Justin's Playground

Waiting some decent pull-back to join the sell... Red line on 4H chart can be tested which is 200 EMA on Daily chart.

First trade. A quick VWAP scalping.

The second trade. Timing wasn't that good but... anyway... Done for the Asian session or the whole day.

No trade yet. It looks slightly bullish at this time of writing... It may wants to test yesterday's high....

The first trade in Asian session. Market is somewhat choppy. Be careful. Perhaps, done for the Asian session.

Just watching now... If price crosses VWAP and continues to move up, it should be bullish sign I guess....

Rejected from VWAP. Now it looks more bearish.....

Forex doesn't provide accurate volume data. In this case, can we use tick volume instead to draw VWAP?


Yes. In spot Forex, many traders use tick volume as a substitute for real traded volume when calculating VWAP.
The reason is that decentralized Forex does not have a single centralized exchange like futures or stocks, so “true” total market volume is unavailable. Most retail Forex brokers only provide:

1. Price data
2. Tick count (number of price updates)

A VWAP built from tick volume is therefore usually called a tick-weighted VWAP.
The standard VWAP formula is:
VWAP=\frac{\sum (Price_i \times Volume_i)}{\sum Volume_i}
In Forex, traders replace “Volume” with “Tick Volume”:
Tick\text{-}VWAP=\frac{\sum (Price_i \times TickVolume_i)}{\sum TickVolume_i}
Practical observations from traders:

1. Tick volume is often highly correlated with actual futures FX volume.
2. During active sessions (London/New York overlap), tick VWAP can still work surprisingly well.
3. Institutional traders often compare spot FX with FX futures volume from CME Group for better accuracy.

However, there are limitations:

1. Broker differences
   Tick volume varies between brokers because each broker has different liquidity feeds.
2. Less reliable during thin liquidity
   Asian session or holidays can distort tick-based VWAP.
3. Futures VWAP is generally superior
   Currency futures on CME Group provide centralized real volume, so many serious FX traders prefer:
   1. EUR/USD Euro FX futures (6E)
   2. GBP/USD British Pound futures (6B)
   3. USD/JPY Yen futures (6J)

A common professional approach is:

1. Trade spot Forex execution
2. But use futures volume/VWAP as the reference

For day trading, tick VWAP is usually “good enough,” especially if:

1. your broker has a strong liquidity feed,
2. you trade major pairs,
3. and you mainly use VWAP as a mean-reversion or institutional reference level rather than a perfectly precise execution benchmark.

Many Forex platforms like MetaTrader 5, TradingView, and MotiveWave already implement VWAP this way internally for spot FX.

Slow and all the hesitation.... I decided to grab everything on the table and run. I am tired already and perhaps it's done for the day and week.

Weekend soul search... Not trading videos. I don't watch trading Youtube videos anymore.

I will try 1000 tick chart tomorrow if it can give me any additional edge.....


I trade 1M /GC charts usually. If I want to use a non-time based chart for reference, can you recommend which one to use?


For intraday GC trading alongside a 1-minute chart, I would strongly suggest starting with either:

1. Tick charts
2. Range bars

Those tend to fit gold much better than Renko.
My recommendation hierarchy for /GC
1. Tick charts — best overall starting point
Gold is very activity-driven:

1. sudden bursts
2. algorithmic sweeps
3. news spikes
4. liquidity surges

Tick charts adapt naturally to this.
Good starting values for /GC
Try:

1. 500 tick
2. 1000 tick
3. 1500 tick

Most /GC scalpers eventually settle somewhere in that range.
Why they work well for gold
They help reveal:

1. momentum acceleration
2. exhaustion
3. fake breakouts
4. absorption

better than 1-minute charts during volatile periods.
Especially useful for:

1. VWAP reactions
2. EMA pullbacks
3. breakout continuation
4. NY session momentum

2. Range bars — excellent for execution clarity
If your problem is:

1. overtrading
2. emotional noise
3. chop

range bars can be extremely helpful.
Good starting sizes for /GC
Try:

1. 0.5
2. 1.0
3. 1.5

(depending on current volatility)
Gold can become extremely noisy on tiny range settings.
Why range bars work
They force price to move meaningfully before printing a new bar.
That often creates:

