Use Time Wisely to Change Your Life

Time. I am writing this as I'm listening to a time management lecture by Randy Pausch, the guy who essentially wrote, "The Last Lecture" (Jeff Zaslow really wrote it, but it was based on the lecture by Randy Pausch). Great book... I definitely recommend it. Anyways, time. Time is ticking by right now. Sometimes it goes by so fast and sometimes it feels so slow. Why is that?

I also love the book Stargirl and Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli. In Stargirl, there is this quote that always stuck with me...

“Nobody has the time. The time cannot be owned. Time is free to everyone!”

If you really think about it, time is the one thing we have that is always free, always there. Time never stops and always keeps going. Whether you want it to go slower, or faster, need more... it remains the same. Concurrently, we don't know how much of it we will have in our lives. Even if you receive a death sentence, a doctor cannot tell you the specific day in which you will die and your time here will cease.

In my opinion, here are the most important things that we need to remember as it pertains to time, or the management of it. If you leave with one thing, remember that even the smallest action, taking the shortest amount of time, can have great consequences.

• Get organized.
  Okay, okay, I do work at a place named Organize-It, I've compulsively made my bed every day since I was 5 years old, and everyone knows how neat I am. But still, I think it is important to everyone. Think about a time when you couldn't do something because you couldn't find it. I strongly believe you will get a lot more work done if you just take the time to put things in order first.
  


• Get the bad stuff done first.
  Okay, I am definitely bad at this one sometimes. Jot down a to-do list and get done that dreaded homework, head off to work, or clean your room before you go out and have fun. I'd guarantee you might have more time to do the things you like if you get the other stuff done first. In addition, you won't be mulling over the dreaded tasks that you've been procrastinating!
  


• Think about what you're doing right now.
  Surfing the web mindlessly? Watching TV? Anything else you could be doing that would be more productive or more satisfying? I strongly believe you need your downtime so don't freak out claiming that I believe we all need to keep our heads down working. However, I know I spend more time doing 'down things' than I really need to.
  


• I think a lot of people waste time being mad.
  Don't hold grudges; argue and fix it. Spend lots of loving time with the people you love. You don't know how long you might have with them.
  


• "Failing to plan is planning to fail."
  Plan your day, plan your life, and plan to leave room for days or minutes when you have nothing at all planned to do.

I'll end on a quote by the late, great Benjamin Franklin.

"Dost thou love life? Then waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of."

There’s Not Enough Time in the Day

That is a phrase that I hear often and has often come out of my own lips in regards to Jesus. I’ve heard: I don’t have enough time to pray, or to read my Bible, or to preach the Gospel, or on and on. But when you really think about it, it’s not that we don’t have enough time, it’s that we don’t make the time. Because we always have time, it’s just how we choose to spend our time. So the question is-how are you spending your time? Do you spend more time at school, hanging out with friends, watching tv, listening to music, or working out than you do with the Lord? I bring this issue up because the Lord has convicted me of it in my own life. I recently began to work out more (we’ll see how long it lasts) and I realized that if I spend an hour working out every day to improve my physical condition, than I better be spending at least an hour every day giving the Lord time to work on my spiritual condition.

So be honest with yourself. How many things do you prioritize before the Lord? What is always more important so that you don’t have time to read the Bible or pray except at Bible study or on Sunday? Remember that Jesus says you can’t serve two masters, you either love Him and hate the world or you love the world and hate Him.

Do you truly love Jesus every moment of every day? Because loving Jesus means giving your life completely to Him in every way; especially when it comes to your time.

The Most Anabolic Meal of the Day: Post Workout Eating

The Low Down

Alright, you've probably heard and read many times before the importance of a post workout meal, and if you haven't, where have you been? The post workout meal is one of the most important meals for any bodybuilder, this is where you give the body the nutrients, protein and carbs it needs to rebuild muscle tissue and manipulate hormone levels for optimum growth, if you miss this meal that stuff isn't there and you've just wasted an hour in the gym.

