[Head2k]

Originally Posted by innovation »

Is this not the same thing? Also does the amount of effort expended getting here from the recent high mean that a 'normal retracement' is unlikely?

You're right, it is the same thing. In fact, by what I said I introduced a bias. By "another test" I meant a successful test. So I was biased towards shorts. In the next step I corrected myself and allowed for considering another option, too. Optimal would be to expect a test and have no bias about how it resolves itself. Then it would be the same thing, as you point out. And maybe you are right about that effort thing, too. I just don't know how unlikely. So I try to remain open to all posibilities (though I am biased way more often than I would like).

(5) This one I would not be able to interpret, it could be bears trying to go down and bulls stopping them or as you say visa versa. I suppose this is one of those instance where you would need to view it in RT in order to get a feel for who stepped in and when (if you are capable of such things, I am not!). The fact that price is turned away from the turquoise line with no effort just after this : does it mean that bulls are not quite sure of themselves yet or is it unimportant?

I assume it was an attempt for a rally because price poked up. So bulls tried up and as soon as they encountered first troubles they withdrew, i.e. they didn't continue pushing hard. So yes, they weren't quite sure, IMHO.

(6) Bulls are smacked relatively hard here after their attempt to go up, this would have made me think that we would see lower prices but then price recovers to almost the same level with little opposition. So again I would have a hard time understanding what was likely to come. You say that bulls tried twice more to see higher prices but I see bears trying to go down at the first volume spike an bulls successfully holding them back for now. Followed by withdrawal on behalf of the bulls until 1200 where they think their chances of success might be higher.

You need to realize where is this action hapening in relation to the very recent one point wide congestion (1201 - 1202). Bulls are trying up, so it's them who must show effort. Sellers don't need to try to pull price lower, they just take advantage of the bulls' effort and sell at good prices (above that tiny congestion). And the fact that the bulls' effort is lessening forces sellers to sell lower and lower, or they have nobody to sell to. If there is no effort on bulls' side then the sellers might start to be worried that there will soon be nobody to sell to even at current temporary value area (that tiny congestion) and then they are likely to pull price lower.

(7) I would not have noticed this lack of participation until at least much later if at all, context context!

I posted a 5 sec chart first because I wanted to start with detail and then to show how wider context can change the interpretation of what's happening. In reality you would do it the other way around, of course. And if you knew the importance of 1199 you would be probably watching closely what traders do there.

But there is trading activity (more so than the fall between (6) & (7)) so wouldn't that mean that there was supply just more demand?

I am not quite sure if there is more activity that during the fall between (6) and (7), if you count activity per wave. But yes, as you say, wolume was somewhat high. so what you said is true. What is imortant is how fast price got up, anyway.

I suppose you could reasonably expect a break either way and play it that way as the range is small.

I can't be of service as this is the type of thing one must test by himself.

Honestly, no! I can see that 8,9,10 are all bullish and that 12,13,15 are bearish but 14 is showing a higher level of support albeit costing more effort to maintain but maintained it is. I suppose any subsequent move past the level where (14) occurred on lower volume would indicate a withdrawal of bulls and that lower prices were likely?

I wanted to illustrate a gradual decrase in bulls' confidence and increase in bears' confidence. This gradual shift represents different levels of confirmation for shorts (wider context aside).

[ammo]

head i chart mp by hand in 1 point increments so i cannot supply a chart ,but on your 1st graph,if it were in larger increments(1 point maybe)u can see a ledge at 1200,in mp the end of day shape is often the bell curve,when i see a ledge at 1200 and most of the bell formed so far is below it ,i assume there is a working seller at that price,more often than not ( i can remember twice in the last 3 months that it didnt happen),that offer will disappear at sometime before the day is over and the upper part of the graph will be drawn in,so when it ticks above there i usually buy it hoping for a couple points and have already searched for a trendline above there looking to place an offer underneath,there was a similar ledge in es today at 793-4,since i use 1 ponit the ledge was a lot of 793.25 -793.75 trsdes that never traded 794,ghi and j period,this formed a 4 letter ledge and i like to have at least 3,in the j period it traded 94 and 795 and made another 3 letter ledge at 95,meaning it would break to 96,it broke and ran to 799 and then returned to the nip at 792/3, point is when u see a res making a ledge on your mkt profile u can expect it to be taken out and go with it when it is

[Head2k]

Originally Posted by DaKine »

I apologize for this off topic post but can anyone tell me what platforms offer a 5 sec chart TICK Q or TICK overlay, like Head2k's charts... I am using Ensign and Ninja. Anyone now if its possible with these? Thanks for the help and again my apologies for being off topic.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Head2k »

I use AmiBroker 5.20 Pro with DTN IQfeed.

Originally Posted by rigel »

May I inquire as to the monthly cost both for charting and datafeed

www.amibroker.com
www.iqfeed.net

I would use a PM for this stuff, but since there are more people asking I will write a short post here and we can continue on topic then.

AmiBroker (Professional edition) is for $279 one time fee. You have free upgrades for 12 months. (Then $139 for upgrade).
AmiBroker was my first choice and I am content with it (though there are some details which bug me). I learnt how to program in AFL (AmiBroker Formula Language) and I like that in AmiBroker you can code virtually anything. Maybe you would like to know that AmiBroker is only for charting and has no trading interface, and if you are considering daytrading, it is good to know that it can display only 5 sec and 15 sec time charts, and then 1 minute or greater. But it can display custom tick, constant volume and range charts, too.
You can download a free trial, but I think it is not a professional version, so no intervals under 1 minute and no tick/CVB/Range charts and no real-time data possible.

