The DIBS Method... No Free Lunch continues

I'm not saying don't trade the method, but on 1-hour, there might be better opportunities, for instance JPY has been strong all week, the method will not stop working, there will always be periods of lower volume and volatility, then breakouts when markets become active.

Good Luck.

Hi MrReRaise82 .

I remember this thread when I joined in 2009 . It was pretty crowded here back then .

One suggestion.

Check out 12 hrs IB .

1 , 3 to 4 times more Inside Bars than on Daily , as reliable .
2 , There are instruments , where you can find IB more often , especially , if it is traded mainly during second half of the day , like all USD , CAD based Forex pairs and crosses , Crude Oil , GOLD - not only vs USD , Indices ....
But I watch 40 instruments , even main Cryptos.
3 , Max 60 min a day spending on charts , etc .

Clue - First 12 h IB can form when Tokyo session ends ( !!! ), second when US session ends .

You just need to know , which ones to take . I'm not interested in more than 70 % of them .

Backtest , identify best of them , create rules , follow them ... I also use them as a trigger for breakouts .

Been trading this way for years and can't complain .

99.

DAX from yesterday worked nicely too.

Hi 9inety9ine!

Wow, so much to unpack here, thanks so much for the suggestions!

So... As I am, I did an *incredibly* scientific quick backtest (of sorts) on both EURUSD and MES to check how a very simple break of the IB and then 1:1 R would work out. Attached the results for the past 2 months.

EURUSD since 1 Aug
14 wins
5 losses

MES since 1 Aug
14 wins
6 losses

I am a bit unsure about the EURUSD results because on Prorealtime (where I can easily do these backtests and actually have 12 hour charts) I can only access the CFD of the instrument. Nevertheless, impressive results.

I also looked at the DAX IB you mentioned. I can see a 12 hour IB from Tuesday that got triggered massively to the upside. Is that the one you are referring to?

'You just need to know , which ones to take . I'm not interested in more than 70 % of them .'

And therein lies the million dollar question - which ones to take and NOT TAKE )

Racking my brain for the last few hours on what would provide an edge with these 12h IBs...

Noticed something interesting on the MES chart for the past 1 year. Whenever there are 3 same color 12h candles followed by an opposite color 12h inside bar (so the 3rd candle in the pattern is the motherbar), price tends to reverse if you enter 1 tick above/below the IB, depending on its color. See attached screenshots.

Out of the 8 times the pattern happened, 7 times it reached minimum 2x risk (risk being the length of the IB candle).

Also looked at simple breakouts of the 12hour IBs on MNQ for the past year. Attached the outcome. Profitable (it seems) but only 4 truly stand-out months. Not much for 1 year trading.

And wouldn't you know it, this exact 3 opp color candles + IB pattern just produced massive gains on both GBPUSD and USDJPY charts on the 1h...

Sigh.

wELL, sHAZAMMM!

If the momentum continues after this retracement that needs to stay above 0.79750ish the likely hood of it clearing .80132 HOD last week becomes more favorable. Again when they hit rock bottom the ONLY place to unload liquidity is UUPPP. When the 'freenzy' sets in the whole common sense argument goes out the window. Big money is happy to let it run to exhaustion and then they devour retail on the way down. Gold is a prime example right now.

FYI... USD/CHF is near the close/reversal in that order of last WED and Thurs. which is a major resistance level as wek hold try to unload underwater trades since last week. would be nice to see 0.7985 area hold at this retracement. If it goes back up through High of Day we may very well have a solid breakout. I bought the dip early in the London session and it still went lower but recovered and its blue skies for me ;~) Stay thirsty.

Looks like USD/CHF 'Tapped Out" at 0.80 for now. CLOSED ALL POSITIONS. i WANTED TO SHORT THE BEARISH ENGULPING BULL ELEPHANT BAR.... i WAS MORE HUNGRY FOR FOOD. LOL Anyone else here know the 20-200 Elephant Bar guy? I counted 8 or 9 "pushes" up. Pretty good, Oliver.

Just got back in at support0.7983

Looks like the support level was another leg down and appears to be holding after rebounding going into the close of the New York session. I still think there is plenty of upside from here and the US Shutdown isn't going to hurt one bit. I am long on this one (again) after closing out my initial trades at the 0.80 area this morning. 0.8200 and maybe higher if the euphoria effect sets in like it has on Gold lately. Why? First, and foremost, its C-H-E-A-P compared to all liquid pairs and its not a volatile daily range kind of please stop making it hard to find tops nd bottoms but that is always subject to change with any pair or stock etc. The other reason, as stated before, is it just came off a ALL TIME LOW AND THERE IS NO PLACE TO UNLOAD LIQUIDITY EXCEPT BY GOING UP. If I sold you a dollar for 59 cents how else could you make a profit except to rise unless you think Sweden is going to be wallowed up by a sink hole and disappear? Stay thirsty.

