Cheers guys!
I am Andrew.
Want to write a little about myself, my journey, some sacrifices I have taken, my bad experience and my desperate state of mind after 8 years in this bussiness.
About myself:
I am from poor family. My childhood came at "The Mad Nineties" as we say in Russia about 1990s period. My father was hit by car and badly injured (furtunately he survived) and my mother had to raise me and my two sisters with no help from his side. Then in 1998 Russian default happened -inflation of Russian ruble was insane. She didn't have a steady job (just like 75-80% of entire nation in these tough years) but with 3 kids and disabled father...That's insane. I was called 'a Hobo' at school, because, you know, ... Well.. Because of the Money, more specifically, the lack thereof. I was OK kid, no drugs, criminal records -just the ordinary little guy, but I was scorned by my classmates because I was dirt poor. The interesting thing here - I think this past made me choose Trader career afterwards. But before that I got 2 degrees.
When I finished school I got in colledge and after 3 years I got my diploma of Architect (draughtsman).
When I went to University and after 5 years I got my bachelor degree of Civil Engeneer.
I thought that these occupations bring me a decent income, but for now I see that those thoughts were the furthest thing from the truth. Whilst a freshmen Civil engineer in the US can start with 65-75k per year my yearly salary is ...3k a year. That's about 250 bucks per month. I am not stupid or unskilled or don't work hard, on the contary, I am pretty skilled solid engineer and as an example of what I do here's the pic
(I make a couple of dozen of these each month)

I have never earned a decent income in my whole life, even now (I am 33). But I had a lot of time to learn to trade but I couldn't do it. Something was wrong either with me or my hard work I put into trading.
Here's how it went.
I stumbled upon FX (Forex) about 8 years ago, in June 2011. At that time in Russian Internet these magic words Price Action were at every corner. These fancy words were pretty popular and were discribing as the most clear indicator -free way trade Markets.
I quickly discovered a huge thread of James16 at ForexFactory.com (I think at least 50% of you guys heard of him, because it had been the largest thread at FF for a few years, maybe it is now). I didn't know a word in English and I made a decision to learn it first to be able to communicate and learn FX at their private forum James16Group. Meanwhile I was learning the basics at free chart thread at FF and demotrading my fake money account.
On July 4th 2013 I signed up to James16Group and started to learn webiar recordings, attend all webinars that they held continuing to trade my fake money acc. I was trading Pn Bars BEOVBs (BUOVBs) (Beaish/ Bullish Outside bars) on daily chart plis 2 more years (up to 2015) consistenly losing my Demo account.
In the middle of this period I came to realize that I want to immigrate to the US and flee from my grim country. I started to look at trading as on my lucky ticket. At that time I wanted to get profitable and go to the States to continue to work at prop firm (or anywhere alse) as a trader -just doing my job and doing it right. A lot of this has to do with policy on the whole, Putin and his cronies oligarchs who are rapping our country and our people, stealing billions of dollars and transferring it on their swiss accounts, putting their families, wifes and children in Miami, London, Berlin whilst brainwashing our nation, accusing Europe and US in all our failures. Btw, my 250 bucks per month is pretty normal salary for high-skilled person who happened not to live in Moscow. that's why 10% of our population live in there already. But it doesn't mean that's OK to live like that. And live that way every second family outside Moscow: trying to make ends meet. To be a decent and skilled worker is not enough. I came to the conclusion that I can't take in anymore, but after years of trying to succeed in trading I am still a losing trader and still doing my job of engineer.
I am not married yet and I don't even have a girlfriend because I am ready to take off, and I don't want to start a family here, but my unfortunate trading results are still holding me back. I am very nervous, have a bad sleep. Even though I have been sitting behind my monitor every evening after work for these 8 years, I still can't make any progress.
In Jan 2017 J16Group went bust and was shut down and I started to look for other ways to trade.
First of all, I discovered 2nd level quotes that provides CME and which we cannot get for free on these primitive MT4/MT5 platforms I was trading with all this time.
I began to study Sierra Chart platform -and IT . IS . A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! .
I begain to study the Market Profile with FuturesTrader71 videos from Youtube, study Numberbars and orderflow dynamics (on Youtube also) and I can't say this is hard. It's pretty simple to understand (Value Area, VPOC, Peaks&Walleys) and imbalance of Bid and Ask Volume on footprints (Number bars study) that Cummulative Delta can show us in pretty visual manner.
But neither FT71 nor any other trader DOESN'T show as how specifically they trade. After 8 years of trading I came to understanding that nobody is going to show us that not because "experience can't be shared on screen" but because of their fear to share it. And I understand, there's nothing wrong in that. There's no free lunch in this world. I'm perfectly fine with it.
I am trying to scalp E6 futures on 1 minute chart having on my sreen this:
I am trying to define the main trend direction (or the lack thereof), match POC of 2 or 3 timeframes and trade away from this are with 20 ticks SL and 10 ticks TP. E6 is jaggy, choppy at 1 min, so trying to scapl with SL less than 20 ticks is futile. Again, if you can trade it nice -be my guest, tell me how you do it.

