Trading is hard, all the time. I think one of the many counterintuitive things about it is it SEEMS easier after things slow down or calm down and seem a little more comprehensible. But often, at least with stocks, you can look back and see it made its “real move” on the open and spent the majority of the rest of the day pretty much dicking around. It’s tempting to think you can be the guy profiting from that “dicking around,” but I’d caution that just because the bid/offer drops/raises doesn’t mean you are going to be able to get filled on either end of it, much less for much size. Still plenty of quotes available and algos happy to interact with you though. When you finally do get it and make money on something when it is actually moving and then stop trading it and keep what you made while it’s not really doing anything, it feels really good. So I think that should be a goal. I think of the slow times as practice time. You’re getting ready and building skills and getting experience in order to be able to capitalize on the times when there is more opportunity. Eventually the benefit of the “practice” becomes less valuable and you’re able to simply sit out and wait for the trades you recognize as being more likely to work out favorably for you. Lastly there are few absolutes in trading. Certainly opportunities exist mid day. Maybe you’ll be great at finding them. Who knows. But if it doesn’t seem to be working for you and you feel like you are getting “ripped off” in something that isn’t even really moving… feel free to stop trading it. Nothing says things have to be interesting and exciting and provide opportunity for traders all day long.
Low volume times.., price can be steered much easier (MM doing the steering - not the BSD - typically) Move price in a direction - loading up one side - and the commensurate stops Move it the other way - loading up the other side..., and commensurate stops - while collecting the stops of the aforementioned other side W-R-R Quite a profitable gig - and a way of offsetting risk assumed - from when the MM had to eat the other side of the BSD's ============= Folks like to use the word manipulation - bullshit - when you own most of it (it being the process) - its simply called maneuvering - LOL RN
Most professional daytraders work during the morning and play golf or scratch balls during the afternoon. On the other hand, most professional swingtraders play golf or scratch balls all day long
Depends on what your trying to trade, to scalp then around the news, too fast for me, much prefer slower trend times, where the direction is pretty much chosen, just join it.