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What is tape reading?


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What is tape reading?

  #1 (permalink)
 
Big Mike's Avatar
 Big Mike 
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If you want to better understand the term "Tape Reading", read the book Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.

It's actually just been re-released as a hardcover, and is also available on Kindle for just $3.99.

The short answer: Tape reading is the art of studying/observing the market and the ability to see signals based on market movements. The term was coined back when ticker tape machines were used to spit out new quotes.

For the purpose of this forum category, we broaden the meaning to include your view or perception of what the market is doing, so when you say "reading the tape..." it might also be considered by a more widely used term of Price Action or a more narrower version of time and sales.

Mike

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  #2 (permalink)
Unlimiteds
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Jesse Livermore was a reference on the subject...I advice her book memory of a speculator

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  #3 (permalink)
 alex5000 
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Richard D Wyckoff is another, but his work is more related to VSA

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  #4 (permalink)
 
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Modern tape reading is watching the T&S window. Been working with Zondor on building Indicators and workspaces that save this information to visualize the The Tape.

Wanted to do this as it can get very fatiguing watching the T&S window. To avoid clutter the displayed trades are filtered based on size, only 3 cars or larger trades are shown and the trade is colorized based on if it hits a bid or ask and for trades outside the range

Here is an example. The DOM_Bands ( download)records the sum of the cumulative Bid and ask above and below the market, the TradeSizeAnalyzer discriminates between big and small buyers and RealStats shows realtime supply. While BuySellVolume looks at trades equal to the high or low and beyond the range of the last bar.

When I am ready to make a trade I put most of my concentration on watching the T&S window, to make sure the price action is appropiate for entering a position.

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  #5 (permalink)
 
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 traderTX 
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i have some questions about T&S,. i guess you can say it is divided up between the bids asks.. but how do i know if it is accumulation or distribution? are the longs who have ridden the market higher taking profits and the market is taking a breather to continue higher? stuff like that...

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  #6 (permalink)
Sasha
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Hi guys, I am a newbie.
Just began learning tapereading, mostly after reading and watching "No B.S. Day Trading". It is very difficult to learn, but promising.
I think that there could be a way to visualize his method a bit better in Ninja. It could be that it had been done already, but I could not find it.
What I am talking about is an indicator that could display for a few seconds new orders and just pulled orders on a chart, with adjustable minimum size.
It is very difficult to notice in a blink what happened with the orders on the DOM, T&S also doesn't help much.
Do you think somebody here can help?

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 cory 
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Sasha View Post
Hi guys, I am a newbie.
Just began learning tapereading, mostly after reading and watching "No B.S. Day Trading". It is very difficult to learn, but promising.
I think that there could be a way to visualize his method a bit better in Ninja. It could be that it had been done already, but I could not find it.
What I am talking about is an indicator that could display for a few seconds new orders and just pulled orders on a chart, with adjustable minimum size.
It is very difficult to notice in a blink what happened with the orders on the DOM, T&S also doesn't help much.
Do you think somebody here can help?

check out this indicator

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  #8 (permalink)
Sasha
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Thank you cory, but that is not what I am looking for. I've only seen something close on CQG, and you can see it on this video:
videos.traderslaboratory.com/video/236/Tape-Reading-with-Order-Ticker
that is the window on top. It doesn't have to look the same. All that is required from it is to automate a simple process of us comparing DOM levels with executed orders etc.
From what I am learning there are patterns that can be exploited, but it is difficult for me to do physically. I can see a block of bids going away, but it takes time to figure out if they were pulled or traded. If it is visually simplified, it will be relatively easy to trade such patterns. I am sure that such indicator will be beneficial for many traders.

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  #9 (permalink)
Sasha
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And, ZTrade101 the picks do not show the RealStats do they? If not is it possible to see the picture?

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  #10 (permalink)
 
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Here is one with RealStats, which I find work well with the ladder.

This shows a BAD Trade I made. If I was doing a good job I would have taken a larger risk.

Meant to have a 9 pip stop, but got careless and left in an ATM with a 5 pip stop loss & was taken out before I realized my mistake.

What did I do? I pouted!

Would have made my day. YM jumped from here and I was all ready to add to the position (for a total of 5 contracts) as it seemed that 11070 would easily be surpassed.

R.I.P. Andy Zektzer (ZTR), 1960-2010.
Please visit this thread for more information.
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