A Professional Approach to Trading Futures

[steven46]

Hello nero

I recommend that struggling traders begin by looking at the free YouTube videos available from Dr. Al Brooks,
from Trader Dale, and others including Ross at Warrior Trading. If that is sufficient, they will not need me.
Professionally I am impressed with Trader Dale's method of using Volume Profile, however I am NOT impressed
with concepts like so called "Smart Money". In my opinion, they are attempts to monetize systems that are
dubious at best.

As far as buying books, that is just fine too, however it costs money and because we are all different, some people
may not be able to learn from books alone. For example I have read books by Dr. Brooks, and I find them difficult
to follow. I heard one of his associates say that he "suffered through" some of his books. I notice that Dr. Brooks has
a website (Price Action Trading) and a daily chat room that is subscription based. I would look at the YouTube videos
first and then think about buying his books or joining his room. Conserve your money first.

Here on this website, I have posted quite a bit of content, and some of it may be of value, if read slowly and carefully
No cost there. Recently I have started to LiveStream my daily trading on Twitch. I am new to this, and am still working out
the details. My LiveStream is called "Steve46Trades". No Charge for now. I just want struggling traders to see how I
prepare and how I make decisions. My system is much different than any that you will see, because I was taught by
an institutional trader. I use different language, and a different way of "framing" the market. An observer might think
"Well" how different can he be from others?" and the answer is "like night and day" I suggest traders go elsewhere
and see what is being offered in other threads, and other websites, first. If they find success, how fortunate, no need
to return to this subject. Ultimately we will all be just fine.

Good luck

 

[nero1]

''''''''''I don't believe there are many edges to retail traders, we don't have inside information. An indicator, open source and available to everyone cannot provide an edge in my opinion.
Please, please, everybody bear in mind that professional traders make their money from one of a few ways, either a cut of the spread, a commission on trades, arbitrage or a salary as a liquidity provider.
There are very, very few professional (or retail) traders who make consistent money from directional trading.''''''''''
Thats what JASON 101 said and he knows very well markets.

I

Thread 'For those using technical analysis, which indicators have actually stayed reliable for you over time?'

Nov 29, 2025

I’ve noticed that a lot of traders constantly switch indicators when a setup stops working for a while. I’m curious about the opposite: the tools that have stuck with you.

• ImogenBeaumont
• Replies: 20
• Forum: General Trading Chat

• 

Ten years ago in my thread it was the moderator TRADER333 said '' hedge funds cannot consistently out perform the index''

I will add that institutions generally,are either investors, or they are insiders or they trade in one direction mainly in the bullish side always, becouse if they try to trade both sides they will go bankrupt. And generally institutions are not proffessional traders,so the term pros trade that and this is a false statement

 

[nero1]

Hello nero

I recommend that struggling traders begin by looking at the free YouTube videos available from Dr. Al Brooks,
from Trader Dale, and others including Ross at Warrior Trading. If that is sufficient, they will not need me.
Professionally I am impressed with Trader Dale's method of using Volume Profile, however I am NOT impressed
with concepts like so called "Smart Money". In my opinion, they are attempts to monetize systems that are
dubious at best.

As far as buying books, that is just fine too, however it costs money and because we are all different, some people
may not be able to learn from books alone. For example I have read books by Dr. Brooks, and I find them difficult
to follow. I heard one of his associates say that he "suffered through" some of his books. I notice that Dr. Brooks has
a website (Price Action Trading) and a daily chat room that is subscription based. I would look at the YouTube videos
first and then think about buying his books or joining his room. Conserve your money first.

Here on this website, I have posted quite a bit of content, and some of it may be of value, if read slowly and carefully
No cost there. Recently I have started to LiveStream my daily trading on Twitch. I am new to this, and am still working out
the details. My LiveStream is called "Steve46Trades". No Charge for now. I just want struggling traders to see how I
prepare and how I make decisions. My system is much different than any that you will see, because I was taught by
an institutional trader. I use different language, and a different way of "framing" the market. An observer might think
"Well" how different can he be from others?" and the answer is "like night and day" I suggest traders go elsewhere
and see what is being offered in other threads, and other websites, first. If they find success, how fortunate, no need
to return to this subject. Ultimately we will all be just fine.

