Intraday Market Direction Indicators

Exerpt from Mastering the Trade by John Carter

TICK

- Any tick reading that is below +400 and above -400 is noise and should be ignored.
- If -800 tick (panic selling) is reached, sell long. If +800 tick is reached, cover short.
- If +1000 tick is reached (overbought), sell long. If -1000 tick is reached, cover short.

TIKI

- Net up tick on 30 Dow stocks instead of entire NYSE.
- Tiki are only the heads up, Ticks are the confirmation.
- If buy programs are driving the market to new highs, the occasional sell program is a buying opportunity. Vice versa.

TRIN and TRINQ (nasdaq)

-I don't care what the current reading is. I only care about the current reading in relation to where it has been.
- If the trin is trending higher and making higher highs on the day, I will ignore all long setups. Vice versa.
- If trin closes above 2.0, the market has an 80% chance of rallying the next day.
- If trin closes below 0.60, the market has an 80% chance of selling off the next day.

PUT/CALL RATIO

- If the combined equity/index PC ratio gets over 1.0 intraday, I will ignore all short setups.
- If the combined equity/index PC ratio gets over 0.6 intraday, I will ignore all long setups.
- If market is rallying/falling, I want to see PC rallying/falling to confirm the move.

SECTOR SORTER LIST

-Any move without the banks (BKX), brokers (XBD) and semiconductors (SOX) is suspect and most likely will not last.
- During these quiet periods in the market, the more sectors that go red, the greater the odds are that, when the market finally does break, it will be to the downside. Vice versa.

VOLUME

- If the first 6 bars on a five minute chart have most of the volume under X contract, expect a choppy, tight range session.
- If the first 6 bars on a five minute chart have most of the volume above X contract, expect a a more volatile session with better trend.
- X gotta find out for yourself.