Try The Best Stock Trading Programs

There are a wide variety of stock trading programs which are available on the internet and that work well with stock trading software. Most trading software programs are downloadable and can be used by people who have an understanding of the stock market, while others may be geared towards those just learning the market.

Perhaps you know nothing about the stock market and you want to learn a bit about it before you start using stock trading programs. The mechanism of trading stocks if very fast and you may been to keep a close eye on the market in order to understand when trades need to be made.

If you use stock trading programs or software, you don’t have to keep such a close eye on the market. Stock trading programs are meant to let you know if there is some action that you need to take, immediately or very soon into the future. Most people do not have the time to monitor their stocks every hour of every day, so this type of program can help you by freeing up your time.

Anyone who gets engrossed in the fast pace of the stock market has to be able to stay calm and make rational decisions. Stock trading programs can help you to achieve this. The stock market dictates that you will lose some money, but making the right trades at the right time will help you to make money too. You just have to find a program that works best for you.

Everyone has choices from a very large variety of stock trading programs. Certain people will prefer the features of some programs and others may just gravitate towards others. If you want to make the best choice for yourself, try a free trial of a program, if it is available and use the software for a while to see if you can work with it.

Want to find out more about stock trading market, then visit Henry Taylor’s site on how to choose the best stock trading programs for your needs.

Panic Selling Slams the Market but Will Gold Hold?

Did you close out any long positions today? Well if not then you are one of a few!

Today (Wednesday) the market gapped down 1.5% at the opening bell which set a very negative tone for the session. Volume was screaming as protective stops triggered and traders close out positions before prices fell much further. This gap seemed to have caught several traders off guard but those of you who follow my newsletter knew something big was brewing and to keep positions very small.

Just before the close on Tuesday I had a buy signal for the SP500 which was generated from the extreme readings on the market internals. After watching the market chop around and get squeezed into the apex of the rising wedge the past 3 weeks I knew something big was about to happen and I did not want to get everyone involved because I felt a large gap was about to happen and the odds were 50/50. Instead we passed on the technical buy signal and waited to see what would happen Wednesday.

Below are a few charts showing one of my extreme reading indicators I use which helps me to identify possible short term bottoms.

SP500 - SPY Exchange Traded Fund

This daily chart of the SPY etf clearly shows that when we see panic selling in the NYSE which I consider 15+ sell orders to each buy order to be PANIC SELLING. This is shown using the purple indicator at the bottom of the chart. Today there was an average of 37 sell orders to every buy order which tells me the majority of traders are closing out all their long positions.

In an uptrend this indicator works very well and can help time a bottom within 1-4 days. As you can see on the chart below we just had a huge sell off and everyone seemed to be exiting their positions. This panic selling tends to carry over for a couple sessions until the majority of traders around the globe are finished selling.

The problem with this indicator is that in a down trend we tend to get these panic selling spikes regularly which means this time it may not work out because of the trendline break today which I think has officially changed the trend from up to down. Because of this possible down trend starting I feel its best to wait and see if it’s a dead cat bounce or if there are real buyers behind it, then we will take action to go long or short the market.

Market Internals - Put/Call Ratio & NYSE Advance/Decline Line - 60 Min Charts

Here are two charts which are currently at extreme levels. This typically means we a bounce should occur the following day or a gap higher. If you did not know there was a strong trendline breakdown today you most likely would have taking a small long position into the close.

The Put/Call ratio when above 1.00 means more people are buying put options, meaning they are leveraging themselves to make money if the market drops. As a contrarian indicator, if everyone is buying leverage to the down side then they should have sold their long positions already. That would mean most of the selling has already taken place in the market thus it should have some upward bias in the near term.

On the other side you can see the NYSE A/D line which shows how many stocks on the NYSE are advancing and how many have moved lower. When this indicator is below -1750 then we know the market is oversold on a short term basis and there should be some upward bias in the near future.

