I often find all manner of reference to Technical Analysis whilst reading threads, questioning certain elements, asking for advice on indicators and also requesting advice on a stock and whether it's a good time to buy, sell, hold or remain indifferent. I am the first to admit that my own TA is still in its infancy, but I do spend time on expanding my knowledge (hopefully in the right direction!).

Rather than having to ask a TA question on a particular thread, perhaps this thread could be used as a forum for TA queries and become a knowledge base. Just a thought, if there is little or no interest, the thread will sink without trace and that will be the end of that. I will personally add a few snippets to help those with less knowledge (if that's possible) to keep things rolling. There is a danger that the thread will receive countless requests for opinions on a variety of stocks and there is only so much I can do alone, therefore I would more than welcome input from other posters, no matter how rudimentary they believe their own knowledge to be, hopefully some real experts will take the time to contribute.

was very glad to see TAN only down a few coppers by the close ....... much more importantly, Dow is behaving sensibly for the moment without any of the recent wild gyrations

Hands up who got taken out by the 10am stop loss plummet, quite bizarre!

pas moi! ....... rarely have stop losses in place for exactly that reason ...... am glad my little Dow long is (currently) proving profitable ...... hope Dow does not rocket away by say 250 points as that will just precipitate a swing back the other way

If you don't have stop losses you must be very disciplined and have a lot of screen time. I don't think stop losses work so well in these volatile times

The problem with stop losses in this type of market is the range of trading during day and the share price being pushed around by the market makers. The more I play with stop losses the more diifficult I find them to place. I think the best is work out what loss you can tolerate on a deal and stick to the appropriate stop loss.
Markets like they are at the moment are best watched until they settle down.

horrible! have cut losses on Dow but am more concerned for the morrow

Perhaps it is best to trade big companies on SETS without stop losses , at least that rules out the marketmaker mischief. Northern Rock is getting a lot of coverage in the Telegraph as the ultimate shorting stock with its sub-prime exposure, not that we have a housing crash here, yet!!!

i thought that Dow would finish steadily up and encourage FTSE ..... tomorrow has a feel of severe gloom .... hope i'm wrong

Dow has had a tendency to rocket on the close of late, though rockets usually land in a mess

wrong! .... FTSE indicated to open down a further 75

This looks like a bloody massacre

Where did it finish? Is it anywhere near the 200 day moving average yet?

Strawbs.

so the general consensus is the market is likely to drop again . Was thinking of buying a few at the subdued prices but may wait another day.

Cynic was looking at THR(W) and RGM both down lots over past few days and i feel they may recover in the short term but could your charts shed any light[big warning signs of gloom etc] or are they useless when the market swings so much
your thoughts please if you have the time
regards
Alex

Found the answer to my question:



Looks like it's bang on the 200 day moving average (red line) .......

In theory that should provide some support. Not that theory seems to count for much in these markets.

Strawbs

problem is spx and nasdaq are below the 200ma

Hmmm. Didn't look at them. Most (if not all) the other major indices look like they're below the 200 dma too. I also notice the dollar/yen is continuing to slide, which might mean more carry trade unwinding. Question is.....are we at the start, middle or end?

Strawbs

even if the start of a bear market, rather just the middle/end-part of a major correction, the markets will not slide in a straight line ...... have taken money off the table this morning, albeit that losses were crystalised, but better that than burying one's head in the sand ...... shame i don't still have yesterday's FTSE short running! .... bet i would have done in a theoretical portfolio!!

Probably. As you say. It's easier to be dispassionate when you don't have profits being erroded. I suspect we are at the start of the bear market. I don't know how much money has been wiped off shares worldwide (let alone sub prime), but it must be huge, and it will knock confidence for a long time. That's why the start of bear markets are so volatile and violent, kill the confidence, kill the money supply, kill the uptrend. Now it's a case of waiting either for the bounce (if your a trader) or the bottom (if you're a lazy investor like me).

Strawbs.

have just bought 4 long contracts ($40 per point) Dow at 12770 ....... well not really! just in my non-existent theoretical portfolio!! ...... sure as hell not brave enough to do for real, though surely to goodness this bloodbath is overdone, even if only temporarily

I suspect there'll be a relief rally at some point. Things never go in a straight line. The bounce when it comes will be strong, but I believe will ultimately fail. You simply can't take that much money out of the markets and expect them to recover any time quickly. The money will have gone somewhere, presumably to prop up some shakey foundations elsewhere and won't be coming back anytime soon. Others will have severely burnt fingers. Those sitting on the sidelines with cash will provide the relief rally and will be burned in the slow market decline that follows.

It's also worth remembering that economies are like super tankers. They take ages to speed up and ages to slow down. These recent "fires in the engine room" won't slow momentum straight away, but over time they will come back to haunt us. The results of which may not appear for several years....ripples of events yet to come.

In my opinion.

Strawbs.