Intraday "trends" are not rare. And if you enter with perception, even chop can be an advantage in position for the trend.
Sorry MB, While I won't say no one on these boards agrees with you (that sounds a lot like what they do over at PureTick), most of the consistently profitable traders here don't. Good trading, Jimmy Jam
As Anekdoten pointed out, a lot of it has to do with chart intervals. It is possible to see many tradeable trends each day if you experiment with different chart settings. Trends are chart specific....if you are seeing more chop than trend, try a faster chart setting and I think you will see that some of the former "chop" is now quite tradeable....
my point is ask yourself why are you looking for a trend? the trend is the home run - chop trading is tapping out singles. anyone know anything about baseball? mb
Uh, no.... your point was trends are rare and you see far more data that chops than trends...or at least that is what you wrote in a prior post. My point was some of us don't find that to be the case...and we can leave it at that....
I honestly don't disagree with the previous statement MarkBrown, but this statement right here is a killer: "you have to get used to making lots of small winning trades and loosing big being in the wrong direction of a so called trend. " Um, no. JJ
Looking for a trend doesn't have to mean seeking home runs. Finding the trend also means getting greater extensions and more forgiveness if your exit lacks precision. Changing the metaphor: when swimming in the surf its easier to catch the wave than fight against it.
Trends exist more than you think and one way to see a clear picture is to get rid of time linear charts and use something that charts price only. Example provided below. here si a secret>>>>>>DO NOT CHART CHOP. It ait rocket science and those that put all this TA and fancy math into a bucket and hope to find the "systems" best juts go back to price action, volume and understanding the market environments and the trading rules used in each cycle.
Attached please find NQ for 12-17-07 Downtrend, nonstop. Bearish A-B-Cs B's go up marked by blue arrow, fail on 1-2-3 reversal marked by yellow box + downtrend line marked by red line. Anek
What you say now is completely differnt from what you posted earlier: there are no trends - there are only non-trends. To me the market is, on most days but not always, trending. It all depends on your definition of the word trend and on the abilities of the system you use. If you manage to catch 50% of the average daily range in 1 or 2 trendfollowing trades, than it is clear that trends do exist and can be cought. In the charts i posted you see almost every day a clear direction, so not choppy at all. But do not confuse choppy with noisy. Trend doesn't mean a straight line in one direction. Filtering out the noise is the real challenge.