MoneyForex Financial Ltd. is one of the world leading online forex currency and CFDs trading broker offering low pips and commission-free online forex trading. MoneyForex has been known as one of the reputable offshore forex broker that provides top level services to high privillege investors around the world. Our company has been a regular contributors of forex news and signals to many forex resources such as the following:
* FxStreet.com
* Bloomberg News
* Reuters
* ForexYellowPages.com
* FXNews.co.uk
* Search-Forex.com
* Every-Forex.com
* BrokersMatrix.com
* Earn up to a $1000 bonus for existing and new clients!
* MoneyForex.com offers online streaming forex news
* Announcing MoneyForex Trader, the best online forex trading platform in the industry
* MoneyForex Trader comes with charting and news
In The Press
* PR News - MoneyForex launched new trading instruments; CFDs, Commodities Futures Contract and Indices.
* BrokersMatrix.com - Profiling of MoneyFOREX.com as recommended Forex Broker; Commodities Futures and CFDs trading Brokers.
* PRWeb News - MoneyForex FInancial Ltd. Announces New Forex Trading Platform
* FXStreet.com - MoneyForex's Profile
source: http://www.moneyforex.com/forex-corporate-news.php
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Why MoneyForex?
Forex Trading with MoneyForex Financial Ltd. can offer benefits to traders and investors around the world.
One of the main benefits of an offshore forex trading account is that there is none capital gain tax incurred from forex trading activities. Either you made $1000 or even $1 million, MoneyForex has no obligation to report the capital gain to any tax authority.
For any resident around the world, this will offers considerable cash flow benefits especially for the larger account holders, money managers, and financial institutions as one can plan the payment of tax more efficiently. However, one still have a duty to declare taxation to the appropriate tax authority.
Commission-Free
No commission on either entering or exit the market.
User Friendly Trading Platform
Rated the most user friendly trading platform by professional traders. Features What You Click Is What You Get (WYCIWYG).Unlike many other forex platform, we do not re-quote the price. For comparison Chart of MoneyForex Trader with MetaTrader and other platforms, please click here.
Accessibility
Accessible to most information needed from checking account balance, floating positions to printing account balance all through the platform.
Light Speed Execution
When comes to forex trading, speed is one of the most important criteria. Try out our lightning speed execution with our trading platform.
High Leverage
Free margin on hedge or lock position (which many trading platforms do not allow).
Low Spread
Spread on major currency pairs are between 3-5 pips which is the lowest in the industry.
Safety of Fund
Investor funds are held separately with company operating capital in reputable banks.
State of The Art Dealing Facilities
Other than the advance dealing platform, we are backed by 24-hours live dealing via telephone.
Professional Dealers
All our dealers are former dealers of major banks and at least 5 years of experience dealing in forex.
Managed Account
Our manage accounts are manage by Wall Street professional money manager with more than 10 years of experience trading in forex. Please contact us for more information.
Introducing Broker Program (IB)
We have the best IB program in the industry. For more information, please contact us.
Offshore Money Haven
Your investment will be parked in major offshore Bank and rest assures it will be treated in confidentiality manner. It helps to keep your private and business affairs away from public eyes in an offshore jurisdiction. Invest in offshore will secure your assets against possible future claim.
Asset Protection
Invest in offshore will secure your assets against possible future claim.
source: http://www.moneyforex.com/why-money-forex.php
One of the main benefits of an offshore forex trading account is that there is none capital gain tax incurred from forex trading activities. Either you made $1000 or even $1 million, MoneyForex has no obligation to report the capital gain to any tax authority.
For any resident around the world, this will offers considerable cash flow benefits especially for the larger account holders, money managers, and financial institutions as one can plan the payment of tax more efficiently. However, one still have a duty to declare taxation to the appropriate tax authority.
Commission-Free
No commission on either entering or exit the market.
User Friendly Trading Platform
Rated the most user friendly trading platform by professional traders. Features What You Click Is What You Get (WYCIWYG).Unlike many other forex platform, we do not re-quote the price. For comparison Chart of MoneyForex Trader with MetaTrader and other platforms, please click here.
Accessibility
Accessible to most information needed from checking account balance, floating positions to printing account balance all through the platform.
Light Speed Execution
When comes to forex trading, speed is one of the most important criteria. Try out our lightning speed execution with our trading platform.
High Leverage
Free margin on hedge or lock position (which many trading platforms do not allow).
Low Spread
Spread on major currency pairs are between 3-5 pips which is the lowest in the industry.
Safety of Fund
Investor funds are held separately with company operating capital in reputable banks.
State of The Art Dealing Facilities
Other than the advance dealing platform, we are backed by 24-hours live dealing via telephone.
Professional Dealers
All our dealers are former dealers of major banks and at least 5 years of experience dealing in forex.
Managed Account
Our manage accounts are manage by Wall Street professional money manager with more than 10 years of experience trading in forex. Please contact us for more information.
Introducing Broker Program (IB)
We have the best IB program in the industry. For more information, please contact us.
Offshore Money Haven
Your investment will be parked in major offshore Bank and rest assures it will be treated in confidentiality manner. It helps to keep your private and business affairs away from public eyes in an offshore jurisdiction. Invest in offshore will secure your assets against possible future claim.
Asset Protection
Invest in offshore will secure your assets against possible future claim.
source: http://www.moneyforex.com/why-money-forex.php
Online Forex Broker Profile
MoneyForex Financial Ltd. is one of the world leading online currency trading broker offering low pips and commission-free online forex trading. Founded by Wall Street veterans, MoneyForex's vision is to service individual and corporate investors such as money managers, banks, and financial institutions in easing the complexity in dealing with forex trading. Our dealing software which specialized in forex dealing is rated second to none for it user friendly environment. Lightning speed and efficient execution is one of its many benefits.
MoneyForex Financial Ltd. is incorporated in British Virgin Island (Registration Number 629302) under the provisions of the International Business Companies Act, 1984. MoneyForex is authorized to offer futures, securities, and foreign exchange as a forex broker and primary market maker.
MoneyForex is founded by a group of Wall Street Veterans who has more than 30 years experience in the financial market. Other than the financial industry, the group operates various businesses including real estate development, media communication, advertising, internet technology and software application and development.
In this complex forex market, a user friendly platform is a must in order to make fast and efficient trading decision and execution. Our trading platform is rated the most user friendly by professional traders. MoneyForex's clients consist of financial institutions, money managers as well as individual investors.
We take pride in our professional staff that is thoroughly trained to look after the best interests of our clients. Our professional staff is available twenty-four hours a day (Monday to Friday) to answer your inquiry. Try out our service by open a free demo forex account.
source: http://www.moneyforex.com/profile.php
MoneyForex Financial Ltd. is incorporated in British Virgin Island (Registration Number 629302) under the provisions of the International Business Companies Act, 1984. MoneyForex is authorized to offer futures, securities, and foreign exchange as a forex broker and primary market maker.
MoneyForex is founded by a group of Wall Street Veterans who has more than 30 years experience in the financial market. Other than the financial industry, the group operates various businesses including real estate development, media communication, advertising, internet technology and software application and development.
In this complex forex market, a user friendly platform is a must in order to make fast and efficient trading decision and execution. Our trading platform is rated the most user friendly by professional traders. MoneyForex's clients consist of financial institutions, money managers as well as individual investors.
We take pride in our professional staff that is thoroughly trained to look after the best interests of our clients. Our professional staff is available twenty-four hours a day (Monday to Friday) to answer your inquiry. Try out our service by open a free demo forex account.
source: http://www.moneyforex.com/profile.php
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
What is The Law of Charts™?
The Law of Charts was discovered by Master Trader Joe Ross. As he likes to say, "It was there all along. It just happened to fall on my head much as the law of gravity was discovered when an apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head."
The Law of Charts defines four basic formations known as 1-2-3 lows and highs, Ross hooks, trading ranges, and ledges. These occur in all time frames because the depict human action and reaction vis-à-vis price movement.
What makes these formations unique is that they can be specifically defined. The ability to formulate a more precise definition sets these formations apart from such vague generalities as "head and shoulders," "coils," "flags," "pennants," "megaphones," and other such supposed price patterns that are frequently attached as labels to the action of prices.
A 1-2-3 high or low comes at the end of a trend or swing. It forms as the result of a change in the direction of prices. The 1-2-3 low forms as the result of buying pressure overcoming that of selling pressure. The 1-2-3 high forms as the result of selling pressure overcoming buying pressure.
A Ross hook™ always forms as the result of profit taking in an trend or swing.
A ledge forms as a result of profit taking, uncertainty about future price direction, or both. You might consider it as a pause in the overall movement of prices in a single direction.
A ledge is the smallest of a number of consolidation formations: it never consists of more than 10 or less than 4 price bars. It is denoted by containing two matching or nearly matching highs and two matching or nearly matching lows.
A consolidation consisting of eleven to 20 price bars is called a congestion, and a consolidation consisting of 21 or more price bars.
As simple as these definitions are, the have been found to constitute a "law." Any data that contains both a high and a low, will form these patterns; even data that has nothing to do with markets and trading.
Learn more about The Law of Charts, it is a free resource on our website. Study it as much as you want. And while you are visiting take a look at the Traders Trick™ entry.
by Joe Ross
http://www.tradingeducators.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-58.html
The Law of Charts defines four basic formations known as 1-2-3 lows and highs, Ross hooks, trading ranges, and ledges. These occur in all time frames because the depict human action and reaction vis-à-vis price movement.
What makes these formations unique is that they can be specifically defined. The ability to formulate a more precise definition sets these formations apart from such vague generalities as "head and shoulders," "coils," "flags," "pennants," "megaphones," and other such supposed price patterns that are frequently attached as labels to the action of prices.
A 1-2-3 high or low comes at the end of a trend or swing. It forms as the result of a change in the direction of prices. The 1-2-3 low forms as the result of buying pressure overcoming that of selling pressure. The 1-2-3 high forms as the result of selling pressure overcoming buying pressure.
A Ross hook™ always forms as the result of profit taking in an trend or swing.
A ledge forms as a result of profit taking, uncertainty about future price direction, or both. You might consider it as a pause in the overall movement of prices in a single direction.
A ledge is the smallest of a number of consolidation formations: it never consists of more than 10 or less than 4 price bars. It is denoted by containing two matching or nearly matching highs and two matching or nearly matching lows.
A consolidation consisting of eleven to 20 price bars is called a congestion, and a consolidation consisting of 21 or more price bars.
As simple as these definitions are, the have been found to constitute a "law." Any data that contains both a high and a low, will form these patterns; even data that has nothing to do with markets and trading.
Learn more about The Law of Charts, it is a free resource on our website. Study it as much as you want. And while you are visiting take a look at the Traders Trick™ entry.
by Joe Ross
http://www.tradingeducators.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-58.html
Using the 10 Day Moving Average of the VIX (Volatility Index) to time a Reversal in the the S&P 500
Investors can get an idea of when the market may reverse when the 10 Day Moving Average (MA) of the Volatility Index (VIX) becomes significantly stretched away from its 10 Day Moving Average (MA). A simple example is shown below which compares the 10 Day MA of the VIX to the S&P 500.
Notice when the VIX got stretched significantly away from its 10 Day MA (blue line) to the upside (points A) that the S&P 500 made a bottom (points B) and then reversed to the upside.
Thus keeping track of where the Volatility Index is in relation to its 10 Day Moving Average can give investors a clue to when the market may be getting close to a near term bottom and possible upside reversal.
Regards,
Bob Kleyla
http://www.amateur-investor.net/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-56.html
Notice when the VIX got stretched significantly away from its 10 Day MA (blue line) to the upside (points A) that the S&P 500 made a bottom (points B) and then reversed to the upside.
Thus keeping track of where the Volatility Index is in relation to its 10 Day Moving Average can give investors a clue to when the market may be getting close to a near term bottom and possible upside reversal.
Regards,
Bob Kleyla
http://www.amateur-investor.net/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-56.html
Planning: A Key to Successful Trading
From time to time I get some very interesting confessions. Here is a very recent one, along with a solution.
"Hey Joe! I had been looking at a profitable trade setup all day. I studied indicator after indicator looking for confirmation, even though I know many are correlated and redundant. But I just kept on searching. I thought, ’Maybe I missed something.’ My account is now so small that I just wanted to be sure that this was the right trade. My thought was that I must take into consideration anything and everything that could cause this trade to fail. I can’t afford to lose any more money. What should I do?"
Well, my friend, you need to be able to make a decision, but you can’t do it if you are trading undercapitalized and making your trading decisions out of fear and uncertainty.
You are suffering from too much analysis. You are looking at so many things, you no longer can see straight. If you keep on over-analyzing your trades, it may develop into a deep-seated psychological problem.
Carefully analyzing the possible consequences of your trading decisions is healthy, but it becomes unhealthy when it is overdone. When it comes to trading, it’s important to have a clearly defined trading plan. You want to be sure that any given trade is not going to wipe out your trading account. That is one of the reasons we want you to use a time stop in addition to a money stop. When you use both types of stops you are clearly defining the signs and signals that indicate your trading plan is not working, suggesting that you should close out the trade to protect your capital.
Trading, by its very nature, is uncertain. There is little that can be described as security for traders. Every trade is a new event, and every entry is an entirely new business. A trader does not have the luxury of living from his past accomplishments.
If you have an unquenchable thirst for certainty, then trading is not for you. Uncertainty in trading is co-equal with insecurity. If money represents security to you, you have a real problem as a trader. Losing money not only costs you your financial security, but also your emotional security.
At many of my seminars and private tutorings I tell people that I have completely divorced myself from the money involved in trading. I don’t even know until the end of the month whether I have won or lost. I trained myself to think of trading as an endeavor in which I strive to make points. Only later are those points translated to dollars. In that sense, for me trading is a game. But I never lose sight of the fact that trading is also a serious business.
Insecurity in traders who over-analyze manifests in searching for the holy grail of trading, desperately seeking the right indicator or the perfect trade setup. The problem you’re having is that even when you see something, you are not sure it is sufficiently perfect for you to act on. Why? Because you lack confidence in your ability to trade what you see. Because you lack confidence in yourself. And because you fear the pain of another loss.
Here’s how I was taught to do my analytical work.
First, I went through all my charts to get an overview of the markets. During that time, I looked for trending markets. Trend lines were placed on the charts as long as they had a 30° or greater angle. Until I became used to what that looked like, I used a protractor to determine the angle. This action got me used to identifying the trend. These days it is easily done with your software.
Next, I went through all my charts again looking for "against the grain" moves-the intermediate trend that went against the longer term trend. This alerted me to markets that might soon resume trending.
Then I went through all my charts looking for Ross hooks™. I marked each hook with a bright red "h". Then, in light of the size of my margin account, I tried to select those markets that appeared to have the greatest potential, and I placed order entry stops just above or below the hooks. These were resting orders in the market. I tried to never miss a hook. I phoned my orders in daily.
How did I know which markets had the greatest potential? The answer is simple. I selected those markets that had the strongest trend lines.