Good luck

In order to save people time i will say that they should not read al brooks books,not anything that he writes or say,
some concepts of price action are useful so reading a couple of books,can be useful not overcomplicate stuff like brooks books but generally price action is used by amateurs,so its not the holy grail that retails think it is.
Proffesionals in general dont sell courses, i have repeatedly said that again and again and again and i dont know how many posts
i will have to write that. People should never pay for education becouse they will just get scammed by legit scammers who sell
overpriced crap.

As for the multimillion traders who sell courses in the internet, cryptocurrencies have made many people millionnaires
if someone sell courses i can say for sure that they are selling overpriced crap.

 

[nero1]

In order to save people time i will say that they should not read al brooks books,not anything that he writes or say,
some concepts of price action are useful so reading a couple of books,can be useful not overcomplicate stuff like brooks books but generally price action is used by amateurs,so its not the holy grail that retails think it is.
Proffesionals in general dont sell courses, i have repeatedly said that again and again and again and i dont know how many posts
i will have to write that. People should never pay for education becouse they will just get scammed by legit scammers who sell
overpriced crap.

As for the multimillion traders who sell courses in the internet, cryptocurrencies have made many people millionnaires
if someone sell courses i can say for sure that they are selling overpriced crap.

There is a guy in youtube who is selling volume profile,in his ad he is saying that you should not use candlesticks and you should use his stuff becouse the institutions use these .
i laugh every time i see his ad and i imagine he is a multimilionnaire by now with all the victims he has sold his packages.
He is not a scammer, someone who sells for a few thousand dollars something that you can find with 50 dollars is legit.
What about patterns,patterns are used by amateurs,and all these institutional set ups etc are amateur staff,institutions are not proffesional traders.

I personally have predicted the major collapse of 2008 and the collapse of greece in 2009 just by volume and candlesticks,i have never read a book.
How much a couple of books about interprating volume will cost,100 dollars? If someone is lazy and have a lot of money from property to spend
he can always pay a mentor of course, it will cost a few thousand dolllars only and instead of losing all the money in markets he will help aomeone to buy an expensive car with his money,its a good deal,its like a charity...

 

[steven46]

Well there you go, a person who "personally predicted the Major collapse of 2008", just by volume and candlesticks!
Apparently we should all be learning from you..... Congratulations! You have come along at just the right time.
My suggestion is that you start a thread of your own and outline your method for forecasting the next crash
so that interested persons can benefit. We look forward to learning all about it.

Good luck

 

[steven46]

And Now, for those who want to move forward with my more "pedestrian" method
we attach our "2 Day Markup" and our 4 Hour & Daily charts

Based on these two charts, we will 1) Identify Regimes, and 2) create a preliminary
prediction. The prediction will be subject to revision as more data is generated during
Asia & London Sessions.
-------------------
Upon closer examination of the charts, we have the following comment

The most important features of today's price action were the absence of
a "Santa Claus" Rally, the drift lower on light volume during the open and
a late session break to the downside, resulting in a "liquidity sweep" and
gap fill. This late session sweep displayed characteristics of an "exhaustion"
move, and depending on price action during the next Asia and London
session, we could see a reversal. Concurrent with this, we saw a significant
MOC order imbalance of 111,000 contracts at 12:55 PST/9pm London time.
This imbalance could signal a "Drift" condition during the next London Session.
-----------------------

What the late-session gap-fill and flush actually told us​

The end-of-session drive:

• completed a measured objective (gap fill)
• occurred into thin liquidity late NY
• swept resting stops below obvious reference levels
• extended far from daily anchored VWAPs
• occurred with selling pressure into known downside targets

That is classic exhaustion behavior.

