Daytrading - entry exit signals

At present I am working off of 3 chart timescales the 5 and 15 minute and to a lesser extent the 1 min chart.

I tend to favour the 5 minute chart and look to supporting pivots from a closing line chart with Bollinger Bands and a 4 period SMA. I use the same settings on the 15 minute chart except that I have a 2 period SMA.

Personally I would prefer to work from a 3 and 10 minute chart but I am currently working with CMC charts but intend to move over to esignal. I find the 1 minute provide to many false signals and the 15 minute can be to long so a balance maybe provided by the 3 and 10.

Anyway my question for those of you out there that daytrade watching the charts and price closely. How do you approach a situation where it appears a signal to buy or sell presents itself during the current period where the chart is yet to be updated.

In other words there appears within the 5 minutes tick a possible higher lower pivot appearing on the line chart as the price passes the previous 5 minute close. Is this sufficient to support your entry or is it a case of holding on to see this movement confirmed with a plotted closing position. I have to say that often the price tumbles further having given such a signal. This is a particular problem for me when applying it to the 15 minute chart looking for reversal points. By applying the supporting pivot approach on the 5 minute chart I do rather well and there are a lot of signals throughout the day, obviously using this method on the 15 minute chart the deals are rather restricted but offer bigger gains. If you include the intraday price cycle reversals on the 15 minute chart then there tend to be around 5 -7 good deals a day, if you get the reversal right that is.

Would be interested in any views

regards Kevin

If you're using d4f your going to find it tough - quite frankly the d4f charting sucks. However my advice to you would be to ditch the bollinger bands, and your fast sma's. Replace with either RSI, macd or Stochastics and try a 20 period ema on the 5min chart. Unfortunatly with d4f you will run out of screen space with more than one bottom indicator up.

When you get esignal ditch that setup as well and try the 3min charts with 34ema, and use CCI for entry/exit. Remain aware of the price action but with this setup you would get better results with following cci setups rather than price.

As far as waiting for the price bar to close goes - I tend to anticipate provided I have other confirmation signals - otherwise wait for the close on a similair setup on the 1min charts.

Hope that helps - I don't mean to lecture - just my way.

Hi Nickw

thanks for advice I set my charts with the tools because of the poor display from the lower indicators so I had to adapt and this I find is the best way to use CMC charts. I do not like their RSI.

I have heard others mention CCI positively but have not had access to it but will when I sign up with ESIGNAL. Who do you use. What is the significance of the 34 EMA.

I have adapted my trading style so that I can use CMC for small point gains but with better software hope to identify better positions.

regards Kevin

My dealer is IB and I use TradeStation and QuoteTracker.

The 34ema gives you the trend. The 100ema on the 1min is watched by many.

Here you go Kevin:

A site frequented by CCI traders and expert "Fitzy."

http://www.talkstox.com/forum/showth...6237#post16237


And a UK site for Eurostoxx50 traders who use the CCI...Helen created the site.

http://www.eurostoxx50.co.uk/

Look for posts by"TBS...The Blind Squirrel" a full time trader.

Thanks for that info and a lot for me to go through.

I am aware that people use CCI a lot for the US and it is rather similar to RSI which I have used to good effect on UK shares.
Does CCI work in a similar way as RSI, failure swings (top/bottom)- divergence in additon to its own trendline and crossover. Can it be used to good effect on any instrument like the FTSE or is it best used with the DOW or S & P 500.

regards Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Yes it works very like RSI, patterns, trends divergence etc. As well as 0/100+/- crosses and rejects. It works well on the FTSE and the STOXX and on the Dow. Have yet to try it on the Dax or S&P.

As we are talking about entries and exits for daytrading no one has mentioned the level 2 Nasdaq screen.Here is a chart from the t/a and level 2 thread were i closed the first part of my week long short trade and posted it live at the time at 18.07.I believe adding Nasdaq level 2 skills to your trading arsenal alows traders to become even better exponents of entering and exiting a stock?

These entries and exits are found by Nasdaq traders who use NO oscillators or moving averages at all and yet can find turning points with very good accuracy.