When you buy a stock, do you look at the chart? And if you do, are you sure you know what it’s telling you? I looked at charts for years before I realized I didn’t really understand them, and finding that out changed the way I trade. I’m a part-time swing trader with a full-time job and a family, and I trade in the time I have before work and after the house goes quiet. I started teaching myself technical analysis in 2019, but even then I was still buying at the wrong time, following other people’s picks and holding on to positions long after the chart had shown me I was wrong, because I couldn’t read the signs. What changed things was studying properly from the end of 2024 onward and building the chart into a process with clear rules around it. Today the chart always comes first for me. It tells me whether the timing is right, where I’m wrong if the trade doesn’t work, and how much I can sensibly risk. I still check a handful of fundamental metrics before I act, and if they don’t back up the chart, I pass on the trade. The biggest thing understanding charts has given me is clarity. I’m no longer buying a good company at the wrong time and hoping it works out, and I’m much quicker to cut a position when the story has changed. That’s what my blog is for. It’s my public trading journal, where I share my trades and the lessons behind them, a weekly review and plan every Saturday, and my real results each month, losses included. Whether you’ve never looked at a chart or you’ve looked at plenty without being sure what you’re seeing, I hope you’ll find value in following along and learning with me. rotstrading.com/?v=2

Knowing how to identify the 4 different stages in a stock's cycle is critical for anyone investing in the stock market. You might be looking at a company with great fundamentals but buying at the wrong time may result in locking your money up for a time and sitting through an excrutiating draw down instead of buying at the right time and seeing gains almost immediately. Timing is everything

Every Saturday morning I write a newsletter that looks back on my trading week and plans the week ahead. It’s part of my weekly journaling routine, and it sets me up so that I’m not worrying or stressing about my trades during a busy work week, because the thinking has already been done. Have a look at this week’s edition to see what I write about. If you’d like it in your inbox every Saturday, you can sign up with your email address. It’s free. rotstrading.com/everyone-els…

Proverbs 16:3 - "Commit your work to the Lord. and your plans will be established" I spent some time really thinking about this verse and what it means. What does it mean to commit my work to the Lord? What does commit mean? How will my plans be established? All throughout scripture God calls his people to trust him and to walk in faith. For us as human beings this is probably the hardest thing to do. To trust in someone without any reassurances and not have any guarantees of a certain outcome is hard, we like to do everything ourselves because we feel it is on our control and the outcome is in our control, but the reality is, it's not. To commit something to someone means to hand it over, to give, assign or entrust it to that person. This is what God wants from us, to take our plans that we make, our work and daily toil and give it to him. He will help us and carry the burden. Proverbs 3:5-6 says: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths". Okay, so now we give it to him, then what? Well, it says "your plans WILL be established"...... How? Don't worry about it, it is not for us to be concerned about how God will do this. In the book of Job, chapter 38, God responds to Job asking him if he knows how the world works, how it was made, how it is governed? None of us do. God is sovereign and in control of everything. So how will my plans be established? I don't know! All I know is that the God who created everything and rules over everything tells me it will, so don't worry about it. This is what I want to challenge myself with: To continually pray and ask the Holy Spirit to remind me of this, commit my work to Him and have the faith that everything will work out for my benefit according to His will and purposes. Have a blessed Sunday everyone!!

$FSLY Big base with a symmetrical triangle continuation patter forming. I like the looks of this one, but timing is not ready yet..... soon it will be. Keeping it on the watchlist.

Time in the market beats timing the market, but as a trader I’ve learned that when I get in matters just as much. The biggest thing understanding charts has given me is clarity. I’m no longer buying a good company at the wrong time and hoping it works out, and I’m much quicker to cut a position when the story has changed.

15mins left in this poll. Let's see if we can get some more responses. I would loooove to see way more than 6

I've been mentioning rotation and breadth quite a bit this week. The market is not all doom and gloom out there. There are some good pockets out there and broadly things are improving

$VNOM setting up well. I'm waiting for a pullback to the pivot to see if there will be an opportunity to swing at this one

$KOS is really looking very interesting here. On the weekly you can see how it formed a bottom and now coiling up on the right side, ready for the next move. The daily chart shows you that it already broke through the range pivot on Friday. What I'm looking to see early next week is a pause and a possible retest of the pivot or the cluster of moving averages. Energy theme is still leading and there are some good opportunities out there

My weekly Review and Planning Newsletter is out. You can read it below. Stocks on my watchlist for next week are: $KOS $VNOM $FSLY $ELF $OMCL $U $BMNR $AGIO $PII rotstrading.com/everyone-els…

I'm very interested to see some feedback on this poll from a wide range of people, but my circle is too small for any meaningful results. I would greatly appreciate it if some of you guys can repost in order to reach a wider circle. Thank you very much. @boltqt @linbo_tang @OptionEdgeHQ @jbfinancebull @Alphacoreinvest @TheBrilliantBu1 @loveleesfinance @PenneyInvests @BrandonWealth

The Close · Fri 23 Oct 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: 🟠 Amber · Sitting on my hands 𝗩𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆: No moves. 𝗔𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗿: No moves. Today was the first day in a while where I did absolutely NOTHING and it's a good feeling. I had a plan coming into this week and I think I executed pretty well. Overall it was a fairly uneventful day in the market, no major moves in the realm I'm moving in. The $RSP closed the week above the 50SMA, which has become my main indicator in recent days. As long as this index stays strong and trends upward while the $SPY remains where it is, we're in business. MVP's for the week (as @linbo_tang puts it), were $HNGE and $NOW. They were both solid performers this week with rising RS lines. $SNAP and $LYFT both had quiet days, both printed inside bars. I like this price action. $CRCL moving in a very tight range and is coming close to exploding out of this coiled position. $PGY ending the day well after the initial sell-off forming a nice upside reversal bar. All and all, I feel pretty good going into the weekend and looking forward to tomorrow morning where I can review my week and plan for next week

These are the 4 pillars my trading revolves around. I'm very intentional in focusing on them every week and reminding myself to keep working on all four

Trading/investing is such a subjective endevour, there are litterally as many ways to make money as there are people trying to do it. The only way to ensure long term success and consistent profitability is to forge your own path. You have to put in the time to study, develop your own strategy and develop a repeatable process. Following others is a very good way to learn, but never try and copy their playbook, build your own.

I publish my trading results on my blog every month, the good months and the hard ones, published as they happened and adjusted for deposits so that what you see is what my trading actually did. That includes the losing streak I wrote about in September, and the month earlier this year when my trade selection was fine and I still lost money because my position sizing let me down. Those are the months I've learned the most from, so leaving them out would defeat the point. If you're wondering what the journey really looks like from one month to the next, you're welcome to follow along. rotstrading.com/results