Posts Tagged ‘commodities’

What Are LEAP Options?

Nov 20, 2009 wealth building

One person who made history with options was George Soros who is famously known as the man who broke the Bank of England. Great Britain was finding it difficult to stay within the tight exchange rate band set by the European Monetary Union (EMU).

George Soros is a famous name in the world of investing. He had always believed in contrarian investing. Contrarian investing means doing exactly opposite of what the crowd is doing. George Soros had this intuition that the Bank of England would be forced to devalue British Pound. So he bought call options on German Marks and put options on British Pound. He made a bet of $10 Billion by leveraging all the assets in his hedge fund.

Bank of England had made a number of public statements regarding its intention of staying within the EMU. When George Soros made his bet on the intrinsic weakness of British Pound, other currency speculators followed suit and placed their bets too. This build up an immense selling pressure on the British Pound! Bank of England was brought to its knees as it was unable to sustain the immense selling pressure on the British Pound within a few days of the speculative attack on the British Pound. Bank of England was forced to devalue British Pound in a few short days.

When you a strong intuition, you should go for the big kill. George Soros made a cool $1 Billion profit on his bet in a matter of a few days. Can you make such a bet? Maybe not but this one example show the immense power options have if used correctly. Options are risky; there should be no doubt about it.

Options contract give you the right to buy or sell an underlying security like stocks, futures, commodities or currencies at a price before a certain date. This price is known as the Strike Price. This date is known as the Expiry Date. However, in European Style options you can only buy or sell on the expiry date not before that. Most people who trade options lose money, plain and simple.

You need to learn the Options Greeks. Time factor is very important when valuing an option. Further out the options contract is from expiration, you will have to pay a higher premium. As the options contract approaches the expiration date and if it is out of money, it loses its value very fast.

LEAP options are basically long term options. Leap options can help you profit over the long haul. You can use LEAP options in options strategies like the covered calls, straddles, spreads and so on. LEAP stands for long term equity anticipation. It basically means that the option is much like the regular option except that the timeframe to expire is greater than 1 year.

LEAP options can be incredibly profitable if used correctly. However, LEAP options are risky because the option writer usually demands a hefty premium for taking on the long term risk. The buyer of the LEAP options has the right to exercise the option prior to expiration should the price of the underlying stock move in the money. Long timeframe means that the possibility of the LEAP options moving in the money is always high hence a high LEAP options premium.

Far away from expiration, the higher the value of the options contract! Closer the out of money option is to expiration, faster its value drops. What this means is that the buyer of the options loses the premium that was paid for getting the right to buy or sell the underlying security. LEAP options can be a great trading vehicle for swing traders as they mitigate some of the time decay that is inherent in short term options. If you need to learn options trading than you should consider joining the Live Options Mastery Classes online at the Options University. Learn options trading from a former options floor trader for safer and better investing!

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Learn Candlestick Charting! Know Fibonacci Retracement! Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

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Autotrading Exposed

Nov 16, 2009 wealth building

Many hedge funds and other entities that manage money through forex trading use some form of autotrading in their daily activities. Autotrading is common in the currency trading.

Previously these autotrading programs also known as Expert Advisors or Forex Robots were expensive costing like thousands of dollars and only wealthy individuals or big institutions like hedge funds could afford them.

Many private individual traders have also begun to adopt autotrading to execute their thoroughly backtested and highly optimized forex trading strategies. The recent advancement in computer programming has made it possible for professional forex traders to team up with a software expert to develop their own autotrading systems.

The recent advancement in computer programming has made these Expert Advisors cheap. The price of these Expert Advisors has come down to around a few hundreds that can be easily purchased by ordinary investors like you and me. Metatrader platform makes it real easy to program such type of Expert Advisors.

Recent advancements in computer programming has led to the development of trading platforms that allow an API ( Application Programming Interface) which connects the trader’s system to the dealer’s trade execution structure through the trading platform. So what is autotrading? You must have heard or read a lot about the benefits or advantages of autotrading.

APIs requires programming skills on the part of either the trader or a programmer hired by the trader. But once all of the trading rules and criteria are determined by the trader, programming an API can be relatively straight forward for anyone with programming experience. After the specific trading rules and criteria are determined, the trading strategy is backtested with positive results.

The development of an autotrading system depends more on your trading skills as compared to your programming skills. When this occurs not only trades entered when predetermined technical criteria is met but trade exits in the form of stop loss and take profit rules can also be programmed into the API. Autotrading is almost as simple as flipping a switch to begin the trading process.

