In this April 2 blog post, we explained in detail how to trade a bullish technical chart pattern known as the “cup and handle.” At the time, United States Natural Gas Fund ($UNG) was still forming the “handle” portion of the pattern. However, since the ETF broke out last Friday (April 5), $UNG is now in play as […]
Last night, we (Deron and Rick) spent several hours manually scanning the chart patterns of more than 900 stocks and ETFs. While our web-based stock screener is a fantastic time saver in steadily trending markets, markets in transition require the added interaction of human discretion, which is one of the key reasons traders subscribe to […]
Both the large-cap Dow Jones Industrial Average ($DJIA) and benchmark S&P 500 Index ($SPX) continue to push higher, and both indexes closed at fresh, multi-year highs yesterday. However, we are now seeing bearish divergence in small-cap stocks, as the Russell 2000 Index ($RUT) has just broken below near-term technical support of its 20-day exponential moving […]
In uptrending markets, most of our swing trade setups are stocks and ETFs (with relative strength) that are breaking out above bases of consolidation. We also buy pullbacks of uptrending equities when they retrace to near-term support levels. However, another bullish chart formation many technical traders profit from is the cup and handle chart pattern. […]
Many years ago, my wife and I bought a guesthouse in a sleepy beach town. It’s a fun little side business, and we enjoy mingling with guests whenever we can. This morning, my wife (the manager) phoned me in a panic. “We have a big problem here! One of our guests went out last night […]
Throughout the entire rally of 2013, the NASDAQ has been lagging behind, while the Dow and other large-cap stocks have been showing leadership. However, over the past week, we have been spotting what may be early signs of institutional sector rotation out of the Dow and into the NASDAQ. Within the NASDAQ, one industry sector that […]
After a nasty shakeout from a false breakout in mid-February, MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp. ($MX) (which IPO’d in March 2011) has tightened up nicely above intermediate-term support of its 50-day moving average, and is holding above near-term support of its 20-day exponential moving average as well. Big breakouts are typically preceded by a tightening of price […]
The challenge of trading around quarterly earnings reports When I first began my trading career about 15 years ago, I had no idea how to manage trades that coincided with the quarterly earnings reports of various stocks. Whenever I simply held my positions through earnings and hoped for the best, I was somehow wrong a […]
One ETF we have been watching closely for potential swing trade entry in recent weeks is PowerShares QQQ Trust ($QQQ), a popular ETF proxy for the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index. Specifically, we have been monitoring a bearish head and shoulders pattern that has been developing on the weekly chart interval of $QQQ. If this bearish chart pattern […]
The impressive, long-term uptrend in gold (from 2005 to 2011) appears to be reaching an end. Since forming an all-time high in September 2011, SPDR Gold Trust ($GLD), a popular ETF proxy for the spot gold commodity, has merely been oscillating in a sideways range. However, it appears that a definitive move lower may be […]
