Trading Time.

A double meaning alluding to actually allocating the time to trade and then understanding
the critical information regarding where you are in time when a trade is placed. This facet
of time has many definitions.

1. The timeframe of the chart that was used and why?

2. How critical is the immediate price action directly after the trade is placed?
3. How long is the trade expected to last?
4. At what point in time is the trade within the trend or are we at the end of the
trend?
5. How strong is the trend based on the time it has existed?
6. What is the risk/reward in relationship to time?

These are all important questions but in my experience of visiting thousands of traders
over the years, they are questions that are rarely asked and for a large number they are
never even considered. One of the first questions I ever ask a trader when we first meet
is, what timeframe charts do you use? The answer is always a variation on the same
theme. “Oh I use a 30 min, 60 min daily and weekly”. Not one person has ever said. “I
use the timeframe chart that is relative to my concepts of risk, volatility and range”
For the great trader their success with this somewhat random method is proof enough of
their inherent ability. For the not so great trader this is a recipe for disaster

Therefore obtaining a true measure of expectation in any one period of time is critical to
improving the chances of success. When understanding variations of risk throughout the
day there are many potential problems. The extension of trading hours and the ever
lengthening number of economic data events mean that traditional Technical Analysis
methods that measure momentum on a continual basis are facing increasing challenges as
markets go through periods of low ranges and a lack of direction, followed by bursts of
activity and short term trends. Automated trading seems to have moved into the very low
timeframe, high frequency of trades model to tackle this problem, but this is not an option
for the human trader. In the same fashion that timeframes of charts are often fixed so are
the variables within the momentum-based indicators that are used on charts. If a 10
period moving average is placed on 30 minute chart on Bunds and looked at 11am the
average is likely to have flattened due to lack of activity. This would be the same case on
the opening when it would have reflected the activity or lack of it, in the evening session
of the day before. However, come 4pm and the average could display completely
different behaviour based on the number of statistics produced that afternoon. Therefore
it is very difficult to use momentum indicators in a predictive manner and we return to
the inherent ability of the good trader to ride the waves of volatility. If you accept the
concepts of continual fluctuation in range and the occasional mutation of a market into a
different environment then the answer must be to make that variable of the average
continually adjustable based not only on the range of any particular bar, but also the time
of day that that bar was created.
Volatility Time Averages
Volatility Time Averages treats each individual bar only in connection to the same bar
the previous days. The average range is computed over a user defined range. Then the
highest and lowest value of range for that time of day is computed over the last 1000
bars. The difference between the current ranges over n bars is recorded against the
highest range over the last 1000 bars and depending on the difference an exponential
moving average is calculated. This average is given a user defined minimum and
maximum range of average which defaults between a 3 and 21 period. The conclusion is
that if range is narrow in relationship to the history of that time of day the average slows
but if range is large the average speeds up.

Volatility Time Bands

Removing the variable of the average and replacing it with a variable that looks at each
specific time of day to previous days, enables a set of bands that maintain there flexibility
to market changes. They are called Volatility Time Bands. As soon as the bar opens the
average range for that time of day is computed and 1, 2 and 3 standard deviations are
placed on either side of the market. The use of the opening is critical in that it provides a
predictive framework as the values are fixed and lead to the ability to analyze on a
multitude of concepts.

One of the key criteria is being able to understand what is the limit of range within one
aspect of time. Whilst 1 timeframe can be used in isolation, extra power can be obtained
with multiple timeframe confirmation. The 3 charts on Bunds show a confluence of
extremes as the 30 minute chart has a extreme 3 rd deviation low at 109.90, which is also
the limit of range in the 15 minute and as low as the 5 min. When this is used in
combination with true measure of support and resistance with Market Profile, not only
can day trading turning points be found, but also major strategic turning points in trend.
This is given even more strength when the Kase Peak Oscillator is showing an oversold
scenario as seen in the 15 minute chart. At such times, for both the short term trader and
strategic players risk can be defined as low as 3 ticks on Bunds. This is due to the
connection between macro picture supports and resistance and micro picture limits of
range and allows for far higher volume to be traded as position sizing and subsequently
risk reward ratios explode upwards.
Stochastic Steps
Once a trade has confirmed a major turning point, the next major difficulty is how to
switch such a micro timeframe trade into a position that can be held if the trend then
develops. This is one of the hardest skills in trading and the development of what I call
Stochastic Steps logic attempts to solve this problem. Past analysis shows that there are
some trends in Stock Index’s that began in a 15 minute chart and are still valid 3 years
later and referring to a weekly chart, many thousands of points later.

