TL's & Wyckoff

[frank8800]

Going to use the 5 min chart for context and base entries off the 1 min chart. My plan is mostly written out for channels (trade management is still weak) and am working on other parts of structure for entries.

After the first push down, I drew the channel on the 5 min. Was hoping for a complete pullback to the top, but when price barely broke the mid line after a retrace to the breakout pivot, I was watching the 1 min chart for entries

Trade #1 - Short 3598.25 based on a strong rejection candle after a TLB and retrace. I'm using a fixed 3 point stop and price came back and got me before dropping. -12 ticks

Trade #2 - Long 3591.75 based on a 3rd push down and a strong rejection off the bottom of the channel, after 1 ticking the LOD. The real entry here was off the rejection doji, which I missed. Didn't take the next bar because of weaker volume. At this point I was feeling anxious/mad that I missed a plan setup, but my plan does have another entry method. I was waiting for a pullback to enter, but the best I got was a small hammer. In hindsight, this was a FOMO (Fear of missing out) trade. -5 ticks

Trade #3 - Long 3590.75 based on the HL, using the same premise of a 3rd push on the channel. I was very aware of the prior 5 min pivot, and I knew price needed to clear that, so I wasn't going to give this trade any room. After the strong bar that took me into the trade, got a probing doji right at the critical area. tightened my stop to under the strong entry candle. When the next candle failed to break the probing candle, moved my stop to under that bar and was stopped out. +1 tick

Trade #4 - Long 3587.50 based on the break of the retracement trend line, with the context of trapped 5 min traders on the 5 min chart and a failed push down. This was a plan violation since the entry was not off a well formed candle. Price did not break the TL with any conviction, but just drifted off to the left. FOMO again. -6 ticks

Trade #5 - Long 3585.5 based on the shortening of the thrust down and the 1-tick failure of the LOD creating trapped traders. Got nice rejection volume at the end with a failure to follow through down, along with a decisive break of the pullback trend line and a strong entry candle. Was looking to ride this all the way back up to the top of the channel. After the climactic bar that just barely broke out of the range, I tightened the stop. +29 ticks.

 

[NoDoji]

Going to use the 5 min chart for context and base entries off the 1 min chart. My plan is mostly written out for channels (trade management is still weak) and am working on other parts of structure for entries.

After the first push down, I drew the channel on the 5 min. Was hoping for a complete pullback to the top, but when price barely broke the mid line after a retrace to the breakout pivot, I was watching the 1 min chart for entries

Trade #1 - Short 3598.25 based on a strong rejection candle after a TLB and retrace. I'm using a fixed 3 point stop and price came back and got me before dropping. -12 ticks.

Hi Frank,

I have a fixed max stop on my trades, too, and the way I deal with a situation where a trade is signaled by the 5-min chart, but my max stop isn't wide enough to survive normal adverse price movement (in your case today swing R at 2.75), I place a limit order at a price that allows the technically reasonable stop loss to fit within my risk parameters.

The advantage is you're not stopped out by normal price movement; the disadvantage is occasionally there's no retrace deep enough to fill your order. I've found price does retrace enough far more often than not.

D

 

[dbphoenix]

Why are you invoking Wyckoff? None of these trades except perhaps for the last long are trades that he would have taken, nor did he use candles nor indicators nor pivots nor dojis nor hammers. Hope, of course, is never a factor.

The central problem, of course, is not the plan per se, whatever it might be, nor it implementation, but your fear. Perhaps you'd have better results if you were to adhere more closely to Wyckoff's approach.

The following is a bit more in keeping with Wyckoff, though he was never rigid. Rather he went where the market took him.

Start again with either of the first two shorts and see where it leads:

 

[frank8800]

I'm using my understanding of volume per Wyckoff. The first trade had rejection off of a level. The second and 5th trades had the exact same entry criteria, a 1 tick probe/rejection of a previous level (although I did get in to the 2nd trade rather poorly). Both, I believe, are Wyckoff principles.

Candle wicks & tails distract me on the 5 min chart, but help me on the 1 min chart, that's why my platform is setup like that.

I believe the only indicator I'm using is a 20 EMA on the 5 min.

 

[dbphoenix]

I'm using my understanding of volume per Wyckoff. The first trade had rejection off of a level. The second and 5th trades had the exact same entry criteria, a 1 tick probe/rejection of a previous level (although I did get in to the 2nd trade rather poorly). Both, I believe, are Wyckoff principles.

Candle wicks & tails distract me on the 5 min chart, but help me on the 1 min chart, that's why my platform is setup like that.

I believe the only indicator I'm using is a 20 EMA on the 5 min.

Learn to read price before you involve volume. Volume only clouds what is important with regard to price movement. In any event, the only volume of note is the volume accompanying the climactic action at 0631/2 (your times) and 0708, which is another climactic bar, though of much lesser degree. As for 3592, why is that a "level"?

Wyckoff isn't about candles and indicators and multiple bar intervals. He's about support and resistance and trend and supply and demand and the tape. If you follow that course, he may be of help. But what you're doing has little to do with Wyckoff.

Sorry.

FWIW, the drama starts an hour before your chart with the preceding climactic bar. If you want to play with this, I'll help you through it. But you'll have to set aside all the distractions.

 

[frank8800]

3592 isn't a level, it was my entry. The level was 3602 (S becomes R). I think Wyckoff called that 'Jumping the Creek'.

 

[dbphoenix]

3592 isn't a level, it was my entry. The level was 3602 (S becomes R). I think Wyckoff called that 'Jumping the Creek'.

Actually "jumping the creek" is not a Wyckoff term. It was coined by Robert Evans, who took over Wyckoff Associates after Wyckoff's death (actually, 17 years later, but it's a long story). You may want to read Wyckoff's original course.

But all that aside, even if you were to short that late, there was no reason for you to exit the short if you were following Wyckoff's process.

 

[GiantDog]

My god. People can't even start a journal anymore without dbphoenix jumping in and acting like he is the end all expert on Wyckoff. Why don't you just let people trade the way they want to? Leave people alone.

 

[frank8800]

My god. People can't even start a journal anymore without dbphoenix jumping in and acting like he is the end all expert on Wyckoff. Why don't you just let people trade the way they want to? Leave people alone.

That's OK. I welcome his input. He's a profitable trader and I'm not. Just trying to learn.

 

[cmb]

My god. People can't even start a journal anymore without dbphoenix jumping in and acting like he is the end all expert on Wyckoff. Why don't you just let people trade the way they want to? Leave people alone.

People are free to trade their own way. But perhaps someone says something that you have overlooked or hadn't realized. 1 sentence can save a beginner hours of frustration.