%% Exactly. FINDING a good trend can pay off, but even those may chop for a bit. If some one is choosing to limit the time frame with daytrading , may have to limit the profit if it spends all day in chop. AND a chop market can have a trend tendency\like stocks in SEPT average down................
Which markets are you trading? In my experience with index futures, so called chop usually occurs after a big move as you'll see some consolidation before continuation higher or a reversal. After last week's larger move, both Monday and Tuesday this week was fairly choppy and range boun in the RTH session. With stock indices, range bound action is more or less the norm intraday in RTH, but thanks to the heightened volatility over the last two or three years even the range bound days have had some very nice intraday trends within a large range, so I'd say it was only over the last few weeks there was days that seemed really choppy to me. I think there are some other tools which can help specifically for index futures, but if you're not trading that I'm not sure how helpful it can be.
I think it depends on your trading style and skill level. I define myself as more of an intraday swing trader trying to capture larger moves, so for me, a choppy market is not favourable at all. So, a trader like me either needs to become better at trading range bound action or learn to stay out during those times. For a scalper that's quickly in and out anyway I imagine it's of less consequence.
%% May help in premarket, most likely barchart.com has a 24% buy on ES front month wow\that mostly a sell. SPY cash is an 80% buy, SPXS = 88% buy/ not in that one as i write .Maybe More chop before uptrend goes up , not a prediction. IF not for sell in Maymaybe pattern/ i have bought big gaps up before\ late may \ JUN\JUL \AUG =green + red water melon season seasonals ...........................................
I trade natural gas only (/NG). Regardless of pre-market or regular market, obviously, some big guys intentionally make traps and hunt stops time to time. That's ok. Once, they reveal their real intention for the direction, I can usually recoup my previous losses and make money in the end. However, rarely they play stop hunts all day, which is really a sucks. Also, when they decided the direction finally, very often the price move is vary fast to block others to jump in. I watched volumes in market participants but couldn't get any early clue of choppy market.
Interesting, I know nothing about natural gas, so I'm afraid I can't help. How often would you say this market is choppy?
NG is one of my favorite futures for day trading. But I seldom trade it during the summertime. NG day range is still rather good - 0.07 point or 2% Let me quickly check what happened recently. 25 May - choppy market. I wouldn't be able to profit from it. 26 May - It moved nicely during the mid-Asian session / before the European session. Who knows, the Americans might push NG further up later. I'd avoid trading - small range market - big range, & choppy market I like the big range trendy (non-choppy) markets. choppy - the market moves in a chaotic messy manner. trendy - the market moves in a nice curvy sexy manner. But some members said that there are people who are good at trading in choppy markets.