Tape Reading
Tape Reading
Tape Reading
Some
with robust risk management and some without. One day trading technique
that many traders struggle to find solid risk management strategy is Scalping.
Nonetheless this is not the case for day traders that understand the art of tape
reading.
6E futures: Supply IMBALANCE seen on the tape
The tape is short for time and sales. Some will prefer to call it time of sale aka
TS. Many platforms will not give time and sales information thus showing the
power of this information or data feed. The TS window or indicator will
basically relay level II data in real time.
Level II data shows active buyers and sellers real time, the volume or contract
size and the prices at which they are getting filled. One indicator that does this
very well is the vvAggregatedTS for Ninja Trader 7. Refer to my previous post
on ‘DELTA’. The 3 magic words are Price, Volume and Delta.
Block Trades/Large Prints on the other hand help us identify order flow
momentum. Many day traders tend to think that when a block order long is
fired one should buy in the direction of the block trade. That cannot work as
shown in the screenshot below
Who takes out Who?
Speed of the tape does also helps spot momentum. For example, If offers are
being taken out quickly it means the buyers/bulls are really strong. If the bids
are taken out quickly, means the bears are strong. This is all momentum and
scalps can be made if the direction of the order flow.
Here is a example of how I read the tape looking out for supply demand
imbalances. It happens relatively fast and on one minute charts. Just watch
this short amateur clip
Buying Imbalance 6E EURUSD m1