First off I am 100% discretionary. Volume patterns or analysis has never added to my bottom line. I took it off my charts a couple years ago. I will always look at an issues average trading volume, and peek at the box. But that is just a liquidity concern. Perhaps it is from spending 11,000+ hours in front of the screen (so far), but all I use is price. I have "discarded as too much info". But what is important is that it works for you. TA dogma be damned...
Active trader since August 2002. 6.5 hours a day minimum for 7 years. 6.5hoursx260workdaysx7years=11,830 hours You can do some basic math. Or you can fling insults like a child. Get a life? Trading is how I provide food, shelter and comfort items for my family. Thus it is my life. And I love it. I have been here a long time. Do I have any enemies? Can you say the same?
watching the screen is not the same as trading.. you must be in live trades to understand anything. The best way to get a novice to trade is to give them a paper trading account. It is so easy with paper trading. If you paper trade then go get a real job because trading is not for you.
Volume most times leads the market's major moves. It's always been that way and I expect it will always be that way. It's not rocket science. When the shipping and transport industry suffer badly, the pulse or volume of the market has dropped and the index drops thereafter. The same thing happens even down to 1 min timeframes. Take away the volume and there's nothing to drive the market in many cases. The only thing that changes that equation is lack of supply. Strong demand and low supply drive up prices even harder than big volume, but it's still the volume equation that is driving price. The relationship between what price you buy or sell at and the amount traded is such a giveaway big funds try to hide their volume. The markets reaction time to a visible large volume trade is less than 1 second and it has nothing to do with the price. It's all about the volume. The professionals know where the supply is and where the lack of supply is and closely monitor the volume activity because it tells much more about the next move than a choppy PA ever will. PA is great, but PA & Volume is a fantastic combination. But if you are not convinced by the examples I have given from the floor trading to McD's to Car Lots to shipping that volume IS the market and that it is worth investigating, then happy trading because trading is each to their own.
So price can move either on volume or in its absence? Groovy. So sometimes volume ~leads price and at other times it catches up with price? Remarkable.
Oh come Thunderdog, you've been around long enough to put more effort into this before making silly statements. Can't an old dog learn a new trick Your 1st statement is correct. Your 2nd is false. There has been talk of a possible forced bank closure... lets say it happens and everyone runs to the stores and the shelves are getting empty. Some people will find the prices in the corner store go up as supply dries up. Or if times are good and something is not selling and the stock is sky high, don't they pile it up and sell it cheap to get rid of it. The same is true of any market. Volume doesn't catch up on price but you can see the volume squeeze before hand and know that the volume effect is going to push price before it has moved. But it's not going to be as easy a reading a few paragraphs to make it work. Zero effort and zero reward.
Help me out with this problem Xspurt. ES can make major positioning moves most days in the pre-open and during the lunch break. Both these periods attract relatively low volumes. Sometimes very low volumes and so their apparent efficiency is enormous. How do I mix price and volume into a fantastic combination that is going to make me loads of points. jjf
Can someone else who believes in volume (51.45% of poll) help me out here please. Seems like Xspurt has gone all quiet on me. jjf
well jjf it is pretty simple really and it takes a nice bank roll... think of the futures or stock market as an object with mass.. say like a rock. think of volume as the wieght of the rock. When volume is LOW .. one person or a few can move the rock (price). When volume is high it takes lots and lots of people to move the rock.. guess what everyone watching the rock move wants to know where it is going so they can help move the rock in the right direction.. here is what you can do.... when there is low volume you buy or sell against which way the market is really suppossed to move! i.e. against the trend! you can do this in low volume times if you ahve the bank roll.. not in es but in some low priced stocks... you get some short term followers to follow you.. they buy with you (assuming real trend is down). you have now artificially moved the rock in the wrong direction and some people want to help you move it.. as soon as the helpers are in you slam it back to where you started and then some...down down down.. many other guys watching you will know what you are up too and they will sell with you as you reverse with 2 or 3 x the original volume.. happens all the time .. why do you think afterhours trading can be so lucrative.. why can crude be up a buck overnight then down 2 bucks during the normal trading hours.. yup you guessed it... a bunch of guys throwing rocks!..lol thats how it is done my friend. Problem is it is not scaleable. You can get rich doing it, but it is a lot of work. many large traders .. i.e. hedge funds will sell and sell and sell when all they relly want to do is buy and buy and buy.. all the selling later offsets the true intent of buying so they do not move the market higher...duh if you do nto understand these simple concepts then you better tell mommy you won't be able to pay her back in this lifetime.