Getting the better of the inflation and rising prices is a challenge for many of us. Whatever we do we just cannot make ends meet all the time. One ...
Getting the better of the inflation and rising prices is a challenge for many of us. Whatever we do we just cannot make ends meet all the time. One of the best ways to break this cycle of earning and spending is through the business of trading. Trading can help investments grow rapidly creating value.
There are many investments that you can take up. Popularly people invest in stocks while off late there are other investment avenues that have cropped up and become accessible to general public. These are dollar trading and FOREX trading.
Stock trading is a very well known business where you are trading stocks. Stocks are in general percentage ownership of the company. So when you buy stocks you are buying some ownership in the company. The idea behind the stock is that if the company performs well, they will share the profits and hence people are willing to pay for its ownership.
The FOREX trading is where you trade currencies. There are many factors that affect the currency exchange rates. As these factors fluctuate the conversion rates change. People can tap into this change and make money from this trading business.
The dollar trading is similar to FOREX; it is just that you are sticking to one currency which is universally accepted rather than going all over the place with the trading currency.
In all these trading opportunities you are taking a risk based on speculation. You expect the rate or value to go up while there is no guarantee it would. However, it is this speculation that drives these markets and if you play it to the market trends and sentiments you can make decent returns on your investment.
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Notwithstanding the fact that there are many techniques traders use to predict the future market movements, they belong to one of three varieties of categories.
They are either from the school of Technical analysis, fundamental analysis or they utilize both disciplines. While forex trading can be done using only one type of subject, those that grasp a bit of both get a better overall picture.
Simply put, Technical analysis is the study of historical data, volume plus price to verify current along with future forex trends. Technical traders largely ignore external factors outside of this foundation.
Yet, the way the charts are analyzed plus the forex indicators used for such an examination are exceptionally wide. Technical analysis also includes support as well as resistance, daily pivots, trend lines in addition to pattern formations.
Economic in addition to political factors are ignored by strict technical traders. Trend identification in particular plays a very big role in technical analysis. Trend continuation plus trend reversals are two prime areas that apply a myriad of forex indicators and tools to ascertain.
Because technical traders react to most trend changes, they tend to open many more trades that a fundamental trader would. A lot of the time, they are primarily short to mid term traders. Of course, scalpers from both disciplines open the most number of trades per month than any type of forex trader. We will touch on scalping another time.
Technical analysis is also the most recognizable kind of market analysis in the world at the moment. There is a straightforward reason for this. This is mainly because technical analysis is easily understood and implemented by anyone. A good take in on fundamental economics is not necessary.
For Should you want a comprehensive tutorial on Fundamental Analysis as well as other major Technical Analysis, please or visit the authors forex portal at
I remember well enough what it was like trying to get started with Stock Trend Analysis. The learning curve was torturing on occasion. It seems no matter what I studied, I didn’t understand quite enough to put it into practice. Over time with some serious tenacity I became good at enough to start earning some real money in the stock market.
My own major hurdle to gaining skill was there are so many well meaning people willing to extend advice and so many resources online for technical descriptions of several indicators, but nothing I found seemed to help me realize how all these indicator definitions and macroeconomic information fit in concert to forge a decent understanding of technical trading. I imagine I can save you some time and tons of frustration with this convenient little introduction.
An overview of technical analysis.
I imagine if you are interested in technical analysis sufficiency to read this far, you are already familiar with how the stock market functions and how to purchase and trade stocks. I hope so because it is a requirement. Bear in mind this is an casual overview of the learning path many traders, myself included have taken to understand Technical Analysis.
Technical Analysis – Fundamental Topics. What is Technical Analysis? For the unaware, there are two major sorts of Stock Analysis.
Technical and Fundamental Analysis Although the two are not , traders tend to prefer one over the other. Fundamental Analysis looks at a company s assets, debt, earnings and cash flow. It gives the analyst a clear characterization of a company’s health. When an analysis of one company is compared to its peers (groups of companies in the same business) it presents clues about potential weaknesses and strengths of the company. Its also useful in appraising a company’s long term chances for growth.
Technical Analysis looks to take advantage of the mass knowledge of open market participants (other traders) who are by-and-large Fundamental Analysts. Technical Analysis is at its heart an analysis of supply and demand. So, lets discover precisely how Technical Analysts use the market as their guide on trading markets.
A Casual Technical Analysis Example: Price Speaks Volumes To begin, know that Price and Volume are both technical indicators. Price being naturally the chief indicator over any other. Each time a stock price moves up it signals a vote of confidence by all players. Sellers stood firm for a higher price than the predominating rate and buyers intervened and purchased at that price anyway. Sellers holding out for more money while buyers step in to pay the difference between the market and asking price shows market optimism.
