VEGAS TRADES GOLD IMAGE

VEGAS TRADES GOLD IMAGE
Showing posts with label GBPJPY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GBPJPY. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

WAKE ME UP WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS



                               Watching The JPY & AUD Crosses

We start 2014 with one of the worst trading weeks imaginable; oh, too be sure it will happen again, action just this side of wanting to watch “The Brady Bunch” reruns instead of your computer screen.

At our last weekly staff meeting I said, “You just wait, sometime in January we’ll get a week or two that will be crap action wise; where the range will be small and put in during the wee hours of Asia or the U.S. late afternoon, and the market [pick one, it doesn’t matter] will diddle around the +30 to -30 Pips from the weekly open, and I’ll get emails from people wondering if I have died because I haven’t done anything.”

Cousin It pipes in, “Nah, that won’t happen”. “Wanna bet?”, I said.

Needless to say, this weekend I get a free snow cone down at the beach courtesy of the entire staff who is chipping in to cover this mighty expense. I just hope my watermelon snow cone doesn’t have the whiff of almonds when they hand it to me.

I have so far been concentrating on GBPJPY because the spread over all the sessions is right around 1 pip [give or take a few tenths]; GBPAUD on the other hand only has that 1 pip spread for about 5 or 6 hours when both Europe and the U.S. overlap and are trading, and the rest of the day the spread is between 2 – 4 ½ pips.

Even though during this time both GBP and AUD versus the U.S. Dollar has spreads less than 1 pip respectively. So, how come a 4 pip spread 5 hours into the Asian session? Simple; the banks don’t want you picking them off from scalping a volatile pair, and are simply protecting themselves from nasty customer scalp operations via multiple computer EA’s [Expert Advisors] and Eastern European types who got nothing better to do than trade 7 round turns in 40 seconds, each time taking less than a pip from 5 Million stuff.

The other pairs [GBPJPY and EURAUD] are much deeper in liquidity, therefore no need to widen the spread unnecessarily when action is dull. So, my first priority starting the week will be in GBPJPY and then, if necessary, I’ll take a look at EURAUD. We basically are looking at 1 pip markets in each.

True to its nature and most important function, the Long Term algorithm has done a beautiful job of keeping us all out of trouble in GBPJPY the first 3 days of this week. I have made no trades simply because the algorithm really hasn’t called for any [remember the rules everyone]. Granted, late Tuesday morning in the European session, you could have gotten long on a breakout of 1.7246 on the upside. I didn’t take the trade because I didn’t think the market had anyplace to substantially go pre-NFP Friday and the unemployment numbers the BLS will make up.

As things turned out, I was right about this. Other than that, the sharp decline to the lows happened Sunday afternoon and very early in Asia on Monday. From there it has been a slow and haphazard rise up back to the weekly open. Three days in, and right now, we are only about 50 pips from the weekly open; not exactly the stuff legendary moves are made.

Oh, not to worry, as I am sure on Friday both new lows and highs for the week can be expected within half an hour as retail accounts become acquainted again with the casino environment of an NFP Friday.

For everyone that wrote me wondering if I had died and praying for some market action, I can assure you the boredom from watching GBPJPY, early Monday to the present, hasn’t quite turned me to room temperature. However, I do have some advice;

                                          Take Two If Necessary

Last time I checked, I can’t deposit trades into the bank; for that we need real money. Not too worry tradeaholics, everything is fine and well.

Have a good day everyone.

-vegas

P.S.
Another email blast has got me about 2-3 days behind in answering emails. I’ll get to ‘em, so if you’re waiting to hear from me, rest assured an answer is coming very soon. Thanks.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

A CLOSER LOOK AT GBPAUD



                           I See Great Opportunity Here

Here are the rules for trading I am going to use to trade GBPAUD [and by extension for those who wish to trade EURAUD, GBPJPY, and EURJPY].

