Articles & Analysis

Swing Trading

Swing trading is holding a position for days to weeks to capture the part of a trend between the pullback and the next leg. You are not trying to scalp...

Swing Trading Stocks

Stocks are where most people start swing trading, and for good reason: the market is liquid, the instrument is easy to reason about, and you can trade it in...

Swing Trading Options

Options let you take a multi-day view on a stock or an index with less capital and a defined maximum loss. They also add two costs that a stock position...

Swing Trading Futures

Futures are contracts, not shares. That changes three things a swing trader has to handle: you trade on margin rather than paying in full, the contract...

Swing Trading Forex

The currency market trades around the clock on weekdays, which means there is always a session open and always a reason to be flat. It is also the market...

Swing Trading Indicators

An indicator is arithmetic applied to price and volume. It does not see the future and it does not know anything the chart does not already contain - it...

Swing Trading Risk Management

Risk management is the part of swing trading that decides whether you are still trading next year. It is also the part that gets the least attention...

Swing Trading Community

Traderade runs a Discord for traders who work on the daily chart: swing traders in stocks, options, futures and currencies who want ideas with a reason...

The Perils of Curve Fitting in Trading

Trading is a high-stakes game where discipline and objectivity are non-negotiable. Yet, one of the most insidious threats to a trader’s success is curve fitting - the act of tailoring a...

Why Rolling Trading Profits into Investments is Key

It's easy to get caught up in the thrill of making profits and growing your account balance. However, there comes a point where trading a larger and larger account becomes more of a...

Understanding Options Trading 101

Options have now become a mainstream product. Once used mainly for hedging, the introduction of options contracts on retail trading platforms has led to the rise of trading options as if...

How to Watch Multiple Streams at Once on our Discord

Did you know we have eight streams running on our Discord now whenever global markets are open? It gets better, too, as you can watch as many of them at once as you want! I recorded this...

Reducing the Temptation to Overtrade

As traders, we've all been there - staring at our charts, watching as prices fluctuate, and feeling an overwhelming urge to jump into a trade. The temptation to overtrade can be...

Getting the Most Out of Our Discord

Learn more about how our Discord server works with a walk-through that takes you through the features we offer, the channels we host and how they're organized. How to Use the Traderade...

Navigating the Markets: Week of August 26th, 2024

This week's Navigating the Markets covers the S&P 500, gold, oil, the dollar, 10-year note Treasuries and a new swing trade long idea as well as my thoughts on liquidity and flows. It was...

Understanding Share Buybacks

Buybacks are always a topic of hot debate. Once a rare occurrence, buybacks have surged to become a dominant method for companies to return capital to shareholders. In this post, we examine...

Seven Ways to Improve Your Health as a Trader

Trading is a stressful business, requiring traders to make quick decisions while handling unpredictable market conditions. However, maintaining good mental and physical health is essential...

How Iceberg Orders Work

We hear traders talking about icebergs a lot, but what do these orders do and how do they work? What are Iceberg Orders? An iceberg order is a type of trading strategy that involves...

Dealing with Wash Sale Tax Restrictions

As traders, we're always on the lookout for ways to optimize our trading strategies and minimize taxes. One often-overlooked aspect of tax planning is avoiding wash sales, which can result...

The Power of Backtesting Your Trading Strategy

Most traders can appreciate that trading strategies are constantly evolving to keep pace with shifting market conditions. One crucial step in developing a robust and effective trading...

Trading Against Your Benchmark: Measuring Performance

It's important to track our performance, particularly against the benchmark for what we're trading. Doing so is an important exercise in assessing how well we're doing, and it's a routine...

Realistic Expectations and Goals are Key to Trading Successfully

As a trader, it's essential to set realistic expectations and goals from the onset of your trading journey. Unfortunately, many traders enter the market with unrealistic expectations, often...

Exploring the relationship between liquidity and volatility

It's important to appreciate that liquidity and volatility are two interconnected concepts that have a significant impact on market behavior as traders. While many focus solely on...

The Psychology Behind Moving Averages

Moving averages (MAs) are an essential technical analysis tool in the world of trading and investing, particularly for stock market participants. They represent a widely used indicator to...

