Fundamentals help bring conviction to trade, but they will rarely show you the correct times to buy and sell the stock. Understanding supply and demand are what allows you to time the markets. Timing is the only thing that matters in trading and investing.

And that is why we as momentum traders need to understand technical analysis, and why we need stock charts. I personally use and recommend paid charting software for serious traders, but I know there is a lot of aspiring traders out there who are unable/unwilling to spend the money. For this reason, I will give you my 2 favorite free charting software options (with live quotes):

1. Tradingview

Tradingview is an amazing resource. It not only gives you free live quotes to the stock market, but also to many other markets. They have live Forex, crypto, futures, and bond quotes as well. You can get access to their charting software and live quotes with a free account, unlike with most charting software.

They have a nice selection of indicators, and you can customize your layout to your liking. Tradingview also has a strong community of people who share their trade ideas on all the different markets, which you get access to with a free account as well.

This is a screenshot of what it looks like:

There is a limit to the number of indicators and features you can use (you can only put two indicators on the charts in the free version), and you also do not get access to pre and post-market data. With their paid version, you will get access to all the indicators and get pre & post-market data. The paid version also doesn’t have ads. If you are interested in the free or paid version, you can check out Tradingview here.      

2. Thinkorswim

Thinkorswim is a platform owned by TD Ameritrade. TD Ameritrade allow you to open an account without depositing money, and as a result give you access to the TOS trading platform. So essentially you can access their trading platform for free. You will get access to their scanning, all of their indicators, and get live quotes.

Their layout is not to my liking, but you can get most of the essentials you need for successful trading from them. They also have a decent news terminal on all the stocks you pull up. Here’s a screenshot of TOS:

They have a cool feature called  “OnDemand” (see top right) where you can go back to any given day in the market and rewatch charts play out. A great tool for reviewing past plays and seeing how they played out. They also have a simulator that is decent for refining your skills when you are new.

Win a 1v1 Session With Kunal Desai

Click Here to enter the mentorship contest

The post Best Free Charting Software for 2020 appeared first on Bulls on Wall Street.

Here are 5 of the most unique stock charts, and some stand out market movers from the past 12 months (I didn’t include any penny stocks!!). Study them closely, because these patterns WILL repeat themselves:

$TLRY: Tilray Parabolic Summer 2018

Tilray is an IPO from last summer that ran from about $20 to $300 per share in about a month and a half. Every pothead and their mom owned this stock last summer. This was during the period right after Marijuana distribution usage was legalized in Canada, and many Cannabis-related companies like Tilray had some monster run ups.

But TLRY was the biggest of them all. It went from about $20 a share to a high of $300 in just two months. And then it gave it all back! Now it’s trading under$50 per share, and its bag holders galore.

$BYND: Beyond Meat IPO Run Up 2019

Beyond Meat is essentially a company that makes “supposedly” plant-based meat. It IPOed earlier this year and was a very similar play to Tilray. It just slowly grinded up ever since it’s IPO. Funny thing is that it’s still hanging around today at about $150 a share, still up more than 200% from it’s IPO price!

$ROKU: Post-Earnings Run Up Summer 2019

ROKU had earnings a few weeks ago, has been on an insane run the past several weeks. The day before it’s last earnings report it closed at about $100 a share. About a month later, it hit a high of about $180 a share! Overbought can more overbought, and oversold can get oversold.

$SHOP: Shopify 2019 Monster Uptrend

Shopify has been a MONSTER this year. Started the year at about $130 a share, and last week it almost hit $400. Funny ROKU and SHOP have been public Citron Research short calls! Goes to show you what happens when the consensus takes a position, and then things start to go south!

$SPY: Insane Recovery From 2018 Crash

SPY hit a low of around $230 in December 2018. In just 5 months, it came all the way back to make a new all-time high. Funny how this year was predicted in January to be the worst year in the stock market in the past decade. And it actually ended up being one of the strongest years ever!

Biggest Lessons

-Do the opposite of consensus, mainstream predictions

– Timing when short selling is EVERYTHING

-Markets can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent

– Stocks take the stairs up, and the elevator down.

