Beyond patterns: rethinking candlesticks
In the inaugural Hudson Sessions, I shared a cool new visualization. Some of the viewers found it challenging, and a few even dismissed it as being impossible. I understand! Even…
Make the market be your teacher
“Learn from the market. Let the market be your teacher.” This sounds like the path to true trading wisdom (and it is), but there’s an obvious question: how do we…
Putting the puzzle together: a miniseries on chartreading
My blog is well over 100,000 words, covering a range of trading related topics, and spanning more than a decade of writing. This is both good and bad. The good…
Introducing PowerLevels
Levels are everywhere in trading. There are thousands of ways to find, define, use, and misuse levels. Many levels simply don’t have an edge. In this blog post, I want…
Reader question: What is KPos?
Kpos is short for "Keltner Position" and it boils down many elements of price action into a single number. I want to share some ideas for using this powerful tool,…
‘Tis the season… or is it? A deeper look at seasonality in stocks.
This is a followup to my previous post that included a visualization of seasonal tendencies for about 90 years of the US stock market. A visualization like that is a good…
How to learn about indicators
This weekend, a reader, Paul, asked: In my limited understanding, Rsi, cci and % r are all basically trying to show the same thing When is one better than the…
S&P 500 futures activity by time of day
Most people know that stock markets tend to be much more active on the open and close, and are often "dead" in the middle of the day. This is important…
When percents fail
Let's think a bit about "signal generation". When we test something in the market what we're looking for is an answer to "What happens after _______ occurs?" This is really…
Understanding intermarket relationships with scatterplots
Please read my last post first, before you begin this one. I ended the last post by suggesting that we were probably more interested in changes than in price levels.…
Reading the chart of Ethereum with sigma spikes: cryptocurrencies aren’t so cryptic after all…
One of the tools I’ve come to rely on over the last 10 years is an indicator I call Sigma Spikes. (Read about it and how to calculate here.) This…
Do you have a pre-trade checklist?
Consistency in trading results requires consistency of process. If you are doing something different every time you trade, it’s hard to evaluate your results. A simple pre-trade checklist can help…
Working on a new way to view charts
I change slowly. The last major change I made to my trading was in 2005, and the smaller changes I've made since then are tiny, incremental changes. Often, they're just…
Reader question: stop vs stop limit orders
I received a good question from J last week: As you know, I’ve recently switched to using Stop Limit orders for entries after experiencing a lot of slippage last month…
Trendlines in the DJIA: What Can We Learn About Market Structure?
A quick lesson on trendlines and what they can tell us about market dynamics. Take a look at a fairly long-term chart of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (below) with…