Analyzing Stock Market Indexes Using Major Candlestick Signals

The Japanese traders say “let the market tell you what the market is going to do.” The utilization of Candlestick signals makes analyzing the direction of the stock market indexes and trends relatively easy. It becomes difficult at times to sort out what the stock market indexes intentions are when listening to the many scenarios from the so-called “market experts.” Watching the financial news stations will always provide a multitude of opinions of where the market is going. Using Japanese Candlestick signals will circumvent all that noise.

The one basic factor built into Japanese Candlestick signals is that they are formed by the cumulative knowledge of all the investor input, the buying and selling, of a trading entity or trading entities, during a certain time period. No matter what you hear elsewhere, the Candlestick signals tell you exactly what investor sentiment is doing.

Candlestick analysis allows investors to project trend reversals of the stock market indexes with a relatively high degree of accuracy. One misconception about Candlestick signals is that there are too many of them to learn. Of the 50 or 60 Candlestick signals, there are only about 12 signals that will occur a vast majority of the time: The Doji, the Bullish and Bearish Engulfing signal, the Hanging Man, Shooting Star, Hammer, the Inverted Hammer, the Bullish and Bearish Harami, the Dark Cloud, the Piercing Pattern, and the Kicker signal. Knowing these signals alone will dramatically improve your analysis of trend reversals and make learning Candlestick analysis much easier. Having this analysis capability in one’s mental arsenal allows the Candlestick investor to have their portfolio positioned in the correct direction when a move occurs. Understanding the psychology of how the signals are formed provides investors with better foresight into where to have positions placed.

Candlestick analysis is not rocket science. It is simple investment philosophies put into a visual graphic. The 400 years of actual investment results from Japanese rice traders have provided high probability signal results. The Candlestick signals illustrate the investor sentiment mostly defined as fear and greed. Human emotion, when it comes to investing funds, will always have the same ingredients. The Candlestick signals are simply the graphic depiction of investor sentiment. Candlestick signals were not discovered and tested by computer back testing simulations. Candlestick signals are the result of centuries of analyzing how human emotions affect a price trend. The signals, occurring over and over at specific points in a trend reversal, provide a statistically proven trading platform. If you understand how they are formed, you’ll understand what makes prices move.

The Morning Star signal is one of the most clear, symmetrical Candlestick reversal patterns. Not to overstate the obvious, but if Candlestick signals didn’t work, we would not be looking at them today. The Japanese rice traders that used Candlestick signals became enormously wealthy.

The major benefit of Candlestick signals is that they are very easy to learn and identify. You do not need to learn formulas. You do not have to do extensive fundamental analysis. The visual aspect of Candlestick signals identify when a reversal is about to occur. Somebody else has already made decisions that it is time to buy or sell. The Morning Star signal, when fully analyzed, reveals very simple common sense features that identify the change in investor sentiment.

Morning Star

The Morning Star

The Japanese rice traders described it as the planet Mercury, the Morning Star. It foretells that brighter things, sunrise, is about to occur, meaning that prices are going to go higher. It is formed after an obvious downtrend. The first three-day signal consists of a long black body, usually one produced from the fear induced at the bottom of a long decline. The following day gaps down. However, the magnitude of the trading range remains small for the day. This produces an indecision-type day. The third day is a white candle day. The white candle represents the fact that the bulls have now stepped in and seized control. The optimal Morning Star signal would have a gap before and after the star day.

The make-up of the star, an indecision formation, can consist of a number of candle formations. However, a Doji or a Spinning Top is usually the predominant formation in a Morning Star signal. The important factor is to witness the confirmation of the bulls taking control the next day. That candle should consist of a closing more than halfway up the black candle of two days prior.

Identifying the Morning Star signal is relatively easy. It is visually apparent to the eye. There are some very simple parameters that can enhance the Morning Star signal’s probabilities of creating a reversal.

  1. The longer the black candle and the white candle, the more forceful the reversal. This demonstrates a more severe change in investor sentiment.
  2. The more indecision that the star day illustrates, the better probabilities that a reversal will occur, such as a Doji signal.
  3. A gap between the first day and the second day adds to the probability that a reversal is occurring. A gap before and after the star day is even more desirable.
  4. The higher the close of the third day, coming up past the middle point of the black candle of the first day, reveals more potential in the strength of the reversal.

