Useful Tips To Help You Trade

[Conrad Alvin Lim]

This thread is intended to give you some ideas on how to monitor the market as you trade. I will be showing you several tips using commonly used online tools starting with the most common method of intraday market watching;

BULLISH MARKET


To see more detail of the TICK and TRIN, click on the thumbnails below:
$TICK

$TRIN

BEARISH MARKET


To see more detail of the TICK and TRIN, click on the thumbnails below:
$TRIN

$TRIN


Daily Market Behavior

09:00 Market Opens
09:45 Reversal Period
10:15 True Market Color
10:45 Noise
12:30 Low Activity
13:15 Market Returns
14:30 Break Out Period
15:00 Treasury Bonds Stop Trading - Market will Trend
15:15 Day Traders close out potitions
15:30 Possible Minor Reversal
15:50 Another Possible Reversal
16:00 Market Closes

[Conrad Alvin Lim]

Do you have any idea why the market went bull so quickly in the opening half hour today? The pre-market futures were indicating a flat to lower open but as soon as the market opened, it became very bullish and buying came in hot and heavy. Do you know why?

Ever heard of Gamma? Today's open blew the Gamma through the roof and brought on a rash of Options buying at the S&P 1'425 to 1'430 March target. It often happens close to expiration. This helped to boost the overall buying sentiment in the market as sudden moves on the Gamma is often perceived as a trigger to buy.

And what is Gamma? Simply put, Gamma is the Delta's Delta. What is the Delta?

If you're trading with Options and your guru didn't teach you all this, or if you got scolded for asking, you'd better come and see me. ;D

BUT ... for every upside, there is a down side:

14 Dec 11:39 ET BRIEFING.COM
Live In Play : VIX makes new 13-year low this morning

The SPX made a new multi-year highs this morning, and in turn the VIX (CBOE Volatility Index) made a new 13-year low at 9.64. This is the lowest level seen in the VIX since December of 2003, when the 15-year low of 9.31 was set. Today's move took out the 2006 mid-Nov low of 9.81. The VIX at multi-year lows can be viewed as implying a low level of fear in the market, suggesting a sense of complacency.

[/color] The VXN (NASDAQ Volatility Index) also made new 2006 lows today. (OPTNX)[/size][/quote]
A low VIX also implies a topping out of the market. Go figure.

[Conrad Alvin Lim]

Got this wonderful tip from an on-line buddy and non-directional trader, Jack Wong. I have long admired his knowledge and skill with non directional trading and have picked up a lot of tips from him.

Thanks for sharing Jack!

Hi Conrad,

I thought this free software may be useful to most of your students. It's Hubb Investor - a very basic charting software with free charting tools on Australia, Singapore, HK, US, UK stocks.

It is a stand-alone program to be installed in your computer but it will pull the data from Hubb's server in Sydney. What you need to do is to register for yourself free at

www.hubbinvestor.com/

and you can download the software for free.

Although you guys are doing most of the intra-day stuff, having a end-of-day free charting software could be useful too.

Regards
Jack