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    Technical Analysis A Newbies' Guide: Trading Stocks with Simple Strategies Using Technical Analysis
    Technical Analysis A Newbies' Guide: Trading Stocks with Simple Strategies Using Technical Analysis
    Technical Analysis A Newbies' Guide: Trading Stocks with Simple Strategies Using Technical Analysis
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    Technical Analysis A Newbies' Guide: Trading Stocks with Simple Strategies Using Technical Analysis

    By Alan Northcott

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Looking for a simple guide to technical analysis of the financial markets? Technical Analysis – A Newbies’ Guide is what you need if you want to learn the principles of technical analysis plain and simple.
    This is not technical analysis for dummies, as the author assumes that the reader is intelligent, ready to learn, and simply uninformed. You will find technical analysis explained in the clearest of terms, as Northcott is an experienced trading educator and financial author with fourteen books in print currently.
    The book covers technical analysis of stock trends and other financial markets, including:

    The Dow Theory – the basis of modern technical analysis
    Trends – how to recognize them
    Support and resistance, and their uses
    Chart patterns – what they mean
    Moving averages, and how they can tell you to trade
    Technical indicators and oscillators
    Candlestick charting
    Ichimoku Cloud Charting
    Elliott Wave Theory
    Fibonacci Numbers
    Money management and position sizing
    Developing a trading plan

    This essential guide is part of the popular Newbies’ Guide to Finance series.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlan Northcott
    Release dateJun 8, 2014
    ISBN9781311711892
    Technical Analysis A Newbies' Guide: Trading Stocks with Simple Strategies Using Technical Analysis
    Author

    Alan Northcott

    Alan Northcott is a successful financial author and trading educator, having been writing in the sector for some years. He has ten conventionally published books which were completed with Atlantic Publishing, and more recently has self published four more. These are in the "Newbies' Guide to Finance" series, and they fill a perceived need for straightforward introductions to various aspects of finance. All books are available in print and Kindle editions. In addition to the books published under his name, Northcott has ghostwritten several other books and regularly contributes articles and other writing for a variety of print and online clients.

    Read more from Alan Northcott

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    Reviews for Technical Analysis A Newbies' Guide

    4.5/5

    63 ratings12 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Content is very limited. But good beginner guide if you want to get into day trading
    • 5/5
      It is a short book and straight ahead to the point.
    • 5/5
      This book was straight forward, helpful, and not overly complicated. It is a perfect book to help set a solid foundation before jumping into more detailed analysis. Thanks.
    • 5/5
      Recommended to a noob who wants to jump into stock trading during these unprecedented times!
    • 4/5
      It is a good book indeed for Newbies! A must read for new traders..
    • 3/5
      Nice if you’re already familiar with trading and don’t wanna go into small details
    • 5/5
      A great book for understanding the very basics of charts.
    • 5/5
      Good for a start as a beginner. Recommend it to all
    • 5/5
      Easy read with a lot of valuable information. I highly recommend it to any new traders.
    • 1/5
      The information is lacking and explanation is too brief which cannot be understood
    • 4/5
      Great for beginners ! Simple and direct which cuts through technical jargon in the best manner.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Great as the explanations for technical concepts were written in a fairly easy to understand manner.

      1 person found this helpful

    Book preview

    Technical Analysis A Newbies' Guide - Alan Northcott

    Technical Analysis - A Newbies’ Guide

    Trading Stocks with Simple Strategies Using Technical Analysis

    Alan Northcott

    Published by Alan Northcott at Smashwords

    Copyright © 2014 Alan Northcott

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment, and may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    Disclaimer and Risk Disclosure

    By reading this book you agree that this book and any ideas expressed within is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute advice or recommendations. Trading in the financial markets, whether for short or long-term purposes, is risky and may not be suitable for all investors. You must understand that you may lose any money invested, and in some markets you may lose more than your initial investment.

    Before you start trading, you should carefully consider your financial situation, your level of experience and knowledge, and your appetite for risk. You could lose some or all of your trading capital, and you must understand how to mitigate that risk. No liability is accepted by Alan Northcott or his successors for any losses whether direct, indirect or consequential suffered by the use of any information contained herein.