The probability of a Morning Star signal reversing a trend becomes extremely high when found in oversold conditions. Using a simple indicator such as stochastics, in the 20 area or below, represents an oversold condition. The most important element of the signal is the magnitude of the white candle’s close during the third day.

Candlestick analysis can be used with all trading entities. Whether doing a long-term evaluation on a monthly Dow chart or a one-minute chart trading the e-minis, the signals working just as effectively for revealing change in investor sentiment during that time frame. As seen in the daily Dow chart, the Morning Star signals revealed when the Dow established a bottom. Being able to analyze the direction of the DOW increases the probabilities of being in a correct trade when analyzing individual stock charts.

In July and August 2004, the Dow index reversed after Morning Star signals. Note point A, when the stochastics were on an oversold condition, a three-day Morning Star signal appeared. Then, two Morning Star signals appeared a week later, point B, to start the next rally again in the Dow Jones Averages. In both cases, it became very clear to start buying stocks that have produced good Candlestick “buy” signals when the markets are showing buying strength.

Analyzing Stock Market Indexes, Dow

Candlestick signals occur in the markets every single day. Scanning software makes finding the signals very easy. They can find the best Candlestick trades in less than 10 minutes every day. This is not rocket science. This is simply using the same successful analysis that has been used for centuries. When you see a Morning Star occurring in an oversold condition, the probabilities of being in a successful trade are very high.

Training Tutorial

Morning Star & Evening Star Signals

Candlestick Charts Provide a Huge Advantage to Technical Analysis

Candlestick charts provide huge amounts of information.

Candlestick charts allow an investor to develop trading strategies that maximize profit potential. Unlike bar chart that illustrate what price movements did during a specific time frame, candlestick charts reveal ‘how’ that price moved. Candlestick charts demonstrate what investor sentiment was doing during the time frame and how it did it. This additional information creates a huge advantage for the candlestick investor. Although a price may have been up on the day, the candlestick chart will reveal whether a specific candlestick signal had been formed.

This information becomes valuable for projecting a reversal or a continuation of a trend.  The simple logic that is built into candlestick charts makes the evaluation for trade entry and exit strategies much easier to execute.  For example, a candlestick chart that reveals a price that closed higher on the day in an overbought condition may not have any relevance to somebody that does not  recognize a candlestick signal. However, if that price, during that day, had been much higher but closed near the lower end of the trading range, it may still appear as a positive day to somebody using bar charts or just reading the results of the day from the Wall Street Journal. Utilizing a  candlestick chart would reveal a different story.  A Shooting Star signal would have formed, providing a completely different scenario.

When the major signals appear  on candlestick charts, an investor can prepare for when they get in and out of trades with a much more clear analysis.  Being able to execute trades at an early stage of a reversal keeps an  investor from having to  execute less favorable trades when a trend is already in motion, trying to sell when the buyers are stepping away.  Candlestick charts produce the evaluation graphics that allow an investor to make decisions instantly.

Market Direction

What are the markets telling us? Both the Dow and the NASDAQ have been in the overbought conditions for the past few weeks.  The Dow has now reached the obvious resistance level at the 10,700 level.  The past three days of trading have demonstrated spinning tops.  This indicates indecision occurring at an important technical level.

Stochastics are now in the process of turning down.  As of yet, the selling has been indecisive.  Two scenarios can be put forth upon seeing this type of market condition.  The spinning tops could be illustrating the prelude to a pullback.  That will be confirmed by a long bearish candle in the next day or so. This would give a clear indication that the spinning tops were a reversal action. If the next few days show more spinning tops, doji, or other indecisive trading formations, without confirming signals, hold off on your trade.

Stock Trading Plan – Big Profits With Candlestick Signals

Every investor should have a stock trading plan, especially going into a new year of investing. The development of the next year’s stock trading plan should include the evaluation of the previous year. Specific sectors moved very well during 2005. The energy stocks for example. Analyzing what sectors or industries could have strong moves in the coming year is like shooting in the dark. However, simple sectors scans utilizing candlestick signals reveal which sectors/industries appear to be bottoming out and starting an upward trend. Assuming that some sectors will perform well after other sectors have performed well provides a smaller universe for watching for candlestick buy signals. It can be easily assumed that if mail order catalog companies or online companies are seeing dramatic increases in sales, then the transportation/delivery industry could be expected to perform better.The candlestick charts reveal when new dynamics enter a sector.

