I was flying home from Florida this weekend and we started hitting some serious turbulence on the descent.   A woman in front of me popped open the window shade and was startled by the lack of visibility.  “How can we land in this?  You can’t see a thing!” she shrieked to her significant other (who looked too much like “The Situation” from “Jersey Shore”).  Trading ARQL today I was like that Continental Pilot navigating us safely to Newark (nice job btw Captain!).

It is not like the pilot sticks his head out the window to help him land.  He is flying based on his instruments.  If it was perfectly clear he would still rely on his flight indicators.   Until the very last part of the landing it doesn’t matter to the pilot whether the sky is clear or the plane is covered in clouds.  That lady could not see out the window but our pilot knew exactly where we were.

Today trading ARQL with all the HFTs I could not tell by looking at the tape whether it would trade higher or lower on the Open.  But I did know that ARQL gapped up, cleared 6 and had climbed above 6.16.  I  did know based on my charts that this was an excellent risk/reward play for an ARQL pass at higher altitude.  And at 6.40 by 6.60 I knew the same even though the tape provided little visibility.  And at 6.80 by 7 I knew the same.

For certain trading plays based on our intraday fundamentals and chart patterns we buy based upon price.  The tape provides us little visibility but we can still spot intraday patters that will bring us to our desired destination.

Hoping tomorrow brings you more excellent trading opportunities.