INTERVIEW
I like to keep things as simple as possible when it comes to trading.
Teaching Trading Is Fun
Brandon Wendell And Trading Around The World
Brandon Wendell, a senior instructor for Online Trading Academy, teaches courses for active investors, option traders, professional stock traders, forex traders — market participants of all kinds. Wendell is a former stockbroker, brokerage trader, and hedge fund trader and brings a variety of market insights to his trading classes and lectures. He has appeared as a guest on Bloomberg TV and Cnbc Asia’s Cash Flow and conducted special seminars for Cnbc staff on technical analysis of the financial markets. He has been an industry expert speaker at the Asia Traders and Investors Conference as well as Invest Fair. He is a member of the Market Technicians Association and holds the Chartered Market Technician designation and also the Series 7 and 63 licenses. An Online Trading Academy graduate himself, he trades equities, options, forex, and futures for his own account. Stocks & Commodities Editor Jayanthi Gopalakrishnan and Staff Writer Bruce Faber interviewed Brandon Wendell via telephone on September 29, 2010.
Brandon, how did you get interested in trading?
It was a fluke. Back in 1996 or 1997 I liquidated a private security company and I took some time off. After that, I needed a job so I became a broker. I was a retail stockbroker on the sell side and I decided I wanted to do more than just sales. I was fortunate enough to get an entry-level job as a trader at a small private hedge fund, and they paid for me to get my education at Online Trading Academy. So I am now teaching at the place I started out.
Do you still trade with the hedge fund or do you trade full-time for yourself?
I just trade for myself now. I trade in every asset class. I do a lot of intermarket analysis so I am always finding different opportunities, but I primarily trade equity futures and currencies. I also trade single equities and options, but most of my trading is done in forex and futures.
How has intermarket analysis helped you in trading these various assets?
Understanding the relationships between those asset classes can give you leads about where turning points might occur and also confirm changes in market direction. It makes a difference between seeing a small correction and an actual trend reversal. Obviously, if I am looking at multiple things I see multiple opportunities as well.
What are some examples of markets you can apply intermarket analysis to?
One that stands out in particular is copper. The copper futures and even some of the copper mining stocks have an 80% to 85% positive correlation with the equity markets. So I watch those charts. As the copper hits resistance or support, it usually gives me some lead time to move before the equity markets turn.
How much lead time?
It can be anywhere between a month to just a couple of weeks. Sometimes it can even be a couple of minutes if you are looking at intraday as well. It might give turning points. I was conducting a session this morning where we were watching Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold (Fcx). We saw that Fcx had started to turn, and it was actually a lead before the S&P and the Nasdaq started turning as well on the rally that stalled off this morning. It helped confirm that resistance was going to hold.