When developing a successful stock trading plan, some mild preplanning should be put in place. Although the candlestick signals will identify specific sectors that are starting to perform well, having some anticipation of what those sectors might be helps confirm establishing positions in those sectors when the signals do appear. Always keep in mind that prices move based upon the perception of changes in fundamentals. Currently, confidence is coming back into the electronics industries. This may fall in line with the concept that technology is starting to advance at a very rapid pace.

The most successful stock trading program for 2006 may be a two faceted approach. Candlestick signals can be utilized for identifying the sectors that will make the biggest moves this coming year. Also, they will identify the individual stocks that announce product advances which may not only dramatically change their own fundamental capabilities, but may also alter the dynamics of a whole industry.

Market Direction

The bullish signal that made itself evident on the first day of trading this year has produced very strong profits in the portfolio. Having the ability to visually witness what investor intentions were from the first day of trading created an opportunity to be investing aggressively, the portfolio positioned all to the long side. Knowing the truisms found in candlestick analysis has produced some very large gains in positions. The longer a trend continues, the more confident the average investor will exhibit. Where do most investors buy? They get more confident at the top. Does this imply that the top is getting close? Not necessarily, but the effects of continued confidence can be seen from candlestick chart patterns that revealed the buyers coming in early and continuing their buying. That can be clearly witnessed in a couple of our recommendations.

DTPI has been in a slow and steady uptrend for over a month before it was finally discovered by an analyst to recommend it. Candlestick signals alerted investors to start buying, if they did not get in at the $6.50 level, at the $7.50 level or the $8.00 level. CRYP was identified as a buy in mid-December and created another buy signal at the first of January. IIJI is another chart pattern that is revealing strong potential to the upside, a fry pan bottom forming off the 50 day moving average.

Stock Trading Plan, DTPI

DTPI

Stock Trading Plan, CRYP

CRYP

Stock Trading Plan, IIJI

IIJI

Will candlestick signals always find the best trade situation? They will greatly improve your chances of gaining big profits when you learn them and always apply them with your stock trading plan!

Stock Investing Concepts

All stock investors face one primary challenge; a challenge so formidable that it can undermine even the most successful stock investing concepts. This challenge is simply called “emotion”.

Emotions are the impetus behind every stock market trend. Frankly, if they didn’t exist in the machinations of the stock market, investors could make money based entirely on the expanding or receding economy, as opposed to solid, time-tested stock investing concepts. Additionally, the more successful investors wouldn’t have the ability to profit from the emotional mistakes of the “amateurs”.

As an example, let’s say that you have studied numerous techniques, read “Stock Market for Dummies”, as well as all the rest of the recommended trading and investing books, dabbled in paper-trading, and read all of the stock market newsletters. Now you’re ready to take the plunge and make some real money with your own stock investing concepts.

You wisely approach your new venture with the expectation of a certain amount of losses, although you want to keep them as minimal as possible. You are aware that losses are a part of the game and you’ve experienced your share of them but, up to this point, your wins have outnumbered your losses. Your reasoning for this is that you have not deviated from your chosen stock investing concepts. You are excited to get started.

One day, after fighting traffic for hours, you eagerly log in to your stock market online investing account and find that there have been changes in the market. Although you would normally follow your usual plan of action, pressure and greed take over. You alter your normal stock investing concepts regarding buying and selling but convince yourself that it will be OK just on this one occasion.

Stock prices start dropping and now, not only do you have to deal with pressure and greed, but also with fear. Fear wrecks every investor’s self-confidence with tenacity. Fear will whisper in your ear – “you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Greed and fear are now in control and are telling you what to do. Self-confidence, reason, and caution have all been thrown to the wind.

