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Just a quick follow-up. I've stuck with the No BS principles since my last post and just concluded the 4 most consistently profitable months of my 13 year trading career. I have changed the tick chart to a range chart. I didn't like how the tick chart varied so much between volatile and non-volatile days. Other than that, nothing has changed. The chart is only to be a reminder of past price actions. All entries and exits are based on the depth, profile and orders I see on the DOM.
Stats aren't anything spectacular: 48% win rate. 0.22% avg winner 0.15% average loser. But that came out to a profit factor of 1.59 and exceeded my returns for the previous 20 months combined. It really only takes a small edge, but when you compound that edge over many opportunities and time it equals a nice income.
and while I haven't purchased the full thousand dollar webinar, John has always been very gracious answering my e-mails and giving advice when asked.
ZN and ZB exclusively. I trade ZB much more than Notes. That probably has to do with my background of price action trading. I'm sure there's a lot of AL Brooks going into my analysis subconsciously. The Order flow on ZN and ZF are the context which I base my trades in ZB. I really don't see the order flow signals in ZB like I do in the other two.
Although I know what you're trying to say, I disagree with the premise. I intraday swing trade and I use John's stuff to get me into and out of entries. Once I find an area of interest I start watching the order flow closely to see what it's telling me. If it's confirming what I think should happen, then I get in. If not I wait. Similarly when I exit the position it's generally based on what I'm seeing, specifically if it's a trade that has gone against me. Once it trades to my "stop" level, I pay attention to how it's reacting. If it trades to that level but has no conviction then I might give it another tick. I realize no everyone likes to approach it this way, but for me the tape informs my decision making on those intraday swings.
Additionally I will take scalps throughout the day depending on what's happening. This probably helps my ADHD more than it does my bottom line but it keeps me engaged.
Actually, I also did use to use it for confirming and fine tuning entries, and I still do from time to time. The problem is, you tend to get caught up in the minutia of the order flow, and the result of getting out prematurely of your trades, and not seeing them to target.
For this aspect, I feel that the Basic and Intermediate course is enough.
You will only reap the real benefits from the Webinar if you intend to make scalping a major part of your trading strategy.
I think this is the benefit of order flow as presented by Peter Davies. If you already have a methodology that is profitable, order flow can take what may have been trades with a 1:1 risk:reward and turn them into 1:2, significantly improving profitability. If your method tells you to get into a trade in this area, order flow can fine tune your entries by telling you when. The jigsaw course is fantastic for the general idea, but Gradys courses dig into the details like nothing else out there. His perspectuves on the people and principles driving micro price action have been of incredible value to me. I've largely transitioned from my analysis being, "what is price doing" to "what are traders doing?". The DOM reveals one thing that no indicator or chart can, it shows intent.
Congratulations @Heph333, very well done. I pulled the trigger myself and picked up John's basic course towards the end of last year. This was after John sent me tons of emails in response to my endless list of questions. He was always very prompt and thorough in his responses and never once pushed me to buy any of his courses. Other than the webinar, the courses are very cheap and I think John genuinely wants to help people.
I've stuck with the treasuries as John recommends and I've been working my trades in a TST combine. I'm constantly tweaking my settings but I think I've found a general layout I like. Learning to trade off the DOM has been a difficult but extremely illuminating journey for me. Your quote about analyzing what traders are doing rather than what price is doing was spot on. I find staring at the DOM oddly calming because I feel much more connected to what's actually happening in the market. I've spent incalculable amounts of time crossing my eyes over charts and it was almost a relief to throw them away. Well, I haven't completely thrown away all my charts. I still use a few basic charts as part of my pre-market prep process as recommended by John but I don't trade off them. I'll probably pick up the intermediate course after I get some more experience under my belt.
Thanks again and best of luck. Keep us posted on your progress.
If there is one thing that anyone can do to improve their tape reading skills quickly, it's to shut off the charts. Grady says this over and over and I found it to be true.
For those of us struggling to give up the charts, I propose a comprimise. Use a single 15m chart from Tradingview.com. It is sufficient to see what recent price action looked like as well as important price levels. But since the data is delayed 10 minutes, it is completely useless to actively trade off of.
This will keep your focus on the DOMs where it belongs and away from the charts. I promise you will immediately start seeing things you've been missing.
Agreed 100% on turning off the charts. I use a 10m chart to do my set up (support/resistance/significant areas) and then put that info into Jigsaw. Once I've completed that, I don't look at a chart again during trading hours.
This course as well as the Futex Price Ladder course have helped me tremendously in my understanding of reading order flow as well as acquiring that elusive "feel" of the market that everyone is trying to achieve. When I get into a trade, I know with a 2 -3 tick certainty (sometimes even 1) if I'm right or wrong. To me, that is huge. It's very common for me to have 6 to 8 (!!!) losers in a row, but even then, all I need is 1 good trade to make that all back plus some. So by having the ability to know to cut a trade as early as 1 tick, and to know when to pile on for a 30 tick winner, I think that is where the true edge lies in being able to read the ladder.
As a side note, I would also like to add that this type of price action trading is very different from footprint charts. People who have spent all their time looking at footprint or delta charts probably think it's the same thing, but I can tell you from my own personal experience as someone who switched from footprint to ladder that it's really night and day. When I see all these people trade with footprint charts, they still have to use those arbitrary 8 - 12 tick stops. So to me, that tells me they still don't know what they are looking for.