I'm about halfway through this one and looking for the next book! 
- Joined Dec 2010 | Status: Member | 572 Posts
The only system that will work is one designed by and for yourself.
- Joined Mar 2016 | Status: Member | 5,507 Posts
{quote} you must be the very rich and clever Quartile Trader
I find two things as the major drivers to the success .
First is relaxed brain and second is open mind.
Relaxed brain to better dive into the understanding of the matter and open mind for learning new things (totally different from your current convictions).
This sounds a bit strange but in my case ,my whole trading success (which is till now almost 6 years) isn't gained that much from any specific book or analysis.
It is gained from the way of thinking about it.
There is a process in learning,that most people don't do properly.Of course there is not any specific way to do things right in learning but very better understanding of matter comes from some separate cycles.Cycle of reading , cycle of testing (questioning) , cycle of thinking about it separate from screens (or working place).
Be aware (very conscious) that it brain need some time to process informations.
It is absolutely astonishing how much better we understand things when brain and whole body is relaxed.
I think that it is more important the way we do things than anything else.
If I can derive any single valuable adage that is :"Don't run for profit by itself, enjoy the senastion how things work.How beautiful things fit!Money comes later as prize."
I know that the problem for most people is lack of the "free-time" and problems from everyday life.But relax ,because only relaxed you can absorb the quality facts.
Very good thread CAT!
First is relaxed brain and second is open mind.
Relaxed brain to better dive into the understanding of the matter and open mind for learning new things (totally different from your current convictions).
This sounds a bit strange but in my case ,my whole trading success (which is till now almost 6 years) isn't gained that much from any specific book or analysis.
It is gained from the way of thinking about it.
There is a process in learning,that most people don't do properly.Of course there is not any specific way to do things right in learning but very better understanding of matter comes from some separate cycles.Cycle of reading , cycle of testing (questioning) , cycle of thinking about it separate from screens (or working place).
Be aware (very conscious) that it brain need some time to process informations.
It is absolutely astonishing how much better we understand things when brain and whole body is relaxed.
I think that it is more important the way we do things than anything else.
If I can derive any single valuable adage that is :"Don't run for profit by itself, enjoy the senastion how things work.How beautiful things fit!Money comes later as prize."
I know that the problem for most people is lack of the "free-time" and problems from everyday life.But relax ,because only relaxed you can absorb the quality facts.
Very good thread CAT!
- Joined Oct 2010 | Status: Member | 5,441 Posts
As promised, here are a few charts from the index I trade every day, which is the Dax 30 rolling daily. In the New York trading hours, I normally switch over to the Dow. I don't trade anything else, though my favourite forex pair, which I still trade from time to time, is GBP/JPY.
I'm showing the entire month of April, which has been in a strong uptrend. Starting with the Daily, you can see where the 200 zero laf moving average (turquoise/pink), came underneath the price to offer support when the price came back off the 50% fib ( brown horizontal line ) and the 100sma/200ema, which I've marked. I was expecting the price to come back towards the zero lag and I was also expecting it to offer support, which id did. Obviously to get a clean entry, I came right down to the 1 minute TF and lower. Did I know that this would be the decisive move? No, of course not, but I always take my trade set ups regardless of where I think they may go. This one came back off of the 200ema before it turned and punched through it the following day. The important thing to note here, is that with the zero lag MA now beneath, and the the 100sma beneath, I was now very Bullish and confident that the previous downtrend had reversed.
H4 - Now that I have shown the Apr 7/8th Supprt, I can show you the H4 chart. This I think doesn't need too much explanation. Once the 200ema was broken, it was very bullish. It comes back, but now with all the MAs beneath the price, it is just a question of identifying support on the smaller TFs, and going long again. The Weekly 61.8% is the level the Dax is currently floundering around.
H2 - This shows the MACD diversion which added to the Daily zero lag, gave a great buy signal. As always, I'm not looking for just one signal that the tide maybe about to turn, I look for a combination. The price gets a bit stuck between the 200ema and the ZL, but it soon punches through. Now it's bullish all the way on a strong trend. All the best trades throughout this perios are longs, and with the moving averages lined up like this beneath the price, there's no reason to expect it to go anywhere except up. Looking top right at what is happening currently, the price is ranging, having reached the Weekly 61.8%, and it was held up by the ZL on Friday as you can see.
H1 6th-13th - Getting interesting now isn't it?
So, you see the 100sma R on the 7th April. We then dropped to form the MACD diversion on the H2 chart, and during the Asian session on the 8th, the price rallied. On that particular morning it was just a question of timing a good long entry either around the Frankfurt or London open. The price could have gone all the way to the 200ema on the 8th, but it got just above the 76.4% fib and dropped. Actually, it may have been a 30 minute MA that offered resistance here as well, I can't remember. By the way, I am a multi- time frame trader, using six monitors all showing different time frames, because you never know just where S&R are going to be, so by watching the most important time frames all the time, it gives me a far better overall insight of where these levels are likely to be.
