guess so. its too bad. 1 short trade today for -1 point on the day. Thats about it. All i'm doing is watching this up move. Pathetic.
And very likely we hit new highs as well. I really wish I was a first year amateur filled with glee and blindly LONG at every turn. I would make more money ( in the short term anyway).!
I don't think it's a matter of being an amateur with this market. It's actually a simple market to trade with a very well defined and strong trend. I am not sure about what the pros do, but the easy money is made to the upside and if that's being an amateur, then kudos to the amateurs. I've tried a few shorts during the last couple of weeks and with the exception of that big down day I lost money overall. Longs, on the other hand, have been paying my bills. Sometimes this market will look overextended, overbought, over everything...and it still finds strenght to make higher highs. That's what strong trending markets tend to do. The sooner we realize we shouldn't be fighting the trend until it's changed, the better off we'll be. It's not so much as trading "blindly" like you stated. If you go long blindly you may get killed unless you either average down or don't use stops. Some of those retracements are severe and nasty, I wouldn't want to be long while in the middle of one of those. There are some very reliable patterns or strategies we can use to make money. I am sure you have a bunch too. The key is to use those higher-prob strategies WITH the trend and not against it. You'll be amazed to see how much more efficient you can be. And yes, it takes patience because let's say this market gaps up and doesn't pull back...well, it's gonna be a boring day for me. And maybe it'll take a couple of days before I get a decent dip to buy. It's not about catching all the moves or being right, for me it's about making money in the least risky and stressful way.