Painting the tape with today’s technology is a lot different than it was long ago. Now days the Depth of Market is where all the games are played and it costs a lot less! The video below shows a DOM a few hours before the Fed releases rates. You will notice the big sell orders luring novice traders in. Some say this is a common practice of Paul Rotter a.k.a. the Flipper.

This is what a Profit and Loss should look like if you are a CONSISTENT and PROFITABLE scalper.  Happy trades!!

Trading Price Action is one of the biggest keys in trading. It helps determined the direction of the current market and shows how strong a level is. The best way to use price action is to set your chart settings to Candle Sticks, this will allow you to see the wicking, hammer, doji etc…. This is a huge help when it is accompanied by market structure to give the overall trend or to signal when a market is about to roll over or pop. Here is a video that shows how the use of price action against strong levels can produce amazing results. Happy Trades!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKGznMgHbh4&feature=feedu

Another day getting up before the sun rises to run that mile and clear the head.

Every day before I get into the office I make sure my head is clear and ready for the day. I run a mile or so to get the blood flowing, stretch then S.S.S. and meditate for 15-20 minutes before eating and sitting in front of the screens.

I do all of this just so I come into everyday with a clear and focused head. Allowing me to use my edge to the best of my abilities.

I would highly recommend it! Have a great day…

When looking into news events it really helps give the health of the market from a supply and demand view. It can also be used to red flag tops and bottoms of markets.

For Example:

The image above shows the day hurricane Katrina hit.

The image above shows when the Middle East unrest was at its peak, Bin Laden’s death and the increase of supply by the IEA.

All these charts give great clues to traders and more so supply and demand traders. If all the buyers are in the market or all the sellers have sold from this news hitting the market their is no one else to push it. Once the 60 million barrels hit the market if you were a seller or thinking of selling you would have done so on that day thinking the supply would push Crude prices lower. When thinking in terms of supply and demand in the actual trading market this exploited a great buying opportunity. If 98% are short it will only take 5% to start a rally which will get the remainder to start covering !!

IntraSwing trading is a term I came up with that combines End of Day swing trading with Intraday executions. While EOD traders often risk 2.5k-3k per trade in futures. IntraSwing allows you to risk only 500 – 1k per trade. This is because you are gauging the market from a supply and demand view rather than a pivot etc view on the larger time frames.

Often when a level is being tested in a market it bounces off of that level to close 10 to 15 points off of it. Instead of waiting for that EOD bar to close it is a lot more profitable and risk adverse to buy when the market is there and testing with supply/demand.  To do this a trader must be sitting at there monitors intraday to catch the best possibly opportunity with the least amount of risk. This will also most likely put your position in the money by the close of trade as well:)

Also keep in mind that the trader must have extreme discipline in this so he doesn’t get caught up in the noise and over trade!

Most traders cant wait and they end up over trading.  Being a trader you are paid for your discipline.

There is a school of thought that says Arnold is a cowboy energy trader who will stop at nothing to wring the market of all its value. But traders who’ve bet against him think otherwise. “John is extremely careful about money,” says Collins. “He does not take money lightly. He trades only to win, and if he doesn’t see a winning trade, that’s a day he won’t be trading. He has discipline that other traders don’t have and is aware when there are just no good trades around. He won’t overtrade, which is a problem you see with a lot of these traders. You have a lot of guys who lose money doing that or who might do well on a couple big trades that are really easy and then end up just losing a lot. He will, however, accumulate two or three big positions a year that he considers to be risk-free money or close to it. Honestly, I think he would do it 10 times a year if he could find it.”

The above paragraph was sited from http://www.institutionalinvestor.com/Popups/PrintArticle.aspx?ArticleID=2758030

Meditation is one of the key ingredients to a successful trader. It helps clear and organize your mind, a key part to a trader throughout the day. Here is a link that will help you get started.

From the volumes I am seeing in GC the market has a 70% chance of running up from the numbers. I am looking for 10points  of profit. I am long from 1521.00. Have a great morning!!!

Things didn’t go as planned and my bias was put to rest with a break even trade.

Have a great weekend!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Trading with an edge is the most profitable way to trade especially if that edge is driven from supply and demand. Even Jessy Livermore said that the only way to trade is from identifying patterns in volume, price just follows a long to the beat of volume.  Do you have a time tested volume pattern?

Happy trades!!