Bob Volman Price Action Scalping

[samich1262]

I've got a weird question that I'm trying to wrap my head around. It actually has nothing to do with our trading method, just curiosity, so bear with me. I keep seeing people/books describe trading as a zero-sum game, but I don't know if that's really true. I thought about that and it would be true if the stock you were trading never went anywhere, but if over time a stock or currency pair is moving away from the original price, then there's possibly more winners than losers right?

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

Ran across this about the low volume in the forex.
SMB blog post

Thank you for sharing this.

 

[BLS]

@BLS

What do you think about IRB few bars before S2?

Can you point it out on a chart? Sorry, I'm still not too good at spotting IRBs, that's probably why I didn't notice it during my session.

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

Can you point it out on a chart? Sorry, I'm still not too good at spotting IRBs, that's probably why I didn't notice it during my session.

That's interesting, the IRB looks much worse then I thought. From hindsight it should have been probably skipped. But I like that it is stemming from tease breaks of the angular line, though I can't say if it has much significance.

 

[shotgun77]

I think that IRB looks like a micro-micro H&S top on the pullback to the angular line/ema.

 

[shotgun77]

I've never bought into the zero-sum game theory but my understanding is limited. Some traders even say it is negative sum once you throw in commissions and other costs. It doesn't affect my trading so I never think about it. But I guess it says one side is the loser and the other side is the winner. Which I disagree with. Both sides can be winners on different time frames.

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

I've never bought into the zero-sum game theory but my understanding is limited. Some traders even say it is negative sum once you throw in commissions and other costs. It doesn't affect my trading so I never think about it. But I guess it says one side is the loser and the other side is the winner. Which I disagree with. Both sides can be winners on different time frames.

I'm not sure what do you mean that you disagree with it. Trading is a negative sum game. For every position (or trade) there has to exist an opposite position (trade). If one of them gains, the other loses.
Yes, two sides can both be winners on different timeframes, but only if there are two more sides which are losers. You have to imagine it with more than just two traders, that's why there's the 'sum' word.

But you're right, in practice it probably doesn't influence your trading, however I'm not sure what would our principle of double pressure mean if trading was a positive sum game

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

Awfully slow price action, I remember days when it was a rarity to see one pip tall bar. Now it seems as a rarity to see anything else but strings of one pip tall bars.

 

[cha-ching]

Ran across this about the low volume in the forex.
SMB blog post

Thanks for the link. Read somewhere else that PA traders (Brooks type) didn't do well in November on EURUSD but there were more opportunities in other markets.
How's Bob's method working in the equity world? Do you use tick chart or time chart? If tick chart what's the average bar time?

 

[shotgun77]

How's Bob's method working in the equity world? Do you use tick chart or time chart? If tick chart what's the average bar time?

I use tick chart. I was using the equiv of the 30 second but lately I've been looking at the equiv of a 1 minute. What the actual tick count is will vary a lot depending on the instrument -- anywhere from 20 to 300.

 

[virtuesoft]

I just took this DD/SB setup for a profit of 10 pips.

I wish there was this much volume in the market every day.

 

[samich1262]

Did you guys see this move? I've seen Bob mark some angular RBs on the chart before. Do you think this was a tradeable move? I didn't think it was at the time, but it was continuation after a move down. In hindsight it's sort of a big flag, I just don't know about the break itself. Haven't tried an angular RB yet.

 

[BLS]

Did you guys see this move? I've seen Bob mark some angular RBs on the chart before. Do you think this was a tradeable move? I didn't think it was at the time, but it was continuation after a move down. In hindsight it's sort of a big flag, I just don't know about the break itself. Haven't tried an angular RB yet.

View attachment 150820

I think it's something worth experimenting on but only with conditions like this (strong trend move). I was watching the same thing but I missed the break because I had to be away from my screen.

There was lots of movement today but I wasn't ready to take advantage of it. I was watching an ARB but decided to skip it because I didn't like the entry. After seeing the market move down further I decided it was best for me to just watch the market for psychological reasons. I was angry at myself for skipping the ARB (S1) and missing a good move. That would have likely led me to take impulsive trades to try to make up for it. I didn't want to relapse into my old problem patterns.

 

[virtuesoft]

I was watching an ARB but decided to skip it because I didn't like the entry.

I watched that ARB closely and I skipped it too. I also felt a little frustrated after it broke. I felt that I could have been a little more aggressive in this type of market. It's easy in hindsight though isn't it. It's best to take a back seat when you're not right psychologically. You did the right thing.

 

[virtuesoft]

Did you guys see this move? I've seen Bob mark some angular RBs on the chart before. Do you think this was a tradeable move? I didn't think it was at the time, but it was continuation after a move down. In hindsight it's sort of a big flag, I just don't know about the break itself. Haven't tried an angular RB yet.

View attachment 150820

I like that setup. I didn't notice it at the time. It makes sense and the risk is acceptable (6 pips). I think the break was valid as there was some pre-breakout tension and a squeeze. The barrier itself looks good but I'm not sure as many traders would notice a diagonal barrier compared to a normal horizontal one. As BLS has said, perhaps its the type of setup that can be traded when there is a lot of volume.

It will be interesting to see whether Bob has taken this when we see his charts for the week.

 

[samich1262]

I think it's something worth experimenting on but only with conditions like this (strong trend move). I was watching the same thing but I missed the break because I had to be away from my screen.

There was lots of movement today but I wasn't ready to take advantage of it. I was watching an ARB but decided to skip it because I didn't like the entry. After seeing the market move down further I decided it was best for me to just watch the market for psychological reasons. I was angry at myself for skipping the ARB (S1) and missing a good move. That would have likely led me to take impulsive trades to try to make up for it. I didn't want to relapse into my old problem patterns.

Me too, I had a trade in on the NZD/USD 5m chart that took awhile and kept me out of some scalps. It turned out ok, but I skipped the flags on the EUR/USD because I didn't want to get into 2 trades at once. I probably would've tried it if I had been able to move my stop up on the NZD trade first.

 

[TraderNico]

Thanks for the posts. Agree that at least we had some movement today that one could work with. The angular break is an interesting one and probably worthwhile to keep at the back of one's head.

Regards

 

[virtuesoft]

I took these two FB setups following the positive US jobs data.

The first was in EURJPY. It was a good trade and I exited with a profit of 13.9 pips.

The second was in EURUSD. It was quite a poor setup but I took it anyway. I got lucky and I exited with a profit of 8.5 pips. In my defense, I only had a second to analyse the EURUSD setup and I had to make a quick decision. If I hadn't taken the EURJPY FB setup, I would have been focusing on EURUSD and I never would have taken it.

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

My chart with notes.

 

[BLS]

I couldn't really focus much after saw that big pop in the EUR/JPY when the jobs numbers came out. I'm not comfortable trading around news releases but it did bother me that I missed out. I should've recognized that but I didn't at the time. I ended up taking some stupid trades on the EUR/JPY and that shook me up a bit. I think I'm starting to like the slower price that we've seen these past few weeks =P.