Yes, but it takes a few tries before they get it right.
By any metric you care to use, I am an “old dog.” I remember when a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes sold for two-bits (I didn’t smoke them, I bought them for my Dad); when I was a pump jockey and could gas up a Packard where I worked for less than $5; when my tuition at the University of Minnesota was less than $200 a year; when that hamburger joint McDonald’s didn’t exist and if it did, you could feed a family of four for the price of one share of IBM. So if anybody qualifies as an old goat ? perhaps too old to learn new strategies — it ought to be me.
I was reminded of that today when trying to make a buck using candlestick charting. As I mentioned earlier, I’m new to candlesticks, and I’m discovering is that this line-chart/ bar-chart combo description of stock price movements is a limp-wristed tool that calls upon a critical mass of previous trading experience to work successfully.
The trouble with the “sticks” is that they don’t always point to confirmed buys. And today (Thursday) was an example. Out of 7 or 8 stocks I watch religiously (there’s an oxymoron if I ever saw one) only TVIX was designated a possible buy. But how should I play it?
TVIX, as I mentioned in my previous post, is a stock from Bizarro world where, as anyone who’s watched a few Seinfeld episodes, everything is the opposite of Earth, which the Bizarros, of course call Htrea.
When the market is up, bizarro TVIX is down. And when the market is down, TVIX soars, although the action is not lockstep-perfect in either case.
A review of Thursday’s pre-market lineup showed TVIX was cratering; the Dow was way up and TVIX looked like it was gathering into a death spiral. Still, I didn’t want to buyat these levels because one whiff of news could send this stock hurtling in either direction. Instead, I hedged my bet by placing “trade trigger” to
buy shares of TVIX at $44.25—IF the stock suddenly started to rise from its present level of $43.50. I was hoping to catch shares if they suddenly and without warning darted up. You can place the same sort of trades for IPOs and stocks reporting earnings. Very handy.
No sooner had I placed my order than that very thing happened. Troubling news casting doubt on an early Euro agreement hit the street (at exactly 8:49 a.m.) and before you could even think about entering a trade, the best buying opportunity had already vanished. Continue reading
