The 200 day moving average may be the granddaddy of moving averages. Simply put, a financial instrument that is trading above it is healthy; below it, anemic. The 200 day moving average measures the sentiment of the market on a longer term basis. This is where major players like pension plans and hedge funds need to look in order to move a large amount of stocks. I display it on all my workspaces proudly, formatted
Earlier this summer, I wrote an article about high and wide channels using SMH - the ETF for Semiconductors - as a textbook example. In a high and wide channel - if the price breaks out from either the up or downside of the parallel lines and then proceeds to trade back into the channel - a trap is often set for the bulls or the bears. In the case of a bearish channel, if
I recently wrote an article on how to trade both before and after a stock reports earnings. In that article, I talk about a miniswing to swing timeframe with GOOG and BIDU as examples. But what can one do if the stock reports well, yet has a negative market phase, looks oversold and the Dow Industrial Average just closed down $265 with the pre opening call indicating another $80 lower? That is when one looks
There isn't necessarily a strong relationship between a company's profits - or losses - and that same company's stock performance. The exciting part of earnings season for me is that when it corresponds with certain technical setups, you can bank on volatility right before and directly after the stock report-a trader's dream! With that said, unless you are a student of seasonal patterns, never keep a position into the report. No regrets if the stock
Who likes losing money trading? The obvious answer should be "nobody"-but from what I read and hear, people lose lots of money. In fact, too many traders lose way more money than they make. Either they have really deep pockets, only remember the good trades and neglect to read their P and L's, fear success more than failure-or-simply lack a game plan and strategy to adhere to. I'm going with the latter. Before one establishes
Inserted into all of my daily charts are 4 basic moving averages; The 10, 30, 50 and 200. We use these as guides for finding trends. If the 10 is above the 30, and the 30 above the 50, and the 50 above the 200 day moving average, we call this "stacked". If the direction of the moving averages is turned upward, we call that "sloped." The optimum setup is when the price of any
One distinct reason the market is confusing to many trend traders right now, is clearly illustrated with the chart of the SMH or the Exchange Traded Fund for Semiconductors. Semiconductors took a divergence from the "Death Cross" of the SPY chart by entering a bullish phase. If one measures how moving averages line up, the SMH confirmed a bullish phase on July 12th as the price rose above the 50 day moving average, which is
I've been trading for 30 years. I spent 12 years on the New York Commodities Exchange with only a roll of graph paper to create my own point and figure charts. The remainder of those 18 years, I've been planted in front of several computers all at once, tricked out with every conceivable high tech advantage. Seriously. I have access to scanning tools that find, sort, rank, and dissect financial instruments in every timeframe, plus
An essential piece of knowledge for all traders to have in their tool belt is an understanding of the different phases of the market. All markets are cyclical. Savvy investors who recognize the different parts of a market phase are more likely to profit during any market cycle. They are also less likely to get caught buying at the worst possible time. This is a fundamental part of the syllabus in Marketgauge's course, The Complete
Marketgauge created special stock trading software that scan for inside days, as we recognize just how significant this short-term trading pattern is for finding trades that have reached an inflection point. One of our tools, the Nuggets List, highlights stocks and ETFs that are in the strongest technical setup for buy opportunities. If any of these stocks/ETFs had an inside day on any given trading day, we view that as a great opportunity to either