Now there was a trick to this. I didn’t want too steep an angle, because in a rising market that often signals that the end of a move is near. Markets that break out too fast and go straight up rarely give an opportunity for entry before they start to chop around in congestion. Markets that have been going up at a steady angle, and suddenly that angle steepens-goes parabolic, are giving a warning that the move may soon be over.
In down markets I was willing to allow a steeper angle, because often a market will move down a lot faster than it moved up.
What I most wanted was trending markets that were making a retracement. Then I could attempt an entry as the market retraced, when it reached the proximity of the trend line, and then seemed to resume its trend, and when it took out the Ross hook™ created by the retracement.
Sometimes I had to wait for weeks before the markets started trending. The same is true today; nothing has changed other than that intraday it can happen a lot sooner. There will usually be at least a couple of markets in that condition, but there are times when there are none.
Yet I did my homework every day. The only way to know when an important breakout, the beginning of a trend, would occur, was to perform my daily analytical work.
Finally, I would set my work aside and take a break for dinner. After dinner, when my head had cleared a bit, I would look at my charts again. I would then do my best to come up with a trading plan. I would try to think through what I was going to do. I would ask myself a million "what if’s." I tried to anticipate what might happen in the market.
Often that kind of thinking would cause me to eliminate some of my potential trades. Also, a second look at times resulted in "why didn’t I see this before?"
For instance, what if you look at a market that is approaching its trend line. Isn’t it reasonable to ask yourself, "If this market breaks the trend line, what would I do?" Ask yourself how such an event would change the picture. If you had a position, would you still want to hold it? If you had no position, would this cause you to take a position opposite what was the trend? If it would, then why not place an order entry stop with limit, just the other side of that trend line? Very often, when prices approach a trend line from what has been a trending channel, they are already in a counter trend within the channel. That means a breakout of the trend line would be a continuation of this newly formed trend.
Finally, I would put my work aside and go to bed. In the morning I would look at my charts once again. Then I would write out scripts for the orders I wanted to place.
I would rehearse how authoritatively I was going to give these orders.
I did all this and more before I entered a trade. But do you know what most traders do? They do their analysis after the trade is made. Too often, they do it when the trade is already going against them.
How many times have you entered a trade, and then said to yourself, "Oh no, why didn’t I see that before?" How could you have seen it if you hadn’t looked, and looked again, and thought about it, and then perhaps looked one more time?
Also, many traders do their analysis after entering the trade in search of a justification for having entered. "Now I’m in the trade, let’s see if I can find out a couple of good reasons as to why!"
If you want to be a successful trader, you have to be hard. Hard on yourself and hard on your broker. I don’t mean that you have to be a rat, or be impolite, or be contemptuous. You just have to be firm in all that you do. You can’t afford to be "Mickey Mouse" about the way you do things. This is a business; you must be businesslike in conducting your affairs.
As a business person, you must manage your business. One of the main functions of management is planning. You have to plan your trades. Other things to look for as you go through your charts are: One-two-three formations, cups with handle, matching congestions, reversal bars, and Doji’s. These should all be part of your plan.
Some people give more thought to choosing which flavor ice cream to eat than to which market to enter and how and when to do it.
By not taking the time for preparation, you end up not having enough time to weigh the pros and cons or really familiarize yourself with what you are getting into.
You don’t have time to realize that prices have supported two ticks away from your entry about forty times in the past. You don’t have time to see that you are trading right into overhead selling. You don’t have time to notice that if prices break out of yesterday’s high, they will also probably take out a Ross hook. You don’t have time to see where prices are in relation to the trend line. You don’t have time to really grasp the overall trend, or the wave that is going counter trend. You don’t have time to really consider where you will place your stop. You don’t have time to read the market and to see what it might be telling you.
All of these things can be done ahead of time. If you do not do your homework, you will end up chasing markets in a desperate attempt to get into "the big move."
by Joe Ross
http://www.tradingeducators.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-59.html
"Hey Joe! I had been looking at a profitable trade setup all day. I studied indicator after indicator looking for confirmation, even though I know many are correlated and redundant. But I just kept on searching. I thought, ’Maybe I missed something.’ My account is now so small that I just wanted to be sure that this was the right trade. My thought was that I must take into consideration anything and everything that could cause this trade to fail. I can’t afford to lose any more money. What should I do?"
Well, my friend, you need to be able to make a decision, but you can’t do it if you are trading undercapitalized and making your trading decisions out of fear and uncertainty.
You are suffering from too much analysis. You are looking at so many things, you no longer can see straight. If you keep on over-analyzing your trades, it may develop into a deep-seated psychological problem.
Carefully analyzing the possible consequences of your trading decisions is healthy, but it becomes unhealthy when it is overdone. When it comes to trading, it’s important to have a clearly defined trading plan. You want to be sure that any given trade is not going to wipe out your trading account. That is one of the reasons we want you to use a time stop in addition to a money stop. When you use both types of stops you are clearly defining the signs and signals that indicate your trading plan is not working, suggesting that you should close out the trade to protect your capital.
Trading, by its very nature, is uncertain. There is little that can be described as security for traders. Every trade is a new event, and every entry is an entirely new business. A trader does not have the luxury of living from his past accomplishments.
If you have an unquenchable thirst for certainty, then trading is not for you. Uncertainty in trading is co-equal with insecurity. If money represents security to you, you have a real problem as a trader. Losing money not only costs you your financial security, but also your emotional security.
At many of my seminars and private tutorings I tell people that I have completely divorced myself from the money involved in trading. I don’t even know until the end of the month whether I have won or lost. I trained myself to think of trading as an endeavor in which I strive to make points. Only later are those points translated to dollars. In that sense, for me trading is a game. But I never lose sight of the fact that trading is also a serious business.
Insecurity in traders who over-analyze manifests in searching for the holy grail of trading, desperately seeking the right indicator or the perfect trade setup. The problem you’re having is that even when you see something, you are not sure it is sufficiently perfect for you to act on. Why? Because you lack confidence in your ability to trade what you see. Because you lack confidence in yourself. And because you fear the pain of another loss.
Here’s how I was taught to do my analytical work.
First, I went through all my charts to get an overview of the markets. During that time, I looked for trending markets. Trend lines were placed on the charts as long as they had a 30° or greater angle. Until I became used to what that looked like, I used a protractor to determine the angle. This action got me used to identifying the trend. These days it is easily done with your software.
Next, I went through all my charts again looking for "against the grain" moves-the intermediate trend that went against the longer term trend. This alerted me to markets that might soon resume trending.
Then I went through all my charts looking for Ross hooks™. I marked each hook with a bright red "h". Then, in light of the size of my margin account, I tried to select those markets that appeared to have the greatest potential, and I placed order entry stops just above or below the hooks. These were resting orders in the market. I tried to never miss a hook. I phoned my orders in daily.
How did I know which markets had the greatest potential? The answer is simple. I selected those markets that had the strongest trend lines.
Now there was a trick to this. I didn’t want too steep an angle, because in a rising market that often signals that the end of a move is near. Markets that break out too fast and go straight up rarely give an opportunity for entry before they start to chop around in congestion. Markets that have been going up at a steady angle, and suddenly that angle steepens-goes parabolic, are giving a warning that the move may soon be over.
In down markets I was willing to allow a steeper angle, because often a market will move down a lot faster than it moved up.
What I most wanted was trending markets that were making a retracement. Then I could attempt an entry as the market retraced, when it reached the proximity of the trend line, and then seemed to resume its trend, and when it took out the Ross hook™ created by the retracement.
Sometimes I had to wait for weeks before the markets started trending. The same is true today; nothing has changed other than that intraday it can happen a lot sooner. There will usually be at least a couple of markets in that condition, but there are times when there are none.
Yet I did my homework every day. The only way to know when an important breakout, the beginning of a trend, would occur, was to perform my daily analytical work.
Finally, I would set my work aside and take a break for dinner. After dinner, when my head had cleared a bit, I would look at my charts again. I would then do my best to come up with a trading plan. I would try to think through what I was going to do. I would ask myself a million "what if’s." I tried to anticipate what might happen in the market.
Often that kind of thinking would cause me to eliminate some of my potential trades. Also, a second look at times resulted in "why didn’t I see this before?"
For instance, what if you look at a market that is approaching its trend line. Isn’t it reasonable to ask yourself, "If this market breaks the trend line, what would I do?" Ask yourself how such an event would change the picture. If you had a position, would you still want to hold it? If you had no position, would this cause you to take a position opposite what was the trend? If it would, then why not place an order entry stop with limit, just the other side of that trend line? Very often, when prices approach a trend line from what has been a trending channel, they are already in a counter trend within the channel. That means a breakout of the trend line would be a continuation of this newly formed trend.
Finally, I would put my work aside and go to bed. In the morning I would look at my charts once again. Then I would write out scripts for the orders I wanted to place.
I would rehearse how authoritatively I was going to give these orders.
I did all this and more before I entered a trade. But do you know what most traders do? They do their analysis after the trade is made. Too often, they do it when the trade is already going against them.
How many times have you entered a trade, and then said to yourself, "Oh no, why didn’t I see that before?" How could you have seen it if you hadn’t looked, and looked again, and thought about it, and then perhaps looked one more time?
Also, many traders do their analysis after entering the trade in search of a justification for having entered. "Now I’m in the trade, let’s see if I can find out a couple of good reasons as to why!"
If you want to be a successful trader, you have to be hard. Hard on yourself and hard on your broker. I don’t mean that you have to be a rat, or be impolite, or be contemptuous. You just have to be firm in all that you do. You can’t afford to be "Mickey Mouse" about the way you do things. This is a business; you must be businesslike in conducting your affairs.
As a business person, you must manage your business. One of the main functions of management is planning. You have to plan your trades. Other things to look for as you go through your charts are: One-two-three formations, cups with handle, matching congestions, reversal bars, and Doji’s. These should all be part of your plan.
Some people give more thought to choosing which flavor ice cream to eat than to which market to enter and how and when to do it.
By not taking the time for preparation, you end up not having enough time to weigh the pros and cons or really familiarize yourself with what you are getting into.
You don’t have time to realize that prices have supported two ticks away from your entry about forty times in the past. You don’t have time to see that you are trading right into overhead selling. You don’t have time to notice that if prices break out of yesterday’s high, they will also probably take out a Ross hook. You don’t have time to see where prices are in relation to the trend line. You don’t have time to really grasp the overall trend, or the wave that is going counter trend. You don’t have time to really consider where you will place your stop. You don’t have time to read the market and to see what it might be telling you.
All of these things can be done ahead of time. If you do not do your homework, you will end up chasing markets in a desperate attempt to get into "the big move."
by Joe Ross
http://www.tradingeducators.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-59.html
How to Make Consistent ProfitsTrading Futures Part III
A lot of traders are trading the stock indexes like the FTSE, the DAX, the S&Ps, NASDAQ and the DOW, but rather than use futures they are using spread betting firms. The reasons for using these firms is that they require very small amounts of capital to get started, a trader can trade very small amounts (like £1 a point on FTSE as opposed to £10 for FTSE futures) and these firms make opening an account so easy. I understand the lure of being able to open an account with very little money and trading small amounts, but I have some serious considerations about using spread betting as a realistic vehicle for professional trading.
The two biggest selling points are no commissions and no capital gains tax. There are many different costs to trading, commissions are one and the spread is another (especially when you have to trade at the market as you do with spread betting, with futures you have the choice of joining the bid or the offer). Commissions are important for an active trader and as an active trader you can get them very low, but lets assume they are £8 per round turn for futures and lets assume that the spread in FTSE futures is an average of 2 points. If the spread with a spread betting firm for FTSE is 6 points and assume that we are trading £10 a point we can compare the two trading vehicles.
Last week (written Nov 2001) I made an average of 2.42 points per contract traded and I traded 48 times. That is, for each contract I bought and sold I made £24.20 before commissions, assuming my commission rate is £8, I made a profit of £16.20 per contract traded, which is £777.60 net profit if my average size per trade is one contract.
Had I had the same success trading with a spread-betting firm, with a 6-point spread, I would have lost £1718.40! Now I would rather pay tax on a profit that no tax on a loss.
There is one other very important reason for trading the futures market rather than a non-exchange traded market such as those offered by spread betting firms. The futures markets are exchange traded and this means that they are fully transparent, i.e. everything is visible and above the table, I can see every single trade that happens. Imagine the trading pit, as it used to be when traders stood physically in a ring trading with each other.
When a trade is entered, the order goes into the pit and is represented there, free to be taken by any other market participant. We can all see what is happening, we trade with the same information and with the same advantages/disadvantages. Now assume you are a trader who can only trade with one broker in the pit, you can trade as much as you like, any size you like, but he sets the spread he is willing to offer you and you have to trade at market (i.e. buy at his offer and sell at his bid). This broker doesn’t want to loose money, naturally, so he always makes his spread wider than the real market spread, he also, naturally, puts his interests before yours, so he won’t always be willing to trade when the market is moving fast and he is uncertain.
Remember whenever you make money he loses, so he is very careful to maintain his advantage at all times. Who wouldn’t want to be in this brokers position (he isn’t really a broker, though he claims to be)? When you trade with a real futures broker, all the broker does is facilitate your trade; he gives you the ability to have you orders represented in the pit. A real brokers concern is that they execute your order as efficiently as possible, that is their job, they do not take positions and they do not take the opposite side to you.
They naturally want you to make money because by making money you become a client who will continue to pay them commissions. Trading with a spread betting firm is absurdly costly, spread betting firms are like amusement arcades, they can be fun, but to imagine you are going to make your living from slot machines is illusory.
Regards,
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-55.html
The two biggest selling points are no commissions and no capital gains tax. There are many different costs to trading, commissions are one and the spread is another (especially when you have to trade at the market as you do with spread betting, with futures you have the choice of joining the bid or the offer). Commissions are important for an active trader and as an active trader you can get them very low, but lets assume they are £8 per round turn for futures and lets assume that the spread in FTSE futures is an average of 2 points. If the spread with a spread betting firm for FTSE is 6 points and assume that we are trading £10 a point we can compare the two trading vehicles.
Last week (written Nov 2001) I made an average of 2.42 points per contract traded and I traded 48 times. That is, for each contract I bought and sold I made £24.20 before commissions, assuming my commission rate is £8, I made a profit of £16.20 per contract traded, which is £777.60 net profit if my average size per trade is one contract.
Had I had the same success trading with a spread-betting firm, with a 6-point spread, I would have lost £1718.40! Now I would rather pay tax on a profit that no tax on a loss.
There is one other very important reason for trading the futures market rather than a non-exchange traded market such as those offered by spread betting firms. The futures markets are exchange traded and this means that they are fully transparent, i.e. everything is visible and above the table, I can see every single trade that happens. Imagine the trading pit, as it used to be when traders stood physically in a ring trading with each other.
