Sunday, August 9, 2009

Candlestick Patterns Explained (Part I)

By Ahmad Hassam

Most candlestick patterns are valid based only on the market activity of the previous few days. For instance, some of the candlestick patterns indicate a change in trend. Using one of these without knowing about the previous trends wouldnt be very useful.

When you spot and identify a particular candlestick pattern you should take it as a signal that something is going to happen to the market in the near future. What you should do based on that candlestick pattern depends on the context. Usually the context in which you find the candlestick pattern tells you a great deal about them. Lets consider simple candlestick patterns first.

The Bullish White Marubozu: The longest white candle is the most bullish of the candlestick patterns. It represents the day when bulls control the market and push prices higher from the opening to the closing. With the long white candle closing near the high, chances are the bulls will be back for more buying the following day.

This means that buying has been taking place all the day. With the long white candle, the low price on the candlestick is a good support level. One common feature of the long white candle is an open near the low of the day and a close near the high of the day.

The Bullish Dragonfly Doji: A Doji is formed when the opening and the closing prices are the same. So essentially there is no stick in the candlestick. For a Doji to be created, a day must begin and end with the same price.

Doji patterns are usually associated with a market turn. Doji depicts a day where the battle between the bulls and the bears has been fairly equal. A Doji may not look very exciting to you. But dont be fooled.

The price action depicted by the Dragonfly Doji bodes very well for those hoping that prices go higher. The low of the Dragonfly Doji day is considered a near term support level. A Dragonfly Doji is unique in that three of the four candlestick patterns- the open, high and the close are all equal. You can make smart trades based on the Dragonfly Dojis.

The Bearish Long Black Candle: A long black candle means that sellers take over at the beginning of the day and push prices lower and lower until the end of the day. The long black candle is the direct counterpart of the long white candle discussed earlier. The long black candle is as bearish as it gets.

Price sensitivity is very low for these sellers and they are selling just to get out of their trades regardless of the prices. The long black candlestick pattern is a good bearish signal. You can capitalize on this fact. Seeing this type of enthusiastic selling must give you the confidence after the appearance of the long black candle that the bears will be in control for a few more days. - 23309

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How To Make Money Online With Automated Forex Trading Software

By Phil Jarvie

I have 2 great passions: working from home and trading forex. Twenty years ago it was impossible to trade forex as it was exclusively the domain of large banks and brokers. But now and for the past few years there have been many changes to the way forex markets operate and so now small home traders can live and breathe the forex trading markets making very tidy profits along the way without leaving home. Software and the Internet allow us individual traders to place buy and sell orders with our broker or brokers. Some of this software is manually operated; some of it is fully automated forex trading software.

Forex trading involves leverage. Leverage is where for every $1 you commit, you are controlling perhaps $100 or $200 etc. The leverage on your account can be chosen by you and also the broker you chose to work with. What the software does is it makes your buying and selling decisions for you - so you don't need to be the expert. Automatic and automated forex software trading systems provide you with expertise of a trader without you being an expert. Now when it comes to these forex robot and software programs you have a lot of different choices ahead of you. Just to name a few:

Of all the forex software robots, there is one that has been around the longest and has clearly far more users than any other - it is called Fap Turbo. Well, there is the original called just Fap (still available and a bit cheaper) and now there is its big brother called Fap Turbo. Both of these robots use Fap Winner for after sales service, advice and support. So think of Fap Winner as the user group on how to get the best out of their expert advisor , and to buy Fap or Fap Turbo without Fap Winner would be a silly thing to do even for experienced traders.

Forex Maestro: In the Internet there are groups of experienced traders who get together and work on programming the perfect software robot for trading forex. This is where many of the forex robots are developed - behind closed doors as experienced programmers and traders design and build the next biggest and greatest forex software tool. Forex Maestro is just such a program. There is much speculation that actually Maestro was released without the programmers consent. But the fact is that it has been successfully selling on the market now for quite a few months.

Forex Funnel: Forex Funnel say it's designed to trade the USDJPY pair on a 1 hour chart, but actually you can trade profitably on other pairs. It is best to go with what they recommend, so stick with USDJPY as there maybe some aspect of that pair they are exploiting. It is a very aggressive expert advisor, and it is only suited to larger trading accounts - not less than $5,000 because it can draw down quite a large portion of your account before swinging into large profits. Perhaps not for the new forex trader, but certainly worth a look at when you have a few months trading behind you.

The trick to making the right decision for you is to find a very good review website that will openly and honestly talk about and compare all the main forex robot products available. You must get past the hype and high pressure sales tactics of the vendors and find someone with years of experience who has bothered to explain them all to you. Good reviews are not reviews that try to sell you on an expert advisor. Good reviews are ones that only talk about the facts, honestly pointing out the pros and cons of each, and advise you as to what level of trading experience you should have to use it.

The temptation is to fall victim to the sales claims made by the forex robot vendors. Remember they are not your friend. Remember that much of what they claim is lies and fluff designed to trap you into their web. Know that they are appealing to your/human greed and laziness. Of course everyone wants fast, lazy and huge profits. But being realistic, if all their claims were true then they don't need to sell you anything - they could simply use their own forex software to compound profits into many tens of millions of dollars. Be smart about this and you will soon have a new career as a forex trader. First thing is first. You have some things to learn first. - 23309

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If You Understand the Stock Market You Can Make Money

By Mike Swanson

Stock market news can often seem confusing and chaotic for people who do not know how the stock market works. This is why most people don't really pay attention to the stock market news.