So, that wa a helluva message!
Excuse me for these personal things I shouldn't have shared here, but I think you need to know me more, what stands behind me, what I want, what I aim for. I still have a huge desire to succeed, but I am depressed, tired.
I want to participate in this forum and get a solid knowledge of what how the Market works, bot more importantly, I want to combine all these pieces I have together and build my system to scalp.
If you know how to help me with that -put some links, info, tips etc.
I've been too long in this to trust anyone (even if they want to help -suffice to remember my trading on daily charts with 20-15 trades per year for 3 years- how can you learn to trade trading that way?? ) but I do appreciate the help of all of you.
I want to discuss the orderflow dynamics, agressive buyers /sellers (CumDelta & NumberBars) and the rendomness of results I get everytime trying to interpritate the signal.
I think I won't be putting too much in my 1st post here. We'll see how all of this goes later!
Sorry for silly grammar mistakes!
Sincerely,
Andrew

AndrewChuraev 

Cheers guys! I am Andrew. Want to write a little about myself, my journey, some sacrifices I have taken, my bad experience and my desperate state of mind after 8 years in this bussiness. About myself: I am from poor family. My childhood came at "The Mad Nineties" as we say in Russia about 1990s period. My father was hit by car and badly injured (furtunately he survived) and my mother had to raise me and my two sisters with no help from his side. Then in 1998 Russian default happened -inflation of Russian ruble was insane. She didn't have a steady job (just like 75-80% of entire nation in these tough years) but with 3 kids and disabled father...That's insane. I was called 'a Hobo' at school, because, you know, ... Well.. Because of the Money, more specifically, the lack thereof. I was OK kid, no drugs, criminal records -just the ordinary little guy, but I was scorned by my classmates because I was dirt poor. The interesting thing here - I think this past made me choose Trader career afterwards. But before that I got 2 degrees. When I finished school I got in colledge and after 3 years I got my diploma of Architect (draughtsman). When I went to University and after 5 years I got my bachelor degree of Civil Engeneer. I thought that these occupations bring me a decent income, but for now I see that those thoughts were the furthest thing from the truth. Whilst a freshmen Civil engineer in the US can start with 65-75k per year my yearly salary is ...3k a year. That's about 250 bucks per month. I am not stupid or unskilled or don't work hard, on the contary, I am pretty skilled solid engineer and as an example of what I do here's the pic (I make a couple of dozen of these each month) I have never earned a decent income in my whole life, even now (I am 33). But I had a lot of time to learn to trade but I couldn't do it. Something was wrong either with me or my hard work I put into trading. Here's how it went. I stumbled upon FX (Forex) about 8 years ago, in June 2011. At that time in Russian Internet these magic words Price Action were at every corner. These fancy words were pretty popular and were discribing as the most clear indicator -free way trade Markets. I quickly discovered a huge thread of James16 at ForexFactory.com (I think at least 50% of you guys heard of him, because it had been the largest thread at FF for a few years, maybe it is now). I didn't know a word in English and I made a decision to learn it first to be able to communicate and learn FX at their private forum James16Group. Meanwhile I was learning the basics at free chart thread at FF and demotrading my fake money account. On July 4th 2013 I signed up to James16Group and started to learn webiar recordings, attend all webinars that they held continuing to trade my fake money acc. I was trading Pn Bars BEOVBs (BUOVBs) (Beaish/ Bullish Outside bars) on daily chart plis 2 more years (up to 2015) consistenly losing my Demo account. In the middle of this period I came to realize that I want to immigrate to the US and flee from my grim country. I started to look at trading as on my lucky ticket. At that time I wanted to get profitable and go to the States to continue to work at prop firm (or anywhere alse) as a trader -just doing my job and doing it right. A lot of this has to do with policy on the whole, Putin and his cronies oligarchs who are rapping our country and our people, stealing billions of dollars and transferring it on their swiss accounts, putting their families, wifes and children in Miami, London, Berlin whilst brainwashing our nation, accusing Europe and US in all our failures. Btw, my 250 bucks per month is pretty normal salary