Groundstoneholdings
Education post 16/100 – How to trade trend with HH,HL,LL,LH?Price on a given time frame is in an uptrend if it is making higher highs (HH) and higher lows (HL) and in a downtrend, if it is making lower highs (LH) and lower lows (LL). If the price is doing anything else, it is in a consolidation pattern – range, triangle, pennant, rectangle etc.
The trend is considered in place until price is no longer making higher highs and higher lows in an uptrend or lower highs and lower lows in a downtrend. After a trend is broken, there is usually a period of consolidation that is easier to see on a lower time frame. With practice, you will be able to visualize this going on without looking at the lower time frame.
Market Phases with HH,HL,LL,LH?
Contrary to popular belief there are actually three ways the market can go;
Up
Down
Sideways
With the swing high/low definition now in mind we can start to build some layers on to the chart to identify these market phases and start to do a simple count of these swing highs and lows. In short
The market is going up when price is making higher highs and higher lows
The market is going down when price is making lower highs and lower lows
The market is going sideways when price is not making higher highs and higher lows OR lower highs lower lows
This may sound like child's play and a statement of the obvious but you will be surprised at how often people will forget these simple facts. One of the biggest questions I get asked is, which way is it a market going? By doing a simple exercise you can see which way that price is going and decide on your trading plan and more importantly timing of a trade. What do I mean by timing? It may be that you are looking for a shorting opportunity as the overall trend is down but price on your entry time frame is still going up (making HH's & HL's). There is, at this stage, no point in trying to short a rising market until price action start to point down (making LH's & LL's. More on this shortly).
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Education post 15/100 – How to trade Psychological Price Levels?What are Psychological levels?
Psychological levels are price levels which tend to draw big market attention and typically witness a reaction by price when tested. These levels are the main round numbers (whole numbers), referred to as “Double Zeros such as .9800, .990.
Plotting support and resistance levels is often a challenging and subjective task. It is also commonly one of the first areas of price action new traders attempt to tackle.
Support and resistance can be established in numerous ways, such as: trendlines, moving averages, pivot point levels, Fibonacci levels, key high/low points etc. A common complaint with a lot of these methods though is subjectivity.
This is why we believe psychological levels are appealing, as the numbers are effectively embedded within market structure and are entirely objective, as you’ll see going forward.
So...What are Psychological levels?
Say that you’re the proud owner of new car, and a buddy down the pub asks how much it cost. Assuming it set you back $10,999, it’s unlikely that you would tell him that exact figure. Instead, to keep things simple, you’d probably round the number to the nearest thousand i.e. $11,000. And this is exactly what happens in the financial markets! It is far more likely that a trader will select 1.2500 over 1.2493, for example.
Why do they work and how to trade them?
Trading support and resistance can be a fantastic way to approach the market and for many new traders this is one of the first areas of technical analysis that they come to properly understand. There are a great many varieties of support and resistance in the market that traders can look to build strategies around such as: key highs/lows, trend lines, Fibonacci levels, moving averages, pivots, Bollinger bands and more. However, there are also levels that are already embedded within the market that can act as powerful support and resistance and traders don’t need any tools or to perform any complicated analysis to find them. These levels are called “Psychological levels”
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