USING MATH TRICKS ON YOUR CHARTS

You can't count cards in casinos, but you can count bars in price action. No matter what pattern you trade, I would bet that if it falls out of of the pattern in less than 5 bars, it's not going to happen, so don't waste your time. Come back to it later. But, if it holds the pattern for 10 bars, it's probably going to continue in the pattern for 20 to 30 more bars. This little trick enables you to estimate how much time to expect your trading pattern to continue which is very useful when you're deciding whether or not you want to take the trade.
For example, if you're looking for a range pattern to trade on a short-time frame chart, look for one that has been working the range for 10 bars and you can expect at least 10 to 20 more bars of similar price action.
The MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) is another math-hound I love on my charts. It looks at historical prices and gives you a picture of current momentum and direction. MACD crunches numbers on 4 different levels, and that might be hard to do in your head. But, have a look when the MACD line crosses zero, changing from positive to negative polarity, and you'll know the math is telling you something new is happening in the market right now. How does it take historical price numbers and tell us what's happening now or even be predictive of what's going to happen next? Mathematically, of course, it can compare what was happening awhile ago with what the price numbers are doing now, and detect change in the algorithmic patterns. When "change" is viewed as momentum starting to build, that math makes you smarter with your trade entries and exits.