Friday, November 21, 2008

TRADING STOCK TRENDS

Why You Should Trade Trending Stocks

To consistently make money in the stock market, you only want trade stock trends! But what are the characteristics that make up a trend? I thought you would never ask.

Remember when we talked about stock market stages?

Well Stage 2 is an uptrend that is characterized by a series of higher highs (HH) and higher lows (HL).

Stage 4 is a downtrend that is characterized by a series of lower highs (LH) and lower lows (LL).

This creates a series of peaks and troughs on the chart that you can trade successfully.

Below is the the beautiful anatomy of stock trends:

stock trends diagram

Stocks Trends Vs. Trading Ranges

It is estimated that stocks only trend about 30% of the time. The rest of the time they move sideways in trading ranges. This is what a trading range looks like:

trading range diagram

Yeah, trading ranges can get that sloppy! There is absolutely no reason to trade stocks that are chopping around like that when you can trade stocks that are in the trending phases. Trying to trade stocks in trading ranges (stage 1 and stage 3) is a great way to chew up your trading capital. Stick with trends! Here are some examples:

chart of trend

And now this one...

chart of trading range

Which one would you rather trade? Case closed! I know all of this may seem pretty basic but I can’t tell you how many times I've been in a stock trading forum and Joe Trader says, “I bought XYZ stock yesterday at $32.57”.

So I go and look at the chart and the stock is in a steep downtrend! Or someone says that they shorted a stock at $52.03. So of course I look at the chart and the stock is in a parabolic uptrend!

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