When you are doing a trade the question quickly comes out :  How and when do you leave without losing a cent ?   Aiming targets has to be one of the most important elements of your  trading strategy , and this is the subject of the next article in our series Technical Analysis Explained.

Objects can be found on time (I’ll keep doing the trade for three weeks ) or based on technically (I’ll stay in the trade until my slow moving average passes over my faster moving average)  or  profit-based (I’ll quit when I make the profit of 1000usd   ), or based on price (I’ll stop of the trade when it reaches my target price .)

Of the 3 methods each of them has some advantages and liabilities .  Technical exits are always available and remove this part of private judgment , however work well only in effective trends , cause deficit by congestion , and nearly always leave a number of money upon the table .  Found on time tools are helpful at times but just as often are net losers , and so shouldn’t be seriously taken as a solo tool .   Based on profit exits can train a trader to make frequent earnings but what happens when the trade continues far over your pre-planned exit point ?  This violates the simplest rule of trading: run after you win .

The best means of exiting is to decide aimed prices but only when these are heavily based in the market structure and point the market’s existing support and {resistance matrix}.  If your trade plan {takes into account} the natural support and opposition of the market then your target is going to be sound and the chances of yours of remove everything that the markets has is much more higher then with arbitrarily chosen, fixed-dollar profit targets (which attend to be emotionally driven )  or a technical moving average tool (which by definition is compelled to leave much money on the table ).

How do you aim profit targets according to market structure instead of an arbitrary dollar objectives?  For somebody it is not an easy question however for the trader who has created the understanding of multiple time period structure and the ability to project the support now and resistance levels forward into the future , directing targets is not hard to do . The basic skill is to {use your higher time-period support} and resistance levels ( this should commonly be one time-period higher than your trading time-period), and to set your target at the next logical support or resistance level beyond the current price.

Technical analysis explained as follows: Suppose you are day-trading the S&P E-mini contract.  You’re using a 5 minutes chart and take a position using your best entry tool . The market begins to move in your favor and enhance you have 5 contracts to put on a position you quickly accumulate a profit of 750usd.  You are glad and feel a bit greedy and that makes you want to get profits quickly , especially as you notice a slight retracement in the five minutes chart. But, well known the market structure is all the time at play, you step back for a moment and view the everyday and weekly charts. On your Drummond Geometry charts you can quickly see that your entry was close to everyday and weekly support , at the bottom of the daily envelope and close to the weekly envelope bottom too.  You can see that the logical target of this initial move is at the daily PLDot some 9 full points away, and that the improvement of the 5 minutes bar with its slight retracement is entirely normal and go on with the thought that the market has {further upside}. You set a price objective at the daily resistance and set an alert to sound when it is full filled , so that you are able to take profits here .  You can then further assess if the market will reverse and step back to the beginning support level or pause and keep going to higher level of resistance.

One of the main points is that when watching market structure as opposed to arbitrary dollar value price objectives you always control what the market is doing . As a technical analysis explained course teaches, full control taken by you enhance you know the structural aim at all times as the market moves between its higher time- period support and resistance levels.

I want to write about the things that you need to look out for when you are looking at a technical analysis course. Technical analysis is becoming more popular in trading and therefore so has the demand for courses.

To start with I will look at the things you technical analysis course should cover and then look at the delivery of the course. The are lots of key issues that I believe any course should cover. It is important that you find out if the course covers them before you sign up.

You want to be able to trust technical analysis and that is why you should understand the philosophy behind it. Charles Dow was one of the founder of this type of analysis so it is important that you understand how he used it. So that you fully understand the basic you need to go through the different charts there are.

Once the basics are mastered then your technical analysis course should move onto explain different types of patterns you see on the charts. These can be reversal or continuation. You will be surprised to see how often these can be seen.

A profitable method that people use is trending. You will see how using moving averages will help you spot a trend and then you will be able to use that to your advantage. This technique is used a lot in the markets.

Indicators such as volume and oscillators should be covered in a technical analysis course. These will give you more confidence in trusting the patterns that you are reading and help with the timing of your execution.

If we think about the deliver of the course now this is where you need to consider your preferences. How do you learn best? Do you prefer the theory or the practical aspect? Today we are lucky that we have so much choice when selecting a technical analysis course. You can do them in seminars, classrooms, from DVDs, books or the internet.