Information diet

Now imagine going one step further and getting rid of charts, market timing, and market direction. Boom! Life changing when you begin thinking in terms of probabilities.

How do you trade then? Order flow only?

I used to do some of that some time ago but I feel like the order flow changed a lot since algorithms became a big part of it. Much less readable/usable for me.
 
My thought is that I have them on to have in the background if something really bad happens or to pick up on some little tid bit. An example being TSLA, I don't remember how long ago now, but on CNBC someone mentioned that Elon needed the price to be up to x dollars to qualify for a huge payout. I bought some on this feeling comfortable that Elon would magically meet sales numbers to push the stock. It slowly moved fromm $180 at the time to over $300 then they had earnings and it popped to $600, and the following Monday it hit $900. You don't have to watch it, just listen in background. I have had a couple of those over the years. One other was a strike price on a SPY put that was being accumulated. I picked up a small position and it sat in a .55- .65 range for quite awhile and then the markets tanked and it ran over $30. Sadly I had worked out of the position, first covering my cost, then taking some more at $10, $15 and $25.
 
One of the biggest mistake many traders make is having too many indicators. Adding couple of indicators to price action works great.
 
I have found over this last year that the less input I get from the outside world, the better off my trading is. I long ago gave up any financial media such as CNBC, Mad Money, etc... Now I do not watch any Youtuber gurus, take alert services, etc...

I feel that if I am forming my own opinions, finding my own trades, etc... I am a better trader. I also have 100% accountability to myself and cannot blame anyone for my results.

try it out. Turn off all outside influences and see how you do. This is precisely why Warren Buffet resides in Omaha and not NYC. Same was true of Jessie Livermore and many others.

Mad Money is for entertainment only. It doesn't really have any informational value imo.
 
How do you trade then? Order flow only?

I used to do some of that some time ago but I feel like the order flow changed a lot since algorithms became a big part of it. Much less readable/usable for me.
I trade on a longer timeframe and use probabilities in the options.
 
Sometimes when something does not work, like a lagging indicator, people think they need a different lagging indicator or 3 of them and then it WILL work. This is an example of going around in circles and not being able to think outside a context.
I wanted a moving average that didn't lag, but found that those which were supposed to serve this function, like the Hull Moving Average and the Zero Lag Moving Average, were inadequate. I therefore set about learning enough about coding to design the indicators I envisioned for myself, if and when then did not exist. For example, this page from my book illustrates the difference between the two above-mentioned moving averages, and my own "instantaneous moving average."

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