Forex Basic: Two Period Reversal Pattern

The two period reversal is originally taken from the 2-day reversal pattern and as the name implies this particular pattern consists of two periods. I use two periods and I apply this pattern to all securities and time frames. A period could be 1 minute or 1 month depending on the time frame you are looking at. I like to see this pattern after a strong move up or down. It does not work in periods of consolidation.

For the two period reversal down, the first period should be at the end of a strong move up. The close should be near the high and it is preferable that this high should be a new recent high. The second period should open near where the first period closed and should lose most if not all of the first periods gains and close near the low of the first period.

This is the set up and you are now ready for the trade. Once the second period has closed you can enter short the market with a stop loss order just above the first or second periods high depending on which is higher. If the trade is to work is should not retrace back above the high of the two periods.

For the two period reversals up, the first period should be at the end of a strong down move. The close should be near the low of that period and it is preferable that this low is a new recent low. The second period should open near the close of the first period and should regain most if not all of the first periods losses and close near the high of the first period.

Once set up you can now enter the market long with a stop loss order below the low of the lowest low of the two periods. With both the up and down reversal there may be some retracement before the trade takes off but it should not pass below the low of the two periods or the high of the two periods depending on which direction you are trading.

I have found this trade to have a high probability of success, it does not however happen that frequently in the markets I have observed. It does however happen with sufficient frequency to have it on your list of set ups to look out for.

Forex Basic: Two Period Reversal Pattern / Martin Chandra

Martin Chandra is a full-time investor. Get limited offers at here.

Forex Basic: Outside Days

Outside days can occur frequently on daily charts. The secret of the outside day is the bigger the better and it has more meaning if found at the end of a trend.

They can be short lived and I always take my profit quickly. The outside day (OD) should completely encompass the previous day. It must have a higher high than the previous day and a lower low than the previous day.

One of the most important things about this pattern is that the bar closes in the opposite direction of the trend. If the trend is down the close on the OD must be near the high or in the upper part of the bar. The opposite is true of the up trend. The OD may still work if this is not the case but my research show that it is more effective if it does close in the opposite direction.

I like to trade this in two ways. First, depending on what the market has been doing prior to the outside day I will place a entry order a few ticks above the high of the OD if the trend has been down and I am looking to get long. Once I am in the market I will place my stop loss either as a dollar amount or at the .618 fibonacci retracement of the OD.

If you don’t know anything about fibonacci don’t worry, we will cover that in future lessons. The same applies to the short trade. If the OD occurred at the end of an up trend and I am trying to get short, I will place my entry order a few ticks below the low of the OD. Once taken short I will place my stop loss order in the same way as the long trade, either as a dollar amount or as the .618 fibonacci retracement.

The second way I like to trade this pattern is to trade it intraday. I closely monitor what happens at the high of the OD if I intend to go long and the low of the OD if I intend to go short.

Once the high or low has been taken as the case may be I will then enter the market on a 5 minute or 1 minute chart. For long position I will buy the first retracement with a tight stop loss order under an intraday support and if trying to get short I will sell the first rally with a stop loss order above an intraday resistance.

Forex Basic: Outside Days / Martin Chandra

Martin Chandra is a full-time investor. Get limited offers at here.

Forex Trading Pivot Points

Those of you who have been trading for a while will be familiar with Pivot Points. During this lesson I want to go over how to find a Pivot Point and also a slightly different method of using them. First let’s look at how you calculate a Pivot Point.

Using a bar chart you will observe that each bar has an Open, High, Low and Close. This information represents all price activity during that particular period.

In the case of the following example, we shall use a daily bar. To calculate the pivot point all you need to do is add the High, Low and Close. Once this has been done you next divide the total by three, e.g. the cash FTSE on the 2nd May 02 had a High of 5192.70, a low of 5125.50, and a close of 5174.10. If you add the three together, you get 15492.3. You then divide that total by three to get a Pivot Point of 5164.10.

OK, so far so good, but what do you do with this information? Well, one technique I like to use intra day is to use the pivot point as a trend indicator. We already know that the Pivot Point for the 2nd May was 5164.10 and we will use this the next day as an intra day trend indicator.

If the price is above 5164.10, then I would only be long and if it were below 5164.10, I would only be short.

As price can fluctuate around any given point I also add a further proviso. If I have support close to 5164.10, I will first wait for the price to pass through 5164.10 and support before entering short. If I have resistance close to 5164.10, I will first wait for the price to move through the Pivot Point and resistance before entering long.

This method becomes even more powerful when the Pivot Point is close to the opening price. If, for example, the opening price is 5174.10, the Pivot Point is 5164.10, and I eventually go short at 5155, I can stay short the whole day as long as it does not go above the Pivot Point.

Once in a position I normally have a very tight stop to begin with and then will follow the market with a trailing stop to lock in profits.

Another way I like to add Pivot Points to my analysis is for more long-term projections. I will use the Pivot Point of a Yearly, Monthly and Weekly chart. In this case it would be the High, Low and Close of the previous Year, Month and Week.

I like to think of the weekly Pivot Point as the short-term trend, the monthly as the medium term trend and the Yearly as the long-term trend. I find this particularly useful in Spot Forex. If I am below the yearly, monthly and weekly Pivot Point, I know I am in a strong down trend and I can scale into multiple positions over time. The same holds true for long positions.

The point is there are many ways to determine trend. You can also use Pivot Point to find potential Support and Resistance, which we will cover in later lessons.

Experiment with Pivot Points and see if it suits your trading style. At the very least it is always handy to know where they are and it may help you decide which side of the market you should be trading from.

Forex Trading Pivot Points / Martin Chandra

Martin Chandra is a full-time investor. To learn more about pivot points, go to here.