Bob Volman Price Action Scalping

[shotgun77]

Sceenshot n. 7, between 9:36-9:39, there is a clean diagonal pullback from white dojis. It doesn't retrace too far, but not that little either.

I see what you mean now. I don't know.

 

[samich1262]

This is actually a rare opportunity to test ourselves and see if we're picking valid trades. I'm doing my usual backtest of scrolling through the charts one bar at a time today, and since we've got those new charts from Bob, we can sort of grade ourselves.

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

Let me raise a question: how do you manage your old charts?

I save them in OneNote, I make screenshots with freeware capturing software called PicPick and I merge the charts together so the result is one wide picture of the whole day. It has some disadvantages, but I didn't come up with anything better. I'm interested if someone found a better solution.

 

[cha-ching]

Let me raise a question: how do you manage your old charts?

I save them in OneNote, I make screenshots with freeware capturing software called PicPick and I merge the charts together so the result is one wide picture of the whole day. It has some disadvantages, but I didn't come up with anything better. I'm interested if someone found a better solution.

I just got started recording my trades so it's far from perfect. I press alt + PrtScn key to capture each trade's picture, save as jpeg, and put them in a folder for pictures only. Under another folder I wrote some notes in OpenOffice (free and very similar to Microsoft Word) where I'll have the option of either link to the pictures or directly import them (which I haven't decided yet). I put each week's notes (with post-trade analysis) in one file. I wonder if this qualifies for a trading journal.

I also plan to save clean charts (meaning price & 20ema only) in case I need to "re-trade" or backtest bar by bar. I found this inconvenient to do on a jpeg file -- I'll have to do it mentally. I'd rather do it in some charting software but I cannot export data from ProRealTime.

 

[samich1262]

Let me raise a question: how do you manage your old charts?

I save them in OneNote, I make screenshots with freeware capturing software called PicPick and I merge the charts together so the result is one wide picture of the whole day. It has some disadvantages, but I didn't come up with anything better. I'm interested if someone found a better solution.

Nothing too fancy. For real time trades, I take a screenshot and crop it in Paint. I have them all in folders organized by week. When I'm practicing I just pull up the last week's chart on Pro Real Time and start scrolling.

 

[shotgun77]

I went to a ton of work to put "clean charts" into OpenOffice Impress (Powerpoint equiv). I made 78 slides of the same 5 minute chart. Then I could cover up each bar at a time and make notes on each bar. At the end, I could keep it as a slideshow that showed the day's action "bar by bar" or convert it to a pdf. Could not do that obviously with 70 tick charts -- way way too much work. So I just keep the charts in different folders. And put my notes in a spreadsheet along with my live trading journal that I record while trading.

 

[shotgun77]

IRB analysis results. I looked at 50 screenshots of IRBs (sorry only have them on stocks). Here's my findings:

Boomerang: All gains. Clear topping such as DT and BB built near this topping action. EMA squeeze not needed but BB should be well-formed.

IRB-BB mid-range w/o needing BO of wider range. All gains.
Need some distinctive formation such as DB/DT in range. No EMA squeeze needed but BB needs to show pressure either with arches formed or equal Highs/Lows of many of the bars in the BB.

IRB- BO (breakout needed of range to reach target). 56% wins.
The BB can build anywhere within range. Breakout upside works with BB built near top.
Also works when builds mid-range. Same for BO downside. Needs a visible squeeze with EMA or needs very extended and/or very compressed block to build. If trend action before entering range, BO CT failed often. Don't take on volatile days with lots of swings in both directions. Needs structure to range barriers.

P.S. Pay attention to all false breaks when block is building.

 

[dazzwater]

Hi all,

I just discovered this thread today. I'm considering whether to buy Bob Volman's book, and I'm glad to see that there are so many readers and practitioners of his methodology.

I wish to know your opinion regarding another set of books though. I'm wondering if you have also read Al Brook's 3-volume book on trading price action? If so, what differences do you find between his methodology and that of Volman? Would you recommend that I purchase both Brook and Volman? Or will Volman alone be sufficient to get an aspiring FX price action trader up and running in his quest for sustainable profitability?

I imagine if their methodologies are both the same, it should be sufficient to buy just one book. Thanks in advance for your inputs!

 

[samich1262]

I think Volman's book by itself would be the simplest. It is also easier to understand. I have not read all of Al Brook's book, but I have read the first 50 pages or so. There is good information there, but it's not as easy to read. I decided to stick with Volman's book and not finish the other at least for now. I want to focus exclusively on one method so I don't get confused.

 

[shotgun77]

@dazzwater
There's some similarity between Volman's SB setups and some of Al's methods. Al offers many more ways to get in but it takes a long, long time to learn. If you want to get "up and running" Volman offers clear explanation and setups. Al offers a comprehensive discourse on price action but it could be confusing and contradictory if you don't have a lot of time/experience in front of charts.

 

[vanica]

Hi,

Would you say the top barrier was a bit unclear for the majority of traders to provide follow through on its break?

Thanks.

 

[BLS]

Hi,

Would you say the top barrier was a bit unclear for the majority of traders to provide follow through on it's break?



Thanks.

I think the setup was fine it's just that there wasn't much interest to break the 20 levels on either side. I was thinking about taking this one too but after my only trade today it seemed like a good idea to stay out until prices could break out either above the 1.2920 or below the 1.2900. You might want to adjust your charts so you can see the 20, 40, 60, and 80 levels.

