IMO, one of the sources of confusion for new people trying to learn the method is a failure to appreciate exactly how the trading day is being looked at by different practitioners of the method. There are three scenarios as best I can ascertain.
1. The day in isolation view in which each trading day is an entity unto itself. It starts at 9:30 AM EST and ends at 4:15 PM EST, what I have called Regular Futures Trading Hours (RFTH).
2. The slide view in which the open of the day is matched to the close of the prior day - a perfect split opening, every day. This view produces a continuum of 'no gap' days.
3. The carryover view in which the day is not viewed in isolation and there is no movement of the open with respect to the prior day's close. The gap is preserved and you have to deal with it.
I am NOT saying that one method is better or worse than another but do think it is important when you are deconvoluting the day's chart to say which one of these three you are using.
I always use the third of these. Trendlines which MUST begin at P1, are carried over not only from the prior day but from many days back when it is justifiable. On days when there is no traverse level P1, the P1 of the next slowest fractal is used.
The chart I get by doing this may look quite different from charts produced by use of the other views, but very, very often the three views end up giving a similar PFC anticipation at EOD.
Spyder's colorations for 5 min ES traverses and channels are used. The astute observer will note there are no Gaussian lines in my charts. The reason for this has been explained elsewhere but briefly put it is based on the fact that correctly drawn Gaussians MUST follow correctly drawn trendlines, with emphasis on the word CORRECTLY. Points 1, 2, and 3 are marked with the ovals and laterals with the horizontal purple lines.
Lest there be any confusion, volume is a critical component of how I look at the market, in absolute, relative and Gaussian senses. From the posted rendering there is a very clear anticipation of what lies ahead and as always the proof of the pudding lies in the eating.