In tonight’s Grad Call, we discussed the difference between trading in a bouncing market and trading in a trending market.  In general terms, the market is in a strong trending phase about 30% of the time.  These trending phases make trading options easier for many individuals, but they tend to get frustrated with bouncing or sideways markets.    In trending markets, the MACD, moving averages, and other technical indicators give great entry and exit points.  When the market is bouncing, support and resistance with volume become the keys as trend […]

Hey Gang,   Just wanted to write a follow-up to the last post on the Bollingerbands.  Today many stocks are moving into their upper bollinger zone.  This is a strong bullish signal and a nice stop is had on a break back below the 20-day moving average.  An initial price target on these stocks would be the upper bollinger band.            Take a look at your watchlists and see if your stocks are moving into the upper band.  This is a sign that the rally is […]

There is a great technical indicator out there called the Bollinger Bands.  John Bollinger, the developer of this indicator is still trading with this method and great info from him can be found at www.bollingerbands.com.  You can add the indicator as an overlay on www.stockcharts.com   In rangebound markets or for rangebound stocks, I like to use them as price targets.  Take a look at the chart below.  The middle, dotted line, is a simple 20-day moving average.  The upper and lower bands are drawn 2 standard deviations away from […]

Hey Gang,   In last nights grad call, we discussed support and resistance and their significance in this market environment.  Some great reading on support and resistance can be found at the following links:   http://stockcharts.com/school/doku.php?id=chart_school:chart_analysis:support_and_resistan   http://www.investopedia.com/articles/technical/061801.asp     When analyzing support and resistance(S/R), we need to keep the following in mind: S/R are generally price ranges and not specific or exact price points.  Volume is critical in determining s/r levels Broken s/r levels are often retested.    Take a look at a chart on the market right now […]