Technical Trading Videos

Monday, March 16, 2009

Flat Market - how do you trade it ?

The US markets wre flat on Friday closing with minor gains. As I write this, the SGX Nifty in Singapore is up 1 point, suggesting a flat open in India.
On some days, the market is ready for a trend. Pre market indications of trend can come in many ways:
The previous day was an NR7 (narrowest range in 7 days) - market ready for a breakout
US and Asian markets are showing a strong trend in the same direcion
A piece of news, not known earlier is likely to influence the Indian market,
and, so on.

On some days, there is an indication that the market may remain in a range. Today, Monday March 16 could be such a day. How do you trade such markets ?
Range days should be traded with the concept of support and resistance. You buy near support, hoping that a bounce will see the price move towards resistance where you sell it, or even go short.
Pivot Levels, S1, S2, R1 and R2 are useful to identify support and resistance.
Bollinger Bands on five minute charts can also be used to identify S/R. When prices touch the upper band, we are at resistance, when they touch the lower band, we are at support.
The important point in range trading is to focus on an area which represents the market consensus (for that day). This could be the previous day's close, or today's open, or the opening range of the first 15 minutes. When prices move significantly away from this consensus, a trading opportunity emerges.
what can go wrong ? Well, the market may decide to trend. If your trade is on the verge of being stopped out, this means there is no reversion to the mean. Revise your strategy.
Cheers.

3 comments:

pawan said...

Happy to see ur blog in the morning. Thanks.

gurvi said...

Hi Sudarshan,
I'm a ardent supporter of yours.

Can you please tell me which software you use for trade analysis and which platform for trade?

Many thanks!!!
Gurvinder

sanket said...

saw you on cnbc today you said the current market will give signal if the rally is fading out what are these signal that one should look out for ??

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