Swing Trading Blog | News and Updates for Traders

May 6, How to Avoid Market Timing Errors by Analyzing Price Action

Sun, 06 May 2012 14:09:56 GMT

Last Thursday, our market timing strategy told us to go long because the 10 period moving average was above the 30 period moving average. Also, Williams %R was oversold.

But, this would have been a mistake because the market tanked on the following day. This error could have been avoided by looking at the hourly chart and spotting this classic bearish chart pattern:

Technical indicators are fine but that will never replace looking at the price action itself!

Apr 14, The 3 Best Chart Patterns for Swing Trading

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:42:49 GMT

[This is a guest post by Steve Sollheiser.]

When swing trading and choosing which set-ups to trade, one can find many chart patterns that seem to be profitable but actually just waste your money and lead to losses. In this article we will describe 3 accurate chart patterns that you can safely trade for consistent profits.

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Apr 7, Judgment Errors to Avoid While Stock Trading

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:19:57 GMT

[This is a guest post by Susan Porter.]

There has been a long standing debate in the world of psychology asking us how much of a person is affected by their natural genetic predisposition versus how much of that person is molded by the environment they grow up in; Nature versus Nurture.

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Mar 26, 7 Deadly Sins of Day Trading

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:50:36 GMT

[This is a guest post by Steven Fox.]

One of the most important attributes of a successful day trader is simply avoiding mistakes and minimizing losses. Put simply: you do not have to do everything absolutely right to be a successful day trader, you just have to manage to not do things wrong. After recently reading the book "Overcoming 7 Deadly Sins of Trading" by Ruth Barrons Roosevelt, I decided to create my own list of "7 Deadly Sins of Day Trading".

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Mar 6, The Stock Market Has Reached an Extreme

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:50:37 GMT

This sell-off has reached an extreme that shows a high probability of reversing.

See this page for information on market timing with the VIX.

Feb 29, How to Trade the Hammer Candlestick Pattern More Effectively

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:34:26 GMT

Here are a few of my best tips on trading the hammer candlestick pattern:

A hammer has to develop after a wave of selling has occurred. If it comes after a wave of buying then it is no longer a hammer - it's a hanging man which is bearish.
Look for the hammer to pull back to a significant support area on the chart. If it is just dangling on the chart with no obvious support to the left, then it is better left alone or you can wait until the following day to see if a reversal takes place.
Look for the shadow (tail) of the hammer to penetrate obvious areas on the chart where stop loss orders are clustered. The stock has a better chance of moving higher once these sellers are out of the way.
Look at the range for the day. Is it greater than the range of the prior candles over the past several days? If so, then the hammer will be more significant.
Has volume increased from the prior day? If so, then you know that interest is picking up in the stock at the current price level. This falls under the classic technical analysis wisdom that "volume precedes price".

Here is an example:

Feb 25, This Stock May Be Heading Much Higher

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:40:59 GMT

Here is a stock that you may want to add to your watch list:

SodaStream International (SODA) looks like it has bottomed out and may be moving into a stage two uptrend. It is currently right at the 200 period moving average (dotted line) and they are set to report earnings on February 29th.

I think this stock will run into some resistance at $50.00 just because it is a nice "pretty" number. But the next major resistance area isn't until all the way up into the $70 dollar range.

Feb 22, Why You Should Never Hold on to a Stock Through Earnings

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:51:59 GMT

This is why you should never hold on to a stock through an earnings release.

I bought this stock on the day of the green arrow. My expectation was that the stock would rally going into the earnings release. But, I knew I had to get out quick because they were scheduled to report earnings. I ended up selling it two days later (red arrow). Just a break even trade.

Look at what happened today. The stock tanked.

A stop loss order will not protect you from a drop like this. And, I guarantee you that this will happen to you eventually if you hold on to stocks through earnings releases.

Holding on to stocks through earnings is fine if you are an investor - not if you are a swing trader.

Feb 18, Review of TradeMiner Software

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:31:37 GMT

What if I could tell you of a stock that has risen 100% of the time, over the past 10 years, between February 3rd and February 9th? Would you want to know what that stock was?

Or, what if you wanted to know when the best time of the year was to buy Apple for swing trading between 3 and 10 trading days? I'll tell you - it's October.

