Cobra wrote:L_T wrote:Cobra wrote:indeed the 3rd touch means breakout. let's see how far can this breakout go. if simply every breakout is real, then trading is so easy, unfortunate it's not the case.
What are you looking for to confirm the breakout?
Breakout then consolidation above the breakout point.
Breakout and never stop.
So essentially there's no better way to trade breakout. Either you blindly buy all breakout, relying on the long run to win. Or you wait for breakout and consolidation above the breakout point. Or you wait for breakout and pullback to test the breakout point. Either way, you might miss a very important breakout which simply break and run away. It's safer to wait for pullback or consolidation, true, though.
minor note--cobra's points are certainly true but three other factors may apply. (1) the character of the market--so underling strength and momentum or the emotional feel. so if things are very strong in the direction of the breakout (re jan) it makes more sense to take the breakout 'blindly". (2) or watching put call as a sign of how people are positioned near breakouts--there is nothing more amusing than a huge put call in a low volume market--it feels like levitation. and it seems to break all the rules to really by the book ta guys--the trick is the low volume of trading which allows the puts to hold things up (3) the prior support or resistance near the breakout point--can be a clue in this current case we have 3 days and the daily 20 ema on the daily. using the rule of thumb of 1/2 the time to break overhead that it takes to create it gives no edge. it's certainly possible--but in the qqq we just lost a 3 month trend line and this is only the second try higher.
finally brooks doesn't like breakouts much and argues more for buying the chart action prior to the last part of the move up--and then sort of holding into breakout with a mental stop if the breakout fails. the idea works if you can easily see the area of the breakout--and you can act in advance. another way to look at it is that "the breakout area acts as an attractor--and thus in and of itself can be used prior to the point being hit--then if it works it's a bonus".
finally as cobra has said along with brooks and i got from some people i learned from--an expected or actual move that fails is often a great trade in the reverse direction. so using "rules" as "signals" as opposed to simple minded events.
on another note--there was some dissing of the idea AAPL would do anything different. i can totally understand that--but the fact everyone feels that way does bother me. i see minor changes happening at aapl--and i think larger ones are coming. so i think everything there is more edgy than people seem to think--that is not helping me to handy cap the meeting today esp--but it does balance the view. if trader girl and cobra are correct and aapl has legs then that's interesting from both the view the news though (proposed) market action or that something other than the obvious will play either at or around the gathering.