Just an example of how difficult to trade NQ really is. Notice at 11am in two minutes 16 points up exactly at the moment when chart is telling you to go short.
m.day I disagree on the short signal...at 11am...it fell into support on lower vol, indicating to me that it could bounce again...I would only have gone short if it broke that previous low... I do agree with you that they are very hard to trade...just like everything else
well.. it could be shorted with a tight stop (minor trendline up broken, not shown on graph). but Indeed, a safer place was to wait for a retrace of this break down.. then you would notice the power of the retrace and might stay on the side (or still short it and loose, sh** happens). a lower risk was to short at 1240 or 1241 (I like to short just above the round number, just like the others waiting for you there ). this based on a resistance (notice how this zone was hit several times. EZ said after the fact, but notice how the power spike was stopped dead in its track at this level neo
Do you guys use market or limit orders to get into the trade? I'm practicing TWS hot keys but find it very difficult to place limit order fast enough.
Michael, I think it would help if you used Horizontal support/resistance lines. I used to use those nice diagonals but they are for the birds. Nobody cares about them but the person drawing them. Horizontal lines have some basis in reality. Note that 1226 was a major S/R line and that's very well why it bounced off there at 11:00
In my opinion, no matter what we draw and how we draw it, NQ is a very, very efficient trading instrument, meaning that it is very difficult to make consistent profits in 5-10-15-20 minute trading intervals. Some of the prerequisits for being able to do so: 1: Very reliable and fast executions platform and being profficient in using it 2: State of the art TA tools 3. Reliable data feed On the other hand it may make more sense to concentrate on the bigger picture and make one or two trades a day with much wider stops.
I agree with juggernaut...diagnal lines are for the birds...I too used them once but wised up and used simple support and resistance levels...the idea being if a trader was happy selling at price x if the price comes back up to x he'll probably be happy selling there again... but nothing is ever a sure thing here, which is what makes trading so much fun. TGIF is it happy hour yet?
MichaelDay, Are those charts from QCharts? Is it reliable? Personally I think shorting NQ is really difficult, there is some fallacy in the old saying "markets go down faster than they go up", NOT INTRADAY and certainly not when it comes to Nasdaq and S&P Futures I am only papertrading the shortside until I find a reliable pattern/system.