Plain-English guides to technical indicators, settings, chart behavior, and practical trading rules for trend following and breakout strategies.

Variance Ratio: Is Your Market Trending or Reverting?

You've got a chart in front of you and a decision to make before you touch a single indicator: reach for a breakout tool that assumes the move keeps running,…

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End-to-End Portfolio Policies vs a Simple Momentum Rule

You have two versions of the same trend system in front of you. One is a single line of code: take each market's own return series, smooth it with a…

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The 52-Week High Effect: Why New Highs Lead to More Gains

A stock posts a clean earnings beat, raises guidance, and the tape barely moves. It sits four percent under its 52-week high and drifts sideways for three weeks while the…

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Mean Reversion Trading: When Fading Extremes Pays Off

A stock gaps down six percent on no fresh news, tags the lower Bollinger Band, and its 14-period RSI prints 22. Two experienced traders pull up the same chart. One…

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Limit Order Book: How Market and Limit Orders Fill

Picture a 5,000-share market order hitting a thin small-cap at 10:47 in the morning. The last trade printed at 24.10, so you'd expect a fill somewhere near there. Instead the…

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Inter-Market Analysis: A Cross-Asset Confirmation Layer

A stock clears a six-week base on heavy volume and the chart looks clean. Price closed at 142.30, comfortably above the 138.50 pivot, and the relative strength line tagged a…

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Bid-Ask Spread: The Built-In Cost of Every Fill You Get

You mark a small-cap you've been watching, the last trade printed at 24.05, and you send a market order to get in. The fill comes back at 24.18. Nothing moved…

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Pyramiding a Position: Adding to Winners the Right Way

You take a breakout at 50.00 on a stock that spent six weeks coiling under resistance. The next morning it opens at 51.20 and holds. Your thesis is working, and…

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Risk of Ruin: The Sizing Math That Keeps You Alive

A trader can be right more often than wrong, collect two dollars on every winner for each dollar lost, and still drive the account to zero. It sounds impossible until…

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Turtle Trading Rules: The Complete Mechanical System

Two stocks flash a fresh high on the same morning. One is a quiet utility that moves twenty cents on a busy day. The other is a chip name that…

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