Mind Your Expectations

When you glance around social media, almost everyone seems to be chasing after quick riches or instant gratification. It is no surprise that many traders fall into a similar trap. Expecting...

The Importance of Journaling Your Trades

Trading in financial markets can be a challenging endeavor that requires discipline, focus, and a continuous pursuit of knowledge. One tool that many traders have found to be invaluable for...

Liquidity and Volatility: A Trader's Guide

Liquidity and volatility are two critical factors that traders must understand to navigate financial markets successfully. While liquidity refers to the ease with which an asset can be...

Bubbles Can Last Longer Than Anyone Expects

Stock market bubbles have puzzled economists, investors, and regulators alike. These events are characterized by a significant increase in asset prices that is fundamentally unsupported by...

The 1% Rule: How to Manage Risk in Swing Trades

The 1% rule is a key risk management strategy for swing traders, where a trader aims to limit each loss to 1% of their portfolio's value. This simple, but nevertheless often overlooked rule...

Swing Trading 101

The basics of swing trading and how to improve your odds of success.

How Market Makers Hedge SPX Options Exposure in Futures

SPX options trade about $1.2 trillion in notional daily, with about 75% of that expiring in a week or less. In comparison, US equity futures trade about $400 billion per day across the...

Spotting Red Flags in Companies

Join Ayesha for a presentation on how to spot red flags in companies. It's an illuminating look at some of the red flags that investors can spot in advance of nasty outcomes.

Risk Management is the Key to Survival as a Trader

Traders live and die by their risk management strategy. Those who do not manage their risk, do not last very long in markets. Worse yet, those who get lucky may find themselves making poor...

Measuring Volatility in Trading: Why & How

One of the most important lessons I've learned as a trader is that understanding and measuring volatility is crucial to success. My own goal as a trader is to try to ensure that no single...

How to Assess a Company's Management

When we look at companies, the quality of management is an extremely important aspect to consider. Management drives strategy and the actions that the C-suite takes can make or break a...

Trading Bollinger Band Squeeze and Breakout Setups

The Bollinger Band Squeeze and Breakout is a momentum-driven strategy that's worth studying, particularly for its ability to identify potential shifts in market volatility and trend...

The Psychology of Trading

Understanding Auction Market Theory in Trading

Auction Market Theory (AMT) is a vital concept that provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how financial markets function as continuous two-way auctions. This theory is...

Trading the Options Wheel Strategy

The Options Wheel strategy, also known as the Triple Income Strategy or the Sell-Put-Sell-Call strategy, is an approach in options trading that aims to generate consistent income while...

Technical Analysis with the Stochastic Oscillator

The Stochastic Oscillator, a powerful tool in technical analysis, was developed by George C. Lane in the late 1950s. It's designed to interpret price momentum and identify overbought or...

Understanding Donchian Channels

Donchian Channels, developed by Richard Donchian in the 1950s, are a useful technical analysis tool used in trading to identify market trends, potential breakouts, and retracements. This...

Using the MACD Indicator for Technical Analysis

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is a widely recognized technical analysis tool used in trading to identify potential trend reversals, generate buy and sell signals, and...

Understanding the Ichimoku Cloud

The Ichimoku Cloud, also known as Ichimoku Kinko Hyo, is a versatile technical analysis tool that has gained significant attention in various financial markets. This article delves into the...

Trading Options Expiration Week Isn't Awesome

Trading during options expiration and futures contract rolling weeks can be particularly challenging, especially in the indices and popular stocks among options traders. The complexity of...

Managing Risk through Stops and Position Sizing

Stop orders, commonly known as stop-loss orders, are instructions to buy or sell a security when its price reaches a specific level or threshold. They are essential in limiting potential...

Trading Options Spreads: How and Why

One of the biggest mistakes I see newer options traders make is to run strategies that are long-only. A long call or a long put, rather than a spread. That's not to say such strategies...

The Basics of Backtesting

Backtesting is a critical process in the development and evaluation of trading strategies. It involves simulating a trading strategy using historical market data to determine its potential...

The Art of Short Selling

Short selling is one of the most challenging strategies in the market because, as we all know, the path of least resistance for the market is up. There is an art to it, and most short...

