Working the trends with VantagePoint indicators
By Darrell Jobman
When markets get volatile, as they have been recently with all the financial turmoil taking place, getting into a position and protecting yourself against those sudden moves against you while trying to make a profit can be a real challenge.
Unfortunately, unlike the big financial firms – Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, AIG, et al – that have the Fed and Treasury as backstops for their stupid decisions, you probably aren’t “too big to fail” in the eyes of the government. So you have to be somewhat more prudent in deciding what and when to trade, even as all kinds of trading opportunities pop up during market fluctuations.
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The ‘canary’ is dead – Is it time to get out of the mine?
by TraderEd
Some analysts have called Merrill Lynch a “canary” because movements in Merrill’s share price tended to be a leading indicator for what might happen to financial stocks and the stock market as a whole, much like the canary in a mine shaft that warned miners about potentially poisonous gas in times past. But now that Merrill Lynch has been sucked into Bank of America, who will be the next canary?
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VantagePoint Trading Strategy: Developing It; Sticking With It
by Brandon Jones
I have no idea where you are in this wildly volatile market, but I have been on the sidelines for a while now because my trading strategy directs me to be on the sidelines.
That is the point of this article – to be a successful VantagePoint trader, you must have a trading strategy and be able to stick to it. This means that you have to put in the work to get this done. According to John Forman in an SFO magazine article.
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VantagePoint Analysis: Dow Futures Likely to See More Downside Pressure
by Jim Wyckoff
The December Dow stock index futures (DJZ8) at the Chicago Board of Trade have seen a big increase in price volatility the past week. This has produced a bearish broadening pattern on the daily bar chart. Prices just last week hit a fresh contract low of 10,470. The Dow stock index bears are still in technical control and are looking for more on the downside in the near term.
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Understanding the China ETF And China Life Insurance
by H.U.
Part IV
China is undoubtedly becoming increasingly important economically and politically, so it is essential to gain an understanding of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on China – the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index Fund (ticker symbol: FXI). This article explains how you can use VantagePoint to understand the overall state of the market and to understand the movement of the China ETF so you know when to time exits and entries if you are considering FXI for short-term or long-term investing. This article will also focus on another one of the top ten holdings of the China ETF – China Life Insurance.
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What is Synergistic Leg Work?
By Elizabeth Versace
I have received several e-mails since my last article asking me what is “Synergistic Leg Work”? In this article I will answer that question for you and, in the process, give you something to do while we wait for the markets to properly sort themselves. I am going to use wheat to illustrate the point.
Unless you have been in a coma or really on vacation the last few weeks, you have noticed how wonky the markets are. Up one day, down the next. More turmoil that gives us traders great grief and aggravation. In my last article, I said that times like these were great to do nothing but synergistic leg work. That’s just what I did, and to my surprise, I actually found a trade!
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Banking on Indicators, Not Predictions, Gold Prices into a Downtrend
By Darrell Jobman
“What is the price of gold going to do?” That seemed to be the question of the day at a company event over the weekend.
I don’t try to predict which way markets are going to go, even when I think I have the answer, but try to anticipate where I might take a position based on reacting to probabilities suggested by VantagePoint’s predictive indicators. After last week’s post-Labor Day price action, it was tough trying to come to any good conclusion about where gold prices might go. So I waffled.
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Get Your Head in the Right Place
By Brandon Jones
I’ve been a gambler and a risk-taker as long as I can remember, which is to say quite a long time.
My risk-taking started as a young boy jumping off big rocks into small water way far below me. My gambling started with my New York City friend, Timmy, who had the mindset of a tough kid who hung out with other tough kids. His game of choice was Blackjack, or 21 as we used to call it. He taught me to “snap” the cards so they made a crisp, popping sound when you dealt. This made me just a bit more intimidating to other neighborhood “players” who perceived the snapping of the cards as something only a “real” card player could do. Needless to say, the snapping held sway only so long. After a while, my friends told me to stop because the card snapping bent the cards.
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VantagePoint Analysis: Corn Futures Poised For Still More Downside Pressure
By Jim Wyckoff
Last week I suggested that December corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade were due for downside price pressure in the coming sessions due to bearish "outside markets" – a firmer U.S. dollar and lower crude oil prices – and from important early signals provided by VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis software.