Post workout nutrition is important no matter what a persons goals are, whether it is to lose weight, gain mass or just maintain your current body weight. So let's discuss why it is a crucial part of your training diet.

Why After Excercise?

Working out whether it's running, lifting weights, or playing sports burns energy and this energy comes from glycogen which is stored in the bodies liver and broken down into glucose which gives you that energy you just burned off. Therefore you need glycogen to boost your workouts, how do you get glycogen? From eating carbohydrates of course. There are lots of different types of carbs as well, some have more or less glycogen then others, to see which ones those are you should refer to the Glycemic Index of foods. That is why people see a decrease in performance when they are on reduced carb diets, their body simply does not have the same amount of energy as it did when they were carb loaded.

But carbs are not the only post workout food you need, there's also the importance of protein. Your muscles grow from a process called protein synthesis, and for this protein synthesis your body needs protein which contains nutrients and amino acids which are very important for that process. It's also important to get protein after your workout so your body is not catabolizing itself and breaking down proteins from your own muscles, which is the opposite of what anyone wants.

On a hormonal level this meal is also very important, meaning that if you eat the right balance of protein and carbohydrates post workout you can manipulate these hormones naturally for an increase in growth hormone and insulin. Growth hormone and insulin are both vital hormones that help the body to grow, so what does this mean? It means if you eat right, you get big muscles.

Why am I mentioning all this on the focus of post workout meals? It's simple, everything I just mentioned is increased, a window of oppurtunity some call it, the first 2 hours after you exercise. That's 2 hours of time, long enough for anyone, so there's no excuse, to get that food in them and watch their body grow and recover.

What do I Need?

Alright, so now you know why you should this after your workouts, let's take a look at what you should use to efficiently do this. Remember I mentioned the glycemic index? Well now's your chance to use it, the first thing you need is a carbohydrate that is high on the glycemic index to spike your natural insulin levels, your glycogen levels are depleted after working out, that's why this is ok to do, I wouldn't suggest eating high GI foods when your glycogen levels are full, this might cause a negative reaction, meaning your body will store the excess as fat. Why insulin? Because insulin is a protein hormone that is important for the metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids (amino acids) and proteins. Having a high level of insulin, the reason why you want to eat a high GI carb, is because it slows down the decrease in amino acids and keeps your nitrogen balance at the positive level instead of the negative, which is usually the case post workout.

Since your muscles are breaking down during a workout it is not abnormal to see a negative nitrogen balance, so to get yourself into the positive nitrogen balance it is important to properly eat post workout or else you'll stay in that catabolic negative nitrogen balance state. Since this balance can only be achieved by cosuming protein it's not enough to just have carbs post workout. So make sure your meal or drink has protein in it aswell, remember you need both for this natural growth to occur. So find yourself a good, fast digesting protein such as whey isolate and a high GI carbohydrate, consume it after your workout, having both of them present will ensure your muscles grow.

There's also other things to consider as well, mainly free-form amino acids which you won't find in whole proteins, most you will get from whey isolate, but one you won't find in your whey isolate and the one we're going to look at is Leucine. Taking this single amino acid post workout has been shown in some studies to increase skeletal muscle growth, aren't you relieved to hear that you don't have to take all of the amino acids?

In recent studies it's been shown that Leucine supplementation was directly responsible for stimulating recovery of muscle protein synthesis and wasn't completly dependent on insulin levels alone. That means taking Leucine with a high GI carb will only enhance recovery further. It's that easy, remember there are people doing the research for us, it's up to us to read about it and use it to our advantage. There isn't an excuse for not educating yourself.

In fact Leucine is so important that one study reported that the anabolic effects of a mixture amino acids can be recreated from taking just one BCAA (branched chain amino acid) leucine on its own.

