Hello Traders, 

Why I Like to Use Tick and Volume Charts for Scalping

Today, I decided to touch more on an educational feature rather than provide a certain market outlook.

Many of my clients and blog readers know that when it comes to short-term trading I am a fan of using volume charts, tick charts, range bar charts and Renko charts rather than the traditional time charts like the 1 minutes, 5 minutes etc.

My rule of thumb is that if you as a trader who makes decisions based on charts that are less than 15 minutes time frame, it may be worth your time to research, back test and do some homework as to potentially using other type of charts like volume charts, Range charts etc.

Volume charts will draw a new bar once a user defined number of contracts traded. An example is the mini SP 10,000 volume chart which will draw a new bar once 10,000 contracts are traded.

Range bar charts will draw new charts once price action has exceeded a user’s pre-defined price or ticks range. An example might be an 18 ticks range bar chart on crude oil.

While volume charts rely ONLY on volume, the range bar charts rely ONLY on price action.

Their main advantage over traditional time charts is twofold in my opinion:

If the market is moving fast, reports have come out or there is heavy volume in the market, the traditional 5 minute chart will need 5 minutes to complete the next bar before it provides you with a signal…if you have day traded futures before you know what 5 minutes can do to these markets….The volume charts or range bar charts in this case will complete the bars MUCH faster because there is strong price action and strong volume and will be able to provide a signal faster than the time charts.

On the flip side, there are times when the market is dead…low volume, sideways, choppy action. If you are using the 3 minute chart and a moving avg. cross over, you may get a signal simply because time has passed and the moving averages crossed even though the market is pretty dead….If you are using a volume chart and the market is slow…it will take a while for the bars to complete and hence it may filter out some “noise” in the market.

– See more at: http://experts.forexmagnates.com/why-use-tick-volume-charts-for-scalping/#sthash.qbZ9ozh4.dpuf

Here is an example of crude oil futures chart from today ( 18 ticks range bar chart)

Custom CLE – Crude Light(Globex), Equalized Active Continuation : Range Bar, 18 Tick Units

Would you like to have access to the DIAMOND and TOPAZ and 5T ALGOs as shown above and be able to apply for any market and any time frame on your own PC? You can now have a three weeks free trial where the ALGO is enabled along with few studies for your own sierra/ ATcharts. The trial comes with a 23 page PDF booklet which explains the concepts, risks and methodology in more details.

To start your free 3 weeks trial, please send me an email with the following information:

1.  Are you a client of Cannon Trading?

2. Are you currently trading futures?

3. Charting software you use?

4. If you use sierra or ATcharts, please let me know the user name so I can enable you

5. Markets you currently trading?

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GOOD TRADING