Book Description

When I first laid my eyes on a candlestick chart, it reminded me of my music sheets. I was intrigued by a simple pattern-like representation of the collective economic psyche. Intrigued and hooked. But I would soon discover that 'simple' should not be used in the same sentence as 'price action' and 'candlestick charts'. My story: I spent 25 years as a highly skilled session musician. But as the music industry became ravaged by internet piracy, gigs became tougher, fees became cheaper and more annoying as the years went by. I placed my first trade in 2007. I had no idea what I was doing. Although I initially made $4,000 I watched this bleed down to nothing over the very next week. I soon realised that the markets are nothing like 'point and click' like some brokers would lead you to believe. In fact, learning how to day trade consistently and profitably will be the most difficult high-income skill you will ever learn. Complexity-wise, it's right up there with performing brain surgery, becoming an Olympic-level athlete, a nuclear engineer, grand chess master or a highly skilled musician. Having said that, I enjoyed my journey to finding my alpha, finding my edge as a day trader immensely. I like puzzles. I enjoy intellectual stimulation. I thrive under high-pressure situations. If you are anything like me, then I invite you into my day trading method. It is primarily based on my own concept of systematic swing extremes. But it also incorporates heavy use of the market profile. Market profile is by far the most commonly used tool of professional prop traders. It has served me exquisitely well during my prop trading years when I traded crude oil futures and ES-mini (S&P500 futures). My approach isn't technical analysis. A more accurate term would be 'Market Mechanics' analysis. I look at statistical data, distribution curves and swing extremes to find high probability opportunities multiple times in one day. In this book, you won't find RSI, Moving Averages or MACD divergence. Instead, you will find some flow diagrams, statistical means, TPOs, and distribution curves - but without any complicated equations! It took me 6 long years of painstakingly backtesting and forward testing to develop a systematic trading method. My method is based on statistical probabilities, taking advantage of either norms OR abnormalities. This book isn't about a+b = c. Instead, think of it as learning the language of order flow. Recognising higher odds opportunities as they arise over a trading session. My skills eventually blossomed when I gained an apprenticeship in Chicago. I was trading next to some pretty legendary CME traders. My own career now spans 14 years across London and Chicago based companies. My true potential really came into focus when I paired up supply demand with the market profile strategies. To this day I am the only trader who managed to come up with a systematic way of marrying these two professional tools of price and volume analysis. In this book, you will discover how to interpret and capitalise on day-to-day sentiment for short term trading income. If you're ready to leave the confusion behind and move forward with your trading skills, this book is for you: an intermediate trader who is struggling with finding their edge and consistency