Even though companies and technologies have changed, we are still influenced by the pain of losing and the pleasure of winning. Consequently we largely make decisions based on emotions and not rational assessments. Studying the stock price allows us to identify patterns that represent greed, fear and uncertainty among the investors. One of these patterns is the Rectangle formation.
Rectangle formation (REC)
The rectangle formation is my favourite indicator. It is a short term formation, referred to in the theory as a continuation pattern. It signals the further direction of the stock and can be identified alone or in combination with a trend. The rectangle formation mirrors a degree of insecurity among investors, where buyers and sellers are pushing the stock price sideways. The supply and demand graph is constant, awaiting new information or news. When the stock breaks through former tops or bottoms, this indicates expectations for the direction to come and gives good trading opportunities. The height of the formation indicates the level of uncertainty in the period between optimists and pessimists, and therefore gives a potential target price. The formation is easy to understand and provides fundamental confidence.
Strategy – buying instead of shorting
The long term creation of value in the stock market is better for a buy and hold strategy than for short selling, which increases the risk for ordinary investors as well. This is an important reason to emphasise buy signals over sell signals. Our statistical analyses also show that buy signals from rectangle formations give good excess return over time. In the period 1996 to 2008 we identified 1,088 buy signals from rectangle formations on the Oslo Stock Exchange. 67 % of the stocks reached target price within a time period of the same length as the formation. We saw similar results on the Dutch stock exchange in the period 1996 to 2004. This strengthens the basic algorithms and opens for the possibility of using them on more markets. The report for the Oslo exchange also showed that buying at signal and keeping the stock for one length of the formation gave solid excess return compared to keeping the stock until target or buying index. In the period 1996 to 2004 the index gave an annual return of 5.9 %, sale at target (one height of the formation) gave an annual return of 7.1 % while sale at one formation length gave an annual return of a whole 27.4 %. This is a strong result which makes the rectangle formation my favourite. In addition, volume balance, direction of the trend and the market in general give good support by substantiating the probability of rising prices. It is important to assess your own risk, time horizon and personal investment goals as well, even though these are not taken into account in the research report.
Strategy:
- Buy at signal (upwards arrow)
- Assess liquidity and risk
- Positive volume balance strengthens the signal (VolBal)
- Set pre-defined target approx. 1L
- Use stop/loss consistent with your risk strategy
Examples
Every day Investtech's computers identify the qualitatively best trend for each stock. The trends are drawn in the charts available to our subsribers. Three trends are identified; short, medium and long term. Stocks that recently entered a rising trend trigger a Trend signal. An overview of stocks that triggered trend signals is found in the list Trend signals, avilable to subscribers from the left hand menu. The stocks in this list are identified by the same criteria as the stocks in the research report.
Quick link: Trend signals (subscription required)
Quick link: Research report on Trend signals
Technical analysis:
Understand the psychology of the stock market
My favourite indicator is Trend
My favourite indicator is REC
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The content provided by Investtech.com is NOT SEC or FSA regulated and is therefore not intended for US or UK consumers.
Investtech guarantees neither the entirety nor accuracy of the analyses. Any consequent exposure related to the advice / signals which emerge in the analyses is completely and entirely at the investors own expense and risk. Investtech is not responsible for any loss, either directly or indirectly, which arises as a result of the use of Investtechs analyses. Details of any arising conflicts of interest will always appear in the investment recommendations. Further information about Investtechs analyses can be found here disclaimer.
The content provided by Investtech.com is NOT SEC or FSA regulated and is therefore not intended for US or UK consumers.