Gambling with Day Trading Tutorials

Simply put day traders are gamblers. Traders usually are playing a high stakes no limit game. They put their money down and let it ride, banking it's a sure thing. If they have any skill at all, and should luck be on their side, they could get on a roll and cash in big time. But most traders have defeat written on their foreheads before they even start. There is a way to hedge your bets and get a leg up on the competition. You just need to make use of a day trading tutorials.

The main reason so many traders fail is because they expect to take the big pot while playing loose. These same traders would never think of playing Russian roulette, but that's exactly what they are doing by jumping into day trading without any of the essential know-how. The odds are stacked against them. They have a higher chance of losing everything, than they do of hitting the big time.

It really isn't hard to lose everything in day trading. Far to many traders are willing to go "all in" , hoping that they catch a wild card and make some easy money. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while and unfortunately the same is true for day traders. And that is the biggest pitfall that many traders fall into. They'll continue to lay down bet after bet on junk hands and never notice that their stack of chips is dwindling away to nothing.

Traders will hit pay dirt from time to time. But day trading is a gamble and just like in "Texas Hold 'em" the cards are stacked against the unlearned traders. Before they even know what hit them they are sitting with a "short stack" of chips and they don't know why. It's really in their best interest to get a hand up on the game.

They can stack the deck more in their favor by taking some lessons on how to become a successful day trader. Day trading tutorials can teach them how to develop safe and effective techniques to maximize their profits, while at the same time minimizing the risks and cutting the losses by showing them how the market works and what are some of it's "tells".

Why are these tutorials important? It doesn't matter if you go all in or bet conservatively on the wrong hand you still end up with nothing. But once traders learn which hands to bet and which to fold, they can start taking more than their fare share of chips.

It takes a lot more than getting lucky and common sense to break even in day trading. But who wants to just break even? Day traders get into trading for the thrill of striking it rich, hitting the big one. Day trading tutorials are one way traders can shorten the learning curve and have greater odds of hitting more than losing.

Forex 101 - An Educational Guide for Beginners

New in the Forex market? This market may sound really complicated and scary to tackle but it's not. Just like in any kinds of trade, you make money when you buy low and sell high. It is simply trading currencies in the Forex market.

Forex is the largest financial market in the world. It generates trillions of dollars of currency exchanges everyday and it operates 24 hours a day and seven days a week therefore, also making it the most liquid market in the world.

In the world of Forex, trading in this very liquid market is very unique compared to other financial market like stocks. Since the market operates 24 hours a day worldwide, which starts at Sydney and ends in New York, trading is not centralized in one location. You can trade whenever you want regardless of the local time.

In the past, Forex trading was only offered to large financial institutions, like banks. And, it was also only offered to large companies, multi-national corporations and large currency dealers. This is because of the large and extremely strict financial requirements imposed. This means that individual traders and small businesses are not able to participate in this liquid market.

However, in the late 90s, Forex was made available to individual traders and small businesses. This is due to the advances in the communications technology. High speed internet made it possible for people to enter the market and have become one of the best make money at home businesses.

It is getting more and more popular each day. Besides, who wouldn't want to trade in the largest and the most liquid financial market in the world? Trading in Forex will certainly give you the opportunity to earn a lot of money. However, trading in this ever liquid market also has its risk. It is a fact that many people who lost a substantial amount of money and some of these people are seasoned traders.

This is why it is very important for you, as a beginner trader, to have the proper knowledge and education on how to trade in the market. Firstly, there are hundreds or even thousands of available websites in the internet that offers relevant education. Some of these websites offer dummy trading accounts where you can practice trading using dummy money.

These programs will really take you closer to actually trading. Many experts say that you'll never really understand how it really works until you traded in the market. So, if you want to learn how to do it, you may want to sign up for a dummy account that numerous websites offer.

With a dummy account, you can trade by not using real money at all. With this program you can practice your knowledge and skills in trading in the market and not waste money.

To get started in trading in this market, all you need is a computer with a high speed internet connection, a funded account, and a trading system. These three simple things are enough to get you started in trading.

