Technical trading may sound hard. Heck, I often hear how trading options is hard.

But I'm here to tell you that both couldn't be easier.

With just three simple steps, you can master the art of technical trading in no time at all.

In fact, in addition to thematic trading, Options Trading Pit uses these tools more often than not — despite market direction.

I'll give you some examples. . .

Tiffany & Company Upside Profit. . . in a Recession

It was June 2009 when we watched Tiffany & Company (TIF) briefly spike from an oversold $25 to more than $30 — in spite of being knee-deep during the recession.

Those who went long with the underlying stock walked with max gains of 25%.

Those who bought the August 2009 26 call (TIFHZ), for instance, walked with 45% off of the same move.

But here's something else you may not know: profiting from technical developments has never been easier.

While there are many ways to screen for opportunities, four of my favorites involve the use of Bollinger Bands, W%R, the news, and candlesticks.

By using these four things, we can call for tops and bottoms on indices as well as individual stocks.

Let's take a look at AIG, for example, from November 2006.

In late November 2006, shares of AIG were grossly overbought.

Technically, once we got word of extremely overbought W%R read (as seen in mid-November), we knew AIG was overdue for a correction. Also notice that at the time, the underlying stock crossed above the upper Bollinger Band with a doji cross, indicating near-term reversal, which we got.

And just as we had hoped, AIG fell from about $72 to less than $69, handing us a quick gain.

However, AIG then bottomed out at $70. Again, technically, we had another doji reversal signal — this time at the bottom of the trend (a doji at the bottom of a trend can be used as a bullish reversal signal).

We bought again at the bottom, marked by an oversold W%R and rode it back from about $69.50 to more than $72 in a few short weeks.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the terms (doji, Bollinger Band and W%R), check this out:

• Dojis usually appear at times of market indecision and have called key reversals in indices and individual stocks.

• W%R (or Williams % Range) is the ultimate momentum indicator that signals oversold and overbought conditions.