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Contracts in the futures market are between a buyer and seller. The contract states that the seller must provide the buyer a very specific quantity of a certain item, such as grain, oil etc, for a price agreed today, but at a date in the future.

It is important not to get confused about what the word future refers to. Futures traders are not day trading futures prices, we are trading today’s prices, but the settlement is taking place in the future. So we buy if we think prices will increase and sell if we think prices will drop.

If I buy (or sell) a futures contract today, I don’t have to hold it until the contract expires, I can simply decide to sell it (or buy it) in the market at the prevailing price. Futures contracts are bought and sold in the regulated environment of a futures exchange, such as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in the U.S. and the London International Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) in the U.K.

Futures were originally developed to help offset the risks and uncertainties experienced by farmers and merchants due to the varying supply and demand for produce. Take for example a coffee plantation farmer. The price that he will receive for his beans will vary according to the vagaries of supply and demand. In a season when supplies are limited and demand is high, prices will be high. In a season when demand falls and the supply is plentiful, the price will fall.

The use of futures trading in the farming industry has many benefits such as allowing the farmer to be able to plan ahead as he already knows what kind of profit he can expect from his crop of say coffee beans. The price may not be the best and the merchant may make a killing but the risk is reduced.

By using a form of futures contract long before harvest time both the farmer and the merchant can reduce their risks by setting the price.

Today the futures market has changed a lot from the historical origins. There are now futures contracts on financial instruments such as stocks and bonds. broadly speaking futures contracts are either commodity type products or financial type products. It is usually not very important because they are rarely held until expiration.

The CBOT was started in 1848 for the benefit of the farmers and merchants. The exchange was to regulate both the quality and quantity of the actual crop that was being traded. Today the CBOT offers many contracts on items like wheat, silver, corn, bonds and soybeans.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was created in 1919 and has managed a futures market in such things as pork bellies, live cattle and the SP500 index.

In London the big financial futures exchange is the London International Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE). Here financial instruments such as the FTSE100, the GILT and Short Sterling are traded, the exchange is relativily new and opened around 1982.

EUREX started it’s life as the DTB, the German futures exchange. The DTB has always been an electronic exchange and started around 1990, when electronic exchanges were still considered to be inferior to the open outcry system.

The German Bund was a very heavily traded financial contract and one of the biggest markets on the LIFFE.

Many futures markets have very high volumes and hence very good liquidity, these are attractive markets for traders. The high leverage means that profits can be made very fast when the market moves, however money can also be lost very fast. If you want to learn to trade futures, or are even thinking of trading futures make sure that you learn as much as you can before using real money.

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Technorati Tags: Day Trading, day trading futres, futures, futures market, stock market, trading futures

Technical analysis of the stock market, or any other market such as Forex, Bonds, Futures, is how most traders and investors make their trading decisions. This is as opposed to fundamental analysis which most people more agree is pretty much done as a way of making trading decisions, unless of course you are Warren Buffet!.

You only have to think back to recent stock market scams like Enron to know that it is almost impossible for the average, and even very sophisticated fund manager or hedge fund trader to really know what the real financial state of a company is.

Just by reading the balance sheet and other quaterly reports they release gives you a very poor insight into the real health of the company. Whereas the technical charts of the company tend to give the real picture of what the market thinks of the value of the company. In the case of Enron even simple technical analysis told you to SELL when the stock was in the $80-90 range, this is why technical analysis of stocks is so popular.

So what is the secret to technical analysis?, I’m about to tell you, here are my golden rules:

* Only use 3-5 simple technical analysis indicators

* Make sure that you understand how the indicators that you have selected work, what the parameter settings are and in what market conditions they are effective

* After selecting your indicators and parameter settings don’t mess with them.

The real secret to technical analysis is to become VERY familiar with your choosen indicators, and really this can only be done by watching and studying the market, so that you get to the point that you TRUST them.

The fact is that in any market, for each bar period, there are only 5 pieces of information, the open, close, high, low and volume, yet there are now hundreds of indicators. Most of these indicators are displaying the same information and so are redundant.

For the record my set of indicators are:

* 4 Simple Moving Averages

* Bollinger Bands

* MACD

* Stochastics

But the way I use them is quite special, to learn more about how to become an expert at technical analysis visit:

Top Dog Trading Review

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Technorati Tags: bonds, Day Trading, investment, money, options, stock market, stocks, Technical Analysis, trader

Hoping and praying that the stocks that you just bought will go up is not the best strategy to use, however it is the one very often used by the average Joe stock trader who is stock trading internet. The only good point they have is that in bull markets most stocks will go up.

