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Hi everyone. I'm new on here, but I thought I would make a post about my Trading style, since I feel it's fairly different than what I usually see out there. I have been trading about 6 years, mostly Forex, but have transitioned to Futures a few months back. I would say my original style was scalping for a few ticks on what I considered high probabilty setups. Generally I always tried to wait untill I saw some true momentum and price acceleration develop before taking a trade. I will admit to originally starting out with the Wizetrade software (Stop laughing now.. 4k on software? Yes..you're still laughing..stop it now !) So, for either good or bad, I never learned how to use Candle charts, MacD, EMa, Stochastics, Fibonacci or any of that stuff. I still don't use any of that..and perhaps that why I've been consistently profitable for the last year or so. It's been a long painful journey, but the millions of hours of screentime have paid off. I will say this about the wizetrade charts..I have never seen anything better for showing real time buying and selling pressure. When you see the Angles blow up, you know the market has extreme momentum. OK, what I do now is a little research on longer timeframes but I trade mostly off a 2 range chart with some custom indicators that draw real time support and resistance and also plot algorithmic trailing stops. Between a combo of Price levels, price action, "Speed of Tape" or rapid price movement and yes...my Wizetrade charts as added confirmation, I enter the trade..using Ninja's Chart Trader. I will then drag and drop my stoploss bar over the dots , when the price breaches the dots, I'm taken out of the Trade. Of course, there is a lot of discretion involved...which comes from screentime. But instead of getting a few ticks now, I have the ability..through my software ..to ride out runners of 30-50 ticks or more. These are usually fast moving trades. I get the best results on TF and Oil..because once they move, they really move! I have posted a chart and you can see how I stayed in this trade because of the Algorithmic stoploss dots. Just to clarify, I am not trying to promote anything here..no software (That's why I blocked out some things on the chart), no systems, nothing. I'm not interested in teaching anyone anything. I guess my point I'm trying to make is that you can invent your own style and system yourself, and become profitable. Lagging indicators don't always give you the here and now..or Real Time price movement. What many people call "Noise", I call profit. On an extremly fast movement on oil..like after news perhaps, I will enter using Ninjas ATM with a fairly tight trail. It works great. When Market conditions are choppy, I stay out. That's the most important thing for my system..is recognizing when the market is moving with speed and direction. No momentum..no trade.
The following 38 users say Thank You to lancelottrader for this post:
Trading that way is absolutely possible, that is my main source of income. Add in a little statistical analysis, and you've got my main trading method. I use no on-chart indicators, though.
The problem is that the reading the "pace" is not something everyone can do, it seems. I think this is a genetic trait, or maybe I am just a bad teacher.
Awesome, glad to know there's people doing well with this sort of style. I think when you've seen price move after a news event, you get an idea of how fast it can move...and witness an extreme "Pace of tape". Of course, those news moves can be initially chaotic. I prefer to wait at least 3 to 5 minutes..sometimes more. But once an Event, whether it's news or just a huge orderflow move, creates momentum, then the moves become more directional and bigger both up and down at times..Then all my signals become more valid. My belief is that most of the time, price movement is very hard to predict and it's only for a few minutes where you know..with a high degree of probabilty, that it's going to move directionally for a some ticks.. And you must move fast without hesitation..And if you know the next immediate area of price congestion, that can be your initial target. If it breaks through that level, you have a potential runner on your hands. Here's another TF chart from a couple weeks back. I made a 100 ticks right at the close of the Equity session. If you look at the chart you will see a thick black spine that is on the outside of the white price line and the colored "Rainbow lines"..Sometimes if I feel the trade has more potential, I won't exit on the breach of the Stoploss dots. Instead I will keep manually moving my stop (On Ninja's Chart Trader) up, but keep it just outside the black spine. As you can see the trade runs up about 100 ticks before it breaks out of the Spine. This was the biggest Runner I've ever caught in my life . Remember, I'm a scalper by nature ..and I will exit with 4 ticks or so if I feel that's all it's going to do..and I seldom have an initial stop of more than 10 ticks . I don't know if it's psychological or what..but after entry I used to exclusively watch my P and L..not the chart and as soon as I was up a few ticks, I'd get anxious and exit as soon as possible. But with the Chart Trader, I watch the price on the chart and just keep dragging that stoploss bar and follow the price..I guess because I'm not so focused on the profit or loss, I just concentrate more on the chart. Anyhow, it's working and learning to stay in a winning trade longer is what took my trading to another level. I did ok scalping, but the hit rate has to be so high to really make money. Now, I lose a few small one's..win a few small ones..and then ride out "The Big Wave."
The following 3 users say Thank You to lancelottrader for this post:
Here's one more move of close to a 100 ticks on TF..on what I've named 'The Spine Runner". As you can see. the price stays in the Black spine for the whole move..You can also see the Red horizontal lines, which are price congestion areas, being breached. Had price been obviously rejected at those areas, I would have exited before the Spine was penetrated.
I agree with most of that, but I don't see many talking about it in here. Trading is really that simple, at least when trading a volatile instrument. Most, however, get lost in trying to "understand" the market through various indicators, I just want to catch the occasional big move...
Nice to know that there are others out there doing the same thing (or maybe not! )...
I think you just nailed it on the head. People keep looking at all these formulas , ratios, indicators and search for all these systems. In a trending smooth market..lots of systems will work, but when market conditions change, the system no longer works. And then, the search for the next Grail begins. Been there, done that. Had an automated system that worked great for 3 months straight, Then I put some serious money into it and the market conditions changed and I lost lots of money fast. Then it dawned on me..price moves because some big entity bought or sold a large order because of a news event or some inside info or whatever....The price didn't move because of some magical mathematical formula or some indicator..The "Big Boys" just decided to do something .. or..nowadays because some algorithic program fired off orders. All I know is that I want to recognize those orderflow moments, hop on board and ride the train..and after trading Forex, S &P, Dow Futures, my favorites are now Oil and Russell. Love them.
The following 8 users say Thank You to lancelottrader for this post:
Exactly! The algorithms sometimes flock together and price takes of. There's a certain "rhythm" to it that is discernible. As you say, it doesn't always work out -- but the large winners more than make up for it!
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