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This is actually a question for all although I'm interested in Charles's answer.
This week has seen a lot of choppy trading - in fact there's been few good, clear trend trades in the Euro. I wonder what everyone does while waiting? This may seem like a silly question and I'm not curious about people's personal habits. I just wonder what other traders do while waiting that also allows them to maintain the proper focus to be aware if a trade DOES happen to setup in the chop. I'm equally curious to know if, in fact, many of you do nothing other than watch your charts and the formation of each bar during these range-bound environments as this in itself would be interesting information to me.
For my own part, I try to balance the urge to distract myself with the need to pay attention to my charts. I've often tried to engage in activities (such as playing my guitar) which don't require a lot of focus and allow me to continue watching my charts. I also read futures.io (formerly BMT).
I'm curious about activities but I'm also curious whether many of you actually watch each bar closely even in these range-bound environments.
I try to read futures.io (formerly BMT) or listen to music. An audible indicator that you could set at highs and lows of a range would be helpful. I do not know if one exists. Maybe set it a few ticks away from the high or low to give you time.
I think staring at the charts all the time produces dwindling returns. I try to take a break after 11:30A cst until 1:00P and then follow the equity charts in the afternoon.
here is an explanation on how to measure an ABCD retrace when you spot them. This particular one did not set up in the right place as the last up bar closed above the cloud - but had this setup under the cloud for a short or above it for a long this is how you want to measure it in the future
Point A is a lower low at the price of 1.4637
Point B is a lower high at the price of 1.4663
the difference between point A &B is 26 ticks
Divide the difference by 2 which is 13
Add the 13 to point B which is 1.4676
See where the ABCD completed exactly at 1.4676
Any candle that CLOSES above 1.4676 would void the signal
this is a good point - it is an important part of trading. Staring at every tick will cause you to lose focus and force you in to a bad trade.
When the market is choppy I will just walk away from the computer and do various things around the house or go outside for a little while to clear my mind.
When the market is choppy like this you are not likely to miss a trade being away for 30 minutes
I trade 3 symbols for this reason. ES, RUSSELL and 6E. I also use 3 approaches, one with momentum bars which i have created recently to give me plenty of opportunites every day with varying degrees of merit, Market Profile with volume studies and my old horse that i acquired from NexGen many moons ago. As you can realise, i am quite busy with this arrangement. The system Charles proposes is a conservative approach. I think for some traders, it might be a good idea to have two approaches in your arsenal. It is said that trending days occur 20% of the time. The rest of the time it is range bound conditions. This is something to keep in mind.
Masood, I see nothing that resembles a long trade at 11:42. yes the prior swing made HH but you are still below the cloud. If you took this its an extremely aggressive trade as you are trading against the trend and into resistance. It may have worked for you but is not part of the way i trade
if you saw something different please post your charts and I will take a look at it
As you should be aware Thursday (tomorrow) is the traditional roll over day for the futures contracts.
I continue to trade the current 6E contract through the end of my day Friday, I have personally found that the volume seems to stay on the current 6E contract until Monday morning
Yes I took a long trade at 11:42 cst by entering at 1.4585 and exiting at 1.4606. Although the trade wnet thru O.K. but it was very stupid of me to take that trade. The second stupid thing I did was to go in with a 5 tick initial stop loss based on 3 minute chart entry . I was training on descipline and right after the entry I knew I had to deal with thickness of the cloud. As suggeted Iwill take breaks. Thanks
I also do the same thing, trading 3 uncorrelated markets simultaneously, in order to increase the chances of finding something that is behaving well for my method. I trade a market index (TF, NQ), a currency (6E, 6B), and a commodity (CL, GC)
