Stephen Bigalow of the Candlestick Trading Forum invites you to expand your stock market education and join our Stock Market Trading Chat Sessions on Monday and Thursday evenings at 8 PM ET.

The Monday night Stock Chat is for “Members Only”. Steve provides an in-depth analysis of the market week ahead and reviews specific recommendations. Members are able to ask Steve specific advice about their own personal portfolios.

The Thursday night Stock Chat is open to everyone.

Stephen Bigalow and a variety of Guest Speakers bring you the latest in trading software and share their personal strategies and investing techniques.

Free and paid sessions provide valuable trading tools to further your stock market education and help you to build an effective trading style.

Powerful workshops and mini-webinars have something for every level of investor interested in Stocks, Options, FOREX, Futures, or E-minis.

View Event Calendar Here

All sessions include interactive Q & A to Ask the Experts your specific trading questions.

At the very least, you’ll gain enough knowledge to hold your own during company sessions when making 401K investment selections or conversing with your personal investor.

Thursday sessions are recorded and available for playback and if you stick around long enough at times our generous experts provide some sort of freebie or discounted offer to show their appreciation to Stephen Bigalow and followers.

Coming up in July include a list of guest presentations that you don’t want to miss. Presentations with trusted financial advisers including…

• Tim Plaehn with SeekingAlpha
• Ray Burchett for Emini Analysis
• Metastock
• Mark Dannenberg of Options Money Maker
• Vince Vora with Trading Wins

That is just July! Each and every month Stephen brings those educators back by popular demand, depending upon what is occurring in the markets as well as newer traders who are making their mark in their specialty. Sign up and reserve your seat for each webinar so that continue to expand your stock market education.

You can view the event calendar here, you can follow us on Facebook as well, or twitter for notification of weekly events. Be sure to follow us on twitter for daily market updates that are posted daily on his blog. If you prefer facebook you can also  access the same information there.

Take a look at the event calendar and be sure to sign up for free webinars today!

Happy investing.

Stephen W. Bigalow possesses over twenty-five years of investment experience, including eight years as a stockbroker with major Wall Street firms: Kidder Peabody & Company, Cowen & Company and Oppenheimer & Company. This was followed by fifteen years of commodity trading, overlapped with twelve years of real estate investing. He holds a business and economics degree from Cornell University, and has lectured at Cornell and at many private educational investment functions over the past twenty years.  Stephen has developed and refined techniques using the Japanese Candlesticks to consistently pull profits from any kind of market. Bull or bear, stocks, commodities, or tulip bulbs, it doesn’t matter. All you need to know is how to recognize the easily-seen signals the Japanese Candlesticks create. Follow him and get ready to find out more about that 300 year old secret of Japanese Candlesticks and candlestick trading to get a head start!

We hope you were able to grab a “virtual” seat at the incredible event over the weekend.

If not, we have you covered! The recording of the full 5-hour training session is available online for the next few days. To view the full video you click on the link and once on the video page you will click on the far top right-hand side of the video“download” and save to your files. (if you don’t download you will only see the first 15 mins.)

(Prefer .Mov format? Click Here)

Here’s a recap of the speakers and links to their generous discount specials for Candlestick Forum subscribers. 

Stephen W. Bigalow – “Early Warning Signals for Reversal Alerts”

Exiting positions at the right time can make a huge difference in profits. Stephen Bigalow shares easy-to-recognize charting signals that identify when it’s time to take profits! If you’ve ever built up money in your trades, only to watch them slip away, then you know the importance of spotting trend reversals. View Recording Here!

Steve covers detailed technical analysis tools utilizing candlestick signals. Learning just a few major signals allows for bigger profits while preserving capital.

In this presentation you will discover:

• How to identify pullbacks versus reversals
• How to easily spot support and resistance price targets
• How to identify fast-moving stocks
• How to run with the trend

In less than one hour, anyone can begin using some of the 12 major signals used to trade any market condition.

*Stephen Bigalow offered his 5-Star Trading Plan at the end of his presentation! You can still get it…

Steve’s 5-Star Trading Plan shows you the exact steps that you can take RIGHT NOW to eliminate ALL emotion from your trade routine and turn yourself into a highly profitable and more consistent trader.

Click here to see Steve’s offer.

Mark Sebastian – “Using Volatility to Trade Direction”

Many traders attempt to use options to trade for direction only to learn that making money using options is not as easy as buying an option and being right on the move. Volatility can be like the wind at a traders back, or a head wind to the success of the trade. Learn to master it, and one can learn to use options as effective directional weapons. View Recording Here!

On Mark’s exciting one-hour webinar, you will discover:

• Understanding of volatility and how can affect a directional trade
• When to buy and option vs when to sell an option and why the decision can make such a difference in a trade
• How to pick the right strike for a trade
• A directional strategy Mark uses himself to select trades

This could be the best trading webinar you see all year!

*Mark Sebastian offered his OptionPit Daily Strategy Newsletter at the end of his presentation! You can still get it….

Join an active community working together to increase their trading knowledge and sharing actionable ideas. Perfect for new and experienced traders, banding together to share and improve their trading success.

Click here to see Mark’s offer.

Hubert Senters – “My Secret Weapon for Finding Better Trades”

One of the most important parts of trading is being able to identify the trend as quickly as possible. Identifying the trend, and being able to see possible changes before they happen. View Recording Here!

• How to know the prevailing trend instantly, on any chart
• Identify a trend change without second guessing yourself
• Know when it’s time to sell and avoid further falls in price

*Hubert Senters offered his Ichimoku 101 : Cloud Charting Secrets Course at the end of his presentation! You can still get it…

Hubert will explain the indicator in full detail, teach you what each line means in terms of your charting and trading, and also 7 setups for using Ichimoku in your daily trading.

Click here to see Hubert’s offer.

Dave Aquino – “Finding Big Morning Profits”

Learn How many of the world’s top traders, including a “$200 million fund manager,” are using price and volume to make super-accurate (and very profitable) trading decisions. View Recording Here!

In this webinar, not only will Dave share these same strategies with you, you will also discover:

• Why VOLUME is the secret most traders will never know, and how to use it to generate consistent profits trading stocks, bonds, options, commodities, or Forex!
• The single most important criteria that should be in place before you enter any trade.
• A simple technique that will help you avoid taking a trade that immediately goes against you.
• How to identify and trade price accumulation as well as price distribution.

*Dave Aquino offereda more comprehensive version of his presentation titled: Workshop: Finding Big Morning Profits Replay at the end of his presentation! You can still get it…

Click here to see Dave’s offer.

Andrew Keene – “How to Swing Trade The Names: AAPL, AMZN, FB, GOOGL, NFLX, TSLA, and TWTR”

This workshop will focus on KOTM’s strategies for swing trading some of the stocks most actively traded by both institutions and individuals. View Recording Here!

The live workshop covers the following and more:

• Learn strategies to use to profit from day and swing trading some of the most active names in the US equities market
• Learn how you can remove the emotion from trading and use methodical setups every time
• Discover the best day and swing trading setups for each of these stocks
• Understand how to use both stock and option strategies to take advantage of these setups

*Andrew Keene offered his “Swing Trade the Names” Workshop at the end of his presentation! You can still get it…

This workshop will focus on KOTM’s strategies for swing trading some of the stocks most actively traded by both institutions and individuals.

Click here to see Andrew’s offer.

That’s 5 Hours of Complimentary Training from 5 Industry Experts! You can view them in .Mov format as well at this link.

Be sure to view more events coming up hosted by Stephen Bigalow.

As the US economy struggled to free itself from the grips of the worst recession in nearly 80 years foreign investment began to look very attractive. Buying stocks in foreign companies is an effective means of investing. It can be profitable and it does not require directly doing business in foreign lands and in foreign languages. Two basic means of investing in stock as a means of foreign investment are to purchase foreign stock or to purchase stock of US companies doing business overseas. Both can be done by investing in the US stock market . Many US multinationals offer foreign investment opportunity albeit by proxy. Investing in American Depository Receipts of foreign companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange allows stock holders to participate in foreign investment and not need to speak German, Japanese, Chinese, or any other foreign language. Investing in and trading stocks listed in the NYSE or NASDAQ commonly provides one with more and better information for fundamental analysis than if one tries to invest directly offshore. Trading electronically in US stock markets also allows traders and investors to use stock technical analysis tools such as Candlestick analysis in order to profitably anticipate stock price changes.

Why foreign investment? Long term investment in growth stocks can be very profitable. It may well be easier for an average stock to be a growth stock if its business is in a growing economy.  By investing in stocks listed on US markets investors do not have to deal with unclear information, foreign language reports, or market manipulation that the SEC typically discourages in US markets. The same Candlestick stock charts that work well for trading or investing in a home grown US stock will work just as well for trading ADR’s of European stocks such a Roche, Nestle, or Siemens, the Indian conglomerate, Tata, or Petrobas, the Brazilian oil and gas giant. These stocks are amenable to day trading or long term investing . Their fundamentals are available as the SEC requires Level II and especially level III ADR’s to adhere to reporting requirements similar to those required for US stocks listed on the NASDAQ and NYSE .

Buying and selling stock in US companies that do business overseas gives investors a wide exposure to foreign investment. Companies like 3M, Cisco, Microsoft, and Proctor & Gamble do business across the face of the globe. Investors and traders can follow stock fundamentals of these companies looking for intrinsic stock value and a margin of safety . They can also follow technical aspects of these companies’ stock prices in order to profit by buying at the bottom of a price curve or selling before a market correction. Considering how volatile the markets have been recently there is a lot of potential for profit in foreign investment by those using Candlestick charts to guide the way.

Basic stock trading is a recipe for success, even in today’s complicated stock market . Basic stock trading requires both fundamental and stock technical analysis. Technical analysis of stocks using Candlestick stock charts provides traders with clear and accurate signals. Candlestick analysis allows traders to identify known stock price patterns to a volatile market. By doing so traders are able to profitably anticipate the upward and downward movement of stock prices , options prices, and futures prices on stocks . Fundamental analysis provides traders with a clear view of a stock’s potential, both upward and downward. However, the market discounts stock fundamentals as soon as they are known, leaving technical analysis as the tool of choice for basic stock trading.

Traders can use the tools of basic stock trading like both technical and fundamental analysis in trading derivatives, for example. Besides analyzing when to buy or sell stocks with Candlestick patterns, stock trading relies upon tactics for management of investment risk , diversifying a stock portfolio whether for short or long term trades, as well as the use of stop loss orders and limit orders in general.

Traders limit risk in basic stock trading by limiting the amount put a risk in each stock trade. Traders limit the risk of trading by diversifying their trades over several stocks or stocks in several market sectors. This trading strategy is similar to diversifying a stock portfolio in long term investing . In doing so a trader may miss out on having all of his money in the trade of the year and may also avoid losing all of his trading and investment capital in in one bad day of trading. However, the best way to limit risk in stock trading is to have a clear picture of what stocks are likely to do next. Traders using Candlestick pattern formations as their guide can have a clear view of market trends and when a market reversal is likely to occur.

Basic stock trading online includes the use of trailing stops through a broker and includes the use of limit orders. When a trader uses a well-defined and well executed trading strategy he avoids falling prey to greed and fear in his trading. By setting limits at which he will buy stock or sell stock he limits his risk. By using trailing stops in online trading he protects himself from a rapid stock price turn around. When a stock opens the trading day it may gap up or down from its closing price on the previous day. In this case limit orders may be useless as the stock price may start the day past the limit given by the trader. This is a good reason for day traders looking to profit from short term market moves to close out positions at the end of the day. The use of stock technical analysis tools like Candlestick signals allows traders to enter and exit the potentially most lucrative trades as fundamental to stock trading.

Trading during a recession or other times of economic stagnation is often more successful than investing. Traders can profit whether the stock market or individual stocks go up or down. With strategies such as options trading it is possible to leverage investment capital while also limiting investment risk. Trading during a recession allows traders to profit from swings in stock price even when long term stock market trends are flat or declining. It is always wise to do fundamental analysis of the stocks that one trades. Intrinsic stock value and margin of safety are drivers of eventual stock price and give traders a clear idea of stock price potential and likely trading range. However, when trading during a recession, as in most trading, Candlestick stock charts provide traders with a clear view of market sentiment. Using Candlestick analysis traders can sell stock, buy stock, sell short or profit in options by buying calls or buying puts. Technical analysis with Candlestick signals gives traders the ability to profit no matter what the economic conditions and not matter which direction the market is going.

