Last night I pulled 20 NAS stocks to watch today. I noticed before the mkt opened that NAS futures were down and, sure enough, 18/20 opened lower than Friday's close. That seems too coincidental (but then I'm new at all this). What major "forces" usually determine open vs. last night's close? Do almost all opens just follow the futures? Or is it supply/demand based on post market conditions??
Trying to correlate different elements in an attempt to figure out which way the market is going upon the open is an exercise in futility. The open is the most upredictable beast known to man. The futures can be up 50 and the market will tank and vice versa. I used to play the open a lot. Big gains, big losses. I generally make my bets now after watching for 15-30 minutes. Still a gamble but much better odds imho.
true enough nicodemus, but if naz futures are down 50, the odds of the naz watch list stocks being up is quite bad however, it is true, trying to predict the open the day (or worse the friday before) is futile. But one want to look at the futures before sending some market orders at the open (or better, never send market orders at the open!). I even wait for 10:01 (!) and today we have a nice example of open nonsense (tanking now after a sharp increase at the open, while I am posting). neo