By now you have totally forgotten the golden rule of investing – “buy low and sell high” because you’ve lost too much money and you feel you have to get it back. Greed tells you “it will work,” and fear tells you it has to work!”
Your spouse, partner, or trading buddy has now become aware of your plight and is complaining about the lost money, adding even more pressure to the mix. Your funds are now all but gone. You made critical errors and invested money that you need right now. Now you’re playing the margins and are totally out of control.

Don’t let the above scenario happen to you. Although the specifics of the experience will change, the underlying cause of this situation is your own emotions. You’ll get through it, but the memory of that terrible defeat will stay with you forever. Fear will affect every future investment decision and significantly limit your ability to return to your previous successful stock market investing strategy. You are afraid that the same scenario will happen again. However, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Developing a line of attack to deal with your emotions can put you back on the road to success.

Here is a solid stock investing concept:

Don’t go into the stock market simply to feed your ego.

Stock Analysis – Big Profits Made Easy with Candlestick Signals

What is the basic premise for  stock analysis? Find the positions that have the biggest potential! Most stock analysis is done through fundamental research. Analysts base their stock analysis upon potentially improved earnings over a specific period of time. This is how most MBAs are taught as far as the basis for stock analysis. Unfortunately, there is one major flaw with this approach. The fundamental elements may be pertinent today but may not be important in six months from now. This becomes the biggest risk for long-term stock analysis. In years past, the fundamentals of a company could be anticipated for the future based upon one fundamental projection. The technology of that company/industry was not likely to change very fast. Until recently, meaning the past decade, the technological improvements of most industries was relatively slow.

That is not true today. Stock analysis today has one major additional criteria. What are the technological improvements in that industry capable of doing in the near future? The near future could mean anywhere between three months to three years. What might be a viable advantage for a company today, with the announcement of improved technology, could be completely negated in  mere months if new technology enters that market. We are living in a technology boom. Investors may have seen the bubble back in the early 2000’s but that was a bubble in technology stock prices, not technology itself.

Candlestick signals help exploit reaping large profits from markets that are technology driven. The 12 major signals become dominant factors for identifying new investor sentiment coming into a stock position. It can be assumed that the smart money, the money that is closely following specific companies, starts creating candlestick buy signals well before a major announcement occurs in a company. Most investors do not have the capacity to follow what every single company in the market is doing. Fortunately, the candlestick signals can monitor when something is happening in a company. The 12 major signals have an immense amount of information built into their formations. Click here for information on the 12 major signals CD training package. Adding that information to ‘recognized’ trading patterns creates an even more powerful investment platform. Investors trade in patterns.

Patterns reveal an immense amount of information. Utilizing candlestick signals with a few investment patterns can dramatically improve an investor’s portfolio return. This is not rocket science. This is visually analyzing high probability situations.

Big price moves – a simple dissection of the term ‘pattern’ makes understanding how to participate in big price moves much easier. A pattern is something that can be recognized. That recognition usually includes price movements that have occurred many times in the past, thus forming a pattern. Successful stock analysis utilizes what has happened in the past. Applying candlestick signals to a pattern makes the probabilities of a successful pattern performing that much more compelling. As illustrated in the Adolor Corp. chart, a fry pan bottom pattern could be easily recognized. The fact that there was much indecisive trading during the formation of that pattern, with doji’s, spinning tops, small hammers, and inverted hammers made recognizing the fry pan bottom that much easier. A small belt hold signal bouncing off the 50 day moving average became more evidence that a new uptrend was going to start. This signal occurring at the end of a fry pan bottom pattern made the probabilities that much greater that a strong uptrend could occur.

Long Term Investing with Candlestick Patterns

Long term investing in the stock market can be defined as the holding of a security for a minimum of 5 years, to as long as 30 years. This is a more rigid definition, although it is one of the more subjective stock investing concepts, depending on the individual.

Normally, long term investing provides a means for a person to make ends meet during retirement, with the idea that no one can successfully retire without financial freedom. So with this idea in mind, successful traders purchase securities with the intention of holding the security for an indefinite time period, adding to it through the years, and acquiring enough dividend income to offset the loss of income after retiring. There is also a desire to leave some money behind to loved ones to relieve their financial burdens as well.

