Why are all the indices trading in a range?

Quick question (for the likes of John??? and Tony???):

Each and every day I check every single index ‘known to man’ for entry points and I’m getting increasingly frustrated by the fact that every single one of them has been trading in a range for the past couple of days (maybe even a week or two). In the weeks prior they were all trending one way or the other. I’m not talking about the odd ‘run up’ or ‘run down’ in a day but ‘generally speaking’ this is what’s (been) happening.

Any ideas (fundamentals) as to why? It just seems that they’re all waiting for ‘something’ but, try as I might, I just don’t seem to be able to find anything in the ‘immediate proverbial fundamental pipeline’ that explains the ‘something’ (and we all know just how well I understand fundamentals). This ‘phenomenon’ seems to be affecting forex pairs like GBP/JPY as well (actually it would appear to be affecting anything ???/JPY).

Needless to say it’s affecting me because they’re not ‘swinging’!!! I’m ‘hungry’ now for more ‘green’. My good start to the month seems to have ‘slowed down’ i.e. no losses but no movement therefore no profit either this week!!!

I agree with you and I am waiting for the herd to begin to stampede. Americans dont understand they are in a recession unless they have lost their house, the Brits seem to think the problems are all across the Atlantic and Australians are spending like there is no tomorrow. The clock is ticking my friend. Oil over $100 a barrel, inflation beginning to get away from the RBA, aggressive action by the Fed but ? too little too late and the unheard of Nationalisation of Northern Rock (outside of war and 1970s politics) dont make a good combination. Plus how far do the monoline problems, CDOs etc really go. As always the professionals will make a killing and Joe Blow is doomed because they dont know its happening - YET. At least we are hopefully somewhat informed Dale and that might help us to either be on the right side of all this or else sat with the dollar bills under the mattress for safety - now who is that at the door?!

Thank Tony,

It’s ‘bugging the living sh*t out of me’!!! I’ve spent ALL this time getting my SI right, started out with a ‘bang’, and then NOTHING (worse than ‘doing IT with a condom’)!!! I know that these things are going to ‘break’ one way or another but it’s not helping my ‘psyche’ at the moment!!!

How’s ‘my book’???

I’ll tell you something ‘funny’: from ‘staring aimlessley’ at the charts and the ASI I THINK I’m starting to be able to actually ‘pick’ the swing points ‘on my own’. How about that!!! (Hell of a ‘long way round’ to learn this but anyway).

…the Brits seem to think the problems are all across the Atlantic …

Nah, we know there’s a recession coming, we’re all just drumming our fingers waiting for it to happen, wondering if it’ll start with a property crash or something a bit more subtle. Like nationalisation of Northern Rock :wink:

I spend my days immersed in stocks. To my mind, what we’re going through is nothing more than a settling out after the volatility of January. It looks like we’re getting close to that being over and done with, though, so I’m watching for the next interesting move to come in the not-too-distant future.

To Tony’s point about a US recession, I would actually say people have been talking about it for quite a while now. One of the big gripes we’ve had has been how certain elements of the press and political machines have been negative for seemingly a couple of years now.

Aaaaaah, the light at the end of the tunnel! Though I have to say hasnt helped me much this week. Tempted to play with retail sales but I am not much of a news trader. Have occasionally got in and done OK but never feel really comfortable with it

Hello,

Yeah: ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’!!! ‘Helluva way’ to go about learning but the end justifies the means as they say.

On the other hand the systems have an ‘added undocumented feature’ and that is that they allow me to ‘tinker around’ all day with spreadsheets and custom indicators and the like (hell - I even ‘coded’ Bill Williams’ ‘stuff’ into my Delta platform out of sheer boredom today) and this ‘tinkering’ keeps me occupied AND AWAY FROM MY SI SYSTEM TRADES and this ‘undocumented feature’ on it’s own is worth a couple of bucks to me!!!

And as to what John said:

You know what REALLY pis*es me off: the media are SO negative about the USA. I’ll ‘betcha’ a couple of USD that if it was NOT for the likes of Bloomberg, CNBC, and The Wall Street Journal, the US economy would have taken the subprime issues ‘in it’s stride’ BUT NO: they HAVE to have something to fill up the 24 hour broadcast with. It REALLY upsets me i.e. it will eventually (if it has not already) become a self-fulfilling prophecy if you ask me. I for one have faith in the US and the NYSE and I reckon that all those ‘nuts’ that come on TV saying to ‘get rid of your USD and exchange them for EUR’ are going to end up making a bonfire out of all the EUR they’ve collected because, at the end of the day, when the USD DOES ‘come back’ it’s going to ‘come back with a vengeance’, that’s all their EUR are going to be worth!!!

How’s THAT for fundamental analysis??? See: I think I’m ‘getting the hang of this’ now!!!

Hi John, picking this up from a few weeks ago, do you still think there’s not going to be UK recession? I’m interested because
a) I can’t see how on earth we won’t fall into a recession with our ever increasing deficits, and our historical following the US economy, which is clearly in trouble
b) you’re one of the most seasoned traders on here

What do you think?

PS Dale, your wish came true about wishing for and end to the ranging, eh?!

I know next to nothing about the UK economy. As such I have absolutely no view on its chances for going into recession. I don’t even make predicitions like that for my own country. I just trade the opportunities the market provides me.

Me too !! :smiley: :smiley:

Gold is looking very good !! :slight_smile:

To Dpaterso and Tonymand :

Patience !!! :smiley: