The Trader's Academy - by Traders for Traders

Is this your main trading method?
I use MT4- how can I have a seconds chart?

also- if you look only in small time frames- how can you see the big pictures, the big moves?

This is my main entry method.


Islander might be able to help you with that. See http://www.forexfactory.com/showthre...88#post8750088


There are two options.

Either you use several MAs - 3-4 of them or so. See this thread for an example: http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=199087

Or you use several charts in parallel - having, say, your 30 sec chart side by side with a 2 or 5 minute chart.

And you can combine the two.

thank you very much.
I can't get the seconds chart to work. I put it the files in the folders. What should I do next?
I get an error from the expert advisor:
invalid function call parameter value

Attached is an hourly chart, which I hope will give some idea of how I read where the main S&R levels are likely to be, and how I read where the main momentum lies and when we are due for a directional change. I've numbered the key areas, so I'll go through them one by one.

1/ Both the 100sma (dark blue dotted ) and the 200ema ( thick purple ) are above the price, which tells me that the overall momentum is down. The strong rally up to the 100sma I won't deal with as it is a counter-trend move, but certainly this is something that can and should be traded, and signals for this move would have been given on the shorter time frames.
Resistance is found on the 100sma, and one cannot know for sure if this will send the price back down, but again. the smaller time frames would provide the detail we would need to know whether this is rolling over. The important thing to note here though is the fact that this major moving average sent the price back down to rejoin the trend.

2/ The next day sees the price drop really hard from the London open, but it gives clear tell tail signs that we may see a reversal from here, the first being the very strong negative candle, something you will very often see at the end of a move, almost like a death throw. The second is that this push down creates diversion with the MACD. Then, the last candles of the day are clearly not bearish ones, as they are positive and leave fairly long southerly stalks.

3a/ Price continues its sideways movement, and as it does so, it is pulling the 20ema ( red/blue ) up towards the 100sma, narrowing the gap that existed previously. This is a powerful break out signal. Also notice how the price becomes very volatile and choppy as the gap narrows, a strong sign of trend reversal as bulls and bears fight it out.

3b/Now I've also put my 200 zero lag exponential moving average on here for you, because this is a really good ma for getting you on the right side of the market. Once it is beneath the price, and with the apex being formed between the 20ema and the 100sma, this is a very bullish signal.

4/ So, the price has risen strongly through the night, and it finds resistance on the 15th and flatlines for the rest of the day. The resistance was not obvious, but as I'm a multi time framer, I am always looking through the time frames to see where the next level may be, and I always check H2, H3, H4, and then Daily. H3 had the 100sma coming down just above the price once the H2 100sma was broken, and if you go to your H3 charts for the Dax, ( Prorealtime, not MT4, so apologies if you use MT4 charts as they will be very different to mine ) you will see that on the morning of the 16th, this sent the price back down to the H1 200sma ( red-purple dash ) which had curled round underneath the 200ema ( yellow )
Another way of knowing that the 16th was very likely to begin with a sell, lies on a smaller time frame, and if you look at the 20m chart, you will see that the 200 zero lag had narrowed into and slightly crossed the 20ema ( not the cross in real time that you see here, because the 20ema hadn't been pulled down by the price yet ) but enough of one to indicate a fall. If you stay with the 20m chart, you'll see how the 200ema/200sma acted as support, though it is the H1 200sma that traders were watching.

5/ Price hits 100sma, and now with the combination of this with the 100sma ( orange dash ) and the zero lag all beneath the price on this H1 chart, we are very bullish again.

6/ This was a tricky one, as I though the price might continue climbing through the night, but again, if you turn to your 20 minute TF, you will see that our old friend the 200 zero lag pops up again to act as resistance ( it may have been something else of course, as not all traders use this MA, but as I have it, then I'll say that this is what held the price ) Staying with the 20m TF, you can see that the 200ema acted as suppport, sending the price back up, this time, with the added momentum and volatility, straight through the zero lag as if it wasn't there.

7/ Why did we come down to begin with this morning. Turn to your 10m TF, and you will see our old friend the zero lag popping up again. Go back to the 15th 10m chart, and you'll see the zero lag gets above the price late in the day but it doesn't do anything? Because it's late in the day and the market has lost its steam.
Why does the support come in where it does this morning to send the market back up? Turn to the 10m chart again, and you'll see that the 200ema lies directly on top of the CP for today, and this was the most obvious level of support today.

8/ What is this resistance the price has come up against? Simple - the H4 200sma, with R1 right on top of it.

Hopefully the above will make sense, sort of!

I don't use MT4 so I can't help. Post a question on the thread where Islander posted the indicators, and hopefully he'll be able to help.

To all those who use only MT4 charts, they do differ from the Prorealtime ones medici, Islander and myself use, and as far as I am aware, they only show trading hours data, not 24 hour. Can anyone confirm this for me?

you mean data on the weekends when there is no trading for private traders? than yes- mt4 doesn't display data in those times.

Is prorealtime good?

No, I mean data out of trading hours, so for example, on MT4, do you have live feed for the Dow or S&P at 10am London time, before New York trading hours which begin at 14.30 London time?

Another instructional piece while waiting for the action to start, this time on range vs trend.

The chart below is the DAX index from Tuesday this week.

When a downtrend stalls it is easy to ask whether the trend is over now, and to start looking for reversal entries.

Generally it is unwise to take trend-type entries in a range, and you may find yourself whipsawed for a while before the trend continues instead of reversing.

Cat mentioned the EMA200 as one way to keep track of this. The downside of this is that a 200 period MA is a tad slow to react to changes of direction, so I prefer to use other types of trend/range indicators.

In the chart below the green line is a 5 ATR TrendMagic. In the period between the morning and afternoon sessions TM indicates a range. As evident from this example, the way to go then is to take 2B type entries around the Bollinger bands (it's a 100 period one). Coincidentally, the daily trend ends with a 2B as well.

I don't understand what you mean.....

Some charting software only provides live feed when the markets are actually open, and some provide the data from the futures trading actually before the markets open. What I was asking for MT4 users, was, can you trade the Dax for example at 6am London time, an hour before the Frankfurt open - do you have the live feed to do this, or, does the live feed begin at 7am London time, when the German markets open?

ooh! I like the sound of that one

Aha!....sorry, I trade only currencies so it is not a problem I ever considered. No, it feeds only open market time data

On my broker's mt4 the feed is 24 hours on Dax, S&P and other indices.

To add a bit of detail to the out of hours discussion:

Some brokers hedge their book using Eurex futures or dark pools - their trading hours are 7am UK time until 9pm, or something similar.

Other brokers hedge overnight using CME Globex futures (traded 24/5) - their trading hours could be 24 hours a day.

To put it another way. Forex is 24 hour, which is why it's so popular. Indecis such as the Dax and Dow have open and close hours during the week, so from 09.30am Eastern seaboard time, to 16.30 pm, Wall St is open for trading. Outside of these hours, during the European morning, the Dow Futures contracts can be traded provided your charting software provider gives the live feed for this. I ask because I seem to remember a trader a while back using MT4 whose live feed on the Dax only started when Frankfurt opened, before which time the feed was dead?

Am I still confounding everybody?

Here's the PRT code, in case you would like to explore it:


Variables: p is the period, m the ATR multiple, and p2 the ATR period. Normally, I'm setting p and p2 to the same value.

-No, it feeds only open market time data ( strongtrader )


-On my broker's mt4 the feed is 24 hours on Dax, S&P and other indices. ( Skyway )

One does, one doesn't! Do you both use MT4?

Not confusing, Medici gave the correct and precise answer; it depends on brokers not on platform

Thank you I will.