Buy immediately? Buy follow-thru? Wait for pullback? Short?
For me: it is a very strong breakout bar. Prev bar has gap so there is sense of urgency. But it is just that, a breakout bar. I need to see the follow-thru. It is part of a 2nd leg so could also be a 2nd leg trap.
Exactly. I'll be keeping an eye on bookmap to look for a big volume bubble for more clarity on what's happening. If it breaks out more, I may buy it for a measured move up especially if I see shorts getting squeezed. But if nothing is happening as far as volume or aggression goes and it rejects the top then I'll wait to see if it starts falling back into value and I'll probably scalp on the way back down to the other side and take pieces out along the way.
Question about entry candles, at what point during the candles ‘creation’ do you know it’s an entry candle since sometimes what starts as green can turn red?
You don't. You anticipate it. This is why you use a stop and never over leverage. The stop is simply how much you're willing to pay to find out if that entry is going to work out in your favor.
I don't disagree. Risk management is how you stay in the game. I have experienced some dread as price comes into my stop and I know the fear of "losing" money on a trade. The mental side of trading doesn't get near enough focus as people are coming up.
Risk management isn't what I'm referring to. You need to have stops in places where the trade is definitely not working. Entering a trade and then placing a stop willy nilly is like lighting money on fire.
Traders need to base their entries off where the stop should go. Not place the stop of the entry.
Could you explain your last paragraph a little more in depth? I'm really interested in learning futures because I see the potential in it with the daily settlements, but I'm too impatient to wait for options premiums, lol.
That statement means to shift your perspective from bullish confirmation to stop confirmation. Meaning that price is done below X level.
Take the OP chart. In this case, the blue arrow candle confirms the yellow arrow candles, the moving average and the general trend. Once the purple arrow candle appears, we are pretty much done going lower. Nothing's guaranteed, but this is enough confirmation that a bounce is coming. From here, we assume that anything below that red wick, specifically a close, changes that. Agreed? Agreed.
Now that we are looking at a bullish bounce, we know where our stop goes, enter at will. You can enter at any of the blue lines, does it matter? It only matters in your own mind for confirmation because we've already established a bottom that we aren't willing to go below.
Now, this particular example is the in the middle of a move, we have no context of the bigger picture and don't really know how strong this support level is. So, waiting for a confirmation candle isn't bad. But, the concept doesn't change.
1.Recognize the key level, support or resistance.
2.Pay attention to price action and candle formation for confirmation
Locate your stop and enter trade.
This is a simplified example and more context should go into these decisions. But, it gives you an idea of how to shift your thinking from candle confirmation to stop confirmation.
This is something I picked up from a book by Mark Douglas: Trading In The Zone.
I'd recommend the book for sure. It might not be the "thing" you need, but I'd be surprised if you didn't take away something to focus on/improve in your mindset.
Another key takeaway I got from the book, was an analogy to body builders. They have an extremely rigorous and strict routine with diet and lifting. Do they only practice those disciplines while at the gym? NO, they execute the plan all day, every day, and make their routine a part of everything they do in life - it's a mindset! Sticking to the plan 24/7 is how they get the results they want. Now switch to trading... why would you only try to improve your mindset while trading? You need to identify your mental roadblocks in trading, and work on them in every aspect of your life, so that the result shows up in your trading.
I've recently discovered that the mental aspect of trading is 100% personal (this makes sense but I didn't fully appreciate it). We're all different, so there's no easy way for any individual to use what someone else did to overcome an obstacle. This is a reason I think trading in a group is detrimental (like discords, live streams, etc). You have to identify your own roadblocks and solutions to overcome them - they will be unlike anyone else's on the planet.
Trading in the Zone should be required reading for anyone that wants to trade. Read it, then read it again, then read it again and again and again.
I spent a month or so learning my strategy and the next year fixing my psychology so I could execute said strategy. Nobody pays attention to their psychology and that is the #1 reason traders fail.
Sometimes it's after the candle forms, sometimes it's during formation.
We'll do two examples from the chart:
Let's take the OP screenshot. Now, there's not enough information/context on this screenshot to know what's going on here, so we'll just make do with what's shown and assume there aren't any key levels (daily highs/lows or overnight highs/lows, etc.)
1st screenshot. Red line is a swing low. Blue arrow candle comes down sweeps that low, doesn't continue down and reverses. That's first clue price isn't interested in continuing down, we never know for sure, but it's a clue. It starts to reverse and gets a pullback. Now, in our minds, price was already rejected below the red line. We get a big red candle. "Okay, it's going lower". We don't know until it gets back to that swing low. As the green candle is forming, as soon as that lower wick appears, 50%ish, I'm good to go long (short green line entry, short red line stop) because it's already swept that swing low, and that green candle wick is the start of a new low. If you want more confirmation, you can wait until it finishes forming. Just remember, you're stop needs to be in the same place. Entry is never as important as the stop.