Still on this TF, you can now see how the ZL being beneath gives clear support. It will usually be very volatile like this when the 200ema is hot, or rather in the period leading up to a major break out. Why? Because many other traders see what is happening but because the BO hasn't happened yet, there will be nervousness - traders jumping in not wanting to miss the move, and of course sellers who still believe that the price will drop further. My zero lag shows me that they will be caught on the wrong side of the trade.
Check out the beautiful support on the 100sma ( orange dash ) on the 12th. Even so, it has one last dip back down before it finally breaks free to rise to the moon.
H1 17-22nd Apr - You'l see here that the price drop beneath the ZL for the first time during the Asian session on the 18th, which was last Monday. However, we were still bullish, and anyone selling on Monday morning would have been unwise. Support came in on the 45m TF ( My TFs go by 1/4s, ie, 15m, 30m, 45m, H1)
Some of you may now be thinking ' ah, but with the ZL now above the price, this isn't so bullish now, perhaps it's going to drop? Not so, the up trend is still firmly in place. Look at the H2 chart, and the zero lag is very much beneath - this overrides the H1 200 zero lag. This is why I use multiple TFs, I get the fullest possible picture.
Looking now up to date, to the 22nd which was Friday, the ZL has got above the price again, and the price was trapped between it and the 100sma all day. So what's different now between the 18th and the 22nd? Look at the H2 chart, and see how much closer the ZL is now to the 20 exponential ( thin red/blue ) Also, on the H1 chart, the distance between the price and the 200ema is much greater so there is now room to drop a bit. Monday might well see the price challenge the H1 ZL, but this is now potentially likely to offer much more R than it did on the 18th because of its position now on the H2 chart.
30m - This shows beautifully why we were range bound on Thursday and Friday on the Dax, with support beneath in the form of the 200ema/sma, and R above in the form of the 200 zero lag. Alsoas you can see, the Central Pivot, the black dashed line, offered the main R of the day.
Dax 10m 18th Apr - Catching last Monday's sudden turn around from the Frankfurt to the London open was tricky, but there was a great pullback to the ZL as you can see, and then another one to the 200ema just before the NY open. It tested the 200ema once, then again, and then it was off. The important thing here is that once these MAs have got beneath, there's no ? about direction, it's BUY BUY BUY!!!
19th - Not too much to explain here. A dip at the London open, but anyone who knows the Dax will know that this is what usually happens, an aggressive move against the trend, to then rally hard. Great time for trading, but you've got to be quick. yes you can get in higher up, but it's always risky jumping in without waiting for a pullback.
20th - not going to say much here, as I've marked the important stuf on the chart. You can see what the price was doing, up to the ZL, hard down I think to either the 61.8% or 76.4%, then up to the ZL again, then a mess before it breaks out powerfully during the New York session following the DOW and S&P. Again, the trend was up, and once the R had been tested and tested again, it remained for Wall St to take it higher.
Last one, the H1 chart for the 21 & 22nd April - Price trapped, but a fantastic day's swing trading on the small time frames, up and down all day. In case anyone thinks otherwise, although trend trading is the best and safest, a choppy day like Friday, with no clear direction, can be very profitable, but you have to go down to the small time frames, which in my case is 10sec, 30 sec, 2m.
There's loads more I could show, entries etc, but I have covered quite a lot of that on my ' Trader's Academy' thread if anyone is interested in taking a look Even though that thread is closed, it's still there to look through, and has stuff not just by me, but some really great contributions from others.
Miow!!
I'm showing the entire month of April, which has been in a strong uptrend. Starting with the Daily, you can see where the 200 zero laf moving average (turquoise/pink), came underneath the price to offer support when the price came back off the 50% fib ( brown horizontal line ) and the 100sma/200ema, which I've marked. I was expecting the price to come back towards the zero lag and I was also expecting it to offer support, which id did. Obviously to get a clean entry, I came right down to the 1 minute TF and lower. Did I know that this would be the decisive move? No, of course not, but I always take my trade set ups regardless of where I think they may go. This one came back off of the 200ema before it turned and punched through it the following day. The important thing to note here, is that with the zero lag MA now beneath, and the the 100sma beneath, I was now very Bullish and confident that the previous downtrend had reversed.
H4 - Now that I have shown the Apr 7/8th Supprt, I can show you the H4 chart. This I think doesn't need too much explanation. Once the 200ema was broken, it was very bullish. It comes back, but now with all the MAs beneath the price, it is just a question of identifying support on the smaller TFs, and going long again. The Weekly 61.8% is the level the Dax is currently floundering around.
