Ranking Price Levels

[VP7]

Hello,

I'm looking for a reliable method of identifying prices of interest (such as supply/demand zones, support/resistance, fair value gaps, etc). The following are a couple levels I'm trying to incorporate:

• Supply/Demand Zone based on Fair Value Gap (FVG)
• Recent Swing High/Low (more recent = more reliable)
• Yesterday's High/Low (RTH session)
• Today's Open Price (RTH session)
• High Volume Nodes (5 Day? 30 day? Intraday?) (Volume Profile)

In the community's experience, can these be ranked (from most to least reliable)? I've heard of prop firms like SMB Capital mention some traders rank their support/resistance which add confidence to trades.

Also, if there are other ideas, I'm very interested in reading about them.

Thank you

 

[armybender]

@VP7, the market is fractal in nature. Thousands of participants trade all styles on all chart types on all timeframes all the time. That's why you can get price movements at all of the listed S&R types - because someone is using them, but not everyone is using them.

The thing to keep in mind is that "hard" support and resistance are visible at chart swing points. Those show up very clearly on nearly every chart. That would coincide with swing highs / lows and supply / demand zones. Those are where large volumes of orders happen in one direction. Those should be on the top of the list.

 

[TechGuy]

@VP7, the market is fractal in nature. Thousands of participants trade all styles on all chart types on all timeframes all the time. That's why you can get price movements at all of the listed S&R types - because someone is using them, but not everyone is using them.

The thing to keep in mind is that "hard" support and resistance are visible at chart swing points. Those show up very clearly on nearly every chart. That would coincide with swing highs / lows and supply / demand zones. Those are where large volumes of orders happen in one direction. Those should be on the top of the list.

You make some interesting comments on various chats on this website! What hard support and resistance level scripts and supply/demand scripts do you use?

 

[armybender]

You make some interesting comments on various chats on this website! What hard support and resistance level scripts and supply/demand scripts do you use?

Thanks @TechGuy. I don't know if that's a compliment or a dig. I don't take any offense either way. Hope it's a compliment though. And I hope you benefit from my response. I went overboard, but figured it was likely the right venue to address some of these items.

First, here is a picture of my chart (attached below). What you'll notice is that I hardly use any studies at all. I've spent years developing the skill to read the bars, so I find the more I put on my chart the harder it is for me to see what's happening.

The ones I use I have either built my own, or customized a little from studies I have found online.

As for my setup, I have 3 monitors. I spend 95%+ of my time looking at my primary chart with my hands off the keyboard and mouse. If I do have my hand on the mouse I'm drawing horizontal lines or trendlines, or managing a trade, but when I have a position on I mostly leave it alone and let my stops and limits do their job.

As soon as I understand what the trendline says or once it's no longer relevant, I remove it from the chart. At any given time I may have 2-10 lines on the chart, but absolutely no more, and generally something more like 3-5.
Here's what my setup looks like:
Left Monitor:
4 charts with a 10k / 8k / 4k / 2k tick chart. All look similar to my main chart, but with ONLY the EMA study.

Center Monitor:
This is the chart in the picture below.

Right Monitor:
A 1k tick chart with a little different coloring scheme (it trails the colors of the bars, so no gray), a 10 tick range chart, and another 1k tick chart with my ATM study (link below).

https://usethinkscript.com/threads/...-indicator-for-thinkorswim.13897/#post-127160


Most of my supply/demand and support/resistance identification is done with my eyeballs. I draw a horizontal lines when trendlines are broken and mark the high of the first 2 legged pullback in the opposite direction as well as the level from which the trendline broke. I sometimes draw slanted trendlines, but only when I'm expecting the TL break to result in a reversing trend, which it usually only does near the extremes of the day.

Otherwise, I simply watch for setups near the levels where I draw horizontal lines. I spend most of my time looking at where buyers/sellers succeeded and failed, and I've developed a very good eye for these things over many years.

I believe most indicators to be "fake" because they don't tell you where buyers and sellers exist, they only tell you what they approximate a trend to be. In fact, I have a very serious dislike of most indicators because people who use them typically use them instead of analyzing the bars. And on top of that, nearly everyone I've met who's constantly searching for the "holy grail indicator" (which does not exist) loses money consistently. If you want to make money you have to learn to read the bars. Otherwise you should just invest in a fund that uses AI if you're ok with a black box.

If you're interested in learning to read the bars, I'd recommend books by Al Brooks, or Mack's YouTube videos on the PATsTrading channel.

I'll list the studies I use and their sources, but you can see my chart is mostly empty. I've also spent a crazy amount of time studying the right colors to use to easily identify the things I look for. I've tweaked them a little over time too.

RGB Colors are generally:
Green: 75, 155, 75
Red: 224, 117, 117
Gray: 181, 181, 181


My Studies (# relates to study name shown in screenshot):
Study #1:
A very simple 21 period EMA with some coloring modifications. I hardly pay attention to the EMA because it's "fake" (i.e. not one of 3 real things - price, time, volume). I also don't care about volume - you can see where there was volume in the bars, but it is a truly real thing.

