Thursday, 31 December 2015
Tuesday, 29 December 2015
Saturday, 26 December 2015
Sunday, 20 December 2015
Thursday, 17 December 2015
Thursday, 10 December 2015
Wednesday, 9 December 2015
How to Use Rectangle Chart Patterns to Trade Breakouts
A rectangle is a chart pattern formed when price is bounded by parallel support and resistance levels.
A rectangle exhibits a period of consolidation or indecision between buyers and sellers as they take turns throwing punches but neither has taken over.
The price will “test” the support and resistance levels several times before eventually breaking out. From there, the price could trend in the direction of the breakout, whether it is to the upside or downside.
Remember, when you spot a rectangle: THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX!
Bearish Rectangle
A bearish rectangle is formed when the price consolidates for a while during a downtrend. This happens because sellers probably need to pause and catch their breath before taking the pair any lower.
Bullish Rectangle
Here’s another example of a rectangle, this time, a bullish rectangle chart pattern. After an uptrend, the price paused to consolidate for a bit. Can you guess where the price is headed next?
Just like in the bearish rectangle pattern example, once the pair breaks, it will usually make a move that’s AT LEAST the size of its previous range.
Read more: http://www.babypips.com/school/middle-school/important-chart-patterns/rectangles.html#ixzz3tqGeDNXi
Tuesday, 8 December 2015
Sunday, 6 December 2015
How to Trade the Head and Shoulders Pattern
Head and Shoulders
A head and shoulders pattern is also a trend reversal formation.
It is formed by a peak (shoulder), followed by a higher peak (head), and then another lower peak (shoulder). A “neckline” is drawn by connecting the lowest points of the two troughs. The slope of this line can either be up or down. Typically, when the slope is down, it produces a more reliable signal.
The head is the second peak and is the highest point in the pattern. The two shoulders also form peaks but do not exceed the height of the head.
With this formation, we put an entry order below the neckline.
We can also calculate a target by measuring the high point of the head to the neckline. This distance is approximately how far the price will move after it breaks the neckline.
We know you’re thinking to yourself, “the price kept moving even after it reached the target.”
And our response is, “DON”T BE GREEDY!”
Inverse Head and Shoulders
The name speaks for itself. It is basically a head and shoulders formation, except this time it’s upside down.
A valley is formed (shoulder), followed by an even lower valley (head), and then another higher valley (shoulder). These formations occur after extended downward movements.
Our target is calculated just like the head and shoulders pattern. Measure the distance between the head and the neckline, and that is approximately the distance that the price will move after it breaks the neckline.
If your target is hit, then be happy with your profits. However, there are trade management techniques where you can lock in some of your profits and still keep your trade open in case the price continues to move your way.
Saturday, 5 December 2015
How to Trade Double Tops and Double Bottoms
Double Top
A double top is a reversal pattern that is formed after there is an extended move up. The “tops” are peaks which are formed when the price hits a certain level that can’t be broken.
After hitting this level, the price will bounce off it slightly, but then return back to test the level again. If the price bounces off of that level again, then you have a DOUBLE top!
Notice how the second top was not able to break the high of the first top. This is a strong sign that a reversal is going to occur because it is telling us that the buying pressure is just about finished.
With the double top, we would place our entry order below the neckline because we are anticipating a reversal of the uptrend.
Looking at the chart you can see that the price breaks the neckline and makes a nice move down. Remember that double tops are a trend reversal formation so you’ll want to look for these after there is a strong uptrend.
You’ll also notice that the drop is approximately the same height as the double top formation. Keep that in mind because that’ll be useful in setting profit targets.
Double Bottom
The double bottom is also a trend reversal formation, but this time we are looking to go long instead of short. These formations occur after extended downtrends when two valleys or “bottoms” have been formed.
You can see from the chart above that after the previous downtrend, the price formed two valleys because it wasn’t able to go below a certain level.
Notice how the second bottom wasn’t able to significantly break the first bottom. This is a sign that the selling pressure is about finished, and that a reversal is about to occur.
The price broke the neckline and made a nice move up.
See how the price jumped by almost the same height as that of the double bottom formation?
Remember, just like double tops, double bottoms are also trend reversal formations. You’ll want to look for these after a strong downtrend.
Friday, 4 December 2015
Thursday, 3 December 2015
How to Use Fibonacci Retracement with Trend Lines
Another good tool to combine with the Fibonacci retracement tool is trend line analysis. After all, Fibonacci retracement levels work best when the market is trending, so this makes a lot of sense!
Remember that whenever a pair is in a downtrend or uptrend, traders use Fibonacci retracement levels as a way to get in on the trend. So why not look for levels where Fib levels line up right smack with the trend?