1)      I place a colored [your choice of color from platform selection] horizontal line at the Monday open [00:00]. [Note: Sunday afternoon action goes into the prior weeks candlestick chart.]
2)      This weekly open line is our demarcation line for being long/short. 30 pips + or – from this open marks the price for initiating long/short positions. From there I follow the yellow/plum line signals.
3)      At any time during the week if the market is in this “no mans land” of + or – 30 pips from the open, I ignore all signals until it moves one way or the other out of this box.
4)      The current Risk Model [RM] for GBPAUD is RM = 2; since I am more conservative, I choose to use the aqua exhaustion line for liquidation should price hit it or go beyond it.
5)      I don’t know for absolute certainty which market hours I will trade this pair. Since AUD is the denominator pair, and the Asian session includes Australia as well as China news, we are going to see some nice price moves, especially in the later Asian session when China usually releases economic news. Initially I am going to try and catch the later half of Asia, all of Europe, and see what is happening at the start of US trading before I call it a day. I don’t know if I can keep this schedule, but I’m going to give it a shot.
6)      My goal is 100+ pips per week on multiple lots.

There are 3 areas I want to cover in more detail to show you what to do when the algorithm presents you with these circumstances; 1) exhaustion line exit and then re-entry, 2) placing of stops and/or liquidation based on the yellow/plum signals, and 3) one  special rule after large moves.

In a strong [up or down] moving market, often times the market will move to the exhaustion line, back off, and then start again with a vengeance in the original direction without ever presenting us with a “new” signal. How do we handle this so we can get back in after some minor correction?

                                    [Click Too Enlarge To Full Screen]

The candlestick chart directly above is from Friday’s action; the first yellow arrow is our long position entry; the boxed yellow arrow is our exit because the aqua exhaustion line has been hit. So what do we do now to get back in?

You wait for the plum and yellow lines to get very close to each other after the exhaustion move; you re-enter the market in the blue boxed area with a tight stop [the white horizontal line]. This stop is a) just below previous current support, and b) if hit the plum line would be below the yellow line signaling you wouldn’t want to be long anyway. Just looking at the chart, your risk here is about 10-15 pips [bid price].

When the market slows down, you have to be more judicious in a) following the plum/yellow line signals, and then by default b) setting your stops.

                                    [Click Too Enlarge To Full Screen]

The candlestick chart directly above is from Thursday’s price action, the blue box highlights an area where price is starting to congest and get choppy; we don’t know how long this will last, but the last thing we want to do is get in, then get out, get back in, get out again, etc., all the while suffering the dreaded chop-chop 10 pip losses numerous times.

When you start to see this, you have to recognize it, and then place an appropriate stop level where, if hit, the chop will have ended. Here, in this example, the 2 horizontal lines would be appropriate stop levels for a long position. The first one [in white] is obviously tighter than the second one [in green], and which one you choose depends on your risk tolerance. They both are good choices. This is how you handle the chop.

There is a special rule for trading; anytime a week is up or down more than 500 pips from the previous week [and closes the week at or near the high/low], the lower threshold for getting short is changed from -30 from the open to -150 pips from the open if the market was higher, and the higher threshold for getting long is changed from +30 pips from the open to +150 pips from the open if the market was lower.

In addition, if the market was up that 500 + pips, all long signals can be taken to the -150 pips from the open and if the market was down that 500 + pips, all short signals can be taken to the +150 pips from the open.

This special rule IS ONLY FOR WEEKS FOLLOWING 500 + PIP MOVES IN THE MARKET, WHERE THE CLOSE IS AT OR NEAR THE HIGH/LOW. IT IS NOT FOR OTHER WEEKS. This allows us to take advantage of carry over momentum from week to week when the market is trending strongly IN ONE DIRECTION.

So, since last week saw GBPAUD up about 530 pips on the week and closed very near the high of the week, the special rule is in effect for this upcoming week. Therefore, from the open on Monday, -150 pips from the open we follow the long signals, and if the market goes -150 from the open we would then follow only the short signals.

[Note: for EURAUD and GBPJPY it is a 400 pip week, and for EURJPY it is a 300 pip week. The threshold level for EURAUD and GBPJPY is also 150 pips, and for EURJPY it is 100 pips.]

For those of you who either don’t know what the algorithm looks like on the chart or don’t have a Forex-Metal MT4 demo [or live] account, the following 3 charts are for the entire day of Friday. I am including them here so you can see with your own eyes the power of the algorithm.

Friday November 22, 2013, 5 minutes at a time from the Forex-Metal server 00:00 [Thursday night] to the Friday close at 21:50 are reproduced below in three consecutive charts.