Stochastic Steps records each crossover of the Stochastic and states whether it was
confirming the continuation of the trend by doing so in a higher or lower contract value
than the previous crossover. Therefore Stochastic Steps will either step up or down each
time the Stochastic crosses depending on the comparison in price to the last time the
Stochastic crossed.
The concept is divided into two areas. One records the contract value when the Stochastic
crosses up and the other when it crosses down. In an up trend when the Stochastic crosses
to the downside and from a higher contract value than the previous cross to the downside
the study will step up and confirm that the trend remains strong. Therefore by default it is
an anti divergence indicator.

Trend definition and divergence

However, closer examination of how the Steps interact between the contract value and
the Slow Stochastic value itself reveals how new concepts of divergence can be built
based on the patterns and connections between them. This remains beyond the scope of
this article but it is an important consideration for those who want to investigate the
relationships between the, Stochastic Steps with that theory in mind. This becomes
clearer if two more Step studies are created recording the value of the Stochastic itself
when they cross over.
• All the concepts between the Stochastic Steps, either as an anti divergence or a
divergence indicator are true on any market and can be applied to any timeframe.
This means that the study can be used whatever your method of analysis.
Crucially, they also tell us what the focus timeframe is when a trend begins and if it
develops whether the focus timeframe is moving higher. This enables a trade that may
have begun with a short-term bias to become a long-term trade. This is described below

Confirming the trend

Each time the markets steps in the direction of the trend the trend itself is being
confirmed. Once the relevant indicator has stepped in the same direction 4 times
consecutively this is the trending and focus timeframe, the market is in a strong trend.
When 6 steps are in place we are in a mega trend.

The strongest trend

If both Stochastic Steps are above 6 this indicates the strongest trend of all. The next two
charts show the 15-minute entering a mega trend. This is followed by the 30 minute
doing the same later in the trend. This is an example of how the focus timeframe can be
moved up and allow for trends to be ridden for longer.
This is critical to trends developing as they must move up timeframes in a continuous
fashion or the trend will simply die. Most trends with low beginnings will often end long
before the focus timeframe moves up to a daily chart. This is normally true of Bond and
FX markets which rarely go beyond a half day chart. Even so this would entail a trend
lasting for more than 6 months in most cases. The real power comes in Stock markets
where trends can last years. The Dax rally began in 2005 and the two charts show how it
began with a mega trend in the 15 minute before moving up to the 30 minute. This trend
moved up all the subsequent timeframes and now is a weekly trend in spite of the recent
correction. Whilst these dips came seem large the fact the trade had such humble
beginnings means that risk can be wider. For those who would want to maintain tighter
risk, they can use the many methods shown in Chapter 5 in Trading Time which look at
unique ways of qualifying swing patterns.
Range Deviation Pivots

The main body of the book concentrated more on the Volatility Time Bands as many of
the theories or limits of daily range and definition of the trend. Instead concentration was
placed on patterns and probabilities. In order to not have a book full of tables some of the
more rare patterns were left out although there is room here to look at concepts of limits
of movement within a short time span. This is focused on the how many days consecutive
price action can breach the 3rd Deviation in either direction on an intraday basis or on a
closing basis. The tests reveal critical information with regard to what can expected on
the day after certain patterns and what is the probability of extremes being tested yet
again.

