In order to day trade, you need to have reliable intraday charts. Without this crucial source of information, you’re dead in the water.
What is an intraday chart? An intraday stock chart is simply a chart that displays information for time-frames shorter than a day. For most traders this includes 1, 5, 15 and 60 minute charts. Also, if you’re trading a market that trades 24 hours a day, like the Forex, a frequently used intraday chart is the 240 minute (or 4 hours, for the mathematically challenged). Using these charts, day traders are able to make decisions based on where [...]
From the category archives:
Chart Analysis
You seem to think chart analysis is a lot more difficult than it really is. Instead of giving it a go on your own, you rely on the wisdom of us brilliant chartists to hand you money-making set-ups on your favorite stocks.
I am here to tell you, friend, that it’s not that difficult to do some basic technical analysis on your own. Let’s take a walk through the basics, shall we?
Connect the Pointy Bits
On a stock chart, you have peaks and troughs. In order to identify the trend of a stock, you simply find these peaks and troughs and connect [...]
Last week, First Solar (FSLR) ran up significantly on news of a large deal for a solar power plant in China. The second day of the run was highlighted in my post about Opening Gap Reversals. That day saw a huge run up early in the morning and a slow burn back down to its opening price which formed the Long-Legged Doji in the stock chart above.
Long-Legged Doji
The long-legged doji is a specific form of the standard doji. While the doji signifies indecision, the long-legged doji shows that a deeper and more extended battle occurred between the bears and the [...]
I discussed the standard opening range breakout in my last post. Now I want to talk about a variation of the Opening Range Breakout . It’s called the Opening Gap Reversal
The Play
The chart above shows the opening range reversal that occurred when First Solar (FSLR) failed to fill its gap today. The standard mantra of traders is that gaps fill more often than not. I don’t know how true that is, but I do know lots of people believe that it’s true.
What happens when the market proves a lot of people wrong? You get a range breakout. The idea of [...]
The Opening Range Breakout is one of the simplest day trading set-ups to understand. The first hour of the trading day is the most volatile. Bears and bulls are battling it out in the stock market, trying to show you who’s going to be the boss for the day. This volatility creates a price-range you can trade from. Like all breakout trading set-ups, this is a great set-up because it offers a very low risk entry. If there is no follow-through on the opening range breakout, you should exit the trade immediately.
The Time-Frame
You are looking for opening range breakouts to [...]
The great thing about science is that it full of fun facts and formulas. The fascinating thing about trading is that it is not.
I pointed out a support level on Apple (AAPL) at 168.67 in another post. In that post, I also mentioned that I was long Apple (AAPL) above 168.67, and short below that level. Then, this morning, I tweeted a short trade even though the price was above 168.67 on my day trading charts.
“You’re a liar!” you might have shouted; “You tricked me! I went long because you said to go long!” I also qualified that statement [...]
I use this method regularly on stocks on my core watch list, and every time I pick a new “in play” stock to add to my watch list. You can use this method to identify overall trends as well as key levels to trade from.
I have chosen one of my core stocks, Apple (no pun intended), to use as an example. I always keep an eye on Apple because it has loads of volume, plenty of daily price range, and it makes predictable moves.
Starting with the weekly stock chart above, you can see that Apple (as well as [...]
I had quite a morning day trading today. The following is a transcript of my Tweets sent via Stocktwits as I traded RIMM. Since it all happens so fast, it is difficult to really give followers a picture of what I’m actually thinking, so below I’ve added what I was thinking at the time, and since I am not very smart, I have added what I assume a more prudent trader may have been thinking in the same situation.
The trading day started a little rough, and some guy prosed the following question;
9:44 am – “$SPY how do u day trade when [...]
As my hometown wrapped up Gay Pride Week with a delightfully flamboyant parade, I wondered how I might use the powerful symbol, the rainbow, to represent the goings on within the stock market.
I mostly use the SPY as my general market indicator, so I pulled up a daily chart and employed some tricky technical analysis. It was then that I noticed an interesting phenomenon…
I lined up popular MAs according to ROY-G-BIV from fast to slow
MA (5) = Red
MA (10) = Orange
MA (14) = Yellow
MA (20) = Green
MA (50) = Blue
MA (100) = Indigo
MA (200) = Violet
As you can see we’re [...]