DTN IQfeed costs $60 / month (basic service) + exchange fees for real-time data ($30 for CME e-mini, for example). There is a calculator on IQfeed web site.
However, you can plug IB feed to AmiBroker too, of course, and that would be a cheaper option. Disadvantage of IB is slow and quite limited backfill and aggregation of ticks. Though if you use a 5 sec chart you don't have to care of the aggregation. There is one advantage of IB over IQfeed, and that is that IB offers native 5 sec data. IQfeed offers 1 minute data and then only tick data. So if you want to use a 5 sec chart with IQfeed data, you need to keep a tick database. With IB you can maintain a 5 sec database, which is smaller and faster (as AmiBroker has less data to load), considering the same length of history, of course. Or you can keep much longer history with the same database size.

If there are still more questions about AmiBroker or IQfeed, please start a new thread in appropriate forum and let me know so I notice it.

------------------------------------------

Db Edit: Rather than make another post, I'll insert here that Sierra Charts costs from $17.50/mo and the IB datafeed is from $10/mo to free. Any other posts relating to this question will also be added here so that any inquiries can be linked to this post. Further questions should be asked via PM or in some other more relevant thread. This is not to discourage questions but to make the answers easy to find.

[pinetree]

Posted is a chart over a ETF on the Swedish OMXS30 Index. I'm trying to understand the movements within the recent range and I have a hard time interpreting the way volume/trading intensity is behaving realtive to price.

The market has, like most other markets, seen a rapid decline where selling preassure has been larger than buying preassure from late august to october. In october the market found a potential Preliminary Support @ around 70 and a possible Selling Climax of some sort occured @ around 65. A rally followed and the top of that rally (automatic rally?) marked the high of the trading range that has since developed.

In the trading range that has since developed the volume/intensity is clearly larger at the bottom/lower half of the range than it is in the top/upper half of the range as marked by red / blue rectangles.

I am not sure how to interpret this volume/intensity behavior. There seems to be more interest in the market in the lower half of the range where the volume/intensity increases and vice versa. Range on each individual bar also seems to be higher in the lower half of the trading range than in the upper half where the individual bar range seems to be smaller.

What I'm trying to understand is of course if this action in some way indicates whether there is a greater likelyhodd of accumulation or re-distribution going on within the range.

As I interpret it (pls correct me since this is what I am uncertain about) the is a greater likelyhood that accumulation is going on. Buyers are not yet ready to push the stock through the top of the range (jumping the creek) and therefore buying preassure diminishes as the stock reaches the top of the range. Selling preassure is also low up there. Sellers on the other hand are working hard to push the stock through the bottom of the range (as can be seen by the increased intensity in the lower half of the trading range) but buyers have (so far) stepped up to absorb the increased selling.

Pls comment on above thoughts and posted chart.

[Head2k]

Originally Posted by pinetree »

Pls comment on above thoughts and posted chart.

IMHO it is hard to tell whether we are looking at accumulation or re-distribution, or to say it more down to earth, whether it is going to go up or down.
I believe your observaions are correct. Buyers lack effort on the up side but absorb on the down side. This could suggest accumulation as you say. But so far price is definitely not ready to head north, because supply obviously hasn't been removed yet. And maybe it even won't be removed and at some point buyers will give up. If that happens and if they chicken out and start throwing back all that they have accumulated we can see a pretty fast decline. On the other hand, if buyers endure and you see lessening effort on the down side and lifting supporting points because there is nobody to sell to at lower prices, then the accumulation is more likely to be successful.

(Bear in mind that I am a beginner.)

[pinetree]

Thanks Head2k. Sounds reasonable to me. From that particular chart it is probably to early to read too much into it. If prices would break to the upside one could possibly look back and say that it has a decent base to run away from.

[pinetree]

Another chart that I find to be interesting is the UYG chart. Looking at the chart one can see that each successive down leg is shorter than the previous one. Volume has been consistent in increasing as the index breaks to new lows. However, looking at the last break to new lows, the volume/activity didn't pick up.

My interpretation of this is that for each down leg, buyers have stepped into the market (and thus the increased activity as the index reaches new lows). For each leg down buyers have been more aggressive (must have been so since the distance that sellers manage to push price decreases...) However, at the last push down activity didn't seem to increase. Thus, sellers might have exhausted themselves as activity is low and spread is narrow.

Buyers now have their chance to take control and push prices higher.

I would greatly appreciate if someone would take time to comment.

[Head2k]

Originally Posted by pinetree »

I would greatly appreciate if someone would take time to comment.

Clear stairstepping downtrend to me. And on a larger scale the pace of the move is not decreasing. As you say the activity didn't pick up. Buyers have a chance. But will they take it? And if they take it what will they be able to achieve? If they show strenght, violate the stairstep or at least the trend line, or if they stop the decline and let a base to form, then one can start think of buying. Now this would be just catching the falling knife, IMHO.

Note: If you trade EOD, you can also consider posting to EOD thread.