The first set of tables look at how many times price can close beyond the 3rd Pivot on
consecutive days. It’s important to remember that we are not concentrating degrees of
accuracy but the number of times and therefore the probability of certain patterns
occurring. The first two tables close look at price closing beyond the 3rd Pivot two days
running. Two portfolios are taken, 1 being 400 stocks in the S&P and the second a
selection of 22 futures and major currencies that cover Index’s, Bonds, Grains and
Precious metals. The tests are done over the last 5 years so represent 1250 bars per
instrument which computes to over 500,000 days in stocks and 27,500 on the futures.

What becomes clear is the rarity of how often extremes are actually reached. The first
table on the S&P looks at 2 consecutive closes beyond the 3rd pivot. In 500,000 days this
happens just over 1500 times which is just one every 320 trading days. The second table
has the same pattern on the futures portfolio and here in 27,500 days there are just 90
trades which is a ratio of once every 305 days.
What is also clear is that once this has happened the trend will often go on a short term
reaction.

Figure 5

The S&P shows reactions are likely early on and the absolute number of trades is low
The futures portfolio has similar ratios and results.

The next table reveals how rare the price closes beyond the 3rd pivot three days running.
On the S&P it drops to just 75 days out of 500,000 or just once in every 6600 days. On
the futures portfolio it only happened once. This helps to understand the short term
movement on the day after the pattern. The signals are extremely rare
The next test is to look at how often price simply reaches the 2nd pivot on the 3rd day.
This will provide insight into whether this area consistently provides and opportunity in
short term trading, considering how rare it is close beyond the 3rd. This shows a far higher
proportion of trades at 360 times. This means that there is only a 1 in 6 probability of
price moves to the second pivot that it will close beyond the 3rd.

The portfolio shows 6 times as many trades.

The futures portfolio shows similar pattern

2 Market
Profile®
What you will learn in this chapter
S
Origins of Market Profile®
This study originated in the grain pits at the CBOT in the early 1980s. Peter Steidlmayer,
an exchange local, found that for much of the time price simply ebbed and flowed with
the pit traders. He noted that it was orders coming into the pit that dictated when price
trended. He came to the conclusion that he needed to find a way to distinguish between
the short, medium, and long-term trader, and thus Market Profile® was born.
My own theories came from my time at Fulton Prebon and Dean Witter. I started in
commodities and FX at Rudolf Wolff and then found myself trading and broking the
alien T Bond contract. The vast majority of the customers were day traders who traded
large volume intraday, although they would sometimes take a core strategic position. It
was my job to identify the short-term moves, advise clients, and, for some, take
proprietary positions on their behalf. Whilst the touch and squawk boxes were valuable
tools, any other help would be devoured. At the time the buzz was going round the bond
pits that Market Profile® was fast becoming the greatest day-trading tool. Up to that
point, with computers still in the dark ages, daily pivot points were the most commonly
used tool. Their dominance in the pit was such that they were successful often because
they were the only reference anyone had. Pivot theory remains a common method of
obtaining short-term supports and resistances, although the trading structure and
implementation are far more sophisticated today. When these levels coincide with
Market Profile®-based levels the chance of success is increased.

In the absence of software to record and analyze Market Profile®, the voice broker would
give us the range as each 30-minute period completed and I would keep records manually
on graph paper. At that time, there was no real theory or literature. It was also not
possible to know the values of certain elements such as those associated with volume.
Therefore, all the theories and conclusions I came to were my own and were concentrated
solely in the area of price action. Volume and time information was noted along with the
positioning of the locals. Manually writing the Market Profile® charts led me to
understand how the close of the previous day related to the opening of the current day. In
those days there was also a T Bond contract on LIFFE, and theories that developed
between the differences in London’s morning and Chicago’s opening ended up
transferring their logic to the current overnight session and the regular trading hours. The
conclusions I came to became my road map to short-term movement and this has
developed over the years. The study that can now be found on CQG has greatly
simplified matters.

