Sharp, good example of the Microsoft chart (another one of my favorites). Gordon, in your chart, there were green candlestics for 8 consecutive bars (2 hours). Why would you wait for the trend to change (red bars) and then after a second red bar enter a long? You should be looking to short the stock once it trades through the MA. In a strong trend, the price doesn't always touch the ma line so you have to use a pullback to enter (even above the ma price). Look at the high and low of each bar and it will give you an idea of the amount of the pullback off the high. These are what you should be buying. Hope this helps
ok sharp, i like what you're saying here. you're getting into the details that super_ego never got into. from looking at the commentary you added to my pic, i have a question: "buying in downtrend up to 5sma." are you saying you would buy there in that downtrend? if so, why? do you just buy any up candle in a downtrend? if not, why this one? would you have gone long before the 2 full candles above the upsloping 5sma?
No, I didn't make that clear. I would look to buy at the "2 full bars above 5sma" remark on the chart. Where I put "buying in a downtrend up to the 5sma" that is just what is happening in the market. Looking at the chart, the stock may have been in a down trend (5sma sloping down). At that point it is being bought back up above the 5sma. (Trend reversal??? Maybe.) That's why we wait for the two full bars above the 5sma. This signals more of a trend reversal. But there is probably 15-20 different things I would also be looking at here but the chart looks good. 4 to 2 Cards. Randy is getting rocked. Two home runs for the Cards already. Edit: 5 to 2 Cards
Gordon, here is something else. Look back at my MSFT chart. It's a 15min chart. See the red candlestick (at around 10)? That's the pull back. Look at the stock on a 5 min chart. See how that worked? Today was an up trend day (15min chart). What made that pullback even better was the fact that the stock could not break the opening price (the red line is the open). That's where I went long in MSFT today. The chart should say 15-30 min pullback.
Okay, first How is the market so far on the day? Up, down, choppy, sideways, trending? What about the day before? How is the Nasdaq? What about any big news? Or big numbers being released later? Then on MSFT I'm looking at trend lines, s/r, the open, the previous close, yesterdays high and low, scholastics (which are one the chart), volume, time and sales (needs to be some buying), level I (not to big on level II, level I works for me). Besides the chart what else is there that tells you this market could go higher? Kinda that inside feeling. But make your decisions from what your charts and indicators say. No reason to take a trade you don't think will work out. I will probably spend a minute or so deciding on my trades. Then I go at it.
No problem. The Dbacks got killed. Oh well. By the way, I'm not Sharp. I'm just over at his house watching the game and hanging out. Maybe I sould start my own account. Later
Gordon, Look at this chart of Cisco (15min chart from today taken at 7:30am Pacific). See how the trend was down since the open. Now look at the 4 red candles and suddenly 1 green candle. Maybe trend is changing. But it is too soon to tell. Wait for 2nd green candle and price to trade through ma as well as a flat line ma (not sloping down anymore). and then you have a long setup. Now it is too early to tell whether this is a good entry point or not, but if you were watching the stock from the open and how it was getting dumped then you would notice that it has "calmed down" in the last 15 minutes. Notice how the volume dries up aas the selloff accelerates another sign that maybe selling is done. Where to put stop -up to you todays low, yesterdays low, or in my case I would use the low of the first green candle. Hope this helps clear it up for you.