Is this seriously what trend traders do?

[Grantx]

GrantX, why not consider risking 1,320 here for a target of 1,225 ? It's kind of a classic set-up...

Why do you say that? Top of a range with a rejection candle forming? 1200 looks like a decent round number target. Only thing I dont like the look of is that price is currently exactly at the 50% retracement between those 2 prior swing high and low points.I stay away from that pattern - even have my own nickname for it - Satans heartbeat.
I would imagine that swing trading requires some form of fundamental analysis.

 

[Grantx]

I'm afraid that swing trading might be the last bastion of human traders; at the very least, it might keep us relevant versus the high speed bots. I think that's where the paradigm has been shifting to for the past couple decades.

Its not the high speed bots that worry me. The collective identity of these bots still falls within the rules of fractal recurrence.

AI worries me.

 

[bone]

Why do you say that? Top of a range with a rejection candle forming? 1200 looks like a decent round number target. Only thing I dont like the look of is that price is currently exactly at the 50% retracement between those 2 prior swing high and low points.I stay away from that pattern - even have my own nickname for it - Satans heartbeat.
I would imagine that swing trading requires some form of fundamental analysis.

Those two prior swing highs you mention got taken out yesterday and then to a greater extent today - great reason number three by my count to get short; 1200 is from my experience greedy - the last two swing lows could not touch it. I'd just as soon not tempt fate and bank the coin. Just me, YMMV. I prefer to take my little piece out of the market and move on...

 

[Xela]

I'm afraid that swing trading might be the last bastion of human traders; at the very least, it might keep us relevant versus the high speed bots.

I'm afraid you may be right; I hope (but don't have enough historical perspective to know) that you're still looking quite a way into the future, there.

AI worries me.

You and Stephen Hawking (albeit possibly not for exactly the same reasons) ...

 

[bone]

I would imagine that swing trading requires some form of fundamental analysis.

I used to trade energy commercially on the production and the user sides in the 1990's. I had legal insider information. To state it another way, I was first to the market with fundamental information.

Please trust me when I say that the last price print you see is a distillation of all known fundamental and technical analyses and information on that product at that particular time. As a commercial trader I never allowed a product to remain "mispriced".

Knowing that, I swing trade products successfully that I know dick about. Sugar has been one of my best trades for the past four years and I know absolutely next to nothing about the market. But it models great for me, I set my stops and my targets and let her rip. Same for Livestock, grains, LME Metals... etc. etc.

Personally, if it's electronically available for me on a regulated futures exchange I want to trade it. I want the largest possible lake to fish in.

 

[speedo]

As a day trader, I don't like to use the term trend as my entries are often in opposition to another in my 3 tf charting. I take setups in all three tf's although the entry is usually taken in the lowest. I refer to the trades as momentum impulses as that is what is relevant to the tf in play.

 

[comagnum]

That is another stark difference from swing traders holding overnight - we want to participate in as many instruments as possible, whereas most day traders seem to have the opposite approach, usually trading only one or a few at most.

 

[Grantx]

Knowing that, I swing trade products successfully that I know dick about.

So you swing trade on pure technical analysis with no other influence on your decision making?Just charts and presumably correlations to other things? When I first started looking at gold I was always trying to gauge market sentiment to explain its movements until I realised it is a complete waste of time. Analysts get the same respect from me as accountants and lawyers (I owned a business once upon a time and had to deal with these money sucking cretins).

 

[Grantx]

That is another stark difference from swing traders holding overnight - we want to participate in as many instruments as possible, whereas most day traders seem to have the opposite approach, usually trading only one or a few at most.

Gotta have deep pockets to hold multiple instruments overnight. I dont have deep pockets unfortunately so have to get used to surviving down in the pits of anarchy and mayhem.

 

[bone]

So you swing trade on pure technical analysis with no other influence on your decision making?

If a trader makes the strategic decision to analyze and model as many different instruments as practical then yes, you cannot realistically be a fundamentals-driven trader. Earlier in my career when I had no choice but to participate in a very specific energy or interest rate market then yes, I could truly focus on fundamental parameters (and technical analytics). In fact, I subscribed to very specialized boutique market analysis services. But with thousands of spread combinations and hundreds of instruments that is simply not a realistic practicality for me.

You don't require deep pockets to swing trade - you require positions with capitalization that matches your comfort level and ability to hold a drawdown. I suppose you could swing trade 50 shares of stock. Instead of trading Gold futures could you short a modest Gold ETF position ? From little acorns grow big oak trees !