www.ConsensusTraders.com
Who hasn't wondered at one point or another if you could take all of
the stocks, indexes, and averages out there and run them past all the various
indicators and oscillators in technical analysis and come up with some
massive, all-encompassing technical screener? You could filter for only
the kind of technical indicators you are interested in, as well as filtering
in only those stocks, indexes, or market averages that you wanted to follow.
At a glance -- and after flipping through more than a few pages -- you would
have an excellent sense of how the world of technical indicators perceives
the chances for your stock, index, or average to go up, go down, or go
nowhere anytime soon.
If you've thought about this, there is a good chance the developers
of ConsensusTraders.com have sensed your thoughts. Their website allows
traders to make just that sort of technical query without having to download
and install a massive database of stocks and technical indicators. Simply
enter the symbol of the stock you are interested in, select the time frame,
include as many or as few technical indicators as you want, and that's
it. The "consensus" of technical opinion on your stock will arrive shortly.
In the three main features of ConsensusTraders.com, one is free to all
Internet visitors, while the other two require membership ($17 a month
as of this writing). The free service consists of an end of day analysis
of a given stock. After clicking on "Free End of Day Analysis," the trader
is presented with a box into which he or she enters a stock symbol. Press
the "Get It" button, and within seconds a consensus report is created.
This consensus report lists first some basic information about the stock
in tabular form: symbol, date and time, close and last, change, open, low,
high and volume. Below that is a daily candlestick chart, including price
action for the most recent 20 days. The "Stock Consensus Analysis" is below
the chart (Figure 1). ConsensusTrader.com works primarily in two time frames:
"short term" and "very short term." The left-most column in the table lists
the 39-odd indicators used to create the consensus ranging from Bollinger
Bands all the way to Williams' %R.
FIGURE 1: CONSENSUSTRADERS.COM, STOCK CONSENSUS ANALYSIS.
The stock selected to analyze is evaluated as in a bearish, bullish,
or neutral state, whether short term or very short term.
Each indicator listed is also a link. Clicking on that link takes the trader
to a browser window with explanations that include both an overview of
the indicator, as well as a guide to interpreting it.
The selected stock is evaluated by each of these indicators as in a
bearish, neutral, or bullish state. When I entered "AAPL" as my stock,
I got "short-term" bullish signals from Bollinger Bands, the MACD, and
the volume oscillator, and bearish signals from the relative strength index
(RSI), TRIX, and positive volume index. For the most part, every indicator
in ConsensusTraders.com has something to say: bullish, bearish, or neutral.
All of these indicator readings are collected in the Consensus box,
which totals the number of indicators that provided opinions on the stock
(one number for very short term and another for short term). Below that,
the number of bullish indicators is compared to the number of bearish indicators
(as well as neutral ones). This creates a percentage that represents the
bullish or bearish consensus of the indicators. Below this, the data is
compiled again into an overall consensus for the stock. The total number
of indicators is tallied, as are the number of bullish and bearish indicators,
with a final consensus percentage provided the bottom.
Below the Stock Consensus Analysis table is a smaller one that lists
pivot points that can be helpful for traders looking to exploit a bullish
or bearish consensus with a well-placed entry. Four different pivot resistance
levels and four pivot support levels are provided.
As I mentioned, the end of the day consensus report is among Consensus
Traders.com's free offerings. There is another consensus report ("live
analysis") that is available to member/subscribers who want consensus analysis
during the course of the market session. There is no indication whether
the data used for the live analysis is real-time or modestly delayed --
a major factor especially for those interested in operating in the very
short-term time frame.
The third feature at Consensus-Traders.com is the second paid feature:
the scanner, which lets traders enter in a stock symbol, designate whether
they want short- or very short-term readings, then select which of the
various indicators the trader wants applied to the stock. There is a pulldown
menu for the date of the analysis (including the seven most recent trading
days) and below that, pulldown menus for traders to use in setting the
minimum and maximum bullish consensus percentages. Press "Get it" and the
scan begins.
The results can be found in a small table that lists the date, stock
symbol, the number of bearish indicators, the number of neutral indicators,
and the number of bullish indicators. A total "indicator count" is provided
as well as a column for the "Consensus Bullish" percentage and a column
for the "Consensus Bearish" percentage. Traders can leave the box at the
top of the scanner blank and ConsensusTraders.com will search its database
and run the scan over all of the stocks (and indexes) therein. Insofar
as the stock/index symbols appear as links, traders can click on those
symbols to get a "live analysis" including the stock consensus analysis,
which details each indicator's reading individually (bullish, bearish,
or neutral).
There are kinks to be worked out of the website. It is difficult to
know exactly what "short term" and "very short term" mean. And while ConsensusTraders.com
does good work in explaining what technical indicators are used, they don't
provide much insight into how they are using those indicators or what their
default settings are. Better -- or at least more extensive -- documentation
would help here. Similarly, there is little discussion about how to evaluate
the results. What level of bullish or bearish consensus should be considered
high enough for a trader to feel confident about taking a position? Should
a trader be concerned about which indicators are contributing to the consensus
-- for example, if indicators that actually do the same sort of analytic
work all contribute to a "bullish consensus," is that market as bullish
as it might appear if indicators that looked at completely different factors
provided a bullish consensus?
These issues may be resolved in time as ConsensusTraders.com grows,
both in terms of the number of members/subscribers as well as in terms
of the breadth of its offerings (adding the "intermediate" time frame,
perhaps including even more indicators, improving documentation) As it
is, the website is worth keeping an eye on to see how it improves and expands.
It's not everyday a trader can count on being able to get almost instantaneous
second opinions on a given stock. With ConsensusTraders.com, traders can
not only get second opinions, but given the wealth of technical indicators
involved, they can also look forward to third, fourth, and more.
--David Penn, Technical Writer
www.consensustraders.com
Return to Table of Contents
Originally published in the July 2007 issue of Technical Analysis
of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright
2007, Technical Analysis, Inc.
