Do You Have Discipline In Your Corner?

Congratulations go to the New England Patriots for winning this year's Super Bowl. It is perhaps a mixed blessing for investors, as any time a team from the American Football Conference (AFC) wins the Super Bowl, the stock market closes lower for the year. Although, I think investing on the outcome of a football game is not going to get you to where you want to be financially.

Of all the tools available to the trader, none is more important than his or her own mind! Lack of mental discipline has to be a significant cause of losses in the marketplace. Why else would traders with years of experience and reliable systems fail to be consistent winners? Show a 6-year-old child a chart and he will tell you if a market is going up or down by simple observation. Yet, 80% or 90% of all traders end up as losers. The market doesn't beat you, you beat yourself! You are your own worst enemy!

Challenges To Your Mental Discipline

Challenges of a trader's mental discipline exist in many areas of the marketplace and appear in many different forms. Virtually every trader who has spent any amount of time in the commodity business has experienced one or more of the following upsets to his mentality: Continue reading "Do You Have Discipline In Your Corner?"

Last Week's Volatility Could Be A Harbinger Of Things To Come

There's a war going on right now and I don't mean overseas, I mean right here in the markets. Last week was a perfect example as the intraday swings of the S&P500 clocked in at a staggering 6.5%. Market volatility often is a precursor of things to come, and the irony of all this action was that the market closed with a loss of -0.65% for the week.

The net weekly change for the DOW was -0.53% and there was an even smaller loss of -0.42% for the NASDAQ. All three indices formed an important Japanese candlestick pattern, a weekly doji candle. Why is this important? A doji candlestick often signals indecision in the market. When the doji forms in an uptrend or downtrend, this is normally seen as significant, as it is a signal that the buyers are losing conviction when formed in an uptrend and a signal that sellers are losing conviction if seen in a downtrend.

What To Watch For This Week

A lower weekly close would indicate to me that the buyers are beginning lose control of this aging bull market. Here is the "line in the sand" for each of the indices that I am watching. Once below this line, watch for heavy liquidation to come in across the board.

DOW: 17.262
S&P500: 1,992
NASDAQ: 4.090

Gold Is Now Officially On The Move

You might remember on January 7th, I wrote a post on gold (FOREX:XAUUSDO) and the key neckline level. The key neckline in gold was broken to the upside last Friday when gold closed out the week with a very positive 2.9% gain. I now have a confirmed upside target zone of $1,340, which equates to about $132-$134 on the ETF, GLD. To follow all of the entry and exit points for gold, check in daily with the World Cup Portfolio. Continue reading "Last Week's Volatility Could Be A Harbinger Of Things To Come"

Has The Market Made A U-Turn?

Hello traders and MarketClub members everywhere! If you look back at my very first post for December, titled "December Can Be A Dangerous Month For Traders", you'll understand why these markets are becoming so volatile. Yesterday's announcement, or lack of announcement by the Fed, was all the market needed to reverse course and rally sharply creating the best one day rally for the year for the indices. Not only was it a sharp rally with new buying, but it was a sharp rally fueled by a great deal of short covering.

The questions on every investor's mind has to be, "Is this the Santa Claus rally? Have I missed it and is the rally for real?" In order to answer that question you have to delve deep into the makeup of the market. As many of you know, the Trade Triangles have been neutral and out of the market for intermediate term traders. What that means is that you have no position in the market at the present time. As traders and investors, there are three opportunities to make money in the markets, you can be long the markets and profit when they go up, you can be short the markets and profit when they go down or you can just be out of the market. Staying out of the markets is often times a very smart choice, particularly when the markets are irrational and thinly traded.

Here's an interesting question from Kathy on the Members Blog today: Continue reading "Has The Market Made A U-Turn?"

10 Game Changing Stocks To Watch In 2015

Hello traders and MarketClub members everywhere! There is no doubt about it, 2014 has been quite a year. As the year winds down, I thought I would take a look at 10 very popular stocks from 2014 and discuss what I see happening to these stocks in the beginning of 2015.

Looking at these 10 stocks, I can quickly see that only two of them actually remain in bull market mode. Of the remaining eight, four stocks are in a neutral or trading range mode and four stocks are in bear market mode.

Regardless of what happens to the economy in 2015, these 10 stocks will move either up or down and that's what's important. If profits are what you are after, you need to be in stocks that move and have good liquidity. You cannot make good money when a stock is moving sideways.

In today's video, I will be examining technical tools that you can use to sharpen your trading skills in 2015. I think you will get a lot out of these trading tips to help your trading be more successful.

Traders! Don't miss out on MarketClub's Special Holiday Promotion! Try the tools for 30 days for only $8.95, then take advantage of a Special Holiday Rate for 90 additional days of access (Save 40%!).

Every success with MarketClub,
Adam Hewison
President, INO.com
Co-Creator, MarketClub

Russia's Achilles' Heel

No doubt by now, you've heard of the problems in Russia with its currency. You have to say to yourself, "a 17% return on my money sounds pretty good," but when the ruble sinks more than that in one day, you say, "WHOA, will I get my money back?" And that my friends is Russia’s Achilles' heel right now, as investors ponder whether they going to get their money back before capital controls are put in place.

If you didn't think commodity markets are important, think again. The correlation between the collapse of the Russian ruble (CME:6R.Z14.E) and the collapsing oil market is extraordinary and I will illustrate it for you in today's video.

Who knew that Saudi Arabia alone could, in essence, break the Russian economy almost in half, not with tanks and bombs, but with a commodity called crude Oil (NYMEX:CL.F15.E).

Saudi Arabia has continued to push production from its vast oil fields in order to lower the price of oil and make it difficult for competitors to stay in business. One of the amazing side effects to all this is the fact that Saudi Arabia has basically ripped the guts out of the Russian economy and its cash cow, crude oil. Continue reading "Russia's Achilles' Heel"