H2 - This shows the MACD diversion which added to the Daily zero lag, gave a great buy signal. As always, I'm not looking for just one signal that the tide maybe about to turn, I look for a combination. The price gets a bit stuck between the 200ema and the ZL, but it soon punches through. Now it's bullish all the way on a strong trend. All the best trades throughout this perios are longs, and with the moving averages lined up like this beneath the price, there's no reason to expect it to go anywhere except up. Looking top right at what is happening currently, the price is ranging, having reached the Weekly 61.8%, and it was held up by the ZL on Friday as you can see.
H1 6th-13th - Getting interesting now isn't it?
So, you see the 100sma R on the 7th April. We then dropped to form the MACD diversion on the H2 chart, and during the Asian session on the 8th, the price rallied. On that particular morning it was just a question of timing a good long entry either around the Frankfurt or London open. The price could have gone all the way to the 200ema on the 8th, but it got just above the 76.4% fib and dropped. Actually, it may have been a 30 minute MA that offered resistance here as well, I can't remember. By the way, I am a multi- time frame trader, using six monitors all showing different time frames, because you never know just where S&R are going to be, so by watching the most important time frames all the time, it gives me a far better overall insight of where these levels are likely to be.Still on this TF, you can now see how the ZL being beneath gives clear support. It will usually be very volatile like this when the 200ema is hot, or rather in the period leading up to a major break out. Why? Because many other traders see what is happening but because the BO hasn't happened yet, there will be nervousness - traders jumping in not wanting to miss the move, and of course sellers who still believe that the price will drop further. My zero lag shows me that they will be caught on the wrong side of the trade.
Check out the beautiful support on the 100sma ( orange dash ) on the 12th. Even so, it has one last dip back down before it finally breaks free to rise to the moon.
H1 17-22nd Apr - You'l see here that the price drop beneath the ZL for the first time during the Asian session on the 18th, which was last Monday. However, we were still bullish, and anyone selling on Monday morning would have been unwise. Support came in on the 45m TF ( My TFs go by 1/4s, ie, 15m, 30m, 45m, H1)
Some of you may now be thinking ' ah, but with the ZL now above the price, this isn't so bullish now, perhaps it's going to drop? Not so, the up trend is still firmly in place. Look at the H2 chart, and the zero lag is very much beneath - this overrides the H1 200 zero lag. This is why I use multiple TFs, I get the fullest possible picture.
Looking now up to date, to the 22nd which was Friday, the ZL has got above the price again, and the price was trapped between it and the 100sma all day. So what's different now between the 18th and the 22nd? Look at the H2 chart, and see how much closer the ZL is now to the 20 exponential ( thin red/blue ) Also, on the H1 chart, the distance between the price and the 200ema is much greater so there is now room to drop a bit. Monday might well see the price challenge the H1 ZL, but this is now potentially likely to offer much more R than it did on the 18th because of its position now on the H2 chart.
30m - This shows beautifully why we were range bound on Thursday and Friday on the Dax, with support beneath in the form of the 200ema/sma, and R above in the form of the 200 zero lag. Alsoas you can see, the Central Pivot, the black dashed line, offered the main R of the day.
Dax 10m 18th Apr - Catching last Monday's sudden turn around from the Frankfurt to the London open was tricky, but there was a great pullback to the ZL as you can see, and then another one to the 200ema just before the NY open. It tested the 200ema once, then again, and then it was off. The important thing here is that once these MAs have got beneath, there's no ? about direction, it's BUY BUY BUY!!!
19th - Not too much to explain here. A dip at the London open, but anyone who knows the Dax will know that this is what usually happens, an aggressive move against the trend, to then rally hard. Great time for trading, but you've got to be quick. yes you can get in higher up, but it's always risky jumping in without waiting for a pullback.
20th - not going to say much here, as I've marked the important stuf on the chart. You can see what the price was doing, up to the ZL, hard down I think to either the 61.8% or 76.4%, then up to the ZL again, then a mess before it breaks out powerfully during the New York session following the DOW and S&P. Again, the trend was up, and once the R had been tested and tested again, it remained for Wall St to take it higher.
Last one, the H1 chart for the 21 & 22nd April - Price trapped, but a fantastic day's swing trading on the small time frames, up and down all day. In case anyone thinks otherwise, although trend trading is the best and safest, a choppy day like Friday, with no clear direction, can be very profitable, but you have to go down to the small time frames, which in my case is 10sec, 30 sec, 2m.
There's loads more I could show, entries etc, but I have covered quite a lot of that on my ' Trader's Academy' thread if anyone is interested in taking a look Even though that thread is closed, it's still there to look through, and has stuff not just by me, but some really great contributions from others.
Miow!!
