A "Welcome to" Pinescript codingThis simple idea is an intro to @TradingView & @PineCoders
Nothing fancy or complex, if you are already coding - you can skip this.
simple MA build walk through & adding a second MA.
If you want to get into coding, then here's the basic introduction.
FYI - I am not a coder, 21 years trading experience and know a bit about the instruments - but new to actual coding, especially in Pine.
Hope it helps someone!
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Mayfairmoney
The Basics - Trend LinesTrend lines are used in technical analysis to define an uptrend or downtrend. Traditionally, uptrend lines are made by drawing a straight line through a series of ascending higher troughs (lows). ... With downtrends, trend lines are formed by drawing a straight line through a series of descending lower highs.
In an uptrend, the “imaginary line” acts as support and in a downtrend, the line connecting the points at swing highs become the resistance.
Although we can go into what and why – the logic for trend line, is to keep it simple. It’s another subjective area and people like to spot patterns. It’s human nature.
This shows in it's most basic form the concept of a trend line.
In an uptrend we want to see, higher highs as well as higher lows as shown below;
And in a down trend, the opposite is true - Lower highs & lower lows to create the pattern as per main image of this post.
Many other techniques and indicators use this concept, and perhaps the most famous being Elliott waves.
Here's a post on Elliott basics;
This then all points back to Dow Theory - where markets have 3 cycles and 3 waves (another lesson for another time) in short;
Here's also a post covering the Dow basics;
You can also use Moving averages as part of "working out the trend"
And her is another simple guide to MA's (moving Averages)
We thought it would be interesting to post, more of a beginners post that our usual stuff. Hope this helps some of the newer traders.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Dow Theory simple introduction For those of you not familiar with Dow Theory. Here's a simple introduction. Nothing technical just a "welcome to" type of educational post.
Short History
Dow Has 6 Rules - these are known as the 6 Tenets
Dow is mostly known (most obvious - the Dow Jones Industrial Average)
Other tools and techniques can fit into the Dow Theory, such as Elliott and Wyckoff.
Wyckoff "Buy me now" moves.
As for Wyckoff - volume is and was a factor for the Dow Theory; Volume should increase in the direction of the trend in order to give confirmation. It is only a secondary indication but Dow realized that if volume didn't increase in the direction of the trend, this is a red flag. This means that the trend may not be valid.
As basic wave principles apply - Dow simplified the inner workings of the market with the 6 tenets.
He also came out with some brilliant quotes such as "Money is made by conservative trading rather than by the effort to get large profits by taking large risks."
And
“A person watching the tide coming in and who wishes to know the exact spot which marks the high tide, sets a stick in the sand at the points reached by the incoming waves until the stick reaches a position where the waves do not come up to it, and finally recede enough to show that the tide has turned. This method holds good in watching and determining the flood tide of the stock market.”
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Dow theory trading strategy
Most trading strategies used today hinge on one key concept, the "trend". This was a novel idea when Charles H. Dow published his writings at the end of the 19th century. Dow theory says that the market is in an upward trend if one of its averages goes above a previous important high and is accompanied or followed by a similar movement in the other average. Therefore, a Dow theory trading strategy is based on a trend-following strategy, and can either be bullish or bearish.
So although the times have changed, human nature and the basic principles have not. Some of the theory can easily be applied to instruments such as commodities, Forex and crypto.
As I said, this is not a lesson on the trading with, it was more an intro to. Worth some additional research, there are some very interesting books on the subject.
Wyckoff basics part 2 )click the image link)
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Emotional Analysis I have posted recently on Wyckoff, Elliott cycled, Gann education and covered psychology.
The Thing is - as a long time trader, you often see new comers and the assumption is more indicators, more stuff = better results. Take a step back and view this from 30,000 feet. You looking at finding an edge, an edge can be as simple as risk management and positioning yourself with a great risk to reward system.
The problem is, if there was an algo or one indicator that could make you rich. The world would quickly run out of doctors and postmen.
What Elliott, W.D.Gann, Wyckoff, Dow and others clearly understood - was not the technical count on the chart, or if this is a UTAD or a spring event. What they appreciated was human nature - psychology.
I wrote this post to show how the mindset fits into the chart - When everyone started posting the "Wall Street, cheat sheet" and asking - Where are we? I would respond, depending on where you bought or sold. It's not a group thing. Unless you refer to sentiment - which is another topic again.
The issue is - everyone is looking to have their hand held. Indicators can be useful of course. But you cannot depend, rely or only take buy and sell signals.
Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.
Benjamin Franklin
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So whilst people assume The Elliott's and the Gann's where the titans of technical. There's a deeper skill they tapped into. Emotional analysis. When studying Elliott, you can walk through a certain journey of why the price moves up & pulls back. Why it rapidly grows in wave 3 and why the 4th becomes messy. Elliott knew what drove these moves & how the retail traders follow on like sheep.
click link for full article
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Wyckoff and Dow - this is not a lesson on the technical side. It's an eye opener.
Wyckoff could make a schematic of the logic and emotions inside the chart and simply plotted it. Dow, simplified it into 6 market tenets. But either way they knew more about the market psychology than they did the chart.
If you are looking to trade alt coins - you need to understand the project, the team & just like investing in a stock. Get a feel for the company.
This last week, I have seen social media posts about "this guy lost this, that or the other" All blaming and pointing fingers at Musk - the truth is if you need to follow a celebrity for stock picking. Chose another sport. Doctors, lawyers, accountants and many professions take many years just to qualify - why is crypto trading any different?
Professional traders know this - and currently it's like having penguins in the water for the first time, the pro's are the sharks.
PSYCHOLOGY This is all it boils down to.
We assume big brother is watching, we assume stocks, crypto etc all being manipulated. There's often talk about FOMO & FUD. Wyckoff knew this as the "Composite man"
Truth is - retail do it to themselves 90% of the time, trying to catch tops and bottoms. Not learning market phases or cycles and then blaming everyone else for their mistakes. Everyone wants to strike it rich, one trade and millions. Seems to be the mentality. It needs time & proper risk management.
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If you can take a step back and see the market with "emotional vision" switched on, you will see why Elliott & Wyckoff are applicable today - Humans don't change, the psychology and mindset is still the same. Market manipulation is strong and real - it's just not what you think.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
The Great men of the trading worldAs a trader of over 20 years, there has been a lot of trial and error. A lot of learning, it’s still continuing! I wanted to share some interesting pointers with the community;
People see charts really look deeper than that.
I regard a couple of men in trading terms as the “Greats” Would there be others you consider? Why?
Let’s start – the only order is the age (timestamp) rather than preference to their work.
Charles Henry Dow (November 6, 1851 – December 4, 1902) was an American journalist who co-founded Dow Jones & Company. Little known fact, Dow also co-founded The Wall Street Journal, which has become one of the most respected financial publications in the world. He also invented the Dow Jones Industrial Average as part of his research into market movements. This guy has his own chart.
He developed a series of principles for understanding and analyzing market behavior which later became known as Dow theory, the groundwork for technical analysis.
Dow theory explained
The Dow theory is based on the analysis of maximum and minimum market fluctuations to make accurate predictions on the direction of the market.
According to the Dow theory, the importance of these upward and downward movements is their position in relation to previous fluctuations. This method teaches investors to read a trading chart and to better understand what is happening with any asset at any given moment. With this simple analysis, even the most inexperienced can identify the context in which a financial instrument is evolving.
Furthermore, Charles Dow supported the common belief among all traders and technical analysts that an asset price and its resulting movements on a trading chart already have all necessary information already available and forecasted in order to make accurate predictions.
