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Why Tick Charts instead of Time Based Charts? or other chart types


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View Poll Results: What chart type do you usually use for your day trades?
Time based charts 66 29.07%
Time based charts
66 29.07%
Tick charts 93 40.97%
Tick charts
93 40.97%
Volume charts 28 12.33%
Volume charts
28 12.33%
Range charts 21 9.25%
Range charts
21 9.25%
Renko charts 19 8.37%
Renko charts
19 8.37%
Voters: 227. You may not vote on this poll

 
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Why Tick Charts instead of Time Based Charts? or other chart types

  #51 (permalink)
trader000
Ohio USA
 
Posts: 65 since Jun 2013
Thanks Given: 23
Thanks Received: 64

I'll add my 2c - I tried any chart setting you could imagine, plenty not listed as an option. I now use 1 minute charts for daytrading and have stuck w/ that for quite awhile now. There's a few reasons why I no longer use volume, tick, range, momentum, renko, etc. etc.:

1. Minute charts always have the same start/end time of a bar. For the way I trade, I react to price and then enter based on the patterns I trade. I am not placing limit orders way in advance and playing S/R levels. I have to react as soon as a bar is closed. When a bar closes, I have a decision to make - enter a trade, exit a trade or do nothing. With minute charts, I know exactly when the bar is going to close and when it will be my time to act. With any other chart setting, you will have an idea when a bar will close but depending on the speed of the market, you may not have time to react. I really like(d) Open ECry's momentum bars, but there was 1 big problem - when the market is moving (and when I want to be participating) bars could be printing in split seconds that it was impossible for a human to see the bar, make a decision and enter a trade. By the time I did that, 10 more bars could have printed. So for me and the way I trade which is reactive, I need bars that print new bars at constant times.

Minute charts also limit the amount of decisions I have to make in a day. My main trading vehicle now is Soybeans, which trade 930am EST to 215pm EST. That shortened pit day combined with minute charts does not allow me to get crazy or hurt real bad (usually). It's really a nice mix of enough signals each day w/o getting exhausted trading to 415pm or later, such as the indexes.

2. I didn't realize this till I started to trade FX, but some platforms do not offer anything but minute based charts. On MT4, the popular FX platform, all you can get are minute based charts. Why is this important? Well as someone else pointed out in the thread, you want as many people as possible seeing the exact same trade idea that you are! And then you want everyone piling into that trade, hopefully after you get your fill. I used to think that finding the perfect momentum bar setting would be the key to great riches; and then I realized I literally might be the only person on Earth trading futures w/ that particular momentum setting and my particular trading strategy. And while that may seem ideal, it really isn't. You want as many people trading the same long/short as you are! You may not have the same logic as the other people, but if you're going short and there are more shorts than buyers, you win. It doesn't matter if you use a keltner channel, I use a fib retrace, the guy overseas uses the cloud -- if we all short and overpower the longs, we win.

And every platform has minute based charts. Minute charts are also the only chart setting that you know is on every platform. Any other setting may not be on other platforms, which then limits how many people around the world can see what you're seeing. When you're trading retail, you just want to ride the easiest wave IMO. That wave means using charts that the majority of people in the world use, which are minute charts.

With that said, I totally understand why you would want volume, tick, momentum, etc. charts. And depending on your system, you can have an edge using non-minute charts. For me, minute based charts just clean up the entire process up from start to finish.

In the end, you have to find what works for you and your system. I needed to try out any chart setting under the sun b/c I was convinced finding that 1 setting would just become an ATM machine. I knew that if I could just crack the code to Soybeans w/ my chart setting, they would have to wire me $ every day. I was wrong and now I stick to minute charts that I know everyone in the world also has access to.

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  #52 (permalink)
 
DavidHP's Avatar
 DavidHP 
Isla Mujeres, MX
Legendary Market Wizard
 
Experience: Advanced
Platform: NinjaTrader
Broker: Ninjatrader / Optimus Futures / AmpFutures
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Frequency: Every few days
Duration: Minutes
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I know this is an old thread but today I loaded an old workspace that I created to check chart types.
I thought that this would show some different chart types that would help new traders to see the differences.

This is just an example of chart types that I have.
Many of them are custom types I have created and will not be available to anyone else.
But you can do a similar test on the chart types you have to help you see the difference.

The blue rectangle on each chart is drawn to show a channel on some and not on others.
The violet Trend Channel was drawn from the open and shows how each type shows channels.
The light green line is a Ray on the tops of the opening candles.
The indicator on each chart is a ZigZag.



P.S. I took a trade on this workspace today and took 10 ticks at the breakout of the Ray in the channel near the open.
I exited at the top of the trend channel.


One more thing.
After you find the chart type best for you use the same workspace to look at different settings (vol, bar size, time etc).

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  #53 (permalink)
 
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 stoicbuddha 
Seattle, WA
 
Experience: Intermediate
Platform: NinjaTrader 8
Broker: AMP/CQG
Trading: Indices
Frequency: Every few days
Duration: Minutes
Posts: 96 since Feb 2012
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I wonder what the results would be if the poll is given now?

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  #54 (permalink)
abmmalay
malaysia
 
Posts: 1 since Jan 2012
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Hello Traders,
any one can help me to find a broker for HSI trading , which is able to see live data and able to place trade from the opening sessions Morn 8.45 ( i think this is the time heng seng start trading )

thanks in advance
abmmalay

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Last Updated on October 12, 2017


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