You know thinking about it, vol trades very differently than anything else. More like a momentum stock than anything lol .I'm thinking outright trading is probably good there...just gotta pick the spots like usual!
I try not to spread trade, it gives me indigestion...... spy/tlt is an interesting pair check it out.
Mav, Admittedly, an old post, as I am working through the thread, so apologies in advance. That said, I have heard you say this on a few other threads, and it really P***es me off. Speaking from the world of the borderline-yet-to-be-profitable, (although I am beating the S&P this year), why else do you think we are reading these posts, if not to learn how to trade? These posts make me think the time I am investing in reading them at all is like buying a new steering wheel for a car without an engine. Geeez. I have watched Fishers vids, and imho his delivery is toward people like myself who are not yet consistent - providing them with the tools to lose small and win big, with ACD helping to keep them on the right side of the market. If we are all doomed to lose our account because we don't know how to trade and we are just slapping another indicator on our loser trades, then whats the point of posting the information in the first place? And if everything on ET (and every other forum on trading for that matter), is only useful if one knows how to trade in the first place, then firstly - profitable traders are hardly likely to be searching for other methods that could interrupt, or even destroy their profitability, and second - where do so called 'strugglers' go to find the first piece of the puzzle - the all elusive How To Trade? I'm no newby at trading, with more years than I care to count for someone that has yet to master trading to any great degree, and although I continue to trade and try to master consistency and increased profitability, these posts of yours sure grate on me. You have conveyed a great deal of useful knowledge on this forum, and I appreciate your posts generally, but these ones make it all seem so fruitless.
I'll try to clarify my original comment and expand on it some. I'm making the distinction here between strategy and execution. The two things are very very different. One can have a great strategy but fail to execute it. One can have a terrible strategy but be really good at executing it. ACD is a methodology, a process, a way of looking at the market. That's wonderful but that alone is not going to make you money. What makes you money is the ability to execute, what some call trading. Trading is the actual execution of an idea. The problem newbies have is their execution is terrible. They have many great ideas. In fact I'm always surprised when I meet new traders and listen to their ideas. Some of them are really good! They just don't have the experience to execute them. That takes time, a lot of time. So my comments you quoted there allude to this paradox. Having a great strategy but no real ability to execute it. So what I'm trying to say is that one needs to build up a lot of screen time and just put in the hours to develop a feel and understanding of how markets work in general. Having a good strategy can help with this but it's secondary. The good news is once you have that ability to execute, the strategy becomes secondary. I know many guys I use to trade with in NY that had real solid edges back in the day and now those edges are gone. But just from experience alone, they are still able to make a living at trading because they see the market really well and can execute it. This is true btw with most all things in life. One can have ideas, knowledge, good intentions, all that stuff, but if you can't actually implement them then you can only get so far. Sports usually provides a great analogy to this. Obviously I can teach you how to play tennis or football. I can show you the rules of the game. I can actually show you how to throw a tight spiral and hit a wicked kick serve but if you can't actually perform and execute under pressure, then your skills will only have value on the practice court or on a Sunday afternoon in a park. A lot of guys don't understand that about trading. They spend so much time looking for the grail and backtesting and zero time working on execution. I think one can do both with the understanding that execution is the skill they have to get down first. I've always said, no trader blows out because he/she has a bad strategy or because they lack market knowledge, they blow out because they can't execute. I hope this helps. And welcome to the thread!