Posts Tagged ‘day trading’

Candlestick Trading Patterns- The Hanging Man, the Hammer and the Spinning Top!

Mar 8, 2010 Uncategorized

Hanging Man and the Hammer are two different candlestick patterns. The patterns are not identical. Hanging Man is considered to be bearish and the Hammer is considered to be bullish.

How to spot the Hanging Man and the Hammer? These candlestick patterns are easy to spot on the chart. When you spot a very small candle body accompanied by a pretty long wick on the bottom, it is a Hanging Man if it appears at the top of the uptrend and it is a Hammer if it appears at the bottom of the downtrend.

Now suppose, you find the Hammer or the Hanging Man. What you need is to look for the confirmation the next day! Now, in most of the cases, you will also find a small wick on the top of the candle body.

If you think that you have spotted a Hanging Man appear on the top of an uptrend, wait for the next day’s opening price. If the opening day is lower than the last day’s close, you have spotted a true Hanging Man.

Similarly, if you spot a Hammer at the bottom of a downtrend, you need to confirm it with the opening price on the following day. If the opening price on the next day is higher than the closing price on the last day, the Hammer formed was a true Hammer.

When you trade candlestick patterns, you need to look for the confirmation on the following day to confirm that the candlestick pattern formed was indeed true. Once you have the confirmation signal, you can safely trade on that candlestick pattern. If you cannot get the confirmation, you should ignore that pattern considering it to be false. Most of these candlestick patterns are ideally suited for the daily charts.

Spinning Top is just like the Hanging Man and the Hammer. Spinning Top is a signal that the battle between the bulls and the bears ended in a draw. It will start next day again with ony side giving in. What this means is that an explosive move in the price action can take place the following day.

How to identify a SPINNING TOP? A Spinning Top has a very small candle body in the middle with two equal wicks on the top and the bottom. This pattern appears very frequently in the daily charts and can be highly profitable if spotted correctly.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report FREE. Master Candlestick Charting with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide!

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Shocking Stocks Short Selling Facts!

Mar 8, 2010 Uncategorized

Short Selling Stocks is one of the favorite day or swing trading strategy. Many traders short stocks. Now many stock brokers make it very easy for the investors and traders to short stocks. Now a days, most of the trading is being done online. When you sell a stock, a message will ask you whether you are selling stocks that you own or you are selling short. With one click, you tell the broker that you are short selling. The broker than goes about and arranges the shares for you to short sell. These shares are a loan to your account.

In some cases, the brokerage firm cannot borrow the shares as so many people have sold the stock short that there are no more shares to borrow. In that case, you will have to find another stock or use another strategy.

Now, shorting is one of the favorite strategies employed by day traders. A day trader may short stock on the mundane reason like its price had been going up for three days and it’s time to come down! Day traders are not fundamental traders. Day traders are simply interested in the daily volatility in the stock. Most even don’t do any financial or fundamental analysis of the companies whose stocks they are trading. Almost all are technicians or what you call technical analysis experts.

You have to be careful about the uptick rule as stock exchanges have rules in place to help maintain an upward bias in the stock market. What this means is that you can only short a stock when the last trade was a move up. In other words, you can’t short a stock that is moving down.

How much risky short selling can be? Well, in theory there is no stopping a stock price to reach the sky. So if you are wrong in your short selling decision, your loss can be catastrophic. But don’t worry, short sellers also use stop loss so if the price starts to move up, your position will get closed automatically by the stop loss order.

Now, don’t get caught in the market with short selling when good news spreads about the stock that you had shorted driving its price up. This is known as Short Squeeze. Once that happens, almost all short sellers get desperate to dump their stocks and exit but when they try to buy back the stock, they get more hurt as the prices go even higher and higher on rising demand for the stock in the market.

If you have already shorted that stock, you might get a call from your broker to return that stock immediately. In such a case, you will have to immediately return the stock even if it doesn’t make any sense to you!As said before, companies, investors and many brokers hate short sellers. They think that short sellers had intentionally driven down the stock prices. So sometimes, they will spread rumors of good news to create a momentary short squeeze. Sometimes, a campaign will be started by the owners of a particular stock instructing their brokers not to loan out their stocks to short sellers.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Read this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading FREE Report plus the shocking Profit Button Report that applies no matter what you trade-stocks, forex, futures or options! Turn $200 into $100K in just 3 months with this Penny Stock Trading FREE Report!