Indeed, December corn futures prices last week proceeded to decline by 30 cents a bushel to end the week. VantagePoint analysis, basic technical analysis, bearish outside markets and seasonal factors suggest still more downside price pressure in corn in the near term.
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Understanding the China ETF - Part III
By H.U.
Since China is becoming increasingly important economically and politically, you could consider the China ETF as an effective way in riding on China’s boom. This article shows how you can use Vantage Point to understand the overall state of the market and to understand the movement of the China ETF so as to profit from it either in the short or long term. This article will also look closely at another one of the top ten holdings of the China ETF i.e. the China Construction Bank.
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What to do when there is nothing to do
By Elizabeth Versace
The publishers of this wonderful newsletter love it when I write an article that has a whole lot of charts and a few words to boot. This article is going to be different. In fact, this article is going to be about nothing. It is going to be about nothing because there is nothing to do.
If you are a trader, being told that there is nothing to do is like being told you can’t have the ice cream sundae that is melting on the table in front of you. We can’t do it. We pace, we sweat, we swear we are going nuts – like on that melting sundae.
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As the Trend Turns . . .Getting into the Next Move
By Darrell Jobman
Extended tradable trends don’t happen that often in many markets – those trends that move relentlessly up or down without too many large countertrends along the way to interrupt the steady advance or decline.
If you are an experienced trader, you know that even trending prices are more likely to gyrate enough to hit your stop and kick you out of a trend before the big money is made. In some cases, when a market is headed in one direction over a longer-term period, the swings in prices within the trend are so choppy from day to day that a market is almost untradable or at least difficult to trade with a trend-following strategy. The E-mini S&P 500 seems to be in that category more often than not recently.
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Flying By The Seat Of My Pants
By Brandon Jones
The other day I was thinking about my next column for this newsletter, and it occurred to me that those of you who have not read my book about VantagePoint know nothing about me, other than what I have written in this newsletter. I realized with that thought that I should have introduced myself in my first column.
Well, I didn’t, so I decided to correct my error in this column, which is primarily an excerpt from my book explaining how I came to be a VantagePoint trader .
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Crude Oil Futures Remain in Downtrend
By Jim Wyckoff
October crude oil futures at the New York Mercantile Exchange have experienced higher volatility on the upside and the downside recently. However, prices are still hovering near the multi-month low of $111.50 scored last week.
As the VantagePoint chart illustrates, crude oil prices are still in a six-week-old downtrend from the July 11 contract and all-time high of $148.13 a barrel, basis October futures.
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China ETF as Part of an Investment Strategy - Part II
By H.U.
China is fast becoming one of the world’s most important countries, both economically and politically. Holding a China exchange-traded fund (ETF) is an effective way to ride China’s boom.
This article shows how you can use VantagePoint to understand the overall feel for the market and to understand the movement of the China ETF so as to profit either in the short or long term. This article will also look closely at one of the top ten holdings of the China ETF.
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I Hate When This Happens
By Elizabeth Versace
(This is a continuation of the previous article on the Australian dollar.)
When we last tuned in, our Australian dollar futures trade was chugging along nicely.
It has been at least a year since I have seen this kind of classic downward trend. All of the indicators were telling me to stay short this trade. I did the synergistic leg work and saw that oil prices were dropping, just like I said they would all along. The entire world pointed to this trade being a long-term downtrending trade. This is the trade we all live for – a long and sustained bearish move.
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Riding the trend for all it’s worth
By Darrell Jobman
Legendary trader Richard Dennis, one of the founders of the famous turtle trading system, made a statement in an interview in Futures Magazine in the early 1980s that I have always remembered: “95% of my profits are made on 5% of my trades.”
That type of expression can be heard in other areas as well, of course, as in “10% of the people do 90% of the work” or “80% of the giving in a fund-raising drive comes from 20% of the givers.” Don’t hold me to those exact percentages, but you get the idea. Dennis was a trend-follower so it’s obvious that a few of the trends he captured had to be pretty big ones to make the $200 million he reportedly earned as a trader in that era.