Based on his theory, he created the Dow Jones Industrial Index and the Dow Jones Rail Index (now known as Transportation Index), which were originally developed for the Wall Street Journal. Charles Dow created these stock indices as he believed that they would provide an accurate reflection of the economic and financial conditions of companies in two major economic sectors: the industrial and the railway (transportation) sectors.
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This is another interesting topic in it’s own right, but not for this article.
“Pride of opinion has been responsible for the downfall of more men on Wall Street than any other factor.” Charles Dow.
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Many of our modern techniques fit into Dow theory in some way, shape or form and most people do not realise this.
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R.N Elliott – Elliott waves to most
Ralph Nelson Elliott (28 July 1871 – 15 January 1948) was an American accountant and author, whose study of stock market data led him to develop the Wave Principle, a form of technical analysis that identifies trends in the financial markets. He proposed that market prices unfold in specific patterns, which practitioners today call Elliott waves.
Elliott Said “The forces that cause market trends have their origin in nature and human behaviour” as well as “Forces travel in waves, as demonstrated by Galileo, newton and other scientists.”
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Wave Theory
In the early 1930s, Elliott began his systematic study of seventy-five years of stock market data, including index charts with increments ranging from yearly to half-hourly. In1938, he detailed the results of his studies by publishing his third book, The Wave Principle.
Elliott stated that, while stock market prices may appear random and unpredictable, they actually follow predictable, natural laws and can be measured and forecast using Fibonacci numbers. Soon after the publication of The Wave Principle, Financial World magazine commissioned Elliott to write twelve articles (under the same title as his book) describing his new method of market forecasting.
In the early 1940s, Elliott expanded his theory to apply to all collective human behaviors. His final major work was his most comprehensive: Nature's Law –The Secret of the Universe published in June, 1946, two years before he died.
In the years after Elliott's death, other practitioners (including Charles Collins, Hamilton Bolton, Richard Russell and A.J. Frost) continued to use the wave principle and provide forecasts to investors. Frost and Robert Prechter wrote Elliott Wave Principle, published in 1978 (Prechter had come across Elliott's works while working as a market technician at Merrill Lynch; his prominence as a forecaster during the bull market of the 1980s helped bring Elliott's wave principle its greatest exposure up to that time).
I wrote a few months back an article on the application of Elliott (Click the image for the link.)
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Richard Wyckoff
This method has had a lot of popularity recently on social media and in @TradingView
Richard Demille Wyckoff (1873–1934) was an early 20th-century pioneer in the technical approach to studying the stock market. He is considered one of the five “titans” of technical analysis, along with Dow, Gann, Elliott and Merrill. At age 15, he took a job as a stock runner for a New York brokerage. Afterwards, while still in his 20s, he became the head of his own firm. He also founded and, for nearly two decades wrote, and edited The Magazine of Wall Street, which, at one point, had more than 200,000 subscribers. Wyckoff was an avid student of the markets, as well as an active tape reader and trader. He observed the market activities and campaigns of the legendary stock operators of his time, including JP Morgan and Jesse Livermore. From his observations and interviews with those big-time traders, Wyckoff codified the best practices of Livermore and others into laws, principles and techniques of trading methodology, money management and mental discipline.
From his position, Wyckoff observed numerous retail investors being repeatedly fleeced. Consequently, he dedicated himself to instructing the public about “the real rules of the game” as played by the large interests, or “smart money.” In the 1930s, he founded a school which would later become the Stock Market Institute. The school's central offering was a course that integrated the concepts that Wyckoff had learned about how to identify large operators' accumulation and distribution of stock with how to take positions in harmony with these big players. His time-tested insights are as valid today as they were when first articulated.
Although it seems complex – the logic still holds strong and has been seen even in recent Bitcoin moves. (click article – below) to see the types of Schematics.
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Wyckoff said “Successful tape reading is a study of Force; it requires ability to judge which side has the greatest pulling power and one must have the courage to go with that side.”
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WD Gann
William Delbert Gann (June 6, 1878 – June 18, 1955) or WD Gann, was a finance trader who developed the technical analysis methods like the Gann angles and the Master Charts, where the latter is a collective name for his various tools like the Spiral Chart (also called the Square of Nine), the Hexagon Chart, and the Circle of 360 Gann market forecasting methods are purportedly based on geometry, astronomy and astrology, and ancient mathematics. Opinions are sharply divided on the value and relevance of his work. Gann authored a number of books and courses on shares and commodities trading.
There are several techniques using Gann methodology;
Here’s one on Gann Fans
Gann said “Time is more important than price. When time is up price will reverse.”
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Another great man worth a mention, purely on these quotes 😉
If everyone is thinking alike, then no one is thinking.
Benjamin Franklin
Wyckoff would call this composite man logic!
Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you.
Benjamin Franklin
And this is how I feel the crypto market is currently looking.
Any others you think should be on the list, mention in comments and why?
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Wyckoff basics explainedGoing back to the 18th of March where we called the Buyers Climax top for Bitcoin's "Wyckoff" Distribution phase. We have had a lot of questions regarding the technique.
It's a very difficult one to put into only one post - but to understand Wyckoff methodology you need to first APPRECIATE what Wyckoff is about.
History
Richard Demille Wyckoff (November 2, 1873 – March 7, 1934) was an American stock market investor, and the founder and onetime editor of the Magazine of Wall Street.
Wyckoff implemented his methods of technical analysis of the financial markets (the study of charts showing movements of stock-prices and other data). He grew his wealth such that he eventually owned nine and a half acres and a mansion next door to the Hamptons estate of General Motors president Alfred Sloan in Great Neck, New York.
As Wyckoff became wealthier, he also became altruistic about the public's Wall Street experience. He turned his attention and passion to education, teaching, and in publishing exposes such as “Bucket Shops and How to Avoid Them”, which were run in New York's The Saturday Evening Post starting in 1922.
Jump forward - too much detail for one post to cover.
Wyckoff's research claimed many common characteristics among the greatest winning stocks and market campaigners of the time. He believed he had analyzed and determined where risk and reward were optimal for trading. He emphasized the placement of stop-losses at all times, the importance of controlling the risk of any particular trade. Wyckoff also has techniques he believed offered advantages when markets were rising or falling (bullish and bearish). The Wyckoff technique may provide some insight as to how and why professional interests buy and sell securities, while evolving and scaling their market campaigns with concepts such as the "Composite Operator".
Wyckoff offered a detailed analysis of the "trading range", a posited ideal price bracket for buying or selling a stock. One tool that Wyckoff provides is the concept of the composite operator. Simply, Wyckoff felt that an experienced judge of the market should regard larger market trends as the expression of a single mind. He felt that it was an important psychological and tactical advantage to stay in harmony with this omnipotent player. Wyckoff believed investors would be better prepared to grow their portfolios and net worth by following in his footsteps.
The LOGIC
Applying this concept in a chart you can identify market phases and cycles - here's the snapshot from a daily BTC move.
This relates to one of 4 (master patterns)this particular known as distribution schematic 1. **For the others you can see in the PDF linked below;**
Phases - Simplified
In this distribution schematic example (literally from Wednesday's BTC exit of the range) you will be able to identify a Buyers Climax (BC) from here, the assumption is that the composite man (strong hand operators) are taking profits - Money flow leaving, this causes an Automatic Reaction (AR).
Now many retail traders will assume, this is another pullback (failing to identify the BC) if their on a very small time frame (and many retail traders are operating on lower time frames) then the assumption would be "buy the dip" and for a little while they are correct, we often see this (ST) move up but, this usually fails to go higher than the (BC).
Composite man is in control
This game is what many retail traders refer to as "Market Manipulation" - whilst the reality is, there is an identifiable pattern. Human beings are greedy, fearful and outright stupid at times. This allows for the perfect schematic to play itself out as the composite man accumulated or in the Bitcoin move Distribute.
Here's an example from an older post I did walking through the psychology on a chart.
You will see how price action in inextricably linked with the moves caused by the players "you & me" in the market.
Later phases of this structure
The general idea is for the composite man to accumulate or distribute to obtain a better position for himself, taking the market one way and the other. Often at times, retail will do the last couple of steps among themselves. Although the strong hands are often hedging positions, it is not always required to have their participation as the phases move on inside the structure.
As we see a Sign Of Weakness (SOW) - the retail traders would have now seen a lower high and a lower low (logic) However from the (SOW) we move almost impulsively to the Upthrust (UT) the "bulltrap" to many newer traders. At this stage of the post, you might be starting to see inside how the manipulation works?
Next phase
Range bound - in true Wyckoff terms this region inside the schematic is known as phase B. We chop up and down and eventually create a new higher high. Again in Bitcoin's case we see the ATH. Known as the (UTAD) to Wyckoffian's - Up Thrust After Distribution.
This is the climax and from here we see the price breaking down until we anticipate the exit of the range.
On @TradingView We have also developed a pretty cool indicator to use one buy and one sell for Wyckoff schematics in particular. You can see how it fits inside the schematic.
The logic can easily be assessed and broken down into small parts, step by step. And therefore, if it's something we can program. It is something you can learn.
Here is the free link to the other Wyckoff Schematics - drive.google.com
Hope you enjoyed this short intro to Wyckoff - see the previous video posts for live Wyckoff overlay examples.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Wyckoff Basics part 2After my last educational wyckoff post - I had a lot of comments, questions and so on.
The idea was to post the basics and show the concept - there has been a lot of the overlay, breakdown and other people jumping on this. It was a move we called on the 18th of March (see the "they blew up the rocket" post).
In terms of some simple education, Wyckoff is deep and possibly too deep for newer traders. What I was trying to highlight was the existence of such techniques. In part one;
I only covered the point of how the distribution phase was playing out in Bitcoin.
In this post, I will share some additional depth - for those of you already familiar with Wyckoff techniques you already have this. So we are not covering here (volume, how to identify or any of the more advanced stuff or terms like creeks or mark-ups and downs) Just another simple intro to the basics & a step up from post one.
So if you have not seen the first post; check it out here by clicking the image.
4 Major types of schematics
The Accumulation and Distribution Schematics are a major part of Wyckoff’s work, These schematics are broken down into 2 patterns for accumulation and 2 for distribution. These sections are then divided into five Phases (A to E), along with multiple Wyckoff Events - we will cover this later.
Distribution schematics
So in the previous post & it was fortuitous that Bitcoin was a near textbook example of the distribution schematic #1.
The second type of distribution schematic looks like this;
As you can see, there are a lot of similarities & it can be confusing, but this is where it's best to dig deeper into the concept, why volume plays a big part in Wyckoff techniques and gain an understanding of the naming convention for each of the events inside.
** We have a naming convention key below **
Accumulation
As well as distribution you also have accumulation and this also has 2 (major) schematics;
#1
And #2
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Key;
The first phase or ways to identify a schematic forming is with what is called a PS (Accumulation) or PSY (distribution) - this is basically the change of character as the trend moves towards a schematic; Preliminary Support (PS) and Preliminary Supply (PSY). The first significant reaction that occurs after a prolonged rally that
indicates budding supply showing up.
You then have a BC or SC - buyer climax / sellers Climax; the obvious BC in an uptrend suggesting institutional operators cashing out. and the inverse with the SC.
The next major event is the AR - Automatic reaction (rally) - The reaction that occurs after a Buying Climax. It occurs without previous preparation, hence the word “automatic.” and in layman terms it's the exit of large positions after a climax (SC and BC) event.
ST next - this is a second test (ST) A name given by Wyckoff to the reaction following Automatic Rally, (or rally following the Automatic reaction.) If that test is associated
with small range and light volume — it increases the likelihood that the previous trend is over.
Next a move down if it is accumulation would be a SOW - this is "Sign of Weakness" and inverse we have SOS "Sign of strength"
In distribution - you then have two major differences over the accumulation schematic; UT = Up Thrust and a UTAD = UP Thrust after Distribution.
For distribution you have a spring, think of this like the last drop before moving up rapidly out of a schematic on the Bullish side.
You then have "Test" phases usually of the support and resistance levels (zones) created by the schematic as shown in the images above.
And finally you have LPSY for distribution Last Point of Supply - A point at the end of the process of distribution where the Composite Man (Large operators) recognizes that demand forces have exhausted themselves and it is safe to start marking down prices.
Last Point of Support (LPS) which is the accumulation equivalent - A point at the end of the process of accumulation where the large operators recognizes that supply forces have exhausted themselves and it is safe to start marking up prices.
This is still only the basics, not looking at phases or volume or anything else yet. It's worth going away and studying this in a little more detail to get familiar with the concepts and terminology and in the next post I will cover the phases.
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I know a lot of you readers are here purely for the crypto/BTC calls made - and another logical reason we are still liking a slow move down at this level, comes in the current DXY situation. See this post below as to the current situation there. (the relevance might be small - But understanding the forces at work, with DXY to BTC. Is actually useful).
Shorter term strength = will aid BTC slow moves.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Recent editor picks in one place! This post is a little different, I have recently gone back into Trading Education and mentoring and wanted to ask what kind of post or info would the community like?
Here's a list of the recent editor picks; some educational content (each link you can click on to go through to the actual post)
1) Gann Fan Tutorial
2) Buying the Dips made simple
3) Simplified Elliott
4) Elliott level 2 - (not an editors pick) but goes after the Simplified Elliott)
5) Quick intro to Moving Averages
6) Simpson's walkthrough Psychology
7) This one is not an editors pick but goes into more depth around the Simpson's post
8) Trading Can be lonely
9) Not an editor pick but some books for when your lonely
10) Bart pattern - no education but had a pick for this one
11) This land is mine
12) Crypto news and updates (last week)
13) How to do fundamental analysis on altcoins
Some other posts worth mentioning
🍒 COT guide -
🍒 Indicators Vs Price Action -
🍒 Using the comparison tool as indicators -
🍒 Interesting news events on BTC highs/lows -
🍒 Did you know S&P now has Crypto index's?
And have you seen a Wyckoff schematic laying underneath a daily BTC chart? This is awesome!
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
How to assess an altcoinWhen doing fundamental analysis into a stock or in this case a coin – you need to appreciate, it is still a company after all. So, your fundamental analysis should include, taking a deep dive into the available information. You might want to review the project use case, the team, and the money the project has raised so far.
As you can’t really do technical analysis with limited data available on the charts.
Your goal is to reach a conclusion on whether the asset is overvalued or undervalued. At that stage, you can use your insights to inform your trading positions. In other words, have we had a major hype & can a dump be expected?
Trading assets as volatile as cryptocurrencies requires some skill. You will need to define a strategy – otherwise, you are Gambling & not trading or investing.
As for Technical analysis, some expertise can be inherited from the legacy financial markets. Many new crypto traders use the same technical indicators seen in Forex, stocks, and commodities trading.
You often see tools such as the RSI, MACD, and Bollinger Bands which seek to predict market behavior, the issue with this is the lack of data mentioned above. Yet, these technical analysis tools are also extremely popular in the cryptocurrency space.
Slightly harder to read a moving average when the price is in a 90-degree move up.