There's more, although if you're taking a whey isolate after your workouts, which has glutamine in it already, it doesn't hurt to take an additional dose of this amino because excercise will lower your glutamine levels. Glutamine may not be responsible for any muscle growth, but on terms of recovery and health studies have shown that having a base level of glutamine can enhance your immune system, therefore preventing illness and infections.

How Much Should I take?

Ok so you know what you need and how to get it, but how much of everything should you take. A recovery drink post workout is not completly neccessary it's just a suggestion. So if you don't have the money or you don't have the time, don't worry, it's not the end all, it was just suggested.

As far as protein and carbohydrate intake there seems to be some controversy in the ratios. Some studies show a 2:1 ration, some 3:1, and some 4:1, which means for you might be taking only 1g of protein for either 2, 3, or 4 grams of carbs. Which one is right for you? Well that is up to your own disgretion, if you're a more muscular person you may need more protein, so a 2:1 ratio would be good. If you're trying to lose weight that ratio might be good for you as well, it's dependent on the person really.

Studies have also given us enough research to know that the right amount of Leucine to take is approximately 3 grams , and the amount for glutmaine is 5 grams to be most effective. If you eat a real food meal post workout it's up to you to figure out which foods contain these nutrients, or you could supplement one and get the other from real food, it doesn't matter how you get them just as long as you do.

It's also recommended that you do not comsume fat or fibre in this post workout meal because they will slow down the absorption of everything and you may miss that anabolic window. And as I mentioned before, high glycemic foods should only be taken during post workout meals, but don't avoid carbs all together trhoughout the day, eat whole grain foods which are low on the glycemic index.

If you can manage to get this right for your post workout meal then I see no reason you shouldn't grow, at least as far as nutrition is concerned. So don't let any workout go wasted, don't skip on your post workout meal cause it may prove to be the most anabolic meal you eat each day. But most of all you should enjoy eathing this way, cause not only will it result in more muscle, but it will also result in good health.

The Anabolic Window For Muscle Growth

To gain the most muscle growth from your workouts, you need to know how to eat before and after each and every training session.

In fact, the hour before training and the 3 hours after training will play a critical role in your success or failure at building muscle. This is the most productive window of time for nutritional enhancement.

From the time I've spent in the gym as a personal trainer, I can honestly say that most people don't reach their goals for one reason: they don't know how to eat to maximize muscle growth.

And the fastest way to start packing on muscle mass and increasing strength is to take advantage of the anabolic window of opportunity before and after weight training.

First, you can reduce the effects of muscle tissue breakdown by providing your body with protein about a half hour before training. The combo of amino acids and glutamine from this protein source can help provide the muscles with the nutrients it needs, so it doesn't have to get them from breaking down muscle tissue.

If you fail to provide your body with the nutrients it needs after training, it attacks muscle tissue in order to get these nutrients. It's called catabolism, the opposite of anabolism (muscle building).

Also, intense training depletes energy and nutrients that are stored in the muscles, which is why you want to replace these nutrients right after training. Your muscles are like sponges after training and will take in more nutrients after a workout than any other time.

Now, the nutrients you want after a workout are those that will help trigger muscle growth.

When you eat the right kinds of foods after intense training, your body is in a prime state to release muscle building hormones like testosterone, insulin, growth hormone, and cortisol.

High blood insulin levels increase protein synthesis in your muscles by up to 50%. Weight training can stimulate protein synthesis up to 100% and amino acids taken after a weight training workout can increase muscle building by 150%.

But the best thing is, taking in amino acids right after a heavy, intense weight training workout can stimulate protein synthesis by up to 200%!

That's why it's important to take a protein and carb combination right after training. It can be through whole food or you can use protein shakes mixed with juice or Gatorade.

You can also add some creatine and glutamine at this point as well.

About 2 hours after training, it's good to have a whole food meal. This will give your body more nutrients to stop any chance of muscle tissue breakdown.

