The trade to catch that HUGE last minute pop yesterday (>100 NQ points) was pickable ~ 10 minutes before the close. The short from NQ 6770 this morning was pickable too. Hope all you students are getting your money's worth.
In the past, and for a fair length of time, NQ was my instrument of choice. I find that trading it now it is like trying to catch a tiger by the tail.
I saw those signals too but it was after the fact because I was occupied with other non-trading things. Kind of crazy to see it works that way. I need to rework my schedule so I can trade these signals. hehe
You've just highlighted an important lesson... diligence. Easy to "not pay close enough attention" or to be distracted and regret it. Been guilty of the same more times than I care to admit. Speaking of "diligence and paying attention".... I recall a few years ago when I missed a significant bottom. The markets were "apparently just bopping/chewing around" when I got a call from my dentist about an opening in their schedule and asked if I would like to take the spot for my routine cleaning. Seeing that the market "wasn't doing much", I said "OK". Dentist is about 5 minutes from my house... and I was back within about 90 minutes. In the mean time, the market made a bottom and the ES bounced ~ 100 points. Can't tell you how much that "lack of discipline about tending to the market" pissed me off! DAMNED expensive cleaning!
That must stinged! But to be fair, every single day there are many long and short signals all day long (if you are a short-term scalper or intraday trend trader). Albeit not all the signals are 100 ES points. LOL. I just need to learn the habit of continuous execution with no fear. I only take a few signals.
And if one traded all the micro price events one will also trade the 100 patterns that all lost money aside your money raining pattern you pointed out. Only question remains, can this one trade make up for all the losers.
So true, it is always this way. The market looks always to discipline us - this morning, after seven years of training, victories, and pains, and our current very tense situation, still - I was still able to start the calls at 11.15am because the market was "sleeping'. Well, sure enough in this 15 minutes it moves down 20 points! thank You, market!