With cryptocurrency fundamental analysis, though the approach is similar to that used in legacy markets, you can’t really use tried-and-tested tools to assess crypto assets. To conduct a proper analysis, what we need is to understand where they (the company/Coin) derive value from.
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For you newer traders…
“What is fundamental analysis (FA)?”
Fundamental analysis (FA) is an approach used by investors and traders to establish the "intrinsic value" of an asset or business or in this case, crypto. By looking at a number of internal and external factors, their main goal is to determine whether said asset or business is overvalued or undervalued. They can then leverage that information to strategically enter or exit positions.
The goal of this article is not to dive into the methods of FA as a whole, rather just to highlight where you should begin.
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However, there are problems with crypto fundamental analysis (in the traditional sense)
Cryptocurrency networks can't really be assessed through the same lens as traditional businesses. If anything, the more decentralized offerings like Bitcoin (BTC) are closer to commodities. But even with the more centralized cryptocurrencies (such as those issued by organizations), traditional FA indicators can't tell us much.
So now we are stuck between a rock and a hard place…
A quick step would be to identify strong metrics, these should not really take into account things like Twitter or Facebook followers. It’s so easy these days to buy several thousand followers for social media sites.
One method could be; the number of active addresses on a blockchain and see that it has been sharply increasing? For example…
Are we seeing Company actors transferring money back and forth to themselves with new addresses each time? This is the level of info you can go down to – we are on the Blockchain after all.
A little more TECHNICAL
If you want to get a bit more technical – you can look at “On-Chain” metrics in depth. On-chain metrics are those that can be observed by looking at data provided by the blockchain itself.
By running a node for the desired Crypto and examining the data, this can be time-consuming and expensive. Particularly if you are only considering the investment, and don't want to waste time or resources on this process.
A simple way to do this (in some instances) is to use API-based solutions, plug into exchanges, and see third-party tools such as Binance-research's project reports.
Look for info such as;
1) Active Addresses
2) Transaction value
3) Fees – this will give an idea of the demand…
Other areas as mentioned above
You are looking to ‘invest’ in a tech company, which is the longs and shorts of it. So go and read through the whitepaper. Assess use cases, do they make sense to you?
Review the team, do they have experience or have they already raised finance enough to keep the project going – you can now use the chain metrics – to see money flow, you could go and look at the companies register, in the UK all companies are set up under “companies house” this will show shareholders, early account info, company directors.
Other factors
How about competition in the space? What projects are offering similar solutions, are the other companies further along? Does the company you are looking at, have some kind of USP over their competitors?
Supply Mechanisms – Liquidity and volume – Market Cap.
These are all things to take into consideration .
And Finally - Initial distribution and Tokenomics as a whole
A lot of projects have created tokens as a solution looking for a problem. Doge on the other hand created a meme for the market, which is turning into a solution.
Understanding the use case, cannot be stressed enough. As such, it's important to determine whether the token has real utility. And, will it have decent adoption?
Consider how the funds were initially distributed. Was it via an ICO or IEO, or could users earn it by mining?
The whitepaper should outline how much is kept for the founders and team, and how much will be available to investors. If it was mined, you could look to evidence of the asset's creator pre-mining (mining on the network before it's announced).
We have a live stream Monday at 3:30 GMT with @Paul_Varcoe
📺 www.tradingview.com 📺
As I said, this is only to give you a starting point - especially for you newer traders. There are several other factors & methods but start here.
"Aw, 20 Dollars? I Wanted A Peanut!"Market Psychology simplified
Carrying on the Simsons theme - In the last couple of months, I have written several educational posts & have been lucky enough to see some being selected as "editor picks" After writing some more serious ones, I wanted to write some other posts to have a laugh.
I had some great comments, replies, and requests on the back of the first Bart one. Actually enjoyed the art side of it more than I expected.
Back in February, I posted a post about market psychology.
With feedback from Bart and some requests on psychology, I thought I would write a post using the "Simpsons" to explain the phases. So you have a little daft fun, with a topic worth covering from a technical perspective.
Phase one
Phase one is Hope we hope we are correct in our analysis, we hope that the market goes in our favour, we hope for moon shots and Lambo's. Think of hope and we think of words like aspiration, desire, wish, expectation, ambition & dream. Hope is what we are feeling before a trade is placed.
Phase 2
As a trader, we feel optimistic as the trade goes in our favour, we get excited and dream of the possibilities. What if this goes all the way, what if this account makes me! Bragging rights, money banked - Life doesn't get much better. We can start to relax and unwind and get ourselves into a good place, mentally.
Phase 3
Belief - at this stage, nothing could go wrong... Well, we hope and maybe pray for. Trading, things never really play out to plan. We see crazy swings in our favour and wild pullbacks. (often enough to give us heart attacks) So we listen to chilled music, we talk to ourselves & we say a silent little prayer that this is the one! My analysis was correct, I am quietly optimistic about this trade, Lambo - here we come, just a little further.
Phase Four
Thrill!!! What else is there? At this stage, we are winning in life. Now we are picking the colour of the Lambo. Nothing can hurt us now. In trading terms, this is where life often comes to kick us in the ass! But who cares, we are on top of the world!!!
Bitcoin is going to the moon - I bought at $59,000 it's now at $61k I can't lose...
The fifth phase
Complacency - now back enjoying the beer, we got some great paper gains and we will never see $50k again. Death to Dollar, Rise to Bitcoin and all that! Let's chillout.
Phase 6
As the Pullback comes - we start to get a little anxious, will it go below my entry? What? it can't go there, no way. I am an early adopter, I was in and now it's not continuing up???? What the hellllllllll. I can't sleep, I don't want to eat, I'll just take a triple Espresso with a splash of Red Bull.
The 7th Phase
Denial - This can't be a trend change? It must be an aggressive pullback. Why is it going so low? I don't believe it, I only have 30X leverage on my trade. I'll hold out, it will hit $1 Million a Bitcoin by the end of the week. We hold and hope! Until the leverage gives a margin call...
Phase 8
Panic! Pure PANIC Bitcoin falling through my $56,000 floor. I'm 30x Leveraged, please don't drop, please don't. How will I tell the wife I used the kids as collateral? I have to sell out, I can't take another red candle.
Maybe the little sprite is toying with me!
Phase 9
Why you little.... Yes, Anger sets in. You are out at a healthy loss. It's gone and beat you. Blasted crypto! Must be a scam! I already put a deposit on my pink Lambo. Told the Mrs she could have that diamond ring on Friday. Now what?!>?!
The 10th phase
Watching Bitcoin move on up, beyond 60, up through 70, into the hundreds. You feel depressed. Trading might not be for you, Bitcoin was a scam. The US government played me. Where next? Work on Monday, How do I tell the wife about the diamond? How do I explain to the Lambo dealer I'd like my deposit back. "Doh, it's a deposit. I've last that as well!"
Bitcoin was just an analogy here - these phases happen over and over again. Nothing new, they will repeat themselves over and over again. To visualise this on a chart, you need to go to the psychology post linked below. To go deeper into this, It's worth reading "Trading in the zone".
Hope you liked the images and content!
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Sceptical indicators, strategies or tools? Thoughts? So this post is a little different - it's not an analysis or really a tutorial. I am looking to see what the community sees as the strangest, craziest, most colourful, most interesting or pointless indicator, strategy or tool?
About 2 years ago I was shown a strategy/technique - I assumed it was complete rubbish, it talks about Lunar dates, cycles. Now although cycles play a role in the market - I wasn't convinced it was powered by the moon. At first, I was very dubious about the concept of what seemed a sceptical idea.
Over the years I have studied Fibonacci, Elliott, Gann, Wyckoff and often see logic to the idea. Now and again something pops up on the radar & I like to explore it. I've tested Algo's and Robots, strategies that claim 97% success rate. You name it and it's possibly sitting in the junk hard drive with my FX/trading pdfs, indicators & videos.
