As requested, I am providing a sector breakdown of market returns to date. It’s not all horrible out there in the stock market; on the contrary, the Health Care sector appreciated almost 8% to date! Indeed, Health Care, Consumer Staples, and Utilities are known as ‘defensive’ sectors where traders/investors go to seek shelter on the…
When you take a signal, do you consider why you are taking that signal? When you exit, do you know why you do so? On the surface, you might say “I enter when I perceive prices moving a certain direction, and I want to flow in that direction†and “I exit when I feel the…
Chris Perruna recently posted a quick article including various examples in his post “Position Sizing:Â Determining the Number of Shares to Buy.” Specifically, Chris also provides his free “Position Sizing Excel Sheet with Stops” which I have used in the past and sometimes still use in setting up longer term swing or position trades –…
The Dow has fallen from a peak of above14,000 to a recent retest of 12,000. I remember those days! It seemed like only yesterday that the market was full of fear, worries, anxieties, and talk of a possible recession, credit crunch, inflation, [insert worry here]. Yet, the market kept shrugging off this talk of nonsense…
Lehman Brothers Holdings (LEH), a major financial company, recently ejected through a couple of technical analysis patterns worth noting that serves as an educational lesson on moving averages, patterns, support, and resistance. It would appear more downside is likely based on the recent break. I must first state that technical analysis is more of an…
Alan Farley (author of The Master Swing Trader, an essential book in my opinion) recently added an eye-opening article at the HardRightEdge.com site entitled 20 Ways to Stop Losing Money in 2008. Farley begins the list with an admonition that hits you right in the face: “The vast majority of retail traders lost money in…
We have seen a true “correction” via a 10% decline in price in the 13 trading days of 2008 so far, not including the peak to current decline from the October/November 2007 highs. It’s always good to know where the markets are for the year, because so many intraday or swing traders can miss this…
I wanted to provide some additional personal insights to a blog post by Toni Hansen recently entitled “Frustration in Achieving Trading Success,” which included personal statements of similar difficulties her journey to trading success. I do recommend the entire post, but I wanted to highlight a few quotes for you: “I think that nearly every…
Folks, this may be it – the day when people realized that the ‘easy-go-lucky’ days of the market are behind us and harder trading and investing days are likely ahead. While there are no guarantees, the odds have now shifted so that the ‘path of least resistance’ is now down on all respective time frames…
Here is a quick example of a bear flag that has resolved nicely on the 5-minute intraday chart of the DIA (Dow Jones ETF): This bear flag was classic in that it retraced into key resistance from the 20 and 50 period MAs. The “lightning bolt down” or measured move terminated at virtually the exact…