Yes, you are right, if you pay attention to keeping things under the cover it's probably not going to go in the wild and be exploited to death... unless someone who has access to your orders etc. pays attention to them. Maybe I am wrong about it, can't really prove or deny this statement, it looks just like a possible way to me, because thousands of the brightest minds constantly watch for objective edges and chances are if such exist, they are to be found sooner or later and rather sooner by someone with more intellectual and computing resources or simply access to information, which is closed from others... That's why I am happier with my way to play this game, which is - read and parasitize on those who move the markets and evolve myself as they evolve, similarly to a virus or bacteria evolving with the host.
I'll put this up as an example of how there can be subjectivity even with a clear set of entry/exit rules. The chart is of last Friday on ES. Let's say you give out a set of rules for trading channels. Trader A draws a down channel encompassing the globex action and gets the result in the top chart. He will apply the trade rules to that channel. Trader B goes back farther and draws a down channel that starts during Thursday's RTH session and gets the result in the bottom chart. The dashed line shows the downtrend that Trader A is using. So even though both traders are will be applying the exact same rules for entry/exit, and they both follow all the rules, they will not get the same results because they are using different channels. When it comes to discretionery trading and TA there are tons of cases like this one! Eventually I decided there is no right or wrong way of using TA, that the answer has to be something deeper and more intuitive. Just as there is no right or wrong way to throw a curveball. Different pitchers will adopt a wind-up and delivery style that suits them best. It's hard to comprehend but it's the only way I can explain the success of some traders in a field where the overwhelming majority never make it.
You find the "right" or "wrong" way of applying TA to each instrument through the trial and error. For instruments like ES both "RTH only" and "24H" charts probably "work" well... Somehow, different tricks "work" better in some markets than another.
LOL... I remember driving myself crazy for a little while wondering whether to use RTH charts or 24hr. As if picking the right one could be the key to being able to outguess the market.
Part of the developmental process bruh, we all went thru it if you are self taught. Okay, so I'm getting into this TA thread so I will make a TA based call. On the ES ( S&P 500) I caught a buy signal on Friday, but it needs to confirm. So I will say that if it were me trading this index, if price closes above 1406 on tomorrow then I would get long. My stop is 1373 at the time of this post. If I wind up in this hypothetical long, I will update my stop if requested. Just for fun, since TA is BS.
Ditto if I traded ES or NQ, would prefer 24H, especially nowadays, when global news affect the markets more than ever and US RTH action is often just a handover from the European session. Plus what are gaps if not just the same trading activity driving the price up or down pre-mkt... Better to see it in details than not.
using the spx is more accurate for trading the es ,the es typically stops in the nite trade at an equivalent spx s/r
I love TA ... its like you see this random shape on the chart it means something. And if it doesn't it means something else... ie head and shoulders / head fake