When a trade is entered, the order goes into the pit and is represented there, free to be taken by any other market participant. We can all see what is happening, we trade with the same information and with the same advantages/disadvantages. Now assume you are a trader who can only trade with one broker in the pit, you can trade as much as you like, any size you like, but he sets the spread he is willing to offer you and you have to trade at market (i.e. buy at his offer and sell at his bid). This broker doesn’t want to loose money, naturally, so he always makes his spread wider than the real market spread, he also, naturally, puts his interests before yours, so he won’t always be willing to trade when the market is moving fast and he is uncertain.
Remember whenever you make money he loses, so he is very careful to maintain his advantage at all times. Who wouldn’t want to be in this brokers position (he isn’t really a broker, though he claims to be)? When you trade with a real futures broker, all the broker does is facilitate your trade; he gives you the ability to have you orders represented in the pit. A real brokers concern is that they execute your order as efficiently as possible, that is their job, they do not take positions and they do not take the opposite side to you.
They naturally want you to make money because by making money you become a client who will continue to pay them commissions. Trading with a spread betting firm is absurdly costly, spread betting firms are like amusement arcades, they can be fun, but to imagine you are going to make your living from slot machines is illusory.
Regards,
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-55.html
How to Make Consistent ProfitsTrading Futures Part II
Direct Access Electronic Trading
The issue of direct access is an important one and it becomes more important the more short term your trading is. The market can change from a state of seeming paralysis to one of shocking volatility and activity in a flash. The length of time it takes between you deciding to enter an order and the order actually being in the market is obviously important. When I first started trading I used a phone broker and was dismayed that my fills would often be so far from the price the market was trading when I first entered the order.
The first time I visited the trading floor, I discovered why. When I called in an order, first my discount(!) broker would check my account equity, then he would call a phone booth on the floor, the phone broker on the floor would then write the order down and pass it on (by phone) to a booth next to the appropriate pit, at that booth my order would be written down again and then signaled to a broker in the pit to be executed.
As you can imagine this would take quite a long time, even longer of course if the market was very active, as this would mean that the broker in the pit would be too occupied to take new orders. Compare this to my experience of trading as a pit trader. In the pit I was in the heart of the market and could observe every single order as it was executed (there was no delay in my price feed!). To initiate a trade, whether it was to buy or sell at the market, or join the bid or the offer, all I had to do was open my mouth. You can start to see the huge advantage that trading on the floor gave me over off floor traders; and that doesn’t take into consideration the fact that my round trip costs fell by 96%.
Now the floor no longer exists, not in Europe at least, so why talk about the advantages of pit trading? Well the level playing field is now open to all, but very few take advantage of it. Trading with an electronic trading platform is exactly the same as trading in the pit, except I can sit down, it is much quieter and there are no crude jokes flying around. I can trade with the click of a mouse; my order shoots to the exchange, enters in the market and appears back on my screen before I have time to blink. I think the advantages of direct access trading are clear and any futures trader still using a phone broker should move to direct access, they will also find their commissions are less (around £8 for private client traders).
The next question that arises is why trade futures? That is an important consideration given that there are a variety of alternatives vying for your trading capital (spread betting, CFDs and options), but in my opinion, futures are the only option (no pun intended) for successful short term trading.
Regards,
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-54.html
The issue of direct access is an important one and it becomes more important the more short term your trading is. The market can change from a state of seeming paralysis to one of shocking volatility and activity in a flash. The length of time it takes between you deciding to enter an order and the order actually being in the market is obviously important. When I first started trading I used a phone broker and was dismayed that my fills would often be so far from the price the market was trading when I first entered the order.
The first time I visited the trading floor, I discovered why. When I called in an order, first my discount(!) broker would check my account equity, then he would call a phone booth on the floor, the phone broker on the floor would then write the order down and pass it on (by phone) to a booth next to the appropriate pit, at that booth my order would be written down again and then signaled to a broker in the pit to be executed.
As you can imagine this would take quite a long time, even longer of course if the market was very active, as this would mean that the broker in the pit would be too occupied to take new orders. Compare this to my experience of trading as a pit trader. In the pit I was in the heart of the market and could observe every single order as it was executed (there was no delay in my price feed!). To initiate a trade, whether it was to buy or sell at the market, or join the bid or the offer, all I had to do was open my mouth. You can start to see the huge advantage that trading on the floor gave me over off floor traders; and that doesn’t take into consideration the fact that my round trip costs fell by 96%.
Now the floor no longer exists, not in Europe at least, so why talk about the advantages of pit trading? Well the level playing field is now open to all, but very few take advantage of it. Trading with an electronic trading platform is exactly the same as trading in the pit, except I can sit down, it is much quieter and there are no crude jokes flying around. I can trade with the click of a mouse; my order shoots to the exchange, enters in the market and appears back on my screen before I have time to blink. I think the advantages of direct access trading are clear and any futures trader still using a phone broker should move to direct access, they will also find their commissions are less (around £8 for private client traders).
The next question that arises is why trade futures? That is an important consideration given that there are a variety of alternatives vying for your trading capital (spread betting, CFDs and options), but in my opinion, futures are the only option (no pun intended) for successful short term trading.
Regards,
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-54.html
How to Make Consistent Profits Trading Futures Part I
One of the mistakes I consistently made in my early years as a trader was to try to make too much money in relation to my trading capital. To make £1000 a day while Futures Trading with £10,000 is absurdly ambitious; of course I have done it many times, as would anyone with this intention, but I have also gone bust on more than one occasion. To have the aspiration of taking £1000 out of the market each day, when trading with £10,000 or under is, I think, a quick route to the poor house.
So what is a reasonable objective for a day / futures trader?
A few weeks ago I visited an ex-floor trader who has set up a trading operation backing young aspiring traders. I was interested to find out from him how he trains his team. The essence of his approach is to give them a grounding in discipline and confidence. He believes that confidence is one of the primary keys to success in futures trading and that confidence is a by-product of taking money out of the market.
One of the reasons he has chosen to work with young futures traders is that he wants people who have minimal financial commitments. He knows it will take a while for them to start earning an income from the business. So his belief is that if his traders can regularly take small amounts of money out of the market, their knowledge, skills and confidence will grow and in time they will become bigger traders. What is critical about this approach is that his traders do not grow in size until they have achieved consistent, regular success on a small scale; and we are talking small, I mean £25 or £50 in a day.
What can we learn from this low risk approach? Well first let me ask you: what is more important, to make money today, or to become a consistently profitable trader? Because if we want to become consistently successful traders we need to take a different tack than if we are just out to make as much money as we can today.
So back to the question, what is a reasonable objective for a day trader? Well let’s look at bringing our daily target right down to £100, with £10,000 of trading capital, i.e. 1%. Now £100 a day, trading a market like the FTSE seems an achievable target to me. That is a net profit of 10 FTSE points a day. Can you come up with a system that trades 5 times a day and has an average net profit of 2 points? Or a system that trades 10 times a day with an average net profit of 1 point?
Is that a yes I hear? Because if you can make an average of £100 a day you will double your money in 100 trading days i.e. 20 weeks or about 5 months. If you double you position size every time you double your money, your account will grow to £1,000,000 in 140 weeks, which is less than 3 years! Of course this does not take into account the impact of tax; but my point is that by taking a low risk, conservative approach to trading objectives, we give ourselves the chance to grow and develop into traders, while also availing ourselves of the possibility of a deceptively good return.
If at this point you are tearing your hair out and screaming at the screen that I am a fool for suggesting that you can trade a strategy that averages a few points a trade, I assume that you are not familiar with the benefits of direct access trading. Direct access trading effectively gives everyone and their uncle the same low costs, immediate trade execution and access as was exclusively enjoyed by the floor traders before the advent of the electronic market place. To learn about the advantages of direct access trading...
Regards,
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-53.html
So what is a reasonable objective for a day / futures trader?
A few weeks ago I visited an ex-floor trader who has set up a trading operation backing young aspiring traders. I was interested to find out from him how he trains his team. The essence of his approach is to give them a grounding in discipline and confidence. He believes that confidence is one of the primary keys to success in futures trading and that confidence is a by-product of taking money out of the market.
One of the reasons he has chosen to work with young futures traders is that he wants people who have minimal financial commitments. He knows it will take a while for them to start earning an income from the business. So his belief is that if his traders can regularly take small amounts of money out of the market, their knowledge, skills and confidence will grow and in time they will become bigger traders. What is critical about this approach is that his traders do not grow in size until they have achieved consistent, regular success on a small scale; and we are talking small, I mean £25 or £50 in a day.
What can we learn from this low risk approach? Well first let me ask you: what is more important, to make money today, or to become a consistently profitable trader? Because if we want to become consistently successful traders we need to take a different tack than if we are just out to make as much money as we can today.
So back to the question, what is a reasonable objective for a day trader? Well let’s look at bringing our daily target right down to £100, with £10,000 of trading capital, i.e. 1%. Now £100 a day, trading a market like the FTSE seems an achievable target to me. That is a net profit of 10 FTSE points a day. Can you come up with a system that trades 5 times a day and has an average net profit of 2 points? Or a system that trades 10 times a day with an average net profit of 1 point?
Is that a yes I hear? Because if you can make an average of £100 a day you will double your money in 100 trading days i.e. 20 weeks or about 5 months. If you double you position size every time you double your money, your account will grow to £1,000,000 in 140 weeks, which is less than 3 years! Of course this does not take into account the impact of tax; but my point is that by taking a low risk, conservative approach to trading objectives, we give ourselves the chance to grow and develop into traders, while also availing ourselves of the possibility of a deceptively good return.
If at this point you are tearing your hair out and screaming at the screen that I am a fool for suggesting that you can trade a strategy that averages a few points a trade, I assume that you are not familiar with the benefits of direct access trading. Direct access trading effectively gives everyone and their uncle the same low costs, immediate trade execution and access as was exclusively enjoyed by the floor traders before the advent of the electronic market place. To learn about the advantages of direct access trading...
Regards,
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-53.html
Futures Spread Trading
How professional traders optimize profits
Futures spread trading is probably the most profitable, yet safest way to trade futures. Almost every professional trader uses spreads to optimize his profits. Trading spreads offers many advantages which make it the perfect trading instrument, especially for beginners and traders with small accounts (less than $10,000).
The following example of a Soybean-Spread shows the advantages of futures spread trading:
Example: Long May Soybeans (SK3) and Short November Soybeans (SX3)
Four Advantages of Futures Spread Trading
Advantage 1: Easy to trade
Do you see how nicely this spread starts trending in mid February? Whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader, whether you use chart formations or indicators, the existence of a trend is obvious. (If you are looking for a concept of how to identify a trend, we strongly recommend visiting http://www.tradingeducators.com/?source=Tradejuicetrading_philosophy.htm). Spreads tend to trend much more dramatically than outright futures contracts. They trend without the interference and noise caused by computerized trading, scalpers, and market movers.
Advantage 2: Low Margin requirements
Many spreads have reduced margin requirements, which means that you can afford to put on more positions. While the margin on an outright futures position in corn is $540, a spread trade in corn requires only $135 — 25% as much. That’s a great advantage for traders with a small account. With a $10,000 trading account risking 8% of your account, you can enter 6 corn spreads, instead of only 1-2 outright corn futures trade. How’s that for leverage?
Advantage 3: Higher return on margin
Each point in the spread carries the same value ($50) as each point in the outright futures ($50). That means that on a 3 point favorable move in corn futures or a 3 point favorable move in the spread, you would earn $150. However, the difference in return on margin is extraordinary:
Corn futures - $150/$540 = 27.8% return
Corn spread - $150/$135 = 111% return
And keep in mind that you can trade 6 times as many spread contracts as you can outright futures contracts. In our example you would achieve a 24 times higher return on you margin.
Advantage 4: Low time requirements
You don’t have to watch a spread all day long. You do not need real-time data. The most effective way to trade spreads is using end-of-day data. Therefore, spread trading is the best way to trade if you do not want to watch or cannot watch your computer all day long (i.e. because you have a daytime job). And you can save all the money you would have had to spend for real-time data systems (up to $600 per month).
So where is the catch?
If futures spread trading is so fantastic, why does it seems that hardly anybody trades spreads? Well, it is not true that hardly anybody trades spreads: the professional traders do, every day. But either by accident or design, the whole truth of spread trading has been hidden from the public over the years.
The purpose of this website is to inform you about futures spread trading. In the following we will answer the four frequently asked questions:
* What is a spread?
* Why trade spreads?
* What can you expect when trading spreads?
What Is a Spread?
A spread is defined as the sale of one or more futures contracts and the purchase of one or more offsetting futures contracts. You can turn that around to state that a spread is the purchase of one or more futures contracts and the sale of one or more offsetting futures contracts. A spread is also created when a trader owns (is long) the physical vehicle and offsets by selling (going short) futures. Furthermore, a spread is defined as the purchase and sale of one or more offsetting futures contracts normally recognized as a spread by the fact that the two sides of the spread are actually related in some way. This explicitly excludes those exotic spreads put forth by some vendors, which are nothing more than computer generated coincidences which are not in any way related. Such exotic spreads as Long Bond futures and Short Bean Oil futures may show up as reliable computer generated spreads, but bean oil and bonds are not really related. Such spreads fall into the same category as believing the annual performance of the U.S. stock market is somehow related to the outcome of the Super Bowl sporting event. In any case, for tactical reasons in carrying out a particular strategy, you want to end up with:
* simultaneously long futures of one kind in one month, and short futures of the same kind in another month. (Intramarket Calendar Spread)
* simultaneously long futures of one kind, and short futures of another kind. (Intermarket Spread)
* long futures at one exchange, and short a related futures at another exchange. (Inter-exchange Spread)
* long an underlying physical commodity, and short a futures contract. (Hedge)
* long an underlying equity position, and short a futures contract. (Hedge)
* long financial instruments, and short financial futures. (Hedge)
* long a single stock futures and short a sector index.
The primary ways in which this can be accomplished are:
* Via an Intramarket spread.
* Via an Intermarket spread.
* Via an Inter-exchange spread.
* By ownership of the underlying and offsetting with a futures contract.
Intramarket Spreads
Officially, Intramarket spreads are created only as calendar spreads. You are long and short futures in the same market, but in different months. An example of an Intramarket spread is that you are Long July Corn and simultaneously Short December Corn.
Intermarket Spreads
An Intermarket spread can be accomplished by going long futures in one market, and short futures of the same month in another market. For example: Short May Wheat and Long May Soybeans.
Intermarket spreads can become calendar spreads by using long and short futures in different markets and in different months.
Inter-Exchange Spreads
A less commonly known method of creating spreads is via the use of contracts in similar markets, but on different exchanges. These spreads can be calendar spreads using different months, or they can be spreads in which the same month is used. Although the markets are similar, because the contracts occur on different exchanges they are able to be spread. An example of an Inter-exchange calendar spread would be simultaneously Long July Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wheat, and Short an equal amount of May Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBOT) Wheat. An example of using the same month might be Long December CBOT Wheat and Short December KCBOT Wheat.
Why Spreads?
The rationale behind spread trading is one of the best-kept secrets of the insiders of the futures markets. While spreading is commonly done by the market "insiders," much effort is made to conceal this technique and all of its benefits from "outsiders," you and me. After all, why would the insiders want to give away their edge? By keeping us from knowing about spreading, they retain a distinct advantage.