-Sell into strength, before the crowd panics

Live Trading Bootcamp Starts Soon!

Our live trading bootcamp is designed to teach traders how to overcome their weaknesses and mistakes, and become successful, independent traders. Our next live bootcamp starts on December 2nd, and spots are filling up fast!

Click here to learn more about our new Comprehensive Trading Bootcamp

The post 5 INSANE Stock Charts From the Past 12 Months appeared first on Bulls on Wall Street.

Over my 10 years of trading stocks and trying out dozens of different charting software, I’ve found TC2000 to be the best out there. TC2000 offers complete functionality and offers the following features – all in one easy-to-learn platform for an affordable price. Here is a brief overview of the features:

• Customizable Charting Platform With 100’s of Indicators
• High-Quality Stock Scanners 
• Stock Alerts
• iPhone & Android App
• Interactive Watch-List Integration
• Stock Trading Simulator
• Get Our Exact Charting Layouts, Indicators, and Scans 

And we have a special offer for you to get 90% off your first month with TC 2000. Using the link HERE you will get your first month for just $4.99, instead of the normal price of $44.99 (you’ll see the discount once you go to the check out page). 

Here’s a screenshot of what the platform looks like, with our layouts and indicators:

Real-Time Charting Software

With TC2000, you have endless customization options with your charting software. From having custom coded indicators, to changing the visual layout and appearance of your chart, TC2000 does it all and more to make your platform have the cleanest look for your technical analysis with trading.

Stock Scanning

Never miss a beat with TC’s streaming scans custom-tailored to your protocols for the type of stocks you want to come up on your radar. Filter by categories like price, net change, industry, latest float, or percentage gain. Condense your research and filter thousands of stocks with the click of a button.

Full Feature Trading Simulator

Wanting to improve your trading without putting your money on the line quite yet? TC’s simulator is fully functioning and allows you to use their interactive sim platform right on your charts. So you can see, analyze, and act all in one window. Remove the noise and multiple running programs and streamline your sim trading all on one chart. Plus, export your trades to your favorite trading grader (we recommend Tradervue) and backtest your results to find weaknesses and common variables to cut from your trading that’s hurting your profitability.

Get 90% Off Your First Month

Get 90% off your first month or year with TC 2000. You will get your first month for just $4.99, instead of the normal price of $44.99. You’ll see the discount once you go to the check out page, and the coupon will be emailed to you

Click here to get 90% off TC 2000

The post Best Charting Software For Traders: Get 90% Off TC2000 appeared first on Bulls on Wall Street.

What is a Candlestick Chart?

Breaking Down A Candlestick

Understanding Wicks

Free Trading Assessment

Get your free trading assessment here.

The post The Importance of Candlestick Charting For Profitable Trading appeared first on Bulls on Wall Street.

You don’t need to go crazy with expenses, and don’t need to be spending more than $400 per month on software. But it is a necessary investment if you want to increase the odds of you becoming a successful and self-sufficient trader. Trading for a living is the same as running a business. And as a business owner, you cannot be afraid to invest in tools that are conducive to your business’s success.

I’ve found investing in charting software has made my life a lot easier. For some traders (myself included), the charting layout is very important to their trading. You can get by with some free charting software,  but they don’t suit most full-time active traders. Today we will talk about the best charting platforms to use for 2019.

TC2000

Worden’s TC2000 program is my go to charting platform of choice. I’ve been using it for the majority of my trading career. It’s visually uncluttered and has a host of options for customization. One of its best features is its ability to have multiple layouts. I have layouts for my day trading setup, swing trades, and market indices. The ability to make watchlists and scans is very easy and you can use the spacebar to flip through charts. Here’s a screenshot of what the platform looks like:

You can go through 1000 charts in 20-30 minutes on their platform, as you can just use the spacebar to quickly navigate through charts. This is crucial to train your eyes to recognize patterns quickly, and shorten your trading learning curve. I’m not a huge believer in spending money on a lot of trading tools. But I do believe every trader should have 1 good charting platform where they can quickly look at charts and find stocks. You can get TC2000 gold and live data for $45, which is everything you need for active trading.

If you are interested in trying out TC2000, check out the platform here.

