There's No 'Spam' In This ChartHormel Foods is on a tear. After being trapped under 43.54 for a few sessions it ripped higher blowing right through the most significant of the Aspen S/R Levels (Purple) and went right Red @ 48.84.
Use any consolidation or pull-backs to go long with an upside target at 51.07
FYI: all the lines on this chart have been here all year - no drawing in lines after the fact. Note how 45.93 had been pivotal all year.
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In Trading, Objectivity Trumps Subjectivity
“Every trader is a steaming hot bowl of bias stew and must maintain self-awareness and lucidity behind the screens as the trading day oscillates between boredom and terror.”
The above quote is from a good friend of mine and veteran FX trader Brent Donnelly. It completely nails the biggest challenge for new and even experienced traders: being as objective as possible when making trading decisions.
Yes, as you become more experienced, subjectivity, market feel and experience are part of one’s decision-making matrix, but early on you do not have that luxury.
If you start each day knowing that price action in the market is random it will remind you to think objectively. There are, however, repeatable patterns that occur again and again…..it’s your job to identify them.
That’s where Support & Resistance levels come in.
Definitions: “Support” and “Resistance” Levels
Many technical indicators and tools can be subjective and challenging to learn. This is not the case with support and resistance levels.
Support and resistance are terms for two price levels on a chart that appear to limit the security’s range of movement.
The “support level” is where the price regularly stops falling and bounces up.
The “resistance level” is where the price normally stops rising and dips back down.
The more frequently a price hits either level, the more reliable that level is likely to be in predicting future price movements.
Understanding Support and Resistance Levels
Remember, the more informed and objective we can be with numbers, the more confident we can be with our trades. That’s important because, although price action is random (a fact that has been proven time and time again), there are repeatable patterns we can use to get an edge.
Two of those objective data points we can use to gain an edge are support and resistance levels. These are two of the best tools we have when it comes to swing trading. Why? Because they give us strong data points that suggest where an instrument is likely (and unlikely) to go.
But this is really key: Arbitrarily cataloging each price level that appears to be relevant as a support or resistance level isn’t going to get you far. That’s why Aspen Trading takes a unique approach to support and resistance levels.
With Aspen’s Support & Resistance Levels, we measure where trades (prices) occur in terms of frequency. This gives us a sense of where market participants are wagering prices may go.
That’s about as raw and unfiltered as you can get in terms of displaying what has taken place. There’s no room for interpretation - this is raw data that can be used to get a sense of where prices may be heading.
Learning The “Four Sets” of Support and Resistance Levels
There are four sets of support and resistance levels that are part of Aspen Trading’s S/R framework.
Each set of support and resistance levels is unique to a specified period of time. We display each of them in different colors on our charts when we analyze trades to make it easy for us to understand the data as we get comfortable reading charts.
You’ll see each of these levels on display in the charts that follow below. The four sets of support and resistance levels are classified as follows:
There are four sets of support and resistance levels that are displayed by Aspen Trading’s S/R Analysis Tool. Each one is unique to a specified period of time that we then display directly on the chart. The levels are classified as follows
- Intra-day & short-term traders love the GREEN levels
- Swing traders gravitate towards the ORANGE levels
- Medium-term traders like to see RED
- And those longer-term folks dig PURPLE
IMPORTANT:
These lines will change/adjust until the end of the specified observation period is complete.
Once the observation period is complete, that range will then be displayed on the chart as a set of dotted lines that is shaded in to serve as a reference point for traders to know the key levels from the prior lookback period. This can often be very helpful.
What’s the distinction between the 4 color levels?
Essentially think of these levels on a rising scale of importance. While GREEN levels are certainly key, they do not hold the same level of significance as the PURPLE levels.
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