PowerSwings.com
Figure 1: From powerswings.com
Will a massive post-election bull market in stocks do for financial weblogs what the US Presidential election season did for political blogs? I have no idea whether the consensus view of ever-higher stock prices is any more correct than the consensus contrarian view of a gut-wrenching market collapse, but as long as the markets remain a place of fascination, opportunity, and controversy, there will always be those looking for insights and, fortunately, those talented and articulate enough to provide them.
One such articulate talent is Teresa Lo, founder of PowerSwings.com and a frequent Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities contributor. While the dotcom bubble encouraged legions of financial analysts, money managers, and others to try to become more interactive through message boards, chats and chat transcripts, and other methods, a great many of those efforts either imploded with the dotcom bubble burst or metastasized into semifinancial, semipolitical web journals -- and eventually blogs -- leaving the space for ongoing, running market and economic commentary from real market participants largely to the contrarian camp of gold bugs and perennial market bears.
While some have taken to the radio to broadcast their message of sounder stock ownership, others, like Lo, have remained committed to the Internet as a primary mode of communicating with the thousands who have followed her work as a trader and technical analyst from her days with Intelligent Speculator and TrendVue.com. And unlike the worthwhile, but stuffy and often highfalutin' market commentary that is available from many of the "suits" from Wall Street and the big money management firms, Lo's market blog at PowerSwings.com is both highly informed and an engaging read.
Some reviewers of PowerSwings.com have suggested that the blog had a "sometimes acerbic" tone, but those who prefer a trader's honest take to the equivocations of mainstream financial media discourse will be glad for Lo's refusal to mince words. For all the time many of us spend wondering how much a given financial media talking head is being paid to say what he says, a few minutes reading PowerSwings.com should suffice to prove that Teresa Lo is on no payroll but her own.
On a typical browse through PowerSwings.com, a reader might encounter Lo's views on the broader economy, the dollar, and the fate of free trade, or the often tricky relationship between having an opinion on the market and actually trading the market. At the same time, you might run into pocket exegesis on the role of nutrition, accompanied by a recipe for Caprese salad.
As a commentator on trading, Lo is both concise and generous. Trading and market sentiment are among her frequent topics, and a number of entries are devoted to explaining the relationship between price action as shown on a chart, and market sentiment as it often comes across in newspaper articles and press accounts. Elsewhere, the results of one of her stocks scans -- with a brief explanation -- might suffice for a blog entry. Lo also makes regular appearances at Trader Talk, the real-time online chatroom hosted by PowerSwings.com and available throughout the market day.
To be sure, the blog aspect of PowerSwings.com is only a portion of the larger project. PowerSwings serves as a platform for Trader Talk; "The Daily Transcript," daily analysis and opinion on the markets available on a subscription or per-transcript basis; the technical trading tools suite, PowerTools, developed by Teresa Lo; and Lo's book, The Ultimate Trading Course, which can be purchased in its entirety or chapter-by-chapter from the website.
Unlike political blogs, financial blogs such as PowerSwings.com have the advantage of, in effect, keeping score. After all, it's one thing to handicap the South Dakota race for the US Senate, and another thing to weigh in on whether the dollar bounces or breaks as it approaches historical lows. Online political markets like TradeSports notwithstanding, the real pocketbook consequences of the stock, currency, and futures markets mean that there is far more on the line for the financial blogger than the political one.
But since she has managed such fine lines as a trader (her profile in
Mark Ingebretsen's 2001 book, The Guts & Glory Of Day Trading, is titled
"How To Grow $20,000 Into $1,000,000 In One 'Horrible' Year"), Teresa Lo's
readers, visitors, and clients can rest assured that their scribe and market
guide has indeed "been there" and "done that." And in a world of mad, starry-eyed
market bulls and market bears still pacing the side streets in their doomsday
sandwich boards, it is hard to think of a better time for the kind of intelligence,
insight, and humor found at PowerSwings.com.
--David Penn, Technical Writer
TechnicalAnalysisSite.com
Figure 1: www.technicalanalysissite.com
There couldn't be a more appropriate domain name for a site dedicated to technical analysis, and when a dedicated technical analyst comes across such a site, he or she will expect nothing less than an overdose of technical analysis. So will this site satisfy the technical analyst's craving?
What I found from navigating TechnicalAnalysisSite.com was that it was nothing more than an educational and informative site that discusses various technical analysis indicators, although not all of them -- in fact, not even a large percentage of them. But the site is free, which is a rarity in this day and age. On the homepage you'll see a chart of the smart money flow index. Now I've heard of the money flow index, but this had the word "smart" added to it. My initial thought, when I saw the reference to this indicator, was that it was probably a proprietary indicator that was a modification of the money flow index. To find out, I clicked on the link for more information and did see a short description explaining how the indicator is calculated and how it can be applied, so that was enlightening.
Going back to the homepage, below the chart you'll see a table of weekly market data that includes information on the broader indexes, advancers/decliners, various sentiment indicators, and short sales. This is pretty much in line with how the indicators discussed on this site are divided. Along the top of the homepage are the following links: smart money flow index, advance/decline indicators, market indicators, short sales indicators, and sentiment indicators. Clicking on any of these categories brings up a list of indicators covered under the specific category, and when you click on any of these indicators, you'll see a brief description similar to the one for the smart money flow index. Of course, the type of information will vary from indicator to indicator. The descriptions of these indicators are clear and easy to understand, making it an excellent site for reference purposes.
Along the right-hand side of the site you will find links to daily market statistics, weekly market statistics, daily market information, charts, and so on. All of these will send you to other websites that provide charts or commentary. I have to admit that I was rather disappointed with the limited number of indicators that were discussed on this site, so it didn't surprise me when I found that it was really a starting point -- that is, the free section of a subscription-based site, www.WallStreetCourier.com (which we may review in a future issue). Nevertheless, TechnicalAnalysisSite.com is a good way for a novice technical analyst to learn about some technical indicators before graduating to the next level.
--Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan, Editor
Originally published in the January 2005 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2004, Technical Analysis, Inc.