Statistics show that in a bull market about 75% of the stocks will follow the general trend and go up, and in a bear market 75% will also go down. Trading with the trend is the best way to trade as 9 out of 12 stocks will follow the trend and give you the best chance of making gains on your stock purchases.

But what if you own some good stocks and don’t want to sell when the market is clearly going down, or about to go down?. There are a couple of tactics that you can consider, both of which involve the use of options, CALL options and PUT options. There is the widely known strategy called Covered Calls, and the much lesser known one called the Married Put.

If you are going to trade options it is important that before you start trading you get the best option trading education that you can. You should also practice stock trading until you are comfortable with the process. This is a very important point that must be taken seriously, if you don’t understand the terminology and theory then you should not be trading options. If Put option, Call option, Married Put and Covered Call are new to you then don’t trade until you have studied sufficiently.

Selling calls against your stock in 100 share increments is the basis of the covered call strategy and it can provide about a 2-7% buffer against the loss in stock price. However a bigger drop in the stock price will not be compensated for using the covered call strategy, in general.

Stocks in a bear market, and even in a bull market, can drop quickly on news or earnings releases, as much as 15 to 40% within a month. Using covered calls to protect your stocks will only provide limited protection of less than 7% at best and so will not save you if the stock takes a 40% tumble.

The better solution to providing down-side stock protection is the option strategy called the Married Put. As the name suggests the PUT that you buy is used to provide protection when the stock goes down because Put options will increase in value when the stock decreases in value. The term married is used because the option that is selected has to be very compatible with the stock, in other words a good match, if the strategy is to work.

The selection of the best Put option is not straight forward and involves several criteria which are listed below:

1. The strike price of the option

2. The current stock price

3. Choice of options, in or out of the money

4. Put expiration time

Even though the married Put protection only has a limited life span if offers much more protection than the covered call. It can provide as much as 95% loss recovery in the event of a significant drop in the stock price.

The downside of the good protection is that you have buy the Put which is a debit whereas the covered call is a credit. But there are ways of offsetting this expense and there is much more to this strategy when executed correctly. The Married Put can be made to pay for itself and used to generate very good gains if the market, or stock to be specific, moves a lot.

The general idea of the Collar Trade is to combine the covered call and married Put strategy into one, this is what is called the Collar Trade. In effect you put a collar around the stock, sell a call and buy a PUT. If you do this correctly most of the cost of the Put can be offset by the credit from the covered call so you can protect your valuable stock at almost no cost. Yes this is a great strategy which the general public is unfortunately ignorant of, and most brokers don’t understand.

The strategy that I have outlined above is unknown to the average stock market trader but is one of the best trading systems you could have.

Technorati Tags: bear market, calls, Day Trading, options, puts, stock market, stocks, trading, trading education

Although it may seem obvious to most stock market swing traders there are a number of simple rules that you can follow which will ensure that you have more success when buying stocks:

In the USA stock market there are 3 major indexes which are each made up of a basket of stocks, they are the S and P 500 (also known as the S&P500), the DOW 30 and the Nadaq 100. These stock indexes generally only contain major blue chip stocks, as long as you buy from these 3 groups you will at least know that you are getting a well known solid stock.

For example the DOW30 contains major industrials and large multinational stocks such as Home Depot (HD) and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) whereas the Nasdaq 100 mainly contains techical companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Miscrosoft (MSFT).

Always buy a stock that is liquid, this means that it is a highly traded stock, this will enable you to quickly buy and sell at the price you want without having a delay. You will also get a smaller spread, thats the difference between the BID and ASK price of the stock. For a stock to be considered very liquid it should trade at least 500,000 shares per day, ideally even more.

It is best to aviod stocks that are bellow $10 as this usually means the company is in trouble, although with the bear market of 2008/9 there have been a lot of good stocks at bargin prices between $5 and $10. Avoid buying a stock below $5 at anytime.

Another consideration is options, does the stock has options?, this will be important if you want to trade options around your stock, such as a covered call, or you may want to buy a PUT option in order to protect your stock.

Be very cautious about buying a stock just before it’s earnings are released, stocks often drop significantly if they come out with a poor report. Earnings are released 4 times a year with one of them being the annual report.

If you are going to trade options make sure that you learn how to trade by getting some good education. There are many swing trading strategies that work well with stocks in todays volatile markets.

