A lot of it depends on your account size, time frame to trade and markets you want to trade. You might have a look at the educational material at www.hardrightedge.com, Jeff Cooper's books are good, look over strategies at www.wealthlab.com and go through the mountain of stuff at LBR's website, which unfortunately I don't have the url for. LBR=Linda Bradford Raschke, a well known trader. She advocates newbies setting up or buying a standard volatility breakout type system and trading it exactly for a few months, just to get thefeel of how markets move. It's kinda like betting on pro football, you really don't pay attention to the game unless you have some money on the line.
This is one of the best setups I've seen. Other's would include: Triangles, flags and pennets. Gaps (both real and psuedo).
TKO: I'll preemptively take the liberty to initially respond to your question. The divergence, would/is a good attempt to sell the top. And the convergence, would/is a good attempt to buy the bottom (catch a falling knife if you will). These are two easily spotted and simple setups to watch for. They also seem (in my rather short experience of observation) to be fairly reliable. Implementation, from a newbie's standpoint, could simply be to sell on one of the initial bars when the divergence is formed, and buy conversly, using protective stops for each. Breakout, please excuse my interruption and answering on your behalf. My apologies for my poor manners. Your links hit my bells and whistles, and thought "boom someone else likes these too." Good trading to you all! Gordo
Thanks for pointing to our web site. The link should read www.wealth-lab.com. I would never advice anyone to buy a system and trade it. I don't think any one would recommend that. If you really want to learn take a look at the top ten stock system on our site. It gives you a feel of what works on the stock market. Once we open our futures site we will get an idea for futures.
Check out his book Four Steps to Trading Success and his intro seminar which explains his method - the seminar is archived online and free at www.zapfutures.com/seminars.htm Its a good simple method to learn to trade with. Good Luck Indie