Only price pays. In trading, emotions and egos are expensive collaborators. Our goal as traders is to capture price moves inside our time frame, while limiting our drawdowns in capital.
The longer I have traded, the more I have become an advocate of price action. Moving away from the perils of opinions and predictions has improved my mental well-being, and my bottom line. It also makes it easier to create and adapt to trading rules.
“We learned just to go with the chart. Why work when Mr. Market can do it for you?” – Paul Tudor Jones
In developing a trading system of your own, you must begin with the big picture. First, look at the price action and then work your way down into your own time frame. You need to create a systematic and specific approach to entering and exiting trades, executing your signals with the right trailing stops, setting realistic price targets and position sizing, and limiting your risk exposure. Relying on fact, rather than being tossed around by your own subjective feelings, will insure your long term profitability.
Here are 10 great technical trading rules that will help you build a systematic approach to trading:
1. Start with the weekly price chart to establish the long term trend, and then work down through the daily and hourly charts to trade in the direction of that trend. The odds are better if you are trading in the direction of the long term trend.
2. In Bull Markets, the best strategy is to buy the dips. In Bear Markets, the best strategy is to sell short into each rally. Always go with the path of least resistance.
3. Support and resistance levels can hold for long periods of time; the first few breakout attempts usually fail.
4. The more times a support or resistance level is tested, the greater the odds that it will be broken. Old resistance can become the new support, and the old support may become the new resistance.
5. Trend lines are the easiest way to measure trends by connecting higher highs or lower lows, and they must always go from left to right.
6. Chart patterns are visible representations of the price ranges that buyers and sellers are creating. Chart Patterns are connected trend lines that signal a possible breakout buy point if one line is broken.
7. Moving averages quantify trends and create signals for entries, exits, and trailing stops.
8. Moving averages are great tools for a trader to use, but they are best used along with an overbought/oversold oscillator like the RSI. This maximizes exit profitability on extensions from a moving average.
9. 52 week highs are bullish, and 52 week lows are bearish. All-time highs are more bullish, and all-time lows are more bearish. Bull Markets have no long term resistance, and Bear Markets have no long term support.
10. Above the 200 day is where bulls create uptrends. Bad things happen below the 200 day; down trends, distribution, bear markets, crashes, and bankruptcies.
These trading rules and strategies have helped me immensely over the years. Thanks for reading.
Follow Steve on Twitter: @SJosephBurns
Any opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of any other person or entity.