Delta Phenomenon
In the early 80's, Welles Wilder founded the Delta Society International. His purpose was to share the “secret of the order behind the markets.” This order, the Delta Phenomenon, is the basis of all market movement relative to time. All other methods of technical analysis are enhanced by this timing tool. As you will learn, the Delta Phenomenon gives a higher probability of trading success to existing systems. Mr. Wilder states "I have solved the Delta Phenomenon for many different markets over hundreds of years of data and I have never seen a failure in this order."
Now at this point - I'm thinking, why isn't this mainstream or this guy not locked up in a nuthouse?
I had read other Wells Wilder books and found them to be overly simplistic. In that regard, I was not disappointed. Now as I said at the start of this article, I'm not looking to teach the method - it's such a strange concept, I thought there must be other people out there with things they find interesting or pure crazy?
Pitchforks for example - why do they work, how do they work? (not a question, more a statement)
How about Gann? Why and how can Gann techniques plot trend lines for the future?
Master of the Universe - Fibonacci levels - Again, why???
If you look at the dates on the chart above - these are forecasted using the delta technique, in theory, it's trying to predict moves in the market using moon cycles. Blank circles are daily turn points, circles & dots are major moves and the large circles with both, are dates whereby both near and medium dates co-exist.
I am keen to hear what you think? Do you know of the delta phenomenon? Have you used it? What about something else similar? or just something you find interesting or/and random? How about something you are sceptical about?
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Simplified Elliott; It can be confusingElliott wave is a great tool to have in your arsenal - I have been asked more and more about it recently. So I wanted to share a simplified breakdown. Of course it can be complex and detailed, it also requires constant tweaking.
The Elliott Wave Principle posits that collective investor psychology, or crowd psychology, moves between optimism and pessimism in natural sequences. These mood swings create patterns evidenced in the price movements of markets at every degree of trend or time scale. (see linked idea below on this topic)
Background
Elliott Wave Theory is named after Ralph Nelson Elliott (28 July 1871 – 15 January 1948). He was an American accountant and author. Inspired by the Dow Theory and by observations found throughout nature, Elliott concluded that the movement of the stock market could be predicted by observing and identifying a repetitive pattern of waves.
Elliott was able to analyze markets in greater depth, identifying the specific characteristics of wave patterns and making detailed market predictions based on the patterns. Elliott based part his work on the Dow Theory, which also defines price movement in terms of waves, but Elliott discovered the fractal nature of market action. Elliott first published his theory of the market patterns in the book titled The Wave Principle in 1938. (source elliottwave-forecast.com)
Why is it useful?
Some traders swear by this method. others like myself like the concept and use it as part of the strategy. For me personally, I use it for the monthly and weekly directional bias.
Smaller patterns can be identified within bigger patterns. In this sense, Elliott Waves are like a piece of broccoli, where the smaller piece, if broken off from the bigger piece, does, in fact, look like the big piece. This information (about smaller patterns fitting into bigger patterns), coupled with the Fibonacci relationships between the waves, offers the trader a level of anticipation and/or prediction when searching for and identifying trading opportunities with solid reward/risk ratios.
So where to start?
First, identify Major swing highs and lows - True Elliottitions will go back several years in the analysis to get an exact count. But for the purpose of this explanation, I have taken the monthly swing highs and lows to identify a starting point. This is good enough for how I utilize Elliott principles.
Once I have a starting point I am looking for a bias - Is this an impulsive or corrective move? This is what usually confuses people new to Elliott Theory, it can be very subjective. Hence constantly moving and re-plotting as price does what is expected - or completely against the trader's expectations.
3 Rules
Most Elliott traders can agree - there are rules for every scenario, so in simple terms use these 3 rules as a starting point.
Corrective moves can be complex as you will see if you dig deeper into Elliott Wave - that there are several ways of "fitting" the patterns into the current scenario.
- this is just a simple example - more can be found on elliottwave-forecast.com
Some other nuggets
A correct Elliott wave count must observe three rules:
Wave 2 never retraces more than 100% of wave 1.
Wave 3 cannot be the shortest of the three impulse waves, namely waves 1, 3 and 5.
Wave 4 does not overlap with the price territory of wave 1, except in the rare case of a diagonal triangle formation.
Wave 3 is an extension of 161.8% of the first wave in the Elliott wave count. This means that the third wave forms right after the completion of the second wave. To identify the 3rd wave, the second wave has to be complete and fall within the general rules of Elliott waves.
NEW VS OLD
The biggest change in today’s market compared to the one in 1930s is in the definition of a trend and counter-trend move. We have four major classes of market: Stock market, forex, commodities, and bonds. The Elliott Wave Theory was originally derived from the observation of the stock market (i.e. Dow Theory), but certain markets such as forex exhibit more of a ranging market.
In today’s market, 5 waves move still happen in the market, but our years of observation suggest that 3 waves move happens more frequently in the market than a 5 waves move. In addition, the market can keep moving in a corrective structure in the same direction. In other words, the market can trend in a corrective structure; it keeps moving in the sequence of 3 waves, getting a pullback, then continues in the same direction again in a 3 waves corrective move. Thus, we believe in today’s market, trends do not have to be in 5 waves and trends can unfold in 3 waves. It’s therefore important not to force everything in 5 waves when trying to find the trend and label the chart.
As I said on the front cover - this is not for experts, it's an intro to Elliott Theory. If there are Elliott traders reading, please contribute to the post. Add anything you find useful.
The other post mentioned above was how the mindset plays into these waves and the overall moves.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Beginner basicsHappy Holidays all - 🐣🐥
After writing a few educational posts recently, it has been interesting to see the comments & DM's. Years ago we set out training traders the basics; we called the trades "starbuck bets" the idea was for some people, extra money each week was what they were looking for from trading. For others it was extra money for a daily coffee on the way to the 9-5.
Skip forward several years and now the training has gone mostly online - this is great on one hand, but a nightmare on the other. Where do you go for education? why go with a certain company? How much should you pay? What do I get?
The issue now is although forex is a legitimate instrument there is a lot of people out there, making more from training than they are trading - how do you navigate this? How do you know who is going to teach you what you really need.
In terms of the basics - a great FREE tool is babypips. If you are new to trading, it's well worthwhile going to get to terms with the basics, at your own pace.
Pointers from the pros - some other great resources include sites such as investopedia. Although this is a bit more specific if you are researching an indicator or want to understand more about an instrument and so on.
Obviously, there are some great books available (see related ideas) I posted an idea a few weeks back with 20 books worth a read as a trader.
5 key pointers when starting out
1 - 🐑) Selecting a broker; even before you get here - go read babypips and follow these 5 points. But after that, selecting a broker should include searching for regulated companies, check with the local (per country) regulation authorities such as the FCA in the UK, the SEC in the states. Most countries have lists available for this. If there's no record of the company being regulated then you should treat it as a red flag. To manage money in most countries*** it's a requirement to have some kind of financial license.
2 - 📖) Go read, babypips first and from there take a deeper dive into understanding the market. Read financial articles, stock market books, website tutorials, etc. There's a wealth of information out there and much of it inexpensive to tap even free. It's important not to focus too narrowly on one single aspect of the trading game. Even reading through ideas on tradingview - just don't follow the ideas, you should be doing your own research.
