got burnt too many times with FED announcements. I waited all day and captured 3 rebounds after the freefall. Relatively low risk trade, stops were tight but not hit. For the target it was momentum, as soon as it was slowing down, I was out. 3 Longs @ 2 ER2 contracts each. Netted $450 total. Fortunes we're lost today by amateurs traders like most of us here. I'm happy I took a little profit instead of giving it all away to the sharks. Good trading
Best time to enter a trade is when you get a trade signal regardless if there's a FOMC announcement or not. The same is true for any other type of FED related event. Mark
That drop is the reason why you always have a hard stop. Even if it's a big one, at least you have something predefined that gets you out of the market. You can then walk away. If you don't, you might hold and hope for a bounce which never came today. The play I suggested was pretty good. I was in on the ER at 12pm and the runup to 2:15pm netted 3.5 points. Caught some of the volatility after the big drop so had a pretty good day. But I've been on the wrong side so some of my comments actually was from experience.
Instructive to read the first posts in this thread. I get the feeling that a lot of people lost a lot of money today. I'm a little surprised in that I thought, with all the perma-bears in here, that some guys would be looking to sell the news. Sure is quiet around here considering the market action today. Opening positions without stops ahead of an announcement like that? Wowsa....
Those fucks off are not traders and posting those trades and ideas during market hour in one hint that they are pikers and trading a $2K account at Global Futures with $300 margin per contract. No disrespect to newby traders but with small accounts but gambling any size before this type news is not very smart unless you got some volatility trade on or some protection in place. I will offer my input after trading a few on these the last few years.........cut your size and widen you stops and match the risk with the reward. If I trade 20 lots in normal market than a 5 to 10 lot is fine with again wider stops and target to deal with the 1 to 1.5 point noise on any market. I sold the first bounce after the initial drop after is hooked down and was off that swing high 2 points than sold each successive bounce with that same hook down til the closing bell. A classic trend day down after the news and reverse the trade up if that trend was up after the news. Yes you will eventually get stopped out on that last leg up or down that fails but you just need one good run per every few days to make a trend style work where you follow this pattern after the swing low is put in place. I attached a trade example below from last week as an example. After 9 years of trading....the lesson I learned that has kept me in this game is O NOT PICK BOTTOMS, AS YOU ALWAYS COME BACK WITH A STINKY FINGER. Intermediate trend is down for the next few months after the market voted today.