Jeff,
I love the way you draw your trendlines. Did you take any losses today in this choppy market?

Skid

Hey Skid,

I ended up green.... but it wasn't easy!!!! I' ll work on a play by play and post it in a few minutes.

Well, it was a rough day for trading...... but if you looked at the "Daily Notes" you knew that yesterday was a Crabel "WS" (wide spread) day and typically the day following a "WS" day is a range day. So..... you were ready. Right?

For me... I got a rough start. I tried the break of the first 5 minute range long. It hits my first target and I do not get filled !!!!! Ouch. Market turns against me I close the trade at -6.

I then enter short at 9289 and decide that it's going to test the globex low. So I put my target 3 ticks above the globex low. (took off the 7/11 strategy) This was not the brightest thing to do as the market moves +13 in my favor then tuns on me. I put my stop +3 above the globex high and wait for nearly an hour and take a profit of +10. This move caused me to miss 2 good trades. So instead of having 3 good trades and one small loser. I have one small loser(-6) and one (+10).

At this point the market has reacted to the oil news and sets up the best trade of the day. But...... I'm burned out from being in the previous trade for nearly an hour and I pass on the trade.

It runs up, forms a double top... I decide to fade the double top. Ca Ching..7/11 finally a normal trade.

I then make a bad decision a decide to trade during lunch ! Not smart. We break a swing low... I enter on the breakout... I ride the range till then end of the day and get out at breakeven. As soon as I get out the market goes to my target !!!! That's trading.

So... I traded a 2 lot... end up +$140.00. I feel fortunate that today was not a loser.

cunparis 

Blz, Very good advice on the R/R ratio. I have a few more question if you don't mind and then I think I'll leave everyone alone (dinner time here): - how many trades / day do you get with CL? And with the currencies? - do you stop for lunch break? do you trade after? I think that covers everything. You've been very generous sharing your charts and your experience.

Ah I feel better. Finished a power nap. I haven't traded CL much with this approach. I'm still trying to fine tune what I should be watching for on CL. Once I feel confident in the set ups I would be surprised to get about a dozen trades a day on that one.

I try to get up and get going as early as I can but I'm on the west coast so its tough. Sometimes I'm able to be front of the screen as early as 3am sometimes as late as 5am. After 8am PST things slow down a bit on the currency futures. I just try to see how the market is moving. Today for example was a pretty sluggish day altogether so I stopped pretty early. A few days ago we got some wild volume very late in the day that made for some great trades. I'd say typically I'll finish watching currency futures around 10 to 11 am PST and I'll stop watching CL at 11 am PST.

Have you CL traders ever tried the mini oil QM ??? Pros and cons ??

I have. It's still a good market with 1/2 the point value that the CL has, but the volume is so much less than CL.

Thanks Jeff,
I was playing lazy today and trying to rely on indicators. Broke even for the day on 3 trades. Let my loser get away from me. You showed me the importance of trendlines.

Skid

I am trying to trade ES & NQ. I am looking at 4 range bars and 5 range bars and 6 range bars. However, in some cases the dot turns from gray to blue or red. I enter on the BLUE OR RED BAR FOR LONG OR SHORT, but the next bar becomes gray and when the next bar is also gray it makes the previous Blue OR RED BAR also gray, which looks as if no trade should have been taken.

Hey Hamq,

If you're trading the ES and NQ with a 4-5 range bar chart the EMA_Colors does not work that well on that fast of a chart.(This system was originally concieved to work with the YM but can be applied to other instruments with a little effort) This has been discussed at length previously on this thread. It would be better in my opinion to use the "ColorSampleUniversalMovingAverage" indicator instead of the EMA_Colors. Just remember that all these moving averages are doing is changing colors according to the degree of slope. ( which can be changed) When the moving average "repaints" a previous dot it's because the slope on the current dot has affected the past one. These dots should taken into consideration with the faster ,14 HMA and the paint bar study along with a trendline break. Put all that together with awareness of swing high/low and support/resistance and confirmation from an anchor chart. That gives you about 8 reasons to take a trade. Remember some times of day are better to trade than others.

Don't rely on just dots. Read the Price Action

Jeff

I colored the "flat" dots white so they are easier to see. If you are getting a lot of white dots with yellow bars...... don't trade!!(unless you have super micro scalping skills) The market has no direction. You could also look at an ADX... If it's under 15 there is no trend. So if you are a trend trader these things would be good to know.