Price Action - NQ II
- Thread starter lajax
- Start date
There are several aspects to mention: the first one is that in the observation phase I just looked the price from the “open” until the “close”, therefore I don’t have a real sense of how is the behavior of the price in the premarket.
However, what I´ve seen is that usually the activity is much lower than after the open, hence, OCCASIONALLY the price movement is listless, notwithstanding I’m aware that SOMETIMES the trend of the day start in the Pre-market but for now I´m ok with that.
Moreover, and because I’m learning to trade, I prefer to have a defined trading time in order to have an scheme to follow and start to acquire discipline.
Nevertheless, I would like to know what is your opinion regarding to this?. How is your trading time? (But I suppose you don’t have much problem with this because you use a higher bar interval) what is your advice for a person who is in this stage?
While I don't endorse entering a trade at 0929, opportunities do occur before the NY open. In fact, two of the best trades I've had recently were entered pre-open, one at 0650 and this morning at 0730. Granted they were taken just because I happened to be up and saw them (I don't set my alarm to get up early to trade pre-market), but if you do happen to see something that meets your criteria, there's no reason to let it lie simply because it's before 0930. Today, for example, I was essentially done by the time the market opened. And there are often opportunities presented by the behavior of price around 0830 economic reports.
Therefore, since you are just beginning this phase, I suggest you not get locked into a pattern of avoiding perfectly acceptable trades simply because of the time at which they occur. They can be worth the potential loss of a couple of bucks. If it's important to you to start after 0930, then do so. But remember that Europe is trading at about the times of the trades I referred to above, and they can move price just as well as we can.
As for the bar interval, at some point, if you continue with this, you will realize that the bar interval is largely irrelevant since all charts are tick charts. Today, for example, with the hindsight charts I posted, I showed that the result was essentially the same whether one used a 15m bar or a 5m bar. I don't know how many people will pick up on that, but there it is. How the trades are bundled is purely a matter of convenience. One can, after all, create any bar interval he likes, even with older software. Or he can do without bars entirely and trade a line. This is not to say that if you like a particular bundle, say 5m, that you should not use it. Just don't forget that that 5m bar is nothing more than a personal choice. The market couldn't care less. The market moves in ticks.
Therefore, since you are just beginning this phase, I suggest you not get locked into a pattern of avoiding perfectly acceptable trades simply because of the time at which they occur. They can be worth the potential loss of a couple of bucks. If it's important to you to start after 0930, then do so. But remember that Europe is trading at about the times of the trades I referred to above, and they can move price just as well as we can.
As for the bar interval, at some point, if you continue with this, you will realize that the bar interval is largely irrelevant since all charts are tick charts. Today, for example, with the hindsight charts I posted, I showed that the result was essentially the same whether one used a 15m bar or a 5m bar. I don't know how many people will pick up on that, but there it is. How the trades are bundled is purely a matter of convenience. One can, after all, create any bar interval he likes, even with older software. Or he can do without bars entirely and trade a line. This is not to say that if you like a particular bundle, say 5m, that you should not use it. Just don't forget that that 5m bar is nothing more than a personal choice. The market couldn't care less. The market moves in ticks.
Nice work, lajax. This really is a superb journal. I hope others take note of the prep and the plan - especially the "plan the trades" schematics. Your example should help anyone, regardless of the method or approach he or she might be attempting to learn. This process and the method of journaling that process is not an "SLA" only process. Over the last few months, for example, inspired by handle123, I have been learning about programming (old dog trying to learn a new trick) and autotrading and studying how various indicators are calculated and whether or not any of those can be used as part of an autotrading system based on PA but mathed out for computer trading using an indicator or two, and I've been using the same process as I used when I first started trading gap open stocks and then NQ using SLA/AMT. Seeing the example you are setting here has really inspired me to keep a first class record of my progress. So thank you for setting such a good example for us all.