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This has been THE most important thread I have ever read.
It dramatically changed my way of trading and looking at the markets and price behavior. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the knowledge inside Tom Williams book, "Master the Markets".
From a once indicator-focused trader, I now trade on price and volume analysis, using indicators only to confirm my observations or open positions I otherwise wouldn't, by not feeling comfortable enough to pull the trigger.
This thread is worth reading every post and I'm still learning.
I want to thank cunparis and all the users that participated and contributed to the development of this topic.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience. As you can see in my previous post, I was losing faith in the participants of my threads but your testimony is really encouraging.
This thread has had 15,895 views. I'm not sure exactly what that means but I imagine hundreds of traders have read at least the beginning of this thread. Out of those hundreds, I'm only aware of a few who have read the Williams book(s). Those who do the work will be rewarded and I'm very glad to see you in the group who will achieve success.
Please feel free to post how you're using volume and to continue the discussion. I'd love for a few others to takeover leadership of this thread and keep it going.
I'm pretty lenient about off-topic posts as long as they're related to trading but I feel your post really does deserve its own topic. It seems to be more about price than volume, so I moved it into its own thread here:
cunparis:
I haven't learned about market cycles so I don't know if it fits my profile, but I have already practiced what you suggest, adding indicators one at a time. I use different time windows (1,3,5,60 min) and a tick window(1151) but here's my general setup:
. ADX
. ADL
. Stochastics
. Volume Patterns
. LBR
I don't use them all at once when I trade; it depends on what the market is doing. I really like the LBR and I'm a fan of Linda's work.
There was a time when I was trying all the "better rated" and "most downloaded" indicators, trading on all the signals they gave me to open my positions but I have to admit that it was all fuzz because I just understood the indicators and not the market itself.
So now I have this setup where I focus on price and volume, the indicators are a secondary analysis I can do.
I also agree with you on one more thing: definitely, posting takes time. The reason why I do it and why I do it specifically here, on this forum, on this thread, is because I have learned so much by "wasting" my time to understand the valuable information that is being given.
It took me quite a few hours to do it but I "got it"! I will still be learning if I read it back again! Why? Because now I have experienced what was shown to me. I had the knowledge but now I have combined it with experience, I tried to apply everything I learned on the markets, and it's only then that you can fully understand all this work.
I'm glad that there are people willing to show their effort and share it with others; otherwise it would be so much more difficult.
This is of unmeasured value. It is for me and I only wish it could be for many others.
I'm on a learning curve and hopefully always will be.
So, cunparis, don't lose any faith. You have changed me and the way I trade and because of this you will continue to have the power to always change someone else, someone who is willing to "do the work" and "get it".
I also believe that volume is the best foreteller of market intentions and movement,
if the big money isnt interested the market wont move and if they are it will move quick enough to make you miss the move, don't forget if the market didnt allow the big players to have an edge, the markets wouldnt simply exist, so always lok at volume and especially what the clever money is doing.
I will post here an idicator i have found to be ery good for judging volume.
Is called effective volume and i am using it a lot.
I second this request. I've become a bit obsessed with volume interpretation and would love to hear some different perspectives, including effective volume.
I've been looking at VPA but am getting the feeling you would need to use it on a 15 min chart or larger (probably a daily chart is most appropriate).
Suppose we start with the GomVolumeDelta indicator, which plots not only the total volume, but also shows, as a portion of the total volume bar, the volume delta, whether positive (green) or negative (red). (Jt's part of the superb GomIndicator Package available here, and on the Ninjatrader forums. Thanks Gomi!)
Then, to the GomVolumeDelta indicator we add the exact conditions from Barry Taylor's latest Better Volume Indicator, INCLUDING the conditions that require bid and ask volumes. If the churn, climax, or low volume conditions are met, we paint the total volume bar appropriately. So now we have Better Volume and Delta Volume in one indicator. And since the GomDeltaVolume code is a subclass of the GomRecorderIndicator, the bid ask data become persistent as long as we have enabled recording and set up a GomFolder with an environment variable. (Does everyone know how to do this?)
I started coding this for Ninjatrader 7 but it's not quite ready yet. Hope to upload it within a few days.
Maybe we can also add some more of Barry's conditions to this, such as "stopping volume" and "no demand". Feedback, anyone?
Delta Volume: Red and Green
Total Volume: Blue
Total Volume, Climax Up: Light Blue
Total Volume, Climax Dn: Dark Red
Total Volume, Churn: White
Total Volume, Low Volume Bar: Yellow