[VSA] Volume Spread Analysis

[jjthetrader]

Thought I'd share this chart.
Trade the Markets is suggesting shorting MSFT.
Take a look at the chart. Professionals are selling into this upthrust. The next bar was down, closing on the low with high volume.
I think the jump was on the facebook deal, a perfect opportunity for the market makers to mark prices up and sell into.

[MC]

	Quote:	jjthetrader
	Thought I'd share this chart. Trade the Markets is suggesting shorting MSFT. Take a look at the chart. Professionals are selling into this upthrust. The next bar was down, closing on the low with high volume. I think the jump was on the facebook deal, a perfect opportunity for the market makers to mark prices up and sell into.

I'm glad I'm getting the hang of this...that was exactly what I thought on MSFT the day of the gap up when it closed weak on HUGE volume and the 2nd bar as confirmation.

VSA on stocks I think I'm ok with, how do you guys use VSA on things that don't have fixed floats like futures. I've tried early in the day on the YM to apply VSA and got raped because there is no set float. New market participants can enter at any time throwing off the balance. Later near EOD I can do a bit better cause I have a more clear volume for the day gauged.

Thanks

[TinGull]

Here you can see a base that's been forming over the past number of weeks and you can also see a number of "no demand" bars (noted by the low volume "dragonfly doji" type bars on low volume) that were quickly followed by selling, but not enough to break that previous low notated by the price level in red.

Yesterday was one of the first days that there was some strength coming in on this whole base. Should be interesting to follow along. Plus...it's in the solar complex and I love solar energy.

[jjthetrader]

I trade the ES and it's the same as trading stocks as far as VSA is concerned. Look for weakness or strength and try to take trades around support/resistance areas.
Check out my chart from Friday. See the gap up in the morning with weakness appearing first thing. As soon as it broke R1 I took a short at the 10:40 bar ( I wait for a red diamond in TradeGuider).
After the initial weakness and the drop below R1 it then retested R1 on reducing volume and R1 didn't hold, the path of least resistance is down at that point.
I had a profit target of 2 points and got it long before the ride down was over.
Same principles, shorter timeframe.

[jjthetrader]

This one's for mcichocki.
VSA & the YM - 5 min.

[MC]

	Quote:	jjthetrader
	This one's for mcichocki. VSA & the YM - 5 min.

Awesome...I appreciate the screen shot.
And nice trade BTW.

[tawe trader]

Hello all,

I have just stumbled across this forum this afternoon, this is a great thread and I have read through most of the posts this afternoon. I have been a trading for a few years and a member of the T2W forum but nobody there seems to follow VSA.

I was shown VSA back in August (by a complete stranger) and he was also running Tradeguider software. I didn't fancy the software but I bought Tom Williams book and read it from cover to cover.

Since August I have had live FTSE Future and Mini-Dow (YM) charts running and I have been watching these mkts all day and everyday since. Watching price and volume throughout the day and how it reacts around pivot points and S/R. VSA is not the holy grail but I couldn't trade without it now.

I also believe you don't need to have the Tradeguider software to successfully trade as you can teach yourself the main signals. I still have a lot to learn but hopefully I can contribute something to this thread.

[TinGull]

Welcome to the boards tawe trader. Great to hear you're enjoying VSA and learning all about it. I agree that you may not need the software to trade with VSA, but in learning what VSA is and the signals that are generated...the software certainly can help push that learning phase along.

[jjthetrader]

	Quote:	mcichocki_
	Awesome...I appreciate the screen shot. And nice trade BTW.

No problem. Let me know if you want anymore. I usually capture my trades for future reference.

[jjthetrader]

	Quote:	TinGull
	Welcome to the boards tawe trader. Great to hear you're enjoying VSA and learning all about it. I agree that you may not need the software to trade with VSA, but in learning what VSA is and the signals that are generated...the software certainly can help push that learning phase along.

Couldn't agree more.