I have been doing much better, all things considered (like market strength, etc). I used to ignore great setups because they'd be in a "weird" company like a Brazilian Hospital and be more apt to take less-than-great setups in companies I'd heard of. Or, I'd see a great setup and see something negative in briefing.com and ignore the setup and lose out. To me, nothing beats a great setup. I hate to sound like Darvis or Livermore, but the prices (and charts) don't lie.
Yeah. I feel there is a trade-off here. Prices diverging from or confirming news can be valuable technical clue. Nonetheless eventually you will get a little attached to the fundamental picture and sometimes will lose good opportunities. OPC
If you don't have money for bloomberg wallstreet source is a viable option for some that want to trade the news and have access to things like real time edgar filings, real time upgrades/downgrades, and things like that. I used it for some time and would be using it now except we have a bloomberg in the office where I trade so I have my hands full. Worth a look if you don't have the 1800 or so bucks for a bloomberg but still want something better than briefing.com or theflyonthewall, etc. Believe me, briefing just reports the news, this thing will often bring it to you in real time if you take the time to learn how to use it. They have a free trial that anyone can get for a few days or if you seriously think it is something you could use on an intraday basis PM me and I can give you the direct line of the guy I worked with there who knows how to set it up for more of a daytrading style than a hedgefund style like most users use. In otherwords how to personalize it to "push" you the news relevant to you so you don't have to watch the DJ newswire all day long. And NO, I don't make anything if anyone subscribes. Just offering it out as a briefing.com alternative. http://www.wssource.com/
from past experience, briefing is delayed compared to premium news services (reuters, etc.). when it comes to news, you definately get what you pay for.
There is no way to know how a stock/market is going to react to a piece of news. But knowing the news at least gives you a heads up to watch that stock for activity. For example, OMC and DGX both had news today. There was no way to know how they would react to the news. But if you knew to watch those stocks, you clearly were in the right place to make some money. If you recognized that the stocks didn't want to go down, and bought, you cleaned up. So bottom line, news tells you where to look on your trading screens for a possible trade. But doesn't tell you how to trade it. Let the tape tell you how to trade it.
If you are a short-term day-style trader, good news is absolutely essential. To claim otherwise is foolish. If you hold positions for days and weeks, I would say that news is of less importance. My Bloomberg pays for itself many times over.
I can see what you are getting at, but the fact is that you definitely can make money purely by reacting to news. If a big figure like non-farm payrolls come in 300k below expectations, then you know exactly how to trade it. Waiting for the tape to react means that you miss the chance to trade virtually risk-free off stale prices. Granted, you have to be savvy about what constitutes "expectations" (it isn't always the consensus forecast provided by the news organisations), but if the surprise is big enough, then reacting immediately to real-time news is as close as you can get to free money in the markets.
I was wasting for 2 years about 1000$ for my 2 daily financial newspapers until I realise they were completely useless. When I met on occasions some journalists of these same newspapers I was even more comforted by that. I remember for example one of theses discussions by phone with one of them - who introduced me a broker which shows you that their interests are multiple in the business - who was litterally mocking with contempt these who read his journal since in his own term they only write what people want to hear . Another one who worked for an important national radio as information speaker specialised in Finance was very honest guy and he said he regrets that he had in fact no economical education and that it was the case of many - he almost intended to say that it was on purpose that TVs and radios put ignorant journalists at these kind of jobs .
The best trade I made is to stop reading market news. In my new office I didn't even hook up a television. I don't watch CNBC at all anymore. I trade mostly indexes now...and there would be no way having news would help...want to know when good/bad news comes out? just watch the futures. The only thing I pay attention to is economic numbers. I don't care much about the #'s themselves (I'm not smart enough to figure out a mkt reaction to a less than expected PMI #) I just want to know when they're coming out to avoid the knee-jerk reactions. Happy Trading