2008issue C061-3
Three-gate pullback entries from exchange tick breadth
A historical session workflow locks short-term direction from pivot highs and lows, waits for an opposite-signed exchange tick extreme to locate the pullback, then withholds the trade until the tick turns and a confirming price bar breaks. A split between the exchange tick path and the individual instrument is treated as a possible reversal cue.
- Read immediate direction from recent pivot highs and lows on the working session window before any tick setup is considered.
- Once that trend is set, consider a long only after an extreme negative tick print turns up, and a short only after an extreme positive tick print turns down.
- Withhold the trade until that tick turn is joined by a confirming price-bar break.
- When the exchange tick path splits from the individual instrument, treat that divergence as a possible reversal cue and a reason to change the planned action.
A sequenced entry checklist
The archive describes a rule-based entry used as a sequenced checklist. A trade is withheld until the pivot trend, an opposite tick extreme, a tick turn, and a confirming price-bar break all appear.
Pullback trading in this workflow means entering with the already established short-term trend only after price has retraced, instead of initiating at the trend extreme.
How a tick reading is counted
An exchange tick reading is the count of issues last printing up minus the count last printing down, illustrated as +100 when 500 names are up and 400 are down.
Positive prints are treated as upside participation and negative prints as downside participation.
Composite and large-capitalization breadth is monitored because individual names are not treated as moving independently of market-wide participation.
Lock the session pivot trend
Immediate direction is read from recent pivot highs and lows on the working session window before any tick setup is considered.
Wait for the opposite-extreme
Once that trend is set, a long is considered only after an extreme negative tick print turns up, and a short is considered only after an extreme positive tick print turns down.
An opposite-extreme is a tick print signed against the working trend, used as the pullback location to watch for a turn.
Wait for the tick turn and the price-bar break
The checklist still withholds the order after the opposite-extreme prints. The remaining conditions are a turn in the tick reading and a confirming price-bar break.
Downtrend walk-through
In the downtrend case study, a 15:25 tick print above +450 arrived while price was retracing, which the procedure treated as the opposite-extreme condition.
The short was withheld until the tick reading rolled back toward negative around 3:26 or 3:27 and price broke the prior bar's low at 3:29.
When tick and price paths split
When the exchange tick path splits from the individual instrument, that divergence is treated as a possible reversal cue and a reason to change the planned action.
Editorial. TradersWeek treats that split as an abstention rule rather than a second opinion on the same pullback.
All readings on this track · 10 readings
- 1997A two-gate held-out test of hand-labeled pullback nets
- 2004A 50-day average touch as a screening procedure
- 2005Write a moving-average pullback as one procedure
- 2005How to write a short moving-average pullback as one procedure
- 2007Failed-breakout shorts with a half-width exit
- 2008Three-gate pullback entries from exchange tick breadth
- 2010Clear-method noise alerts for swing entries and exits
- 2011Same pullback rules, different market modes
- 2012Pixel-grid pullback and sector color alignment
- 2013Untested pullback entries need quantified exits