Time for a rant

It's been a while since I had a rant, but I'm always astonished when I come across some articles like I've read over the last few days relating to the market drop since the turn of the year.

You get the usual comments from people who have lost money - ban short selling, ban hedge funds, the brokers are working in cahoots with the hedge funds, the market's rigged etc...

A couple of missed trades

NOTE: This post has been updated below following today's price action.

Although I have not been in the markets recently, it hasn't been totally as a result of sitting on my hands. The process of looking out for good setups has continued, and as previously discussed, most of these haven't triggered an entry signal. However, there are a couple of trades that have managed to get away from us, for different reasons:

A role reversal

It is funny how traders can move in and out of profitable phases at different times, even if they utilise similar trading approaches. In the second half of last year, I went on a record-breaking (for me) run of losing trades, whereas other traders were doing very nicely, thank you.

So far in 2015, the roles seem to be reversed. I've noted that some traders on social media who look for trends to trade have commented on how tricky the markets have been so far this year. Indeed, if you look at the chart of the indices such as the Nasdaq below, you can clearly see an increase in volatility and a lack of direction since 2015 started.