Archive for December, 2008


Double Bottom chart patterns are probably one of the easiest to recognize patterns, however most people call any time the price touches near a low twice a double bottom and that’s not exactly what the Double Bottom is.

The price has to touch the same low twice (usually within 3%) with a significant retracement in between.  If the price isn’t exactly the same make sure the price isn’t say 4% lower than the first bottom, lean to the high side for trend reversals.  Staggering lower prices may be a confirmation of a trend continuation.  Also, the two bottoms can not be too close together in time or else it’s just normal volatility.  Unfortunately the exact numbers for retracement and time frame vary from stock equities, commodities, options and within each sector.  So working out these details for your trade option of choice can give you an edge. 

The best test for the double bottom pattern is a price breakout on increased volume after the second bottom higher than the in between retracement.  Huh?  I think I just confused myself, it must be picture time!

There I think that should help clear that up.  The line is the point of the retracement.  If the price moves above this line AFTER the second bottom with a “significant” time frame between the two bottoms you have a very high chance of a price reversal.  I’d say in the 80% range.

It’s good to remember what the chart pattern actually represents – people making trades.  As a price gets lower some generally people think it’s worth less that’s what makes the price go down.  At some point a group of people will now think the stock is a deal and buy in.  Some of those people will sell on the retracement or “take profits” and the sellers who wish they had sold earlier will use that as an opportunity to sell again.  When the price reverses again at the same point it indicates to the market there is a reason why the entity being traded is worth buying at the point and a trend reversal can begin.

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In prior post I’ve been talking about moving averages, support and resistance, and indicators as tools in technical analysis.  The next few post on TA I’d like to talk about chart patterns.  Patterns in charts are perhaps the oldest TA, often credited with early Japanese rice traders using candlestick patterns.  The human brain is a pattern recognizing machine and particularly notices when something changes from the pattern it’s currently on.  The brain loves change!

There are as many chart patterns as there are people to package them up and sell them on the internet.  Oh did I mention for only $9.99 you too can have… no I’m just kidding.  I won’t give away my secrets that cheap! :)

Some of the more well knows patterns are:

I’ll talk about these in more detail this week, but the main point I want to make today is these patterns aren’t just based on cool images, but market psychology.  People in mass tend to react in a predicatble way.  If you see the path in the chart early then there is potential to make some money, not recognizing what is taking place can get you run over.  Even if your fundamentals are correct – mass psychology and can definately over ride pure facts and logic longer than you can stay solvent.

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Basics Forex

What is the Forex?

The FOREX for FX or Spot is a 4 trillion dollar a day exchange trading..well money.  You can trade the currency of one nation for the currency of another.  The most popular forex options are:

Symbol Country Currency Nickname
USD United States Dollar Buck
EUR Euro members Euro Fiber
JPY Japan Yen Yen
GBP Great Britain Pound Cable
CHF Switzerland Franc Swissy
CAD Canada Dollar Loonie
AUD Australia Dollar Aussie
NZD New Zealand Dollar Kiwi

Why Trade on the FOREX?

The big reasons are:

  • Portfolio Diversification
    • By trading on the FOREX with your stock portfolio and planning carefully you may be able to take more risk as it is spread out in more uncorrelated areas.  Also, this is another area that may fit your trading style / personality better.
  • Available Hours
    • Trading on the stock market may not fit with your 9-5 job, but the FOREX is open nearly 24 hours per day.  While all currencies may not have the same movement at all hours of the day, you should be able to find something to trade that fits your plan.
  • No commissions
    • While not directly, there is a spread, but this is often much lower than the stock market where there is a spread and a commission.  This is particularly good if you are a very high trade volume person or have a very small account.  The spread and commissions (often called slippage) can really kill a small account.
  • Leverage
    • If you have found a high win to loss ratio strategy leverage may really be your friend.  The FX is the highest leverage available especially with so little money required.
  • High Liquidity
    • The spot market has approximately 16 times the volume of the New York Stock Exchange.  This provides a lot more opportunity to safely enter and exit a trade at their chosen price points.  This is really good if you have to set your entry and exits and leave your computer.

What Do I Need to Start Trading?

  • A high speed Internet connection.  You’ll go crazy if you attempt to trade on dial up.
  • $200 minimum to start a micro account.  Though you may get really frustrated with this little money, $1000 may be more appropriate to start.
  • A game plan

Forex is a good place to cut your teeth on trading because generally it’s a slower moving market and because it’s so large it’s harder for an individual to manipulate the market causing you to get blind sided.

So go ahead, read up on more FOREX trading strategies (more to come on EasyLearn) and give it a swing at one of the free FOREX trading accounts.

Just so no one thought I wasn’t making suggestions and ignoring them I wanted to review the share’s return for each stock pick that I have made on Learn The Stock Market And How To Trade since its inception a couple of months ago.

Here’s each stock return compared to the DOW Jones returns and S&P 500 returns:

Stock End of Day Price Price Now % G/L S&P 500 SP % DOW                        DOW%
PFE 17.65 16.92 -2% 996.23 -12% 9447.11 -9%
WEN 3.97 4.28 8% 909.92 -3% 8579.19 1%
LOW 17.9 21.99 23% 899.22 -2% 8629.68 0%
BA 52.42 39.2 -25% 968.75 -9% 9319.83 -7%
COP 55.77 51.39 -8% 1005.75 -13% 9625.28 -10%
CAT 39.33 42.08 7% 851.81 3% 8443.39 2%
AIG 2.01 1.8 -10% 896.24 -2% 8149.09 6%
F 2.72 3.04 12% 876.07 0% 8635.42 0%
JNJ 57.25 57.25 0% 879.73 0% 8629.68 0%

(Click on a stock symbol to see the post where the stock was recommended.)

(Starting price was chosen for end of day on the day the stock was chosen.  This is because the vast majority of you read the site after the market has closed.)

Average G/L 0%
S&P Average -4%
DOW Average -2%
S&P Now 879.73
DOW Now 8629.68

As you can see, if you bought equal dollars in each of the choices you’d be about broke even right now compared to -4% for the S&P 500 returns or -2% for the DOW Jones returns.  Boeing (BA) has been my real dog of a choice (including in real life where they caused my company to have to slow down) and AIG is down compared to the market, though this isn’t unexpected.  I believe Boeing will come back if they ever get their 787 up in the air.

Lowes (LOW) has done very well as well as Ford, though expect Ford to be quite volatile for awhile.  If I was purely trading I’d probably take some profits from the F stock, but that’s hard to do in this blogging nature and I’ll go ahead and hold on to it.  I’m also very happy with how PFE has held up, being the first stock pick, and when either the stock market turns or some of their new products make it through testing I expect very good returns still. 

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