[VSA] Volume Spread Analysis

[mister ed]

	Quote:	PivotProfiler
	Yes and No. I do not presume to know what is in Tom's mind, but there is a bit of placation going on here. Tom, the father of Volume Spread Analysis, does not like technical indicators. He has the ability to read a chart bar by bar and make uncannily accurate "predictions" of future price moves. As the rumors go, Tom was not very happy with TG when it first came out because; (1) there were too many signs of strength and weakness and (2) there were technical indicators included in the software. But Tom is a realist. He does understand that most traders into this area (trading) thru TA. This is because it is easier than reading a naked chart and more accessible. As far as using them together, I believe, he would say if the TA doesn't match the VSA, always go with the VSA. Think about like this: Instead of going long because macd is diverging and there are signs of strength in the background; one should go long because there are signs of strength in the background and oh by the way macd is diverging. May seem like a subtle difference but they are actually worlds apart. In the end, Tom does not trade your money. You have to do what works for you. It is about making money. If moving averages or CCI help you make money and make your VSA better, then use them.

Hi PP, yes I was wondering if at this seminar perhaps what William's was saying was tailored to the particular audience in attendance, it was "The Society of Technical Analysts" after all, so yes "placation " indeed.

Nevertheless, I thought I would include it in the discussion as the recent direction of the thread has been looking to specific entries, and if someone is comfortable with using technical indicators as an important input into entry and/or exit decisions then adding VSA can be beneficial. Then there is the other direction - if you are comfortable with using VSA can adding technical indicators be beneficial? Like you say, up to the individual and what he or she finds works best.

I would place myself in the camp of placing primary importance on the VSA/Wyckoff analysis, to the extent that I rarely look at indicators at all, but I can see how they could be seen as helpful if used in context.

It would be interesting to hear how people may use VSA in conjunction with say MP, or candles, or other more directly price-related inputs (as opposed to technical indicators) into their entry decisions and their take on the relative importance of VSA versus say a candlestick "pattern" in their specific entry/exit decision.

[jjthetrader]

I just watched TradeGuiders chart of the week with Tom Williams and he's announced that in January he's going to be sharing some of his favorite trading setups and strategies using VSA.
This is great news for us all!

I've gone back over some charts to find examples like PP and others have posted and even if you were to get in too early on a VSA 'signal', you would still be notified by another VSA signal to get out, that it's not going to go as far as we thought.

So in some of the examples I posted about where to get in, well if you had gotton in at any one of those signs of strength, you could have ridden it until a sign of weakness or 'unreadiness' to go up, at least for a small profit. Stops would only have gotton hit if you had a static target in mind and ignored the signs that the markets was not ready to move yet.

Thanks to all for contributing productively to the issue. It's awesome that even Tom is going to be contributing to the subject.

Let me end with a quote from Tom in the "Undeclared Secrets" about the subject with regard to trading an upthrust signal: "Note that the indicators are quite inspired but you still have your work cut out for you to trade them. Any market is designed for you to lose money in. The oscillating up and down ensures this".

Happy holidays everyone!

[404]

After reading on these forums about VSA, I am wanting to take my education a little deeper with regards to VSA.

What would be the steps you would advise me to take?

Is tradeguider the "main" site for VSA?

Thanks for the insight...

[mister ed]

	Quote:	404
	After reading on these forums about VSA, I am wanting to take my education a little deeper with regards to VSA. What would be the steps you would advise me to take?

There are, so far, >120 pages on this thread alone, I think you
can go pretty deep just studying these: there is huge amount
of written material and in the later pages there are audio/visual
presentations also. Study this thread - great first step.

Have you downloaded and studied the ebook Master the Markets?
Thats going to be helpful and a great second step.

There are threads on ET also, pretty sure the links are on this
thread - good third step.

All of this is free so far.

If you want to stay with the free resources, start investigating
Wyckoff, his work can go very deep into VSA indeed - VSA is
a subset of Wyckoff analysis. There are links to Wyckoff
resources throughout this thread - there is a Yahoo group
which is probably the easiest place to start to help find more
resources.

As far as TradeGuider goes, there are the free COTW presentations,
get on the distribution list for these.
Then there are the paid products like the educational CDs, the software
itself.

I am sure I have missed some resources, but take these steps
and you should be well on your way.

[gassah]

	Quote:	mister ed
	- VSA is a subset of Wyckoff analysis. There are links to Wyckoff resources throughout this thread - there is a Yahoo group which is probably the easiest place to start to help find more resources.

The Original Wyckoff course might be available from the Stock Market Institute. It used to go for about $200. It's by far the best material by Wyckoff and you'll see where Williams came up with many of his ideas. They have a brand new web site and you can find the contacts there, http://wyckoffstockmarketinstitute.com/

nic

[sleepy v2]

Has anyone watched the CD by Tom Williams
"How to pick Stocks that are Ready to Move"
... just wondering if its different to the boot camp CDs.

sleepy

[Anonymous]

	Quote:	sleepy v2
	Has anyone watched the CD by Tom Williams "How to pick Stocks that are Ready to Move" ... just wondering if its different to the boot camp CDs. sleepy

Haven't seen it, but it's my understanding that the primary focus of that CD is on using the stock scanner feature in TradeGuider.

[lote_tree]

Hi Everyone,

Mr Noob here so please bear with me. I've read this thread from the start. I've read both "Master the Markets" and "The Undeclared Secrets That Drive Stock Market" by Tom Williams. Both are excllent books, (even though they are nearly the same).

I think it's probably the best method to trade stocks or futures that I've ever come accross because it's a very direct approach to taking advantage of what make prices go up or down, (the imbalance between supply and demand)

Now I mainly trade the FTSE 100 Futures contract listed on the Liffe exchange from a 7 minute chart. I follow the cash market closely. Tom Williams states that if you're going to trade futures based on Indexes you must follow what the cash market is doing before jumping into the futures market.

The only probelm I have is that Interactive brokers do not provide realtime volume information for the FTSE 100 cash market. How is one to trade intraday using Tom Williams' methods if you do not have access to realtime parent index volume information?

Do you simply ignore the cash market all together and use the volume in the futures market as the guide? If so, aren't you trading contrary to what Tom has espoused in his writings on VSA?

Great thread btw guys!

Thanks.

Peace...

[That One Guy]

I find it funny, that there is no volume for the cash indexes. I, still haven't been able to find the real answer. I did, however, ask someone and they said to compose your own index. Adding all the stocks together that make up the particular index. Truthfully, I have no idea if this can be done. I'm sure one of the guys on this thread may have more insight. Anyway, have a great new year, and a great time trading.

[treadstone]

Great thread here chaps with a lot of fine information regards VSA.

Would anyone be interested in discussing their VSA analysis of the daily DJI?

I'd be particularly interested in whether people think we are seeing accumulation or distribution over the last 6 months.