<s> PRECISION TRADINGWITH STEVENSON
PRICE AND TIME TARGETS
J.R. STEVENSON
Traders Press, Inc.®PO Box 6206
Greenville, SC 29606Serving Traders Since 1975
http://www.traderspress.com
Copyright© September 2004 by J.R. StevensonPublished by Traders Press, Inc.®
All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise , without the prior written permission of thepublisher.
ISBN: 0-934380-94-5
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to thesubject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in render ­ing legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other expert assistance isre quired, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. No representation ismade that the methods presented in this book are or will be profitable. Any person acting on theideas herein is responsible for his own actions, and acts at his own risk.
Editor: Maria DobsonLayout and Cover Design by: Teresa Darty AlligoodTraders Press, Inc. ®
Traders Press, Inc.®PO Box 6206
Greenville, SC 29606Serving Traders Since 1975
http:// www.traderspress.com
TABLE OF CONTENTSTerms and Abbreviations Used in This ManualImpor tant InformationWhat This Manual Will or Will Not Do For YouPublisher's ForewordIn troductionThe Farmer and the Mule
1
Overview of Concepts
3
Chart 1
4
Chart 2
5
Chart 3Chart 4
6
Regular and Inverted Cycles
79
Chart 5 : Regular Cycles in an Uptrend
10
Chart 6: Inverted Cycles in an Uptrend
11
Chart 7: Regular and Inverted Cycles in a Downtrend
12
Concept # 1 : PTT [Price and Time Target]
13
Units
15
Procedure for Making a PIT in Real Time
17
How to Trade PIT's in Real Time
19
Concept #2: CTL [Cyclic Trend Line]
21
Chart 8 : Concept 2
23
Chart 9: Concept 2
24
How to Select the Best Cycle to Trade
25
How to Tell When a Cycle Has Ended
27
What ifthe PIT Misses?
29
Basic Questions
31
Chart 1 0: Failure and Success
33
Chart 1 1
34
Chart 1 2
35
Chart 1 3 : Real Time Analysis for a PIT
36
Chart 14: Results from Previous Chart
37
Chart 1 5 : Cycles in the Pre -Market Chart
38
Chart 1 6: Concept 2
39
Chart 1 7: Real T ime Trading
40
Chart 1 8
41
Chart 1 9: As the Day Progressed
43
Chart 20: Multiple Bars at the Same Chart Point
44
About Cycles
45
Chart 2 1 : Counting Bars
47
Chart 22: Guidance Through the Day
48
Chart 23 : Current Update
49
Cycles
50
Cycle Units
51
Trading Tips
53
Points ofEmphasis in this Manual
55
S umrruuy
57
Tes timonials
59
TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS MANUAL
PTT-PRICE AND TrME TARGET
TR-TREND-the general direction that the price is movingTL-TREND LINE drawn between two or more points
D T-DoUBLE Top - Two or more price bars that have approximately the same price highs.DB--DoUBLE BOTTOM - Two or more price bars with approximately the same price low.SR-SPIKEREVERSE - A higher high and a lower close near the low of the bar; or a lower low and a higherclose with the close near the high of the bar.MP-MIDPOINT of a barRB--REVERSAL BAR - A higher high with a lower close or a lower low with a higher close. Often is seen at a
PIT.PT-POINT - if a high point, there will be a lower price bar on each side of the high bar.If a low point, there will
be a higher price bar on each side of the low bar.Note: the low or high bar can have two or more barswith equal price high or low bars.IP-IMPLIED POINT - A point that develops between two or more high points or between two or more low
points that may not have a point as described above. Will show an example of this as we get into themanual. See chart 1 4.CYC-CYCLE - As used in this manual, a cycle is defmed as the price action that develops between two lowpoints or between two high points.CL-CYCLE LENGTH - The number of price bars between any two low points or between any two high points.
C T-CYCLE Top - The high point between any two low points.
CB-CYCLE BOTTOM - The low point between any two high points.RC-REGULAR CYCLE -Has two low points with a high point in between.IC-INVERTED CYCLE -Has two high points with a low point in between.
UNIT-Regular cycle followed by an inverted cycle: or an inverted cycle followed by a regular cycle. [Manyexamples will be illustrated]RU-REGULAR UNIT -If analysis starts at a low paint on a regular cycle, it is aRU. ARU is always labeled
A-B-C-D.IV-INVERTED UNIT -If analysis starts at a high point on an inverted cycle, it is anIU. AnIU is always labeled
B-C-D-A.CTL-A parallel trend line(Cyclic Trend Line) to the basic trend line BTL that normally touches only oneprice bar, as used in Concept#2.BTL-BASI C TREND LINE, as used in Concept#2 , drawnfrom point B to point C on a regular cycle or a trend
line drawnfrom point C to point D on an inverted cycle. This BTL is then cloned to get the CyclicTrend Line(CTL.)
