I have spent a lot of time trading the financials for the past 18 months. Maybe too much time 🙂 Yesterday, when many traded to key support levels I got long. Some broke these levels briefly so I got out and even got short some MS. Not such a good idea. Every single financial closed significantly above their support levels … Read More
Low Volume
Today was the perfect example of how we need higher volume to confirm a break of support. We see this with stocks and the overall market. We need levels to be broken with significant volume as confirmation. And today we did not see this. SPY over the past two days have violated 88.50, which was a level the market had … Read More
What We Can Learn From Roddick as Traders
Since this Saturday I have been without internet and cell phone access. I like a remote location. It is calming. But not a spot without modern technology. Thankfully Sunday we had the Wimbledon Final between Andy Roddick and Roger Federer. For those non tennis fans, Roddick was not given a chance to win by most experts, as Federer is arguably … Read More
The Week That Was: June 28 – July 5, 2009
Short week as Americans prepared to celebrate the Fourth of July. I caught some nice sun and relaxed; hope you were all able to do the same. We had some light volume until the non-farm payrolls number on Thursday, trading lower over the course of the rest of the day and closing near the lows. Overall, not exactly how the … Read More
Perspective
One advantage of trading experience is perspective. There are ebbs and flows to the market. There are natural periods where we slump. And there is a learning curve that the new trader must overcome. Let’s discuss. In the book that I am currently writing for Wiley, I start a chapter explaining that there are way too many people walking around … Read More
Making Money During A Quiet Period
Each day the market presents an opportunity to make money. Let me restate. Each day there is money to be extracted from the market. Let me restate. Professional traders who properly prepare each day have a 90% chance of taking money from the market. The 10% of the time they don’t make money is usually due to a mental mistake … Read More
Ritholtz, 52 Week Highs, and Epic Battles
I received this question on a previous post that we should discuss from Damien Hoffman of Wall Street Cheat Sheet. Let’s tackle this question. Damien Hoffman Says: June 29th, 2009 at 10:43 pm 1) How do you deal with a gap against an overnight position which breaks your stop? 2) Do you favor 52-week and all-time high stocks? I have … Read More
Range Play on the Open: OSK
We have watched two excellent Range Plays on the Open with Stocks in Play recently in our Video Review Sessions. One was in LVS. One was in OSK today. Let’s walk you through this trade set up so you can add it to your quiver. OSK gapped up on the open after receiving a huge new contract from the government. … Read More