Esteban; RE:" Mass Psychology in Pictures..."
You have such a way with words, Esteban. I agree completely.
300 minutes is an interesting time to choose, more than 1/2
of a trading day. Why that particular time frame ?
No particular reason, really - just fiddling with the time-slice. At present, I have decided to trade the OEX on 90-minute Candlesticks, Esteban. Here is a snapshot of my trading screen from last week...
geocities.com
How about looking at 1/2 day candles ?
Another, very good observation. The NYSE actually talks about "Session 1" and "Session 2" volume. Let's see - the day is 6-1/2 hours or 390 minutes; so a half-day would be 195-minute Candlesticks. I'll add that one to my time-scales, Esteban.
Note that 39-minutes would generate 10 candles per day. Let's see what that looks like ( he says to himself! ) and consider multiples thereof.
I have traded stocks intra-day for a long time. There are clearly periods, within the trading session, which are not equal time-slices.
For example, the first 45 minutes Morning Attack, that would be from 0930 EST to 1015 or thereabouts +/-15 minutes. On Friday, several traders remarked, "...I'm closing my (long) OEX calls or SPZ futures by selling into this opening strength. If the rally holds for the first hour, I may re-enter and buy more calls."
Then there is a period of consolidation from 1045 to 1200 EST. That would be 75 minutes.
From 1200 to 1400, usually a "settling in", lunch in NYC, etc. So, that would be 120 minutes.
Around 1400, +/-30 minutes something usually happens. One trader has an old adage: "Never buy before 2 O'Clock". These activities last until about 45 minutes to the closing bell at 1600, or 1515. So, this time-slice would be 75 minutes.
Finally, the Evening Attack occurs in the last 45 minutes, with the very last 20 minutes a period in which day-traders take profits and (sometimes) taking new positions one way or another.
Unfortunately, Esteban - we cannot set up our chart generator with un-equal length time slices on the same chart. However, we can use the different time-slices to observe these different periods as candles in detail, to measure sentiment.
-Steve |
