Bulkowski’s Stock Market Research

Written and copyright © 2005-2010 by Thomas N. Bulkowski. All rights reserved.

This page is the gateway to research studies, listed by category, that I have conducted on price patterns and the stock market. Since the category assignment is almost arbitrary, meaning they can belong in more than one category, be sure to review each one.

Latest Releases

• August 14, 2010: Pattern styles. What chart patterns are best for swing and position trades? Find out.
• July 23, 2010: Price recovery. Do stocks that decline least in a bear market rebound furthest?
• July 22, 2010: Price doubles, then what? Stocks that double or drop in half show surprising performance a year later.
• July 9, 2010: Distribution days. Do distribution days foretell a coming price decline?
• May 24, 2010: Hold time loss. This can help with initial stop placement.
• May 13, 2010: Dollar cost averaging. This doesn't work...or does it?
• May 5, 2010: Can Stops Hurt?

Price Patterns

1. Chart pattern breakouts: Which candlesticks appear most often the day before breakouts?
2. Dead-cat bounces: Which industries have the fewest?
3. Double tops. Shows a new way to predict the time to reach a price target.
4. Dutch auction tender offers. Can you make money trading these?
5. Failure rates. Chart patterns fail more often than before.
6. High and tight flags: Do they live up to the promise of the best performing chart pattern?
7. Pattern frequency. How often do patterns appear?
8. Pattern width I examined pattern width and time to reach the ultimate high/low.
9. Price mountains. How long to recover after a price run-up and run-down?
10. Partial rises/declines and throws/pulls. Do throwbacks/pullbacks occur more often after partial rises and declines?
11. Top 10 reversals and continuations. A short list plus download.
12. Triangle apex and turning points. Price turns at apex 60% of the time.
13. Ugly patterns: Do they outperform? Yes.



Trading Tactics

14. Best buy days. Which day of the week is the best one to buy or sell?
15. Best buy months. Can buying at the end of the worst performing month and selling at the best performing be profitable?
16. Buy low or buy high? Buy near yearly low for larger gains, less risk.
17. Dollar cost averaging. This doesn't work...or does it?
18. Fibonacci retrace. Place a stop 67% of the prior rise.
19. Height and width study. Tall patterns outperform.
20. Hold time loss. This can help with initial stop placement.
21. Holidays. Does the market rise or fall before and after holidays? Answer: Fall.
22. Hold on. How long to you need to hold onto a stock? Find out...
23. Long or short? Selling short is a losers game. Or is it?
24. Market cap. Chart patterns in small cap stocks outperform.
25. Market & stock trends. Buy in a downtrend, sell on the uptrend.
26. Money management. Where should you place a stop on breakout day?
27. Moving averages. Boost performance using chart patterns with moving averages!
28. Pattern styles. What chart patterns are best for swing and position trades? Find out.
29. Price stages. Does Stan Weinstein’s four stages work? Yes!
30. Scaling out. Should you sell a portion of your stock?
31. Seasonality. What are the best months to buy and sell stocks?
32. Shadows. Do tall candle shadows predict price turns? Yes and no.
33. Stops. Research reveals how often stops are hit.
34. Can Stops Hurt?
35. Swing traders. Any retracement will do for a swing trade. Here are some tips.
36. Symmetry. Do head-and-shoulders with extended right shoulders underperform? Yes.
37. Tall candles at peaks and valleys. Tall candles appear at turning points.
38. Tall candles show support and resistance.
39. Overlap. Does congestion before the breakout matter? Yes.



Price Related Research

40. Distribution days. Do distribution days foretell a coming price decline?
41. Low priced patterns: Do they outperform? Yes. Best is $0-$10 range.
42. Price doubles, then what? Stocks that double or drop in half show surprising performance a year later.
43. Price recovery. Do stocks that decline least in a bear market rebound furthest?
44. Price trends. Consecutively higher/lower closes before the breakout offers performance clues.
45. Price trends. Price trends over the last year helps make buying stock easier.
46. Price velocity is similar on entry and exit from chart patterns.
47. Price volatility. Stocks with volatility too high or low hurt profits.
48. Price volatility vs. performance. Higher volatility is good.

Relative Strength

49. Relative strength (industry). Holy Grail of investing?
50. Relative strength (stocks, part 1). Not a Holy Grail
51. Relative strength (stocks, part 2). Trading relative strength
52. Relative strength of a stock compared to the S&P 500 index. Find out more.
53. Relative strength Index (Wilder RSI). Works best with new settings.

Other

54. Factors influencing stocks. Find out how important trends are.
55. Hardware survey. How many monitors, computers, etc. should you have?
56. Study of studies. An intriguing snapshot of various studies.
57. Volume. Does increasing volume suggest a more powerful and lasting breakout?