Reading the Tape

[KurtLoeblich 101]

Hey all!

As promised, the Friday Fireside Chat on reading the tape is in the education center.  Give it a listen and feel free to ask any questions you may have in this post. Reading the tape is something that requires a lot of patience and doesnt come easily.  However, once you have a better understanding of it, your trades that work will make all the more sense. 

 

https://www.bearbulltraders.com/lessons/kurts-podcast-10-11-19-friday-fireside-chat-reading-the-tape/

[Thomas 2]

I think we all saw the example of tape reading today on CRON that andrew took, where the big bid started getting chewed through and then when it broke, it fell hard.  That was a great example and it made me wish I didn't have a rule for not trading in the first 5 minutes. But what happens when you're not seeing a big bid/ask?  Are you looking for a big order on the level 2 every time you take an entry?  The majority of the time, I'll see a pattern in the chart, and I'll look at the level 2 and think "ehhh that looks about even..." where no order is over 2000 shares or so.  What do you make of that?  Would you take a trade when there isn't really something clear going on in level 2 if there are other indicators happening in favor of your idea?  If you do sometimes enter a trade without a big order in the level 2, what are you looking for in the level 2 and/or time and sales?  I look at level 2 when there are only relatively small orders, and I don't know what to make of it.  Same thing with time and sales; I'll see a flood of red, and then a flood of green, and not really glean any actual information from it.

Maybe this question isn't really suited for this thread, but it could be relevant so I'm going to ask: Do you recall your trade on MS today?  You called out +MS 44.00 at 7:45 and at the point I saw that, I had gotten a way worse entry and ended up getting stopped out and just thought "how the hell did you get in at 44?"  It seems like you and a couple other people in the community are getting these amazing entries and I'm just missing whatever the thing is that's facilitating that.  Looking at the chart now, I see kind of a double bottom, but if I were looking at it in the moment, I would've almost certainly been in it short on some kind of ABCD type pattern, and I'm trying to figure out how to get away from that mindset and start getting those really good entries that you're catching.   Was there a level 2 signal on it when you got in? Or is there something else going on that I'm not noticing?