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The ZN, ZB, ZF are mostly running together. The ZN has the higher volume. I personally prefer premarket and after 8:30 am if there's news. If the ES is running in trend after the open, I'll look at the ZB to see if it's running inversely. But I generally prefer small ranges for my 5/5 swing strategy.
What sort of bar you use (time, renko, range, etc.) depends on what you are looking for. I trade on the base of price action (PA). Therefore I use range bars (maybe renko could do as well) because I want to see what PA is doing. In a time based bar I can't see that in enough detail. Maybe a 1min, chart could but the different bar sizes make the chart look messy.
So if you want to trade based on PA I would advice you to use range bars. Besides that, I don't see how you can trade on anything other than PA. It is the only realtime indicator there is.
If you understand price pattern, you do not need any indicators as all indicators are lagging from the price actions.
For example, if you look at ES 3min chart today, it had a strong bearish entry at 3388.50 (with a stop loss at 3390.50). If you also follow fibonacci extension, its max target was at 3339.25 (423.6%) and it reached that. This would have resulted in a P/L of +49.25 points per contract in just one trade within an hour.
A hammer can be used to drive a screw but it is not the best use of a hammer nor is it the best way to seat a screw. Moving averages excel at representing areas of support and resistance and in that context can provide very useful information. The lagging indicator objection is probably from failed attempts to use moving average crossovers as triggers. This pix is of 30 sec bars inside 5 min time blocks. Many traders gravitate to 5 min bars because they lift them a bit out of the noise and are often the building blocks of the bigger swings. Volume Ladder Metro is on the 30 sec bars and GOMMP on the 5 min block. The blue/red hash marks are the bar's pivot. A useful characteristic of moving averages is that they point in the direction of the trend of the time period ( bar count ) they represent. The black 10 period average ( 5 min) does show us the trend of the 5 min time period and while the trend lower persists, the black ma will do a good job of representing resistance when tested. The white 3 period average (90 sec) clearly shows how the 30 sec bars trend higher into the high of the 5 min bar (serving as support) and the 30 sec bars trending into the 5 min bar low (serving a resistance). If you are to trade 5 min bars while they are trending lower it is advantageous to sell after the 5 min bar high is made and the next swing down is beginning. The break of the white ma ( arrows ) marks this event. You can also notice how the 30 sec bars close above / below their pivots depending on which side of this 5 min cycle is in play.
Having worked extensively with all the bars types in the now 38 yrs of trading, I have found there is one consistently useful observation that can be made with any bar type and that has to do with the H-H and L-L bar count. The attached are hopefully self evident in making this point. The swing numbers displayed are the H-H / L-L bar counts.
Below is an illustration of the 5 min ma representing where the buyers are standing until overwhelmed by supply.
2340 volume bars standing on the moving average that represents support. Notice the bar counts.. volume bars tend to be extremely consistent in their H-H and L-L duration. What is interesting about this is the suggestion that it is volume rotation that shapes price action.
Monthly chart below. Very interesting isn't it.
Below is a Higher Time Frame variation of the concept expressed on the earlier 30 Sec chart but with 1 Min bars. When a trend changes price will push in the new direction until it finds buyers or sellers on a Higher Time Frame. Here the black 5 min moving average breaks and price trends lower until it finds support on the Yellow 15 Min ma. Notice on the left after the first bounce from the Yellow price broke above the black ma and then returned to test it for support and found buyers before continuing higher. When 5 min support later broke price pushed up to test it from the underside and found sellers. Resistance becomes support and support becomes resistance. Old school chart trading. Notice the swing counts.
Below... same concepts but on yet a Higher Time Frame. The Sienna indicators indicate S/R on a 6 Hr Time Frame and the White indicators are S/R on the 24 Hr Time Frame. In the middle of the chart price broke the Sienna ma (6 Hr) and fell looking for higher Time Frame Support, which it found on the 24 Hr Pivot. From that bounce price broke back above the 6 Hr ma and then tested lower looking for support which it found on the 6 Hr Pivot. This is the same alternating Support/Resistance behavior as on the earlier 1 Min and 30 Sec charts and confirmed for me that the 24 Hr Cycle had made a Higher Low in the overnight hours and more importantly that the several day downtrend was about to break and price would then push higher looking for the next 24 Hr High against Higher ( Weekly) Time Frame Resistance, which I marked with the White rectangle representing where I expected price to initially test.