I am interested in your favorite patterns, and whether or not you use patterns for daytrading. My favorite patterns are triangles and head-and-shoulders. I use them on 5 minute and daily candletick charts.
slowwwwlly trending up stocks. That's not really a pattern, I guess, but when an nyse stock is just creeping up on the 1 min bar chart with no pullbacks, it will often then break out. Sometimes I can get in before it spikes up and/or a huge bid pops in. When I can find it in time and get in, this "pattern" works very well.
dotslash, triangles are one of the most treacherous classical patterns. im wondering how do you trade 'em?
Honestly, I believe that the best patterns are those that you 'invent'. I mean look at P2. He 'invented' or rather noticed the GNP. Or the realitytrader.com team with their 'reverse salmon' and 'DBI' or dump/base/implode, etc. And then there is Tony with his 'skyscrapers' and his 'new kid on the block', etc. When you do that, you own the damn thing!
I am so anti-guru that when someone "claims" a chart pattern as their own, I have the opposite reaction. Are there really any new patterns?
You are misunderstanding me. The people that I cited don't claim anything as their own. Totally the opposite, they share what they know and learn from others. Gurus are those that believe only they have the key to the kingdom and by paying them you may get a bone or two thrown your way. But each have found/invented patterns. That was my point.
I think it's pretty hysterical when somebody who's started trading within the past 5 years claims they've found/invented something "new," as if they've discovered electricity. They stick a fancy name on a common pattern and are dense enough to think that nobody in the history of the market has ever seen it before.
The best patterns are the ones you know. I think that a trader is best served to learn a few patterns very well, like picking a major in college. You have many to choose from, but I'd stay to the ones that have been around forever and offer good R/R such as bullflags and bearflags. Brandon
I agree that when it comes to patterns and TA tricks of the trade, the longer it has been around the more credible it is. I don't pay any attention to anything about TA that I couldn't read about in a 10 year old book. New crap comes along every year and gets forgotten. I really think that the main difference between todays market and 50 years ago is simply size and volatility.