                                    00:00 to 08:00 – Grid Box Is 11.5 Pips

                                    08:00 to 16:00 – Grid Box Is 9.0 Pips

                           16:00 to 22:00 Close – Grid Box Is 11.5 Pips

When you look at this day, you should intuitively understand why I want to trade this FX pair. Overlayed onto the 5M candlestick chart is the “long term –vegas Big Bang Algorithm” in RM = 2 mode. Since the week is “up” [i.e. green on the weekly candlestick] we are only interested in being long the pair. Therefore, we want to get long on the plum line crossover of the yellow line.

The power of the algorithm has at its heart the yellow/plum line crossover. The margin of error on this visual representation is about 5.2% from the pure math; close enough for us to be right there when momentum changes via the Fibonacci ratios and the most important of the Gann angles.

As Bert once told me, “kid, your analysis doesn’t have to be perfect to make a million bucks in this business; you do, though, have to be perfectly disciplined”.

I want to remind everyone again, I have Patrick Mikula’s 209 page [PDF] “The Definitive Guide To Forecasting Using W.D. Gann’s Square of Nine” publication from 2003. Over the years, I have read and reread this hundreds of times; it is a great source of inspiration, thought, and ideas. Every time I revisit this work I see something different and get a bunch of ideas I want to think through and then check out. Of course, most often times my “out-of-the-box” ideas bear no fruit, but it adds to my education and market perspective. After all, I’m just a student of the market.

If you would like this publication for your electronic library, simply email me at vegasalgo@yahoo.com and I will send ASAP.

Have a great day everyone.

-vegas

Sunday, November 17, 2013

UNDERSTANDING MOMENTUM



                                   Can You Define This Wave?

One of the biggest challenges we face as traders is defining exactly what price information means something and what is truly random and meaningless. All we have at our disposal is a 2 dimensional candlestick chart that is somehow supposed to map behavior in a multi-dimensional environment, and give us answers that can make us consistent money. What could possibly go wrong?

So, how does the “Long Term –vegas Big Bang Algorithm” map momentum and give us an edge?

First of all, the weekly open demarcation will allow us to stay on the side of the market most likely to succeed in making us money. The proof of this [specifically in gold, but other markets as well with slightly different ratios] is that the distance from the high value to the open versus the distance from the low value to the open, as a ratio is greater than 4 / 1.

Once we have this information, we shift our attention to trying to be in the market when momentum moves take us in this favored direction; i.e. the yellow and plum lines and the crossover.

How I define this momentum is key, and isn’t what you think it is. What is important here is NOT the force of price per se, but the angle [or ratio] at which extreme price [measured from  the LOW] maintains or increases over a specified Fibonacci time frame.

I’m going to use some examples from GBPJPY from this past week; there are some textbook examples of the power of the algorithm. You will get these same types of formations in all markets you may trade.

The entire week was in the “green”, so traders in GBPJPY were looking to get long on the plum line over yellow line crossover. What I want to concentrate on is not the wave upward, but the cross under that would get you to either hedge up or liquidate.

Here is an example of the cross going under [highlighted in blue] from the 5M candlestick:


How many 5M candlesticks from top to the bottom does this minor correction take up? Answer: 11


Directly above is the same time period in GBPJPY using the 1M candlestick chart; highlighted in blue is the time [in minutes] of the entire correction. How many minutes is it?
Answer: 54


A few hours later, on the same day [11/15] GBPJPY had another correction. Directly above is the condensed 1M candlestick chart from top to bottom. The first white arrow is the top, the first yellow arrow is the 55th minute, the second yellow arrow is the 89th minute, and the last white arrow is the 144th minute.

In both examples, prices quickly rebounded after these corrections.

Here is the start of the Fibonacci sequence: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,233,377,610,987, etc.
Of course, after the number 3, every number has as its ratio to the one before the number 0.618. This is the “golden ratio” that so many things in our universe have at its core; seashore lines, cloud formations, mountain tops, seashells, and the list goes on.

So, where exactly did the market start its up moves again? In the first example it was the 55th minute, and in the second example it really got going with an explosion in the 145th minute.

