The biggest hindrance of trading is when you trade untradeable markets. Often markets are trading in a very tight range and you should not touch it. But you do! Why? 1) bored and want to do something. 2) hooked and want to make your money back. Patience is the key and waiting for the tight time can make you a consistent winner, from a consistent loser. Typically opens and closes are tradeable and after the 9:30ish mark, you find markets churning or in a lull, a very dangerous time. After 11:00 Pacific Time, I start looking at opportunities. (This time of course varies with news and other factors, but the chart will clearly tell you when it is time to act.)
Most traders trade when they should not because they mostly fall in greed and want to make money. Also they want to recover their loses so trade and mostky fail because of unfavourable timings of the market.
For me its simple: 1) Different types of trading sessions require different rules (e.g. trend days vs. Range days) 2) If there isn't a single trade the entire session that meets my rules then I take 0 trades. 3) If I'm feeling antsy to take trades and there aren't any I get up and walk away (at least for a time) Not an all encompassing list but in brief that hits most points.
The biggest hindrance is identifying a hot or cold market right off the bat for me. Since I prefer daytrading options most of my trades happen between 9:30am-10:30am, with likely 80% or more coming closer out of the gates. Often times, I don't get nearly enough hindsight to feel the direction of the market and it has screwed me more times than I care to admit. However, I am forcing chit trades even when it comes apparent the market is taking a poop. Something I def need to work on.
Avoid trading choppy, jerky, spiky, undecisive market. Unfortunately, such a market might move tremendously.
And when is one to make the decision that a choppy market has become unchoppy and starts trending? Hindsight is so easy. Let me guess. 10 AM ET was the time to make the decision that the bull market is still intact?
Basic MA works well for this. There is no perfect answer. **EDIT: As an aside - days trading inside previous day / overnight H/L tend to be choppier then days moving outside this range
trading is definitely not straightforward. the market might be very choppy but trending actually. This is the market which I hate. Because I will be missing the opportunity. I prefer a market that is very choppy and very ugly and very messy. Then I wouldn't be pulling the trigger.
Man, there is NO answer! Not any longer! Feb 2018 was the beginning of the end of any semblance of rational market activity! Even financial "gurus" were going on about how whacked the markets were on Friday, after Bullard's stupid comments on Thursday, and the INSANE recovery of those losses yesterday. And today it continued! What changed in the past 3 trading days?!?! NOTHING!
News makes no difference to me. I think its rotting your brain friend. I completely ignore the shit other than making sure I'm flat into FOMC policy statements. I don't deny that these levels don't make sense but it is what it is. Anything that causes big swings in the markets is music to my trading ears. This party will end one day and it will be a violent shitstorm when it does with straight up free market price discovery when the bottom falls out. Until then - stay long and stand closest to the exit.