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Technorati Tags: call, finance, invest, investment, money, options, put, stock market, stocks, trader, trading

Nowadays, there are so many different forex trading robots, however Fap Turbo is considered to be one of the best. This trading system constantly analyzes forex market looking for profitable trading opportunities and if such opportunities are found, the robot will trade accordingloy. This means that almost everyone whiling to make money on forex market can do that using this software, moreover, you do not need to have experience in trading. So how effective it is? How accurate are its predictions? Let’s talk about it now.

I eventually caved in and decided to give this program an honest try after hearing about their money back policy. I decided to invest $500, in a week I got almost $230 in profits. I was satisfied with the way it works because it showed a 60% profit return.

To be honest, Fap Turbo was not my first automated forex trading robot, however my previous attempts were unsuccessful.The reason it boasts the greatest winning rate in the market of any program is because of how it trades.

Fap Turbo analyzes the market and trades only when it is very certain that the trading opportunity will be profitable. This is the reason why so many traders who use Fap Turbo have no worries how it makes trades.

There are so many forex trading systems available today, however you risk to lose money while using them. As I see, you do not want to lose your investments. Fap Turbo is designed by professional traders, thus it is undoubtedly the best choice for beginners and advanced traders who do not want to waste their time sitting in front of their monitors analyzing graphics. So, if you are really interested, check out the website below for detailed reviews of this software.

Technorati Tags: business, finance, forex, investment, money, stock, stock market

Ivybot is a new forex trading robot which was released a few days ago. Some people claim that the best way to make money from forex trading is using forex robots. However finding the robot which really works is not an easy task. There are so many different so-called forex trading robots that it is very difficult to make a decision. The number of online scams is increasing nowadays and you should be careful not to fall into these swindles. Recently Ivybot is the talk of the town. IvyBot is the most innovative trading system which has made its entry into the forex trading. But why is it considered the best forex trading system? I spend so much time trying to find the answer. I searched through many sites regarding this product and came to know why people are so excited about this new robot.

Why is it the Best?

Ivybot is an automatic trading system which has got the ability to upgrade itself according to the changes which occur in the market. This unique feature sets IvyBot apart from all other similar forex robots on the market. This made Ivybot a life long trading system which will increase the level of your income. It will help to improve your business and take it into new heights. Using this software you can earn a regular income from the world of trading.

The other feature which is very important is that IvyBot is updated every week. IvyBot’s stuff regularly analyzes the market and updates the robot as soon as market conditions change. The traders who analyze the market are very experienced and they know what it takes to make money on forex market. This is the reason why the system is so effective. Thit is the reason why so many users left positive feedbacks about the robot. This is the reason why you might be the next successful trader who makes a living by using IvyBot. Just visit the link below if you want to read more about IvyBot.

Technorati Tags: business, finance, forex, investment, money, stock, stock market

You better check out share builder for yourself if you are currently interesting in starting selling and buying online stocks.

This website offers a different way to buy stocks that will appeal to a lot of investors because it is simple and it makes sense.

Compare with a traditional broker, the share builder is easier and much cheaper, and they offer investors a different way than most online stock brokers. It is actually much the same as an online option trading.

You don’t have to buy a minimum number of shares at share builder, they offer stock trades of any publicly traded company for only $4 for any dollar amount you want to buy.

Another great thing with this shar builder, you can start off at any level you feel good with as they don’t require you a minimum investment to start.

Other online sites require you to put a minimum amount of money in your account when you open it. This means you have to save before you invest. With share builder you can start investing straight away. That is a good thing if you want to buy stock online with share builder.

Your fee will be much lower percentage of the overall cost with share builder if you are willing to buy larger amount directly since no matter how much stocks you buy, they will charge you $4 for one time transansaction.

The $4 fee applies to each different stock not to the total purchase. So it makes sense to consolidate your purchases of the same stock together.

Instead of buying $25 each of 4 different stocks each week for a month, it would be much cheaper if you bought $100 worth of one stock each week.

You would pay $4 a week in fees instead of $16 which would mean you would have $48 more invested by the end of the month. So, you’re interested in stock market, give share builder a try!

Technorati Tags: Day Trading, share builder, stock market, stock trades

The stock market today is more volatile than ever. Many investors got burned badly in the last few years as the market plunged into recession and that makes them skittish.

