Price Action Journal V1.5

Fantastic trading on the ASX 200 futures (APS) tonight, netted 53 points (about equivalent to 20 ES). I've had much better days in terms of points, but as far as my reading of PA and being in synch with the market this was probably my best session ever :)

The only obvious mistakes I made today were the 2nd short (though I quickly reversed for a loss of only 1 tick), and then the poor exits on most trades. The excuse I have for the latter is that APS has a tendency to make sudden, parabolic reversals, especially after a big move. I've been burned so many times watching a 20-30 point winner turn to peanuts that I usually take profits aggressively at the first sign of hesitation.

In the 3rd and 4th trades I was actually making a real effort to hold through those pullbacks (ignoring my gut telling me to exit) and ended up giving back 10-20 points doing so. IMO today was unusually forgiving in that reversal formations gave ample warning of a sentiment change, so the lesson I'd say is to get back to being aggressive.

Main problem with APS is that it's thin, you can see that this is only a 125 volume chart... for my entries I use a 50 (!) volume chart. The spread is frequently about 3 points.
 

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Quote from Specterx:

Fantastic trading on the ASX 200 futures (APS) tonight, netted 53 points (about equivalent to 20 ES). I've had much better days in terms of points, but as far as my reading of PA and being in synch with the market this was probably my best session ever :)

The only obvious mistakes I made today were the 2nd short (though I quickly reversed for a loss of only 1 tick), and then the poor exits on most trades. The excuse I have for the latter is that APS has a tendency to make sudden, parabolic reversals, especially after a big move. I've been burned so many times watching a 20-30 point winner turn to peanuts that I usually take profits aggressively at the first sign of hesitation.

In the 3rd and 4th trades I was actually making a real effort to hold through those pullbacks (ignoring my gut telling me to exit) and ended up giving back 10-20 points doing so. IMO today was unusually forgiving in that reversal formations gave ample warning of a sentiment change, so the lesson I'd say is to get back to being aggressive.

Main problem with APS is that it's thin, you can see that this is only a 125 volume chart... for my entries I use a 50 (!) volume chart. The spread is frequently about 3 points.
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Specterx,

Good job man. What's ASX? Aussie? A quick tip from Piscuy, try using 2 contract entries and let 1 run, really helps with not getting out too early. BTW, the indicator on the bottom looks like a bid/ask gauge, am I correct?

Cheers

JW
 
Quote from shakira:

Notice Anek has only 2 ninja indicators in his charts (this was his departing chart):

1-the arrows for the 3BR at the proper completion point of the "signal" (not at the actual previous swing point).

2-Some code to mark the ORH and ORL. Open range.

The rest is drawn by hand.

Still admiring the simplicity of it all.

I can't code. Can someone please supply the proper ninjascript code for this simple clean chart?.

Thanks in advance.

shakira
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Shakira,

I don't have the codes, but I'll give it a short trying to convert some EL over to C#. Did Anek start posting again??

Thanks

JW
 
Quote from jfw215:

Specterx,

Good job man. What's ASX? Aussie? A quick tip from Piscuy, try using 2 contract entries and let 1 run, really helps with not getting out too early. BTW, the indicator on the bottom looks like a bid/ask gauge, am I correct?

Cheers

JW
More...

Yeah, ASX 200 is the Aussie index, trades on the Sydney Futures Exchange.

Using 2 contracts is a good idea. In general though I find I give up less by taking aggressive exits, which may be early but are just as often near the end of a move, than I would by letting price fall into my trailing stop or using some other method, accounting for the fact that I sometimes leave a lot on the table. The flip side of thinness is that you can often "see" hesitation and exit pretty near to the exact top or bottom. My problem on APS is usually that I get very poor entries, take bad trades, hunt for breakouts in the chop and get murdered by the wide spread etc. rather than getting poor exits. With 2 cars my losers would double but I don't know if I could double the winners. It's something to try though. I do scale in however which has been working quite well as a way of maximizing those winners.

The indicator on the bottom is a variant of the Fisher transform I found somewhere. I've had it on my charts for quite a while, and find myself looking at it all the time, but I don't consciously use it. For some reason I like having it up there, maybe it just adds some color to my black charts, or my brain finds it a quick way to see whether buyers or sellers are in control. It does seem to be mainly "price action based" as Anek would put it so I figure it goes with the spirit of PA :)
 
Quote from jfw215:

Shakira,

I don't have the codes, but I'll give it a short trying to convert some EL over to C#. Did Anek start posting again??

Thanks

JW
More...

That chart (16a) was the last one he posted before leaving, over in the ES Journal.
 
Quote from jetbird:

Because Tradestation does not build volume bars properly.
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I think he also uses the sub minute intervals like 5 seconds to watch volume/price relationshipos (the tape), and TS does not have sub 1' chart intervals.

I just wish to put in front of me the same charts, same setups, same everything, to maybe with lots practice, start seeing the same things that he sees. If I have something else in front, how can I see the same things?. Kind of obvious, simple logic. Simple is better for fast decision making, I think. Not necessarily easier, but simpler. Time to stop the madness. Same setup, same chart everyday and watch it till it clicks.

Dunno, just my opinion.

shakira.
 
Quote from jetbird:

Because Tradestation does not build volume bars properly.
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In his journal he states that the constant volume issue with TS does not seem to affect his trading at all or seem to make much of a difference. He said this a few times throughout the journal. Seems weird he would switch to something else now...
 
Quote from jetbird:

Because Tradestation does not build volume bars properly.
More...

I keep hearing this again and again, and the only reason that has been given is that (and I think that this is the reason) is that it has to do with rounding off on the final count of the bar...

If this is the case, why is it such a big deal? Do the final few contracts/shares that account for such a small % of the bar formation matter that much??

It seems entirely trivial IMO, and no reason to ditch a platform over.... Maybe there are other reasons..
 
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