This week saw a precarious shift in the direction of the major US Indexes due to comments by Federal Reserve Officials who still have power to affect price swings in markets. The bulls scored a major victory but still have work to do to overcome the daily downtrend on most Indexes. Let’s look: The Daily…
If yesterday was an ideal intraday trading environment, today was a relative nightmare. Such is the nature of the market to alternate between good periods and bad periods, trend and consolidation, favorable environments to unfavorable. We recognize that the market adheres to the “Law of Alternation” in various aspects, and we can expect consolidation and…
Dr. Steenbarger at the TraderFeed blogspot recently posted his observations on “Questionable Things I Hear from Traders,” and he detailed each of these concepts. I wanted to highlight his entry, and call attention to a few of the points and make you potentially self-aware in your own trading experiences. He advises against perfectionism, something with…
Yesterday’s price action exhibited textbook characteristics of a ‘trend day,’ and analyzing the action can help you spot the conditions that lead to a trend day earlier and trade more effectively as a result. First, let’s discuss what a trend day is and how we might detect it early. We define a trend day as…
Today’s price action in the major US Indexes can only be described as “wild.” The day began with an upside gap, continued with a failed gap-fill attempt, experienced rallies to new (intraday) highs, and then a massive selloff which gave way to a massive rally into the close. Traders were left with their heads spinning unless…
Dr. Bruce Hong at TraderPsychology posted an excellent series regarding the crucial factor of Writing a Trading Plan and I wanted to call attention to this extremely helpful series of posts. I’ve heard it said that a vast majority of market participants do not have a written trading plan that they developed themselves, and that…
Dr. Bruce Hong at the TraderPsychology Blogspot recently called my attention to a few of his excellent posts and I wanted to highlight some of them. Make sure you read his post entitled “Checklists” which not only is an excellent list, but addresses a topic rarely covered in the jubilant financial or trading media: redundancy…
Perhaps it’s more of an esoteric thing when a stock plays to the exact tune of the expected Fibonacci Retracement, but these instances are absolutely worth mention. Today, Google found daily resistance right at the daily 61.2% retracement (of the recent down-swing) and found support (closed) right at the 38.2% retracement. Both levels halted (contained)…
Bill Luby at the VIX & More Blogspot recently posted an excellent Thanksgiving-style article entitled “Twelve Things my Account is Thankful For” which includes practical tips for aspiring beginners and experienced market professionals. Without listing all twelve, consider the following: “ETFs – to diversify, go short, apply leverage, etc.” “Numerous enhancements to a detailed and…
AIG recently made new lows not seen since 2005, but what was significant was that the stock made a classic “Bull Trap” pattern which probably made the decline more severe than it should have been. Bull traps occur when price seems to clear a major barrier or resistance area (such as a key moving average…