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• Beans In The Teens by Emil van Essen

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year - Beans In The Teens Most years about this time, there's an opportunity in soybeans. by Emil van Essen I t's about that time of year again, when soybean traders wake up and wonder whether this will be the spring that brings another wild, stomach-churning, and profitable (for some) bull market. One time-honored system with a great track record is certainly pointing to that possibility (Figure 1). The system shown here only takes long positions, and only in February. The strength of the system is in identifying the characteristics of an impending bull m...

AUTHOR: Emil van EssenDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Seasonality

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• Coding Candlesticks (II) by Viktor Likhovidov

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Analyzing Candlesticks Quantitatively Coding Candlesticks (II) Few charting innovations have become so widely accepted in the US since their introduction from Japan as candlesticks. Until Viktor Likhovidov's article in the November 1999 issue of STOCKS & COMMODITIES, their interpretation was subjective. In his article, however, he showed how to develop quantitative values for candlesticks -- values that could be used in software to create indicators for trading. His proposal did draw one critique, from Jan W.E. Roberts (see "Letters to the Editor"). We thought the results of their exchange and...

AUTHOR: Viktor LikhovidovDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Trading Techniques

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• Interview: Investing Champion Mark Cook by John Sweeney

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...From Sun Up To Sun Down Interview: Investing Champion Mark Cook by John Sweeney Mark D. Cook first won fame as a trader in 1989 when he finished second in the US Investing Championship. By 1992, he had shifted to options and racked up large three-digit percentage returns en route to winning the championship. Since then, he's turned to the Standard & Poor's 500 index and Nasdaq for daytrading, while keeping the options and stocks for intermediate- and longer-term trading. Nowadays, he's in the market to pay for his Ohio farm and his company's operating expenses, not to mention room and board....

AUTHOR: John SweeneyDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Interview

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• Letters To S&C

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...VOLUME INDICATORS Editor, It was with considerable interest that I recently read the interview with David Vomund in the October 1999 S&C. He brought to mind what I felt was a balanced view of market efficiency. He also whetted my appetite for volume indicators. I already use Marc Chaikin's money flow indicator in the Australian market, without a great deal of success, and I am interested in the volume accumulation percent indicator. However, as Vomund does not mention how this indicator is calculated, and I have no other references to it, I wonder if you can enlighten me? TREVOR T. BESTOW, vi...

AUTHOR: Technical Analysis, Inc.DATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Letters To S&C

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• Long-Term Trading With Swiss Francs by Andre Zupans

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Using Paper And Pencil (Hey, It Still Works!) Long-Term Trading With Swiss Francs Didn't you love that little cotton trade we showed you back in May 2000? Want to try again with Swiss francs? Here's your chance. by Andre Zupans In the May 2000 STOCKS & COMMODITIES, I presented a long-term commodity trading technique. At that time, cotton offered a great long-term trading setup. A weekly point & figure close of 5500 in January 2000 had issued a buy signal. The 5500 calls six months out were bought at about 3.00, or $1,500 per call. In March, cotton reached about 6300, sending the calls to ar...

AUTHOR: Andre ZupansDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Classic Techniques

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• Momentum And Divergence by Martin J. Pring

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Why Do Divergences Need To Be Confirmed By Price? Momentum And Divergence Trading momentum requires several levels of perception. Take a look at its divergence with price. by Martin J. Pring It is a fact that the term momentum is a generic one encompassing all oscillators. It is also a fact that there are many interpretive principles, most of which are common to all momentum series in one way or another. Divergence from price action is a key principle. When using momentum with the overbought/oversold concept, I assumed that the price and momentum peaked and troughed more or less simultaneo...

AUTHOR: Martin J. PringDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Basic Techniques

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Opening Position by John Sweeney

AUTHOR: John SweeneyDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Opening Position

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• Pairs Trading by Stephane Reverre

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Exploiting Closely Related Stocks Pairs Trading Some relationships in the stock market make for very profitable trades. by Stephane Reverre The arbitrage of Royal Dutch (RD) and Shell (SC) is a popular one on Wall Street because it is a classic example of a pair-tradingƯ model, a strategy that involves trading two stocks -- one long, the other short-term based, on the assumption that their prices follow an identifiable recurrent pattern -- backed by a strong relationship between the companies. Essentially, RD and SC are opposite sides of the same coin; they both derive their revenues from a f...

AUTHOR: Stephane ReverreDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Trading Techniques

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• Professional Stock Trading by Don Bright

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Is It For You? Professional Stock Trading What it is, what it is not, and how to make the leap! by Don Bright The term professional is sorely overused these days. What does it really mean? When it comes to stock trading, the answer is actually quite simple. A professional trader does not trade as a retail customer of a brokerage. The distinction, and all the inherent benefits, often make the difference between long-term financial success and failure. Please don't misinterpret what I am saying: I am not saying the difference is "professional vs. amateur" -- I am saying "professional vs. retai...

AUTHOR: Don BrightDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Real World

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• Q&A by Don Bright

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...ARBITRAGE What is the difference between agency trading and market making? Also, is it possible to arb a large-cap Canadian stock such as Nortel (NT) for price discrepancies between the New York (NYSE) and the Toronto stock exchanges (TSE), or the Nasdaq and the TSE? A lot of times, I notice that they close at different prices after you factor in the exchange rate. Would it be possible to set this up at Bright Trading? I assume you would have to access two different accounts -- one in Canadian funds that gives you professional access to the TSE, and one in US funds that has access to SuperDOT....

AUTHOR: Don BrightDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Q&A

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• Traders' Resource: Online Trading Services

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...Online Trading Services You can find a wealth of information on the Internet for nearly any subject imaginable, including trading, the financial markets, and technical analysis. Each month in STOCKS & COMMODITIES' Traders' Resource, we present a listing for different categories of products and services related to trading, all to aid our readers in their pursuit of trading. This month, we focus on the topic of Online Trading Services. We contacted companies that offer services to traders over the Internet as well as financial website developers and asked them to fill out an online survey form...

AUTHOR: Technical Analysis, Inc.DATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Online Trading Services

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• Traders' Tips

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...? METASTOCK FOR WINDOWS In my article in this issue, "Coding Candlesticks (II)," I continue with a discussion of my method for quantitatively analyzing candlestick charts, a discussion I began in the November 1999 issue of STOCKS & COMMODITIES with my original article, "Coding Candlesticks." My approach is to assign values to each candlestick, so that candlestick charting will lend itself better to analysis with indicators, pattern recognition, and trading systems. Here is the code for the CandleWeight indicator I discuss in this month's article....

AUTHOR: Technical Analysis, Inc.DATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: Traders' Tips

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• Waiting For Market Time by Jayant Sathe and Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan

  ARTICLE SYNOPSIS ...At Mercy Of The Sun Waiting For Market Time Traders use everything under the sun -- and even the sun itself -- to time their trades. by Jayant Sathe and Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan Traders pay a great deal of attention to the trading activity seen during the first hour of the session in any given market. Many traders, in fact, feel more comfortable waiting for the markets to settle before placing their first trade for the day. Typically, most traders wait for half an hour before entering the market. Because of this, several systems have been developed that focus on beginning to trade after the mar...

AUTHOR: Jayant Sathe and Jayanthi GopalakrishnanDATE: MAR2001SUBJECT: New Techniques