Today is Wednesday December 23rd and we sure are in Holiday trading mode with light volume.
The institutional traders are not in this market, very low participation because of the Christmas Holiday. The price action is reflective of that as well, with very little opportunity to put anything together.
If you are trying to trade this market, I would advise caution. It can tear you up, because it is not reacting and moving as other typical days. Today there was really only two directional changes all day, down and up and they took hours to complete.
Price action like that can eat at you if you are not prepared or aware of the changes. That is why many traders just don’t trade this week and even next week as well. The whole mood and energy is different during this time.
If you can wait, it would be to your benefit. What I recommend is getting ready for January. You don’t have to make New Year trading resolutions, because most people don’t keep them and if they do, it is only for a very short time.
If you have a deep passion to make changes and determine in your mind that you will create a routine and stick to it, you may have a chance to effect lasting change, but it all depends how bad you want it. If you set goals for yourself, and I think everyone should, now is the time to preparing your mind to follow through with those goals.
It is not going to happen by itself, but only if you plan for it, with a focused determination to succeed at accomplishing it. You must have a plan and it must be in writing. If not, you are not that serious about meeting those goals.
If those goals are trading related you need to start working out now by exercising your mind and preparing yourself to hit it running. Often, people wait until January and find that they need to do so much to get up to speed that they lose weeks just trying to get themselves together. Much of this is in your mind, so you can start right now.
Don’t get over consumed as this is an important Holiday to reflect on the past year, meet with family, friends and for some reflect on their spiritual well-being. Doing so, only helps put everything I just mentioned above in its proper perspective and makes that job a lot easier to carve out.
I personally have not traded but one day, I think that was Monday, this week and very little last week. I am not in a hurry. I really don’t like the slow volume. I don’t like to trade unless there is some volume to market. I can get tripped up waiting to long and it is not worth it. Mondays session was really still pretty good, but the last two days were terrible. If anyone did trade the these days and struggled, the price action had something to do with it. We are all still responsible for our own trades and are not under any obligation to trade.
If you feel compelled to follow the market tomorrow and next week, just keep in your mind that you will only take a trade by exception. If it jumps out at you with a strong buy or sell, other wise, just let it go. This is and can be one of those important exercises. Following the market but not taking any trades. It can be hard to do for a lot of people. You must maintain control at all times of your trading account. No compulsive behavior. If you find yourself doing that and you don’t seem to be able to get a handle on it, you may be a candidate for a trading buddy.
A trading buddy can be anyone you know with a similar interest. You back each other up while you try to capture your trading goals. You support each other if you get off chores and so on. It can help if you know of someone with similar interests. This may help you stay accountable to yourself by watching and helping each other. You can do this remotely by tieing your computers together so you can communicate.
If anyone is interested I can help you with the software you will need and tell you how to do it all for free. I won’t charge anyone for the information and time and the way you can do it does not cost anything from the vendors. You can consider it a Christmas present from me. I won’t try to sell you anything either. Just good old-fashioned neighborly help. email me at www.sniperdaytrading.com if you want more information.
The S&P is outperforming right now, the Dow is lagging. The 120 minute cash chart is point up, the daily is just about to go up if we have one more positive day. The futures are right back at the top and do mean the top of the range. The moment of truth is about to be unfolded very soon. Be careful. I think everyone knows what I am looking for, but I can not be taken off guard by a break out to the upside.
Tomorrow’s blog post will include what the sentiment numbers are that I have talked about, until then, Enjoy!
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