Until recently, not many people thought that it was necessarily that important to follow what was going on with markets. But it is essential that you make sure that you at least have an idea of what is going on. This knowledge could help you to make the right investment decision.

If one is already invested in a certain company or sector, then of course it does make sense for them to keep track of what is going on with those shares. It is only in this way that you will know if you have made a good investment and the knowledge will be the base for further investment decisions as well.

We are going through a recession at the moment and it is clear that the markets are highly volatile. We see that share prices, currencies and futures all change on what can seem to be an hourly basis at times. So it is a good idea now more than ever to make sure that you are well up to date with all that is going on in the markets.

By staying abreast of the situation, investors are able to ensure that their clients are making the right choices even if sometimes these choices are the safe kind! In today's economies, not many people have money to play with on the markets. They are either sticking with what they know or playing it very safe and not buying any shares at all.

So it is very important that all the stakeholders in the stock market arena are informed and that they follow stock market news. It is the only way that they are at least going to stand a chance in the tough conditions out there. - 23309

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Taking A Look At Foreclosures In California

By Pam Milne

Foreclosures are happening all over the country, and foreclosures in California are reaching some of the highest numbers nation-wide. Depending on how you're doing in the economy, this can either be good or very bad - you might be able to get a home, or you might be in danger of losing your own.

A home will first become at risk of foreclosure when it goes into default. This means that they've missed a payment on their mortgage. Obviously, almost nobody's going to leap on them right away, but it does mean financial institutions will start to keep a close eye on their future habits.

Things really become a problem if the home owner continues to miss payments. Three or four times later, a record of notice of default is written. This will be kept around for up to ten days, at which point it will be sent to the home, letting the people who live there know things are getting serious.

Still, this isn't a sign that foreclosure is unavoidable. They'll have a decent amount of time to make those payments - usually several months. Also, companies are usually open to negotiations and will even offer loans on terms with the back payments to get things back on track.

Sometimes, though, no solution can be found, and in that case things will start moving directly towards foreclosure. A notice is sent, and during a period on hold, the IRS is typically notified as well. From there, there are twenty five days before the house goes on sale - for twenty of those the owner will be able to make a last bid.

Five days before that sale is the last chance the owners have to make a bid for their residence. You should keep this in mind in case you have your eye on a home that is about to go on sale. Take a look at what's available, and look into public auctions, where these homes are available. - 23309

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Real Estate Investing And The Human Animal

By Doc Schmyz

How come anytime you walk in to a book store and find your way to the business or financial books all the views that are expressed in the titles are very similar??? In one way or another they all call out for a monetary version of bloodshed. I mean think about the titles: "How you can crush the other guy"or "it's not personal its business", "How to come out on top" etc etc. When I got into the real estate investment game I spent hours trying to find the one book that would teach me how to become that REAL ESTATE INVESTING GOD I knew I could become. After reading most of the popular books at the time I actually would feel beat up over the content. I mean did I have to be a "take no prisoners" type of investor? Did I have to prey on some one else's misfortune?? The answer was no. So I set out to build a list of my own investment rules. I think we each should have our own set of investment rules. Doc's Rules for investing:

1) Your personal guidelines: Define and follow some personal guidelines. This is the most important rule I have. These guidelines define the investments I will go after as well as the amount of investment I'm willing to part with to get it. It outlines my investment tactic as well as how I want to conduct my the business of this investment Things to include are: Top dollar amount and lowest dollar amount. Type of investment you want to deal with. Period of term for investment.. Etc etc. (Between you and me I even have a guideline about the amount of time I will work per-day)

2) Remember some ones family is behind the deal you?re working on. Simply put,whoever you are dealing with has mouths to feed. Don't forget this. Just because you can get a great deal on a house because the current owner is in a facing some sort of adversity that is causing them to sell below market value, doesn't give you license to kick them when they are down. Treat everyone with dignity and respect. If the price they are offering still falls within the personal investing guidelines you have set for yourself don't use your position to abuse the seller. If you are getting the house for .40 cents on the dollar,don't be a jerk and push for .38 cents. Always remember...it could be you in the sellers postion. (This rule DOES NOT come in to play when dealing with a bank owned property)

3) Always ask for what you want. No where does it say you can't ask for something in an investment deal you like, I.E. if you're looking at a piece of real estate with a pool,ask the seller if they would be willing to throw in new carpet to the sale. I once met a investor who was looking at a house that had been on the market for more than 6 months. When he went to talk to the seller he happen to see a 1954 Merc Coupe in the garage, so he asked if it was included in the deal. The deal eventually closed for the house AND the car. 4) Offer everyone the chance to make money as a bird dog for you. I always give several of my business cards to anyone I do business with and offer them a portion of any profit I make from any investments they help me locate. You would be amazed at how many people are willing to help you make money when they get a small part of it for doing very little work. (And if you follow rule #2 you will be amazed at how many of those bird dogs will sing your praises from the highest mountains)

These are just some ideas of things to keep in mind when you're working on your investment mindset. These rules have worked well for me over the years,and in more cases then not, have gotten me more return and repeat networking opportunities then I can count. - 23309

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