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Trading the e-mini futures has large potential profit possibility but also large potential losses. You mustbe aware of the risks and be willing to limit your losses with the use of stops. The concepts presented in thismanual are to be considered additional tools to aid you in your trading experience. The PIT's have absolutelyno influence on the price action and are to be considered as markers or sign posts as to where the market maytrade as a result of a certain cycle market. Properly used , they should help in your analysis of the market thatyou are trading.Past results are not necessarily an indication of fut ure results. However , all examples in this manual ,except the GE stock example, were selected after this manual was started , to show that the concepts werevalid in the markets that are ahead. Current examples will be shown on any future printings ofthis manual.There is no guarantee or assurance that your e -mini trading will be profitable. You are responsible foryour own trading decisions.
WHAT THIS MANUAL WILL OR WILL NOT Do FOR You
1.
On a5 minute chart ofMini S&P's, you will be able to look ahead20, 3 0, 60 or evenseveral hours and predict where the price should be at a certain time. [PTT]
2.
You will be able to tell which cycles are moving the market trend.
3.
You will b e able t o give aPIT for any cyclefrom3 bars o n up in length.
4.
You will be able to reduce your trading tojust a few trades per session to prevent over­trading, if you desire.
5.
You will b e able to tell when a reaction, or a rally against the trend i s about t o stop.
6.
You will see why chart patterns form and howPIT's can confirm their targets.
7.
By using concept#2, you should be able to tell when a new cycle direction is confIrmed.
8.
The markets differ in characterfrom day to day. PTT's should help you trade trend days ortrading range type markets.
9.
ThePIT's will not make the market move to them. They are guide posts or signs to helpguide you on yourjourney.
PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD
My wife Maria and I are proud to make this book available to you, and hope that the ideas it presents willmake you a more astute market analyst and a more profitable trader. It is our hope that this book will be a valuablecontribution to the literature of technical analysis.Maria and I had the good fortune and privilege to spend the better part of two days with JR Stevenson inmy trading room, where he shared with us his PTT concept and showed us through many examples during theday how it worked in real time. We are grateful to him for all the time he spent with us, and feel honored to beassociated with him and to help him in his goal of sharing his market knowledge with other traders.JR's knowledge of how markets behave is truly amazing. It is, I am confident, the result of decades ofclose and careful study of price action. He is equally gifted in his ability to develop simple and workable methodsfor trading. Readers may find it of interest that, 80 years young, JR is still an active trader for his own account,concentrating on the intra-day action in the S&P E-mini market, using five minute charts. He has many otherexcellent ideas which he has developed over the years, which may be revealed in future books.In order for you to employ this method, you will need access to trading software that can clone a trendline in length and slope. I was delighted to learn that the software I have used for years, Ensign, has a study calledthe Fonnations Tool which does this job nicely. JR has used Q-Charts for years in his own trading and analysis(http://www.qcharts.com) and he advises that in his opinion this is the best choice for those interested in thisapproach.I wish to express my deep appreciation and gratitude to my wonderful wife Maria (who is a trader and anavid student of markets, charts, and market action) for all her help and effort in editing this manuscript and helpingto prepare it for publication: She has taken a special interest in this approach and is looking forward to using it inher own market analysis, in conjunction with her own methods which she developed over years of hard work andstudy.After you have studied this manual, if you have any questions concerning the methods presented, JR hasgraciously consented to help readers to better understand these ideas and how they may be used. He may becontacted at jstevens@midsouth.rr.com.
May the trend be with you,
Edward Dobson
Traders Press, Inc.Greenville, SC
October, 2004
Edward and Maria Dobson
INTRODUCTION
The TOOL you are about to put in your "tool box" is so simple and easy to use that you may betempted to discard it before trying, however"simplicity often leads to success."In order to make aPIT [price-time tar get] all you need is:1.
A charting software package that allows you to draw on trendline on a5 minute chart(orany timeframe) of an e-mini mar ket, and to clone thetrendline.
2.
Recognize by observation, the appearance of a REGULAR CYCLE and that of anINVERTED CYCLE.
3.
Connect the two cycles, again b y observation, draw two trendlines and the price and timetargetPIT will be given at the end of the clonedtrendline, plotted right on the chart.
There are no calculations, no expensive software needed, no formulas or complicated rules to followand the same procedure is used on any chart of your choosing.You can choose any length cycle you wish totrade that will give you the profit!loss ratio that suits yourmoney management policy. This step is the only subjective decision you need to make to arrive at thePIT.Proof of the above statements ar e in the pages to follow. Please read with an open and creative mindand you will be amazed as to how often near perfect results are obtained.Perhaps even more important is the mar ket analysis that is possible when the target is missed in price,time, or both.Many times you will be able to correctly predict the next move in the market because of a failureof the market to reach thePTT.
"My interest is in the future, because I am going to spend the rest of my life there!"-Charles F. Kettering
PRECISION TRADING WITH STEVENSON PRICE AND TIME TARGETS
THE FARMER AND THE MULEEvery day, before starting to plow, the fanner would hit the mule over the head several times with a ballbat and bring the mule to his knees. This went on day after day so fmally someone asked the farmer"why doyou hit the mule with a ball bat every day before you start plowing?" The farmer answered, "well, you see, Ihave to get his ATTENTION- then he will plow for me!"To get your ATTENTION, you will be shown how quickly and accurately you can make aPTT [priceand time target] on any chart, of any timeframe as long as the char t reflects goodtrading volumeand liquidity.After a couple of examples, and if! still have your ATTENTION, I will give you the concepts formakingPTT's(price and time targets) .Many more examples will be presented, all of which have been chartedsince the time I decided to write about these concepts onJune 27, 2003. I have used these concepts since
1 974, andI have many examples of thePTT's in my files but to prove that the conceptsare still valid in today'smarket, only charts after theJune27 starting date of this book will be used. There is no optimization and thesame procedure is used in every timeframe on every chart. I will not use old charts to prove that the conceptsare valid. PTT's look to the future, not back in time!Concept# 2 is a very useful tool to help determine when one cycle has ended and another one hasstarted. This concept can be a "stand-alone" tool for trading and has produced great results on some days.Many examples will be shown of this tool.
PRECISION TRADING WITH STEVENSON PRICE AND TIME TARGETS
OVERVIEW OF CONCEPTSThe conce pts that will be presented , are original , and have been used to give " price and time targets"{PIT } for all future markets since 1 974. These conce pts were the basis ofa ma rket let ter produced in the 70 'sand 80 's called "Conti Cyclic Projections."The conce pts are to be considered as TOOLS to aid in you r trading and analyzing the ma rkets , andnot a trading method. It is to be assumed that readers ofthese conce pts have a basic knowledge oftrading andhave their own method oftrading. Any knowledge of cycles will be hel pful but should not be required in usingthese conce pts.In the 70 's , when these conce pts were founded , the PIT 's were derived from pa per charts , using onlya "see -through ruler" and a sha rp pencil. With the advent ofthe present charting packages and the ease ofd rawing lines , it was found that the very same conce pts that were used on daily charts , we re just as accu ratewhen used on 1 , 3 , 5 and 60 minute charts. The conce pts will be effective on any chart that has cycliccharacteristics with enough volume to allow timely entries and exits. The same conce pt is used on every char tofany time period without being o ptimized. The conce pts should be timeless fo r the futu re !
CONCEPT 1: By using two lines ofthe same length and slo pe , the PIT will be given for any length cycle that is
isolated from the price action. The model used fo rthis conce pt was designed to be ve ry accu rate. (Every cyclewill give a time in the future when the price will be exactly at the target.) IMPOSSIBLE , OUTRAGEOUS ,CAN 'T BE DONE , RANDOM MA RKETS , NEWS , ETC. , ETC. Those are some comments that will bemade. Will the projection be EXACT every time ? OF COURSE NOT, nothing is perfect in the real wo rld ,B UT you will be am azed how many times the PIT 's do turn out to be accurate , often to the very tic. [ proof will
be presented.] Even more im por tant is when the PIT 's miss their mark , as this will often give info rmation as tothe fut ure direction of prices.CONCEPT 2: By using a line that has only ONE contact point with the price action , the end ofone cycle and the
s tart ofanothe r cycle can often be dete rmined. This conce pt is a great hel p in knowing when prices will reverseand a new PIT can be made. [ proofwill be given.] This conce pt could also be develo ped into a "stand alone"method oftrading the markets.3
J R STEVENSON.
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Let's assume that on this day, August 1 7 ht , 2003 at about 2:00 PM ET, we decide to put on a tradeduri ng the last couple ofhours of trading. This chart is what is seen at that time of the day. You would see thatthe high had been made at 9: 50, that a low had been made at 1 2:00, and that the market was trading near thehigh again at 1 4:00. Maybe the potential double top, the price action and concept #2 [explained later] wouldhave to ld you to sell short. What would the PIT be ? (The price target and the time it will be reached .)1.