1. cleaner trends
2. cleaner pullbacks
3. more readable structure

Why I would NOT start with Renko for /GC
Renko can look amazing on gold historically…
but live trading is another story.
Problems:

1. hides volatility
2. hides speed
3. brick completion delay
4. can psychologically over-smooth risk

For fast-moving futures like gold, this can become dangerous.
Some traders do succeed with Renko, but I usually think:

1. tick charts preserve market information better
2. range bars preserve execution clarity better

Practical setup suggestion
A very solid /GC intraday setup could be:
PurposeChart
Main context1m time chart
Execution reference1000 tick
Trend filterVWAP + EMA
Noise reductionOptional 1-range chart
Important observation about /GC specifically
Gold behaves differently from ES.
GC often has:

1. violent stop runs
2. thin liquidity pockets
3. sharp reversals
4. sudden expansion phases

Tick charts often expose these transitions earlier than minute charts.
That is one reason many professional futures traders prefer tick charts for:

1. GC
2. NQ
3. CL

My suggestion for your first experiment
Since you already use 1m charts:
Do NOT replace them immediately.
Instead:

1. keep your 1m chart
2. add a 1000-tick chart beside it
3. use the tick chart only for:
   1. entry timing
   2. momentum confirmation
   3. breakout validation

You’ll quickly notice whether it improves:

1. trade timing
2. confidence
3. overtrading
4. false breakout filtering

without disrupting your existing process.

Non-time based charts vs. time based charts. Which one's better?


Neither is universally “better.” It depends on the market, your trading style, and what information you want the chart to emphasize.
For a day trader like you, many experienced futures/Forex traders end up using both together.
Time-based charts
Examples:

1. 1-minute
2. 5-minute
3. 1-hour

Advantages

1. Easy to standardize and communicate
2. Most traders watch them, so key levels can become self-fulfilling
3. Good for:
   1. session structure
   2. scheduled news
   3. trend context
   4. VWAP interaction
   5. market open/close behavior

Disadvantages

1. During slow periods, candles become noisy and meaningless
2. During volatile periods, a single candle may hide huge order flow changes
3. Time is fixed, but market activity is not

Best for

1. Swing trading
2. Macro analysis
3. Session-based trading
4. VWAP and institutional frameworks
5. Higher timeframe bias

Non-time-based charts
Examples:

1. Tick charts
2. Volume charts
3. Range bars
4. Renko
5. Point & Figure

These form bars based on activity or price movement instead of elapsed time.
Advantages

1. Adapt to volatility automatically
2. Reduce dead-time noise
3. Often produce cleaner structure and trends
4. Can reveal momentum shifts faster

Disadvantages

1. Can distort perception of time
2. Some chart types repaint or smooth too aggressively
3. Backtesting can become tricky
4. Institutional references (like hourly closes) matter less

Best for

1. Scalping
2. Intraday momentum trading
3. Breakout trading
4. Order flow trading
5. High-volatility futures markets

What many professional intraday traders actually do
A very common setup is:
PurposeChart Type
Market contextTime-based
Entries/exitsNon-time-based
Example:

1. 15m chart for bias
2. 5m VWAP for institutional structure
3. 2000-tick or range chart for entries

That combination often gives better balance than using only one type.
For futures trading specifically
Many futures traders prefer:

1. Tick charts for ES/NQ
2. Volume charts for CL
3. Range bars for breakout systems

because these markets have uneven bursts of activity.
For Forex, since centralized volume is weak, traders often use:

1. tick charts
2. range bars
3. Renko
4. tick-volume proxies

which relates to your earlier VWAP/tick-volume question.
Important caveat about non-time charts
Some non-time charts can make trading look easier than it really is.
For example:

1. Renko can hide volatility
2. Large range bars can hide drawdown
3. Smooth charts can psychologically encourage overconfidence

A chart that looks cleaner is not automatically more profitable.
A practical recommendation
If you trade actively intraday:

1. Keep one higher timeframe time-based chart
   1. e.g. 5m or 15m

2. Experiment with:
   1. tick charts
   2. range bars
   3. volume bars

3. Compare:
   1. entry timing
   2. emotional clarity
   3. overtrading frequency
   4. consistency

Many traders discover:

1. time charts are better for context
2. non-time charts are better for execution

rather than one replacing the other entirely.

