Price Action Traders

[Gabfly1]

Quote from ProfLogic:

You need to first understand the environment first.

Analogy:

If you are taking a road trip from Atlanta to Chicago and at the very beginning of the trip you need to drive 10 miles South in order to catch a better and quicker road Northwest toward Chicago . . . would you just not take the road trip because you had to first drive 10 miles in the opposite direction first or would you turn around and go home after you drove the 10 miles in the opposite direction and decided it was a waste of effort and go back home? No to either scenario. You knew that your long term goal would be achieved continuing on your way because you had all of the information needed to reach that decision.

If I KNEW the overall strength of the chart I was trading was DOWN then any trade I take short has the FULL advantage of that strength.

When I entered this trade my entry price was 1.2910 (after the label which was the close of the bar). The most the trade went against me was 7 ticks to 1.2917 (which hit on my entry bar).

My stop was 1.2927 but wasn't a factor.

If I can read a chart correctly, read the strength of the chart correctly and have personally watched it play out many thousands of times before without fail, which is more important; The stop or the goal?

The goal of course but only screen time will give you the confidence to trust it.

Thanks for the response. I only accept your analogy to a point. Roads have a way of remaining unchanged rather longer than price action. Perhaps eels with memory issues would make better market analogies. Personally, I only trust those slippery thangs to a point.

However, more to the point, my question was not specifically how much your trade went negative against your original entry price. Rather, I wanted to know how far it deviated from its farthest point before it resumed course. That is, I was curious to know how far you let it go in the wrong direction while it was still in profit in relation to your original entry. And again, it is just a matter of my curiosity because of my own tendency to keep a tight leash.

 

[Arthur Deco]

Quote from Gabfly1:

Does that mean you don't trade double tops or bottoms? Or, if you do, then do you classify such formations are semi-quasi-pseudo lower highs and higher lows, respectively? I squint and make it so.

You have found my fetish. I am so bad that I put a one tick threshold on doubles just in case there is a data error. Of course I test them. They still rarely work.

And now, dearest Gab and Doj, this morning I started a record sheet labelled "decolessdays." Starting now. I need to recover my insanity to get to the next lower level of trading humbiliation. The general stupidity of ET (present company excepted) is contagious and wallowing in the deliciousness of it all is causing me to miss hundreds of ticks at a time on the screen. Those who trade those loooooong bars I think have the mistaken impression that price lingers around S/R, when in fact it runs like hell after touching it. The next tick may be THE tick. But I will be watching you after hours, so try not to embarrass yourselves. And Doj, take care of GarbageBoy for me. I will probably be dead before he makes it.

 

[Gabfly1]

Quote from Arthur Deco:

...They still rarely work...

Actually, I find they have value. Perhaps it is a matter of interpretation and confirmation. But I am generally more comfortable with HLs and LHs.

Quote from Arthur Deco:

...The general stupidity of ET (present company excepted) is contagious and wallowing in the deliciousness of it all is causing me to miss hundreds of ticks at a time on the screen...

True, those words. Even when I'm "sure" nothing will happen in the next few moments I occasionally find myself paying for my posts with ~soft dollars of a sort, and an even softer head.

 

[ProfLogic]

Quote from Gabfly1:

Thanks for the response. I only accept your analogy to a point. Roads have a way of remaining unchanged rather longer than price action. Perhaps eels with memory issues would make better market analogies. Personally, I only trust those slippery thangs to a point.

However, more to the point, my question was not specifically how much your trade went negative against your original entry price. Rather, I wanted to know how far it deviated from its farthest point before it resumed course. That is, I was curious to know how far you let it go in the wrong direction while it was still in profit in relation to your original entry. And again, it is just a matter of my curiosity because of my own tendency to keep a tight leash.

My natural oscillations never change.
Have to drive in a parade.
Be back later today.

 

[NoDoji]

Quote from Arthur Deco:

You have found my fetish. I am so bad that I put a one tick threshold on doubles just in case there is a data error. Of course I test them. They still rarely work.

Double tops/bottoms: I think they work best when they are really weak failed breakouts after a strong trend (price breaks the previous high/low by a few ticks, sometimes only 1 tick, and then pulls back).

A last word or two on CT trading: I consider PURE counter-trend to be shorting as new highs, or buying as new lows, for the day are actually in progress at that very moment (stepping front of a freight train). It can be done and if you're very experienced at it and totally focused at the moment, can actually be one of the lowest risk trades (my stop loss on pure CT is $40-$80) because there's no waiting for confirmation of entry. In keeping with Arthur's beloved trading/sex analogies, the entry signal for a pure counter-trend trade is when you suddenly hear price ask for a cigarette after crying out, "Ohhhh! Ohhhhh! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!".

 

[Gabfly1]

Quote from NoDoji:

...A last word or two on CT trading: I consider PURE counter-trend to be shorting as new highs, or buying as new lows, for the day are actually in progress at that very moment (stepping front of a freight train)...the entry signal for a pure counter-trend trade is when you suddenly hear price ask for a cigarette after crying out, "Ohhhh! Ohhhhh! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!".

Your analogy is apt. The question is, who ends up smoking the greater number of cigarettes by far?

 

[ProfLogic]

Quote from Gabfly1:

However, more to the point, my question was not specifically how much your trade went negative against your original entry price. Rather, I wanted to know how far it deviated from its farthest point before it resumed course. That is, I was curious to know how far you let it go in the wrong direction while it was still in profit in relation to your original entry. And again, it is just a matter of my curiosity because of my own tendency to keep a tight leash.

It never deviated from it's path. Most of my system trades don't deviate and of those that do (15%) they either end in a small loss or they reverse.
My tolerance is strictly based on the parameters of the rules of my trades. All of my rules are objective and programmable.

One parade down . . . one to go.

 

[Gabfly1]

I don't think we're on the same page, prof. I don't think we're talking about the same thing. But that's okay, it was only a matter of idle curiosity on my part.

 

[bearmountain]

Quote from piezoe:

I'll tell you why I did not like it. It is not in English, nor in any other readily recognizable language.

Recognizing his folly, Al Brooks is busy writing 2nd Edition of his book. In a long winded statement he acknowledges his poor writing style and says he is hard at work in trying to communicate his ideas better. He says he wrote the first edition in a month!

 

[wrbtrader]

Quote from bearmountain:

Recognizing his folly, Al Brooks is busy writing 2nd Edition of his book. In a long winded statement he acknowledges his poor writing style and says he is hard at work in trying to communicate his ideas better. He says he wrote the first edition in a month!

It may be easier to get someone that's a technical "proofs reader" considering there's professionals out there that does such to help authors like Al Brooks that has poor writing skills.

This should be a no brainer considering he does admit it's poor writing. In fact, he could easily hire any one of the traders he works with that has a much better english writing skill to edit (re-write, make corrections, make it more coherent) his 2nd release prior to publishing considering the publishing company allowed it to go through "as is" in the 1st edition.

Heck, go to the local/nearest university and hire one of those English grad students for about $500 - $1000 to do the technical writing...many do. Thus, it will be inexcusable for him to write the 2nd release all by himself without the help from a professional technical writer.

Mark