Finally, 3 hours after training, take a meal replacement shake to continuously replenish lost glycogen stores, replace energy nutrients, and preserve the lean muscle tissue.

So, a total of 1 small protein and carb-rich meal about a half hour before training and then 3 meals within the 3 hour time period after training.

The combination of these will ensure your body is kept in a muscle building anabolic state throughout your workout and well after.

Try it and see how it's possible to gain 15, even 20 pounds of muscle growth within 3 months of using this muscle building tip.

English

More accurately, that's the second person singular pronoun.

'Thou' corresponds to 'I/you/he/she'. (Nominative)
'Thee' corresponds to 'me/you/him/her'. (Accusative)
'Thy' corresponds to 'my/your/his/her'. (Possessive)
'Thine' -- 'mine/yours/his/hers'.

It's an archaic form, and its status was similar to the French vous/tu. At one time, it was the formal form, but became the familiar form around Shakespeare's time.

As for the archaic plural form...

Nominative / Accusative / Possessive
Ye (or you) / you / your, yours

Understanding Pre-Market and After-Hours Stock Trading

Getting a Leg Up on the Competition
The U.S. Stock Market is open for business for six-and-a-half hours---from 9:30 a.m to 4:00 p.m. ET---nearly every business day, and it draws crowds of thousands upon thousands of investors as soon as the opening bell rings. Wall Street is crowded during normal trading hours, but some investors are finding a less crowded space to trade in: the pre-market and after-hours stock trading sessions.

That''s right...as you will see in the Pre-Market and After-Hours Stock Trading video, you can actually trade before the market opens in the morning, and you can keep on trading once the market has closed in the afternoon. Of course, the playing field is a little different during off-market trading hours than it is when the full stock market is open, but we''ll cover that.

After-Hours Stock Trading
As its name suggests, after-hours stock trading occurs after the regular stock market hours---9:30 a.m to 4:00 p.m. ET---are over. After-hours stock trading takes place between the hours of 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. ET.

But why would you want to trade stocks in the after-hours trading session?

According to Chris Concannon, an executive VP in the Transaction Services Group at NASDAQ, "Many companies report earnings either before the market opens or after the market closes. The intrinsic value of a stock is constantly moving whether the market is open or not, and people want to access the market when the intrinsic value is changing."

Pre-Market Stock Trading
As its name suggests, pre-market stock trading occurs before the stock market opens up for its regular hours of trading at 9:30 a.m ET. Pre-market stock trading takes place between the hours of 4:00 to 9:30 a.m. ET.

Investors like to trade in the pre-market session for the same reason they like to trade in the after-hours trading session...they want to get a leg up on the competition by reacting quickly to news announcements that occur when the regular market is closed.

Risks of Trading After Hours and Pre-Market
All investing involves risk, but the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) outlines the following eight risks that are specifically associated with trading in the after-hours and pre-market sessions:

1. Inability to see or act upon quotes: Some firms only allow investors to view quotes from the one trading system the firm uses for after-hours trading. Check with your broker to see which firms quotes you will be able to see and off of which quotes you will be able to trade.

2. Lack of liquidity: During regular trading hours, buyers and sellers of most stocks can trade readily with one another. During after-hours, there may be less trading volume for some stocks, making it more difficult to execute some of your trades.

3. Larger quote spreads: Less trading activity could also mean wider spreads between the bid and ask prices. As a result, you may find it more difficult to get your order executed or to get as favorable a price as you could have during regular market hours.

4. Price volatility: For stocks with limited trading activity, you may find greater price fluctuations than you would have seen during regular trading hours.

5. Uncertain prices: The prices of some stocks traded during the after-hours session may not reflect the prices of those stocks during regular hours, either at the end of the regular trading session or upon the opening of regular trading the next business day. This means that even if a stock price rises in after-hours trading, it may fall right back down when regular trading opens again and the rest of the market gets to cast its vote on the price of the stock.