Are indicators still accurate when I use non-time based charts?


Yes — but with an important nuance:
Indicators on non-time-based charts are usually still mathematically correct, but their behavior changes because the bars themselves are constructed differently.
That means:

1. the indicator is not “wrong”
2. but its meaning and sensitivity can become very different

Why this happens
Indicators are calculated from bars.
On a time chart:

1. every bar represents equal time

On a non-time chart:

1. bars represent:
   1. fixed ticks
   2. fixed volume
   3. fixed range
   4. fixed price movement
   5. etc.

So the underlying data structure changes.
Example: Moving Average
A 20 EMA on:

1. a 5-minute chart
2. a 2000-tick chart
3. a 10-range chart

are completely different things.
On a tick chart:

1. fast market activity creates bars rapidly
2. EMA reacts faster during high activity

On a slow market:

1. bars form slowly
2. EMA becomes calmer

This adaptive behavior is actually why many traders prefer non-time charts.
Indicators that often work WELL on non-time charts
Momentum/trend indicators
Usually work very well:

1. EMA
2. MACD
3. Supertrend
4. ADX
5. Keltner Channels

Because non-time charts often reduce noise.
Indicators that may behave DIFFERENTLY
RSI/Stochastics
Can become:

1. smoother
2. more compressed
3. or overly sensitive

depending on chart type.
For example:

1. Renko RSI can stay overbought for long periods
2. Range-bar RSI may produce fewer false swings

Indicators that can become LESS meaningful
Time-sensitive indicators
These depend heavily on actual elapsed time.
Examples:

1. session timing indicators
2. time cycle indicators
3. opening range based on minutes
4. indicators using “bars per hour”

These may distort on non-time charts.
VWAP is a special case
Since you mentioned VWAP earlier:
VWAP is usually still highly relevant on non-time charts if the platform calculates it using actual trade/time data internally, not merely bar closes.
Good platforms handle this correctly.
However:

1. visually, VWAP interaction may look different
2. crossings can appear cleaner on tick/range charts

This is one reason many futures traders like:

1. VWAP on tick charts
2. VWAP on range bars

The hidden issue: indicator parameter mismatch
A huge mistake traders make:
They keep the same settings when switching chart types.
Example:

1. 20 EMA on 5m
2. then blindly using 20 EMA on 2000-tick

Those are not equivalent.
You often need to recalibrate:

1. EMA lengths
2. ATR multipliers
3. RSI periods
4. volatility filters

for each chart type.
One practical observation
Many traders discover:

1. non-time charts improve price action readability
2. but too many indicators become redundant

because the chart itself already filters noise.
That is why order-flow traders often use:

1. simple EMAs
2. VWAP
3. volume profile
4. delta/order flow

instead of stacking oscillators.
My general view for active futures trading
Non-time charts often improve:

1. entries
2. momentum recognition
3. breakout clarity

But:

1. higher timeframe time charts still matter
2. institutional participants still anchor heavily to time

So indicators are usually most powerful when:

1. context comes from time charts
2. execution comes from non-time charts.

If price continues to move up above VWAP, I'd like to try buy side trading after some pull back.......

My bias is now downside.... gauging the timing to enter short.....

Zero momentum sick Monday start. Two trades: one loss and one BE. Perhaps due to U.S. holiday or Iran deal. Anyway, I think I better step away.

One quick loss trading. Done for day. U.S. market trading is not preferred. Hope tomorrow will be better.
For some reason, Monday trading result is not reflected on Lucid system yet. Looks like a temporary glitch...

Not done yet and managed recoup the loss. Breakout trading has a significant disadvantage: negative RR as entry is always late. Making 50 ticking after breakout is not easy. After 50 ticks, momentum becomes wick quickly. That's why breakout traders hardly prosper in the long run. If you can read structures well like Steve, that's much better strategy I believe.

Getting more bearish. Major MAs are also bearish... $4500 is a major watching point.
By the way, this is August contract of Gold.

Price is crossing down the VWAP. Unless it's bounced from VWAP, it's strongly bearish....