shokunin 

"Doing the opposite" is a difficult concept in trading, because often it is about timing and leverage rather than direction. There is no opposite of 2PM - just a different time. There is no opposite of 50% position size - just a different size.

This is a good point. In this context, however, the OP (RIP) said that the market was moving directionally opposite his position, so maybe in his case it would have been more straightforward to do the opposite.

Spottrader 

Seems like most every time the price action Log jams up against my position and eventually breaks the opposite way aggressively no matter the market conditions or contract.

What I can personally confirm from my own experience is SOMETIMES when you submit a market order - even 1 contract - on a thin instrument like NQ, it MAY trigger algos to rip the opposite direction.

josh 

This is a good point. In this context, however, the OP (RIP) said that the market was moving directionally opposite his position, so maybe in his case it would have been more straightforward to do the opposite.

News, high volatility moments. This is what stop losses are for.

josh 

Yes, you are just off. End of story. I read your other posts here, and you are truly so far off of what is important in order to have some measure of success, that it can't be overstated. Even the way you wrote the above shows that you don't really understand things well, at least not well enough to communicate it. For example, what does "every time the price action Log jams up against my position" actually mean? Think about what you're trying to convey, think about how someone reading it would interpret it, and try to express it again, if you want readers to understand. If you're trying to say "every time I get in, the market goes against me," then, welcome to trading. There is no "minor league" here. You are a very green, uninformed, small fish, in a huge ocean of whales. Try trading on a simulator, where you are truly invisible to the market, and you will observe the same thing. The market is a just a big game. The uninformed, weakest players will tend to exhibit the same behaviors, for the same reasons. For example, a market goes up, up, up, straight up. They have all been taught to look for pullbacks and most find it nearly impossible to buy into a market like this. So, when the market starts pulling back, they all start buying. Because they all start buying, these predictably weak hands put their stops in predictable places, and the sophisticated players know this, so they don't lump themselves in with them, but rather, sell into their liquidity and ride it down. See S&P yesterday from 10:48am to 11:11am. Called it at the time. Why? Because I'm not a green rookie any longer, and I myself have been suckered in and lost money countless times over many many years doing just that. I then learned to not do it, and because of my mistakes, I'm now better than I was. It can't work any other way. Pain is necessary for growth, especially in this game. Accept that or just walk away. I wish there was a minor league, but there's not, only the majors. Market volume is 80% algorithmic in origin, absolutely true, but you don't even know what "the algos" do. You have so little foundation that to even think about it right now is holding you back. You can focus on meaningless stuff like this, or you can focus on one thing: how to win the game. Where do you have some edge in the market? How can you view things in order to shift probabilities in your favor? Who is on the other side of your trade? Who is positioned poorly? In a way, you actually have an edge: what you're doing isn't working, so what would happen if you did the opposite of what you're doing? That in itself is an edge. I hang out in a         room, and actually pay attention to what the bad traders are saying, and they're always vocal. If they're pissed and looking for a reversal, chances are it'll keep going. They have a loser's mentality, and it affects how they view the market. You do too right now. I'm not calling *you* a loser, I'm saying that your mentality is not a winning one. It doesn't matter how long you've been watching markets or trading. It doesn't matter how much you think you know, or how much you really know. When you're focused on what you're focused on, you won't win. It's your choice about whether to change that or not. About 90% simply find all the internal changes too painful to deal with.

Hey Josh, just wondering if you can dm me what         room you’re in so I can broaden my horizons a bit

How the algos work, especially when the price reverses, is that they entice people into long positions, hoover up their shorts, and then stop them out.

You are giving the algos their liquidity for a move against you but if you get out quickly, someone else gets smashed instead of you, remember if you are going long, someone else is going short, and when the price ultimately runs short - thats where the big money is, they can afford to be offside if they collect up liquidity to make their move.

They all do exactly the same thing, the difference is how much liquidity is available when needed if not much, you will see longer moves ahead of the real move, watch the london open fakes they are generally pretty tight, thats because they can entice a lot of traders to sell/buy to them before moving off in the other direction, but in Asia, it will take a bit more time to scoop up what they need.


If you wanted to buy 100,000,000 microsoft shares at the NZ open, you are going to struggle to get people to sell you that volume, so you will move the price around until you have what you want and then bosh, do that at the NY open and its all over much quicker.

Things haven't changed much from when all this happened in the pit, its just now it happens in massive size and very very quickly.

You are trading against machines almost exclusively these days. Very few dealers actually manage orders themselves these days. The good thing, however, is that they are quite predictable. The bad thing is they are very efficient and very fast - if you look for patterns, you will work how what they are doing though

Think about how you are taught to trade in most online material they are using that against you.


They know what you will do, because its in every book and online tutorial, imagine being a pit trader, and knowing every one else in the pit had read the same book, pin bars, h&s, pivot levels, blah blah blah, you would clean up right?