Quote from JT47319:
You never know what kind of day the market throws at you. But considering that 70% of the time the market is simply ranging between values (ie "choppy") and the other 30% in a breakout/trend, a trader should have multiple weapons in his arsenal.
Today, Tuesday 6/17/03, was a very pronounced and easy to trade day, although you will have some traders complaining that it was "choppy." Basically, the method I use for range days is simply support and resistance. Slap on other technical indicators if you wish.
It makes me laugh when I see a "spin-off" thread from this one, which talks utter jibberish such as this. "Daytrading rangebound days" ...my arse!
Anyone with half a brain should be able to look at Tuesday's action and say to themselves: a great day to have NOT traded! If you have a method that kept you out of the market on Tuesday then you did a great job. It's as simple as that. But if you insist on trying to "master" such shit days and make money from them, then you are trading for ego not for money. You just become a fool with no discipline or patience.
His statistics are fucked up too. The implication is that breakouts are good only 30% of the time and therefore you need other things for the remaining 70%. And his solution? MORE indicators and Market Profile. What a load of bullshit!
Actually, even when the market goes nowhere overall, it's been my experience that about 90% of the time, you will see a good pivot trade in at least one of the four symbols. You will still make money with what I'm doing. I guarantee this guy doesn't track DAX or ESTX50. Since I put up this method, yesterday was the only day when no profitable signal was given in any of the symbols. And I think we're on about Day 10 now aren't we? So this guy's full of shit. Days like Tuesday are not 70% occurrences they are more like 10%. What I mean by "days like Tuesday" is not just that it went nowhere overall: I mean, when it's sooooo sideways all day long without so much as one profitable pivot breakout. This is an extreme situation. And the best thing to do is NOTHING.
As for his Market Profile "value" numbers, they are meaningless crap until after the fact. There's no way of knowing if we're going to have a shitty day like Tuesday in advance. Oh I'm sorry, he waits about an hour and then decides. Well guess what, after about an hour of no trades/no winners, I'm thinking about giving it just another 45 mins before packing up shop until the next time period. Whereas this guy is getting ready to trade among the lunchtime shit, scrapping with other fools in the middle of the day. That's a game for mugs.
If you want to trade everyday, all day long, by all means add this nonsense to your charts. I guarantee that there's always an indicator that will be right for that day. But I won't spend my life looking for that elusive set of indicators. I just exercise patience and discipline to wait for my pivot breakout signals. There's plenty enough of them to make plenty of money. I said at the beginning, you only need to trade once (or max) twice a day to make very good money.
But, if you're the type of person who's already "looking" for the next, new-and-improved technique just because of one sideways day ...then please go over to the other thread and learn which indicators you REALLY need! But then when those indicators fail, come back here and try these again, and when that doesn't work, go to another thread and get another set of indicators. After all, success will come to you if you just persevere long enough to get enough sets of indicators so you can trade and make money all the time, no mater what!!
Jeez, I do laugh at some of the shite being espoused on this web site. Definite Guru/Groupie makings on the other thread.
For those grappling with basics of this method, taking $200 in the ES is perfectly acceptable as a confidence booster in the short-term. The most important thing remains trade selection and stop-loss movement. Master that first and then think about how to be even cleverer with the profits.