That is what TradeMiner does.

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Feb 16, Blogs I Read and Recommend

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:11:19 GMT

Like reading blogs? I do.

The blogosphere is jam-packed with stock market and swing trading bloggers pumping out some exceptional articles and news stories. So, on this page, I have listed a few of the ones that I especially enjoy reading.

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Feb 14, Is Walgreens (WAG) Ready to Take Off?

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:42:56 GMT

Walgreens showed up on my scan recently. Here is the daily chart:

This stock appears to be moving into a stage 2 uptrend.

Now take a look at the weekly chart:

It's sitting right on the 200 period moving average (dotted line). This isn't a stock I would buy right now but it is definitely "watch list worthy"!

Feb 10, StockCharts.com Has a New Advanced Scan Library

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:46:19 GMT

In case you missed it, StockCharts.com has a new advanced scan library - and it's awesome! I can't tell you how many emails I have received over the years from new traders asking me how to write scans. Well, now you can study these scans and learn to write them yourself.

The advanced scan library is divided into 4 sections:

Sample Scans

Predefined Scans

Published Scans

User-Contributed Scans

All of these scans can be copied into the Advanced Scan Workbench (for Extra members only). This new advanced scan library is long overdue but I guess it's better late than never!

See the scan that I use on StockCharts.com here.

Feb 3, The 3-Step Method That Predicts a Change in Trend 80% of the Time

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:37:24 GMT

Can you correctly identify a change in the trend? And, what if you could predict a change in trend and be accurate almost 80% of the time?

It's possible.

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Jan 9, 10 Price Action Tips That Will Make You a Better Swing Trader

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:24:38 GMT

Take your trading to a new level in 2012! This new page will show you some price action tips and tricks that will dramatically improve your trading!

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Dec 23, Support and Resistance for Swing Traders (Updated)

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 14:35:14 GMT

I added some more examples on the support and resistance page. Hopefully, this will help out some of the new traders.

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Nov 19, Updated Website and New Google+ Page

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 14:19:52 GMT

I've updated the website and organized the pages better. The website is now divided into 3 categories:

Beginners

Intermediate

Advanced

Access to these sections appear in the horizontal menu across the top of every page (and at the bottom of every page). I've also set up a Google+ page...

Google+

Check it out!

Jul 31, 4 Example Trades For Swing Traders

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 21:07:29 GMT

I added a page on the website that has all of my example trades on one page. This should make it easier to find them:

4 Example Trades For Swing Traders

Also, I added a new fourth example trade...

Example Trade 4: Zagg, Inc. (ZAGG)

I'll be adding more example trades in the future (good and bad trades) so don't forget to sign up to be notified if you haven't already!

Apr 16, How to Short Stocks With Precision

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 15:39:57 GMT

Learn how to short stocks using the 200 period moving average.

Mar 1, Side Trap Chart Pattern For Swing Traders

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 15:44:35 GMT

This chart pattern catches traders on the wrong side of a move.

Feb 25, Position Sizing Calculator

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:34:53 GMT

This is a nice position sizing calculator that will determine share size based on risk. It also has an R-Multiple table.

Dec 20, Learn This Little-Known Swing Trading Trick

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 16:46:11 GMT

Here is a swing trading trick that will improve your trading in 2011...

Nov 4, The Two Most Important Time Frames For Swing Traders

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 12:29:50 GMT

What are the two most important time frames for swing traders? Read this blog post to find out.

Aug 11, How to Identify Stages Within Stages

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:32:05 GMT

This blog post describes the core philosophy behind swing trading - stages within stages.

Feb 1, Swing Trading Blog | Don't Fight the Market

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:58:31 GMT

Here are some blog posts including the stock market.

Aug 12, Follow Me on Twitter

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:56:06 GMT

Follow me on Twitter for market analysis, links to other technical analysis websites that I find, and stock ideas...

May 14, Swing Trading Blog | Ichimoku Cloud Charts and Combining Chart Patterns

Wed, 14 May 2008 20:33:59 GMT

Here are some blog posts including chart patterns.

Feb 15, Swing Trading Blog | What Are the Best Candlestick Patterns for Shorting Stocks?

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 13:56:40 GMT

Here are some blog posts including candlestick patterns for shorting.