Candlesticks - introduction - Stockcharts - links to

Table of Contents

• Introduction to Candlesticks
  • History
  • Formation
  • Long Versus Short Bodies
  • Long Versus Short Shadows
  • Doji
    • Doji and Trend
    • Long-Legged Doji
    • Dragon Fly and Gravestone Doji
  • Bulls Versus Bears
  • What Candlesticks Don't Tell You
  • Prior Trend
  • Candlestick Positioning
    • Star Position
    • Harami Position
  • Long Shadow Reversals
    • Hammer and Hanging Man
    • Inverted Hammer and Shooting Star
  • Blending Candlesticks
  • Additional Reading

Trading Strategies - StockCharts - links to

Trading Strategies

• John Murphy's Ten Laws of Technical Trading - John's famous ten (eleven actually!) rules that everyone should know about charting and technical analysis. A MUST READ ARTICLE!
• Richard Rhodes' Trading Rules - The 18 stock trading rules that Richard lives by. "The rules are simple. Adherence to the rules is difficult."
• The 'Last' Stochastic Technique - A simple trading system based on a special version of the Stochastic Oscillator.
• Arthur Hill On Goals, Style and Strategy - Arthur's take on how to approach stock market investing and trading. Another critical article that everyone should read carefully.
• Arthur Hill On Moving Average Crossovers - Arthur's take on moving average crossover systems - their pros and cons as well as their uncanny ability to "predict the past."
• Multicollinearity - How to avoid having two very similar signals on the same chart.
• Gap Trading Strategies - Various strategies for trading based on opening price gaps.
• Swing Charting - What Swing Trading is and how it can be used to profits under certain market conditions.
• The Pre-Holiday Effect - How the market has performed prior to major US holidays and how that can affect trading decisions.

Market Analysis - StockCharts - links to

Market Analysis

• Dow Theory - Describes Charles Dow's famous theory of market movements in detail.
• Elliott Wave Theory - Describes R. N. Elliott's theory of stock price movements based on waves.

Technical Indicators and Overlays - stockcharts.com - links to

Technical Indicators and Overlays

Technical Indicators are the often squiggly lines found above, below and on-top-of the price information on a technical chart. Indicators that use the same scale as prices are typically plotted on top of the price bars and are therefore referred to as "Overlays."

This section describes the various kinds of technical indicators and overlays that are available here at StockCharts.com.

• Introduction to Technical Indicators and Oscillators - An in-depth introduction to the various kind of technical indicators and oscillators out there. A "must read" article for StockCharts.com users.

Overlays

• Bollinger Bands - A chart overlay that shows the upper and lower limits of 'normal' price movements based on the Standard Deviation of prices.
• Ichimoku Clouds - A comprehensive indicator that defines support and resistance, identifies trend direction, gauges momentum and provides trading signals.
• Keltner Channels - A chart overlay that shows upper and lower limits for price movements based on the Average True Range of prices.
• Moving Averages - Chart overlays that show the 'average' value over time. Both Simple Moving Averages (SMAs) and Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs) are explained.
• Moving Average Envelopes - A chart overlay consisting of a channel formed from simple moving averages.
• Parabolic SAR - A chart overlay that shows reversal points below prices in an uptrend and above prices in a downtrend.
• Price Channels - A chart overlay that shows a channel made from the highest high and lowest low for a given period of time.
• Volume by Price - A chart overlay with a horizontal histogram showing the amount of activity at various price levels.
• Volume-weighted Average Price (VWAP) - An intraday indicator based on total dollar value of all trades for the current day divided by the total trading volume for the current day.
• ZigZag - A chart overlay that shows filtered price movements that are greater than a given percentage.

