Bob Volman Price Action Scalping

[Giorrgi]

HornedGod : the first trade, I noticed that setup as well. There was something weird about putting the barrier the way you did, at least to me (obviously the market agreed with you). The last chunk of the buildup (the squeeze before the break) seemed to kinda hang out on its own in there.

The second and the third trade are the type that I almost always avoid since continuation BBs (or DDs or SBs) don't work great these days. I follow Bob's charts closely and he doesn't trade them either. There were a couple of these that I've seen working out lately though, so you might be on to something (market becoming less choppy again?).

The last one I didn't notice, don't think I would have trade it because I like a better squeeze (all in all, I always try to play it the safest and since I've start doing that things have improved for me).

Thanks for your charts ! I'm glad you've joined the thread.

Here are all of my charts from today.

I took 3 trades total. The second one was the "tweeter accident".

The two other ones seemed OK to me but they both were 2 pips short of target and then ended up being losers (the 3rd trade could have been cut short sooner but I guess I was hoping for prices to revert so waited for the original TPT to get almost taken out).

I'd like comments on these 2 trades. They both appear valid to me and I'd like to verify that.

Thanks !

 

[BLS]

Haven't been feeling confident in myself these past couple of weeks so I didn't really feel like posting.

 

[garageboyFUJI]

Thank you Giorrgi.

My charts was a little bit too squeezed, I'll fix it.

Your 10 pips stop trading was very surprised, actually I didn't see the market at that time.
That's no choice, I think.

I was watching same as matty_dunn, and you yesterday that my second trading.

I think I was a too aggressive trader. But I just do action only Volman set up that I'm sure.
It is still necessary for me to practice anyway.I am analyzing all the trading data of Volman now.
It's also necessary to understand what kind of price action I should skip. I'll do.

 

[matty_dunn]

Thanks for sharing the Webinar link on trading psychology. The speaker made a good case for working on your emotions. I am of the opinion that mastering your feelings is more important than mastering your chart reading skills. That to me would be a true psychological edge indeed. Toward that end I purchased Dr. Van Thorps “Peak Performance Course” I held off on buying it for over a year because it seemed like a bunch of psychobabble and it was expensive at $800 USD. But as I learned more about trading I came to agree with Dr. Tharp’s statement that you don’t trade the markets, you trade your beliefs. Which by the way is in alignment with Mark Douglas’s “Trading in the Zone”. So I bought the course and spent a year working through it. I can say that I did learn a lot about myself and how the brain works and that knowledge has helped me not only in my trading but in my personal life as well.

And thank you for sharing some of your coping skills on taking a loss after skipping several winners. That is tough and it affects me badly too. Your decision to walk away is probably a wise one. And I like your meditation chime prompting you to read a few quotes. Your words triggered an idea for me. On my first reading of Bob’s book I highlighted what I felt were important points ( there are over 120 highlights!). On my second reading I took longhand notes because it helps me learn. The book is so rich I just about filled up a legal pad! On the third reading things began to sink in as I had been paper trading the method for some time. And the forth reading really accented the mistakes I had made. One of the things I have learned about how the brain works is that representing information in other modalities is important. That was mentioned in the Webinar also. That is to say don’t just think a thought or say it in your head, say it out loud or write it down or type it in somewhere. That’s where I am going to begin implementing the Idea you have inspired: When I have a looser after skipping a few winners I too am going to turn off the chart and spend some time typing a few of the hundreds of highlights and notes I have taken from Bob’s book into my computer. Hopefully that will help me to work past having the bad feelings while adding to my knowledge in the process. ( and avoid the dreaded revenge trade!)

Hey Datamold,

I really agree with you in regard to the richness of Bob's book. Yes the technical information is great, but the book is literally a treasure trove of advice, observations and understanding of the psychological and emotional trials and tribulations most any trader must confront and work through if to become consistently successful.

I too am also seeing the benefit of the work that is necessary to become a good trader in my life as a whole. The self awareness that one must develop flows into all areas of life - another great reason to pursue trading, besides the money and what that can bring.

Good luck with it all and let us know how you fare.

 

[HornedGod]

Trade 1: Clutching at straws a bit with this entry. Things had been so slow since the London open that I forced seeing an IRB long here. Cons were the small size of the outside range and the 80 level as an entry point. I was completely aware of these at the time but still took the trade. Fishing for luckies. Should not have taken.

