ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Computer-Assisted Trading by Tushar S. Chande, Ph.D. You can't be a good trader without being a good analyst. But the two are not synonymous: Just because you're a good analyst doesn't guarantee you'll be a good trader. To the accomplished analyst, trading is a mental game 80% of the time, but one for which he or she is poorly prepared. Here's how you can hasten the transition from analyst to trader. Trading is analysis in action. You have to convert all of your analysis into a simple, executable decision - buy so much of this, or sell some of that. Analysis is reactive, since you analyze pr...
BY: Tushar S. Chande, Ph.D.
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Interview: Four Decades With Joe Ross by Thom Hartle Planning ahead, being mentally tough, being physically fit and knowing why you're doing what you do is very important. Don't just throw yourself at the market. You go in when it's the right time to go in. You look for an opportunity and even if you're wrong in your timing by a little, you don't give up. You go back and try it again. -- Joe Ross There's nothing like a little perspective to give insight - especially when that perspective comes in the form of trading for nearly four decades. Trader Joe Ross is one of a rare breed of trader, o...
BY: Thom Hartle
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Letters To S&C by Technical Analysis, Inc. INTERVIEWS ARE VALUABLE Editor, Thank you for the excellent interviews with Joseph Stowell, Justin Mamis and Robert Krausz (STOCKS & COMMODITIES, July, August and September, respectively). They are correct when they say that charting by hand provides an extra level of perception. I have found that interacting with each piece of data and translating the data into form requires extra commitment, but it is an element of classical charting that has its own payoff. I especially want to thank you for the explanation and detailed charts of Robert Krausz'...
BY: Technical Analysis, Inc.
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Neural Net Input Optimization by Kyle M. Druey Here's an article based on the author's own research of neural networks and personal experience developing neural net trading models. These findings are more from the practical/user-oriented framework rather than from a scientific research standpoint. The popularity of neural networks for financial market forecasting has increased significantly in recent years. The apparent ease in developing neural networks and their potential for accurate forecasts has served as an incentive for many to analyze this technology. But there's usually more than me...
BY: Kyle M. Druey
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...On Range Trading by Joe Luisi Markets move from trading ranges to trends and back into trading ranges. Presented here are methods to identify the trading opportunities based on identifying trading ranges. Each time you look at a chart, you probably see trading opportunities because the practiced eye easily takes notes of the trading ranges and the trends between them. But it's not always easy to tell when a breakout from a trading range is simply a temporary move or the first step in a trend. Understanding how to examine a market range can help traders better analyze and trade the markets th...
BY: Joe Luisi
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...CALCULATING AN 11-PERIOD CCI The commodity channel index (CCI) can be calculated using any lookback period chosen by the trader. The Excel spreadsheet shown in sidebar Figure 1 is an 11-period CCI for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The first step is to calculate the daily typical price. This is the high, low and close added together and divided by three. This step is performed in column E. The formula for cell E2 is:...
BY: Technical Analysis, Inc.
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Commodity Channel Index Revisited by Jeanette Schwarz Young Traders use technical tools in different ways at different times. Here, then, is one trader's idea on how to use this technical tool to identify major market trends. Technical tools continue to gain importance in the market trading environment today. Unfortunately, there seems to be no single indicator that can be used to give consistently correct signals. While many technicians prefer the relative strength index and others prefer stochastics or the moving average convergence/divergence (MACD), one of my favorites is the commodity c...
BY: Jeanette Schwarz Young
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...The Neural Network Financial Wizards by Steve Ward and Marge Sherald What techniques do some of today's money managers using neural nets use? Here's a glimpse. In these days of more and more ways of applying neural networks, financial experts using neural nets to predict the market are no longer as isolated as they used to be. Some of them, in fact, are quite ingenious at using the technology - professionals such as Dean Barr and Ganesh Mani of LBS Capital Management, Pierre Leroy of Deere and Co., Troy Buckner of Hyman Beck and Co. and Phil Erlanger of Phil Erlanger Research, to name only a...
BY: Steve Ward and Marge Sherald
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...TRADERS' TIPS Do you have a custom formula, solution or user tip for your software that you would like to share? Have you ever pondered a trading question that you'd like to share with other readers? Have you ever contemplated a question for a while and come up with a solution that you'd like to share with others? Or are you still stuck without a solution? Send your formulas, solutions, tips and questions to Traders' Tips, STOCKS & COMMODITIES, 4757 California Ave. SW , Seattle, WA 98116-4499. METASTOCK FOR WINDOWS In MetaStock for DOS, many users create macros to quickly switch from one c...
BY: Technical Analysis, Inc.
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Trading Decisively by Bruce C. Kramer What do you think are the most important mental skills for trading profitably? Compare your response with what a professional trader believes. I became interested in and began to read the literature pertaining to the psychological aspects of traders some years ago. In my consulting practice, I am asked as many questions about the psychological aspects of trading - for example, how to control emotions and how to confidently make buy and sell decisions - as I am on technical systems and indicators. After a while, I thought it would be worthwhile to examine...
BY: Bruce C. Kramer