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Keep It Simple, Or Not
By Brandon Jones
One of the cool things about my life is that I get to read books about trading and someone pays me to write what I think about the book.
Recently, I read a book about candlestick patterns and how they can make you money if you understand how the patterns set up and what that setup means in a variety of particular trading environments. Reading that book reminded me of an online webinar that I attended some time back about how to make money with candlestick patterns by looking for a particular “gap” setup. If you timed that setup just right, it would surely make you money – or so the “educator” of that webinar said. And so it goes …
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More Upside for Dow After Corrective Pullback
By Jim Wyckoff
The September Dow Jones Industrial Average futures contract at the Chicago Board of Trade has been in an uptrend from the contract low of 10,810, recorded on July 15. Dow bulls have gained some fresh upside technical momentum recently, as prices on Monday scored a fresh six-week high.
The shorter-term technicals have become more favorable to the Dow bulls. However, as traders are into the "dog days" of summer, look for choppier trading with an upside bias heading into the key trading months of September and October. Falling crude oil prices and a firming U.S. dollar versus the other major currencies will benefit the stock index bulls.
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Long-Term, Short-Term Profits With Investment in China ETF
By H.U.
China has enjoyed phenomenal growth over the last two decades. As an investor, you can benefit from China’s growth by investing in a China exchange-traded fund (ETF), using VantagePoint to give you the correct entry to profit in the long-term and short-term.
This article will also explain the phenomenon called the “Olympics effect,” which has historically shown that the share market returns for Olympic host nations outperform other markets in the 12 months after the Olympic games.
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Anatomy of a Trade
By Elizabeth Versace
This month I am going to walk you through how I choose what to trade and when. In doing so, I will tie together much of what I have written about in previous issues. I am going to talk about the Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Gold.
At the end of day on July 23 VP gave the signal to go short the Australian Dollar. What I really like about this chart is the steepness of the angle of decent of both the Short and Long Term Predicted Differences.
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Head game? Or chart game?
By Darrell Jobman
One of the problems I have as a trader is the preconceived notion – that is, I have an idea of what I think a market will do, based on what seems logical. But, too often, I turn out to be dead wrong.
Maybe it’s my background as a journalist that makes me feel compelled to read or listen to market news for fear I will miss something or to consider different market views and ideas in newsletters so I get the full story from all sides.
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The Good Times Will Come Again
By Brandon Jones
So what’s new in the markets these days? Well, let’s see …
The U.S. dollar is still weak . . .
Commodities are still floating around in a very large bubble . .
Stock markets jump up and down as if some twisted puppeteer is pulling the strings just to see what will happen next . . .
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VantagePoint Analysis Suggests Rally Potential for T-Bonds
By Jim Wyckoff
Trading in September U.S. Treasury bond futures at the Chicago Board of Trade has turned very choppy recently. A weaker U.S. stock market one day has boosted U.S. Treasuries, then upside price action in the stock indexes the next day has pressured T-bonds.
Look for this inverse trading relationship between stock indexes and U.S. Treasuries to continue for at least the near term. Consequently, neither the bulls nor the bears presently have a solid technical edge in September T-bonds.
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Going for the Gold With an ETF
By H.U.
In Part I, the Streettracks Gold Trust (ticker code: GLD) was recommended as an investment for portfolio diversification. Part II will once again revisit the share market and show you how, by using VantagePoint software, you can assess the condition of the overall market and GLD in a way that allows you to make a long-term or short-term profit. Part II will also look at the statistics at the demand for gold in jewelry, electronics, dentistry and industrial use.
The two-year VantagePoint chart of GLD below shows that gold has been in a bullish phase for the last few years. Recently, it has been going through a period of consolidation (circle).
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Let's Get Related!
By Elizabeth Versace
No, this is not a marriage proposal! In this article, I am going to talk about how we can use VantagePoint to make sense of what is going on in the markets today and how we can make money doing so.
Let’s face it: What should be up is down and what should be down is up. The kind of volatility we see in the markets today seem to make the task of trading daunting at best. Even silver and gold seem to be at odds.
