Okay, before you flame me.. of course we are in the middle of summer. But this is really low volume. This is much lower than the average (I looked at S&P volume) for summer months. anyone have an idea of what's driving this?
Who knows, who cares...the market is sometimes like the weather...some seasons of some years are unseasonable warm/cold. So what...the world still turns, and Disneyland is still open Alot of people try to understand and scrutinize things on the scientific level -- Just get laid, Some things may just be left better a mystery, But to throw you a bone, and semi-answer your question...maybe people are getting complacent/bored/unsure with Trump and the long bull market. and are currently just sitting on marbles, And besides, there's always money to be made in the market. -- Why do you ask this low volume question...are you looking for something to blame your trading performance on,
Who cares about volume, money is made when price goes from one level to another. Gives that you were looking for 3 point profits on the ES, there have been lots of opportunity, even if the daily RTH range is only 10 points. Now that you're looking at the NQ, it seems like always every day, the range is over 40 points. Looking at a chart for ES of just the RTH range from 0930 to 1600 ET, and plotting the range during this time frame, we get a pretty consistent range. I outlined for the past two years the months of July and August via pink boxes. Obviously we just started July so the last one is just he beginning. And obviously in 2015 we have the huge day on August 24, but the range seems pretty consistent. As a reference, I drew a blue line across the range scale for today which was 10.75 points. Many days go over this line. So once again, if you were going for 3 points, you really don't have anything to complain about.
yes,,, correct Range is more important, and with 40 - 100 points range on NQ there's a ton of opportunity. BUT, I have looked very closely at my stats,,,, one thing I find is that in the low volume times these trades take much longer to work out. Of course that's just the way it is and we have to accept that. But, I still am curious what could be driving the low volume. now if Range tightened up to become non-tradable.... then we have a real problem
In my experience, the crazy movement of NQ is very bad for stops. Its much better when it slows down. The lack of liquidity during trading times can easily make price spike 2 or 3 points in seconds which is no good for tight stops.
anyone have an idea of what's driving this? Volume has been trending down since 2003 - maybe all the buyers are already in? More people are trading options than equities. Options are in a dramatic up trend. The bar for trading futures is extremely low these days - it used to take a lot of $ to trade futures & was used more for hedging by the more sophisticated informed traders. Now every greedy noob that can afford to open a lemon aid stand is opting to trade futures over equities. The problems were recently documented in a research note by Credit Suisse titled “The Incredible Shrinking Universe of Stocks.” The bank documented that the total number of companies listed on the United States stock market plummeted by nearly half, to 3,671 last year from 7,322 in 1996. Companies get bought or go out of business, but new companies are not replacing them. In 1996 there were 706 initial public offerings, but in 2016 there were only 105. The downturn affects all sectors, and last year there were only 30 new private equity offerings, the “lowest level since 2009". Been doing daily stock scans since the mid 90's - every quarter the list gets shorter.
Yes, it is low volume and the month of July is still not over...it still hasn't reached mid-month. Also, your research should have also shown you that its typical for the volume in the S&P 500 to "decline" from June to July. Yet, you probably noticed that at the current volume pace for this month...by the end of the month we will have probably set a few records for low volume in July. Yet, overall for 2017...the volume is still higher than the prior 5 years for the S&P 500. Thus, wait until the summer to complete before doing your comparisons or at least wait until July completes although we're on a pace to set some records for low volume by the end of July for the month. Regardless, volume isn't important unless its a part of your trade strategy. Yet, you probably know that if volume remains low...other markets (e.g. options, forex) are getting it or its mainly just money being pulled out of the markets and sitting on the sidelines. I think its Bloomberg that keeps statistics on the movement of volume into other assets.