Now Lets Take A Look At Gold

Gold was left on the side of the road today as traders and investors focused on the equities market. I was actually a little surprised that it didn’t make a big move today because the US Dollar rocketed higher for the entire session. Anyone who has been watching gold closely already knows that gold is doing its own thing now… Some days it moves with the dollar, other days it does not… its become much more random than it used to be.

Anyways it looks to be forming two patterns… first one is a bull flag. If a breakout to the upside occurs thatwould send gold to the $1230-40 level.

The second pattern is a mini head and shoulders pattern which would send gold down to the $1180 area if the neck line is violated. It is a very tough call for gold.

Mid-Week Technical Traders Update:

In short, it’s going to take a day or two before we get a feel for the SP500 as we wait to see if it bounces with volume behind it. I personally would like a bounce so we can short it. It is unfortunate how the market broke down today. We were so close to getting a really good setup in either direction but the FOMC meeting shook things up and caused the large gap which in turn made a large group of traders miss that beautiful drop… It’s frustrating when you wait for something only to have a piece of news mess things up. That’s just part of trading though.

As for gold, I feel it’s a 50/50 trade and could go either way so I am not going to take a position right now. I’m just going to wait for the market to tip its hand a little more before I jump.

Learn how to buy gold and make great money doing it! Gold mining stocks is the best investment in ANY economy!

How To Trade Gold and Silver’s Volatility

Understanding the key differences between both gold and silver’s risk/volatility levels plays a large part in how I choose a low risk trade setup. Those of you who follow me already know the GLD etf is my favorite trading vehicle as it provides me with low risk trading setups along with a very high win rate.

Ok, let’s jump into to comparing gold and silver as trading instruments. I get the same questions from new traders all the time and I think these two questions will help clear them up.

The questions are:

Why don’t you give silver (SLV) trading analysis/signals? Why don’t you trade silver? My answer to the questions are simple and the chart below displays my view.

The gold (GLD) signals I provide work with silver so you can just trade silver when I have gold long or short trade. This is the reason I don’t provide much silver analysis because it’s duplicate info.

The chart below shows how gold and silver trade together when it comes to rallies and sell offs. But notice how volatile silver is while gold had a nice slow and steady trend upwards… Gold’s low volatility trending characteristics is what I love about it. Silver on the other hand is all over the place making it easy to have protective stops triggered before the majority of the trend is over. The silver charts almost always look terrible (tough to read for a direction). I really don’t like getting shaken out of a winning trade…

The pink circles show a quick short trade we did this week catching a quick 1% drop. The short trade was for FuturesTradingSignals where we capture 1-3 day extreme market sentiment shifts.

GLD - Gold ETF Trading Chart

The chart below shows several points as to why gold/silver was screaming BUY ME on Tuesday afternoon. The two things that carry 90% of the strength in my opinion are the candlestick pattern (Bullish Engulfing) and the volume surge. Those two things when seeing on virtually any time frame are a good indication to go long for 1-3 candlesticks minimum.

Gold VS Silver - 5 Minute 3 Day Chart

This chart clearly shows the power of trading a more volatile commodity with silver being the one. This week’s buy signal in gold is dwarfed by the performance of silver. Silver has always shined more in my opinion but when it comes to trading… It tougher than it looks to trade because of the wild whipsaw action it makes on a regular basis.

Gold and Silver Trading Conclusion:

In short, gold is the safe haven when it comes to actively trading. I do trade silver here and there but the size of my position is much smaller because of the difficulty level and volatility associated with it. I will not that I do trade gold and silver futures at times but for this report I focused on ETF’s.

Learn how to buy gold and make great money doing it! Gold mining stocks is the best investment in ANY economy!

Gold & the Overall Strength of the Market

The past week has been interesting to say the least. Gold is trying to find support while the SP500 grinds its way higher. Let’s jump into the charts and analysis to get better feel for what I feel is happening here.

Gold 4 Hour Chart As you can see from the chart below gold has formed a possible double top. The fact that it made a higher high is actually a bearish sign for the intermediate term 1-3 weeks. When we see a higher high getting sold into with big volume it typically means the big money is unloading large positions into the surge of breakout traders and short covering that occurs when a new high is reached. Following the big money is very important to keep an eye on as it can warn us of possible trend changes before it occurs.