During a recession those interested in long term investing often shop for bargains, a stock with strong fundamentals, a low price to earnings ratio, and the promise of renewed success when the economy picks up. The problem for investors is that this recession could last for a decade if analysts are right. The monumental debt burden in the two greatest economies of the world, the USA and the EU, combine to present a drag on economic growth that will eat away at long term profits and growth. However, the ups and downs the stock market caused by brief market trends and market reversal provide profit opportunity for stock traders. With the use of technical analysis tools such as Candlestick chart formations traders can anticipate changes in market sentiment. Using Candlestick trading tactics traders can profit from both the rise and fall of stock prices.

Using easy to read Candlestick signals, traders avoid being defeated by the psychology of trading. It is all too easy to become euphoric at what may appear to be a market breakout and all too easy to become distraught when the market falls. Candlestick patterns guide trading with statistically accurate appraisals of market patterns. Because markets repeat themselves a Candlestick signal gives a clear signal of coming price activity. Traders can avoid being tricked into poor choices by following the advice of the Candlesticks. In trading during a recession there often emerges an attitude among both traders and long term investors that things are just not going to get any better. That may be the case, even for a year or two. However, not all stocks languish during a recession. And, there is always market activity, up and down, as traders test the market. Those willing to do their homework and use the clear signals of Candlestick pattern formations can profit by trading at all times, including trading during a recession.

As stocks have taken a beating of late it could be time to look for bargains and buy cheap stocks. When deciding to buy cheap stocks for long term investing the investor is looking for different characteristics than a day trader who might buy cheap stocks in expectation of a quick profit. In long term buy and hold investing one looks for stocks that are underpriced in relation to their eventual value. Such stocks will commonly have a low price to earnings ratio, a strong margin of safety, and forward looking intrinsic stock value. An ideal stock for a long term investor is often lying forgotten by the market. It is not especially volatile. On the other hand when traders decide to buy cheap stocks they are commonly looking for stock volatility. They may look for stocks that have had drastic changes in their fundamentals and are in a period of market inefficiency as market sentiment settles on a stock price. Using Candlestick charts traders can buy cheap stocks before they rebound or sell short before the market makes them cheap stocks.

Picking stocks in a down market is only part of how to make money if one chooses to buy cheap stocks. The other part is timing. Candlestick analysis provides traders with an objective means of stock market and individual stock analysis. Long ago traders recognized that market price patterns repeat themselves. Rice traders in ancient Japan developed an easy to read system of signals for trading rice. Today Japanese Candlesticks are used for trading commodities, stocks, options, futures, and foreign currencies. Candlestick patterns essentially predict the future by remembering the past. When a trader or investor wants to buy cheap stocks he does so in order to profit when the stock rises in price. Although the long term investor may have a longer time horizon in mind he, as well as the trader, wants to buy stocks at the lowest possible price. He does this with an eye on the fundamentals of the stock but with his full attention on technical analysis tools such as Candlestick stock charts where he expects to see clear signals telling him when to buy stock, sell stock, sell short, or stay out of the trade.

Traders, unlike long term investors, look to profit from both the ups and downs of the market. By following stocks with Candlestick charts traders seek to buy cheap stocks before they rise in price, sell expensive stocks before they fall in price, and repeat the process each time the market cycles through the same set of stock price patterns that it has followed for many years. By assessing the fundamentals of a stock and gauging market sentiment with Candlestick pattern formations traders are able to distinguish between stocks that are likely to rise in price and cheap stocks that deserve to be cheap and may be on their way to bankruptcy or a buyout by a stronger competitor. The point, when using Japanese Candlesticks, is to profit from buying cheap stocks in either the long or short term.

Those who would like a nest egg stashed away for their later years will often seek retirement stocks, stocks with a good margin of safety as well as intrinsic stock value. Retirement stocks often pay dividends as well. The point is to have a steady income from ones portfolio while individual stocks still appreciate in value over the years. There is a conservative, buy and hold investing aspect to retirement stocks that requires a balanced stock portfolio. It also requires that investors still pay attention to what they have in their portfolio with both fundamental and stock technical analysis. The point of retirement stocks is that the well-chosen ones are profitable and don’t necessarily require minute by minute attention by the retiree who would like to devote more time and effort to learning how to sail, garden, improve his tennis backhand, or familiarize himself with the art galleries of the world. Nevertheless, the world of stocks has the tendency to change, which is what keeps making profits for traders using Candlestick analysis as a guide. Even with well-chosen retirement stocks such as consumer stocks stalwarts like Proctor & Gamble, Coca Cola, or Clorox, a little attention to the market using Candlestick patterns allows prospective retirees to pick stocks that are currently under priced and helps retirees rid their portfolios of stocks that are ready to fall in value.

The point of balancing a portfolio of retirement stocks is that economic conditions can drive stocks in different directions. During a recession consumer stocks often go up in price while growth stocks may falter. During a recovery growth stocks may take off again while consumer stocks will settle back into their usual routine. When oil stocks and oil futures go up in price, industrial stocks and transportation stocks often suffer, and vice versa. By diversifying a stock portfolio a retiree spreads his investment risk over several stocks in several market sectors. A valid concern in picking stocks is just how many stocks to choose. A wider range of well-chosen stocks helps diversify investment risk. By picking too many stocks the prospective retiree needs to devote time to following his stocks when he may prefer to take his wife out to lunch or stroll along the beach. He may also dilute the profits that he could have achieved from successfully investing in start-ups. Although a portfolio of retirement stocks will often be mostly large cap stocks, adding a couple of stocks with the potential for substantial growth may be a good idea, providing that the investor takes a close look at Candlestick chart formations to make sure that his choices are not ready for a market correction just as he buys the stocks.

When choosing stocks entry price is always important. Many good stocks for the long run have already been discounted by the market. The time to buy these stocks is when they are at their lowest price. This may be during a general market reversal or may have to do with the individual stock itself. Smart investors looking towards retirement pick strong stocks based upon fundamentals and then buy stocks based on technical analysis with Candlestick stock charts.

A good article from the archives from September 26, 2011 about buying US Treasuries. Worth posting again as I occasionally like to look back…

Investors are buying US Treasuries in a flight to security as both the European and American economies promise to stay in the doldrums from a prolonged period. Stocks have fallen sharply and risen again several times of late as uncertainty has led to persistent market volatility. Oil futures are down as are stocks. Gold futures are down as well, even in light of a retreat of the NYSE, NASDAQ, and stock markets across the world. It would appear as though those interested in gold investing are also uncertain about the duration of the decade long bull market in the precious metal. Investors are buying US Treasuries in this uncertain world even after Standard and Poors downgraded US debt after the Capitol Hill fiasco in which congress and the president were unable to come to a quick compromise on raising the US debt ceiling. With the use of sound fundamental and technical analysis traders can profit from swings in interest rates when buying US Treasuries and selling them. Candlestick analysis of interest rates helps traders objectively anticipate market trends and market reversal in rates and profit thereby.

Recently investors were buying US treasuries, the ten year note, for as low as a 1.76% yield. US Treasury notes are issues form terms ranging from one to ten years in denominations of $1,000. $1,000 is what the investor will receive if he holds the note to maturity. He will also receive taxable interest every six months for the duration of the note. What he pays when doing this will depend upon the market. By comparison Treasury Bills have maturities of four weeks to a year. They are sold at a discount and the investor receives the par value of Treasury Bills. For those interested in long term investing when buying US Treasuries there is the Treasury bond. These are typically sold as a 30 year bond. Sales of the gold bond have fallen dramatically in last decade or more as those buying US Treasuries have been concerned about inflation eating away at the value of their long term investment. Traders, however, can profitably buy bonds or sell bonds. In a stable currency this is essentially interest rate investing. On the other hand investing in the national debt of several of the so called PIIGS nations (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) is a bet on whether these nations will default on their debt or be bailed out by wealthier members of the EU and foreign investors in the nick of time.

US Treasuries are issued with a fixed rate of interest. One can purchase them directly or in the secondary market, through a stock broker, for example. Traders profit as investors perceive market risk to be too high throughout the world and engage in buying US Treasuries. Traders use Candlestick patterns to anticipate interest rate movement just as they use Candlestick pattern formations in stock trading, options trading, and futures trading. To a degree buying US Treasuries involves foreign currency trading. Investors buy dollars with Euros, Yen, or British Pounds and then, by buying US Treasuries, hold assets in US dollar denominated instruments and hold an investment that has never defaulted. Traders can also profit by keeping an eye on the Forex markets in case of a flight to the dollar as things worsen.