Some stocks worth looking at: WFR, BKS, XRX

etf: xlu made a breakout today. Also pcp is making a flag formation. Another good one is nty.

Jeff, the video does interrupt the rendering of the blog for about 5-6 seconds. So you may want to keep them short or experiment with ways to link to them rather than have them preload. MikeH

Take a look at IEDU. starting to take off. I think is the start of a flag. up almost 5% today.
might be due to Jeffs input
David S

Jeff,

What do you think about CLE? It looks to me like an ascending triangle, and the bollinger bands have gotten very narrow. Looks like it could pop any day.

Thanks Jeff for all that you do for everyone. Here are some stocks that I've been watching, looks to be forming a flagpole and or flags.

ZMH-$6.50 looks to be breaking out
MHK-$9.50
UNP-$7.00
LSTR-$6.00
DNEX-$7.00
GYI was in a descending triangle and the broke out and formed a $6 flagpole, would this still be consider a bull flag?

Thanks,
Glenn in San Antonio

Hey guys, take a look at SLP. Unusual volume and price movement since December. Just stumbled across this. Big spike today. Stock is showing a split which I find really strange considering the price. Not sure what to make of this. Very little data on the company. They appear to have only one software product. I don't own this, thought I would wait until I see more follow through.

MikeH

Mike H,
SLP looks like it could be one of those annoying "Stock Pick You Must Have" spams that hits my inbox 10 times a day. It gets a big boost on the day the spam goes out, then falls back a bit until another letter goes out. It's not optionable, and has average volume around 150,000. Not a big mover. I sure wouldn't touch it, but it is interesting to look at. I'm always concerned when the company financial results claim it is a "leading provider of simulation software" when it has a net total of one program...
Chris and Catherine.

Jeff, I am working on a firm set of
rules for trading flag patterns
I need your wisdom on the consolidation portion of the pattern,for example how long and
how much are acceptable amounts.
Can you offer me any insights, rather than text book stuff.I would
appreciate enlightenment, master
regards,Stan (AKA,grasshopper)

Anyone get in on ATHR today? (ascending triangle breakout). I'm in the stock at $23.25 today

I need some help from someone who really understands flags.

I am new to the blog and realize that these flag formations seem to produce a great return on investment. I missed out on the CROX and X analysis/subsequent gains. So I'm hoping to be able to spot some of them on my own.

Once you see the flag formation are you getting into a longer term trade and waiting for the flag to form so that you will already be in the trade when the stock shoots up again?

Jeff, I really appreciate the blog. You are helping me to redefine my part-time trading style. I hope that my trading money holds so that I can put into practice what you are teaching. I would love to grow this $2500 into something big!

Thanks,
Gary
Boston

Gary,

you ought to consider signing up for Jeff's price patterns class at Investools while he's still willing to teach it. I've taken the class over 10 times and while it may seem redundant at first, it's amazing how many times you need to work through this stuff until you get it right.

There are many ways to approach a flag and many types of flags. There are short term flags that last a few days and long-term flags that last weeks. If you look at PETD, you'll see a short-term flag in January that only lasted a few days. If you look at CTRP, you'll see a good example of a long-term flag that formed from november into early december.

The important points to remember are that you need a flagpole (a generally straight up movement) and a flag which is a sideways or slightly downward-trending consolidation. You're going to be tempted to pounce on the first big candle that pierces that trendline, but BE WARNED: If there's no big volume to support the breakout, pass on the trade.

For bear flags, just reverse it.

Also, wait until the end of the day to take the trade. I would have saved thousands from heeding this advice earlier.

Hope this helps you, but again, Jeff's class is the place you want to be.

I did take the ATHR trade today as well. Did anyone take the symmetrical triangle breakout on BONT? Wow.

Brett,
Thank you for the information and advice about Jeff's class. I would love to get better at this and be able to participate more in the discussions on here. I like this type of trading - just need a lot more help to get good at it!

Gary

Chris and Catherine, You know that was exactly my thought which is why I didn't buy this one. This just felt highly speculative.

MikeH

Stan & Gary,

Take a look at this link, it will help you get a good visual of what a flag should consist of.

http://optionaddict.blogspot.com/2006/11/ffiv-analysis.html

Stan...there are no specific timeframes other than the pattern should take at least 1-3 weeks to form. Normally the price spike is only a few days or so, and the consolidation is the same. Don't worry, you'll get a feel for it soon.

JK