Wednesday, June 17, 2009

When Signals Align

This is a screenshot of one of my trading screens. In this case my target equity is the Qs but I'm using a variety of other charts to gauge relative direction and momentum.
At the lower left, under the Qs chart is the 2 minute NYAD, my #1 tattletale for being on the right side of the trade. I have frequently posted on the NYAD before, so I won't waste space being reduntant here.
Upper right is the IWM, with the same string of technical indicators as the Qs. When the IWM and the Qs get out of sync relative to hitting pivot points the odds for a pivot hit are great. In this case the IWM has already penetrated S1 to the downside so I know that the odds of the Qs getting down to the same level are about 100%.
Below the IWM chart are the "rollers" a great feature of the Schwab platform that I've not encountered on another platform and which is (so far) impossible to reproduce on TS. I use 3 of them, one for the NAZ, NYSE and the major indices and what they display is the daily high (green) or low (red) count on a tick by tick basis. The whole display scrolls as the counts change and, depending on the momentum of the market, can get rolling like a slot machine face in momo times. . hence "rollers". In this case everything is red except the VXD, which is the Dow VIX, which you would expect to react inverse to the market. This is bearish.
In the lower right is the TICK on 2 minute bars with an abbreviated stable of technical overlays. What I'm looking for here is the slope of the TICK and where it is relative to the zero line and the pivots. . .yes, the pivots.
As of this screenshot all signals were bearish and the trade was to short the Qs. And, although it took a little bit to get there, the Qs performed exactly as scripted and, in fact, closed at S1 for the day.

No comments: