Oh, now you are dicking with an old man! But since you mention it, let me explain to SCT traders Trading Principle Number Two: The markets are not eleemosynary societies. The phallusy of "pool extraction" is naive in the extreme. Market order traders don't make the markets, limit order traders do. And they are there to make the spread, speculate just like you but make the spread, or lay off risk from positions in other instruments. On most days market order traders collectively lose at least the spread, more often one or two ticks more. On days when market order traders collectively make money, watch out tomorrow. So as long as you keep your head down, and don't affect this parasitic balance, you can make your money in peace. But visibly distub the balance, and I assure you they will cut you off at the knees like the mushrooms you are. Or example, how hard would it be to influence the thinner YM to cause you to commit, and then slam your ES position? As a group SCT traders are guilty of massive hubris. That carries its own reward.
Hmmmm, Mr. Black, that technique looks strangely familiar...Moderator!!!!!! So much so that it brings to mind Trading Principle Number Three: Trend lines and channels are totally imaginary. Most reversals occur at recognizable major price support and resistance. And the long bars and high volume which so often accompany reversals reflect the action of limit order traders to vacate their former positions and take up new positions in the vicinity of said S or R. All to suck the unwary into a "high confidence" trade before fucking them with a reversal. Whether or not those reversals take place at sufficiently regular price and time intervals to form channels is wholly dependent on how long price takes to meander through minor S/R to get there. So unless you know your S/R you are like the denizens of Plato's cave watching the world eerily cast on the cave walls by firelight. On those not-so-infrequent occasions when tops and bottoms form from exhaustion, you are well advised to study the nature of that also.
Edit: You're both looking at the same market, but from different perspectives. It's funny how some people choose not to see that, and others do, take that information for what it's worth, and move on. Ciao!
Sorry for the delay Hypo... I figure I made enough yesterday to keep me in scotch for at least a few days and took some well deserved time off! Attached is my blotter (proof). If you calculate my profit, you'll see that I beat Spydie's profit on his top/bottom picking trade the other day by forty-five cents. This was no accident; intead it was a trading show-of-force to set Spydie up and send him a message. I should mention that the SEC and I have an agreement now and they don't waste their time investigating my trades anymore. How do I make these great calls? I use a single leading indicator... more on that later! Maybe.
Here is how I trade when I am spun up on cola caffeine, hotdog nitrates and frito salt (trader's health food), chanting "3x daily range, 3X daily range...". Times PT. Chart to follow.
I crank up the 15 second chart (sooooo slow when you're flyin' high) and spit them trades out. Chart width shows the duration of the trade. Not far off from being totally inside a 5-minute bar, haha!