brownsfan019

I guess it depends on your view, but a 36% increase over my threshold setting is not 'little stuff'.

Thank you Cooter, my sentiments exactly. I am not paying for somewhat accurate charting when most others out there do exactly what I need and want.

bh - some spikes were over 20% of the next candles volume. This is unacceptable in my opinion. If I put in 500 share bars, the candles should reflect 500 and not one contract over. "Just about right" will not work for me. In the big yellow box on the left, you can zoom in and see that that candle is 680 contracts. That is 180 OVER. That is 36% more volume than I wanted. That's a problem. And the difference in the appearance of the charts is substantial when looking at them side-by-side. We are not talking about an extra tick or two of movement.

Walter - all charts are set to volume. I found a few posts on the TS forums that deal with this subject. Apparently TS is at least aware of this, but does not look like they have done anything to fix it or at least give you the option to make them constant. Here's the key word "Constant". TS does not support Constant Volume Bars. In other words, if a large order comes thru right as your candle is nearing a close, that order will be included in your volume chart and then a new candle will form. Not sure why TS does this or at least allow you to set it as constant, but it is what it is.

As you guys know here I am a big fan of the Volume Based Charts / Share Bar charts. I am a TradeStation user. I thought a few things looked odd today while I was watching things progress... As you can see, this is an EC chart set at an interval of 500 shares. Well, hopefully you can also see the problem here... All those yellow highlights are when a candle formed that was OVER the 500 setting. :mad: Frustrating to say the least. So, I am asking for help of those using something other than TS for charting - if you could be so kind as to first see if your charting platform supports Volume Based Charts (aka Share Bars) and then add a volume histogram to the bottom of it and see if the volume is nice and uniform or if it is like my pic above. Please post all feedback here so we can help each other out! Thanks!!!

About a year or so ago I had some data issues with TS and jumped ship to ESignal. I found at that time that the data reliability was absolutely terrible when compared to TS. It didn't take long to go back to TS and *knock on wood* the data has been terrific for at least 10+ months. Being a simple trader, data is the one thing that I need and cannot complain about TS anytime recently. A lot could have changed in the last year, but I have never even considered heading back to ESignal after the debacle I witnessed. The other consideration may be cost and I believe that if you trade thru TS the per month cost is very low compared to ESignal. Even if you don't trade thru them (I don't) the per month cost is reasonable.

A possible solution - stop trading after the AM session. That's what I do and it's worked nicely b/c of the above mentioned issues. It's very easy to want to find something when nothing is going on. Once again, another psyche issue at work here. Amazing how the mind will react to different situations.

Pivot - good question. The Euro is actually a problem based on my analysis here. Reason being there is no other 'sisters' that I am comfortable with. I have not considered the multiple timeframes as that is just too much up at one time. In order to keep things simple, I have one ES, NQ and YM chart up at shorter VBC intervals and that's plenty. If one triggers a setup, trades are entered on all markets.

Understood; however with my smaller VBC charts, I simply cannot have 20 charts up of all different things. I am looking to exploit in the indexes due to liquidity. cooter - perhaps some was lost in translation but I am not a sim trader. Way past that part of my trading life. When I said that I was concerned about trading 50 contracts, that was not a random number. The point was lost as well - a signal showing on the ES simply tells me that the market may move up or down. That's it. Now if the ES is going to move up, so too will the YM and NQ. Now, we also know that just b/c the ES provided the setup does not mean it will provide the most profit. There's no correlation. Actually, as I stated earlier, you can actually get a BETTER fill on the other markets b/c the one that provided the signal happened to be leading the others at that point in time. So knowing that, would you not want the best possible fill on a winning trade? If so, then perhaps this should warrant consideration. If you only want to trade the market that showed the actual signal, so be it, but I am quickly realizing the amount of $$$$ being lost by doing so. And, like I said, if you drop 50 contracts at one level on the YM, not only is slippage going to be a concern, I'm not looking to 'raise red flags' either. Perhaps that's just being paranoid.

