Stock Market Psychology & Trading Levels

well they asked…. and yes we are in a bear market i.e. sell the rallies and buy the dips.

I hated to sound like a downer but hey, Roubini I am not (although so far…. )

MONEY MATTERS on ABC NEWS NOW

Having said that, 900 in the S&P futures held like a rock.

Talking about that on TV was probably a bit too much but to me trading is all about finding the levels that the crowd sees as the proverbial “support” or “resistance” . Then, watch what happens there. How much time do we trade around these levels? Where are people putting their short-term stops above and below? (In other words it is a range around the levels and depending on recent volatility, that range can be wide.)

In fact speaking of stops, part of the reason these levels work is in fact the stop placements entered around key levels. It becomes self-reinforcing (particularly when the time element is added in). High volume nodes on a Market Profile (forgive me CME but I have no way to put an R sign in with this wordpress) work the same way – the volume shows that many traders are involved at that price and very well may defend it – or bail if it goes through.

At Schonfeld I learned that support is meant to be broken so I am always kind of looking for signals that it will be – the trend of the TICK and “Breadth” … both of these cash market indicators can give you a clear heads-up.

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This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Tatiana

    Very useful post. where can i find more articles on this subject ?

  2. Tatiana

    Very useful post. where can i find more articles on this subject ?

  3. DKS

    Tom Alexander of Alexander Trading – an expert in Auction Market Theory can provide part of it. It is also really 15 years of accumulated tape reading experience so to some degree it requires staring at the screen and learning to judge the rhythms.

  4. DKS

    Tom Alexander of Alexander Trading – an expert in Auction Market Theory can provide part of it. It is also really 15 years of accumulated tape reading experience so to some degree it requires staring at the screen and learning to judge the rhythms.

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