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Doji Candlestick Pattern-Something Unique And Highly Profitable!

Mar 7, 2010 Uncategorized

A Doji Candlestick Pattern is formed when the opening and the closing prices are the same. So, there is no stick on the candlestick. There are some variations but essentially a Doji is almost all wicks with no body. A Doji looks more like a cross rather than a candlestick pattern.

So for a Doji to be truly formed on a trading day, throughtout the trading day heavy buying or selling may take place but at the end of the day, the price should be where it had been at the start. In other words, the opening and the closing prices should be the same for a Doji to be formed.

When a Doji is formed with the opening and the closing prices equal, it is a signal that the battle between the bulls and the bears had been a draw during the trading day. Soon, either the bulls or the bears are going to previal. In other words, a trend reversal is about to take place.

A Dragonfly Doji pattern is unique in the sense that the opening, closing and the high prices are all the same or equal. A Dragonfly Doji is formed when the stocks opens, trades down during first part of the day. During some part of the day, the price starts to climb again and eventually closing on the high which is the same as the open.

In other words, the open, the close and the high for the day are the same for the Dragonfly Doji to form. So when a Dragonfly Doji Pattern is formed, the bears had been in control of the market at the start. But at some point in the trading day, the bulls become active and step in. Bulls start buying. This takes the prices up and at the end of the day, the security price ends up right where it had started.

The low of the Dragonfly Doji can be considered a near term support level because it is clear that the buyers stepped in at that level and turned the trend from down to up. Dragonfly Doji is a bullish candlestick pattern.

The second important variation to the Doji is the Bearish Gravestone Doji. This pattern is formed when the open and close of the day is equal to the low of the day. This is something opposite to the Dragonfly Doji where the open, the close and the high were equal. When a Bearish Gravestone Doji Pattern is formed, it is a signal that a prolonged downtrend is about to start in the market.

As said before, this pattern is rare but very easy to spot on the chart. When it does form, get ready for a trend change!

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Learn this powerful Fibonacci Retracement Method that pulls 500+ pips per trade FREE! Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report plus the shocking Profit Button Report that applies no matter what you trade-stocks, forex, futures or options FREE!

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Harami And The Harami Cross Candlestick Patterns Can Be Highly Profitable!

Feb 28, 2010 Stock Investment

There are simple as well as complex candlestick patterns. There are single stick, two stick as well as three stick candlestick patterns. Harami is a two stick candlestick pattern. Two stick patterns take two days to form on daily charts. A Harami is formed whent the first day candle is longer than the second day candle. Harami can be bullish as well as bearish!

A bullish Harami candlestick pattern is formed when the first day candle is bearish. Rather the first day is very bearish and occurs on a downtrend. But on the second day, the bulls come into action and try to move the prices higher. But bulls are not very successful. The second day close is still lower than the first day open and the first day’s high is never surpassed. However, the second day is a signal that the bulls have started to take the stand and stop the current downtrend.

The second day is still a down day that follows a bearish trend. On the second day, the open is higher than the close of the first day. The bulls ruled the second day as the close is higher than the open.

Bulls and bears are always fighting with each other for the control of the market. When a bullish Harami is formed what this means is that the bulls are still cautious about their success and fear that the bears might return to take the prices lower again. However, when this does not happen, it gives confidence to the bulls encouraging more buying in the market and the reversal of the trend.

Now, like most of the candlestick patterns, a Harami can fail. What this means is that you need to confirm it with the price action on the following day. Always place the stop loss first when you trade. When you spot a Harami, place the stop loss near the open of the second day.

Harami pattern has got few variations. On of them is the Bullish Harami Cross Pattern. Now,a Bullish Harami Cross is not formed very frequently. But when it does form, it means an sudden trend reversal. So you should act immediatetly when you spot it. The first day in case of a Bullish Harami Cross is a bearish candle. The signal day or the second day is a Bullish Doji with an open higher than the close of the first day and the close lower than the open of the first day.

The bearish Harami Pattern is the other way around. The first day candle is bullish but the second day candle is bearish with the open lower than the close of the first day and the close higher than the open of the first day. But this means is that bears have taken over the market and soon a new downtrend is going to develop.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Read this shocking 40 page FRWC Brutal Truth Report on trading robots and how to test and optimize them FREE. Downlaod this 82 page PDF Candlestick Guide FREE!

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What Is Momentum Investing? How It Can Make You Rich?

