Bob Volman Price Action Scalping

[TonyIommich]

I just started trading forex using Volman's low vol setting. With three pairs I still don't see too many opportunities during UK/US overlap, but definitely more than just EU. I will move to stock index futures later - now just wanna learn his price action method with forex. The information you posted is very valuable to me.

Glad you were able to get something out of it. Yeah, Bob is definitely all about being selective, but I think as a result the edge is better too. I also imagine that Bob probably takes some of the trades he marks as aggressive, simply because he knows how to manage them and how they play out over time.

Ideally speaking I'd love it if I got 3 clean setups a day on average, but to be realistic you have to understand that volatility comes and goes. If you back test, you'll find some months are horrible, others are great. Some days you can sit on your butt and find zero opportunities, but if you get impatient you'll start doing stupid things - especially when you've had a bad few days.

After reading Volman's second book thoroughly I am now able to see more setup potentials more quickly, and see my mistake much more quickly after I enter a trade which I should not have. Also his low vol setting kind of fits my comfort level: not too slow as 5 min, and not fast as 70 tick which I often missed an entry (at that time I was also less experienced with his price action principles). Still, it's very hard not to over-trade because entries are so scarce.

One of the reasons I find Bob's charts so important is that you see that sometimes there can be a week or even several in a row where the best you can do is break even. As he says in his second book, you have to look at your business on a monthly or even yearly basis. I'm sure that once I get good enough, I'll be able to see more opportunities than I do now. But if you can't quantify your concept and research it properly, there's absolutely zero point trading it. Another one of my favorite quotes from Bob, "there is no point in putting capital on the line unless you're convinced you have an edge".

Testing can be a big pain in the derriere, but I find that without testing, everything else falls apart.

BTW do you use NinjaTrader? If so I think it has a built-in indicator to show past day's OHLC. I think Mack at PATs trading uses the same setting as Bob (also Globex data) but he just trades pullback with no regards to buildup etc. Do you follow his daily youtube videos?

I use Sierra Chart and I haven't gotten into Mack PAT (Sierra also has a past day OHLC as well as intraday high/low). Frankly with Bob's work and Al Brooks, Lance Beggs, and Adam Grimes, it's more than sufficient to put things together for me.

Bob is great with breakouts and pullbacks, Al Brooks has some good reversal and 'buy strength/sell weakness' ideas to add to the picture, while Lance Beggs and Adam Grimes give good overall concepts and roadmaps.

What concerns stock index futures, you can't easily trade an index but you can trade the SPY, plus arbitrageurs regularly put together stock baskets that mimic the S&P 500. Round numbers do have significance, especially big ones, on the cash index, and futures contracts usually trade at a discount to it (since futures don't deliver dividends).

 

[Fugazsy]

I am reading Lance Beggs, he is very clear and makes a lot of sense. Do not know about Grimes, I will look around.

 

[TonyIommich]

Adam Grimes has a free trading course online (adamhgrimes.com). I highly recommend watching it, because on top of being a good trading course in itself, it is great for curing you of useless trading concepts like Fibonacci levels (he spends an hour and a half debunking those kinds of myths with actual evidence). He doesn't give you a total and complete trading system, but he gives you very helpful outlines on how to develop your own ideas, including key concepts to consider. The psychology part is also very good, though I'm not into the whole trance thing (he says the course can be done without it). Very highly recommended, and 100% free without any promotional BS.

He also wrote a good book that works well with the course, the Art and Science of Technical Analysis (it's not strictly speaking necessary, but it's a good book all the same).

 

[Fugazsy]

Adam Grimes has a free trading course online (adamhgrimes.com). I highly recommend watching it, because on top of being a good trading course in itself, it is great for curing you of useless trading concepts like Fibonacci levels (he spends an hour and a half debunking those kinds of myths with actual evidence). He doesn't give you a total and complete trading system, but he gives you very helpful outlines on how to develop your own ideas, including key concepts to consider. The psychology part is also very good, though I'm not into the whole trance thing (he says the course can be done without it). Very highly recommended, and 100% free without any promotional BS.

He also wrote a good book that works well with the course, the Art and Science of Technical Analysis (it's not strictly speaking necessary, but it's a good book all the same).

Thank you, yes I was just looking at it, sounds good I will finish lance then I will also do that.

Did you read the lance's 6 pdf's ?

 

[TonyIommich]

Did you read the lance's 6 pdf's ?

I did, I have to say it's a very good introduction to people who need a place to get started. It's not as in depth strategy wise as Bob's book or Al Brooks's materials.

There probably isn't any 'one book' that will tell you everything you need to know. It always helps to put a composite picture together from several authors, since that gives your mind some creative space to see what fits best. Linda Raschke said that sometimes all you need to read is 20 pages out of a 500 page book that will give you some critical insight. But the trick is, you have to get the book and read through the 500 pages first

 

[Fugazsy]

I did, I have to say it's a very good introduction to people who need a place to get started. It's not as in depth strategy wise as Bob's book or Al Brooks's materials.

There probably isn't any 'one book' that will tell you everything you need to know. It always helps to put a composite picture together from several authors, since that gives your mind some creative space to see what fits best. Linda Raschke said that sometimes all you need to read is 20 pages out of a 500 page book that will give you some critical insight. But the trick is, you have to get the book and read through the 500 pages first

in his work myself I find it very useful to draw levels where traders are very likely to meet and make decisions together with his understanding of taken trades in the direction of the least resistance, there PA and our knowledge of it (Al and Bob work are very useful) will make the difference in my view...two or three good signal on EU are produce during my morning london session (4 hours), which is what I am looking for.

