From the QCharts site, they create something called Breadthalizer statistics from all US stocks (without saying what that includes but it appears to be NYSE, AMEX and NASDAQ). If OP says what symbol she's using it would be easy to look up what her AD indicator is. Regarding AD it definitely has utility for me. Its level does give an indication of the relative safety of fading a breakout or going with it, to give one example. Not something I watch every minute but as OldTrader said it provides context.
Here's a page that describes all the Breadthalizer statistics. http://www.linnsoft.com/QFeed/bStats.htm they do have an advance-decline statistic that includes all US stocks, as well as separate ones for NYSE, Amex, Dow and Nasdaq,
I wonder how adaptation is made ot the extremely tight ranges that were in evidence on Tuesday and Wednesday last week. Using a 5 min chart to justify each bar would require 4point / 5 point stops just to maintain a position. There were 3.5 point reversals (14tick) on the ESU8 during those legs. Reversals like those usually stop out most holders, as they are targeted by larger traders (hedges, floor, pool operators). Others define those tight ranges as scalp trading, depending on the size of the bar or interval of their charts, whether tick, volume, range, minute or point/figures. So, again, what advice, other than noticing those conditions and withdrawing, might be made?, or has this condition already been discussed?
Hi Becky, First off, thanks for sharing your trading pics and . I have no idea why your journal is drawing so much negative criticism. You're not asking for money and you're not drawing anything more than a very nice 'salary' from the market relative to the time you spend in it. So, good for you. I see that you took a loss on March 13th, but that's strange because the trade had to have gone at least 4.50 pts in your favor, even if you sold the low of that 3rd 5 min price bar. So, I guess this was a trading error on your part because you let a trade that was way past your profit target take you out for a huge loss, right? From your pics, it looks like your stop-loss is determined by a takeout of either the high or low of your entry bar on a closing 5 min basis. Is this correct? From my experience, in target-based trading, traders with high winning percentages who aren't high frequency scalpers typically have larger-than-normal losers, taking back up to 3 of their previous winning gains. This isn't a bad thing, just the way things tend to play out with this method of trading. Traders (successful ones) with very high winning pcts tend to see their payoff ratio (avg win / avg loss) go towards 0.50 while those with low winning pcts (30-40%) tend to have 3.0 - 5.0 for their payoff ratios. I think the most rare thing you will ever find among daytraders is someone who has a 70%+ winning pct with a 2.0+ payoff ratio. Anyway, I wish you much success in the markets and thanks for posting your trades. You have a lot of guts/confidence in yourself to be willing to take up to 4-6 pts of heat on an ES trade wtih 8 contracts ($1600 to $2400) in order to take 2 pts ($800) of profit per avg trade. Your system will continue to work beautifully so long as you stay above a 70% winning pct. and occassionally let your winners run (as some of your posted charts have shown).
I've found divergence between A-D and Index to be a pretty powerful and consistent scalping type trade. For instance: Plot the net difference between ADV - DECL Plot ES Both side by side using same time frame, say 1 min, 2 min, your choice. If ES makes a HH, but A-D does not, short ES for a quick gain. These opportunities does not happen often, but when they do, they are golden. Trick is to compare the price action on both and assume the index is wrong, not the A-D. Quick comment for the OP, if you gonna share, share, don't give half ass answers. Good luck. Susana
With my daily trading I use 4 hours chart and use fibonacci to find the entry market point. Forex from start: www.forexspecial.net
Hi well the loser trade on the 13th of March it was one of those big trades that I ride all day.. When I am in a big trade I don't use trailing stops cuz most of the time I get stopped and then the trend continues in the original direction so I take the heat with confidence since a loser like that rarely happens. My stop loss is when the price reach the close of the first candle of the day which averages about 6 or 7 points.