Using Pin Bars and Bollinger Bands to Trade a Volatile Sideways Market

Trading a volatile and non-trending market is a dangerous proposition. There’s no trend. No evident direction. No apparent patterns or formations other than “noise” between two ranges of support and resistance. Although trading itself comes with considerable risk, trading a

The 2010 Flash Crash

On May 6, 2010, at approximately 2:32 pm EST, all three U.S. stock indices–The Dow Jones Industrial Index, S&P 500, and the Nasdaq Composite–underwent a massive plunge and a partial rebound over a 36-minute period. In just a matter of

Trading Exhaustion Gaps to Exploit Potential Tops and Bottoms

The Problem with Timing Market Tops and Bottoms If there is one thing that traders are exceptionally bad at doing…one thing that tends to produce losses on a consistent basis…it’s the attempt to fade market tops and bottoms. Like any

Newsletter – August 2018

Upcoming Government Reports & Holidays   1-Aug CONSTRUCTION SPENDING 10:00 AM 2-Aug MANUFACTURERS’ SHIPMENTS, INVENTORIES… 10:00 AM 3-Aug EMPLOYMENT SITUATION REPORT 8:30 AM 3-Aug INTERNATIONAL TRADE REPORT 8:30 AM 3-Aug U.S. INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN GOODS & SERVICES 8:30 AM 9-Aug

Day Trading Strategy: Catching Explosive Moves in the ES

Day trading can be an exceedingly fast and nerve-racking endeavor. It’s easy to miss a relatively big move if you’re not paying attention. And the pace gets even faster the smaller your time frame gets (e.g. tick, one-minute, or even

Devise a Top-Down Trading Plan

How a Bottom-Up Approach Can Introduce More Risk Into Your Trading Let’s suppose that you just learned a new trading strategy. The back-tested results seem acceptable, so you decide to try it out on a trading demo. Overall, your “simulated”

The Brent-WTI Crude Spread: A Viable Trading Opportunity?

Crude oil presents trading opportunities that are often fundamentally driven. And in the US, many retail traders prefer trading the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures contract (ticker: CL) not only because it is liquid, but because it’s a

Identifying and Trading Breakaway Gaps

Trading a breakout from price range or consolidation is a common tactic. The risk, of course, is that the breakout may turn out to be false. So, we look at volume and follow-through to confirm the likelihood that price will

Four Potential Scenarios That Make a Trade War “Tradeable”

Adapting to Uncertain Market Conditions   One key attribute that characterizes an adept trader is the ability to adapt to different market conditions:   An adept trader has different strategies on hand for uptrending, downtrending, and non-trending markets. An adept