{"title":"Favorite Articles From 2014","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 2014:","products":[{"product_id":"stcov321exch1","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 32:9 (18–23): Exploring Charting Techniques: Creating A Trading Strategy Part 3 by Sylvain Vervoort","description":"Exploring Charting Techniques: Creating A Trading Strategy Part 3 by Sylvain Vervoort\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSit Back And Relax\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCreating our own indicators and turning them into a trading strategy is something all technical analysts strive to do. Unfortunately, a lack of programming skills can often discourage us from accomplishing this. But there are ways to get around it. Heres one way to create and backtest an indicator without writing any code.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you are a devout reader of this magazine, then I can confidently say that you likely have your own ideas for creating custom indicators and turning standard and custom indicators into a trading strategy. Ideally, these ideas would first be backtested on historical data and possibly run in full autotrading mode. Wouldnt that be magnificent?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf course, having an idea is one thing, but turning it into an executable piece of program is a different ballgame. In this article, I will create a combined indicator and a backtesting strategy, and I will do this without using a programming language.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTHE BASIC TRADING IDEA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst, please note that the purpose of this article is to provide an example of one way to create indicators and trading strategies without writing programming code. Thus, the indicators and strategies shown here are for educational purpose only.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52133909135729,"sku":"V32C09_840VERV","price":3.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_5e5b3cdd-7c5c-4647-a959-65753fc3a6fa.jpg?v=1739656547"},{"product_id":"stcov324betr","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 32:4 (44-48): A Better Trend by Perry Kaufman","description":"A Better Trend by Perry Kaufman\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eZzzzzNo, dont fall asleep! This is important.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHow can a trend be better? Heres a unique approach to viewing trends so you can gain the most from them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConsider these points:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Macrotrend systems have had the best track record of any method for more than 30 years.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e They are based on a sound premise following the reaction to economic policy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e They dont trade often (which bothers the brokerage houses).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e They work across nearly every market.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e They work across a large range of time frames (calculation periods).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e They capture the fat tail of price moves; that is, the really big moves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Therefore, they are robust. Very few trading strategies are robust.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e And, yes, they can be boring.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat I mean by robustness is:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The same rules and parameters are applied to all markets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Loose pants fit everyone but dont always look good. Fine-tuning to each market is a guarantee of failure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere are also these advantages:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Knowing the trend allows you to filter trading signals from other strategies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Knowing the trend allows you to weight trades with better expectations.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Knowing the trend helps with option strategies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The concept is transparent; that is, you know what its doing.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52133994856817,"sku":"V32C04_762KAUF","price":3.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_cf272924-e285-4d03-a522-ae17f89370f1.jpg?v=1739661192"},{"product_id":"stcov324insw","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 32:5 (40-47): Interview: Swing Trading With Sylvain Vervoort by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan","description":"Interview: Swing Trading With Sylvain Vervoort by Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSylvain Vervoorts career started with Bell Telephone, which was in those days an ITT-owned telecommunications company. As a support engineer for private communication systems in export sales, he was introducing systems and training people in many parts of the world. He later moved onto CERBERUS, a Swiss security company bought by Siemens in 1998, where he was responsible for product management. There, he was involved with computers and software since the early days of microcomputing after the invention of the transistor computer and the birth of the Intel 8008 microprocessor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHis first computer was a homemade copy of the Tandy TRS80 (which was made by Radio Shack) with the maximum allowable amount of memory for the time 48 KB of RAM. He has always been fascinated by computer hardware, computer programming, and later on, technical analysis of the stock market. His book Capturing Profit With Technical Analysis, published by Marketplace Books, received the AXIOM Business Books Awards bronze medal in 2010. His DVD Ground-Breaking Band Indicators includes an autotrading expert system. We have published a couple dozen articles by him in this magazine, including a popular seven-part series last year on indicator rules for a swing trading system. Many of his S\u0026amp;C articles over the years have received our Readers Choice Award in the favorite articles category, as voted on by S\u0026amp;C readers. You can follow his weekly technical analysis of the S\u0026amp;P 500 index and the forex pair EUR\/USD at his website, www.stocata.org.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSTOCKS \u0026amp; COMMODITIES Editor Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan interviewed Sylvain Vervoort via email in mid-March 2014 about how to profit from swings in the markets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSylvain, tell us about how you got interested in technical analysis.