How To Use Stock Charts

By Michael Swanson

Day traders everywhere have begun to watch the stock charts very closely as a hint to what investments to make. You can do this as well. It is fairly easy if you keep a close eye on the stock charts.

Stock charts were created to help any investor and the stock market beginners in deciding which decisions to make in their investing. They will show you easily if a stock has risen or dropped and how well the company is doing.

Investing your money is extremely important. If you do a good job with your investments, you could make a large amount of money and not have to fear for your future. Once you retire from working, you may rely on your stock decisions to live a comfortable life.

If you make poor decisions in regards to your stock purchases, you could find yourself with the need to work well past your scheduled retirement age. If you do not have the funds available to retire, you are left with no choice.

When deciding where to invest your money, take a look at the stock charts for different companies or regions. Do not limit yourself, spend some time researching all of your options before spending your hard earned money.

If a stock has shown steady increases it is a good chance that the increase will continue. This may be a good stock for you to invest in. On the other hand, if the stock has shown steady decreases, you may want to stay away from investing in that stock.

The expert day traders that spend their lives studying the stock market and making important investment decisions will be the first ones to tell you that the market is unpredictable completely. You can study the stock charts and identify a good option but you cannot be positively guaranteed that this stock will do well the next day or the next month. - 23309

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Trading Strategy - Descending Triangles Downside Breakout

By Jeff Cartridge

Descending triangles have been very popular with traders on the short side and are not so often traded when it breaks in the upward direction. A descending triangle is defined by two lines, one on the lower boundary of the price movement which is horizontal and one on the upper side which slopes down.

Descending Triangles, One Of The Best

Descending triangles are one of the most predictable patterns that are available to trade short. With 57% of the patterns breaking down descending triangles can deliver good returns when they do. The average gain is 0.92% in 9 days with about half of the breakouts (45%) being profitable. These results are good but selecting the right conditions can make trading descending triangles very attractive.

Specific Setups to Improve Profitability

When you look at the performance of a descending triangle in bearish market conditions you will see the results were stronger than they were in more bullish years. Trading descending triangles when the market is in a down trend or consolidating improves your trading results. The sector should be falling to make the most profits. Unusually the trend of the sector at the end of the pattern, prior to the breakout is less important than the sector trend at the start of the pattern.

Breakouts can occur anywhere along the length of the descending triangle pattern. Another key to picking successful short breakouts from descending triangles is to look for a turning point up from the lower boundary that fails to reach the upper boundary and then falls away.

If the volume supports the breakout the results are better. Supportive volume means the volume on the way down is higher than the volume on the way up.

Trading Descending Triangles Can Be Profitable

Incorporating these simple changes when selecting descending triangles to trade short, dramatically improves the results. With an average return per trade of 2.55% in 10 days and a hit rate of 48% descending triangles are one of the most profitable patterns to trade on the short side.

Note: Statistics for this article have been provided by Patterns Trader after analyzing over 60,000 chart patterns on the Australian market from 2000 - 2008. - 23309

About the Author:

Jeff Cartridge has been trading CFDs since 2002 and created the website LearnCFDs.com Discover Patterns of Success