This creates an entirely self contained autotrading system. So autotrading can actually execute real trades on current real time market prices. When a predetermined signal emerges, the software actually places a trade automatically. However, before an autotrading system is put on live trading, it is thoroughly backtested and forward tested to make sure the likely success of the autotrading system.

In fact, autotrading is perhaps the best way to achieve it if the trader has optimized and perfected this type of black and white trading strategy that runs devoid of human judgment. Any nondiscretionary technical trading strategy that has clear cut, unambiguous rules is a good candidate for autotrading. Autotrading effectively eliminates all human biases, errors and emotions in the trading process.

There are a number of successful autotrading systems now available in the market for the ordinary retail investors. The best two are FAPT and Ivy Bot.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try This Cash Printing Forex Signal Service From Heaven! First practice on your Forex Demo Account! Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

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Piggyback Trading Strategy

Nov 15, 2009 wealth building

The premise of the piggyback strategy is to use the large dollar research of the major financial firms to come up with new and fresh swing trading ideas. When a large financial firm builds an ETF, the first step is always to choose an index of stocks that is expected to outperform the market.

The ETF is then based on this index of stocks. The price of the ETF then changes as the basket of stocks within the index moves. Large financial firms spend millions to choose the index on which they will base their ETF. Why not piggyback on that research and save yourself a few millions? Cool, huh!

So what is this ETF piggyback strategy all about? How do you implement this ETF piggyback strategy? Have you been investing in ETFs before? No! Then you need to do some research to find the best performing ETFs. Your first step should be to analyze ETFs. You need to make a list of ETFs that have outperformed in the last 3 to 6 months. This will give you an idea where the big money is flowing and which ETFs have buying momentum behind them.

After making your list of top 20, narrow it down to the five top performers and choose a few areas worth trading. Choose the best performing ETF in your opinion to begin with. Now you need to analyze the top ten holdings of that ETF.

How do you research an ETF? You can do it yourself or you can subscribe to the newsletter of Big A, a former fund manager who recommends the hottest ETFs. If you want to do it yourself, just go to the website of the ETF. You can also use ETF connect.com. Etfconnect.com is a great resource for information on ETFs and closed end funds. With thousands of potential stocks to choose from, the piggyback trading strategy allows you as a swing trader to choose stocks that have a buying momentum behind them. What makes this trading strategy great is that it often generates fresh ideas for swing traders.

Investing in stocks that are well known and being actively recommended as hot investments is never a good idea. When information becomes public, it gets impounded into the market price immediately according to the Efficient Market Hypothesis. A great advantage of this piggyback strategy is that it can identify stocks that may not be household names to the average trader. With this strategy you will come across many stocks that may not be household names and have a great swing trading potential. ETFs can be utilized to find stocks for swing trading ideas that are based outside the US.

There are thousands of ETFs in the market now. Some are country specific, some are industry specific and some are market specific. So you will have a lot of option in choosing the right ETF for your investment. The way to do that is to use the ETF piggyback strategy with either single country ETFs or regional ETFs. The single country ETFs invests 100% of their assets in one country. A good example can be the iShares MSCI Mexico ETF (EWW), an ETF that invests only in companies headquartered in Mexico.

A regional ETF covers several countries concentrated in a region. The iShares S&P Latin America 40 ETF (ILF) invests in Brazil, Mexico and Chile. So if you want to find international stocks for your swing trading strategy than you should begin by picking the region or the specific country.

You must be thinking why you need to think outside of US Stocks. The traders who refuse to consider international stocks only hurt themselves because with the US in the mature business cycle, the real growth and volatility that you need as a swing trader can only come from international stocks.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try This Cash Printing Forex Signal Service From Heaven! First practice on your Forex Demo Account! You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

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Trading With Point And Figure Charts (Part I)

Nov 11, 2009 wealth building

There are a number of charts that are used in trading. The most popular are the bar charts and candlestick charts. Do you know how to read Point and figure charts? Point and figure trading in many ways is similar to the support and resistance breakout trading on bar or candlestick charts. The main difference is the look and functionality of the price charts themselves!

Many forex charting platforms provide the option of point and figure charts. Point and figure charts represent price in a radically different manner from the more familiar bar and candlestick charts.

Point and figure trading is based exclusively on price action. Point and figure charts are a pure price action play because these charts generally exclude all other elements like time, volume and open/close other than price.

Technical analysis is the study of price action. Technical analysis is used to predict or confirm an uptrend or downtrend or a consolidation in the market. Point and figure charts represent clear evidence of such important technical characteristics like trend, support/resistance and breakouts. Thus a point and figure chart focuses on the behavior of price action which is the most important factor from the technical analysis point of view.

