Are We Going to Make New Highs?
Back in May we felt that all signs lead higher however we were just a bit early. Let’s take a closer look at the monthly, weekly, and daily charts of the S&P500 to see why 1431.50 is the new target.
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Is the Market Headed for a Breakout?
The inverted head and shoulders that we talked about last week is fulfilling its end of the bargain, did you get long? Here is a look at the top line figures over the past few years. Notice that the NASDAQ and Russell are leading the way higher. This makes sense as a technology and small caps are where the most entrepreneurship and growth comes from as we work our way out of a recession. The VIX is about to rip,…
Buyers, Sellers vs. Bulls, Bears
You’ll notice the term buyers and sellers used in lieu of bulls and bears when talking about market moves. This is the correct way to relate to an up or down move in the market because we really have no idea whether it’s bulls or bears moving the market. Allow me to explain… John is bullish on the market, you could call him a bull, but he puts on a short position in the ES futures to hedge his long…
Identifying Market Trends
When doing market trends analysis you are looking to identify not only the direction the market is moving, but whether or not it is moving in any direction at all. These are some things we look for when identifying the market trends. Questions to ask when Identifying the Trend Are we in a trend or counter trend on the monthly, weekly, and daily timeframes? Are we in a trend day or choppy day on the 15-min? Is volume on the…
How to Tell if a Rally is Real
Needless to day, I am a bit skeptical to this last break of highs on the S&P500 why might you ask? Because of the VIX. The VIX is a measure of volatility in the markets, when volatility is high the VIX rises, when volatility is low, the VIX falls. As the old saying goes, “when the VIX is low, lookout below.” This is because we see the biggest crashes in the context of a bull market (low VIX) and the…
How Do You Know When to Stop Trading for the Day?
We’ve all asked this question, so what’s the answer? Should you stop when a specific $ amount is reached? When a specific # of points have been tallied? When you have 2 losers in a row? Well I can’t tell you what’s right for you, but I CAN tell you what I do. Over the years I have noticed that there are a handful of great days in the month and the rest are simply average. Therefore when I begin…
Options Expiry Week
Week 3 of 2011 kicks off remembering Martin Luther King Jr. We have a shortened week this week and options expiry on Friday along with some big earnings from AAPL on 1/18 and GOOG on 1/20. For those traders who play gaps, options expiry Friday is a day to skip. Trader’s who usually trade the first 30-mins, be extremely cautious on option’s X as market orders are higher than usual during this time. We’re expecting a fairly volatile week for intraday trading.…
Filing for ‘Trader Tax Status’
“In this world there is nothing that is certain except death and taxes” – Benjamin Franklin The government provides it’s biggest tax breaks to business owners and investors. As a self-employed trader, there are many ways to limit your tax liability along contribute to retirement plans and deduct additional business expenses. I am not a licensed tax professional, so I refer all my trader friends and colleagues to Robert Green over at Green Trader Tax. Green and his company are…