for high-skilled person who happened not to live in Moscow. that's why 10% of our population live in there already. But it doesn't mean that's OK to live like that. And live that way every second family outside Moscow: trying to make ends meet. To be a decent and skilled worker is not enough. I came to the conclusion that I can't take in anymore, but after years of trying to succeed in trading I am still a losing trader and still doing my job of engineer. I am not married yet and I don't even have a girlfriend because I am ready to take off, and I don't want to start a family here, but my unfortunate trading results are still holding me back. I am very nervous, have a bad sleep. Even though I have been sitting behind my monitor every evening after work for these 8 years, I still can't make any progress. In Jan 2017 J16Group went bust and was shut down and I started to look for other ways to trade. First of all, I discovered 2nd level quotes that provides CME and which we cannot get for free on these primitive MT4/MT5 platforms I was trading with all this time. I began to study Sierra Chart platform -and IT . IS . A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! . I begain to study the Market Profile with FuturesTrader71 videos from Youtube, study Numberbars and orderflow dynamics (on Youtube also) and I can't say this is hard. It's pretty simple to understand (Value Area, VPOC, Peaks&Walleys) and imbalance of Bid and Ask Volume on footprints (Number bars study) that Cummulative Delta can show us in pretty visual manner. But neither FT71 nor any other trader DOESN'T show as how specifically they trade. After 8 years of trading I came to understanding that nobody is going to show us that not because "experience can't be shared on screen" but because of their fear to share it. And I understand, there's nothing wrong in that. There's no free lunch in this world. I'm perfectly fine with it. I am trying to scalp E6 futures on 1 minute chart having on my sreen this: I am trying to define the main trend direction (or the lack thereof), match POC of 2 or 3 timeframes and trade away from this are with 20 ticks SL and 10 ticks TP. E6 is jaggy, choppy at 1 min, so trying to scapl with SL less than 20 ticks is futile. Again, if you can trade it nice -be my guest, tell me how you do it. So, that wa a helluva message! Excuse me for these personal things I shouldn't have shared here, but I think you need to know me more, what stands behind me, what I want, what I aim for. I still have a huge desire to succeed, but I am depressed, tired. I want to participate in this forum and get a solid knowledge of what how the Market works, bot more importantly, I want to combine all these pieces I have together and build my system to scalp. If you know how to help me with that -put some links, info, tips etc. I've been too long in this to trust anyone (even if they want to help -suffice to remember my trading on daily charts with 20-15 trades per year for 3 years- how can you learn to trade trading that way?? ) but I do appreciate the help of all of you. I want to discuss the orderflow dynamics, agressive buyers /sellers (CumDelta & NumberBars) and the rendomness of results I get everytime trying to interpritate the signal. I think I won't be putting too much in my 1st post here. We'll see how all of this goes later! Sorry for silly grammar mistakes! Sincerely, Andrew

If you taught your self how to read/speak English and you make those prints all day long you can easily become a trader. I use to have to read prints similar to those and fuck that noise it gets old.

Back to trading,

you are using popular TF's and keeping an eye on the HTFs , stick with 1 market and 1 type of trading for a year and it will happen. One thing that i like to add to my 5 min charts is the 200 ema, lots of people will strictly trade that ema for trend continuation and mean reversions.

-P

Hey Brian! Thanks for the advice!
I can't sent PMs yet, so I'll post it here if you don't mind...
Does Ira actually trade himself?
All his talks about "higher heights / lower lows" and EMAs are much the same story that everyone does. Wouldn't you agree? Did you dig into orderflow, imbalance of buyers/sellers stuff? Market profile? Do you use it? All these things, that we can get only from 2nd level quotes from CME. I am totally into it right now, so I am curious, do you use these concepts yourself?
Cheers!
Andrew

hello guys, I can't send Pms, so I need to post some stuff

i am not a spammer of any kindm but I nedd these 5 damn posts on the forum

Since my 1st post was extremely embarrassing with TMI and victim card playing , I was reluctant to post in this tread for awhile , but I want to discuss some things but I don't know where to start.

