The climate indeed is one of the most difficult periods many traders can remember or have experienced. It’s the rampant up and down volatility and the speed at which percentage point moves occur. It’s very challenging. I have not stopped trading through it, but I have cut down my position sizing to very small levels, and am doing more strategy testing and scalping for quick profits than swing trading in this environment. I’ve tried swing trading about six positions throughout the last three weeks and all have been stopped out due to the speed of the market and the tightness to my entry where I place my stop (still working on optimal strategies).

Sometimes we just need to step back a bit and get a larger picture which often isn’t possible ‘down in the daytrading trenches’ so to speak. So much of this ‘trading game’ is mental preparation and maintaining motivation through the inevitable difficult periods. It’s best to sit it out, or trade very, very lightly if your ‘mental game’ is totally off, either by market forces (unseen conditions) or personal forces (sleep deprived, sick, just ‘not feeling it’, etc).

I’m glad you are doing well in this environment. As difficult as it is, it’s not likely to be this difficult for long… I hope. If you can succeed – or even at least stay above water – in these times, you are likely to do well in any environment!

All the best,

Corey

You’re best advise it NOT to trade if one is not comfortable. I sat out last Thursday after being in the green on Mon-Wed and went back in of Friday with a clear head.
Best week ever in trading. Decided to sit out today and watch. Very little to be
earned in the current risk/reward senario.

Auggie

Today’s action didn’t surprise me, but it was the magnitude of the action that did. Yesterday brought the indexes to what I consider ’super resistance’ and I figured we may trickle down from there or even move suddenly, but we had a shock gap of over 1%! As of this writing during lunch, we’re down 1.5%.

I’m trading smaller in my discretionary account right now and keeping my larger trades as scalps or quick day trades only. I’ve learned the last hour has been where the money is over the last two weeks so I’ve switched to that a bit – I used to trade the first three hours exclusively. I’ve also pared down my swing positions mercilessly.

If you don’t feel comfortable, don’t trade. There’s no sense in trading just to do it. Don’t bleed edge. Sitting out conditions that you’re not used to is far better than watching your account dwindle – in this environment, that can happen quickly.

Be safe!

It looks like we get the turn in the markets today you were warning about yesterday. Good call!

As for myself, I stopped trading about two weeks ago as the direction of the market is not clear to me at the moment. We may see some more decline before we resume the bull market. I mean we haven’t had a 10% retracement in five years – it’s like so overdue. Not a guarantee it will happen, though.

Joe