Is volume analysis useful in index futures?

[SkyChef]

Volume, tick and time are the partial derivatives of a function price. As w/ all partial derivatives equation, you can take them to zero to trade w/ the other. If you can use all 3s, more power to you.

 

[learner2007]

I use 5s and 10s charts, which enable me to follow the ticks while also providing context. And I trade the NQ so I have no idea what those who trade the ES use. As to "applying TA", I analyze the price action. If by "TA" you mean indicators, I don't use them.

Fine, I thought you were talking about single tick charts. 5s or10s charts for NQ would be fine I'm sure, but would be to short to maintain a view of context for something as active as ES. You just need to find the proper setting according to the activity of the contract.

No, I don't either. Don't even consider indicators to be TA.

 

[tommcginnis]

Consider the opposite. That all those market participants trading behavior’s distill into 6 points of information - ohlcv in time.

"Bingo!!" (IMNSHO.)

 

[lcranston]

Fine, I thought you were talking about single tick charts. 5s or10s charts for NQ would be fine I'm sure, but would be to short to maintain a view of context for something as active as ES. You just need to find the proper setting according to the activity of the contract.

The NQ is active enough . At the beginning of the session I don't need more than a half-hour, and the 5 or 10s suffice, unless one is trading off tiny charts. After that, it's chiefly management.

 

[tommcginnis]

So... lemme throw out a challenge to all the "volume devotes".... graph up some plays in which volume played a big role in the trade and explain why you think volume consideration was vital. Send me PMs, and I'll try to show where you could have made the same play sooner or coincidentally from the price charts alone. If you are right, I'll admit to being wrong. (While you're at it, please also send graphs of good trades you missed because of your consideration for volume.)

(^^^Here's where we need a "Like" for a piece of a post...!)


It's going to be a nasty day (for me) but this note will be the string around my finger -- if not today, "soon".

 

[Scataphagos]

(^^^Here's where we need a "Like" for a piece of a post...!)


It's going to be a nasty day (for me) but this note will be the string around my finger -- if not today, "soon".

OK, Buckeroo. Bring it!

(I've eaten crow before... though not lately!)

 

[tommcginnis]

Oh sure... weasel out!

With your being an institutional, I wasn't expecting input from you.

I don't really expect anybody to respond... mostly because it's more trouble than it's worth. But we'll see.

It's, like, "the fourth quarter of 2017..." and I JUST discovered a little Microbloatsoft tool called {Guess what!!} "Snipping Tool". OH JEEZ. This is in W7 FWIW. But it's handier-than-snot for creating real quick .pngs from what's on your screen(s). Even has a little 'highlighter' thingie.

I'm probably the last one to learn of this ... ...just not something I used before. Now, I'm probably dropping half-a-dozen .pngs a week for this and that....!

Google will probably handle any questions. (But I'm probably the last one to know....!)

 

[polaris]

I think proponents see what they believe they should see or what they want to see... but that's another story.

Or what they need to see, to hopefully make sense of a nonsensical situation. So what is logical for the Price Volume trader?

Statement: Price alone is useless without volume, as is volume without price.

Is the above statement logical?

 

[Scataphagos]

Or what they need to see, to hopefully make sense of a nonsensical situation. So what is logical for the Price Volume trader?

Statement: Price alone is useless without volume, as is volume without price.

Is the above statement logical?

Congrats. That's a REALLY good question!

Answer.... the only thing that really counts is PRICE!!!!! I'm 100% sure of that for "the market in general and stock index futures". While I suspect it's also true for individual stocks (with much disagreement from the peanut gallery)... I'll hedge on that for now.

 

[Sprout]

Not enough to comment - sorry.

I have very little personal experience of range bars.

I also have a slight residual prejudice against tick charts because of my perception that they don't distinguish between small and large orders being transacted. I do see that they may still be better than timed charts, though ... and my initial studies of price action were from Bob Volman's books and the ongoing charts he regularly makes available for his readers, and he does actually use tick charts. This was "back in the day", i.e. before I discovered Al Brooks and developed my English literacy enough to be able to understand what he was talking about (which wasn't trivially easy for me, to put it mildly!).

Learning english, understanding Al Brooks, understanding volume for successful Trading, that is a trifecta in spades!


If there ever was a magic key to unlock Aha's, these two sentences point to it.

I'm stubborn, obstinate and difficult to teach: I have to work everything out for myself, more or less from scratch, and teach myself.

As they say at the Royal Society (in London), Nullius in verba ("take nobody's word for it").