Well that was certainly a wild start to the week, wasn't it? Over the last few days we've seen the S&P 500 drop about 300 points, bounce up 200, and now as I'm writing this we're finally looking a bit calmer around the 2700 level. I also have been actively trading the Nasdaq 100 (NQ) which is naturally quite volatile so you can imagine how crazy a ride that has been! Read more
I'll be the first to admit that the morning session today was a bit, *ahem*, boring. We're in the midst of summer trading where trading volume is often low and ranges are tight. It also doesn't help that price is sticking near All-Time Highs which usually makes the market far more hesitant and indecisive. Those factors made for a very slow start today as price moved in a 4 point range and there really wasn't a quality trade to be found for my trading strategy.
However, there's two lessons that come out of this kind of scenario. First, there's no need to force a trade. Some ranges are going to have excellent trades with a strong positive expectancy but many simply don't offer anything with good momentum or potential to latch onto.
If there's no trades available that fit your plan then the trader's best action is to simply sit on their hands and wait patiently for the next good setup to arrive. It sounds easier in theory than it is in practice, which is why so many traders who search for consistent profitability end up failing through over-trading time after time. Read more
After a brief hiatus I'm back with another Trading Week in Review for you guys! For the most part I've been keeping up with the daily trading recap videos on our YouTube page but I realize it's been a few weeks since the last full weekly review post here at our STA trading blog. I blame the beautiful summer weather as it's made it hard to find much time to stay home and put these together on the weekends!
Anyway, as we come into the end of July I'm quite happy with the overall results this month. Volume has been quite low, particularly since things calmed post-Brexit, and price has been working its way into fresh all-time highs thanks to good employment numbers at the start of the month. Yet even though volumes are down and we're definitely in the middle of a slower summer trading environment there's still be plenty of opportunity to be had. Read more
I'm a bit late in getting out this Week in Review but I still wanted to post it for those who regularly check the blog but who haven't been keeping up with the YouTube day trading results videos I've been making.
Overall it was a very good week considering I only traded three days of it due to wanting to enjoy some free time on the Canadian holiday. If only all weeks offered this much potential! If that was the case I'd probably start taking a lot more Fridays off just like I do with my regular days off on Mondays.
Then again, probably not. I do really like the always-a-long-weekend approach that regularly taking off Mondays offers me but I still find myself excited to actively trade and I know I'd find myself itching to get back to it with any more time off. The same thing always happens to me after an extended vacation away - I can't wait to get back to the markets!
This week was a bit hit or miss in terms of daily opportunity, but were those hits ever great! Wednesday and Friday both had some excellent swings with phenomenal results so it didn't bother me much that I didn't even try a trade on the Thursday when the Brexit vote was to take place. As it turns out, Monday was also a solid day that would have had some points available had I traded it so we pretty much flip-flopped during the week between great days and slow ones.