Spreading is one of the most conservative forms of trading. It is much safer than the trading of outright (naked) futures contracts. Let’s take a quick look at some of the benefits of using spreads:
* Intramarket, and some Intermarket, spreads require considerably less margin, typically around 25% - 75% of the margin needed for outright futures positions.
* Intramarket, and some Intermarket, spreads offer a far greater return on investment than is possible with outright futures positions. Why? Because you are posting less margin for the same amount of possible return.
* Spreads, in general, trend more often than do outright futures.
* Spreads often trend when outright futures are flat.
* Spreads can be filtered by virtue of seasonality, backwardation, and carrying charge differentials, in addition to any other filters you might be using in your trading.
* Spreads can be used to create partial futures positions. In fact, virtually anything that can be done with options on futures can be accomplished via spread trading.
* Spreads allow you to take less risk than is available with outright futures positions. The amount of risk between two Intramarket futures positions is usually less than the risk in an outright futures position. The risk between owning the underlying and holding a futures contract involves the least risk of all. Spreads make it possible to hedge any position you might have in the market. Whether you are hedging between physical ownership and futures, or between two futures positions, the risk is lower than that of outright futures. In that sense, every spread is a hedge.
* Spread order entry enables you to enter or exit a trade using an actual spread order, or by independently entering each side of the spread (legging in/out).
* Spreads are one of the few ways to obtain decent fills by legging in/out during the market Closing.
* Live data is not needed for spread trading, saving you $$ in exchange fees.
* You will not be the victim of stop running when using Intramarket spreads.
What Can You Expect?
Here is an example of what you can expect from Intramarket spread trading. We think you may be pleasantly surprised!!
This spread was entered not only on the basis of seasonality, but also by virtue of the formation known as a Ross hook (Rh). The spread moved from -69.0 to -7.5 = $3,075 per contract. The margin required to put on this spread was only $608, thus the return on margin is more than 500%.
Here is an example of an Intermarket spread. Look at the the following chart: Would you want to have been long live cattle from December until February?
But, what about a spread between Live Cattle and Feeder Cattle?
The spread moved from -10,200 to -7,200 = $3,000 per contract. The margin required to put on this spread was only $540. The return on margin is more than 550%.
Lastly, we show you another intermarket spread. This one was made between Euro and British Pound. Although you might have made money on a Euro trade, you would have suffered from serious whipsaw during the entire length of the trade.
What about a spread between the Euro and the British Pound?
You didn’t have to be in this spread for very long in order to take some fat profits: During February the spread moved from $32,500 to $36,187.50 = $3,687.50 per contract.
How do I start trading spreads?
We can barely scratch the surface of what is available in the almost lost art of spread trading. There are times when seasonal spreads, coupled with chart formations, make a lot of sense. Backwardation in any market often provides an excellent signal for entry into a spread.
All the best in your trading,
Joe Ross
http://www.tradingeducators.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-57.html
Futures spread trading is probably the most profitable, yet safest way to trade futures. Almost every professional trader uses spreads to optimize his profits. Trading spreads offers many advantages which make it the perfect trading instrument, especially for beginners and traders with small accounts (less than $10,000).
The following example of a Soybean-Spread shows the advantages of futures spread trading:
Example: Long May Soybeans (SK3) and Short November Soybeans (SX3)
Four Advantages of Futures Spread Trading
Advantage 1: Easy to trade
Do you see how nicely this spread starts trending in mid February? Whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader, whether you use chart formations or indicators, the existence of a trend is obvious. (If you are looking for a concept of how to identify a trend, we strongly recommend visiting http://www.tradingeducators.com/?source=Tradejuicetrading_philosophy.htm). Spreads tend to trend much more dramatically than outright futures contracts. They trend without the interference and noise caused by computerized trading, scalpers, and market movers.
Advantage 2: Low Margin requirements
Many spreads have reduced margin requirements, which means that you can afford to put on more positions. While the margin on an outright futures position in corn is $540, a spread trade in corn requires only $135 — 25% as much. That’s a great advantage for traders with a small account. With a $10,000 trading account risking 8% of your account, you can enter 6 corn spreads, instead of only 1-2 outright corn futures trade. How’s that for leverage?
Advantage 3: Higher return on margin
Each point in the spread carries the same value ($50) as each point in the outright futures ($50). That means that on a 3 point favorable move in corn futures or a 3 point favorable move in the spread, you would earn $150. However, the difference in return on margin is extraordinary:
Corn futures - $150/$540 = 27.8% return
Corn spread - $150/$135 = 111% return
And keep in mind that you can trade 6 times as many spread contracts as you can outright futures contracts. In our example you would achieve a 24 times higher return on you margin.
Advantage 4: Low time requirements
You don’t have to watch a spread all day long. You do not need real-time data. The most effective way to trade spreads is using end-of-day data. Therefore, spread trading is the best way to trade if you do not want to watch or cannot watch your computer all day long (i.e. because you have a daytime job). And you can save all the money you would have had to spend for real-time data systems (up to $600 per month).
So where is the catch?
If futures spread trading is so fantastic, why does it seems that hardly anybody trades spreads? Well, it is not true that hardly anybody trades spreads: the professional traders do, every day. But either by accident or design, the whole truth of spread trading has been hidden from the public over the years.
The purpose of this website is to inform you about futures spread trading. In the following we will answer the four frequently asked questions:
* What is a spread?
* Why trade spreads?
* What can you expect when trading spreads?
What Is a Spread?
A spread is defined as the sale of one or more futures contracts and the purchase of one or more offsetting futures contracts. You can turn that around to state that a spread is the purchase of one or more futures contracts and the sale of one or more offsetting futures contracts. A spread is also created when a trader owns (is long) the physical vehicle and offsets by selling (going short) futures. Furthermore, a spread is defined as the purchase and sale of one or more offsetting futures contracts normally recognized as a spread by the fact that the two sides of the spread are actually related in some way. This explicitly excludes those exotic spreads put forth by some vendors, which are nothing more than computer generated coincidences which are not in any way related. Such exotic spreads as Long Bond futures and Short Bean Oil futures may show up as reliable computer generated spreads, but bean oil and bonds are not really related. Such spreads fall into the same category as believing the annual performance of the U.S. stock market is somehow related to the outcome of the Super Bowl sporting event. In any case, for tactical reasons in carrying out a particular strategy, you want to end up with:
* simultaneously long futures of one kind in one month, and short futures of the same kind in another month. (Intramarket Calendar Spread)
* simultaneously long futures of one kind, and short futures of another kind. (Intermarket Spread)
* long futures at one exchange, and short a related futures at another exchange. (Inter-exchange Spread)
* long an underlying physical commodity, and short a futures contract. (Hedge)
* long an underlying equity position, and short a futures contract. (Hedge)
* long financial instruments, and short financial futures. (Hedge)
* long a single stock futures and short a sector index.
The primary ways in which this can be accomplished are:
* Via an Intramarket spread.
* Via an Intermarket spread.
* Via an Inter-exchange spread.
* By ownership of the underlying and offsetting with a futures contract.
Intramarket Spreads
Officially, Intramarket spreads are created only as calendar spreads. You are long and short futures in the same market, but in different months. An example of an Intramarket spread is that you are Long July Corn and simultaneously Short December Corn.
Intermarket Spreads
An Intermarket spread can be accomplished by going long futures in one market, and short futures of the same month in another market. For example: Short May Wheat and Long May Soybeans.
Intermarket spreads can become calendar spreads by using long and short futures in different markets and in different months.
Inter-Exchange Spreads
A less commonly known method of creating spreads is via the use of contracts in similar markets, but on different exchanges. These spreads can be calendar spreads using different months, or they can be spreads in which the same month is used. Although the markets are similar, because the contracts occur on different exchanges they are able to be spread. An example of an Inter-exchange calendar spread would be simultaneously Long July Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wheat, and Short an equal amount of May Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBOT) Wheat. An example of using the same month might be Long December CBOT Wheat and Short December KCBOT Wheat.
Why Spreads?
The rationale behind spread trading is one of the best-kept secrets of the insiders of the futures markets. While spreading is commonly done by the market "insiders," much effort is made to conceal this technique and all of its benefits from "outsiders," you and me. After all, why would the insiders want to give away their edge? By keeping us from knowing about spreading, they retain a distinct advantage.
Spreading is one of the most conservative forms of trading. It is much safer than the trading of outright (naked) futures contracts. Let’s take a quick look at some of the benefits of using spreads:
* Intramarket, and some Intermarket, spreads require considerably less margin, typically around 25% - 75% of the margin needed for outright futures positions.
* Intramarket, and some Intermarket, spreads offer a far greater return on investment than is possible with outright futures positions. Why? Because you are posting less margin for the same amount of possible return.
* Spreads, in general, trend more often than do outright futures.
* Spreads often trend when outright futures are flat.
* Spreads can be filtered by virtue of seasonality, backwardation, and carrying charge differentials, in addition to any other filters you might be using in your trading.
* Spreads can be used to create partial futures positions. In fact, virtually anything that can be done with options on futures can be accomplished via spread trading.
* Spreads allow you to take less risk than is available with outright futures positions. The amount of risk between two Intramarket futures positions is usually less than the risk in an outright futures position. The risk between owning the underlying and holding a futures contract involves the least risk of all. Spreads make it possible to hedge any position you might have in the market. Whether you are hedging between physical ownership and futures, or between two futures positions, the risk is lower than that of outright futures. In that sense, every spread is a hedge.
* Spread order entry enables you to enter or exit a trade using an actual spread order, or by independently entering each side of the spread (legging in/out).
* Spreads are one of the few ways to obtain decent fills by legging in/out during the market Closing.
* Live data is not needed for spread trading, saving you $$ in exchange fees.
* You will not be the victim of stop running when using Intramarket spreads.
What Can You Expect?
Here is an example of what you can expect from Intramarket spread trading. We think you may be pleasantly surprised!!
This spread was entered not only on the basis of seasonality, but also by virtue of the formation known as a Ross hook (Rh). The spread moved from -69.0 to -7.5 = $3,075 per contract. The margin required to put on this spread was only $608, thus the return on margin is more than 500%.
Here is an example of an Intermarket spread. Look at the the following chart: Would you want to have been long live cattle from December until February?
But, what about a spread between Live Cattle and Feeder Cattle?
The spread moved from -10,200 to -7,200 = $3,000 per contract. The margin required to put on this spread was only $540. The return on margin is more than 550%.
Lastly, we show you another intermarket spread. This one was made between Euro and British Pound. Although you might have made money on a Euro trade, you would have suffered from serious whipsaw during the entire length of the trade.
What about a spread between the Euro and the British Pound?
You didn’t have to be in this spread for very long in order to take some fat profits: During February the spread moved from $32,500 to $36,187.50 = $3,687.50 per contract.
How do I start trading spreads?
We can barely scratch the surface of what is available in the almost lost art of spread trading. There are times when seasonal spreads, coupled with chart formations, make a lot of sense. Backwardation in any market often provides an excellent signal for entry into a spread.
All the best in your trading,
Joe Ross
http://www.tradingeducators.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-57.html
Achieving Trading Perfection
Achieving Trading Perfection - Trade quality, not quantity. Take the best of the best. Get the big picture. If you haven’t previously come across such advice, or if you have and are not following it, it is time that you take these words to heart. But how?
Trade selection and adequate planning go hand in hand. This is where most would-be professional traders miss the boat.
Much more money is made as a result of proper planning than from sitting and trading everything that comes along or "looks" good.
It’s difficult to fully understand why people think they have to trade so much. It’s difficult to truly grasp why people think that they have to take as many trades as they do.
Just the opposite is true. There is a correct approach to each and every trade. That is what achieving perfection is all about.
It all starts with proper management: planning, organizing, delegating, directing, and controlling.
These facets of management must be woven together into your trading; they do overlap.
Although planning is the major management function involved in achieving perfection, you can’t possibly plan well unless you are organized to do so.
You must have your tools at hand: your trading software, your data, the proper equipment. All of the rudiments for planning must be in place, which in itself is a part of organizing.
You must be physically fit when you plan: well nourished, properly exercised, well rested and mentally alert - all part of having your life organized, all part of achieving perfection as a trader.
To be a winning trader, you have to be among the best. There can be no middle ground. There are only winners and losers, and to be a winner you have to be a champion. And, just like any champion, you must have discipline, self-control, and a willingness to train, train, train.
There are no runners-up in trading, you either get the gold or you give the gold. Often, while others are busy going to parties or watching sports events, you are busy poring over charts, studying, thinking, planning. When others are listening to music or watching TV, you are busy practicing your trading, practicing trade selection, working hard to become a more astute trader.
Part of achieving perfection involves the diligent study of charts. The data, as presented on your screen and preserved as charts, are, for the most part, all you have for making trading decisions. They are a picture, a visualization of what is taking place in the reality of the market. Your job in achieving perfection and becoming an adequate trader is to picture and imagine in your mind what makes prices move and form the way they do. Ask yourself, "How does what I see in front of me relate to the supply and demand for the underlying?" Ask yourself, "Is what I am seeing on the chart even related to supply and demand, or is what I am seeing related to an engineered move by some insider or market mover?"
Supply and demand are not what makes prices move or fail to move most of the time. The sooner you realize that fact, the better off you will be. Markets are engineered, manipulated ¾ you need to know that.
But there’s more to a chart than merely price patterns. Reflected in the chart are the emotional reactions of human beings. Reactions to rumors and news; to national and world events; to government reports - these, too, are on the charts.
You might say that price movement, or the lack thereof, is the net effect of all the perceptions of all the traders who are participating in the market for a particular futures.
There is something else on the charts, something that too few take into account. That something is the manipulations from and by the insiders, the market movers, and by commercials holding large inventories of the underlying you are attempting to trade.
In achieving perfection as a trader, you must train yourself to look for evidence of any and all of these things as you study your charts. It is the cumulative action of all perceptions which causes patterns to form on a price chart.
You must learn to look for the truths in the markets. There are certain truths which are self-evident; they are always true. For instance, take the phenomenon of a breakout. When prices break out, no one can change the fact that they did break out. It is a fact and it is true. The breakout may turn out to be a "false" breakout, but nevertheless it is a breakout. As part of achieving perfection in your trade selection skills, you have to learn to tell which breakouts are most likely true breakouts, and which ones are most likely false. How can you know? By the price patterns on the chart.
And what about trend? Your job in achieving perfection as a trader is to master how to trade a trend. A trend is a trend, is a trend. It is a trend until the end, and part of your job is to know when a market is not trending.
The trend is the trend while it lasts. While a market is trending it is telling the truth. The trend can change, but the truth is the truth. If prices are rising, the trend is up. If prices are falling, the trend is down. The truth can be found in the trend. It is an immutable fact. You are to learn to make my money by trading with the trend. You are to learn what constitutes a trend. You have to learn to spot trends early so that you can make the most out of the market while it is trending. Your job in achieving perfection as a trader is to learn to recognize when a trend will most likely begin, and just as important, to learn to be even more adept at deciphering when a trend is ending.
