General Comments
[dc]I[/dc]'m going to start doing something new for my readers. Several times a day, I will update the page of market statistics that is available here. I will tweet when it's updated. Sometimes I may also call out some interesting points, but often it
General Comments
[dc]O[/dc]ur trading ideas, "setups", if you will, must change with market conditions. Certain types of trades are more relevant at certain times. For instance, if the market is dramatically overextended, maybe we look for Antis, trend termination trades, or points to fade overextended individual names.
Trend Termination
[dc]R[/dc]eader Tom points out and asks about a possible attempted trend change in Cliffs Natural Resources (NYSE:CLF). This is a good pattern, and a good opportunity to discuss a few important points about trend change trades, in general. First, we do have to be very careful
General Comments
An important reminder of how backtests can different from real world performance. One of the most important lessons for investors: (A Wealth of Common Sense) In so many ways, it's a great time to be a trader. (TraderFeed) If you didn't see it, you might want
Pullback
This video takes a look at a possible setup developing in the US Stock market: what could potentially be the first pullback following at attempted trend change. (You could trade S&P 500 futures, SPY, IWM, etc. Similar patterns exist in most European indexes, but not Asia.) This is
General Comments
[dc]I[/dc]n a post last week, I talked a little bit about the kind of commitment and emotional charge that I believe it takes to truly excel in any field. Whether you are doing a martial art, studying music, learning to cook with excellence, or learning to trade,
General Comments
[dc]G[/dc]iven last week’s volatile spikes, there has been a lot of talk about the VIX and volatility in general. This is a good time to take a deeper look at the VIX and make sure we understand what it is, what it measures, and what it
General Comments
The videos for week 8 of my free trading course, dealing with pattern failures and the importance of discipline, are now online, and can be accessed from the course menu. (Registration is required, but is completely free.) For those of you who do not know, some time ago I began
Individual Traders
[dc]I[/dc] recently received a few reader questions asking the same thing: what would my advice be to new traders? This is an important and daunting question (and I've written on it before), but let me share a few thoughts today. Please don't be discouraged
General Comments
Industrials are running into some trouble. This could be significant for the broad market, or it could be noisy sector rotation. (I'd bet on the latter, at this point.) Here's a (admittedly crowded) chart that shows how important Airlines are within the sector. Seeing Airlines falter,
General Comments
Video blog looking at setups in the S&P 500 (SPY), Russell 2000 (IWM), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Alcoa (NYSE: AA), Delta Airlines (NYSE: DAL), Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO), BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ: BBRY), and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR). A few additional points:
Pullback
[dc]I[/dc] want to share a brief look at longer-term market structure in the Canadian dollar today. We have a situation in which a few timeframes appear to be in conflict with each other. Perhaps there is a trading opportunity, but there certainly is a good lesson. There are