Study#2:
This plots a vertical line at 8:30 CST and midnight CST.

Study #3:
This colors my bars based on whether an entry above/below a bar would have achieved 1x risk = reward including a tick for entry and a tick for a stop above/below. The study URL is shown below.

https://usethinkscript.com/threads/...yze-entries-in-thinkorswim.14809/#post-125292

Study #4:
A slightly adapted version of the study listed below.

https://usethinkscript.com/threads/supertrend-channels-luxalgo-for-thinkorswim.15377/

Study #5:
This just shows a horizontal line on the close price. It is taken from the study listed below and modified to allow a high/low line if I want one.

https://usethinkscript.com/threads/current-price-line-indicator-for-thinkorswim.8793/


I hope this helps. Let me know if so.

 

[mwf369]

Thanks @TechGuy. I don't know if that's a compliment or a dig. I don't take any offense either way. Hope it's a compliment though. And I hope you benefit from my response. I went overboard, but figured it was likely the right venue to address some of these items.

First, here is a picture of my chart (attached below). What you'll notice is that I hardly use any studies at all. I've spent years developing the skill to read the bars, so I find the more I put on my chart the harder it is for me to see what's happening.

The ones I use I have either built my own, or customized a little from studies I have found online.

As for my setup, I have 3 monitors. I spend 95%+ of my time looking at my primary chart with my hands off the keyboard and mouse. If I do have my hand on the mouse I'm drawing horizontal lines or trendlines, or managing a trade, but when I have a position on I mostly leave it alone and let my stops and limits do their job.

As soon as I understand what the trendline says or once it's no longer relevant, I remove it from the chart. At any given time I may have 2-10 lines on the chart, but absolutely no more, and generally something more like 3-5.
Here's what my setup looks like:
Left Monitor:
4 charts with a 10k / 8k / 4k / 2k tick chart. All look similar to my main chart, but with ONLY the EMA study.

Center Monitor:
This is the chart in the picture below.

Right Monitor:
A 1k tick chart with a little different coloring scheme (it trails the colors of the bars, so no gray), a 10 tick range chart, and another 1k tick chart with my ATM study (link below).

https://usethinkscript.com/threads/...-indicator-for-thinkorswim.13897/#post-127160


Most of my supply/demand and support/resistance identification is done with my eyeballs. I draw a horizontal lines when trendlines are broken and mark the high of the first 2 legged pullback in the opposite direction as well as the level from which the trendline broke. I sometimes draw slanted trendlines, but only when I'm expecting the TL break to result in a reversing trend, which it usually only does near the extremes of the day.

Otherwise, I simply watch for setups near the levels where I draw horizontal lines. I spend most of my time looking at where buyers/sellers succeeded and failed, and I've developed a very good eye for these things over many years.

I believe most indicators to be "fake" because they don't tell you where buyers and sellers exist, they only tell you what they approximate a trend to be. In fact, I have a very serious dislike of most indicators because people who use them typically use them instead of analyzing the bars. And on top of that, nearly everyone I've met who's constantly searching for the "holy grail indicator" (which does not exist) loses money consistently. If you want to make money you have to learn to read the bars. Otherwise you should just invest in a fund that uses AI if you're ok with a black box.

If you're interested in learning to read the bars, I'd recommend books by Al Brooks, or Mack's YouTube videos on the PATsTrading channel.

I'll list the studies I use and their sources, but you can see my chart is mostly empty. I've also spent a crazy amount of time studying the right colors to use to easily identify the things I look for. I've tweaked them a little over time too.

RGB Colors are generally:
Green: 75, 155, 75
Red: 224, 117, 117
Gray: 181, 181, 181


My Studies (# relates to study name shown in screenshot):
Study #1:
A very simple 21 period EMA with some coloring modifications. I hardly pay attention to the EMA because it's "fake" (i.e. not one of 3 real things - price, time, volume). I also don't care about volume - you can see where there was volume in the bars, but it is a truly real thing.

Study#2:
This plots a vertical line at 8:30 CST and midnight CST.

Study #3:
This colors my bars based on whether an entry above/below a bar would have achieved 1x risk = reward including a tick for entry and a tick for a stop above/below. The study URL is shown below.

https://usethinkscript.com/threads/...yze-entries-in-thinkorswim.14809/#post-125292

Study #4:
A slightly adapted version of the study listed below.

https://usethinkscript.com/threads/supertrend-channels-luxalgo-for-thinkorswim.15377/

Study #5:
This just shows a horizontal line on the close price. It is taken from the study listed below and modified to allow a high/low line if I want one.

https://usethinkscript.com/threads/current-price-line-indicator-for-thinkorswim.8793/


I hope this helps. Let me know if so.

View attachment 19423

Hello @armybender!

A lot of your commentary on indicators resonates with me. I was curious if your trading strategy was based on a book or course? Or entirely homegrown? Is there anything you could direct me to in order learn more?

Thanks,
Mark