tradingadvantage

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    See No Easing, Hear No Easing

    Since day one of Ben Bernanke’s testimony did not provide any clear signs of when we could see another round of quantitative easing, Big Ben has gone into obfuscation mode and he’s playing it close to the vest. Perhaps, we might need to look at the moon for a market tip. On Tuesday Mr...
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    Swap Meet

    The Dodd-Frank Act, the financial reform measures that Congress passed in the summer of 2010, (or more aptly name The Frankly-Do-nothing Act) called for the majority of the $600 trillion derivative market, including credit default swaps, to be traded on exchanges and for transactions to go...
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    Rally Time

    Fridays stock indices all closed markedly higher, which came after huge higher gap opens. What happened in between the higher gap opens and the close was nothing. The markets were deaduntil the closing bell. Only then was there life when the markets went even higher on a short covering...
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    Trading Tips: Five Ways to Stay Focused In Scary Markets

    In the fallout from the 2008 global financial crisis, there have been moments that have been driven by pure fear. These are the moments when it can be hard to maintain your composure and trade your plan. Unfortunately, these big days are the times when you need that composure the most. Here is a...
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    Siamese Twins

    The Eurocollapse is coming, the Eurocollapse is coming! US markets finished lower Monday pricing in the expectation that the upcoming EU Summit will be an exercise in futility and may as well be run by rabble rousing soccer hoodlums. George Soros may not have a solution, but he can certainly...
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    Mirrors

    Mirror, mirror on the wall; whos the most rigged of them all? The mirror in this fairy tale of free markets responds Boxing. No wait, Im changing my answer: global equity markets. Mondays market action was a mirror image of Fridays the same but backward. As you know by now, Friday...
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    Trading Tip #30: Advanced Technical Indicators - Bollinger Bands

    Let's take another look at a more advanced technical tool - Bollinger Bands. These were developed by John Bollinger in the 1980s. In simple terms, they use a simple moving average and standard deviations to give a different perspective on potential highs and lows. Bollinger Bands have a middle...
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    The B-List

    It’s just another day in the new financial-bizzaro world where any little piece of data may move the markets. Forget imploding Europe or mounting debt levels, the market “reportedly” went higher on a better than expected ISM Non-Mfg number. You may ask, what the heck is the ISM Non-Mfg number...
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    Secret Trading Tip: What is day trading?

    Day trading is probably one of the most misunderstood labels in the industry. Some people might picture a random trader acting like a cowboy just buying and selling with pure abandon. Others might imagine a seasoned vet pouring over charts and analysis, looking for a chance to try to scoop up a...
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    Bright Side?

    There’s always a bright side to things, just ask the markets. All three headline composites of the latest Case Shiller home price index were lower for the first quarter 2012. In fact, home prices in many cities are at the lowest levels since the housing crisis began. This “good news”...
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    Home Builders

    Greece may soon be back dealing in drachmas adrift alone in the Adriatic, JP Morgan and the other banks continue to be loosely regulated trading liabilities, and job growth continues to be anemic at best. But fear not, the media trumpeted the headline this morning that homebuilder confidence...
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    Trading Tip #20: Understanding Candlestick Patterns - Harami

    I've already covered some of the better known patterns like doji (Tip #18) and engulfing (Tip#19) now it's time to add harami to your candlestick chart pattern arsenal. Let's take a look at what this technical signal looks like, and what opportunities might be presenting themselves when you see...
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    Economic Fantasy Land

    The market is back to the races in Q2 today with a whole lot of green on the board. Stocks, oil, gold, and commodities all finished higher today. The reason: the news folks were touting the manufacturing numbers from February. Yes, the ISM index of national factory activity rose to 53.4...