In achieving perfection, you must learn to recognize "your" trade(s), and to take only "your" trades. Trade the formations and patterns that you can easily recognize and identify.
You must learn to trade using tips and tricks that you are shown and to accumulate and keep a collection of techniques that result in the selection of high probability trades.
How are you to do all this? Practice, practice, PRACTICE. Practice recognition of congestion areas. Practice recognition of high probability breakouts. Practice trend recognition. Practice and more practice. Just like anyone who wants to achieve perfection at anything, there must be total dedication, study, practice and more practice. You are to become a trading virtuoso. You are to practice, yet always realizing that you will never attain true perfection, that there is always room for improvement. There is usually a way to refine: ways that you can do things better, more efficiently, and with greater speed and finesse.
by Joe Ross
http://www.tradingeducators.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-60.html
Trade selection and adequate planning go hand in hand. This is where most would-be professional traders miss the boat.
Much more money is made as a result of proper planning than from sitting and trading everything that comes along or "looks" good.
It’s difficult to fully understand why people think they have to trade so much. It’s difficult to truly grasp why people think that they have to take as many trades as they do.
Just the opposite is true. There is a correct approach to each and every trade. That is what achieving perfection is all about.
It all starts with proper management: planning, organizing, delegating, directing, and controlling.
These facets of management must be woven together into your trading; they do overlap.
Although planning is the major management function involved in achieving perfection, you can’t possibly plan well unless you are organized to do so.
You must have your tools at hand: your trading software, your data, the proper equipment. All of the rudiments for planning must be in place, which in itself is a part of organizing.
You must be physically fit when you plan: well nourished, properly exercised, well rested and mentally alert - all part of having your life organized, all part of achieving perfection as a trader.
To be a winning trader, you have to be among the best. There can be no middle ground. There are only winners and losers, and to be a winner you have to be a champion. And, just like any champion, you must have discipline, self-control, and a willingness to train, train, train.
There are no runners-up in trading, you either get the gold or you give the gold. Often, while others are busy going to parties or watching sports events, you are busy poring over charts, studying, thinking, planning. When others are listening to music or watching TV, you are busy practicing your trading, practicing trade selection, working hard to become a more astute trader.
Part of achieving perfection involves the diligent study of charts. The data, as presented on your screen and preserved as charts, are, for the most part, all you have for making trading decisions. They are a picture, a visualization of what is taking place in the reality of the market. Your job in achieving perfection and becoming an adequate trader is to picture and imagine in your mind what makes prices move and form the way they do. Ask yourself, "How does what I see in front of me relate to the supply and demand for the underlying?" Ask yourself, "Is what I am seeing on the chart even related to supply and demand, or is what I am seeing related to an engineered move by some insider or market mover?"
Supply and demand are not what makes prices move or fail to move most of the time. The sooner you realize that fact, the better off you will be. Markets are engineered, manipulated ¾ you need to know that.
But there’s more to a chart than merely price patterns. Reflected in the chart are the emotional reactions of human beings. Reactions to rumors and news; to national and world events; to government reports - these, too, are on the charts.
You might say that price movement, or the lack thereof, is the net effect of all the perceptions of all the traders who are participating in the market for a particular futures.
There is something else on the charts, something that too few take into account. That something is the manipulations from and by the insiders, the market movers, and by commercials holding large inventories of the underlying you are attempting to trade.
In achieving perfection as a trader, you must train yourself to look for evidence of any and all of these things as you study your charts. It is the cumulative action of all perceptions which causes patterns to form on a price chart.
You must learn to look for the truths in the markets. There are certain truths which are self-evident; they are always true. For instance, take the phenomenon of a breakout. When prices break out, no one can change the fact that they did break out. It is a fact and it is true. The breakout may turn out to be a "false" breakout, but nevertheless it is a breakout. As part of achieving perfection in your trade selection skills, you have to learn to tell which breakouts are most likely true breakouts, and which ones are most likely false. How can you know? By the price patterns on the chart.
And what about trend? Your job in achieving perfection as a trader is to master how to trade a trend. A trend is a trend, is a trend. It is a trend until the end, and part of your job is to know when a market is not trending.
The trend is the trend while it lasts. While a market is trending it is telling the truth. The trend can change, but the truth is the truth. If prices are rising, the trend is up. If prices are falling, the trend is down. The truth can be found in the trend. It is an immutable fact. You are to learn to make my money by trading with the trend. You are to learn what constitutes a trend. You have to learn to spot trends early so that you can make the most out of the market while it is trending. Your job in achieving perfection as a trader is to learn to recognize when a trend will most likely begin, and just as important, to learn to be even more adept at deciphering when a trend is ending.
In achieving perfection, you must learn to recognize "your" trade(s), and to take only "your" trades. Trade the formations and patterns that you can easily recognize and identify.
You must learn to trade using tips and tricks that you are shown and to accumulate and keep a collection of techniques that result in the selection of high probability trades.
How are you to do all this? Practice, practice, PRACTICE. Practice recognition of congestion areas. Practice recognition of high probability breakouts. Practice trend recognition. Practice and more practice. Just like anyone who wants to achieve perfection at anything, there must be total dedication, study, practice and more practice. You are to become a trading virtuoso. You are to practice, yet always realizing that you will never attain true perfection, that there is always room for improvement. There is usually a way to refine: ways that you can do things better, more efficiently, and with greater speed and finesse.
by Joe Ross
http://www.tradingeducators.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-60.html
Sunday, August 2, 2009
How to Make Consistent Profits Trading Futures Part I
One of the mistakes I consistently made in my early years as a trader was to try to make too much money in relation to my trading capital. To make £1000 a day while Futures Trading with £10,000 is absurdly ambitious; of course I have done it many times, as would anyone with this intention, but I have also gone bust on more than one occasion. To have the aspiration of taking £1000 out of the market each day, when trading with £10,000 or under is, I think, a quick route to the poor house.
So what is a reasonable objective for a day / futures trader?
A few weeks ago I visited an ex-floor trader who has set up a trading operation backing young aspiring traders. I was interested to find out from him how he trains his team. The essence of his approach is to give them a grounding in discipline and confidence. He believes that confidence is one of the primary keys to success in futures trading and that confidence is a by-product of taking money out of the market.
One of the reasons he has chosen to work with young futures traders is that he wants people who have minimal financial commitments. He knows it will take a while for them to start earning an income from the business. So his belief is that if his traders can regularly take small amounts of money out of the market, their knowledge, skills and confidence will grow and in time they will become bigger traders. What is critical about this approach is that his traders do not grow in size until they have achieved consistent, regular success on a small scale; and we are talking small, I mean £25 or £50 in a day.
What can we learn from this low risk approach? Well first let me ask you: what is more important, to make money today, or to become a consistently profitable trader? Because if we want to become consistently successful traders we need to take a different tack than if we are just out to make as much money as we can today.
So back to the question, what is a reasonable objective for a day trader? Well let’s look at bringing our daily target right down to £100, with £10,000 of trading capital, i.e. 1%. Now £100 a day, trading a market like the FTSE seems an achievable target to me. That is a net profit of 10 FTSE points a day. Can you come up with a system that trades 5 times a day and has an average net profit of 2 points? Or a system that trades 10 times a day with an average net profit of 1 point?
Is that a yes I hear? Because if you can make an average of £100 a day you will double your money in 100 trading days i.e. 20 weeks or about 5 months. If you double you position size every time you double your money, your account will grow to £1,000,000 in 140 weeks, which is less than 3 years! Of course this does not take into account the impact of tax; but my point is that by taking a low risk, conservative approach to trading objectives, we give ourselves the chance to grow and develop into traders, while also availing ourselves of the possibility of a deceptively good return.
If at this point you are tearing your hair out and screaming at the screen that I am a fool for suggesting that you can trade a strategy that averages a few points a trade, I assume that you are not familiar with the benefits of direct access trading. Direct access trading effectively gives everyone and their uncle the same low costs, immediate trade execution and access as was exclusively enjoyed by the floor traders before the advent of the electronic market place. To learn about the advantages of direct access trading...
Regards,
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-53.html
So what is a reasonable objective for a day / futures trader?
A few weeks ago I visited an ex-floor trader who has set up a trading operation backing young aspiring traders. I was interested to find out from him how he trains his team. The essence of his approach is to give them a grounding in discipline and confidence. He believes that confidence is one of the primary keys to success in futures trading and that confidence is a by-product of taking money out of the market.
One of the reasons he has chosen to work with young futures traders is that he wants people who have minimal financial commitments. He knows it will take a while for them to start earning an income from the business. So his belief is that if his traders can regularly take small amounts of money out of the market, their knowledge, skills and confidence will grow and in time they will become bigger traders. What is critical about this approach is that his traders do not grow in size until they have achieved consistent, regular success on a small scale; and we are talking small, I mean £25 or £50 in a day.
What can we learn from this low risk approach? Well first let me ask you: what is more important, to make money today, or to become a consistently profitable trader? Because if we want to become consistently successful traders we need to take a different tack than if we are just out to make as much money as we can today.
So back to the question, what is a reasonable objective for a day trader? Well let’s look at bringing our daily target right down to £100, with £10,000 of trading capital, i.e. 1%. Now £100 a day, trading a market like the FTSE seems an achievable target to me. That is a net profit of 10 FTSE points a day. Can you come up with a system that trades 5 times a day and has an average net profit of 2 points? Or a system that trades 10 times a day with an average net profit of 1 point?
Is that a yes I hear? Because if you can make an average of £100 a day you will double your money in 100 trading days i.e. 20 weeks or about 5 months. If you double you position size every time you double your money, your account will grow to £1,000,000 in 140 weeks, which is less than 3 years! Of course this does not take into account the impact of tax; but my point is that by taking a low risk, conservative approach to trading objectives, we give ourselves the chance to grow and develop into traders, while also availing ourselves of the possibility of a deceptively good return.
If at this point you are tearing your hair out and screaming at the screen that I am a fool for suggesting that you can trade a strategy that averages a few points a trade, I assume that you are not familiar with the benefits of direct access trading. Direct access trading effectively gives everyone and their uncle the same low costs, immediate trade execution and access as was exclusively enjoyed by the floor traders before the advent of the electronic market place. To learn about the advantages of direct access trading...
Regards,
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-53.html
The Seven Most Traded Currencies in FOREX
Currencies are traded in dollar amounts called “lots”. One lot is equal to $1,000, which controls $100,000 in currency. This is what is known as the "margin". You can control $100,000 worth of currency for only 1,000 dollars. This is what is called “High Leverage”.
Currencies are always traded in pairs in the FOREX. The pairs have a unique notation that expresses what currencies are being traded. The symbol for a currency pair will always be in the form ABC/DEF. ABC/DEF is not a real currency pair, it is an example of a symbol for a currency pair. In this example ABC is the symbol for one countries currency and DEF is the symbol for another countries currency.
Here are some of the common symbols used in the Forex:
USD - The US Dollar EUR - The currency of the European Union "EURO" GBP - The British Pound JPN - The Japanese Yen CHF - The Swiss Franc AUD - The Australian Dollar CAD - The Canadian Dollar
There are symbols for other currencies as well, but these are the most commonly traded ones.
A currency can never be traded by itself. So you can not ever trade a EUR by itself. You always need to compare one currency with another currency to make a trade possible.
Some of the common PAIRS are:
EUR/USD Euro / US Dollar "Euro"
USD/JPY US Dollar / Japanese Yen "Dollar Yen"
GBP/USD British Pound / US Dollar "Cable"
USD/CAD US Dollar / Canadian Dollar "Dollar Canada"
AUD/USD Australian Dollar/US Dollar "Aussie Dollar"
USD/CHF US Dollar / Swiss Franc "Swissy"
EUR/JPY Euro / Japanese Yen "Euro Yen"
The listed currency pairs above look like a fraction. The numerator (top of the fraction or "left" of the / however you want to SEE it) is called the base currency. The denominator (bottom of the fraction or "right" of the /however you want to SEE it) is called the counter currency. When you place an order to buy the EUR/USD, for instance, you are actually buying the EUR and selling the USD. If you were to sell the pair, you would be selling the EUR and buying the USD. So if you buy or sell a currency PAIR, you are buying/selling the base currency. You are always doing the opposite of what you did with to base currency with the counter currency.
If this seems confusing then you’re in luck. You can always get by with just thinking of the entire pair as one item. Then you are just buying or selling that one item. Thinking like this will still enable you to place trades. You only need to be aware of the base/counter concept for Fundamental Analysis issues.
So why is it important to know about the base/counter currency? The base/counter currency concept illustrates what is actually taking place in a Forex transaction. Some of you reading this, know that short-selling was restricted in the stock market *(Short-selling is where you sell a stock/currency/option/commodity first and then try to buy it back at a lower price later). But in the FOREX you are always buying one currency (base) and selling another (counter). If you sell the pair you are simply flipping which one you buy and which one you sell. The transaction is essentially the same. This allows you to short-sell with no restrictions.
You want to be able to short-sell with no restrictions so you can make money when the market drops as well as when it rises. The problem with traditional stock market trading is that the market has to go up for you to make money. With FOREX trading you can make money in all directions.
Omar Vargas
FOREX Trader and Freelance writer. http://www.1-forex.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-78.html
Currencies are always traded in pairs in the FOREX. The pairs have a unique notation that expresses what currencies are being traded. The symbol for a currency pair will always be in the form ABC/DEF. ABC/DEF is not a real currency pair, it is an example of a symbol for a currency pair. In this example ABC is the symbol for one countries currency and DEF is the symbol for another countries currency.
Here are some of the common symbols used in the Forex:
USD - The US Dollar EUR - The currency of the European Union "EURO" GBP - The British Pound JPN - The Japanese Yen CHF - The Swiss Franc AUD - The Australian Dollar CAD - The Canadian Dollar
There are symbols for other currencies as well, but these are the most commonly traded ones.
A currency can never be traded by itself. So you can not ever trade a EUR by itself. You always need to compare one currency with another currency to make a trade possible.
Some of the common PAIRS are:
EUR/USD Euro / US Dollar "Euro"
USD/JPY US Dollar / Japanese Yen "Dollar Yen"
GBP/USD British Pound / US Dollar "Cable"
USD/CAD US Dollar / Canadian Dollar "Dollar Canada"
AUD/USD Australian Dollar/US Dollar "Aussie Dollar"
USD/CHF US Dollar / Swiss Franc "Swissy"
EUR/JPY Euro / Japanese Yen "Euro Yen"
The listed currency pairs above look like a fraction. The numerator (top of the fraction or "left" of the / however you want to SEE it) is called the base currency. The denominator (bottom of the fraction or "right" of the /however you want to SEE it) is called the counter currency. When you place an order to buy the EUR/USD, for instance, you are actually buying the EUR and selling the USD. If you were to sell the pair, you would be selling the EUR and buying the USD. So if you buy or sell a currency PAIR, you are buying/selling the base currency. You are always doing the opposite of what you did with to base currency with the counter currency.
