I used to day trade back in the late 90s & the early 2000s. I just started again in late November. After 1 week of a little floundering and getting my market legs back, I had 8 consecutive positive weeks where I was able to scale up my size to a few thousand shares/positions on avg. My method is simply to monitor a host of stocks (different every day) that are in play for the day & try to get in on the main moves. In the last 2 weeks (approx), very little is working. As such, I have scaled back down. I have gone through my trading activity and continue to tweek here and there to adjust my risk management so that I dont get too hurt. I feel strongly that general conditions have changed in the last 2 weeks. I used to work in an office with other traders where viewpoints were actively exchanged. This is no longer the case & I dont have the benefit of getting many other traders' perspective. How many of you active & profitable day-traders are experiencing the same difficulties lately? Also, are there any specific forums here or elsewhere where this kind of information in the day-trading realm is routinely contributed? tks
Not many "pure" daytraders these days (we all day trade of course, just using other strategies as well). We encourage trading the same stocks every day, inviting people to your "poke game" vs. going to a new "game" every day. FWIW, Don
Certain approaches do not work in this environment that is true Most indicator based approaches are getting chopped to bits I would suggest looking at S/R approaches, those that work off tick highs and lows, etc. Market Profile and Volume Profile are working well IF you know the concepts and how to use them Really most of this depends on your skill set and experience. Good luck Steve
I'm finding this market fairly easy to trade. With the market gapping up and down, there are quite a few opportunities to sell spikes of strength, and buy crashes of weakness intraday. No, you can't hang around very long, but if you are nimble there are some nice trades to be had. On the other hand, if your style is trying to hop on some kind of momentum - which is not mine - well, there is a lot of chop.
I'm with you..I'll take this market action everyday and even on a Sunday! I hope this volatility lasts for a few years..that would be a gift!
i don't use any (conventional/lagging) indicators, and imo the market since the 'christmas rally' has been the best trading market i have ever seen. simply amazing. i think part of the problem is that people are applying 90's paradigms to this market. this aint yer daddys bull or bear market i've found some GREAT value for my IRA (longterm holds) on the selling, and trading direction intraday has been wonderful intraday i trade mostly futures, but trade some stocks too. i use primarily market profile, internals, and price. a little intermarket analysis as well. i've never used indicators (in the sense of MACD, STOCH, that kind of stuff ) so can't speak for how they work or don't work in this market
I am a "pure" daytrader and though I've had a great year so far, the past three days have been particularly frustrating. Little follow through and lots of chop. So in times like these, I abandon my usual core group of stocks for the hot stocks du jour (FSLR, UNH today). I've found that it's best to have a combination of core stocks with which you are familiar (you can anticipate how they will "behave") and during choppy markets, include some hot stocks in your trading plan (Sorry Don).
Nothing to be "sorry" about. We encourage traders to do what works best for them....if and when it stops working, we then encourage them to think about our basic profitable techniques. All the best, Don
Thanks Don and others for all of your input. I am all about learning new methods and, as I've said, I have been out of the intraday market for some time. I believe that I will be able to make money with my prior methods if conditions return. In the meantime Whitster & Steve46, you mentioned market profiling. This was a completely foreign tool to me until about 45 mins ago. I have done some digging and have found some background info and discussions on the tool. Whitster, I saw that you recently recommended someone visit the CBOT site to obtain information on market profiling. I'll head over there. I think that I should be able to profile my experience for market profiling I would appreciate if you guys could point me to any further useful sites or discussion threads where its specific (profitable) use is elaborated. thanks again