Whether you’re a scalper, day trader, swing trader, or long-term investor, there is one factor that make these styles of stock buying and selling similar. The same chart patterns emerge, even though the time frames may be months apart.

This is going to be a simple exercise in showing how to buy a stock, and measure those emotions with one simple trading pattern. Looking at the three charts of AAPL below, I’ve shown how a simple 3-5 bar pullback pattern can signal an entry in a daily chart, weekly chart, or monthly chart.

A stop loss can be placed below the entry bar of the trade, prior bar, or pivot low, depending on your risk tolerance. You can see in the case of AAPL, the trading pattern told me to buy this week. I place a stop below the prior bar, and let the trade play out. So is this an investment, or a trade? Other people’s emotions will have to answer that question for me.

My oh my… What a day for the stocks that glitter. Gold was on fire today from the get go. The XAU bounced from the area of support around 139, and moved up strong to the area of 146 resistance. I watched today. I believe the next move in the sector is going to be huge after the long consolidation we’ve had. My entries may have to be on a break higher from here, if that pullback was a missed opportunity - sigh.

I mentioned I was going to get back to buying strong stocks on dips. I did that today with an online stock trade in FSLR - First Solar, Inc. The stock put in a wide range bar above it’s 5-minute high. I decided to buy the 6th bar above the 5th pullback bar. A stop is set under the 5th bar. Profits were quickly taken at 1R selling a 1/3. The next 1/3 was sold at 2R, and the last 1/3 was left until the end of the day, with a stop at break even. Catching the momentum of FSLR was my main goal in this day trade. It works, or I’m out.

I kept shares of BLDP over night as this fuel cell company closed near the day’s high.

I’m a day late, but entered TOL and MTH short. The actual signal to short was two days ago. I indicated this on the charts. Well, I found some intraday entries on both, but I’m going to use yesterday’s high as stop loss points. My risk is 1R on each swing trade. Moving averages are neutral on TOL, and heading in the direction of my swing trade for MTH. Today closed on the strong side for both homebuilder stocks. MTH has put in a triple bottom at 41, which I believe will break.