Market Profile® remains my first port of call, whatever asset class or instrument I’m
trading. The theories now extend to methods of scalping, day trading, structured plays,
providing targets, placement of stops, the strength of the trend and optimum points for
where corrections should begin and trends should end. Once the structure has been
understood, the trader can switch their focus to the other studies used in their technical
framework. It can often be the case that, by the time the main strategic trade concludes,
the short-term trades working the core position have made more than if the actual
strategic position was simply left alone from entry to eventual exit. Understanding the
short-term bias when it’s in the opposite direction to the core trade allows the overall
entry point to change to a more advantageous position. For the aggressive, it can
highlight moments when the existing core trade can be pyramided for a day trade, via
Market Profile® techniques, divergence patterns, true measurements of overbought and
oversold, and/or the Time-based studies in the previous chapter.

Whilst the ability to shift between short and long-term focus requires practice, discipline
and skill, once mastered it provides the structure to actively manage positions. The full
range of trading techniques are beyond the scope of this book as the concentration is on
time with an emphasis on the short-term movement, although it does touch on the long-
term distribution techniques that are a core element in defining major supports and
resistances. Even so, the section that follows still provides an in-depth guide to some of
the timing techniques. Dedication and effort are required to master the concepts and be
able to trade with great confidence. The majority of the theories apply to most markets
and asset classes but where there are differences they have been flagged.

Briefly, the connection between long-term profiles and the short-

term Time based movements enables low-risk entries with tight
stops. The mantra “the chart tells you don’t tell the chart” means, however, that the
risk/reward ratio cannot be calculated but the exit point is certain.
Linking price, time and volume

Market Profile® has a unique property which helps us to understand price action. It links
price, time and volume. No other study does this so concisely and in one picture. The vast
majority of existing analysis concentrates on the bar or candle pattern or the level of a
momentum indicator based on the closing price. Volume has been the most neglected
aspect of all, and attempts to create meaningful studies have been thwarted simply
because there are so many internal factors that distort the actual volume. Both intraday
and historically, the fundamental setup of a market have a huge impact on volume. In
bond markets the major numbers such as non farms payroll and the trade deficit see
volume reduce in the lead up, whilst in recent years the explosion of statistics at 3 p.m.
London time has meant that large long-term traders have little opportunity to assess and
trade accordingly within the same session. If they do, they find themselves as big fish
in a small pond as the arcades and short-term traders have disappeared by 5 p.m. It is
therefore no accident that the often excess movements late in the afternoon provide clues
to probable price action the following day, as the long-term trader is forced to take
delayed appropriate action. This is why trends still develop throughout London’s morning
sessions. In addition tops and bottoms are often created within this period.

This applies to FX markets as well and especially European stock indices which are held
to ransom by the Dow and S&P. For Market Profile® users, they would often be better
served by trading European indices in the morning and once the American markets open,
simply trailing stops or placing profit targets on any remaining positions. The Dow and
S&P are often so dominant in dictating the short flows of the European indices that it
makes sense to move to trading the primary instrument. The beauty of Market Profile® is
that linking price, time and volume provides a clearer picture of the state of the market.
This can then be used to quantify the more traditional methods of patterns and
momentum and place them in a context of importance.

The first concept to understand is:

Price + Time = Market Acceptance

Every time a market trades there is a buyer and a seller. They have made a bargain and
exchanged contracts. At the time of the trade it is impossible to know the circumstances
of the transaction but the aftermath can be analyzed and conclusions drawn.
Market acceptance

We now move onto the next concept.

Price + Time = Market Acceptance

This leads us to:

Market Acceptance = Volume

Every time there is a trade the volume associated with market acceptance potentially
provides clues to future direction, although at the moment that it occurs it often provides
little insight. It is only the subsequent price movement that dictates interpretation. That is
unless the volume can be linked to other indicators allowing immediate conclusions to be
drawn. This is a key component in analyzing the market and is the reason that from a
Market Profile® standpoint there is no such thing as overbought or oversold. From a
Market Profile® perspective we only know that price displayed that characteristic
afterwards. Many mantras regarding overbought and oversold will be called into doubt in
later chapters. Those perceived rules are a major factor contributing to exiting a trend
prematurely. Therefore it is critical to have a firm grasp of what true measures of
overbought and oversold are, which will be touched on later in the Peak chapter. Let’s
remain with pure Market Profile® theory, with no concept of overbought and oversold;
this leads us to the final building block in theory.

