Head and Shoulders Trading Secret

The head and shoulders pattern is a prevailing pattern among short sellers, investors who profit from downtrends. After three peaks, the stock plummets, offering a textbook, high-return opportunity to traders who catch the trend early.

Head and Shoulders Pattern Head and shoulder patterns are characterized by a large peak bordered on either side by two smaller peaks. Draw one trendline, called the neckline, connecting the bottom of the two troughs.

The first trough is a signal that buying demand is starting to weaken. Investors who believe the stock is undervalued respond with a buying frenzy, followed by a flood of selling when traders fear the stock has run too high. This decline is followed by another buying streak which fizzles out early. Finally, the stock declines to its true worth below the original price.

How to Profit from the Head and Shoulders Pattern

• Short sell as soon as the price moves below the neckline after the descent from the right shoulder.

Set Your Target Price: For the head and shoulders pattern, buy shares at a target price of:

• Entry price minus the pattern’s height (distance from the top of the head to the neckline).

ChartAdvisor Head and Shoulders Pattern in Action

Profiting from a downtrend can seem counterintuitive at first, but accounthopes.blogspot.com readers soon learn the benefits of being able to profit in up OR down markets.

This head and shoulders pattern on PAWC shot up an astonishing 27% in just 33 days.

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ASCENDING/DESCENDING TRIANGLE TRADING SECRET

Ascending and Descending Triangles: The Traditional Bull and Bear

When you notice a stock has a series of increasing troughs and the price is unable to break through a price barrier, chances are you are witnessing the birth of an ascending triangle pattern.

Ascending Triangle Pattern Confirm your ascending triangle pattern by drawing a horizontal line tracing the upper price barrier and a diagonal line tracing the series of ascending troughs.

The descending triangle is the bearish counterpart to the ascending triangle.

Descending Triangle Pattern Confirm your descending triangle by drawing a horizontal line tracing the lower price barrier and a diagonal line tracing the series of descending troughs.

The ascending and descending patterns indicate a stock is increasing or decreasing in demand. The stock meets a level of support or resistance (the horizontal trendline) several times before breaking out and continuing in the direction of the developing up or down pattern.

How to Profit from Ascending and Descending Triangles

Ascending and descending triangles are short-term investor favorites, because the trends allow short-term traders to earn from the same sharp price increase that long-term investors have been waiting for. Rather than holding on to a stock for months or years before you finally see a big payday, you can buy and hold for only a period of days and reap in the same monster returns as the long-time stock owners.
As with many of our favorite patterns, when you learn to identify ascending and descending triangles, you can profit from upwards or downwards breakouts. That way, you’ll earn a healthy profit regardless of where the market is going.
Watch For:

• An ascending or descending pattern forming over three to four weeks.

Set Your Target Price:
For ascending and descending triangles, sell your stock at a target price of:

• Entry price plus the pattern’s height for an upward breakout.
• Entry price minus the pattern’s height for a downward breakout.

ChartAdvisor Ascending and Descending Triangles in Action
Ascending and descending triangles are some of our most popular patterns, because their features are so clear and the breakouts are almost always fast and furious.
Flanders Corp (FLDR) earned our readers 28% in 18 days. Dominos Pizza (DPZ) jumped 12% in 20 days after we pinpointed the breakout point on June 13, 2005.

Another of our winning picks in 2005, Dril-Quip Inc (DRQ) jumped 12% in just 6 days. On Boyd Gaming (BYD), investors following our pick earned a whopping 29% in 35 days.

Our readers earned 29% in 35 days on the BYD ascending triangle pattern.

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SYMETRICAL TRIANGLE TRADING SECRET

The Symmetrical Triangle: A Reliable Workhorse

You’ll recognize the symmetrical triangle pattern when you see a stock’s price vacillating up and down and converging towards a single point. Its back and forth oscillations will become smaller and smaller until the stock reaches a critical price, breaks out of the pattern, and moves drastically up or down.
The symmetrical triangle pattern is formed when investors are unsure of a stock’s value. Once the pattern is broken, investors jump on the bandwagon, shooting the stock price north or south.

Symmetrical Triangle Pattern To form your symmetrical triangle pattern, draw two converging trendlines that bound the high and low prices. Your trendlines should form (you guessed it) a symmetrical triangle, lying on its side.

How to Profit from Symmetrical Triangles

Symmetrical triangles are very reliable. You can profit from upwards or downwards breakouts. You’ll learn more about how to earn from downtrends when we talk about maximizing profits.
If you see a symmetrical triangle forming, watch it closely. The sooner you catch the breakout, the more money you stand to make.
Watch For:

• Sideways movement, a period of rest, before the breakout.
• Price of the asset traveling between two converging trendlines.
• Breakout ¾ of the way to the apex.

