How to use Market Profile to trade

I have read Mind over Market. There is a lot of information in it. It is great and useful. However, I want to know how people use it trade. Does anyone has experience in using it in real time to trade ? Where to enter and exit a trade ?

Thanks
MAK

Welcome Mak!

Plenty of people here use Market Profile to trade in real time. You sound like you are new to Market Profile? If so, I would suggest that you start off by learning basic setups and see how the market that you trade reacts to those basic setups and see if you can understand why this is so.

Here are a list of basic setups:
Market Profile Setups

I suggest that you start by looking at the Value Area High and Low and see how often the market uses these points as support and resistance and see how you could trade and manage a trade around these levels. Try and figure out when it's better to stay off these trades and when the trades have higher probability of success.

Once you've understood that aspect then look at the developing value areas. Then add in the Initial Balance and keep on adding in all aspects of Market Profile until you understand them all.

If your charting software has a playback feature then you can use previous days of historical data to watch these features of Market Profile develop and accelerate your learning.

And then of course ask lots of questions when you don't understand something.

Good luck and keep us posted to your progress.

Thank you for your advice. I am new to Market Profile. I will take your advise and learn it step by step.

Keep us posted with your progress and let us know which parts you find difficult to understand. Market Profile is easily the most powerful form of market analysis but it is also far more difficult to understand than other forms.

mak - I am curious your experience level with trading in general ?

In answer to your question, myself along with a lot of other professional traders I know and/or work with use MP as our primary tool for understanding what the market is doing.

One thing that might help you is to set aside any other methods/systems/indicators that your currently using and just focus a month on using Market Profile as a stand-alone tool.

MP is a powerful tool for short term trading, and is worth whatever you need to do to become proficient in using it. It will change the way you see and approach the trading day.

You might consider looking into JP's training course, he will simplify your learning curve significantly and get you up to speed quickly.

pt_emini's suggestion about JP's course is a good one. I think that JP is 1 month into the 3 month course at the moment and so you'll have to wait 2 months before you get a chance to join the next course.

Subscribe to this topic: JPJ Trading

And you'll get an email when that topic is updated and so you'll know when he runs his next free trial.

You could also try profiletraders one day market profile boot camp.

It is one of the best one day classes on MP that you can find and not only covers the basics but goes into some advanced strategies on how to use MP in your trading.

subq: Have you attended their course? If so, how does the material differ from what is in the classic books on MP?

yes, the first part of the class is just MP basics, what you find in the classic books, the second part of the class he actually shows you how to apply it to trading, trade setups, mostly applicable to day trading (though you could apply some concepts to swing trades)...he also covers some of the more advanced uses of MP that you typically don't find in the classic MP books, he ends with kind of a Q&A and also throws some scenarios at you to see how you would trade them and then reviews each one

I am told he is even planning on offering a "one on one" class after the market closes on weekdays where he goes over a few things and you can pretty much ask all the questions you like and he will explain them...however, I don't see anything on his webpage yet so I don't know the status or cost of it

Who is "he" and was the boot camp face to face in a training room or online using something like PalTalk? Feel free to invite him here to discuss Market Profile with us if he has time.

What is considered as opening price? is it the price at 9:30 am(ET) ie @ opening bell

Yes, Market Profile might be considered redundant or less efficient if "Volume at Price" data is readily available for the market being traded.