I treat this PA as a range tilted into a bear channel. Is it broad enough to trade short and long? That depends on my min target objective. I want the channel to be in width at least 3 or 4 times my min profit object. Better, if more. If more, then can be trade both ways. If 3x then best to ONLY short the channel. That is the safer bet.
However, it MUST be remembered that this is a bear channel. Bear channels function as bull flags. The forthcoming BO (sooner or later) 70% odds will be to the upside. So...I need a tactic to deal with any ensuing bull BO of the channel that becomes a successful BO.
On the other hand there is a 75% chance that any BO of top or bottom of the channel WILL fail and price will go right back into the channel. So...any BO doesn’t mean it is a successful BO. I will know one when I see one. PB’s will stay above or below the channel and there will be other signs of strenght or weakness. So...if I get caught on the wrong side on a BO what do I do? Well I have to exit my position. Double or triple up and go with the BO direction. And keep adding as long as it stays above the BO point (top of the channel in a bull BO and the bottom of the channel in a bear BO).
Now another tidbit on odds. This is a bear channel. Likely resolution is a bull BO as mentioned above 70%. Now what do I do if instead it breaks out south of the channel with a SUCCESSFUL (see above for def of successful BO). In that case, the least likely event has happened. The 30% event. So I rub my hands with glee short the market and look for a measured move down starting from the BO point (bottom of the channel and my entry point) and if strong may also use the top of the channel to my entry point and measure down that much further for my initial PT.
But as long as price stay in the channel I am scalping as first mentioned above. That is, taking a short position in the middle third and adding to my position in the top third and even adding on a BO that is likely to fail (75% chance) then exiting in middle third or preferably the bottom third. If exiting in middle third I break even on my first entries and make money on my added entries that were added in the top third. I keep in mind too that the longer a channel has been a channel and the more BO attempts it has then the odds of the next BO succeeding go up. And the odds of the next BO failing go down. So, this also affects my decision to add onto a say short position in a BO north or long position in a BO south.
Playing the odds of price patterns in view of the larger context.
There are many more tactical plays in this channel. Why? Because there are trends within it.There are micro channels within it. There are exhaustion bars within it. There are wedge tops and bottoms within it. There are reversals within it. There are triangles within it. There are mini flags within it...on and on...may even be some nested patterns within it. Just don’t feel like looking for them..LOL
Good luck.
PS please print out Padu’s beautiful chart here with my wonderful annotations and comments and put in a very visible place so as to learn the concepts embedded within. You just might find it to be useful for trading on a sim ROFLMAO. Have fun.
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