TraderFeed

• Using Trading Journals to Learn and Relearn Trading

  Number of comments: 3
  Trading journals can be effective tools in changing trading behaviors. They can also be helpful in tracking and working on performance. A while back, I wrote on the topic of formatting journals for trading success. The stimulus for that post was the realization that traders often use [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 6:47pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Are Traders Showing Risk Appetite or Risk Aversion?

  Number of comments: 0
  
  One indicator I like to follow during the trading day is the relative performance of small caps and emerging market stocks (EEM; chart above) relative to the large cap indexes, such as the Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 Index. When traders are operating [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 3:13pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Midday Briefing for November 30th: Recognizing Range Trade

  Number of comments: 2
  
  Today's trade thus far has illustrated many qualities of a range day:
  
  * Oscillation around the volume-weighted average price (VWAP; red line);
  
  * Relatively flat VWAP line;
  
  * Mixed volume transacted at offer vs. bid (bottom histogram);
  
  * Mixed distribution of [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 12:33pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Morning Briefing for November 30th: Wide Pre-Market Range

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  9:33 AM CT - I've added the top chart (100,000 contract bars) to show how we've traded within the overnight range thus far this morning, oscillating around the day's volume-weighted average price (VWAP; red line). The inside bar between 8:59' [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 9:14am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Weekly Stock Market Volatility Continues to Wane

  Number of comments: 2
  
  How much price movement can we expect during a trading week? As we can see from the chart above, that measure of volatility has been dropping steadily through 2009. The red line shows the average weekly high-low range, expressed as a percent, over the past [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 5:50am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Indicator Update for November 29th

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  
  Here we see a few continued signs of market weakness, despite the rise of large cap indexes to new price highs this month. Note how the number of stocks registering fresh 20-day highs vs. lows [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 9:16pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Sector Update for November 29th

  Number of comments: 1
  
  Last week's sector update noted that sector performance had weakened from the prior week, accompanied by relative strength among Health Care shares and relative weakness among Financial issues. On the heels of Friday's weakness and default fears coming out of Dubai, we saw a [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 3:11pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Fresh Weekend Perspectives

  Number of comments: 3
  * Thanks to Mike at SMB Capital for this link to a major leaguer who has the right attitude about learning; here's Mike's take on Friday's post-Dubai news trade;
  
  * Removing the self from performance;
  
  * Food stamps now feed 1 in 8 Americans' [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 4:28am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• A Tale of Two Housing Markets: No Recovery at the High End

  Number of comments: 2
  Back in July, 2008, I posted on the topic of variation in housing inventory. I also showed how housing inventory was radically different across cities of similar size. Later, in January, I posted on the lumpiness of housing inventory in my region of Naperville, IL.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 4:06pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Novelty: A Key to Psychological Change

  Number of comments: 4
  My first post in this series dealt with the importance of processing market information in novel ways: fresh viewing can lead to new and better ways of doing. (See links included in that first post to assess your own learning styles).
  
  Nowhere is this principle more important than [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 8:20am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Risk Management and Opportunity Maximization in Trading

  Number of comments: 0
  A while back, I wrote on the topic of how to lose money the right way. If there is a holy grail to successful trading, it probably is risk management.
  
  Risk management isn't just about keeping losses down; it also means taking maximum prudent advantage of opportunities' [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 8:37am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Is the Dubai Debacle a Game Changer?

  Number of comments: 3
  
  Here we see the falling yields on 10-year Treasury notes, as the flight to quality in the wake of Dubai default fears has driven those yields back toward October lows.
  
  The effect of falling interest rates is to reduce the rate of return [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 7:26am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Holiday Reading on Trading Success

  Number of comments: 1
  * Emotional Intelligence and Trading - Part One
  
  * Emotional Intelligence and Trading - Part Two
  
  * Greatness in Life and Trading
  
  * Greatness and Performance Improvement
  
  * Self Coaching Linkfest: Moving Your Trading Forward
  . [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 5:39pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Midday Briefing for November 26th: Thanksgiving Day Massacre?

  Number of comments: 5
  
  
  The S&P 500 e-mini (ES) futures (top chart) and the NASDAQ 100 (NQ) futures (bottom chart) have moved back into their October ranges, on the heels of reports concerning a delay in debt payments by Dubai World. On the heels [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 1:11pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Thanksgiving Day Readings

  Number of comments: 2
  I hope you have a great Thanksgiving vacation and, more than that, hope you have much in your life to give thanks for. Gratitude does wonders for one's attitude!
  