A point and figure chart has got Xs and Os. A point and figure chart is constructed with a column of boxes alternately labeled with Xs and Os. An X column means that the price has risen in that column. Conversely, an O column means that the price has declined in that column.

So there is no concept of time in a point and figure chart. Only when price moves a significant amount regardless of time will an existing column grow or a new column is created. A new column is created going in the opposite direction when a reversal occurs on any column. So there is no time, volume, opens and close on point and figure charts.

How is a point and figure chart constructed? It depends on two variables. The first variable is the box size. This is the minimum amount that the price is supposed to move before a new box in the existing column is created. These two variables can alter the way the point and figure charts look and act.

X is equal to fixed price increase. Each X denotes a rising trend. For example, if a column of Xs has 10 boxes, price would need to move an additional amount equal to the preset box size before another X would be added to the top of the column.

Suppose, you are using the point and figure chart. You set the box size on the point and figure chart to be equal to 10 pips on the point and figure charting software.

Now the price would have to move another 10 pips above each X box before another X could be added on top of that X. On the other hand, price would have to move 10 pips lower than the each box in O column to add another O box on the bottom of the column.

How do you decide to add another column to the point and figure chart? The second important variable is the reversal amount. This is the amount of pips the price needs to reverse before a new column is created.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try This Cash Printing Forex Signal Service From Heaven! First practice on your Forex Demo Account! You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

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Learning To Trade Multiple Timeframes

Nov 10, 2009 wealth building

In multiple timeframe trading, a trader first looks at a longer timeframe like a monthly or weekly chart to determine the overall direction of the trend. Multiple time frame trading is a trading method used extensively by forex traders. It involves the use of multiple timeframes.

If the trader finds a decisive long term trend on this timeframe, he/she then decides to drill down to a shorter timeframe like the daily or 4 hourly chart to look for dips or pullbacks in the trend.

In a strong long term uptrend, a minor downward retracement would represent a potentially high probability entry to get in the trend at a reasonably good price. Finally the trader may drill down to an even shorter timeframe like the 30 minutes or 15 minutes charts to pinpoint and time the exact entry.

How do you trade multiple timeframes? Suppose, you are interested in trading multiple timeframes! You identify the retracement in an uptrend on a 4 hourly chart. What you need to do is to wait for a resistance breakout on a 15 minute chart in the direction of the trend before entering into a long position.

Multiple timeframe trading can be very powerful if used correctly. What make multiple timeframe trading so powerful is that it puts the traders on the right side of the market while also identifying the highest probability entries available.

Have you heard of the triple screen trading method? One of the multiple timeframe trading strategies is known as Triple Screen. A triple screen resolves the contradiction between the technical indicators and timeframes. The first screen is the long term charts and strategic decisions on long term charts are made using the trend following indicators.

The second screen is used to make technical decisions about entries and exits using oscillators. The second screen is the intermediate charts. The third screen can be an intermediate chart or a short term chart. The third screen is used to place buy and sell orders.

How do you decide what is intermediate and what is long term? Begin by looking at your favorite chart, the one that you use the most. Call it intermediate chart. Multiply its length by five to find the long term chart. Now use trend following indicators on the long term charts.

Staying out of the trade is a legitimate position. Use these trend following indicators in the long term charts to make your strategic decision to go long, short or stay out of the trade.

If the long term chart is bearish or bullish, return to the intermediate chart. Use oscillators to look for entry or exit points in the direction of the long term trend. Set stops and profit targets before you switch to short term charts to fine tune entries and exits.

Triple screen is a simple but ingenious multiple timeframe approach to forex trading. Use it on your demo account to get familiar with it before you trade live with the triple screen method.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try This Cash Printing Forex Signal Service From Heaven! First practice on your Forex Demo Account! Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.

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Trading Divergences

Nov 9, 2009 wealth building

Divergences are often used as important trading signals. But it doesn’t mean that divergences will always predict a reversal correctly. Price oscillator divergences have long been acknowledged by technical traders as a solid indicator of potential price reversals. Well defined divergences particularly on the long term charts can be surprisingly accurate in many instances.

Have you used divergence before in your trading? In case no than let’s me illustrate what a divergence is. Price divergence oscillators can be spotted with just two elements on the price charts. Catching a major price reversal at the correct time can be so profitable that only a few accurate divergence signals are needed to offset the inevitable false signals.

The first element is the price and the second element is an oscillator that runs either above or below a price level. This second element can be Stochastics, RSI, MACD or any similar oscillator.

Many traders use MACD as their sole confirming indicator. The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is among the most popular technical indicator or an oscillator invented.

