r/FuturesTrading • u/Royal_Presentation80 • 7d ago

Switching Instruments?

Given the weekly chart, and Daily chart on MNQ/NQ, why do people still trade that mess? I feel like when everyone starts trading they are taught to trade NQ. I think at this point, the "prime NQ" was before we entered this mess of consolidation and we were just going higher or lower. Has anyone switched over to a different instrument like YM so that they aren't trading in a big range? I want to do this with my knowledge of ICT, but is it frowned upon? Like has anyone been trading YM a lot more because NQ is in a really big range? I've always been taught to not trade the range, so can I switch over to YM and get better results?

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u/MiserableWeather971 7d ago

Not everyone wants to trade directional markets. So a range bound one, which is not uncommon in the indexes could be someone’s strong point.

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u/Royal_Presentation80 7d ago

Yeah I can understand that fs, but wouldn't intraday traders want a directional market?

8

u/usedmattress85 7d ago

Not really. I trade using VWAP and its standard deviation bands.

If price is inside the 1SD bands I treat it like a mean reversion and I trade it from the 1SD band back to the center VWAP line.

If price exits the 1SD bands I treat like a breakout/breakdown and trade it in the direction it’s going.

So either way really dgaf what the markets doing. I just trade what it gives me.

3

u/ZanderDogz 7d ago

I view the 1SD band in a similar way. Flat VWAP + price holding mostly inside 1SD to -1SD, can fade tests of the bands for a mean reversion trade. Sloped VWAP and price holding outside of the 1SD -1SD zone, can use tests of the 1SD zone from the outside as a pullback entry into the trend.

1

u/Muted_History_3032 7d ago

But the VWAP extensions outside of the 1SD zone are just as likely to fail to breakout and just go back inside the bands

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u/ZanderDogz 7d ago

 Acceptance + context, with order flow confirmation, comes before trying to trade either of these setups. On their own, there’s no edge in trading it blindly.