Feb 28, 2010 Stock Investment

There is a difference between trading and investing. Trading is always short term while investing is long term. The time horizon in trading can be as short as a few minutes to a few days to a few weeks. Whereas in investing, the time horizon can be months to years. Many people day trade or swing trade stocks, currencies, futures, options, ETFs, commodities or other markets. In day trading, a trader opens a position and closes it in the same day making a quick profit. In swing trading, a trader tries to ride a trend in the market as long as it lasts. On the other hand, an investor is least pushed about the short term swings in the market. He or she has a long term time horizon like a few months to even a few years. This long time horizon matches their investment and financial goals!

Now a company’s stock may have a good long term prospects supported by strong fundamentals. But the stock may stay still for a long time before it catches the attention of the media and the investing public before it’s price get’s bid up. So an investor might have to wait for a long time before realizing a return on his or her investment. Many investors can learn a few tricks from day traders that can help them make a quick profit in a matter of days orn weeks instead of months or years.

Many investors when they fall in love with their investments on the long run forget this cardinal rule of trading that you have to cut your losses. Market least care who you are and how long you have been in it.There is a general problem with so many investors. They fall in love with their investment after doing so much research and committing so much time for the position to work. Now, day traders are always hit and run types. They have developed an innate sense of discipline among themselves that teaches them when to commit money to a trade and when to cut and run.

Now as a momentum investor, you need to look for securities that are going up in prices especially if accompanied by the underlying growth. What this means is that instead of buying low and selling high, what you will be doing is buying high and selling even higher.

When a security goes up in price with a strong demand underneath it, it said to have price momentum behind it! Now, as a long term investor, you should look for securities having momentum behind them just to avoid getting stuck with securities for months before they start moving. It pays to be patient. But it works even better when the money that you invested works for you while you wait.

Now, when the price of a stock or security increases because of strong demand, it is said to have momentum behind it. When, there is momentum behind a security, it means that it’s price will continue to icnrease as long as it has got momentum. This way by investing in stocks having momentum behind them, you avoid the risk of getting stuck in stocks that might not move for months and months.

Now, when doing momentum investing, you need to also do some fundamental research behind the company. As most of the momentum investing done during the dot com bubble was on hearsay without being supported by any strong fundamentals! However, if too many investors start practicing momentum investing, it sometimes leads to bubbles like the tech bubble that happened at the end of 1990s.

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Back Testing Your Trading System-Know These Shocking Limitations

Feb 27, 2010 Stock Investment

Your trading system needs thorough testing before you decide to trade live with it. A trading system might comprise of a set of indicators. You need to know how well your trading system and its set of indicators work in a particular market.

For this you can do back testing. Back testing is a method that uses historical data to test how well your indicators work in a particular market. You can use back testing software that enables you to look at the past market data and test how well the indicators and your trading system have worked in the past market.

Backtesting results are no guarantee that the trading system will perform well under live market conditions. Things that worked in the past might not work now. Similarly something that didn’t work in the past, may work now! You never know!There are many problems with historical data. There is no slippage in backtesting. Slippage is one of the most important problem that a trader faces while trading live. The other problem that the backtest ignores is the widening of spreads under volatile market conditions.

So when you look at back testing results, you should look at them with scepticism. But it doesn’t mean that backtesting is entirely useless! What we can say is that no two trades are exactly alike.

Back testing can give you a feel how a particular market behaves under certain conditions. Back testing can also spot you certain general characteristics of the market like the seasonal trends and market tendencies.

For example, some markets especially the commodities market is highly seasonal and cyclical in nature. We can take the example of agricultural commodities like wheat, grains,corn, cotton, coffee and stuff like that. In case of the stock market, there is much talk of the January Effect. Well, it is there no doubt about it. Some years, it is highly pronounced and others it is not that pronounced. Similarly stock prices tend to rise at the end of each month and the first few days of the new months. The reason for this is that many institutional investors tend to put the new funds to work at the end of the month and the beginning of the new month! Now in other markets, you might not find any seasonal trends. For example, there is very little seasonality in curreny market or the bond market.

Back testing can also help you establish the amount of time a particular market tends to run in a certain direction. For example, in case of US Dollar Index, its trend lines tend to last for months to years.

But to tell you the truth, backtesting can only give you a rough guess about the performance of the trading system under live trading conditions. There is no substitute for live trading results!

