Live Trade Breakdown: Volume Profile Strategy in Action (3 Wins, 1 Loss)

Hello everyone, it’s Dale here. Welcome to a new video from the Recent Trade series. The goal of this series is to show you how I apply the strategies and setups I demonstrate in my other YouTube videos and in my Volume Profile course—and how I use them in real trading conditions with real trades.

Today, I’m going to show you four trades I took overnight. I placed all of them using limit orders, and I’ll walk you through everything: the reasoning behind the levels, stop-loss and take-profit placements, how each trade went—everything.

Let me start with a trade on EUR/USD. What you see before you is the NinjaTrader 8 platform with my custom-made Volume Profile and VWAP indicators. This is the 30-minute chart of EUR/USD, and the level I traded from was 1.1522. The reason I picked this level was due to a significant volume cluster that formed within a trend. This was the volume cluster, and this was the trend. When you see a volume cluster within a trend, it tells you that big players were adding to their long positions at that price, then pushing the market even higher. This heavy volume zone becomes a support zone. That’s the logic behind this setup, which I call the Trend Setup. I use it when there’s a clear trend.

That’s why I placed the level here. There was a pullback, and I entered with a limit order because I was asleep at the time. This was the reaction. The stop-loss was placed below the wick of this candle and behind the heavy volume zone, as I always place my stop-losses behind such zones. The rule I use for take-profit placement is that the take-profit goes just before the next heavy volume zone.

Now, what I was interested in was the area where price was approaching my support. The first significant volume cluster in the way of that reaction was this one, so I placed the take-profit right there. That’s the same approach I repeat with all my setups: the stop-loss goes behind the heavy volume zone, and the take-profit goes just before it.

That was the trade on EUR/USD. The next one was on USD/CAD. This is the 30-minute chart of USD/CAD. Truth be told, I was lucky with this one. But first, let me show you the reasoning behind the trade. There were actually two reasons to enter at this level.

The first was the same Trend Setup as with the EUR/USD trade—a volume cluster formed within a trend. However, this alone wouldn’t be enough, because there were stronger volume clusters within the trend. What made this one special was a confluence with another setup: price had previously reacted to this area, meaning it had acted as support. When the price dropped through it, it became resistance. So we had both a volume-based and a price-action-based reason to take a short from this level.

Now, the reason I say I was lucky with this one is because there was actually a reaction just before the level—about 0.7 pips sooner. If I had been at my computer, I would have discarded the trade after seeing that initial reaction, because I only trade first reactions. The chances of a second reaction are smaller. But since I was asleep and using limit orders, I took the trade automatically. When I got to my computer, I had already taken profit, which happened around the area of the first deviation of the weekly VWAP.

As for the stop-loss, it was placed behind the heavy volume zone the level was based on—roughly 10 pips away. The take-profit was placed in line with my rule that the minimum acceptable risk-to-reward ratio must be 1:1 or better.

That was the USD/CAD trade. Again, if I had been watching live, I would have skipped it due to that early reaction, but it worked out—so yes, a bit of a lucky win.

The next trade was on the ES. This is the 30-minute chart of ES futures. Let me show you the level first. If you remember, on Monday I sent out a video where I mentioned this level and the reasoning behind it: a volume cluster followed by strong buying activity. I said the volume cluster wasn’t particularly strong, but given the strength of the buying that followed, I was willing to take the trade.

Now, looking at the 30-minute chart, it seems like this trade was a loser, because price just shot through the level. But it actually wasn’t. Let me show you on the one-minute chart. Here it is—same level, but now you can see that price did hit the level and made a very quick, precise reaction to it. I was able to take profit right there.

Also, this is the S&P 500 futures. On my IC Markets platform, I don’t have access to futures; I trade the CFD equivalent instead. These instruments weren’t 100% correlated at the time, so I actually got an even better entry on the CFD version. Here’s a screenshot from CTrader—the instrument is called US500, and this is how the trade looked. You can see I was able to catch the bottom of that reaction.

I must admit, the sell-off on ES looked terrible. If I had been at my computer, I probably would have skipped the trade. But since I was asleep and had a limit order set, I took the trade—and it was a winner.

There’s one more trade I took, on the NQ. This one was a losing trade. It was based on the same logic as the ES trade—a volume cluster followed by strong buying activity. I also shared this level on Monday in my Weekly Trading Ideas video. The level was at 21,685. In this case, the price just shot past the level with no reaction, so this trade was a loser. This all happened during the Asian session, which was quite wild and volatile.

To sum up, I had three winning trades and one loser. All of them had a positive risk-to-reward ratio, so overall, a good start to the day and a strong end to the week.

By the way, the levels I show you in these videos are the exact same levels I publish every day for members of my trading course. These aren’t cherry-picked trades to brag about—they’re real levels my members see in advance.

Here’s a quick look inside the members’ area. This is where I post the daily levels. The levels I just showed you were: the long on EUR/USD, the short on USD/CAD, the long on ES, and the long on NQ. Everything is published in this table, and members can trade those levels alongside me with full transparency.

If you’d like to join us and trade with us, go to my website—Trader-Dale.com. Click the “Trading Course and Tools” button. It will take you to a page where you can choose one of my educational and indicator packs. There’s the Volume Profile Pack, the Order Flow Pack, the VWAP Pack, and the Smart Money Pack. You can get them individually or scroll down to get all four together in one discounted bundle.

If you’re interested in trading live with me and other professional traders every day, then click the “FTA” button. FTA stands for Funded Trader Academy. There’s a video that explains everything about it, and if you’re interested, you can book a one-on-one call with us. We’ll walk you through the program and help you decide if it’s a good fit.

Thanks for watching, have a great weekend, and I’ll see you next time. Until then, happy trading.