Trade ideas posted daily with a follow up each night. See post #1
Surfing Risk Intraday - Volume Profile and Order flow
Here's another option. I got together with Stage5 Trading (broker) and OEC (data feed) To provide people with free trial of Sierra Charts. I just spend the last few hours creating custom templates that look just like the Market Delta ones I just every day. They'll be included with the trial, so no one has to worry about customizing their setup.
Here's a sample:
Sierra:
Market Delta:
I'm hoping this, alongside Hoodlum's great work with MT4 will make this way of trading accessible to everyone.
The trial will be available within the next few days, you guys will be the first to know when it's ready
RS
Here's a sample:
Sierra:
Market Delta:
I'm hoping this, alongside Hoodlum's great work with MT4 will make this way of trading accessible to everyone.
The trial will be available within the next few days, you guys will be the first to know when it's ready
RS
Trade ideas posted daily with a follow up each night. See post #1
Ok Guys,
Here's the link to access the Sierra Charts Trial. I'm attaching my templates here as well so you don't have to worry about setting up the charts yourself
http://risksurfer.com/free-futures-trading-simulator
Enjoy
RS
Here's the link to access the Sierra Charts Trial. I'm attaching my templates here as well so you don't have to worry about setting up the charts yourself
http://risksurfer.com/free-futures-trading-simulator
Enjoy
RS
Trade ideas posted daily with a follow up each night. See post #1
Hey, I'd just like to share something I've been working on, as I found it of interest.
After trying to trade for a week using daily/weekly volume profiles (with VPOC, VAH/VAL etc), I ended up abandoning them, as it was interfering with my preferred style of eyeballing the trend by zooming the 15m/30m all the way out, and I was taking a lot of trades in the wrong direction.
When I trade, if the trend is up for example, I like to try and pick the bottom of each higher low, and ride it up to the next higher high for at least 50 pips. I'm not a scalper. I also don't like to try and pick tops or bottoms of moves and then fade against the trend, since it can all too often go against you as the "top" or "bottom" you picked gets exceeded by the next leg of the trend.
Although I found daily profiles confusing, this is where the composite volume profiling comes in very handy however. As you are no doubt aware, in an uptrend, for each leg of the trend, previous resistance levels becomes support levels as new higher lows and higher highs are posted. The ideal for me then is to be able to pick the correct level of previous resistance that is going to become support, and then enter on what I believe to be the bottom point of the new higher low.
The first chart attached here shows the ideal entry points long (bottom of the new higher low) on a 30m chart of EURCAD from the last few days. I was actually in on both of these. These entries might look a little arbitrary however - how were they spotted? 
In the second image, I have uploaded the same chart but with the composite volume profile displayed. Suddenly, the levels become clear. The low and high volume nodes become the stepping stones where former resistance turns into support, to continue the next leg of the uptrend. They also give you good targets from which to take profits, and places where you can trail your stop behind, remembering that the eventual destination of something leaving a high volume node is most like the next high volume node in that direction. 
This is merely reiterating what RS said in his first posts, but I thought I'd show some charts of how I am using the principle successfully.
More interesting however is this. You've all heard of USDX and EURX - the Dollar and Euro indexes, which give you a composite overview of how the Dollar and Euro are performing respectively against a basket of the other most heavily traded currencies. It allows you to take an overview on a currency as a whole. Unfortunately, no such things exist GBP, JPY, AUD etc. So over the last few days, with the help of a good thread on here, I created charts for GBPX, JPYX, AUDX etc using the methodology and calculations in said thread. I was then able to apply composite volume profiling to these indexes as whole, and to my surprise, it works exactly the same, even though what you are looking at is an amalgamation of 5 other currencies.
Using this method today, I was able to see that AUD as a whole was turning down, at the same time that EUR was turning up. The logical trade was the long on EURAUD, which shot up almost 100 pips. When you are in on a pair whose constituent currencies as a whole are currently moving in the opposite direction from one another, that's when you get the very rapid 50-100 pip surges in a couple of hours, instead of price just chopping around all day (which is what happens if you go in on something whose constituent currencies are both moving the same direction).
The third image attached is today's chart of AUDX, showing the high and low volume nodes. You can clearly see the turning points. 
I'll post up some more screenshots as I experiment more with the method. I've only been using it a few days, but when I get better, I'll try and call in advance when I think a particular pairing is about to make a very quick, large move in a given direction. When the currency indexes approach potential turning points, you can see usually that all of the pairings that incorporate that currency are also sitting at turning points, all at the same time.
If anyone is interested, here is the thread I was referring to. It's helped me a lot to see the overall picture with Forex, and not to try and trade any one currency pairing in isolation.
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=334165
Cheers
After trying to trade for a week using daily/weekly volume profiles (with VPOC, VAH/VAL etc), I ended up abandoning them, as it was interfering with my preferred style of eyeballing the trend by zooming the 15m/30m all the way out, and I was taking a lot of trades in the wrong direction.
