Webinar

Getting in and out of a $1200 stock can be tricky, especially if one expects to do so risking mere pennies per share. If you are skeptical that this is possible, watch how we succeeded in Priceline -- in real time. The very subtle camouflage entry signal that got us aboard went on to produce an $800 gain in just a few minutes. Because the action occurred toward the end of the session, you can skip the first 45 minutes of this recording if you want to cut to the chase.

We had two ‘live’ trades in play when this session began, both initiated against-the-trend at midpoint pivots. The first was in GDXJ, where we caught the low of a so-far $3 rally within a penny. The second was in June Crude Oil, which bottomed 8 cents below a 101.28 midpoint pivot where I’d suggested bottom-fishing the day before. In the latter, we discovered that even hunkering down on the one-minute chart would not have gotten us safely aboard via camouflage. Bottom line: In two heavily overtraded vehicles, the E-Mini S&Ps and Crude Oil, we should abandon our search for camouflage and initiate trades the ‘old-fashioned’ way – i.e., against the trend, at Hidden Pivots that inspire a high level of confidence.

Mounting evidence that algo traders are horning in on “our” highs and lows requires aggressive countermeasures. During this lesson we looked at some more trading tactics that do NOT require camouflage. Chief among them is the timed buy-stop, which allows us to test the water nearly risklessly when we aren’t entirely confident that a trade will work. Also on display here is a way to profitably exploit ABC patterns when they look likely to stop out early birds via a second point C. The workaround is a more aggressive and pro-active approach than we have considered before.

A five-hour stretch of tedium in the shares of LinkedIn provided a perfect opportunity to hunt for profitable trades on the very lesser charts. In this instance, ‘lesser’ means down to the level of the five-second bar chart, where we were able to get long or short almost at will. LinkedIn had opened on a bullish gap, leaving us with the potentially lucrative task of getting aboard for an almost certain follow-through leg. The session will be of particular interest to traders in Europe, since there were many nearly riskless opportunities to profit from Nasdaq ‘momentum stocks’ in the middle of New York’s night.

This started out as a boring session on a boring day, but the material toward the end makes it one of the most important recordings I have ever posted. You may have noticed that patterns that have looked very tradable have been failing with greater frequency, especially in the E-Mini S&P. This is presumably because algorithmic traders have begun to catch on to the usefulness of what you and I call ‘internal’ and ‘external’ peaks (and lows). The effect has been to reduce the value of these peaks and lows for our purposes, especially camouflage trading. What can we do about it? Check out the last half of this recording for the answer. Essentially, it will entail looking for even subtler opportunities than the algos may have thought about.

When using the ‘camouflage’ technique to find low-risk entry points, the subtlest set-ups will usually work best. But how subtle is subtle? Fast-forward through the first 50 minutes of this recording and ponder the trade we found in LinkedIn, because it’s a gem of obscurity. This is a nearly perfect ABC opportunity that played out amidst the tedium of a sideways move that would have put our trading competitors to sleep. _______________________________________________________________ By Rick Ackerman on February 6, 2014 Even when the markets are brain-dead, as they were when we looked in on them on this particular morning, there will always be opportunities for the canny trader to exploit. We found some good ones here, but it required zooming down to Amazon’s 4-second bar chart in search of the ever-elusive fat pitch. Price activity at that level is always going to be frenetic and challenging, but if there’s a $400 payoff at the end of trade that takes just 90 seconds to complete, then what’s to lose from trying? If you’re keen to understand the dynamics of ‘camouflage trading’ on the tick charts, you will find this lesson well worth your time. _______________________________________________________________ By Rick Ackerman on January 30, 2014 Sometimes a trend is so strong that every entry signal produces a profit. This implies that trades initiated at ‘X’ achieve their respective midpoint pivots, at least, without having to create a second point ‘C’. For successful traders, the trick lies in knowing which days such conditions will obtain. In this lesson, we considered some instructive set-ups in LinkedIn (LNKD) where it was possible to predict, from the opening bell, that everything would be going our way.

Even when the markets are brain-dead, as they were when we looked in on them on this particular morning, there will always be opportunities for the canny trader to exploit. We found some good ones here, but it required zooming down to Amazon’s 4-second bar chart in search of the ever-elusive fat pitch. Price activity at that level is always going to be frenetic and challenging, but if there’s a $400 payoff at the end of trade that takes just 90 seconds to complete, then what’s to lose from trying? If you’re keen to understand the dynamics of ‘camouflage trading’ on the tick charts, you will find this lesson well worth your time.

Sometimes a trend is so strong that every entry signal produces a profit. This implies that trades initiated at ‘X’ achieve their respective midpoint pivots, at least, without having to create a second point ‘C’. For successful traders, the trick lies in knowing which days such conditions will obtain. In this lesson, we considered some instructive set-ups in LinkedIn (LNKD) where it was possible to predict, from the opening bell, that everything would be going our way.

Although this lesson began with a look at long-term charts for Gold and the E-Mini S&Ps, the goal was to connect up the dots to charts of lesser degree. In this way, we were able not only to sharpen our outlook for 2014, but to align short-term trading strategies with the larger trends. The session was attended mostly by students who have been attending these classes for years, and although the material covered was at expert level, it is presented in a way that will be accessible and valuable to all.