So if a security is going to be held indefinitely, what long term investing criteria should you be looking for in that security to ensure the best investment of your money? Dividend income is certainly a given. And since there is no motivation to sell the security, capital gains may not be an issue.

So what should you be looking for in your long term investing portfolio? Purchasing securities simply for the dividend income isn’t good enough. To improve your risk reward ratios, and to ensure that a company isn’t participating in fraudulent activities, securities should be purchased from companies that have a long history of raising their dividend every year. This will eliminate the risk of investing in a start-up company that may not even be around in a year or so. After all, the money has to be there to pay the shareholder.

Also, the rising dividend every year would help offset the risk of inflation and the risk of a lower stock price during the year would actually accelerate any income from the security.

Since you would want your position in the stock to grow through the years, resulting in increasing dividends regardless of stock volatility, the dividends would be reinvested into the stock until retirement. Therefore, a lower stock price would purchase more shares at a higher dividend yield and would simply accelerate dividend income.
When would you want to sell a stock in your long term investing portfolio?

Times and reasons to sell stocks vary. If you eventually have too much money tied up in just one stock, and it’s making you uncomfortable because it conflicts with your overall stock trading plan, sell some of it. Or, a company may stop increasing its dividends consistently which may also motivate you to lighten up on your position or divert your funds elsewhere.

Also, a company may reduce their dividend. When and if this happens (and it does) do not be overly anxious to sell the stock. First, figure out why the company is reducing their dividend. It may be for debt reduction, acquisition possibilities, or for other money management reasons. Or, the company’s dividend yield may have been greater than the dividends paid by their peers. However, to be safe, do not add to your holdings in this company and give management a chance to see how they handle the extra cash, since they appear to have better use for the money other than paying their shareholders. The resulting growth in that company may make up for the lower dividend.

The Stock Market – What Are My Choices?

The financial markets provide the best location for purchase or sale of financial “instruments”. These markets also guarantee liquidity, establish asset prices, and reduce the expenses occurred while operating in the financial markets.  For the beginner investing in these financial instruments, it’s always good to bring the markets down to their basics. The markets can be realistically divided into two separate entities; the market of promissory notes and the stock market.

For the sake of this investment newsletter, we will focus on the stock market. As mentioned before, funds are typically invested into a company, and the investor becomes a part-owner. The amount of influence, if any, which the investor possesses in making decisions within the company, depends on the percentage of shares that are possessed. Depending on the company and its size and standing relative to the rest of the market, investment options are divided into several basic categories: blue chip stocks, growth stocks, income stocks, and defensive stocks.

Blue Chip Stocks are shares of large companies having a stock price history of profit growth, annual return in excess of $4 billion, significant capitalization efforts and a stable record of paying off dividends. Such indicators are perfect “how-to invest in stocks” lessons for beginners. Such giants of the stock market are McDonald’s, Intel, and Nokia, to name a few.

Growth Stocks are shares of a company that tend to grow faster; the management team typically pursues the policy of reinvestment of revenue into further R&D and capitalization of the company’s assets. These companies rarely pay dividends and, if they do, the dividends are minimal as compared with other companies in the stock market community.

Income Stocks belong to companies with high and stable earnings that pay handsome dividends to the shareholders. Shares of such companies are a staple of mutual funds and a cornerstone for retirement plans of middle-aged and elderly people. Companies on the stock market with income stocks are Citigroup, BP Oil, and Progress Energy.

Defensive Stocks tend to remain stable under difficult economic conditions. They include companies in the food, tobacco, oil, and utilities industries. Commodities trading in these financial instruments frequently does well in difficult times because the commodities that they provide tend to be in demand in spite of economic downturns or stock market crashes. Defensive stocks are not leaders of the stock market during economic expansion because they do not experience the dramatic upswing in demand of other companies.

When investing in the stock market, it is important to examine companies carefully for income statements, balance, cash flow, and other factors. Once secure with a company’s stability, it is less likely that investing mistakes will be made, knowing that each company in a portfolio contributes to, or reduces, the bottom line.

New to Trading, or simply looking to increase your profits? Read Stephen Bigalow’s Daily market comments to know where the stock market is heading!


