It looks like a worse, even less tradable situation played out Lol. No demand bar, breaking down at the close. There was weakness throughout the day, but nothing suggesting a breakdown intraday so I did not get involved This morning there is a Jobs ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

Volatile times. A closer read lets me create a narrative and gives me conviction about direction image (I am using the S&P 500 futures contract here to minimize gaps and stuff, but it ties into my earlier analysis of the S&P 500 ETF, SPY, as well) ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

This market is very unpredictable. Getting conflicting messages at the moment. After the No Demand bar, I entered on both of the next bars intraday but exited because there was clear demand present. image The current bar looks to be continuing ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

Opened @ 678 but rejected lows pretty definitively. Market is strong, which is what the NQ alluded to. Stopped out of my two TLT positions which stung, but glad I had already exited the third position I entered on Friday. Gonna lick my wounds for ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

May have gotten ahead of my skis yet again. The tech sector is leading the market and the tail that wags the dog that is the S&P 500. The monthly chart wrapped yesterday and looks less bearish than I expected Monthly image Weekly image

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

^ I did add to TLT like I mentioned. I also added again yesterday but didn't see convincing price action after the open and so I exited that small addition. For both of the past two days, I bought puts on the S&P 500 but didn't like the subsequent ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

PPI print must have been negative as markets are now down ~1% in the premarket. Another variable I forgot to account for is that a handful of SaaS companies reported after yesterday's close. These companies are uniquely vulnerable to AI in general ...

vsa with Malcolm

It has been two months of choppiness but a VSA story of distribution seems increasingly likely, and also may have possibly concluded w/ the No Demand bar on Wednesday. (Which would cements another lower high): image NVDA is not just the industry ...

vsa with Malcolm

Made this comment in the main VSA thread. TL;DR: I have a small position in TLT and was contemplating adding to it. Figured it makes sense to update it here instead of treating the Malcolm thread like my personal journal image I was nervous ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

Appreciate the feedback HG. Will carve out some time down the road to backtest the 50% line and see how I feel about it. On an unrelated note, I think there might be a chance for me to add to my position on the Daily at some time this week ...

vsa with Malcolm

Reduced my size drastically and had 3 more stop outs trying to jump in as the markets got more bullish. The last two were really tough breaks where the markets shook me out and then gapped away so I couldn't participate. image Here's a closer look ...

vsa with Malcolm

Reinventing the Wheel Anotan's Structure I've come up w/ a lot of theories about price over time. The other day I glanced at Anotan's semi-retired journal and realized that his framework, shared years ago, reached conclusions I'm only recently ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

Bump

Share Backtesting Spreadsheets/Trading Journals

Ideal scenario mentioned earlier vs current scenario image image Better to be lucky than good Game plan TBH this is more aggressive than I prefer as it hasn't accumulated on the weekly as much as I'd like, but with ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

I don't understand why the VIX spiked 10% leading up to the somewhat predictable FOMC event but was flat going into the jobs report when expectations are poor and there's increased chance that it leads to selling

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

Potentially mushrooming on the S&P again: image Here's a breakdown on the Daily: image Strength in background so bulls are in control but demand is slowing up. No buying pressure Lowest volume in weeks. Not great but still the bulls to lose ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

Finished a (free) course/quiz on Bayesian/Probabilistic thinking that is useful for thinking about risk when trading : url

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

Symbol: TLT Fundamentals Recession -> lower rates -> TLT price increases May 2026 -> Powell retires -> Trump installs a crony who cuts rates because Trump wants it -> TLT price increases Monthly Chart image EvR as a potential sign of strength. ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

In addition to backtesting, I've watched some +10 year old Tom Williams videos on YT. The videos tend to have the same structure w/ VSA newbies asking Tom for his opinion on some charts. I like to pause the videos once the chart is shown, analyze ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait

Strong rejection of the gap higher after NVDA's earnings. Might be the nail in the coffin for the bullish sentiment as a whole Edit: haven't been paying attention to live markets, so my analysis is not very detailed tbh. Some accumulation intraday ...

VSA Trading: Reading the Tape & Learning to Wait