Swing Trading Strategies | Swing Trading Boot Camp

Posts Tagged ‘Swing Trading Strategies’

Swing Trading Week in Review – June 29th

Sunday, July 1st, 2012

Swing Trading BLOG – Swing Trading Boot Camp

Despite two big GAP DOWNS on Monday and Thursday that market finally found its legs.

Friday trades watched as the market GAPPED UP and finished the week with a nice rally to the close.

The rally actually started at the end of the day on Thursday which gave swing traders a clue of things to come for Friday morning.

Paying attention to intraday price action can often times give you a "heads up" to what the big money is doing since a lot of orders go in during the last two hours of each trading day.

Once we saw the rally Thursday afternoon (along with the volume that accompanied it) we were pretty sure that the market was going to lift off the next day.

This would mean that some of our SHORT positions would not follow through and would probably stop us out.

So what did we do?

Nothing. Absolutely NOTHING DIFFERENT.

Did we cover our SHORTS? Did we flip those SHORTS to LONGS?

No and No.

Simply put we traded our plan.

We have learned over the years that we should never try to out guess the market.

In hindsight it east to say that we would have been smart to COVER and even FLIP TO THE LONG SIDE but that is not always the case.

Being almost positive that you are right can cost you…big time.

Our trading plan is very specific.

We enter our trade and place our stops. We set our profit target(s) and manage our trade per our plan.

Then we let it play out one way or the another.

Either we get stopped out OR we hit our profit target.

We don't change our rules based on what we think the market is going to do.

We told you last week that we trade both sides of the market and get stopped out (on the wrong side) once the market finds its true direction.

This week was a great example of this.

When the SHORT trades stall and STOP GOING DOWN that should tell you something.

A lot of good looking SHORT set ups didn't follow through and actually created a higher low this week.

When your LONG trades are breaking out on good volume that should tell you something as well.

Learning to read the price action and volume during these times is crucial to identify turning points in the market.

This is exactly what we mean when we say to "listen to the market and act accordingly".

Until next week…Good Trading to YOU!

Tags: ETF Swing Trading, Swing Trading Blog, Swing Trading Price Action, Swing Trading Strategies, Swing Trading Volume
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Swing Trading Week in Review – June 22, 2012

Sunday, June 24th, 2012

Swing Trading BLOG – Swing Trading BOOT CAMP

The markets continued to drift upwards (on low volume) to start out the week bringing the DJIA just above its 50 day SMA.

Wednesday was a different story as the news the market was waiting for finally came out.

The sellers showed up in a big way in the afternoon and followed up on Thursday with a day full of selling pressure.

Friday we watched as the market traded sideways creating a low volume "inside day".

Last week we told you that "One side will win the "tug of war" and you will miss the moves if you aren't ready."

Once the news came out you had to expect a dramatic move one way or the another.

Being prepared for anything (as we say over and over and over) is a key to becoming a successful trader.

If you had a SHORT list prepared then I am sure your triggers were hit either late Wednesday or sometime on Thursday.

With plenty of weak stocks out there I am sure you had plenty of options.

The Energy, Oil, and Oil Services sectors have been extremely weak so that was a natural choice.

$SLB $HES and $HAL had great chart patterns to trade…

Some of the Retail stocks ($M $BBBY $RL ) also got smacked around despite the strength the overall sector is showing.

Despite all the doom and gloom talk there are actually (for now) still stocks showing a tremendous amount of strength.

The sectors vary but take a look at the charts for $VZ $CRUS $LLY $ASH $V $MMR and $WFM.

So what is trader to do from here?

Go LONG the strong stocks? Or go SHORT the weak stocks?

As always it depends on your personal strategy but when the overall market is hoovering near its 50 day SMA we tend to play both sides of the market.

For our STS trades we will SHORT the weakest of the weak and BUY the strongest of the strong and leave everything else alone.

We are looking for SHORT TERM moves here…we are NOT position traders.

Often times one side will STOP US OUT when the market does make a definitive move but that is a good thing for us.

We then have more conviction and can look for more trades that are now going in the direction of the market.

Don't be afraid to make trades and to get stooped out….it's a big part of trading and it happens often.

Next week the market should give us additional clues to it's "true" direction so, as always, be prepared for anything (heard that before?).

Listen to the market and act accordingly.

Make your entries, set and honor your stops, take your profits. Rinse and repeat.

Until next week…Good Trading to YOU!

