I have a question: How is it that individual stocks can be low volatility and the indicies be high volatility? That seems impossible. Then also how could the ES be good times while say blue chips stink?
Dustin, don't get me wrong, I agree with your thread title but I think this thin market is actually coming to a sweet spot for individual traders of a certain size (goldilocks?) I would imagine not only is it hard for beginners, but the traders used to taking size positions are having trouble getting decent entries. Has it been necessary for you to cut down on position size at all over the year (not as a function of p/l but in liquidity of individual names)?
I've never been a size trader so liquidity hasn't been much of an issue for me, but I know what you are saying.
Its gotta be the algo's. All the buy side firms are using them and taking all day if not week to get into or out of a position.
Not at all impossible. The indices influenced mostly by a handful of stocks. When the market is active then everything else starts moving too. That's when there's real opportunity, at least for my trading style. I think a lot of new traders fall into the trap of trading the typical high flyers because they seem the most exciting. Sure, there's a lot of experienced traders making good money in those, but for someone inexperienced they are tricky. GS for example is one of the hardest stocks to trade imo. This year I've focused more on low priced stocks because they were moving better than anything else, and nowadays there's more companies in the $1-7 range. After getting pretty good at trading them, I think this is a good place for new traders to start. The moves are much bigger percentage-wise and you still learn all the basics of trading (breakouts, reversions etc.). This was a previously ignored area for me, so it's just another tool in the arsenal going forward.
YES, BE A FAT GUY - THAT'S WHY I'M HERE. I KNOW I CAN BE, BUT I ALSO WILL PROBABLY BE "SKINNY" FOR SOME TIME TO COME. JUST AS LONG AS I DON'T GET "SKINNED"
You seem to have a good attitude, but I would also be more alert than usual. The market is a place full of liars, etc, all of them are there to take the money of the next fellow. The good news is tat it has rules that one can discover, but the chance of success are low in general. I do not want to reveal some of what I know here in public, but if you would like to PM me, I would share a few things. In the meanwhile, I suggest that you try to look at a chart of SPY using: 15-minutes for one day, and 1 hour charts for price during 4 days. In each case you will have around 25 bars to look at. I will explain the reason for the 25 bars later. After you have had a look at the charts, and make whatever analysis/observations that come to your mind (Note that no observation is also an observation), I would then make some remarks which would likely be new to you, and which I think would make some points in above posts clearer. Of course if you prefer to skip the analysis, you can shoot me a PM before then. In any case, I would always try to be safe!
I do not want to reveal some of what I know here in public, but if you would like to PM me, I would share a few things. In the meanwhile, I suggest that you try to look at a chart of SPY using: 15-minutes for one day, and 1 hour charts for price during 4 days. In each case you will have around 25 bars to look at. I will explain the reason for the 25 bars later. OK, OK, deep breath. Thanks for your kind reply, riskfree. But I don't even fell like I belong here. After reading ALL of the replies just in this thread, I fell really stupid. I've got the pile of books on trading and other topics that I haven't even read yet. I read FT, WSJ, IBD, Barrons, Forbes, and the Economist to get the Top Down look. I watch CNBC the views, esp. Fast Money. I've got all day to do it, and a decent stake, but I have so much to learn. I will take your advice, and maybe PM you sometime soon. Thanks again. Meanwhile, I think I'm mostly lurking.