After some extensive reading on ET, I have noticed something interesting regarding the trading strategies/styles most often employed. Rarely do we find people whose approach is solely focused on buying(selling) the low(high) and selling(buying) the high(low) of the day. I've read tons about breakouts, retracements, trend following, fading S/R, pivots, Fibs, and range breakouts, but have uncovered little about strategies that focus only on price action as it pertains to locating the intraday H/L, independent of the aforementioned strategies. My ideal trading day would be buying(selling) the low(high) of the day, and reversing at the high(low). Simple. 2 trades a day. Everyday. Why are there not more traders who subscribe to this approach, and who DO NOT USE the aforementioned styles to coincidentally do this? I'm hoping there are others out there who have been wondering the same thing, or who have some insightful information/ideas that they would be generous enough to share with ET members.
Buy low and Sell dear. We were all trying at least one to catch the low and the high, and fail. Because we never know in the future the low and the high until it made then we know. We only know them with the historic data.
Problem solved--------->Place a one-lot initiating short-sell order at each and every tick above yesterday's closing price. Place a one-lot initiating buy order at each and every tick below yesterday's closing price. You'll need deep pockets to do this. You'll be guaranteed of trading within atleast one tick of the day's high and/or low prices. Sometimes you'll get the extreme tick. This works well in choppy markets. Trendy markets are murder.
What you are describing isnt a style or an approach, its a perfect scenario. If it were possible to do what you are stating consistently then you would quickly be wealthy beyond imagination. You have left out the most important detail, how you determine that you have hit the high or low or low of the day, real-time while you're staring at the hard right edge of your chart.
Since my comments have been so well received, let me try to re-phrase....... 1. We're not ALL trying to buy lows/sell highs. There are many intraday traders whose focus is totally different. 2. My question was not to see how many people here are trying to operate in this manner, rather to see how many have the sole focus each day of attempting to enter near the HH/LL of the day using a strategy that is completely non-traditional; i.e. no S/R levels, no indicators, no fibs, no trend based trades. Those who focus solely on how prices behave when they reach a top/bottom.
Price behaves differently at high and lows everyday in every stock. There is no set criteria that can predict a high or low. WAY too many variables involved. There ARE certain things to look for, but they dont always work.
Steve has spoken. If you could identify the high or low by reading the tape, he would know. But keep challenging yourself along these lines .... even if you cannot pinpoint the high or low you can be very profitable.