3 - 🎲) Study the basics of technical analysis and look at price charts—thousands of them—in all time frames. And when you think you have done enough, go back and study some more. Get a feel for the character of the instruments you are keen to trade. Again another pro tip - don't go chasing too many pairs, you can make a lot of money on a single tool. So try to spend the time to learn 1-3. Think of this step like learning a language, you wouldn't try to learn Russian, Chinese and Australian (joking about Australian) all at the same time. Treat the charts the same!!!
4 - 🔤) Demo account - Start off with a demo account, try to find one that might offer the same kind of money as the amount you intend on investing. If you have a demo account of say $100,000 but you only intend on trading $1,000 - then I would suggest you open a trade at $10,000 a pip and lose 99% of your account! Then start with $1,000 demo size. Some brokers you can message and they will set this for you. Treat this like a real account, try to make it feel as real as possible - feel the pain, feel the stress and understand the power and value. If you treat a demo 10 times or 100 times more than you plan on trading just as a game - when you invest real money, the market will eat your investment for breakfast!
5 - 🎯) The most important of all of these points - RISK MANAGEMENT If you learn the basics, go through babypips, learn the charts and then use the demo account. The golden rule of trading is pure and simple "proper risk management" you can lose 80% of all of your trades and still be successful. If you learn to obtain a market edge and use statistics then you will have a long-term advantage.
The issue is people come to trade, thinking "traders make money", "trading is easy", "trading is a get rich quick thing" - the issue is over 75% of new traders lose money!
Although this is only covering the basics - I hope this helps. If you need to ask, should I buy or sell - go back to step one, If you don't know how to set a stop loss or even what a stop loss is - go back to step one.
Happy Holidays!
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
The Lazy Man's Guide To ELLIOTT WAVEElliott Wave Post 2; after writing the first post I have received some questions. So I thought it easier to write a follow-up post here showing some tricks.
To be clear, I am not an Elliottition as a whole, I use it as part of a wider strategy on the monthly and weekly timeframes. But also we have access to an automated Elliott wave tool.
The Elliott wave logic still works today and with a couple of little tricks, you will be able to use to help forecast potential target zones. Elliott can be very subjective and the saying goes "if you ask 10 Elliott wave traders where to plot the waves, you will get 9 different answers" So just like everything else, you need to use it wisely and not rely solely on it.
Again to reiterate - this is not a full-out lesson, there's more to learn on the topic. But these little tips will help you along the way, even to get into the overall concept a little quicker.
Step 1 - if you have this in your mind, you will be able to start the process for an overall measure.
Major rule
Wave 2;
If you can identify a wave 2 but it is less than 50% of wave 1 - be careful as it could create a double bottom (in an uptrend) and dip a little lower before moving up.
with 1 & 2 identified you can start working on estimations for 3.
Knowing wave 3 is usually 1.618 or 2.618 - will give you a good idea of where price is heading. Again you could use things like Stochastic or RSI to assist the directional bias when you feel you have identified the 2.
Let's go all out - let's say we have the perfect setup...
We can also say that a lot of the time, wave 4 is around 38.2% of wave 3 and often no greater than 50% (whereas, wave 2 is often more than 50%)
Then lastly, if we know a potential target for 3 (maybe draw 2 target levels to test) we can use that with 2 levels for the 4 move 382 and 50 as a rule of thumb. You can see what works best for the instrument you are trading. How they play out with backtesting and so on.
It would be great to get some additional comments from traders who use Elliott every day, even from new traders only now getting into Elliott waves. Any additional tips or trips from the pro's for the newer traders?
If you are new to Elliott waves - see the related post below for the basic concept.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
How To Lose Money With CONFUSION (timeframe mixing) The issue for many new traders is understanding the correlation between timeframes. We often get caught up in indicators, news hype, chat room posts, and various other things.
One of the biggest challenges I see when talking to new traders is simply the lack of "experience" in reading multiple timeframes. This causes confusion and even self-doubt. The issue with the internet being so vast is there is a lot of info - but what do you go with & why?
In this post I have tried to "dumb it down" - the simple idea is to pick your timeframes based on your trading style.
Now if work gets in the way and you need to trade end of day or even swing (Longer-term) then really, you shouldn't stress so much about a 15 minute candle. A lot can happen throughout the day. But on the opposite side of the spectrum, if you are sat in front of your screen every minute the market is open. (scalping) then trying to work out what the monthly is doing whilst you hold a trade for an hour is not going to affect your trade (in general).
To give you a great example of this - I trade COT data as it's swing, with Monthly and weekly bias. I will have a mentee say something like "COT is a buy, but the price has dropped". Yes if you're looking at the 4-hour candle. If you think what institutional players can manage in terms of drawdown, especially using hedging techniques. It's far greater than the guy investing £5k of savings into Bitcoin.
If a hedge fund buys Bitcoin at 45k and the price drops to 22.5k - the likelihood is they have a hedged position & will be buying it all back at fair value. Whereas Mr £5k has lost some sleep & half of his capital - bailed, only to see the price shoot back up above his original entry.
You think of someone like Elon Musk - if his entry of a Billion Dollars was at 40k (example) and price drops to 20k, he has a paper loss of 500m for sure, it will hurt. But again if the Tesla share price drops from 800 to 700, he has a paper loss of (say 20 Billion) - a 500m loss on paper is less of a concern. *** You get the picture.
Investors & traders know that things don't just moon! they have dips, impulsive moves and so on.
So take the charts into account - You have an idea of what timeframes to pick based on your own personal availability or your style you have already identified. As a scalper it's easy to use 4 hour or even a 1 hour candle for your bias - a 15minute for a local area of interest & an entry on a 1m - 5m chart. (example only).
If you trade swing trades (depending on the overall time & expectations) a weekly bias, a daily interest and a 4hour trigger could be what you look for.
Here are some examples;
In these examples - all I have done is used 1 tool. This is only to show the idea - If stochastic is up then I want to be Bullish, if down I'll consider Bearish moves. Keep in mind this could be anything from above/below a moving average, a key price level or a magnitude of other things. Even other tools like RSI for example.
Example of step down
The idea is this gives you a directional bias.
Then we look at the area of interest.
And finally - we want to look down on the next timeframe for the trigger (entry)
Traders can easily get confused with one timeframe saying one thing and the next timeframe up or down saying something else. If you can treat it like a tick sheet, you can step down with confidence and work on a strategy favouring your directional bias & that's in confluence with the time period & your expectations.
This really is an oversimplified breakdown. Just to give a general idea.
Have a great week!
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
A Quick intro to Moving Averages (Beginners) I have recently had some questions on some of the basics such as moving averages. First of all, there is some great free content out there via sites such as Babypips
I wanted to share some simple info to at least explain what a moving average is. Where it is used and what are the types of.
Moving average is a simple, technical analysis tool. Moving averages are usually calculated to identify the trend direction of a stock or to determine its support and resistance levels. It is a trend-following—or lagging—indicator because it is based on past prices.
They also form the building blocks for many other technical indicators and overlays, such as Bollinger Bands, MACD and the McClellan Oscillator. The two most popular types of moving averages are the Simple Moving Average (SMA) and the Exponential Moving Average (EMA).
Moving averages are a totally customizable indicator, which means you can freely choose whatever time frame they want when calculating an average. The most common time periods used in moving averages are 15, 20, 30, 50, 100, and 200 days. The shorter the time span used to create the average, the more sensitive it will be to price changes. The longer the time span, the less sensitive the average will be. @TradingView has many of these tools to use under the list of indicators.
A simple moving average is formed by computing the average price of a security over a specific number of periods. Most moving averages are based on closing prices; for example, a 5-day simple moving average is the five-day sum of closing prices divided by five. As its name implies, a moving average is an average that moves. Old data is dropped as new data becomes available, causing the average to move along the time scale.
