seems to me that if all we needed to do was to read the market studies and know what works and what doesn't, then we'd all be rich!! Certainly the studies exist to tell us what the holy grail is!! my experience is that if something works for you, it's because of how YOU use it. For me, I don't know that I can actually tell you why I make money other than I do and do it consistently by watching the charts. Do I use S/R levels, Fib numbers, indicators, yada yada yada... yep, all and none. Nothing is definate. just my .02 worth.
when you trade off of 1,2,3,15 minute charts, how many times do you see an overbought condition with stochastics at the top of the range, and the stock still moves higher, to what % are you going to lose by not getting in. I use an 8 period and 10 period simple moving average but use the (H - L)/2 instead of opening and closing. Try it and commit when you are above the 8 period line or below to short/ 10 period gives you validation once its below the 8. I also use fibs to provide price projection, and shows support and resistance. Best of Luck.
<i>"That is why there are market studies to see what works and what does not, instead of having a theory. Some people use them to avoid things that are useless. Others don't get it. Seriously. That is why 95% of traders lose their money. They use beliefs instead. So long"</i> rcanfield, God-bless people like you in our profession. We need you worse than air. Who else would we technicians extract money from? Keep up your failed quest to solve the systematic equation which has no solution in the end. Thank you for your contributions to our bottom line in the process
For true scalping, only price and volume work for me as "indicators". Of course I am constantly drawing trendlines, and mark key levels from previous days down as well. Just takes screen time and practice. No need to over complicate it. That said, I prefer to make just a handful of cherry picked day trades each day rather than scalp. I am just better suited to it. In fact, I can't even do the scalping for tics as some guys do (50 to 100 trades per day), and I have tried for years! I think at that level its a skill that you either have or do not. My "scalping" involves holding for a few minutes, and aiming for at least 5 to 10 tics. Usually ES, but may do it in any liquid market.
I've found momentum is a useful indicator. I created a custom momentum indicator that is composed of momemtum over x bars, overlaid on an average of this momemtum. Then, there is an upper and lower line which attempts to indicate overbought and oversold momentum. These lines are 30 & 70 % of momentum range over n bars. For sellm I look for momentum crossing below average momentum and coming down from overbought levels, and opposite for buy. Identical to stochastics indicators. This is drawn in 1-min, 5-min, and 60-min ES charts. I consider momentum has the least lag of all indicators.