Esignal

Esignal is one of the oldest charting software on the market. They are one of the first companies to offer tools to retail traders, back when it was uncommon for retail traders to have access to trading tools. Today they are one of the leading charting platforms for retail traders. The platform has incredible chart layouts, great scanning and trading tools, trading capabilities with brokers, and every indicator you can think of. Here’s a screenshot of their platform:

They also have 24/7 support available for their platform Monday-Friday. The only real downside to Esignal is there pricing. You can get the classic plan for $47 a month, but this only has 15-minute delayed intra-day quotes. The plan you need for active intraday and swing traders is their signature plan, and it costs $152 a month. It is an all inclusive plan, with level 2 and time and sales, real-time quotes for stocks, futures, options, and forex, and trading scanners.

Free Chat Day: Join Me For A Full Day Of Trading. Watch Me Find Plays And Manage My Trades. You can even trade along side me. Click here to claim your seat. FREE To Attend!

Holiday Contest 12 Days 12 Prizes

[rf_contest contest=’12888′]

The post My 2 Favorite Charting Platforms For 2019 appeared first on Bulls on Wall Street.

Understanding and seeing supply and demand is what allows you to time the markets. And that is why we as momentum traders need to understand technical analysis, and why we need stock charts. I personally use and recommend paid charting software for serious traders, but I know there is a lot of aspiring traders out there who are unable/unwilling to spend the money. For this reason, I will give you my 3 favorite free charting software options (with live quotes):

1. Tradingview

Tradingview is an amazing resource. It not only gives you free live quotes to the stock market, but also to many other markets. They have live Forex, crypto, futures, and bond quotes as well. You can get access to their charting software and live quotes with a free account, unlike with most charting software. They have a nice selection of indicators, and you can customize your layout to your liking. Tradingview also has a strong community of people who share their trade ideas on all the different markets, which you get access to with a free account as well.

This is a screenshot of what it looks like:

There is a limit to the amount of indicators and features you can use (you can only put two indicators on the charts in the free version), and you also do not get access to pre and post market data. With their paid version, you will get access to all the indicators and get pre & post market data. The paid version also doesn’t have ads. If you are interested in the free or paid version, you can check out Tradingview here.      

2. Thinkorswim

Thinkorswim is a platform owned by TD Ameritrade. TD Ameritrade allow you to open an account without depositing money, and as a result give you access to the TOS trading platform. So essentially you can access their trading platform for free. You will get access to their scanning, all of their indicators, and get live quotes. Their layout is not to my liking, but you can get most of the essentials you need for successful trading from them. They also have a decent news terminal on all the stocks you pull up. Here’s a screenshot of TOS:

They have a cool feature called  “OnDemand” (see top right) where you can go back to any given day in the market and rewatch charts play out. A great tool for reviewing past plays and seeing how they played out. They also have a simulator that is decent for refining your skills when you are new.

3. Technician

Technician is a free charting platform that provides real-time intraday charts for U.S. equity markets as well as delayed data from other global stock exchanges. Forex charts are real-time. Futures and index data are also provided, but they’re delayed. Like with Tradingview, you can link certain brokerages with the platform to execute trades directly through the platform. You get access to 100+ indicators, drawing tools, and access to 13 chart types. You get access to numerous intraday time intervals as well.

Here is a screenshot of the trading platform:

You can make watchlists and add indicators to the charts. Unlike Tradingview, there is no restrictions to the number of indicators in the free version. They also have a great mobile app. One of the downsides to Technician is that it has ads, and its layout not as customizable as other paid software out there. They also don’t have a desktop app, which is not great for maximizing your screen real estate for charts.

I personally recommend paid charting software as they don’t have ads, they are more customizable, you can run better scans. We will talk about what paid charting platforms we recommend in tomorrow’s article.

Download Your Free Bulls Trading Kit

Our trading kit is the best free trading resource for stock traders. The free kit includes:

1. Intro to Stock Trading Course
2. 20 Page Trader Handbook
3. Trading Consultation

Click here to Download Your Free Trading Kit

The post The Best Free Charting Software For 2020 appeared first on Bulls on Wall Street.