  * Six questions I draw upon to prepare for the trading day;
  
  * Excellent interview with Rob [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 7:09am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Midday Briefing for November 25th: Cross-Currents

  Number of comments: 1
  
  
  Many cross-currents in the markets lately: yields on 10-year Treasury notes continue to decline (top chart) in the wake of continued Fed ease. That has given the green light for USD selling and strong performances today in the euro and [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 2:16pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Morning Briefing for November 25th: On Breakout Watch

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  While stocks (ES futures, top chart) remain in their multiweek range, we can see that the euro has broken to the upside vs. the U.S. dollar (bottom chart), with continued strength in gold, but weakness in oil. Both the NASDAQ [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 9:34am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Goal Setting and Well-Being: Antidotes to Frustration

  Number of comments: 1
  Note: Previous posts in this series are:
  
  * How to Overcome Frustration in Trading
  
  * The Well-Being Hypothesis: A Framework for Addressing Frustration in Trading
  
  In the most recent post in this series, we saw that frustration generally only disrupts thought and behavior when it [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 5:28am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Quick Tuesday Reads

  Number of comments: 1
  * Here's a questionnaire to assess your mood during trading;
  
  * High frequency trading would get a lot less frequent if Congress passes a .25% trading tax;
  
  * Two qualities we find among successful traders;
  
  * Feeding government and starving private enterprise;
  
  [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 3:22pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Midday Briefing for November 24th: Slow, Range Trade

  Number of comments: 0
  
  Stocks (ES futures, above) have settled into a range, as trade has become quite slow. We broke below the 1100 area mentioned this morning, but since have consolidated just above that . Small cap stocks are once again underperforming large caps, and we're seeing weakness' [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 2:07pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Information Processing, Learning Styles, and Trading

  Number of comments: 2
  One frequent experience I've had as a writer is to begin writing about a topic and then discovering new ideas about the topic that I hadn't intended to include in my article or book. It's as if the writing became a kind of brainstorming, helping me arrive at insights that [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 12:22pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Morning Briefing for November 24th: Continuing in the Range

  Number of comments: 0
  
  Pre-opening GDP and housing numbers did not move the market significantly, and we remain in the multi-week range (ES futures, above). The area around ES 1100 level has been important support this morning and has been a significant level during the multi-week range. We need [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 9:34am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• The Well-Being Hypothesis: A Framework for Addressing Frustration and Lapses in Trading Discipline

  Number of comments: 3
  The first post in this series highlighted the link between frustration and loss of discipline in trading. Stated in a different way, lapses of discipline tend to be state-dependent: we enter a frustrated, angry, confused, or discouraged state and that colors how we process and act upon information. A [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 7:08am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Monday Perspectives and Observations

  Number of comments: 0
  * Important post on making adjustments to changing market conditions;
  
  * Disgust as an important element in the psychological change process;
  
  * Which days are bullish around Thanksgiving?
  
  * Good look at health care stocks and other ETFs;
  
  * Put/call ratio [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:37pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• A Look at a Trading Range Across Markets

  Number of comments: 2
  
  
  Here we can see a broad trading range in the S&P 500 e-mini (ES) futures (top chart) and in the euro (bottom chart). A look at commodities (DBC, for example) shows similar rangebound action.
  
  I noticed that we [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 5:59pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Midday Briefing for November 23rd: Reversal

  Number of comments: 1
  
  
  What started out looking like a trend day to the upside in stocks (top chart) faded out, as the dollar strengthened vs the euro (bottom chart) and Aussie dollar and commodities beat a hasty retreat.
  
  Interestingly, however, we [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 2:18pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• How to Overcome Frustration in Trading: Part One

  Number of comments: 0
  A while back, I wrote on the topic of steps to take to break patterns of frustration in trading and suggested resources for traders who find that frustration is interfering with their trading.
  
  Much of what is viewed as a loss of discipline is actually the result of [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 12:43pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Morning Briefing for November 23rd: Staying Above Key Levels

  Number of comments: 0
  
  The purple horizontal lines show some of the price levels I'm focused on this morning in the S&P 500 e-mini (ES) futures. We broke above the 1095 resistance area overnight on good volume and momentum, supported by a weaker U.S. dollar and stronger commodity prices.' [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:31am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Think Like a Price Maker, Not a Price Taker

  Number of comments: 0
  Adam Warner has an excellent post up illustrating the volatility assumptions of $VIX and $VXX. To summarize in Adam's words: "longer term volatility assumptions just keep eroding."
  
  With a holiday period around the corner, followed by a holiday period next month, traders begin to pack it in for [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 8:30am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Trading Views: Volume Two

  Number of comments: 0
  After posting some big picture viewpoints yesterday, I thought I'd add a second collection of trading-related posts from around the Web. Lots of good stuff out there!
  
  * Questions to ask when you're trading in a range; see also VWAP and range trading;
  
  * [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 8:14pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Waning Momentum and Strength: A Look at Two Indicators

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  After once again topping out ahead of price--a common pattern--my short-term measure of market momentum (bottom chart) has moved to neutral territory, but is above the levels that have been recently associated with market bottoms.
  
  We're also seeing' [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 4:28pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Sector Update for November 22nd

  Number of comments: 0
  
  Last week's sector review noted strength among large cap stocks, but weakness within specific sectors and among small caps. This past week failed to see a broadening of the market rally, and we moved lower as the week progressed. That left the eight sectors [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 11:19am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Intraday Put/Call Ratios as Short-Term Sentiment Measures

  Number of comments: 2
  
  If you take a look at my recent post on the CBOE equity put/call ratio, you'll get a sense for what an average ratio has looked like lately.
  
  Those ratios, however, can also be informative on an intraday basis.
  
