TheChartGuru..

[tombstone]

Hi ChartGuru,

Iam new to this investments and stuff and also new to this forum. I dont really now how to study the market and invest. All i have been doing since a month is buy what others suggest is a goodbuy and sell it when i think is okay.
I have read ur posts but i dont really understand the terms you use.
Like,
It needs to hold above the ma50. My entry will be when the ma10 crosses the ma30 on the 30 minute chart. I bought SMSI today after the ma10/ma30 crossover on the 30 minute chart at $4.90, it is now at $6.35! That's a 30% pop in a few hours.

Can u explain it to me in layman terms in plain english so that i can try myself too. How to read charts and how to pick good stocks.

i would really appreciate ur help

TombStone

[madcowdisease]

MA = Moving Average

http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/movingaverage.asp
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sma.asp

The number next to it is the number of days' closing price being averaged. For example, MA30 is the average closing price of the last 30 days. It's a pretty nifty way to track trends. As a more near term moving average "crosses over" a longer temr moving average this is usually considered a bullish trend (e.g. good for buying). There are many other tecnical (e.g. charting) indicators that can help you identify good opportunities so might I suggest grabbing a book or two on the topic.

You get out what you're willing to put in. See if your local library has any of these selections:

http://www.traderslibrary.com/seo/technical_analysis.html

[Hondaboy]

My advice is to READ!!!! Going in head strong might make you loose money and you will give up quick like many others.

"When buying a stock ask yourself how much can I afford to lose on this"

Like I said in the chat room. Go to your local libary in the section 320 or 330 I think it is and look for all the stock books there. You will be shock just how much they have and almost all libary you are able to check out 25 books at once for get this FREE.

Overall you have come to the right place. Wish you the best and stay away from penny stocks hehe.

[TheChartGuru]

Hi ChartGuru,

Iam new to this investments and stuff and also new to this forum. I dont really now how to study the market and invest. All i have been doing since a month is buy what others suggest is a goodbuy and sell it when i think is okay.
I have read ur posts but i dont really understand the terms you use.
Like,
It needs to hold above the ma50. My entry will be when the ma10 crosses the ma30 on the 30 minute chart. I bought SMSI today after the ma10/ma30 crossover on the 30 minute chart at $4.90, it is now at $6.35! That's a 30% pop in a few hours.

Can u explain it to me in layman terms in plain english so that i can try myself too. How to read charts and how to pick good stocks.

i would really appreciate ur help

TombStone

I trade strictly based on technical analysis. So my style of trading may not neccessarily be your style of trading. I use several indicators, including the trusty simple moving averages. If you want to get a primer on tech analysis, go to Investopedia.com, stockcharts.com and prophet.net. Visit the tutorial or stock school areas and you can learn alot for free. The hardest part is to make your own trading method based on all of the information you read. It can be overwhelming since there are thousands of different indicator/oscillator combinations a trader can use. After my years of trading, I have learn to keep my charts clean and simple. I use Candlesticks, Simple moving averages of 10,21,51 and 200 periods, bollinger bands(20) and trend lines. I use RSI(15), MACD(12,26,9) and Slow Stochastic(15,5). That's it. Since I'm short the market right now, I look for overbought stocks that are trading below the MA(200). When I'm long the market, I look for oversold stocks above the MA(200). That's it. Simple. Clean. I don't care about the housing and financial crisis, recession, the dollar, the price of gold, the price of oil, Bernacke. All those things are priced in the stock. Look at my weekly contest pick, HYBR. It was overbought and trading below the MA(200). I saw weakness on the 15 minute chart yesterday, and went short 2000 shares at $4.77. It closed today at $3.07, for a potential profit(I haven't covered yet) of 36% in two days. Also, DO NOT buy or sell stocks based on tips. Read and learn all you can about the market and trading. Trading stocks is easy, making money in the stock market is hard.

The Guru has spoken

[netwrangler]

And may God love you, ChartGuru, as I am sure he does.

I respect both your financial analysis and your faith.

