Quote from xiaodre:
The thing is: breakout trading works.
The other thing is: breakout trading doesn't work.
It depends on other factors, like what kind of day it is, what kind of volume is flooding into the market, and what kind of day the last few have been (intermediate and long term trends).
My personal opinion.
EDIT: case in point: People warned me against it, but I bought the breakout on friday, and immediately one of the meanest bastards in the pit came in and started selling and, long story short, I got a black eye and coughed up my lunch money.
Today though, I remembered last Friday and I bought the selloff and, long story short, I got a black eye and coughed up my lunch money.
The markets may not be perfectly random, but as you just described, they are random enough that most trading methodologies aren't going to work.