6. Bias toward limit orders: Many electronic trading systems currently accept only limit orders in the pre-market and after-hours sessions. Limit orders may cause you to miss out on having a trade filled.

7. Competition with professional traders: Many of the after-hours traders are professionals with large institutions, such as mutual funds, who may have access to more information than individual investors.

8. Computer delays: As with online trading, you may encounter during after-hours delays or failures in getting your order executed, including orders to cancel or change your trades.

Conclusion: Understanding Pre-Market and After-Hours Stock Trading
If you are looking for an edge in your stock trading, placing trades in the pre-market and/or after-hours trading sessions may be a great place to start. Just remember that there are additional risks you need to be aware of.

Build Up Your Self-Confidence

God to Joshua: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."¹

According to Samuel Johnson, "Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings." This is true for both the non-Christian and the Christian alike but what the Christian needs perhaps even more is God-confidence.

As another has pointed out, "Moses lacked self-confidence when God called him. Had Joshua had lots of self-confidence why would God have told him to not be afraid? Gideon certainly lacked self-confidence. And until the disciples of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit they had little if any self-confidence. When Jesus was taken captive, his disciples fled for their lives. Undoubtedly, just as I would have done had I been in their shoes. Had Paul had lots of self-confidence in all situations, why would God have sent an angel to him when he was in prison to tell him to fear not? And over and over God had to tell David not to fear."

Lacking self-confidence is par for the course for most of us for we all struggle with this to some degree. So how do we overcome?

First, we do this by building on our successes and not on our failures—and on what we can do, not on what we can't do! For instance, I may be a terrible bricklayer but that doesn't make me a terrible person.

Second, more importantly, building up our self-confidence needs to come from within; that is, building up my belief in myself. This comes mostly from being open, honest and transparent with at least one or two trusted friends to whom I reveal my total self—warts and all. As they love and accept me as I am, little by little I learn (in a healthy way) to love and accept myself as I am. As we grow in self-love, it is amazing how our self-confidence increases.

Third, and how do I build up my God-confidence? By choosing to trust him no matter how I feel. When I am lacking in self-confidence, I keep saying to God, "I’m afraid, but I choose to trust you in this situation." Eventually my feelings catch up with my choice to trust God.

Fourth, we also build up God-confidence through experience—by stepping out and practicing faith in God and doing what we believe he wants us to do. As we see God using us, our God-confidence grows.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank you that you love and accept me as I am—and that you love me too much to leave me as I am. Please help me to accept myself as you do, and help me to grow to become the person you want me to be so that my God-confidence and self-confidence will increase greatly. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Joshua 1:9 (NIV).

Positive Self Talk for Positive Living

How is your self talk? Your words are powerful and they can be used to build a person up or tear a person down, and that includes the words that you say to yourself. If your best friend talked to you the way you talk to yourself, how often would you want to be around the person?

I want to share this free self talk audio with you today to help you break free of those negative self talk patterns and get into a positive, creative, powerful self talk cycle. (you can also click on the ‘smart talk’ graphic)

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7

God gave us a magnificent and amazing brain, and we have access to a very powerful tool which when used regularly will enhance our self-esteem, help us break through those limiting self-imposed beliefs, and raise the thermostat of our comfort zone. I have condensed the audio file into the following points.

1. Begin with a clear picture of the desired outcome

By that, I mean have a clear vision of the end result. For example, if you want to break out of the negative pattern “I am so scared to speak before a group of people” then you must create a different picture of being a calm, organized and confident speaker. Avoid dwelling on the question, “How am I going to do this?”

Your subconscious mind is very creative and once you lock on to a new thought, you will be pleasantly surprised at how the creative mind actually goes to work to help move you toward this new reality.

