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After spending several weeks getting nothing from the footprint/numbers bars chart, for the past two days I have finally been getting it. I set the chart right beside my 1mVSA chart, and zoomed in to where all of the numbers were large enough to read as they occured, and just kept at it day after day.
One thing that really helped was using the Number Bars V2 in Sierra and setting it up in a way that made sense to me. The options are incredibly plentiful, and I have tried them all by now, but what works for me are the following settings.
This chart type always seemed like information overload to me, but I knew I liked the VSA chart and that a footprint chart is similar but with greater detail of information. What I like about this is that if Bid/Ask is basically equal I do not want my eyes drawn to it. The greater the difference between the two, the more it highlights. Since I had such a hard time with it I thought I would share what finally clicked for me.
This view shows the scale of the footprint. It is relatively HUGE, but so was the VSA chart a few years ago. It will probably get smaller.
I am only using 2 monitors and a laptop, and have not missed the other two screens at all. I had considered selling them on Ebay, but for now they just sit in the floor behind my desk.
I am a workoholic in a way. Not the same as I was at age 30, but driven by the same genetic makeup. When I do something it becomes me.
And so I find myself opening this journal many times when I have nothing to say, as I did this time but decided to go with it.
It is because my charts are running 24 hours a day Sunday night through Friday afternoon, I do not watch television (unless my wife is watching and it becomes "time together"). I have not fished seriously in at least 6 years.
I spent so many hours in front of charts, not really enjoying it but "needing" to, that it has become, a place to be, a goal to have, something I enjoy. I often try with little success to get my wife to go in on the theory that it is similiar to her yoga. Balance. I think that is why I took to the theory of value so hard recently. It hit home with where I want to be in my life, in my mind.
And so it made sense immediately. While I am still watching it be better than I thought it would be, I smile every time I am wrong.
If this was my wife posting it would start with OMG!
I hated footprint charts / numbers bars. Now it is the best new addition this year next to TPO charts.
AND, Sierra Charts. I cannot find a complaint.
And I think it is worth getting past being a little more difficult than Ninja Trader to get started with, because that also gives complete freedom with configuration. If you have traded for years and know what you want, you have not experienced what you want until you have tried Sierra. If you don't know, Ninja is a lot easier and I am not sure Sierra is worth the struggle. There are enough struggles without that one.
Many traders start with a lot of confidence and no experience. "I can do this!"
And by the time the experience that should inspire confidence comes, they have had it beaten out of them.
I have not seen it but someone quoted @Big Mike as saying something about how hard it is to re-wire yourself after scalping. Scalping is a survival mechanism. It comes from the beatings. LOL!
In a post this evening about how to not take profits early, I saw myself.
"I used to live in a room full of mirrors
All I could see was me
Well I take my spirit and I smash my mirrors
Now the whole world is here for me to see"
Crude has taken a well-earned rest after the past 48 hours at the minimum W4 zone. I added GC to my screens because temporarily it is relevant. I have my charts feeling great. My awareness is running strong. My confidence is still idling. But I do know that I am feeling CL again and loving it.
I tried to scale up fast last year. It was roughly the same reason I started trading to begin with. Panic in slow-motion. That whole experience almost knocked me out.
But it didn't, and I came back willingly, and wiser.
My average trade size is less than 2 contracts this year. I never would have know that until Sierra, but I can promise it was more than that last year.
It is not about the # of contracts. It is about the confidence and control. And control is easier to maintain at $20 a second than $200.