So, here is what I believe I have learned from last week’s excursion into the world of back testing…
The 12-day baseline I had been using to gauge longer-range projections was not actually long enough. It only gave me the
immediate longer-term trend. It turns out that there exists an even
longer overarching price flow which is conveyed by the 40-day baseline, and it is important that I consider BOTH in combination with one another when making longer-range forecasts.
Ideally, I want to be trading in the same direction as the course of these two baselines whenever they are aligned, entering positions as the 24-hour baseline crosses from the "near" exterior into the "near" interior of the 6-day price range envelope at 1.00% deviation, or if not then, certainly no later than when the 24-hour baseline crosses the
center of the envelope (i.e., the 6-day baseline itself); and then taking profit when price exits the envelope on the other side (i.e., the "far" exterior of the envelope).
However, to maximize profits (not to mention the frequency with which one is able to pocket gains) it makes sense to buy and sell while price action is taking place
inside the interior of the envelope using a pseudo swing style of trading in which positions are entered as price crosses the eight-hour baseline, and then taking profit as it advances even father, going on to cross the corresponding band of the 16-hour price range envelope at 0.26% deviation.
However, if trading manually, it probably makes more sense to enter positions as the 1-, 2- (and 4-) hour baselines reverse direction in a manner suggesting that price is realigning itself with the trajectory of the dominant trend after veering on a course that was opposed to it.
To ensure the trade will have enough room to run, positions should (ideally)
not be entered if candlesticks are forming
beyond the "far side" of the 24-hour price range envelope at 0.9% deviation and/or the 16-hour price range envelope at 0.17% deviation.
And obviously, the time to take profit is when the same two or three moving averages again reverse direction, suggesting that price is once again turning against the overall trend.
(It appears that profitable intraday trades can also be executed [manually] in the direction of similarly aligned 1-, 2- and 3-hour baselines as price is coming out of pullbacks in the 30-minute price range envelope, with exits being made as the 15-minute baseline appears to reach a point of exhaustion.)