This reminds me of a book I read not too long ago called Financial Shenanigans. The author discussed the ways that companies will make their situation appear rosy to the public all while the insiders are doing do something completely different. That's why even if I were into equities, I couldn't be an investor unless I took the takeover route.
No, News are very critical to me. I monitor data realease date and also news. so I can figure out what major players are thinking. From the news, you can easily find out whether price is already factored in or not or even the market was cautgt off gurad, their expectation is totally wrong. most time I just pay attention to the headlines, that can correctly reflect the speculation theme. when AAPL hits 705, I heard everyone is expecting 1k price. I know those big guys are looking for suckers, they will dump. news create surprises, stir up excitements and fears, create volitle fast move market, that is very good for traders. noone likes marlet ooze around slowness. that sucks. just like watch football game, if there is no cheerteams there and those reporters there, the twoteams fight viciously against each other, noworth watching at all! eachmoth, like the employmnet siutation report, verygood time to trade! also major companies earning report, all good time!
I think it depends on your trading methodology. If you're a technical trader, I think you have no business "trading the news". Being aware of scheduled releases and possibly staying flat at important releases may be a good idea though.
I was on in the FCOJ trade for the almost 2 weeks based on price action because it indicated a strong emerging bull trend. It did rise and today I saw a report that there was some bacterial virus affecting orange crops. I had no clue about the fundamental data. Yeah, I'm convinced that price action is the truth. LOL
I believe News and Technicals can both be used secretly or together to make real good trades It all depends on how you make your perception of the market.
Do an experiment for a week. Depending on what instrument you are trading - Sign up for a talking-forex trial or similar or get the ITC Weekly Calendar which lists the numbers and times that matter in relation to govvy supply and economic numbers. See if you can manage risk according to your plan holding through these numbers. You cannot tell what a news event is going to do.. ie release > expectation = buy - as the news is often used by market maker size players to offload or snap up a lot of volume. What I have generally found is though its gambling holding positions into these Tier 1 and sometimes Tier 2 numbers. Model traders also may come in some minutes after a number that caused their fundamentals to change. For years I read books on how looking at tick charts and paying attention to news would have adverse effects to my results. But after a year of watching every tick and knowing when these numbers are coming out there is no doubt that big volume occurs around numbers, and my vote isn't going to have any say in things at this juncture. On a side note - more and more there seems to even be a rhythm in the markets (i watch the treasuries) each day based on news announcements.. subtle as it is. Probably because most of the size is watching these numbers, and you want to watch what they are watching. If someone questions that most of the size is day trading and cares so much about what is happening intraday - tick by tick - compare the change in open interest for a day to the actual volume traded for a day :eek: Of course if you are holding for weeks then probably not so important to watch news other than FOMC and NonFarm. However all long term trades are entered and exited at the intraday level, and if its a big position can be sure its worth working it knowing the intraday game which watches numbers.
Not sure what you mean by used "secretly" but news and technicals are a great combo. Yet, like someone said earlier, it really depends on the trade strategy. Simply, some traders don't need news and others find news very useful.