Here’s a 1-hour chart of AUD/JPY. As you can see, price has been respecting a short term rising trend line over the past couple of days.
You think to yourself, “Hmm, that’s a sweet uptrend right there. I wanna buy AUD/JPY, even if it’s just for a short term trade. I think I’ll buy once the pair hits the trend line again.”
Before you do that though, why don’t you reach for your forex toolbox and get that Fibonacci retracement tool out? Let’s see if we can get a more exact entry price.
Here we plotted the Fibonacci retracement levels by using the Swing low at 82.61 and the Swing High at 83.84.
Notice how the 50.0% and 61.8% Fib levels are intersected by the rising trend line.
Could these levels serve as potential support levels? There’s only one way to find out!
Guess what? The 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level held, as price bounced there before heading back up. If you had set some orders at that level, you would have had a perfect entry!
A couple of hours after touching the trend line, price zoomed up like Astro Boy on Red Bull, bursting through the Swing High.
Aren’t you glad you’ve got this in your forex toolbox now?
As you can see, it does pay to make use of the Fibonacci retracement tool, even if you’re planning to enter on a retest of the trend line. The combination of both a diagonal and a horizontal support or resistance level could mean that other traders are eying those levels as well.
Take note though, as with other drawing tools, drawing trend lines can also get pretty subjective.
You don’t know exactly how other traders are drawing them, but you can count on one thing – that there’s a trend!
If you see that a trend is developing, you should be looking for ways to go long to give you a better chance of a profitable trade. You can use the Fibonacci retracement tool to help you find potential entry points.
Wednesday, 2 December 2015
Tuesday, 1 December 2015
How to Use Fibonacci Retracement to Enter a
Trade
The first thing you should know about the Fibonacci tool is that it works best when the market is trending.
The idea is to go long (or buy) on a retracement at a Fibonacci support level when the market is trending up, and to go short (or sell) on a retracement at a Fibonacci resistance level when the market is trending down.
Finding Fibonacci Retracement Levels
In order to find these Fibonacci retracement levels, you have to find the recent significant Swing Highs and Swings Lows. Then, for downtrends, click on the Swing High and drag the cursor to the most recent Swing Low.
For uptrends, do the opposite. Click on the Swing Low and drag the cursor to the most recent Swing High.
Got that? Now, let’s take a look at some examples on how to apply Fibonacci retracements levels to the currency markets.
Uptrend
This is a daily chart of AUD/USD.
Here we plotted the Fibonacci retracement levels by clicking on the Swing Low at .6955 on April 20 and dragging the cursor to the Swing High at .8264 on June 3. Tada! The software magically shows you the retracement levels.
As you can see from the chart, the Fibonacci retracement levels were .7955 (23.6%), .7764 (38.2%), .7609 (50.0%), .7454 (61.8%), and .7263 (76.4%).
Now, the expectation is that if AUD/USD retraces from the recent high, it will find support at one of those Fibonacci retracement levels because traders will be placing buy orders at these levels as price pulls back.
Now, let’s look at what happened after the Swing High occurred.
Price pulled back right through the 23.6% level and continued to shoot down over the next couple of weeks. It even tested the 38.2% level but was unable to close below it.
Later on, around July 14, the market resumed its upward move and eventually broke through the swing high. Clearly, buying at the 38.2% Fibonacci level would have been a profitable long term trade!
Downtrend
Now, let’s see how we would use the Fibonacci retracement tool during a downtrend. Below is a 4-hour chart of EUR/USD.
As you can see, we found our Swing High at 1.4195 on January 25 and our Swing Low at 1.3854 a few days later on February 1. The retracement levels are 1.3933 (23.6%), 1.3983 (38.2%), 1.4023 (50.0%), 1.4064 (61.8%) and 1.4114 (76.4%).
The expectation for a downtrend is that if price retraces from this low, it could possibly encounter resistance at one of the Fibonacci levels because traders who want to play the downtrend at better prices may be ready with sell orders there.
Let’s take a look at what happened next.
Yowza, isn’t that a thing of beauty?!
The market did try to rally, stalled below the 38.2% level for a bit before testing the 50.0% level. If you had some orders either at the 38.2% or 50.0% levels, you would’ve made some mad pips on that trade.
In these two examples, we see that price found some temporary forex support or resistance at Fibonacci retracement levels. Because of all the people who use the Fibonacci tool, those levels become self-fulfilling support and resistance levels.
One thing you should take note of is that price won’t always bounce from these levels. They should be looked at as areas of interest, or as Cyclopip likes to call them, “KILL ZONES!” We’ll teach you more about that later on.
For now, there’s something you should always remember about using the Fibonacci tool and it’s that they are not always simple to use! If they were that simple, traders would always place their orders at Fibonacci retracement levels and the markets would trend forever.
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