We mark high pt. as "B"
2.
We mark the low pt. as "C '
3.
We mark the last high as "D"
4.
We draw a TL from B to D
5.
We CLONE this T L [meaning the same length and slope]
6.
We move the cloned TL to point C and the end of the cloned TL is our PTT !
7.
Look at chart 2 for the end of trading at 16: 1 5 ET
4
PRECISION TRADING WITH STEVENSON PRICE AND TIME TARGETS
CHART 21.
NOTE: the cloned TL between C and
A is the same length and the same slope as the TL between B
and D. [go ahead and measure] . The "dot" at the end of the cloned l ine is the PTT.2.
A perfect PTT both in PRICE and TIME ! And a poss ible $400 + profit. (Not ice the near perfect"s ine" wave ofthe pr ice act ion.)
3. Do Ihave your ATTENTION yet ? Please remember that th is example had not been charted on June27 so it was not known that th is example would be used.
5
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C H ART 3
This cha rt is an exce ption to the othe r exam ples as it is a dail y cha rt ofGE. I do not trade stocks anymo re so I seldom look at a stock cha rt. This was the first and only stock ch art I looked at. It illus trates the cycleconce pt as well as showing that the conce pt is valid fo r stocks. In gene ral, the PIT conce pt may he a pplied toany active ma rket in any time frame !
1.2.
We look at this cha rt about May 19,2003 and ma rk the LOW point A at Ma rch 31.We ma rk the HIGH point B at A pril 28 and we see some price action (key reve rsal day)about May 19 that might suggest a long position should be ta ken so we ma rk the low point he reas C.
3.
We d raw a TL from point A to point C. (The t rend is u p. )
4.
We CLONE this TL.(same length and slo pe)
5.
We move the cloned TL to point B and the end of this TL will be the PTT fo r this cycle.
See chart 4 on following page for results.
6
PRECISION TRADING WITH STEVENSON PRICE AND TIME TARGETS
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1.
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Voila: The end ofthe cloned TL is anothe r accu rate PTT. The length ofthe CYCLE from A
to C is 36 ba rs, and the length of the CYCLE from B to Dis 36 ba rs.Amazing ! And the PTT was known almost a MONTH in adv ance !
Now of cou rse eve ry PTT will not be as accu rate as these two exam ples. You have hea rdmany times that no one knows what the ma rket will do in the futu re but you will be amazedhow many times you will see nea r pe rfect PIT 's, which a re against tremendous odds ofbeing that accu rate just by guessing o r "good luck."
7
PRECISION TRADING WITH STEVENSON PRICE AND TIME TARGETS
REGULAR AND INVERTED CYCLES
Before showing more exam ples and the PTT conce pt, the following terms must be illustrated andex plained to fully gras pthe conce pt that will be presented.1.
In chart 1, the price action from B to D is an I NVERTED CYCLE. [Starts at a high pointB, has a low point C and another high point D.] The length is 52 bars.(The number of pricebars between B and D.)
2.
In chart 2, the price action between C and A is a REGULAR CYCLE . [Starts at a lowpoint C, has a high point B and another low point A.] The length is 51 bars.
3.
The TL that is drawn from A to C on a RC or the TL that is drawn from B to D on an IC,illustrates the trend ofTHAT cycle by the slo pe ofthe TL. It will be either u p, down, orsideways [flat].
In order to fully understand and visualize the REGULA R and INVERTED cycles, the next two char tsshould hel p. For exam ple: Charts 5 and 6 will show regular and inverted cycles in an u ptrend. Chart #7 willillustrate what the RC and IC look like in a downtrend .IMPORTANT: It is im por tant to be able to recognize the RC and IC and the trend for each cycle rather
quickly so orders can be entered in a timely manner.
9
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CHARTSREGULAR CYCLES IN AN UPTRENDOn Monday, August 4, 2003, there are four [4] REGULAR CYCLES [RC] illustrated on th is char t.1.
All REGULAR CYCLES in all the exam ples are MARKEDA-B-C.
2.
All RC 's are in an u ptrend as shown by the slo pe o fthe T L drawn between A and C. RC 'scan be in u ptrends, downtrends, or s ideways trends.
3.
Note the length of the regular cycles: 20 bars, 1 1 bars, 1 4 bars and 1 7 bars. [The first bar iscounted as # 1 ]
There are many other regular cycles on th is chart but these stand out and are clearly shown.1IIN