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Beating up the financials
By Darrell Jobman
The financial sector has gotten a lot of media attention lately – no surprise in light of the collapse of Bear Stearns and the most recent publicity surrounding Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and IndyMac.
“Who’s next?” seems to be the question of the day. While misguided regulators and politicians are blaming speculators, rumormongers, high oil prices, high commodity prices and everything else for the nation’s financial ills, the root causes are getting little attention, and seemingly incompetent people heading the banks, airlines and businesses that are in financial trouble seem to be getting a free pass. They have collected millions in salaries and bonuses while jeopardizing the lifestyles and livelihoods of millions of people.
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To Trade or Not To Trade?
By Brandon Jones
I don’t know how you are feeling these days – I mean with the markets in such turmoil and all – but I can tell you that these are dog-days indeed for my style of trading.
If it isn’t the housing market crisis, it is the lack of liquidity. If it isn’t the financial crisis, it is the rocketing rise in commodity prices, particularly oil. Technology is on the out. Energy is in, sort of. I could go on, but why bore you with what you already know.
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VantagePoint Sees More Upside Price Action for Gold
By Jim Wyckoff
August gold futures hit a fresh 3.5-month high this week, boosted recently by a weaker U.S. dollar versus the other major currencies. Gold will continue to track the value of the U.S. dollar closely, in an inverse fashion.
A solid four-week-old uptrend is in place on the daily bar chart for August Gold. Bears' next downside price objective is closing prices below solid technical support at $950 an ounce. Gold bulls' next upside price objective is to produce a close above major psychological resistance at $1,000.
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Going for the Gold With an ETF
- Part I
By H.U.
Like other commodities, gold has experienced price rises over the last few years. This article will show you how to use VantagePoint to understand the movement in the price of the gold exchange-traded fund (ETF), allowing you to trade profitably in the short and long term, and will also explain why gold is a good long-term investment to hold with other assets in an investment portfolio.
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Finding the Exit
By Elizabeth Versace
There are a number of ways to exit a trade. We can use the Predicted Next Day High or Low, we can get stopped out, we can use the crossovers . . . In this article, I am going to talk about using the short-term and medium-term crossovers as a means to exit a trade.
The following examples assume that we enter our trades using my 1-2-3 system and the medium-term crossover. Let's start by looking at July 2007 wheat futures.
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Hog Fundamentals Seem Faulty But VantagePoint Spots the Trend Early
By Darrell Jobman
My last newsletter article emphasized the role of intermarket analysis and VantagePoint in a Synergistic Market Analysis approach, illustrating how the supply and price of one commodity (corn) affects the supply and price of another (cattle).
We'll stick with that theme again in this article, but this time we'll look at hog futures in a synergistic approach that combines fundamental analysis, traditional technical analysis and intermarket analysis.
As it is with cattle, corn is also a key component in hog production and pricing. We covered some of the main corn fundamentals in the previous article so we won't go into detail about the effect that spring rains, delayed planting and ethanol demand have had on corn.
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Success Breeds Success
By Brandon Jones
Success breeds success. I am convinced this is so. This attitude is consistent with winners in every competitive realm, as far as I can see anyway. Ergot, for one to be successful at something, no matter what that something is, one has to believe they will be successful.
When I say "believe," I mean that the thought of success has to reside in that unseen core from which all of our subliminal forces of behavior emanate. It is one thing to say, "I believe I will be successful." It is another thing altogether to say nothing and yet always have this thought at work subliminally.
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VantagePoint Suggests Continued Upside for Bond Futures
By Jim Wyckoff
September U.S. Treasury bond futures have made a solid price rebound from the June low of 111 23/32 as price action this week has produced a seven-week high and also negated a longer-term downtrend line drawn from the March, April and May highs.
As a result, bond market bulls have gotten fresh upside technical momentum on their side and are looking for more on the upside in the near term. The next upside technical objective for T-bond bulls is a close above solid technical resistance at the May high of 116 26/32. The next downside price objective for the bears is a close below solid technical support at 114 even.
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Australia ETF Good Choice For Commodities Boom
- Part II
By H.U.