If this seems confusing then you’re in luck. You can always get by with just thinking of the entire pair as one item. Then you are just buying or selling that one item. Thinking like this will still enable you to place trades. You only need to be aware of the base/counter concept for Fundamental Analysis issues.
So why is it important to know about the base/counter currency? The base/counter currency concept illustrates what is actually taking place in a Forex transaction. Some of you reading this, know that short-selling was restricted in the stock market *(Short-selling is where you sell a stock/currency/option/commodity first and then try to buy it back at a lower price later). But in the FOREX you are always buying one currency (base) and selling another (counter). If you sell the pair you are simply flipping which one you buy and which one you sell. The transaction is essentially the same. This allows you to short-sell with no restrictions.
You want to be able to short-sell with no restrictions so you can make money when the market drops as well as when it rises. The problem with traditional stock market trading is that the market has to go up for you to make money. With FOREX trading you can make money in all directions.
Omar Vargas
FOREX Trader and Freelance writer. http://www.1-forex.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-78.html
Day Trading Indicators and Indicator Trading
Did You Begin Day Trading As An Indicator Only Trader?
Did you start day trading after buying a book on technical analysis, and getting a charting program - probably a free one that you found online - in order to save money? While reading your book you learned about trading indicators which could ’predict’ price movement, and what do you know, the ’best’ indicators were actually included in your free charting program - let the games begin.
Now that you have all the day trading tools that are necessary, the book for education AND the free charting program with those ’best’ day trading indicators, you now need a day trading plan so you can decide which ones of those ’magic’ day trading indicators you are supposed to use. This really is a great book, besides telling you how to day trade using indicators to ’predict’ price - it also said that you need a trading plan to day trade.
So what should this plan be? The book told you about trend following using an indicator called macd, and it also told you how it was possible to pick the top or bottoms using an indicator called stochastic; my guess is that you picked the stochastic indicator to start your day trading - this must be the ’best of the best’ since this indicator was going to ensure you of entering your trades with the ’best’ price. Amazing, simply amazing how easy this day trading stuff really is. In fact, why even bother taking the trades, each time your indicators give a signal - just call up your broker and tell him to stick $100 in your account.
My book was Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets. My charting program was TradeStation with an eSignal fm receiver; that was the one that if you hung the antennae wires just right, and you put enough foil on the tips, you might even get quotes. I had sold a business before I started trading so I did have some capital - isn’t that how everyone gets into trading, you either sell a business or you lose your job? My indicator was the macd as I had decided that I was going to be a ’trend follower’ instead of a ’top-bottom picker’. I also decided that I was going to be ’extra’ clever, if one indicator was good than two indicators must be better, so I added a 20 period moving average. My first trade was a winner, then after many months of extensive therapy, I was finally able to forget the next twelve months - ahhh the memories ƒ؛
Learning To Day Trading - The Learning Progression
Beginning to day trade, or learning to day trade, as an indicator trader is very typical. This is also logical when you consider - HOW are you supposed to initially learn how to trade? Trading indicators are available to anyone who has a charting program, and simply using line crosses, or histogram color changes, provide ’easy’ signals to understand. If you will also take the time to learn the arithmetic behind your indicators, as well as learning what each indicator is specifically intended to do, not only is this a logical way to begin, it is also a good ’step’ in your learning progression - understanding the WHAT you are doing, instead of attempting to create ’canned’ indicator only trading systems, without any regard as to WHY you are trading this way.
This does become one of the ’sticking’ points in your learning progression, as you come to find out that you are unable to profitably trade indicators as signals only - now what? Now what - you ’can’t’ develop your own indicators, so you start doing google searches for day trading indicators and start buying your ’collection’ - they don’t ’work’ either. Now what - you buy a mechanical trading system - what does hypothetical results may not be indicative of real trading or future results mean? Now what - you start subscribing to signal services OR you start joining the ’latest and greatest’ chat room - am I really the only person using the signals who isn’t profitable?
Now what - you never learn how to trade.
I began trading as an indicator trader, and I did try to learn everything that I could about the various indicators, as well as trying to combine indicators that were consistent with how I wanted to trade - I just could never develop a mechanical day trading system from what was available to me. I read a couple more books that didn’t really help me, so I then started looking for someone who could teach me. From what I now know about gurus -vs- teachers, I am very lucky that I got involved with a money manager-trader who taught me a tremendous amount, but I still couldn’t get profitable, in part because there was also ’pressure’ to learn how to trade using real money. As well, any discussions or thoughts about trading psychology and the issues involved, especially to beginning traders, was non-existent.
Now what - learning but losing - I stopped trading. Learning to trading using real money, and ’scoffing’ at trading psychology as simply individual weakness, really was something that I now regard as misinformation. I always mention this as I now feel that this cost me as much as a year of time, and was very close to costing me my trading future, as stopped trading was VERY close to quitting trading. How can’t trading psychology be real to a beginner, when you consider that you are risking losing money at a very fast pace as a day trader, and when you further consider that you are also doing this when you really don’t know what you are doing - this is NOT by definition being weak. And if trading psychology is real, how are you going to learn to make ’good’ trading habits with real money while you are fighting the implications?
Now what - not trading and not ready [quite] to quit - still studying and searching.
Probably the single most important ’thing’ that got me to a next step in learning how to trade, was the concept of a trading setup, and that a setup and a signal were not the same. This was extremely meaningful to me, as it also led to an understanding of how to better use trading indicators for the information that they can provide, but not to use them as trading signals - in essence I began learning about trading method where discretion could be consistently applied -vs- trading system that was mechanical and arithmetic rules.
Traders who are indicator only traders, are also what I refer to right side only traders, that is they are always looking at the right side of their charts for an indicator signal. BUT what about the left side of the chart, what about price and patterns, what about market conditions - WHAT about the relevant ’things’ that are ’moving’ price, instead of indicators only as an arithmetic derivative of price, and thus, one that is dependant on the time frame that you have chosen to trade from? These ’thoughts’, along with the concept of trade setup, became instrumental in the development of a trading method, and how I came to turning my trading around.
When I think about the steps in my learning progression - I would list them as follows:
2/95 - 6/96 indicators only teaching service that included signals learning to trading with real money and trading psychology issues stop trading
6/96 - 3/97 understanding of trading psychology issues learning about trading setups concept trading method -vs- trading system trade setup - trade trigger are not the same method development understand the importance of the left side of the chart and what is happening ’across’ the chart related trading setups and how/when they triggered indicators + pattern indicators + pattern + price indicators + pattern + price + market conditions
3/97 - 11/97 able to paper trade profitably able to real money trade profitably able to trade for a living
Indicator Only Day Trader - Setup Including Indicators Method Day Trader
I have attempted to discuss the way I started day trading, and the way I think many-most traders typically begin. Along with this, I have pointed various issues and problems that I had - those regarding how to learn to trade, and then progressing into a profitable trader. My experiences have been both personal, as well as those of many traders that I have worked with over the last 8-9 years through Tactical Trading - that a very large number of these problems are due to day trading only with indicators, the specific indicators used, along with trying to turn these indicators into a mechanical trading system. This is not to say that this can’t be done - I simply couldn’t do it. However, I would strongly suggest that anyone who is in the early stages of day trading, or struggling with their day trading, consider these things that have been discussed.
This discussion, along with chart examples of various trading indicators and trade setups, is continued at
http://www.tacticaltradingmethod.com/indicator-trading.html
Copyright © 2006 Tactical Trading, LLC. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-82.html
Did you start day trading after buying a book on technical analysis, and getting a charting program - probably a free one that you found online - in order to save money? While reading your book you learned about trading indicators which could ’predict’ price movement, and what do you know, the ’best’ indicators were actually included in your free charting program - let the games begin.
Now that you have all the day trading tools that are necessary, the book for education AND the free charting program with those ’best’ day trading indicators, you now need a day trading plan so you can decide which ones of those ’magic’ day trading indicators you are supposed to use. This really is a great book, besides telling you how to day trade using indicators to ’predict’ price - it also said that you need a trading plan to day trade.
So what should this plan be? The book told you about trend following using an indicator called macd, and it also told you how it was possible to pick the top or bottoms using an indicator called stochastic; my guess is that you picked the stochastic indicator to start your day trading - this must be the ’best of the best’ since this indicator was going to ensure you of entering your trades with the ’best’ price. Amazing, simply amazing how easy this day trading stuff really is. In fact, why even bother taking the trades, each time your indicators give a signal - just call up your broker and tell him to stick $100 in your account.
My book was Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets. My charting program was TradeStation with an eSignal fm receiver; that was the one that if you hung the antennae wires just right, and you put enough foil on the tips, you might even get quotes. I had sold a business before I started trading so I did have some capital - isn’t that how everyone gets into trading, you either sell a business or you lose your job? My indicator was the macd as I had decided that I was going to be a ’trend follower’ instead of a ’top-bottom picker’. I also decided that I was going to be ’extra’ clever, if one indicator was good than two indicators must be better, so I added a 20 period moving average. My first trade was a winner, then after many months of extensive therapy, I was finally able to forget the next twelve months - ahhh the memories ƒ؛
Learning To Day Trading - The Learning Progression
Beginning to day trade, or learning to day trade, as an indicator trader is very typical. This is also logical when you consider - HOW are you supposed to initially learn how to trade? Trading indicators are available to anyone who has a charting program, and simply using line crosses, or histogram color changes, provide ’easy’ signals to understand. If you will also take the time to learn the arithmetic behind your indicators, as well as learning what each indicator is specifically intended to do, not only is this a logical way to begin, it is also a good ’step’ in your learning progression - understanding the WHAT you are doing, instead of attempting to create ’canned’ indicator only trading systems, without any regard as to WHY you are trading this way.
This does become one of the ’sticking’ points in your learning progression, as you come to find out that you are unable to profitably trade indicators as signals only - now what? Now what - you ’can’t’ develop your own indicators, so you start doing google searches for day trading indicators and start buying your ’collection’ - they don’t ’work’ either. Now what - you buy a mechanical trading system - what does hypothetical results may not be indicative of real trading or future results mean? Now what - you start subscribing to signal services OR you start joining the ’latest and greatest’ chat room - am I really the only person using the signals who isn’t profitable?
Now what - you never learn how to trade.
I began trading as an indicator trader, and I did try to learn everything that I could about the various indicators, as well as trying to combine indicators that were consistent with how I wanted to trade - I just could never develop a mechanical day trading system from what was available to me. I read a couple more books that didn’t really help me, so I then started looking for someone who could teach me. From what I now know about gurus -vs- teachers, I am very lucky that I got involved with a money manager-trader who taught me a tremendous amount, but I still couldn’t get profitable, in part because there was also ’pressure’ to learn how to trade using real money. As well, any discussions or thoughts about trading psychology and the issues involved, especially to beginning traders, was non-existent.
Now what - learning but losing - I stopped trading. Learning to trading using real money, and ’scoffing’ at trading psychology as simply individual weakness, really was something that I now regard as misinformation. I always mention this as I now feel that this cost me as much as a year of time, and was very close to costing me my trading future, as stopped trading was VERY close to quitting trading. How can’t trading psychology be real to a beginner, when you consider that you are risking losing money at a very fast pace as a day trader, and when you further consider that you are also doing this when you really don’t know what you are doing - this is NOT by definition being weak. And if trading psychology is real, how are you going to learn to make ’good’ trading habits with real money while you are fighting the implications?
Now what - not trading and not ready [quite] to quit - still studying and searching.
Probably the single most important ’thing’ that got me to a next step in learning how to trade, was the concept of a trading setup, and that a setup and a signal were not the same. This was extremely meaningful to me, as it also led to an understanding of how to better use trading indicators for the information that they can provide, but not to use them as trading signals - in essence I began learning about trading method where discretion could be consistently applied -vs- trading system that was mechanical and arithmetic rules.
Traders who are indicator only traders, are also what I refer to right side only traders, that is they are always looking at the right side of their charts for an indicator signal. BUT what about the left side of the chart, what about price and patterns, what about market conditions - WHAT about the relevant ’things’ that are ’moving’ price, instead of indicators only as an arithmetic derivative of price, and thus, one that is dependant on the time frame that you have chosen to trade from? These ’thoughts’, along with the concept of trade setup, became instrumental in the development of a trading method, and how I came to turning my trading around.
When I think about the steps in my learning progression - I would list them as follows:
2/95 - 6/96 indicators only teaching service that included signals learning to trading with real money and trading psychology issues stop trading
6/96 - 3/97 understanding of trading psychology issues learning about trading setups concept trading method -vs- trading system trade setup - trade trigger are not the same method development understand the importance of the left side of the chart and what is happening ’across’ the chart related trading setups and how/when they triggered indicators + pattern indicators + pattern + price indicators + pattern + price + market conditions
3/97 - 11/97 able to paper trade profitably able to real money trade profitably able to trade for a living
Indicator Only Day Trader - Setup Including Indicators Method Day Trader
I have attempted to discuss the way I started day trading, and the way I think many-most traders typically begin. Along with this, I have pointed various issues and problems that I had - those regarding how to learn to trade, and then progressing into a profitable trader. My experiences have been both personal, as well as those of many traders that I have worked with over the last 8-9 years through Tactical Trading - that a very large number of these problems are due to day trading only with indicators, the specific indicators used, along with trying to turn these indicators into a mechanical trading system. This is not to say that this can’t be done - I simply couldn’t do it. However, I would strongly suggest that anyone who is in the early stages of day trading, or struggling with their day trading, consider these things that have been discussed.
This discussion, along with chart examples of various trading indicators and trade setups, is continued at
http://www.tacticaltradingmethod.com/indicator-trading.html
Copyright © 2006 Tactical Trading, LLC. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-82.html
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Fibonacci Trading Techniques
Introduction to Fibonacci trading techniques.
First, a few words about Fibonacci himself…
Leonardo Pisano (nickname Fibonacci) was a mathematician, born in 1170, in Pisa (now Italy). His father was Guilielmo, of the Bonacci family. His father was a diplomat, as a result Fibonacci was educated in North Africa, where he learned "accounting" and "mathematics".
Fibonacci also contributed to the science of numbers, and introduced the "Fibonacci sequence"
The Fibonacci sequence is the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, introduced in his work "Liber abaci" in a problem involving the growth of a population of rabbits.
Aside from this sequence of number where every next number is the sum of the proceeding two, 0, 1 (0+1), 2 (1+1), 3 (2+1), 5 (3+2), 8 (5+3), 13 (8+5), etc.
There are the "Fibonacci ratios".. By comparing the relationship between each number, and each alternate number, and even each number to the one four places to the right, we arrive at some fairly consistent ratios.. The important ones are .236, 50, .382, .618, .764, 1.382, 1.618, 2.618, 4.236, and for good measure we include 1.00 ..
