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I am scalper obsessing over whether to use TIME, TICK or VOLUME bases candles. I understand the benefits of all three but what I don't understand is why so many people use seemingly random TICK settings. At least in a TIME chart there are just a few common time frames like 1M, 5M, 15M etc.
Could someone please give their insight as to wether or not TICK charts are even necessary?
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
What is your style? Tick and or volume bars show trend lines, channels. Find the one you can make money at and please relax dude. You should be using some renko type anyway. What do you trade? If we all traded the same way the price would not move. This is a beginner question. IMHO.
I don't know about scalping (true scalping, about 1 point or less on the ES) but for swings and rotations trading tick charts are widely considered to more clearly show the ebb and flow of the price action. I personally agree with that assessment.
For example in a fast market using 5 minute charts will often result in one huge bar, where tick charts will show many bars allowing more entry/exit opportunities. If the market is moving fast and you make trading decisions based on end of bars you could be screwed with minute charts.
With tick charts you automatically get implied volume information, high volume results in quick bars, low volume the bars can practically stop.
There are other advantages as well but in the end its a personal choice.
Granular resolution is more important in faster markets, the slower or more consolidative, the lower the resolution needed. Since signals wont generate during consolidative markets.
My personal experience is : tick/ volume chart shows more details than 5 min bars and one should not pay too much attention to single bars in these charts, instead, pay more attention to the resistance/ support levels.
In my opinion all of the bars you selected do not show price action clearly or efficiently. Next time attaching a chart would help. My trading mentor told me that to successfully trade the market, our strategy has to consist of repeatable visual occurrences which is a roundabout term for patterns.
I would suggest Renko or Uni-Renko bars especially if your strategy is scalping as oppose to trend or position trading.
The Renko bar manages to filter out a lot of noise and chatter that the other bars simply cannot.
Complimented by a few other indicators, that are readily available here, you can construct a viable strategy. I have been testing a scalping strategy myself that I will eventually automate.
it's normal nothing obsessive about it. You remind me of Tony, each morning his group would waited anxiously for his "numbers" these would be his tick numbers 1 for fast chart and 1 for slow chart. This routine went on for years until he was old and got tired of varying the charts each morning to find the right 'look'. So he just stuck to some fix numbers and guess what? they also worked. He used them until he passed away.
There is no right or wrong answer. That is the answer.
On some days, the Tick chart would look better to you (in hindsight). For others, the time chart.
People are a bit too quick to dismiss time charts. They are great at showing fast volatility whereas on tick/volume charts you would have to often figure out the time spent on each bar. Also, volume on the chart, if you have an edge with it.
Personally, I use a combo of volume charts and very fast timeframe time charts. I also keep a time chart up of the same frequency as the volume chart just to see a different perspective.
If you don't want random numbers, simply choose a timeframe you like to trade on, put volume on the bottom of it, and a high period m.a. over the volume. Set your volume chart to that average. Now you have a volume chart that should be a similar frequency to the time chart of your choosing.