If you took the average human, let’s say 6’ feet, or 72 inches tall, and the top of the head was the high where we began our retracement and the lows (or zero) were his feet, then the .618 retracement would be “about” where you’d find the belly button. Think of it as more of an art than a science, and of course it does differ but I’ve found it to be generally true. More importantly I’ve found it helps me remember a key retracement in the analysis of swings in the market.
While most normal humans use this week to begin embracing the holiday season and all the wonderful social detail it brings, myself and others like me continue to have a captivating relationship with the markets. On one hand, we allocate a fair bit of our existence to research, trading, and updating charts. Giving the mind … Read more
It’s been three weeks in a row now, with the exception of the last week in September when I spent some time with Carolyn, that I’ve made my way out to one of the local extensions of the San Gabriel river. This particular fork offers a man-made dam with a gentle waterfall that keeps things … Read more
Market correlations are an interesting field of study. There are times when correlations are extremely helpful in determining what might happen in a given market. Then there are times when correlations do nothing other than promote confusion and convince traders to hold onto a losing position waiting for said correlations to kick in. I try … Read more
As we head toward Friday’s monthly expiration, I’ve watched, read, and discussed more opinions of the market than I care to rehash. To some degree I think that’s because we’re trading at such an extended range and “reversion to the mean” traders continue to argue a pullback while those that are riding the trend continue … Read more
Symmetry is one of the most helpful concepts I’ve found in trading. As any student of the markets will tell you, “we’re trying to make predictions on the future based off analysis of the past”. Another way of saying it might be “If it’s done this before, maybe it has a chance of doing it … Read more
I can’t say there are a lot of easy decisions to be made in stock indexes at the moment. I have an opinion of what’s going to happen in the next 6 – 8 months but what we “think” really doesn’t matter, it’s all about the setup. As of now most the charts I’m tracking are … Read more
This Tuesday, January 26th, Apple Inc. is set to report earnings after the market close. Earnings are interesting to me in that they seem to be one of the reasons trader’s will use to abandon all logic and instead adopt a view based on personal conviction. Apple is a prime example of that with a … Read more
As options traders there is 1 day out of the month that usually carries a bit more weight than others, monthly expiration. This is the 3rd Friday of every month and tends to get trader’s attention as contracts in this series either have to be closed or rolled to a further dated expiration. That’s typically … Read more