So many times, in almost every market, corrections [in time] can be mapped to the Fibonacci number sequence above. I urge you to do some research on your own and confirm this.

Now, from correction to correction we don’t know where the end will come; it could be the 8th minute, the 34th minute, or even the 144th minute [like the example above], but what we do know is that the ratio of the last 3 lows to the ratio of the last 9 lows [exponentially] will allow us to be very close to this turn NO MATTER THE FIB NUMBER.

One of the very best Gann publications you can have in your library is “The Definitive Guide To Forecasting Using W.D. Gann’s Square of Nine” by Patrick Mikula. The entire 209 page publication I have in PDF. If you would like a copy, drop me an email at vegasalgo@yahoo.com

Have a great day everyone.

-vegas

P.S.
To enlarge the charts on your screen, simply double click your mouse over the chart and it will enlarge to screen size for better viewing.

P.S.S.
Today is a very special day.
To Bert, May the Lord always bless and keep you close. You will always be the master and I the student. Your loyal friend forever. -vegas

Thursday, September 19, 2013

GREAT REWARDS



                                Chief of Staff Milton Waddams

I had planned on getting to this in late October, but too many people [my overpaid staff included] have been pushing me to do this NOW!

Within the next 10 days or so, I’ll be releasing how to trade all currency pairs using the “-vegas Big Bang Algorithm” with a longer timeframe approach. Then, sometime in October I will release this method specifically for XAUUSD [spot gold].

Of course, all this will be made available for free in the downloads section when the files are finished.

This will give literally everyone what they need to successfully trade the Forex market depending on A) how much time they can devote to the markets of their choice, and B) what their individual risk profile is.

In the “-vegas For Life” file, the Big Bang Algorithm specifically targets EURJPY and GBPJPY using the daily and 5M candlestick charts respectively. The longer timeframe approach uses the weekly candlestick charts. Both are compatible with each other and can be used in conjunction when trading or used alone.

Just a reminder, for those that are interested in a Forex-Metal Replitrader account, I’ll be going full time starting the first full week of October.

My plate has been pretty full this month, and meeting so many great people has been a wonderful experience for me. Thanks for all the great discussions and questions regarding trading. With two more speaking engagements left before I get back to trading, I’m sure both will be equally rewarding. Thanks everyone.

Have a great day everyone.

-vegas

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

MRS. WANTANABE PLEASE STOP TRADING


                                          Is She Hurting You?

And while she is blowing up the Japanese bond market, she ain’t exactly doing gold any favors either. Somebody at the Central Planning prop desk over at JPM has obviously forgotten to email me and let me know she is back in the market.

“Mrs. who?”

[For your personal education and amusement I introduce you to her famed exploits.]

She hasn’t been this active since she got caught on the wrong side of the GBPJPY carry trade in 2008 [June 2008 GBPJPY about 215.00 – January 2009 GBPJPY about 120.00] and took a 40% + haircut on a ‘sure thing”.

Amazing how many sure things ain’t that sure.

Think back a second to the Asian trading session following the “Leap Year Massacre” in gold on February 29; which in about 4 hours gold tacked on about $40 / oz. in price [1685 to 1725] on a straight up bargain of a lifetime massive demand spike from Asia.

They should have used my advice from yesterday: “If you are gonna buy the dip, you better be willing to sell the rip.” Sadly, no can do and/or no wanna do. Why sell it higher when you can easily sell it lower later?

Subsequent sessions since then have seen gold stage some pretty good 2 and 3 day rallies, only to be crushed by the Central Planners. Undaunted, Mrs. Wantanabe bravely kept buying. Interesting thing happened though the third time gold came back to the 1630 area from loftier heights; Mrs. Wantanabe and her pals [affectionately dubbed the “Lemmings in Asia” by yours truly] started selling, and selling, and selling some more.

Which brings us to the present day $140 haircut ain’t-this-fun-waterfall in gold. Not interested in seeing the mistakes of the past repeated, most notably the above mentioned carry trade and multiple trading debacles in Spanish and Irish bonds, they simply are doing what every trader at some point has to do: puke.

                             Bullwinkle J. Moose Shows The Way

“Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat. Button up my sleeve ...”

We all know how that turns out.

Have a good day everyone.

-vegas