Many veteran Price Action teachers say that charts and price action have not changed throughout the centuries, as price action (on all time frames, since the market is claimed to be fractal) and thus price is purported to be a reflection of human psychology rather than liquidity-hunting algorithms.
I have been disturbed by how the ES trades more like the SPY or to a lesser extent CL now with HTF stop runs exceeding the expected ATR moves seen in the past and the speed of these moves <1 second often. Many trading educators teach that price action on the ES is controlled by institutions and does not move to take out stops of retail, small players such as MICRO traders. Those who watch the price action closely by the minute should recognize how the price action changed after the micro contracts were introduced. I initially thought this was due to the China trade war news but have seen these < 1 second moves repeat themselves on numerous occasions, last week 10/30/19 10 AM EST, 11/1/19 10 AM EST, for example.
The fact that the micro contracts could change the ES price action suggests that there may never have been as much actual liquidity on the ES as appeared based on total daily trading volume and raises the possibility that the exchanges are and have been working with the algorithm-trading instutitions to take out retail traders, and perhaps most moves on index futures is based on calculations to take out retail traders, if price action changes based on introduction of a micro contract, how much actual liquidity intraday was there ever? Most moves seem to be designed to squeeze retail traders, day traders in particular. It's only going to get harder to day trade if the introduction of the micro contracts can attract such institutional attention and the price action alteration has bled over to the world's purportedly most liquid market, the ES.
I have been disturbed by how the ES trades more like the SPY or to a lesser extent CL now with HTF stop runs exceeding the expected ATR moves seen in the past and the speed of these moves <1 second often. Many trading educators teach that price action on the ES is controlled by institutions and does not move to take out stops of retail, small players such as MICRO traders. Those who watch the price action closely by the minute should recognize how the price action changed after the micro contracts were introduced. I initially thought this was due to the China trade war news but have seen these < 1 second moves repeat themselves on numerous occasions, last week 10/30/19 10 AM EST, 11/1/19 10 AM EST, for example.
The fact that the micro contracts could change the ES price action suggests that there may never have been as much actual liquidity on the ES as appeared based on total daily trading volume and raises the possibility that the exchanges are and have been working with the algorithm-trading instutitions to take out retail traders, and perhaps most moves on index futures is based on calculations to take out retail traders, if price action changes based on introduction of a micro contract, how much actual liquidity intraday was there ever? Most moves seem to be designed to squeeze retail traders, day traders in particular. It's only going to get harder to day trade if the introduction of the micro contracts can attract such institutional attention and the price action alteration has bled over to the world's purportedly most liquid market, the ES.
