What does it mean to fade the breakout?
This is the type of trade that one can make when they trade in the opposite direction of the breakout — or trading the FALSE breakout.
You would always want to be on the opposite side of a false breakout because a false breakout is one that is not going to manifest into the kind of trade that you truly need. A false breakout means that the market may continue to trade in the same direction as it was before the false breakout took place. Traders can fade a breakout if they think that a breakout from a support or resistance level is false and won’t keep moving in the same direction.
You should only attempt these as a short-term strategy, and it is only meant to help you get out of the way of a false breakout and still make profits while doing so.
It is not ideal to try to find every false breakout that you possibly can and attempt to trade it. You are not all that likely to be profitable doing so, and you may end up getting whipsawed in the process.
Most Breakouts Fail
Most breakout moves ultimately fail because there is a small minority of traders who ultimately make money off of the majority of traders. If everyone is trying to buy a pair at a resistance level or sell at a support level, the market maker will need to be on the other side of the trade.
The market maker knows what they need to do to make money, and they will position themselves accordingly.
Retail traders like to trade breakouts, but the institutional and big money accounts will often fade a breakout. The smartest traders know this and they know that they can potentially profit by working against the wisdom of the crowd and trading more akin to what the institutional players are doing. After all, it is the institutional players who are frequently the ones that make the most money in the market.
It just makes sense that most people would like to emulate them and trade similarly to how those people are trading.
The best way to profit like the big dogs in the market is to act like the big dogs in the market. Otherwise, you may be positioning yourself in a place where you simply trade like the retail money and don’t make any profits for yourself as a result. It can be a scary world out there for retail traders, so try not to trade with the same mindset that they trade.
Think differently.
What does it mean to fade the breakout?
This is the type of trade that one can make when they trade in the opposite direction of the breakout — or trading the FALSE breakout. You would always want to be on the opposite side of a false breakout because a false breakout is one that is not going to manifest into the kind of trade that you truly need.
A false breakout means that the market may continue to trade in the same direction as it was before the false breakout took place. Traders can fade a breakout if they think that a breakout from a support or resistance level is false and won’t keep moving in the same direction.
Trend Lines
One of the most important things to look at when trading fakeouts is that there should be space between the trend lines and the price of the pair. When there is space between the trend line and the price, it means that the price is still moving in the direction of the overall trend.
The other thing to keep in mind is the speed of the price movement away from the trend line.
If the price is slowly moving away from the trend line, then you may be looking at a false breakout. When movement is faster towards the trend line, then a real breakout may be about to take place. If the movement is fast like this, then you may want to take a breather and not try to trade something moving quite as quickly as this. You may end up in a situation where you are on the wrong side of the trade quite quickly.
Steer clear.
So, what do you do when you want to trade the fade? You just need to wait until the price moves back within the trend lines. That is when you know that the fade is on and that the fake out may be something that you can trade.
Chart Patterns
You can look for chart patterns that are known to traders to be indicative of different types of price action.
There are plenty of people who have seen various chart pattern materials over the years that directly tie into a specific type of movement in the market.
You might look for well-known patterns such as:
- Head and shoulders
- Double top/Double bottom
These types of patterns have been seen time and time again, and they are often found to correspond with certain types of actions in the markets. Make sure you look at this as a potential situation where you can take advantage of the way that the market is moving.
Head and shoulders often create fakeouts (false breakouts) and thus good opportunities for fading breakouts.
Why?
False breakouts frequently happen with this pattern because many traders who have spotted the formation usually put their stop-loss close to the neckline.
False Breakouts are Common
One of the things that you may discover in time is that false breakouts are common in the market. The reason is that there are so many traders who place orders right on the trend line in order to get in or out of a trade at exactly the same point that they believe will be when others bail out.
Make sure you look out for those false breakouts so you know where you need to bail out of your own trade and perhaps make some money on the fade.
Institutional traders are often great at peeling off pips from retail traders by understanding how false breakouts work and what they need to do to make sure they get the best potential profits for themselves.
You can look over all of the patterns and potential to capitalize on the pips that are just sitting out there when a false breakout begins to emerge.
One final thing to think about is making sure you don’t place your trades at exactly the same numbers as all other traders. There are too many people who line up their trades at exactly the same price points, and they end up losing pips to institutional traders who know that others are going to do this, and they will scrap away all of the pips that are left out there by retail traders. Change your approach and you might not give up so many pips
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