Quote from candeo:
Candeo,
I was not unlike you when I switched to this market from options. One thing I realized early is that this market moves extremely fast when we have a lot of players. That is one reason that picking a target and sticking with it is so important. The more time you spend with it the more you'll understand it.
I also noticed that a lot of people just go for 2 points and reverse. That really can swing the market fast. I tried several different methods that had worked for me in the past to no avail. When I noticed that S/R levels were very important in this market I started to research it. That is when I noticed that unless it is a trendy day 2 points was about all you could safely get.
A couple years back trend trading worked very well in this market but has since been changed by the 2 point guys. Not being a person to fight the market I just developed a method that worked for me.
Not saying you can't go for more, because you can but it can also be dangerous.
4re
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4re,
Thank you for the explanation. I have some questions though:
- Why do you think it is that traders go for the 2 points? And how could it really affect you if entries are different anyway? In all markets there are traders with very short time frames. You just need to decide what you will consider as "noise". Saying "it is moving fast" is very relative, and it is easy to adapt your stop to a multiple of the ATR for example, to take care of volatility.
- This might be really stupid, so please bear with me: the ES is pretty much a reflection of the 500 stocks. So how could it be that much affected by supply/demand and the 2 points traders if anyway it needs to follow the S&P? I am basing this comment on my experience with ETFs that just follow a pool of stocks, but maybe there is something I am missing here, thank you for clarifying.
- As we are talking about this, I have noticed with ETFs that technical analysis in general is not as useful as with individual stocks, because of what I have just been saying. For example, S/R are not as significant because for a resistance to be very strong you need most of the stocks to stop moving when this point is reached on the ETF's chart. Most traders of individual stocks do NOT study S/R of the corresponding ETF. So the comments you posted from Douglas (especially about traders self-fuffiling their own expectations) are not as true for ETFs. I would think it is the same with market Eminis. What do you think?
Thanks again for helping a beginner.
I'm sure some traders would argue the opposite is true (ETFs move individual stocks). That's why some stock traders use them as leading indicators. However, I personally believe that both are relevant. Sometimes ETFs move stocks, stocks move ETFs, and ETFs and stocks move together.
