trading mindset

Seagate Technology (STX) made our Scouting Report on May 8th due to its textbook bull retracement pattern. The way that the stock played out after triggering illustrates the inherent trade-off of using a tight stop loss as a swing trader versus using options. If you bought the stock for a swing, you likely put your stop loss under the pivot low at $86.87.

10 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: The Role of a Stop Loss

May 12, 2021

If you’re going to find success when actively trading, then you better familiarize yourself with the best practices of stop losses. Consider today’s message a primer on the topic.

10 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: Insights from the Market Maker Move

May 5, 2021

Earnings season is winding down with many of the heavy hitters already having stepped up to the plate. While few scored massive gains in their share prices, even fewer suffered outsized losses. The stock market remains steady near record highs suggesting that the numbers were good enough to keep buyers’ conviction red-hot.

16 Minute Read

Women In Trading

Friday Feature – Naked or Covered

April 30, 2021

How easy is it for one to make decisions? Do you go with your first instinct, make a pro and cons list or just flip a coin? I guess that it depends on the decision at hand right? Flipping a coin on which restaurant to order take out is one thing but doing the same for let’s say buying a house without viewing it, getting an inspection and appraisal done, not so much.

9 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: Breakout Filters

April 28, 2021

If patterns never failed, then trading would be a cinch. Find a bull breakout setup, queue up your order, and watch the profits flow into your account.

Unfortunately, real life is a great deal messier. Some fakeouts masquerade as breakouts. Then, they stab you in the back.

11 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: When You Red Think Black

April 21, 2021

The last few days have brought us face to face with some red candles in all the major indexes and in effect some higher swing pivots. This comes after a pretty solid extended up move in the vast majority of these same indexes. These red candles always bring some emotions to the surface and some folks get a little nervous and maybe even a little freaked out.

8 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: Thinking of using Valuation Metrics to Time Your Investments?

April 14, 2021

Stock prices are high these days. The S&P 500 trades with a forward P/E ratio of 21.88, which is the highest reading since the dot-com peak in 2000. Some pessimists point to the rich valuation as a reason to avoid buying stocks here.

9 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: This is What Drives Stocks in the Long Run

April 7, 2021

Benjamin Graham said, “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” The longer you invest, the more you’ll discover the truth of this statement. Sentiment, or the masses’ feelings due to news, trends, politics, or the economy, is the ultimate driver of prices in the here and now. But in the long run, it turns out that all of that goes away. What’s left, and ultimately what is weighed, is earnings.

9 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: The Beauty of a Market Cap Weighted Index

March 31, 2021

Did you know that not all market indexes are created equal? There are three standard methodologies for creating an index: market-cap-weighted, price-weighted, and equal-weighted.

13 Minute Read

Women In Trading

Friday Feature – Declutter your closet

March 26, 2021

As a trader, the same organization and declutter needs to be done in your portfolio. Envision with me if you will that you have that newly redesigned closet where everything is in order except this time we’re designing your trading closet.

9 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: Institutions Don’t Buy; They Accumulate.

March 24, 2021

Yesterday we learned that institutions are elephants. High volume sessions reveal them moving about. But how do you know if they’re buying or selling?

9 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: What Game Are You Playing?

March 17, 2021

I’ve been plowing through Morgan Housel’s recent book, The Psychology of Money. It’s a veritable treasure trove of thought-provoking insights. One that spoke to me was the concept of identifying the exact game you are playing. What’s your time horizon and style of investing?

12 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: We All Need to Be Dancers

March 10, 2021

If your anything like me then dancing is not an option. Being born with two left feet made that an easy thing to recognize in my case. Now there are those that just seem to be born able to match the rhythm of the music and they are able to move with a certain fluidity that seems almost natural.

11 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: Back to the basics

March 3, 2021

We are continuing yesterday’s topic about frustrations we face in our journey as traders as it relates to education and application. Today, we will focus on education. If this is an area you are struggling with, sometimes going back to the basics can do trick.

9 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: In Praise of Stocks

February 24, 2021

I came across today’s Chart of the Day recently, and it reminded me of the wealth-building power of equities. As shown below, the global stock market’s value now tops $110 trillion. It’s the highest value in human history and speaks to just how wealthy stock owners have become.

19 Minute Read

Friday Feature – Tend to Your Minors Business

February 19, 2021

Greetings Traders, I trust that the markets have been treating you well for we’ve had quite the adventure as we start to wrap up earnings season and the GameStop frenzy. The longer I become a trader the more I realize that markets are going to what the markets are going to do and sometimes weREAD MORE

11 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: Is The Rut Back?

February 17, 2021

If you have been watching the Russell 2000 index for the last couple of months you may have noticed it acting slightly different than it has typically acted in the past.

11 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Friday Feature: Are the markets broken? Part 2

February 12, 2021

There is a tool called the Shiller P/E ratio. This gives us a visual representation of the current and historical valuations of the overall market. Below is the current shot of the Shiller P/E.

11 Minute Read

Tackle Today

Tackle Today: Simple is the Solution

February 10, 2021