Trade 2: A break of the session low at 1.3067 was sure to trigger some stop losses so a short from this range made sense to me. There was some build up tension before the break and I was in. No follow through and I closed on a break of the range top. I stood aside and did some meditation to get my mindset back to neutral after two losses. Not fast enough as I then missed a great ARB. The false break that I had exited on was one plus in taking the next break of the range exactly where I had done originally. A one pip tease, small pullback into range and then a break which would have been the entry point.

 

[Giorrgi]

Hey Horned God,

I was watching your second trade closely, it felt like there was definitely something building up there, but I didn't enter because the barrier seemed unclear. That was the only decent trade of the day I think.

I didn't take any trades today but saved two charts. The first one was an obviously bad ARB but I did hesitate a bit since it looked a lot like one trade that I took two weeks ago.

 

[datamold]

HornedGod : the first trade, I noticed that setup as well. There was something weird about putting the barrier the way you did, at least to me (obviously the market agreed with you). The last chunk of the buildup (the squeeze before the break) seemed to kinda hang out on its own in there.

The second and the third trade are the type that I almost always avoid since continuation BBs (or DDs or SBs) don't work great these days. I follow Bob's charts closely and he doesn't trade them either. There were a couple of these that I've seen working out lately though, so you might be on to something (market becoming less choppy again?).

The last one I didn't notice, don't think I would have trade it because I like a better squeeze (all in all, I always try to play it the safest and since I've start doing that things have improved for me).

Thanks for your charts ! I'm glad you've joined the thread.

Here are all of my charts from today.

I took 3 trades total. The second one was the "tweeter accident".

The two other ones seemed OK to me but they both were 2 pips short of target and then ended up being losers (the 3rd trade could have been cut short sooner but I guess I was hoping for prices to revert so waited for the original TPT to get almost taken out).

I'd like comments on these 2 trades. They both appear valid to me and I'd like to verify that.

Thanks !

A few weeks ago I too would have taken that BB just before the tweeter thing, but as I was watching the chart I felt like that would have been continuation trade at what was then the low of the move so I dismissed it. Subsequent to that I sensed that a trend = trend situation was possible and when the range broke I took the trade. That is the one you skipped because of the wide stop. I think it was valid to skip it as you did. In all honesty I can't say for sure that Skipping the earlier winner at 7:15 on my chart did not influence my decision to go for it.

I'm glad you sent these charts as I have had to make a change in my charting. The charts I had been using in Tradestation had been freezing up so I had to abandon them and am now using MB Trading charts. That required some experimentation and I have now settled on the 37 Tick chart you see. They resemble the Prorealtime 70 tick, but are a bit more pronounced. I kind of like that on one hand, but they are a bit noisier. On the plus side MB Trading is my (new) broker and the fills seem to coincide with my expectation a little better.

 

[BLS]

Woke up a little later than usual but it looks like I didn't miss much.

 

[Giorrgi]

I'm glad you sent these charts as I have had to make a change in my charting. The charts I had been using in Tradestation had been freezing up so I had to abandon them and am now using MB Trading charts. That required some experimentation and I have now settled on the 37 Tick chart you see. They resemble the Prorealtime 70 tick, but are a bit more pronounced. I kind of like that on one hand, but they are a bit noisier. On the plus side MB Trading is my (new) broker and the fills seem to coincide with my expectation a little better.

They seem to be in pipettes on your screen. If you use ninja trader you can make them appear in pips like on prorealtime. I tried MB trading back in the day and they are much less precise then PRT, BUT that was a demo account and I've been told that the real deal was a little bit better. anyhow, if you could post some charts that'd be great, so we can compare.

 

[garageboyFUJI]

This is my trading yesterday.　　There are many skip. I asked myself every time and I skipped.

 

[Giorrgi]

Hey garageboy,

You seemto be taking a lot of very small/thin blocks. it works out sometimes (the BB on your first chart), but it does cause some damage over time.

Also the RB on the 4th chart : I don't think there was a decent enough Ww or ShS pattern beforehand to take it.

You're right to skip all those other trades.

 

[garageboyFUJI]

Thanks a lot, Giorrgi.

I fell it's getting difficult for me. I already failed some trades just now. Anyway, I'll do my best for trading. but don't worry, this is my paper trading so far. I'm sure I need to learn more and more, also I should undergo.

 

[BLS]

The opportunity in the first chart looks good in hindsight but I was wary of the price action meandering between the 80 and 60. For the second chart I wasn't too sure of a magnet effect given the earlier block a few pip under it so I didn't really want to risk 8 pip to find out.

It's turning out to be a crazy day but I guess I'm staying out.

