This market is untradeable, have to quit here

You gotta zoom out and wait the instrument you’re trading to break the channel

It does, just in a choppy way MNQ has been directionally choppy this entire time other than those 2 random pump days last week

You get it wrong. 2 random pumps were rare(10 times a year) supertrends. Now it is just usual market.

It's summer, very low volume, lots of chop, sometimes it's better to avoid low volume chop.

When does it get better

I primarily trade NQ look at the daily chart it’s back in the same 1,000 pt sideways range from early last month. Not sure what your strategy is but I trade continuation and times like these you gotta chill or try to find something that works in these conditions

continuation fairs. what typa one do you use to validate your entry. is it the one where you see if price breaks prev low/high

it's summer man, chop is pretty much normal, go relax, do other things, and come back when market clears up. Makes no sense to blame the natural cycle of markets

this, just gotta wait for setups to turn up Flat is a position wots wrong with Gold breakout tho?? ....been raging long for a day or two

You are joking right? I don' t trade NQ but just looked. There are entries and exits all over the place.

Are you seriously pulling the hindsight “look at all these entries“ card?

Not at all. These last few days, weeks, months have been no different than the last few years or 20 years ago. Up, down, sideways, and repeat. The problem here isn't the market.

Hard disagree… I’m making money, but I’m taking way more stops than I ever have. The market is rechecking levels 2X 3X more than normal.

So you just proved my point. If you are being honest in saying you are profitable, then the market is tradeable. And maybe your stops are to tight for these conditions. Or maybe your stops are to far away for these conditions. Maybe the time frame you are using is making it difficult for these conditions. Maybe your position size needs to be adjusted. These are all questions each trader needs to ask themselves. But saying is untradeable is ridiculous. The only time the market is untradable is when it's closed. Everyday the market is different yet the same. Up, down, sideways.

Well, you’re being a bit literal… I think people mean it’s untradable using their normal risk management on their normal time frames. Yes I’ve been making money, but it’s just because I’m re-entering after getting stopped out more often than I normally would. If I were to stick to my rules that have worked just fine for the past few years it would be untradable for me… I expect levels to get rechecked when the higher timeframe participant is active, but it’s just been ridiculous lately.

Ok. I dont seem to have that problem lately. However I have no expectations on where the market is going to go as far as break outs or retest. I let it do what its going to do and trade the direction its going now. No one can predict where it's going or how far. Also Im not using anyone else's strategy but my own. It makes sense to me and its been working for many years no matter the conditions.

I agree. I trade the opening range 15m and this morning alone it retested orb like 5-6 times before it finally gave you 30pts.

CPI is tomorrow bud they won’t do anything till then

False, watch for a EOD frontrun for the opening range they want to setup overnight for tmo

STOP TRADING NASDAQ! Yelling because apparently people think it’s the only game in town. Trade slower and thicker markets.

I know. I don’t get why traders have such a hard on for NQ. Quickest way to blow account.

Which do you recommend

NQ is ass, love me some ES

Which do you recommend

When I see a balance area followed by a break out that sets up a new balance area basically overlapping the previous balance area with volume in between the 2 on volume profile. I know the market is just setting up a new balance area on the bigger time frames. I just sit it out until it's done taking everybody's profits from last week's rally lol

Yeah bro mnq fucked me as well the last days.. I got completely outa control once again.. i think the same like u right now… it’s not possible long term.. my stress level is high .. i done with that shit if my accounts blow again.. 50% drawdown available \~1000$ per account so it won’t be long .. peace ✌🏽

You must be taking bad trades then. Don’t blame it on the market. It’s a You problem.

