Trend Trading for a Living This page intentionally left blank Trend Trading for a Living Learn the Skills and Gain the Confidence to Trade for a Living Dr. Thomas K. Carr New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2008 by Thomas K. Carr. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-154420-8 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-154419-4. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps. McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. For more information, please contact George Hoare, Special Sales, at This book is dedicated to: . . . my father, who is a much better pastor than investor, but is supportive of my work nonetheless; . . . my late mother, who always encouraged her sons to follow their dreams; . . . my lovely wife, Ina, for looking after our toddler without complaint while I wrote (and for directing me back to the computer when I wasn’t writing!); . . . and my two lovely daughters, Natasha and Nadia, who are my best investments; the risks may be great, but the return on equity is priceless! This page intentionally left blank For more information about this title, click here contents FOREWORD BY ALAN FARLEY xi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv INTRODUCTION From Passion to Profession 1 PART ONE Preliminaries CHAPTER 1 What You Need to Get Started 29 CHAPTER 2 Becoming a Chart Reader 39 CHAPTER 3 Developing a Trader’s Mind 71 CHAPTER 4 The 10 Habits of Highly Successful Traders 83 PART TWO Trend-Trading Basics CHAPTER 5 What Is Trend Trading? 93 vii viii CONTENTS CHAPTER 6 Setting Up Your Watch Lists 103 CHAPTER 7 Determining General Market Direction 113 CHAPTER 8 Put Your Market-Reading Skills to the Test 133 PART THREE Get Started in Trend Trading CHAPTER 9 Selecting Bullish Stocks to Trend-Trade 155 CHAPTER 10 Selecting Bearish Stocks to Trend-Trade 191 CHAPTER 11 Entries and Exits 227 PART FOUR Trend Trading with Options CHAPTER 12 Options Basics 243 CHAPTER 13 Options Strategies: Bullish Trends 271 CHAPTER 14 Options Strategies: Bearish Trends 277 CHAPTER 15 Options Strategies: Neutral 283 CONTENTS ix PART FIVE Trading for a Living CHAPTER 16 The Bigger Vision: Where Trend Trading Can Take You 311 FINAL THOUGHTS 329 INDEX 333 ABOUT THE AUTHOR 341