Managing Risk through Intense Emotions

We've all been there before. A trade gets the best of our emotions. We make an impulsive decision, and then we come to almost instantly regret it. It's a lesson the market teaches, but as...

How to Read Bank Earnings

Earnings season usually kick off with the Banks which is always good for us because it gives us a feel for what to expect for the season...

How Trading Actually Works: Starting the Right Way

Trading is often romanticized as a quick pathway to financial freedom, yet the reality is far more sobering. Everyone ends up paying a tuition to the market, but not everyone learns the...

The Basics of Options

Options are financial derivatives that grant the holder the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a predetermined price before or on a specific expiration...

Trading with Bookmap: Coalescence as a Compass

I joined Bruce from Bookmap earlier today to discuss trading psychology, the importance of a systematic approach for consistency, and how I trade using the software and the role of options...

Blow Up Your Trading Account? Read This.

Step 1: Feel it AllThere’s a ton of emotions that result from a blown account or significant financial loss. Allow yourself to feel them…all of them. This step is more important than you...

Traderade Interviews: Anne-Marie Baiynd

Ayesha interviews Anne-Marie Baiynd about her journey into trading, including her fascinating past and the many gems of wisdom she learned along the way. Check out Anne-Marie's book here.

Making Investment Plans

We had a presentation earlier today on Discord about how to take profits. A recording of the entire presentation will be shared on the feed later for the guidance on taking profits. While...

A new wrinkle in the SPX 0DTE saga

We've recently experienced some interesting changes in the 0DTE trading dynamics within SPX that warrant attention. Short-dated options frenzies in stocksBefore we go into the details...

Understanding charm flows from the options market

Happy Tuesday, Traderade family! We've been getting a lot of questions about the options market on our Discord lately, so I wanted to write an article to address a concept that is often...

SPX Gamma Exposure: Dealer Positioning and Price Impacts

Understanding the S&P 500 Index (SPX) gamma exposure across the entire options chain is crucial for market participants to gain insight into dealer positioning and its potential impact on...

Mean Reversion Trading Strategies

Mean reversion is a trading strategy based on the assumption that asset prices tend to revert to their mean or average over time. It is used by traders and investors alike, who seek to...

"Knife Catching" vs Buying a Dip: What's the Difference?

Ever heard the phrase "Don't try to catch a falling knife"? Catching a falling knife is a metaphor used in the stock market to describe the act of buying a stock that is rapidly declining...

The VIX opening process and its impact

If you're anything like me, you watch the VIX as it can send us helpful information about other participant's views of the market. If you aren't familiar with the VIX, though, the CBOE...

How I trade using Bookmap and other market data

Hey friends, I thought that you might be interested in this presentation I give on how I trade using Bookmap, and what other data I use to shape my views intraday. If you're interested in...

Position sizing based on volatility

Position sizing is an essential aspect of portfolio management that aims to optimize the allocation of capital among various investments while simultaneously minimizing the risk associated...

What is a triple witching expiration and why does it matter?

Triple witching, also known as triple witching hour, is the simultaneous expiration of three different types of securities on the same day. These securities are stock index futures, stock...

Goodwill ain't so good

understanding goodwill and stock investing

Rolling your futures contracts

As we approach the next triple witching date, March 17th, not only is it an important options expiration. It's also when many futures contracts expire. Thus it is important to consider the...

Using the EMA(8) for momentum trading

In the world of trading, one of the most critical elements is risk management. Experienced traders understand that it is not just about making profits, but also about minimizing the...

Bollinger Band Squeeze Breakouts

Bollinger Bands are a widely used technical analysis tool that was developed by John Bollinger in the 1980s. They are plotted two standard deviations away from a moving average of a...

How I'm Using 0DTE Positioning in my ES Trading

Hey Day Traders, join me as I explain to fellow trader Jim Scalpert (https://twitter.com/JimScalpert) how I've been using 0DTE positioning to guide my decisions intraday. There's a lot of...

"Liquidity Grab": Trading Special Events

In our Traderade Discord today, I used the term "Liquidity Grab" to describe a unique market phenomenon that I look for when trading special events, such as FOMC or significant earnings...