Indicators

• Accumulation Distribution Line - Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock.
• Aroon - Shows whether a stock is trending or oscillating.
• Average Directional Index (ADX) - Shows whether a stock is trending or oscillating.
• Average True Range (ATR) - Measures a stock's volatility.
• Bollinger Bands %B - Shows the relationship between price and Bollinger Bands.
• Bollinger BandWidth - Shows the distance between the upper band and the lower band. .
• Commodity Channel Index (CCI) - Shows a stock's variation from its 'typical' price.
• Chaikin Money Flow - Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock. Alternative to Accumulation/Distribution Line.
• Chaikin Oscillator - Combines price and volume to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock. Based on Accumulation/Distribution Line.
• Detrended Price Oscillator (DPO) - A price oscillator that uses a displaced moving average to identify cycles.
• Force Index - A simple price-and-volume oscillator.
• MACD - A momentum oscillator based on the difference between two EMAs.
• MACD-Histogram - A momentum oscillator that shows the difference between MACD and its signal line.
• Money Flow Index (MFI) - A volume-weighted version of RSI that shows shifts is buying and selling pressure.
• On Balance Volume (OBV) - Combines price and volume in a very simple way to show how money may be flowing into or out of a stock.
• Percentage Price Oscillator (PPO) - A percentage-based version of the MACD indicator.
• Percentage Volume Oscillator - The PPO indicator applied to volume instead of price.
• Price Relative - Technical indicator that compares the performance of two stocks to each other by dividing their price data.
• Rabbitt Q-Rank - Paul Rabbit's proprietary indicator that rates a stock based on technical and fundamental factors.
• Rate of Change (ROC) - Shows the speed at which a stock's price is changing.
• Relative Strength Index (RSI) - Shows how strongly a stock is moving in its current direction.
• Slope - Measures the rise-over-run for a linear regression.
• Standard Deviation (Volatility) - A statistical measure of a stock's volatility.
• Stochastic Oscillator - Shows how a stock's price is doing relative to past movements. Fast, Slow and Full Stochastics are explained.
• StochRSI - Combines Stochastics with the RSI indicator. Helps you see RSI changes more clearly.
• TRIX - A triple-smoothed moving average of price movements.
• Ultimate Oscillator - Combines long-term, mid-term and short-term moving averages into one number.
• William %R - Uses Stochastics to determine overbought and oversold levels.

Market Indicators

• Introduction to Market Indicators - An in-depth introduction to popular market indicators found on StockCharts.com.

• Arms Index (TRIN) - A breadth indicator derived from the AD Ratio and AD Volume Ratio.
• Advance-Decline Line - A cumulative breadth indicator derived from Net Advances.
• Advance-Decline Volume Line - A cumulative breadth indicator derived from Net Advancing Volume.
• Bullish Percent Index - A breadth indicator derived from the percentage of stocks on PnF buy signals.
• High-Low Index - A breadth indicator that shows new highs as a percentage of new highs plus new lows.
• McClellan Oscillator - A MACD type oscillator of Net Advances.
• McClellan Summation Index - A cumulative indicator based on the McClellan Oscillator.
• Net New Highs - A breadth indicator showing the difference between new highs and new lows. Percentage, cumulative and smoothed versions can be used.
• Percent Above Moving Average - A breadth oscillator that measure the percentage of stocks above a specific moving average.
• Put Call Ratio - A sentiment indicator found by dividing put volume by call volume.
• Record High Percent - A 10-day moving average of the High-Low Index, which is a breadth indicator.
• Volatility Indices - Indicators of implied volatility designed to measure fear and complacency for a range of indices and ETFs.

stockcharts.com chartschool: chart analysis links

Chart Analysis

This section describes the various kinds of financial charts that we provide here at StockCharts.com. There are articles that describe how the charts are constructed and how they can be used to make better investing decisions.

The Basics

• What Are Charts? - What charts are, how to pick timeframe's, how charts are formed, and price scaling.
• Support and Resistance - What support and resistance are, where they are established, and methods used.
• Trend Lines - What trend lines are, scale settings, validation, angles, and more.
• Gaps and Gap Analysis - A gap is an area on a price chart in which there were no trades. Gaps show that something important has happened to the fundamentals of or the mass psychology surrounding a stock.
• Introduction to Chart Patterns - A brief review of what chart patterns are, and how to recognize them.
• Chart Patterns - A collection of articles describing common chart patterns.

