{"title":"Favorite Articles from 2008","description":"Each year we survey our readers for our Readers' Choice Awards, which are published in the annual Bonus Issue. As part of the survey, we ask readers to vote for their favorite article from the past year. Here are the award winners for \"Favorite STOCKS \u0026amp; COMMODITIES Article\" from 2008:","products":[{"product_id":"stcov261fofo","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 26:1 (14-16): Forex Focus: The Alligator Indicator by Alexander Sabodin","description":"Forex Focus: The Alligator Indicator by Alexander Sabodin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHeres a trading system you can apply to trending markets\nsuch as the currencies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is a moving\naveragebased trading system that I\nhave found works best\nin trending markets,\nwith its main instrument\nthe alligator indicator.\nThe alligator was first\ndescribed by Bill Williams\nin his book New\nTrading Dimensions.\nSome software packages\ninclude the alligator\nindicator, but if its\nnot available, all you\nhave to do is take three\nsmoothed moving averages\nusing 13, eight, and\nfive periods and shift them by eight, five, and three bars into the future. The longest\nperiod line is blue (the alligators jaw), the middle one is red\n(the alligators teeth), and the shortest one is green (the\nalligators lips).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAccording to Williams, when these three moving averages\nare twisted together, it means the alligator indicator rests, and\nso we also rest. But the longer the alligator sleeps, the\nhungrier it is. So when the alligator awakes after a good, long\nrest it is very hungry to hunt for food. And its food is price.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52133918835057,"sku":"\\V26\\C01\\003SABO.PDF","price":2.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_06491d63-6dce-4329-91b0-204311ae4850.jpg?v=1739657243"},{"product_id":"stcov261fofo2","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 26:3 (12-15): Forex Focus: An MACD Trading System by Alexander Sabodin","description":"Forex Focus: An MACD Trading System by Alexander Sabodin\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis simple trading system was\napplied successfully to forex pairs\nusing the moving average\nconvergence\/divergence. See if itll\nwork for you.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToday, we see advertisements\nof different automatic trading systems at numerous websites\nand forums. If we took those ads\nseriously, all we would have to do\nis click the mouse and money\nwould pour into our pockets. Not\nonly that, such black boxes usually\ndont come cheap. Keeping all that\nin mind, lets try to create our own\ntrading system. As long as you\ndont lay claim to the holy grail, a\ntrading system can help you make\nthat trade.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE MACD TRADING SYSTEM\nTo build our own trading system,\nwe will use the following indicators:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1. Bollinger Bands: Period 20, deviations 2, shift 0,\napply to close.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2. MACD: Fast exponential moving averages (EMA) 12,\nslow EMA26, apply to close.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e3. Stochastic oscillator: %K period 5, %D period 3,\nslowing 3, price field close\/close.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52133941281137,"sku":"\\V26\\C03\\042SABO.PDF","price":2.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_111b7127-14ac-48b2-b17f-58d675051ef4.jpg?v=1739658589"},{"product_id":"stcov262qufo","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 26:5 (20-25): The Quest For Reliable Crossovers by Sylvania Vervoort","description":"The Quest For Reliable Crossovers by Sylvania Vervoort\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMoving average crossovers should be reliable and they\nneed to have minimal lag. Heres a technique to achieve it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGenerally, its a contradiction to have a smooth\nreliable moving average crossover on one side\nwhile having a fast reaction to price turning\npoints on the other. Faster normally refers to\nshorter moving averages, but that in turn will result in more choppy moves, creating more false buy and sell\nsignals. So if you want to create fast and reliable crossovers,\nthe first thing you have to look at is a way to smooth closing prices with as little lag as possible. In Figure 1 you can see\nthree different averages on the daily price bars:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe green line represents the 10-day exponential moving\naverage (EMA). The main disadvantage seems to be\nthat this average lags. It takes a couple of weeks for it\nto signal a new uptrend.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe red line represents the 10-day TEMA (triple exponential\nmoving average). You can see that this average\nresponds quickly, but theres not enough smoothing.\nIts almost as choppy as the closing prices.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe blue line is a 10-day TEMA based on the heikinashi\nclosing prices. It looks good; you can tell that it\nis fast, and the smoothing is excellent.