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Good Morning All: "Amateur traders want to be right; professional traders want to make money." Today's topic reflects off the very true and powerful quote above. Many of these Monday Morning 'Eyes' editions are technical ones with charts and lots of markings on the charts. However, many of the best ones are just words. They are comments on 'soft' topics, such as the topic today. The Need to Be Right If you are in the stages of learning to trade, you will become a compilation of all those from whom you learned. You will become your own unique breed of trader. We all come to the table with certain expectations and beliefs. We all come with some emotional baggage. We all learn from reading, studying websites, and other traders. Some informally, some by paying for education in the form of trading rooms, seminars and mentors. Every time you learn something, it adds to your experience as a trader. Eventually you become the sum of all you have learned. Even if you have a mentor you have tried to emulate, you will never be exactly like your mentor. You will be unique. However, while no two traders are identical, most successful traders do share some common characteristics. Most have learned the value of a trading plan. Most have learned the need for stops. Most have learned many other disciplines that have I have addressed in a previous weeks of "Eyes". It takes many a long time to understand the subject of this article. That subject is, the belief traders have that they need to be "right". The topic is a simple one. Yet it eludes many traders. It seems only obvious that if we want to be successful, we need to be right in our underlying assumptions in our trades. If we want to trade stocks, we should focus on being 'right' about the direction stocks are going. Correct? Well, not really. Most traders focus too much on their need to be right. This can be detrimental and needs to be addressed. The truth of it is, we are dealing in the stock market. There is not a system, method or pattern that can produce accurate results all the time. If there were, it would be known to all. All would be using it. Ironically, if this was the case, when all started using the system, it could no longer work. A 'catch 22' of sorts, but just goes to show that it is obvious that there will never be a perfect system or indicator. The best we can do is to study each situation, collect the evidence, and make a high probability decision at the proper moment. What is of primary importance is how the situation is handled when the trader is right, how the situation is handled when the trader is wrong. What is the most common reason traders fail? The answer is not following stops. What is another top reason traders fail? The answer is not letting winners run. Not following a stop is an example of handling the situation improperly when a trader is wrong about the trade. Not letting a trade hit a target is an example of handling the situation improperly when a trader is right about the trade. What good is being 'right' if you are not paid for it? Good traders assume from the beginning that the trade may go bust. They know how much money they have risked. They know when they will get out, and they will analyze other options, such as profiting from the stock, which is now moving 'against the odds'. Good traders also know how go balance being 'right' and being timely. I know of an advisory service that took credit for predicted the fall of the Dow in 2001. The only problem is that they began that prediction when the Dow hit 6000 a long time before that. Quite a hollow victory. Waiting for too much information may make you 'right' more often, but to what avail? It is like the trader that finally decides the NASDAQ is going higher intra-day, because it broke the high of the day. The only problem is that the NASDAQ rallied 30 points to come back to break the high of the day, it is so extended, there is no room left for profit. The trader may be 'right', but his late decision awards him no money. Closing Comments: Yes, we need to be 'right' a fair amount when we trade. However, if your average winner is three times your average loser, you only need to be right 25% of the time to be breaking even gross. Accept that this is not an exact science, and never will be. We are reading peoples emotions. Accept that you will be wrong a certain amount of the time and accept that graciously. Done properly, this is a very profitable business. Focus on how you handle your winners and losers. Make timely, high probability decisions when you have sufficient evidence, and do so consistently and objectively. Paul Lange Vice President of Services Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

Every trader at some point in his career will face one or several "losing streaks". This is a fact of this business, and whoever tells you this isn't so has not traded very long or at all. Losing streaks can be produced by the faulty use of a tactic, inefficient analysis of market direction and internals, or other situations. These consecutive losing events can not only produce a drastic drawdown in your account, but even worse, can cause considerable psychological damage that might take a long time to correct. Let's talk about some of these issues and some ways to correct them. The first problem with a losing streak is the fact that it "tends to produce mounting losses". After the trader has finished his paper trading period (Interestingly, losing streaks rarely happen at this stage), the trader will have to deal at some point in his development with the diminishing capital caused by a streak of losses. Depending on whether the trader has established a proper trading plan to deal with his development, this streak will be more or less bearable. Consistency in the application of a plan and a set of tactics takes time, so it's more likely that a trader will have to contend with losing streaks during his development when he is trying to grasp and refine his approach. Thus, a proper money management scheme that looks to protect capital during the developmental stages is paramount. As the trader gains consistency, his plan will protect him from extremely bruising losing streaks, by establishing maximum losses per day or month, and by regulating the steps a trader should take in case he is facing one of these streaks. Even more troublesome to the trader might be the psychological consequences of a bad losing streak. When you face a losing streak, and you lack a proper plan, you might have to deal with 'trader's paralysis". This occurs when you had a severe loss, which produces such a fearful state that makes it impossible in your mind to take a new position. Confidence is lost. To climb back in the saddle, the trader has to create a process to recuperate such confidence step by step. It should begin with a brief paper trading period. Then, when the trader begins to trade real money, it's a very common mistake to try to enter into positions with very small stops. This might be a huge mistake. I believe that in order to regain confidence, the trader should enter into positions with wide enough stops so that the probability of it getting hit short term is very small. He might even consider entering into positions with not so great risk/rewards, just so he'll be able to remain in the position for as long as it takes until it hits the target or stop. This might allow him to regain his confidence that he can hold a position. Small shares during this process is suggested until a regained good win to loss ratio is achieved. Of course, this is only to regain confidence, and afterwards the proper selection of risk-reward plays is still paramount to a trader's success. If you have not taken a trial to our Interactive Live Trading rooms in a while, drop on by to see how you can gain more experience in how you trade and learn from some of the profitable trading idea's we generate daily. Take a free trial or call your Counselor at 1-800-340-6477. Would love to see you drop by with any questions you might have or to just gain some great insights into trading the current market. Jeff Yates Contributing Editor Interactive Trading Room Moderator Gap, Intra-Day and Swing Trading Specialist Instructor and Traders Coach pristine.com

Good Morning All; One of my favorite trading quotes; "You must be rigid in your rules and flexible in your expectations. Most traders are flexible in their rules and rigid in their expectations." Mark Douglas, Trading in the Zone. Rules and Expectations Read today's quote again. "You must be rigid in your rules and flexible in your expectations. Most traders are flexible in their rules and rigid in their expectations". This is from Mark Douglas in his book, Trading in the Zone. This should be one of the top quotes you keep near your monitor at all times. You may have read this quote prior to this, but perhaps many of you have now gained the experience to recognize the pure wisdom in the words. That is the reason an entire "Eyes" is being devoted to this quote, so everyone reading can recognize its importance. The reason that this advice is so important is because two of the most common problems among new or struggling traders are addressed here. The first problem raised is that most traders are flexible in their rules. Actually, the truth is most traders do not even have a firm set of rules they trade by. Sure, if you ask most traders they will say that they follow stops, and set targets. However, very few have the rules that are generated by a quality trading plan. Those that do, usually view them as optional, which really defeats the purpose of having rules. The second problem is that traders are rigid in their expectations. They form or acquire a market bias, or a 'feeling' about a particular stock, and hold to that expectation regardless of what the chart (reality) is telling them. When good news is released, they go long the stock and stay steadfast in their bullish view; even though the chart (reality) is telling them that the stock is falling. Some say that you cannot follow rigid rules, because trading requires your expectations to be flexible and change as needed, as the second part of the quote implies. Obviously, it is true that trading requires you to be flexible. However, all of the contemplated flexibility can be part of your plan and your rules. For example, you can decide ahead of time and define what a 'change in market direction' is and then define how you react to that new information. You could react by selling all of your position, selling half, raising the stop, etc. Closing Comments Those of you that have not embraced these concepts will hopefully take a new look at the quote above and use it to help improve your trading. Paul Lange Vice President of Services Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

Good Morning All; You buy a stock and watch it climb to its target. You see it becoming extended, and into resistance at a key reversal time, and you sell it just as it rolls over. It was a perfect trade. If you sold it, it means someone bought it from you. Did you ever wonder who just bought your stock? Who Just Bought That Stock - In case you were not aware, for every buyer there is a seller. There is no magic "stock warehouse", where you load up on stock, and dispose of it when you are finished. In addition, you are not dealing with the company who issued the stock. You are buying and selling from other people. Traders, investors, fund managers, market makers, etc. The only exception is when stock is first offered to the public, or when additional shares are made available from the company, but these are rare instances. So if you sold your stock at the 'perfect' spot, the question remains, who bought it? Well, there are two answers. The first one you may be thinking but are afraid to say. Yes, a 'fool' may have purchased your stock from you. On any day when the market stays flat, the market is a zero sum game (negative after commissions) and for every winner there is a loser. It is possible that someone made a very untimely purchase of your stock and took a loss on it. Do not feel bad, the market place thrives on novices who feel it is "easy" to take money from the market. They are needed to support the market. Just make sure you are not on the losing end of too many of these trades. The second answer is a bit more complicated. It is possible that you sold your 'scalp' for a nice profit, but the area you sold possibly took out resistance on the 15 minute or hourly chart and got the interest of a day trader who is willing to hold for a bigger target with a wider stop. Then the day trader who buys if from you may hold it for several hours, and sell into the prior day's high, and wonders, "Who bought this stock at this extended price?" The answer to that question may be the 'swing' trader. While it may be extended on an intraday basis, the fact that it traded over the prior day's high may be the trigger needed to entice a swing trader. Again, with a wider stop and target expectation. In addition, at any 'buy point' in any timeframe, there may be a host of other players jumping in based on sound, or not so sound, reasons. There may be real price support. There may be a nice trend holding. There may also be things like moving average crossovers, Gann Lines, Fibonacci levels, uptrend lines, stochastic triggers, MACD crossovers, etc, etc, etc. While any one of these may not be terribly relevant, a certain price area may trigger several of these and begin a rally. The bottom line is simple. Having as many time frames pointing in the same direction as possible, combined with as many 'triggers' hitting in the same area, will be the best chance of getting a stock moving in the right direction. Then your job is to beat the crowd getting in. Paul Lange Vice President of Services Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

The Trend Really is Your Friend How many times have you heard the saying "The trend is your friend." Most likely more times that you've wanted to and if all you had to do is follow the trend to make money there would be a lot more successful traders. The saying really is true, but it's not that simple. There can be many different trends in different time frames, so which one do you use? Here is what I suggest. What I am going to show you is for intra-day trading. However, you can use the concept for swing-trading or long-term investing. Simply change the time frames used. First, understand that is no best time frame to use. It's a choice, there are many and none will be perfect providing you with what will work all the time. Those of you searching for a trading method will hear about using minute charts ranging from 1-minute to as high as a 240-minute chart and anything in between. Charts can also be viewed in seconds of time. They can also be view in Ticks, which is an activity based chart. This can be useful for viewing overnight or pre-market activity when trading volume is low. Then there is also range based charts, which create bars that are all the same range from high to low. There may be other types, but these are the main types used. All of them manipulate the same data to expand or contract it, so make a choice what you'll use and stay with it. Getting caught up in a search for the best type and for the best setting will put you on a never-ending quest for that Holy Grail. Don't do it. Okay, hear is my suggestion that I have taught to many traders for you to consider. Use the 60-minute time frame as the primary trend for your intra-day bias. The definition of an uptrend is higher pivot highs and higher pivot lows. A downtrend, lower pivot highs and lower pivot lows. If a prior pivot low in an uptrend is violated the trend is no longer up since the definition of an uptrend no longer exists and vice-versa for a downtrend. I am going to use a 20-period moving average as a "visual aid" to speed up the analysis here. This helps when scanning many charts quickly to simply view if prices are above or below the moving average. If above the moving average, think long and if below think short. If the moving average is intersecting through the middle of prices back and forth it would indicate that there is no trend, so stand aside. Very simple. Think you can do this? Once you have your bias from the 60-minute time frame, wait for setups that you have defined as such in the 5-minute time frame to enter. For example, if the prices on the 60-minute time frame are below the 20-MA and trending lower, a 5-minute Pristine Breakdown (PBO) or a Pristine Sell setup (PSS) would be taken as a short-sale and vice-versa for a 60-minute uptrend. The price pattern on the 60-minute chart is not important to us for entries. Those come from the 5-minute time frame. It's the trend we are interested in on the 60. Now I am going to show you how to know what that is without having to look at the 60-minute time frame. You may find this helpful since you will be looking at less information; one chart. Here is how to do that. As you recall, I said we would use the 20-MA on the 60-minute chart as a visual aid. What we are going to do is put a moving average on the 5-minute chart that is the equivalent of the 60-minute 20-MA. Here is how to do that. There are twelve 5-minute bars that make up one 60-minute bar. For that reason, we are going to multiple the 20-MA by twelve, which gives us a 240-period moving average. View a 60-minute time frame with a 20-MA and then look at a 240-MA on the 5-minute. You will see that they are virtually the same and end in the same place or very close to it. Here is the plan. When the 20-MA is under the 240-MA and trending lower on the 5-minute time frame take short setups. When the 20-MA is above the 240-MA and trending higher on the 5-minute time frame take long setups. Be aware of prior support and resistance areas and more importantly the lack thereof. These will affect turning points within the trend or allow prices to trend. Greg Capra President & CEO Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

As markets and stocks move higher and then higher again with very little retracement or sideways corrections the potential for breakout failures increase. Because of the surprise or shock to traders playing the breakout, these failures can produce great opportunities for swing-trading over a few days and even higher odds day-trading opportunities. Let's look at a couple of examples that have happened and some current patterns that may. As with all Pristine trading patterns, understanding the thought process of traders that created the pattern is an important component to having confidence in the play. The breakout failure pattern is an easy one to understand since everyone has been caught in one at some time in the past. But let's review it. As prices are trending higher, traders are waiting for an entry point to get on board the trend. The most popular entry is when prices pullback to a reference point of support. Some traders will use a prior high, a moving average, a percentage of retracement or simply a dollar about. However, when prices move sideways (a very strong tread), rather than retrace, the trader is confronted with the choice of having to buy a breakout. If the breakout results in prices falling back under the breakout bar's low, the unexpected or shock has happened. What are you going to do? Breakouts are high odds trading setups, however, they are best used after the initial start of a move. This could be after the first rally from a bottom phase or it could be a gap-trading setup where the gap was a daily Pro-Gap, followed by prices basing for a period of time intra-day. Breakout failures increase when prices have been trending higher for a long time or have moved too far, too fast. There aren't a lot of these failures happening yet, but there are a couple that I can show you and a few that might result in failures. Last week, Deere (DE) broke out above a several day base and at the time it looked like higher prices were a sure thing. However, the next morning DE gapped well below the breakout bar's low. Can you imagine the shock to traders and fund managers that had bought the breakout the prior day? DE is an example of prices moving too far, too fast. Think about what you would do if you bought DE and it continued to show more weakness. What if you were a fund manager with cash on hand and starting buying a lot more shares of DE, but sellers just kept on dumping, so price barely moved up. Are you feeling it? In the above chart of Castel Crown Intl. (CCI), the daily time frame actually looked good for a breakout to continue. The base was a reasonable length and it was forming at the top of a Bullish Wide Range Bar (+WRB). However, the weekly was up from its base five-weeks in a row. Now, that doesn't always mean the breakout could not have worked, but it was lower odds. That being said, the breakout failed when prices broke under the breakout bar's low. It's shock-time for the breakout traders, what are you and other traders going to do? HCN has been moving up on the weekly time frame since the end of last year, and notice that last week's range was the widest since the move started. In addition, it closed almost at the high of the week; no wick or upper shadow. In other words, buyers were falling over themselves to get these shares after multiple weeks of a straight up run into a weekend. Thinking must be that there is no risk of moving lower. Hum, well maybe that's true and we'll see. Friday, HCN broke out above two bars with equal highs. That was a minor stall of course and not what many would consider a base, but this is what strong trends do. If prices break under Friday's low it will come as a big surprise to those that bought last week. Universal INS Hldgs. (UVE) has had a big run this year and may move higher still, but right now it looks ripe for a breakout failure. Last week's range narrowed after the prior week having had a huge range. That signals that the bullish momentum reached an extreme and then slowed. Buyers of UVE are not expecting a move under Friday's low, so if prices do - the trap will be set. Lastly, here is a chart of the S&P 500 ETF symbol SPY. It also broke out above two prior days with relatively equal highs Friday. Buyers stepped up all day Friday and when there was no pullback mid-day, they scrambled to buy shares right into the close. Notice the size of last week's range compared to the prior ones. If SPY breaks under Friday's low, it will be a shock to those recent buyers and that is likely to bring in sellers short-term. However, it will not change this bullish uptrend simply because the trend will still be up. What I have shown you in this Chart of the Week (COTW) is how to recognize one type of failure/shock pattern. Educated short-term day-traders and swing-traders know how to take advantage of these moves when they happen. If you are holding long in this market for the intermediate-term there is nothing for you to do. That being said, watch to see if there are any breakout failures next week and what happens.

There is a common sequence of events that most traders go through during their development. This begins when many of the strategies that the trader is learning begin to come together and the trader begins to see the light. This can happen slowly with a cautious trader who has been paper trading or playing with a small share size. This can happen for aggressive traders as they start to have some big numbers in profit on some of their better days. However, while the trader begins to feel good, there usually are some lingering problems. While the light seems to be coming on, the account is not growing. It seems that every time some progress is being made, something happens that stops this progress and the account does not grow. It is 'one step forward, and two steps back'. If this is something that you can relate to, you are not alone. Spending time in this area to understand this process is very important to your development as a trader. If you review your records you will likely find several good trades throughout the week, and then a bad trade. One so bad it really sticks out. So bad, it erases all the hard work of the prior gains that you were so proud of. It may show up as several profitable days and then one day that erases all the prior gains. If this is the problem you are having, there is good news and bad. The good news is that you are now doing well with the 'technical part' of trading, and now have to deal with the psychological part. The bad news is that you are now doing well with the 'technical part' of trading, and now have to deal with the psychological part! Psychology is not an easy thing to deal with. The answer? First, it's self awareness. It's identifying the issues at hand as being psychological. Once we've admitted we have the problem, we must build and change our Psychology so that it is conducive to making money in the markets consistently and without fail. We teach many procedures that traders can take to help their progress at this point. Use a trading plan, keep detailed records, and track the strategies you use. Print charts of your trades to analyze your discipline, trading plan, and strategies. Make a plan to eliminate recurring problems. Use money management that prevents catastrophic trades or days. Once the trader eliminates their 'demons', they will likely see an improvement in their trading. Unfortunately, that is not the end of the psychological issues. Sometimes a trader uses all of the above tactics to make great improvements and even become successful, then gets 'over confident' with their new success and abandons everything that got them where they are. The road will always be full of new challenges, the traders that thrive have on ongoing plan and a commitment to patience and discipline. Jared Wesley Contributing Editor Interactive Trading Room Moderator Gap, Intra-Day and Swing Trading Specialist Instructor and Traders Coach

have an announcement to make. I'm happy to report that the never-ending search for that perfect indicator is alive and well. It has never ceased to amaze me how people can take epic journeys towards attaining such mythical tools. They spend countless hours and money in the pursuit of that perfect tool that will provide perfect buy and sell signals, no matter what stocks and market conditions they're dealing with. Let me state here and now that I have no prejudices against indicators. But in my journey as a trader (and many of you might agree with this), I've not been able to find any formula that can successfully produce buy and sell signals of quality, every single time in all market situations. But that's all right. Indicators aren't supposed to do that. In fact, it's our opinion, and that of many others I've had the pleasure to work with through the years, that the real purpose of indicators isn't that of providing reliable buy and sell signals. For that we have price patterns. Indicators (at least some of them) serve us well as "guides" that help us accelerate the analysis of a security's price behavior. Let's review this with an example. One of the most archaic uses of indicators I can remember occurs when someone looks at crossovers on moving averages as buy and sell signals. I would bet countless individuals have paid thousands of dollars for "trading systems" that exclusively use this concept. Any trader with some knowledge of the way moving averages work would instantly recognize that by the time such moving averages "crossover", the price action has already occurred. In some instances, such signals might provide a continuation of momentum, but in general, by the time you get the signal, it's too late. That's the typical use of an indicator as a "price predictor". We're not in this business looking to predict. Our goal is to analyze opportunities, evaluate odds, and manage our trades. For us, a better and more objective use of moving averages is as trend following tools. Looking at a stock that presents a rising 20ma will quickly give us information about the trend of that stock, without having to look at 12 months of price data. Then, we will use price data to find reliable opportunities for trading. So, the next time you look at a chart that includes your favorite indicator, try to use the information provided by it in such a way that helps you to evaluate the securities trend, strength, volatility and velocity. Don't try to use it to predict prices. In this way, you're bringing a level of objectivity to your trading that will serve you well through the years. KURT CAPRA Contributing Editor Instructor and Traders Coach

Bringing Common Sense to Trading In this week's Chart of the Week, I'm going to share with you one of the concepts taught in Pristine seminars. After reading this I believe that you will have what is referred to as a Ha-Ha or Light- Bulb moment. The basis of this concept isn't a new revolutionary type of technical analysis, but it is a powerful common sense approach to understand the interaction between buyers and sellers. Find someone else teaching the same - and you'll have found a forma Pristine student. Frankly, there isn't anything new or revolutionary when it comes to technical analysis. However, there are different ways of interpreting the same raw data that we all use. Most do this with a hodge-podge of indicators. Some even make a business out of selling you their proprietary indicators or indicator based system that will tell you what to do and when to do it. Knowing what to do and when to do it sounds great and why so many buy into these marketing indicator schemes. Maybe you remember or bought the once popular red light - green light trading system that many paid thousands for in the mid-2000 period. If you're interesting in a long-term approach to technical investing or trading, the history of the red light - green light indicator approach (gone) and others like it isn't it. The use of indicators or indicator systems attracts virtually everyone that becomes interested in trading the markets. I was no different when I started and tried many indicators and wrote a few of my own. The idea of removing the guess work and the uncertainty is attractive. It is also a powerful way of motivating those interested to buy into their marketing. Been there? Here's the concept I want to share with you....... There are buyers at prior price support (a demand area) and sellers at prior price resistance (a supply area). If you're thinking; I knew that already, that's it? You don't realize what a power concept this is. Let me explain. Virtually all price indicators/oscillators (there are hundreds) attempt to define when prices have moved too far and will reverse, right? Sure, but it doesn't work except in hindsight. These indicators have absolutely nothing to do with prices reversing. If you doubt it, think about why does what becomes overbought or oversold either stays that way or becomes more so without returning to the other extreme so often? It's not that you're using the wrong indicator or settings either. That's thing will keep you in search of the Holy Grail and the next indicator. Next there are technical tools like Fibonacci Retracements, Gann Lines, Moving Averages, Elliot Waves, Andrews Pitchforks, Bollinger Bands, Regression lines, Median Lines, Trendlines and they go on and on. All of them are supposed to locate the area where prices will find support or resistance. All of this hocus-pocus analysis is insane! So, what's the answer? An in-depth understanding of price support and resistance pivot points or consolidations as reference points are where you need to focus. This is where buyers and sellers interacted in the past and will likely do so again. Once you have a reference point, wait for a price pattern signaling slowing momentum and reversal. At Pristine, we define a Support Pivot as a bar or candle having at least two higher low bars to its right and left. A Resistance Pivot is a bar or candle having at least two lower high bars to its right and left; simple. The trend of prices, the arrangement of the candles, changing ranges and volume are some of the other concepts to consider that increase the odds of follow through, but that's for another lesson. As far as where prices are likely to stall, it's the basics you need to follow. There are buyers at prior price support (demand) and sellers at prior price resistance (supply). Let's look at a couple of chart examples. As Google (GOOG) moved lower on the left side of the chart, it formed a Resistance Pivot. As you can see, sellers came in at the same location. You didn't need an indicator to guide you where sellers would be, did you? You only needed to look at the chart for a pivot high. Once the trend was violated, look for buyers (demand) to overcome sellers (supply) at a Support Pivot. As prices move higher in an uptrend, the concept of what was resistance becomes support applies. However, in the strongest trends prices will not pull back to what was resistance. I'm sure you've seen that in the past. At these times, don't chase. Wait for a Support Pivot to form. Once it does, you have a new or created reference point of support where buyers will step in again. Reversal candles are you confirmation at those points. In the chart of Facebook (FB), prices moved up from a low pivot point and there was no clear resistance area to the left. However, once a Resistance pivot formed there was a clear point where sellers (supply) overcame buyers (demand) and that would likely happen again. Once FB broke lower many will look for a retracement to sell, which is fine. However, when supply is overwhelming demand - prices cannot retrace that much. Don't chase out of fear of missing the move, even though that may happen. Wait for a Resistance Pivot to form. Once it does, use that reference point and your Candle Analysis to tell when to act. In the chart of the New Zealand Dollar versus the U.S. Dollar (NZD/USD.FXB) a climactic move lower occurred. This created a Pristine Price Void above and once a pivot low formed we had a reference point where buyers (demand) would show up again. However, we cannot know for sure if that low will hold, and we don't want buy in such a strong downtrend without confirmation. Rather, we want to wait to see if a reversal will form in the same area. If it does, we have that confirmation on the retest and a strong buy signal. I hope this Chart of the Week has provided you with the Light bulb moment I promised All the best, Greg Capra Greg Capra President & CEO Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

Good Morning All: In the last issue, I gave you part two of a four part series. This series is a set of exact steps that will help you tremendously if you have the technical knowledge, but cannot seem to turn the corner on making good profits. There are four things that you can do that I feel will 'dramatically change your trading career'. The results will be immediate, every week, and this will be item number three. It should be stated again, that if you do not have the technical expertise, you are not at the level that these comments will help. If you don't know how to look at a chart, no amount of refining will help you. Where do you get this expertise? There is no better place than the Trading the Pristine Method Seminar. After a long time of working with many traders, one discovers that there are certain truths that cannot be denied. There are four things that are done so consistently wrong by new, and even fairly experienced traders, that each of these mistakes results in bad trades 90% of the time for most traders. If traders would simply follow these four rules, they would eliminate most of their losing trades. The fourth rule does not really fall into this "90%" category, but is perhaps the most important. Four Things That Will Change Your Trading Career: Part Three of Four Here is the third rule, and the subject of this lesson. Traders should always follow the power of the market (or an individual stock). When the market or stock is having a bullish day, the daily bar is green, and the intraday trends are up, buy pullbacks; do not play short. When the market or stock is having a bearish day, the daily bar is red, and the intraday trends are down, short the rallies; do not buy the pullbacks. This sounds simple, yet this rule actually addresses the number one mistake traders make in selecting plays. Most traders, especially newer traders, try to short strong stocks, or buy weak stocks. They try to 'short the top', or 'buy the bottom'. They may not even realize they have the problem. Most issues like this are not discovered unless the trader takes overt action to find the problem. Why would so many traders pick up such a bad habit? The answer is simple; it is the same problem that causes so many traders to not trade the way they want to trade. Psychological issues step in and cause the trader to trade improperly. Catching a bottom or a top in a stock makes a trader fell like a 'hero' when right. And, if they do get an occasional trade correct, that is all they remember. They forget the dozens of losses it took to get the one winner, and remember only the glory of 'shorting that one at its high'. There is a strategy for shorting a strong stock, or buying a weak stock, but it is only used when the stock goes 'climactic'. Unfortunately, this play seems to be difficult for most traders to recognize, and requires patience, something most new traders do not have. Below is an example. Would you short this pattern as a 'climactic sell setup' (CSS)? Many traders see patterns like this and feel that it just cannot go any higher. So they short the first red bar, at the '?'. Unfortunately, the usual result is shown below. As the stock advances, they realize that they were not just off, they were way off. They needed the patience to wait for this high at the new'?', above. Surely THIS, is a much better place to short; or is it? Well, maybe not. The stock did not drop at all, and after a little rest, it is back off to the races. As a matter of fact, it turns out that shortly after every 'short' attempt, the truly great play was to go long, even though it looked 'extended'. Bottom line, stay with the easy play. Look at all the money that could be made on the LONG side of this trade, yet so many traders are drawn to finding the top. It is often never found. This is not an unusual chart, I am sure you encounter this every day. Closing Comments The concept illustrated above refers to avoiding playing a stock against the power of a strong trend. It is also applicable to avoid shorting stocks in general, if the market is in a powerful trend (and the same for not going long on a 'red bar' day). While there are certain stocks that will drop on bullish days, they are much harder to find, and as a rule, drop much less. Next week we will look at the fourth 'secret' that will change your trading. Paul Lange Vice President of Services Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

Market timing can be made complex or simple. I have studied many methods and definitely found the simple approach the way to go. Those studies were a quest for finding that method and what works for timing and what doesn't? What you'll find surprising is that the typical tools used by the majority do not work. I know you're interested in what does and I'll show you. Before we review what to use, let's review some of the methods often talked about to determine market turns. Almost all of them will give a signal after a turn of some form has already happened. For example, the break of an uptrend trend line will signal a violation of the uptrend since prices have already moved lower. However, haven't you see uptrend lines broken that were followed by an almost immediate reversal back up in the direction of the trend? I have many times and found them inaccurate. Let's think about the use of a trend line. An uptrend line is drawn by "connecting the dots" and is supposed to show you a support line that is projected into the future. If that line is violated, it signals the end of that uptrend. Why should that be the case though? Can you really locate significant reference points of support by drawing lines on a chart? How do you know you are connecting the right dots? And since there are different points that the line can be connected to, should you draw from all of them? And, what if those lines intersect, does that make for a more significant support point? And then, what if you change the time frame from a daily one to a weekly one? Doing that has now changed the "dots" to connect to. Are the lines in the weekly time frame more significant than those in the daily time frame? Getting complicated and confusing isn't it? What about moving averages as a market timing guide? Okay, which one should be used? Is a break of the 50-day moving average a trend violation? How about the 100-day? Surely the break of the 200-day moving average would be bearish. However, by the time prices made it below the 200-day moving average the trend would have been violated long ago. There are also moving average crossovers. Again, which moving averages should be used? The 5-MA crossing the 20-MA is a popular combination. Then there is the "Golden Cross" of the 50-MA crossing the 200-MA. Golden cross sounds impressive. Then of course, there is the question of what type of moving average to use. Simple, exponential, weighted and there are others, even optimized. The combinations are endless. If you have asked yourself these questions in an attempt to figure out a method of timing the market's turns you're not alone. I suggest that you forget these types analysis and others revolved around price indicators. They are useless for market timing. If you're thinking we need the more esoteric types of analysis like Gann lines, Gann Square of Nine, Elliot Waves, Any Waves, Fibonacci Lines, Cycles or planetary alignments you can be relieved. We want no part of that hocus pocus type of analysis. What you need to use for market timing are market internal gauges based on market breadth and traders' sentiment. Data to measure breadth consists of stocks making new highs and lows, advancing and declining stocks, the volume in advancing and declining stocks. These can even be combined with formulas that use that data. These are excellent ways of determining the odds of a market turn, since they give us a clear measurement of when they reached an historical extreme. In other words, they tell us when the broader markets have moved too far in one direction or the other based on what has actually happened compared to the past years. They also warn us before the turn. We don't have to use all of these breadth gauges and are going to keep this simple. You may think prices have moved too far, but how many times have prices continued to move much further than you thought they could. Or you thought that prices would move further only to see them reverse. Breadth gauges provide an objective measurement based on the history of the broader market's internal movement, not the recent price movement of one index. Sentiment gauges tell us how traders, investors and institutions "feel" about the markets. Are they too bullish, too bearish or too complacent? Sentiment surveys, Put/Call Ratios and Volatility Indexes are excellent tools for measuring the current sentiment against the historical extremes. This letter cannot cover all the breadth and sentiment gauges available, but what I will show you are a few things that can be found at free websites or in your charting program. They are also easy to use and understand. The Volatility Index (VIX) is a measurement of anticipated future volatility in the market. Extreme highs are associated with market lows and extreme lows are associated with market highs. In other words, the Volatility index moves inverse to the market. A move to support in the VIX is short-term bearish and a move to resistance is short-term bullish. I say short-term because a significant turning point would require other information that the VIX cannot provide. Pristine Tip: short-term market timing requires a combination of breadth and sentiment gauges. Currently, the VIX is at a low point where it has turned up from over the last few years. This is not near an all-time low, so the VIX could move lower or sideways. Over the last few trading sessions, the VIX has been holding this area and the daily ranges have been narrow. This type of price action in the VIX has historically preceded a short-term move up. Set an alert at 14.00. A move above would be a short-term bearish confirmation. In the above chart, is the S&P 500 ETF symbol SPY, the McClellan Oscillator and the Equity Put/Call Ratio with a 5-period moving average of that ratio. The McClellan Oscillator is simply the difference between to moving averages of the daily fluctuations of advancing stocks minus declining stocks. Historically, when the oscillator moves to between plus or minus 100 and 200 a short-term reversal is likely. However just like the VIX, we won't rely on the McClellan Oscillator alone for a signal. At times, extremes are actually confirmation of a move to trade with, not against it. The Equity Put/Call Ratio tells us how many puts are being bought (bearish bets) verses calls (bullish bets). The ratio moves up when more puts are being bought than calls and down when more calls are being bought than puts. The day-to-day movement can be very erratic and may not mean much. However, when the ratio moves to an extreme, we want to take note of it. When the 5-period moving average of the ratio is at an extreme as well, it is a much stronger indication of a short-term turn. Again, we will not rely solely on the Put/Call Ratio. What we are very interested in is when there is an extreme in put buying (bearish sentiment) at the same time there is an extreme in stock selling (bearish breadth). This would signal a market low (green area). We are also interested to know when there is an excessive amount of call buying (bullish sentiment) with an excessive about of stock buying (bullish breadth). This would signal a market high (red area). Currently, The McClellan Oscillator is into a short-term bearish extreme and the Put/Call Ratio moved to a bearish extreme last week; however, the 5-MA of the Put/Call Ratio has not reached an extreme yet. This is telling us that risk for longs is rising short-term based on the gauges covered, but without the 5-MA at an extreme of call buying there is still the potential for higher prices. Any market move to higher prices should get option traders "all-in" and the odds of a pullback in the market would increase based on our gauges. There you have a simple method for market timing. Is it 100%? Of course not, but it is good, simple and easy to understand. I know it will serve you well over the years as it has for me. Greg Capra President & CEO Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

Good Morning All; For these next four letters, I am going to give you a series of exact steps that will help you tremendously if you have the technical knowledge, but cannot seem to turn the corner on making good profits. There are going to be four things that you can do that I feel will 'dramatically change your trading career'. The results will be immediate, every week. It should be stated again, that if you do not have the technical expertise, you are not at the level that these comments will help. If you don't know how to look at a chart, no amount of refining will help you. Where do you get this expertise? There is no better place that Pristine's Trading the Pristine Method Seminars. After a long time of working with many traders, one discovers that there are certain truths that cannot be denied. There are four things that are done so consistently wrong by new, and even fairly experienced traders, that each of these mistakes results in bad trades 90% of the time for most traders. If traders would simply follow these four rules, they would eliminate most of their losing trades. The fourth rule does not really fall into this "90%" category, but is perhaps the most important. Four Things That Will Change Your Trading Career: Part One of Four Here is the first rule, and the subject of this lesson. New traders are often so bad at managing trades, that their results would be incredibly improved by not managing at all. If you do not manage, it means you let your trade play out until it hits the target(s), or stops out. Nothing else. This is called 'all or nothing' trading. There are various ways to manage trades. Management should be a detailed part of your trading plan. Many do not even consider 'all or nothing', an option. Many management systems can work beautifully. So what is the problem that makes it the case that traders are better off doing 'nothing'? The problem is that traders do not FOLLOW them. Due to the emotions of trading, traders find excuses to override them. Most new trader's goals are to lock in small profits to avoid losses at all costs, and they change their management in the middle of the trade. Do you do this? There is a 90% chance you do. Here is how to find out. Go BACK in your records (do not do this going forward, it will not work) and take your last 20 trades and write down your entry, stop, target, and actual exit. Now go back to the chart, and see what would have happened if you did not manage the trade. Simply see if you hit the stop or the target first. Make a new column on your sheet and write this down. Then figure the profit for the 'new' column called 'all or nothing'. If the trade stopped, you lose your risk amount, whatever it is. If you hit a target, you may have a gain that is multiple times your loss (if you didn't have a target, figure what would have happened just holding to the end of the day). Compare which way you would have made more money, and be sitting down when you do this. Feel free to email your results to paul@pristine.com. By the way, if you feel like you really are 'getting' the concepts of trading, and you find you have good chart reading abilities and you have more winners that losers, but your account is not growing, you are going to be in this category. This works, because many good plays get to very nice targets. However, if the trader is not in the trade, they never make the big money. Many traders get in the habit of taking normal losses (they have learned to follow stops) but they take small gains. It is hard to make money like this. Below is the five minute chart of ZQK, with an inset of the daily chart. On this day, ZQK gapped up on the daily chart, out of a daily Pristine Buy Setup that had pulled back to the daily rising 20 period moving average. The gap almost cleared the 'half-red' prior bar. This is a bullish gap, so buying an early morning pullback would make an excellent entry. On the chart above, a five minute Pristine Buy Setup triggered at '1', and was an excellent entry for this play. Many traders have learned how to do plays like this. What separates the pros from the novices if who really takes home serious money from this play. Since this play was a bullish gap on a bullish daily chart, we know there is potential to move up a significant amount, even on an intraday basis. So we pull out the hourly chart and look for a 'target area'. This hourly chart is inset in the chart below, and the 'star' marks the target. This is the first base we encounter in the general area of a solid day's move. It is at 2.80 - 2.85. So we are in the play, and have a target area selected. The only variable is management. Please notice something. If you used the 20 period moving average as your management trail stop, you would have been in this trade to the target of 2.85. Notice if you used pivots, (if you don't know what these are, the purple arrows have marked off five or two minute pivots of some kind) you would have achieved the target of 2.85. However, 90% of the traders using these methods don't hit their targets. All of those purple areas (which coincidentally were a form of a pivot) are areas that traders use as an excuse to exit the trade. Most traders would have exited at the first arrow, for a loss. If you were to play this all or nothing, you would just set one order as a stop loss around 2.51, and then set another order to sell at 2.85 then walk away for the day, or at least take this off your screen and leave it alone. The bottom line is very simple. Use an all or nothing method of management UNTIL you prove that you can beat all or nothing with your own management ability. Do not underestimate the power of this lesson, for many traders it is the most important of the four. Closing Comments Understand, that I am NOT saying that all or nothing is the best method of managing trades, but I am saying it is better than what 90% of those reading this article do. Also, you will NOT benefit if you are trading so bad that you stop out of all of your trades. Again, this is not a replacement for knowing technical analysis. Do NOT assume you got the point of this exercise just buy reading it. Do the exercise. You will not believe your results. Email me you comments if you actually do this. Next week we will look at the second thing that will change your trading. Paul Lange Vice President of Services Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

Good Morning All; Of all the articles I have written, my favorite articles are ones that bring out some of the subtleties of chart patterns that many new traders may miss. But the purpose of this letter, "Eyes", is not to 'teach' technical analysis; that is what our seminars are for. That is why perhaps the most helpful articles, for those that listen, are the ones that talk about how to go about learning the business of trading. Through the Cracks That is correct. The business of trading. It is a business like any other. True, it does not generally involve employees or large facilities for most traders. But it does involve education, planning and preparation. Traders need to be educated in the method of making money in the markets, as well as all of the surrounding concepts that are needed. They need to plan the business in the big picture by opening accounts, allocating money, figuring out living expenses for a period of time, allocating the proper time and money to the new venture, allocating money to initial and ongoing education, as well as many other important issues. Traders also need to prepare for each and every trade by forming trading plans and proper follow up procedures, and the proper research for their trade. Let's take a harder look at the first concept; getting an education in the markets, as well as all of the surrounding concepts that are needed. Deciding what approach is right for you; fundamental or technical, long term or short term or both, using news or not, understanding how to use platforms, how to enter orders, what types of orders should be used, understanding what actually moves prices, and the 'math' of making money. It should seem obvious that everyone would have a handle on all these topics before risking capital in their new business. But experience tells me nothing could be further from the truth. Learning the actual concepts of technical trading is what our Trading the Pristine Method seminar is all about. But that course is about understanding price movement; how prices go through stages, transitions, and how to play those movements to make money. Plus a whole lot more. But many of the other concepts are things traders need to understand but often don't. Many are touched on in seminars, but some are not. It is expected that traders will learn from our free webinars, or from their broker, and maybe some are even in the 'common sense' category. Many important items seem to 'fall through the cracks'. Sitting in the Pristine Method Trading Room, I am often mildly shocked at some of the things that 'experienced' traders ask. To that end, we have created a new course, "Online Trading Essentials". It covers many important topics. If you are looking at a career in the markets, or if you have recently begun pursuing that opportunity, this class is a must. I also feel 'anyone' would enjoy the class. It is free to current clients who have attended a seminar. If you are currently talking to your counselor about becoming a client, see if you can get into the class for free. Paul Lange Vice President of Services Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

"You must be rigid in your rules and flexible in your expectations. Most traders are flexible in their rules and rigid in their expectations". This is from Mark Douglas in his book, "Trading in the Zone". When I first read the above-mentioned book years ago, I did not highlight or remember this quote as anything special. It was not until recently when I saw it again that I had the experience to recognize the pure wisdom in the words. That is the reason I am devoting this commentary to this quote, so everyone reading can recognize its importance. The reason I feel this advice is so important is because two of the most common problems among new or struggling traders are addressed here. The first problem raised is that most traders are flexible in their rules. Actually, the truth is most traders do not even have a firm set of rules they trade by. Sure, if you ask most traders they will say that they follow stops, and set targets. But very few have the rules that are generated by a quality trading plan. Those that do, usually view them as optional, which really defeats the purpose of having rules. The second problem is that traders are rigid in their expectations. They form or acquire a market bias, or a 'feeling' about a particular stock, and hold to that expectation regardless of what the chart (reality) is telling them. When good news is released, they go long the stock and stay steadfast in their bullish view; even though the chart (reality) is telling them the stock is falling. Some say that you can't follow rigid rules, because trading requires your expectations to be flexible and change as needed, as the second part of the quote implies. Obviously, I agree that trading requires you to be flexible. I just believe that all of the contemplated flexibility can be part of your plan and your rules. For example, you can decide ahead of time and define what a 'change in market direction' is and then define how you react to that new information. You could react by selling all of your position, selling half, raising the stop, etc. I hope that those of you that have not embraced these concepts take new look at the quote above and use it to help improve your trading. Jared Wesley Contributing Editor Interactive Trading Room Moderator Gap and Intra-Day Trading Specialist Instructor and Traders Coach

Over the more than 20 years that I have studied and traded the markets there have always been advisors with an opinion that the market is close to a crash or a severe drop. While these opinions often come with relatively convincing reasons, the majority of times it has not happened. Wouldn't you like to know when the risk in the market is high based on historical facts, rather than another's opinion? I did and I'm going to show you what to use. As the markets approached the recent prior highs it was a reasonable assumption that selling would increase - and it did. However, it wasn't reasonable to assume that selling was going to produce a severe decline. Before we get to why, if you didn't read the prior Chart of the Week (COTW) please do that. In it I explained how Pristine students learn to recognize when support and resistance reference points are created and how to use them. If you used this simple, but powerful concept you would have known when and where bullish traders were taking a stand. You would have also known that the odds of the market moving higher after the retest had increased. Thursday's big move up tells me that those short had no idea or were in denial of the growing strength. Okay, let's get to the big picture. As we know, the market has a strong tendency to do the opposite of what the majority believe will happen. The question is, how to know when the opinion of most investors has become too bullish or to bearish? That's easy to know, if you know where to look. Each week at the website www.AAII.com individual investors vote their opinion as to whether they are bullish, bearish or neutral on the market. In the chart above, the green line displays the percentage of those that are bullish; the red line displays the percentage of those that are bearish and the blue line is a moving average of those bullish divided by those that are bullish plus those that are bearish. This provides us with a ratio that when at historical extremes it warns us when too many investors are bullish or bearish. As you can see from the chart, the blue line still has a ways to go before too many investors become bullish. The historical data for this and many other market internals, which are automatically updated on a daily and weekly basis, are available from www.pinnacledata.com. The next chart shows the spread or difference between 30-year long-term interest rates and 3-month short-term interest rates is at the top. In the lower half, it shows the weekly closing price of the S&P 500. As you can see, when the difference nears zero and below the risk of a severe market correction is very high. There are other factors to consider for market timing, especially short-term timing, but these two gauges will serve you well as a long-term guide for market risk. When both are at extremes, too many bullish and the difference between long and short-term interests below zero history tells us big trouble is not that far off. The above chart is a bull market (choppy at times) and until our long-term guides turn bearish history tells us that it makes no sense at all to even remotely think crash or severe correction. Short-term, the odds are that a minor correction is not that far off since we are coming into what is historically the most bearish time of the year. After that comes a bullish period, and assuming our internal guides are bullish - the markets will move higher. You might think that the markets have more than doubled since the lows shown in 2009 and they cannot move even higher. However, that's human reasoning. We know that doesn't work in the markets and why we need to use tools like I've shown you as a guide. Greg Capra President & CEO Pristine Capital Holdings, Inc.

n a previous article, I wrote about the true value of paper trading and having a plan of how to move from successful paper trading into real money smoothly. The issue is; now that you are successful on paper, what next? First, as described previously, you must make sure you are successful at paper trading by some objective measure. Set up a test that you must pass. Four winning trades in a row, three out of four winning paper days, or any measure as long as you enforce it. I rarely hear of anyone who is not making a killing on paper. If you cannot do it on paper, do not proceed assuming it will 'all work out'. The next step then is to put a very small amount of money on the line. I mean small. The objective here is to start an 'official' record. Even the most honest people will be 'cheating' while paper trading. Also, you will now be subject to 'real' fills (or lack thereof) rather than your 'pretend' fills. Even real software paper trading systems are very gracious on fills. Also, all those order entry 'mistakes', and trades that you swept under the table will be real now. You will now have to deal with the psychological issues. Putting money on the line, even fifty dollars, will evoke egos that will step in and start changing everything you do. That is why I emphasize, even if you have a million dollar account, the fifty-dollar risk will be enough to make you change what you do. Again, if you do well, you can move your risk amount up. You will be surprised how your paper trading results change when you have a real trade on the table. If you can pass the same 'success' test that you first set up to get you beyond paper trading, then you start moving up the risk amount. One hundred, two hundred, until you get to the objective risk amounts that you have set out in your trading plan. Along the way, if you begin losing you need to go back to the prior risk amount. If you feel you are handling trades different due to the increased risk amount, then go back to the prior level as well. You see, if you follow this plan, it is very hard to lose a significant amount of money while you are learning. That folks is the whole objective. KURT CAPRA Contributing Editor Interactive Trading Room Moderator Instructor and Traders Coach