What's in a signal.

When is a signal , a signal? Is it when it forms completely? Or doesn't form at all? Or is it in the run up into a recognized signal? Well, all of the above.

You can make a trade off of all of these and some will consistently work better because you are ahead of the crowd,

Probabilities come into play as well. Every day I have many trades come my way because I have played the probabilities instead of waiting for signals. I guess you can say that the entire days candles are a signal in themselves as they tell the story of support , resistance, control.

Probability means that one outcome is favoured over another one. If you are long and the candles are were large and strong but are now shorter, this is a signal that the momentum is drawing to a close. Listen to this signal and be prepared to exit and possibly go the other way. Probability says this is the more likely outcome depending on market conditions.

Signals tell me when to enter and when to exit. It's up to me to do nothing else but act on these signals generated by my system. A trade will either be a profit or get stopped out by my strict application on my system.

Grey areas of interpretation can be minimized by simplifying to the starkest degree possible your trigger signals and your overall input noise.

Not having expectations or worse, profit targets means you can remain flexible in response to market gyrations. Nothing is going to continue moving in your favour so work with the market flow.

The markets sometimes speak loudly and at other times they whisper. Are you hearing what they are saying?

Art

short TNA after selling the long, add size almost get stopped out, but cover for a decent trade.

TZA making new lows.....so I buy it!

remember this is an art and not a science

sell TZA pop

i'll wait on the sidelines for now until some market direction shows

bot ABX on that pop

sold ABX

after some market argy bargy, a few losses, a few winners,

TNA goes higher

sell/short TNA pop on QQQQ doji

fast market conditions

stopped out SKX on massive market up move

start of the afternoon session, SKX has made a big bounce. now you have to ask yourself, is it just a short squeeze or has something made people really want to buy it? are the buyers in control again?

I'll sell this pop and short it again. if it goes higher then i'll change my mind.

short ITT

cover ITT

decent short in TNA

cover TNA

Groundhog day

We were here yesterday weren't we?

SKX.

New lows.

Short.

Add size.

Wait.

Cover .

Play the probable bounce.

Go where the money is

My reoccurring theme here is to make things as simple as you can. I do this because simple equals easy and the easy way is what I look for to do when I need to make rapid decisions for 5 1/2 hours a day. I don't need to take in multitudes of indicators in order to make a trade.

SKX is shown here as it breaks to new lows. That is my signal to short it. I act on the signal.

SKX goes the way probability suggested it might so I add size.

SKX keeps failing so I am letting it make me money by keeping in the trade.

It gets to the point though where it becomes prudent to take the $2+ run in profits and I cover on the biggest volume candle of the day, which not coincidently become a doji on the 15 minute chart. That is a signal to go long.

Signals are what you are after. The market tells you what to do if you are prepared to listen to it.

This trade was very easy with no fakeouts or misdirections. They aren't all like that but you never know what will happen so it's best just to go with the flow.

moments later 15 minute doji appears

time to go long

sell the long