Part 14 showed us how useful and effective Pivots could be, especially for intraday trading. Part 15 introduces us to a very individual concept in technical analysis. Ichimoku is a unique trading tool for analysing any asset in any timeframe. To the outside observer, at first glance it looks a complete mess. Untangle it though and you have a straightforward and very powerful all round trading system that can seriously boost your trading results. This blog presents a simple overview of this system, building up the tools of Ichimoku using the S&P 500 Stock Indices as the base example, hopefully giving you an initial starting point on your journey into a unique part of technical analysis. [Read more…]
Chart of the day: 03/05/17 Vernalis Plc (LON:VER)
LON:VER currently trading at 19.672
Vernalis Plc has stayed on THE STOP HUNTER weekly Traders Club report now since Sep’16, making it one of the longest running ‘short’ stock ideas we’ve had over the last year. In that time it has produced over 100% return and just wont drop off! It is a good example to compliment my blog series on Technical Analysis as to how you can put the fundamentals and technicals together to make a solid trading strategy.
Fundamentally the outlook for the stock remains poor. On Stockopedia it holds just a StockRank of 1 and trades in the biotechnology / medical research sector that has also been under performing.
Technically the stock looks dire. It hit the radar last Sept as it broke through the Ichimoku cloud, backed up by various indicators. Trailing the stock down using a predefined technical analysis stop loss strategy / trade management strategy has kept the trade alive to generate the substantial gains. There have been various ‘sell in’ opportunities to take advantage of the continuing downward momentum.
Technically you would not favour the long side going forward. It would take a major fundamental event to turn the outlook on LON:VER bullish once more.
Short / Medium term technical levels (based off daily chart Fibonacci & Ichimoku levels):
MSTA Exam Prep session for the Society of Technical Analysts (STA) at the LSE
Great interactive session last night teaching the Society of Technical Analysts (STA) Exam Prep session for the MSTA qualification at the London School of Economics. Covered all sorts of topics; the obvious exam hints and tips, how you write professional grade Technical Analysis reports, analysis in 3 time frames for the investor and trader, the basics: moving averages, trends, risk return, money management, Fibonacci, Ichimoku and much, much more. Good luck to all students sitting the exam in late April!
Technical Analysis (Part 1): History, theory and philosophy
Welcome to a new Technical Analysis blog series. This series will comprise 25 introductory articles covering all aspects of technical analysis, from the very basics through to some more advanced theory. Hopefully, these articles will whet your appetite for the subject and inspire you to take up technical analysis (if you haven’t already) and use it in your trading and investing. My aim is to enhance your existing knowledge and give you an insight into how technical analysis can be used as an effective trading tool, both to make and save you money and give you new roads to follow. This is a vast, often misunderstood subject, so the aim of this blog series is to make it more accessible by breaking down a few of those boundaries.
In this first article we explore the roots of technical analysis. It is vitally important for you to understand where technical analysis has come from and the thinking behind it, if you’re ever going to successfully use it in practice. [Read more…]
Ichimoku : A unique one stop trading shop
Ichimoku is a unique trading tool for analysing any asset in any timeframe. To the outside observer, at first glance it looks a complete mess. Untangle it though and you have a straightforward and very powerful all round trading system that can seriously boost your trading results. This blog presents a simple overview of this system, building up the tools of Ichimoku using the S&P 500 Stock Indices as the base example, hopefully giving the reader an initial starting point on their journey into a unique part of Technical Analysis. [Read more…]