In order for you to minimize the risk of losing money, you need to have some basic knowledge in charting before you start trading. In most trading systems, charts are there to assist you with your trades. Charts are a visual representation of the exchange rates of currencies. This is where you will mostly base your decisions to buy and sell currencies. You have to learn how to read the different charts in order for you to successfully trade in the market.

Each chart is different although they represent the same fluctuations. For example, in the daily chart, you can evaluate market trends in the past 24 hours to help you make decisions on the next 24 hours of trading. In the hourly chart, you can use this chart to spot trends within the day. And, in the 15 minute chart, where it can help you recent currency fluctuations in a 15 minute interval to help you decide on which currency to buy and sell. Sometimes, there are 5 minute chart available to better help you get closer to the action.

These are the basics on how to trade in the market. Always remember that aside from the promising earning potential that you can have in the market, there are also underlying risks that you have to consider. It is therefore wise to trade in this market with a proper investment plan and strategy. If you are just starting out to trade in Forex, consider opening a dummy account to help you practice trading without risking money.

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 

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.

Swing Trades, Day Trading, Stock Picks - The Difference Between Day Trading and Swing Trades

Both styles of trading hope to make money from short term fluctuations in the market. They are trading styles. You have to have a steady focus and healthy heart.

Swing trades differ from day trading only in their flexibility. Day trading proponents get out every day. Swing trades may finish in a day, but are just as likely to last for a few days. There is potential to earn more from swing trades, but there are risks.

While day trading has no overnight risks, swing trades are at the mercy of news and earning reports that occur outside of the trading day. This news can affect the stock picks poorly, totally beyond the control of the swing trade schedule.

When you like to do swing trades, you'd better have a good source of stock picks. How you create your criteria for stock picks can be a real mix of philosophies, but the most important thing is to stick to your formula.

Because of the quickness of short term trades, there is little time for indecision. This is where swing trades must have clear guidelines, stops and losses. When the stock hits the number, you're out.

It is possible to trade a few stock picks on a regular basis, and shift them out as they become less predictable. It helps to have a list of to watch' stock picks to rotate in. If you have a reliable stock pick resource to start with, it gives you a head start in find new stocks.

However you do it, establish your criteria, for both the swing trades parameters and new stock picks, away from the emotion of the trading process. The emotions run high, even in the coolest swing trades.

FOREX Day Trading Do it and Lose Your Money Quickly!

Day trading is a mugs game - in FOREX currency markets, traders who make day trades instead of following the long-term trends, are making a serious mistake - risk/reward is terrible by comparison.

The Internet is full of brokers and vendors encouraging traders to day trade - and offering sure fire day trading systems - which is no surprise, as they mostly have a vested interest - they are making more commission!

Don't get sucked in by the hype surrounding currency day trading.

You make the big money from the big trends it's the big trends that yield the big profits.

There are several day trading FOREX myths, and here are the most common ones:

1. You can keep losses small

Sure you can - but on the other hand you won't have enough winning trades to compensate for your losses, and you will end up losing in the long run - you simply won't be in the move long enough to cover your inevitable losses.

2. Spreads and commissions impact

Commissions and slippage add up in FOREX day trading, and impact on your profits and losses even further.

Lets say, you win 50% of your trades and lose the others, (a highly respectable hit rate) - this means the profits in the day are going to need to be at least 2 to 3 times as big as your losses, to make meaningful gains - and this is extremely difficult to achieve.

A long term trend following system can make money, based upon a far lower hit rate than 50 50, as the profits will (if the system is soundly based) be far bigger than the losses.

3. FOREX day trading systems can and do put the odds in your favour No they don't! - The fact that people think that they can predict market movement in such a small time frame shows a lack of knowledge.

Any currency price has a basis on the following:

Supply and Demand + Human Psychology = Market Price

The supply and demand, and human psychology equation needs to be measured over the long term - and cannot be accurately predicted in short time frames such as a day.