Volume = Market (fair) value

Every time price trades it is fair. This is an important psychological aid. A key
component to Market Profile® is that it is long-term players who dictate and end trends.
There are two established theories about how the end is formed:

1. When in an uptrend sellers suddenly match buyers in high volume and prevent further
progress.

2. There is no volume as there is simply no one left to buy, as the final capitulation of
losing shorts has completed its painful exit. At that point the supply side strengthens,
demand drops and price reverses swiftly back to a point where buyers and sellers feel
value is fair and volume goes back up. The reality is that from a Market Profile®
standpoint both reasons are valid. Therefore, while it’s impossible to know whether a
high or low is being made at that instant, once a reaction has occurred, any subsequent
move back to that area is highly significant. This re-enforces the theory that we have no
idea of the importance of any trade at any price unless we can link it to previous price
action or the day’s extreme deviation points.
Types of activity

If we return to analyzing the behaviour of long-term players, we see that this activity is
split into two areas:

1.Initiative activity

Long-term players dictate trends and when the volume they wish to trade cannot be
satisfied at one price their perception of fair value shifts and price trends.

2. Responsive activity
Long-term traders dictate the end of the trend by withdrawing initiative activity, taking
profits or establishing countertrend positions. They also dictate when the reaction to a
trend has been completed. Long-term traders are often identified by single letter prints
within a day. These single prints start trends and end them at extremes and at rejections
of value.

So how is Market Profile® displayed?

The standard format is that each letter represents the range of a 30-minute period. As the
day progresses, each period is overlaid to provide a horizontal format of the day’s price
action.

Different Timeframes for different markets

Whilst the vast majority of the Market Profile® users never adjust from 30-minutes,
volatility, range and standard deviations are methods with which to measure what time
frame suits your concept of time and risk. Therefore, short-term scalpers can move down
to 5-minute profiles, whilst for FX traders the 24-hour nature of the market means
creating profiles of 120 or 240 to provide a clearer picture. Especially in Europe, due to
the long trading day, stocks can be used on 60-minute for the day trader or half day for
the intermediate trader as they typically hold a position for a longer time period. The
theories extend to the strategic picture where Market Profile’s® can be based on dailies
or even weekly data sets for the longer-term trader. If using these longer time frames it’s
important to remember that the levels lose some of their pinpoint accuracy. Therefore the
creation of years of data being referenced in, say, a 240-minute timeframe provides the
accuracy needed.

The daily chart gives no real idea of supports in the bottom half of the distribution
The 240-minute chart shows a much clearer picture.

True support and Resistance, the right data is essential!

This brings up another conflict with an established mantra. Commentators and traders
alike will often use short-term charts over the last 3 months of the current front month or
active contract to identify support and resistance. Subsequently, support and resistances
from further back suddenly switch to daily data and simply reference high or low points
in that longer timeframe. Whilst this was understandable for many years as more intraday
data was not available, there is no excuse in the 21st century. True support and resistance
is never at the absolute high or low of a historical bar. There will always have been some
rejection of value ahead of that point whether it is Market Profile® or deviation-based.
CQG provides up to 5 years of intraday data; this is invaluable in solving this problem,
allowing risk and exact support and resistance levels to be quantified with precision.
Market Profile®
4 Relative
Strength
Index
RSI as a divergence tool

Now, we tackle the subject of using the RSI as a divergence tool. For the purposes of this
book we will simply touch on some of the concepts and provide some statistics via the
RSI Steps logic. The key to divergence is being able to find patterns that are sufficiently
rare so that the divergence has real meaning. The first pattern I ever produced was called
Ufo for negative divergence and Pops for positive. They simply state that price had to
make a 9-bar high and the RSI 3-bar low for a Ufo to be formed. That theory still has
worth today but has moved on considerably since its inception some 15 years ago. Whilst
that simple pattern still has its place when linked to other analysis, it still follows the
established mantra that for divergence to be visible it has to reference the high or low of
the price action and the change in direction of the indicator. The following sets of tables
take a concept that it is very much a work in progress, but the quality of the statistics
suggests that the problem of cutting signals down to the point where they mean
something can be achieved. In fact, tests have been done on a variety of momentum
indicators and they all perform in a similar fashion, although they don’t create
divergences in the same areas. The principal driver behind the idea has been to create
signals that are not only powerful, but of enough rarity that they could be used on an
individual stock portfolio or a large range of currencies. At this stage the code has simply
been added to the list of viable exit strategies to trends and trend-following systems, but
the possibility that it could become an entry against the trend remains.
Divergence as an entry point

