Even though volatility has contracted to < 20 handles the past 4 days, this quarter has been extremely accomodating for ES day trading. I hope many of you have had a very profitable 1st quarter of 08. May it continue !!!!
If you love volatility, check out CL. It was been fantastic trading from both the long and short side the last few weeks.
Absolutly agree. When the ES dies down I wander over to the CL market. Never a dull moment over there. That's a tough contract to trade though. Lot's of wip. Totally different behavior than the ES.
Yes I do. CL has offered deep volatility not just in recent weeks but as the character of the market certainly in the last year or more. The pace too is faster than ES or YM. Your procedural drill therefore needs to be honed if you want to trade the CL session, Open to Close.
the BIG 6 to daytrade: ES CL Euro Yen 10 Year Gold ...all electronic futures...this should be everyones focus...thoughts?...great intraday swimgs and leverage opportunities!!!
Volatility by itself means nothing. There's "good" volatility and "bad" volatility. Most "volatility" recently, with the exception of a few days was BS which is why most HF's can't make any money. If volatility alone were the main needed factor for profitability, then you could just leverage up 5x or 10x and achieve the same effects. Unfortunately the volatility of late is crap since the market overall is up 1 day, down the next, gaps up, gaps down huge. It's almost a crapshoot. That's bad volatility. Nothing compared to years past when you had volatility and the combination of intraday range expansion *and* to top it off, follow-through the next day. I don't know of anybody with experience in the market excited about this "volatility".
Depending on your trading style, some love this volty and some hate it bad. On the other hand, you can look into other markets with less volatility. Some here even suggested to trade ES in the European time zone as the moves are much more cleaner than the RTH. As a trader, we have to adapt to survive.