Why? Quite simply there is not enough information to base your trading on, in short time spans.

Currency markets are all about probability, and it can be measured more accurately by looking at the long term, as there is a greater quantity of reliable data to look at.

Currencies trend longer term, and the amount of data, and reliability of trends in this period make long term trend following the way to make money, and has several advantages:

1. You have a greater quantity of reliable data, and can calculate probability better.

2. The winning trades by their nature will be far bigger than in day trading.

3. Commission and slippage will not impact as greatly on your profits.

FOREX Day Traders don't make as much as Long Term Trend Followers

Fact is, the odds are in favour of the long term trend followers, who target the big profits from the big moves - NOT Day traders looking for profits (that by their nature tend to be small) - as the profits are being chased in a severely limited time window, which leads to losses over time and high transaction costs.

FOREX Day trading is a mugs game - don't fall for the hype - the reality is losses.

Day Trading Securities - How To Make Money Day Trading Online

What is day trading?

Day trading is an extremely risky way of investing in the stock market. Day trading is carried out by day traders who rapidly purchase and sell stocks over a single day period in the hope that for the very short period over which they hold the stocks (ranging from just a few seconds to a couple of hours) the value will continue to climb or fall thus allowing day traders to secure quick profits.

How do you make profits?

The method of buying and selling stocks over a very short time period can create huge profits or losses for the day trader in just a couple of minutes or hours. Statistics show that 80-90% of all day traders make a loss at the end of each trading day. However day trading has become an increasing popular form of trading in recent years as a result of the internet and increased access to information. So while day trading used to be a marginal form of stock trading reserved for the most part to financial firms professional traders and an elite group of private investors it is now also very common method of trading among casual traders.

What do day traders look like?

Day traders are defined as traders who place four or more round-trip orders over a five day time period and the total trading activity over a day is 6% or more of the total value of all shares held.
Brokerage fees for day traders can be substantially lower than fees for other types of traders. While margins for most traders are usually around 50% of the value in traders account, day traders can face levels as low as 25%. This means that a trader can by lets say, $1000 worth of stock from an account of only $250.

Tips for surviving and thriving as a day trader

The five most common strategies adopted by day traders who seek to make are profit are
* Trend following - used by all trading firms this strategy assumes that stocks that having been rising steadily will continue to rise.

* Playing news - this strategy is to buy stock in a company which has just announced good news

* Range Trading - this is where stock that has been rising and falling is bought near the low price and sold as it hits the high price range.

* Scalping - it is commonly defined as a very quick trade.

* Covering spreads - To play the spread or the make the spread simply means to buy stock at the Bid price and sell the stock at the Ask price. The difference between the bid price and the ask price is known as the spread. Because there is an historical tendency for the stock market to rise profit can be expected for this form of trading.

Forex Day Trading Tips You Need to Know

The popularity of forex currency trading system continues to grow as more and more people have realized the potential income that they can earn from forex trading.

With a massive daily profit of $1.5 trillion, forex trading has definitely surpassed the combined profits of bond market and global stock market. This is probably the main reason why many people were enticed to try forex trading.

Along with the massive growth of forex trading comes the forex day trading. As its name implies, forex day trading mainly refers to the actual selling and buying of various foreign exchange currencies all throughout the day. Its main purpose is to come up with no net variation in place at the last part of the day. In other words, for every forex currency bought, there should be one currency sold.

In order to see the profit or the deficit, one must look into the discrepancy between the current values of the currency being sold to the purchase amount. The main incentive of this method of trading is to lessen the burden of maintaining a position during the night.

Normally, the open price may have considerably altered from the earlier day's final currency value. Hence, forex trading that involves traders who are dependent on the currency's performance during the day is known as forex day trading.

In essence, forex day trading is not as dangerous as the other types of forex trading activities. But then again, the usual employment of margin purchases such as utilizing funds on loan increases the deficits and profits. So to speak, the potential shortfall and returns may happen in very little time.

