Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Quick Update

I'll try to get more charts out before the close.

In my view the base that was created "looks" strong, but in such a weak market it's not performing anything like what a base like this 5 months ago would perform like. I can sum up intraday "Flat" price action with one word, "VWAP", and it looks very clear that this is exactly what's going on.

VWAP is an institutional standard by which market makers, specialists and those playing the role in HFT land are graded by, you fill a sell order (or short) at or above VWAP and you did good and get extra business, you don't, that's likely all the business you hget.

Market makers and Specialists are in a unique spot to influence intraday price by working the bid/ask stack as any orders that come in at market and don't have a match, get what the middle men post as their bid/ask and in this way and through small intraday support (or distribution), they can hold prices steady which is why we often see the heaviest intraday 3C action during flat periods that "seem" to be boring.

If you've been here for more than a month than you know I always compare these flat areas of price (like today intraday) to  "The kids in the room next door being just a little too quiet, YOU KNOW THEY ARE UP TO SOMETHING!".

I'LL GET SOME CHARTS OUT SHOWING YOU WHAT'S GOING ON, IT LOOKS LIKE SECOND VERSE SAME AS THE FIRST, DISTRIBUTION OF ANY STRENGTH.

This doesn't mean I want to enter any particular trade right now as there's a bunch of mud between intraday "steering" divergences (working the bid/ask and tweaking supply/demand) and larger underlying price action which would surprise you considering how flat the market "seems".

Again, I don't enter trades based on what I think will happen, I don't enter them based on the probabilities, I ENTER THEM BASED ON HIGH PROBABILITY/LOW RISK SET-UPS.

In that sense, patience is probably still the best take for the moment, however I will say there are quite a few signs/signals that this is a market unravelling fast,  this is why I refuse to let go of position/core shorts even when I know there's going to be a bounce, I keep my core positions in line with the resolution of highest probabilities and in the end, they'll be fine. Until then, I'd still urge patience and waiting for the right trade set up , the one you can't ignore, not just something to keep you busy or because you are afraid you might miss a move. MISS a MOVE! I guarantee it won't cost you anything other than opportunity.  It won't kill you, but getting run over on a trade because of bad timing, even when you were right, is something that take s a lot to recover from.

If you lose 50% on a position, it takes a 100% gain just to get back to break even. PATIENCE.



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