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i been a trader for myself for 6 months. i am doing okay but not great i want to be a master at reading the tape i am getting better i been using the box strategy, but sometimes i get tricked i buy when i see price action greater than the 5 minute candle but right away the price starts to drip on me i lost on alot of trades what am i doing wrong maybe that works 50 years ago but i am getting crushed. i need help with the tape reading. i use charts macd bollinger bands moving averages, all bull shit the only real success i had is the time and sales the tape and the level 11 studing the bisd and ask. some one help me i am a new trader
Can you help answer these questions from other members on NexusFi?
@exoticjames just my exp...since you talked of tape/OF. Pls feel free to ignore as it's not advice since on SIM at the present.
Started out in trading with scalping with 1st 2 or 3wks...8k+ round trips equities/etfs. well did not find it pleasant as was discretionary and too much tension . not that it was bad....but scalped w/o OF. Would have gone mad if had to scalp with OF/tape looking at pulled bids/offers, stacking etc
anyways..nothing is BS..MACD/Keltners etc....these are self full filling..in the sense SM knows whats its doing at the extremes or past extremes. Key maybe is to watch tape/OF if you think you find a interest at MACD/etc at the extremities. Personally I find OF/Ladder/tape effective at IB, VWAP, Yesters/Day-Yesters OHLC. More than 90% turns are there..well thats just me.
Behind the best of strategies in PA...there is a core underlying concept of OF and its relationship to Volume. Many read this without OF/Ladder/Tape....well for me I did end up taking it's help
when introduced to tape...i use Jigsaw...Velox...to supplement what i have in way of charting by Zunaa & Tradepoint..but find Gomi with ladders more pleasant to the eyes and brain when getting into the heat of things in OF.
Trying to read Time & Sales window is a futile attempt for all practical purposes. Even filtering the data to lots over 100 is not that useful any more because large orders are broken down into smaller orders by the HTFs.
Tape reading is NOT the answer to your trading issues.
Forget everthing you learned about trading with MACD, Bollinger and all other indicators. You dont trade indicators, you trade the markets. Only way to make money in trading is by ensuring you have higher probability of winning the trade (edge).
Take a few days off and read Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas. It will change the way you think about trading and markets. Then go searching for the trading strategy that suits your personality best.
Just learn to read charts and volume....since charts and volume is nothing but a graphical representation of the tape. But, then again, I haven't found volume to be that useful except to identify climaxes and the beginning of moves....on any time frame.
tape reading is useful but only a wider toolkit that gives you some context before you drill down to the microscopic time frames. First I'd suggest looking at support / resistance and then look at the tape that may help you. Also as some others have suggested try looking at much wider time frames to begin with and then adding the tape as more of confirmation tool to your existing trade concepts.
Not sure what a 5min candle has to do with tape reading. If you want to be a master then get a job at a prop shop, or else keep studying the tape everyday and in 6 years time you might have something.
"Free markets work because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or incentives for skill. The strategy is, then, to tinker as much as possible and try to collect as many Black Swan opportunities as you can"
. not that it was bad....but 