Two ongoing trades on Gold and USDCHF plus a finished winner on USDCHF from earlier (circled with green the IB).

Decided to go down to 30min as the 1h is just not cutting it intraday. Yesterday not a great day, one loss on oil.

Also, based on our friend's kind suggestion from yesterday, doing a paper trade on gold with the 12h inside bar setup. Found very very solid results on both MES and MGC with it, as long as the trend is followed. Let's see.

Found that one needs to enter in the trend direction BUT put the stop loss needs to go to the bottom/top of the motherbar. Much higher win rate that way as long as the trend is respected (i.e. entries only with the 100 EMA, etc.).

Got stopped out of gold. With all the losses on oil as well I think it's time for me to focus exclusively on Forex for this strategy and forget futures for now.

USDCHF completed the second winning trade, attached the screenshot. If I look at how the daily timeframe is for the instrument, no wonder we easily went downward, along with EURUSD it's the best trending instrument out of the majors.

Last trade of the week with DIBS was a loss on USDCHF but only traded it with half size as it was the 3rd trade on the same instrument for the day and quite late in the session. The 2 winners before puts the method to about break-even for the week on forex pairs. Gold and oil (especially oil) fared much worse. Staying away from those next week.

The 12h IB paper trade is doing well on gold (see attached), couple of ticks away from hitting the length of the IB. Let's see if on Monday it goes further than that but in theory could take 50% of the size off at this point.

To your question , MrReRaise82 .

In general , I use basics : PA , patterns , supp , rez , breakouts , pullbacks towards 13 ema , waves , if they meet criteria , etc . And always an overall picture of the market , where I minimize the chart and can even use Monthly for major swing H's and L's. I don't use any other TF for a setup , just 12 h and sometimes M.

So as you can see , it's not one size fits all approach . Screen time 17+ years plays it's part too , but it would be nothing without a trading plan , discipline , knowing your method upside down and inside out ( backtest ) , etc . I still go back in time and take pics of setups that formed back in history even 20 yrs ago . And I love this part . That also tells me that what I do worked even long time ago . My screensaver currently contains 5.000 plus pictures ( I started this screensaver in January 2022 ), all 12 h IB setups . And it's getting bigger nearly every day .

The longer you trade one method , the better you can get , with time , practice , proper MM , right mind set , etc , etc ...

I'm in XAUJPY and XAUAUD too . Along with XAUUSD , all three no brainers , all time high . Now it's up to the market . We've done what we're supposed to do . TP on all 3 at TP1 around 2.4 R. Expecting some kind of pullback , so not trailing this time.

You just need to control your risk and be aware what would happen if all 3 setups become losers. It can cost me 3 % and I'm ok with that .

Have included couple of PRE - BREAKOUT setups , where I tend to take 2nd TP around 4.5 R . But TP also depends on some prev. Highs and Lows , etc ., including trailing . If the waves meet criteria , I can also use TP at 90 % of wave 3 , where 3rd wave tends to equal to wave 1 . Check XAUGBP chart . Valid wave is the one that doesn't have any fractals on the inner side .

That long term BITCOIN trade gave me around 8.5 R , but originally I trailed with target just below TP4 . That would have been around 9.5 R . I became greedy and didn't stick to my plan , although last major swing high was hit . This trade was based on a long term view , retest of Monthly support at around 74.000 and I expected a retest of the last historical high around 109.000 , which happened .

On most setups I take somewhere between 2 to 2.5 R , if the setup works . Around TP1 . I never split my traders into smaller chunks .

Sorry for a more general answer , but I was never able to trade someone else's method . That's why I had to create my own method and rules . I recommend you to do the same .

All the best .

99.

Friend, I salute you for following up, ďakujem! Unfortunately, your method is not something I am able to grasp. Not sure what the waves are (Elliott Wave method?!) and how you decide to enter a trade. But hey, if it works for you than that's all that matters

I am simply grateful that you shared the very idea of 12h IB candles - I would never have thought of them but they make total sense. I've been backtesting all kinds of IBs before but this was a wholy new take on the method.

What I can see on the charts is that if the instrument is in a clear trend, these 12h IBs are superb entry points as long as one enters a few ticks above/below the IB, according to the trend. Whether it's ES, gold or EURUSD, anything I look at that is trending, it seems to be true. I simply don't have the risk tolerance to hold for more than a couple of days and past 1R. Whenever I stick with 1R I'm okay, whenever I go above, I get burned - maybe in the future.

I am already paper trading them on my cash account and also thinking of simply buying an FTMO swing account and begin trading them there, holding overnight if I have to, according to my observations so far.

Once again, köszönöm!

Nice short trade on EURUSD, very bullish IB on 30min but price ripped through the sell order at the bottom like crazy.

Gold more than completed the 12h IB. Great success

Here are some FREE indicators for Inside Bars, the one shown on the chart is interesting, it has a Hot Key option, press that and the color bars disappear, might be useful for some.

And look at that Inside Day on Gold