I think I missed a BB early on the NY session but I'm not too sure. It looks a bit like Chart 22 from the charts Bob sent us but the retracement is only about a 1/3 of the trend move.

I only too one trade today. Probably should've skipped it since the stop was rather steep given the down trend going against me on the chart. I was a bit more confident in the trade when my tipping point level held but when prices stalled just under the 20, I decided to trail more aggressively.

 

[shotgun77]

@vanica I think the top barrier is good for an IRB top. The entire block is so compressed that those two tiny dojis at the end might not create enough of a squeeze.

 

[shotgun77]

Here's how tricky those IRBs can be. I got in too early and got trapped on a false/tease break. There were too many options for the barrier lines and that should have kept me out longer.

The final break I caught but by then it was either an ARB cluster type or the real RB.

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

Lazy monday with no news, I liked it though, I made some colour changes to my charts and it looks much better

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

I think I missed a BB early on the NY session but I'm not too sure. It looks a bit like Chart 22 from the charts Bob sent us but the retracement is only about a 1/3 of the trend move.

Hi, in my opinion you made a right call by skipping that BB:
1/ There is a lot, of price action to the left (before the brief uptrend)
2/ The trend initiated from high of previous trend.

It is true that the setup did surpass all the resistance without any problems, but it didn't really continue afterwards, which I think is due to trader's disbelief in that move, it looks somewhat odd. Or maybe it didn't continue simply because of the round number, who knows

 

[samich1262]

Hey BLS,

I had my eye on that flag/BB too but skipped it because of the resistance to the left. Although, it looks like it had enough room to move most of the way to the target without hitting major resistance, so it could probably be traded if you trailed close.

There was an RB during lunch hour but I missed it. I wondered about low volume on days like today, so I tend to skip a lot of setups. Although if they are built up properly, then a lot of them still seem to work out. Do you think that Bob would worry about that? There's one place in the book where he says during slow market hours he'd prefer a little more squeeze on RBs and such. If it has enough pressure would you trade it? Seems like I mostly only see BB and RB related setups during the afternoon US session and Asian session.

 

[BLS]

Hey BLS,

I had my eye on that flag/BB too but skipped it because of the resistance to the left. Although, it looks like it had enough room to move most of the way to the target without hitting major resistance, so it could probably be traded if you trailed close.

There was an RB during lunch hour but I missed it. I wondered about low volume on days like today, so I tend to skip a lot of setups. Although if they are built up properly, then a lot of them still seem to work out. Do you think that Bob would worry about that? There's one place in the book where he says during slow market hours he'd prefer a little more squeeze on RBs and such. If it has enough pressure would you trade it? Seems like I mostly only see BB and RB related setups during the afternoon US session and Asian session.

I think Bob's view is to only trade RBs if you can find a nice squeeze and trade IRB's if there is acceptable build-up within the range. I think he tends to avoid trading BB's into 20 levels when the market is as slow as the one today.

I personally would not trade during the afternoon NY session unless there's a news release because I would not have the patience to see a trade to target. I also had a habit of getting myself into a trade right before activity dies off when I did trade the afternoon session.

 

[BLS]

I think I skipped a good BB today (first BB, first chart). I was able to catch a nice RB later on though.

 

[samich1262]

Ok guys, I think I have almost figured out how to avoid those false DDs and SBs but I do have a couple questions.

Check out this chart of the GBP/USD going into the US lunch hour. I chose it because the EUR/USD was trapped in a range, but this pair had room to move. More importantly, it illustrates some of the trap trades we've been getting caught in and trend retracement issues I have been having too.



The big thing I'm looking for is whether or not my trend markings are correct (A to B, C to D) That B is supposed to be a little lower btw, right at the start of the bigger countertrend.

First, I think the break of the range may have been tradeable ARB if you move the barrier back a pip or two from that line I drew, but there were so many touches to the line that I didn't know if it was valid or not.

I guess that pullback into the EMA near B could be considered a DD but it looks pretty aggressive, and there's no way to tell if price is ready to break yet. This was not really a trend = trend situation. After B in the middle of the following pullback there's another potential DD but if we're measuring A-B as the bearish move, then that's not near enough pullback. It does use the bottom of the previous pullback as support though. What do you think about this?

The pullback extends and comes back into the average for the 2nd time, giving us the DD at point C, which is a much better trade to my eye. It's a 50% retracement of the larger move from A to B.

The next DD that I marked pulls back into support. It's not a great pullback and may be a questionable setup. What do you think of it? Should it be skipped? Should I have moved that entry further to the right? Because the pullback does look a little better then.

If I'm measuring this trend right and C to D is the next major leg, then we should definitely skip that DD in between D and E. A week ago I would've taken it because I would have considered that questionable DD right before it the start of a new leg. But that pullback wasn't very significant, so I left C up there after the larger countertrend. I am not sure if I should've put D lower where I did, or if I should've put it at this questionable DD. The next setup will clarify why I am confused about this:

E makes a pretty good bear flag. The later DD is much better, but here's where again, I get confused. If I marked C to D correctly, then D to E isn't a long enough pullback. But if we measure from that 2nd DD trade, it's a 50% retracement and looks like a very good trade. But then that makes the false DD in the middle of the countertrend look like a sufficient pullback.

My final assumption was that I had marked the legs correctly and that last bear flag should be traded. Hopefully I'm going in the right direction here but I'd like to know what you guys see here. Regardless, the bear flags on Bob's new charts helped me a lot. Even when I go back through the book now, some of the more difficult SB and DD setups make a lot more sense to me now.