Canaccord Share Discussion Threads

[henryatkin] 06/8/2008 08:23

And another spike at 07.59. What that does is mess up the MA's and indicators so day traders have no reliable signals until things start to settle back down. So the market justs wanders sideways. Most seem to use 20 periods for their indicators so they have to wait for 20 mins to get a clear signal. I use 60 period on CCI so I have to wait until 09.00 to get a reliable signal. Rant over - I will contact CMC and see if I can find out what its all about.

[minky] 06/8/2008 06:53

Henry,
Very well done. Love reading your posts. It is great to see you have workable and successful strategies. Have not been trading much the last few days.

[henryatkin] 05/8/2008 21:24

I will email when I get time - needs a chart to explain.

[adyjudge] 05/8/2008 17:01

henry

super performance, x248pts in one day well done, my little MA system not serving me well as market not trending enough at moment, but overall i cant moan ,
managing to protect account etc, "with an odd drift to a new high"

[fivesboy] 05/8/2008 15:58

That's terrific. Hang on a minute! Four strategies!?!? Where did the extra one sneak in?

[henryatkin] 05/8/2008 12:42

Fives ..... agree that every trade must have a reason to enter and a reason to exit. That reason must be set in stone. I use several strategies at one time but they each have a defined entry and exit which as you say makes life far more relaxing. 248 points this morning from 4 strategies - average 62 points each.

[fivesboy] 05/8/2008 10:54

Henry, Thanks for info. Over the last week I have picked up some key points that I was not really aware of or had not appreciated the importance before now.

Thank you so much for continuing to post and being so open about what you are doing. I feel it has made a big difference to me and I don't necessarily see the importance of everything you post the first time.

1) Using previous two bar range for indication of price action and when to exit or enter. This feels like the biggest breakthrough for me as it gives you confidence that you always have a strategy in place for any price movement which wasn't necessarily the case before.

2) Waiting until the close of the bar or very close to it to decide what to do and not to panic. Though I would like to know what you do when you have a very large price move against you? I currently have a maximum drawdown of around 7 points unless the 1.5 ATR is much larger than this. Moves have been quite genteel on the whole as it's summer so need to be confident about this when it gets busier again and the price moves more sharply.

3) TEMA I think is my favourite short term trend indicator at the moment. I find the 3+1 x 3+2 very difficult to keep track of compared to TEMA which seems much easier to stick to.

4) Long positions are a great backup. One thing I am wary of is getting back into a long term if the price has moved significantly against the 20MA and then the trend continues?

Having learned all this recently has helped me to relax a lot more about the whole process which also helps in itself.

[henryatkin] 04/8/2008 12:57

Ady .... I've read about it in the past but didn't follow it up for the same reasons as you. I recall a thread on a US site someone replied that you can only get the volume on the futures exchanges. I also have a link to a volume trading site (who try to sell you software) but some useful info:
Lack of volume indicator is a pain on spreadbet sites.

Fives .... That big spike down put me off trading at all before 09.00 so I missed out on the big rise that followed the 20MA. I did catch all of the fall from 10.09 to 12.17 and made 110 points from four CCI & 20MA strategies so quite pleased overall. I closed SOIL on Friday afternoon. The gap between the 5th and the 6th was filled last week on high volume and a strong resistance area ahead so would only go back in long if on same criteria as SnP500trader: two bars through resistance on good volume.

[adyjudge] 04/8/2008 12:11

hiya all,
has anyone looked into trading opening gaps ? just researching it now,
been also reading about "premarket" volume which is a good indicater of how strong the gap up/down could be i.e if premarket volume is low & there is a decent gap there is a big chance of it being filled in first few hours of opening ( filled = gap closing to previous close), trouble is cant find this premarket volume anywhere ???? anyone do this ??

(works on indices & suitable tight spread stocks )

[fivesboy] 04/8/2008 08:23

Henry, weird start to the morning. Huge spike down followed immediately by tedium. CMC shenanigans?

[fivesboy] 04/8/2008 08:02

Henry, forgot to mention how Moneyweek mentioned SOIL! Time to get out?

[fivesboy] 04/8/2008 07:37

Henry, Ady, Thanks for responses. I found it very difficult to feel at ease with the volume on Livecharts.com Frustrating as I think SnP500Trader is excellent but so much of how he works uses the volume for confirmation.

