About the Book
A thorough trading guide from a professional trader
The Complete Guide to Technical Trading Tactics can help the new individual investor understand the mechanics of the markets. Filled with in-depth insights and practical advice, this book details what it takes to trade and shows readers how they can broaden their horizons by investing in the futures and options markets. The Complete Guide to Technical Trading Tactics outlines a variety of proven methodologies-pivot points, candlesticks, and other top indicators-so readers may use those that work best for them as well as make their own trading decisions without a second thought. Author John Person also shares his insights on a variety of trading technologies that will allow readers to gain a competitive edge in the market.
John L. Person (Palm Beach, FL) publishes The Bottom-Line Financial and Futures Newsletter, a weekly commodity publication that incorporates fundamental new developments as well as technical analysis using his trading system.
Table of Contents:
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
CHAPTER 1 Introduction to Futures and Options:Understanding the Mechanics 1
How the markets work, the elevator analogy, product for the times, important terminology such as margin, contract specifications, and leverage
CHAPTER 2 Fundamentals: The Market Driver 19
Supply and demand issues, economic growth and productivity effects, major economic reports and their in role in market prices
CHAPTER 3 Technical Analysis: The Art of Charts 33
Western-style bar charts and key reversals, point-and-figure charts that focus only on price, market profiling, price and time analysis
CHAPTER 4 Candle Charts: Lighting the Path 43
Enlightening charting technique and its colorfully named patterns—hammers, stars, spinning tops, dojis, hanging man, and others—powerful reversal patterns, reliable continuation patterns, key examples in the dollar and bonds
CHAPTER 5 Chart Analysis: Volume, Open Interest, Price Patterns 67
Volume and open interest rules for traders, M tops and W bottoms, trend lines, measuring patterns, the head-and-shoulders, triangles, pennants and flags, diamonds, wedges, funnels, gaps, islands, rounded bottoms, oops signals, opening range breakouts
CHAPTER 6 Pivot Point Analysis: A Powerful Weapon 93
The pivot point formula for target trading, calculating support and resistance levels, importance of multiple verification from several sources, the P3T trading technique, weekly and monthly charts and numbers, risk management techniques
CHAPTER 7 Day-Trading, Swing Trading: Acting on Analysis 113
Trading to bounce off target numbers, calling tops and bottoms, weekly chart magnets, harami cross and other candle clues to market reversals, pivot points save the day, lining up the stars, the verify-verify-verify approach
CHAPTER 8 Technical Indicators: Confirming Evidence 135
Moving averages and trends, simple rules with averages, tweaking and visualizing MACD, stochastics, false signals, Gann’s key numbers, Fibonacci ratios and projections, time counts for cycles, Elliott wave and its clues
CHAPTER 9 Market Sentiment: What Traders Are Thinking 161
Getting a market consensus from contrary opinion, Commitments of Traders reports, margin rate changes, Market Vane Bullish Consensus report, put-to-call ratios, volatility index (VIX), when the boat is tipping over, media effect
CHAPTER 10 Order Placement: Executing the Plan 171
Importance of getting an order right, online platform concerns, impact of market conditions on orders, 14 top order entry selections you need to know, orders in after-hours trading, spreading concepts
CHAPTER 11 The Mental Game: Inside the Trader 189
Conquering fear, learning discipline, improving confidence, suggestions for success, I’ll-think-about-it syndrome, the paper trader, fear and greed factors, becoming a specialist, setting up an investment diary, setting a positive mind frame, dealing with adrenaline, establishing goals, positive affirmations, stress relief techniques, rewarding success to build success
CHAPTER 12 The Tactical Trader: Tips and Techniques That Work 203
Pyramiding approaches, scale trading, stop reversals, breakouts, momentum trading, the Friday 10:30 a.m. rule, stop placement near a magnet, trading multiple contracts
CHAPTER 13 Options: A Primer 217
What options are and how to use them with futures, simple puts and calls, options premiums, the Greeks, comparison shopping, strangles and straddles, eight top option spreads, delta neutral techniques
CHAPTER 14 Closing Bell: My Top 10 List 235
What the experts suggest, top 10 trading thoughts, measuring success
Glossary 241
Bibliography 253
Index 255
About the Author :
JOHN L. PERSON is a registered Commodity Trading Advisor who publishes The Bottom Line Financial and Futures Newsletter, a weekly publication.John hosts his own financial radio show where he interviews some of the countrys top analysts and traders. These interviews are archived on his Web site www.nationalfutures.com. He is widely quoted by CBS Market Watch,Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, Bloomberg, the BBC, Futures magazine,and appears as a guest onCNBC. He teaches these techniques atsome of the countrys leading investment expos andconducts seminars from coast to coast. He was invited by the Chicago Board of Trade to contribute his daily market commentaries, which can be found at www.cbot.com/dow.