For this reason, experts say that it is normal to expect that nearly 90% of forex day traders will lose profit. Hence, it would be more enjoyable on the part of forex day traders to gamble their money that is not important to them.

The main point here is that even if forex day trading aims to provide you with the right amount of money that you need to gain, it should still be separated from the psychosomatic point of examination and trading activities.

To know more about forex day trading, here are some tips that you need to know, or you can read about forex futures trading.

1. You should know that forex day trading is course oriented

This means that forex day trading is focused more on the development. Forex day traders are expected to identify what comprises the winning trade. By the time you have already identified the outline, you will have more confidence in taking the trade.

This means that you will easily make good decisions without feeling regretful. In addition, at the end of each transaction, you will be able to feel good about your decision.

2. You are bound to lose before you can gain something

Forex experts say that every successful forex traders has definitely lost some hefty amount of money before they were able to achieve something. In fact, they say that this is the primary factor needed in order to gain success in forex day trading.

However, it does not necessarily mean that because you are bound to lose money at one point or another, you should expect loses all throughout. It is still important to remember that as a forex day trader, you must do everything just to win the game.

This can be done by speculating positively at all cost, taking risks without uncertainties. Of course, losing is part of the game. But remember that losing is not a major issue in one's success.

Fail if you must; that is, if you will think that losing is inevitable. Yet, one should also keep in mind that these loses are relatively small and will only take few minutes of your time to make those errors.

And lastly, it is important that you know what you are doing. Do your homework and find out more about forex day trading. In this way, you will learn the basic safety measures of forex day trading. You will also learn the important steps you have to make if ever the unforeseen circumstances take place.

So the next time you want to start a career in forex day trading, it is important that you start on the insides first. Know what the client wants. From there you can already make a fresh start in trading.

Commodity Day Trading

Each commodity exchange has certain listed commodities and permitted commodities, which are traded on its floor. The trading on the floor is confined to the members or their authorized representatives. Investors interested in buying or selling place their orders with their respective brokers, who are commodity exchange members. The brokers and their authorized representatives assemble on the trading floor during the official session to execute the orders placed with them.

The trading floor consists of several trading posts for different groups of commodities. A member or his representative wishing to buy or sell a certain commodity reaches the trading post where that commodity is traded. Here he comes in contact with others interested in transacting in that commodity. Buyers make their bids and sellers make their offers, and bargains are closed at mutually agreed-upon prices.

What types of order can a client place with his broker? A client, while placing an order with his broker, may specify the price and time dimensions. As far as the price dimension is concerned, basically, two types of orders may be placed: market order and limit order. A market order is to be executed as soon as possible at the best prevailing price on the market. A limit order, on the other hand, is constrained by the price limits specified by the investor. In the case of a limit order to sell, the seller specifies the minimum price that the commodity must fetch and, in the case of a limit order to buy, the buyer specifies the maximum price that he is willing to pay.

The time dimension of an order reflects the time frame in which the order has to be executed. A day order remains valid only for the day when it is placed. If the order is not executed on that day, it automatically lapses. A week order is one which is active for a week. A month order is an order which is valid for one month. An open order remains in effect until it is executed or cancelled.

Discover Forex Daytrading

A day trader is any trader who makes several trades per day, buying, selling, entering and closing out a trade in the same day. Forex daytrading is the same thing, only instead of trading stocks, forex traders buy and sell currencies.

Forex day trading is usually referred to as simply forex trading, but all day traders, whether they trade in stocks or currencies, attempt to increase their return by taking advantage of small price (stock) or rate (currencies) changes. Unlike buying stock in a company and waiting over the years as the company grows and the stock value increases, maybe even waiting on retirement to sell the stock or planning to leave it to children or even grandchildren, forex daytrading is not an investment that you make and then leave it alone to let it grow over time. It will not grow, exchange rates fluctuate too quickly.

Forex day trading requires an investment of time as well as money. Time must be taken to educate oneself in forex daytrading.

Until internet forex daytrading became so popular, only large financial institutions and corporations were involved in trading foreign currencies. Some people trade forex as a hobby and some make a career out of it. Forex daytrading professionals are intelligent well-educated people. They understand the trends and charts that make forecasting possible.

Forex day trading is similar to trading in the futures market, except that the liquidity is higher and the trading costs are lower. Also, because there is no central physical market, like the NYSE, forex daytrading can be carried out at all hours of the day and night. There is always a bank open somewhere in the world. In the world of forex day trading there are no exchange fees, no commissions paid to brokers, and low transaction fees. All of the fees and commissions reduced profitability for conventional traders in the futures market.

Sign on to any computer, go to any website search engine and type in forex daytrading, forex trading or simply forex. Most of those websites that come up offer platforms for trading. Some simply offer information. Others offer forex day trading education. This is where the forex trader lives, online, not on the floor of the NYSE. Forex daytrading can be risky or profitable, exciting or frustrating, but never, never boring.

Day Trading Your Way To Success

If you are interested in day trading you first need to know what it is all about and to understand the basics of day trading. For starters, a day trader is a person who is very active in the stock market and makes several trades a day in an attempt to make quick gains by buying and selling stocks in a short time span.

As the market is never the same day to day, no one particular day trading strategy will work each time. To be successful, you first need to understand how the market works and get a feel for the market.

This includes recognizing the stocks' basic trend, the long and short setups, when to enter a trade, and where to place stops. Another very important basic is how to protect your profits and minimize losses.

Once you have learned the basics and are ready to try your first day trade, here are some tips and guidelines you should keep in mind that is essential to your success as a day trader.

Being a day trader requires a lot of time and practice before you get used to the everyday volatility in the market. Do not expect to become an expert day trader overnight. No matter how many books you have read or day traders you have watched, that will not make you an immediate expert.

There are day trading websites that simulate trading. Practice with their trading platform first before trying out the real thing. It could save you a lot of money and you will learn the ropes faster this way.

If you are ready for real live trading, do not be scared by the thought of losing money. There are ways to minimize your loss such as with stop orders.

If you lose money, do not worry, as some loss is to be expected. Just remember, with increased experience and sensitivity to the market, you will start turning a profit soon.

If you profit large sums of money, stop trading. Do not gamble it away by trying to gain even larger profits. You can always trade another day.

Sometimes the market will not perform as you expected. When you encounter this situation, it is best that you do not trade at all.

Once you gain more experience in day trading, you may be able to predict the direction of a stock price. However, try not to pick top stocks or bottom stocks. This is one of the most common mistakes of a beginner.

If you cannot predict where the market is heading, it is best if you stand aside and wait, or you can always go home and trade again another day.

It is a good idea to record all of your day trading results. This way you can learn what works and what does not, and be more effective in trading.

Observe good traders. Look at how and when they sell or buy. Generally, good day traders often buy on bad news and sell on good news.

Beginners often get emotional in their trades. Avoid this at all cost, stay emotionally detached and professional.

Learn to trust your instincts. Relying too much on analysis may mean letting a few good trades slip away from you.

As you gain experience, you will see that different day trading strategies are required on different days and required on different stocks. Be flexible.

Bad day traders often focus on too many stocks that are not manageable and often lose track on where each stock is heading. It is wise to limit your stocks in manageable numbers.

With patience and practice, you can be successful in day trading, and as your experience grows so do your profits. Everyday you can learn new day trading strategies in the market, which you can use to your advantage.

Online Day Trading

Investors who trade online have instant access to their accounts and near instantaneous trade tractions. Because of this, it is important for traders to understand how to protect themselves when the market is moving fast. Fast-moving markets.

When you trade online, you have to know what you are buying and what risks you are taking to avoid problems that many investors face. You have to do your homework about what investments you should make what to buy and what to sell. Trading only takes a few seconds online, but investments should take as long as the traditional way. You have to be very careful when making investment decisions

You must also remember that online trading is not always immediate. If you're online at a particularly busy time, or if your computer and/or modem are particularly slow, you could be in for serious problems. Likewise, if you have a broker who has inadequate software your orders may not reach an online firm. Always have a backup plan for placing a trade if you are not able to access your account online. Alternate plans can include telephone trades, faxes, or talking to an agent over the phone.

