take a look at the most active options today. SP puts, QQQ puts, XLF puts, etc etc. http://www.cboe.com/data/MostActives.aspx
Really weird week in the indexes. 5 consecutive losing days for my index system. I was killing it before the week with 19 consecutive winning days. Slow, thin markets really are the bane of intraday systems. RoughTrader
otoh, my methodology has benefited greatly from this market i have made more points in the last 3 weeks than i made in the 2 months before that. i simply love this market. of course i have always maintained that part of trading successfully is either being able to adapt your methodology to current conditions OR be able to flexibly move between markets and just trade the ones that suit your methodology simply put - i LOVE this market. my trading mostly relies on means reversion type trades which work great in this market. the main difference is that i am getting far more points per means reversion move with the same amount of points risked. its simply incredible i LOVE this market
Yes, mean-reversion strats definitely would have done well this week. I think this reinforces the unfortunate truth that mechanical systems must endure drawdowns from time to time. A mean reversion system would get slaughtered if applied to a heavily trending market, whereas an intraday trend-following system would pick up points like they're lying on the floor. Vice versa for more sideways days. That is unless, of course, one were able to fuse many different trading styles into one single system, which I find to be very elusive and difficult to accomplish. RoughTrader
I hope you realize that a high p/c ratio is a bullish indicator, eh? In this mornings first hour it was 1.48. (VERY high). Hence we're seeing short covering as I type.
No shares changed hands on Wall Street today, I guess everybody finally had what they wanted - SNL I was looking for 13400 on the YM, 75 on the ES and 130 on the EEM. We hit on the ES and got close enough in the other two. I am out my YM long and have bough a few QQQQ and EEM puts, some GS(stock), all very small size and sold some vert credit spreads. in Crox Calls. My most reliable indicators are marginally indicating a move up from here but action in the $bkx (potential bullish pennant breaking down), cfc, and reaction to news yesterday has me thinking a retest of the lows is likely. Consequently I am as uninvolved in the current action as I have been all year. Will wait until I get some confirmation either way. Taking out yesterdays high or low would be helpful.
You guys are way over analyzing this. The market isn't going lower and volume isn't very important. just go long and make money. Widen your time frame.