Are trend traders lazy?

MarketAddict · Nov 22, 2011

This got me thinking.. Most people are told to buy and hold which is a trend strategy. Then most people try to bring that same mentality to day trading. Is this because they are lazy? Trading the trend doesn't require that much work so is this the reason why most people try to trade the trend? Less work?

Now don't get me wrong, I love trading the trend and I don't want to go against the trend... but the trend doesn't happen that often. So as a day trader you have to have multiple strategies to trade the market. And this is where the hard work comes in. Most people don't want to come up with different ways to trade.. Is this because they are lazy?

Something to think about...

Wide Tailz · Nov 22, 2011

Quote from MarketAddict:

Trading the trend doesn't require that much work so is this the reason why most people try to trade the trend? Less work?

No, we do it because it works.

Mirzy · Nov 22, 2011

I think your right. I just learned how to make good money consistently the first 30 mins every day based on trends then the rest of the day is "not my type of trading" so I dont trade. I'm new though so I'll figure out the less trendy mid-day stuff soon enough but it is definitely harder.

Visaria · Nov 23, 2011

Quote from Mirzy:

I'm new though so I'll figure out the less trendy mid-day stuff soon enough but it is definitely harder.

Don't waste your time on that.

FrankSlaughtery · Nov 23, 2011

Quote from Visaria:

Don't waste your time on that.

+1. you don't need to trade every mtk type (trend, range, etc). just ask yourself before every trade "is this one of my setups?" and if not sit on your hands.

galvinlee888 · Nov 23, 2011

Quote from MarketAddict:

So as a day trader you have to have multiple strategies to trade the market. And this is where the hard work comes in. Most people don't want to come up with different ways to trade.. Is this because they are lazy?

Something to think about...

The problem for multiple strategies is that you won't be able to know "when" you have to switch strategies. All the indicator are late to tell you this.

MarketAddict · Nov 23, 2011

Quote from galvinlee888:

The problem for multiple strategies is that you won't be able to know "when" you have to switch strategies. All the indicator are late to tell you this.

Not true at all.. If you use pure price then this should not be a problem...

trefoil · Nov 23, 2011

The knock on trend is that you get caught up in chop and if you're using MAs or one of the indicators derived from MAs they lag.
Lagging, statistically, is a good thing: over lots of trades it weeds out the noise.
Chop is harder, so for that you need some way of measuring momentum that gets you in when there's breaks in either direction. Still lags by at least one bar, of course, on backtesting, but if you're not automated that doesn't matter.

BTW, I have found, since I got my momentum formula down, that it detects the chart stuff folks who trade strictly off charts see. Kind of interesting that way.

Handle123 · Nov 23, 2011

Quote from galvinlee888:

The problem for multiple strategies is that you won't be able to know "when" you have to switch strategies. All the indicator are late to tell you this.

If you don't know when to switch, you don't have a well backtested method. Plus, you have to have complete faith in your method to boot.
You have to know instantly what the Price and relationship to indicators are doing. There are still plenty of traders who can't trade trend whether with only Price Action, Indicators or mixture of the two.

As far as indicators lagging, that is a good thing in my eyes, keeps whipsaws to a smaller limit.

I don't think traders are lazy to only trade the trend, but uneducated to recognize when markets are ripe for reversal, and most books have unclear understanding for reversals. There is always something else one can learn or use, like higher timeframes and trendlines to form a rule when not to use a strategy.