The 99.9% statistic is very valid. I guarantee you no one here is profitable

It is true

I guarantee you no one here is profitable

Bullshit. Because I'm profitable numb nut, and I prove it every day as every trade I take is posted live. You not being able to pull it off doesn't mean no one can pull it off. Trading is the oldest profession on earth, you're just losing your damn mind because a historical chart got added to the mix. But if we go to Costco right now, and I tell you "sell these gold bars for a profit" you'd know exactly what to do. You'd ask the price, see if it's trending up or down, then if it's trending up you buy and resell it later. You've traded your entire damn life, when you get gas you're trading USD for gas, and nothing stops you from holding that gas in your car for a month and then selling it to your neighbor for a profit when price goes up. It ain't rocket science, you just got to not lose your damn mind because a historical chart got added. If you want to resell gas, you'd note that the low might be $2 and the high might be $4. So just buy at $2 and sell at $4. WTF, it ain't that hard. But nah, all y'all want to predict the price for the next couple hours and you wonder why your ass gets handed to you. Chop this, chop that. All I hear is excuses. Rather than figuring out how to do the job, gotta blame something else. And it's no where near 99.9%. Grab a VPN, choose an EU country, and go on broker sites. You'll get a red bar on top that explains it's about 74% lose money (it's usually between 71 and 77%).

What prop firms have you consistently got paid out? Everyone seems to have something bad to say about each firm and it makes it difficult to see which firms are genuine

Open to some light Mentoring? 😬😂. Determined to improve my consistency and all the mentors I find end up being larpers. I’ve made some payouts but real inconsistent. Have started messing with writing algo’s and automated trading.

Why are traders that claim they understand the market so weird and aloof? What is wrong with you guys?

Especially the ones that are just do this or just do that or it’s not that bad or this is normal. This is not normal. This is about as bad as I’ve seen as far as tradable Price action. I understand why being at all-time highs, the war, summer, low volume, all that shit, but we’ve had similar scenarios before and this is just next level crap PA.

Im also struggling around breakeven this month I can’t seem to push the equity curve up but you are coping man. This shit is hard and that’s it but that doesn’t mean that people are all unprofitable. It’s a field where you are literally making money in few minutes so ofc it would be hard otherwise the whole world would do it

Yeah this feels like a new market behavior. Extreme chops have been happening more recently.

Range traders eating good?

Until you get war is over candle

Which seems to happen multiple times a week somehow lately 🤣

I guess it depends how long you've been trading.

The market has and always will be garbage to trade, they want you to learn to trade garbage. Although people can do it, its rare and usually falsified by furus and propped up patsy's who are tied in with the institutions to sell you hope.

What instrument are you trading? Whats your edge? It’s been a tricky month or two for sure with a lot off edges not working well at all. NQ has been in a wedge for 3 weeks. It’s hard.

I’m right there with you. Don’t quit.. just take some time off. There is so much economical pressure right now, Trump doesn’t help an ounce. I just got to the point where I’m really figuring the market out, just for it to act like this. I guess it’s just part of the game.

Stop trading indices. Why are people obsessed with MNQ/MES/NQ/ES? Trade some Natural Gas. Or Silver. Or Copper. Or Bonds- 5Y or 10Y.

I completely agree with this statement. These instruments require a bit more homework to understand, but they trade in a more orderly fashion. Leave the indices to the gamblers. Trade with traders instead.

Exactly. Plus once you have the fundamentals down (and that’s not say be a fundamental trader) - it gives context to how price is acting and makes your trades much more contextually driven.

interesting. why do you say natural gases

Because all the YouTubers say to trade NQ/ES. Lol I agree. I have moved away from indexes, and the trends are cleaner.

Stocks?

Yes. I trade stocks now and don't get "wicked" out like index futures. If I do trade futures now, it's anything but indexes

ES is trading at a little more than half its normal volume. Low conviction tape. Trade the edges or stand aside. We have a catalyst (CPI)later in the week…that could bring some volatility.

It's christmas week!


If ur winrate is sub 20% just do the opposite of what ur doing. Although its not as simple as that if you use leverage or stop losses

Depends on how long you hold the asset. Do you know if most people here are day traders ?

Market is trash. I blame retail lol

It’s tempting to blame the market but I can attribute my losses to a pattern I missed that perhaps I had seen enough times before. Most of the time it is me, not the market.

