Monday, August 10, 2015

Expanding Your Views of Markets

*  While the overall SPX index has traded within a multi-month range (blue line above), the cumulative number of stocks in the NYSE universe trading above their upper Bollinger Bands vs. below their lower Bands has been steadily declining.  That tells us that we're seeing more significant weakness than strength among individual stocks, no doubt aided by the relative weakness in commodity-related shares.  I am seeing the same underlying weakness in the cumulative NYSE TICK, suggesting that we're seeing more hitting of bids than lifting of offers among the broad range of NYSE shares  (Raw data via Stock Charts).

*  We can accelerate our growth as traders by mastering change processes and becoming our own psychologists.  It takes a vision and a plan to make changes and sustain them.

*  This week I will begin a new blog feature where I maintain a page of "trading notes" documenting observations from the most recent day's trading.  The notes will update relevant market measures and findings from some of the forecasting models that I've described recently, as well as interesting links.  Readers can feel free to add their own notes to mine via the comment feature of the blog.  The goal is not to pitch trade ideas, but rather to expand the information set that can help traders make better trading decisions.

*  Yet another way to expand your opportunity set is to find one new valuable information source each month that can become a regular part of your research/decision process.  Over the course of 12 months, you can greatly widen your scope and sustain your development as a trader.  When you peruse posts curated by such sites as Abnormal Returns and Quantocracy, focus on the sites offering the posts and not just the posts themselves.  Many times you'll discover great resources that way.

*  Looking forward to the speakers and networking time at the Traders4ACause conference next month.  My program off the program will be that I will bring a one-page write up of an original, valuable trading method and will exchange with all participants who are similarly willing to share their writeups.  It's not just broader networking, but smarter networking, that helps us adapt to changing markets.

Have a great start to the week!

Brett
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