Site Administrator Swing Trader Data Scientist & DevOps
Manta, Ecuador
Experience: Advanced
Platform: My own custom solution
Trading: Emini Futures
Posts: 49,324 since Jun 2009
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Yes I know...
Please help me petition Sierra Chart to add a similar option built-in to Sierra for sharing images on futures.io (formerly BMT). They have a 'upload chart' option, but it is still not as easy as what was developed for NinjaTrader. If they added a 'Upload chart w/bbcode' option, it would be better and they could return to clipboard the [img] tags enclosed with the image URL.
Do I add in higher, or be happy about my trade location...??? (and that is my thought, not wanting an outside answer). I am not used to managing a trade like this, but I see that @Private Banker and @greenr sometimes add as it moves in their favor.
I have held a position all day so far though, so either way I have accomplished something for myself.
If I add now, it is becauseI want more money, not because I know what I am doing. The correct add was at 92.15, which I missed, and then MAYBE at 92.25 where my dog blocked me. Ignoring the fact that I could have bought new dog for $400.00...
Broker: Advantage, Trading Technologies, OptionsCity, IQ Feed
Trading: CL, NG
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Cool dog! With today being rotational, you do not want to be adding to your position at higher prices. Just my opinion of course. Market is having a hard time with VWAP and yesterday's value. Keeps getting rejected. Maybe it breaks through and eats more into yesterday's profile but could just as well have a spike lower at some point today. Profile just looks really rotational though, we have excess at both ends of the profile now. Play the extremes and stay on your toes!
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What @Private Banker mentioned is part of what I am trying to learn. There are so many things I am wanting to learn, and already having experience makes it harder to do.
One thing I have noticed is that my entries often make incredible exits. I am so focused on reading high volume turns, but many times trading with the daily trend does not offer those pivots. On days like that I refer to it as swimming upstream, but that is just what I learned to do.
I had this course years ago, the Entrepreneurial Myth, and it said "you can be extremely good at doing the wrong things."
I do see a onetimeframe arguement on both sides... No, that is wrong. I did not have the profile split. What I saw was balance on both sides. Maybe that is what I should refer to as "rotational"?
ES 1544 was the falloff, and possibly they were frontrunning it.
NO, to be accurate, 1543.25, and 1542 whatever I guess is close enough, especially given the background. Fear is stronger than greed.
I had a sell order pending off and on today at ES 1544.
I wanted to buy the developing POC, and now wish I had, but that is scalping mentality. I think. But if I am not sure of a target greater than 12-15 ticks I am TRYING to pass.
Friday, going into K period, I would typically be thinking scalp long... Given that support seemed to hold and shortside risk is greater going into the weekend. But maybe I pushed my buttons enough today. I want to learn to do some things;
1) Choose a direction as early in the day as possible. And learn when that makes sense.
2) Get comfortable not trying to pick every little top and bottom, and let the trade do it's thing.
3) Not use leverage as much to make trades work, but allow good location to work. And by using less leverage I can give more room for a trade to go against me. Perfect entries are nice, but not as important as having confidence in a trade. CL is tough to pin down even within 30 ticks some days.
4) Shape my scalping experience into something different than it is today. Like riding alonside my runner. But I want to shift the thought from the "runner" being something that is painful for me to watch into something that IS my primary trade.
5) Get a better overall understanding of market behavior. Using @Private Banker's coment as an example, I had no idea today was "rotational". Maybe I am starting to get what that means, because I am reading about it, but reading these MP books is tough, I can only handle so much at a time before I feel I am just reading and not digesting.
Gary,
I too am fed up with NT and looking to change to Sierra. Can you share with me how you got the VWAP to show the colors envelope with the borders. I am still trying to get it to setup and for use.
Thanks alot!
Well, first I will say I am still a fan of Ninja Trader, just found that Sierra is running much easier on my setup. But keep in mind that until this year I was still running one computer on XP.
I wanted to really get into TPO study, and so had to either buy finalgo's or move to Sierra, and with the promting of several others on futures.io (formerly BMT) that Sierra was the way to go regardless, I decided to give it a real try. It is frustrating at first, and to me NT was much easier "right out of the box".
