Depending on the trading style and methodology, YOU'RE ALL CORRECT. Straight up Bull markets are easier to trade ... for Perma-Bulls who LOVE the fact that they can "leg" into their trades, manage their risk and let the good times roll. Killing swipe Bear markets are easter to trade ... for Perma-Bears who LOVE the fact that the market can retrace in a couple of days ALL of the upside and more that it made in over a WEEK! Me? I scalp intra-day my trading brothers (too much anxiety trying to trade any other way). Depending on how a trade moves I can make 1 to 4 pts (or more, but not often) ES, drawdowns/stop-outs don't hurt (because my system has 1.0:2.5-3.0 risk/reward, and I know I can make it up and then some) ... and I live to trade another day. I let the big boys determine whether the market is in a Bull or Bear Phase, I don't care about that, I care about getting paid. Best, Jimmy
I can say this: 1) While you were 100% cash the last 2 days, I made 5 figures. Shorting. 2) You broke even, then quit for the rest of the day. Now it seems you're pissed off at the market. Is that a good example of the basic trading rule, "avoid letting your emotions control your trading?" 3) I am in and out in the same day. Where the market will be next week is not my concern. I'm not an investor or analyst. I am a trader. Last week's market momentum, yesterday's, overnight, big news, and first 5 - 10 minutes of the open are basically the only things I look at for market direction. I then trade in the direction I predict the market will be headed for the next 1 hour to 1 day. Then I keep tabs on where the market is heading all day long, if the direction changes, I usually do too. A one week market outlook doesn't mean much to me, to others such as swing traders and investors, it does. I never said you were an asshole because you rely on your own predictions of the market's direction for week long or month long trades, so quit acting like I said something offensive. Market Predictions aren't for me because they don't pertain to my time table for trading. I didn't say they shouldn't be used by anyone else either.
I just printed that and posted it on the wall . We'll see if you bulls are right. I think the bulls are seriously wrong.
Impressive. Is it true? But, wouldn't you say that, even in the very short term, stocks are more likely to go down in a bear market? Just curious
Yes, 4%+ in two days. I'm not saying I average 2% per day, I don't, but my Win:Loss ratio at the end of the week was ridiculous. Shorts across the board, and it was like 9:1. Yes, but I don't mind if stocks are going down, as long as there is a singular direction of momentum. In this instance, everything in the market was going down, I just followed. Obviously I pay attention to what type of investor market I'm in when trading. Long term bulls will act like bulls more often than not in the short term time frames, and vice versa with bears. What I don't do is try to predict where the market will go. I still pay attention to where it has been though, it would be stupid not to and its really just common sense. Following up with what coolweb was saying, predicting where the market will go in advance of it occurring can be very rewarding. Big $$$ can be made if your good, but in my case I'm just not good at predicting market direction, so instead I follow. By waiting until after the market has made a reversal before entering trades in a new direction, and then waiting until after it changes again before I reverse my positions, I'm only catching a portion of the total move. If you can get in just at the right time and ride the new directional change the whole way up or down, you can catch the total move and take in some serious $$$. I'm just not good at it, so I don't try.