The sets of tables have all used the S&P 500 daily data and been put through various
times in trends. The first (see fig. 22) takes a perfect scenario for buying stocks by
analyzing the period between 1995 and 2000. It would have been difficult not to win.
However, the code still has to be good enough to capture corrections as it is trying to buy
weakness. In such a rally previous aborted divergence code-building attempts simply
missed too many opportunities. Whilst the percentage profits are obviously good, there
are two key points of interest. First there is the high accuracy figures nudging into the
60% area (after 45 bars) and above. Second, and more important, is the trade count. A
trade count of 680 trades over a 5 year period of 500 stocks means that signals only
average just over one trade every 5 years per stock. Obviously on futures markets this is
pointless but it becomes a necessity if you are trading a portfolio of stocks or a basket of
currencies on multiple timeframes with such long holding periods. It suggests that a
portfolio of up to 5,000 stocks could be monitored and the trade count would still be
manageable, as trades would average approximately 5 per day. For big players liquidity
must also be considered when picking stocks for the portfolio so the number of trades per
day would decrease further. Closer examination of the actual individual trades reveals a
much different picture. Signals appear in clusters, which is highly revealing, as even if
the portfolio were not actually traded, it would provide a key timing-point of when stock
markets should reverse. This is extremely useful information and is particularly poignant
if linked to true measure of overbought and oversold discussed in chapter 5.

Signal Evaluation S&P 500 1995 to 2000

The next test (see fig. 23) uses the worst possible period in recent history, from 1
January, 2000 to the day of the post-11th September low that was 21 September. If
allowing for the inevitable fact that any longs going into that final period would have
shown big losses, the statistics are very encouraging. Losses are present over the first few
time segments but the code shows robustness in the face of a strong downtrend and an
ability to pick true divergence. The accuracy remains high as well.

Signal Evaluation S&P January 2000 to 21 September 2001

The next table takes that 21 September low to the present day. The first 5-bar period after
the signal posts a negative and is therefore the first real concern. From then the statistics
remain strong. One encouraging premise is that the statistics improve as time passes,
suggesting this code could be used as part of a buy-and-hold strategy with a wide trailing
stop. Analysis needs to be completed on what the trigger point for a delayed entry point
is. Evidence gained from equity systems I have already built suggests that stops could be
adjusted once a week. This means that if a 100 stocks were held, it would require 20 new
stops to be added/adjusted each day, which is manageable, even for the non-professional
trader who has to monitor once a day
Signal Evaluation S&P 500 21 September to December 2005

The final test is from 1 January 2004 to December 2005. The picture remains promising.

Signal Evaluation S&P 500 1 January to December 2005

Analysis of eBay shows where signals can appear.
Divergence pattern for stocks

The raw statistics suggest that there is the possibility to create a viable trading system that
would suit a buy-and-hold strategy, for example, pension funds or for the private trader
who wants to track a smaller portfolio for investment purposes. More time will be
required before further progress can be made in order to analyze portfolio risk and the
short signals.

Conclusion

It is not automatically necessary that step method is confined just to the Stochastic and
RSI. It can extend to almost any momentum study; especially in the area of divergence a
suite of indicators can be utilized to spot potential turning points in trends.

Key elements
■ RSI Steps are more sensitive.
■ Cycles do not apply.
■ Steps method is a powerful divergence tool.
■ Steps method can apply to any indicator as long as there is a crossover
point to reference.
5 Peak

What is Peak?
Peak is another extremely simplistic study, but it has the advantage that it is dictated by
price swings rather than momentum itself. This means that it is more dynamic to price
action. At its basic level, a Peak is a potential turning point.

