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I like onions in my meatloaf, not for the visual effect, for flavor. But if my little girl sees an onion in anything (except a pile of onion rings) she won't have anything to do with it, so my work around is onion powder, we're both happy! I've been thinking about your request for feedback and I'm a little hesitant to respond. I believe the ingredients folks put in their meatloaf is based on a personal preference, the same with trendlines. I know nothing of your trading style, the time frame you trade or your tolerance for risk. This is what makes working with trend lines and channels personal, at some level every line we draw on a chart comes down to our individual style. I believe there are dozens of ways to make money trading the 6E, in this thread I've tried to show examples of many of the theories I use. I also believe if someone is looking for another tool for their trading tool box they'll find several good ones in this thread. That being said, if/when a reader does find something that "speaks to them" stick with it, study it, take it apart, refine it and make it your own.
IMO, trend lines and channels can be as short as 3 daily bars or a half dozen 5m bars, it all depends on the recipe of what you are trying to "cook up." Today is NFP Day, and I've posted my NFP Day game plan a couple times in this thread. This is one point of view of one way to utilize information derived from a trend line/channel.
Everybody has their own recipe for anchoring a trend line, not that it really matters, but I usually don't include tails. This morning I drew this (blue) line on my chart, my charting software will automatically draw the High Low parallel lines (if I select it).
Around 1am est price tested the swing low of 1.3585 from 3pm Yesterday afternoon, at this point a wedge was formed. One method of projecting a Price Target is to subtract the distance from the bottom horizontal line of the wedge (1.3585) from the high (1.3620) and projecting that difference an equal distance (35 ticks) lower, this is often referred to as, a measured move. The 35 tick distance is calculated on the left margin of this chart (white dotted line).
The chart below shows the 35 tick measured move projected from the horizontal line of the wedge (1.3585) 35 ticks lower (red dotted line) to 1.3550 (yellow line).
I've extended the parallel lines on this chart as a comparison to the measured move price target. I know, I know, I know the measured move target of 1.3550 never traded price stopped dead at 1.3551 1 tick away from the target. I hope readers are astute enough to realize the 1.3551 price level was what significant number on today's chart?
In closing, "Don't be a dick, for a tick." Have a great weekend fellas, and thanks for viewing the thread.
Boy, you're not asking for much are you Bill? I'm happy to take a shot at this but for the record my energy level is still pretty low.
To get things rolling here is a chart of the 1 hour bars during the Tuesday time frame (8am to 12pm) that I analyze to assess the net positions of Large Spec. Since the COT data isn't posted until Friday I can never be certain my analysis of their behavior is correct, until well after the fact. BUT, one important thing to remember when making an assessment of their behavior is, more likely than not the players seldom change. I don't have to assess the behavior of ALL market participants only the 100 or so Large Spec that always seem to hold positions week after week (according to the COT Report). This information alone should make your job much easier, especially when you begin to see patterns in their actions. How much information can you glean from (4) 1 hour bars, a lot. Obviously a range is identified, in this case it's 1.3530 to 1.3494 or 36 ticks. A quick look into the sub panel shows these 4 bars were within the period of the day's highest volume. Also the range these bars defined were left unchallenged, for 24 hours. Could that be, when these same traders returned to the market, for the next day's trading, just a thought. The Open Interest numbers are not posted until the close of the next day, but traders can see the preliminary data for the prior day on the CME website by viewing the Daily Bulletins. If you had, you may have noticed even though the volume was lower than the prior day (Monday) the OI actually increased. Lastly, and I posted this before, where is this range of Tuesday's trade in comparison to previous COT Reports? Based on what I just posted, I have to believe Large Specs are Net SHORT within this range.
Below is a chart of the 5m bars that made up the range of the 1 hour bars posted above. At 8:35 I drew the "blue line" and the rest of the session unfolded as seen.
This is the same chart as above just shifted a little to the left. Doesn't this chart make it look so easy? I don't want to wander off topic here, but just couldn't pass up the opportunity.
This is the first chart re-posted, in the "Meat Loaf" post I outlined another channel that played out during the ADP Report, that was an UP move consisting of the red bars (Wednesday) on this chart. Price is still within the COT Data "range" and the Daily Bulletin shows OI dropped a little during Wednesday's trade BUT some profit taking around Wednesday's run to 1.3550 ought to be expected. So, the ECB left rates unchanged and the white bar on the far right formed. Look where this bar is, still sitting in the range from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I posted this just prior to Mario's comments, "Trying to guess direction is meaningless, BUT my 8 Ball says, "Look North!" Why "look north"? Because I still haven't seen anything up to this point that makes me believe my "Sideways to Up" view of the market has changed. I'm certainly not going to pretend to GUESS what words might come out of Mario Draghi's mouth, and I'll NEVER recommend holding a position into a ECB Press Conference. But you asked me for my analysis and this is basically it.
Guess what, I'm watching two price levels 1.3700 and 1.3500.
Here we go again, by now everyone should be very familiar with these price levels, we've been here since the government shut-down back in October. But that's the way it works, chutes and ladders. This week all eyes are on Janet, remember, her prepared statement will be released 90 minutes before her "live" speech. Twice she speaks, Tuesday and Thursday, who knows what she'll have to say, but I'm sure there will be plenty of grandstanding from a lot of dead beat politicians hoping to get reelected next fall.
I'm going to throw a couple charts up and highlight the obvious, resistance above and support below.
So, same story different day, we need "someone or something" to move this market. IMO, it's Janet's turn! In the meantime get back to basics, locate the swing highs and lows and watch the process of price discovery unfold. Keep a close eye on Friday's high, 50% level and VWAP those are always on the top of my list on Sunday night, you have to start somewhere. Once price starts to find a direction, keep it simple and look for tests of failed moves from Friday, or old levels such as these. These are only examples. You may have noticed the UP chart is a 1 hr chart and the DOWN chart is a 5m chart. If you do look at these levels as price unfolds, use the same time frame chart you normally trade, again these are only examples.
I enjoy your journal as much for a glimpse of your experience as to the fact it helps me to think for myself. Thanks for your considered response and I realised post session that I had a short bias and was drawing my TL's based on this, not the facts.