[Supreona]

I trade strictly based on technical analysis. So my style of trading may not neccessarily be your style of trading. I use several indicators, including the trusty simple moving averages. If you want to get a primer on tech analysis, go to Investopedia.com, stockcharts.com and prophet.net. Visit the tutorial or stock school areas and you can learn alot for free. The hardest part is to make your own trading method based on all of the information you read. It can be overwhelming since there are thousands of different indicator/oscillator combinations a trader can use. After my years of trading, I have learn to keep my charts clean and simple. I use Candlesticks, Simple moving averages of 10,21,51 and 200 periods, bollinger bands(20) and trend lines. I use RSI(15), MACD(12,26,9) and Slow Stochastic(15,5). That's it. Since I'm short the market right now, I look for overbought stocks that are trading below the MA(200). When I'm long the market, I look for oversold stocks above the MA(200). That's it. Simple. Clean. I don't care about the housing and financial crisis, recession, the dollar, the price of gold, the price of oil, Bernacke. All those things are priced in the stock. Look at my weekly contest pick, HYBR. It was overbought and trading below the MA(200). I saw weakness on the 15 minute chart yesterday, and went short 2000 shares at $4.77. It closed today at $3.07, for a potential profit(I haven't covered yet) of 36% in two days. Also, DO NOT buy or sell stocks based on tips. Read and learn all you can about the market and trading. Trading stocks is easy, making money in the stock market is hard.

The Guru has spoken



This is true Guru, the simpler the better. I don't try to complicate things either, just keep it simple, clean and to the point. You're either on the right side or the wrong side, point blank, period.

[freakscene]

i thought you used MA(10) and (30) crossovers TCG ?

[DSNT]

I am new to the forum and was new to trading not too long ago. As others have attested, there is plenty to learn. At times it seems limitless, but I have come around in the last several months. Lurking here and reading other sites has helped immensely, although I'll still be a newb compared to a lot of the pros here.

I made a couple mistakes when starting out, as everyone does. My advice would be to research stable large caps, try to get a few at lower prices to start out and then just be patient.

.. and whatever you do, don't listen to Cramer.

[Horsefish]

I am new to the forum and was new to trading not too long ago. As others have attested, there is plenty to learn. At times it seems limitless, but I have come around in the last several months. Lurking here and reading other sites has helped immensely, although I'll still be a newb compared to a lot of the pros here.

I made a couple mistakes when starting out, as everyone does. My advice would be to research stable large caps, try to get a few at lower prices to start out and then just be patient.

.. and whatever you do, don't listen to Cramer.


Go to the Jim Cramer's "Mad Money" discussion in this forum and read the thread by "Rich" titled "I've got Cramer figured out".
Rich nailed it pretty well. The more important issue is not when to buy, it's when to sell. It's always OK to take the profit and then go looking for the next trade. Best of luck!

[tlsurfsupper]

News is noise. It will drive you mad. Stay up all night pouring over news for a short term trade? Madness! You are competing with the best out there and they swing a bigger purple helmeted club than you do!

If you trade, trade.

If you invest, invest. Save the fundamentals and balance sheets for long term. That's what made Buffett rich. He is not a trader.

Mix the two in a fuzzy blur and you will slowly give away your pile of money.

Study the MACD divergences until you understand them. Then trade on all signals once you are comfortable with the expectancy.

That is about as basic as it gets. Add a few MA crossovers as Guru suggests. It doesn't matter which indicators, just find the expectancy needed, trade the damn thing, cut your losses based on your system, and profit when the target is met.

It is simple.

It is the education that is pricey.

[freakscene]

then the 25 filters i have on fetcher are all mostly..............clouding my judgement ? ;)

as someone learning, i dont know any other way than to repeatedly test them all until i find the indicators that i feel most comfortable recognizing the signals from

education is indeed expensive

[tlsurfsupper]

then the 25 filters i have on fetcher are all mostly..............clouding my judgement ? ;)

as someone learning, i dont know any other way than to repeatedly test them all until i find the indicators that i feel most comfortable recognizing the signals from

education is indeed expensive

From reading your posts, I think you are burning the needed brain cells. When those 25 filters become about 3, you will have gleaned the knowledge and simplified the system.

The daily slurry of news and commentary clouds the trader and adds hesitation to the trades. Long signal but news is negative? Hmmm, should I take the trade? See what I mean?

The learning curve cannot be by-passed. Backtest and look for the #'s!

Knowing the indicators does not mean you have to use them for a signal. Maybe a glance can confirm your trade or a system that says x signals out of x HAVE TO BE AT x to trade.

It's not what you...you know the rest.