Definition

A Peak is defined as a 5-bar pattern that has the middle bar as either the highest or lowest
point. If it is the highest point it is a downward Peak Point. If it is the lowest it is an
upward swing point. Whilst it is essential that the middle bar of 5 is the highest or lowest
point, the other 4-bar patterns can vary.

Peak simply records swing highs and lows. It consists of two components:
■ Hi Peak: plots the high swing points
■ Lo Peak: plots the low swing points

Both studies will hold those points until the next change if a swing high or low occurs.
The swing point can be adjusted depending on the degree of sensitivity required, but the
common setting is a 2 by 2. This means that for a Peak to be created the middle bar of 5
must be the high point for a Hi Peak and the middle bar of 5 the low point for a Lo Peak.
In their basic form and interpretation they simply track an up trend or downtrend as the
two charts show.
TRADING TIME: New Methods in Technical Analysis
Peak tracks the trend and acts as a final trailing stop.

Lo Peak tracks an up trend

As can be seen, the study is very straightforward but that does not do justice to the depth
of information that can be obtained about

■ how strong the trend is,

■ when it is due to correct,
■ whether it will restart, and
■ when it’s overextended.

There are many patterns associated with the change in, or value of the Peak levels in
relationship to price. Among those are:

■ what is the difference between a Peak level and the current price?
■ is price above Hi Peak in an uptrend or below Lo Peak in a downtrend?
■ how many bars has that been the case?
■ how many times has Peak continuously stepped in the same direction?
■ how many bars are there between changes in Peak levels?

Peak is relevant to all markets in all timeframes. For day-trading sessions with initiative
behaviour, the Peak level will provide a trailing stop that lasts throughout the day. The
regularity with which markets close at the high or low of the day means that maximum
profit on part of your position is possible. This provides a structure to scalpers. If the
trend has been defined via responsive or initiative behaviour, there is an inherent bias to
one side of the market. Therefore, if the trend is up, scalpers must always play from the
long side and only scalp on a proportion of their position as long as price is above the
short-term chart Lo Peak level. This enables the scalper to ride the trend on a proportion
of their position and means big trend days can be captured. This makes a huge difference
to their profit potential!

Peak can track a trend in very low timeframes

Peak and Step theory

Hi Count / Lo Count

The pattern between trend and Peak also helps to understand both Stochastic Steps and
RSI steps. Strong patterns within Peak often occur at the beginning of trends. Therefore,
if the strong trend in Peak is confirmed by the Stochastic Steps moving beyond 65 bars,
this is further indication that a major trend could be beginning.

A new trend

This leads us onto how the Low Peak can also behave at the beginning of a new up trend.
If Low Peak has not changed in value for 15 bars, then this also confirms that we are in a
strong trend. The mere fact that price has not managed to make a 5-bar swing low tells us
that corrections are shallow, short-lived and the market is dominated by long-term
players raising their perception of what fair value is. In a similar vein, but with different
thresholds, if price has held above the Hi Peak level for 6 bars, this also indicates a strong
trend that is due a correction. Often Lo Peak at 15 and Hi Peak at 6 coincide and connect
with deviation studies to highlight not only short-term exhaustion points, but also levels
where the correction should find support. Therefore, although the studies Hi Peak and Lo
Peak simply record the number of bars between changes in Peak levels, they provide a
visualization of trend strength and anticipate corrective periods.

