October has been my best month in 19 months. Question, does anyone notice when volatility pics up technicals become much easier to read and "prettier" ? The increased volatility helps because moves are more pronounced, and more dollars to be made... but it is the technicals in my opinion that become so smooth and easy to read. Anyone else out there see it that way, if anyone cares?
I'm guessing you're an intra-day trader as in the last few days I had been concluding October had been an unusually poor month for long-term trend-following. Provisionally I put this down to the shock from the US equity markets' falls in the first week in the month but I can't draw an exact derivation as some forex pairs went off-trend more than a week earlier. At present I can only surmise the month has seen a revised risk tolerance but I'm unclear whether the collapse in the Dow and S&P really was a leading indicator or just another symptom.
That's alot to analyze there. I define myself as an "intra-week" trader. I don't know what to conclude after this month, I think we had a technical top (retest of feb 2018 highs, and then a selloff after the retest), pretty standard move and semi obvious in real time, and clearly obvious in hind site. Once it started moving the institutions simply piled on. It's also in my opinion, nervousness that if the dems take the house, all we will here for the next two years is impeach trump. Where at the moment, if that happens I believe that is semi bearish for equities. ( I don't believe the dems take the house so the market should move up near term ) But the above derived information I would not bet on, and don't take bets on abstract conclusions that are typically biased... Only technicals for me hence my original post and question.
Yes...but you should always trade markets/time periods that match your method/system. If you are a long term trend follower, not much point trading stuff that doesn't trend in your time frame.
Enyoy the volatility while it last. It always (revert) back to the boring mean...you can easily see such in the historical charts of volatility and the indices. I hope November is similar like too. Yet, on the flip side of the coin....many were not prepared for this type of volatility and got burnt or worst. Psychologically, stress levels much higher in months like October...gotta be careful of your mind & body. wrbtrader
In relation to my original post, volatility equals larger moves... but what I am wondering is, when you all look at your technicals, do they become much much clearer in times like this? It was a very smooth month for me, I read the technicals very well, and wondering if this is simply the nauture of high vol months, smoother technicals and very obvious moves? My win loss ratio was also off the charts relative to most months, again I think this has to do with what happens in the market at times like October and markets simply trade classical TA.
It was a good month for short term trend followers. If your TA is mostly hopping on the short term directional moves, then it was the perfect month to trade.
Oct was good for swing traders with the SP big rising wedge taken out. Trading a lot of different markets you can get into trades like what we just had every week if you wanted to. It was nice to finally see a bit of volatility in the US stock indexes for a change. Even the lethargic ES made a bit of a move - wow.