To confirm a possible reversal, we would need to see what we call "Reclaim"
behavior as follows

• failure to make new session lows
• higher low relative to the exhaustion print
• aggressive responsive buyers at yesterday’s low
• reclaim of NY session VWAP

If sellers were truly done, price should trade below value and get rejected.

Key institutional tell:

• Rejection below value → reversal likely
• Acceptance below value → trend continuation

Acceptance = multiple 30–60 min closes + rotation building value lower.

Reversal bias improves dramatically if:

• price reclaims session VWAP
• price reclaims prior day VWAP
• anchored VWAP from the recent high flattens then turns

If VWAP acts as resistance and holds, shorts still control.

How to trade an Exhaustion Move & Possible Reversal during
next session

• let sellers push early next session
• see if price fails to continue
• enter after:
  
  • VWAP reclaim
  • higher low structure
  • delta divergence
  • value rejection

That’s how institutions enter reversals:


Good luck

 

[nero1]

Well there you go, a person who "personally predicted the Major collapse of 2008", just by volume and candlesticks!
Apparently we should all be learning from you..... Congratulations! You have come along at just the right time.
My suggestion is that you start a thread of your own and outline your method for forecasting the next crash
so that interested persons can benefit. We look forward to learning all about it.

Good luck

I have done that, i have real live trades in my threads, and i am not selling anything ,i dont see live trades from you and i imagine i will never see.becouse its not good for your image.
I will wait to see how good trader you are by buying and selling in real time just like i have done, to show your ...clients that you are the real deal and not a snake oil salesman. You have got a lot to lose if you do live trades in here becouse people will realise your true value and not what you pretend you are.

Not a neverending buyer in a bull market ,show us how you make a living every day,you say you do it for 18 years, are you afraid?
You will show us a chart where you have bought and a chart where you sold in real time like i have done, We all here are waiting ...are you afraid to do live trades?

 

[Rufus_Leakey]

I have done that, i have real live trades in my threads, and i am not selling anything ,i dont see live trades from you and i imagine i will never see.becouse its not good for your image.
I will wait to see how good trader you are by buying and selling in real time just like i have done, to show your ...clients that you are the real deal and not a snake oil salesman. You have got a lot to lose if you do live trades in here becouse people will realise your true value and not what you pretend you are.

Not a neverending buyer in a bull market ,show us how you make a living every day,you say you do it for 18 years, are you afraid?
You will show us a chart where you have bought and a chart where you sold in real time like i have done, We all here are waiting ...are you afraid to do live trades?

Wow! How impressive that you have posted trades. And you're helping hedge fund managers, too!

Every 10 minutes a hedge fund manager is looking my thread waiting for my calls

@steven46, on the other hand, is posting his trading methods for free. Which do you think is more valuable for readers?

 

[steven46]

Hello Rufus_Leakey

I don't see much upside to further engagement with this person. His use of language and incoherent
thought patterns suggest issues that I am not qualified to address. I do however feel a sense of sadness
and compassion. Oh Well, for all the good that does
------------------------

For the next session, please refer to my previous comment, where I try to show traders how an institutional
professional begins to evaluate market behavior. That post starts with a review and preliminary prediction

Before we go further, let me point something out. At the end of the previous New York Session, which would be
about 8:50pm London time, THAT 5 minute candle displayed big down volume, much more than the preceding and
subsequent candles. This is known as an "MOC (Market on Close)" imbalance, and it is often the precursor to a reversal.
*In my previous post, I outline how this might happen. Interested traders should review and work out the logic for themselves
(or ask me questions). Understanding this, and planning ahead for this possibility is how skilled traders obtain an edge
That edge is real, meaning that if I see a reversal develop, I can 1) figure out where to enter, 2) position my stop loss and
profit targets ahead of time, and 3) Hold with a measure of confidence, knowing that although I could be wrong, the odds
favor success. Institutional players have a phrase for this, and it is called "Trading your Playbook".

