Two Goals, Three Laws and Five Steps
Two Goals, Three Laws and Five Steps
Two Goals, Three Laws and Five Steps
One goal of the Wyckoff stock market trading approach is to make a profit on a consistent enough
basis that exceeds the rewards available from investment vehicles where the return is absolutely
guaranteed and for those profits to exceed guaranteed returns by a wide enough margin to make
the effort worth while.
However, this is not the most important goal of the Wyckoff method. The most important goal is
the preservation of capital. Every time the stock market is entered capital is put at risk.
There is no way around this. However, risk can always be managed. Wyckoff teaches that no
position should be taken unless it has a predetermined exit strategy. The stock market provides
vehicles such as stops and options that help manage risk. One or more of these tools should
always be in place when position is taken. Protection of capital should never be an after thought.
Having something in mind to do later if developments warrant frequently results in doing nothing
until the pain of a mounting paper loss becomes unbearable.
The three laws in the foundation of the Wyckoff stock market trading method are the law of supply
and demand, the law of cause and effect and the law of effort vs. result. The price of every trading
or investment vehicle moves up or down because there is an excess of demand over supply or
supply over demand expressed in the form of urgency to exchange dollars for shares or contracts
or to exchange shares or contracts for dollars. The law of cause and effect states that the
excesses that develop in supply and demand are not random but are the result of key events in
market action or the result of periods of preparation. Wyckoff teaches what these developments
are and how to judge when they are unfolding in time to take advantage of the excesses in supply
or demand that will follow. The low of effort vs. result states that the change in price of a trading
vehicle is the result of an effort expressed by the level of volume
and that harmony between effort and result promotes further price movement while lack of
harmony promotes a change in direction.
The third cornerstone of the foundation of the Wyckoff approach are the five steps. These are the
general procedures that every student of the Wyckoff stock market method needs to employ each
and every time the action of a market or trading vehicle is considered. Here are those five steps.
Determine the trend and position of the market being traded. Determine the relative strength or
weakness of the issue being considered. Select issues that are presenting a cause that is likely to
produce an acceptable effect. Determine the readiness of an issue being considered to respond to
its cause. Time trades in individual issues to anticipated turns in the market in which they are
traded. Learning how to correctly apply each of these five steps is
what makes a successful trader or investor. Most of what Wyckoff teaches is the finer details of
applying these steps.
Once a trader or investor understands the foundation of the Wyckoff approach to stock market
trading and accepts the philosophy that it embraces, he can begin building the knowledge that can
lead to a more successful market operation. In the next installment of this series, a closer look will
be taken at the first step of the Wyckoff stock market method.
© The Jamison Group, Inc.: Stock Market Trading, The Wyckoff Method