Consider these things: Price is the value of volume. Volume is simply transactions that have taken place Volume can be low but price grinding up in a bull trend or bear trend the entire session. This Brooks calls SPBL (small pullback bull trends). It is program buying on low volume, purposely. Institutions are accumulating it. Buying every dip in small amounts. Every push by bearish forces is simply countered by bullish forces. Perhaps bullish programs are buying up in small quantities. Or perhaps sellers are backing off unwilling to sell at current prices so price is bid up and sellers are slowly feeding in out to buyers. It doesn’t matter. What matters is what is the picture being drawn…what is the story being told? It is more important “how” something happens than “why” it happens. Why did Alabama beat Georgia yesterday? Ask @speedo..LOL. It doesn’t matter why, it is more important how. They simply dominated on all fronts. They unraveled Georgia much like the markets unravel traders. If you could chart the game it would be a bullish trend for Bama. Every bullish attempt by Georgia was countered by a stronger bearish attempt by Bama. Georgia was stuck in consolidations and BO attempts failed and Bama faded BO’s. BAMA caused the BO’s to fail then went the other way with the ball! Saban is GS taking money from Renaissance ROFLMAO. All session long bullish and bearish pressures are in play. The stronger side will win for a bit then the other side will win for a bit. Markets cannot go straight up or straight down without opposite forces acting upon present forces or we cannot have a market. As these forces play out, the chart it drawn. A chart is nothing but a graphical representation of the extent and reach of market pressures as they are created and play out. Read that again! This is why price is king and volume is queen. But the queen often is the neck that turns the kings head! A cursory glance at Anna’s work (as I had never heard of her) would indicate she would probably appreciate that analogy. See, those evolving pressures tells a story. Since 95% of the pressures are connected to institutions and 5% to retail it is imo safe to say we retailers don’t move the market. The market is “made” by institutions trading with and against each other. GS is not interested in yours or mine 10 ES contracts and the profit from them. They are interested in taking millions from some other institution or HFT firm…hedge funds etc ad nauseam. We retailers are potato chip money for them. We don’t comprise enough $$$ to be worth their time. That kinda shoots holes in the idea that smart money is out to get dumb money. Look the battle is smart money out to get smart money.
Actually, my style is also scalping. It is mentally easier to take profit at specific small targets with higher probability. I am still trying to hold just a bit longer to get better profit. Like you, I also do not use volume (as I am trading CFD indicies which do not support volume like futures trading).
IMO, volume is more useful for stock trading (it can flags out fake moves where there is low volume but big price increases or high volume but low price increases). VWAP is a very useful thing to use as well.
Good job in this post padu! Volume is a leading indicator. But I would argue that price is a BETTER leading indicator. “Price is the best indicator of price”. And as you say money is made on price not volume.
What is in the heart…our core beliefs…desires..passion…is what our mouths will blab about. It is also central to our actions. As I have quoted before…”we create our own reality in the markets”.
I wish we could create the reality Market is always fickle. Just 1 bad trade will wipe out all gains.
What one believes about market manipulation…market noise…retail traders…institutions…price…volume….price patterns…risk….profit targets….R:R will affect ones trading strategies, techniques and executions. We also tend to read books that validate our underlying concepts. But they can be “rat poison” as Saban like to say. Saban said this time it was yummy rat poison ROFLMAO. The media fed it to Ga and Ga gobbled it down. It is often more useful to read books that pick our underlying assumptions apart. Most assumed GA would trounce Bama or at minimum walk away with a win. A lot of people lost a lot of money betting on that assumption and belief. My own Dad who is a Bama fan at 88 years of age but who lives in MS said “Bama is gonna get a whipping”. That reminds me I got to call him and needle him a bit. People underestimated Bama because of the 2 point last minute win over Auburn. It was “how” Bama beat Auburn that boosted Bama’s psychologically and mentally and made them believe they could “do it”. Georgia likely believed it would be a Sunday afternoon picnic for them…a little stroll in the park on a sunny afternoon.
https://awfulannouncing.com/ncaa/nick-saban-frustration-media-rat-poison.html Ran out of South Florida and back to campus once - after reading his press clippings.