Hello Fellow ChartWatchers!
The markets continue to move sideways causing trend and momentum indicators to gradually lose their usefulness. The best way to see that is to look at the "2000 DJIA - Daily Analysis" chart on the new "ChartWatchers LIVE ChartList" (click on the link and then scroll down). This is a list of charts that I track for the ChartWatchers Live webinar (which happens every other weekend). I haven't updated the annotations on those charts since my last webinar back on August 13th and, frankly, I haven't needed to. Sideways consolidation periods can be frustrating, but they usually resolve themselves in the same direction as the original trend - upwards in this case. Time will tell.
ChartCon 2016 Preview
As you hopefully know by now, ChartCon 2016 is right around the corner (Sept. 23rd & 24th) and things are really busy here as we prepare for our biggest conference ever. At this point we have over 800 people registered for the conference. That's almost triple the number that attended our previous conference! And registrations are still coming in - we hope to have over 1000 attendees registered by the time things get started on Friday, September 23rd.
Behind the Scenes
I want to take a moment and give you a quick behind-the-scenes look at all of the preparations that are underway right now so that you will have a better sense of what ChartCon 2016 will be like. What should attendees expect to see from our first ever on-line conference?
First off, ChartCon will be broadcast via the Livestream video platform, so ChartCon viewers will use a web browser (or app) connected to the special Livestream video page to see the conference. You can test out the Livestream platform right now to make sure that it works well for you - just click here and select any of the free streams that are currently going on (Ironman World Championship anyone?). Livestream works really hard to optimize the stream to work with whatever bandwidth you have and so hopefully you will see a good, quality video when you run this test. If you have any problems, click here for help.
Now, in addition to the video broadcast, ChartCon 2016 will also feature a mobile app created by a service called GuideBook. The ChartCon Mobile app can be installed on any smartphone or tablet - we will be sending out the link later next week. Once complete, you'll be able to use the ChartCon Mobile app to see the conference schedule, submit questions, chat with presenters, chat with other attendees, see social media posts, and much more. We think that the ChartCon Mobile app will really help ChartCon attendees get the most out of the conference.
Finally, we have assembled a top-notch crew of video engineers, designers and technicians who are all working very hard to make the ChartCon broadcast as smooth, useful and informative as possible. ChartCon 2016 will be very different from the one-persion webinars we have been doing up until now. We're talking sets, lighting, audio designers, pre-recorded videos, you name it! I am seriously considering having a credits scroll at the end - that's how many people are involved in helping make this ChartCon great.
"Sounds good Chip, but what about the presentations. What will I learn from them?"
Great point! All of this behind-the-scenes stuff is pointless unless we have great presentations to show, right? So first off, let me describe the general format of each talk and then I'll go over more details about what the conference will look like.
The General Presentation Format
In general, each presentation will last about 60 minutes. During each presenter's talk, you will see them on the main stage as they lead you through their slides and charts. At some point, they will probably switch over to the web and do some live demonstrations as well. While the presenter is presenting, you will be able to send in your questions via the mobile app on your smartphone or via social media (Twitter or Facebook).
After the presention is complete, there will be a 5-minute break as we move over to the "Interview" stage where the presenter will then answer the questions that were sent in during their talk. That Q&A segment should last about 20 minutes and then we will be ready for the next presenter.
After they are done presenting, presenters may hang out for a bit online (via the app and social media) to answer even more questions depending on time.
Between presentations, we'll have short breaks so you can get up and stretch, etc. In addition, attendees have the option of pausing the Livestream broadcast at any time on their computer just like it was a DVR recording. During the short breaks, we will be showing pre-recorded videos with lots of tips and tricks on how to get the most out of the tools on our website.
Click here to see the official Conference Agenda
A Quick Overview of the Presentations
So the theme of the conference is "Creating Your Own Technical Trading System" and we will spend much of the first day showing off several different ways that anyone can use StockCharts.com to make better trading decisions based on charts and visual analysis.
The conference will kick off with myself and Grayson Roze helping everyone get up-to-speed with Livestream and the ChartCon Mobile App. After those formalities, I'll talk about what a "Technical Trading System" is, what goes into make one and how you can tell if your system is working well for you. I'll present my own relatively straightforward system as an example and explain how and why I think it works.
After my talk wraps up, Arthur Hill will present a much more thorough example of a technical trading system with automated rules and backtesting results. After Arthur, Greg Morris will change things up somewhat by going over common mistakes that make people make when trading using technicals.
Next up will be Erin Heim who will show us yet another technical trading system - her DecisionPoint system that is now built in to StockCharts.com. And after Erin, Gatis Roze will take the stage and talk to us about his compehensive technical trading system - Tensile Trading - and how he uses it successfully every day.
So, right off the bat, you will see at least 4 different, successful technical trading systems that use StockCharts tools to make buy and sell decisions. But, more than that, you'll also be able to evaluate each of those systems and determine what parts best fit into your own investing. Remember, our goal here is to empower you to make your own investing decisions based on your own, customized, investing strategy.
Wraping up the first day will be our first keynote presenter, Martin Pring, with a big announcement about his Special K indicator and how it can be used as part of any technical trading system. Martin will also be reviewing the current state of the markets from his unique multi-market perspective.
And that's only the first day! The second day includes talks about RRGs, SCTRs, Wyckoff and Seasonal Trends with another keynote presentation from Sir John Murphy who will talk about Intermarket Analysis and the current technical state of the markets. The conference wraps up with a panel discussion that will include lots of Q&A from the audience and a final "put-it-all-together" talk from Grayson and myself that will be focused on concrete "next-steps" that you can take to bring the lessons from the conference into your own trading routines.
If you have registered for the conference already, you should have gotten your first "ChartCon Insider" newsletter the other day. We'll be sending out more of those as the conference gets closer.
(If you haven't registered for ChartCon 2016 yet and want to join us for all the fun on Friday, September 23rd and Saturday, September 24th, simply click here to register for ChartCon 2016. We'd love to see you there!)
- Chip
P.S. One last thing - we still have 3 open VIP seats available if you'd like to attend ChartCon in person. If you will be in the Napa area later this month and would like to join us in person, please send me an email message and I'll get you all the details. This once-in-a-lifetime experience includes seats for the presentations, a reception dinner with the presenters and either 1.) a round of golf with Tom Bowley and Greg Schnell, or 2.) a hot air balloon ride over Napa with Erin and myself!
