Quote from dv4632:
Hi Xpurt, I forgot to ask this last weekend...
What would the people who went short the FTSE when it broke down from the rising wedge have done when price broke out again last week? Stopped out or reversed to long?
chart: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3432300
Another question:
You said to redraw the rising wedge on the FTSE and that its shape suggests a false break up. Could you explain why it suggests false break up? Thanks.
Good questions Dv.
The old rule when trading the indices is to look across all the main indices for clues. Is one leading - are they running together etc.? There used to be an opportunity for arbitrage but now with computers and the global nature of the markets what happens in one index impacts others on the far side of the globe within seconds.
What changes is the amplitude of the move making them look like they are independent of each other but now you can trade one off the other.
So for someone with a bit of savvy trading the FTSE they would keep a very close eye on what is happening on the Dow and especially so at key levels.
When the Dow was falling and I was saying the 4hr was oversold and due to reverse the FTSE trader would be watching that like a hawk and taking advantage of the reversal which in turn rolled into the daily reversal as there was no sell signal.
If however they were not alert to the Dow or they are only trading EoD signals then here is the way to read this.
On the attached chart the pink base is the old wedge I posted and the sell was the break of the low of the red candle resting on the pink wedge base. The white oval shows the sell.
Remember this formation usually has a pull back and if we get an early reversal it tends to indicate a failure and the need to redraw the wedge.
If we missed the Dow 4hr warning then the next candle after the sell candle shows a big tail where the buyers tried to take the FTSE up. This is our big alert and we need to see who wins the inside bar battle (marked by arrows). Below the lows is a great continuation signal and above the high is the inside bar buy signal.
The result is a break even reversal long signal and we can redraw the wedge to accommodate the PA.
I'll deal with the false break up next.