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Online Futures Trading – Getting Your Start With Paper Trading

In sports the saying is that you only play as good as you practice. In other words, if you don’t work hard learning to do something well you will never do it well when the game begins. The same is true when it comes to investing; if you don’t learn the concepts of successful trading before you start investing, you are in danger of losing a lot of money very fast. Thanks to the wonderful world of computers, you can prepare for online futures trading by paper trading.

What is Paper Trading?

At this moment you probably understand online futures trading, but paper trading may be strange to you. Paper trading is a method of online futures trading where you can practice investing in the stock market with a hypothetical brokerage account. Everything about this type of online futures trading is the same as the real thing but with paper trading, you lose nothing. If you make a bad purchase when you are paper trading, it is recorded in your “account” but since you didn’t actually do any online futures trading, you didn’t lose any real money.

What is Online Futures Trading?

Online futures trading is different from trading common stocks or bonds since you don’t actually take possession of anything. In online futures trading, you are speculating on the future direction of a commodity’s price that you are trading on the Internet. It is kind of like placing a bet on which way a price will move. “Buy” and “sell” are terms that indicate the direction you expect future prices will take. You only need to deposit enough money with a brokerage firm to insure that you will be able to pay the losses if your trades lose money; take a good look at the words “pay the losses”. When paper trading futures, you are immune from those dirty words!

Online futures trading offers a form of price protection for those who are trading and investing. A farmer may sell corn futures on his crop if he thinks the price will go down before the harvest; conversely, a cereal manufacturer may buy futures if they think the price of wheat is going to rise before the harvest. Regardless of the price movement, both are guaranteed their price. The other person in the deal is the investor who never sees the trading floor, but is doing online futures trading and looking to gain advantages by buying or selling futures at a profit.

Getting Started with Online Futures Trading

There are quite a few companies on the Internet that offer free paper trading; a simple Google search will give you more choices that you can imagine. These companies offer this service in hopes that after you get comfortable with online futures trading, you will open a commodity account with them. In the meantime, once you have registered, simply follow the directions of the commodity trading software and you are ready to begin.

What You Might Notice

If you decide to get started without learning anything about online futures trading, you will be in for a surprise. The language of futures trading is different. There is terminology you need to learn, strategies that you won’t understand and even the trading software will probably be confusing. It’s kind of like assembling a child’s bike; before you start, read the directions.  Before you try to start commodities trading, learn the terms, learning the techniques and learn the software where you are online futures trading.

Is paper trading futures important?

By itself, paper trading futures is not important; it just simulates the things required for online futures trading. What is important while paper trading futures is the approach you take; if you take this lightly or don’t understand the importance of learning futures trading, you should seriously reconsider ever entering the futures markets. This is a skill to learn and not doing so means losing your money so don’t take your paper trading or your online futures trading lightly.

Conclusion

Online futures trading is a unique business opportunity where you can practice and learn for free. A successful trader will use the opportunity to practice investing before trying online futures investing.

Gain Stock Investment Perspective

There are a number of usually successful ways to gain stock investment perspective. Unfortunately, some of them involve losing all of your money in bad stock investing. While experience is the great teacher it is preferable to gain stock investment perspective from traders and investors with years of experience through online training webinars such as the Candlestick Forum Boot Camp. The necessary experience for someone beginning investing in the stock market is to learn from the experience of others in order to shape a successful investment strategy. There are always profitable trades to be made and with a little homework one can always find a stock with a low price to earnings ratio and a substantial margin of safety. Learning how to find intrinsic stock value takes a little time and experience. Learning how to plan a strategy and use historically successful technical analysis tools such as Candlestick charting techniques is an excellent and profitable way to gain stock investment perspective.

Successful stock investing requires that the individual be able to carry out fundamental analysis of stocks in order to be picking stocks with either the prospect of long term growth or the likelihood of a rapid change in stock price, either up or down. Those who gain stock investment perspective over time come to realize that, although knowing the fundamentals is necessary, everyone knows or has access to the same information. However, not everyone interprets the information in the same way. Thus stock prices move up and down as investors and traders buy stock, sell stock, purchase options on stocks, and practice hedging with complicated trading strategies.

