If you are an intraday trader and use the NYSE (or related) TICK indicator in your trading decisions, it’s very important to calibrate important TICK Levels with respect to volatility. In simple terms, a TICK Value of 1,000 means different things during periods of high or low broad market volatility, and you can easily make…
What does the intermarket picture show in terms of current money flow to Risk-On or Risk-Off Markets? Let’s take a quick look as we end September 2012 and the third quarter: The chart above shows three “Risk-On” Markets (Stocks, Gold, and Crude Oil) juxtaposed with two “Risk-Off” Markets (10-Year Treasury Note Price and the US…
I think a lot of traders were surprised with the sharp sell-off last week in Crude Oil from the $100 resistance level. Let’s take a look at the weekly and daily chart to learn the key levels to watch and what structure suggests about potential opportunities in the near future. First, we have the Weekly…
Let’s take a moment to update the current Sector Rotation chart to see which sectors may require our trading attention, and what the broader money flow suggests. Here’s the broader perspective of performance year-to-date: From StockCharts, we see the AMEX Sector SPDR ETFs with respect to absolute performance from January to present (mid-September 2012). We…
It may be helpful to spend some time this weekend studying which stocks and ETFs moved the most (higher and lower) after Thursday’s QE3 policy announcement. Let’s take a quick look at which major ETFs moved the most on the day QE3 was announced. Here’s a “Bubble Chart” from FinViz which emphasizes percentage movement of…
We’ve been anticipating a breakout in gold prices, and the last few weeks have delivered the likely upside break into the initial target. Let’s update the Daily and Weekly chart and note the key level that price may be breaking again to the upside. Here’s the bigger picture Weekly Update: On the Weekly Structure, price…
With the 2012 Presidential Campaign now in full swing, I thought it would be interesting to observe prior performance of the stock market under the different presidential administrations from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama. The charts below all begin and end on January 20th as the starting and ending day of a presidential term for…
Which stocks in the S&P 500 are most over and under-extended from their 200 day Simple Moving Averages? And how might we use this information for potential upcoming trades? Let’s take a look at the new scan results at the end of August 2012 and find out. Here’s the Top 5 Stocks Most Over-Extended S&P…
Following up from my educational update on August 20th, the very same situation unfolded on August 22 with an even more powerful outcome. Let’s take a moment to see what happened and what we can learn from this similar situation: Please reference the prior “Example of Playing Popped Stops from a Failed Retracement” update from…
As traders, sometimes we learn more from failed trades than successful ones, underscoring how important it is to review your trades for as much information as possible. I wanted to highlight a great example of how to switch gears and adapt when price does something unexpected, which can lead to profitable trades in the new…