When I trade, if the trend is up for example, I like to try and pick the bottom of each higher low, and ride it up to the next higher high for at least 50 pips. I'm not a scalper. I also don't like to try and pick tops or bottoms of moves and then fade against the trend, since it can all too often go against you as the "top" or "bottom" you picked gets exceeded by the next leg of the trend.
Although I found daily profiles confusing, this is where the composite volume profiling comes in very handy however. As you are no doubt aware, in an uptrend, for each leg of the trend, previous resistance levels becomes support levels as new higher lows and higher highs are posted. The ideal for me then is to be able to pick the correct level of previous resistance that is going to become support, and then enter on what I believe to be the bottom point of the new higher low.
The first chart attached here shows the ideal entry points long (bottom of the new higher low) on a 30m chart of EURCAD from the last few days. I was actually in on both of these. These entries might look a little arbitrary however - how were they spotted?
In the second image, I have uploaded the same chart but with the composite volume profile displayed. Suddenly, the levels become clear. The low and high volume nodes become the stepping stones where former resistance turns into support, to continue the next leg of the uptrend. They also give you good targets from which to take profits, and places where you can trail your stop behind, remembering that the eventual destination of something leaving a high volume node is most like the next high volume node in that direction.
This is merely reiterating what RS said in his first posts, but I thought I'd show some charts of how I am using the principle successfully.
More interesting however is this. You've all heard of USDX and EURX - the Dollar and Euro indexes, which give you a composite overview of how the Dollar and Euro are performing respectively against a basket of the other most heavily traded currencies. It allows you to take an overview on a currency as a whole. Unfortunately, no such things exist GBP, JPY, AUD etc. So over the last few days, with the help of a good thread on here, I created charts for GBPX, JPYX, AUDX etc using the methodology and calculations in said thread. I was then able to apply composite volume profiling to these indexes as whole, and to my surprise, it works exactly the same, even though what you are looking at is an amalgamation of 5 other currencies.
Using this method today, I was able to see that AUD as a whole was turning down, at the same time that EUR was turning up. The logical trade was the long on EURAUD, which shot up almost 100 pips. When you are in on a pair whose constituent currencies as a whole are currently moving in the opposite direction from one another, that's when you get the very rapid 50-100 pip surges in a couple of hours, instead of price just chopping around all day (which is what happens if you go in on something whose constituent currencies are both moving the same direction).
The third image attached is today's chart of AUDX, showing the high and low volume nodes. You can clearly see the turning points.
I'll post up some more screenshots as I experiment more with the method. I've only been using it a few days, but when I get better, I'll try and call in advance when I think a particular pairing is about to make a very quick, large move in a given direction. When the currency indexes approach potential turning points, you can see usually that all of the pairings that incorporate that currency are also sitting at turning points, all at the same time.
If anyone is interested, here is the thread I was referring to. It's helped me a lot to see the overall picture with Forex, and not to try and trade any one currency pairing in isolation.
http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=334165
Cheers
- #295
- Edited 4:50pm Jun 5, 2014 4:37pm | Edited 4:50pm
Yes still here 
So here are some questions I have not seen asked - or answered
Is there a minimum distance between price and a VPOC on open of the pits session that must be exceeded before you take a trade...? for example, if the minimum distance is at least 10 ticks away from the VPOC but price open within 10 ticks do you pass on the trade.
I think I remember you saying you have tight stops and a small target, like 6 ticks and a 12 tick target. How did you come to these numbers?
Also, and I ask this to a lot of people, how do you judge trend? I get the impression you use the 120 day composite
Thanks RS
So here are some questions I have not seen asked - or answered
Is there a minimum distance between price and a VPOC on open of the pits session that must be exceeded before you take a trade...? for example, if the minimum distance is at least 10 ticks away from the VPOC but price open within 10 ticks do you pass on the trade.
I think I remember you saying you have tight stops and a small target, like 6 ticks and a 12 tick target. How did you come to these numbers?
Also, and I ask this to a lot of people, how do you judge trend? I get the impression you use the 120 day composite
Thanks RS
Yes still here
If I'm fading a move, I like the the move to be pretty established already before I step in front of it. This may sound a bit counter intuitive, but I use stats such as ATR, to judge when a move may statistically be exhausted, then I use levels in the area to lean on. I don't have any fixed rule about opening price - level distances, that really depends on my perception of the quality of the level.
I use the smallest stops that I can get away with, which is usually 5-6 ticks. Targets are a lot more discretional. I don't use fixed targets, but rather strong levels that oppose my trade, and use them to either exit or scale some of the position.
To gauge a trend I use the movement of value. If the value areas of a particular market are shifting higher in each session, that defines and uptrend for me. Once that market posts a lower value area, thats my first warning that the trend may be due a pullback or reversal
Trade ideas posted daily with a follow up each night. See post #1