The reason I switch to RTH is because this is what the market is trading off of, for the most part. SPY will be trading (for the most part) off RTH levels if it is going to be off those levels.
SPY trades off ES yes. ES trades off Globex session, current day, the day before, last week. I have SPY and QQQ charts that I rarely look at. ES/NQ/RTY and Tick Symbols, Up/Down Vol, Adv/Decl's of all three are all I need. Well ok also $VIX, $DXY, Treasuries and Currencies, Gold and Crude. lol
Yes but since ES and SPY are highly correlated, a lot of the volume during the regular trading hours will at first approximation be based on regular trading hour levels. For the most part, I find this good enough to find interesting levels, of course sometimes nothing matters and everything is going to hell or heaven...
In reply to the OP, I think perhaps trading is simple rather than easy. I now trade a small amount a few times a day (sometimes not at all) when a promising set up arises. Personally I like failed pullbacks in strong trends, but that's just me. Whatever you may think about Al Brooks, one useful piece of advice seems to me to be that if you find a setup which you can apply and be consistently profitable, then you should increase position size to increase profits, rather than search for other setups or methods. I can't really fault that logic; it is how to build any successful business really. So yes, I think trading can be simple, but actually applying the discipline to do that day after day is hard, as most of us find.
Honestly, I had the same problem with trying to achieve a high win rate, like 90-100%. That’s simply impossible. The underlying reason is human’s basic fear of loss. A better way of thinking in trading is probability and risk/reward ratio, and be prepared to lose on very single trade. If one can achieve this mindset one has overcome the dreaded human psychology and will be on the road to success in trading. But it’s certainly easy said than done.
Best way to try to minimize losses is to have the mindset every trade will be a loser. Optimistic thoughts blow out more accounts than wrong analysis.
Haha it’s indeed a balance between being prepared to lose and positive expectancy. With enough experience and training you’ll be at home with it. Trading is a game of probability. Being comfortable with losses is the first step to success.
Its when the multi month drawdowns happen that trading gets hard. One month of losses is no big deal, even two months. But when it gets to 3 to 12 months and you haven't got back to previous equity highs that is when trading gets hard. When you are making new equity highs ever day, week or month trading is easy and the losing trades during that time are easier to take. When you are on a long losing period you start to think that other way of trading over there is better. I should switch to doing that..
I think you nailed it. Spot on. Correct on all points. Of course trading is easy. Making winning trades consistently takes practice, what I guess some would call be patient "hard." Happy trades!