Then you have an Exponential Moving Average (EMA).
reduce the lag by applying more weight to recent prices. The weighting applied to the most recent price depends on the number of periods in the moving average. EMAs differ from simple moving averages in that a given day's EMA calculation depends on the EMA calculations for all the days prior to that day. You need far more than 10 days of data to calculate a reasonably accurate 10-day EMA.
Highlighting the difference between an MA & an SMA - The Smoothed Moving Average (SMMA) is similar to the Simple Moving Average (SMA), in that it aims to reduce noise rather than reduce lag. The indicator takes all prices into account and uses a long lookback period.
Then how it can be used and applied, *** There are many strategies out there, the most basic starts with above or below a level (above = buy, below = sell) And then it steps into two moving averages crossing for example. Also as I mentioned above - other indicators use a form of moving average to calculate their plot.
Another simple strategy - Investopedia
This moving average trading strategy uses the EMA, because this type of average is designed to respond quickly to price changes. Here are the strategy steps.
🍒Plot three exponential moving averages—a five-period EMA, a 20-period EMA, and 50-period EMA—on a 15-minute chart.
🍒Buy when the five-period EMA crosses from below to above the 20-period EMA, and the price, five, and 20-period EMAs are above the 50 EMA.
🍒For a sell trade, sell when the five-period EMA crosses from above to below the 20-period EMA, and both EMAs and the price are below the 50-period EMA.
🍒Place the initial stop-loss order below the 20-period EMA (for a buy trade), or alternatively about 10 pips from the entry price.
🍒An optional step is to move the stop-loss to break even when the trade is 10 pips profitable.
🍒Consider placing a profit target of 20 pips, or alternatively exit when the five-period falls below the 20-period if long, or when the five moves above the 20 when short.
I hope this helps - Please feel free to add more info below. Any suggestions & comments to help new traders, always appreciated.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Where do you struggle?After my last couple of posts, I want to ask the question rather than just throwing ideas out there!
What aspect of trading do you fear? Why?
What do you think you could improve on?
Anything!!! Be interesting to see comments.
Personally, I can overanalyze and talk myself out of good setups. I've also been knowing to jump in trades too early.
This could be anything from risk management, psychology, wrong entries, taking profits too early, too many indicators, following the crowd?
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
📖 Trading Books 📖As a trading coach & mentor, I often get asked about where to go and find resources. Anything from books to specific strategies. So I thought it would be interesting to not only share with the community some books I have liked over the years. But to ask for your favorite books, any suggestions - any thoughts on the books listed?
Even if they're slightly outside of the conventional trading manual concepts - there are some great Wall Street stories, banking or business esq books.
Be great to get some conversations going!
Here's the second wave.
The next wave - moving away from trading manuals per se;
Another list;
And lastly some books worth mentioning but were just off the top 20 spot.
So what are your best books? why? what do you make of some of the books mentioned?
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
BUYING THE DIPS Made SimpleBuying dips can be tricky, the issue is knowing if it's an actual dip or a full trend reversal. I used to think buying at a lower price to double down on an investment going the wrong way was a good idea. However, after reading a book called the Zurich Axioms by Max Gunther - the penny actually dropped. In essence, profit is profit. It does not have to be made from a stock or instrument that you are currently losing. Know when to run, when to cut losses and when to stick with it. Unfortunately by the time you understand true hedging techniques, you will be too late.
Kenny Rogers said it best - "You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, And know when to run"
I highly recommend both the Zurich Axioms book and a listen to Kenny Rogers - The Gambler.
The logic behind buying the dips
🍒 Buying the dips refers to going long an asset or security after its price has experienced a short-term decline, in repeated fashion.
🍒 Buying the dips can be profitable in long-term uptrends, but unprofitable or tougher during secular downtrends.
🍒 Dip buying can lower one's average cost of owning a position, but the risk and reward of dip-buying should be constantly evaluated.
Simple Ideas for buying dips
Use an arsenal of tools to help you spot opportunities.
You will see in this image RSI and MACD have different ideas - there is no wrong or right, it's up to you to work on the things that work for you. However, you don't want tools that either do more or less the same thing or conflict. So as per the first image - using a moving average for (up or downtrend) this could be a larger period such as a 200.
Envelopes
Utilizing envelopes of sorts will help visualize channels - this could be tools such as Bollinger Bands or Regression channels. Much like Moving averages - you won't need both and there are thousands of tools I have not used. So you need to experiment with something that you like or suits your needs and style.
Like all trading strategies, buying the dips does not guarantee profits. An asset can drop for many reasons, including changes to its underlying value. Just because the price is cheaper than before doesn't necessarily mean the asset represents good value.
Trend lines can be very subjective and educators and mentors teach them in a million different ways. They can be used, but again - back test and find what works for you.
- you can see the difference between a simple trend line and conflict with Bollinger; this is what causes doubt. The subjective trendline says one thing and the calculated/measured tool says another. Which do you follow?
The problem is that the average investor has very little ability to distinguish between a temporary drop in price and a warning signal that prices are about to go much lower. While there may be unrecognized intrinsic value, buying additional shares simply to lower an average cost of ownership may not be a good reason to increase the percentage of the investor's portfolio exposed to the price action of that one stock. (Investopedia)
🎲 If trading stocks there are other tools available that are not accessible in trading currencies or other instruments - things like EBITDA or P&L sheets to give further confirmation of continuation in the trend.
ISSUES
As many new traders don't yet understand the losses are part and parcel of trading, seeing your account in red plays on the human emotions (we have all been there) and this makes us do crazy things - doubling down on trades, adding more money to avoid margin calls, buying into a losing trade again and again.
I wrote an idea recently on how the mindset is represented on a chart.(click for post)
Simplicity
You can use simple price action to spot key levels - over the years one thing I have found is levels such as Order Blocks and imbalances. Plenty of info online for this - no need to go into here, save for another post,
Then when combined with regression channels you can start to paint "expected" levels of interest.
Just to show an example I have added EMA, Bollinger, Hand drawn regression and an imbalance level.
🔢 Elliott Wave Theory 🔠
Another awesome tool for finding directional bias - If combined with other techniques, indicators and tools, this can be mighty powerful as a whole.
A simple explanation of Elliott wave from another previous post (click for post) -
In Summary - you need a belief and a reason that you assume the stock is going higher. It does not matter if it's SPX, Bitcoin or Apple. Secondary you need a directional bias confirmation such as a 200 EMA. I would say to include an envelope (channel) of some description, Something to help you confirm the trend (Elliott) for example. And then a trigger, this could be a candlestick formation, an RSI or MACD overbought/sold signal. Something that suits you and your style.
I hope this helps. Be great to get other ideas, comments or strategies from others below!
Have a great weekend!
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Trading can be lonely... What do you think...???Although not exactly education - I thought it would be different to ask rather than just post.
As a trader of 21 years, I have gone through various ups and downs. Emotions, stress, pain and success. I thought it would be interesting to ask the question, it doesn't matter if you have traded 40 years, started due to Covid or been learning.
The only competition in trading is with yourself! (and of course your emotions)
With global lockdowns, it's possible trading has been even more singular than usual. So I am asking if you want to share your stories, what you like & dislike about trading. Strategies, mentors, tips you might have learned. Even why and when you started!
Why do you trade? What do you want from trading? are you getting it? what's missing? what's working?
Hope you are all having a good weekend!
Post comments/stories below.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
Do you suffer from (Retail Sentiment)What is retail sentiment?
Have you ever noticed on your broker site that it has a statement along the lines of "70%+ of retail traders lose money"???
This is directly related to retail sentiment - in short, institutional money make their money on others losing money in the online marketplace.
Every forex trader will always have an opinion about the market.