 

[HornedGod]

I tried to get a little too much blood from a stone today.

Trade 1: BB entry. I should have probably taken it against the smaller 2 pip block that was in the lower half of the highlighted block here. Got taken out on false tease break below my tipping point.

Trade 2: Still feeling in a long frame of mind. Higher range shows bulls still around. Took RB. Price made new high for session, taking out previous double top but failed to reach my TP. Had to scratch. On another day, either of the first two trades today could have reached their profit target. Having your SL taken out to the pip before price moves to your TP is just part of the trading game.

Trade 3: Didn't want to succumb to yesterday's mistake of not being prepared to take a third trade after two losses. This entry is definitely weaker than the previous two. I think my desire to show that I was still in the game overrode my filter on what trades I should really be looking at by this stage.

Today is a ECB rate announcement day which means that I need to view the market as having a high probability of ranging in the lead up.

But today there was a strong pop up from the 1.3100 level at the European open showing some real bullishness.

Do I go with the bullish tone or stick to a more neutral one?

I initially went with the bullish tone, looking predominantly for longs at the start of my session; hence the first two long trades today.

My mistake was not recalibrating my expectations after the second trade where a new high was made but prices retraced back into the range. This should have shifted me back to a more neutral mode and I would be super wary of taking any longs breaking out of the larger range, as they don't have a great chance of going anywhere before the ECB announcement.

Trade 4: Another trade I should have skipped if I'd moved back into a more neutral mode and viewed any breaks with extreme skeptism due to ECB rate later.

If I don't have a positive day, I at least hope that I learn something about either the markets or myself. Today was definitely a learning day. I've never experienced a day where there's a trend potentially underway a couple of hours before a big economic data release (which generally results in the market being comatose for hours beforehand).

 

[datamold]

They seem to be in pipettes on your screen. If you use ninja trader you can make them appear in pips like on prorealtime. I tried MB trading back in the day and they are much less precise then PRT, BUT that was a demo account and I've been told that the real deal was a little bit better. anyhow, if you could post some charts that'd be great, so we can compare.

Today was an active day and a good day for chart comparison. These are my ups and downs today. All in all a fun day!

Edit:
I looked into NinjaTrader and found that their OCO functionality resides on your computer and not the brokers. To me that presents the potential for a catastrophic event that I am unwilling to risk. This issue has turned into my number one problem. I just don't understand why it is so hard to get a one-click market order entry with a OCO exit from the fill that resides on the brokers servers.

 

[Giorrgi]

Took one trade today (last chart)

Didn't find any other worthwhile opportunities except the ARB that was dangerously close to a news release.

 

[BLS]

I tried to get a little too much blood from a stone today.

It might help to squeeze the vertical scale on your charts so that only the 00, 20, 40, 60 and 80 levels appear on your chart.

 

[Giorrgi]

Today : no trades, although I did miss one very good trade (was watching it with a horizontally squashed chart so it didn't look very good, but when I zoomed in after the fact it had all the intended qualities).

There was a very long IRB bonanza when after the news release price action settled. I marked all of the potential trades, but to me there was only one "no debate" trade (the one missed / commented : last chart).

 

[datamold]

This week I took 5 live trades of which 3 were winners and 2 were losers for a total profit of 15 pip. In light of the previous 4 weeks I’m calling that a good week. My overall goal for this system is to consistently harvest 20 pip per week, so 15 pip isn’t bad at this stage. The attached thumbnails are trades taken.

However:
• I skipped 12 trades of which 9 were winners!
• I missed 2 winning trades because I took a break at the wrong time.
• I missed 1 winning trade because I was messing around documenting my last trade and did not see it set up.
• I missed 1 winning trade because I was blind to an obvious clue. (I will attach this one as well)

So:
Had I taken all the trades I skipped or missed my profit for the week would have been 148 pip. I know , “Could have, Should have, Would have, … Right” ?

My take away points are these:
1. There is enough opportunity in a week to make a living ( all these trades were in the US morning sessions GMT-5.
2. I do not feel bad for only earning 15 pip out of all of this. The incredibly high win rate on my skipped trades may only be a fluke, but it may also be that my chart reading skills are better than my emotional skills. Time will tell so I will continue to document my skipped and missed trades as a confidence building exercise.
3. By documenting all trades I am amassing a good statistical database that will provide empirical evidence for future assessment.
4. I will also have more trades to compare with the charts Bob so graciously provides each week.

Have a great weekend!

 

[BLS]

No trades for me today.