But I was also having computer lag issues, and when I found Sierra did what I wanted, used less than half the resources, and ultimately is cheaper, I pushed myself through several long days to test as many buttons and features as I could stand, and now am surprisingly comfortable on it. Found a couple more tweaks today that will make it better for me.
I guess what I am saying is, my letting go of Ninja Trader deserves a moment of silence...
Moving on, in the Settings area of a Study, on the Subgraphs page, there is an area for "Draw Style". Change the upper band to Trans. Fill Bottom, and the lower band to Trans. Fill Top. You will notice there are all kinds of options there, many I have yet to mess with.
Looking back through the day, I did get to work through some issues by watching a live trade swing back and forth, letting myself say "if I would have gotten out", and then getting over it. I also got some advice that was worth more than the trade, and it is not necessarily that the day was "rotational". It is that it is possible to have that expectation in advance.
What I did wrong though, is I was willing to sit and take the heat, but did not hold to my targets, both of which would have hit. And On the original buy I probably would have if @Private Banker would not have commented on the day. Not that I am upset, or that I would not welcome him to comment as much as he feels like, or better just tell me where to get in and out. LOL!!. (not really, or I would not be doing all this)
But that I was looking for an excuse all day anyway, and all it took was someone else to back me up. "Closed (So glad that is over)". I watched that trade go for me at least 20 ticks I can't remember how many times, I let it ride to within a few pennies of the pre-open LOD, the whole time just trying to breathe normal and watch. Did the zone I was watching still exist? yes. Did I still think the day had that chance? yes. And if I can get past that my trading will be on a new level.
Many trades I think I know where to get in and out better after I am in the trade than before I got in, and that belief allows me to shift the risk reward dynamic based on emotion. Very often I will set a target, that later in the day hits, but I closed out way early because I no longer wanted to risk what I had. But I was willing to risk losing money in the beginning of the trade. The logic makes no sense sometimes, and I think the issue for me is tied to scalping and how I have learned to use volume.
So today I moved volume to a secondary position, removed all the other indicators from it, put a volume ladder type chart beside it, and made my decisions based off charts I am not as familiar with. I still got tunnel-vision when I was picking an entry, but once I was in I forced myself to watch anything but volume. I watched delta, I watched a 5m, a 500t, an old 6 range chart with DCs and momentum, my account balance...
So I scored on taking a less active role, and lost on hanging in there until the end. But in the process learned several things. One was how to play a rotational day. Another is I can hold a trade and treat it as a core position, and still scalp around it if I want. I just have to truly be willing to accept the trade. I learned that my belief is still weak, but getting better.
And that my dog would prefer to buy CDs. But, she is still scared of hats, has a long way to go.
It's interesting that there were 3 of what Barry Taylor calls Professional bars, with large average trade size, before the CL topped out today at around 1:30 PM ET.
(There are no fib lines on this chart, but there are price gridlines on a 20 tick spacing.)
"If we don't loosen up some money, this sucker is going down." -GW Bush, 2008
“Lack of proof that something is true does not prove that it is not true - when you want to believe.” -Humpty Dumpty, 2014
“The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” Prof. Albert Bartlett
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Broker: Advantage, Trading Technologies, OptionsCity, IQ Feed
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As I've made a comparison in the past regarding looking at various developing value areas, I prefer to use the two 1st standard deviation levels as my value high and value low. This represents in theory 34.13% on each side from VWAP or the point of control or 68.26%. You can also break the 34.13% in half which gives you 17.065% that gives you half deviation levels from the VWAP/POC. The 2nd standard deviation serves as the outer extreme however the market on rotational days will often stop at the 1.5 standard deviation level.
Here's my settings for just the VWAP and filling in the 1st SD levels:
Here's an example of how they all look. Note yesterday was a rotational day which was derived on the market opening within the previous session's range and lower balance and testing that lower end to see if there were still buyers which there clearly were. You can see how the market reacted to those lower extremes with the outer VWAP levels providing excellent confluence.