The other part of this equation is of course your psyche. The human mind is a beautiful thing, but it can be your own worst enemy. How many times has anyone here taken a trade and while you made money, you could have made more and your mind turns a winning trade into a mental struggle? So, if you make money, your mind thinks 'what if we had made more' and if you lose money, your mind thinks 'that does not feel good'. Point being that if you focus on just the ES and the YM was where the 'money was at', why not be there? Why not have a position in all three markets and guarantee to yourself (and your mind) that if the trade does what you think, you are going to make the most money possible? Instead of wondering if the YM or NQ was the better trade that you missed.... I really think that a topic like this can do more for your psyche than anything else. It's too easy to get wrapped up into one market and one trade and miss the bigger picture that is right in front of you... In addition to putting the odds on your side that you will maximize the return on the trades, your mind will be much more stimulated and active in the trades themselves. Instead of staring at one chart, you now must stay focused and manage all three positions. Yes, that can seem overwhelming at first, but for me (and I think I might have ADD) this is great! I know this will not sound right, but by having three open positions it's like a game for me. My brain is incredibly active and reacting at top levels; whereas taking one trade on one market can literally bore me to death. And the setups/risk/reward/etc is all the same - it's just over 3 markets at the same time. I should also note that I am not recommending increase your position size by 3 to do this. If you are comfortable trading 3 contracts, then you could in theory do this over 3 markets at 1 contract each.

notouch - please do not think I am attacking or anything, just opening this discussion up some more. Your comments ring very true to me. I thought the same thing - why not just focus on one of the indexes and push your hand there. The problem arises when that one market does not give you a signal to trade, meanwhile another index or instrument may have (as Mark illustrated). Now, the part I put in bold raises a question - you said to go all in on the 'best signal'. What does that mean? I only take my 'best' setups period. I don't consider an 'ok' or 'mediocre' setup... I don't understand why someone would enter a trade that they consider anything but their best. We know trading is hard enough as it is, but if you take a trade w/ little confidence, I can't see how that would work out in the long run. And in the end, even your very best setup can fail or not provide as much move as you expected; whereas by simply applying your best setup to another index may have provided the profit target you expected even though the setup didn't even appear on that chart. The best example I can provide is the ES vs the NQ. The ES doesn't always move nearly as much as the NQ can. I realize the points are worth different amount of money, but even with that difference, there are times when the NQ is by far the best choice at that particular time. Again, there's no way to know that going into the trade, so if you are in the ES, NQ, and YM and all move in your favor, you made money. And of those three, one will normally provide a bigger return than the other 2. The problem however is that you don't know that till the trades are completed.

Mark & Pivot - good examples and advice. It all makes sense even though I may not agree 100%. notouch - we simply do not agree on the idea here. -------------------- In a nutshell here's what I am attempting to do - instead of focusing on just one market while in a trade (which is very easy to do) and missing other opportunities, I am simply taking the 'opportunity' that is in front of me and executing this on 3 markets (no ER2 for me ... just yet...). And the reason is simple as I stated above - there is no possible way to know which of the three markets (ES, YM, NQ) are going to move after you enter the position the most. You just simply do not know. So to throw all your contracts into one market is extremely risky based on that premise in my opinion. It also comes down to slippage issues as well. I can't throw a 50 lot on the YM and expect little slippage and/or that to be unnoticed. I can take that 50 and spread it over 3 very easily, esp the ES and NQ. But if the YM is what ends up moving the most and I am not in that market simply b/c I forced myself to choose just one, that would be cause for concern later. I guess if you feel that your trading methodology is solid and you can make serious money trading, why would you limit yourself? Look at the AM moves this week - having traded all indexes together would have been a nice week of trading and all you do is simply enter positions based on your analysis. Now, if you are trading 2 or 4 contracts, this probably doesn't make much sense at all. That would be more of a nuisance than anything. But if/when you are trading some lots and slippage is something you have to consider, spreading your trades out over 3 markets is something to consider vs. forcing your hand on one market.

Here's another interesting tidbit in my analysis - by 'borrowing' signals, you can actually get much better fills in the other markets that you are trading vs. the one that showed the signal. Why? Easy - one market may lead the others. And since there is no dominant leader each day, you are simply using the leader to your advantage... Thereby your 'borrowed' signals may in fact show more profit simply b/c of better fills, even if placing those borrowed signals at the market. Some food for thought.

