Quote from trader56:
bighog,
Let me "whip this on you"...(sheesh)
I was a futures floor trader for a number of years. One of the favorite trick of the locals was to trade ONE contract back and forth between us to get higher (or lower) prints on the board. Why do you think we did this and why was it generally profitable?
Because some guy(s) sitting out there watching price only thinks, "Oh my god - the price is going up, I'd better buy now before the market gets way for me!"
So, in comes the paper, and who do yuo think sells to that fool? We do. And where do yuo think the price goes after that buy order has been filled? Back down.
Ocassionally, some wiseguy thinks he'll outsmart the floor and sell into that price rise. No problem, since there was never any real buying in the first place (i.e. NO VOLUME), the order not only doesn't get filled, but price gets offered down in front of it. Then, if the guy still needs to sell, we get a bargain price. And where do you think price goes after that sell order is filled? Why, back up, of course.
The moral of the story is that if these fools watching only price had called down to the floor to see what was going on (in other words, found out what the VOLUME was), they never would've been sucked into these dumb trades. But, like you, almost none of them bothered to consider the volume driving price, and we got to do this over and over and over and...
When the brokers for the commercials came out and bid/offered, weren't filled, and then hung out, if price came back to that level we would always ask, "Are you still there?" We want to know HOW MUCH (oh, there's the VOLUME again) is still bid for or offered.
THe great thing about ET now, as opposed to when I joined, is that it demonstrates daily that it's now filled with newbies, kids, and people who have little if any understanding of markets. THat used to bug me, but now I like to have them on the other side of my trades. So please, continue to pay no attention to volume and watch Elliot Wave and price-based TA indicators! [/QUOTE
Trader56-Thank you for taking the time to post that info, very good indeed. I was speaking to a friend whom, has been trading for about 20 years and has purchased around $100k in seminars and software.
He told me as a relative newbie, 18 months of day trading under my belt, that I should focus on learn how to trade with price and volume, that's it. He doesn't use any of the software he purchased or the knowledge from the $3-5k seminars he went, just price and volume. That's say alot to me.
I do believe one can find alternative methods that work fine, but I absolutely realize that I must learn how to trade with volume.