For interested traders, local weather tomorrow in California is expected to be cloudy with chance of rain. As usual we cannot know
if we will have power outages (again) but we are prepared (we will use our generator if necessary), and we will attempt to
LiveStream our session (on Twitch) under the name "Steve46Trades". If interested parties cannot find me, I will check back
here periodically and I can offer an invitation to enter on my Zoom platform (I don't know how many I can invite but I will
do what I can). I will start at approx 1:30pm London Time, with a pre-market comment and outline of the trading plan.

More to follow

Good luck

 

[steven46]

Hello London & Euro Traders
It is 2:40am in The City

The attached chart shows a 2 day view of the most recent NY to Asia price action
The chart is marked up to show the important details. The previous post provides
important context. We were taught that "Context is Everything". Please refer to it
THEN, as Asia connects to London, watch for either continuation, acceptance, or
rejection at each "Key Reference". Price decides everything. Right now, price is
"reclaiming" territory to the upside. Will that continue? Time will tell.

Good Luck

 

[steven46]

Hello London & Euro Traders
It is 4:30am in The City

This chart is the extension of the previous. It shows the continuing attempt to "reclaim"
Previous POC (an important Key Reference). As with any attempt to reclaim territory
the real question is, "will price be accepted above or will it be rejected lower"
Trades take notice, that price stalls at the POC for the duration of several candles,
while the institutions sort it out.

I assume intelligent readers will see this (pointed out prior to the occurrence) as
a strong indicating that I am speaking from experience.

That is it for me.

Good luck

 

[nero1]

Wow! How impressive that you have posted trades. And you're helping hedge fund managers, too!

View attachment 345308

@steven46, on the other hand, is posting his trading methods for free. Which do you think is more valuable for readers?

the only thing of value i see here is a guy who is terrified to make actual trades in real time and he is promoting his name as the guru for profit.
100% of these trading rooms are scams, i have said that proffesionals dont do mentoring ,price acrion gurus do mentoring,noone really use price action
except amateurs who can trade in one direction only,and he knows that better than me

 

[nero1]

The exhustion candle will soon become a continuation candle,but noone will have sorted in real time the exhustion candle
so nobody will laugh with the guru, who is trying to sort the exhustion candle.
It would be a good laugh to see you sort s@p500 with a 4 hour candle and then see you how you handle this trade
but we both know this is not going to happen, you will continue the same (lessons), without any actual trade.

 

[steven46]

The impression you present is of a person mentally impaired by drugs or alcohol, so much so
that you are unable to type a grammatically correct sentence.

Exhaustion candles, when they form, do not usually "continue", instead, as the name
implies, when they run out of steam, price reverses. We posted a chart with 15 minute
candles showing how this reversal occurs, as price "reclaims" territory lost previously.
You missed it entirely. I suggest you find a mental health professional willing to help you.
Come back when you are feeling better, and when you have learned to type a proper
English sentence (you pathetic sod.)

Finally, for the moderator and whomever else may run this website, please consider.
This person is obviously unable to contribute anything to this thread. In addition, others
are starting to notice the disruption. Suggest you remove him or her.
Thank you for your consideration.

 

[nero1]

The impression you present is of a person mentally impaired by drugs or alcohol, so much so
that you are unable to type a grammatically correct sentence.

Exhaustion candles, when they form, do not usually "continue", instead, as the name
implies, when they run out of steam, price reverses. We posted a chart with 15 minute
candles showing how this reversal occurs, as price "reclaims" territory lost previously.
You missed it entirely. I suggest you find a mental health professional willing to help you.
Come back when you are feeling better, and when you have learned to type a proper
English sentence (you pathetic sod.)

Finally, for the moderator and whomever else may run this website, please consider.
This person is obviously unable to contribute anything to this thread. In addition, others
are starting to notice the disruption. Suggest you remove him or her.
Thank you for your consideration.

