Thanks! Although your reply brings me to more questions…
TradeViper:
it is my observation that one would have to be using at minimum 15 min for trend Establishment, and Sub 15 min for entry and exit
Why? Is it that there is too much noise on the 5 min for establishing a trend?
If you are looking for a trend, in general, you need a timeframe that will establish the trend reliably, then a shorter timeframe to enter and exit, so 15 min trend, 5 min enter exit. Its my observation that once you get into sub 5 min, like 3 min you are no longer trend trading but you are trading pure momentum. For example, the past 2 weeks, 3 min, and CCI 42 for momentum indication, add to this, looking for double bottoms and double tops, for long and short, you can generally squeeze 5-11 pips out. But trend, it is better to wait. It looks like the EUR/USD had an enema today and started moving, but one day does not a market shift make.
TradeViper:
Also throw in the VIX number
I have no idea what this means. I will need to do some Googling on that.
Just remember anything under 10 is dead, or above 10 good, under 10 bad, for traders.
TradeViper:
So really, this is a difficult time to be trading, not impossible, mind you, just challenging.
So trend based trades should be taken primarily when they follow the same trend on the higher time frame, such as 4hr or daily charts? Is there a better way to identify trends other than visually?
Yes, we had some folks here entering on four hour, and they blew up over the past week or so, even some of the trading Guru’s have gone dark. If you are going to buy and hold, you have to consider the daily and weekly, and only trade directionally when these are moving favorably. Here is what happened as things progressed, the daily trend stops and becomes a consolidation, the consolidation in turn tightens its ranges, if you do not take the daily into consideration, your four hour is still throwing entry signals, but since the range is tightening, while you sleep, bam your stops are hit, or if you are adnan you have 1000 pip losses because you don’t use a stop. With the eventual blowup and incessant whining.
Not being a programmer, and also being old school, I see, I analyze, I plan. I am sure there are a gazillion ways to identify a trend other than a line on a chart, kinda like order flow, tape reading etc. But I am dyslexic so tape reading, well, you know.
TradeViper:
you could take the time to learn a short term tactic
Not opposed to this, just don’t know what short term tactics to learn. Can you point me in a direction on this?
Kathy Lien and Boris Schlossberg have some good stuff for short term trading, but all in all it might be better to just wait, I basically take part of June, July, and Aug off to avoid getting burned, low volume, everyone else on vacation etc. But, if you try it on a sim and are successful, it adds to you abilities to trade more profitably.
Thanks again!