I am currently going through Petefader’s first thread about VSA. Till now I was mostly an indicator based trader (maybe because i was lazy). But I guess it’s time to really learn the nitty gritty.
I have gone through various blogs and articles that explain trading with volume but most of the stuff there is subjective. Also most people have shown examples of daily/weekly charts.
I am not a positional trader and i do not trade such high timeframes. This is mainly because I have very low starting capital. Also I like to close positions on the same trading day (it helps me sleep better).
Does anyone here use volumes on lower time frames? like 5M, 15M or 1H??
If yes, do you mind sharing how you use them?
The volumes I see on my charts is related to my broker or is it universal?
How can I get a good/reliable volume feed?
Should I open a demo account with a large broker and use that volume feed instead?
I know these are a lot of questions but any kind of help is appreciated.
If anyone can post live chart examples it would be great!
I am still demo trading so if anyone knows about any trading groups that discuss live trading setups it would be very very helpful. This way we can safely forward test and develop a better psychology.
VSA traders believe that no matter currency pair or time frame, the market is always in one of these 4 stages and it’s in order and continuous. It looks easy and straight forward but that is not normally the case; but like everything the more you practice the better you get (or should get if you’re doing it right.
Below is a pdf on the basics of VSA VSA BASICS.pdf (665 KB)
Some traders only use Volume indicators and price action in their analysis, in addition I have found on the shorter time frames you should add a momentum indicator to confirm.
Going through the pdf right now. I am fan of momentum indicators esp RSI.
It somehow keeps me confident while trading. I have seen your post on Petefader’s thread too.
Do you also have a thread here about price action and volumes? I’ll just search for it.
In addition to VSA threads. I also follow Chris Capri’s PA thread in Newbie Island.
I also subscribe to petefaders, Chris Capri and emeraldorc utube channels. All are excellent presenters and their stuff is very helpful.
I trade any time frame from daily down to 1 minute. At this point in time most of my trades are made on the 30 minute to 1 minute. Depends on what the market is doing, and which trade has the potential to get me closer to my trading goals. Here’s what I start off with
thanks a ton!
excelllent video by emeraldorc!
looking forward to learning a lot from these 3 threads (Pete’s, emeraldorc and cris).
And, your chart is similar to what my chart looks like (Means I have the setup right I guess). Its just that I don’t use moving averages and use RSI instead of MFI. I’m guessing the horizontal lines are previous S/R levels.
I like how you use fibs to determine SL.
Very informative.
You don’t need moving averages if you don’t want to. Some traders use them, some don’t. Others use 1, 2, 3, 4 and so on up to all of them. I use them because they allow me to see medium term direction quickly and when they cross. Another reason I use them is when they cross at or near support and resistance areas, it shows the potential of a high probability trade.
The lines you see are not support and resistance the illustration is from a trade I did before; green was my entry, red is the stop and gold is a take profit target. I use to draw my own support and resistance, now I use a custom indicator that does it for me and there very accurate. Again saves me time tells me at a glance if pair is trending up or down, or ranging.
RSI, ADX, Stochastics, MFI, CCI etc give mostly the same above 50% is long, below is short; above 75 or 80% is overbought (short) below 25 is oversold (long)
In my opinion here is the best fibonacci video out there. I still watch it on a regular basis and use it the way it’s illustrated in the video. Like everything the more times you use it, the better you get at it.
FXCM provides “Real Volume”- one of the only brokers I know of on the SPOT market-front.
You need to trade w/ a methodology that feels natural to you- not one which works for others.
Keep trying out new methods until you find something which fits in with your:
Capital restrictions
Time restrictions
Etc
Wow, I use the exact same indicator for my S/R levels too. At first I had difficulty using it because it would place those dots every time price bounced off from a level. I used it extensively when I used to trade breakouts only. Now I am a bit more flexible in my trading. And consider only the dots that have not been broken. (By break I mean strict breaks… Even if there is a wick below/above a level I deem it invalid). Or simply consider a zone where there are many support or resistance dots (seen in the right sides of your chart). This seems to work OK for me.
I was a big moving averages fan when I first started demo trading (like most newbies are :p). Now not so much. They tend to give late entries and that just ruins my confidence and sometimes I end up exiting very early. But thats a problem with my psychology and not the MAs. Will try to combine them with my new-found knowledge about price action and volumes.
I’ll watch the fibonacci video before going to bed.
Thanks a ton for your help.
All right! I will get a demo account with FXCM and check the volumes they provide.
Real volumes is the actual volume being traded and most brokers provide tick volume, right?
The FXCM “real Volume” indicator is firstly only available for tradestation… and not MT4. Secondly the “real volume” is only an aggregate of what retail traders are doing… not what institutions are doing. FXCM rep. Jason Rogers specifically said that institutional traders ARE NOT INCLUDED in the “real Volume” feed. This fact pretty much makes it useless unless you decide to do the opposite of what the volume indicator tells you. The fact is that 90%+ retail traders LOSE. There may be a way to use this to your advantage but not in the traditional Wyckoff/VSA way.
Do yourself a favor and forget FXCM if you intend to use volume to make your trading decisions. I mean by all means have an account with them if you want to trade through them but get your volume feed elsewhere. I have been using IBFX for volume but oddly enough they were just bought out by… FXCM. I have done alot of looking around and have settled on FinFx as my new composite volume source. I dont trade with them i just open a demo account for free and take advantage of the volume feed they have.
If your serious about learning how to trade volume then i suggest you go here
I am already following Pete’s old and new thread for quite some time now. Recently subscribed to his YouTube channel too. It will take a while to go through the entire posts though.
Thanks for telling me about FXCM volumes. I do not like tradestation but I might still give the volumes a try. I do not want to trade with them because my current broker offers much tighter spreads and trading conditions are good too.
I just want to see how volumes provided by brokers help in VSA type trading. I will also try to do the opposite (thanks for that suggestion . No harm in trying it out once on demo).
Since you’re interested in testing FXCM’s Real Volume and Transactions indicators, you might also like to know that FXCM US has launched new pricing with raw spreads and low commissions: forums.babypips.com/…
This pricing will soon be available to FXCM clients worldwide. I’ll update you when it’s available in your region. Where do you live?
A 1k lot is 1000 currency units. For example, it could be 1000 US dollars or 1000 Euros or 1000 British pounds. The amount you are risking per pip on a 1k lot is approximately 10 cents per pip though this can vary slightly from one currency pair to the next. A 1k lot is also referred to as a micro lot or 0.01 lots on the MT4 platform.
I checked the FXCM website and my country is not listed.
I live in India and the government is not “forex friendly”. This is why I am still on demo.
Do you accept clients from here?
. No harm in trying it out once on demo).