Well ,you are obviously here to promote yourself and find clients, no problem with that,
I have tried repeatedly to protect people from giving money to people for mentoring
UNLESS the mentor is willing to trade live in both sides repeatedly. You obviously dont want to do that.
I feel that i am obligated to tell the truth to people who are willing to give money for mentoring.
As long as you start giving external links for trading rooms,i know where that leads to.

Iam not intersted in you personally.
Your thread just gave me the opportunity to tell people that there are not mentors
to make them rich. There is not such a think as an education for trading. People who can gain money
from trading are not mentoring people.

 

[steven46]

And here is a chart for our special visitor, who doesn't seem to know the difference between
continuation and reversal. The rest of you (I'm sure) can see that the market reversed several hours
ago. and now (London opened an hour ago) price has been accepted above the POC..... While this poor
sod is STILL trying to explain him (or her) self. Its almost painful, like a standup comedian who no matter how
hard they try just can't tell a joke.

I am so done with this crap

Good luck

 

[steven46]

And for those who may want to trade the London session
the same chart with a mark up (green arrow) showing the
preferred entry for a long. For our "Special Needs" guest
I have used larger text and a big green arrow to show an entry
after the first pullback. We hope the logic is not to complex
to be followed. This entry would have already produced +10
and so we would expect a profit taking pullback at this point

I am going to get some sleep before trying to trade NY Session.

Good luck

 

[steven46]

Good Afternoon London & Euro Traders
It is 1:36pm in The City and we are about an hour from
the start of the S&P 500 Futures Open

I am informed that our "visitor" has been blocked "temporarily" from posting to
this thread. Human behavior is interesting. The person was essentially "tagging"
the thread like a teenager with a can of spray paint. Nothing of value to say, just
wanted to have a "moment" to express his incoherent viewpoint.

As regards the market, it is up "overnight" (from the perspective of the US traders)
and that is because institutions provided a risk premium at the end of the previous
session in the form of a MOC imbalance of about 100,000 contracts. The result was
a reversal that has held up fairly well and now we shall see whether it "has legs"

Notice if you will, that when price tested the dashed blue line (Previous Value Area High)
that traders took profit, and the market stalled there. We did not trade this (we were sleeping)
Had we been trading we would have also taken profit at this point, standing aside until the open
to observe and wait for the next time based opportunity. At this point common sense should
prevail (one would think) and we will look for a pullback followed by another leg higher as
the "Santa Claus Rally" continues for the next couple of days.

That is all for now

Good luck

 

[steven46]

Busy start to the session
No requests for invitation, so we were streaming on Twitch under "Steve46trades"

We monitored the first 15 minutes, 1) missing a profitable short, then we took a 2) small
loss on a long attempt that failed, and finally 3) we hit a nice +10 long entry winner as
shown on the attached chart. Interested persons can ask questions about the logic

We assume those following will remember that we predicted a long reversal yesterday
and that the basis for our long trades (one small loss, one +10 win) was that logic.
That logic was developed by evaluating the higher time frame first, then identifying the
"regime" accurately, and finally, as the London market confirmed, we then stepped in
during the NY Session open, and took that risk.. We ESTIMATE that we are +7 or +8 net of
commissions.

Good luck

 

[steven46]

This is the primary reason why skilled folks do not post on sites like this
It distracts us from the reason we are trading (to make money)
While posting, the market reversed and we discovered it on return to the Live
Stream on Twitch. Price failed at the DVAH and reversed while we were typing
Sad, but not the end of the world. Attaching the chart
Notice that this happened at the end of our initial balance (30 minutes is what we
use as IB). Poor time management on our part. We will learn from it and make
sure we don't let it happen again

Postscript

Apparently the market dropped lower on news that Trump's tariffs are hurting
the economy. My news feed, (If I had been monitoring it) showed the headline
and about 5 min later the market tanked.