Recent content by Matt Blackman

James Bond may have a license to kill, but regular folks need a license to do just about everything else from driving a car, flying a plane, managing money, and practicing law to doing someone's taxes. Is there something along those lines for trading? When I first got interested in trading, I...

In his seminal financial tome, "Technical Analysis Explained", (which was required reading for Chartered Market Technicians (CMT) when I took the course and still is), Martin Pring discusses the business cycle and the order in which various asset classes lead in market rallies and corrections...

Most traders and investors are familiar with the saying "the trend is your friend." But deciding what constitutes a trend often proves challenging because it depends on the trader's preferred time in the trade. Furthermore, once a trend has been identified, the trader must determine its...

There is an old saying in business: "Fail to plan and you plan to fail." It may sound glib, but those who are serious about being successful, including traders, should follow these eight words as if they were written in stone. Ask any trader who makes money on a consistent basis and they will...

Traders have an expression for attempting to pick a market top or bottom - they call it trying to catch a falling knife. As the expression implies, it can be downright dangerous and is not normally recommended. But here is a method that may help lower the risk. Sushi Roll Anyone? In his book...

Single-market analysis is the study of one asset class or market in a single country. Intermarket analysis, on the other hand, is the study of multiple asset classes in a variety of markets in nations around the globe. Do investors and traders using the second technique have a significant...

When asked how he likes to trade, Dan Zanger responds using a race car analogy. "I like to go 180 mph just inches from the wall. That means being margined 2 to 1 and either long or short a stock that is highly volatile and getting ready to make a big move," he says. Zanger puts his money where...

The emerging market meltdown that occurred between May 12 and June 13, 2006, had an impact on currencies, the carry trade and incredible growth in derivatives over the last decade, as described in Part 1. In summary, here are the issues we will be examining in part 2. An index that has been...

A look a the current market correction - the 'canary correction' and what may have caused it. When the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Index Exchange Traded Fund (EEM) hit an all-time high of $111.10 on May 9, 2006, it marked a meteoric rise from its humble launch price of $33.37 a little more...