What happens after big spikes in the VIX?
I ran a quick study this morning to look at what happens to stock market volatility following large single day volatile events. Note that we are looking at market volatility…
Evaluating a trade edge: is it good or not?
This will be the last post in a short series in which we have looked at ways to quantify and to understand a trading edge. This series was motivated by…
Common sense checks for quantitative data
Yesterday I wrote a post that looked at asset returns and how to compound them. That post was in response to a reader's (Anthony's) question, and I want to continue…
Gains and losses: understanding returns in assets and trading accounts
One of my readers, Anthony, sent me a good question about doing some statistical analysis on stock indexes. I think there are some important lessons here. Here's the question First,…
Reader question: Who moves the market?
As markets languish in the summer doldrums, Glenn comes back with a good philosophical question: The edge in technical analysis is to find an imbalance of buying and selling pressure..…
Where does market intuition come from?
I saw this interesting article from Bloomberg last week, with the almost-clickbait title of "Train your brain for trading (No, Really!)" I just happened to click on it, and found…
Video blog: That trend indicator… is it helping or hurting?
It can difficult to dig into someone else's work and research. I wrote a post a few years ago about why using the slope of a moving average, moving average…
Trendlines 101
I thought it might be useful, since most markets are about as exciting as drying paint right now, to take a few steps back and consider some basic tools that…
Patience… patience
An interesting debate emerged in the comments to one of my posts. In the post, I had suggested the discipline was the most important thing; a reader countered that patience…
Reader question: How to handle exits?
Glenn comes back today with another good question. Here's his full, unedited question: Your many hats, your one job, the one and only thing that matters. For what it is…
MarketLife Ep 35 – The beginner’s mind (a new mini-series)
This episode kicks off a mini-series in which I work with a beginning trader to learn the very fundamentals of the business. We will cover method, psychology, risk, learning techniques,…
Your many hats
I wrote a few posts last week about how to never miss the move. Today, I want to dig into that idea a little bit deeper, and think about why,…
Three steps to make sure you never miss that move
I've written a few posts recently about doing the right thing and the pain of missing moves. Sometimes very simple concepts can get us far, and I want to propose…
So you missed the move?
This post might make you mad. You might think I'm blind to risks or that I don't understand the world. You might end up telling me how wrong and stupid…
The one thing–the only thing–that matters
One of the problems with successful trading is that everything matters. In the scope of: when to get in, when to get out, how much to buy or sell, how…
Reader question: how active with exits?
Let's go to the mailbag for a question. Reader Anthony asks: I have a bit of an internal psychological dilemma going on at the moment. I place my stops usually…