When I recently mentioned that I largely didn't use a chart when scalping /ES, I got a bunch of queer looks out of people. "I just use TICK," I explain. "You know, TICK?" (NYSE Cumulative TICK). More puzzled looks. There's a lengthy Investopedia definition of the thing, so I won't bore you with those details; I'll just explain how I use it. (Note: I use the 1 min. TICK chart, but have posted the 15 min. here).
I generally look to fade extreme TICK counts of +1000 (long) or -1000 (short). These fades are usually good for four-eight ticks at the least and can sometimes run for several handles. Fading that -1282 opening bell tick (which happened to be the low of the day), could have resulted in your potentially capturing a 20 point move to the upside; fading the +1173 tick (HOD) could have netted you between 8-10 points to the down ... . (Frankly, if I get 6 points out of the session, that's generally it for me, so a 10 point plus day would be pretty nice ... .)
2) Watch price action around the "0" line. Is it being beaten down every time it penetrates to the upside of "0"?; consider shorts on meaningful thrusts above the "0"; vice versa for longs. I generally don't like doing these "0" line rejection trades because where you enter on a brief thrust above/below the "0" line is somewhat subjective. That's when actually glancing at the /ES 5 min. chart might be helpful so that you can get a sense of whether it's making higher highs, higher lows, coming up against support/resistance, session hi/lo, etc. However, I tend to do these a lot in the last hour of the session when there is a good deal of jockeying/whipsaw/choppiness going on of which I can take advantage ... .
Unfortunately, TICK is of limited usefulness since it is an NYSE ticker. In other words, you won't be able to use it for much beyond /NQ and /ES and the like; I use it exclusively to scalp /ES and nothing else ... .
Taste the rainbow. Embrace the TICK.
I generally look to fade extreme TICK counts of +1000 (long) or -1000 (short). These fades are usually good for four-eight ticks at the least and can sometimes run for several handles. Fading that -1282 opening bell tick (which happened to be the low of the day), could have resulted in your potentially capturing a 20 point move to the upside; fading the +1173 tick (HOD) could have netted you between 8-10 points to the down ... . (Frankly, if I get 6 points out of the session, that's generally it for me, so a 10 point plus day would be pretty nice ... .)
2) Watch price action around the "0" line. Is it being beaten down every time it penetrates to the upside of "0"?; consider shorts on meaningful thrusts above the "0"; vice versa for longs. I generally don't like doing these "0" line rejection trades because where you enter on a brief thrust above/below the "0" line is somewhat subjective. That's when actually glancing at the /ES 5 min. chart might be helpful so that you can get a sense of whether it's making higher highs, higher lows, coming up against support/resistance, session hi/lo, etc. However, I tend to do these a lot in the last hour of the session when there is a good deal of jockeying/whipsaw/choppiness going on of which I can take advantage ... .
Unfortunately, TICK is of limited usefulness since it is an NYSE ticker. In other words, you won't be able to use it for much beyond /NQ and /ES and the like; I use it exclusively to scalp /ES and nothing else ... .
Taste the rainbow. Embrace the TICK.