I saw this thread title and had to click on it. I trade option spreads and the last few weeks for me have been some of the best of 2016 so far. I kinda like this pattern of movement of late on the S&P.
I think people say this is because there are a lot of mom and pop long term investors...they buy and hold for decades...typically mutual funds (many of the index kind)...they don't know how to "trade" the market. The long term upward drift of the market allows positive returns approx. 70% of the time...the S&P 500 follows inflation over the long term...dividends accumulate...very little skill is needed, but much patience is required. My father bought some mutual funds in the mid 80's and he still holds them...only requesting dividends when retirement age kicked in. I was a successful investor before I became a trader...investing much easier to succeed at than trading...in my opinion!
Maybe this is true for the majority of successful day traders, especially of the trend following kind...who really knows? I don't trade "trends" so I don't need a "trending day" in the market and I also trade reversion to the mean tactics for those choppy or slow days...every day has opportunity...but I've been doing this over two decades.
I took 5 random weeks of results and calculated the profit per day compared to the total profit of the week to see the distribution of the profits. Then I made the average % per weekday compared to the total of the 5 weeks. The 5 weeks were taken randomly in the past 6 months, so probably different markets. The result is that in the long term profits seems to be close to each other, no matter what day of the week. So my profits are close to equal for every day in the long term. So not 10% of days for most of the profits. Only intraday trends can have an impact, and they are relatively small. It would be completely different if you trade LT.
For me personally...I can't stand the word "TREND"! Believe it or not, I made breakthroughs when I disregarded the definition of "TREND" and opened myself up to any outrageous possibility...while knowing I can always go back to trend if need be. Consider everything and anything...maybe most (if not all) published material is outdated (if it ever worked). What is LOVE? Is it compassion...companionship...passion...empathy...sympathy...all the above...some of the above at different times...when some turn into the other (companionship into passion)...how do you define LOVE? I think the markets are the same way...it is what it is...just like LOVE. I made breakthroughs when I threw out the "book"! I guess I should've said "I can't stand definitions and any terms in the marketplace"...except for the one's I created myself. It's possible this mentality only works for my type of personality, but if you've been struggling for a long time and tried everything that everyone already knows...time to change your MENTALITY and start creating! Think about school...you can learn everything the teacher throws at you and get those A's....... but are you ready for the real deal in life? I know definitions/terms are necessary for communication purposes, but don't be limited by them! Maybe I should just shut up...I haven't given any details of my methodology and I haven't given any live calls either...live calls would be difficult for my scalps of different degrees...while reading the DOM, but the point is...I wish I could HELP all of you...I must be getting older...compassion is kicking in. BTW, I always use CHARTS and the DOM together. GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!
Everyone loving this market? Chop chop chop. I am sure everyone on ET is all in long and basking in the sunshine sipping pina coladas by the beach.
I am not a daytrader, I am looking at the daily time frame, and it is chop chop chop. But I guess we have all supertraders here who crush the HFTs intraday everyday regardless of trend or range day. Hoo ha!