Some traders also take trading signals exclusively from MACD. MACD is a multifaceted indicator that acts as a sign of trend momentum by representing the relationship between two moving averages.

MACD is basically the difference between two moving averages. MACD can be traded by taking signals from the crossovers of two lines, crosses above and below the zero line. Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) is another popular oscillator that provides a measure of price momentum.

RSI is an indicator that gives overbought and oversold signals in ranging markets. RSI may also be used for divergence purposes. However, its usefulness like most other indicators tends to diminish during a trending market. Stochastic indicator may also be used for divergence trading.

A divergence occurs when there is an imbalance between the price element and the oscillator element. Both begin to go separate ways and start telling opposite tales. This is the point when the oscillator is providing a strong hint that price may be losing its momentum and a change in price direction may therefore be impending.

A bearish divergence is a hint for an impending reversal back down. A bearish divergence occurs when the price hits a higher high while the oscillator hits a lower high.

What does a bearish divergence means? It is an indication that price may soon turn and go back down as the higher high in the price may lose its momentum and begin falling in case of a bearish divergence.

A bullish divergence is an exact opposite of the bearish divergence. A bullish divergence occurs when price hits a lower low while the oscillator hits a corresponding higher low. A bullish divergence hints at an impending reversal back up.

Divergences can be a remarkably effective method for helping to time major market events when used in conjunction with other trading tools. Divergences are often used as hints of possible turns and reversals. However, divergences are not frequently used as a full fledged self sufficient trading strategy.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try These Cash Printing Forex Signals From Heaven! Learn Fibonacci Retracement Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

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Fibonacci … Pivot Point Trading (Part II)

Nov 5, 2009 wealth building

Pivot points are considered to be leading indicators unlike most of the other technical indicators. This makes them highly useful to the traders to tell them about the market sentiment whether it is bullish or bearish. There are a number of pivot points that you need to calculate. How is the pivot levels calculated? Beginning with the main Pivot Point that is calculated from the previous day’s key price points, the resulting support and resistance are subsequently derived from the following calculations:

Resistance 1 R1 = 2PP- Previous Low. Resistance 2 R2 = PP + (R1-S1). Resistance 2 R3 = Previous High + 2(PP-Previous Low).

PP (Pivot Point) = (Yesterday’s Low + Yesterday’s High + Yesterday’s Close)/3.

Support 3 S3 = Previous Low-2(Previous High -PP). Support 2 S2= PP- (R1-S1). Support 1 S1 = 2PP – Previous High.

After calculating these points they are plotted on the currency price chart. Trader’s can calculate the current days pivot points using the above formulas based on the previous day’s price data.

Breakouts or bounces may be traded with pivot points. Once these pivot levels are calculated and plotted, they are used in much the same way as Fibonacci Retracement. These pivot points are often also used as profit targets. Pivot points also indicate whether the market sentiment is bullish or bearish. Traders also use pivot points as reference levels to provide information as to whether the current price is relatively low or relatively high within its expected price range for the day.

You can further refine your pivot point levels by using the S1, R1 and other levels. S1, S2 and S3 as well as R1, R2 and R3 are used as references in pivot point trading. For example, traders may look for long trading opportunities with the view that the price will reasonably move towards equilibrium around the main PP level if the price is near the day’s S2.

Many traders use different time frames in their trading decisions. You can also calculate the pivot levels for a week and for a month time frame too. Instead of calculating the pivot points for the current day you can also calculated the above levels for 4 hour charts as well as 8 hour charts.

You can combine pivot points with the Fibonacci levels as well. When calculating the pivot points for the other time frames just replace the day’s highs, lows and the closing prices with the appropriate time frame highs, lows and closing prices. Both Fibonacci and Pivot Points are excellent technical tools that often encompass entire trading discipline in themselves.

The pivot point can become the target low for the trading session in an extremely bullish market condition. This number represents the true value of a prior session. It is important to understand that especially in strong bull or bear market conditions, it can be used as an actual trading number in determining the high or the low of a given time period.

Pivot point trading has been successfully used by traders in making trading decisions. Traders will step in and buy the pullback until that pivot point is broken by prices trading below that level. A retracement back to the pivot will attract buyers if the market gaps higher above the pivot point in an uptrending market. The opposite is true for the pivot point will act as the target high for the session in an extremely bearish market condition.

Generally prices come back up to test the pivot point if a news-driven event causes the market to gap lower after traders take time interpreting the information and the news. Sellers will take action and start pressing the market lower again if the market fails to break that level and trade higher. Technically speaking, in a bearish market, the highs should be lower and the lows should be lower than in the preceding time frame.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try These Cash Printing Forex Signals From Heaven! Learn Fibonacci Retracement Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.

