Trade futures based on pure price, not delayed indicators

If futures trading was an exact science, then all market participants would succeed. Obviously, that is not the case, as the futures markets are ever-moving, ever-shifting and always dynamic.

The cliché of ‘Monday morning quarterback’ rings true when you consider events that shook many futures traders, while leaving others less than surprised:

• Amazon, once held as a standard bearer, became the first company to lose $1T in 2022.
• Bitcoin also had a rough 2022, crashing after a long period of resilience.
• Gold was not consistently up in 2022 even during a period of elevated inflation and regular interest rate increases by the Fed.
• Oil sold off during 2022’s geopolitical conflicts (e.g. the Russo-Ukrainian War).

Futures trading tips from the Fibonacci Trading Institute

Alla Peters-Plocher of the Fibonacci Trading Institute recently hosted a NinjaTrader Ecosystem webinar providing her insight on the impact these events had on the markets and how traders can prepare to navigate similar events in the future. She offered several critical nuggets of wisdom for futures traders to keep in mind moving forward, including:

• Trading based on news and current events is not always the best move.
• Chasing the market is inadvisable.
• A viable path to effective trading may include going against the grain while the majority is running toward opportunities based on greed, ego and instant gratification.

“95% of what the majority does ultimately fails,” Peters-Plocher said. She added that only about 5% of traders succeed when they chase indicators or rely on delayed indicators as a security blanket and hope for the best. “The answer lies in pure price, not in delayed indicators,” she said.

Indicators may only look good after the fact, Peters-Plocher concluded. If indicators were 100% accurate, then everyone would succeed on every trade and that is simply not the case.

Be sure to check out all of the other archived trading events that are available to stream for free via the NinjaTrader Ecosystem Video Library. New events occur weekly, so be sure to keep an eye on our Upcoming Webinars Page as well. You can view a full schedule of upcoming events there and register to attend live (for free)!