Candlesticks

• Introduction to Candlesticks - An overview of candlesticks, including history, formation, and key patterns.
• Candlesticks and Support - How candlestick chart patterns can mark support levels.
• Candlesticks and Resistance - How candlestick chart patterns can mark resistance levels.
• Candlestick Bullish Reversal Patterns - Detailed descriptions of bullish reversal candlestick patterns
• Candlestick Bearish Reversal Patterns - Detailed descriptions of common bearish reversal candlestick patterns.
• Candlestick Pattern Dictionary - A comprehensive list of common candlestick patterns.

Charting Styles

• Elder Impulse System - A trading system that color codes the price bars to show signals.
• EquiVolume - Price boxes that incorporate volume. How to use and interpret EquiVolume boxes.
• Point and Figure Charts - How to use and interpret Point and Figure charts.
• Kagi Charts - How to use and interpret Kagi charts.
• Renko Charts - How to use and interpret Renko charts.

Charting Tools

• Andrews' Pitchfork - Drawing, adjusting and interpreting this trend channel tool..
• Cycles - Steps to finding cycles and using the Cycle Lines Tool.
• Fibonacci Retracements - Defines Fibonacci retracements and shows how to use them to identify reversal zones.
• Fibonacci Arcs - Shows how Fibonacci Arcs can be used to find reversals.
• Fibonacci Fans - Explains what Fibonacci Fans are and how they can be used.
• Fibonacci Time Zones - Describes Fibonacci Time Zones and how they can be used.
• Quandrant Lines - Defines Quadrant Lines and shows how they can be used to find future support/resistance zones.
• Raff Regression Channel - A channel tool based on two equidistant trendlines on either side of a linear regression.
• Speed Resistance Lines - Shows how Speed Resistance Lines are used on charts.

stockcharts.com Chartschool links

ChartSchool

Welcome to StockCharts.com's ChartSchool! Here you can learn all about the analysis of stock charts (also called "Technical Analysis"). This section of our site is continually growing as we add more and more articles and information so check back often and send us your feedback so we can makeChartSchool even better.

What is Technical Analysis?

Technical Analysis is the forecasting of future financial price movements based on an examination of past price movements. Like weather forecasting, technical analysis does not result in absolute predictions about the future. Instead, technical analysis can help investors anticipate what is "likely" to happen to prices over time. Technical analysis uses a wide variety of charts that show price over time.

ChartSchool Table of Contents:

• Overview of Financial Analysis -
  Articles that help you understand what Technical Analysis is and is not, what Fundamental Analysis is, why someone should analyze securities at all, and more.

• How to Analyze Charts -
  Articles describing the various kinds of financial chart analysis including trendline analysis, support and resistance, chart pattern analysis, Point & Figure charts and Japanese Candlestick charting.

• Technical Indicators and Overlays -
  In-depth descriptions of all the technical indicators, market indicators and chart overlays used on StockCharts.com.

• Market Analysis - Articles on various schools of market analysis including Dow Theory and Elliott Wave Theory.
• Trading Strategies - Articles about how to use technical analysis to make better trading decisions.
• Glossary - Definitions of the charting terms used at StockCharts.com.
• Recommended Sites - Links to other helpful financial web sites.

How to Use Our Charting Tools

Articles about how to use the different kind of charting tools on StockCharts.com.

• SharpCharts - our standard charting tool
• ChartNotes - our tool for adding annotations to your charts
• PerfCharts - our interactive performance graph
• Point & Figure Charts - the charts with the X's and the O's
• The Scan Engine - our stock screening tool
• MarketCarpets - our visual sector performance tool

Additional Resources

Here are some other great places to learn more about using StockCharts.com and Technical Analysis:

• StockCharts Blogs - Seven free blogs full of great charting information.
• ChartWatchers Newsletter - our free web newsletter full of "How To" articles and great market commentary.
• StockCharts.com's Online Bookstore - hundreds of the best T/A books out there at great discount prices
• Site Tour - a guided tour of all we have to offer.