After looking at over 400 different charts this weekend I’ve come up with a total of 3 stocks that looked somewhat decent. I use this as a sign that the market is not a healthy place for putting on either longs and shorts. Instead, we will manage current positions. From my experience this is the hardest part of trading. Doing nothing when there’s nothing to do. It’s times like these where I would look for trades and in turn, force…
The broader market has seen a flurry of gaps for the past few days, all of which have filled, but one. That one being the opening gap up from the year. Put a post it note in front of your computer with the number 1251.75. This is the unfilled gap on the S&P500 and we will look to fill it in the coming weeks. Given that the market has rallied this week, stocks that didn’t participate in the rally and…
What a crazy week it’s been. Finally all setup and back in the groove, now coming to you from a new location. Scottsdale, AZ. What you don’t see in the photo is the nice view of palm trees and green grass out the window to my left (I snapped the photo at night). How I Create My Watch Lists I begin my watch list building by looking at the broader market before I begin. I ask myself “Where are we…
The markets formed a doji in week one of 2012. This is a sign of indecision and could be expected at the onset as traders and hedge funds begin to pick up trading again in the new year. That being said it is the long term investors which drive the long term trend of the markets. Aside from the intraday and a few small daily trends, we have really gone nowhere in the past year. We saw a few longs…
Only longs showed up on our scans this evening. This can mean one of two things, a violent rally, or violent decline. Not very helpful right? Wrong. When we see the same pattern show up across all markets look to the media. If the media is talking about that same setup, it’s likely the opposite will happen. If the markets are showing a clear sign or pattern setting up, it’s okay to go in big. Just make sure to define…
Continuing where we left off yesterday, the shorts saw the start of a good move. One option to lock in profits as the trade works in your favor is to trail your stop above the high of the prior day’s close (for shorts) and vice versa for longs. Gold Has Fallen Off the Radar The GLD has broke it’s multi-year uptrend. The fact that GLD hasn’t been talked about as of late is a positive sign for bulls or those…
A slow start today, but that’s normal for the first trading day of the new year. I wanted to begin this post by touching on some entry concepts for swing trades. The Importance of the First 15-min Bar The above is a 2 day 15-min chart of HSTM. This morning it was cued up in the long bin if it broke Friday’s high. It did, so why didn’t we go long? Look at the first 15-min bar. Here’s a trick…
Grab the RSS Feed to have the daily watch list delivered via email. The #1 thing I learned about the markets is that anything can happen. No matter what the data says should happen, doesn’t mean it will happen. There is no one on the planet who can predict the market to 100% certainty so I won’t claim to do so here. What I would like to do is take a look at 2012 and look at some possible scenarios…