1 2 Relative strength (RS) is widely followed by professional investors. Their interest in RS is simple to understand – their job is to beat the market and the stocks with the highest RS are the ones beating the market. Professional investment managers cannot do their job without owning high RS stocks. Using strategies that include RS helps them meet their goal. Despite its widespread acceptance among market professionals, individual investors rarely follow RS. Again, their interest level is simple to understand – RS is difficult to find for individual investors. In the past, this indicat...

1 2 Last week, I wrote about how CNBC’s guests love to talk about divergences. This week, I want to look into another one of their favorite talking points – chart patterns. After this article I will move on from my critique of CNBC for at least a while. You’ve probably seen guests explain how a head and shoulders pattern or falling wedge is forming and state that this has predictable implications for the stock market. These patterns do exist and are widely followed, but they are generally subjective. I generally prefer objective analysis which is based on numbers and formulas that can be ...

1 2 How does it feel be wealthy?  While you may just be average or even on a lower rung of the economic ladder when compared to your neighbors, truth is, you are wealthy. In fact, the typical person in the bottom 5% of the U.S. income distribution curve is still wealthier than 68% of the world's population, per the New York Times.  Think about that for a minute! I can hear many you asking what this has to do with the topic of the article? It drives home the point that everything is relative.  This means that nearly everything in life can only be judged in relation to something else....

1 2 I have a major complaint with most trading and investing education services.  My issue extends beyond just online courses and web sites, it goes deep into the very core of how stock market investing is presented by the so-called experts. My grievance can spell the difference between profits and losses, not to mention why some are successful in the stock market while the vast majority simply break even or lose over the long term. The complaint focuses on the fact that very little education or advice revolves around the most critical aspect of investing.  In fact, without this aspect...

1 2 Technical analysis traders have many tools at their disposal to help make investing decisions.  There are common ones like Bollinger Bands, moving averages and price patterns.   In addition to these common tools there are an entire host of esoteric type technical tools like Gann Angles and the Ichimoku Cloud. This article will provide the basics about the powerful technical indicator known as the Ichimoku Cloud. I like the Cloud since it is a no nonsense indicator.  There is very little interpretation to using it. The Ichimoku Cloud, also known as Ichimoku Kinko Hyo, appears to be ...