New trends, trend exhaustion and Cycle length

If either Hi Count or Lo Count moves beyond 15 this marks the beginning of a strong
trend. If Steps are over 6, the trend is well developed and if at extremes of deviations and
cycle length, suggests exhaustion. This is especially powerful when linked to true
measures of overbought and oversold.
Lo Count defines the beginning and end of the trend

Concepts of overbought and oversold connect with Lo Count exhaustion

Forex - solving the trailing stop problem in a 24-hour
Market

Whilst Peak lends itself to almost any market or timeframe, FX markets pose a more
pressing problem because they open for 24 hours a day and there are times, especially in
Asia, where the lack of movement means that Peak levels change and often become very
close to the current value. Therefore a good trade can often be stopped purely due to lack
of movement. When I worked with Paolo Tarranta at Banca Intensa, this showed up as a
perennial problem if we used Peak as a trailing stop in trading systems. Either the system
had to use a wider Peak setting at night, or a higher timeframe, but neither solution was
particularly satisfactory. Often it worked better if the Peak stop was simply not employed
at night. Another question was whether moves in Asia should be ignored, subject to the
currency pair. Often price will just drift slightly or pick off stops before the trend resumes
once London opens. The Dollar Swiss chart (see fig. 106) shows an example of the
problem. The Peak level creates a very tight stop, and then does the same the following
day, and this time creates premature exit.

Normal Peak has problems with a 24-hour market. Stops are activated in quiet
Periods.
Peak Range

Various workarounds were contemplated, but we kept returning to the most obvious
solution. This was to calculate a user-defined moving average of range (1000 periods in
the examples that follow); if the current range is less than the average the Peak level will
not move. Often this means that the trailing stop and step theories remain powerful.
An additional benefit that applies to all markets and timeframes is that it automatically
prevents Peak levels changing just because a market is waiting for a specific news event
and is unusually quiet ahead of the number coming out. The chart (see fig. 107) shows
the Dollar Swiss, which is waiting for a Federal Reserve meeting to declare its hands on
interest rates. The market is moribund during the afternoon ahead of the number and the
normal peak is breached. However, the lack of range means that the modified peak
maintains a wider stop and then trails the rest of the trend once the announcement is out.
On FX this method can be used every night but at other times and on other markets is
reserved for the really important events, like trade deficits, unemployment numbers and
interest rate announcements.

Peak Range avoids stops being hit when markets are quiet.
Appendix
Chapter 1 TradeFlow
Tradeflow theory has moved on considerably since the book was written, as Cqg has
made significant enhancements in terms of its functionality, and as this has evolved, more
studies have been applied to it. One of the key changes has been the ability to aggregate
the number of bid/asks, so that one TradeFlow bar can represent up to 20 changes in
quote. This is particularly applicable to markets such as the S&P and the Dax where the
number of updates continue to rise, and is also useful on Interest Rate markets and FX
futures, especially after economic numbers, when activity increases. This means that the
level of aggregation can change throughout the day. This can be done by monitoring how
long a bar takes to build or can be fixed by analysis of the volume associated with a series
of bars. Alternatively, a less scientific method is simply to shift based on the time of day.
This would mean a high aggregation on the opening and lower one as the morning
develops. It would then move back up once America opens. The real power of TradeFlow
is also evident when quantifying M.Profile based levels as the aggregation does a better
job of confirming levels validity. The daily commentaries often show examples of how
the synergies of what is used in Chapter 1 connects with Profile and provides almost the
entire framework of how markets are analyzed.

The aggregation of bars means that it is now far easier to understand whether buyers
or sellers are dominant. This is done buying building a running sum of the bids hit and
the asks taken. The number of bars to be calculated over is down to the user but I like to
use a relatively high number, so that a trend can be identified. There are many
relationships and patterns that can be identified, but one of the more simplistic is the
theory that in an uptrend more asks will be taken than bid hit.
The blue line is the asks taken and the red line the bids hit. A 60 period average
shows how the shift in power ebbs and flows.

Once buyers match sellers, the following day sees the buyers re-assert
authority.
The next pattern highlights how it not just increased volume at bid and asks that dictates
direction, but also the simple withdrawal of buyers or sellers. After a strong downtrend
hitting of the bid collapses and then the market moves consolidates before rallying.

Fixed Range TradeFlow Bars

It is also possible to adjust the bars so that they have a fixed range instead of a bid ask.
This is particularly useful as the speed of updates continues to increase with the onslaught
of high frequency automatic models. The two charts of the Dax highlight the difference
this makes as both are set at an aggregation of 20.
Using the Range at 20 smoothes the price action