Implied volatility: why it matters and how it works

Implied volatility is a measure of the expected volatility of an underlying asset, and it is an important metric when pricing options strategies. The calculation of implied volatility is...

The benefits of long short portfolio strategies

A long short delta neutral portfolio strategy is a risk management technique used by traders and portfolio managers to reduce the overall risk of a portfolio during volatile markets. This...

Managing risk with trailing stops

Trailing stops are a popular risk management tool used by traders to limit their potential loss. A trailing stop is a type of stop-loss order that is set at a certain percentage or dollar...

Why sure things aren't so sure

Ever get that feeling? You know the one. This trade or investment must be a "sure thing". Our heart rate increases a bit as excitement builds. We think to ourselves, "my goodness this is...

How should we buy? - Allocating capital

There are various ways to allocate capital to a portfolio and everyone seems to have their own method. There’s probably only a few ways to get this wrong. But, many ways to get this right...

Bookmap Live Event: Video Replay

If you missed today's event in the Discord featuring Bruce from Bookmap, make sure to check out the replay! The video quality isn't the greatest in spots, but the Bruce's insight into how...

Momentum trading with relative strength as a guide

Momentum trading strategies favor using the trajectory of prior price action to determine where prices may be heading next. Those same strategies can be potentially enhanced by adding...

For the Love of Fundamentals

I enjoy trading… more than I should. I’m often impatient and have an itchy trigger finger. But, this is contrary to what I’ve done my whole life. When analyzing companies, patience is a...

Educational Video: Delta by Price

Ever heard the phrase "Delta by Price" and wondered what it meant? In this video we explain the indicator and how it can be used in trading.

Don't take that trade!

All too often I see people taking trades they shouldn't. There's sometimes an impulsive desire to "be in the market" even if there is no reason to be. The adrenaline rush of participation...

Traderade at the EU

Hello Traderade family, Yesterday I had the privilege of representing Traderade at a working group at the European Union - specifically, European Economic and Social Committee. The working...

Why cybersecurity may become more utility-like

In the early days of cybersecurity, before the term was known by many, there was little awareness about how important protecting digital infrastructure was for business continuity. Then...

Why Eating Well Matters for Trading Success

Let's talk about something completely different. It may even sound a bit strange. But there's actually truth to it: eating a relatively balanced and healthy diet may impact the success of...

How Quantitative Tightening is Supposed to Work

A short primer on the calculations There’s been a lot speculation around the Fed’s plans for balance sheet reduction, or what we fondly like to call Quantitative Tightening (QT). Much of...

What to Watch in the Week Ahead

Happy Labor Day weekend, friends! The holiday-shortened week ahead has a fairly light calendar, but there are some economic events and earnings worth watching. Economic CalendarOn Tuesday...

Getting the Most out of Traderade

Hey friends! I wanted to share three ways that you can stay up-to-date with our content outside of email notifications. We've heard that some people would prefer to get notifications...

Where's the liquidity?

Happy Friday, friends! Another wild week in the markets is coming to a close, but monthly options expiration is just starting. With that said, I think it's a great time to review what's...

Short squeezes and why they matter for the market

We've seen a lot of intense short squeezes over the last week, many of which seem to be coming to a rather unceremonious end. What is a short squeeze? When there's a high concentration of...

Educational Video: TPO Chart Basics

In this video, I cover the basics of reading a TPO (Time Price Opportunity) Profile Chart, as well as how I use them in my trading. If you're a Sierra Chart user, I also quickly discuss how...

Indicator Review: SWING TRADE SIGNALS

I love trading indicators. I enjoy coding my own and learning from other coders about strategies they are working on systematizing. Over the past few years I've been spending my free time...

"Where's the Bottom?" - My Favorite Day Trading Clue

I want to spend a few moments discussing an important topic for day traders: Identifying bottoms and/or points of relief during a selloff. This topic is especially important given our...

How To Dupe Yourself Into Creating Better Trading Habits

by Aaron Rentfrew“Why the f*ck do I keep ______ when I know it’s a terrible trading habit?”I get this a lot. There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing your decision making is whacked...