Quote from CFerret:
But one problem still remains: I don't understand the mechanics of interacting forces which cause these changes in DOM and more importantly cause market to move.
Simply cannot believe in things until I understand how they work. Better to say: I believe YOU that it works exactly as you say, but I can't force myself to use this information for my own trading until I understand it well.
But I don't have a good understanding of DOM "games". Just accepting them as "games" is not enough for me to make my mind begin using this information.
Janis
Thanks for the post. You highlight one of the single most important issue that keeps aspiring traders from being profitable traders.
The fact is.....no one....can know why and what is causing price movement at that particular instance.
In the simple process flow chart below, we see that the nature of causation of DOM activity is irrelevant.
| "games" / "manipulations" / "Other reasons to impact price movement" | -----> | DOM activity | ------> | Change in value area |
Focusing on the immediate cause of change in value is all the necessary information we need, to make the key trading decision of whether to participate in the perceived upcoming change in market value.
As traders we are interested in perceiving changes in value area before the change occurs. Therefore, what causes the DOM activity itself is irrelevant ,understanding the dynamics of DOM activity is relevant since this is a key metrics to pre-determine change in market value.
I would suggest you undertake Mr. Hersheys Stop and Reverse training method to re-wire your brain correctly.
My technique that I use is to flip a coin and attach trade bias to each individual side. ie when you get the Head, buy long, and when you get the Tail, sell short. Your goal once in the trade will be to manage the trade so you can get out even. Every 50 trades, switch the bias of the coin. ie now you will have Heads, sell short, and Tail, buy long.
Focusing on managing the trade entry dictated by the coin will effectively re-wire your mental flowchart to focus on the DOM instead of looking for reasons on what is causing the DOM to change. I find that the best trading decisions are often counter-intuitive, and this is the best exercise I do to "re-wire" my thinking.
This is a great thread and I have to thank Dr. Brett Steenbarger for sharing his research on the various modalities of highly successful traders.