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe European Option Exchange (EOE) was founded in 1978 in Amsterdam as a futures and options exchange. I believe it was 1979 when an enthusiastic stock trading colleague at work talked to me about the possibility of trading options. He convinced me that this was the place to be make a lot of money with little starting capital.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWith a group of other colleagues, we gathered some 400,000 Belgian francs (some 10,000 US dollars) to start an option investment club. I was going to make the trades based on technical analysis, and everybody would become rich in no time! A few months later, the money was gone. Luckily, we continued our meetings at a nearby Chinese restaurant, so it wasnt all sad.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52134015074673,"sku":"V32C05_779INTE","price":3.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_5d34871d-3b0f-4c69-8c44-5e035870bfc0.jpg?v=1739662473"},{"product_id":"stcov328deyo","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 32:13 (8–11): Developing Your Own Trading Plan by Solomon Chuama","description":"Developing Your Own Trading Plan by Solomon Chuama\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWinning The Battle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHeres an example of how you can execute your own trading system based on current market analysis.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTheres a saying that if you fail to plan, then you have already planned to fail. What, then, is a trading plan? A trading plan is an embodiment of your trading goals, risk management rules, and your trading system. Sadly, 90% of new traders dont survive the markets because of haphazard trading. A trading plan is a well-thought-out approach to executing a trading system of your own based on the market analysis in order to limit trading mistakes or losses. Trading plans differ from one trader to another because of different styles of trading. But its not enough to develop a trading plan; you also have to be able to stick to it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn this article, I will provide examples of my goals and of my trading system, on which a trading plan can be based. The goals I set for myself are the motivating factor in my trading. Besides goal-setting, you must have some interest in the business you run. Here were my goals when I started trading:","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52134017270129,"sku":"V32C13_743CHUA","price":2.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_86015e23-d909-443d-a982-50781fe828d7.jpg?v=1739662587"},{"product_id":"stcov322swtr","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 32:11 (26–31): Swing Trading With Momentum On Your Side by Ken Calhoun","description":"Swing Trading With Momentum On Your Side by Ken Calhoun\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCandles, Cups, Gaps, And Pivots\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeeing a simple breakout may convince you to place a trade, but how do you know if a breakout is really a breakout? Heres one way you can jump into a trade and not get caught off-guard.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDeveloping a consistent approach to identifying and trading breakouts that continue in an uptrend after a trade has been placed is a common challenge faced by active traders. Traders may often enter a position based on a simple breakout above new highs, which subsequently consolidates or pulls back, causing stop losses.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTrading breakouts based on simple price action or candle-stick patterns alone runs the risk of buying near a pivot or exhaustion area. Similarly, relying too heavily on complex lagging indicators like moving average convergence\/divergence (MACD) crossovers, relative strength index (RSI), or stochastics can generate false positive entry signals and lead to overtrading weak signals.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52134090932593,"sku":"V32C11_876CALH","price":3.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_f65e4853-1b08-46f1-a157-653451b4d940.jpg?v=1739665855"},{"product_id":"stcov321exch","title":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities V. 32:7 (18-25): Exploring Charting Techniques, Part 1 by Sylvain Vervoort","description":"Exploring Charting Techniques, Part 1 by Sylvain Vervoort\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBars, Candles, or Bricks?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat type of chart should you be using? Lines, bars, candlesticks there are so many choices. In this first part of a six-part series, an overview of charting styles is presented that may help you make the right choice for analyzing the markets.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMany types of charts are available to the trader. Here, I will look at the most common ones as well as some special ones. Ill look at their specific application as well as their advantages and disadvantages. Later in this series, Ill look at different technical analysis techniques that can be applied to charts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLINE CHARTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLine charts are not as popular as they used to be. They were the basic charts used prior to the advent of the personal computer. Stock price data was written down manually, and usually only the closing prices were plotted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLine charts are created by connecting a series of single data points, usually closing prices, with a line. It is the most basic type of chart used in finance.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe line chart you see in Figure 1 is a 30-minute chart of the EUR\/USD pair for a 24-hour period. A line chart that uses closing prices does not always show clear price support \u0026amp; resistance levels, and drawing trendlines is no easy task. Since the open, high, and low prices are missing, you are not able to see the full range of price movement within the selected time period. Personally, I see no advantage to using line charts.","brand":"store-traders-com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52134194676081,"sku":"V32C07_807VERV","price":3.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/files\/unnamed_530b640d-9b2e-4e20-a0ba-850d887ecf78.jpg?v=1739671319"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0900\/3843\/6209\/collections\/favorite-articles-from-2014-21.gif?v=1739677619","url":"https:\/\/shop.traders.com\/collections\/faarfr206.oembed","provider":"Stocks \u0026 Commodities","version":"1.0","type":"link"}