It turns out that the ratios are mathematical principles prevalent in nature around us, and is also in man-made objects. There are many interesting, entertaining, and poetic observations about Fibonacci numbers and ratios in the universe (see the reference section below). Fibonacci numbers appear in ancient buildings, in plants, planets, molecules, the dimensions of human bodies, and of course snails… But of what use is all that to the lowly trader?
What really interests you, the application of Fibonacci techniques in the trading environment..
Traders usually study charts! Fibonacci ratios may be applied to the Price scale, and also to the time scale of charts. I study the price scale. My focus here will be on the price scale for now, perhaps in the future I’ll add some time-scale studies.
Prices never move in a straight line. Look at any chart, you will see many wiggles, as price advances and retraces.. Stocks, Futures, Forex, all instruments which are liquid, will often retrace in Fibonacci proportions, and advance in Fibonacci proportions. Not always, and not precisely to the penny. But very often, and reasonably close! This happens often enough that profitable trades can result. I will show you some examples below.
I used Fibonacci ratios with a few simple indicators to help determine probable price turning points, optimum entry, exit and stop-loss levels. My complete techniques are available in on-line video seminars, in-person seminars, and via my real-time on-line chat facility. For more details, see the this web page
The application of Fibonacci to trading can be very complex, and take much time and experience to perfect. Many traders enjoy making the process as difficult and as complex as they can tolerate.. I do the opposite, I try to simplify, try to bring clarity.
Fibonacci example - Microsoft Weekly chart.
This lesson demonstrates a very basic way to use Fibonacci levels. You just read about Fibonacci ratios. We will use just one of those ratios for now, the .382 Fibonacci ratio. In this chart MSFT made a high of (approximately) $59.97 in December of 1999. After that, it moved down to make a low of $30.19 in May of 2000.
The down move was $29.78 (59.97-30.19), quite a substantial amount.
Projecting from that low in May, and using a Fibonacci ratio, we can calculate 29.78*.382=$11.37 . So 38.2% of 29.78 is 11.37 . If MSFT were to rally 38.2% of the down-move it would reach $41.57 (11.37+30.20). I’m using rounded numbers in my calculations, the chart above calculates it to be $41.564, we don’t need that degree of accuracy!
Several weeks later, MSFT rallied and resisted right near that .382 Fibonacci level !!
So we were able to predict a future probable turning point (after the low of May 2000), using the Fibonacci ratio of .382!! If only it were always so easy.
The steps involved are:
1. Calculate the total value of a significant price-move (high to low, or vice-versa).
2. Calculate a Fibonacci retracement (in this case .382) of the prior move.
3. Look for price to confirm, by resisting (or support in an up-move) near that predicted retracement area.
Fibonacci example - Microsoft Daily chart.
This chart shows how a different Fibonacci level (61.8%) predicted resistance and a market turn.
Notice how the market behaved at the .382 level (30.80 area). Initially the market spiked through, then fell back to that level (late October). We cannot expect a chart to retrace at every Fib level. We can expect some support/resistance as buyers/sellers enter the market at these levels, but we can’t always predict whether the market will actually turn at any particular level. Fibonacci techniques are used to alert you to a possible trade, if that price level does cause support or resistance. These techniques are not used as a trigger for entry. Other indicators are used in conjunction with Fibonacci studies to provide higher-probability entries..
As mentioned before, there are several Fib levels, .236, 50, .382, .618, .764, 1.382, 1.618, 2.618, 4.236, and 1.00 .. So there are several places to look for a market turn. They can be calculated in advance, but trading blindly at a fib level can be dangerous, because you never know for certain (in advance) whether the market will turn at any particular Fib level. I use other indicators to help overcome that problem, click here to learn how to determine which Fib ratio is likely to be strong enough to turn the market.
Important notes from this lesson:
1. There are several Fib levels.
2. It takes some skill to determine which Fib level is likely to cause the market to turn.
3. There are some techniques to help you determine where a market is more likely to turn.
4. Do not blindly anticipate a market turn at a Fib level.
More Fibonacci examples.
QQQ Weekly chart with a deep retracement to .618 and a weak attempt to rally after that. However, consider the daily chart and intraday traders. they would have enjoyed the rally from $75 to $100, after going long from a support level that could have been predicted in March!
QQQ daily chart. Multiple Fib levels timing the market perfectly in 3 consecutive waves up!
Intraday chart, QQQ 30-minute. Notice the two market Fib retracements (there are others in this chart too).. The rally from 29.26 stopped at 31.10, then it supported **twice** at 30.39, for two good scalps. The next highlighted Fib support is at a retracement of .618 from the move up 30.47 to 32.49 .. Both of these support levels were predictable before the market supported there.. Hint:--- See how the rally continued after the shallow retracement to 30.39 ... See how the rally after the deeper retracement to .618 near 31.25 was a weaker rally.. This is common, a deeper retracement often foretells a weaker rally... See the next lesson in the table of contents for more on these advanced Fibonacci trading principles.
Another intraday chart, S&P 5-minute.. The first Fib retracement is on a bearish move, an opportunity to short. The second is bullish, with a long entry near 999.25 .. Note that popular charting software will calculate Fibonacci to rediculous precision, we don’t need anything closer than one tick! Actually, you should allow some room don’t expect precision every time. Allow the trade some room to develop, or you will be stopped out too often.
More Advanced - Microsoft Daily chart.
By now you’re probably quite interested, perhaps applying all those Fibonacci ratios to many charts.. You should experiment with your own charts. As long as the instrument traded has a lot of liquidity (not a penny stock for example), you should start to see Fib support and resistance at work. You will start to notice that Fibonacci levels "work" sometimes and not others. Sometimes the trades are not profitable, or are less profitable than others. You need to develop the skills required to select better trades.
In this mini-lesson I want to show you how to evaluate price action based on which Fib levels it responds to, and how the market behaves immediately preceding the Fib support/resistance.
The chart below actually has many Fibonacci levels "performing well", providing support or resistance to the market. I want you to focus on the two that I have identified, for the purposes of this lesson.
The first up-move that I have identified topped out at $26.90, and then retraced 61.8% before supporting at that Fib level. There was a pause at the .382 level, but it was not sufficient to hold the market. Now look at the rally from the support level near .618, it rallied but did not exceed the prior high of 26.90 … As a general rule, a retracement to .618 or below indicates that the preceding up-move is losing steam. A shallow retracement which supports at .382 is more likely to rally beyond the prior high than one which has a deep retracement beyond .50 all the way to .618 ..
The impressive thrust from 22.55 up to 26.90 was negated by a quick move back to .618 at about 24.20, so a trader should not be too optimistic about a continuation of the initial up-thrust.
Similarly, the move up in June, from 23.50 to almost 26.50 would also not inspire much optimism for a huge rally above the high of 26.50 … In general a shallow support at .382 would indicate a probable rally beyond the prior high. However, if the up-move preceding the retracement was sluggish rather than thrusting, you also should temper your enthusiasm.
If the second rally which only retraced to .382 had the thrust of the first rally, it would be a more attractive trade!
These are not firm rules, instead they are used as a guide, to help you filter for better trades. Every Fib level is not equal, some are more attractive than others.
Important notes from this lesson:
1. Not all Fib levels are alike.
2. No technical study is perfect, you must develop the skills to filter out bad trades, and improve the odds of finding better trades.
3. Price action just before a Fib retracement can tell you something about the future.
4. Which Fib level causes the end of a retracement also can give a hint to future price action.
5. No technical study is perfect, you must develop the skills to filter out bad trades, and improve the odds of finding better trades.
Good Trading
Best Regards
Neal Hughes
http://www.fibmarkets.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-42.html
First, a few words about Fibonacci himself…
Leonardo Pisano (nickname Fibonacci) was a mathematician, born in 1170, in Pisa (now Italy). His father was Guilielmo, of the Bonacci family. His father was a diplomat, as a result Fibonacci was educated in North Africa, where he learned "accounting" and "mathematics".
Fibonacci also contributed to the science of numbers, and introduced the "Fibonacci sequence"
The Fibonacci sequence is the sequence 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, introduced in his work "Liber abaci" in a problem involving the growth of a population of rabbits.
Aside from this sequence of number where every next number is the sum of the proceeding two, 0, 1 (0+1), 2 (1+1), 3 (2+1), 5 (3+2), 8 (5+3), 13 (8+5), etc.
There are the "Fibonacci ratios".. By comparing the relationship between each number, and each alternate number, and even each number to the one four places to the right, we arrive at some fairly consistent ratios.. The important ones are .236, 50, .382, .618, .764, 1.382, 1.618, 2.618, 4.236, and for good measure we include 1.00 ..
It turns out that the ratios are mathematical principles prevalent in nature around us, and is also in man-made objects. There are many interesting, entertaining, and poetic observations about Fibonacci numbers and ratios in the universe (see the reference section below). Fibonacci numbers appear in ancient buildings, in plants, planets, molecules, the dimensions of human bodies, and of course snails… But of what use is all that to the lowly trader?
What really interests you, the application of Fibonacci techniques in the trading environment..
Traders usually study charts! Fibonacci ratios may be applied to the Price scale, and also to the time scale of charts. I study the price scale. My focus here will be on the price scale for now, perhaps in the future I’ll add some time-scale studies.
Prices never move in a straight line. Look at any chart, you will see many wiggles, as price advances and retraces.. Stocks, Futures, Forex, all instruments which are liquid, will often retrace in Fibonacci proportions, and advance in Fibonacci proportions. Not always, and not precisely to the penny. But very often, and reasonably close! This happens often enough that profitable trades can result. I will show you some examples below.
I used Fibonacci ratios with a few simple indicators to help determine probable price turning points, optimum entry, exit and stop-loss levels. My complete techniques are available in on-line video seminars, in-person seminars, and via my real-time on-line chat facility. For more details, see the this web page
The application of Fibonacci to trading can be very complex, and take much time and experience to perfect. Many traders enjoy making the process as difficult and as complex as they can tolerate.. I do the opposite, I try to simplify, try to bring clarity.
Fibonacci example - Microsoft Weekly chart.
This lesson demonstrates a very basic way to use Fibonacci levels. You just read about Fibonacci ratios. We will use just one of those ratios for now, the .382 Fibonacci ratio. In this chart MSFT made a high of (approximately) $59.97 in December of 1999. After that, it moved down to make a low of $30.19 in May of 2000.
The down move was $29.78 (59.97-30.19), quite a substantial amount.
Projecting from that low in May, and using a Fibonacci ratio, we can calculate 29.78*.382=$11.37 . So 38.2% of 29.78 is 11.37 . If MSFT were to rally 38.2% of the down-move it would reach $41.57 (11.37+30.20). I’m using rounded numbers in my calculations, the chart above calculates it to be $41.564, we don’t need that degree of accuracy!
Several weeks later, MSFT rallied and resisted right near that .382 Fibonacci level !!
So we were able to predict a future probable turning point (after the low of May 2000), using the Fibonacci ratio of .382!! If only it were always so easy.
The steps involved are:
1. Calculate the total value of a significant price-move (high to low, or vice-versa).
2. Calculate a Fibonacci retracement (in this case .382) of the prior move.
3. Look for price to confirm, by resisting (or support in an up-move) near that predicted retracement area.
Fibonacci example - Microsoft Daily chart.
This chart shows how a different Fibonacci level (61.8%) predicted resistance and a market turn.
Notice how the market behaved at the .382 level (30.80 area). Initially the market spiked through, then fell back to that level (late October). We cannot expect a chart to retrace at every Fib level. We can expect some support/resistance as buyers/sellers enter the market at these levels, but we can’t always predict whether the market will actually turn at any particular level. Fibonacci techniques are used to alert you to a possible trade, if that price level does cause support or resistance. These techniques are not used as a trigger for entry. Other indicators are used in conjunction with Fibonacci studies to provide higher-probability entries..
As mentioned before, there are several Fib levels, .236, 50, .382, .618, .764, 1.382, 1.618, 2.618, 4.236, and 1.00 .. So there are several places to look for a market turn. They can be calculated in advance, but trading blindly at a fib level can be dangerous, because you never know for certain (in advance) whether the market will turn at any particular Fib level. I use other indicators to help overcome that problem, click here to learn how to determine which Fib ratio is likely to be strong enough to turn the market.
Important notes from this lesson:
1. There are several Fib levels.
2. It takes some skill to determine which Fib level is likely to cause the market to turn.
3. There are some techniques to help you determine where a market is more likely to turn.
4. Do not blindly anticipate a market turn at a Fib level.
More Fibonacci examples.
QQQ Weekly chart with a deep retracement to .618 and a weak attempt to rally after that. However, consider the daily chart and intraday traders. they would have enjoyed the rally from $75 to $100, after going long from a support level that could have been predicted in March!
QQQ daily chart. Multiple Fib levels timing the market perfectly in 3 consecutive waves up!
Intraday chart, QQQ 30-minute. Notice the two market Fib retracements (there are others in this chart too).. The rally from 29.26 stopped at 31.10, then it supported **twice** at 30.39, for two good scalps. The next highlighted Fib support is at a retracement of .618 from the move up 30.47 to 32.49 .. Both of these support levels were predictable before the market supported there.. Hint:--- See how the rally continued after the shallow retracement to 30.39 ... See how the rally after the deeper retracement to .618 near 31.25 was a weaker rally.. This is common, a deeper retracement often foretells a weaker rally... See the next lesson in the table of contents for more on these advanced Fibonacci trading principles.
Another intraday chart, S&P 5-minute.. The first Fib retracement is on a bearish move, an opportunity to short. The second is bullish, with a long entry near 999.25 .. Note that popular charting software will calculate Fibonacci to rediculous precision, we don’t need anything closer than one tick! Actually, you should allow some room don’t expect precision every time. Allow the trade some room to develop, or you will be stopped out too often.
More Advanced - Microsoft Daily chart.
By now you’re probably quite interested, perhaps applying all those Fibonacci ratios to many charts.. You should experiment with your own charts. As long as the instrument traded has a lot of liquidity (not a penny stock for example), you should start to see Fib support and resistance at work. You will start to notice that Fibonacci levels "work" sometimes and not others. Sometimes the trades are not profitable, or are less profitable than others. You need to develop the skills required to select better trades.
In this mini-lesson I want to show you how to evaluate price action based on which Fib levels it responds to, and how the market behaves immediately preceding the Fib support/resistance.
The chart below actually has many Fibonacci levels "performing well", providing support or resistance to the market. I want you to focus on the two that I have identified, for the purposes of this lesson.
The first up-move that I have identified topped out at $26.90, and then retraced 61.8% before supporting at that Fib level. There was a pause at the .382 level, but it was not sufficient to hold the market. Now look at the rally from the support level near .618, it rallied but did not exceed the prior high of 26.90 … As a general rule, a retracement to .618 or below indicates that the preceding up-move is losing steam. A shallow retracement which supports at .382 is more likely to rally beyond the prior high than one which has a deep retracement beyond .50 all the way to .618 ..
The impressive thrust from 22.55 up to 26.90 was negated by a quick move back to .618 at about 24.20, so a trader should not be too optimistic about a continuation of the initial up-thrust.
