Hello, Yes i normally use the 233 tick chart and i still use it, i decided to use the 89 tick chart because i need to see clearly when the market is retracing and my entries get better and cleaner, in the 89 tick i can see when the market is slowing, more clearly and faster than the 233 tick, this combined with my swings i can project better the fibonacci Tool.
yet the 233 still is my main and default gun to trade this markets... the CL and GC are very fast markets, one need speed and time to make money,...this two charts 233 and 89 help me read the speed of market and have some detail in it..
everything looks strange today, cant predict where the market is going to move, and my friends from the field do not have any ideas of what is going on
OPEX Alert: This morning is the third Friday of the month, which means we are in Options Expiration today. Look for early-morning opportunities leading into a slow end of the morning as trader hit the exits earlier than usual.
Well, it has been an strange day, anyway trading the Opening Range and break of this area we made some money.
i ended with +25 ticks, it seems the market could make a hard move at the market close.
Hello all, i hope you all have had a rested and great weekend,
i wanted to share with you my levels for this week, i think we´ll see some pretty good moves, remember tomorrow we could have low volume due to the bank holidays, but still could move some ticks.
Today we have two important news that could/will affect the CL, one is the interest rates decision in Canada, and of course the Crude Oil Inventories news release, today will be a day to capitalize on this moves...
Just as a question, if its not a secret how many contracts (position) do you guys trade? i am usually not more than 3 contracts, as i consider cl a very volatile contract and a smooth change can change my account considerably
i have been using this balance line level since i started trading, and i think is good to let this know to other traders,
what we do (all traders that use this method) is:
PHOD+PLOD/2, for example yesterday´s high was 96.90 and the low was 95.47 if we take this:
96.90+95.47 = 192.37/2= 96.185 approx. next number 96.19.
you can see today this number was tested to the tick and triggered a trade that resulted in a move of about 45 ticks.
you can add this levels for the day before up to 4 days back in time.
it will give you this levels that some call "Hedge Fund Levels"...
I understand that you use a 5 minute opening range because you deal in small time-frame bars/trading, but my initial guess would be that the 5 minute opening range wouldn't really be indicative of anything that you could use to forecast the day's trend. Obviously it works for you. What do you think it is that makes the 5 min OR significant when the big boys probably aren't basing anything off of it?
I think the importance relies on the "price action".. i mean,,,if i see the market is rejecting one of this levels (5 min OR) then the market is giving it the relevance probably the big boys aren´t basing anything off of it...but the market is noting the levels...if you see the past three to four days,...the 30 min OR share the price with the 5 min OR...coincidence...???... so at this point i would ask ...which or what the big boys look at...if they look at OR...it seems they do...but i don´t know it...i just want to trade the price...and what the market is telling me... it could be the 5, 30 Min OR...the One hour Opening range...don´t know...i use this 3 OR´s....and i trade the market rejection on this levels...so at the end..i will trade what the market is giving relevance...no matter which OR is....
i would like to start my day with thought i read "One of the marks of excellent people is that they never compare themselves with others. They only compare themselves with themselves and with their past accomplishments and future potential." – Brian Tracy
Today we have Crude Oil Inventories and as always the market likes to play before the news release...so we need to keep the eyes wide open...
Price has reached the balance line 95.93 From yesterday.. it managed to break it...but it is under this level now...
Ok.. Crude seems a bit undecided...normally if price goes UP before News release ..it is the possibility that the number will come negative and price could fall...(not always)---
but my bias are short...i expect the market correct me...
Well this trade went as expected,
i sold at the predicted zone, once again the price respected the 5 Min Opening range, market closed me out as i didnt change my trailing stop settings...but ended with 7-8 ticks...not bad to start,,,
5 Minute Opening Range:
High: 96.53
Low: 96.32
30 Min Opening range
High: 96.53
Low: 96.10
Now, the market could try to rotate it´s bias up....we have New Home Sales News report at 10:00 EST.
My personal criteria for scalping CL is 11 ticks. I won't enter a setup if the expected reaction is at 15 ticks, I'm looking for setups that have an expected movement of 30 ticks in the direction I need to go. This gives me more room for leeway and more chance of getting 11 ticks.
That's because CL, when not sluggish, will burn through 20 or 30 ticks in a matter of minutes, meaning it can go 15 ticks pretty easily against my entry point, leaving me much less room to work with and so I have to adjust my profit target possibly to the point of break-even. No point in doing that several times in a row, hence the reason I look for the larger setups.
I'm just saying, that's my personal approach. I'm not critiquing your method at all. Nobody can critique anybody who consistently makes money trading, regardless of what method you use.
But when I'm looking to short it, I'm looking for the lower boundary of the resistance area to be at least 30 ticks higher than the higher boundary of the support area. And since I use the ticker a lot, these areas may not be actually evident on the chart, they may be evident only on the ticker.
I should say that's for shorting when there is known support below.... The other kind of shorting is on downward plunge or downward breakout of some kind, in which case I don't have a predetermined profit target, I let the price behavior determine it.
The following user says Thank You to mwtzzz for this post:
Such a great Friday....i´ll take my rest now...until Monday...Market moves perfectly today...as you can see on my first post market price was in a wedge and respected it...
this type of days are the worst and the best at same time...
Market respected well the 5 Min and 30 Min OR. this is where we got in.
Balance Line was broken with enough strength and capitalize
Well this week was a good week, i think the market did what it was written to do...to say it with a fancy word... then the market behaved just like that... a market,...one of the most important things a trader most know is "to know the way of the market"..and frankly i think to achieve such a knowledge requires a lot of experience, years and years of time...or...the dedication to see chart after chart until you see a pattern and recognize it just with a blink of an eye, for me i have come to a point that always return to a one single pattern that now i call "Breaking Two Step" pattern, i have tried a lot of systems that promises large sums of profit but almost every system do not teach about trading management, profit management, mind and emotions management.
i will use this space here at futures.io (formerly BMT) to make a thinking and say:
we are about to finish the first month of this new year, and the question could be: have you been profitable at least this three weeks? do you think you are going to end the month in the green?, for me it´s been hard to fight my fears and emotions, the market give me everyday invaluable lessons, and is a great teacher...it always probes you are right or wrong reading on it....
it´s been a hard way to become profitable for me...i still average 18-25% weekly...i have had to put an spreadsheet to order my thoughts and have control on every trade i do almost every day and follow my trading performance, but i can say it was worth the time, the effort...
I really hope you find your own pattern, setup and become profitable....
just my two cents.
added the image of my own setup on what i call the perfect setup:leading you to a perfect trade.
Crude Oil trading for today is a bit tricky, 5 Minute chart indicates Tone to the upside, but it will retrace before go up further, my levels that the price could bounce could be the 61.8% and 50%.
in my 89 tick chart i see a possible short trade, but let´s see what the market does...
Price should come below the WMA 200 to plan a short trade.
Hello, i just came out of a meeting looking yogurt and cheese production....
So i missed my own words and missed the Crude Oil Fallout....my bad!!!..anyway, i just closed a trade on Gold...
so my day is positive!!...Crude moved perfectly-- i saw a possible short trade coming and was waiting on confirmation...as stated in the first post...
Market has set the TONE...we want to trade with the tone...a break of 97.32 with enough strength will bring prices near 97.60...if market fails to break this level price could test 96.68-96.81 zone...and look for continuation.
Opening ranges:
5 Minute: High 96.82 Low: 96.49
30 Minute: High 97.32 Low: 96.49
I have been busy this days, so i have not traded and it seems the market is giving his ticks all over!!!...
Today i just wanted to point how the OR´s and Prior Day High and Low, work in tune with the market and how you can profit from it...
in my 233 tick chart i have the OR (Opening Ranges) for 5, 30 Minutes and 1 Hour, then in my 89 Tick chart i look for entry signals according my Market Levels (My market levels are the OR´s Prior Day HL and Prior Week HL).
today the market gave 7 opportunities to get in a trade a this levels,
After some time out of the country i have not been able to trade, but i´m back with batteries charged!!...to continue trading, this week is a bit special since there are no major news events, so the market could stay in a volatile and sensible manner and we could make some ticks!!...
