ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Enhanced Fund Switching by Jack Singer Jay Kaeppel published a highly successful fund switching strategy in July 1999. Here 's how to make it even juicier. In March 1999, I lost a client to a stockbroker because I was too conservative in my investing style, using the accepted strategy of buy/hold on a diversified portfolio of funds. Asset allocation and diversification, for those who don't know, is where money is spread over a variety of assets, some of which will outperform and others of which will underperform. All are at various stages of cyclical performance, the underlying strategy bein...
BY: Jack SingerSUBJECT: Trading Techniques
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...The Mountain Man Is Back, This Time In Computerized Trading Rooms Ichimoku Charts by Ken Muranaka A Japanese charting technique developed early in the 20th century is enjoying renewed popularity. Invented before World War II by a Tokyo newspaper writer who called himself ""Ichimoku Sanjin"" (a pen name meaning ""a glance of a mountain man""), ichimoku charts are becoming a popular tool for Japanese traders once more, not only in equities but also in currencies, bonds, indices, commodities, and options. Literally, ichimoku means ""one look""; a chart of this style is referred to as ichimoku ...
BY: Ken MuranakaSUBJECT: Classic Techniques
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...V.18:10 (80-95):Interview:Gary B.Smith Of TheStreet.com by John Sweeney Trader, author, and TV personality Gary B.Smith trades for a living and has done so since splitting with Sports Illustrated, where he covered pro golf. More prominently, Gary writes about his trading in unusually frank terms for TheStreet.com and appears on Fox News Channel as a market commentator. A prototypical retail trader, a pure technician, and articulate to boot, he was just the sort of person we were looking for in July 12, 2000, when we caught up with him in his trading room in his Maryland home....
BY: John SweeneySUBJECT: Interview
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Letters Letters this month include questions on end point moving average, trading psychology, strength and resistance, a buyer beware, price patters, and testing and optimization....
BY: Technical Analysis, Inc.SUBJECT: Letters To S&C
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Normalization by Brian R.Bell Sometimes it can be hard to understand all those twitchy indicators on your trading screen. Here's how most of them generate useful signals with normalization,which is the process of removing the dependency of something on something else and making it stand alone. Purely theoretically, suppose you're using the relative strength indicator (RSI): Sell when the RSI crosses below 75, and buy when the RSI crosses above 25. Also purely theoretically, suppose you also use signals based on a simple moving average oscillator: Sell when the oscillator crosses below a valu...
BY: Brian R.BellSUBJECT: Trading Techniques
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Price Patterns, Part II by Martin J.Pring This veteran market analyst takes a look at the patterns of price formation. Last time, I covered the basics of chart patterns using rectangles as an example. This time, I will expand on the subject by taking a look at several different patterns. To recap some of the major points: 1. Price patterns are clearly definable trading ranges that form on a chart. There are two types --reversal and consolidation. 2. The significance of a pattern is relative to its size; the longer it takes to complete, the more significant the formation is. 3. The minimum ...
BY: Martin J. PringSUBJECT: Basic Technique
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Q&A by Don Bright Don Bright answers questions on trading journals, and deep-discount brokers....
BY: Don BrightSUBJECT: Q&A
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Questions Are The Heart Of The Matter by Ruth Barrons Roosevelt Questions can confound you or they can enlighten you. How can they help you in your trading? If you're not making money through your trading, you are probably not asking the right questions. The reason questions are so important is that they direct your thinking and your energy and, ultimately, your actions. Answers give you an assemblage of facts, but questions set up the groundwork for those facts. Questions create the architecture of your thinking and establish your direction. They direct the focus of your mind. Some questio...
BY: Ruth Barrons RooseveltSUBJECT: Trading Psychology
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Strength Figure by Alex Saitta Here's an indicator that captures the amount and the distance of price thrusts. Technicians measure the strength of a market trend by examining trading volume, open interest, or price momentum. Most who choose momentum graph the price above and a momentum line below. Figure 1 plots the Standard & Poor's 500 futures, and the difference between the most recent close and the close 15 days prior --the 15-day momentum line. In this case, the momentum was positive, so the price trend was up,but as the market rose, momentum fell. The divergence between the direction of...
BY: Alex SaittaSUBJECT: Indicators
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...The Rucker Park Of Capitalism by Jonathan Hoenig A venerable part of the traders' world is threatened, but its tricks and techniques will live on. The best players in the National Basketball Association (NBA) have all played in Manhattan's Rucker Park, the cultural Mecca for "streetball," as basketball is referred to there at 155th Street and 8th Avenue. It is this hallowed ground in Harlem, not the sacred turf of financial markets --Wall Street --that comes closest to describing what floor trading in Chicago has been about for more than 150 years. Three major futures and options trading flo...
BY: Jonathan HoenigSUBJECT: Real World
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...V.18:10 (112-113): Traders' Resource: Consultants Consultants consult on just about every conceivable worry traders have. A quick perusal of our listing this issue shows that they have been called in to consult on everything from tax advice to weather reporting. Can all this help you? Maybe. The rules for checking out consultants are simple: check references, check references, and (did you guess?) check references. Nothing can be more vague than a consultant's initial proposal, but nothing is clearer than a client's opinion on the success of a consultant's engagement. Consultants without sati...
BY: Technical Analysis, Inc.SUBJECT: Traders' Resource
ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Traders' Tips This month's Traders' Tips have MetaStock formula for ""Ichimoku Charts"" by Ken Muranaka, ""Playing the Breakouts: Gary B. Smith Of TheStreet.com"", and ""Normalization"" by Brian Bell. AIQ TradingExpert code is supplied for ""Playing the Breakouts: Gary B. Smith Of TheStreet.com"", and ""Normalization"" by Brian Bell. Omega Research code is given for ""Ichimoku Charts"" by Ken Muranaka; NeuroShell Trader code for ""Enhanced Fund Switching"" by Jack Singer, ""Playing the Breakouts: Gary B. Smith Of TheStreet.com"", Ichimoku charting, and ""Normalization"" by Brian Bell; Byte ...
BY: Technical Analysis, Inc.SUBJECT: Traders' Tips