BackTesting Blog

Register free for The Traders Expo Las Vegas, November 16-19, 2011 at Bally’s/Paris. This event provides optimal exposure to everything needed for consistent and profitable trading in the markets! Eager-to-learn traders will discover the latest tools, technologies, and cutting-edge investment opportunities as well as experience hands-on training and invaluable interaction with successful industry veterans. Through hundreds of free workshops and interactive panel discussions, plus optional tuition-paid intensives, attendees will receive specific advice and recommendations they can use to profit the very next time they trade!

Summary of Events A plethora of quality trading education to choose from with a variety of panel presentations, workshops, and special events available exclusively at The Traders Expo Las Vegas… READ MORE		Exhibit Hall The Exhibit Hall at The Traders Expo Las Vegas is your one-stop resource to a world of trading opportunities where you will have access to leading trading products and services… READ MORE
For more information please visit www.lasvegastradersexpo.com.

Tags: Traders Expo

Several people asked for the archive for my recent TradeStation webinar. You can find it here:
https://www.tradestation.com/education/events/on-demand-webcasts/spotlight-on

Of course we have a new set of MACD Divergences now. To stay current, you can sign up for the full list of MACD divergences and MACD Histogram divergences daily on US stocks, ETFs and futures at divergence-alerts.com

Or to sample the scan output, check out the MACD Divergences on NASDAQ stocks posted on Wednesday and Friday by entering your name and email below. That adds you to an email list that gets notified of new divergences twice a week, plus a few promotional offers.

Watching the QQQ gave important clues to the market this summer.  Negative MACD Divergences on the weekly chart (top) of the QQQ showed up just before the big drop in August.   As I write, QQQ is running into overhead resistance from the old up trend line drawn on the weekly chart (top).  On the daily chart (bottom), QQQ reached up to touch the 50-day MA and fell back.  If the NASDAQ leaders retreat, I would expect the market to follow.

TradeStation Screenshot of QQQ on 09/01/2011

The small cap Russell index, shown below in charts of the e-mini TF, has not even performed as well as the NASDAQ.   You can see from the weekly chart below (top panel) the past negative divergences.  In early August TF failed to achieve new highs and MACD confirmed the weakness – a fuzzy negative divergence.  On the rebound, it is not even close to the past uptrend line.  On the daily chart (bottom), notice TF’s current inability to reach its 50-day MA like QQQ.

TradeStation Screenshot of TF on 09/01/2011

In summary, I think there could be further to go on the downside before the market gets ready for election year.

Upcoming Educational Presentations

TradeStation Strategy Network, Sept 6 at 4pm EST, Join me for a live online presentation on the latest in MACD Divergence technology. Click here to register for TradeStation Webinar

Trading Options for ProfitS (TOPS) Group Meeting, Sunnyvale CA, Sept 10 at 1pm PST. If you’re in town, feel free to attend this meeting for an extended talk on technical and fundamental indicators to get insight into the movements of the broad market.  Email RSVP to ovug (at) helpone.com

Traders Expo Las Vegas, Nov 18 2011 8am PST on MACD Divergences and 5:30pm PST on Weekend Market Status
Treat yourself to a trip to Vegas to sharpen your trading skills! Click here to register for Traders Expo

Tags: MACD, MACD divergence

photo by *clarity* on flickr

Right now many are playing the markets with anxious eyes and nervous stomachs – perhaps as it should be! One tool that I’ve been using lately to help get a sense of the markets is bond yield spreads.
For more info, check out this short video interview or attend the MoneyShow on Aug 11 for a presentation and demonstration.

Tags: market internals, MoneyShow, stock market, yield spreads

In this MoneyShow Interview, I highlight four things that every active investor or trader should watch to stay informed about the market status.

The “big 4″ are:

• Situation
• Swing
• Sentiment
• Sincerity

Looking at market indicators in each area every week helps me to stay on top of the market.

You can join me – live – in reviewing the market status at the MoneyShow San Francisco. During this presentation, I’ll show you exactly which market internals,  indicators,  and data I’m checking each week.   Plus, you’ll learn how you can do it too!
Weekend Prep—A Checklist for Market Status

Thursday, August 11 • 10:40 am – 11:25 am

OptionsHouse gave me this Dell Monitor for opening an account with them.   Its very sweet!

I got so excited that I arranged for my company to become an affiliate and offer these monitors too.

Back in Feb 2011 at the Traders Expo New York, I recorded this interview about Trends and Reversals.  Since that time, I’ve researched several additional ways to check out the strength of the trend, otherwise known as market internals.    I’ll be talking about them in depth in a presentation at the Traders Expo Dallas on June 18, 2011 called Weekend Market Status.

One of the topics is yield spreads between corporate and treasury issues.   This can have an impact for stock traders and investors, not just the bond market.   Yesterday, the yield spreads headed off in an ominous direction for the stock market.

You can read the results of my recent back-tests of MACD for Fidelity Investments in this article: https://guidance.fidelity.com/viewpoints/measuring-the-macd .
For more information see http://www.truthaboutmacd.com

Tags: MACD

Without getting too personal…
I just sent off my taxes — yes, I had to write a couple checks — but the good news is that my schedule D was much EASIER to fill out than previous years.

Before I’ve struggled to compile huge lists of trades across mulitple accounts. If you actively trade, you probably know what I mean — many hours work, and even when I’ve hired accountants for my taxes they’ve wanted ME to do the gritty work of listing all the trades!

But this year I breezed through sched D! I took fewer trades because I relied more on MACD divergence and the divergence count to target higher-potential times to buy. ( To tell you the truth, sched D is one of the reasons I went for this trading strategy.)

Now I want to share with you the means to simplify YOUR schedule D and, more importantly, FOCUS on times when trades are more likely to work out in your favor.

Check out an example from April 15, 2011 of the divergence alerts commentary. We’ve been seeing lots of different commodities — especially energy and metals but also some of the broader commodity indices — showing negative divergences on the daily charts. On Fridays, we get the weekly analysis and starting to see some of those negative divergences move up to the weekly charts.
http://divergence-alerts.com/commentary/weekly-commentary/commodity-neg-divs-bubble-up-to-weekly-macd-div-alerts/

If you would like to receive alerts like this, plus get all The Truth About MACD educational materials as bonuses, become a member before April 18, 2011 at
http://divergence-alerts.com/my-membership-options-page/

Check out my MACD interview at the New York Traders Expo to learn what I consider the most important aspects of trading with the MACD.

Tags: MACD, Traders Expo