I am sure the last few weeks - it has seemed like forever - has brought on a lot of gritting of teeth and testing of patience for U.S. stock market traders, but it is during these tough times that a patient and opportunistic investor will be rewarded.
No one knows exactly how long the bearish phase of the market will last - most investors hope it will end very soon - but using VantagePoint indicators will help to indicate when an entry into the market will, in time, allow your investment to become profitable.
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A Smashing Soy Trade
By Elizabeth Versace
Several monster trades occur each year, and in this article I am going to walk you briefly through a great soybean meal trade, which is THE monster trade thus far this year and, as we go to print, still active. Let’s take a look.
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VantagePoint’s Key Role In Synergistic Trading Approach
By Darrell Jobman
If you have traded for a while, you realize that a lot of different factors tend to influence a market. Sometimes it may be a chart pattern, sometimes it may be a surprise fundamental event, sometimes it may be an economic development. No single analytical approach is a guaranteed route to trading success.
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Finding Success With The Important Things
By Brandon Jones
What is fundamentally important to you and why?
Have you ever asked yourself this combined question?
Over the years, I have, only to find the answer is always the same because I discovered early in life that those fundamentally important things I tapped so many years ago continue to produce satisfaction in my day-to-day existence. Identifying and understanding the things that bring goodness to your life is key to having continued success.
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VantagePoint Suggests More Downside Action For U.S. T-Bond Futures
By Jim Wyckoff
September U.S. Treasury Bond futures traded at CME Group’s Chicago Board of Trade are in a three-month-old downtrend on the daily bar chart and just recently hit a fresh eight-month low. The longer-term weekly continuation chart for nearby bond futures also confirms a bearish technical posture, as downtrend lines can be drawn off recent highs on the weekly chart.
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Australia ETF Good Choice For Commodities Boom
- Part I
By H.U.
Although the recent bearish phase of the U.S. stock market has lasted for about a month, it may be time to get back into the market again. Of course, no one knows for sure which way the market is heading next, but the market seems to be in oversold territory again.
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Early Warning Device
By Elizabeth Versace
VantagePoint is such a marvelous software package. For those of us who talk about the product, we focus almost to distraction on how wonderful VP is at predicting price direction up to four days in advance when it is time to take a trade. We also know how great the Predicted Next Day High and Low are for assisting us in setting our stop losses.
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VantagePoint Charts Know Best
By Darrell Jobman
Seeing is believing, according to an old expression, but sometimes what you see physically with your own eyes isn’t as revealing as what you see on a VantagePoint chart – at least when it comes to trading and investing.
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The Balanced Way
By Brandon Jones
I wonder how many of you VantagePoint users are successful. I also wonder how many of you VantagePoint users are as successful as you either want to be or think you should be...
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VantagePoint View: More Downside Pressure for Crude Oil Prices
By Jim Wyckoff
July crude oil futures at the New York Mercantile Exchange have sold off from the contract and all-time high of $135.09 a barrel recorded on May 22 and are presently in a two-week-old downtrend on the daily bar chart. Prices also recently hit a fresh three-week low.
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Capturing Brazilian ETF’s Bullish Trend with VantagePoint - Part II
By H.U.
In the volatile global market that exists today, it makes logical sense to trade in stocks that are riding on long-term trends. In the iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund (EWZ), we have an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that trades like a stock and is riding up on the long-term trends in agriculture and natural resources.
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Angle of Attack
By Elizabeth Versace
As promised, this is the companion article to the last newsletter on knowing what trade among many is the best trade. I compared the Swiss franc and euro currencies and suggested that the Predicted Short-Term and Long-Term Differences would assist me in determining which was the better trade.
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Could Even Earlier Entries Using Indicators Pay Off?
By Darrell Jobman
VantagePoint’s moving average crossovers have always provided good indications of changes in market direction for longer-term, trend-following traders as the predicted moving averages often turn several days before actual moving averages for a similar time frame. Typically, that gives VantagePoint traders an edge to get into a position ahead of other traders.
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From Darts in the Dark to a Trading Plan . . . and Success
By Brandon Jones
My last two articles have focused on how I am learning to trade the volatile markets that seem to have become the norm these days. I told you that in February and March I lost more than I gained, and in April I reversed those losses.
