Happy New Year to you all, hope this year brings you whatever you wished for -as long as you're not at the other side of my trades, of course- 
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.
The ACD Method
- Thread starter sbrowne126
- Start date
HAPPY NEW YEAR and MAY WE ALL FIND HAPPINESS IN OUR TRADING AND LIFE in 2012.
Most important book in my trading career. As i go over my notes from January2011 - December 2011, I can see why Mark Fisher book " The logical Trader" is the most important book for my style of trading. It's not for everyone as the method needs to fit one personality in the end.
And for understanding Market Structure, Market Participants, Auction Market, Mr. Jim Dalton book " Markets in Profile" is the ONE for me.
In summary, I would not have been able to trade successfully solely based on Mark Fisher book. For me, Jim Dalton book gave macro picture and mark Fisher book gave " EXECUTION" of macro picture. It is just not possible to cover everything in one book.
Most important book in my trading career. As i go over my notes from January2011 - December 2011, I can see why Mark Fisher book " The logical Trader" is the most important book for my style of trading. It's not for everyone as the method needs to fit one personality in the end.
And for understanding Market Structure, Market Participants, Auction Market, Mr. Jim Dalton book " Markets in Profile" is the ONE for me.
In summary, I would not have been able to trade successfully solely based on Mark Fisher book. For me, Jim Dalton book gave macro picture and mark Fisher book gave " EXECUTION" of macro picture. It is just not possible to cover everything in one book.
Attachments
Markets in Profile. I never get tired of listening to Mr. Jim Dalton webinars. I was confused when I first heard from Jim Dalton during one of his presentations that he is not a Market Profile Trader ( about a year ago).
I was like , I have spent 200 hours reading his book, articles, listening to webinars etc.. and now after all this he is talking about that he is not a market profile trader? I gave up on using Market Profile to trade CL.
After a year of using Mark Fisher ACD method to day trade CL and using concepts of Mr. Dalton to get a handle on market structure etc..I finally understand what he meant when he said " He is not a Market Profile" trader.
I was like , I have spent 200 hours reading his book, articles, listening to webinars etc.. and now after all this he is talking about that he is not a market profile trader? I gave up on using Market Profile to trade CL.
After a year of using Mark Fisher ACD method to day trade CL and using concepts of Mr. Dalton to get a handle on market structure etc..I finally understand what he meant when he said " He is not a Market Profile" trader.
Attachments
The fragrance remains on the hand that gives the rose - Mahatma Gandhi
Thanks Maverick74. Hopefully you will keep on throwing bones here and there and some times tender MEAT.
Even though Maverick74 has refused to share his monthly, weekly OR and A- C values in the name of protecting his stops ( lol), I did learn somethings from his posts. Following is a good example.
1) Here is what I like about ACD. The idea in trading, like anything in life, is to look for the opportunity that others are not seeing. Head and shoulders, reversals, doji's, 200 day moving averages, moving average crosses, support and resistance, etc, everybody sees that shit. It's plain as day. Hell if you miss any of that stuff, CNBC will point it out to you to remind you. There is no edge in anything that everybody can see right in front of them.
So the idea is to become a good price action trader and ACD allows you to see price action better then any other method I have seen. This is why it's hard to back test ACD as many have tried because they are back testing simple binary action. The idea is to identify price action that is NOT obvious to everyone else. ACD is one of those things you just have to practice like tennis. The more products you watch, the better your feel will become.
Because ACD is a price action based methodology, others can't take your edge away from you. You know the old saying, if everyone does it, then it won't work anymore. That doesn't apply here. If you can learn to master ACD, you can keep your edge into perpetuity.
2) Back to the number line, I noticed that once a number line got near that 9 to 11 level plus or minus that was the outer band if you will. The market would tend to snap back. So I was always really careful around that area. But if we broke through and held and went higher on the number line, then a big move was coming.
As far as pivot ranges go, I found the best value they have is for intra-day trading of index futures. Using the pivots to determine relative strength of which index is weaker or stronger works well. Also when the pivots are at the same levels of the A levels I find they work phenomenally well on fades. Important note though, always fade in the direction of STRENGTH. I'll thrown another bone out there. When pivots are located in the middle of the opening range, they work as great entry levels once you get a confirmed A up or A down to enter. You want to see price bounce off the pivot first before entering.
One more thing, the width of the pivots is helpful as well. Tight pivot ranges usually indicate a volatility increase and very wide pivot ranges usually signal a range bound day. In other words, be careful about taking A ups or A down on wide pivot range days unless the pivot range is located above or below the entire days range, i.e we opened above it and never traded into it and vice versa.
What type of trader are you? Do you like momentum trades or fades? If you like momentum, use very tight opening ranges. If you are a fader, use much wider opening ranges. You need to fit the ACD levels to your trading personality. This is very important. There is no right or wrong way to do this. What you are trying to do is construct levels and parameters that allow you to read the price action most effectively.