Haven't had a losing day since 11th July. Have made atleast $150.00 every trading day with 5 days above $700.00. Trading MNQ.

Market has been full from last 2-3 days

Better off building a better mousetrap with an edge that has a higher probability in this low volume, market regime.

Trump babyyyyy! I remember at the beginning of the year traders were talking about this gonna be the best year for traders the market is going to be so volatile trump is going to make us rich... 

In all fairness we just set new all time highs last week in the ES after breaking out of a 3mo range. The market usually acts like this after a large multiple month range break and rally. I think it's just part of the game because many traders made good money last week and a lot of same inexperienced or more reckless traders in the group expect it to keep making big swings and keep trading dispite the lack of follow throughs or getting stopped out in the process. I admit my strategy doesn't work for this post rally price action so I stick to 2 classic sayings "It's not how much you make, it's how much you don't lose" and "Sometimes not trading is trading too" so I sit out a week or 2 until the market movers get back from their post rally vacation. It's fine, the markets are just doing what they do🤷

I hear you but the market is doing what it do from the sentiment in the economy. The fundamentals are what's driving the technicals. No confidence in the market, no confidence in the charts. I've been telling these Trump supporters he's no good for business and he's messing up or money. He has to go!

We're constantly making ATHs this whole year... wtf are you talking about?

It’s funny hey, I been green the last few months no red and here these people crying about poor price action, there just excuses for there gambling behaviour. These markets don’t suit there gambling strategy lol

Pretty much but I've seen a post complaining about the same chop here what seems like daily since I found this sub a few weeks ago lol I admit my strategy doesn't really work well in this post rally range we've been in since last week in ES. Mainly because I'm more of a swing trader and there's not a wide enough range yet after the rally for me to bother with. Just like in trucking, Hurry up and wait lol

NQ/MNQ ATR has been 650-750 for 3-4 months. How in the hell is that not volatile?

Hey I know it seems hard but it’s not impossible. I’m a full time day trader and I just started a free discord for those who are serious about being day traders. I just want to help people who want to be helped. **It is not a signal service**. If you mee serious about it, DM me and I’ll give you the link. Very small, focused group right now just one or two other people in it.

Today is tough. Slow and no follow through. CPI is tomorrow so not too surprised.

It’s the summer slump couples with u stable geopolitics. Wait till mid september and the markets will be somewhat back to normal

Probably worth stepping away for a few days instead of trying to win it back

Knowing when to trade and when not to trade is a skill in itself

bad volumes and poor depth nothin to really do hold your money for now

It’s perfectly tradable lol, I would as far as saying: it’s gotten way easier over the years in fact, altho late feb was the only truly uncorrelated month or segment of month this year where I turned my eyes and my algos all off. Just lacking all intelligence.

It's funny how we all do the same thing, I officially started my break this Monday, couldn't handle the choppiness. Going to stay away for about 2 weeks then reasses

Garbage market

Normal market. Learn to trade. Not gamble

Lol what He might be a momentum trader (probably a lot of us are) and yet you assume he is a gambler?! "Learn to trade" yeah, exactly, he knows it is garbage for his type of setups so he calls it garbage

Yeah because paying the president of the United States for insider information is normal.

Take the month off

please journal. A lot of traders who fail are just George Costanza from Seinfeld. \* haha very funny \*, but really, theres an episode he just does the complete opposite of what he'd normally say or do and gets a smoke show girlfriend, a job at the Yankees, and moves out of his parents house. Anyone who consistently and strongly fails can journal and actually find edge there. Its not easy to just start doing, but study the charts lead up that lead those consistent losers. With time youll just start seeing charts better, youll notice the 'thats BAIT' constantly and either reverse it or wait for the next dip to buy etc etc 

Good comment ! One thing im curious about is even when you journal and let’s say i spotted something this week regarding how I enter i feel hesitant to change it bc my edge is based on almost 2k trades over 5 years and so changing something based on a month price action doesn’t feel logical to me. What do you think

its just noise then. if its working its working, just if you journal make sure prior context lines up. If you signal is failing is it just statistical variance or is prior price action not ideal

Got you ! A part of me want to deviate badly but as you said it’s statistical variance especially that the strategy held from 2021 to 2025 which have different market conditions and I guess choppy months feel worse in live compared to backtesting bc of recency bias

I'm the opposite. In chop I usually get in anywhere, leave emotion out of the drawdown, and then just exit when I turn green with a couple points. Don't chase price, look at the resting orders, be patient, and go for base hits.

