Most traders I've watched and traded with lose because they have no grasp on risk management. They buy against algorithms in high volume stocks using insane stops like $0.50 below their entry. No technical analysis is going to help you win in that scenario. Play in play stocks (no high volume stocks like AAPL and SPY are not in play) that other traders are also trading large sizes at discretionally. Find a swing low with size on the bid. Buy above it and set your stop a few cents blow for slippage. Once you see the bids beginning to get filled , get out. If you aren't quick enough, at least you will have the stop in place. With this, you should virtually be risking less than $0.05 per share on a trade than $0.50. My best setups are in Circuit Broker stocks with 100+ bids at a .00 or .50 level on a swing low. My losses are always less than $0.10 share and my winners range from $0.20-$2.00/share. Use your market sorter and find stocks. I've never met one trader who's lasted the years trading an index ETF or an AAPL/TSLA stock based on technical analysis. Find the stocks big traders are buying in on, which is likely never the high volume AAPL, SPY, FB, etc. stocks. You are just competing then with algorithms that analyze and execute a million times faster than you.
On 10/31, I know for a fact real traders were in the following stocks.
GPRO - solid earnings
LNKD - solid earnings
SBUX - disappointing earnings but analysts were defending
GLD - Technical breakdown, could of popped any minute
SRPT - FDA
EXPE - good earnings
The only reason I could possibly think of a real people trading AAPL or FB or SPY was because of the pullback in the market.
High volume =! real traders.
