Tutorials

Although this recorded hour is a wallow in the minutia of camouflage trading, the slog does have its value. We spent most of the session trying to force trades, a task best managed on the 3-second bar chart, using impulse legs so obscure that even the algos can’t find them. We second- and third-guessed ourselves dizzy at times, with varying success. If the mind-games that traders play fascinate you, check this one out!

This lesson contains some of the most detailed information on options that I’ve provided to date. The presentation simplifies some advanced concepts, including backspreading and frontspreading, explaining how the former is working for us in the position we currently hold in TLT. It also boils down the tactic we’ve used to acquire puts and calls effectively for free by legging into spreads. Finally, we stalk some potential trading opportunities on charts of less than one-minute degree.

I strongly encourage students to initiate trades during these classes, since, in the trading world, mere ‘chalk-talk’ will never cut it. I assume that you want to know exactly when your instructor would pull the trigger, and so it is my practice to ‘green-light’ actual trades when enticing opportunities arise in real time. Keep that in mind when you review this recording, since, acting on just such a signal, a student with quick reflexes shorted the E-Mini S&P futures for a fat, easy profit. Of further interest in this lesson is some tightly reasoned forecasting for the day that was based on the subtlest possible signs in charts of ‘camouflage’ degree.

We don’t typically look for trades in Gold futures during these weekly tutorial sessions, but there we were nonetheless, financial tourists on the 1-minute bar chart, staring opportunity in the face. The point of the exercise was that even in a slightly trending vehicle – one that subscribers care about perhaps a little too much to trade disinterestedly – there were interesting things to do. And so we did. Check out what was available on the three-second bar chart if you want to be convinced that a trader need never pass a day in boredom.

Skip the first eight minutes, which were marred by technical problems, and cut to the chase. Once again, we zoomed down to the very lesser charts in search of subtle trading opportunities in a few of our favorite vehicles, including gold and the E-Mini S&Ps. We also spent some time examining the option grid, since it has the potential to reward us with trades that are as close to riskless as conceivable.

We skied cornices and steeps during this lesson, focusing on charts of one-minute degree or less, but also applying reverse psychology to our trades. I’ve been putting increasing emphasis on such tactics because they offer the best solution for dealing with the algos and other real-time annoyances. In practice, this often means jumping on ABC patterns that do not begin with true impulse legs. These trades can be relatively labor-intensive, but as you will see, the payoff is that the strategy works perhaps 85% of the time.

On a boring ‘Fed day’ that began and ended with a short-squeeze leap on the opening bar, we spent the entire session searching in vain for juicy odds. The process was illuminating nonetheless, since most of the time, we were looking at charts of one-minute degree or less, where tiny subtleties have the potential to produce big – and relatively riskless – gains. Skip to the last ten minutes if you want to see how the would-be best trade of the day, in BABA, worked out. There is also some material at the beginning of the lesson that shows one way not to use options.

We initiate trades using small patterns, camouflage-style, because the big ones carry more risk. The goal is not to make a pile of money on the small patterns, but to get aboard with relatively little risk or stress. You can see the thought process at work in this recording, since we spent most of the session hunkering down on charts of one-minute degree or less. This is where trades start to work very consistently, mainly because there is relatively little competition. If you’ve been getting stopped out too often shortly after entering a trade, this lesson shows how to avoid it by paying attention to small details that are off nearly everyone else’s radar.

I've been putting increasing emphasis on "counterintuitive" trades during these tutorial sessions, since some of our old tricks have not been working as well. Mainly, it has been a case of gorgeous ABC patterns stopping us out, sometimes more than once. A promising solution is to look for patterns that make us feel a little queasy when initiating a trade. B-C correction legs that retrace almost to the point 'A' low are a good example of this. In this lesson, we consider several such patterns while looking to get long or short well outside of our usual comfort zone.