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Dont Trade Without A Stop Loss (Part I)

Oct 29, 2009 wealth building

Lets assume that you already have got a trading system that tells you where to enter the market. Now you have a trading system that tells you when to enter the market. Does this system also tell you where to get out before you enter the trade?

In other words are you taking the market conditions into account and willing to give your trade a breathing space so that you dont get whipsawed or repeatedly get stopped out. On the road to profitability, lets start by agreeing that we need stop loss exits.

Trading cost is an important factor in your trading that many traders tend to ignore. Most take it as the inevitable cost of doing business. Just dont forget, the more trades you place, more commissions or spreads you will have to pay and the higher your trading cost will be. After this agreement on having stop loss exits, we need to determine how to effectively select stop loss exits to avoid excessive stop outs.

The best way to do this is to develop a stop loss strategy that takes into account currency market conditions. So right there you can increase your profitability if you increase the number of winning trades that is your win ration thereby decreasing your trading cost.

A trading system is like having a girl friend. You can only have one girl friend at one time. There need to be a connection between you and your trading system. It truly is like having a personal relationship. Finding the right trading system can be a lengthy process. You must believe in your trading system and have a high degree of trust that it can produce consistent level of profits overtime.

You need to thoroughly test your trading system and try to measure and calculate its parameters accurately. If you have a trading system that isnt working for you and your win ratio and your payoff ratio dont generate a profit over time then you need to rethink your trading strategy. But you must also understand that no trading system can be perfect and no trading system can produce 100% winning trades.

Make adjustments to entry and exits. Determine if it is your trading system that isnt working or is it your trading psychology that is off. Maybe the market conditions have changed and you havent adjusted your trading system to the new market conditions.

Just keep this in mind that if you dont give your trading system a chance to work jumping constantly from one trading system to another trading system in search of a holy grail wont help you.

Divorce is never a good idea. But if the things dont work out there is no recourse except taking a divorce. Divorce of any kind can be emotionally and financially expensive so proceed with caution when divorcing your trading system. The decision to divorce your trading system should be a carefully thought out one.

If you feel comfortable and confident with your trading system, you ultimately will also be profitable. The primary purpose of your trading system is to make you feel comfortable and confident.

Its a team work. You will feel confident when your trading system has proven to you and you have proven to your trading system that both can work together.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Download Your Free 82 Page PDF Candlestick Guide!

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Candlestick Guide

Oct 27, 2009 wealth building

Candlesticks have become popular in the Western trading community especially the United States in the past decade. However, candlestick charting methods had been developed by Japanese rice traders hundreds of years back.

The advent of internet has leveled the playing field for traders whether they trade stocks, futures, options, commodities, precious metals or currencies. Access to the market is now only one mouse click away.

Market information is now in most cases freely available online. Internet has made commission rates dramatically lower. The result is that a whole generation of new traders and investors want to try their luck beating the market.

I am a great fan of candlesticks charting and I have seen many traders both new and professionals becoming die hard fans of candlestick charting. Why? Because candlestick charting is the best tool available. Can you beat the market? It depends if you are using the right tools.

On your trading platform provided by most of the online brokers you will find various types of charts. There are many forms of charting techniques that have been developed over time. Why candlestick charting is superior to other forms of charting like the line charts, bar charts or point and figure charts? One of the best features of candlestick charting is its visual appeal and readability. You can glance at a candlestick chart and quickly gain an understanding of whats going on with the price action in the market.

You can easily spot opening and closing price of a security or currency on a candlestick chart. These price levels can be a very important area of support and resistance from day to day.

This information can be extremely useful for short term traders like day traders and swing traders. There are certain specific candlestick patterns that can help you identify when is the best time to buy, sell or wait on a trade or investment.

These candlestick patterns can be a real boon to your trading and you can combine them with other technical indicators for even more reliable results. Now in order to trade and invest effectively using candlestick charts you need to understand these candlestick patterns.

Many different types of candlestick patterns can tell you what may lie ahead in the market. Patterns appear on the candlestick charts as simple, single stick occurrences or complex multi stick formations.

You may use the information provided by candlestick patterns to decide when to get into a trade, when to get out of a trade or even when to hang unto a trade you are already in. This information can be highly valuable in knowing that the prevailing trend might reverse or continue.

Download your 82 page candlestick guide here complete with strategy flash cards all free. This is the best candlestick guide in the market and you dont need to waste your money on buying a guide because this candlestick guide is a complementary gift for you from the Options University.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Download Your Free 82 Page PDF Candlestick Guide! Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

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