Is This the Time to Be a Contrarian?

Many successful investors and speculators, like Warren Buffett and George Soros, are said to be contrarians. But what does this really mean? And is it true?

Let’s have a look at the concept of contrarianism to find out whether it can give us some guidance during these exciting times …

Contrarians are investors with deep knowledge and strong self-efficacy. They possess a rare nature: They’re willing and capable of forming an independent opinion and sticking to it. Even if a huge majority of analysts, journalists, colleagues, and friends hold an opposite point of view.

As the legendary Wall Street analyst Henry…

Foreign Exchange Trading: The Emotional Discipline of Trading Forex

As we mentioned in Part 2 of our interview with Thomas Fischer, a veteran of inter-bank foreign exchange trading, the most important aspect of trading the highly leveraged Forex markets is discipline – emotional and numerical.

One deals with how much of your cash you put at risk on any trade, and the other with psychology – how you handle that fear and greed with your money on the line.

Thomas has granted us a rare glimpse into the mysterious world of Forex trading he prospered in for 22 years.

Today we are talking about the discipline it takes to become highly profitable.

Onward…

Watch That Triangle!

A triangle appears to be forming in the S&P 500, and also in the Dow Industrials. We always sit up and take notice when a triangle forms, because it almost always resolves in a major price move.

A triangle is composed of not fewer than five waves (a-b-c-d-e) which ricochet like a pinball between the upper and lower trend lines of the triangle. When the “e” wave is complete at or near a trendline, prices will bounce away from it in the direction of the next major move. As prices exit the triangle at the opposite trendline, we can measure…

Broken Trends & Symmetrical Triangles?

A trick or two from the technical vault…

While I certainly appreciate a good fundamental overview of a particular stock to support a bullish or bearish argument, one cannot gain a greater understanding of timing mechanisms without honing in on the technicals of a stock.

In the chart of Schlumberger (SLB:NYSE) below, you can see two key technical setups, the first being the basic trendline. See how shares snuggled close to the line. Once the stock bounced off two consecutive uptrend points, we can then plot its trendline. In October, the trendline was broken and you could have immediately taken profits and…