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How To Day Trade Stocks and Win

Feb 5, 2010 Stock Investment

Once you determine which business cycle the economy is currently in you can start researching for a trade. It is better to have some kind of a system in place that will be used before every trade. Here is a easy five step blueprint to help get you started.

5 Steps to Investing Online:

1. Find a stock This is the most obvious and most tricky stage in stock trading. With well over 10,000 stocks to trade a good rule of thumb to ponder is time of the year. For instance, as I write this, it is the beginning of spring. It would make sense to mull over stocks that usually go up, or go down if you are bearish, during this time of year.

2. Fundamental Analysis Many short term traders may disagree with the need to do any fundamental analysis, however knowing the chart patterns from the past and the news about the stock is germane. An example would be earnings season. If you are thinking about playing a stock to the upside that has missed its earnings target the last 2 quarters, caution may well be in order.

3. Technical Analysis This is the part where indicators come in. Stochastics, the MACD, volume, moving averages, RSI, CCI, support levels, resistance levels and all the rest. The batch of indicators you choose, whether lagging or leading, may depend on where you get your tutoring.

Keep it simple when initially starting out, using a lot of indicators in the beginning is a ticket to a losing trade. Become very cozy using one or two indicators first. Study their ins and outs and you’ll be certain to make better trades.

4. Track your picks Once you have placed a few stock trades you should be managing them right. If the trade is intended to be a short term trade watch it closely for your exit signal. If it’s a swing trade, look for the indicators that tell you the trend is shifting. If it’s a long term trade remember to set weekly or monthly checkups on the stock.

Use this time to keep up on the news, settle on your price targets, set stop losses, and scan other stocks that you possibly will want to own also.

5. The bigger picture As the axiom goes, all ships rise and fall with the tide. Being aware of which sectors are heating up stacks the chips in your favor. For example, if you are long (expecting price to go up) on an oil stock and most of the oil sector is rising then more likely than not you are on the right side of the trade. Keep an eye on ETFs that track a sector’s performance.

Ready to stick it to institutional traders and beat them at their own game?? Read how to trade stocks and for more free educational stock trading lessons see how to day trade

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Hints And Tips For Deciding On The Best Stock Picking Software

Jan 27, 2010 Financial Investment

Knowing a bit about the ins and outs of stock picking software can be important for those who are contemplating getting into the stock market or are already in but may not have the time to work on identifying the most likely stocks for success. Also, software can help when one doesn’t want to entrust one’s entire portfolio to a broker who may or may not be engaging in “churning.”

Churning is activity created by a broker that results in a constant stream of commissions to the broker based on numerous buying, selling or trading transactions that tend to benefit only the broker. Knowing something about the stock market these days really means knowing something about the software that can help one pick a likely successful stock and then how to buy or sell it or trade it.

How stock picking software works is that it automates the process of selecting stocks that have a high probability for positive gain, meaning that it will help a person by a stock when it is low and then sell it when it is high, which is the basic meaning of positive gain. Most software synchronizes itself to real-time data and performance benchmarks to ensure it is as accurate as possible.

Generally speaking, there are several different types of software available, with each offering a number of benefits and features that set each apart from the other. For those who just don’t have much time to sit down and then evaluate the best times to buy and sell a stock, stock picking software can almost completely automate the entire process efficiently and with little fuss.

How it works is that it will scan stocks that have been placed onto a user’s target list or an industry sector that the user has identified (i. E. Automobile companies) and will then engage in constant analysis and is aimed at presenting the best performing stocks. It will look at current stock market exchange reports, collate the data and then lay it out for the traitor who needs to come to a decision.

With functional software, the effort will be undertaken such that the software synchronizes to the up-and-down movements within the stock market and it will take these performance behaviors with an eye toward looking at stocks that are traded and at what prices. Working its way through a series of decision points it will come to a list of stocks that are the most valuable. It can also be customized.

As far as general features that may be common to many different software programs, most come equipped with stock tickers and international quote generators. Additionally, many are able to track portfolios and deliver customized alerts to their users. There are also charting and graphing tools and a way to have the software notify its user via e-mail for anything the user deems important.

Understand that the most common features to any stock picking software platform is that it will do its work by analysis and then selection of a stock or a number of stocks. This can make the job of buying, selling or trading much easier on investor but no software program can guarantee complete success. The final output, in other words, might not be fully accurate.

Are you tired of scraping by at your day job? Why not get into the stock trading and make some money the easy way… with the guidance of artificial intelligence! More info about trading for living… You can also check the best way how to make money day trading quickly.

