Here is a trade this morning. I will miss entering back in again for now but I wanted to get this posted and an explanation. This was a 6 point profitable trade. It is a BO trade. Usually on these sort of trades one can exit (locking in profit) then enter again on a Pb below their last exit wait for another leg up and exit a second time thus compounding profits, so to speak.
On to the trade. There are two charts. 24 hour overnight with range box drawn in. And the RTH’s chart. The first shows a range that has been ongoing since midnight. The latter shows a gap up opening this morning.
Now remember the concept. In range trading I want to short at the top (and perhaps average down if it were to move against me) then wait for a move back towards the center or bottom of the range if it appears to have enough bearish pressure to get to the bottom. Then at the bottom I will go long (and perhaps average down) and wait to exit near the center of the range or the top if there appears to be sufficient bullish pressure to reach the top.
So, back to the charts. If you look at the 24 hour chart you will see price opened this morning close to the top of the range. So, why did I go long on this trade i stead of shorting? Why did I not follow the concept explained above for range trading? One word context.
The larger context we see depicted on the 24 hour chart and it is a range (sideways).
Now look at the latter RTH’s chart. Price open gap up about 17.5 points. That means that overnight price trade up from yesterday’s close even though it was within the larger range (sideways move) on the 24 chart. This action is the intermediate or medium context. And it is bullish.
Next we see on the RTH’s chart It promptly trades above the last 81 bars breaking above yesterday’s high and does so on the very first bar. That is the immediate context and it is bullish.
To cap off. Longer context is bearish. Intermediate is bullish. Immediate is bullish. So, who is going to win bulls or bears? If I am just looking at the larger context on the 24 hour chart I will be shorting as price on today’s open was at the top of the range. However the intermediate context and the immediate context stops me from shorting at the open. Why? Well they both are bullish and price is at the top of the range. So...I am waiting to see if price is going to BO above the top of the range box on the 24 chart. If it does with a successful BO then I am making haste and getting long.
Now what happened? Lets see if we can detect the pressures. Look are the latter RTH’s chart. Price opens 17.5 points gap up = bullish pressures. First to bars are bear bars with bears trying to close the gap. Bull are simply buying. I mean like yesterday was sideways most all day and so we open 17.5 points gap up. Does it really look like bears will win? They could but odds are quite abit higher that bulls will win this first attempt by the bears to push price down and close the gap. So bulls are buying as price slides south on the first two bars. By the third and fourth bar we know bulls are winning. Why? 17.5 point gap up on open. First attempt by bears to close the gap fails. Bulls take over and we get 7 bull bars in sequence. That my friend is pressure and a sign bulls are winning and price is going higher. If you count 8 bars from the open we get to my entry bar. What are signs of buying pressure? Gaps between close of one bar and the close of the previous bar? Gaps between the high of one bar and the high of the previous. Series of bull bars. Bull bars getting larger. Bars closing above the high of many previous bars. All signs of buying pressure. So, by the end of the seventh bar from the open on the RTH’s chart the immediate price context is convincing me that we are going higher. But I am still not long? Why? Well lets look at the 24 hour chart and we will see why.