Big Ben on the FTSE100

That's right pb - past experience suggests price will be late escaping from the narrower than usual BB zone and will struggle to complete its move to target in whichever direction it slithers off in.

I think I'll have a crack at the FTSE when we improve our 20-trade record to 10-10, which means holding off until Friday at least, assuming winners Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
 
Winner today - long at 5998 stop at 5986.5 limit at 6014.3. Was a little worried about the 6000 level but entered anyway as the system says enter
 
Well done Bartlby - Narrow BB range as per usual for a US holiday but I saw that price had crept up this am to what would have been my target if I'd been in - though I'm out of the FTSE at present until the performance stabilises.

Stayed out of my alternative, GBP/USD, owing to the 04/07 holiday and this was a good decision as it would have been very quickly stopped in the classic manner described for BB on US holidays.
 
The FTSE has been going up for the past 6 days in basically a straight line. Surely the shorts should start piling in today/tomorrow?
 
Ftse and Dax have both been going up that way - it started when it looked doubtful that Greece would approve the austerity package and that the EU would come up with more money - but then continued when Greece did pass the austerity measures etc. And now Moodys says the proposals for dealing with Greece amount to default and still no change.

But it has made the BB more effective - although I got had on the GPBUSD this morning - it poked above my entry price and then went the other way while I wasn't watching.
 
Hi kknehra - Could well be, but Big Ben trades don't always come off in the direction of the underlying trend (even if we could agree with what the underlying trend really is on any given day).

BB does seem to work best when there is agreement within the market as to whether they should be buying or selling, but that's not to say that a long wouldn't work on a down day or a short on an up day.

Some BB players only allow their day's trade to take one direction though, so I am sure some will be ignoring the long-side signal if the market starts to bomb.
 
My BB system only gives me trades in one direction. I've not been doing trading it long enough to see how the win rate compares to the standard BB used by Tomorton. Currently I've had 23 trades with 12 losing trades and 11 winning trades with a risk:reward ration of about 1:1.8
 
What would happen if you were to extend the time of the opening range? I know you used to use 8am-10am but what about 8am-12pm? If you are relying on a breakout of the 8-9 range and then the direction carrying on for the rest of the day, why not wait until it's already broken out and decided its direction then pick up your 13 points? If it isn't triggered by 1pm then cancel?

I haven't looked at any data to see if this is a good idea and I guess you've probably already thought about it but I was just thinking of other ways to improve.
 
Well brew, although I haven't heard of a strategy that uses the full am's price action to set the pm trade direction, that's not to say it couldn't be done.

But the BB version I am using now only runs to 1pm and the modest haul of points should be achieved by 11:30am most days.

So many times you will see the FTSE do not much in the am, then rocket in an unpredicted direction in the pm as it aligns to the US futures, then the US market. So I see London's morning and afternoon as two separate sessions and while you might be able to show us the way with chart studies, I feel it will be difficult to prove.

I honestly hope you succeed because that would offer me the chance of a second market opportunity with new orders going in at 12/1pm. I would love the chance of 2 trades per day so good luck on you mate.
 
I haven't tried it I was just thinking of whether it could work. I might have a look at some charts and see how it would have got on over the last couple weeks.
 
tomorton said:
Well brew, although I haven't heard of a strategy that uses the full am's price action to set the pm trade direction, that's not to say it couldn't be done.

But the BB version I am using now only runs to 1pm and the modest haul of points should be achieved by 11:30am most days.

So many times you will see the FTSE do not much in the am, then rocket in an unpredicted direction in the pm as it aligns to the US futures, then the US market. So I see London's morning and afternoon as two separate sessions and while you might be able to show us the way with chart studies, I feel it will be difficult to prove.

I honestly hope you succeed because that would offer me the chance of a second market opportunity with new orders going in at 12/1pm. I would love the chance of 2 trades per day so good luck on you mate.
Click to expand...

Would not the same theory apply to the opening of the american exchanges as it does to the ftse? The trades would be places after any news had come out too so...why not?
 
Correct splashy - Mark Fisher has done really well using the opening range on the US markets, modified to his version as the ACD trade - see his fascinating book The Logical Trader.
 
Another losing day. Pretty much the same as yesterday - price went just far enough to trigger the order and then retraced.
 
I'm still sitting out of the FTSE until the 20-trade performance improves to 10-10 but amusing myself making money off the GBP/USD. Interesting situation today - unable to close my short on Finspreads at 1 (showing a small loss) as can't get on site on either web service available, so have opened a long on Caps to hedge it. It will be intersting to see which way this goes.
 
Everything seems to be drifting sideways this week - lots of false moves - v. frustrating. Its at times like this I like having system to trade, it might be wrong some of the time but it keeps my frustration in check.
 
Well done with the hedge Tomorton - yes this week is teaching me all about knowing when not to trade - well its trying to but I'm stubborn ;-)
 
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