Discretionary Trading is in the Now

It follows that from looking at order flow for our trading decisions, as discretionary traders we are trading "the now". We are not predictors of future prices but make deductions from what we see now. The markets rise when there is more to buy than to sell, and go down when then is more to sell than to buy. As traders, this is the puzzle that we are deciphering. When we see that there is more to sell, we go short because we know that prices must go down.


Looking at things in this way may make it easier to understand the context. I have said over and over in this blog that we trade the order flow. We identify the trend of that flow and when there is a temporary reversal - a pullback - we grab that opportunity to enter the trade in the direction of the trend. The context helps us both make the decision to enter as well as to identify our exit points. But it is all in "the now".

The chart below shows my DAX trades in the U.S. morning session. The last trade was towards the Fav Fib target and often it acts like a magnet.