Here's a standard bell curve to reference what I'm talking about:
*** Update *** Looks like we're comparing the two different VWAP indicators in Sierra. The quoted is the Sierra stock version which is broken into 0.5 devations so, those settings are correct. I'm using the user added version which displays 1.0 deviations. Just want to clarify that in case anyone is confused. I just noticed this after posting.
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Thanks to everyone here. Getting used to Sierra takes some time but I appreaciate the input. Big Thanks to GaryD and Private Banker to sharing their insight.
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I just checked my vwap band values against Ben's and thankfully, they match. Starting with Sierra is a lot of trial and error it's great to have other's charts to compare with, especially Ben's.
Question... is that countdown with a line 2 studies (last price line and countdown) or one study. Thanks!
Here's how my chart looks:
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It is a known fact (outside of trading) that black background is very strenuous on eyes. There is a reason why books are always printed on a white page with black text. The problems some experience with white is when they set their display brightness far too high.
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I have put aside my Jim Dalton books temporarily, will finish next, but opened the CBOT Market Profile study guide and find it an easier read for some reason.
May have finally found a version of volume ladder that I find useful, but for now it does not have the numbers. I realize I may be missing the whole point, but I am working away from 1mVSA and needed some common ground.
I still need to post performance for last week. I had to figure out where it was in SC and have not had time to try to export.
The first trading education I purchased ($$$$) included a lot of things, but what I took with me from it condensed down to only two major areas; I minute volume spread analysis, and support and resistance levels. As I moved on through years of backtesting and indicators, trading MACD, Bollinger, Keltner, Donchian, breakouts, chart patterns, a whole list of moving averages, RSI, Momentum, Stochastics, etc, etc... reading book after book, watching video after video...
I still seemed to find my best chance falling back to the original two.
So what I learned to do is;
Wait for an area of anticipated S/R
Watch for a high volume bar
Expecting a reversal, try to get in going the other direction
I also learned that I was wrong about the turn more often than not. But, very often I would get 5 or 10 or 15 ticks, up to around 50 max, and then it would start to come back on me, many times to turn into a losing trade. So in defense I learned to also watch volume for an exit, took small losses, tried to perfect “feeling” the market. And so that experience, plus tenacity and survival, came together to shape me.
I referred to myself as a remora once, picking up the scraps from the kill, trading around the point of battle without expecting to go anywhere further than maybe 20 ticks.
I did not have any explanation for why my S/R levels worked sometimes and not others.
I have learned not to hold a trade for very long.
That style relies more on fear than confidence.
And so, sizing up felt reckless. Trading for a living seemed immature. Trading in general seemed far to random to count on.
But now, having re-discovered market profile, having seen that there are things that I “knew” but could not describe until I read another post here, I believe I may have found the next step. A two-part step actually, the first involving internalizing a new layer of looking at the market, and the other being the need to redirect some things I have formed into trading habits.
And I saw that conclusion through the images of a recent day,captured above with some added comments to summarize.
So I am weaning myself off VSA, learning when to expect SR to hold and when not to, finding a new trigger to trade with a trend instead of at the turn, but still holding the skill of spotting a turn, learning to hold a trade more often than not, digesting that there is more order to price movement than was once perceived.
That symmetrical triangle continues to play out. On a longer range I would anticipate short side dominance below 94.50 (actually short side entry zone there as well), but possible temporary support above 91.50.
88.50 for minimum long range correction completion, further if this is a new trend, with temporary support around the merged TPO excess around 89.90.
Gary, since you are having to rollover monthly, you might want to know that SC just enhanced their automatic rollover feature. I have not tried it yet and don't know anything about it, but it's in the latest 961 release. See here for more info:
That came out interactive. I was going to just post the question with the chart, but I hit "print screen" after I had already typed it. And I spent 4 hours reading study material, another two at the computer messing with indicator visuals and trying to figure out where the market is as best I can, and then help a friend cut up and stack enough avocado firewood for next year's season for both of us. I wanted to chill, so I put it into high-res PDF for a little fun.
