[imahippi]

Db
I've just started watching the Nasdaq tick along side my Q's chart.
I usually watch the 1 min chart and sort of switch between 5, 15 and daily when I am in a trade.

When you post tick numbers are you getting that from a 1min chart? If yes , which number is it? The close #?
Sorry but I would like to get to know how to use it and don't really understand how you come to the #'s on the daily charts in your blog.

To make sure I understand your use of it:
At points of interest you watch the tick number to see if there is a divergence. So if there are two pokes down to a similar level for example, you would look to see if the tick info reflected less force or momentum on the second which would hint that perhaps the down move was easing.

thank you for your time

[DbPhoenix]

Though I may have unintentionally slipped, I've tried to limit my discussion of the TICKQ to my blog and to the chat room. Even though Wyckoff was always mindful of market breadth, he didn't follow the TICKQ because it wasn't available to him. Therefore, any discussion of it here would be way off topic. Way.

If you're interested in this sort of divergence, I suggest you hang out in the chat room since explaining something that moves is easier if one is watching it move.

[imahippi]

Thank you and I will try the chat again.
Jay

[DbPhoenix]

A more detailed explanation of how I use the TICKQ is now included in my blog.

[DbPhoenix]

As regards my comment in post #2 on the appropriateness of using the TICKQ, I've changed my mind. I see so many posts here and there stating that such and such is "based on Wyckoff", but the relationships to Wyckoff are flimsier than a claim that a Yugo is "based on" a Rolls-Royce.

Wyckoff is not about being mechanical. It's not about quantification. It's not about indicators and geometry. It's not about questionable "patterns", much less the cute and clever names invented for them. It's not about trading "bar by bar". It's not about software and little red and green arrows. What it is about is trading price movement, continuous and uninterrupted price movement, price movement that is created by the imbalances between buying pressure and selling pressure. The further one moves away from that and toward bars and candles and indicators and patterns, the more closely focused his attention becomes on those bars and so forth and the more disconnected he becomes from price movement, which may be the reason why so many people continue to fail and resort instead to mechanical methods (which may or may not serve them any better).

The TICKQ is a simple measure of market breadth. It is not an indicator, anymore than the Dow Jones Industrial Average is an indicator. It has no settings. You can't futz with it. Plotting it against stocks, ETFs, futures, or any other trading instrument is not much different than overlaying a price plot of the S&P or the DJIA, which tells you how whatever you're trading is doing against the broader market.

Was anything like the TICKQ available a hundred years ago? No. Would Wyckoff have used it if it were? Given his repeated emphasis on knowing what the broader market and the various groups were doing before selecting a stock and while trading it, I have no doubt that he would. I suggest, therefore, that those who are tired of labeling bars and candles and drawing patterns and searching for hidden meanings and trying to discern the motives and activities of the so-called "smart money" and want something simpler and more elemental may find the TICKQ helpful in detecting those turning points at which price is running out of steam.

For example, from yesterday:

First locate support and resistance:

Zooming in to the day's sweet spot:

And making the entry:

Entry can be made as soon as the divergence manifests itself, a tick below, two ticks, three ticks, whatever. That's up to the trader. The order can be a market order, a limit order, a stop-limit order, whatever. Makes no difference. Up to the trader. What matters are not the minutiae of entry location or order type but the fact that price and the TICKQ are moving in different directions at resistance. If one doesn't grab that basic fact and hang onto it, then all the geegaws and tschotkes that he has loaded onto his chart aren't going to rescue him.

[DbPhoenix]

The TQ was not particularly helpful this morning. It and the NQ clung together like horny teenagers. But if one is patient enough and puts the Wyckoff methodology first (climaxes, tests, springboards and so on), the TQ can provide that extra little bit of confirmation that one may need to pull the trigger.

First, because of the lows put in Monday, yesterday, and overnite, we have to back up a bit to find support:

Now we look to the same bar interval as my previous post and locate support and resistance for today (I haven't transferred all the notations from the previous chart to this one because I'm too lazy and for you it's only a little scroll upwards):

Here, because of yesterday's high, we have resistance at around 1468 (the more recent swing point trumps the one from a week ago: see previous post). Next most likely "zone of interest" (see how jargon can creep in?) is 1460. Then we have those little trading ranges that were formed Monday, yesterday, and last nite. That they were interrupted by that rally to 1468 does not change the fact that a lot of trading went on there, and that alone makes them important. So we have yet another possible resistance level at 1452-3, and support at 1440-42 (see first chart).

The TQ provides no help as it and price bounce back and forth between the support and resistance levels noted above, though one can make pure resistance and support trades at 09:33 at 1452 and at 10:01/2/3 at 1439 if he's good enough. But that's not the subject of this thread, the TQ. The TQ does give guidance 45m later during the test of the first swing low at 1439 (see the little red arrows, above?):

Look what happens here. Price reaches the level of the first swing low 45m earlier (and you see now why it's necessary to have at least a 1m chart to provide the context), but then it just sits there, for over two minutes. And while it's sitting there (which, again, is a relatively important support level: see first chart), the TQ waves goodbye and heads north. This may give the trader a bit more confidence toward taking the trade. Is this an in-your-face divergence that is to be taken regardless? No. It's really pretty subtle. But look where it's taking place, at a level where, according to Wyckoff's methodology, the trade ought to be taken anyway. The TQ just gives it that little extra oomph, the cherry on the sundae, the paprika on the deviled egg.

[DbPhoenix]

So what happened later?

Price made it all the way to 1469. (And see that little red arrow pointing at that bar at 1460? When price busts through a particular level like it's been shot out of cannon, you can be sure that the resistance level you thought was a resistance level really was a resistance level.)


And what did the TQ look like at resistance?

Time to scale out, or exit entirely. Maybe even reverse, if you're not tired.

[DbPhoenix]

I'm a bit surprised at the response to these posts. Clearly some need is being met, though I'm not sure that that need is.

In any case, we are in the middle of yesterday's range, with all the multiple resistance levels: 70, 60, etc. But this is where the TQ can come in handy. If one doesn't know which resistance level is going to be the one with the muscle, the behavior of the TQ can provide a clue. If, for example, we move up to 60 and there's a serious divergence, I'll try that. But if price just yawns, I'll more likely leave it alone and wait for an attempt at 70(+/-). Or, if it retreats instead, see what happens at 52.

Who knows? Open mind, flexibility, etc, etc.