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52133966643569,"sku":"\\V26\\C05\\083VERV.PDF","price":3.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_5cdef001-f8d2-4f82-8fb1-77bd5b58b74d.jpg?v=1739659244"},{"product_id":"stcov261mecy","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 26:3 (16-22): Measuring Cycle Periods by John F. Ehlers","description":"Measuring Cycle Periods by John F. Ehlers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMeasuring cycle periods allows you to adjust your\nindicators so they adapt to current market conditions.\nHeres how.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIF you want to make your indicators and\nstrategies adaptive to current market conditions,\nyou must first measure the cycle\nperiods that are present in the data. Given that you know the dominant cycle, you can then use\nthat information to dynamically adjust your computations.\nFor example, you can set the observation period\nof the relative strength index (RSI) to be half the\ndominant cycle. I have previously described a practical\nway to use direct Fourier transform (DFT) to\nestimate the market spectrum. But a DFT is not the only\nway to estimate the market spectrum.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eUSING BANDPASS FILTERS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this article I describe a way to use bandpass filters\nto make the spectral estimate. Bandpass filters are\nadvantageous in that the selectivity and the filter\ntransient response can be controlled. This is important\nbecause not all filters are good for trading, since filters induce lag in the output and therefore\ncause a delay in your making trading\ndecisions. In general, the more complicated\na filter, the more lag is induced. The\nsimple two-pole bandpass filter is nice\nbecause it provides no lag at the output for\na steady state input signal at the frequency\nto which the bandpass filter is tuned.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst, lets understand some basics about\nbandpass filters. The response of the filter\ncan be seen in Figure 1. This means that when equal amplitude signals at all relative frequencies\nare applied to the input of the filter, the filter\nrejects frequency components that are both higher\nand lower than the filters tuned frequency. The\nfrequency components at the output of the filter have\ntheir amplitudes shaped by the filter. The region\nwithin relative frequencies -0.5 to +0.5 is the passband\nof the bandpass filter because most of the\nenergy getting through the filter falls in this range.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52134013010289,"sku":"\\V26\\C03\\043EHLR.PDF","price":3.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_761d1d47-d13d-43db-b233-4ee4302bc8f7.jpg?v=1739662327"},{"product_id":"stcov263myko","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 26:11 (32-36): My Kondratieff Wave by Koos van der Merwe","description":"My Kondratieff Wave by Koos van der Merwe\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Boom \u0026amp; The Bust.\nRussian economist Nikolai Kondratieff believed that a collapse in the economy would be caused by companies that would not be able to repay their loans and would go bankrupt. Are we at that point?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNikolai Kondratieff was a Russian economist (18921938) who observed that capitalist economies could be analyzed by\nwave theory. Kondratieff theorized that economic forces repeated themselves in a pattern of a 54- to 55-year boom-and-bust cycle. He described a booms collapse as characterized by renunciation of debt. He believed that the collapse would be caused by companies that would not be able to repay their loans and would go bankrupt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhether it is company debt, mutual fund popularity,\ntechnology investment, or a mortgage subprime excess,\nKondratieff would have described the bursting of the\npresent stock market bubble as just another loan renunciation, which todays subprime crisis basically boils\ndown to.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor his effort, and his failure to proclaim the death of\ncapitalism, he was arrested and eventually executed by the\nStalinist regime.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE KONDRATIEFF WAVE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany writers have argued that the Kondratieff wave, or the\nK-wave as it is commonly known, is only a study of long\ncycles of debt buildup and repudiation; that it is not exclusively a cycle about price inflation and deflation periods.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52134168920433,"sku":"\\V26\\C11\\212MERW.pdf","price":2.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_6023c4c1-54cc-4984-ac61-98b6dfb72519.jpg?v=1739669919"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/collections\/favorite-articles-from-2013-21_2adb7697-da4e-4456-844a-943466fc3f6b.gif?v=1790892800","url":"https:\/\/shop.traders.com\/collections\/faarfr20.oembed","provider":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities","version":"1.0","type":"link"}