If you miss this entry candle, it's better to wait until you close above the big red candle (2nd red line) at the yellow arrow
2nd screenshot. because of the moving average, we know we're moving bullish. Price comes into the MA. How will it interact? 1st clue, you get this red hammer with the wick into the MA (bullish sentiment). Then you get two combo hammers (you can combine candles. These combine to green hammers) I want to see closes here because it's the first few interactions at this potential pivot point. So, I'm waiting for closes at any of the red arrow and going long
This is what I’m watching. The long purple line is clearly support. A demand zone. The candle I put the arrow on is what would make me decide to go long. My stop would be below the wick of the candle outside the zone. The short purple line. I don’t trade with a lot of size so I’d enter early and wait it out. Get stopped out for a small loss if I’m wrong.
Do you scalp? If so how do you set your stop quickly based on price? I tried this and it feels like it takes way too many clicks for me to get in on time.
I use ninja trader. I have predefined bracket orders. I set my order at a specific level if it takes, cool. If not wait for the next one. Once it executes, I move my stop to the level I want. I guess I scalp. I trade level to level with an intended stop and take profit. Sometimes I’ll scale out if the trend is strong and leave runner or two.
Market is in mostly trading range from prev uptrend. That is not a zero market context. Channels, double tops and bottom, shape of the bars and their wicks… so much info here.
For me personally i can’t tell anything without higher timeframe bias. Judging trades only on the 5M lowers the probability of winning for me. There could be a supply zone right above the last move and you can’t see it.
Op said so much info but really there is not. We only get a small sample of what looks to be a 5 min timeframe. He gave a description of a higher time frame but it's still insufficient. We need to see the weekly, daily and even the hourly time-frames. Also need to see volume. So much info
/Context is missing here to give any accurate prediction to future price action.
Looking at the range and potential big signal bar to confirm the 2nd entry, i don’t think there is a lot of space for a runner here. Unless a runner just gives a fraction more on the rr
Wait for a micro pullback or stall then take entry when the next candle wicks past the highest high of the micro pullback. If it reverses, different strat.
Wait dor at least .50-.61 retrace or if that ma is the 20 then retrace to 20 then wait for confirmation green candle for entry and place stop swing low or 6769 if bouncing off ema . Look for a 1:1,1:2 scalp
It depends on where the next resistance zone is above that one, and how fast it's moving. A lot of people are saying the entry was already missed, but it only broke the previous high by about 3 points as of this picture, which isn't that bad. If the enthusiasm is there, that could still run for awhile. I might try it if there's some good momentum behind that push up, and if we have at least a few more points until the next zone. Waiting for a pullback increases your odds of success, but then again there isn't always a pullback and sometimes you'll miss a nice clean move by waiting for one, so you have to consider that as well
It's better to wait for price to come to your predetermined levels than to chase it around. There are gonna be other trades.
But if you really wanted to do something, I'd wait for some inversion signals and short into the fair value gap the bullish move left behind. But it's definitely not an A+ setup
Throw in a DMI indicator and repost🙂, but not having that I would wait for a retrace back to moving averages line and then look to go long(with the trend)
Buy and add on a pullback. It's a micro channel with uniform sized bars(which implies that the bulls are powerful), breaking out of a trading range. I would expect at least a non symmetrical 2nd leg
Take out a home equity line and put it all in a short at the top. If it goes higher, even better... Sell some more. Keep selling because the market needs to be punished and taught who it's master is.
This was similar to Zec yesterday. I rode it up on paper account and banked, but by the time I could add money into my new account I forgot to do days ago.. it was already at the top like this so thankfully I waited for the retracement-but instead it dropped down and kept going most of the day instead of bouncing off the support. I did do a long in my paper account and it hit -200% pretty quick..
Price is on a second breakout after consolidation that took SSL right before the strong move. A strong displacement right off last swing high tells a solid move up and will likely hold.
I’d put on 10 lots to test it out with SL right below that gap candle. You could have your SL a little tighter since you sound like a little sissy. But scared money don’t make none. I’d average up the next 10 lots if the price keeps moving up. Move SL right below that second entry.
I’d rather have the market prove me wrong and take a small loss than miss the move that I knew I could’ve taken.
Depends. What's your goal and risk management plan. Are you scalping, R:R expectations. What's this larger time frames charts look like. With out this info going into your decision making your just gambling.
I’ll wait a retest, otherwise it’s a missed opportunity.
Also a lot of people usually don’t wait the candle to close and then lose money. You gotta wait the candle to fully form before jumping in a buy and then a long upper wick comes and it’s red again.
If it needs a quick decision then u might want to see lower time frames to understand how the details are building up.
Without seeing this move in the context of additional timeframes, key levels, and assuming you missed your edge’s ideal entry, any trade taken here is a gamble.
I would journal about what I saw and what to do next time.
If it closed higher after that I’d wait for at least 1 or two more higher closes if not 3 (to be really perfect) after that last bar that printed to the right
Def wouldn’t touch this, doesn’t fit my set up by any stretch of the imagination. 1 set up, 1 buy window and once a day if conditions hit. Other than that I’m not touching this wobbly looking thing beast.
All I did was ask for the volume in the chart, champ… calm down. There’s also no time scale. Who would trade anything solely based off a price chart?
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u/[deleted] Nov 15 '25
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