Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
My least favourite pattern, I am going to call Satans heartbeat. This loathsome price sequence is a standard formation around news releases however it is also quite commonly found during quiet periods across all timeframes.
A trader gets shafted in both directions as price nonchalantly returns to indecision.
It's funny really that i feel better/good after drawing that, because it did happen to me several times and got me sick to my stomach badly. I feel drawing that really showing how my ego/mind works and as reminder try not to do it again when that situation happens again...we'll see how that goes lol.
I think it might be more instructive to figure out how to trade these patterns or at least to think about possible narratives that might explain them. "Satan's heartbeat" is often the result of the day trading time frame participant getting long in anticipation of new highs and price trading below their entry price. This causes many of them to exit trades and for others stops to get hit. This participant then tends to leave the market and we get a little bit of a sell off. It takes a bit of time for a new buyer to come in at the lows or for shorts to cover, as it was created by short term participants: market returns to neutral. Yes, I've been hit by it enough times even though I know why it tends to happen and to be aware of the possibility.
Satan's heartbeat may also be caused by a false breakout to the upside as hedge funds buy futures to hedge their short positions triggering technical runs. Because they were short biased, there is no buy in. This has happened a few times in recent markets: professionals try to get short pre-market while hedge funds buy futures and short the tech stocks. This pattern might also happen when small traders temporarily overrun bigger traders. It may also be a sign of increased volatility where larger traders will try to stake bigger positions off market. In general, it is a sign of increased herding behavior and higher volatility markets: greater uncertainty. Of course, these are hypothetical narratives only because we can not prove them: high level trading tends to require going beyond narrative thinking.
Hahaha, thats a funny one. Can relate on that for sure.
Wanted to show another but i guess i'm just going to say it.
1. Go long, stop loss is set
2. Price goes up, move the stop loss up
3. Price stalls, oks let bring the stop loss lower by 2 ticks
4. Price goes down, bring the stop loss to the original level
5. Price goes up, ok lets keep the stop loss where it is
6. Price goes down, i'm ok, i'm protected (a bit nervous)
7. Price about to hit the stop, ok lets lowering the stop loss, it will bounce
8. Price goes up, damn...i'm a genius, lets bring the stop loss up by couple of ticks
9. Price goes down, bring the stop loss even lower than that (very nervous)
10. Got stoped out. Price bounce or not bounce (depending on your imagination).
Thats how bad it was for me. And thats included with averaging in. It's rather amusing how people reacting not to lose money. Well, I rather stop before i show more how an idiot i am
I should add that satans heartbeat is almost always followed by the coffin nail. A zombi like phase with many false breaks. Will cause dementia and severe hallucinations if stared at for long periods. Commonly occurring in the European session