I'm saying the same thing as you actually, I'm just talking about front running the majority by thinking about what they will do next, not necessarily what they've already done. If the majority of the daytraders were already long, but they just got caught with their pants down due to a sharp downmove that took out the previous higher low, what do you think the majority of traders who want to exit their longs will do when price pulls back up slightly to make a lower high, and after sitting there for a few minutes breaks down and starts approaching the lower low again? Fear, panic, and predictability, and you're on the same side of the volume of the majority who are acting on their fear and liquidating their positions because they're afraid they won't be able to sell at higher prices (or the institutional trader entering a hedge who is afriad he can't get a better price). Again, whatever works, it just helps me to see the psychology in markets, whether it's true or not doesn't really matter in the end, as long as it leads to profits.
LOL, good point, I realize that the whole "opening orders" setup is meant to take advantage of these imbalances, but six years ago I was too wet behind the ears to recognize those opportunities. The real reason though was that I had a day job and only got to observe intra-day market movements when I worked from home, which didn't happen that often. There was no realistic way I could have managed those trades while working, so no dice. I do realize that it's a bread-and-butter setup for a lot of equities traders though, and like some of the points that I was making in the posts above, because it's based on a principle of market truth, it works.
Trying to figure out what others are doing, or intend to do, is too much work! I just trade what I see. Positively inspiring that you're profitable and consistent. Keep the faith. Ian
It's not part of my normal routine by my family is out of town and I was bored so I traded the first 45 minutes of the session last night before going to bed. Looks like I should have stayed up longer... the next 45 minutes had at least 3 excellent setups that would have all been winners. I'm now less than 1000 HKD away from my goal. +558 HKD (+$71 USD)
First losing session in a long time (since April), and I deserved every penny of it if not more. For some reason I could not stay on the right side of the 300 point drop. I made some profits at the beginning of the trend, but then started looking for counter-trend setups too early. Got chopped up, then started building a long position on valid setups while hedging with HHI. Eventually made some money, was up like 500 HKD when we finally got the expected 24% retracement, but then I decided to flip short and get agressive on short setups. Well I was too late on that idea and ended up getting chopped up some more to finish where I did. I finished gross positive, but net negative due to all the commissions by churning through a total of 36 contracts (paid almost 900 HKD in commissions). -289 HKD (-$37 USD)
I knew there was a high probability of some choppiness due to the gap but I got sucked in anyway. Overtraded, got chopped up a lot but finshed positive. 600 HKD away from my goal. +579 HKD (+$74 USD)
Any idea what was low point on one year chart? I want to buy one contract and leave it for long term.
You can go to Google finance and look up long-term charts for the Hang Seng index for the timeframe you're interested in. A couple points I'd make though: - For the way I trade, I wouldn't concern myself with the low point on a 1-year chart, I'd concern myself more with the swing highs and lows for the current trend in play on your chosen timeframe and the next timeframe higher than what you trade - Unless you buy a long-dated contract, you're going to have to roll over your position every month, which may not be what you had in mind. You may want to invest in an ETF if you want passive exposure - Given where the US Index futures are on the daily and weekly charts, I'd wait a bit before I rushed out and bought a long-term position. Triple bottoms are very rare, and it's highly likely that the S&P sees 1000 before it sees 1100. If you want to buy any equity index, I'd wait until we see 1000 on the S&P.
Thanks. I had forgotten that furures are monthly expiry. I dont think you can trade index. Is there an index ETF? Thanks