Hi all, first time posting, and before my question, thank you for all you do here, really appreciate the forum.

My question: I exclusively trade the micros, /MES and /MNQ and sometimes /M2K. Generally looking for 2-3 points. So not scalping like some do for only a few ticks, but not very long time frames or positions either. Any thoughts on best size Tick charts to use? Ive read anywhere from 133 up to 500 or 995? Would appreciate any thoughts or opinions and thanks for such a great forum. I aspire to eventually be a help to others the way Ive seen so many of you be.

It's hard to say what the "best" tick chart is, of course that's going to change based on what you're looking for in a trade. But, I've found the 995 to be pretty good for scalping 1 to 3 point trades.

Also, if you already have a chart for the ES that you can rely on, just set up a DOM for the MES next to it and place your trades on that based off of the ES chart. Hope this helps!

Try the fibonacci sequence. That's what is used commonly for regular ES charts.

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For MNQ I use 50 ticks and 1000 ticks charts

skymonk 

Hi all, first time posting, and before my question, thank you for all you do here, really appreciate the forum. My question: I exclusively trade the micros, /MES and /MNQ and sometimes /M2K. Generally looking for 2-3 points. So not scalping like some do for only a few ticks, but not very long time frames or positions either. Any thoughts on best size Tick charts to use? Ive read anywhere from 133 up to 500 or 995? Would appreciate any thoughts or opinions and thanks for such a great forum. I aspire to eventually be a help to others the way Ive seen so many of you be.

Probably the only real way for you to know is to put up a number of charts with different tick sizes and see how they show the market to you. You want to get the size moves that interest you, and you don't want too much extra noise, so look for a balance that shows you the trades you want and that smooths out the smaller zigs and zags that you aren't interested in.

Something as simple as looking at 100, 500, 1,000 etc. -- or even 100, 200, 300 etc. -- and then zeroing in on what works best for you. Take a few minutes to set up the charts and look them over, see how you would trade them, and then follow some for a while in real time to see how well you can respond to them.

There really is no "right" answer, but you will be able to tell fairly quickly what works for you, or at least what looks good at first sight. Then the real test will be how you trade them, which you won't know without doing it.

I would make the same suggestion to anyone about any other chart type -- time bars, volume bars, range bars, Renko, whatever -- give different settings a look and then see how you would trade them. People will suggest different numbers, for many different reasons, and their suggestions may be good ones, but only if they work well for you. And you're the only one who can tell if they do or don't.

Bob.

^This is because only you know your trading techniques, so you have to figure out which type of tick, minute, hour, range, renko, etc. charts works the best for you.

It's like picking between different fruits. Everyone can name dozens of different fruits, but it's up to you which one satisfies your needs.

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bobwest 

Probably the only real way for you to know is to put up a number of charts with different tick sizes and see how they show the market to you. You want to get the size moves that interest you, and you don't want too much extra noise, so look for a balance that shows you the trades you want and that smooths out the smaller zigs and zags that you aren't interested in. Something as simple as looking at 100, 500, 1,000 etc. -- or even 100, 200, 300 etc. -- and then zeroing in on what works best for you. Take a few minutes to set up the charts and look them over, see how you would trade them, and then follow some for a while in real time to see how well you can respond to them. There really is no "right" answer, but you will be able to tell fairly quickly what works for you, or at least what looks good at first sight. Then the real test will be how you trade them, which you won't know without doing it. I would make the same suggestion to anyone about any other chart type -- time bars, volume bars, range bars, Renko, whatever -- give different settings a look and then see how you would trade them. People will suggest different numbers, for many different reasons, and their suggestions may be good ones, but only if they work well for you. And you're the only one who can tell if they do or don't. Bob.

I fully agree with BobWest. To trade you need to trade against rhythm and music you really connect with, that you just naturally grove with. The best way to ind that is to try these different sizes, approaches until you find a config that starts to feel natural to you ( and that works in sim trading).

Me? Practice what I preach. Yes, I did spend 7 hours today walking through a NQ 4 tick chart of Friday's RTH trading session to really see what was going on. Wow, that was a lot of ticks. But that time made me more comfortable with NQ than I ever have been before.

Hedge

sridawg 

It's hard to say what the "best" tick chart is, of course that's going to change based on what you're looking for in a trade. But, I've found the 995 to be pretty good for scalping 1 to 3 point trades. Also, if you already have a chart for the ES that you can rely on, just set up a DOM for the MES next to it and place your trades on that based off of the ES chart. Hope this helps!

995 ticks. I love it.

skymonk did you catch this? All he wrote was good. The bit about 995 ticks ... his bar will close just before all those trading with 1000 tick bars. Maybe just a tiny edge but great because you have to seek your edge in every corner...

I have been using 950 tick charts for months on MES ..... I tried lower number of tick charts but had too much clutter and was unable to see the bigger picture. A mentor of mine uses 2000 ticks on the ES only. He trades exclusively 2 legged pull backs, and that is an excellent chart for him. I went to 950 ticks on the MES mostly because of the lower volume of that contract. I am having success with that number.. Good Luck

Thank you all so very much!! Very helpful answers and you are all correct in saying i have to find the exact Tick number that suits what im looking for. In fact i use a good number of tick charts with varying number of ticks so how i really should have framed my question was " Are there any particular values for MES or MNQ that are commonly accepted or that you have found helpful to use" For example, as several posters indicated, 995 might be more helpful than 1000 etc. In fact i use the 995 and indeed it is very solid. In fact, i'm not sure if this is right yet since i don't have enough verifiable stats yet, but anecdotally, it seems that a good number of bigger solid moves happen JUST as the 995 shows its hand, particular when combined w one of the osciallators that are about to confirm upswing like TTM squeeze or Awesome Oscilator, in case any one hasnt tried them yet.

I currently look at 133, 500, 995, 2000, and deciding between 3200 and 4000. The one im thinking about altering is the 500...its an arbitrary number, I wonder if anyone here has found any particular number that in that range between say 200 and 500 that seems to carry a bit of weight the way 995 seems to.

Sincere thanks again :-)