What kind of oscillator do you use?

esby06 · May 2, 2012

Hello traders. I been trading options, buying calls and puts nothing fancy, holding them max for a week or less. I been straggling with my entry points, and im looking for some kind of oscillator or something to give me confirmation on my entries. Can someone please recommend me anything you been using with success that works?

thank you very much in advance

MTE · May 3, 2012

Why would anyone tell you what works, let alone post it in a public forum?

Besides, this topic belongs in the Technical Analysis forum and not in the Options forum since your question has nothing to do with options.

KastyG · May 3, 2012

parabolic SAR is interesting

bwolinsky · May 3, 2012

I could probably answer your question, but I'd rather let you find out the answer yourself.

davroz · May 3, 2012

I just rock back and forth in my chair, its very relaxing.

stoic · May 3, 2012

Quote from esby06:

Hello traders. I been trading options, buying calls and puts nothing fancy, holding them max for a week or less. I been straggling with my entry points, and im looking for some kind of oscillator or something to give me confirmation on my entries. Can someone please recommend me anything you been using with success that works?

thank you very much in advance

One thing I've used for many many years is a 10 day moving average of the NYSE TRIN vs. a 50 moving average.

When the market is oversold I tend to look more for bullish plays, and when overbought I'll look for the bearish.

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It's too bad that most on ET are "...the glass is half empty types.." The internet reminds me of Television when it first came out. TV was heralded as a new and fantastic tool for education and the dissemination of information. Instead we got commercials and "I Love Lucy" or "Married with Children".
Same with the internet, " ....A fantastic tool that will usher in a new era for education and the exchange of information and ideas...." What we got was pop-ups, cookies, and for the most part here on ET, brainless post like this:

Quote from MTE:
Why would anyone tell you what works, let alone post it in a public forum?

Quote from bwolinsky:
I could probably answer your question, but I'd rather let you find out the answer yourself.

Quote from davroz:
I just rock back and forth in my chair, its very relaxing.

How about it guys, How's it feel to rank right up there in intellectual status equal to "Howdy Doody" and "Lost in Space"

RedTankEra · May 3, 2012

I use price it oscillates up and down just fine and it's very fast anything representative of price will be slower, forcing you to use bigger stops, buy higher or short lower.

You already got slippage, commission and DOM errors to worry about least you want to do is use inferior signals.

Learn 123s, 2Bs, ABCs, Ross Hooks, Low Taken, High Taken, Mid resting points, etc. Don't settle for the trash or you will never learn the good stuff.

MTE · May 4, 2012

Quote from stoic:

...How about it guys, How's it feel to rank right up there in intellectual status equal to "Howdy Doody" and "Lost in Space"

I'd say that our answers fit the question perfectly. Anyone who genuinely believes that he/she would get a reply that is worth something is naive, to put it mildy.

So there are two routes to take when a question like this comes up:

(1) Give a seemingly educated answer by throwing out there some indicator, which the person is gonna try and use and most likely lose some money in the process, eventually realizing that he/she needs to develop his/her own method.

(2) Give a seemingly useless (even "stupid" in your words) answer, but which may force the person to think about it and possibly realize that he/she needs to develop his/her own method, and not rely on something that some anonymous person posted on a public forum.

Our answers may be harsh or stupid, but at least they force the person to think rather than just blindly use indicators. And the sooner a newbie realizes that with trading he/she can only rely on him/herself the better.

stoic · May 4, 2012

Quote from MTE:

I'd say that our answers fit the question perfectly. Anyone who genuinely believes that he/she would get a reply that is worth something is naive, to put it mildy.

So according to you, no one should EVER ask a question!! About anything! Everything that's been done before should be ignored because thinking that it may have some value is "naive". Is that how you trade?

You automatically assume that the question is for the Holy Grail of tech indicators.

I interpreted the question as to what others are using, with some success, that one might experiment with, test, and possibly incorporate.

logic_man · May 4, 2012

Quote from stoic:

So according to you, no one should EVER ask a question!! About anything! Everything that's been done before should be ignored because thinking that it may have some value is "naive". Is that how you trade?

You automatically assume that the question is for the Holy Grail of tech indicators.

I interpreted the question as to what others are using, with some success, that one might experiment with, test, and possibly incorporate.

You have to admit that there is probably a better and a worse way to ask a question on this forum. Asking something so broad as the OP lends itself to a certain kind of flippant answer in response. Asking something very narrow and technical would indicate that the OP has a level of knowledge which is something that other knowledgeable posters want to engage with. When I see a smart question, I'm more likely to think that if I help (or try to help) that person, perhaps later I will get some help back from them when I have a question. There's no question that it's kind of a "quid pro quo" to post something of value. That's just the nature of the (zero-sum) game.