Author Archive

Saturday, October 11th, 2008

‘Words Are Capable of Precise Meanings’

That statement is an idea I read from one of Ayn Rand’s works. It may not be an exact quote but the sentiment is accurate. Another concept that has served me in good stead is: “(Whenever in doubt), check your premise”.
I have often found that when events are not unfolding as I imagined, the error […]

1 Comment » - Posted in Market Commentaries by ray

Thursday, October 9th, 2008

Volatility and Trading - What Is It All About?

A comment I made has resulted in quite a few queries. The statement was: “I seek to exit when the market has two consecutive days where the true range is greater than mean +3 x the standard deviation of the average true range”.
Most of the posts could not understand why I chose to find a […]

7 Comments » - Posted in Psychology by ray

Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

The “D” Word

I was waiting for the last bullet in the Central Banks’ guns to be fired: a concerted rate cut. They did that tonight. As a result, the ES gyrated up and down, and the 30-Year Bonds tanked. For the first time, I am starting to feel that the word recession is too weak to describe the […]

5 Comments » - Posted in Market Commentaries by ray

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Asking the Right Questions

After a round of seminars, one thought struck me. Many traders are asking the wrong questions; as Anthony Robbins maintains, you need to ask the right questions to succeed.
What are the right questions when it comes to monitoring the landscape for a trade? I hold that the first questions for ‘other timeframe traders’ (all […]

6 Comments » - Posted in Miscellaneous by ray

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Market Profile, the Value Area and Trading (2)

In Friday’s ‘Market Profile, the Value Area and Trading’, I introduced the 3 ways to calculate the mean and standard deviation. In today’s piece, I evaluate the 3 methods.
The first is the traditional mathematical approach. This approach assumes that every data set is random and therefore each data set will exhibit a classical bell curve. In […]

3 Comments » - Posted in Written Plan by ray

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

Market Profile, the Value Area and Trading

Market Delta brought a new level of sophistication to Market Profile.
When Peter Steidlmayer introduced Market Profile, he substituted time for volume on the assumption that the greater the time spent at a price, the greater the volume. (Remember that when Peter introduced the Profile in the early 80s, real-time volume at a price level did not exist […]