What bugs a lot of people when I tell them about ACD and then they say great, let me backtest this on say TradeStation, I tell them that's not going to work. They ask why not? I tell them it's a price action based system and it's highly discretionary. It's not back and white. This makes them angry and they move on to something else. LOL.
But I've got news for everyone, black and white trading does not work. There are no magic set of rules in this game. There is no magic formula. There is no getting around the fact that in order to make money in this business, someway somehow you are going to have to become a good trader.
Even in the book, "The Logical Trader" Mark does trader interviews in the later chapters and he points out how all these guys incorporate ACD differently. Most these guys somehow fit ACD into their own unique personality. Some traders only use certain aspects of it, others are more rigid.
I will say this, based on what I have heard, thousands of guys on the floor over the years have used this approach to trade. Considering these guys trade crude oil, nat gas, heating oil, silver and gold, and have been able to weather the volatility of those products, I think that says a lot about ACD.
Thanks Maverick74. Hopefully you will keep on throwing bones here and there and some times tender MEAT.
Even though Maverick74 has refused to share his monthly, weekly OR and A- C values in the name of protecting his stops ( lol), I did learn somethings from his posts. Following is a good example.
1) Here is what I like about ACD. The idea in trading, like anything in life, is to look for the opportunity that others are not seeing. Head and shoulders, reversals, doji's, 200 day moving averages, moving average crosses, support and resistance, etc, everybody sees that shit. It's plain as day. Hell if you miss any of that stuff, CNBC will point it out to you to remind you. There is no edge in anything that everybody can see right in front of them.
So the idea is to become a good price action trader and ACD allows you to see price action better then any other method I have seen. This is why it's hard to back test ACD as many have tried because they are back testing simple binary action. The idea is to identify price action that is NOT obvious to everyone else. ACD is one of those things you just have to practice like tennis. The more products you watch, the better your feel will become.
Because ACD is a price action based methodology, others can't take your edge away from you. You know the old saying, if everyone does it, then it won't work anymore. That doesn't apply here. If you can learn to master ACD, you can keep your edge into perpetuity.
2) Back to the number line, I noticed that once a number line got near that 9 to 11 level plus or minus that was the outer band if you will. The market would tend to snap back. So I was always really careful around that area. But if we broke through and held and went higher on the number line, then a big move was coming.
As far as pivot ranges go, I found the best value they have is for intra-day trading of index futures. Using the pivots to determine relative strength of which index is weaker or stronger works well. Also when the pivots are at the same levels of the A levels I find they work phenomenally well on fades. Important note though, always fade in the direction of STRENGTH. I'll thrown another bone out there. When pivots are located in the middle of the opening range, they work as great entry levels once you get a confirmed A up or A down to enter. You want to see price bounce off the pivot first before entering.
One more thing, the width of the pivots is helpful as well. Tight pivot ranges usually indicate a volatility increase and very wide pivot ranges usually signal a range bound day. In other words, be careful about taking A ups or A down on wide pivot range days unless the pivot range is located above or below the entire days range, i.e we opened above it and never traded into it and vice versa.
What type of trader are you? Do you like momentum trades or fades? If you like momentum, use very tight opening ranges. If you are a fader, use much wider opening ranges. You need to fit the ACD levels to your trading personality. This is very important. There is no right or wrong way to do this. What you are trying to do is construct levels and parameters that allow you to read the price action most effectively.
What bugs a lot of people when I tell them about ACD and then they say great, let me backtest this on say TradeStation, I tell them that's not going to work. They ask why not? I tell them it's a price action based system and it's highly discretionary. It's not back and white. This makes them angry and they move on to something else. LOL.
But I've got news for everyone, black and white trading does not work. There are no magic set of rules in this game. There is no magic formula. There is no getting around the fact that in order to make money in this business, someway somehow you are going to have to become a good trader.
Even in the book, "The Logical Trader" Mark does trader interviews in the later chapters and he points out how all these guys incorporate ACD differently. Most these guys somehow fit ACD into their own unique personality. Some traders only use certain aspects of it, others are more rigid.
I will say this, based on what I have heard, thousands of guys on the floor over the years have used this approach to trade. Considering these guys trade crude oil, nat gas, heating oil, silver and gold, and have been able to weather the volatility of those products, I think that says a lot about ACD.
Happy New Year everyone as well.
I have read so many books on trading (almost all of them ever written) that it's hard to pinpoint one or two books.
Outside of the "Logical Trader" book, Nassim Taleb has had a very strong influence on my trading and my life outside of trading. He taught me how to think and how not to think. The tools he gave are what allowed me to see the markets for what they are and to understand how others see the markets. His two books "Fooled By Randomness" and "The Black Swan" are must reads.
"Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" is a must read as well.
All three of the market wizard books.
This book is probably the best book I have read on trading that most people have not bothered to read. Read it at least 3 times.
http://www.amazon.com/Trader-Vic-Me...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325436069&sr=1-1
This is a book I just read recently that is an absolute must read to understand how various traders handled the 2008 crisis. This is Market Wizards on steroids.
http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Han...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325436221&sr=1-2
If I think of some more, I'll post them.
I have read so many books on trading (almost all of them ever written) that it's hard to pinpoint one or two books.
Outside of the "Logical Trader" book, Nassim Taleb has had a very strong influence on my trading and my life outside of trading. He taught me how to think and how not to think. The tools he gave are what allowed me to see the markets for what they are and to understand how others see the markets. His two books "Fooled By Randomness" and "The Black Swan" are must reads.
"Reminiscences of a Stock Operator" is a must read as well.
All three of the market wizard books.
This book is probably the best book I have read on trading that most people have not bothered to read. Read it at least 3 times.
http://www.amazon.com/Trader-Vic-Me...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325436069&sr=1-1
This is a book I just read recently that is an absolute must read to understand how various traders handled the 2008 crisis. This is Market Wizards on steroids.
http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Han...=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325436221&sr=1-2
If I think of some more, I'll post them.
Quote from mfbreakout:
The fragrance remains on the hand that gives the rose - Mahatma Gandhi
Even though Maverick74 has refused to share his monthly, weekly OR and A- C values in the name of protecting his stops ( lol), I did learn somethings from his posts. Following is a good example.
1) Here is what I like about ACD. The idea in trading, like anything in life, is to look for the opportunity that others are not seeing. Head and shoulders, reversals, doji's, 200 day moving averages, moving average crosses, support and resistance, etc, everybody sees that shit. It's plain as day. Hell if you miss any of that stuff, CNBC will point it out to you to remind you. There is no edge in anything that everybody can see right in front of them.
So the idea is to become a good price action trader and ACD allows you to see price action better then any other method I have seen. This is why it's hard to back test ACD as many have tried because they are back testing simple binary action. The idea is to identify price action that is NOT obvious to everyone else. ACD is one of those things you just have to practice like tennis. The more products you watch, the better your feel will become.
Because ACD is a price action based methodology, others can't take your edge away from you. You know the old saying, if everyone does it, then it won't work anymore. That doesn't apply here. If you can learn to master ACD, you can keep your edge into perpetuity.
2) Back to the number line, I noticed that once a number line got near that 9 to 11 level plus or minus that was the outer band if you will. The market would tend to snap back. So I was always really careful around that area. But if we broke through and held and went higher on the number line, then a big move was coming.
As far as pivot ranges go, I found the best value they have is for intra-day trading of index futures. Using the pivots to determine relative strength of which index is weaker or stronger works well. Also when the pivots are at the same levels of the A levels I find they work phenomenally well on fades. Important note though, always fade in the direction of STRENGTH. I'll thrown another bone out there. When pivots are located in the middle of the opening range, they work as great entry levels once you get a confirmed A up or A down to enter. You want to see price bounce off the pivot first before entering.
One more thing, the width of the pivots is helpful as well. Tight pivot ranges usually indicate a volatility increase and very wide pivot ranges usually signal a range bound day. In other words, be careful about taking A ups or A down on wide pivot range days unless the pivot range is located above or below the entire days range, i.e we opened above it and never traded into it and vice versa.
What type of trader are you? Do you like momentum trades or fades? If you like momentum, use very tight opening ranges. If you are a fader, use much wider opening ranges. You need to fit the ACD levels to your trading personality. This is very important. There is no right or wrong way to do this. What you are trying to do is construct levels and parameters that allow you to read the price action most effectively.
What bugs a lot of people when I tell them about ACD and then they say great, let me backtest this on say TradeStation, I tell them that's not going to work. They ask why not? I tell them it's a price action based system and it's highly discretionary. It's not back and white. This makes them angry and they move on to something else. LOL.
But I've got news for everyone, black and white trading does not work. There are no magic set of rules in this game. There is no magic formula. There is no getting around the fact that in order to make money in this business, someway somehow you are going to have to become a good trader.
Even in the book, "The Logical Trader" Mark does trader interviews in the later chapters and he points out how all these guys incorporate ACD differently. Most these guys somehow fit ACD into their own unique personality. Some traders only use certain aspects of it, others are more rigid.
I will say this, based on what I have heard, thousands of guys on the floor over the years have used this approach to trade. Considering these guys trade crude oil, nat gas, heating oil, silver and gold, and have been able to weather the volatility of those products, I think that says a lot about ACD.
Yeah, I'm really good at holding things in aren't I? LOL. I would be dead if I ever had to sign a non disclosure agreement.
