The trend is your friend is one of the few true market adages. Critics will argue that a trend is your friend until it ends. And, admittedly, this is true. Trends do not last forever. Eventually they exhaust themselves but quite often, a new trend in the opposite direction emerges. However, established trends can often last much longer and go much further than most anticipate. Trying to buy a stock (or other market) because it is low or sell short a stock because it is high is a loser's game. The good news is that the stock will leave clues that a trend is turning and will usually have a minor correction before resuming its new trend. Looking to enter after that minor correction and only if the new trend shows signs of resuming is the goal of my transitional patterns and is illustrated below.
When you catch a new trend early, the payoff can be huge. Unfortunately, since you are fighting what could turn out to be only be a correction in a longer-term trend, you have to realize that there will be a higher failure rate than trading pullbacks in established trends. Like the pioneers, when trading transitions you are either going to get the gold or the arrows.
Let's look at two of my favorite transitional patterns, First Thrusts and Bowties.
First Thrusts
Markets in major trend transitions often begin with a bang. They make a sharp thrust in the new direction. This tends to catch participants off guard. Trapped on the wrong side of the market, they find themselves waiting for the market to reverse so they can get off the hook. Bottom pickers and top pickers who missed the top or bottom and do not want to pay up are also waiting for some sort of meaningful correction. Unfortunately for these traders, the meaningful correction may never come. Often, markets making a sharp thrust in a new  Read More..
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