Tags: SHORT SWING TRADING, Swing Trading Blog, Swing Trading Chart Patterns, Swing Trading Strategies
Posted in ETF Swing Trading, Swing Trading, Swing Trading Blog, Swing Trading Chart Patterns, Swing Trading Stocks | No Comments »

Swing Trading Week in Review – June 15,2012

Sunday, June 17th, 2012

Swing Trading BLOG – Swing Trading BOOT CAMP

A nice week for the major indicies this week.

That being said was probably better to be a day trader this week instead of an overnight swing trader.

The intraday moves were very nice and offered reliable chart patterns to trade while the over night moves were less predictable.

See how we trade our Intraday Swing Trading Strategy here.

After a BIG GAP UP on Monday morning the sellers stepped in to bring the market down to end the day.

Tuesday didn't draw much excitement but starting on Wednesday the market started to show signs of moving higher.

Fridays close brought the DJIA right up to its 50 day SMA while the S&P and Nasdaq aren't far behind.

A few of the sector ETF's showed signs of life as well while others are showing extreme relative weakness.

The Gold ETF's continue to trade above their 50 day SMA's and although Silver hasn't quite caught up just yet it looks to be showing signs of strength.

As next weeks trading begins things could change in a hurry.

With all the news coming out next week be prepared for the markets to move very quickly. One side will win the "tug of war" and you will miss the moves if you aren't ready.

Look for stocks bucking the down trend (i.e. $WFM $EQIX) to add to your LONG watch list.

Look for those stocks that did not hold up well this week to add to your SHORT watch list.

Have a plan in place so whatever the market decides to do from here you will be prepared to act (and hopefully profit).

Until next week…Good Trading to YOU!

Tags: ETF Swing Trading, Sector ETF's, Swing Trading Blog, Swing Trading Chart Patterns, Swing Trading Strategies
Posted in ETF Swing Trading, Intraday Swing Trading, Sector ETF's, Swing Trading Blog, Swing Trading Chart Patterns | No Comments »

Day Trading Strategies – Intraday Swing Trading Strategy

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

Swing Trading Boot Camp – Day Trading the Intraday Swing Trading Strategy

We thought we would take this opportunity to walk you through one of our day trades from this morning.

Our Intraday Swing Trading Strategy is very similar to our overnight swing trading method.

We use relative strength to locate and trade strong stocks (or ETF's) when the overall market is strong.

This morning was a good example of locating a sector ETF ($XLE) that was showing signs of relative strength AND also had a great chart pattern to trade.

Here is the first chart for $XLE…

XLE - Day Trading Strategies - Intraday Swing Trading

Notice how on the chart above $XLE broke out to new highs in the early morning and rallied up until a little after 10am.

After a brief pullback $XLE was setting up again for a nice LONG trade. A move to the upside on increased volume was the confirmation we needed (BLUE ARROWS).

Our trend line was drawn in and we let the trade progress.

On the chart above you can see how $XLE rallied to new highs again putting in 2 channel expansions before the "stall" (equal bar high) marked in orange.

This entire move happened on decreasing volume so we were on high alert looking for the signs of this move reaching its potential.

The"stall" was followed 2 bars later by a new high but this bar quickly reversed course and put in a bullish engulfing candlestick.

This bar combined with the failure to reach the top of the channel is a good sign that the move has come to an end and a good time for us to exit our trade.

The next bar followed through to the downside but we noticed that volume was drying up.

The bar after the bearish engulfing bar reversed and closed near its high. Two bars later a new breakout was underway.

We didn't want to enter into a new LONG trade at this point since the move in $XLE was already extended a bit.

Below you can see how the new breakout stalled and basically traded sideways for the next 6 bars before finally breaking down and out of the upward trending channel.

Even if the new breakout would have continued we aren't really concerned about it.

We are NOT trying to catch every single bit of every move.

For our STS trades we typically set our target at a 2:1 risk/reward ratio and are very happy taking our profits at this level just as we did here.

As day traders our intraday swing trading strategy helps us locate (and hopefully profit from) price "swings" in the market just like you see here.

We hope this sheds some light on the strategies and tactics we use to trade the market day in and day out.

Until next time…Good Trading to YOU!

Tags: Day Trading Strategies, Intraday Swing Trading, Swing Trading Price Action, Swing Trading Strategies
Posted in Day Trading, Intraday Swing Trading, Swing Trading Chart Patterns, Trading Price Action and Volume | No Comments »