Bob Volman Price Action Scalping

[Traderallen]

Yea, I had to start using Ninjatrader to get charts like the ones in FPAS book. I try to stick to the simple easy to stop trades.

 

[Yorkshire Terrier]

Took this BB as Bob mentioned to look for BB's around a 50% retracement level.

 

[Yorkshire Terrier]

Looking at the 15m chart there has not been a 50% retracement for some time.

 

[virtuesoft]

I just took this BB setup in EURUSD for a profit of 10 pips.

 

[Yorkshire Terrier]

I just took this BB setup in EURUSD for a profit of 10 pips.

Nice trade was tempted myself but bottled out

 

[Giorrgi]

Nice, looks like the markets are moving again.

It's a shame I had to miss most of the action.

 

[virtuesoft]

There were a couple of nice setups this morning.

The first was a BB in EURUSD. I decided to skip it but I think that was the wrong decision.

The second was a RB in USDJPY. It was a textbook setup but I was exercising at the time so I missed it.

Charts with notes attached.

 

[BLS]

Lot of movement today but it didn't seem all that tradeable to me. Maybe I'm being too cautious or not focused enough.

 

[Yorkshire Terrier]

My trades for today all on USD/JPY , don't know if i am being to aggressive but they looked right at the time.

 

[virtuesoft]

My trades for today all on USD/JPY , don't know if i am being to aggressive but they looked right at the time.

You caught that Range Break that I missed. Nice work.

USDJPY did move quite well today.

 

[virtuesoft]

Lot of movement today but it didn't seem all that tradeable to me. Maybe I'm being too cautious or not focused enough.

I couldn't find anything in the afternoon either. There were a few close calls but they all looked a little flawed or aggressive to me.

 

[Giorrgi]

Lot of movement today but it didn't seem all that tradeable to me. Maybe I'm being too cautious or not focused enough.

IMO, the last one was pretty good except for the fact that one had to decide between two spots to set the barrier.

 

[Giorrgi]

I have a question.

Has anyone considered looking at smaller time frames, like 10 tick charts in order to scalp even smaller profits? I found while looking at these charts that the breakout patterns are very similar, however the amount of pips price travels after these breakouts is of course much smaller. Therefore it would seem to me that the main issue is that scalping 3-4 pips is not very profitable when 1 pip gets lost due to broker's fees. Are there any other reasons ?

 

[BLS]

I have a question.

Has anyone considered looking at smaller time frames, like 10 tick charts in order to scalp even smaller profits? I found while looking at these charts that the breakout patterns are very similar, however the amount of pips price travels after these breakouts is of course much smaller. Therefore it would seem to me that the main issue is that scalping 3-4 pips is not very profitable when 1 pip gets lost due to broker's fees. Are there any other reasons ?

Spread and commission costs is the biggest reason. I think another one might be that a 10 tick charts might be "too fast" though I haven't actually looked at it myself.

Two trades for me today.

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

Spread and commission costs is the biggest reason. I think another one might be that a 10 tick charts might be "too fast" though I haven't actually looked at it myself.

Two trades for me today.

Regarding the first trade (I took it as well), notice that you can draw an angular line connecting the bottoms. I guess we were simply wrong in identifying the overall pressure.

 

[BLS]

More charts from Bob

 

[Giorrgi]

Thanks BLS and Bob ! Went through the charts already, great stuff !

 

[matty_dunn]

More charts from Bob

Thanks Bob and BLS. Much appreciated as always.

 

[TonyIommich]

I have a question.

Has anyone considered looking at smaller time frames, like 10 tick charts in order to scalp even smaller profits?

The least profit target I've heard of from a profitable retail FX trader is 5 pips. There are institutional traders who go for 0.5 pip 'jabs' but these people don't have to pay the spread so they are playing a very different game. Besides nowadays with HFT boxes competing for those 0.5 pips, they are really struggling.

Just for perspective, there are people who scalp emini S&P futures for just one point (4 ticks). When you figure that they have to pay a 1 tick spread (unless they manage to get out by joining the bid/offer), and to top it off brokerage and exchange clearing fees, its comparable economically speaking:

$12.50 (1 tick spread) + $5 (round trip from broker, incl CME fees) = $17.50 "vig", which is 35% of the $50 profit target (4 ticks X $12.50).

To be fair those who do a lot of ES scalping often find it economically feasible to lease or buy an exchange seat which lowers their cost somewhat (I think the breakeven is around 30 contracts a day depending how often you trade, which for scalpers is quite often). That knocks about $4.50 off the round trip 'vig' right there, so it'd be down to about 26% of the $50 profit target.

With FX, most brokers have just a bit over a 1 pip spread, so figure 1.2 to be safe, that would mean 24% of the spread for a 5 pip profit target, a 30% spread for a 4 pip profit target, and a 40% spread for a 3 pip profit target.

In the end of the day whatever strategy you come up with, if you can get the math to work once you consider real time trading conditions, why not. Personally I like Bob's book a lot (probably one of the best out there these days), but I find it more valuable as a way to get ideas for developing your own trading style rather than dogmatically accepting everything, and even Bob seems to be good with this idea.

The one caveat you must be aware of is that at such small sizes you can get majorly screwed if there are adverse, unexpected news events where markets can gap. While EUR/USD is least prone to gap risk due to its liquidity, 5-10 pip gaps do happen on occasion (esp during the Asian session).

 

[stehlikpetrmsncom]

More charts from Bob

Thank you very much for the charts Bob and BLS