Set Your Target Price:
As with all patterns, knowing when to get out is as important as knowing when to get in. Your target price is the safest time to sell, even if it looks like the trend may be continuing.

For symmetrical triangles, sell your stock at a target price of:

• Entry price plus the pattern’s height for an upward breakout.
• Entry price minus the pattern’s height for a downward breakout.

ChartAdvisor Symmetrical Triangles in Action

ChartAdvisor has a long history of identifying symmetrical triangle patterns. Over the last two and one-half years, ChartAdvisor has brought to its readers over 20 symmetrical triangle patterns. That’s an average of one every month and a half.
Our readers earned an amazing 40% profit on our Nortel Networks Inc (NT) pick. Those who followed our call on Rochester Medical Corp (ROCM) in September of 2004 earned 15% in 33 days. And in October of 2004, our members earn 11% in 19 days when ChartAdvisor noticed Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS).

Our members earned 11% in 19 days on the PAAS symmetrical triangle pattern.

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4 Common Active Trading Strategies

Active trading is the act of buying and selling securities based on short-term movements to profit from the price movements on a short-term stock chart. The mentality associated with an active trading strategy differs from the long-term, buy-and-hold strategy.

1. Day Trading Day trading is perhaps the most well known active-trading style. It's often considered a pseudonym for active trading itself. Day trading, as its name implies, is the method of buying and selling securities within the same day. Positions are closed out within the same day they are taken, and no position is held overnight. Traditionally, day trading is done by professional traders, such as specialists or market makers. However, electronic trading has opened up this practice to novice traders.
2. Position TradingSome actually consider position trading to be a buy-and-hold strategy and not active trading. However, position trading, when done by an advanced trader, can be a form of active trading. Position trading uses longer term charts - anywhere from daily to monthly - in combination with other methods to determine the trend of the current market direction. This type of trade may last for several days to several weeks and sometimes longer, depending on the trend. Trend traders look for successive higher highs or lower highs to determine the trend of a security. By jumping on and riding the "wave," trend traders aim to benefit from both the up and downside of market movements. Trend traders look to determine the direction of the market, but they do not try to forecast any price levels. Typically, trend traders jump on the trend after it has established itself, and when the trend breaks, they usually exit the position. This means that in periods of high market volatility, trend trading is more difficult and its positions are generally reduced.

3. Swing Trading
When a trend breaks, swing traders typically get in the game. At the end of a trend, there is usually some price volatility as the new trend tries to establish itself. Swing traders buy or sell as that price volatility sets in. Swing trades are usually held for more than a day but for a shorter time than trend trades. Swing traders often create a set of trading rules based on technical or fundamental analysis; these trading rules or algorithms are designed to identify when to buy and sell a security. While a swing-trading algorithm does not have to be exact and predict the peak or valley of a price move, it does need a market that moves in one direction or another. A range-bound or sideways market is a risk for swing traders.
4. Scalping Scalping is one of the quickest strategies employed by active traders. It includes exploiting various price gaps caused by bid/ask spreads and order flows. The strategy generally works by making the spread or buying at the bid price and selling at the ask price to receive the difference between the two price points. Scalpers attempt to hold their positions for a short period, thus decreasing the risk associated with the strategy. Additionally, a scalper does not try to exploit large moves or move high volumes; rather, they try to take advantage of small moves that occur frequently and move smaller volumes more often. Since the level of profits per trade is small, scalpers look for more liquid markets to increase the frequency of their trades. And unlike swing traders, scalpers like quiet markets that aren't prone to sudden price movements so they can potentially make the spread repeatedly on the same bid/ask prices.
Costs Inherent with Trading StrategiesThere's a reason active trading strategies were once only employed by professional traders. Not only does having an in-house brokerage house reduce the costs associated with high-frequency trading, but it also ensures a better trade execution. Lower commissions and better execution are two elements that improve the profit potential of the strategies. Significant hardware and software purchases are required to successfully implement these strategies in addition to real-time market data. These costs make successfully implementing and profiting from active trading somewhat prohibitive for the individual trader, although not all together unachievable.
The Bottom LineActive traders can employ one or many of the aforementioned strategies. However, before deciding on engaging in these strategies, the risks and costs associated with each one need to be explored and considered.

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FOREX

The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global, worldwide decentralized financial market for trading currencies. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends. The foreign exchange market determines the relative values of different currencies.

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