Charting allows us to see the actions of all traders in graphical format. It is the tool that takes what looks like random, chaotic data and forms it into a concise picture. We use them to determine not only where a stock has been but where it is going. In this article we will discuss what indicators can be used to confirm positive price action and exactly how to use them. You will also learn how to read volume and how it relates to price on a chart.

Chart Setup

The primary component of any chart is price. A chart allows the collective actions of traders to be represented in a picture. When setting up your chart, your first consideration is how the price data will be represented. The three most common options are candlestick, line, and bar/OHLC. Like the majority of active traders today, I use and recommend candlestick charts, because they provide a concise yet robust representation of price data that can be quickly understood. Here is what a candle looks like:

Each candlestick, regardless of whether it represents one minute or one week of price data, has an open and a close. The section of the candle between the open and the close is called the “real body”. If the close is higher than the open, the real body of the candlestick will be colored green, to represent a price increase. If the close is lower than the open, it will be colored red to represent a price decrease. Additionally, many candlesticks will have an upper or lower “shadow”, sometimes referred to as a “wick”. These shadows represent price action that occurred outside of the opening and closing prices.

Volume

After price, volume is the most important component of a chart. The volume illustrates the number of shares that were traded in the specified period of time. This provides the trader with several important pieces of information:

1. Is the stock liquid enough to allow for easy entries and exits?
2. Is current volume higher or lower than average?
3. Are more shares being accumulated or distributed?   

The most common way to display volume is a bar at or near the bottom of the chart. Each candlestick will have a corresponding volume bar that illustrates the number of shares exchanged for that period of time. Many brokers and charting services will display green and red volume bars. A green volume bar is for a period of time in which the closing price was higher than the previous closing price, and a red volume bar is for when the closing price was lower than the previous closing price. This allows you to quickly see if there is more volume when a stock is moving up or moving down. See the example on the chart below:

When evaluating a stock for an entry, it is important to look at the volume pattern. For a long position, it’s good to see high volume on up days and low volume on red days.  This indicates that momentum is on the side of the bulls. The reverse is true for a short position: the ideal short candidate will have stronger volume on down days.

Moving Averages

A moving average is the mean of a stock’s price for a specified period of time. For example, a 20-point moving average drawn on a daily chart, will represent, in the form of a line, the average of the last twenty days price. On a five minute chart, the same moving average would the average of the last 20, 5-minute candles.

Moving averages come in two basic forms: simple and exponential. An exponential moving average (EMA) averages the specified number of data points, but gives more weight to recent price action. A simple moving average (SMA) does not weight the data based on recency. We use moving averages for two purposes:

1. To help identify trends
2. To provide areas of support and resistance

Stocks spend only a small portion of their time in a trending environment. Often they are range bound, consolidating for the next move up or down. Moving averages can help identify trends on different time frames:

20 SMA = Short-term trend

50 SMA = intermediate trend

200 SMA= long-term trend

See an example of how moving averages influence a stock’s trend on the chart below:

Intraday vs Daily Charts

As day traders and swing traders, it’s important to use both the daily and intraday charts to plan and execute your trades. The Bulls method begins with daily chart of 3-6 months’ time. Candlestick charts, volume, and the 20,50,200 SMAs are all included.

The daily chart is used for idea generation. It illustrates the longer term trend of a stock and is the starting point of compiling a watch list of stocks to potentially trade in upcoming sessions. All trade ideas you have should be based on trades on the daily time frame, aligned with a trend on the short-term, intraday time frame. We use 5-minute charts for day trading to get an idea of the short term time frame. For an intermediate time frame, we use the 10-day, 30-minute chart. This time frame is mainly used for swing trading.   

Sign Up For The Free 4-Day Live Course 

If you missed our last post of the Bulls Elite Series about technical analysis basics, you can check it out here. We will go in more depth about all the components of technical analysis and charting in our free 4 day live course on July 22nd.

Reserve your seat for the free 4-day live course here.

PS if you’re coming let us know on Facebook and share this event with your friends. Click here to join our Facebook event.

[rf_contest contest=’10758′]

The post Stock Charting Basics (Bulls Elite Series Day 3) appeared first on Bulls on Wall Street.