Hi all,
I'd just like to introduce a bit of feedback from trading the 123 on 1 minute time frames on the FTSE. I've traded it in the month of January and came out in the green using a combination of the 123 and what I called "mini flags". In the end I had to abandon it out of frustration really.
This pattern, although it occurs frequently fails so often that it becomes very frustrating. When you have a 123 failure, Ross recommends reversing the trade but that too can be pretty tricky. I think you've got to be very cool-minded to trade this pattern on a 1 min time frame. It's very, very good to use as an indicator though; very often, the 1-2 leg will equate the size of the 3-exit leg. This gives you an idea of where to expect a turning point and where not to buy/sell. I've also found that a good place to buy or sell after these turning points is below or at the 10 or 20 day EMA.
Having read Ross on intraday trading and trading the dailies, it seems that he much preferred trading this pattern off the dailies rather than the intraday charts.
I really don't think the 123 is very good at all to trade on the one minute. Has anyone traded it successfully on the dailies? If so, how many bars do you use to define your setup and what markets do you trade it on? Does anyone know what the expectancy of this pattern is and have they back-tested it?