The back side of exhibits may reveal true colors, as
participants in the crocheting and knitting class discov
ered. Judges’ school students carefully examined several
examples for seams, consistency in pattern and colors,
or errant threads.
Judges 9 School
(Continued from Page B 14)
examined several examples for
seams, consistency in pattern
and colors, or errant threads.
Fulmer, who has been judging
for 20 years, not only crochets
and knits but also teaches the
crafts. “I just love to look at what
other people do. Judging at a fair
is one of the best places to get
ideas for yourself,” she said. “It’s
great.”
Cooking,
Photography
Hazel Stahley, Gaithersburg,
Md., and Annie Clark, Whitney
ville, instructed the baked goods
portion of the school. Partici
pants evaluated the tastes, tex
tures, flavor, and appearance of
several different kinds of confec
tions and breads. Learning prop
er baking techniques has been a
lifelong process for Stahley, who
began as a 4-H’er and with in
struction from her mother.
Stahley, who has judged for 25
years, pointed out cakes which
were not mixed properly or were
not baked long enough and had a
wet spot. Stahley also suggested
sniffing the cakes, since some ex
hibitors smoke while they bake
cakes, lending a distinctive odor
to the cake.
To tell the difference between
a boxed angel food cake and a
homemade cake, check the way
the cake cracks on the top, she
said. A boxed cake will have a
star-like pattern while a home
made cake will crack in an al
most-perfect ring.
“You have to tune your mind
clear of preferences and judge on
the quality of the exhibit itself,”
she said. As students tasted the
cookies, she advised, “forget
what you like and go by quality.”
“It’s nice to get together like
this and leam. I can pick up a lot
of things from these people. It
doesn’t matter how small or
large a fair is, if you keep an
open mind you’ll leam some
thing.”
Clark used the same generic
brand muffin mix and added dif
ferent ingredients to challenge
the baked good judges with sev
eral varieties of confections.
“If you’ve judged, you’ll soon
ITHACA, N.Y. Is your as
paragus ailing? Can your
melons be suffering a malady?
Find out what’s hurting your
corn and cucurbits at Vegetable
MD Online, http://vegetablem
donline.ppath.cornell.edu, a free
service of the Cornell University
plant pathology department.
“I’ve always had an interest
in popularizing the good pro
duction work we do af Cornell,’’' •
Preserved foods instruc
tor Rainy Linn taught how
to distinguish the best
canned foods at the fair.
develop your own philosophy
and own methods of weeding out
the good, the bad, and the in-be
tween,” said preserved foods in
structor Rainy Linn. University
research used by the USDA pro
vided the criteria for judging
those classes.
Jars should have 1 Vi of
head space, no foreign matter,
and have a clear, bright, and nat
ural liquid. According to Linn,
jelly should quiver, jam should be
spreadable, pickles should be
crisp, and dried fruit should be
chewable in the canned food
competition.
In the photography class How
ard Hoch, Oley, helped partici
pants leam to evaluate subject
matter, impact, and degree of
difficulty. He is the department
chairperson of the photography
department for the Oley fair.
“Take into consideration what
the photographer had to do to
get that shot,” said Hoch. “If you
want that different impact,
you’re going to try to get that dif
ferent angle.”
Hoch also discussed photo
graph categories and how action,
animals, portrait, children, still
life or digital pictures should fit
into each category.
The event was conducted in
conjunction with the 89th annual
convention sponsored by the
Pennsylvania State Association
of County Fairs and the Pennsyl
vania State Showmen’s Associa
tion.
Site Helps Troubleshoot Vegetable Problems
said Thomas A. Zitter, Cornell
professor of plant pathology and
the Website’s creator. ‘lt’s been
needed a long time,’’ he said,
noting that he is particularly
proud of the site’s vegetable dis
ease photo gallery. “We have
even better photos now that
didn’t appear in the original in
formation sheets.”
If you want to know about
‘CDhttnOrt-blight iff beans, a fact
USING THE RSI AND
OTHER OSCILLATORS TO
ANALYZE THE MARKET
John Berry
Ag Marketing Educator
Lehigh County
Stochastic oscillators are
called oscillators because they
form a band across the bottom of
a chart with a line that moves, or
oscillates, above and below a
midpoint.
Because an established trend
line tends to continue indefi
nitely, it often is a reliable indi
cator of future prices. During
market price uptrends, a pro
ducer wants to own grain that is
increasing in value. In down
trends, investors are slow to
invest money and quick to pro
tect it. Oscillators are a market
indicator that can predict when
a producer should sell grain in
creasing in value and hold grain
that is not.
In an uptrend’s early stages,
prices move steadily upward. As
the trend continues, prices begin
to move more rapidly as larger
numbers of traders expecting
prices to continue to increase
jump into the market. Then,
however, prices lose momentum
as too few buyers are willing to
pay higher prices. The prices
move more slowly while holders
of rights to receive a commodity
(longs) stay in the market to
reap further price increases,
while other traders leave the
market.
