It doesn’t matter if you are Warren Buffett holding positions for decades or Ken Griffith holding them for milliseconds - there are only two ways to trade. 

In trading you can either go with the price action - or in traders parlance trade “flow” or go against the price action or “fade” the move.  

If you are going to day trade against trend need to know three things - what to trade, when to trade and how much profit to go for. 

Here is a set up I  trade every day in stock index futures. During the European open (around 4 am) stock futures usually make a session high or session low that is fadable for at least 20 points. And even if the trade doesn’t work the first time it usually resolves in profit on the second or the third attempt.

But trend! Trend is something different altogether. Trend or “flow” trading has a very specific tell that can give very accurate reads on the market.

Here is my proprietary bounce indicator in Flow mode. Notice anything? Flow trades which are bright green tiles on the chart tend to bunch together. Once a flow trade takes shape it tends to be followed by another.

So what does that mean to us as retail traders. Simple. We only take a flow trade if the prior trade hit the take profit. If the prior trade was a loss we STOP TRADING until flow turn profitable again. Using this stop and go method we avoid the dreaded “churn” and increase our chance of winning trades tremendously.

So here is the surprising takeaway for day trading. To trade counter trend you need to keep trying until you find the turn in the price action. But to trade trend you need stop and go stop and go until you sync yourself up with the trend move in the market.

That’s pretty much the opposite of what most traders do - but now you know!

 


Past performance is not indicative of future results. Trading forex carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to trade any such leveraged products you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with trading on margin, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.

Editors’ Picks

EUR/USD treads water just above 1.0400 post-US data

EUR/USD treads water just above 1.0400 post-US data

Another sign of the good health of the US economy came in response to firm flash US Manufacturing and Services PMIs, which in turn reinforced further the already strong performance of the US Dollar, relegating EUR/USD to the 1.0400 neighbourhood on Friday.

EUR/USD News
GBP/USD remains depressed near 1.2520 on stronger Dollar

GBP/USD remains depressed near 1.2520 on stronger Dollar

Poor results from the UK docket kept the British pound on the back foot on Thursday, hovering around the low-1.2500s in a context of generalized weakness in the risk-linked galaxy vs. another outstanding day in the Greenback.

GBP/USD News
Japanese Yen drops to fresh daily low; USD/JPY approaches 155.00 ahead of US PMIs

Japanese Yen drops to fresh daily low; USD/JPY approaches 155.00 ahead of US PMIs

The Japanese Yen struggles to capitalize on stronger domestic inflation-inspired intraday uptick. The BoJ rate-hike uncertainty, the upbeat market mood and elevated US bond yields cap the JPY. The USD climbs to a fresh year-to-date high and offers additional support to the USD/JPY pair. 

USD/JPY News

Editors’ Picks

EUR/USD treads water just above 1.0400 post-US data

EUR/USD treads water just above 1.0400 post-US data

Another sign of the good health of the US economy came in response to firm flash US Manufacturing and Services PMIs, which in turn reinforced further the already strong performance of the US Dollar, relegating EUR/USD to the 1.0400 neighbourhood on Friday.

EUR/USD News
GBP/USD remains depressed near 1.2520 on stronger Dollar

GBP/USD remains depressed near 1.2520 on stronger Dollar

Poor results from the UK docket kept the British pound on the back foot on Thursday, hovering around the low-1.2500s in a context of generalized weakness in the risk-linked galaxy vs. another outstanding day in the Greenback.

GBP/USD News
Gold keeps the bid bias unchanged near $2,700

Gold keeps the bid bias unchanged near $2,700

Persistent safe haven demand continues to prop up the march north in Gold prices so far on Friday, hitting new two-week tops past the key $2,700 mark per troy ounce despite extra strength in the Greenback and mixed US yields.

Gold News
Geopolitics back on the radar

Geopolitics back on the radar

Rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine caused renewed unease in the markets this week. Putin signed an amendment to Russian nuclear doctrine, which allows Russia to use nuclear weapons for retaliating against strikes carried out with conventional weapons.

Read more
Eurozone PMI sounds the alarm about growth once more

Eurozone PMI sounds the alarm about growth once more

The composite PMI dropped from 50 to 48.1, once more stressing growth concerns for the eurozone. Hard data has actually come in better than expected recently – so ahead of the December meeting, the ECB has to figure out whether this is the PMI crying wolf or whether it should take this signal seriously. We think it’s the latter.

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