Well, my success has continued through the first half of May with a winning percentage of just under 75%. This transition from losing to winning could not have happened unless I had a plan – a strategy, if you will...
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Soybean Prices Erratic But Still Pointed Upward
By Jim Wyckoff
July soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade are presently in a seven-week-old price uptrend on the daily bar chart after a post-planting intentions report low April 1. Prices have posted some erratic large daily moves recently, both up and down, responding to the latest reports about planting conditions and weather forecasts and Argentine soybean export issues. Amid the turmoil, soybean futures hit a fresh four-week high last week, maintaining the upward trending thrust.
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Capturing Brazilian ETF’s Bullish Trend with VantagePoint
By H.U.
While the U.S. economy is struggling and may even be in a recession, countries in the so-called “BRIC” bloc – Brazil, Russia, India and China – still appear to be experiencing strong economic growth and rising stock markets.
This growth has attracted a good deal of attention in the financial press and may have gotten your attention as well if you are looking for investment opportunities. This article will focus on Brazil, which has had its share of economic problems in the past but now is viewed as an area with great economic potential because of its natural resources.
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So many trades, So many choices
By Elizabeth Versace
How many times have you been running your end-of-day data and are confronted with several buy or sell signals in the same category? It happens quite often when you have an analytical software package like VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis Software.
So how do you distinguish what trades among the many available are the best trades to take in VantagePoint? Let’s talk about the ways that you can judge what trade has better odds of success.
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Following the bouncing dollar
By Darrell Jobman
No one can be sure how the latest Fed cut in short-term interest rates or the latest economic statistics will play out in the currency markets, but VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis Software charts can suggest some good short-term trades before they become obvious to everyone else. The U.S. dollar provided the most recent example, bouncing higher after nearly everyone had become convinced that the dollar had to weaken further to get the U.S. economy out of its debt mess.
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Go catch yourself a wave
By Brandon Jones
Back in March, I wrote an article titled, “Surfing the Big Waves,” addressing the topic of volatility and VantagePoint. The factor that inspired me to write that column was that I had my first losing months (February and March) since I started using VantagePoint one year ago.
The reason for my losses in those months was that I decided to teach myself how to trade in highly volatile markets, and the way I learn is by jumping in and going after it. And so I did, and so I learned. I suffered my losses knowing all the while that, if I trusted VantagePoint and paid attention to HOW my trades went bad, then I would figure it out.
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Wheat still trending down – but oversold?
By Jim Wyckoff
Wheat bulls' next upside price objective is to push and close July futures prices above solid technical resistance at last week's high of $8.43 a bushel. The next downside price objective for the bears is pushing and closing prices below strong technical support at last week's low of $7.77 a bushel. Until VantagePoint provides some clue that might change the long-term trend, remember the old tried and true trading adage, "The trend is your friend."
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Jumping On The Trend: Legendary Investor John Templeton
By H.U.
One of the major – if not most – important factors in successful investing is being able to discern the direction of a market and then taking positions that align with that direction.
To do that, you need accurate forecasts that can help you identify the next trend in your market early and can then provide clues about the strength and duration of that trend. Those are the goals of VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis Software, which gives accurate forecasts for many stocks, exchange-traded funds, commodity and financial futures and forex.
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Get Short Term and Win Big
By Elizabeth Versace
If you have been paying any attention to the markets at all lately, you have probably noticed that there is so much volatility that trading has become a daunting challenge. Well, here is a killer short-term day trade strategy that has been working nicely recently as well as over the long term.
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Are We There Yet?
By Darrell Jobman
We have been visiting our three-year-old granddaughter, and she has learned that familiar question parents often hear from kids when they are in the car: Are we there yet? I have a similar question about trading: Is it safe yet to trade corn, wheat and soybeans, three of the key products of American agriculture?
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Follow the Wisdom and Smile
By Brandon Jones
When I first jumped into the world of trading, my new mentor told me three things to keep at the forefront of my trading brain:
- Cash is king.
- Volume plus quality equals action.
- Watch and learn a market before you trade it.
