Buying and selling happens - those 6 specific areas can be analysed on a tick chart, time chart, volume chart, ......etc. That goes back to the OP question - use time or tick to identify the 6 areas? Its a matter of reliability and trader preference on what data to use and what speed that data is used.
Overtrading is as bad as over-analysis. When you start comparing time charts to other increments, conflicts will keep you from trading. Been there, done that. On top of that, candles and time charts go together like oil and water. Try candles on volume bars, more accurate & consistent.
Shagi, I absolutely agree that those areas can be analyzed on all of those charts independently. My point is, the accuracy and consistency improves when you use charts where price is analyzed on balanced bars. If you do some testing, you will prove it to yourself. Just me saying it means nothing.
Let us not forget that 95 out of every 100 "traders" can stuff up any bar that you care to chuck at them. The 1 or 2 traders in every 100 who are consistently profitable, can adapt to anything. That is why they are consistently profitable
We are human . . . show 100 of us an easy way to do anything and 95 of us will find a way to complicate the process and destroy it.
Prof, don't you use about 8 different volume charts all with different volumes? How do you compare all those to each other and still make a trade? Candles on volume bars are not more accurate than time bars. Most traders use time bars. I know plenty and they don't need volume bars to trade. They don't even need volume. And don't you use some kind of indicator? If volume bars are so good then why do you need that indicator? The only reason you like volume bars is because you trade oscillations. You NEED volume bars to trade. Not everybody trades that way.
I use sequentially progressing chart increments to replicate time increments; Fast Scalp, Scalp, Fast Intraday, Intraday, Fast Swing, Swing, Fast Position and Position. (7, 49, 343, 2401, 16807, 117649, 823543 . . . etc) These are increments I apply to all futures, commodities, stocks, etf's and option charts. They never vary. There are more than 8 but these are where my incrementation charting starts. They sequentially progress. The increments are based solely on the liquidity of the object being traded. Example: A 49 CVB chart (Constant Volume Bar Chart) for the Euro FX would be a Fast Scalping chart increment but a 49 CVB chart would be a Swing chart for Feeder Cattle. Candlesticks are an indicator that must be read (interpreted) to be applied correctly. When they are applied to price bars that are equally weighted, they can be read with consistency. When they are applied to price bars that are not equally weighted it skews the value of the bar making reading those bars less efficient and less consistent. I didn't say people couldn't make money using time charts and candlesticks, I said they could improve on their consistency by using volume bars and candlesticks. Just because "most traders use time bars", doesn't make them better. Traders trade, they don't have a clue what will improve their profitability because they don't have the time nor the desire to do the research to see or test what alternatives are out there that would improve their edge. In the old days most people took horses to town because they thought the horseless carriage was stupid that doesn't make using the horse better than "the car". It stands to reason as well that if the bars one is using to read price action are consistent and equally weighted based on price volume then applying a simple momentum indicator to help one see the oscillation tops and bottoms in that price movement could be a great benefit is showing price direction and strength. I use the indicator simply to assist me in seeing those incremental and sequential tops and bottoms as they are created in real time. You make price oscillations sound dirty. Interesting since everything on earth, at some level, oscillates and having the ability to accurately read those oscillations is an edge I capitalize on. It isn't how every one trades and hopefully never will be. I appreciate the fact that many many people make their trade decisions off random and chaotic data. Some of those individuals make a good living doing so but most don't. The reason is that it is far harder to make consistently good decisions from inconsistent data than it is to make consistently good decisions from consistent data. You say I "need" volume bars to trade. Well, I developed them because I knew what they would do to improve my trading environment. They did and they have. I don't expect everyone to use them because there aren't many people who have the where-with-all to test them up against what they are using now. It is much simpler to summarily dismiss them. Such is human nature. There are many traders that have tested them on a variety of systems and methods with great results. They don't have to use them exactly how I use then to see their benefit.
Thank you so much for all of you guys posted here, I learned a lot from you, and I will continue testing and find a better way to trade. Thanks again for your generosity to share your knowledge.