[enochbenjamin]

My bread and butter trades are scalps of shooting stars and tweezer tops into some sort of resistance.

Ideally one of the two candle formations will occur after a nice price move up to resistance. Today there was a $1 move up in oil that gave a nice shooting star in to resistance.



If I am on top of my game I will short 3 contracts with a 5 tick SL. I will take the first off at 8 ticks, the second at 13 ticks and the third off for 21 ticks. In crude oil (CL) my main vehicle thats $150 risked for $420 in profit. I almost always get the 8 ticks so even if I get stopped out before hitting my next two targets it is only a loss of $20. Very low risk trades.

The beauty of oil is that there are 3-4 opportunities to take this type of trade almost every day.

I define resistance as any level where price will pause and give you a bounce. In crude oil it is rare for price to just blast thru these levels. Usually price will approximate the level and quickly bounce. Then it may test the level again, completely retreat or blast thru. I am only interested in the initial bounce and tweezers or a shooting star into any resistance level give me the confidence to take this trade.

Please feel free to comment and/or share how you utilize tweezers and shooting stars.

[enochbenjamin]

Yesterdays crude oil action presented an opportunity to short both a shooting star and tweezer tops.



In this example both the shooting star and the tweezers occurred at the second SD (VWAP)

[brownsfan019]

EJ - can you explain how you enter b/c I'm not sure how your entry level is identified on that chart. Are you anticipating the candle pattern to form or do you wait for some sort of confirmation?

Thanks.

[enochbenjamin]

Originally Posted by brownsfan019 »

EJ - can you explain how you enter b/c I'm not sure how your entry level is identified on that chart. Are you anticipating the candle pattern to form or do you wait for some sort of confirmation?

Thanks.

It is a little easier for me to enter with a shooting star. I already know and am watching the Resistance levels. In the above example the pivot was 7489 and the second standard deviation was just a few ticks away providing a resistance zone (for me). So as soon as I see the price retreating and the shooting star forming i will enter. I enter before I get confirmation as to keep my stops as tight as possible. In the first chart I posted you will see my stop was 7 ticks and not my standard 5 - that was because I did not catch it fast enough to have my stop above the star.

If you want confirmation you could wait to enter below the close of the shooting star candle. This increases the amount you have to risk and is much harder with tweezers.

If there is a confluence of resistance levels (R1, 2nd SD, 00, yesterdays high) at/near the same price I have been known to set a limit with a wider stop to account for an overshoot. Then once the overshoot does or does not occur I quickly reduce the stop to 5 ticks and let the chips fall.

[daedalus]

Very cool thread. Thanks for sharing with us. This is the kind of stuff that keeps this forum a great place to spend time and learn.

Can't wait to see more!

[enochbenjamin]

Just wanted to point out that all of my examples will be shorts at resistance. I am a directional trader who firmly believes that deliverable commodities have built in selling pressure so no matter how bullish the markets become there will be ample selling at almost every level.

Also for some reason support levels are more "grey" than resistance levels so my tight stops do not work as well at support. I would love to hear from others so I can learn if this is a bias I have or if there is some consensus on the issue.

[brownsfan019]

EJ - do you have an EL code you can post for the vwap bands?

[enochbenjamin]

Originally Posted by brownsfan019 »

EJ - do you have an EL code you can post for the vwap bands?

Unfortunately i do not. I discovered VWAP here in the Jperl threads. You might find code over there.

i use x_trader and vwap is a standard feature. please note that all vwaps are not created equal. I have tried it in several software apps and found only three to be accurate: X_trader, Ensign Windows and Investor R/T.

To be 100% honest I do not really understand how SD works - all I know is that after observing it for over a year price rarely goes much further than the 2nd SD. Since trading is a probabilities game knowing that the 2nd SD is a price extreme gives me a little edge. Add a significant resistance level and vavoom! (felix the cat)

Now if I could only be so disciplined to only take those high probability trades