Marc Rivalland - Swing Trading

[olly]

I recently purchased Marc Rivalland's new book on swing trading using modified Gann bar charts and P&F charts, does anyone here use the principles outlined in his book and if so have they had any success ?

ps does anyone know how I can change my ID name ?

 

[GreyingSurfer]

No, but I started reading it last night. Seems very useful so far, a much longer timescale than I currently trade in, but I suspect that many of his ideas can still be helpful intraday.

 

[Sharky]

If anyone wishes to change their username this isn't something you can do themselves, but drop me an email at [email protected] as to what you'd like to change it to and I'll update it for you.

Cheers, Paul.

ps. Have not read this book myself, but I've heard good things about it.

 

[timsk]

Those nice peeps at Finspreads will send you a FREE copy of Marc Raviland's book if you open an account with them. I opened my a/c in May last year; even so, they sent me a free copy. Mind you, they probably looked at how much my a/c has shrunk in the last 9 months and took pity on me . . . ! Not yet studied it thoroughly, but it is well laid out with colour charts and, as GreyingSurfer says (euphamism for ageing hippie?) - it has ideas that could be modified / utilised for intraday trading. Have any of you PnF experts read it: JonnyT perhaps?
timsk.

 

[Helenqu]

Hi all,

I've read it. Can't say it appealed very much and I don't think I got much from it. I was hoping for a lot from it but Gann I'm not keen on and the P&F you can get from books such Dorsey and Burke anyway. Timescale a bit too long for me too. I much prefer the Farley Master Swing Trader book, it has more ideas per page and the two books are similarly priced.

 

[DaveJB]

It's a very 'conversational' book in my view, and that will appeal to some, not to others. As an intro text I think it's good, tying basics together in a readable package. A bit light on facts at times, perhaps, I'd rather be quoted a recent study that showed X happened Y% of the time than be told it was the writer's opinion and I was free to go find out for myself... but that's actually (if you go check) pretty common in many popular TA books these days, so you can't balme Marc for doing the same.
Worth a read, I'd say, although Helen's alternative might also bear fruit - I think it comes down to a tradeoff (as ever) facts/stats vs readability?

 

[iSquared]

I spent some time verifying the trades in the book for RIO and they do check out. However if you try to apply the principles broadly across the FTSE100 they don't backtest well. As there was little discussion in how to select the instruements to actually trade I felt this was a major gap and also probably key to the success or not of swing trading. However I found the book conceptually very useful to understand the concept of 'swing trading' as well as giving the 'proper name' to some Gann techniques.

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[vsivam]

Intersting stuff

 

[danfreek]

This thread hasn't been posted on for a while, but the question is still valid for people still thinking about getting the book.

I got Marc's book a while back and then went on one of his seminars. It was very good and I definitely learned a lot from him. I had quite a bit of success trading DOW component shares. Marc doesn't use the techniques intraday himself and doesn't make any promises for their performance in this timeframe. Someone else on the seminar had tried the technique intraday and said that they worked quite well but that they hadn't been using them very long.

I would definitely recommend the book.

 

[bbmac]

Marc attended one of the london T2W traders meetings in March last year. He made some useful contributions and was obviously very knowledgable.

 

[tomorton]

I have been using Marc's techniques for over a year, mostly on FTSE100, sometimes on DJIA. Trading these following most of his rules is giving me a profitable and steady 60-65% success rate. But I feel from post mortems after trades that a more disciplined use of his rules than mine to date would raise this figure.

 

[danfreek]

tomorton,

I have just started trading the FTSE, is it just my imagination that we had a continuation of trend signal yesturday at 4796.5. I got in there and I'm currently running a decent profit, although at the time of writing today is threatening to form a doji, although it is dangerous to predict candles before they actually form.

Anyway, I was just wondering if you were in the trade as well, or if the whole signal was my imagination. There's no help from Marc's website as he last updated on the 21st, and that was before the signal.