Volume is the amount of shares exchanged over time. Technical traders watch price and volume in concert to approximate how bullish or pessimistic buyers and sellers are and perhaps are becoming. An increase in volume across a given time-frame indicates increasing involvement and therefore increasing conviction that prices will continue to move in the current direction. Whereas, when volume begins to wane it is an indicator that market players are losing their conviction that prices will continue in their current direction.
When volume is increasing along with prices, players anticipate prices to continue to go up. Technical traders speculate that prices will increase as long as volume is stronger than average. If prices continue to mount while at the same time volume begins to flatten out, the participants are voting with fewer shares. This circumstance is a variety of technical breakdown.
Typical Volume Based Price Breakdown. One more phenomenon to consider is that once price direction changes, volume may begin to grow, once again corroborating the conviction of market participants of the new price direction. When an indicator such as volume starts to correspond with the price direction, this is known as a variety of price confirmation.
Technical Analysis Indicators Apart from the simple indicators of price and volume, there are infinite indicators and more are produced every day. An indicator can frequently be something as simple as a moving average or far more complex involving long formulas. As you’ve seen already, indicators are an operative part of understanding and anticipating market action. All technical analysis indicators fit two different classes.
It is important to observe that market circumstances dictate which form you will use, but never ignore price. Indicators are forecasters, but price speaks volumes, only prices are reality.
Leading indicators are used in sideways markets. Leading indicators react before price does. Most leading indicators try to demonstrate shifts in the strength or force of price direction, or momentum. Leading indicators are useful to assist traders anticipate price trends because they can depict the strength or weakness of prices at their current level. Leading indicators do not do well as buy/sell indicators in steady trending markets (up or down) because they indicate changes in momentum. They do well in sideways markets and give traders precise signals about when to buy or sell.
Some usable leading indicators include Momentum, Stochastic and the Relative Strength Indicator (RSI). The RSI (leading indicator flags the overbought condition).
Lagging Indicators / Trend Following Indicators Use in trending markets (moving up / moving down).
Lagging indicators follow price moves. A moving average is a simplified kind of lagging indicator. Lagging indicators are frequently employed when the markets are in a very strong trend. They rapidly show traders the average direction of a stock price. They can send erroneous signals in markets that are trading at parity / proceeding sideways. Their optimal use is in trending markets because they can clearly show traders when to enter and how long to remain.
The most popular lagging Indicators include Moving Average, Exponential Moving Average and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) The moving average is a Trend Following Indicator.
Technical Analysis Understanding time frames. In Technical Analysis, indicators are meaningless without understanding them in the setting of time. Indicators, leading and lagging both use time and price as the very basis of any formula. It may help to think of time frames as magnification of detail. If you view a one year weekly chart and zoom into a one year daily chart, you are immediately aware that you can see price action in deeper detail. Also traveling from a one year daily chart to a three month daily chart gives even greater detail of the price activity.
More about time frames in technical analysis: Screening multiple time frames exposes greater detail.
What sort of trader are you? Do you buy into a trade and then watch impatiently at every tick in the stock price? Or are you more of a set it and forget it kind of trader who monitors the price every few days or weeks? Maybe your style is someplace in between? Why is this important and what does it have to do with time frames? read on.
The Day Trader Day Traders speedily buy and sell stocks multiple times a day to attempt to seal in quick profits. The Day Trader examines chart patterns and indicators which may span only a few hours or even a few minutes. Day trading is a speculative job where great amounts are realized or lost in mere seconds. Day Traders pay precise attention to tick-by-tick price information as it comes out on their screen in real time.
Under FINRA and NYSE rules, a trader once flagged and classified as a pattern day trader, must keep up a $25,000 account balance must obtain a margin account. For more info on day trading refer to the FINRA Notice to Members and the NYSE Information Memo.
The Active Trader – Momentum Trader Although there is no standard definition as with the Day Trader, the Active Trader looks for trends that span from a few months to as little as a few days. A typical trade for an Active Trader trader can be really brief, maybe a day or may last for many months as long as the on-going trend is intact.
Active Trader Strategy – The Swing Trader Although the strategy used by the swing trader is very similar to that of the Active Trader, the central departure is that the swing trader looks to maximize gains by capitalizing of the normal downswings in an broad upwards trending stock. The Swing Trader cycles in and out of the trade repeatedly until the broad trend softens before making a last exit. Swing traders must watch the price activity more frequently than the active momentum trader since the swing trade requires frequent attention.
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