In all of this buying, selling, and hedging of stocks a stock price moves up and down in patterns. It is the patterns that are the key to how Candlestick analysis works. Although, in theory, a person could gain stock investment perspective comparable to that contained in the Candlestick signals it would probably take a lifetime of trading in the stock market. That is not necessary because an easily understood system made for anticipating stock price movement is already in place in Candlestick patterns. Another useful type of perspective that a trader can gain in an interactive online trading course is that you don’t have to trade unless you are ready. Sometimes the market is not showing you a clear Candlestick pattern.

An experienced trader will be able to recall instances of when just waiting a day or even a few minutes made market direction, as read through Candlestick charting, crystal clear and eminently profitable. By listening to experienced traders and asking questions it is possible to gain stock investment perspective just as through the beginning trader had lived and traded through the same situations. Stock trading can be a very profitable lifetime occupation. It takes time, dedication, and discipline in executing trades as part of a well devised trading strategy. Learning Candlestick basics is an excellent way to start on the way and gain stock investment experience through profitable stock trades.



Market Direction

Candlestick signals are just as important for identifying reversals in trends as they are for identifying the continuation of an existing trend. Evaluating the existence of a current trend might not appear to be very important. However, this knowledge provides extremely profitable ramifications. Candlestick chart patterns perform successfully when there is not a severe alteration of a current trend. Obviously, bullish results are more apt to occur in a bullish trend. Fortunately, this is not always the case. An identifiable sideways moving market will also permit a candlestick pattern to perform properly.

Price movements occur based upon investor sentiment. Price trends are a function of consistent investor sentiment. Price patterns are developed because of specific set of circumstances that creates a recognizable reoccurring pattern. It is when market trends and price patterns work in a consistent atmosphere that big profits can be extracted from a pattern breakout. There are no secret formulas in candlestick analysis. It is merely the visual identification of price movements that have worked multitude of times in the past.

As we have illustrated in the BAS chart in recent newsletters, the expected results occurred after identifying the frypan bottom formation. Remaining consistently profitable with candlestick analysis simply requires identifying any dramatic changes, or the lack thereof, in the market trends. Why is candlestick analysis so simple to use? Because if a pattern can be identified, knowing that it will produce high profits, as seen in the BAS chart, then it becomes a very simple matter of finding the same chart pattern just starting  under the same conditions. The breakout from the Fry Pan Bottom pattern is expected to produce big profits.

Gain Stock Investment Perspective, BAS

BAS

If that is the case, then it is prudent to scan for the next Fry Pan Bottom pattern that is just breaking out. The NSU chart reveals a frypan bottom with the exuberance just starting to show itself. This becomes a logical place to invest funds. Because patterns produce expected results at particular points of a pattern, not only does this become highly profitable stock trades, but it produces all the elements of big profits for option trades. The timing and the magnitude make a simple call option strategy the best for exploiting explosive moves.

Gain Stock Investment Perspective, NSU

NSU

For those of you that have not participated in the Candlestick Forum Option Training Program, October 16 and 17th, please take the time to investigate the trading strategies involved with candlestick analysis. You will gain a completely different perspective on which options strategies should be placed at appropriate times. You will gain a lot of information about how the option market works and which trades are most appropriate for specific candlestick signals and pattern movements. Do not miss this opportunity to learn an investment perspective that will dramatically improve your option trading capabilities.

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The Candlestick Forum Team


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Trading Currency Online

Trading currency online requires that you know about the basics involving the currency market, also known as the forex market. In today’s article we discuss general concepts that you must know and understand before you commit to trading currency in order to make a profit.

This market is different from other markets. For starters, currency trading does not occur on a regulated exchange like the trading of futures, or trading stocks or options. There is no central governing body and all forex traders practice trading currency online based upon credit agreements. The currency market is however the most liquid and the largest market in the world.

The FX market does not have commissions that are paid to brokers like in the stock market. The actual forex brokers are actually dealers and not brokers and they assume market risk by serving as a third party to the investor’s forex trade. The make their money through the bid-ask-spread. (This is explained below). This is unlike stock trading where the broker makes commissions when the customer buys and sells the financial instruments.
When you are trading currency online, you are really buying and selling nothing. There is no physical exchange of currencies and al trades exist simply as a computer entry. These entries are netted out depending upon the market price. This FX market is purely speculative, in other words.

