There was a reason for the spike actually....just after 10:30 there was an announcement about oil and they found an unexploded bomb somewhere. Combined with someone who had a fat thumb and overdid an order most likely. Cathy
Ok - I'm corrected that there was indeed some news, but it was an unscheduled news event. Not the same as the news spikes caused by say NAPM for example or interest rates or some such thing which are scheduled events happening at an expected time. That's really the point I'm making about playing the spikes... Natalie
Yes, indeed spikes can be risky. Give me a nice strong trend anytime rather than scalp plays. But some traders thrive on them. One of the points I think nitro was making is that he does not trade the vehicle that has the spike.....YM had the spike, he was trading QQQ. I was trading ES. More like a sympathetic play. Much safer to do. One of the other traders in the chat room was short YM when it happened.....felt like hours before they told him if he was busted or not. He was fine because he was short from the top of the run. Cathy
Obviously two completely different things. Sitting there waiting for the action on the 10:00 numbers is totally different to being wacked with a spike out of nowhere.
I guess this is one of the "few" times that having CNBC on was a blessing. They said something about the "oil" announcement being given around 10:30.....so I knew it was coming at 10am.....just did not expect THAT violent of a reaction to it!
Quah was lamenting his situation and ability to deal with ...... I merely said that if he wanted to learn and if he wanted to makemoneyon this stuff then starting with "Greenspans" is a good way because you get three turns per "Greenspan" andalso the "Greenspans" are very smooth money making spikes. It looks like Quah is confirming that the recent play was not a "Greenspan". It was not ...just as he says. I responded because for some small reason I thought Quah was at inquiry and did not want to continue at therisk level he is currently enjoying. It is always important to consider what is going on......as I make money I do think about the people that are opposite me. quah is in a place where he sometimes doe not have a way to deal with what is at hand. Often people like quah do seek some kind of insite ...a sort of debriefing, you might say... I didn't jamb down anyone's throat anything specific. Some of you might remember 9/11... I certainly was on it....I went as faras getting my partner to get the TV turned on just based on my spike signal orientation for futures indexes. Quah and I are not arguing. he certainly doesn't like my input and it is easy to see that our conversation isn't going anywhere. Once you begin to think ..or see that things aren't black and white.....maybe you can just relax a little and just see that quah and I aren't in tune with each other and let it go at that. I know I can count on you for responses very frequently to what I say and it usually gives us all abetter picture of you. All spikes have early detection possibilities. Each spike is a two part profit taking and usually at least a three part profit taking. Once a person gets past a set up mentality and then gets past entry exit trading as the only thing he can do, other doors open to making money. Most people who get into optimizing their money velocity over time continueto refine. Refinement is an iterative process that takes a while to get to. Becoming conscious of the potential that the market offers, is not something most people get to either. It turns out that spikes are just a subset of a larger class of opportunities. you will see bythe range of answers in ET, where different people are in the process of realizing their potential for making money. I was more surprised by nitro's comment than any others that I have read.
Jack/bubba7, will you tell us how you play greenspan spikes/spikes in general? my first thought is to zoom in to a shorter time frame when i see one happening, like on thursday. or if i know a FOMC announcement is coming, maybe adjust my charts to small scales before the announcement. what do you do? thx
Jack, I was surprised by nitro's comments as well. It was interesting to be in the chat room and experience the confusion in there in general. That he excerpted his own comments from the log is instructive. There were several traders experiencing various symptoms of 'loss of horizon'. It is well worth noting that he continued to post his actions as he was taking them. Much as like what happened in the Devil's Den and in the Chat room on the Motley Fool on 9/11. You reread these posts of actual events as they unfold and they show you who can be relied upon. Specifics are the teachers of tomorrow's success stories. Best to you. Bruce