Quote from tenebre:
Which is generally the safer or higher probability play.. buying on or near support levels or buy when a stock is likely to breakout and watching volume, moneyflow, etc.. and hoping it will breakout?...
Thanks
Support and Resistance levels or zones are
not trade signals.
Your trade signals, whatever that may be, are independent of the s/r stuff.
Simply, if your trade signal appears at a s/r level...take the trade. However, if your trade signal appears and it's not at a s/r level...there's no trade.
Therefore, try to look at s/r levels or zones as a place where you've identified where key market participants are most likely to cause a change in supply/demand.
In addition, there are dozens and dozens of different ways to compute s/r levels and zones.
I'm serious, find a popular trading instrument and then search the internet for websites, blogs, forums, twitter et cetera for traders posting current s/r levels for the same trading instrument and you'll immediately notice that most of them have different s/r levels.
In fact, there are a few active threads here at ET itself where guys trading the S&P 500 Emini ES will have different price places they call s/r levels from one ET member to another ET member.
Therefore, the real question is this...
Are the s/r levels you're following actually represent a change in supply/demand especially considering another trader is saying it's a different price level???
Best way to find out is too compare your trading results (real money or simulator) when your trade signals appear at one type of s/r level versus another type of s/r level.
For example, here's a list of the most common types of s/r stuff I see posted
daily all over the internet for any given popular trading intrument:
* Standard DeMark
* Woodie
* Fib Clusters
* Camarilla
* Trendlines
* Volume Extremes
* Candlestick Pattern Extremes
* Volatility Extremes
Many others I don't have time to name.
Simply, the goal for you is to find a type of s/r levels or pivot analysis that improves the performance of your trade signals in comparison to your trade signals without confirmation from that s/r level.
Do the above and you'll be way ahead of those struggling with s/r levels. Once again, support/resistance levels or zones are
not trade signals.
Mark