And, other than the Delta Divergence which just happened by accident, this chart is a very visual way to look at VL. It is what I decided on, so far. I thought, "What am I looking for?", And then messed with it until it looked like something that made sense to me.
Really, yes I may miss something to not know if it was 4000 contracts vs 400. But that detail can wait. And someday I may get to where I want that added. But for now I need to just get comfortable with it. If only I looked at trading as something I just enjoyed regardless.
I have a lot of new information to digest this week. I read 107 pages of the CBOT manual today. The few weeks primer into the language was very handy. I am really enjoying it compared the other other books I was working through, not sure why. Same stuff in a way, particularly for someone who does not know it. I was actually deep into it for awhile, entertained even? For a technical manual that is a weird thought. But it is a "study guide", and I am assuming the way it is put it together somehow made it faster for me to digest. Cliff Notes, kind of.
My pirate T-shirt is getting very thin. Bought the year I moved to the Keys.
That symbol, some version of a Pirate's Flag, was discreetly applied to a lot of things I owned back then. Boat, motorcycle, truck, mailbox, address labels, flag...
Discreetly. If you know me you would probably not remember it.
Regardless, I finally changed my avatar for the first time. I see all these moving one, and played with them. Have a couple very trippy ones downloaded. But they had nothing to do with me. Other than, they were trippy for a few moments. That is what I love about Chris Howell. akaTuna Can. back to topic
Turning 45 in July, put "A Pirate Looks at 40" back on my IPod. May or may not listen to it. But if I don't, a cell phone picture of my T-shirt as I wear it tonight will suffice.
'Made enough money to buy Miami' is stretching the truth a bit...
My dog is the biggest wimp. Scared of everything, to the point where it makes her miss out on things.
Last night it was Chobani yogurt. She was obviously wanting some, so I tilted the cup towards her. As silly as it sounds, that freaks her out. But I have been working on that, and so at first she just backed away. "It's OK Piper." She came closer, tasted it, got tempted and ignored the perception of 'danger' for awhile. But then for no apparent reason backed away again. Then she growled at it. That was not enough, so she barked. Then she progressed to jumping and barking, then spinning in a tight circle, as if playing, but jumping and barking. The whole time I just held the cup still.
There it was, but she could not have it, because she was afraid of something. And in that moment I understood both of us a little better.
Price tested the overhead excess at roughy 7:30am. and responded with a 30+ tick reversal. That zone runs up into the 94 area, and then on the daily the pressure starts picking back up again extending to roughly 94.50. My blended view has created a resistence slop zone that is all over the place this morning.
Earnings kicks off tonight. What impact will that have on today's price?
Per Bloomberg;
Nigerian Attacks
Nigeria’s Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said on April 3 it would resume attacks in the country after its suspected leader, Henry Okah, was sentenced to 24 years in prison in South Africa on terrorism charges. Okah denies being a leader of the group.
Attacks including kidnappings and bombings of installations by groups such as MEND reduced Nigeria’s oil output by more than 28 percent between 2006 and 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
If I could go back in time I would buy that test of SD1. Feeling some information overload today. Balance, imbalance, test occurs inside as well. I have so many new things on the screen that my eyes are constantly reading everything, plus still digesting what I read this weekend.
Yeah, not sure. I passed, almost bought 92.84. Of course now that seems like a bad move, but getting some mixed signals and taking time to just watch everything work together. More than 50% of my layout is new or modified today. Things in different places... I like it but still has the new car smell.
One thing I really like about SC is the ability to save "analysis" and turn on and off instantly, or switch on the same chart. reminds me some of Tradestation.
Not too long ago they added the ability to programmatically add custom buttons and menu items. You wait for a mouse event and when you get it, you can execute whatever code you like. I implemented this after seeing another futures.io (formerly BMT)er do this with buttons, but with menus (because I hate toolbars). So I can show/hide groups of studies, as I'm doing in this case. Pretty cool stuff SC lets you do huh? You can right-click the region data line at the top of a chart and show/hide a single study, but when you have groups of them, hiding them all and showing them all takes too much time, hence I decided to use their nice feature and hook into the menu.
