Strong Bulls, Strong Bears, Weak Bulls, Weak BearsStrong Bulls are always looking to buy. Strong Bears are always looking to sell. Weak Bulls and Weak Bears are usually indecisive and wait until its too late, entering at the worst possible time. In general, Strong Bulls sell to Weak Bears, and Strong Bears buy from Weak Bulls. When both Strong Bulls and Strong Bears sell (strong bulls to take profits, and strong bears to initiate shorts), there is only one direction for the market to go. This is when leads to strong moves in the markets.
When prices are in a strong bull trend Strong Bulls buy at any price, including a high price. This strong trend can be in the form of a spike or a tight bull channel. The Strong Bulls are aware prices are in a strong trend, and therefore are willing to buy high. This buying prevents a pullback and instead prices continue to rally. Strong bears see this and are not willing to sell yet, and so the lack of selling pressure creates a vacuum and also prevents a pullback. The same is true for Strong Bears in a strong bear trend.
When prices are in a weaker bull trend, such as a broad bull channel, bulls who buy high tend to get trapped and are either forced to exit and buy lower, or scale into their position at a lower price. This is also refereed to as "averaging in to a position." When strong bulls see that bulls who buy high are getting trapped, they will only look to buy at a discount, or a pullback and will sell to take profits when prices reach near the highs. This is what feeds the bull channel, which is a form of a slanted trading range. When prices are in a trading range, both Strong Bulls and Strong Bears will only look to buy low and sell high. Most will also scale into their position if prices go against them, and they tend to take smaller profits like 1X risk.
What about Weak Bulls and Weak Bears? Weak bulls and Weak bears tend to flip flop in their positions. In other words, they see a bear leg and assume prices are going lower and sell low in the bear leg, just before a rally begins. This is most obvious when prices are in some form of trading range or weak channel where there is heavy two sided trading.
Weak bulls also buy high in a bull channel, or high in a trading range. They buy from strong bears who are selling high prices. They are then forced to exit or scale in, and contribute to the selling if they exit. Then when prices are near the bottom of the channel, they become convinced the market is now selling off, and sell low. This repeats over and over as they hope for a breakout and fail to realize what is occurring.
A major key in learning to become a profitable trader is the ability to understand what the institutions (strong bulls and strong bears) are doing at any given time. This is how you follow "smart money." If you do not understand what prices are telling you; you are more likely to act as a Weak Bull and Weak Bear, and contribute to the market.
To learn more about how to understand institutions and price tendencies, see below.
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