There are numerous currencies that are traded on the currency exchange but we will only list some of the major currencies. These major currencies are listed in currency pairs and are seven of the most liquid currency pairs in the world. The EUR/USD (Euro/dollar), the USD/JPY (dollar/Japanese yen), the GBP/USD (British pound/dollar), and the USD/CHF (dollar/Swiss franc) are the four major currency pairs. The three commodity pairs include the AUD/USD (Australian dollar/dollar), the USD/CAD (dollar/Canadian dollar), and the NZD/USD (New Zealand dollar/dollar).

It is also important to know some of the forex lingo when trading currency online. Knowing these terms will help you to adapt faster to the forex market.

Kiwi – nickname for the New Zealand dollar
Aussie – nickname for the Australian dollar
Cable, pound, sterling – alternative name for the British pound
Greenback, buck – nicknames for the U.S. dollar
Yard – a billion units
Loonie, the little dollar – nicknames for the Canadian dollar.

There is obviously a lot more to the currency market in addition to the lingo and the above information. Continue your foreign currency education and decide if trading currency is right for you.


Market Direction

Candlestick analysis allows for the correct portfolio positioning. It also creates a clear visual playing field for adding the appropriate option trading strategies. Having the ability to recognize when a pullback might occur is important whether trading short-term or long-term. As seen in the Dow chart, the 50 day moving average had the opportunity to act as a support level. A Doji formed at that level in both the Dow and the NASDAQ last Friday. An indecisive trading day, such as a Doji, makes for a good prepared trading strategy.

Trading Currency Online, DOW

DOW

The recent downtrend called for some profit taking in long positions and setting up some short positions. It also created the opportunity to write some calls against existing positions. The benefit created by the visual clarity of candlestick signals permits an investor to apply the appropriate option trading strategy to the appropriate situation. A longer-term investor may not necessarily want to close out a position if the prospect was more upside potential after a pullback. Writing calls against that position has some low risk benefits. The makeup of a call option price is the intrinsic value of the option and/or the time premium. Holding the stock position and selling calls against the position has added benefits.

The premiums received when selling the call positions offsets the equity loss as a stock price pulled back. As the price does pullback, the price of the options diminish on a twofold basis. The intrinsic value, the actual value of the option over the strike price, will move down as the price moves lower. Additionally, the time premium will diminish also as the expiration date gets closer. This is a relatively safe strategy that adds additional income into an investors portfolio. Simple options strategies provide a tremendous source of income when the right trading strategy is applied to the correct price move. These simple trading techniques will be demonstrated thoroughly during the Candlestick Forum Option Trading program on October 17 and 18th. If you would like to learn how to dramatically increase your income while at the same time reducing your risk, take advantage of the trading knowledge that has been applied to over 20 years of candlestick application. Click here for more information

When the markets have strong pullbacks, it makes identifying the strong potential price moves much more pronounced. As illustrated in the recent recommendation of WCRX, the Fry Pan Bottom pattern was consistently showing strength during a time when the market was in an observed  downtrend. The visual aspects of candlestick analysis reduces the reliance upon technical methods that do not necessarily prove profitable. For example, “relative strength indexing” can be used to identify strong stocks in market trends, but the visual aspects of candlestick signals/patterns reveal the relative strength as well as high profit potential breakout situations.

Trading Currency Online, WCRX

WCRX

Each aspect of candlestick analysis allows for the fine-tuning of the probabilities. The elements of investor sentiment put into a graphic depiction makes investment decisions, whether buying or selling, done with much more conviction. Applying that information to basic investment rules dramatically improves an investors mental perception. It is extremely beneficial to understand the implications of the candlestick signals and patterns. When you add that on top of the viable trading rules and procedures, you get much closer to being a professional investor versus a part-time hit or miss trader.

Tonight, the Candlestick Forum will be presenting Tina Logan as a guest speaker. Her presentations and educational material provides a common sense and logical trading platform. It is advisable to learn a number of investing perspectives and then apply what is most useful for your own trading nature. Join us tonight at 8 p.m. ET, the session is open to everybody. Click here for instructions.

Good investing,

The Candlestick Forum Team


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