2. Make it personal and remain in first person “I “…

3. Be positive

Use a positive spin when saying and writing positive self talk affirmations as opposed to a negative approach. Let’s look at an example. In a positive state, you would say, “I am confident when speaking before large groups of people. I feel energized. I feel focused. I have clarity.” Now, compare that to a negative approach that might sound like this: “I’m not as nervous or scared as I used to be when speaking to groups of people.” Do you hear the difference?

4. Stay in the present tense

You want to keep the statement in the “now” moment, the present moment, for your subconscious mind to fully comprehend that this change is happening today. It’s not a “some day” thing. You want to avoid using words like “I can do this; I will do this; I should or I could.” Instead, you want to use empowering words: “I am a confident, dynamic, captivating, and powerful speaker when addressing groups of people.”

5. Keep it simple

Yes, KIS formula! Use short, powerful sentences for programming that new behavior in your subconscious mind.

6. It’s got to be believable to you and attainable. For example, if you are expanding your comfort zone to feel comfortable speaking to large groups of people, you first begin to focus on creating ease and comfort when speaking to small groups of people. Once there, you can then move on to speaking before larger groups of people.

7. Feel the emotions

You want to use words that really trigger your emotions when you speak your affirmations out loud. An example is to use the word “confident” in your self talk before stepping out before a group of people to give a talk. “I am confident and at ease when I address groups of people.”

8. Write affirmations to reinforce your self talk

Some people scoff at the idea of writing out affirmations but I think it makes good sense. Take out your 3×5 index cards. I happen to like the multicolored ones. Write each affirmation on a separate index card. Use a color for each theme or each area of your life For example, I really like to use pink cards for the area of relationships because I associate pink with the color of the heart. I like yellow for health and nutrition because that reminds me of the sun.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

9. Imprint the positive self talk on your mind

Imprinting is actually a very intentional action that you will take to read affirmations each morning and each evening upon awakening and before falling asleep. This is when your brain is most receptive and in the alpha state.

And as with any new habit, do this for 21 days. However, I like the number 40 because it’s right out of the Bible. Moses was in the desert for 40 days. Jesus was tempted for 40 days. So, for 40 consecutive days, read your affirmations every morning upon awakening and every night before you fall asleep. Take about 30 seconds for each affirmation. Read it. Close your eyes. Picture that end result. See the picture come to life. Enjoy all the vibrant colors in your mind and allow yourself to feel the emotion that goes with the affirmation. Breathe in deeply. Enjoy the moment. And then, go on to that next affirmation, and repeat the steps.

10. This last step may be the most challenging for some, and that is to BELIEVE.

Open your heart and your mind to the possibility that positive self talk will contribute to positive living. Expect to make positive changes in your life using these techniques. What have you got to lose? Try it! Forty days!

Studies show that, over a 21 day period, if you just read the affirmation, you can have a 10 percent impact on changing your negative self talk patterns. If you read the affirmation and picture the results of the affirmation, with vibrant colors and details, you’re looking at a 40 to 50 percent change in your self talk. And when you combine reading, picturing and feeling the emotion that goes with the affirmation, you increase your self talk pattern by an even greater percentage. The new self talk patterns then result in changed behavior.

Christian self-talk

Psychologists now think the solution to depression is not drugs, but changing the way you think. Or so Dorothy Rowe claimed in an article I was reading the other day.

"Instead of constantly criticising, praise and encourage yourself. You'll need to confront the events that occurred just before you became depressed. You blamed yourself and inadvertently created the prison of depression. There is a key to this prison: accepting and valuing yourself, and accepting the natural uncertainty of life."

Self-talk was around a long time before modern psychology. But the content was a little different: honest wrestling with God about one's despair, and arguing oneself into faith. Read Psalm 42. Read the Puritans. Read Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

And learn to speak God's word into your soul:

I say that we must talk to ourselves instead of allowing ‘ourselves’ to talk to us! Do you realize what that means? … Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: “Self, listen for a moment, I will speak to you.” …

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself. You must say to your soul: ‘Why art thou cast down’ – what business have you to be disquieted? You must turn on yourself, upbraid yourself, condemn yourself, exhort yourself, and say to yourself: ‘Hope thou in God’ – instead of muttering in this depressed, unhappy way. And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, Who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God.’

