Wednesday, July 15, 2009

False Breakout

However, you should not misunderstand every false breakout as the result of the tricks big players play. False breakouts can be as a result of price action losing momentum soon after a breakout. Market running out of steam to reach higher highs and lower lows in a sustained price break may also give you a false breakout.When there are not enough sellers in the market to sustain a downward price move or enough buyers in the market to sustain an upward price move, the breakout will fade out soon and may not be sustainable. Individual traders have higher chances of success if they also fade the breakout just like the big players who love to fade breakouts.Profits potential in price breakout is far higher than in a failed breakout. Everyone wants big easy profits. Fading breakouts is counterintuitive and it is not something instinctive. The question is how to identify a false breakout.Look for fading breakout opportunities on a minimum time frame of hourly charts or more. Fading breakouts can occur anywhere on the price charts at the levels of support and resistance.You need to know how to draw trendlines. Trendlines are drawn by joining at least two extreme points of highs or lows over a long period of time. They can be horizontal or sloping. The price will bounce off the trendline in a false breakout and the probability of a false breakout is higher if the trendline is at an angle or a gradient. The chances of this fading breakout are more if the moving average lies slightly above the descending trendline or slightly below the ascending trendline. Usually the third or sometimes even fourth extreme point of contact on a gently sloping trendline presents a good fading opportunity.The chances of a false breakout or a trendline bounce will be much higher if the prices are approaching the trendline slowly and gently. The speed of price movement before the approach to the trendline should be considered. It is very important in identifying a fading breakout.There will be a sustained follow through in prices if the price action has a high momentum. The fast and high amplitude approach of price action will most likely result in a successful price breakout of the trendline on the other hand. In such a case, don’t trade it as a likely false breakout. You should place a limit or market entry order a few pips above an up trendline or below a down trendline. You will want to know how to trade a fading breakout? You can stagger your entry orders by placing another order a few pips away from the breakout if you are an aggressive trader.Now there are a few chart patterns that are ideal for identifying the false breakouts. About placing staggered entry orders for fading breakouts, you should do it with a proper money management plan. Stops should be placed at least 20-30 pips beyond the support or resistance, away from the price zone. This will make your average cost of entry more favorable for either your long position or your short position.
You need to know technical analysis if you want to trade forex successfully. There are some chart patterns where the false breakouts are more likely to occur. You need to apply a lot of common sense in identifying a false breakout. You should be able to identify likely false breakouts in order to employ the breakout fading strategy.Head and Shoulders Pattern: The pattern resembles the head and shoulder pattern of a human. This chart pattern is the hardest for new traders to identify. Don’t confuse it with a shampoo. The head and shoulder pattern consists of three points of rallies. The middle rally is the highest with the left and right being smaller. A horizontal or sloping neckline can be drawn connecting the lows of the left and right shoulders. It signals a bearish reversal or a consolidation period before the uptrend is continued if the head and shoulder pattern is found at the end of an uptrend. An inverted head and shoulder pattern can also be found in the middle or end of a downtrend. The head and shoulder pattern is usually found in the middle or end of an uptrend.If they are buying up the rallies from the support level, many traders who have identified the head and shoulder pattern as a possible breakout signal place their stop loss orders below the neckline. Head and shoulder patterns are notorious for precipitating a false breakout.Similarly, if traders are shorting the decline from the resistance level, they place their stop loss orders above the neckline of the inverted head and shoulder pattern. Traders can also place numerous entry stop orders below the neckline. Traders can also place entry stop orders above the inverse neckline in anticipation of a breakout besides the stop loss orders.False breakouts are triggered by the market makers to shake out the positions of small traders most of the time. Prices will usually rebound. There maybe explosive price movements off the neckline in the pre breakout zone.You may choose to place a stop loss slightly below the high of the second shoulder or slightly above the low of the second shoulder. You may fade the breakout with a limit of market entry order a few pips above the neckline or a few pips below the inverse neckline. It is always best to assume that the first break of a head and shoulder pattern will tend to be false.

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