Today hit a milestone with the Afraid to Trade blog, as this is the 1,000th post since I began blogging in February, 2007! I wanted to take a moment to thank all readers deeply for their support and for reading, emailing, and commenting. Traffic has been increasing virtually every month, especially so in the current…
This month’s SFO (Stocks, Futures, Options) Magazine has an excellent introductory article on Elliott Wave Theory entitled, “Roadmap or GPS – Lessons in Elliott Wave Analysis” by Jim Martens of Elliott Wave International. Martens compares Elliott Wave analysis to navigating a car during a drive – do you use the flashy GPS device or do…
The volatility of October in the stock market provided a remarkable number of gap openings which provided risk and opportunity for nimble gap fade traders. With the new month upon us, let’s see how the traditional DIA opening fade gap statistics fared during October. For the first study, let’s look at DIA prices (downloaded from…
Gold prices completed their counter-trend rally on Thursday and found confluence resistance at the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement along with the 20 day EMA. Let’s see this event and see if we can make out a weekly Elliott Wave count structure as well. Gold Daily Prices: If there ever was an ‘anatomy of a sell signal,’…
Nokia (NOK) Weekly: Nokia investors have experienced a very wild ride in a short period since the start of 2006. From a low near $16, Nokia rose to $40 per share in two years (though not exceeding is 2000 split-adjusted $55 high) and then has spent the better part of 2008 in virtually total free-fall….
The S&P 500 is striking a strange chord that will resolve eventually into a potentially large trend move – the question is “Which way will it move?” Let’s see this and look for clues. First, the S&P 500 Daily Chart: If you look at this structure, you likely see a powerful “sell” signal setting up…
Today’s the big day I’ve been studying almost two years to accomplish – the final examination in the Market Technicians Association’s Chartered Market Technician Exam track (Level 3 written essay exam) Wednesday afternoon. Wish me luck in this four hour essay exam that makes all aspects of Technical Analysis and Market Dynanamics (including psychology and…
Financial giant Goldman Sachs (GS) held its own relative to other large financial institutions who suffered worse or collapsed entirely. Although Goldman recently broke beneath $100 per share recently, it might be worth looking at this stock’s recent journey to see if we can glean any insights. Goldman Sachs (GS) Daily Chart: The daily chart…
Today, the S&P 500 (together with the Dow Jones, NASDAQ, and Russell 2000) made a new closing low not seen since roughly March 2003. Let’s take a quick look at this development on the monthly chart and look at a possible, simple Elliott Wave count interpretation. The S&P 500 Monthly Chart: Beyond getting deep in…
With technical analysis – the art of studying price and volume through visual charting and mathematical indicators – gaining momentum, I thought it would be prudent to take a moment to discuss the three underlying foundations of modern technical analysis and why they’re important. Let’s examine them: 1. Prices Move in Observable Trends Prices have…