Plain-English guides to technical indicators, settings, chart behavior, and practical trading rules for trend following and breakout strategies.
Pull up two market data feeds on the same stock at the same second and you'll often see them disagree. One shows 1,200 shares offered at 48.75. The other shows…
Two traders run what they call the same momentum screen on Monday morning. Both rank US equities by six-month price change, both take the top twenty, and both trust the…
An index future ticks higher on a burst of buying. A beat later, the best offer on one of its larger constituents lifts by a couple of cents, and the…
A company reports earnings after the close, the print lands a little ahead of estimates, and by the time the stock reopens it's trading four percent higher. Stare at that…
Pull a single day of time and sales for any active stock and you'll get a tidy column of prints: a price, a size, a timestamp, sometimes a venue code.…
A single market order can strip the visible book in a blink. Picture the best offer showing 4,000 shares, and then a buyer lifts 12,000 in one print. The top…
The last number printed on a chart at the close is the one everybody quotes. It sets the daily candle, the mark on your brokerage statement, the figure a fund…
Watch a fast tape for a few minutes and the rhythm gives itself away. Trades, quote changes, and cancellations don't arrive like a metronome. The book goes quiet, then a…
A headline crosses the wire: a stock "jumped 4% after earnings." It reads like a clean reaction, cause and effect in one line. Then you pull up the tape and…
A stock closes up 10 percent on Monday and down 10 percent on Tuesday. Add the two moves and you get zero, so the week looks like a wash. The…