You must also make sure that when you place an order you check to see that it has gone through. Many times people either lose an investment or invest twice because a purchase or sell either went through twice or did not go through at all. If you cancel an order, make sure the cancellation worked before placing another trade.

Day Trading For A Living

I was reading an article today which maintained it is not possible to make money day trading. Naturally this piqued my interest because I day trade for a living and last time I looked I was doing OK.

The article began by making the very valid point that the vast majority of day trading articles are not written by traders at all, but rather they are written by people marketing systems with hypothetical track records created with the benefit of hindsight.

That is absolutely true.

It is equally true of articles about every other trading style in commodity futures, stocks, forex and options. Whether it is covered calls, trend following with our extra special absolutely never seen before new indicator, swing trading, pairs trading, spread trading, or selling naked options, or any other style, it will often have a hypothetical track record. The time period of the method being promoted is absolutely irrelevant.

The article quotes CFTC rule 4.41 which every futures trader has seen many times. It says:

"Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not been executed, the results may have under-or-over compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profit or losses similar to those shown."

This pertinent warning is not confined to day trading systems. It is applicable to ANY trading system in ANY time frame where hypothetical or simulated track records are provided.

You see, most system developers research historical data to find high probability setup patterns. They develop indicators and trading rules to exploit these patterns. There is nothing wrong with that, so long as it is realized that the resulting system is optimized over this data set. The only valid way to test the system is on a completely different, independent set of data. Often a system that looks spectacular on the data the developer was originally working with will fail miserably when applied over a different period or in a different market.

The article went on to say that all day trading systems lose because "volatility in short term time frames is random and prices can and do go anywhere, meaning that if you try and use support and resistance levels they wont help you with your trading signal or help you get profitable market timing. You therefore cannot get the odds in your favour and will lose over time. This is fairly obvious when you consider that the price in any financial market is made by a vast diverse group of traders".

Well, that is quite a statement. The fact is "volatility" exists in any time frame and, by definition, it is random in the time frame considered. Indeed, prices can and do go anywhere, whatever time frame you are looking at.

Support and resistance levels are identified from trading charts. If no time scale is displayed it is impossible for any trader to differentiate between a 1 minute chart, a 1 hour chart, a 1 day chart, a weekly chart or a monthly chart if they are not told which market they are looking at. The fact is all charts, in all time frames, exhibit similar characteristics. You will find trends, ranges and most importantly support and resistance levels. It follows that whatever edge you think you can get from identifying support and resistance levels in one time frame is equally applicable in the other time frames too.

Most successful traders use strategies which either (a) sell support and buy resistance, or (b) buy breakouts through resistance and sell breakouts through support. These core strategies are available to any trader working in any time frame.

The distinguishing feature of the day trader is that (s)he always exits trades before the end of the trading session. No positions are held overnight or over weekends. By adopting this approach the trader minimizes "event risk" which is the chance that some dramatic event will so disrupt the markets that you suffer a major loss. (Stop losses are ineffective in this scenario because the market "gaps" through your stop loss level.)

The REAL drawback to day trading is trading costs.

Say that in some hypothetical market, the typical trading costs are commissions (2 points) and slippage on entry and exit (1 point each). So for each trade, trading costs average about 4 points. Now, if a long term trader typically targets 100 points, trading costs would be 4%. For a medium term trader targeting, say, 40 points trading costs are 10%. But for a day trader, targeting 8-10 points, trading costs are 40-50%! Obviously, if a trader is determined to trade this market, then medium to longer term trading is the only sensible option. It would not be surprising for a trader focussed exclusively on this market to form the opinion that day trading does not work.