I think I can post a little chunk of PM I have sent to a guy, and here it is:
"I figured out that 6E and EUR/USD quotes are synchronized because of HFT -millions of algorithms that work on microsecond level, making thousands and thousands trades on spot EUR/USD and 6E futures market, pocketing profits with risk -free trades that last only few microseconds, and that give us almost 100% accurate similarity 6E and Spot markets (i.e. plain arbitrage)
I am at the point where I see that pending orders Bids /Asks don't even matter anymore: DOM displays 50/50% bids and asks all the time -there is no imbalance on the 6E market that we can see. All these Bids/Asks orders are fake and/or iceberg orders and none real orders left per se, because all trades now implemented by HFT and they use market orders that they send directly by batches in queue. So all these Bids and Asks are fake.
Can we actually use pending asks and bids as point of reference (imbalances) or (as I think now) they don't matter anymore?
Thanks!
Andrew."

Here's a picture (10sec) of 6E DOM on May31 2019 an hour before London opens
Bids and Asks are 50/50%
that's not only 10 sec -this picture I see all the time: there are no imbalances even in 6 ticks depth

And if price turns (20 ticks or more, even 10 ticks) and makes some swing, I can't spot how it happens just by observing DOM's Depths.
This is just a random picture of DOM, but I can record and post (and I'll do that now) how DOM behaves when we at a swing high (or swing low). That I can clearly see is one tthing: depths don't show us imbalances when price is about to turn ONLY because Bids and Asks are 1) fakes 2) icebergs
That's OK, I'm fine with it, I just want to understand. It's not whining or something.
OK.
And the reason why we can't see these imbalances on these depth levels only because all the orders that make price turn are Market orders of HFT algorithms that are byproduct of arbitrage trading:
1. On spot FX (EUR/USD) say ECB (or other bank or banks) starts doing business.
2. Spot FX starts moving.
3. 6E doesn't move yet, but HFT in periods of microseconds start arbitraging (buying/selling on one market and instantly selling/buying on the other) using MARKET ORDERS.
4. 6E gets all market orders from HFTs (all within microseconds) and turns. ACCURATELY copying spot FX chart.
5. No pending orders (Bids&Asks) were ever involved. No imbalances occurred on Bid & Ask sides of DOM
The question remains open: what's the purpose of Bids & Asks of 2lvl data on DOM these days?
Using this logic it makes more sense to me to use Bid Pulling/Stacking & Ask Pulling/Stacking columns than classic Bids & Asks columns since they show us pulling/ stacking of recent market orders on the current quote (that's the way we can track these HFTs today). Again, for me personally, tracking traded orders is easier using Tape (T&S window) than DOM window, since depths are not telling us much about the real picture these days.

AndrewChuraev 

Bids and Asks are 1) fakes 2) icebergs .............Again, for me personally, tracking traded orders is easier using Tape (T&S window) than DOM window, since depths are not telling us much about the real picture these days.

So many questions so I will just mention a couple of things that jump out for me.
I am not keen on the term fake order. You will know from your own account that a broker requires margin for a trader to place an order, therefore a trader who is putting up a large order on the DOM has to have the money to cover that 100/500/1000 contracts or whatever. On a thin order book like the 6E in your picture 100 contracts would be noticeable, with Crude you get people putting up 300/400/500 , in the 10 yr Notes it will need to be at least a thousand contracts, to even be noticeable. So even a small order of say 100 contracts on a product with $500 margin is going to need $50,000 in the account to cover it (and they will want to have a lot more than that so that it is not a problem if the order gets filled. Therefore anybody putting up large orders probably has a lot more money and is a larger trader that most of us so I think it is worth knowing if they are active in an area.

Also it isn't as simple as saying that if there is an imbalance price will move away from it. Sometimes in the commodities for example you might see the large commercials laying out their orders in the book at the price they want to do business and that will attract price to those levels because somebody who wants to buy large size knows that they can get their orders through without moving price too far against them as they have a large seller sat there who should absorb the size they want without going up any further. My understanding anyway.

Like you say, the volume actually being traded is the most important thing but the order book is useful at times to understand the context of what has traded. There is a difference in selling between price moving up to a large offer that everybody can see and an aggressive buyer taking it, to price moving up towards a large offer and then an iceberg sucks down all the aggressive buyers before price even reaches the large offer. That suggests a large passive seller that wants to get in earlier at a lower price because they are not sure they will be able to get filled higher as they are concerned buyers may not actually want to trade in size that much higher. That might make other buyers pause for thought.
Unfortunately as with all things in trading it is very hard to make hard and fast rules because one time the market does something and you want to buy, the next time you see it and you want to sell. Context is king.
Just my 2 cents.