“It’s a bear market, everything is going to hell!”
“Things are looking bright. I’m pretty bullish on the markets right now.”
Regardless of the technical analysis or the news that comes out, traders often get it wrong.
There's some simple logic to this, If you look into COT reports (Commitment of Traders) 🍪 see the last COT post if you're not familiar with COT. Well in addition to COT there is also a tool called sentiment - this info shows what traders are doing on global broker platforms such as IG index.
In this current condition and at this precise time it has a mixed bag of;
SPX 47% of retail are long - now you would assume with a long stock market it would correlate to a weaker DXY situation, yet retail are also 57% to the short side on EURUSD. Which makes very little sense. Now assume this is only a small minority on one platform like IG index.
Well - with another look, you will see retail are currently;
Long - USDJPY 67% (Long DXY)
Short AUDUSD 63% (also long DXY)
However, 76% long USDCAD - and then long Gold 83%.
Do all the numbers match up?
Knowing 70% or more of retail traders lose money - what would you say?
Unfortunately, since the forex market is traded over-the-counter, it doesn’t have a centralized market. This means that the volume of each currency traded cannot be easily measured, but again this is where COT can be used in parallel to the sentiment. This might be 👽 to you right now. But it's a very powerful tool.
On the COT side, you can see into the volume traded and will notice if brokers are net-long, institutional investors are often net-short. Buyers need sellers.
It's as simple as that.
IG sentiment can be found here - www.dailyfx.com
Hope this helps someone.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
The (COT) - COMMITMENT OF TRADERS Mystery RevealedThis is NOT an in-depth explanation or a way to trade, this is just highlighting some basics from a question I get a lot, you might see some traders talking about COT data. You may even see it in some posts. There's no magic to it, all you need to know is what exactly it is.
Of course, if you can use it within your edge to understand some bias by the bigger operators.
What is COT Data?
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (Commission or CFTC) publishes the Commitments of Traders (COT) reports to help the public understand market dynamics. Specifically, the COT reports provide a breakdown of each Tuesday’s open interest for futures and options on futures markets in which 20 or more traders hold positions equal to or above the reporting levels established by the CFTC.
The COT reports are based on position data supplied by reporting firms (FCMs, clearing members, foreign brokers and exchanges). While the position data is supplied by reporting firms, the actual trader category or classification is based on the predominant business purpose self-reported by traders on the CFTC Form 401 and is subject to review by CFTC staff for reasonableness.2 CFTC staff does not know specific reasons for traders’ positions and hence this information does not factor in determining trader classifications. In practice, this means, for example, that the position data for a trader classified in the “producer/merchant/processor/user” category for a particular commodity will include all of its positions in that commodity, regardless of whether the position is for hedging or speculation. Note that traders are able to report business purpose by commodity and, therefore, can have different classifications in the COT reports for different commodities. For one of the reports, Traders in Financial Futures, traders are classified in the same category for all commodities.
You can read more info and get the actual data from the CFTC site itself.
www.cftc.gov
Methodology
The weekly report details trader positions in most of the futures contract markets in the United States. Data for the report is required by the CFTC from traders in markets that have 20 or more traders holding positions large enough to meet the reporting level established by the CFTC for each of those markets.1 These data are gathered from schedules electronically submitted each week to the CFTC by market participants listing their position in any market for which they meet the reporting criteria.
The report provides a breakdown of aggregate positions held by three different types of traders: “commercial traders,” “non-commercial traders” and “nonreportable.” “Commercial traders” are sometimes called “hedgers”, “non-commercial traders” are sometimes known as “large speculators,” and the “nonreportable” group is sometimes called “small speculators.”
As one would expect, the largest positions are held by commercial traders that actually provide a commodity or instrument to the market or have bought a contract to take delivery of it. Thus, as a general rule, more than half the open interest in most of these markets is held by commercial traders. There is also participation in these markets by speculators that are not able to deliver on the contract or that have no need for the underlying commodity or instrument. They are buying or selling only to speculate that they will exit their position at a profit, and plan to close their long or short position before the contract becomes due. In most of these markets the majority of the open interest in these "speculator" positions are held by traders whose positions are large enough to meet reporting requirements.
*** Reference from Wikipedia***
When combining with other analysis - you can use it to obtain bias or simple confluence with your existing ideas. For example, here's the chart plotted on a weekly timeframe using Elliott wave theory - Plotted usign another piece of software called "Advanced Get"
If you combine this with the data from the CFTC website - you will see that the professional operators have been reducing long positions and gaining albeit staggered short positions on the move down.
This showing the overall trend move - If you drill down further and look at the difference in short positions between the 19th of Jan and the following week (26th) on a daily chart you will see a rally. (go check it for yourself)
A useful tool
As I said at the start of the post, it's not the master strategy. It's simply another tool - I just wanted to share some info with the community on what it is and how it can be used.
If used correctly - it can prove useful.
Have a great week, feel free to pop questions below.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
The Secret of Successful FEAR INDICATORSThe truth is - Indicators are only what you make them. 9 out of 10 indicators lag. The rest are used by so many people that it creates a type of unconscious bias. And above all else can clog up your chart as above!
That's not to say indicators are pointless - far from it, it's more about creating a bias and using indicators or chart patterns as a confirmation instead of guidence in and out of trades. Especially in the COVID era, the markets are not behaving in any form of regular form. In the last 12 months, we have had the virus to deal with, we have had one of the craziest transitions of Presidents, In the UK - Well, Brexit. It doesn't get much crazier than this.
Unconscious biases , also known as implicit biases, are the underlying attitudes and stereotypes that people unconsciously attribute to another person or group of people that affect how they understand and engage with a person or group. in trading terms, this is how indicators and groups of people that use specific indicators. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet when it comes to strategies and indicators. You will find tools that work in some market conditions, and not so well in other circumstances.
A lot of information you can get from an indicator is actually in the chart. *as a pure example you can spot things like Imbalances from candles prior to current price action. as per the example.
As an institutional investor, it's easy to understand the fear and the bias of retail traders. You only need to look at sentiment from companies like Oanda and IG index - you often find as trends rally 60% of retail positions are Bearish. The reason for this is 75% of retail trading is based on indicators and strategies like breakouts, trend line touches, and moving average crossovers. Measured using Fibonacci levels. Which then makes it easy for the experienced operators to see order blocks and go hunting for stop losses.
If you look at simple indicators like RSI -
A lot of what it shows can be visualised in the chart itself.
Now I don't want to be fully negative to indicators - it's just understanding their value and not fearing the herd. It's not only indicators - patterns can either be complex and you need a mathimatical degree to pin them down to perfection (joke) and they can sometimes be somewhat subjective. Starting points, anchors, measurements etc.
Fibonacci - an amazing tool with countless indicators using it in some way shape or form. But a lot of what makes it so accurate is the psychology underpinning the market moves.
When you add fibs to charts, or measure using other tools and patterns or indicators - they create the levels based on entries and exits of many people at the same levels.
I posted an idea recently on the market mindset (click image for full link)-
The idea is that emotions can control the ups and downs of moves based on perfect entries, terrible entries, ideal exits are simple trades you wished you never took, ones that now look obvious looking back.
So in short - tools cab be useful. But you should not need to be dependant on them. Especially with market conditions the way they are currently.
To summarise - Once you have your bias you shouldn't rely on indicators nor the group chat to execute your trade plan.
Disclaimer
This idea does not constitute as financial advice. It is for educational purposes only, our principle trader has over 20 years’ experience in stocks, ETF’s, and Forex. Hence each trade setup might have different hold times, entry or exit conditions, and will vary from the post/idea shared here. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe.
