Stock Market - What’s In A Buying And Selling Edge
Thursday, April 7th, 2011Unless you are able to develop a considerable buying and selling edge over the other traders, you will end up losing your money, even if you are disciplined and organized. In this post, I discuss some elements that I use in my trading edge.
Fundamental Analysis
Fundamental analysis may be the process of evaluating the financial condition of the business using monetary reports, price/earning ratios, revenues, market share, sales and growth, etc. This sort of analysis can be time consuming so instead of going through pages of monetary reports, I merely look at IBD ratings.
I like to use Investor’s Business Daily (IBD found at investors.com) to get a quick overview of the commodity. The IBD rating covers:
1 - Earnings Per Share (EPS) rating: tells me a stock’s average short phrase (recent quarters) and lengthy term (last three years) earning growth rate. The number I see is how the business compares to all other companies. The scale runs from 1 to 99, 99 being the finest.
2 - Relative Cost Strength (RS) Rating: Measures a stock’s relative price tag change inside the last 12 months in comparison to all other equities. The scale runs from 1 to 99, 99 being the finest.
3 - Market Relative Cost Rating: Compares a stock’s market price action inside the last 6 months to the other 196 industries in IBD’s business list. The scale is from A to E, A being the greatest.
4 - Sales + Profit Margins + ROE (Return on Equity) Rating: Crunches a firm’s sales growth rate during the last 3 quarters, before and after profit margins and return on equity into a single letter. The scale is from A to E, A being the greatest.
5 - Accumulation/Distribution rating: Applies a formula of price tag and volume changes in the last 13 weeks to determine if it can be being accumulated or distributed. A = heavy getting, C = Neutral, E = heavy selling.
If you like the concept of including fundamental analysis into your buying and selling plan, consider trading only stocks that meet some minimum requirements - for example A or B, > 70, etc.
I like to use fundamental ratings for longer term trades for instance the ones I plan on weekly charts. It can be not really useful if you trade intraday.
Technical Analysis
Fundamental analysis is great to build a list of strong stocks, or as a way to filter out weak stocks and shares, but that’s about it. It does not provide you with an objective method to enter and exit trades. All my trading decisions (entry, exit, and stops) are determined by technical analysis.
Technical analysis may be the study of prices. The cost action draws patterns on charts and mainly because human behavior can be repetitive, the cost patterns can also be repetitive.
You can choose from a variety of chart types. The Japanese candlestick charts are by far the best and it may be the only form you need. There are whole books dedicated to the study of candlestick patterns - if you are serious about studying candlestick charts, look at books written by Steve Nison and and Gregory L. Morris.
- Support and Resistance: One of the most important concept in technical analysis is Support and Resistance. It forms the foundation for every buying and selling decision and could cover several pages but I will limit myself to simplified definitions and a couple examples:
Support level: A cost level that a declining market or commodity failed to penetrate
Example: the low with the previous day forms an area of support and is often used as a stop loss.
Resistance level: A cost level that a rising market or commodity failed to break through
Example: a prior high in an uptrend forms an area of resistance and can be used as a minimum objective to take some profits.
Some technical indicators may also provide some support and resistance, for example moving averages, in part maybe mainly because so numerous traders expect it.
- Oscillators
An oscillator is really a technical indicator that tells you at a glance regardless of whether a market or even a share currently trades in an “overbought” or “oversold” condition. Some traders use oscillators to forecast a change of direction. Some examples include the RSI, Stochastic Oscillator, and MACD.
There are hundreds of oscillators and technical indicators. I personally look at them to filter out some shares if I have too numerous good ones to choose from. I never use them as a signal to open or close a trade.
- Public Sentiment
I look for support and resistance on the VIX (Volatility Index) daily chart to anticipate reversals.
I look in the Put/Call Ratio (5 MA and 10 MA) on the daily chart to see if traders are too bearish (MAs > 0.8) or too bullish (MAs < 0.5)
(MA = Moving Common)
- Market internals to see if the market is overbought or oversold
I look in the TRIN (5 MA and 10 MA) on the daily chart - overbought (MAs < 0.8) or oversold (MAs > 1.2)
I look at the McClellan Oscillator – the market is overbought if it rises above +70 and oversold if drops below -70. A buy signal is generated if it falls into the oversold area (-70 to -100) and then turns up - a sell signal is generated if it rises into the overbought area (+70 to +100) and then turns down. If it goes beyond the -100/+100 levels then it may be a sign of continuation with the current trend.
- Market and Industries
I like to purchase stocks and shares from industries in a strong uptrend and short stocks from industries in a downtrend. I also consider the direction of the industry for the day (positive or negative)
Putting it all together
This post is not about teaching you how to develop an edge but hopefully it shows you that there are numerous different tools that can be used to improve your odds. It takes time to find a combination that fits your personality. It takes time to find what works for you.
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