Articles for: ASX

Ever written something and upon reading it later realize you didn’t say quite what you meant to? Well that’s exactly what happened recently with my previous article on the hidden foreign exchange risks that often exist in trading instruments based in a currency other than your own.

Most of us of course like trending markets. They have long moves – up or down – and are easier to identify and invest into and we generally sleep better at night. But we can’t have our way all the time and sometimes markets have insufficient buying or selling force to move them strongly in one direction.

Perhaps chaos is slightly too strong a word for what we have experienced in global markets in the last few days. However it has caused some consternation, otherwise we would not have seen this kind of action:

Given the apparent devastation that resulted from the Global Financial Crisis, a casual observer would be forgiven for thinking that stock market investors are still licking their wounds. After all, the Australian market more than halved in value between Late 2007 and early 2009 and still remains a good 25% below its all time high. Fortunes have been lost and, according to the popular media, the hopes and dreams of the soon to be retired baby boomers have gone up in smoke.

When last we looked at Santos I left you with a little challenge to spot why I wouldn’t take an ABC short trade that was signalled on Tuesday 1 December. How did you go? It’s not too late to go and have a look now before you read on. The simple reason was that Point B, which occurred on 27 November, sat on the 50% level of a major range. To find this we look at the Weekly Chart, as follows.

In the early 1980’s a trader and a psychiatrist were having an ongoing dispute as to whether great traders were born or created. In order to resolve their positions the pair suggested that they recruit and train several individuals, provide them with accounts and see how they faired. The two having the argument were Richard Dennis and Bill Eckhardt and the subsequent experiment became the very famous ‘Turtle Traders’.