Some days it seems so easy to make money trading that it almost makes you forget the days where you have to really work for it. It probably helps that today saw the Dow Jones put in a record high at 14286! I'm not a very big fan of using a 30 company index as a proxy for market health, but we've really seen some great movement across all markets lately and the Emini S&P 500 was along for the ride. Read more
It's been clear that the market has been quite excitable lately and today was no different. The better than expectations Pending Home Sales report led to some strong upside moves but really the trend was clear to us well before release. This is one of the reasons we don't focus too much on the news (aka fundamentals) while day trading here at Samurai Trading Academy. Read more
No real surprises today as the excitement in the market continues unabated. The political uncertainty in the US, the Berlusconi-fueled Italian election and austerity fears, and Ben Bernanke saying a whole lot of nothing are a perfect storm for market movement and some sharp moves.
We needed to be a bit careful when Bernanke started talking (notice I didn't trade at all around this time) to let the initial chop come out of the market but once that was done the trading was fairly straight-forward stuff. The excitement of it all even allowed for some aggressive entry positions which was great and allowed for excellent profit potential. Read more
Sometimes I feel bad for the traders who just can't keep themselves out of the market, but usually not for long. Patience is an important part of trading and if you can't wait until the market is offering high quality opportunities then you're going to run into trouble quite regularly. Using our zones we knew to back off the market until it started to behave and were able to avoid the area I've labelled The Zone of Trading Death. Money risked in there is extremely likely to disappear without a trace. Read more
I think the title says it all today as the FOMC Meeting Minutes news release treated us extremely well. FOMC days are always special in the markets as we need to be extra careful at times but they can also bring a lot of volatility which is a trader's best friend.
Looking at the two charts below (click to enlarge) you can see a very different market type between earlier in the day and after release and we need to trade each appropriately. I took a conservative approach to my earlier trading by taking some smaller wins and losses and then once volatility came in I adapted and looked for bigger trades. Read more