Author Archives: Brian Johnson

About Brian Johnson

I have been an investment professional for over 30 years. I worked as a fixed income portfolio manager, personally managing over $13 billion in assets for institutional clients. I was also the President of a financial consulting and software development firm, developing artificial intelligence based forecasting and risk management systems for institutional investment managers. I am now a full-time proprietary trader in options, futures, stocks, and ETFs using both algorithmic and discretionary trading strategies. In addition to my professional investment experience, I designed and taught courses in financial derivatives for both MBA and undergraduate business programs on a part-time basis for a number of years. I have also written four books on options and derivative strategies.

Use Relative Strength to Identify Market Trends

Posted on June 8, 2012 by

Relative strength rotational strategies have a proven track record of success, but the potential uses of relative strength extend much further than security selection.  One of my favorite techniques is to use the relative strength of two different indices, futures … Continue reading →

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Posted in Economic Indicators, Futures, In-Depth Article, Market Breadth, Market Commentary, Market Timing, Relative Strength, Technical Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A Very Bad Week for the Market

Posted on June 4, 2012 by

I have been focusing on providing a series of in-depth, educational articles to provide a foundation for future commentary, but the economic news was so bad last week that I felt compelled to address the current market environment.  The following … Continue reading →

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Posted in Economic Indicators, Market Commentary, Summary Market Indicator Score | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

How to Draw Trendlines & Avoid Severe Losses

Posted on June 1, 2012 by

From the high in 2000 to the low in 2002, the NASDAQ 100 index lost 83% of its value.  It has never recovered its losses.   From 2008 to 2009, the S&P 500 index lost 57% of its value (peak … Continue reading →

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Posted in Futures, In-Depth Article, Market Commentary, Market Timing, Risk Management, Stocks & ETFs, Technical Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Proven Stock Screens Earn 20%+ Annual Returns

Posted on May 25, 2012 by

Consistently picking individual stocks that will generate excess returns is hard, but most investors make it much more difficult than necessary.  There are a number of simple, fundamental stock screens that have generated historical returns of 20% to 40% per … Continue reading →

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Posted in Fundamental Analysis, In-Depth Article, Security Selection, Stock Investor Pro, Stock Screens, Stocks & ETFs, Zacks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Are the Seasonal Trends Working this Year?

Posted on May 18, 2012 by

Knowing the historical seasonal tendencies of our trading instruments can dramatically improve our returns, but how much weight should we assign to seasonal trends?  What should we do if our other indicators are bearish and the historical seasonal trend is … Continue reading →

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Posted in Futures, In-Depth Article, Market Timing, Options, Seasonal Tools, SWAMI Charts, Technical Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Use Sector Confirmation to Improve Your Trading Results

Posted on May 11, 2012 by

Analyzing the technical and/or fundamental characteristics of an individual security is obviously a requirement before investing.  However, very few traders go the extra mile and evaluate the characteristics of the market sector as well.  Using sector confirmation can help you … Continue reading →

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Posted in COT Analysis, Futures, In-Depth Article, Market Commentary, Market Timing, SWAMI Charts, Trade Analysis | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

A More Efficient Relative Strength Indicator

Posted on May 4, 2012 by

Relative strength investing has a proven track record of success.  Most traders have heard the term, but know very little about developing or trading strategies based on relative strength.  The concept is simple: buy the strongest securities and sell the … Continue reading →

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Posted in Economic Indicators, In-Depth Article, Market Breadth, Market Timing, Options, Relative Strength, Stocks & ETFs, SWAMI Charts, Technical Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Harness the Power of the Seasons

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

As traders, there are very few things we know with certainty.  But there are several factors that we can forecast accurately – even years in advance: when domestic and international holidays will occur when economic data will be released when … Continue reading →

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Posted in Futures, In-Depth Article, Market Timing, Seasonal Tools, Stocks & ETFs, Technical Analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments