Showing posts with label Chart Patterns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chart Patterns. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 5, 2023

The Three Day Cycle & Parabolic Trade Setups | Stacey Burke

There are only three things price can do:
1. Breakout from a Range and Trend.
2. Breakout from a Range and Reverse.
3. Trading Range between Highs and Lows
.
 
 1. Structure / Pattern
  •  Do we have any larger geometrical patterns?
  •  Head and Shoulders / Sell (Reverse Head and Shoulders / Buy)
  • Descending Triangle (Sell) Ascending Triangle (Buy)
  • Double Bottoms (Buy), Double Tops (Sell)
  • Rectangles (Continuation / Reversal)
  • Helps us identify geometric patterns for potential measured move profit targets for asymmetrical risk / reward.
I am mainly focused on horizontal ranges no matter what the geometrical pattern is. (The high and the low of the structure, typically this will be numbered “boxes” of 25-50-100 pips.) Numbers are horizontal. I DON’T TRADE DIAGONAL TREND LINE BREAKS.

2. High of the Day (HOD) / Low of the Day (LOD)
 
Where is the high, where is the low? There is a high and a low that the market is trading inside of. The market is either in a consolidation or a break out. The current HOD and LOD may be inside of a larger rectangle.

3. Timings
 
My focus is on the 3 hour window. 1 hour before the equity markets open, the hour of the equity markets open, and the hour after the equity markets open. Hence 12 - 15 minute candles.
  • ASIA 8-11 pm NY EST
  • EUR / LONDON 2-5 am NY EST
  • NEW YORK 8-11 am NY EST
This allows me to have laser-like focus for some simple recurring setups that occur frequently enough for selling, buying or trend trading setups. This repeatable cycle is recurring in all three 12 candle windows. Whether or not the range, the pattern and a good risk / reward trade setup is in each window is unpredictable.

4. Round Numbers
 
Typically these trades will come off of round numbers, specifically 00’s and 50’s. The quarter levels, 25 and 75 will often be a “stop hunt” extension of a 50 or 00 trading box.

5. Price Behaviour for Trade Setups
 
I look for engulfments and pin hammers. These can be “with trend” trades, or reversals, for stop hunts or in a trading range.I look to ENTER the majority of my trades “AT OR NEAR” number, i.e. 25, 50, 75, 00. Sometimes I may limit order these trades, others I may just get filled at market.

• “M” PATTERNS - TYPE 1,2,3
• “W” PATTERNS - TYPE 1,2,3

6. Risk Management / Profit Targets
 
My average STOP LOSS is 1 ATR. For most of the pairs it will be 20 pips. The GBPAUD, GBPNZD may be 25. Depending on the level of volatility on the day, on the pair, it may be a bit more or less give or take. Typically though, I am looking for a 1 bar stop. Position sizing can depend on the type of setup, and the size of stop loss.

The minimum PROFIT TARGET is usually 50 pips. Sometimes a market may hit a previous day’s high or low, or the current day’s high or low, OR SIGNIFICANT ROUND NUMBERS, 00, 50, and the market may stop there. I may only be up 40 pips. When those levels are prominent, it may be necessary to adjust that target on the day, based on HOW PRICE BEHAVES when it gets to those levels. Other trades (Measured Moves) may be in the area of 50-75 or a 100 or more pips. Again, depending on the setup and how that pair is trading on the day.

7. Trade Management / Self Management
 
Once I am in the trade, I will fight every urge that I have to interfere with it. I review the trade setup and thesis that I have for the trade. I monitor the behaviour initially based on my thesis. I will typically leave the screen, or watch, and monitor myself, self talk, do meditation, and possibly review the other pairs to identify any other setups.
 
I will normally NOT ADJUST my stop loss to BREAK EVEN UNTIL, the market has broken a high or low boundary, ( I wait for the 15 min candle to close) OR it has CLOSED 30 pips or more, breaking into the next quarterly range. At 40 pips, depending on if the market has moved (fast or creeping) I will potentially look to LOCK IN 40 pips if the market has “two-sided” trading occurring near my profit target. So, to clarify, if it has spent 30 minutes near my target without hitting it, I will be watching closely to “LOCK IN” profits, in case the market is preparing to reverse. When you are up 40 pips, YOU NEED TO GET PAID.
 
Quoted from:
 
 Dump & Pump Pattern.

 Pump & Dump Pattern.
 
Reference:
 
Stacey Burke - Three Day Trading Setups.
 
Aksel Kibar - Type 1 Breakout: Breakout NOT followed by Pullback.
 
Aksel Kibar - Type 2 Breakout: Breakout followed by Pullback.

Aksel Kibar - Type 3 Breakout: Breakout followed by hard Re-Test of Pattern Boundary.
And then there is the so called 'Failed Breakout' when price fails to continue
moving in the breakout's direction and instead reverses course.

Friday, September 15, 2023

Trend Reversal Entry Strategies

Trend-Reversal Entry Strategies aim to buy at or near the bottom and to sell at or near the top. Advisors and educators often reject these strategies because their technical analysis relies on lagging indicators. However, there are three high probability two-bar reversal patterns: the Reversal Day, the Signal Day and the Snap-Back Reversal Day. These are low-risk trend-reversal entry strategies for short-term trading and swing-trading. The set-ups are identified on the daily chart and the entries executed on the hourly chart or lower timeframes. The profit/loss ration needs to be 1.5 or more. Proper knowledge of market structure and price action is required.
 
How reliable are these 'text book' patterns?
Brent Penfold (2017) - Reversal Patterns.
Oddmund Groette (2023) - Reversal Day Strategy Backtest – Does It Work?

Reversal Day Trade Entry Set-Up
A Reversal Day top forms when price makes a new daily high but the day closes below the prior day's close. The current day's open and the trend to new highs is not sustained by the close. Variations of the Reversal Day are the Key Reversal Day, the Outside Reversal Day and the Outside Key Reversal Day.
 

On a Key Reversal Day the market opens below the prior day's close, makes a new high, but closes below the prior day's close and the current day's open. A Key Reversal Day is a stronger reversal signal than a Reversal Day. Outside Reversal Days and Key Reversal Days are both Outside Days and meet the criteria of the Reversal Day. Outside Reversal Days are stronger reversal indicators than Reversal Days, and Outside Key Reversal Days are even more convincing that a daily reversal has taken place. In all cases the Initial Protective Stop Loss is one tick above the high.

Signal Day Trade Entry Set-Up
A Signal Day opens above the prior day's close, makes a new high and the close is below the current day's open. The open must be in the top 1/3 of the daily range and the close must be in the bottom 1/3 to qualify as a valid Signal Day. Unlike a Reversal Day, the Signal Day's close does not have to be below the prior day's close, only below the current day's open.

The Gap Signal Day is a very strong daily reversal indicator. The entire daily range of the Gap Signal Day is above the prior day's range, leaving a gap at the end of the day. Considering the positive up close as bullish is a misleading view of a Gap Signal Day.
 

In both cases the Initial Protective Stop Loss is one tick above the high of the Signal Day.

Snap-Back Reversal Day Trade Entry Set-Up
This is a two-day reversal setup. On Day One the market makes a new high with an open in the lower 1/3 of the daily range and the high in the lop 1/3. It appears to be a very bullish day. Day Two is the Snap-Back Day with the open in the top 1/3 of the daily range and the close in the bottom 1/3. Day Two does not have to reach new highs or lows compared to Day One. The wider the range of Day One and Day Two, the stronger the indication for a reversal. A stronger Snap-Back Reversal Day has Day Two's open below Day One's close with a new daily low and a close below the prior day's low. 


The Initial Protective Stop Loss is one tick above the higher of the two days.
 
All of the above daily reversal patterns frequently occur within a trend without resulting in a sustained change of trend. Hence daily reversal set-ups are only to be considered valid when time, price and patterns are indicating a termination of the trend. 

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Three-Push Reversal Patterns | Cameron Benson

There are a lot of varying opinions about how the market moves, such as the Wyckoff method, Elliott Waves, Stacey Burke Trading, Steve Mauro’s BTMM, etc. However, one thing that all of these methods and models have in common is that the market moves in three pushes.
 

In all timeframes price is always in some three-push pattern. Price develops in fractals, and everything happening on a higher time frame happens far more frequently on lower time frames. Be aware of Other Time Frame (OTF) traders, of previous monthly, weekly, and daily highs or lows. It helps us to identify liquidity areas. Where are the entry and the stop loss orders? Where is the money, at the upper or at the lower end of a range?
 

After the third push into one direction, price is going into consolidation.
During the second push retail-traders believe that price is going to continue in the same direction, and everybody jumps in. This is the market maker’s trap to harvest entry and stop loss orders during consolidation. The third push is already part of a larger peak formation reversal pattern. 
 
