SWING TRADING

WHAT IS SWING TRADING?

· Spend only 5 to 10 minutes a day analyzing stock charts and reading fundamental news.

· Buying at swing lows and selling at swing highs, typical trade could last between 1 day to 7 days, though some may last 30 days. Also consider shorting stocks at swing highs and cover at swing lows.

· Mostly TECHNICAL ANALYSIS, but fundamentals are important to guide the trade.

· Begin with fundamentals— finding stocks that are fundamentally undervalued or overvalued.

· Look at the charts— look for bullish or bearish patterns.

WHY TECHNICAL ANALYSIS?

· Most professional traders used them—self-fulfilling prophecy.

· IT WORKS! Because so many pros are using them, PROS force the technical patterns to happen.

WHAT TYPE OF RETURNS CAN I EXPECT?

· 30% monthly if you are good!

· 10% monthly on average

· 10% per trade

· Why 10% per trade and yet only 10% monthly?

· You do not trade 100% of your portfolio

· You do not win 100% but only 80% of the time

· You can trade 100% and win 30% monthly if you are really good! (THIS IS RARE!)

· GREED STINKS. SWING TRADING requires discipline.

Head AND Shoulders and Double Top. BEARISH PATTERNS

HEAD and SHOULDERS is a bearish pattern. In the chart below, the head and shoulders is shown by the 3 curve markings that I have drawn.

The neck is shown by the BLACK line that I have drawn.

The target is equal to the distance of the NECK to the HEAD, projected downwards from the NECK.

The DOUBLE TOP is another bearish pattern, I annotated it with the 2 pointed roofs.

The NECK of the double top is shown by the blue horizontal dotted line.

The target is equal to the distance from the neck to the TOPS, projected downwards from the NECK.

Sorry for the bad wording, but I have shown an example of the projected target using the arrow. You can see 7, that is the price distance from the neck of the double top to the TOPS. So the target is 7 points downwards.

Moving Average – Simple and effective

Moving Averages are very useful in a strong trending market. It fairs poorly in a sideway makret.

There are 2 types - EMA and SMA. I like both.
In my charts, I always use 10 EMA and 25 EMA together with 200 SMA.

One of the simplest strategy

When the stock is trading above its 200 SMA

1. Buy when the 10 EMA crosses the 25 EMA upwards. (SEE 1. on CHART)

2. Buy when the stock dips and trade in between the 10 EMA and 25 EMA line, followed by a break out of the 10 EMA line upwards. (SEE 2. on CHART)

3. Don't buy on 3. This is because stock dipped in between 10 EMA and 25 EMA line, but failed to break out above the 10 EMA line. There was actually a fake breakout if you look carefully. However, stop loss should have save us from any severe loss. (if you don't get it, contact me).

WHEN the stock is trading below its 200 SMA

4. Short when the stock retraced to the 10 EMA and 25 EMA line followed by a break down under the 10 EMA line.

5. SAME.

6. I did not circle it, but you should guess it... Don't SELL on 6. This is because the stock retraced to theZONE but failed to break out. Signal a possible change of trend.(let's call the in between 10 EMA and 25 EMA line the zone).

THIS STRATEGY works with good stop loss management.

With this strategy, whenever stocks travel into the ZONE and bounce back to its original trend, then they are a good buy or short.

However, if stocks travel into the ZONE but fail to bounce back, then it signals a possible change in the trend.

Use this strategy with FIBONACCI and others to make it even more accurate!

Fibonacci – The best trading tool!

Fibonacci

Fibonacci is one of the best technical tool as it is used by almost all traders - that's why it truly works!

It is useful in finding reversals for swing trading. It helps us to find swing lows in an uptrend, and swing highs in adowntrend.

The SEQUENCE

1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55

The Fibonacci Retracement Levels derived from the SEQUENCE

34/55 = 61.8%

21/55 = 38.2%

1/2 = 50%

13/55 = 23.6%

Trending Stocks will often retrace its move by a certain percentage, and that percentage is usually the FIBONACCI levels!

When a stock is rallying, it will retrace either 23.6% (only for very strong uptrend), 38.2%, 50% or 61.8% of its recent rally.

Look at the example below, BAC rose from $12.16 to $14.05 (that's the rally), then the stock started dipping.

This is where we use Fibonacci.

We draw the fib lines by extending it from the swing low $12.16 to the swing high at $14.05. The stock will most probably retrace to the 38.2% level, and it did. Look at the label a. the stock rose after retracing there.

However, the rally stalled, and the stock went back to that level and broke it downwards. It then retraced to the next fibonacci level 50% at b. And it bounced from there. We could see that the stock then made a run up to the 23.6% level before breaking down again, and it repeated again.

This means that Fibonacci lines are strong SUPPORT and RESISTANCE lines.

Note that Fibonacci retracement only help us to predict support and resistance lines.

IN AN UPTREND

We use Fibonacci retracement to help us find swing lows so that we can buy stocks there.

The stock may retrace to the 38.2% level and bounce off from there, however, there is no confirmation that this will continue the rally. The rally will only continue if there's a 1-2-3 pattern breakout, meaning that the stock breaks the top 0% level of the fibonacci line.

Otherwise, the rally might fail as seen in the BAC chart above.

In a DOWNTREND

Fibonacci can also be used in a downtrend. In this case, it will be used to find swing highs, so that we can short stocks there. You should get the idea. Otherwise, do contact me (link is at the left menu).

How to make the best out of FIBONACCI?

Use it together with WAVE theory and the other technical tools that I teach on this website.

Bearish Harami Cross - Bearish Reversal

The Bearish Harami Cross Pattern is a sign of disparity about the market’s health. Market is bullish and strong buying continues as evidenced by the long, white real body but then we see the doji. This shows that the market may not continue in uptrend.

On 10/6/10, The S&P chart shows a bearish harami cross.

A lower close or large gap down on the 3rd day is required to confirm the bearish reversal.