I wanted to share a link to a brief but helpful/thought-provoking defense of Technical Analysis as explained by Greg Harmon of Dragonfly Capital. Entitled, “Technical Analysis is about Reflection, not Inflection,” Greg challenges some of the common complaints or misperceptions about what those who use TA do and how they study their charts. He also…
I always like doing “Step-Inside” analysis with trades and price structure, especially when combined with a known reference level on the higher timeframes. Let me walk you through a very good recent example of setting up and trading two specific high-probability, low-risk opportunities in the UUP – US Dollar Index EFT (lesson would be the…
I wanted to make a quick observation and chart of the temporary “December Decoupling” of the US S&P 500 Index and the Euro Index, which has in the past enjoyed a strong positive correlation. Let’s take a look and see what may be important factors to watch: With the exception of the period just before…
Gold – and it’s popular proxy ETF GLD – has come into a very interesting technical (chart) level right here on both the daily and weekly charts as we begin 2011. For investors and traders in gold/GLD, it’s a good idea to be aware of these levels and the IF/THEN chart contingencies these create if…
I think it’s important to document interesting examples of trading concepts played out during the day, as it serves both as an educational reference and deepens our knowledge about these concepts, which helps us to trade better the next time a similar set-up or opportunity unfolds in real time. A great educational example – and…
Wow – you don’t see these sort of “Mirror Image” patterns that often, but they are stellar when they set-up and complete. Let’s learn some quick lessons you can apply to the future from the recent intraday 30-min Head and Shoulders price pattern reversal – with perfect divergences – and the trade that accompanied the…
I had a suspicion a big pop might happen but it’s still sometimes surreal to see it happen first thing in the New Year! Let’s take a look at the “repeating history” (you might be very surprised) and learn lessons from yet another excellent example of one of my favorite concepts – Popped Stops. First,…
As promised, I wanted to follow-up the prior “Market Performance in 2010” post with a few charts of the major cross-markets and the developing relationship with the S&P 500. In looking at the reference charts, pay close attention first to the type of relationship – positive or negative – and the periods of time (highlighted)…
Courtesy FinViz.com, I wanted to share the 2010 multiple market performance – futures contract returns – for 2010. You might be surprised which markets rose the most in the year. Here’s the chart with one day left to close out 2010: Wouldn’t it be neat to have this chart at the beginning of 2010? Wishful…
I’m a big fan of monitoring price – particularly in a trending environment – with respective 20 and 50 day exponential moving averages (EMAs). Recently, gold (and GLD) have shown a good example of how EMAs serve as good reference points for expected/potential support in the context of a rising bullish trend. Let’s take a…