The current selling volume is not exactly a healthy sign if you are looking for higher prices in the near term. If this pattern breaks down I would expect $1340 to be reached very quickly.

Keep in mind gold it in a strong up trend still. Shorting is not the best play in my opinion. I prefer to see pullback which washes the market of weak positions then jump on the long side for another bounce/rally.

SP500 Market Internal Strength - 10min, 3 days chart I watch these charts to get a feel for the overall market strength on a short term basis. The top chart shows the SPY etf breaking above a resistance trend line on Friday afternoon. This occurred on light volume meaning it is mostly likely a false breakout and Monday we could see a gap lower at the open or a pop & drop. The two other indicators are reaching an extreme level which normally tells us a pullback is due in the next 24-48 hours of trading. The question is, will us just be a bull market pause or will we get a decent pullback.

The red indicator in the top chart and the red indicator levels on the charts below that help us time the market as to when profits should be taken or to tighten our stops if we have any long positions.

The broad market is still in a very strong uptrend so moving stops up and buying on oversold dips is the way to play it.

Weekend Market Analysis Conclusion: In short, both gold and the stock market are in a bull market (uptrend). Trying to pick a top to short the market is not a good idea. Instead I am looking for an extreme oversold condition to help reduce downside risk before taking a long position.

The overall strength of the market (SP500 and Gold) I think are starting to weaken but in no way am I going to short them. We continue to buy dips until proven wrong because indicators can stay in the extreme overbought levels for a long period of time. Generally the biggest moves happen in the last 10-20% of the trend.

Learn how to buy gold and make great money doing it! Gold mining stocks is the best investment in ANY economy!

Gold Stocks: Stick with Juniors and Avoid Large Caps

In covering the gold sector for my premium subscribers, I have noticed something lately. The large-caps really suck! Ok, that is harsh but it is the truth.

The Dow Jones Precious Metals Index hasn’t gone anywhere for five years, while Gold has more than doubled. The next two (the XAU and GDX) are trading right at their 2008 peaks. Since then, I quickly calculate that Gold and Silver are higher by about 33%.

We all know that GDXJ outperformed GDX in 2010. It wasn’t close and even during this correction GDXJ is holding up better.

Yet, GDXJ is weighted heavily in some companies that are above $1 Billion in market cap. Where is the “junior” in that? I created my own index of 25 gold stocks, which are equally weighted and range mostly from $200-$700 million in market cap.

My junior index against the HUI (GDX follows the HUI) is moving higher after an 8-year breakout. This chart tells us that the juniors should outperform strongly in 2011 and likely 2012.

We’ve written about this before but it bears hearing again. Too often we hear about how gold stocks are cheap and how they are priced for $1000 Gold or $800 Gold. Just because the HUI/Gold or XAU/Gold ratio is low doesn’t mean the sector is at a bottom. The reality is that large gold stocks have consistently underperformed Gold over time. Take a look at this piece from Steve Saville and his chart which goes back to 1960.

Steve attributes the poor performance to rising costs, management errors, environmental and political factors but most importantly, depletion. Just to stay in business gold companies have to consistently find new deposits, mine those deposits and add to reserves. The larger a company is, the more difficult it is to do these things. A junior company can grow by building a few small mines. A large-cap needs to find huge deposits that can become huge mines. It is simply a more difficult business for the larger sized companies.

It is critical that investors and speculators take note of all these factors before partaking in the sector. I fear that the new entrants in the sector will think they are safe by buying Newmont or Barrick. They may be less volatile, but history argues you are better off holding Gold or Silver.

Sure the juniors have already had a fantastic run, but our chart argues that it may be even better in the next few years. As the bull market rages on, the herd will naturally become more speculative. The large players have begun to resort to takeovers and acquisitions. This will continue and further catalyze the junior sector.

Learn how to buy gold and make great money doing it! Gold mining stocks is the best investment in ANY economy!