It’s not just you. I’ve noticed a huge shift this year in futures markets. NY is the new Asia. London is the new NY. Asia is… Asia. If NY session decides to move, it’s such a small window. It’s really grindy now, going to take out both sides whether it decides to move up or down. No more power hours, no end of day moves anymore, just flat. Most of the time it feels like it’s just the algo running. Those clean technical setups are so far and in between now.

This. Glad I am not the only one seeing this. Trump tweets at random hours rip the order book in milliseconds too. Sometimes in my favor, sometimes against my position

Took a week off and came back and already back to back red days there seems to be one clean move a day and if you miss that your shit out of luck. This price action is soul crushing and unrewarding

Don't say that, Don't do that, if it were impossible, why are others getting paid out every single day. There simply is a method to the madness, like everything in this life, there is a process , an approach , a way a system that works . If you miss it , its not impossible to make it , just more work , more struggle. The issue we are having in the space today is that nobody is telling the truth, the few who get it are gate keeping the information and just throwing shiny objects in the faces of most, which seems to be working so far. I say don't get frustrated, trading is easy, it's the discipline of execution that makes it difficult because you are "fighting yourself" at the end of it all. One thing you will have to remember is that, most often, the closer we are to a solution in life, we tend to feel the strong urge of giving up, - never never QUIT.

Some days are chop and it has been like that for years. Some days are banging. Just gotta learn when to trade and when not to trade. Gold is pretty good to trade rn

They are waiting for CPI, don’t trade an undecided market. Move to another instrument.

VIX is low= Chop.

Should’ve just placed summer calls on the Vix w a 2 month exp

Just buy oil stocks and chill the next 5 years

Yeah setups have reduced massively this past 2 weeks. Dunno why but it’s tough just sitting doing nothing

Hand in there comrade!!!!

There’s so many stuff. Crude rallied, Russ made a move, metals. ES reached AH, but yeah PA tricky sometimes. Other markets HG NG currencies. I don’t look there, because there are various setups in those “standard” markets. You’re trading breakouts only? Volatility? Perhaps it’s more tricky but it makes sense that you don’t get LOTS of those per market each year…

You're correct. Go live a happy life. The market BS is not worth it right now if you're becoming depressed or angry. No one can tell to how you should feel about it. It's been horrendous.

don't diddle in the middle pick off volatililty extremes for reversal trades. Do not chase ever do not Sell below VWAP do not buy above VWAP.. It only seems impossible because yoru using the wrong strategy which is chasing and waiting for too much confirmation when you should just assume nothing is going to follow through or hold to begin with and go in much earlier for reversal trades.

Most trader wating for wed data called CPi

Ive been getting cooked since Friday on YM. P/A has no clear direction just ranging/consiliating since CPI reports coming out this week.

You have to scalp in these markets instead of thinking your going to get in a ride it all day. Thats why most traders fail.

Thank you for confirming this! A lot of people on these trading threads REFUSE to acknowledge that this market has been impossible to trade and come here to fake flex and gaslight you saying that you don’t know what you’re doing and how genius and insanely rich they are pulling all these amazing profits 😵‍💫

I agree

Inside week so far. Tight ranges.

A day before CPI and PPI, what did you expect?

There’s no volume, same as most Augusts. I haven’t taken a trade since 29th July and don’t expect to. Still looking for the hour after open but I reckon I’ll sack that off. I’ll be back next month.

