ES Journal - 2023/2024

[Laissez Faire]

So we end the week on the green. But that long tail is unsettling. It's bullish to see these at the BOTTOM of the trend. But we're still relatively at the top of the trend.

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I just noticed something off with your chart. When you use the minute timeframe on TradingView, you can choose to show the RTH session or ETH session. However, it seems like for daily charts and higher the ETH session is shown by default and you can't select RTH.

In Ninjatrader, I have the ability to chart ES with RTH only on daily and higher. Personally, I think cash is king, so I tend to prefer SPX or ES with RTH hours for long-term charting.

As such, the chart you posted doesn't show the extent of this week's huge gap down open. If you chart SPX instead, it looks different. And the two weekly bars you compared no longer looks quite the same. That's what I meant by how I was hard pressed to find something similar in my dataset considering the huge gap down on Monday this week.

 

[Laissez Faire]

I dislike candlesticks as much as I dislike Al Brooks and prefer OHLC bars like you...
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That's interesting. I've seen some claims that OHLC bars are better and I've tried using them, but for me, they just don't speak to me and I think they're harder to read. I guess we all have our differences and preferences.

 

[flash crash]

That's interesting. I've seen some claims that OHLC bars are better and I've tried using them, but for me, they just don't speak to me and I think they're harder to read. I guess we all have our differences and preferences.

I'd never criticize anyone's choice about how they like to see price presented. I won't criticize indicators or anything of the sort. This really is about getting your mind right with how the market works. No one knows you better than you do. I tried candles back when I was trying to follow Al Brooks. I think I let my attitude toward that phony baloney color my opinion of candlesticks.

Edit - Now that I think about it, I use previous highs and lows so much in my trading, mostly the previous daily and weekly highs and lows, but also intraday highs and lows, and pullback highs and lows. I feel I see the horizontal potential for a trade better using ohlc bars than I do with candlesticks. I also don't like coloring the bars differently because I was skipping many good long trades because a bar closed red or skipping good short trades because a bar closed green. My favorite color is blue, so I got rid of the red and green entirely and have used blue ohlc ever since.

 

[tiddlywinks]

Nobody asked, but too bad. I use OHLC. Why?

1) Candlesticks, colorized or not, draws my focus to elongated rectangles of lightness and darkness. For me, wicks get lost. And a bar H/L is an input for my work. Candlestick is not a preferred data format to perform analysis, for me.

2) I learned back in the day when realtime quotes had a monthly price-tag of hundreds, even thousands of dollars. I subscribed to a snail-mail service... I posted about a few years back...

Here's something a few of you might remember...
Futures Charts sent weekly via snail-mail. 2 chart books per week covering all futures markets, daily and weekly. Monthly charts sent once a month.
I was a subscriber.

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[Laissez Faire]

For me, wicks get lost.

Funny as it's the other way around for me. I just can't read OHLC bars as efficiently as a candlestick.

Maybe it's just a matter of habit and personal preferences.

Anyway, it's an interesting subject, i.e., how to display your information. I've deliberately done what I can to make my charts and spreadsheets look 'friendly' and neutral. For example, a screaming red color on a downbar may elicit a very different emotion than a light hue red.

 

[Relentless]

I prefer candlesticks myself, but in all honesty it just seems a combination of what you learned early and your personal preference.

That said, I do think being careful with the coloring can be argued. Brighter reds and greens for example can invoke stronger emotions in some. Best to keep neutral and robotic as possible.

 

[tiddlywinks]

Funny as it's the other way around for me. I just can't read OHLC bars as efficiently as a candlestick.

Maybe it's just a matter of habit and personal preferences.

Anyway, it's an interesting subject, i.e., how to display your information. I've deliberately done what I can to make my charts and spreadsheets look 'friendly' and neutral. For example, a screaming red color on a downbar may elicit a very different emotion than a light hue red.

>>> Maybe it's just a matter of habit and personal preferences.

It is. There are plenty of price plot options. None of them are right or wrong.

>>> For example, a screaming red color on a downbar may elicit a very different emotion than a light hue red.

A lot of people want to and/or try to automate to remove or mitigate "emotion". And still, others augment emotion as part of the information display.
IDK if there is right or wrong in this case... emotion or less/none emotion. I lean for less. But then, I'm very volume-centric too.

 

[schizo]

2) I learned back in the day when realtime quotes had a monthly price-tag of hundreds, even thousands of dollars. I subscribed to a snail-mail service... I posted about a few years back...

Geezus, that's a boomer talk Yeah, you'll like this one.

 

[vanzandt]

SPX 5334

I think we drop into the close.
Be crazy if we took out Monday's lows.
Doubtful.

the buy orders are running out of steam. at least they are right now

Right after I made these posts... it started dropping. I forget where it bottomed out before that gut wrenching reversal.

I blame it all on Schiz..

I told you your new avatar messes up my mojo. It's bad juju. You'll see. You better change it. It's bad juju. Not for me anymore though... so that leaves you.

 

[vanzandt]

Spooz disappeared. He might have either made fortune in real-estate, certainly possible, or he blew everything fading B1's "I'm long for now" calls.

Wherever you are Spooz... all the best.

I`m anticipating a tremendous opportunity in Real Estate in he next 24-36 months... commercial & residential... once in a lifetime opportunity to create generational wealth/ holdings for future generations created by the FED... I will be adding to my portfolio when the time is right.... Patience as of Now!

EDIT:

.

Lazzy... regarding my other post in defense of Scat... and this is 100% pure coincidence... but I just looked at Spooz's profile page to see when he was around last.... and I happened to notice Scat was one of the (only) 2 people he followed. Spooz was pretty good.