ShaneBlankenship

12:51

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

You don’t have to develop your own methods but never just depend on learning somebody else's method as if all you had to do was follow instructions. You need to understand and make it your own. Even if you don’t want to design your methods, approach this as a learning exercise. Let's structure how to go about developing a method. First start with a bassline and...

13:32

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

Once you have decided that you need discipline in your trading, knowing where to start can be difficult and overwhelming. There are many pieces to a trading plan, and it's easy to feel overwhelmed. You can break the task into manageable sections and master one discipline at a time, or focus on the the discipline you need. This approach makes the process more...

16:51

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

When it comes to learning about markets and trading, finding the right path and committing to it is the hardest part. The right path has little to do with any technical analysis method. It has to do with structuring our mental framework so that we fundamentally change how we experience markets, trading, and loss. In the video, I show some Median Line and...

17:23

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

Learning Happens when you're open and curious and making observations from what you see. From there, you must be mentally balanced to take action on your observations. In this post, I focus on the price action that happens in the pivot portion of a swing cycle. If you make observations of this area you will see a certain kind of repeating behavior that can help...

13:55

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

We have all heard that it is a good idea to go with the flow of the market but what does that look like? It's not enough to just read about flowing with the market, it must be practiced and experienced. We must acquire the skill of following markets up and down through its changes seamlessly. A disciplined trading plan will have an objective method and will...

09:12

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

We take on a discipline to do something we don't naturally do or want to do. We set some rules that will be uncomfortable and ride out the restless energy. Keep in mind that a good practice destroys itself, the whole point of a discipline is to get to the point where we don't need the discipline anymore. That is called transformation and it takes time. By being...

19:26

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

True support and resistance is found in the meat of the move, not at the extreme highs and lows. To find it, Simply draw a zone or box and look for the place that price touches the most, and then pay attention to what happens afterward. In this lesson, I set up a trade plan and show how a Wash and Rinse structure at the pivot of a swing uses the most touches to...

12:19

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

This is the first in a series of posts on Gaps. Gaps are a sudden supply/demand imbalance that shows up in the price bars of a chart, It's the expansion that comes after a contraction. Gaps will show us a significant area of buyers/sellers that take control and when they lose that control. In the video, I discuss and define a Wide Range Bar (WRB) Gap and show how...

19:34

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

In this video, I set up a trading plan and introduce a trend line exercise you can practice in any market and in any time frame. There is no one right way to draw a trend line, it's a matter of function and what you are trying to see. We will be drawing a trend line off two relative (same size swings). This will identify the footprints of organized volatility on a...

17:21

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

In this video, I follow up on the trend line exercise I introduced in the last post. The exercise is designed so that you can learn about markets and price flow in your own experience. There is beauty and harmony in each chart that shows the footprints of the buyers and sellers. To most people, the price action on a chart looks chaotic. It's not chaotic, you need...

16:18

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

There are several ways to trade gaps but first, there should be a solid understanding of what Gaps are and how they show up. Markets aren't that hard to read if we have some simple ways to see them that adhere to the principles of movement. All markets move in contraction and expansion. A Gap is the sudden supply/demand imbalance that comes out of the contraction...

19:50

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

When you make a trading rule, it's not a suggestion or an option. Mostly, when we want to be flexible with our rules, it's an emotional impulse pulling us to make some unbalanced trading decision. Make sure to keep closing every escape route you have. If you are not ready to commit to rules then don't make them, you will just be setting yourself up. Wait until you...

19:53

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

Traders often talk about the need to be patient but to be patient, we must know what we are being patient for. That is why we have a trade plan and know ahead of time exactly where to enter, where to place a stop, where to exit, and how much size to put on. In this post I continue with our trade planning exercise of 30 planned trades by making a trade plan for...

18:29

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

There are 5 basic ways to trade a Gap or any line. In this video, I discuss two ways to enter the market using a Gap before I make the trade plan. The Gap entry techniques by themselves are of little use, but if we make a few distinctions in market structure and the process of a swing cycle, they can become functional. Swing cycles have a process that they go...

19:54

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

Position sizing is one of the components of a trading plan, and it's important to be just as disciplined and consistent with this as with all other parts of the plan. Position sizing is defining how much we will risk for each and our objective is to consistently get the most profit with the least amount of risk. So, how much should you risk per trade? There is...

20:03

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

The trade plan is broken up into parts. We have an objective and consistent entry, stop, and exit plan. Here I will be talking about the exit plan and setting targets that will give you a particular risk/reward ratio. There are no absolutes when it comes to what risk/reward you should be aiming for, a lot has to do with how you handle risk and loss and your...

19:42

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

One of the hardest things for traders, or anyone for that matter, is to adapt to change. Mostly we get stuck when things change, which makes trading difficult since the very nature of markets is change. This is where the cliché 'going with the flow' originates, but simply understanding the cliché isn't enough; we must internalize and practice it and get it in our...

19:28

ShaneBlankenship Updated 

Markets move in contraction/expansion. Small swings can be thought of as a form of contraction and the bigger swing is a form of expansion. An Expanded Swing is simply a reaction leg that is bigger than the previous reaction leg or legs. Its minor swings growing up to be major swings. This represents a change in behavior that often causes confusion among the...