450t

[MBender]

450T, Where have you been all my life?

I really like this time frame -- must more stable and smoother.

[arbifox]

also try . . .

I use 150T alot too on the E-Mini Russell, with the 450T as my middle line, and a 3M for longer periods. The only problem is when there are many whipsaws in the market, it could take the 450T longer to react.

Thomas

[Doji3333]

I stay away from tick charts (in general). I find that in big trending days, tick charts can work against you with "head fakes" (moves that look like real trends, but are nothing more than retracements and fail).

I had a client that loved volume charts. He had a little formula that he used to determine the volume setting for the day (can't go into details).

I stick with 5 minute charts for most of my systems because they are consistent and don't often get messed up with intermediate term "head fakes".

But, what do I know?? I'm just looking for my pot of gold ( or more than one).

Maybe I'll have to play with these tick charts a bit?

[MBender]

I (currently) like the 450T on NQ. I tried it on ES and ZE, but didn't like the results. I tried all kinds of time frames from 50T to 1000T.

ZE moves nicely (at least for me) on the 3-5 minute charts. The problem is, it moves nicely between 2:00 am and 10:00 am Central Time. This makes sense as it would trade nicely when the European markets are open.

The reason I like the 450T on NQ is it smooths out the wild changes in the bars. The bar size goes wild right at market open (9:30 Eastern), then goes quite, then quite dull at 11:45 Eastern (Lunch time for Wall Street) then returns to a normal cycle after lunch. It makes it difficult to trade. The 450T chart smooths these out. At the market open, you might get a bar every 15-20 seconds, while at lunch, you get one every 2 minutes.

The timing does effect the algorithms. I put a 450T and 1-minute chart side-by-side. Today is a horrible trading day (at least for me), so I can adjust my algorithms while viewing both charts. I don't know, I just feel more comfortable (now that I've had a full 24 hours to look at it!). I'll do this for a while to view different market conditions.

ES puzzles me. I just can't find a timing chart I like on it. Yet, I get the feeling that those with experience like ES more the NQ or ZE. Hmmmmm, perhaps my inexperience is showing.

Cheers, all

Brad: I'll let you know if I ever find the pot of Gold. The nice thing about this business is everyone can win.

[Doji3333]

I played with the 450T chart today on the ES. I was running my project on the 5 min chart (as usual), but after it got stopped out this AM, I reloaded it on the chart (a common practice if you are testing an auto-trading robot and want to compare it to historical EFS actions) and noticed my stop did not move in historical mode.

This caused me to dig back into my code for the issue. Well, it appears I was using a lookback function that did not account for the "one extra bar" that was required when making decisions in RT at the end of a bar (beginning of a new bar).

So after I fixed that up, I flipped the chart to 450T (so I could get more trades) to make sure my fix worked and then went back to other projects.

The only other thing I did to my project today was to address the entry orders. I was firing a market order (just to get it working at first) and have now altered the code to use a LIMIT entry order with a defined "work order for" time limit. This allows me to work an order for a specific amount of time and then reset the order if it does not fill.

The intent of moving away from market orders should be obvious to most traders. When you're working with small targets (or in general), you don't want to give up much in slippage. So, changing a market entry order to a limit order simply means you are trying to only get into the trade at the right price.

BTW, I'm testing with LIMIT +/- ONE TICK as a base for this system. This will allow me to see how often I get filled on the entry orders and if I need to address anything else.

Additionally, on my 5 min chart, my first two trades today (LONG) made a few hundred $$$. My third trade cleared out my profits and my forth trade was a near breakeven trade. I expected much more of a move seeing the premarket activity.