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Expecting a neutral day, the low end has most likely been established at 1x IB. But not sure about another trade location. Still riding below ETH Vwap, nearly dead center of range, inside bracketed value.
Even without taking another trade, that was beautiful to watch.
What was that? I left the house early and this is what I came back to. Cannot find anything but Alcoa earnings maybe? That looks like a CL impulse move, not ES.
An update on Sierra - even running multiple workspaces loaded with charts, it has not broken above 100k(k).
I have yet to see a lag, it fires up instantly, data load is like lightning, it does so many cool little extras that I never even considered. Not to understate that it made me work for it, but I am glad I did.
I would not be surprised to see ES blow the top off the highs. I have no idea why, and since I don't trade it I don't really care either way, but that type of move in ES is not typical. I can almost picture the new traders that blew up today trying to short that.
Losing BIG is a normal part of trading. When it happens, decide if you did something wrong or not. If not, what can you do other than trade smaller? Or not trade at all. And if you did something wrong, figure out why. Not "what" so much, that is a lot easier to answer. Why.
A lot of times it is not that we don't know better. It is that we are wired in a manner that it is hard to listen to what we know. And resolving that issue is the critical element in this game.
Max down day/week/month are there not just to preserve your account, but to break the spell. It never hurts to take a week off, come back and trade very small the next week. Or a month off. Or a year. Would your world end if you simply stopped trading? Of course not, but if it ever feels like it would, you are headed for trouble. Trust me.
It is one of the toughest games in the world, and it is won one day at a time... by learning the market, and learning yourself. To pursue the path of trading shows a competitive spirit, and that same energy is often what takes us down.
I have been trying to make sense of the ES move for awhile now. Tried to find a confluence target but am missing it for some reason. It's hard not to watch though.
One thought that comes to mind, have not repeated for awhile, is "early shorts get slaughtered".
Rambling. Drinking a 4th beer tonight for some reason. Obviously not trading.
Last month was pure intensity, dealing with projects in one status or another in Austin, DC, Baltimore, Jersey, East TX, Dallas, Tulsa. Plus Melissa had the flu and I had to take care of everything, my sister came to visit, a tornado ripped the boat and dock apart and we had to deal with a load of downed trees... And learned SC. lol!
This week, "balance". Went to the mall today before this ES rocket took off.
But sitting here finding the analysis, the observation, the mystery, very consuming.
Possibly most intriguing is that crude is ignoring ES. They do come together then move apart, that is not so newsworthy. But in comparison, moslty not understanding the ES move...
There is an intermediate inverse H&S in CL with a target range that would put price into the sell zone around the 94.50 range... and on that note if 92.12 fails that is as strong of a signal.
Price is entering Thursday's excess (currently 93.62), but I would be reluctant to short if the open hits that area unless ES gives up.
I actually did short this at 51 , though I got out before it got too out of hand. At the time of the trade, it was very good location and IMO the premise was sound, but I should have cut it sooner, as the momentum just said "up."
I was also dumbfounded by the extension. All I could figure was AA earnings related stuff (a nice exclamation point to kick off the earnings season when all the headlines are saying earnings are going to weight heavily and "the correction is coming") but I do not know what the catalyst was. I posted here regarding the complete lack of liquidity on the move up. In short, only about 500K+ volume to go 15+ handles. Insanity.
Were you looking over my shoulder today, and did you read my mind and write just what I needed to read? Thanks dude.
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And because I have no idea where psychological things really come from, even though I may think at times that I do, and sometimes I do. I think this is journal-worthy.
My wife is nearly dead-set on getting a torso tattoo. I am not that into it, for her, because she is my wife. Not that I have not seen them on other women and thought they were sexy, but I do not require that my wife compete in order for me to love her. And so I accept her as she is, even to the point of wanting to defend it.
But, I accepted the fact that if she wants it; let it happen.
And have moved to a role of supporting and trying to discuss it deeper. Looking at images from internet searches and talking about them, what we like and don't like. And then I file them in folders marked things like "better". I bought a magazine called "Inked" in an airport recently, and then had to deal with a weird feeling related to and happening as I read it in the middle seat between two strangers for two hours.
