80% of the time

[Xela]

The market is trending, not ranging.Who wants to dispute?

It has limited meaning without references to time-frames.

However you define "trending" (and there are many different working definitions, of course), it's normal for financial instruments to be trending in one direction when viewed within a specific time-frame, while ranging or even sometimes trending in the opposite direction within others.

If you're thinking of a specific type of instrument, as viewed within a specific time-frame, what you say may well be perfectly true, of course.

But there's also a "bigger picture": context is everything.

 

[maxpi]

I'd say that if you want to scan all 'timeframes' markets are almost always trending.

 

[Xela]

Trending seems to mean "price changing over time".

I don't think that's much of a description of "trending", let alone a definition?

"Price changing predominantly in the same overall direction" would surely be a little more descriptive?

 

[Niten Doraku]

Test for stationarity, you noobs.

 

[java]

Pick any point in the past. 5 min ago, 5 years ago etc. and the most recent price. If the recent price is higher it could be in an uptrend? 3 months ago it was 10, now it's 20, so bonafide uptrend? Except last month it was 50. But still compared to 3 months ago it is trending up?

 

[algofy]

Test for stationarity, you noobs.

? What does this even mean?

 

[indicator777]

Markets are random.

How random does the Nasdaq chart look to you?

 

[Xela]

How random does the Nasdaq chart look to you?

(I know you weren't asking me but) obviously not very random at all.

It's kind of "questionable" - not to put too fine a point on it - whether it's really worth responding to people in trading forums who state that markets are random.

I'm "just saying": it's the classic illustration of how anything can be alleged in the absence of a definition of its terms.

"Random" is one of those words like "predictable", when applied to trading: they're both terms whose absence of definition just leads to everyone talking at cross purposes, really.

 

[i960]

Anyone who thinks every day is random and completely ignores any of the collective behavior of buyers and sellers in a given area just plain doesn't understand markets.

At an underlying level it's all driven by trends of some sort. At the infinitely large time frame is it a giant range? Probably not. The output of the sun over it's entire lifetime isn't a range is it?

 

[java]

For a market that isn't random, people sure do have a hard time predicting whether even tomorrow will be an up day or a down day.