    The information given in this book is for educational and personal enjoyment purposes only, and is not a recommendation to enter into trading in any form. If any specific trading or investment or legal advice is required, the services of a competent and appropriately licensed person should be sought.

    Table of Contents

    Introduction

    The Dow Theory

    Basic Charting

    What Is A Trend?

    Chart Patterns

    The Importance of Volume

    Moving Averages

    Technical Indicators

    Candlestick Charting

    Ichimoku Cloud Charts

    Elliott Waves and Fibonacci

    Money Management

    Putting It Together

    About the Author

    Introduction

    What is technical analysis? Is it something for the nerd to revel in and a regular person to be perplexed about?

    No, it is actually something that is very simple in concept, but can be plumbed to great depths. Let us first get something out of the way. The technical in technical analysis does not mean that you have to be an A student in mathematics to be able to understand and use it.

    I have an engineering background and a mathematical bent. That is probably not surprising. My mother worked in the tax office, would amuse herself on bus journeys by making up number puzzles with the serial number of the bus ticket, and would always know exactly how much the bill should be at the local supermarket by the time she got to the checkout.

    It helped that in England they do not add tax to the total but include it in the article pricing; but to make it harder, those were the days of pounds, shillings, and pence, so no easy decimal addition.

    My father was in banking all his life, and was a foreign-exchange manager. So you can see that the left side of my brain was bound to be dominant in my life.

    When it came to trading the markets, I naturally thought that I had a built in advantage. I was wrong. Technical analysis is as much an art as a science, and you cannot just formally calculate the inevitable winners. No one can.

    What you can do is increase your odds of success. With the markets, much as some may tell you this or that will happen if you see a certain signal, nothing is inevitable. At best, the signal means more likely than not.

    By increasing your odds of success, on average you will choose better and stand to make a decent profit from your trading.

    Once you accept that you cannot know definitively which way the market is going, but only tip the probabilities in your favor, then you may still be worried that technical means you have some calculations to perform.

    Do not be concerned. Computers and software do all the hard work for a regular trader, and provide all the information you need with no mathematical ability necessary. I talk in the book about the calculations that make up the trading indicators you may use simply so you can understand why they work. You will not even need a calculator to use them.

    A.N.

    P.S. If you become interested in the more intuitive side of trading, I recommend a book by Curtis Faith, one of the original Turtle Traders, called Trading from Your Gut. I wrote an endorsement for it, but do not benefit from recommending it.

    P.P.S. Although it is a fascinating read, if you are a Newbie I would recommend you getting familiar with conventional technical analysis first before trying out the methods of Curtis’s book.

    BACK TO CONTENTS

    The Dow Theory

    Typically, a discussion of technical analysis must start with the Dow Theory. Charles Dow was one of the fathers of modern trading, and his name is still remembered today in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, one of the leading stock market indices that is often simply called the Dow.

    Dow teamed up with Edward Jones in 1882, forming a business that delivered a handwritten newsletter to banks and brokerages. This became known as the Wall Street Journal in 1889, and is still in publication.

    Dow wrote many articles about the markets, which always fascinated him, and he decided to put together an average of stock values in 1884. To Dow, this provided a ready means to indicate the health of the business community.

    The first average was made up of 11 stocks, nine of which were railroad stocks. In 1896, Dow decided to split out the transportation stocks into a separate index, and that is when the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) and the Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA) came into being.

    The new DJIA included 12 stocks and the DJTA had 20. Dow had shown exceptional insight by recognizing the importance of tracking individual market sectors.

    Dow wrote a lot about his thoughts on the stock market, mainly in the form of editorials published in the Wall Street Journal. He died in 1902. He never wrote a book, and the term Dow Theory was coined after his death when his notes were assembled.

    Dow’s Principles

    It is said that Dow never saw his observations as a means to trade the stock market, but simply a way of describing general economic prosperity. Nonetheless, the principles that he voiced are still considered valid and applicable to trading. They are usually spelled out as six tenets or principles: –

    1.

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