1) Buy SB 2) Set stop loss 3) Site back, dont touch it 4) Make money

Cut your position size in half and try again

Don’t quit . The algos move towards moving averages. Use the following SMA’s 5,9,50,100,200 and watch how price behaves in demo. Monitor the structure and use a volume footprint with net volume delta for confirmation on your thesis. It’s not chopping the algos are programmed to take certain actions based on volume at points of interest. Another recommendation when price is an area look back when the last time it was there and look for previous POC and highs and lows in that price range prior you’d be amazed how price goes back to it or away helping with direction.

Yes stop, its completely rigged . Buying stocks causes a drop

Before blaming the market I’d go back through the last 50-100 trades and tag them by regime. If most of the losses are coming from chop, that’s actually useful information. Sometimes the strategy hasn’t stopped working, you’re just running a trend strategy in a market that isn’t trending. The hard part is figuring out whether that’s actually true or just a story we tell ourselves after a bad run 😅

Learn to trade the chop. Yesterday and today were ideal. Move to shorter timeframes (I trade 20s) and figure out the imbalance.

Lol this has always been true

Green everyday for the last few months. Market is fine. No issues here. You just need to get better at trading!

You're not supposed to trade every minute of every day just because you titled yourself "trader". If you're unfamiliar with market cycles, macro reports and regular phenomenon, you're not really a trader, like calling myself a "carpenter" because I own a hammer.

It’s the summer, less volume, it’s your job to adapt to the market. Sometimes the open are clean, sometimes the pre-market is cleaner. When it’s crap and choppy like lately, it’s your job to not trade. Don’t blame the market, adapt and keep grinding.

10 minute ORB still working for me

The Market is untradable because you are not a trader. Any chucklehead can trade in an all in up market , conversely , in an outright down market again any chucklehead can be a winner. Any clown can scalp or pickoff. On 2 trades today and only 2 trades today totalling $50,000 I made $3900 or just about 7.8%. And pretty much do the short trade or long trade everyday for the past few weeks. LONG/SHORT leveraged ETF's on either SPCX, SKHY or SNDX. I'm in around 9:50-10am and out by 3:45pm. No chart watching BS, simple trading. FOR all you struggling with this or any MARKET, work smarter not harder.

Why would you risk $50k on scalps, are you doing more for swing setups?

The object is to not lose money. If you blow your account on Tuesday just be prepared to watch the perfect day from the sidelines on Wednesday. Gotta stay in the game, and if not trading chop keeps you in it, then so be it. There was a pretty sustained downtrend after the chop ending and NQ was in a very clear channel and rebounded about 90 minutes before closing bell right at the bottom of it. Try to figure out what the market is doing and where it's going.

Skill issue. Keep blaming everything but yourself and see how far that gets you.

Try a higher time frame, like H4 and H1 and trade from key levels. Also try trading London session and stay away from NY open and NYSE open

This week been terrible chop. Maybe sit out until the end of the week or wait till next week. You are forcing trades. I know because I did the same and got punished

Its the hardest trading year by far only because the random tweets wick you out

July-September are usually slow months esp during election year

Sell /MES, /ES options instead

Can you follow simple rules? Do you use tradovate? I have a pretty simple brainless setup that is better than random, works OK if you follow the rules and don't sit there and take every single dot. I use a personal indicator I've built for levels but you can target any level you want. pivot points, LVN, higher time frame wicks. Or don't target anything and let the trail take you out. I would HIGHLY recommend picking up a Lucid tradovate account and taking advantage of the fact that they give you replay mode for free on tradovate. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. Start with one micro, when we're in a decent trend you can add add add when a trend is starting and it's confirmed, only within the first one or two candles. https://preview.redd.it/xsatpvsoetih1.png…

I messed up slightly on the pre-market statement. My bad was just trying to emphasize the stair steps more than anything.

Markets are constantly evolving. Look beyond the technicals and understand whats happening around the world.

