The DIBS Method... No Free Lunch continues

but the bar didnt break above until 3 hrs later at 3 pm bst

I see what you mean.

For me, an IB denotes indecision. I don't have any hard and fast rules about when it becomes 'out of date'. I saw that there was still no trend established following the IB and considered it still valid when price eventually broke to the upside. (There was some downside movement, but not much).

I don't know what the concensus is on this though.

Does the breakout not have to be in the next hr,ive assumed all along it does

Julian, you might well be correct. I'm not certain. PC does say he will trade the 6am GMT bar, if the preceding is an IB, which suggests that what you're saying is correct.

Otherwise he would trade the 6am if the 4am or 3am bars were IB, etc. if that were not a rule.

Perhaps someone else can give their opinion.

gbp/usd has broken but I guess its too late in the day according to the 4 pm cut off

Just to let you see that I use IB's in other markets as well.

Crude Oil futures: Yellow is open, grey is long

emini Russell futures: Yellow is open, Grey is short

charts arnt clear fxmike.Can you please elablorate as to how long youve been doing this,how successful you are etc,and do you use 1hr as a standard timeframe,many thanks

aren't clear as in you can't see them, or you don't understand them?

werent clear as couldnt see time scale,but just noticed it at the top,so you use 1hr on all markets,i was just looking at dow and it looks very promising

Yes, H1 is shortest timeframe for me. Times of day are different for various markets depending on when volume picks up for that particular market. IB trading has been around forever in the futures market. Great priced based entry method.

And that is the best part isnt it. You can use DIB to trade pretty much any market, anytime. (I wonder if I can use DIBS to trade my wife for something of more value)

Do you reckon it'll go better than 1:1????????

Doubt it, it will work like any situation where you put a women on the line. You will probably get a major break, bypassing your SL and you will go on holiday without realising. By the time you return you will have noticed your account gone, much the same as with the wife leaving you with nothing

lol

After the no-discretion step through I did last week, I've started getting to understand a lot more about price action. So after getting Steve Nisons's Candlesticks book I've begun to get a much greater grasp on what the recent activity tells me is more likely to happen in the near future. I took a 3-month 1H chart for USD-GBP and zoomed to the left of it, scrolling to the right one hour at a time. I tried to limit the number of lines I drew on it, and tried to visualise what the 4H and daily candles would look like and mentally to draw the trend lines, and supports and resistance of what I saw. I then logged what I thought would happen next (up, down, either, unsure) when I caught an IB. I found I was getting the signals 70% right, and of ~70 IBs I found, I took around 50 of them, with most going to free-ride, and only 10 stop-lossing. But the five big winning trades I caught gained me over 800 points, with the losing trades costing me 200. (EDIT: Of the 20 I didn't take, most went to free-ride, some to stop loss, but I only missed one big win - the overall effect being I missed out on about 30 pips)

I'd commend this as a form of training to everyone. Nison's book is great but a lot of the key points can be found here http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.p...chart_analysis

Back on topic - I had a quick glance through some FTSE and DJI charts, as well as gold, and found that the candlestick properties seem to hold true across all markets. However, the slippage risk seems a lot lower with forex.

The moving to one candle at a time can be a great way to back test a system whilst making judgement about what you might have done. I have done it before and it does give you a rough indication as to how you feel about a way of trading.

As for the price action book. That is where it is at, reading and learning about what you are looking to do, refining your strategy to give you, whether small or large, a better chance to catch your trades. It is essential to continue to learn in forex or any trading market. Far far to often people believe that just reading a thread and trading that way is enough. To understand what particular candles mean, and how they GENERALLY react can give you more tools to trade. That doesnt mean that you are going to necessarily trade all of them, but over time you will learn, absorb and see price action and be able to react when you see it.

Remember, AH HA moments are when something, that has always been but has been filtered whether because it wasnt relevent, or we just knew nothing about it, becomes obvious.

I had this when I first read this thread. I had been looking at charts for years and I never saw inside candles in that light before. I mean over time I would have seen them, however before they were just a candle, there meaning was not yet relevant to me. Now I can look back over day, months and years and easily identify them (along with others) and see what did happen.

I am going to look into the book and have a read. Ive just finished Trading in the zone for the third time (it still amazes me that after reading it a 3rd time I still learn something I missed) and have just started reading Atlas Shrugged, a book recommended and read but Joel Rensink. This book will take some time with over 800 pages LOL, however it is currently quite interesting.

Take care friend

I am short of the GBP/USD 'Daily' Inside bar.

The IB is bearish, we had a triple top followed by some good momentum from 1.4777 which also resulted in a bearish pin bar on the 4 hourly (chart) and there is room to move down to the trendline. SL is above the high which was about 130 pip risk. Currently down a little.

Take care

Inside bars for last hour on most of the majors, im committed at the moment so I cant take any. The 600 am candles however look dojish so from what I understand we take the IBs in the direction of where we are at with regards to the 600 am candle (ie if we are below it we are short, above it we are long). I would love to add another short to my current one, at least it might average it out lol

Just downloaded the E Book of the Candlestick Course. Now time to read

Thanks for the recommendation, Slidedog.

Tomorrow and Monday are bank holidays in UK/Ireland, so that's something to do over the break, if I can get my hands on a copy.

Maybe tomorrow being Easter Friday explains why todays markets are so choppy?

Have a good weekend all.