John Murphy's Ten Laws of Technical Trading

StockCharts.com's Chief Technical Analyst, John Murphy, is a very popular author, columnist, and speaker on the subject of Technical Analysis. John's "Ten Laws of Technical Trading" is the best guide available anywhere for people who are new to the field of charting. I urge you to print out this page and refer to it often.

Which way is the market moving? How far up or down will it go? And when will it go the other way? These are the basic concerns of the technical analyst. Behind the charts and graphs and mathematical formulas used to analyze market trends are some basic concepts that apply to most of the theories employed by today's technical analysts.

John Murphy, StockCharts.com's Chief Technical Analyst, has drawn upon his thirty years of experience in the field to develop ten basic laws of technical trading: rules that are designed to help explain the whole idea of technical trading for the beginner and to streamline the trading methodology for the more experienced practitioner. These precepts define the key tools of technical analysis and how to use them to identify buying and selling opportunities.

Before joining StockCharts, John was the technical analyst for CNBC-TV for seven years on the popular show Tech Talk, and has authored three best-selling books on the subject: Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets,Intermarket Analysis and The Visual Investor.

His most recent book demonstrates the essential visual elements of technical analysis. The fundamentals of John's approach to technical analysis illustrate that it is more important to determine where a market is going (up or down) rather than the why behind it.

The following are John's ten most important rules of technical trading:

1. Map the Trends
2. Spot the Trend and Go With It
3. Find the Low and High of It
4. Know How Far to Backtrack
5. Draw the Line
6. Follow That Average
7. Learn the Turns
8. Know the Warning Signs
9. Trend or Not a Trend?
10. Know the Confirming Signs

1. Map the Trends

Study long-term charts. Begin a chart analysis with monthly and weekly charts spanning several years. A larger scale map of the market provides more visibility and a better long-term perspective on a market. Once the long-term has been established, then consult daily and intra-day charts. A short-term market view alone can often be deceptive. Even if you only trade the very short term, you will do better if you're trading in the same direction as the intermediate and longer term trends.

2. Spot the Trend and Go With It

Determine the trend and follow it. Market trends come in many sizes – long-term, intermediate-term and short-term. First, determine which one you're going to trade and use the appropriate chart. Make sure you trade in the direction of that trend. Buy dips if the trend is up. Sell rallies if the trend is down. If you're trading the intermediate trend, use daily and weekly charts. If you're day trading, use daily and intra-day charts. But in each case, let the longer range chart determine the trend, and then use the shorter term chart for timing.

3. Find the Low and High of It

Find support and resistance levels. The best place to buy a market is near support levels. That support is usually a previous reaction low. The best place to sell a market is near resistance levels. Resistance is usually a previous peak. After a resistance peak has been broken, it will usually provide support on subsequent pullbacks. In other words, the old "high" becomes the new low. In the same way, when a support level has been broken, it will usually produce selling on subsequent rallies – the old "low" can become the new "high."

4. Know How Far to Backtrack

Measure percentage retracements. Market corrections up or down usually retrace a significant portion of the previous trend. You can measure the corrections in an existing trend in simple percentages. A fifty percent retracement of a prior trend is most common. A minimum retracement is usually one-third of the prior trend. The maximum retracement is usually two-thirds. Fibonacci retracements of 38% and 62% are also worth watching. During a pullback in an uptrend, therefore, initial buy points are in the 33-38% retracement area.

5. Draw the Line

Draw trend lines. Trend lines are one of the simplest and most effective charting tools. All you need is a straight edge and two points on the chart. Up trend lines are drawn along two successive lows. Down trend lines are drawn along two successive peaks. Prices will often pull back to trend lines before resuming their trend. The breaking of trend lines usually signals a change in trend. A valid trend line should be touched at least three times. The longer a trend line has been in effect, and the more times it has been tested, the more important it becomes.

