EDITORS NOTE: In previous issues of the Technically Speaking e-Newsletter, we’ve reviewed various technical analysis books, products, and software. This article is a review of a free online service available to the investment community. In addition, PlacingTraders.com is collaborating with the Market Technicians Association to help provide materials and information for the Career Development Center for the use of you, our membership. In a recent blog post, Vicki Meddows-Smith, wrote, “The old adage of ’It’s not what you know but who’ has been given new life, but the challenge that remains for the business world is how best to embrace the power of the on-line community.” On her web site, www.placingtraders.com, she offers traders and job seekers a possible way to address that challenge and a chance to benefit from technology. Placing Traders is an online community. The primary purpose is hard to define as the site is one of the few

Editor’s note: We wanted to take an opportunity to present some information on trading vehicles that allow traders to enter positions designed to capitalize on volatility. This article was originally posted at http://vixandmore.blogspot.com/2008/04/ten-things-everyone-should-know-about.html and is reprinted here with permission of the author.  I have had quite a few requests to present some introductory material on the VIX, so with that in mind I offer up the following in question and answer format: Q: What is the VIX? A: In brief, the VIX is the ticker symbol for the volatility index that the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) created to calculate the implied volatility of options on the S&P 500 index (SPX) for the next 30 calendar days. The formal name of the VIX is the CBOE Volatility Index. Q: How is the VIX calculated? A: The CBOE utilizes a wide variety of strike prices for SPX puts and calls to calculate the VIX. In order

Dennis Gartman made a presentation as part of the MTA Educational Web Series on August 3, 2009. The archive of this presentation is available in the On Demand Video Archives. This presentation was made at a time when markets were very volatile. It includes Gartman’s analysis of the markets at that time. He began with a chart of gold. The chart is clearly indicative of a bull market. Intermarket relationships indicate that rising gold prices will lead to a lower dollar. Politically, a center-left government such as was in place at that time, will devalue the currency. These factors contribute to the trend, which was clearly up at that time. He is not a perma-bull in this, or any other market. At the time, the price of gold was just below $1,000 an ounce. This price point presented resistance at the time. This reminded Gartman of a great battle, and trading in his

Many MTA members regularly make their work available to the general public. EM Trend Advisors, maintained by G. Edward Gruber, CMT, is one of those sites. Ed offers clear analysis designed to help traders see the big picture. November 16, 2010: The Final Few Weeks http://emtrendadvisors.com/blog/november-16-2010-the-final-few-weeks When the red Starbucks cups hit the shelves, people start thinking Christmas. Granted, it’s not chestnuts roasting on an open fire or jingle bells but it certainly sends a message to start gearing up for Christmas. That also means gearing up for the always-important shopping season. The moniker of Black Friday (which traditionally belongs to the day after Thanksgiving) was recently morphed and overlaid onto the entire month. If that is the case, Black Friday may draw far less activity in stores. Another potential side effect of a “Black November” instead of Black Friday is that retailers will run deeper discounts for longer periods of time. That is