No one knows wtf is going on

Of course. You are not suppose to predict the market - no one knows where millions of algo bots will push the price, hence why signal bots never work. You are suppose to have the best judgment and bias based on the information you’re given. How can you do that if you skip neglect fundamentals?

I’ve been doing vertical spreads on SPX. Not much better but they do soften losses. Wins aren’t as juicy either.

It is extremely choppy.. but still made $800 today. Now waiting for tonight’s open. I was up $2k, but gave some back on some chop out trades

Since trump, war, and then new day trading rules kicked in the market has just changed. Going up 10-20 minutes and then in just a few seconds the gains are gone. Finally this month I am making a little money and that is only because I wait for the sharp drops and then scalp. Otherwise I would have losses galore Just a lot of wasted time.

Yes we are at ATH’s but the violent sector rotation and liquidity sweeps are just insane now. Gotta protect ya neck. I’ve personally switched to mostly trading ETFs based on market regime instead of stocks. Less volatile.

I actually have quit trading everything for the last one month there’s no way to win

August is usually like this

Trade liquidity.

I’ve had a lot more luck with GC lately — just reading momentum and looking at volume spikes around outer bounds of opening range and have about a 70% win rate the past month or so. I would try that before you quit! You have to be able to adapt depending on market conditions which is easier said than done.

This low volume crap sucks . Today felt like it was gonna be a range day then I didn't react to that bear trend in time I was still thinking range . Took a small loss . Last Monday and Tuesday were great . Need some more days like that .

The market told me to stop scalping longs but shit that trend came out of nowhere and was gone

So heres the thing... the market isn’t supposed to be predictable trade-by-trade. Even a good setup can lose because there are too many variables in the short term. The key is managing risk and thinking in probabilities, not trying to predict every move. After a few losses, it’s easy to revenge trade or increase your size, which is where things get dangerous. You don’t need to win every trade. You need to survive the losing ones... also, I woudl recommend switching for a while to paper trading to test some of your strategies... there's a bunch of great paper trading platforms out there that could help you a lot. Hope this helps!

Im going through the same thing right now with futures 😩 for the past 2 weeks went from a 65% win rate to 15-20%

“Must be” so you’re not journaling or keeping track of your trades? You are the 99%

Sideways, going sideways like it's waiting for something.

Cpi

If you're sure it's going to chop you can make shit load of money

Yeah didn’t used to be like this. AI and trump’s family and friends collusion have eroded the market 

Ive had my best year so far. The last few days have been pretty much shit though. Ive had loss after loss and am pretty much sitting on hands until summer vacation season is over. The nature of the market changes. You cant expect to pull tens of thousands of dollars oit of the market every week and it will just continue that way indefinitely. Its a different season right now and its not harvest season. Watch and try to find an edge for this season. If you can't find one- sell calls and wait it out.

I don’t know if this would help but I was able to take a trade today using the ICT setup from this 2022 mentorship

Its also the summer

Only he fucking knows. Welcome to “Democracy”

Want chop? Trade oil since Iran begin. As soon as trump says I called off the attack it goes down. Then Iran says nope he be lying and it goes up. I’d rather trade YM any day right now than CL.

Monday and Tuesday of last we some of the trendiest days ever. All you had to do was get in on the pull back and let it ride to ATH had you done that you would’ve made insane $$. Nonetheless after violent ripping price action you can’t expect the market to bounce right back and trend up merely a week later, the market needs to time to accumulate liquidity for the next pop.

It's really refreshing to see thet other people are struggling too. Just when i thought i had it figured out too 🤣 hopefully the next president is quiet

Maybe just dont trade it? Im just getting random scalps here and there, this has been a slow week to start

You need to use more tools in your tool box. Try shares. Try credit spreads. Condors. There’s a way to trade every regime.

Reading some Al Brooks, and he basically said stay tf out of tight trading ranges; indexes are terrible to trade rn. I was pissed today because I missed that bear leg down after; the open looked no different than the last few days and did not expect a consistent trend today, hope this is a better setup developing

You need to adapt to market conditions. Sometimes it easy and sometimes it's hard.