I guess the point notouch is that if you focus on one market and one market only, you may not even get a setup to begin with; whereas the other markets may have given you a setup. Since I use candlesticks, how things form on the chart is paramount. And since going into a trade there is no way to know for sure which market will 'pop' I'd rather be in the one that does for sure vs. hoping that I am. You have a 75% chance of being 'wrong' in terms of picking the one of the four that pops. Those odds are terrible. If you are in all 4 or all 3, you have a 100% chance of being in the one that does 'pop'. We know that the US indexes typically move in the same direction, but there's no correlation between the move and the amount of that move. A move on the NQ can easily produce more profit in terms of $$$ than the ES. Why would you want to restrict yourself to just one?

For those that trade multiple markets, do you exclusively look for your setups on each respective market or do you initiate a position if one of your correlated markets shows a trade? Example: we know that the US indexes move in correlation most of the time. Very rarely are you going to find the ES down while the YM is moving up. Knowing that, could you not take a trade on more than one market if you get a signal on one of your charts? Here's my thoughts - as I've been looking at better exits with WRB's and such, I've also noticed that if I have a YM trade and it works, odds are that an NQ trade would have worked as well, even if the NQ did not provide an actual setup for me. The thought process being that if my analysis is correct, why not exploit that on multiple markets. If we assume that one can implement that, you could trade some sort of combination of the ES, YM, ER2 and NQ. Now, I know the next question will be why not just focus on the one and trade larger lots there. Good question. First, unless you are just trading the ES, trading larger lots could create some slippage issues. Second, and more importantly in my opinion, while your analysis can be correct it's not always clear to tell which market will provide the most bang for your buck. In other words, if you just trade the YM at $5/pt, your 'opportunity cost' is another consideration. Anyways, just thought I'd share something that hit me like a ton of bricks this week since we have some great volatility here with us this week. PS Not exactly sure what part of the forum this should be categorized under, so feel free to move it mod's if need be.

My humble observation - that was a nice strong downtrend. Why anyone wants to stand in the path of an oncoming train is beyond me. That's the issue with pivots and other static lines like that - during a trending move, you are going to get killed. Now of course the argument is that the market does not 'trend' much and in the general discussion that is true; however, in daytrading where you are going for intraday moves, the market can 'trend' much more than what the talking heads on CNBC discuss or much more than your account can withstand.

Thanks momentom, I appreciate the info.

There's nothing attached to this message. To be sure, check your post after it's on the forum and see if your attachment is there. As of now, nothing is there.

No idea as I don't use Tick or Trin. Maybe someone else can chime in.

wei - thanks for the info, I appreciate it. Regarding Metcalf, he was a special player here. Never the 'big' name but always had the ability to change a game!

Seeing that I am trading at 7am EST with the EC, I've been taking a look at the DAX and STOXX Charts to give me another option or two to trade during the hours leading up to the US open. Just wondering if anyone here is trading the DAX or STOXX futures contracts and your thoughts on these markets. I'm not looking for strategies on how to trade them as I am simply going to do what I am currently doing, but just wondering if there's some idiosyncrasies I should be aware of. Note to my buddy Pivot - you may want to look at these with your WRB analysis... Just an idea.

W/o seeing any charts or anything, here's my suggestion - don't try to catch falling knives grasshopper.

wei - I understand that this, just like anything worth doing, takes time to learn... With that being said, I would like to start to get my feet wet b/c I've always wanted to be able to create a website from nothing or create graphics, pictures, etc. More of a hobby if you will. As for where to start and such, I would just like to be able to take a blank 'piece of paper' and create a basic website for now. I don't need it to do much right now, I just want to be able to say that I created a site from nothing. Something that can have multiple webpages, some graphics, text, etc. Not much more than that for now. Thanks for the help!

I'm interested in learning more about designing web pages and graphic design. I understand that Adobe is king here, so what would you recommend for someone new to this? Just not even sure where to start... For example, Adobe's website has quite a few programs available, but not sure what is recommended to 'get your feet wet' and not feel overwhelmed. Thanks!

Quick question for those that have read the thread - has anyone else looked at and/or implemented WRB's into their trading? Not sure how much more to really talk about from my point of view. I can post the occasional chart, but I think you guys get the idea if you read my posts. Just wondering if anyone else is using the methodology.