There are four different variations of the three-push pattern that can be observed on all timeframes:             
 
          1.             3 Levels, also referred to as ‘stair stepping’.
            2.             3 Pushes:
                                a.   Stair Step.
                                b.   1, 2, Pause, 3.
                                c.   1, 2, 3.
                                d.   1, Pause, 2, Pause, 3.
                                e.   3 Burst Impulse Candles.
            3.            3 Pushes out of consolidation in any of the above listed variations.
            4.            Working Levels (3 Pushes)
                               a.   Triple Tops.
                               b.   Triple Bottoms.  
 

Friday, February 10, 2023

Trading Tips from the Front Office | Tom Hougaard

In 2007 I visited the oil pit in New York. I got some rather unusual trading advice from a 20-year veteran of the pits. The floor traders seem to have a unique take on the market, probably because they are so close to the forces of demand and supply unleashed in the pit. Here is what the trader told me:
 
1. The First Cut Is The Cheapest
‘The first cut is usually the cheapest. I see so many of the new traders who are unable to take a loss. They hold on to their position for too long. They don’t understand that I too am wrong more times that I am right, but I cut the trade the moment I am in doubt. That first cut has kept me alive in the pit for 20 years.’
 
15 Minute Bar Chart of Crude Oil with red Simple Moving Average of 60 bars:
Price goes where the Other Time Frame Traders have their Stop (Loss) or Limit (Buy or Sell) Orders: Around Highs and Lows of previous
1 Hour and 4 Hour Bars, Sessions, Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters, Years, 3 Years.
Look for Peak Formations a.k.a. Reversal Patterns around these Levels (QM Patterns, V-, M-, W Formations).
Dotted blue horizontals = Yesterday's High and Low
Blue solid horizontals = Last Week's High and Low
Red Solid Horizontal = Last Months High and Low.
See also HERE

2. The Market is Efficient
He also told me about the nature of the market: ‘The market is efficient. It wants to go where the orders are. These orders can be stop (loss) orders or limit (buy or sell) orders. I asked him to elaborate and he said: ‘often the market will go to a certain price just to make sure as many people are filled as possible, and then it reverses. We say in the pit that they push them up to take them down.’

3. Trend Days Are The Best
I asked him about intraday trends. He told me he had the advantage of being able to see the orders from the brokers. His best days were ‘trend days’, where the market continues in one direction all day. This point was aired by others I met in the pit. If a good trend was developing intraday, these guys would press it for all it was worth, irrespective of who was on the other side of the trade. They were never concerned about whether the market technicals were overbought or oversold. The only thing they had in mind was to press it as high or as low as they could before the bell rang.

Quoted from:
Tom Hougaard (2011) - Trading at the Top: Trading Tips and Strategies from a Professional Trader.

See also:

The Lost Momentum Trend Following Strategy | Tom Hougaard

A dear child has many names. The strategy below is called ‘lost momentum’ in my vocabulary, but it no doubt has other names too. It is in essence a form of trend-following strategy.
 

Ingredient No. 1: Define the Trend
I recommend using a simple or exponential moving average (MA) of more than 50 bars. Some have reported good results with the 62 period MA. I don’t want you to get too bogged down with rigid definitions. You are looking for a trending market, which trades above your chosen MA, and the MA is pointing up (for long positions – reverse the instructions below for short positions).

Ingredient No. 2: Define your Time Frame
You can use this technique on any time frame. I find it lends itself very well to day trading on the 15-minute chart, and swing trading on the four-hour chart.

Set-Up for 'Buy Signal'
Your chosen market is trading above your MA indicator and the MA is pointing up. If you observe that the market is taking out a previous low (that previous low must be at least 8 bars prior to the current bar), you now wait until the market closes back above the price point of the previous low. That is your buy signal.
 
[...] The technique stems from the observation that even in a trending market you will often find that price dips below a previous low, only to immediately resume its trend higher. All I attempt to do is to trade in the direction of the trend defined by the moving average. I reverse the instruction above for selling. 
 
[...] In the morning, around 8 am, I look at what the high over the overnight range is. I then wait for the market to take out either the high or the low of the range. If, and only if, the market then trades back into the range, after having taking out the high or the low of the range, I prepare an order to enter the market at the 62 per cent retracement over the range. This order comes complete with a stop and a target too. It doesn’t trigger every day though.

Quoted from:
Tom Hougaard (2011) - Trading at the Top: Trading Tips and Strategies from a Professional Trader.
 