Since nobody can tell and predict the future of the market, so all kinds of stocks values are always based on past histories

In the long run, valuing the stocks based on past histories can be pretty accurate, on the other hand, you can’t simply rely on this prediction for short term period. Mostly this prediction is next to impossible for 100% accuracy

It is important to understand about human psychology to know what can happen in the market. People usually overly optimistic when the times are good and then they will start greedy

Here are some things you should know about the stock market today: 

• Warren Buffet, one of top investors, have started investing their own money in the market. That is obviously become a sign that indicate the market is at or near the bottom during this recession. Even the popular Canadian stock exchange also at the bottom in this recession.

• 80% of the advantages for depressed stocks just come in the first year of recovery, and that means if you only wait until everything already turned around and start to buy in, you will absolutely missed the opportunities.
• 300 of the 500 companies on the S&P 500 are under funded by pension plans, so that the stock market today is obviously filled with companies that have a huge debts.

  Eventhough the stock market today seem a scare place with lots of massive losess in the memory, but the truth is, the only thing you should be worried about is waiting too long to be able to get back in.

  Actually there are still lots of opportunies in the stock market today. But it requires a lot of time to study to make sure you’re making investments in companies that are poised to recover well. And the last but not least, it is also very important you take the time to learn about how does the stock market work before you get started.

Technorati Tags: Day Trading, investment online, investors, stock market

If you have ever considered online stocks trading, now is a great time to get involved. Stocks are still down across the board but we are getting close to the turning point in this recession where everything will start to go up. Any stock you pick is going to increase in value cine the whole market ride a wave to getting better. So this is actually a good news if you’re just starting out the online stocks

A Century of historical data shows that the stocks market always rises over the long run eventhough a lot of us learned over the past year and half that there’re never any guarantees with the market.

Indeed, “The long term” is the key to online trading success. So, you’ll actually make money if you hold on to a stock as long as you’re patient. It is usually the people betting on short term gains that get badly burned in the market.

So if you have started to think seriously about online stocks trading, you need to first make yourself a budget. Simply put, the money you can afford to lose is the money you can afford to invest in the stock market. The money should be in the bank where it safe, if you need to pay some bills the next month.

That way, if you are never forced to pull money out of the market, then you will rarely lose any. The stock will usually recover in time even if it goes down. All you have to do is hold on to it, and wait.

Create an account with a reputable online broker when you want to get started with online stock trading. Make sure to choose one that is recognized by many people as they usually will have the most secure site. This is hugely important as you will be sharing your personal information and your banking and credit card information to set up the account and you certainly don’t want to risk identity theft. The stock market is indeed quite risky!

Once you have found a brokerage site that you like, you can start researching and picking stocks. My advice to those just starting out with online stocks trading is to buy small amounts of inexpensive stocks to start. This will allow you to spread your risk around and if any of your choices turns out to be a mistake it will not wipe out your whole portfolio.

Online stocks trading should fun and by investing small amounts you can get involved with more companies which increases the rate at which you will learn about the market. It is also a good idea to buy several very reliable stable stocks and then take a bit more risk with a few that are more volatile. It prevents you from losing it all while gives you a chance of hitting it big.

Technorati Tags: online stock, online trade, online trading, stock market

There are a lot of Forex trading educations online that announce to teach you everything you need to know to dive into the market with confidence. If you are new to Forex, though, how can you tell which ones will truly give you with the true Forex trading education you need?

A reputable course should training material on all the fundamental concepts for beginners, including:

*Exchange rates
*Fixed rates versus floating rates
*Currency pairs
*Bid Prices versus Ask Prices
*Spreads
*Lot Sizes
*Margins, Margin Calls and Leverage
*Pips Values and their role in calculating profit and loss
*How to evaluate leading economic indicators
*How to read Forex signals and charts

This is just the bare minimum. A really good course should also advise you through a variety of trading examples, and show you how to perform ‘test trades’ yourself using a demo account with a reputable broker.

Other thing you can do to help speed your learning phases is to immerse yourself in the literature of the market. There are numbers of books and magazines available on the subject both online and off.  You might want to have a look at the free, online on Learn Forex Trading.

Finally, consider enhancing your information of other financial marketplaces. You’ll find some methods and terms repeated when reading about how to trade on the Stock Market, or how things like interest rates fluctuate for bonds, bills and other instruments.

This is especially useful if you feel more comfortable in one area of financial knowledge than other because you’ll be able to see some related concepts from Forex in a context with which you are already familiar.

Make sure you choose a course that accomodates your needs, learning style and budget. Stay far from any course that sound too naive in terms of the financial gains they promise you. Forex takes time and you won’t get rich overnight on currency trading. It takes dedication, patience and practice.

Technorati Tags: currency trading, forex, Learn Forex, stock market