So the timeline is; that I am accepting change. Uncomfortably maybe, but that is expected. But not just accepting, changing the response to getting excited about it.
That is what the market does.
That is what the market does.
The idea that a profit can be engineered in an environment that is not engineer-friendly... requires that we look inside. And I see that I am nowhere near as ready to change my mind as the market is. And I see that if I can bring the two thoughts closer together the more of an advantage it gives.
Jim Dalton mentions "nuances" . They are so rare to find and so priceless when you do. If you don't throw them out the first time or ten. But the ability to accept change at the same rate as the market in my opinion is one of them.
In this thread (, a generous user contributed some code that takes advantage of Sierra's new ACS functionality which allows catching mouse events when a custom button is pressed.
The thing is, I hate toolbars, particularly those in Sierra. So, …
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I got booted out for some reason. But before that I laughed so hard. I agree, a skull and crossbones is not pleasant to look at. Horrible marketing campaign. What will I do without a career as a writer or poster on futures.io (formerly BMT)?
But when I wear the shirt I am not looking at it. And that is what the market does.
Polite? Reasonable? Predictable? Sane? Is that what trading is?
Not that it is not identifiable, or classified. Those are different words. But the market is pure natural energy.
I read somewhere, being in the construction world, that we still do not truly understand what electricity is. We have learned to use it regardless. And the national electrical code is prooof that it is to be respected. And to me the markets are similar. With respect we can learn to use the energy for benefit, but never once think it can't knock you on your ass if you don't follow every code.
And, that reminds me of the best thing I ever heard from a planning official. "Necessity is the Mother of Interpretation."
Here's where I was; I set a SIM short before I went to the mall in ES, let it run for fun. Hit and stopped while I was gone, does not look like it ever even thought about offering a profit.
When that happens I have to get up or risk being in the captain's chair with the wrong attitude. Or.. I knew before I went in it was a longshot.
My previous avatar was something I made in Photoshop, intended to portray some image. I spent some time on it, trying to dial in the colors and the contrast, and in the end I liked it. Much better to look at than the picture of a t-shirt I had on a few nights ago. But that previous avatar was also designed to go with a title, "Catching Big Waves". That is a thread I abandoned, and thought of that sometimes when I saw the image. But did not know what I wanted to change it to. I liked the ones that were animated, like @Big Mike's, but played with some and they were not doing it for me.
@Zondor posted something recently, and as I read his post and his "signature" several times, and stared at his avatar, it is not that pretty to look at either. But it was what he chose. And before that I remember his avatar being Ming from Flash Gordon. Also, not the prettiest looking character.
I got out of the shower one night and put on my favorite t-shirt, has that image across the chest. I bought it maybe 10+ years ago when things in my life were completely different. I had everything I ever wanted, needed nothing, made my own schedule, did whatever I felt like, and lived on the edge of the earth with the world waiting beyond the horizon. I did not have a care, and the pirate thing came from being a Jimmy Buffet fan. But it signified some combination of freedom and adventure and not worrying about what other people thought.
I doubt it will last long, but I took my cell phone and snapped that photo of my own chest, and replaced an image that was getting tired for me.
If oil comes up to the 94.50 area, that is a possible LSP in a possible larger C leg down and would provide a nice entry (without confirmation) for shorts. If it breaks, that could be saying something too.
Looking at the ES move, and CL's reluctance to follow, I am watching for a delayed reaction this morning that may "repair" that area where price moved through so fast, which would bring price into that LSP area.
"And the day will come when all of the gold in the world will not appeal to you as much, Gary, as just one more day of being who and where you already are, with what you already have.
" I will follow my rules, I will take my stops, I will be disciplined and i will work with the market....NOT AGAINST IT! Professional mind control is the key"
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" I will follow my rules, I will take my stops, I will be disciplined and i will work with the market....NOT AGAINST IT! Professional mind control is the key"
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, though I got out before it got too out of hand. At the time of the trade, it was very good location and IMO the premise was sound, but I should have cut it sooner, as the 
