Hi all. I just think it would be beneficial to put up this thread. The reason why I opened this topic is because I am quite interested to pick on some of your minds especially those profitable traders on what does qualify to be called a trading level. I am a believer that good homework is crucial for the success of any trader so having trading levels is one of the very important data one needs to have in his/her homework.

There are tons of ways of getting the trading levels such as:
1. Daily Highs/Lows
2. Fibonacci Retracements/Extensions
3. Trend lines
4. Moving Averages
5. Volume Profile POC, VAH, VAL, HVN, LVN
6. Pivot Points

.. and others you are using.

Just to add more context, trading levels are the areas that you are going to be monitoring and trade off those levels depending on the action you see and depending on your plan/homework.

There are some services of brokers or data feeds out there sending out trading levels in emails. As a person who wants to find logic on why these numbers/levels were derive, I would rather want to do my homework than have someone feed me those numbers. The goal of this thread is to impart knowledge on people especially beginners on what to look for to get their trading levels. Let me start to kick this off.

Due to my timezone (and having a day job), I would only be able to do my homework 2 hours prior to opening of CME and CBOT. So I would look at are:
1. Yesterday's High/Low
2. Overnight High/Low
3. Month's High/Low
4. Yesterday's Volume Profile POC, VAH and VAL.

As for the Volume Profile POC, VAH, and VAL, I honestly don't have any solid working knowledge on how to effectively use these levels as I am quite new to VP. So, still a work in progress.

Looking forward to hear from others what your trading levels are. Cheers!

jerbersoft, you said "As for the Volume Profile POC, VAH, and VAL, I honestly don't have any solid working knowledge on how to effectively use these levels as I am quite new to VP. So, still a work in progress."

Maybe some links will help you to start learning about Market Profile
https://www.cmegroup.com/education/interactive/marketprofile/
and see the CME pdf book
https://www.cmegroup.com/education/interactive/marketprofile/handbook.pdf

https://www.cmegroup.com/education/interactive/webinars-archived/building-a-trading-strategy-with-market-profile.html

My trading is mostly based on Footprint and Volume Profile. Big Mike organized webinars on the subject, you should take a look, also search on YOUTUBE regarding Footprint and Volume Profile.
Some profitable traders are also using a very simple combination of TMA, 10 and 5 as a filter and signal confirmation.


Success.