Ok good thanks for your opinions, both Trading_jean and Simplemelike. Glad to seeing you are thinking it through and chiming in. Your right TRading_jean my first 2 trades were long scalps at the bottom of a bull channel. That immediately puts odds in my favor to be going long in the bottom 1/3 of the channel since it is a bull channel. Does that help you understand simplemelike trades one and two and why I took them?
If a trader is more aggressive he can actually start going long any where in the bottom 1/2 especially if he knows how to read the buying/selling pressures of the last few bars within the channel. My first trade in post #565 was an averaged down long and I exited with a profit. My second trade was a straight long scalp, also profitable and also near the bottom of the bull channel. Both were in line with the trading principles I adhere to (I do have my rebellious days though ROFLMAO) So...….
1) Long in the bottom of channels (can even go long near the bottom of bear channels but make quick scalps, and preferably entries as close to the bottom of the channels as possible and not just the bottom 1/3 or 1/2 of the channel). I think that is obvious why I say this because the odds are not as great going long in at bottom of bear channels, as opposed to going long in bottom 1/2 of bull channels. The fact that there is a channel has something to say about the underlying pressures. So don't follow and long scalps too far that are made at the bottom of bear channels. Grab that profit.
2) Both trades grabbed profits quickly. That was money in the bank. I can always enter again.
Alright what about that third trade? By 9:30 a.m. that top and bottom channel line could be drawn it and extrapolated way out to the edge of the chart and as time past just keep extending it out. Look again at the chart in post #565. At the 10:55 a.m. bar price was now up in the upper half of that extended channel. Actually nearly in the 1/3 top of the channel. Being a bit aggressive I started shorting on that bar. That follows my plan of shorting in the top 1/2 to 1/3 of bull channels. The more a trader waits for it to get closer to the top of the channel before entering short, the better the odds of a successful trade. But I was aggressive and just started shorting. By bar 11:35 I finished averaging down my last short entry to my position and price was trading at the top of the extrapolated channel. Now it is a matter of waiting for price to track back down into the channel to below my first entry for exiting. Hopefully, it will make it there. If not, I'll grab whatever profit it gives me and move on to the next trade.
After my last entry I had to wait for 45 minutes (9 bars) to see price go in my favor. And once it did, and I saw it did so on a decent bear bar with 2 more FT bars, I decided to just hold. not exit yet, and try to squeeze a little more out. It traded out the bottom of the channel and once I saw it reached below my first entry I exited. It was a long scalp time wise as I had to wait for 17 five min bars later from my last entry, to see my profitable exit realized. I generally don't like waiting this long. There is a reason why I had to wait so long and I will explain:
See, this was not only a bull channel but is was also a SPBL (small pullback bull trend day). That trend began 10 min after the open of RTH's and traded above the 20 EMA all they way till that 12:30 bar when it broke south of the 20 EMA and out the bottom of the channel. The fact that is was a gap up open and by 9:10 the bears were not successful in closing the GAP well that was the first alert it may be a SPBL trend day.
When trading a SPBL trend day the tactic is to go long on PB towards the EMA, even averaging down, and exiting on pushes back up. You can even scalp short the PB if they are big enough but can't follow them too far. The better tactic is to long and average in long on the PB's and exit on pushes back up that gives you a profit. However, if you also scalp short the PB's in a SPBL trend the PB's need to be big enough for a minimum scalp of 1 point (that means the PB's have to be at least 3 points in size a AND 3 times as big as the average bar (just a visual glance generally will do.)
So, the reason my third trade took so long to see it realized is we were in a small SPBL trend day as well as in a bull channel that was sort of narrow.
I just decided to trade the channel so I used channel trading techniques. It could have just as well be traded as a SPBL trend day. See, that is the beauty of trading price action. You often get multiple ways to trade right in front of you.
One more word and I think I have mentioned it before in earlier posts. You don't have to exit positions on a push up on SPBL trend trades that you have taken long on PB's. You can just hold them and keep adding to the position all day long on successive PB's until you see weakness come in (like a reversal..etc) or if it keeps going up hold and exit near the close of the session. I just prefer scalping SPBL trends over and over cause it correlates with my idea of "grab them profits" when you can.
Trading_jean you wanted to know where my SL on that third trade was at. The min SL is a tick or two below the low of that 10:40 doji bar. My max SL that would tell me to get out as my premise is wrong, is below the low of the 9:10 bar, taking into account that price could trade way below the channel for a bit then go back up into the channel or even run through the top of the channel.
Hope that answers your questions.