Finally exhausted, the prices
stop moving up and turn down
ward. The downtrend produces
a similar pattern, but it may be
steeper than in the uptrend. If
traders know when prices are
losing momentum, they proba
bly can respond to that reversal
signal to increase their profita
bility position. In most cases,
producers can forecast the end
of the trend by plotting the
changing movement of the
market.
In short, oscillators are de
signed to measure the underly
ing strength of a price
movement in the market. They
measure changes in price rather
than just the price level. This is
done by measuring the distance
of a price change within a time
period and assessing if it is sig
nificant enough to signal the
trader to take market action.
Oscillators usually are used in
conjunction with other trend
analysis tools. They are most
valuable in a non-trending
market with prices fluctuating
within a trading range. All oscil
lators have similar charts. There
is a base at the bottom and a
midline around which the prices
oscillate. Good charts can pro
vide valuable information to the
trader, but by themselves do not
sheet describes its leaf symp
toms and explains that it is
caused by a bacterium. While
warm, humid conditions favor
the development of common
blight, Vegetable MD Online
said that even a trace of infected
seed can infect an entire field.
Vegetable MD Online also
was developed by Margaret
McGrath, Cornell associate pro
fessor of plant pathology at the
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 27,2001-817
yield enough clues to ensure
good trades. Successful traders
must know how to get into and
out of the market at the right
time to catch the move they are
looking for.
Several types of oscillators are
available to help traders mea
sure the timing for trades. The
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
and a stochastic oscillator are
among those most frequently
used.
RSI
The RSI looks at the average
of the up closes and the average
of the down closes for a given
period. A 14-day segment is
commonly used, but the user
may select the number of days.
The RSI attempts to identify
overbought and oversold mar
kets running out of momentum.
A standard scale of zero to 100 is
used. The RSI uses an exponen
tial moving average smooths
out inconsistent movement and
gives the most weight to recent
data while not eliminating the
old data. A producer needs to
think about the degree of sensi
tivity desired when he or she
chooses boundary lines. These
lines represent overbought and
oversold conditions. When the
RSI crosses these lines, it indi
cates the market is losing
strength and probably will
change direction.
Many traders use the 70 line
for the upper and the 30 line for
the lower boundary, but some
believe this range is too sensi
tive. Producers commonly use
upper and lower boundaries of
65 and 35, respectively. The RSI
is a leading indicator. Its highs
and lows normally precede
market tops and bottoms. It con
firms changes in momentum, es
pecially fading momentum,
signaling an imminent change in
market direction. The RSI also
alerts the investor to periods of
recent price movement that in
clude insignificant true market
movement.
Consistent use of the RSI
shows long term trend forma
tions similar to bar chart forma
tions. With a little thought and
effort, producers can draw sup
port and resistance lines. Again:
producers should watch for the
RSI to change price direction as
a strong signal of market
change.
Other Oscillators
Stochastic oscillators forecast
market changes by measuring
the relative position of the clos
ing price within the daily price
range.
For example, while buyers in
a bull market are stronger than
sellers and push prices up at the
end of the trading day, this pat-
Long Island Horticulture Re
search and Extension Center,
Riverhead, N.Y., and by Dawn
Dailey-O’Brien, an extension
support specialist in plant pa
thology.
Navigating the web site is
easy. A click on “Diseases by
Crops” finds the vegetable of in
terest displayed as seed packets,
fact sheets available, together
with photos of diseased tissue
tern weakens toward the end of
a trend. If the market prices
continue to go up but the closing
price is moving toward the low
end of the price range, the trader
should watch for changing mar
kets.
A bear market will see a simi
lar pattern in reverse. When
reading the charts, the over
bought conditions are indicated
near the top of the chart’s range
while the oversold conditions
are near the bottom of the range.
To calculate the Stochastic in
dicator, subtract the total of the
lows for 14 days from the last
day’s close. Subtract the total of
the lows for the same 14 days
from the total of the highs for
the same 14 days. Divide the
first number by the second. This
number is then plotted on the
graph. Many chart services
carry the Stochastic graph at the
bottom of their daily activity
chart. These patterns usually
have been smoothed out by
using a moving average of raw
stochastic data. Producers using
charting services need to check
their publications for the exact
calculation of this oscillator.
Conclusion
Oscillators rarely are used
alone as a market analysis tool.
Each trader should develop a
personalized combination of
marketing tools that may well
include oscillators. The produc
er’s needs and time limitations
are valid considerations. Pro
ducers who consider using the
RSI or any of the other oscilla
tors should think about sub
scribing to a charting service.
The time saved may be well
worth the expense.
Profitability is the ultimate
test of any chosen combination
of marketing tools. The trader
using oscillators must remember
that if prices gain too much ve
locity, the prices probably will
become overextended and
change direction.
Lancaster
Farming
Check
Out
Our
Web
Site
www.l.uiuisUtl.i ruling.com
that can be magnified online.
Zitter said pictures will be up
dated regularly so that varia
tions in disease appearance can
be included.
“We’re trying to make the
Website as user friendly as pos
sible for commercial growers
and homeowners,” he said, ob-„
serving that many Cornell Co
operative Extension educators
send him digital images of new
diseases in the field for web pub
lication.