Intraday Trading
Over the past week or so, I've written a bit about short term trading strategies on my blog, and I've also done two podcasts (here and here.) Starting tomorrow, I'm going to start a few posts that will look into the statistical behavior of
Technical Patterns
Richard Wyckoff was one of the founding fathers of technical analysis, and one of his most useful concepts was to divide the market into an idealized cycle of accumulation, mark-up, distribution, and markdown. Though it can be difficult to apply this model in actual trading, it has many important lessons
Failure Test
Multiple timeframe analysis is almost a buzzword in technical analysis. I have been involved in markets actively for two decades, and have been an active participant in dialogue about markets for most of that time. It is interesting to see different techniques take the spotlight as groups of traders hold
Technical Patterns
One important question for discretionary traders to consider is how to weigh objective and subjective elements in technical analysis. Some things are simple and clear, which is one reason that many traders focus on indicators: Price is above the moving average, or it is not. The MACD histogram is higher
Technical Patterns
One skill that is often overlooked in chart reading is the ability to look at a bar on a chart and to infer what price action might have created that bar. In practical terms, this means being able to look at a bar on one time frame and immediately understand
Technical Patterns
Last week, I covered pullback trading, which is one of the most common and most important with-trend trading patterns. This week, I will dig deeper into some different patterns, but I thought it was worthwhile to first think a bit about the differences between with trend and countertrend trading. This
Chart of the Day
Markets normally move in alternating waves of with-trend impulse moves interspersed with lower volatility pullbacks. This is a reliable trend pattern, and, in fact, is enough to base a trading plan on. Typically, a market will make a sharp move in one direction, will consolidate somewhere near the extreme of
Technical Patterns
I post a lot of critical thoughts, and spend a lot of time encouraging people to think deeply about the technical tools they use. Recently, I've received a lot of questions about what I think actually works. Though I've answered this in some depth before (and
Market Math
Continuing from my previous post on moving averages, let's take a look at using a moving average as a trend indicator. Again, here is some material from the unpublished part of my book, on using the slope of a moving average as a trend indicator, and a look
Market Math
Ok, so I'll warn you up front: this one's going to be a little bit difficult. The response to my post on the 200 day moving average in the DJIA and the S&P 500 was very positive, and I received many thought-provoking questions and
General Comments
This is one of those technical questions that does not have a quick, simple answer. The best answer is "no, not really, and almost certainly not in the way most people think", but there are some nuances to consider. I have done extensive quantitative work on moving averages,
Individual Traders
The open, in many ways, is the most important price of the day; action off the open can often define the character of the entire session and even have implications for following days. Even if you are a longer-term trader, there are elements of short term price behavior you should