Monday, February 6, 2012

Liquidity effect



Stampedes are caused by a large number of people running in the same direction. Any lone person standing in their way will certainly be trampled. This is essentially what a trend bar is. A large number of traders advancing in one direction.

When a stampede encounters a stampede in the opposite direction, the crowd usually wont go anywhere. There may be some pulling and pushing but nothing really happens. These are small doji and other trading range bars.

On thinly traded instruments, liquidity is low and even small number of people can stampede without encountering resistance easily (until they tire and rest). This is why the thinner the instrument, the more volatile it is. Liquid instruments however, move very slowly and small days are a necessary component of their overall move.

Price action within these small bars are murky as the chart today shows. There is pushing and pulling from both directions and one of them has to give very soon.

Even on a day like this, the best moves are simply bars with strong closes on deep pullbacks (b53). With the usual exception of 1PB (oio at b17), the best trades are usually with-trend, deep pullbacks on a strong close.

2 comments:

  1. At what point would you say during this day did you decide it range bound and not worth trading?

    Thanks

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  2. I stopped looking for setups after the first two hours. Arguably, b17 was an OK 1PB setup since 1PB often gives poor looking bars, but I missed it.

    ReplyDelete