Today i see prices in Crude are testing Previous day Low 95.27 and Prior week low 95.05 and so far this levels have sustained the short wave, let´s see where the market goes at market Open.
When you are away from trading a while, do you sim trade for a bit to get back in the rhythm of your method, or are you that confident, you can jump right back in?
Well, the market today seems tired, we have a price range,. and having Bernanke speech today could make some movement in the market, 50 SMA is flat saying that is time to sell the high, buy the low, until a breakout happens,
Price is under Yesterdays VWAP, and also today´s, since the 50 SMA is flat the opening range trade could be a bit hard to catch.
Price is still below the 200 WMA and 50 SMA so price is under pressure and will take some time to go up further, price did tested 93.17 had 7 ticks of fire and then went back up 20 ticks, we need to see the 0.0% fib line broken and retested to long above the current price level if price fails to sustain the up move it will probably come down to test the 50% level.
today i saw an example of the 123 rule when price touches and tests a defined level,
in this case the Reverse Short level 88.42 it was tested 3 times, the first two were sell signals and the third has the 70% chance to be a breakout, this is a rule that happens quite often and you could use it to grab some ticks from the market.
Well i just wanted to share my SMART LEVELS for Monday Trading, i hope you can profit from this, price is within a price channel range, 87.93 - 88.61 a breakout of this two levels during London session will let us know how the NY session will be.
Hello, here is where my triggers are, market seems to be under some pressure, I´m waiting to see how control war shows itself at 88.61 and 88.00 to decide is go short or long at any of this levels.
Well, I just closed this position i took, the first trade was bad since the beginning and closed me out after i moved the stop loss, since it wasn't a valid sell signal, after that came the retest of 87.93 level and the rest is history...price came to my target i closed the position earlier since i went to a quick meeting.
this is very good i will be sharing my levels to whom find it useful.
I´m waiting the market to come and test this levels, Market has reacted and is mixed due to some not so good news... we also have crude Oil inventories scheduled for today, so let´s wait on the market to let us know where it will give out some ticks.
Here are the levels i will trade tomorrow on CL, hope to make some ticks, as always i will wait and stay sideline until i see the prey....and then let´s go hunting.
The levels for today worked perfectly as always...!!!
market made a move higher from our Resistance/Support Level @ 91.79 market filled me at 91.93 and reached Breakout up Level @ 92.62 closed my positions at 92.65 for a 72 ticks trade by 2 Constracts = $1440 without commission!,
well i can call this a day...and will see tomorrow!!!...
I have been trading this levels for the past two months, I feel comfortable with them, they are not bank, Hedge fund, all or the other fancy names that other use, i just called them Smart levels because they remind me to be smart when trading.. i will continue to post them and eventually explain how i trade this levels.
Hi JD.... I have been looking at this thread from the beginning and have not posted anything in quite a while. I noticed in March and April, you seemed to firm up the horizontal lines on your charts and started placing labels on each. Some of your lines look like those I use: H/L of today, H/L of yesterday, Daily pivots, H/L of last 5 days, H/L of last 10 days.
My first question is are all of these lines automated and based on the current day as well as prior days?
Are your s/r, weak stop and reverse, pivot reverse, top of trading range, major s/r line, bottom of trading range, pivot reverse, weak stop and reverse and ultimate s/r based on prior support and resistance areas on longer term charts, fibs, pivot levels, etc?
how are the following lines constructed: long level, breakout up level, resistance/support, reverse short level, reverse long level, short level and breakout down level?
I am not asking how you trade these lines, just how they are constructed so I can compare to my lines. For example, I went long off of a pullback just above my daily pivot and my daily pivot looks like your "pivot reverse".
thanks in advance and I really enjoy reading your journal.