It took me entirely too long to truly understand and actualize that sage advice. It took working with VantagePoint for me to finally get it
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VantagePoint Suggests More Downside Pressure for Gold Futures
By Jim Wyckoff
June gold futures prices have backed down substantially from the March contract and all-time high of $1,038.60 an ounce. Last Friday's solid losses provided the bears with some fresh downside technical momentum after prices had bounced back to the March 27 high around $956.
A longer-term chart for nearby gold futures shows strong technical and psychological support located at the $900 an ounce level.
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China’s Neighbor
By H.U.
The recent election in Taiwan could lead to closer ties between China and Taiwan and may produce some great investment opportunities. I’d like to introduce you to one of those possibilities, the iShares Taiwan exchange-traded fund (ETF) with stock ticker EWT.
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Common Sense and Stop Losses
By Elizabeth Versace
If you have been trading commodities for any time at all, it is not uncommon to give stop losses a certain mystique, reverence, or maybe fear and loathing. This month I’m going to spend some time demystifying stop losses and show you two different ways to use VantagePoint to set stop losses.
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'V' for VantagePoint...and victory?... in hogs
By Darrell Jobman
Anyone who has traded livestock futures for a while knows that these markets have a habit of making “V” bottoms – that is, after careening lower, they turn on a dime and zoom back up. Bottoms like that are hard to catch and difficult to trade.
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Reading Between the Lines
By Brandon Jones
This month I am going to spend my time talking about the Predicted Neural Index. According to Market Technologies, the entire backbone of VantagePoint is moving and predicted moving averages derived from a Neural Network. For those of you who don’t know, a Neural Network as applied to VantagePoint is a complicated beast involving pattern recognition and intermarket analysis. One of the ways the Neural Network shines is...
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TGold Prices Still in Downtrend - VantagePoint Provided Early Clues
By Jim Wyckoff
June gold futures experienced a big downside price move during the last half of March, dropping from a contract high of $1,038.60 on March 17 to a low of $876.30 on April 1. Using VantagePoint Intermarket Analysis Software (www.TraderTech.com), you could have seen on March 19 that the already downtrending Predicted 4-day EMA line produced a bearish crossover by moving below the Actual 10-day SMA Close line. Also, VantagePoint’s Predicted Neural Index moved to 0.0, a bearish indicator, the same day.
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Bear Proof Growth Portfolio
By H.U.
This month I am going to spend my time talking about the Predicted Neural Index. According to Market Technologies, the entire backbone of VantagePoint is moving and predicted moving averages derived from a Neural Network. For those of you who don’t know, a Neural Network as applied to VantagePoint is a complicated beast involving pattern recognition and intermarket analysis. One of the ways the Neural Network shines is...
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Meeting the challenge of volatility
By Darrell Jobman
With the volatile action in many markets since mid-2007, it has become a challenge to apply logical thinking to whether prices are “too high” or “too low.” For example, soybeans have been a speculative trader favorite for many years, but when the boom in commodity prices in general took soybean futures along for the ride above record highs from the mid-1970s, there comes a point when you might assume prices have to drop back to “normal.”
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Surfing the Big Waves
By Brandon Jones
As I wrote in my book, Trading with VantagePoint, One User’s Perspective, the software is not a magic bullet. For it to work for you, you have to do the work of learning how to use it. To further this thought, not only do you have to learn how to use it, you have to learn what the indicators are telling you in a variety of market conditions.
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Commodity Markets Start to Gyrate at Higher Price Levels
By Jim Wyckoff
There are two catalysts that ignited the sharp downturn in commodity futures prices the past couple weeks: The short-term credit market crisis that prompted the U.S. Federal Reserve add liquidity to the financial system and reduce U.S. interest rates, and the rebound in the value of the U.S. dollar versus the other major currencies...
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Keeping an eye on technology
By Sam Jones
You may have heard the terms foreign exchange, forex, fx, and currencies used interchangeably. While all these terms essentially refer to the same thing—trading a nation’s currency rate against another’s—there are different types of markets available for traders wishing to hedge or speculate. Some are regulated, some are not, and all offer unique characteristics depending on your individual strategy and risk tolerance. I’ll go over some of the basics first, and why you might consider one over the other.
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