 

[barjon]

tomorton,

I have just started trading the FTSE, is it just my imagination that we had a continuation of trend signal yesturday at 4796.5. I got in there and I'm currently running a decent profit, although at the time of writing today is threatening to form a doji, although it is dangerous to predict candles before they actually form.

Anyway, I was just wondering if you were in the trade as well, or if the whole signal was my imagination. There's no help from Marc's website as he last updated on the 21st, and that was before the signal.

danfreek

This is my take. The last swing low looked a bit suspect at the time in view of the messy action - it's not looking too bad now, but we do need to make a new high.

good trading

jon

ps: some of the text boxes seem to have got shifted over a bit as it whizzed through the ether, but I think it's clear enough.

 

[danfreek]

danfreek

This is my take. The last swing low looked a bit suspect at the time in view of the messy action - it's not looking too bad now, but we do need to make a new high.

good trading

jon

ps: some of the text boxes seem to have got shifted over a bit as it whizzed through the ether, but I think it's clear enough.

Cheers Barjon,

So I was right about the swing low. That's reassuring, the doji today (It did turn out to be a doji in the end) is going to make me a bit more cautious about the continuation of the trend, although this is just a personal thing as I like to integrate candles into any trading method. As you said though, I would like to see a new high breaking the 4855 level as this looks like important resistance on both the weekly and daily charts. Maybe today's doji was just a pause for consolidation before making the push into new highs? I will be watching the markets tomorrow for sure.

As I am sure you can tell, I still have a lot to learn.

 

[Mayfly]

OK, I’ve just had a look at Marc Rivalland’s website: here’s what he’s saying about UKX right now:

1. Current trend - Up since breach of 4756 on 22.12.04.

2. Last signal - 22.12.04 Change of trend signal on breach of 4756.

3. Point at which trend will change - 4674.

I’ve attached some swing charts (one’s on a black and the other on a colour printing background) and in my opinion these charts are a fair representation of what Mr. Rivalland was looking at at the time he made his “call” on FTSE.

So, I agree with Mr Rivalland and it seems to me that the trend is UP, although all errors and omissions, etc are entirely my own.

HTH

Cheers

Mayfly

 

[danfreek]

I do know that Marc uses Updata, so he probably was looking at very similar charts to the ones you show. I've moved my stop to entry and I'm watching todays action following on from yesturdays doji to see if it was consolidation or reversal.

Cheers for all your help guys.

 

[Bigbusiness]

I did enjoy reading the book but having taken a few notes, I found I no longer required it. A lot of the book was about P&F charts and I have lots of information on that subject. So I sold it on Amazon for just a few £'s less than the purchase price. I haven't been able to trade this method, as looking back at charts there were time when I could see lots of trades and not much profit. I did try to follow the signals for a while but I don't think the method suits me.

I prefer the "Trading Day by Day" book http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=12501 but it is early days and that one might end up on its way to Amazon at some point. I don't like putting up book shelves

 

[danfreek]

I've got a copy of trading day by day in the post on it's way to me in the post, I hope that it's as good as everyone says!

Marc does use a relatively long timeframe from the point of view of a lot of people here. I like to use lots of methods in my trading and I find his method useful for finding good places to enter established trends.

 

[barjon]

danfreek

how do you exit?

good trading

jon

 

[danfreek]

I use several different methods to exit depending on the type of trade. If it's an intraday trade, then I set a profit target and close my position when it is hit. I don't like to hesitate on a short timeframe, so that's quite simple. I only take trades with a 3:1 risk reward ratio or better.
On a swing trade I use the price action to guide me. I don't like to close trades out myslef in a swing trade, instead I use stops set at an appropriate point for the candle and indicator signals that I use. If the price wants to continue in the direction of my trade, then I let it, but if it reverses on me then I get stopped out.

This is a very brief summary of my exit strategy, but if you want to dicuss strategies with me, then please PM me, I'm happy to talk about it. that applies to anybody btw, not only barjon