Stocks & Commodities V. 31:9 (10-11): Letters To S&C by Technical Analysis Inc.

Letters To S&C by Technical Analysis Inc.

STEP CANDLE PATTERN

Editor,

The upstep and downstep patterns presented in Figures 2 & 3 in Sylvain Vervoort’s July 2013 article (“The Step Candle Pattern”), [reproduced here as Figures 1 & 2], leave me with some questions:

1. All eight have four or five trading days illustrated. Are days 1 & 2 important?

2. There was no mention of the candle “wicks” (day’s high & low). Are they important?

3. For both the upstep and downstep, why do scenarios 1 & 3 as well as 2 & 4 look the same?

Jim Von der Wische

Author Sylvain Vervoort replies:

1. Days 1 & 2 are not important. I am simply trying to show the lowest low and highest high.

2. For the upstep and downstep pattern, the last candle has to open inside the body of the previous candle; whether there are wicks or not is not important for the pattern.

3. There are some differences. For example, in scenario 1 in the upstep pattern, the second-to-last candle represents the lowest low. In scenario 3, the lowest low is represented by the last candle.

TRADING CONTESTS

Editor,

Is there a back issue that covers any trading contests or that names the best top traders? Have you published any ratings or do you offer any newsletters on this? Can you recommend a good source for education on trading stocks, options, and forex, as well as technical analysis? I am trying to source the best traders to follow ideas from.

Lorne

As an educational, how-to magazine, we generally do not cover contests or rate individual traders. There are several organizations unrelated to this magazine that do hold contests and can be found on the Internet via a search. If it were ratings on trading systems you seek, we might suggest trying FuturesTruth.com or Collective2.com.

As for following other traders, we’ve recently listed some services in our monthly Trade News & Products section that may interest you; you can review that information for followup.

We do publish a Readers’ Choice Awards section every year in our Bonus Issue, which presents the results of our readers’ votes for their favorite products and services across more than 20 categories of investing software and services. It does not rate individual traders, but it presents a list of services and some resources that our readers find useful. You also may be interested in our monthly interviews, in which we get to know a trader or analyst in the field and learn about their approach.

As for education on technical analysis itself, simply put, this magazine has been the best source of education on technical analysis since its debut in 1982. We hope you will keep reading to take in all that the technical analysis community has to offer by way of this magazine and by way of our website at www.traders.com. You can also find leads to many other educational resources within our pages or at our site. —Editor