Private Trader Changes

I'm making some changes to my routine on this market letter.

First, I'm ditching the parabolic sar in favor of the macd zero-line crossover, with a 0.2 threshold, as my principal signal. The other requirements -- a strong trend, trading with the trend and avoiding earnings announcements -- remain unchanged.

Second, I'm changing my measure for the direction of the trend from the 5-day simple moving average to the 14-day exponential moving average. This brings the period analyzed into line with the tool I use for determining trend strength, the average directional index.

Third, I'm eliminating the afternoon Watchlists. Instead, when there's a signal change, then I'll write a separate on that stock or currency pair.

Fourth, I'm eliminating the afternoon Scan posting, where I list stocks that showed signals but didn't make the grade for one reason or another.

Unchanged:

The Morningline, the individual filings on forex and stock signals and the ever-popular Almanac, plus ongoing evaluation of the tools of technical analysis.