ptcman

Amazing, the things the majority of their users say that it's their strengths when compared to Tradestation and even Ninja, you say it's their weakness.... go figure!

Multicharts just released their free .NET version. You will be able to trade 2 symbols live and take advantage of all the tools available on the standard version. MultiCharts .NET Starter Edition

Here's something that has always confused me. If we want to buy at the market we hit the offer (we are buying from a seller) and if we want to sell at the market we hit the bid (we are selling and someone is buying). Sometimes we hear something like - bids are being lifted - which assumes that traders are hitting the offer. Other times we hear - bids are being hit - which assumes buyers are getting hammered to absorbed all the selling. I never hear this type of descriptions on the offer side. It's all about bids. Since english is not my main language I have some difficulty in understanding the true price direction when I hear such phrases and I'n not near my charts or DOM. Is there a place where this type of phrases are explained or is there someone here that could explain the true meaning of it. Thank you.

Hi. I'd like to plot trendlines but from the last bar forward (to the right side of the chart, not the standard way, to the left side of the chart. Using the code below I'm able to achieve my goal but it's not working properly. When zooming in the lines disappear after a while. I need to zoom out again so I can see them. Also, the lines begin right at the last bar (time_s) but I'd like to have some space there between the last bar and the start of the line. Any idea to achieve this? I was looking of "sum" some time to time_s keyword but I can't figure out how to to this. tl_delete(value1); tl_delete(value2); tl_delete(value3); tl_delete(value4); value1 = tl_new_s(date, time_s, close, date + 1, time_s, close); tl_setcolor(value1, red); tl_setsize(value1, 1); tl_setextright(value1, true); value2 = tl_new_s(date, time_s, closeD(1), date + 1, time_s, closeD(1)); tl_setcolor(value2, yellow); tl_setsize(value2, 0); tl_setextright(value2, true); value3 = tl_new_s(date, time_s, highD(1), date + 1, time_s, highD(1)); tl_setcolor(value3, darkcyan); tl_setsize(value3, 2); tl_setextright(value3, true); value4 = tl_new_s(date, time_s, lowD(1), date + 1, time_s, lowD(1)); tl_setcolor(value4, darkcyan); tl_setsize(value4, 2); tl_setextright(value4, true);

Very interesting messages guys, thanks. When we look at an up tick aren't we looking at a trade(s) that hit the ask, and when we look at a down tick aren't we looking at a trade(s) that hit the bid? Naturally that we don't know the volume produce at each price, but can't we use a tick counter to have an idea of the movement made on those prices? I rarely used, if ever, limit orders

Hi. Accordingly to eSignal, they do not aggregate their data. All are sent in real time. I cannot prove this of course, but I can say that their data (tick/volume) can have at times huge disparities when compared with IB's data. I mean huge disparities.... For example, using tick count on Multicharts (Built Volume On) and applying the Ticks reserved word on a 500 contract bar chart, IB never goes above 100 whereas eSignal go easily above 300 on each bar. Look, I'm not saying that IB feed is a bad one. In terms of minute price data, they are exactly the same, diverging at times on the bar close price. My problem with it was always regarding their volume data, and of course my lack of understanding about the up and down tick reading that TAMS promptly helped with, thanks. Now I can see even clearer the differences between IB and eSignal tick data. Like I said, they are huge, which can generate quite different results.

Like I said TAMS, I receive my data through eSignal, not IB. Because of that lag IB has on retrieving quotes (especially volume) I was forced to subscribe eSignal data service. Yes, there is that question of up/down volume and up/down ticks which I continue to have some troubles understanding. I have a couple of indicators in Multicharts where, for example, if bartype => 2 volume is used for calculations, but if bartype < 2 then ticks is used. My view is that for a better volume reading when using minute or seconds charts, ticks are more reliable. My question is if when I'm using up or down ticks am I using volume or the trade count? That's why I'm getting second thoughts when applying the up and down tick to bar volume charts, because a 500 volume bar chart, indicates that during that bar, 500 contracts were traded. So when I request the up and down tick for that bar and receive 300 up ticks and 200 down ticks, what am I receiving? I can see that every time price move up it counts has 1 up tick and every time it moves down it count has 1 down tick, I have a countdown that does that, but since we are looking at a 500 volume bar chart, are those 300 contracts indicating they were traded upwards and those 200 contracts indicating they were traded downwards, since 1 tick equals 1 trade, which equals 1 contract? Damn, why such a simple thing becomes so hard to understand?

Hi TAMS. I don't receive my data through my broker (IB). I use eSignal for data, and Multicharts has my trading/chart platform. My idea for up and down ticks is to "know", within a bar" which side won, buyers or sellers? Sometimes, a bar closes at the high, but down ticks are higher than up ticks.

Hi. I've been watching volume bar charts and I have a better view of price swings with this type of charts. My question though is about up and down ticks when using volume bar charts. If trading a 500 volume bar chart and measure the up and down ticks of each bar, lets say, 300 up ticks and 200 down ticks, indicates of the 500 contracts (volume) traded, 300 made prices tick upwards and 200 made prices tick downwards. Is this reading correct? I don't know why but this sounds a bit strange. Regards.

Hi. I'm an IB's client and my account is Euro based. Last week I lost almost $200 with this Euro fall against the dollar. My question is the following, how can I convert my Euro account into Dollar so I can protect myself against this Euro downtrend? Yes, I could buy Dollars, shorting this way Euros, but can I do this? At the moment I have no positions in my account, since I'm taking some time off, so is just the cash account, nothing else. Initially I thought having the account in Dollars since I only trade US futures markets, but everytime I wanted to transfer money to my bank account I would need to convert, giving me possible losses. But now, I'm having losses, and I must protect the account. Is there any text, book, or anyone that could explain how things work and the best way to manage the situation? Incredible enough, I have more than 50 books regarding markets, but they are all about TA, or psychology. None explains markets functioning.... Regards.

Thanks Tams. I had also that idea, but there's nothing like the confirmation by professionals. You know, that pic make us think twice before asking you something

Hello. Can the VWAP indicator be valid when applied to a volume bar chart? Regards.

I understand your tribulations Ingot. I too suffer from them. I've been a trading for 10 years now, well, as a part time job, not full time. Meaning that when I would arrive home from work, I would open my trading platform, what some charts, making a couple of trades, and at the end of the day ended flat, with a minor gain, or a minor loss. I lived like this for 10 years. Last December the company closed and I got unemployed. So I decided to become a full time trader. 5 months have passed and things continue to be the same. For 10 years I created such a mess in my brain that now I clueless in what to do. I spend 12 hours in front of my 8 screens, looking at charts, 6E and NQ, and most of the time I don't see shit. I'm basically flat all the time. Maybe in the morning things go wrong and I lost $500, but during the afternoon things lighten up and I recover the initial loss, or the opposite, in the morning I gain $500 and lost it all during the afternoon. I continue to make the same mistakes over and over. Everytime I read my trading diary I'm amazed how can it be possible. Einstein's definition of insanity really said it all - "insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expect a different result". The Floored documentary really put things in perspective. Make us think. Do I really have the capacity to survive? YES I HAVE! Trading is easy, the problem is that stuff that we have between our ears called brain. Greed it's a bitch. If we have 5 ticks profit we want 10 ticks. If we have 10 ticks profit, we want 20 ticks. If we take 5 ticks and prices rise til 10 ticks we curse all and everything and re-enter to try to catch a couple of more ticks. All of a sudden prices reverse and you have a loss of 10 ticks. You feel outrages, once again you curse everyone. Adapt. I think that is really the key word nowadays. Daytrading, for some traders, is now scalping. All I've just written about is known by most traders. It's one of those obvious things. The problem, again, is with that stuff between our ears. When trading, our brain just can't remember none of that stuff. The videos rise many questions, but for me, it rose questions that give me more strength towards the future. Yes, maybe a vacation would be a good idea, to put things in perspective.

This is really one of the best threads in TL. I can say that I've been involved in the financial markets for the past 11 years. Basically I've always looked at it as a hobbie, though, always thinking that one day, when I would give up my day job, I would want to do this for the rest of my life I've lost thousands of dollars. I've jumped from system to system, I've used Elliot Waves, WD Gann, indicators and oscillators, Fibonacci, Murrey Math, and whatever I could find. I always was felt more comfortable with very short term trading / daytrading, but I confess that I never was able to be profitable, at least not in a sustain way. Last year I decided that enough was enough, it was impossible to follow the markets and working at the same time so I decided to embrace the markets once and for all. If I had problems before, now, being 24/7 available for the markets didn't helped a bit. I continued to make the same mistakes and continued to lose money. One year have passed and I'm in the same place, well, worst actually since I'm totally devastated with my lack of commitment. I have a complete list of my trades, where I have noted all my errors, my weaknesses, my strengths, but now I stuck. I have no idea how to, and what to to with that data. I love the markets, I love the way they work, the unlimited possibilities that it give us so we can earn our living. But I'm stuck, demoralized, tired. Friends say to me that I should give up, take a long vacation, but giving up is something that I cannot, 1 year full time in the markets is nothing, though, those 11 years should have given me more than enough time for me to find my way. Taking a vacation is something that I thought, but lets face it, when I came back the problems will continue to be here, and they will all be the same. I continue to say that leaving my job, and embracing the markets full time was the best thing I could have done, but...