6. Follow that Average

Follow moving averages. Moving averages provide objective buy and sell signals. They tell you if existing trend is still in motion and help confirm a trend change. Movingaverages do not tell you in advance, however, that a trend change is imminent. A combination chart of two moving averages is the most popular way of finding tradingsignals. Some popular futures combinations are 4- and 9-day moving averages, 9- and 18-day, 5- and 20-day. Signals are given when the shorter average line crosses the longer. Price crossings above and below a 40-day moving average also provide good trading signals. Since moving average chart lines are trend-following indicators, they work best in a trending market.

7. Learn the Turns

Track oscillators. Oscillators help identify overbought and oversold markets. While moving averages offer confirmation of a market trend change, oscillators often help warn us in advance that a market has rallied or fallen too far and will soon turn. Two of the most popular are the Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastics. They both work on a scale of 0 to 100. With the RSI, readings over 70 are overbought while readings below 30 are oversold. The overbought and oversold values for Stochastics are 80 and 20. Most traders use 14-days or weeks for stochastics and either 9 or 14 days or weeks for RSI. Oscillator divergences often warn of market turns. These tools work best in a trading market range. Weekly signals can be used as filters on daily signals. Daily signals can be used as filters for intra-day charts.

8. Know the Warning Signs

Trade MACD. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) indicator (developed by Gerald Appel) combines a moving average crossover system with the overbought/oversold elements of an oscillator. A buy signal occurs when the faster line crosses above the slower and both lines are below zero. A sell signal takes place when the faster line crosses below the slower from above the zero line. Weekly signals take precedence over daily signals. An MACD histogram plots the difference between the two lines and gives even earlier warnings of trend changes. It's called a "histogram" because vertical bars are used to show the difference between the two lines on the chart.

9. Trend or Not a Trend

Use ADX. The Average Directional Movement Index (ADX) line helps determine whether a market is in a trending or a trading phase. It measures the degree of trend or direction in the market. A rising ADX line suggests the presence of a strong trend. A falling ADX line suggests the presence of a trading market and the absence of a trend. A rising ADX line favors moving averages; a falling ADX favors oscillators. By plotting the direction of the ADX line, the trader is able to determine which trading style and which set of indicators are most suitable for the current market environment.

10. Know the Confirming Signs

Include volume and open interest. Volume and open interest are important confirming indicators in futures markets. Volume precedes price. It's important to ensure that heavier volume is taking place in the direction of the prevailing trend. In an uptrend, heavier volume should be seen on up days. Rising open interest confirms that new money is supporting the prevailing trend. Declining open interest is often a warning that the trend is near completion. A solid price uptrend should be accompanied by rising volume and rising open interest.

"11."

Technical analysis is a skill that improves with experience and study. Always be a student and keep learning.

- John Murphy

Definitions: Leonardo Fibonacci was a thirteenth century mathematician who "rediscovered" a precise and almost constant relationship between Hindu-Arabic numbers in a sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,etc. to infinity). The sum of any two consecutive numbers in this sequence equals the next higher number. After the first four, the ratio of any number in the sequence to its next higher number approaches .618. That ratio was known to the ancient Greek and Egyptian mathematicians as the "Golden Mean" which had critical applications in art, architecture and in nature.

Stochastics - an oscillator popularized by George Lane in an article on the subject which appeared in 1984. It is based on the observation that as prices increase, closing prices tend to be closer to the upper end of the price range; conversely, in down trends, closing prices tend to be near the lower end of the range. Stochastics has slightly wider overbought and oversold boundaries than the RSI and is therefore a more volatile indicator. The term "stochastic" refers to the location of a current futures price in relation to its range over a set period of time (usually 14 days).