"Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth" - Mike Tyson

December 21, 2015

What's working?

There is endless talk about how tough trading this market has been.  As a technical swing trader, I couldn't disagree more.  The opportunity has been immense in commodities, the indices and even individual stocks.  Alas, there are a ton of trading styles and it's worth keeping an eye on what's working and what's not.  

This is a tough market for:

Investors  the pockets of strength have deteriorated throughout the year.

Breakout traders  ideas are much harder to come by this year and the odds are much worse than last year.  That said, the breakouts that are sticking are winning BIG.  

Optimists  Most structural positives including top growth trends like healthcare and mobile computing had been priced very optimistically coming into 2015.  Again, windows of opportunity have shrunk.

It's always a tough market for:

Trend faders  If you've faded the downtrend in commodities, odds are great that you lost a lot of money in 2015.  

This is a good market for:

Hit and run day (futures) and swing traders.  Buy support, sell resistance, rinse and repeat.

Trend traders  Conversely to the trend faders, those riding the downtrends in commodities have made a windfall of profits.  


Odds are strong that 'what works' changes substantially at some point in 2016.  Keep an eye out.


Trade 'em well

No comments:

Reminder:

All ideas shown on this blog represent the authors opinion based on the data available.