Hi Zen Student,
While reading my response keep in mind that my trading style is based off ACD method- which is highly discretionary. That was the only way for me to get away from indicators.
What work have you done to quantify the times when MP/POC does work?
R) None. I have friends who have done more work with MP than i can ever imagine and they stay away from CL. An example would be futurestrader71. His knowledge of MP is amazing and he focuses on E-mini like most of MP traders. Disclaimer: FT71 is not a
friend but i have followed his work for 2 years now and spoke to him couple of times about MP, CL etc..
I use MP when market breaks out after 3 or more days of consolidation or couple of days of POC line up- that's it.
What is the tfpXRay indicator on your charts - it seems to be some calculation on the volume?
R) It is a Volume based tool that I am testing. Like all tools it is helpful some time and some time of no use.
Time is more important than Price for me. 15 minutes is not enough time to confirm that my set up is wrong the way i trade. I do however reduce position size in situation like these.
the move needs to have potential 60 ticks or more" then how do you know how far? You say you cannot "know" for sure if your entry price will hold - how do you "know" how far it will move the other way?
R) look at end of day chart for 01-17-2012. It's based off screen time.
you start to refer to DXY and "risk on".
R) 30 days number line is my KEY for bias. DXY is a tool.
What caused that 100.40 level and what is its significance?
R) As a day trader, I am only interested in knowing that 100.40 was held for more than 2 hours. When it broke on VOLUME, target is next level. There are no accidents in trading. Moves come when deliberate FORCE is applied by BIG MONEY.
CL has moved about 2,000 ticks in the month of January. Trying to look at these moves more than a day or two makes my HEAD HURT (lol). I only want to see levels where VOLUME was applied and act accordingly.
Your three points are interesting:
I will recommend watching all of Jim Dalton webinars and reading his book. I was loosing MONEY with just ACD till i got some of his concepts cleared in my head.
and here is a chart of MP courtesy of a friend. She focuses on E-mini. I look at her work from time to time to confirm my bias.
http://screencast.com/t/thVchh4T
We can have all the levels we want, but have to trade what market gives.