:santaclaus:

[freakscene]

From reading your posts, I think you are burning the needed brain cells.:

ouch

edit >> most of them were *gifts* from your *friend*

[Jelly]

On my charts, I have MA's overlayed and volume on the bottom pane. Also, superimposed, is the only predictive trend line indicator I've found (can't think of the name right now). It's a hundred percent accurate forcasting up to 10 minutes out and looks like the dotted purple lines I used to see on the pool table, tracking the line into the hole. Disclaimer: I have never used LSD.

News is great, although slanted toward whatever agenda is being sold. Not stock news, but overall business news and from all over the world. Thinking about the world often triggers the trade when I'm on the fence.

[aiki14]

then the 25 filters i have on fetcher are all mostly..............clouding my judgement ? ;)

as someone learning, i dont know any other way than to repeatedly test them all until i find the indicators that i feel most comfortable recognizing the signals from

education is indeed expensive

25 clearly is too much for anyone to process, and there are hundreds more, so how do you steepen your learning curve, or minimize the tuition?
A good start is to take a hint from someone who has been successful, TCG has given you a great bit of info. Start with his indicators and see how they fit your style, then add one that interests you, or remove one, as fits your style.
Then use them as much as possible in no risk (backtesting/paper trading) until it's reflexive to pick up the signals. When you get a system keep records to see if your system is maintaining it's effectiveness.

TCG and others have said they don't pay attention to news, I disagree to a certain degree. News sets up macro trends like bull and bear markets, if your trading intraday these things may not seem important but I like to confirm the short term indicator with the long term. I'd rather be riding along with the macro while trading the short term. The Technicians argue that the news is always baked in, and even if they are correct, it seems to me easier to read it off the cover of the WSJ than to find it hiding in the chart.

Another thing to consider is timeframe. What is your natural pace? Are you psychologically suited to scalp trading forex and making 150k trades a year or more, or are you better with 5 or 6 equity positions held a few days?

[aiki14]

News is noise. It will drive you mad. Stay up all night pouring over news for a short term trade? Madness! You are competing with the best out there and they swing a bigger purple helmeted club than you do!

If you trade, trade.

If you invest, invest. Save the fundamentals and balance sheets for long term. That's what made Buffett rich. He is not a trader.

Mix the two in a fuzzy blur and you will slowly give away your pile of money.

It is simple.

It is the education that is pricey.

Maybe I am not in your league, but I disagree on some of this and agree on others.
You say news is noise, I disagree, but I am a news junky and I don't sleep much anyway. I think the news gives me an advantage, in the type of trading I do. Even if it's the placebo effect, my balance sheet is good enough to keep me doing my thing, just as yours seems to be good enough to keep you doing yours. You said yourself, find a system that works for you, and I agree, I just don't place the same restrictions on what you can use.

For me I do mix things in your fuzzy blur, depending on where you place the demarkation between trading and investing. I see it as taking what the market gives me.

I agree it is simple. There are only 2 inputs in the data set, Price and Volume, add time and you have everything you need. Every indicator and chart technique can be drilled down to these things.

The education is pricey. No doubt, you pay in time, sweat, money, or a combination thereof.

[freakscene]

Thanks Aiki. I was being somewhat sarcastic in my post - hence the wink. I know 25 is too many, but most of them are the same filter with different MA crossovers (8/13, 13/20, 10/30, 20/50, etc...). It just saves me time editing the same filter over and over while trying to find what works for me.

My goal and time frame seem to be surviving this 2-3 year learning curve while protecting my capital so I do not become a member of the 98% who tried and failed. :)

And if those darn people at fetcher wouldnt post such intriguing scripts, I wouldnt be so damn curious to test them, learn the code, and see what it is they are trying to do !

Cheers and as always.....................thanks

[TheChartGuru]

i thought you used MA(10) and (30) crossovers TCG ?

I didn't want to complicate things so I gave tombstone my meat and potatoes indicators and strategy. I also use the 10/30 crossover on 30 as I like to call, but because it is a bit fast, I look at the ma(51) as confirmation as an exit or entry. I also use parabolic sar and DMA that I haven't mentioned before, but often times they are an overkill and my charts are too messy.
BTW, here are my picks for today:

Overbought/below MA(200): SHORTS under $10
AIRV, TINY, PWER, CRAY

Oversold/above MA(200): LONG under $60
Didn't see RSI(15) below 30. QID and AUY were the closes

The Guru has spoken

[TheChartGuru]

And may God love you, ChartGuru, as I am sure he does.

I respect both your financial analysis and your faith.

Thank you brother :)