Which is your preferred charting method for trading?

[Sharky]

A poll that seeks to determine which are the most popular types of charts to trade with.

- Do you have a favourite type of chart, and if so why?
- How important is the type of chart to your trading?
- What are the advantages/disadvantages of the charting method you use?
- Are there particular circumstances you would choose to use one method in favour of another?

 

[TheBramble]

Paul, this one has already be done a way back.

 

[tsuntzu]

.

 

[eddyjo]

can somebody tell me a simple charting programme for daytrading the FTSE100 index.?

 

[oatman]

can somebody tell me a simple charting programme for daytrading the FTSE100 index.?

Have a look in Software and DataFeeds.
IB and Sierra are a popular/inexpensive combination.

 

[eddyjo]

Oatman, thanks a lot.

 

[vince1]

Market Profile

I found trading was difficult emotionally, unless you have great confidence in your technical tools.

I found I did not have confidence in my technical indicators when it came to put money on the table. Is it the right parameter? The right time frame? Will it work this time?

Same outcome with my next passion: wave count. Is it the right one?

I finally found confidence in the Market Profile tool. This way you really focus on listening to the market. IMO a good first step towards professional trading.

Not the only one, though. Marty Schwartz did so well with oscillators, EMAs and bands - and Paul Tudor Jones with Elliott waves

 

[JTrader]

I prefer candestick charts to bar charts because I can quickly recognise what is happening within a time period (say 5 minutes) - whether the price is, or whether the price has closed the period within a candle higher or lower than when the candle opened. Also, colour filled candles make for a more interesting looking chart!

There is also the potential to learn how to recognise the many candlestick patterns and their possible implications.

 

[rog1111]

OHLC bar chart with volume, without the volume I am lost.

rog1111

 

[Salty Gibbon]

I have just recently changed from using bar charts to candlestick charts and I must admit that the whole picture somehow looks much clearer and more vivid. It seems like the candles are telling a story in a way that the bars cannot. It is probably akin to the difference between a text and an illustrated text, and I have to say that I do like pictures.

It took me a couple of days to get tuned in to what I was seeing but yes, yes, yes - candlestick charts are now for me and when I flick back to bar charts I wonder how I managed with them for so long.

Can anyone recommend a good , comprehensive but concise text on candlestick charting ? It must be concise in order to keep my attention and stop me from getting bored and falling into a coma before I reach the end. I am just not into 500 page text books.

 

[FetteredChinos]

salty, PM me with your email details if you will, and i will see what i can find.

FC

 

[TheBramble]

Salty, bods are bound to jump in with Nison's classics, but there is also a p/back workbook by him which is extremely good.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...5704/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_11_1/202-4223429-0130213

 

[Salty Gibbon]

Cheers Tony

 

[Old_Bob]

I voted for candlestick charts,can't trade without them

 

[Salty Gibbon]

I finally got that book Tony.

Absolutely excellent. Brief, concise and right to the point. No padding at all and capable of being read very quickly indeed. Just what I needed.

 

[frugi]

Is 62%-using-candles perhaps a good reason not to? Probably not.
I recall that the Wabbit never liked them because the fat body drew one's eye away from the slim tail, and this was unhelpful.

 

[nine]

For Candlesticks go to amazon and look up the source .... Steve Nison.

My opinion is that candlesticks give the sense of more information without actually providing it so I prefer bar charts .... but thats only my opinion.

 

[GotGold]

Nobody makes consistent money reading candelstick charts. Your living in a dream world guys.
How simple would it be for a computer to read candelsticks? This stuff is way old.

 

[GotGold]

Most of the TA stuff pre dates the computer age. Show me somthing that is better than 50% over a reasonable time frame.

Making money out of old fashioned TA like candelsticks is virtually impossible in anything but the short term and thats just luck.

 

[counter_violent]

Most of the TA stuff pre dates the computer age. Show me somthing that is better than 50% over a reasonable time frame.

Making money out of old fashioned TA like candelsticks is virtually impossible in anything but the short term and thats just luck.

That would depend on what candles you look for, at what point in time these candles arise, what message /signal they send and interpretation of the message.

I doubt anyone uses only one tool , but candles combined with other tools etc