[henryatkin] 01/8/2008 20:47

I did have an MF account until a few months ago but I closed it becauase of lack of T/A tools. I would never trade spreadbets on one account whilst using charts from another. You don't know if they using a delaying software to gain price advantage or if they use the cash price or a futures price. I haven't been using the volume - it is not fluid enough with just four levels most of the time and time scale out of sync with Marketmaker.

[adyjudge] 01/8/2008 17:03

hiya fives,

they dont do charts , they do contingent orders/one cancels the other etc etc

[fivesboy] 01/8/2008 16:49

Ady, Good to know. Do you know what they use for their charting. Henry, would you feel comfortable trading on one platform and using a different one for watching the price action? I'm not sure I would.

I also wanted to ask you how you are getting on with using the livehcarts futsee volume?

[henryatkin] 01/8/2008 14:04

Thank for that Ady

[adyjudge] 01/8/2008 09:36

hiya henry/gang,

MF global (man spreads) now doing a 1 point spread for ftse

[minky] 31/7/2008 15:56

Henry, thanks for that useful information. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I ws unable to trade early today as the broadband and telephone network was down.

[henryatkin] 31/7/2008 09:29

Minky ... today is a good example of why I don't trade before the open but wait for the 2 point spread. Outstanding and very easy first hour. I have adopted a new trading rule for post 09.00 which coincidently work pre 09.00 today:
Look at the direction of the 20MA and only take trades in the same direction. So at 09.08/09.09 today the 20 was moving down. There were two up bars with the second one ending above the previous two - that would usually be a buy signal but it would be against the direction of the 20MA so "no buy". Picked this idea from SnP500Trader, went through 100 charts and it saves a lot of trouble. Doesn't work so well before 09.00 because the market tends to swing a lot more until it finds its level. Thats me done for today - bit of gardening before the forecast rain.

[henryatkin] 30/7/2008 21:28

Fives .. the other two are simply keeping an eye on the moving average and trendlines, so very visual. The price action trading for me is OK but I get so many false signals depending on how fast or slow the market is trending. It gets frustrating which is why I don't trade it as a sole strategy. For example one day closing out on the breach of the previous two bars works very well but the next day with a slower trend it wont work at all and you have to switch back to higher highs and higher lows with 123's, breakouts and support/resistance etc.

[fivesboy] 30/7/2008 15:22

Henry, terrific insight into how you use the two bar close price action to protect yourself. I must say I find it astounding how you manage to keep track of three separate strategies like that. Well done.

[henryatkin] 30/7/2008 12:58

Minky ... I never trade until the spread is down to two points. If I want early trading I stick to £v$. Haven't done that for some time now. For choosing direction I just jump in initially on what looks good and get ready to close out at the first hint of a wrong move. Generally if the price of the market moves agaist me I will close out on a breach of the high/low of the previous bar. Also I don't trade when the bars are being chopped by my moving averages. Even then I get caught out as per today:
I went short at 5371 @ 08.04 after two down bars. The next bar was an up bar that breached the high of its previous two bars (5375) so I closed at 5377. The next two bars had higher lows but flat tops so I went long on the first bar that breached the high of its previous two bars (that was at 08.08). I closed the trade on the first breach of close lower than the low of the previous two bars (at 08.25). Because the CCI showed negative divergence that was also my signal to go short until 08.33 when the high of the previous two bars was breached. I then took a short trade at 08.35 which I closed at a small loss at 08.37. After that the bars were being chopped by my moving averages and the SMI stayed within +/-40 so I didn't trade - got fed up so packed up with only a small profit (my other two strategies gave very simmilar outcome). NB. when I talk of a breach of the previous two bars I am talking about the closing price not the spikes - so you have to not panic trade and judge when you are near the the end of the bar close time.

[fivesboy] 30/7/2008 09:00

Hi Henry and Minky,

Thanks for your kind words re: daughter. She's being amazing about her situation and she's doing really well despite us being up for about 2 hours last night! Trading mind is not there as a result so I am just watching.

Minky, from what I've seen CMC keep their 4 point spread for a few minutes after the open. It seems to vary how long it stays that way.

[minky] 29/7/2008 15:15

Hi all.

Fives,sorry to hear about your daughter but glad to see she is now out of hospital.

Henry, this morning before 8 am the set up looked ok for a long but I did take it as it was run up before the open and being a sceptic I thought they might take it down again. The other problem is the 4 point spead which have noticed that they sometimes carry over even after the open,(Capital) How do you decide which direction to trade before the open and do you take early positions.