Thoughts on Trading
This past Friday illustrates an excellent example of a day where a trader can learn an enormous amount about all of the little things that make up trading.
1) Stops are very important
You must know immediately upon entry how far the trade may go against you. You must be prepared to get out at that point, even if it means that a few minutes later you are back in again, in the same direction as the first trade.
2) Support and resistance are key
If you don't understand this, then you must search on elitetrader and find the various posts that deal with S/R. A quick and dirty method is to look at yesterday's 5 minute chart, followed by a weekly 30 min chart, identifying key numbers where price seemed to pause. Pivots are another way. Fibonacci is another way.
3) Volume is key
You must understand volume and its relationship to price.
4) Stuff happens!
No matter how well planned your trade is, stuff happens. Look at the 1030 to 1045 time frame on Friday. Trust me. I've traded off and on since 1994. I play a game called myBrainTrainer fairly regularly. If I couldn't get a fill, it is more than likely that many other people didn't get in either. In addition, how many people got entries way up at the top thinking that price would at least test 112 05 to 112 11?
On a final note, if you trade the full day, and don't learn how to trade a day like Friday, a key thing to remember, is that a day like Friday can reward you dramatically in the first half and take it all away in the second half. I've written about this more than once when I commented on "V" days and my difficulty with them.
Bottom line, an attempt to short at 111 13 is legitimate. However, when prices went no lower that 111 09, and then returned to your entry, and broke through and tested 111 17 to 111 19 in a matter of less than a couple of minutes, if you wanted to continue to trade you had to go long. Let's say your entry was poor, at 111 19. You would place a stop at 111 13, and watch carefully. Right at this time, around 1047 prices started behaving madly. Anytime prices are skyrocketing, you must treat the episode like a 0730 report and you must know that you have to exercise a tight stop and be ready to get out and walk away to let price settle down. Bottom line, if you had reversed your 111 13 short, you were looking at approximately 10 ticks on the long entry. Keep in mind that the above scenario is all 20:20 hindsight. I couldn't get filled. Granted I was using limit orders and not market orders, but by the time I set the next limit order price was on to the next level. After a few attempts I gave up because I knew that 112 00 was coming up and per my earlier posts you know how I feel about the 00's.