There is a lot of good information being exchanged in SpikeTrade. Yesterday I saw an exchange of emails between Jeff P, one of our long-term Spikers, and Patricia L, a Spectator. Back in July Pat had caused a bit of a stir when she announced she had a dream of buying C (Citibank) at $10. With the stock trading near $20, she took a bit of joking about her dream. Dream analysis is certainly not a standard approach to trading. Still, when a financially savvy person has a dream, it may be his or her mind trying to tell them something that cannot be heard in the noise and din of the market.Yesterday, with C just a few cents above $10, Jeff asked Pat whether she was buying now. Her response is shown below:
Moving SpikeTrade to the web has given Kerry and me the freedom from the deadline. Before, we always had to rush because the members were waiting for the data. Now we know that the data becomes available at 3:15 pm EST on Sunday, and then we have the afternoon to add and post our comments.I have just returned home after driving Kerry to LaGuardia airport. He came to New York for a brief but highly productive visit, totally focused on the development of SpikeTrade.com We have great plans, several projects are already in the pipeline, and you can look for many new valuable features appearing on our site. We value your suggestions as well as friendly critical comments which help us find and eliminate any oversights.
Richard Weissman is the author of Mechanical Trading Systems – a very good book whose title does not begin to cover its meaning (this $95 book is available from elder.com for only $39). Richard is a very good teacher of technical analysis and trading, and he allowed us to distribute this link to his recent 1-hour class on the TA of gold and oil
I catch myself thinking of my late great friend Lou Taylor, to whom Trading for a Living was dedicated. Back in the 1950s Lou was riding a packed street car in New Orleans when a pregnant black woman walked in. Since no negroes (that was the language of the day) got up, Lou stood up and offered her his seat. When other whites pointed out to him he was in the white section, Lou simply moved the color bar (a device on a rail that ran the length of a street car, separating white and colored sections). Someone cursed him out, he answered back, punches flew, and soon was being taken off the street car in handcuffs. I know that had he been alive today (he’d be 90), he would laugh at the human comedy of it all. The country has caught up with Lou Taylor.
‘Commitments of Traders’ is a method of market analysis well known to futures traders, less so to stock traders. It is based on comparing positions of three groups of traders – hedgers, large speculators and small speculators. The person widely considered to be the most serious COT analyst is Steve Briese. After seeing his comments tonight, I asked him for a permission to quote them in full in SpikeTrdae, and he graciously agreed. Please read them below. To find out more about Briese and his work, please visit www.BullishReview.com
As co-managers of SpikeTrade.com, Kerry and I like to select our favorite picks from among those submitted by Spikers and trade them in the week that follows. Please keep in mind that we may trade these picks in a different way from the Spikers who recommended them. Please remember that we, along with Spikers and Spectators who post their picks, are not running an advisory service – we share with you our thinking processes. You are responsible for your own picks, and you must always use good money management.In addition to a Spike pick, we may use these emails to share our research into the markets and include additional charts in our comments.
The market had an inside day today (a lower high than yesterday and also a higher low than yesterday) – buut it closed up for the day. The number of new low shrank from many thousands few days ago to just about 200 – bullish. At the same time, there are fewer than 10 New Highs – bearish.
If the source of this expression is unclear to you, you are young! Back in 1990, when Bush the First prepared for a war with Iraq, Saddam promised him ‘The Mother of All Battles," and the expression stuck Our New High – New Low Index has been a strong, reliable indicator for years, but in 2008 it delivered to us ‘The Mother of All Spikes."
As co-managers of SpikeTrade.com, Kerry and I like to select our favorite picks from among those submitted by Spikers and trade them in the week that follows. Please keep in mind that we may trade these picks in a different way from the Spikers who recommended them. Please remember that we, along with Spikers and Spectators who post their picks, are not running an advisory service – we share with you our thinking processes. You are responsible for your own picks, and you must always use good money management.In addition to a Spike pick, we may use these emails to share our research into the markets and include additional charts in our comments.
As co-managers of SpikeTrade.com, Kerry and I like to select our favorite picks from among those submitted by Spikers and trade them in the week that follows. Please keep in mind that we may trade these picks in a different way from the Spikers who recommended them. Please remember that we, along with Spikers and Spectators who post their picks, are not running an advisory service – we share with you our thinking processes. You are responsible for your own picks, and you must always use good money management.In addition to a Spike pick, we may use this email to share our research into the markets with you and include additional charts in our comments.