With YCHARTS you can create and track up to 40 stocks, rank stocks by various metrics, draft up comparison charts, and get broad sector data. There is also a blog setup that shares just how detailed these charts can be.

There are plenty of people out there that create “exclusive email courses” with little or no credentials to actually backup their teachings. So, I think it’s right that I share a little bit about him with you before we even start.

Adam was a former floor trader on the IMM, IOM, NYFE and LIFFE as well as a risk manager of a large, multinational corporation in Geneva, Switzerland. He also has written books on forex trading and trend following. In 1995, Adam founded INO.com and later co-founded MarketClub. He has been in the trading biz for over three decades and has seen it all. Thankfully, he has created this course as a way to give back and share trading tips and techniques that he still use in his trading today.

Get your 10 free trading lessons

In this Free Mini Email Course, Adam will show and explain the tools and strategies you need to increase your success rate in the marketplace.

1. (1) The importance of psychology in price movement
2. (2) How to spot mega trends
3. (3) Understanding of technical price objectives
4. (4) How to picture price objectives
5. (5) How to trade with moving averages
6. (6) How to use point and figure trading techniques
7. (7) How to use the RSI indicator
8. (8) How to correctly use stochastics in your trading
9. (9) How to use the ADX indicator to capture trends
10. (10) How to capitalize on natural market cycles.

Plus, you will you will learn all about fibonacci retracements, MACD, Bollinger Bands and much more.

Just fill out the form and we’ll get you started right away.

1. Keep entry, exit, and stop prices intact before starting trade.

2. Don’t try to catch trades. If stock doesn’t meet criteria, then move on.

3. Don’t buy when a stock is at the peak of its run.

4. Wait for some form of price confirmation before taking action, by using technical analysis.

5. When it seems like everybody is excited about a stock… sell.

6. Don’t fall in love with stocks. Never partake in emotional trading.

7. Take profit when you can. Scale out if needed, but don’t risk losing profit.

8. Don’t commit stock chart fraud. Pick an analysis method and stick with it.

Are there any other simplified techniques to instantly cut down on any potential market losses?

How does one know when to sell?

Obviously, depending on your individual strategy and desired profit margin, each answer will be somewhat different. That being said, there are a few guidelines to help you determine when exactly you should be looking to take your profit and run.

1. You stock hits its initial exit target. Basically the most simplest and basic answer. There are 3 targets that should be created before you buy a stock: buy, sell, and stop. Once your target is met, execute the proper action.

2. Your stock is gaining popularity. Just like real estate and any bubble, the more people that enter, the more likely the value of that entity is about to come crashing down. Once you start to feel that more and more buyers are coming than sellers, consider dropping your position. Some people use the level I or level II function of their trading platform; however, just monitoring news and social buzz should be good enough.

3. Wait till the current momentum tops out. Rarely can anybody ever call an exact bottom or top; however, we can usually get close to calling the top or bottom of a mini rally or current momentum. If you are looking to exit your stock, then try to wait until the current mini-momentum is over. This can easily be done by incrementally moving your stop price up until the actual price and stop price meet.

When it comes to selling there is no exact science or simple rule on when to do it. The best thing you can do is trust yourself, and take profit when you can.

Most of the time, a user will have more than one period of moving averages in their charts… usually 50 and 200. Obviously based on your time frame, depends on how high or low you set your moving average periods.

While we already know about using moving averages as instances of support and resistance, there are other technical indicators that multiple moving averages can give off. The best is example is when moving averages crossover each other.

There are basically 2 meanings behind this:

1. Its bullish when lower moving averages crossover higher moving averages. Example: 50 SMA crossing over 200 SMA.

2. Its bearish when higher moving averages crossover lower moving averages. Example: 200 SMA crossing over 50 SMA.

As you can see, this is pretty much common sense. Obviously, if the 50 SMA is crossing the 200 SMA, then that means the average over the last 50 days is faster than the prior 200; thus, a bullish sentiment is released.

As you can see in the chart above, once the 50 SMA crossed over the 200 SMA, the stock really took off and increased in price.

It is important to note that moving average crossovers are used to purely determine trend, and not part of determining respective price targets.

Well, I have some good news for you. There are a flurry of cheaper and viable options to make a penny or two on gold…

1. Futures and Options

You can leverage like crazy and make loads of money, but, at the same time, you can very easily lose all your money.

2. Mining Stocks

While discovering gold is harder than you might think, there are companies who do it. There are all types of gold related stocks. You could invest in companies that do the mining or companies that buy there minors.

3. Mutual Funds

While you may not be able to quickly cash out like a bandit, mutual funds are probably on of the safest say to invest in gold. Many of them allow you to invest, forget, and comeback decades later.

4. Bullion Jewelry

You know about gold jewelry. They cost different prices in various places. Just like gold bars, you can also exchange gold jewelry.

5. Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs)

Trade shares of a trust with primary assets in gold. Keeps your investment diverse, while making quicker returns than a mutual fund.

Now check out 8 Stocks And ETFs That Deal With Gold

Quick example: You buy shares of Stock X at $20. The stock goes down to $10. In order to try and limit your risk and losses, you buy the same amount of shares of Stock X at $10. Now your shares of Stock X is $15.

As you can see from the example above, you essentially bought more shares of Stock X to try and hedge your losses. While it is a common practice, many traders have various opinions on whether is a good or bad thing to do.

By obviously look at the end picture, we can come to conclusions. Yeah, if Stock X makes it way to $30, then averaging down was a great thing to do. What if it went down to $5? Because you wanted to average down, now you invested more capital into a still sinking stock. Are you going to average down again? What if Stock X goes to $3?

You can see that there are two distinct outcomes of averaging down. The positive and the negative. The debate about averaging down is when do you consider the trade a loss and get out?

When you initially bought your second round of shares at $10 you instantly added more capital into that holding. That is cash that can’t do anything. Yeah, if it goes up good, but what if it continues to go down? Will you sell, average down again, or just hold?

If you sell, now you incur the losses from both rounds of shares. If you average down again you are now taking on more risk. Think of it like a bet. You lost the first time, so you now offer double or nothing. Lost again, so now you offer triple or nothing. When will you consider enough is enough? Finally, what if you decide to hold? With your first attempt at averaging down, you put more money into the stock because you felt it would go up. When will you consider the trade a bust?

Kind of bringing this back to the debate, whether this is a good or bad idea? It really depends on your strategy? Are you investing in the company or just playing the stock game?

If you are investing in the company, then you did your research and have a good feeling of what should happen with the stock.

If you are just playing the stock game and feel the stock should go up higher sometime, then why waste time. Minimize your losses, get out, and move on to the next stock.

What do you think about averaging down?

Well you can through a method called shorting a stock. Personally, I am not a huge fan of shorting, but that should not stop me from letting you benefit from it.

How to short a stock.

Although it is an easy process, it takes a little more work then simply buying stock. First, off you have to find out if your brokerage has shares to short. Unlike going long into a stock, shorting requires you to borrow shares, sell them to another buyer, and then eventually buy them back at a later time.

Obviously because you are borrowing the stock there is more risk. What happens if the stock goes up? You are going to lose money; however, unlike your regular stock buy, shorting has no roof, so technically your losses could be infinite; whereas, buying shares you risk only the capital you put in.

So to recap:

1. Ask your brokerage for shorts (since there are so many different types, it is best to find out how within your specific brokerage). Usually it is as easy as just asking somebody (be it by online chat or phone).
2. You borrow shares of the stock you want to short and sell them to another buyer. Eventually you will have to buy them back.

Example:

You feel Stock X will go down, so you decide to short it. You sell short 100 shares of Stock X at $10. Now you are credited with $1000 to your account. The stock falls to $8 dollars and you buy back the shares at a complete value of $800. Throughout that total transaction you have made $200 on Stock X going down.

Seems easy enough, but lets look at one more example:

Lets say instead of coming down to $8, Stock X actually bounced up to $15. Now you are required to buy back the stock (otherwise you risk losing even more). So now the complete value of your short shares is $1500. Subtract that from the $1000 you borrowed, and you are required to pay back another $500.

There is a high degree of risk with shorting, especially if you have no idea what you are doing. Yes, you are able to leverage the capital you really have by borrowing, but if that stock sky rockets higher, then you are forced to come up with the money to pay back your losses.

There are traders that have made millions off shorting stocks alone, but it takes discipline and dedication to execute it.

What do you think about shorting? Have any experience with it? Think you might give it a try?

An example, would be Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index (NYBOT_CR). This index is a great indicator of inflation and deflation, and has been around for a little over 50 years. It covers about 19 markets. Some include: basic metals, aluminum, crude oil, gas, cattle, and so on, so it really gets a good grasps of what going on.

The following video covers how to examine this market and accurately use this index to profit off certain market movements.

View video – The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Index – Number One Predictor of Inflation and Deflation

Overcoming stock prejudice is is sometimes are hard thing to do, but just because somebody else is recommending something does not mean you have to follow it. To each its own, and it is up to you to see if that particular stock is right for you.

I think it is safe to say there is no shortage of stock recommendations or advice. With StockTwits, you can get something every second of the day.

That being said, anytime somebody recommends a stock or advises you to do something always run it through your own analysis. If it does not work for you, fine. You never know what the other person’s risk threshold is, how long do they plan to hold the stock, or what kind of return they are looking for.

So the next time somebody recommends a stock and you hate their methodology, don’t instantly criticize them. Run it through your own method, and if you don’t like it then move on…