Pain of trading during shifting markets

This is in Psychology section, so if you not into that, don’t bother watching.

 

As opposed to the pain of trading in a sideways market?

 

I think as long as it’s persistent, you can learn to adopt. The difficult periods, imho, are the transitions like we are witnessing now. Are we still in bull market? Are we in sideways market? Are we in a bear market already? You may say that long-term we are obviously in a strong bull market, but your portfolio may tell you otherwise. It seems like lots of people are hurting right now.

 

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Yes;
SPY is above 200 dma = uptrending Bull market/but glad i sold[exits ]a lot of longs+ 3x ETFs.
halfway mark /DEC, SPY,QQQ is weak+ below 50dma\ however with a great run ,already 2021........................................................................................................

 

Long-term the US indices are always bulls. But that's only helpful to investors on multi-decade horizons.

For trading not bullish enough yet for me, and I never short them. Its only a matter of time, perhaps only another week or so.

 

Short term traders only care about volatility.
And recently, it's been great on that side.

 

I don’t know man, this kind of “unpredictable” up one day down the order is only good for day traders. But even day traders are not going as good as last year.

 

what gets me is how our feelings toward the market shift so much day-to-day or week to week from feeling bullish like last wednesday post-powell, vs bearish like thursday. kind of bipolar, one extreme to the other.

of course the goal is to be focused on doing what works, but the background music bullish/bearish is strong

 

not true.
the word volatility is open to many interpretations.


day traders like big day range.

AND the market movement must be
smooth, decisive,
and not choppy, not erratic, not jerky

 

Yeah, I can see what you mean. I prefer the word Action. As in "WE GOT ACTION" Which means to me that the moves are frequent and the Signal / Triggers are accurate to a degree higher than normal.
If that's what Volitility means then I Like It. A Lot.
According to Webster
: the price movement and trading volume of a commodity, security, or market
b : the process of betting including the offering and acceptance of a bet and determination of a winner
c : financial gain or an opportunity for financial gain a piece of the action

In a Sentence: "That freakin' doldrum was boring as a paint dry party but now that the Fed's Freakin' We Got Action!"