 

[BLS]

Week 7 charts from Volman:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1amxmi9af0fk6ej/VA5_ZrjQF1

 

[matty_dunn]

Week 7 charts from Volman:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1amxmi9af0fk6ej/VA5_ZrjQF1

Thanks Bob and BLS. And a big thank you Bob for including the 5 minute charts also!

 

[koala88]

Week 7 charts from Volman:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1amxmi9af0fk6ej/VA5_ZrjQF1

Thanks Bob and BLS for 5 MInute charts.

 

[Idude]

Did you read the lance's 6 pdf's ?

Where can I read those?

 

[kulpio]

I'm Back...sort of

Hi Everyone,
Long time no see (almost a full year)
I see this thread is still pretty active, with some new comers.
I had to make a break after a couple of bad weeks, and the upcoming arrival of my first boy. Now we are three in the house!
I am slowly thinking of coming back trading, still Bob's method.
Last year was a very slow year in forex, and that, I don't like now it seems more active.
In the next weeks I'm gonna reactivate my PRT subscription and start with a very low amount of money, just to warm up for a couple of weeks/month.
Looking forward to meet/remeet you guys.
best,
Kulpio

 

[TonyIommich]

Big thumbs up to Bob Volman for including 5 minute charts. Very helpful. And thanks to BLS for posting them regularly.

 

[BLS]

Week 8 charts from Volman:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1amxmi9af0fk6ej/VA5_ZrjQF1

 

[koala88]

Week 8 charts from Volman:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1amxmi9af0fk6ej/VA5_ZrjQF1

There are no 5 Minutes charts on Week 8, can Bob please attached 5 Min charts weekly or once a month... I am sure other members following Bob love that. If too much work, it is OK . I understand..Thanks.

 

[cha-ching]

There are no 5 Minutes charts on Week 8, can Bob please attached 5 Min charts weekly or once a month... I am sure other members following Bob love that. If too much work, it is OK . I understand..Thanks.

5-min charts are extremely slow, even for EUR/USD. Check out the charts from Bob last time, you will find very few entries, even with three pairs combined. I doubt there is anyone who actually trades 5 min charts (forex only) using Bob's methods in the new book.

I myself trade 200 tick charts with three pairs. I would love to see Bob's 200 tick charts every week but I simply don't want to ask. It's too much. I do learn a lot from his 70-tick charts. I believe there is little you can learn from his new charts which hasn't been covered by his previous ones. Just my two cents.

 

[koala88]

5-min charts are extremely slow, even for EUR/USD. Check out the charts from Bob last time, you will find very few entries, even with three pairs combined. I doubt there is anyone who actually trades 5 min charts (forex only) using Bob's methods in the new book.

I myself trade 200 tick charts with three pairs. I would love to see Bob's 200 tick charts every week but I simply don't want to ask. It's too much. I do learn a lot from his 70-tick charts. I believe there is little you can learn from his new charts which hasn't been covered by his previous ones. Just my two cents.

Thanks very much for your input, Cha-Ching.

Great to learn from your experience. You saves me months of study works. Much appreciated...

 

[jackiechan]

Thanks very much for your input, Cha-Ching.

Great to learn from your experience. You saves me months of study works. Much appreciated...

unfortunately i am trading 5 min. I only trade eu session. His strategy works. i believe bob himself is trading 5 since he wrote this book. So, don give up koala.

 

[cha-ching]

Thanks very much for your input, Cha-Ching.

Great to learn from your experience. You saves me months of study works. Much appreciated...

Koala88, I am not discouraging anyone from studying Bob's 5 min charts. On the contrary I think they are very useful. Have you read TonyIommich's post a few pages back? He counted the number of setups in each session (London, NY) from March 2012 to August 2012 in Bob's new book. There were too few. However, as Tony pointed out, these charts are great and they offer a unique opportunity to learn Bob's method. I just started reading the chapter of the 6 month charts. I first simulate a day's trading in ForexTester and see if I can find any entry. After that I go to the book and find out what Bob says. I believe after I finish this exercise I will learn a lot.

200 tick charts fit my personality best. It gives me time to think and react while 70 tick is too fast for me. 200 tick charts are more similar to 70 tick charts in that they both have similar *initial* reward/risk ratio (about 1:1) unlike 5 min which is 2:1. I believe a lot of the 70 tick techniques can be used on 200 tick as well. One thing I just found out is when BLS posted Bob's 70 tick charts, all previous week's 200 ticks from PRT are still there, so one can scroll back and compare with Bob's 70 tick entries (70 tick charts only exit for two days).

I have done similar statistics for Bob's 70 tick chart entries. On average there are 1 entry during London morning and 1 entry during US morning for EURUSD (per day). So there will be fewer than that for 200 tick charts. I hope that with three pairs I can get 5~7 good entries on average during US mornings per week.

Happy trading.

 

[cha-ching]

unfortunately i am trading 5 min. I only trade eu session. His strategy works. i believe bob himself is trading 5 since he wrote this book. So, don give up koala.

Bob is not trading 5 min. His chart was marked later in the week. I am not even sure whether he still trades 70 tick. But that's irrelevant as long as he is a good teacher.

 

[Idude]

unfortunately i am trading 5 min. I only trade eu session. His strategy works. i believe bob himself is trading 5 since he wrote this book. So, don give up koala.

I believe he trades all of them, I think it all depends of what sees on the charts. Personally I prefer tick charts over time charts but there are some advantages trading time based charts specially if you pay attention to pinbars and inside bars these seem to be a lot clearer on time charts.