The Ultimate Guide to the S&P 500
The Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 is a benchmark index that tracks the stock performance of approximately 500 large-cap publicly traded companies that represent the pulse of the U.S. economy. It’s grouped into 11 sectors and respective individual industries...
The Ultimate Guide to Stock Scanners
The U.S. stock market has over 6,000 listed stocks moving simultaneously throughout the trading day. To find and filter trading opportunities, seasoned traders utilize the power of stock scanners to optimize their time, attention, and efforts. Taking advantage of...
The Ultimate Guide to Stock Dilution
When a publicly traded company announces a secondary offering, the underlying stock price tends to fall sharply. When a public company announces an all stock based acquisition of another company, usually the acquiring company’s share price also tends to sell-off....
5 Common Issues When Scaling Your Trading Strategy
Day traders embrace closure and tend to think in singular terms of entry and exits. One shot in and one shot out. Many investors think the same way. However, when breaking that one shot down into multiple shots, chances are you may get a better average price on the...
The Ultimate Guide to Candlestick Charts
Stock market traders utilize a wide arsenal of tools to enhance their performance. One of the most essential tools are candlestick stock charts. These enable traders to visually interpret price action to make more informed decisions on trades especially when used in...
The Ultimate Guide to Moving Averages
Technical analysis utilizes charts and indicators to analyze the price action of an underlying stock. One of the most useful and widely used technical indicators are moving averages, which utilize price history, to anticipate future price action. What Are Moving...
The Interconnectedness of Markets
While you may be familiar with U.S. stock markets, the reality is that all global financial markets are interconnected either directly or indirectly. Some of the relationships are more familiar like the inverse relationship between stocks and bonds. Some relationships...
Day Trading Rules: A Beginner’s Guide
The lure of making quick stock market profits with a few clicks of the mouse in the comfort of your own home is the appealing (and misguided) lure of day trading. Day trading can be rewarding but it requires not only abiding by rules of a trading methodology but also...
The Ultimate Guide to Short Selling
Buy low and sell higher is how profits are made trading the long side of a stock price move. This strategy is practiced by traders and investors. However, it is possible to also profit on falling stock prices by short selling the shares. This is the inverse of the...
Day Trading vs. Swing Trading
As they say in professional boxing, “styles make fights”. You have explosive punchers like Mike Tyson knocking out opponents inside a single round and methodical boxers like Floyd Mayweather that routinely go the full distance for decision wins. Trading is very...
The Ultimate Guide to Trading Simulators
New traders are highly encouraged to use trading simulators prior to trading with real cash. Even seasoned veterans recovering from a losing streak can rehabilitate themselves with simulators. The purpose of simulators is to properly “test” out your strategies and...
The Ultimate Guide to Trading Journals
Keeping a trading journal is one of the best ways to track your trades and gain valuable insights into your performance. The data can help you extract important metrics and underlying patterns that can help you optimize your results. While it may seem tedious,...
The Ultimate Guide to Level 2 and Time & Sales
For day traders, level 2 and time & sales are indispensable tools to gauge pricing to perform precision order executions. The pace and velocity of price updates coupled with tape reading can provide an edge for seasoned tactical traders seeking opportunistic...
The Ultimate Guide to Technical Indicators
Speculating on the direction and duration of stock price movements is the essence of trading. Charts help to visualize and interpret price action. They are further enhanced with the use of tools referred to as technical indicators or studies. Seasoned traders often...
The Importance of Liquidity and Volatility for Traders
Traders make their bones speculating on price action and relying on their ability to execute good fills in a timely manner. Trading requires the prudent interpretation of price history to anticipate where prices can go from here and what to do when they get there....