W.D. Gann's Personal Daily Bread & Butter Trading Strategy | Tom Hougaard

I want to tell you about a world famous trader named W. D. Gann. He wrote many courses on trading, some of which were exceptionally esoteric in content. Gann was supposedly a very clever man, so it came as no surprise to me that the man who made his millions selling forecasts to people actually made his money from a remarkably simple trading method.
 

My friend and trading partner David Paul once spent a whole summer at the British Library, researching past wheat and beans prices, and tracking Gann’s trades to get to the nitty gritty of his actual trading strategy. His conclusion was startling. He told me that ‘Gann simply traded double tops and lows in the direction of the daily trend, nothing more, nothing less’. After eight weeks in the archives of the library he was adamant that what Gann wrote in his courses and what he traded were two very different things. Maybe the lesson for all of us is to keep things as simple as possible.

Quoted from:
Tom Hougaard (2011) - Trading at the Top: Trading Tips and Strategies from a Professional Trader.

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Accumulation & Distribution Schematics | Richard D. Wyckoff


An understanding of manipulative procedure in any-event helps us to judge the motives, the hopes, fears and, aspirations of all the buyers and sellers whose actions today have the same net effect upon the market as 30 many pool operations would have. So if we are squeamish about the term "manipulator" we may substitute the words "Composite Operator" with the same force and affect. Some people might object to this statement on the ground that regulation of the stock market has eliminated pool operations. Even though pool operations and old-fashioned manipulation are banned by law, for our purpose in studying, understanding and correctly interpreting market action, we must consider any operation a "manufactured" movement wherein the buying or the selling is sufficiently concerted and coming from interests better informed than the public as to produce the same effects as pure manipulation. 

[...] The market is made by the minds of men, and all the fluctuations in the market and in all the various stocks should be studied as if they were the result of one man’s operations. Let us call him the Composite Man, who, in theory, sits behind the scenes and manipulates the stocks to your disadvantage if you do not understand the game as he plays it; and to your great profit if you do understand it.

Great activity and breadth induces trading in large quantities by big operators on the floor and outside. Such a market enables the manipulator to unload a large line of stock. When he wishes to accumulate a line, he raids the market for that stock, makes it look very weak, and gives it the appearance of heavy liquidation by sending in selling orders through a great number of brokers.

You say all this is unethical, if not unscrupulous. You say it is a cruel and crooked game. Very well. Electricity can be very cruel, but you can take advantage of it; you can make it work for your benefit. Just so with the stock market and the Composite Man. Play the game as he plays it. I am giving you the inside view.

 

See also:

 

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Range, 3 Day SMA, Day Counts & Reversal Harbingers

A day in which there is a new high followed by a lower close is a downwards reversal day (RB). An upwards reversal day is a new low followed by a higher close. A reversal day by itself is not significant unless it can be put into context with a larger price pattern, such as a clear trend with sharply increasing volatility, or a reversal that occurs at the highest or lowest price of the past few weeks. Short-term reversals are likely after wide-ranging (WR4) and narrow-ranging days (NR4), especially when the open, high, low and close of the daily price bar are altogether above or below of a simple three-day moving average line of daily close prices.

A wide-ranging day is likely to be the result of a price shock, unexpected news, or a breakout in which many orders trigger one another, causing a large increase in volatility. A wide-ranging day could turn out to be a spike or an island reversal. Because very high volatility cannot be sustained, a wide-ranging day will likely be followed by a reversal, or at least a pause. When a wide-ranging day occurs, the direction of the close (if the close is near the high or low) is a strong indication of the continued direction. An outside day (OB) often precedes a reversal. An outside day can also be a wide-ranging day if the volatility is high, but when volatility is low and the size of the bar is slightly longer than the previous bar, it is a weak signal. As with so many other chart patterns, if one day has an unusually small trading range, followed by an outside day of normal volatility, there is very little information in the pattern. Context and selection are important.

An inside day (IB) is one where the high is lower than the previous high and the low is higher than the previous low. That is, an inside day is one where both the highs and lows are inside the previous day’s trading range. An inside day represents a narrow range consolidation and lower volatility. In turn, lower volatility is most often associated with the end of a price move. After a burst of activity and a surge of direction, price has reached a point where buyers are already in and price has moved too far to attract more buyers. Volume drops, volatility drops, and an inside day follows. An inside day is definitely followed by a breakout, either into a continuation of the previous trend or into a change of direction.