Swing Trading: Strategies for Trading a “Never-Happened-Before” Market
The Dow industrials closed higher for two days in a row on Friday. It was the first time the industrials had closed up for two consecutive sessions in more than a month.
As Larry Connors noted in his Daily Battle Plan column Friday morning, this has been a period of “never-before” market behavior. From experiencing our second Black Swan event in three years, to the fact that the Dow – as of Thursday – had four consecutive closes of more than 400 points for the first time in history.
If you don’t have a strategy in place to deal with instances when markets are behaving abnormally, then you could be selling your own potential success as a trader short. Rather than relying on instincts, gut emotions and quick reflexes, why not approach trading with the same sort of objective, data-driven detachment that keeps professionals in the game – and thriving – year after year after year?
Learn the secrets of professional trading in the Fall 2011 Semester of the Swing Trading College. Led by TradingMarkets founder and CEO Larry Connors, the Fall 2011 semester of the Swing Trading College has two main goals:
1. To teach traders how to trade stocks, ETFs and options using high probability, quantitative trading strategies.
2. To show traders how to use a variety of risk management tools and tactics to ensure that traders keep as much of their hard-won earnings as possible.
For more information about Larry Connors and the Fall 2011 Semester of the Swing Trading College, visit us at the link below.
10 Weeks To Trading Mastery: The Fall 2011 Swing Trading College
Here are 7 Stocks You Need to Know for Monday
More retail earnings to come on Monday with ^EL^, ^LOW^ and ^URBN^ all scheduled to make quarterly announcements on the first trading day of the week.
Of the three, shares of URBN were making the biggest gains ahead of Monday’s session, rallying by more than 5% to close just outside of overbought territory below the 200-day moving average. Shares of EL closed higher for a fourth day in a row, adding more than 2% on Friday, while LOW gained more than 2%, finishing up for a second day in a row.
Profit-taking in financials led stocks like ^MS^ lower by more than 7% on Friday. MS has been trading below its 200-day moving average since the spring.
Big cap industrials were among the most impressive performers in the S&P 100 as the week came to an end. Up more than 3% heading into the weekend were shares of ^GE^, while ^BA^ stock gained nearly 5%. Both stocks have been trading below their 200-day moving average since July.
Buyers continue to bid shares of ^DIS^ higher days after the stock plunged to its lowest level since February 2010. Up two days in a row, DIS gained 3% on Friday.
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David Penn is Editor in Chief of TradingMarkets.com