally mechanical system then is very simple. A moving average crossover method can be totally mechanical, or when combined with other methods like BB's, a la Cathy, can be a bit more subjective, and as such less simple. The ORB method is a simple entry, ie., when price does this you do this, but as we have seen, the method becomes somewhat less objective following entry, thus less simple. Reversal patterns have been mentioned occasionally throughout this thread but have not been discussed specifically. Would anyone care to post their ideas of simple reversal methods?
The simplest trading method that I use is Candlestick reversals. I watch for dojis and hanging men and hammers especially and like a 3 minute chart for day trades. I also put in a 69 bar average for the larger picture to trade with the trend. I trade SPY and QQQ. Where I live it is 75 degrees, brilliantly sunny and we are heading for the beach.
I just draw support and resistance lines and use those. Combining breaks through the lines with particular sequences of bars or candles that have a high probability of a particular result is often enough to take profits. I can track the movement either up or down just by drawing in extra lines that fan out from the starting point (either a high or a low that has been formed) and they usually tell me where the small reversals happen and the continuations happen. Or, if the price starts to be in a channel, then just draw the channel in - it gives the entry and exit points quite well, And shows when a breakout from the channel occurs signalling a possible reversal in trend Sometimes there is a curved shape that shows up and I just draw in a curved line. If the curve breaks it's usually followed by a strong move in the other direction... Once a pattern is broken I just move on to the next. Very unsophisticated I know, but no less effective for it. Natalie
Girlpower this is a bit off-topic, but I have noticed your posts on this thread suggest an abilty to integrate different patterns into a plan. I am wondering if you also play a musical instrument, say the piano for instance, where such integration works well also. Please excuse the question if you find it offensive, and I apologize if you do.
LOL Hmmmmmm, I wonder which little bird told you that? :eek: Yes - I studied piano throughout my childhood... Natalie
Lucky guess. My extremely limited knowledge of music sure wasn't any help. I was still stuck on chopsticks while others had moved on to concertos. You probably can't relate. Well to the chopsticks part anyway. Thanks for the contribution btw.
I just use the basic front end that comes with my feed - tenfore. And it's very basic indeed... Natalie