But how can it possibly be a self-fulfilling prophecy if it works at any given time scale?
I'm sorry to tell you that I don't have any experience with any trading method. To be honest, day trading is simply speculation for me. The only real strategy making complete sense to me is the Warren Buffett method: Buy and hold forever. ;-)
I did, however, sometimes try to be smarter than the market by doing some day trading but so far I was always worse off afterwards...
I don't know. But there are not so many percentage lines, and when most traders look at 1 or 2 times scales to decide on, then you have a critical mass acting on more or less the same data. But that said; I don't even know if it is self-fulfilling prophesy.
I think you are wrong here. Daytrading can be done with whole set of indicators and realtime data. Realtime data such as open contracts buy/sell + market depth (distribution of open contracts), realtime contracts buy/sell and the speed / volume and number of buy vs sell at each given moment + candle stick charts can tell quite a lot about the coin and what is happening right at the moment you are looking at them. Will you believe me that in the first days of trading where I adopted the method of riding the constant little waves in upwards direction brought me more than 30+% gain (read here and here and here about it). Would you also believe me when last night and this early morning I got our of 3 break out trades with 20-30% each trade and overall (over enter trading budget) gain of nearly 8%? Since this morning I bought into 5-8 other coins on break out strategy; All are not broking out, I still have half of those in profit of at least 10% and still holding for real break out, and the other half is in some minus. But overall again I'm a little more than break even, ie overall a small profit. I did a couple of things that is not right, namely buying the coin before break-out; while one should buy they coin when is it broken out, ie stop limit order instead of buying order. That is the reason why I have some coins on minus. Only next days I'll know if I picked the right coins, I actually hope some of those coins will start moving when Asia wakes up again.
So, in my view daytrading is for sure not speculation. Well not more speculation than buying and holding forever. But nobody can see the future, not even Warren Buffet. So in everything you invest with some future in mind, is somehow speculation.
On break out strategies as so many other trading strategies I'm a complete newbie, so I hope I've done some analyses right for the coins I selected this morning, but only time will tell. Until this morning I was getting advise from someone who makes about 20% a week on break out trading with a fixed 20% gain set per buyin.
Interesting point of view. However, I still think that you have to look at the underlying value of the things you are trading (like stocks, cryptocoins, etc...). Just saying "get in at point X and out again at point Y" seems a bit too vague to me.
Wouldn't all those strategies simply stop working as soon as everyone is playing by their rules?
One point I don't want to argue about however is the fact that some people actually do earn money by doing day trading. I sincerely hope that your analysis enables you to make a lot of profit but I highly doubt that it's worth the time and efforts for the average Joe.
Sure, those who do not go into the details, will likely not make it.
I agree! It seems that cryptospace is kind a like all these promising startups in Silicon Valley with an interesting an idea and a story. In the long run I would like to think only those coins will survive that have some real services, revenues and assets connected. However, from a short term trading perspective, the 'content' of the coin becomes lesser relevant, I think :) Keep in mind, I'm a newbie in trading, and just apply my logical thinking here.
I sincerely hope that you made quite some profits in the last few days. However, considering the most recent "bloodbath" (as some call the decline in value of many cryptocurrencies here), most day traders most probably had to deal with some heavy losses.
In order to trade in a highly volatile market one really must have lots of time to make sure not to get out with a loss.
Thus, I will stick with "buy and hold" for now as I simply don't have time to follow and react to every tiny move of the market.
LOL
So I did, I think I lost 25% in total. I took some profits by wave riding while we were in the downward trend....a well, super crash!
Correct! And I didn't spend enough time behind the screens; Decided to hold when a coin was under the buy value. Maybe not the right choice when coming from the wave riding method, but yes, wave riding means 8-10-24 hours behind the screens looking at what happens with all the coins and decide were to pull out and were to push in. Good thing is: I have a very tiny budget allocated for this whole project I'm going through, which is a test to understand how cryptospace works, what trading methods are ok, and what I like to use, if trading is something for anyway etc etc etc. So in absolute values, the crash didn't hurt me at all. It still hurts that I lost about 25% though even if it is pocket money.
I wish you all the best in the future. Just consider thinking long-term. Just imagine how the world would look like now if you would have bought some Bitcoins back in 2009 and would just have kept hodling them. ;-)
Correct, understood. Those what ifs are never the guarantees for the future though :) But I do hear you loud and clear! :) Thanks and you too! :)