I recently read about a trader who only trades "within the body of the candle, ignoring the wicks." I don't fully understand what he means. Can anyone help explain in layman's terms...giving simple examples of entry and exit.
That would mean he is only looking at the open and close - not the high and low of the candle. The real body of a candle shows the open and close and all the price(s) in between. The wicks show the extremes.
O.K. I understand that part. But, what does he mean when he says he only trades within the body...ie., between the open and the close. I thought that the candle doesn't completely form until it closed. If so, how does he trade within an unknown close number? And, I still don't understand what he means when he says "I only trade within the body". How is he trading? Am I making this too hard?
Find what works for you and use it. Trying to decipher or reverse engineer someone else's trading is not going to make you successful. I read the book you are talking about at barnes and noble in about 10 minutes while I was waiting for my girlfriend to show up for a movie. I skimmed it, and found very little to be useful. I think the book you read was called millionaire traders or something ..right. Anyway.. the guy you are talking about says he trades mini r2k.. and does 20 and 30 lots.. takes profits over 100 bucks and cuts losses at 30 to 50 bucks.. hmm. He also states he was trained by another trader who has trained 600 successful traders. I only know of this trader from this book becasue out of all the traders he was the one who stated clearly what he does. guess what.. do not believe everythign you read the mini r2k moves 10 to 50 pts every second or two.. There is no clear cut winning strategy.. and if there was it wouldn't be published for free. Goodluck, there is no holy grail.
Thanks, Nolajy, for your comments. You were right. That is the book I recently read. I'm reading a lot to get ideas. I have not yet found my style. I've tried several styles and don't seem to be comfortable with one yet. I have been trading dow e-minis very part-time for about a year now. Not very successfully I must add. That's why I'm still searching.
I think its great that you are searching for what best fits you, but le me save you a lot of time, money, and energy. What do you want to do in the market? scalp? position trade? swing trade? intra day trades? narrow that down.. then go to the next step? what can you do to better your trading style? I personally trade patterns and break outs .. but not itn he ym because it doesn have a large enough point size for me.. i don't like e mini 500 due to 4 ticks = a point.. i love mii russell and crude oil.. r2k is very challenging to trade.. do not trade it until you are ready and it may not ever be what you are lookign for.. study the volume and price action.. you need to start by pickign a time frame. remember a 5 minute bar is made up of 5 1 minute bars, 10 30 sec bars, and 30 10 sec bars.. watch what is happening intra bar as it is forming. Watch the volume and go with the med to short term trend inta day .. I have been much more successful and have had less stress when before the open I say .. ok I am going to only get long today .. or I am only going to get short today.. i focus only on those set ups throughout the day. ym is a great place to start trading.. i also like some of the writings by DBphoenix on the trade2win.com board. Do not waste time sim trading.. I personally believe it sets you up for disaster.. you can open a very small mini fx account for about 500 bucks.. great way to play on the cheap. Good luck.
I thik its great that you are searching for what best fits you, but le me save you a lot of time, money, and energy. What do you want to do in the market? scalp? position trade? swing trade? intra day trades? narrow that down.. then go to the next step? what can you do to better your trading style? I personally trade patterns and break outs .. but not itn he ym because it doesn have a large enough point size for me.. i don't like e mini 500 due to 4 ticks = a point.. i love mii russell and crude oil.. r3k is very challenging to trade.. do not trade it until you are ready and it may not ever be what you are lookign for.. study the volume and price action.. you need to start by pickign a time frame. remember a 5 minute bar is made up of 5 1 minute bars, 10 30 sec bars, and 30 10 sec bars.. watch what is happening intra bar as it is forming. Watch the volume and go with the med to short term trend inta day .. I have been much more successful and have had less stress when before the open I say .. ok I am going to only get long today .. or I am only going to get short today.. i focus only on those set ups throughout the day. ym is a great place to start trading.. i also like some of the writings by DBphoenix on the trade2win.com board. Do not waste time sim trading.. I personally believe it sets you up for disaster.. you can open a very small mini fx account for about 500 bucks.. great way to play on the cheap. Good luck.