  Here' [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 8:27am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Learning to Shift Emotional Gears as a Trader

  Number of comments: 2
  A worthwhile blog post written by Richard Friesen describes what happens to traders when their brains downshift into flight or fight responses. In the post, he suggests a breathing and visualization exercise to achieve control of both body and mind. As I noted a while back, an effective [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 5:41pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Weekend Views: Volume One

  Number of comments: 0
  * Traders often don't succeed, because their processing of market information does not play to their strengths;
  
  * A good look at the dollar carry trade;
  
  * The correlation between equities and gold and other good reading;
  
  * Interview with Jim Rogers on' [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 9:32am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Handling the Stress of Trading

  Number of comments: 3
  One of the most common questions I get from traders is how to deal with the stress of work. Here are some posts that might get you started; I'll follow up with a post on the topic this weekend:
  
  * Using Biofeedback to Help Trading Performance
  
  *' [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:04pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Two Reasons I Like Volume Bars in Market Charts

  Number of comments: 2
  
  Here is the day's trade in the ES futures, with each bar representing 50,000 contracts traded. I find this to be a useful perspective on markets for several reasons:
  
  1) The bars draw faster in busy market periods and slower in low volume periods. [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:43pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Midday Briefing for November 20th: Range Trading Near the Lows

  Number of comments: 0
  
  Here's an update to this morning's chart. You can see that we've neither taken out the overnight lows nor sustained an upmove into yesterday's range. Rather, we're trading within the overnight range as trade slows down ahead of a holiday. A nice tell that we'd' [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 12:09pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Morning Briefing for November 20th: Watching Price Levels

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  In overnight trade we've broken below yesterday's lows in both the ES (top chart) and euro (bottom chart) futures. In a valid breakout, we should not re-enter the prior trading range with any meaningful volume. This morning, I'm watching to [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 9:04am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Simulation and Making Sound Trading Decisions

  Number of comments: 1
  
  My recent post described how traders can use information within the bars of Market Delta footprint charts to make short-term trading decisions. I notice that the newest version of Market Delta supports trade entry and management from the chart itself; it also includes [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:41am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Today's Trade Across Asset Classes: Catching Intermarket Correlations

  Number of comments: 0
  
  
  
  From 12 N CT forward, it was easy to look for a second leg down in the ES futures (top chart). Note, however, that the correlated asset classes--euro (middle chart) and gold (bottom chart)--had already [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:09pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Midday Briefing for November 19th: Bearish Sentiment

  Number of comments: 1
  
  As regular readers know, the NYSE TICK is one of my favorite measures of short-term stock market sentiment. Here we see TICK on a 3-minute basis; note how the bars largely stay below the horizontal zero (purple) line. A quick look at the distribution of [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 12:12pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Stocks Moving in Lockstep

  Number of comments: 0
  
  The recent post highlighted the market's breakout move; those same qualities are common among trend days. Note from the FinViz spectrum display that stocks within the major sectors are almost uniformly lower over the day. That tells us that stocks overall are undergoing revaluation; [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 11:01am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Morning Briefing for November 19th: A Legit Break

  Number of comments: 2
  
  This morning's trade has given a great example of a breakout trade, as we moved below the range of the prior two trading sessions on expanded volume--and volume transacted at the market bid price. The skewed advance-decline ratio, very negative NYSE TICK, and dominance of [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:25am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Using Information Within the Bars on Market Delta Charts

  Number of comments: 1
  
  If you click on the Market Delta chart above, you'll see the numbers within the 60-minute footprint bars. These numbers are quite helpful in managing positions in the market.
  
  First, however, let's go over some basics:
  
  Inside the bars, at each [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:09am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• U.S. Dollar Bottoming: A Turn in the Risk Trade?

  Number of comments: 2
  
  
  
  
  Recently, I've highlighted non-confirmations in the stock market, as new stock highs in the large cap indexes were not followed by highs among small caps and many stock sectors.' [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 5:45am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Learning and Developing as a Trader

  Number of comments: 1
  In an excellent recent post, John Forman points out that trading education is not just about the divulging of trading systems. Books such as the Market Wizards texts can be useful, he points out, because the "...value to be found in books and other educational resources is not in" [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 6:53pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Identifying Range Trade

  Number of comments: 0
  
  The tight value area (right histogram), relatively flat VWAP (red line), and mix of volume transacted at offer vs. bid (bottom histogram), and reduced overall volume all are useful tells for a range market. Another important tell: mixed strength/weakness among sectors. For most of the [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:59pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Midday Briefing for November 18th: Staying in a Range

  Number of comments: 0
  
  Here's a follow-up to the chart shown in this morning's briefing. You can see that we traded back toward yesterday's low in the ES futures, bounced significantly higher back into Tuesday's range, and now have consolidated near the day's VWAP (red line) around 1106.25. So [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:39pm EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.

• Morning Briefing For November 18th: Trading Higher

  Number of comments: 1
  
  
  8:19 AM CT - I added the top chart to show how the ES futures are trading after the morning numbers. We initially sold off, then bounced back toward the day's session VWAP around 1107.50. Going back to yesterday afternoon,' [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:28am EST
  by Brett Steenbarger, Ph.D.