Similarly, the move up in June, from 23.50 to almost 26.50 would also not inspire much optimism for a huge rally above the high of 26.50 … In general a shallow support at .382 would indicate a probable rally beyond the prior high. However, if the up-move preceding the retracement was sluggish rather than thrusting, you also should temper your enthusiasm.
If the second rally which only retraced to .382 had the thrust of the first rally, it would be a more attractive trade!
These are not firm rules, instead they are used as a guide, to help you filter for better trades. Every Fib level is not equal, some are more attractive than others.
Important notes from this lesson:
1. Not all Fib levels are alike.
2. No technical study is perfect, you must develop the skills to filter out bad trades, and improve the odds of finding better trades.
3. Price action just before a Fib retracement can tell you something about the future.
4. Which Fib level causes the end of a retracement also can give a hint to future price action.
5. No technical study is perfect, you must develop the skills to filter out bad trades, and improve the odds of finding better trades.
Good Trading
Best Regards
Neal Hughes
http://www.fibmarkets.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-42.html
Using the 10 Day Moving Average of the VIX (Volatility Index) to time a Reversal in the the S&P 500
Investors can get an idea of when the market may reverse when the 10 Day Moving Average (MA) of the Volatility Index (VIX) becomes significantly stretched away from its 10 Day Moving Average (MA). A simple example is shown below which compares the 10 Day MA of the VIX to the S&P 500.
Notice when the VIX got stretched significantly away from its 10 Day MA (blue line) to the upside (points A) that the S&P 500 made a bottom (points B) and then reversed to the upside.
Thus keeping track of where the Volatility Index is in relation to its 10 Day Moving Average can give investors a clue to when the market may be getting close to a near term bottom and possible upside reversal.
Regards,
Bob Kleyla
http://www.amateur-investor.net/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-56.html
Notice when the VIX got stretched significantly away from its 10 Day MA (blue line) to the upside (points A) that the S&P 500 made a bottom (points B) and then reversed to the upside.
Thus keeping track of where the Volatility Index is in relation to its 10 Day Moving Average can give investors a clue to when the market may be getting close to a near term bottom and possible upside reversal.
Regards,
Bob Kleyla
http://www.amateur-investor.net/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-56.html
What makes a good Trading Strategy?
Ask most NEW traders, and they will tell you about some moving average or combination of indicators or a chart pattern that they use. This is, as the more experienced trader knows, an entry point and not a strategy.
Any trader who is more experienced will say a strategy should also include money management, risk control, perhaps stop losses and of course, an exit point. They might also say that you must let your profits run and cut your losses short. A well-read trader will also tell you that your strategy should fit with your trading personality.
BUT there is one other vital ingredient that many traders forget - and that is to fully understand the "personality" of what you trade. Some traders specialise in say, gold or Brent crude or currencies or they might specialise in a particular index such as the FTSE 100 or the Dow but many traders choose to trade shares. Indeed some traders dabble in a bit of everything. I think this is the area that causes many traders to fail or at least not reach their full potential.
In my view: You absolutely MUST specialise.
I am sure that on the surface most people would say that sounds sensible but here is why it is a MUST!
Superficially, many charts look the same. I bet if you had not seen the charts for some time and someone where to show you a chart of Brent Crude over 6 months and then a chart of Barclays PLC over the same 6 months you would be hard pushed to say which was which purely on the look of the chart.
However, I bet that if you found a trader who trades ONLY Barclays day in and day out and also found someone who trades ONLY Brent Crude day in and day out, both of them would easily identify which was which. WHY?
Because every share, index or commodity has it’s own "personality".
Some will be volatile intra-day, some will follow their sector or the main index (market followers), some will do their own thing, some will spike up and down regularly, some will stop at key moving averages and some will just plough through. Some will move by 5% on average before they retrace and some by 2%. Some will gap up or down regularly, some will not. You get the idea!
Therefore, no matter how good you are at analysing indicators, moving averages, trends and patterns, the same strategy WILL NOT work for everything. I would go so far as to say that a strategy that works well for Bovis Homes, for example, is likely NOT to work for BT Group - they have very different "personalities".
So let’s return to our question: What makes a good trading strategy? Let me answer with a series of ten questions that you need to find answers to, in order to build a REALLY GOOD strategy.
1. What do you want to trade (share, index, commodity, currency, etc)? If your answer is shares (plural) I would urge you to pick one typical share at this stage to really specialise. You can add more later.
2. What "personality" does that share, index etc have?
3. What entry system is the most reliable for that share?
4. What stop loss system is the most effective for that share?
5. What average risk will a typical trade carry?
6. What exit system works well for that share?
7. What is your trading personality (attitude to risk, losses, discipline, how much do you worry etc) and can you trade that strategy without overriding it?
8. What timescale do you want to trade? (Using intra-day or end of day data)
9. How much data do you keep on past trades to help identify strategy weaknesses?
10. How does all this fit with your trading objectives?
Once you have an answer to each question you need to do one final thing. Make sure all those things fit together and complement each other. For example, if the ideal stop loss position represents a big average risk and conflicts with your own attitude to risk, you need to start again. If you will override your exit point because greed makes you hang in for more, you need to think again. Perhaps you shouldn’t trade that stock in the first place - look for one with a different "personality" which will lead to a strategy you can trade comfortably.
It is a long and sometimes painful iterative journey. You might need to go round and round in ever decreasing circles over a long time. Testing and refining, testing and refining before you can truly have a reliable and repeatable strategy that REALLY WORKS for you.
THEN, you can look for other things to trade that have the same "personality" as your specialist stock, index, commodity or currency.
But if it were easy, everyone would be doing it right?
Good luck and enjoy your trading.
David Graeme-Smith
Short Swing Trading
http://www.shortswingtrading.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-63.html
Any trader who is more experienced will say a strategy should also include money management, risk control, perhaps stop losses and of course, an exit point. They might also say that you must let your profits run and cut your losses short. A well-read trader will also tell you that your strategy should fit with your trading personality.
BUT there is one other vital ingredient that many traders forget - and that is to fully understand the "personality" of what you trade. Some traders specialise in say, gold or Brent crude or currencies or they might specialise in a particular index such as the FTSE 100 or the Dow but many traders choose to trade shares. Indeed some traders dabble in a bit of everything. I think this is the area that causes many traders to fail or at least not reach their full potential.
In my view: You absolutely MUST specialise.
I am sure that on the surface most people would say that sounds sensible but here is why it is a MUST!
Superficially, many charts look the same. I bet if you had not seen the charts for some time and someone where to show you a chart of Brent Crude over 6 months and then a chart of Barclays PLC over the same 6 months you would be hard pushed to say which was which purely on the look of the chart.
However, I bet that if you found a trader who trades ONLY Barclays day in and day out and also found someone who trades ONLY Brent Crude day in and day out, both of them would easily identify which was which. WHY?
Because every share, index or commodity has it’s own "personality".
Some will be volatile intra-day, some will follow their sector or the main index (market followers), some will do their own thing, some will spike up and down regularly, some will stop at key moving averages and some will just plough through. Some will move by 5% on average before they retrace and some by 2%. Some will gap up or down regularly, some will not. You get the idea!
Therefore, no matter how good you are at analysing indicators, moving averages, trends and patterns, the same strategy WILL NOT work for everything. I would go so far as to say that a strategy that works well for Bovis Homes, for example, is likely NOT to work for BT Group - they have very different "personalities".
So let’s return to our question: What makes a good trading strategy? Let me answer with a series of ten questions that you need to find answers to, in order to build a REALLY GOOD strategy.
1. What do you want to trade (share, index, commodity, currency, etc)? If your answer is shares (plural) I would urge you to pick one typical share at this stage to really specialise. You can add more later.
2. What "personality" does that share, index etc have?
3. What entry system is the most reliable for that share?
4. What stop loss system is the most effective for that share?
5. What average risk will a typical trade carry?
6. What exit system works well for that share?
7. What is your trading personality (attitude to risk, losses, discipline, how much do you worry etc) and can you trade that strategy without overriding it?
8. What timescale do you want to trade? (Using intra-day or end of day data)
9. How much data do you keep on past trades to help identify strategy weaknesses?
10. How does all this fit with your trading objectives?
Once you have an answer to each question you need to do one final thing. Make sure all those things fit together and complement each other. For example, if the ideal stop loss position represents a big average risk and conflicts with your own attitude to risk, you need to start again. If you will override your exit point because greed makes you hang in for more, you need to think again. Perhaps you shouldn’t trade that stock in the first place - look for one with a different "personality" which will lead to a strategy you can trade comfortably.
It is a long and sometimes painful iterative journey. You might need to go round and round in ever decreasing circles over a long time. Testing and refining, testing and refining before you can truly have a reliable and repeatable strategy that REALLY WORKS for you.
THEN, you can look for other things to trade that have the same "personality" as your specialist stock, index, commodity or currency.
But if it were easy, everyone would be doing it right?
Good luck and enjoy your trading.
David Graeme-Smith
Short Swing Trading
http://www.shortswingtrading.com/
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-63.html
What is Forex ?
The Foreign Exchange market, also referred to as the "Forex" or "FX" market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average turnover of approximately US$1.5 trillion. Foreign Exchange is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. The world’s currencies are on a floating exchange rate and are always traded in pairs, for example Euro/Dollar or Dollar/Yen.
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-18.html
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-18.html
The Seven Most Traded Currencies in FOREX
Currencies are traded in dollar amounts called “lots”. One lot is equal to $1,000, which controls $100,000 in currency. This is what is known as the "margin". You can control $100,000 worth of currency for only 1,000 dollars. This is what is called “High Leverage”.
Currencies are always traded in pairs in the FOREX. The pairs have a unique notation that expresses what currencies are being traded. The symbol for a currency pair will always be in the form ABC/DEF. ABC/DEF is not a real currency pair, it is an example of a symbol for a currency pair. In this example ABC is the symbol for one countries currency and DEF is the symbol for another countries currency.
Here are some of the common symbols used in the Forex:
USD - The US Dollar EUR - The currency of the European Union "EURO" GBP - The British Pound JPN - The Japanese Yen CHF - The Swiss Franc AUD - The Australian Dollar CAD - The Canadian Dollar
There are symbols for other currencies as well, but these are the most commonly traded ones.
A currency can never be traded by itself. So you can not ever trade a EUR by itself. You always need to compare one currency with another currency to make a trade possible.
Some of the common PAIRS are:
EUR/USD Euro / US Dollar "Euro"
USD/JPY US Dollar / Japanese Yen "Dollar Yen"
GBP/USD British Pound / US Dollar "Cable"
USD/CAD US Dollar / Canadian Dollar "Dollar Canada"
AUD/USD Australian Dollar/US Dollar "Aussie Dollar"
USD/CHF US Dollar / Swiss Franc "Swissy"
EUR/JPY Euro / Japanese Yen "Euro Yen"
The listed currency pairs above look like a fraction. The numerator (top of the fraction or "left" of the / however you want to SEE it) is called the base currency. The denominator (bottom of the fraction or "right" of the /however you want to SEE it) is called the counter currency. When you place an order to buy the EUR/USD, for instance, you are actually buying the EUR and selling the USD. If you were to sell the pair, you would be selling the EUR and buying the USD. So if you buy or sell a currency PAIR, you are buying/selling the base currency. You are always doing the opposite of what you did with to base currency with the counter currency.
If this seems confusing then you’re in luck. You can always get by with just thinking of the entire pair as one item. Then you are just buying or selling that one item. Thinking like this will still enable you to place trades. You only need to be aware of the base/counter concept for Fundamental Analysis issues.
So why is it important to know about the base/counter currency? The base/counter currency concept illustrates what is actually taking place in a Forex transaction. Some of you reading this, know that short-selling was restricted in the stock market *(Short-selling is where you sell a stock/currency/option/commodity first and then try to buy it back at a lower price later). But in the FOREX you are always buying one currency (base) and selling another (counter). If you sell the pair you are simply flipping which one you buy and which one you sell. The transaction is essentially the same. This allows you to short-sell with no restrictions.
You want to be able to short-sell with no restrictions so you can make money when the market drops as well as when it rises. The problem with traditional stock market trading is that the market has to go up for you to make money. With FOREX trading you can make money in all directions.
Omar Vargas
FOREX Trader and Freelance writer. http://www.1-forex.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-78.html
Currencies are always traded in pairs in the FOREX. The pairs have a unique notation that expresses what currencies are being traded. The symbol for a currency pair will always be in the form ABC/DEF. ABC/DEF is not a real currency pair, it is an example of a symbol for a currency pair. In this example ABC is the symbol for one countries currency and DEF is the symbol for another countries currency.
Here are some of the common symbols used in the Forex:
USD - The US Dollar EUR - The currency of the European Union "EURO" GBP - The British Pound JPN - The Japanese Yen CHF - The Swiss Franc AUD - The Australian Dollar CAD - The Canadian Dollar
There are symbols for other currencies as well, but these are the most commonly traded ones.
A currency can never be traded by itself. So you can not ever trade a EUR by itself. You always need to compare one currency with another currency to make a trade possible.
Some of the common PAIRS are:
EUR/USD Euro / US Dollar "Euro"
USD/JPY US Dollar / Japanese Yen "Dollar Yen"
GBP/USD British Pound / US Dollar "Cable"
USD/CAD US Dollar / Canadian Dollar "Dollar Canada"
AUD/USD Australian Dollar/US Dollar "Aussie Dollar"
USD/CHF US Dollar / Swiss Franc "Swissy"
EUR/JPY Euro / Japanese Yen "Euro Yen"
The listed currency pairs above look like a fraction. The numerator (top of the fraction or "left" of the / however you want to SEE it) is called the base currency. The denominator (bottom of the fraction or "right" of the /however you want to SEE it) is called the counter currency. When you place an order to buy the EUR/USD, for instance, you are actually buying the EUR and selling the USD. If you were to sell the pair, you would be selling the EUR and buying the USD. So if you buy or sell a currency PAIR, you are buying/selling the base currency. You are always doing the opposite of what you did with to base currency with the counter currency.
If this seems confusing then you’re in luck. You can always get by with just thinking of the entire pair as one item. Then you are just buying or selling that one item. Thinking like this will still enable you to place trades. You only need to be aware of the base/counter concept for Fundamental Analysis issues.
So why is it important to know about the base/counter currency? The base/counter currency concept illustrates what is actually taking place in a Forex transaction. Some of you reading this, know that short-selling was restricted in the stock market *(Short-selling is where you sell a stock/currency/option/commodity first and then try to buy it back at a lower price later). But in the FOREX you are always buying one currency (base) and selling another (counter). If you sell the pair you are simply flipping which one you buy and which one you sell. The transaction is essentially the same. This allows you to short-sell with no restrictions.
You want to be able to short-sell with no restrictions so you can make money when the market drops as well as when it rises. The problem with traditional stock market trading is that the market has to go up for you to make money. With FOREX trading you can make money in all directions.
Omar Vargas
FOREX Trader and Freelance writer. http://www.1-forex.com
source: http://www.forex-articles.net/article-78.html
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