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Profiting From High Volatility

Jan 25, 2010 Financial Investment

For anyone who has been invested in the markets over the past two years, it should come as no surprise to discover that market volatility, as measured by the Chicago Board Options Exchange, has risen from the range 16 to nearly 80, the highest level ever recorded.

To give perspective to just how high the volatility index climbed, think back to the chaos that followed September 11, 2001. That point, volatility “spiked” to 33. These days, as the index reports a number in the 30 range, the markets seems subdued. This is definitely not the case, which means investors can continue to profit from volatility.

The first thing investors need to do when it comes to taking a run at profit is to distance themselves emotionally from their investments. Trading software that provides signals on when to buy and sell can help in this regard, but this is something most individual investors are unable to accomplish. Think about it: we all work hard for our money and we hate to see it wasted. This is a benefit that money managers have — they haven’t worked hard for the money you invest, so if they lose, they lose your money, not theirs.

The second thing the investor needs to do is understand volatility. This can be done primarily by studying graphs on sites like Yahoo! Finance (type “^VIX” in the quote section) but also by realizing and appreciating the dictionary definition. Volatility is the rate of change in a price’s deviation from its mean. This means that the higher the volatility, the more quickly a price will deviate from it’s mean price.

Lastly, investors need is to hold back from being consumed by greed. This poses an immense challenge for most people as short-term gains often hint at larger longer-term returns. Trading system can help in this regard as well since they so effectively strip the emotion factor from any trade by focusing solely on statistical figures like volatility, momentum, relative strength and so on. Individual investors, on the other hand, focus on the potential of profit or loss.

While trading systems allow investors to remove the emotional side of investing, they are not absolutely required provided that the investors can control their greed. By eliminating emotion, investors can take advantage of the profit opportunities that volatility offers.

Chris has more than 16 years of financial services experience. As the Fund Adviser for the MutualFundSite.org, he recommends Balanced Funds as a starting point for people who want to know Where To Invest 10,000.

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Blogger Or Forex Trader

Jan 22, 2010 Financial Investment

You may be an new trader to the currency markets, but already excited about forex trading and all it has to offer investors. Its no wonder forex trading blogs are so popular, they offer other traders information and experiences from traders around the world. It will give you the opportunity to share your familarity with forex trading with others. It also will provide interaction with other traders and you can then gain extra insight by allowing them to comment on what your posting on your forex blog. It’s relatively easy, and Wordpress makes it even easier to maintain with their quick and simple interface. Its simple to create and manage. Many of the web hosting companies can have you setup for less than ten bucks and will even setup your blog with their automated software.

You may think why a blog vs. a regular website? People think that putting a website together is expensive, the truth is putting a blog up is virtually free except for the purchase of the domain name and the web hosting, which equates to almost nothing considering the huge benefits.

Once your up and running in less than a day, you can literally have be discussing the important strategies, tips and forex knowledge the same evening. Making sure your readers know about your losing trades in addition to the more profitable ones, your allowing them to relate to you more as a forex trading colleague versus a professional trader. Your interaction with your readers will change your mind about a few things relating to forex, just by recognizing some of the same mistakes you both made while trading.

Many of the leading writers use a pen name for their articles or when they post on their own blogs, something you may want to consider also. You may want to keep anoymous on your blog, which is easily acheived by using a pseudonym. If at some point you wanted to take credit for your postings and information, you simply change the name on your FX blog and the author name changes everywhere you have a post. Adding your real name to your work on your blog will allow you to start a following behind not only a site name, but a real name that your customers can follow across the internet. Its simpler once they can relate the face to the name.

Its nice to have people interacting and finding your content useful, but at some point you will want to bring in more traffic to it. One of the better ways to do so is to really post on other forex blogs and you can receive a pingback to your own blog. The interactivity of blogs is what makes them so powerful and makes them one of the most popular web platforms. Forex blogging is a tight knit community in which many authors contribute to each others blogs providing free forex content.

Most people find that setting up a forex trading blog is a cinch, and their very happy with the results. Writing good content is not only fulfilling to readers, but having your articles recognized by an entire community of forex sites is well worth your time.

If your FX trade goes southward, high leverage forex trading can bring you large losses very quickly. Its essential you read Marcus Anton’s article regarding a unique way you can bring in knowledge from other traders and use that knowledge to your own advantage in trading.

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