Thanks Maverick74. Hopefully you will keep on throwing bones here and there and some times tender MEAT.
Following is an example , how Mr. Steidlmayer expanded my ACD.
" Once the market completes its growth phase and becomes static, a third stage occurs which makes the market most efficient. A price that best serves all participants is located and utilized. Essentially, the market is heavily influenced by the first two stages, while the third stage exerts a latent influence through time. Price handicaps the market in the same way weight handicaps a racehorse- ultimately, both are slowed as a result.
In terms of distribution, market movement would be contained by a CENTRAL PRICE where distribution and development are proportionally related to the static range of the distribution".
I used to read paragraphs like above again and again but could not get a handle on my LOVE- CL (lol). And finally, I read Mark Fisher and CL being down $8 in 3 days and then up $12 in next 6 days started to make sense and how to EXECUTE it.
Once, I got through initial phase of ACD success, there were days when i needed more than ACD. That's when my earlier readings of market profile, Mr. Vic Sperandeo, Market Wizards books etc.. started to help.
Point being, if i have to do it again, I will first read a book which helps with EXECUTION ( for me it is MF book) and then read all the other wonderful books.
I started with Market Wizard and about 100 other wonderful books but all of them had little to show in terms of EXECUTION. At first stage of my development I needed a book from a master trader like Mark Fisher.
Note: I do not want to start a discussion as to which book is better etc.. Just sharing my thoughts for new traders.
" Once the market completes its growth phase and becomes static, a third stage occurs which makes the market most efficient. A price that best serves all participants is located and utilized. Essentially, the market is heavily influenced by the first two stages, while the third stage exerts a latent influence through time. Price handicaps the market in the same way weight handicaps a racehorse- ultimately, both are slowed as a result.
In terms of distribution, market movement would be contained by a CENTRAL PRICE where distribution and development are proportionally related to the static range of the distribution".
I used to read paragraphs like above again and again but could not get a handle on my LOVE- CL (lol). And finally, I read Mark Fisher and CL being down $8 in 3 days and then up $12 in next 6 days started to make sense and how to EXECUTE it.
Once, I got through initial phase of ACD success, there were days when i needed more than ACD. That's when my earlier readings of market profile, Mr. Vic Sperandeo, Market Wizards books etc.. started to help.
Point being, if i have to do it again, I will first read a book which helps with EXECUTION ( for me it is MF book) and then read all the other wonderful books.
I started with Market Wizard and about 100 other wonderful books but all of them had little to show in terms of EXECUTION. At first stage of my development I needed a book from a master trader like Mark Fisher.
Note: I do not want to start a discussion as to which book is better etc.. Just sharing my thoughts for new traders.
Happy New year to all!
THis has been probably the greatest thread I have seen on ET.
THe lack of trolling, mudslingning was a nice change, and the generousity of Maverick and others was fantastic.
I want to personally thank him and the others for sharing their nuggets of wisdom. I just wish I could give back a little bit.
I am almost ready to start actively trading this method (my new years resolution), and not let fear of failure, keep me on the sidelines like it has. I have been procrastinating going live, b/c I dont want to fail at trading again, but I think I have a better chance than any now, as I feel like I have learned alot. (I think the paralysis of analysis is a good definition of where I am at as a trader now.)
I have been trading statistics based opening gap strategy for the last few months, and I have made money on it. So that is promisng, but that isnt enough for me to hang my hat on as a career, considering my account size is small, and some of the stocks arent that liquid. So scalability is an issue for that, but its promising that its profitable so far.
As far as ACD, I am going to focus on finalizing a strategy that incorporates everything I learned, mainly trying to focus on product selection, and only taking the best opportunities, and staying on sidelines if they dont present themselves.
I am having someone make a number line indicator for me soon, and that will be the final step.
THis has been probably the greatest thread I have seen on ET.
THe lack of trolling, mudslingning was a nice change, and the generousity of Maverick and others was fantastic.
I want to personally thank him and the others for sharing their nuggets of wisdom. I just wish I could give back a little bit.
I am almost ready to start actively trading this method (my new years resolution), and not let fear of failure, keep me on the sidelines like it has. I have been procrastinating going live, b/c I dont want to fail at trading again, but I think I have a better chance than any now, as I feel like I have learned alot. (I think the paralysis of analysis is a good definition of where I am at as a trader now.)
I have been trading statistics based opening gap strategy for the last few months, and I have made money on it. So that is promisng, but that isnt enough for me to hang my hat on as a career, considering my account size is small, and some of the stocks arent that liquid. So scalability is an issue for that, but its promising that its profitable so far.
As far as ACD, I am going to focus on finalizing a strategy that incorporates everything I learned, mainly trying to focus on product selection, and only taking the best opportunities, and staying on sidelines if they dont present themselves.
I am having someone make a number line indicator for me soon, and that will be the final step.