Clearly, then, not all markets are good for day trading. If the average market movement is just a few points, the trader will be unable to find short term trades which cover the trading costs. Even where the trading costs can be covered, they often turn what looks like a good system into a poor one. This is because, as a rule of thumb, trading costs are nearly always deducted from theoretical profit in successful trades, and added to the theoretical loss in losing trades. This significantly changes the average win to average loss ratio for the system.

To prosper, the day trader seeks out volatile markets where the the projected trading costs are a small percentage of targeted gains. The Expectancy of the system used, allowing for the impact of trading costs on the average win to average loss ratio, must be positive.

Fortunately, many such markets exist. The rather stodgy forex market, with its high trading costs, is NOT a good example. However, there are commodity markets and many individual stocks which exhibit the required volatility.

Online Day Trading Software - 6 Reason Why I Chose The Software

This article will explain what Online Trading Software Platform I purchased and the 6 reasons why I chose the platform.

You will need to make a list of functions and services that you will need before you purchased a data feed and charting package. Because Online Trading Software is a very personal decision, what I like about the software may not be what you need or are interested in. The bottom line is that you must have a list of criteria and select the best company based on your list.

Do not start shopping before you have this list because you will be sucked into features and functions that you will never use.

Ok, let's move forward and look at my personal list of criteria.

Reason 1) Real Time Data: When I first looked into the different options for software, I knew that I needed a robust platform that would supply me with real time data. This limited my choices down because a lot of the free web based programs have a data delay. Since I day trade and swing trade, I could not afford to have a data delay (which is OK if you are trading long term).

Reason 2) Wide Variety of Market Data: I needed market data for the CME and NYMEX

Reason 3) Wide Variety of Indicators and Charting Methods: I wanted a platform that would do Point and Figure Charting as well as Japanese Candlesticks. I also needed the MACD, RSI, and Moving Averages.

Reason 4) Competitive Rates: I needed a provider that had rates I could afford for the data that I needed.

Reason 5) Easy Custom Programming: I required a platform that I could program with out having to be a Computer Engineer. I wanted to be able to back test strategies, program custom indicators and trading systems somewhat easily.

Reason 6) Reputable Company: I wanted to stay with a reputable company that had an established presence with its platform and data feed.

[Side Note: Another reason I did not want to write this article is because it looks like a promotion for TradeStation. This article is not making me any money from TradeStation. I am not affiliated with TradeStation in anyway other then using their platform, datafeed, and having a brokerage account with them.]

After looking at several options following my 6 reasons above, I decided to purchase a subscription to TradeStation.

I opened up an account with them because they offered a discount if I was a brokerage client (Reason number 4 above).

TradeStation uses a programming language called EasyLanguage that is user friendly (after all, it's called EasyLanguage) once you get the hang of it. They even offer classes that you can take if you are confused or want to get really good with it.

It allows me to back test, program custom indicators, modify indicators (Reason number 5 above).

It also has just about every kind of market data that you could ask form including CME and NYMEX (Reason number 2 above).

On top of everything else, it had won numerous awards from industry publications (Barron's and Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities). (Reason number 6 above).

When you first start with TradeStation it is a little overwhelming. However, it is like anything else in life, the more you use it, the easier it becomes.

I am sure that I will be getting a lot of questions on TradeStation now, which was not my intention of the article. They also have an extensive help section and BLOG if you run into any problems. I hope this helps you see the methodology I used in order to select my Online Trading Software successfully. If you need any help setting up the platform for trading or have any other questions, please let me know.

Momentum Stock Trading - Stop Losses Are Essential To Capital Preservation

In momentum stock trading or any other method of day trading, a trader needs a way to minimize the risk of losing trades. The use of stop losses is critical to a trader's capital preservation in that stop losses limit the magnitude of a losing trade. Simply put, a stop loss is a pre-designated price point at which a trader chooses to exit a trade with a minimal loss.

Why Use Stop Losses?

There are 2 main reasons to use stop losses.

First, setting a stop loss helps to manage your trading risk and preserve your capital for future trades. The reality for day traders is that not every trade is a winning trade. Stop losses allow for a small movement in price going against you, but caps the amount of negative movement you are willing to absorb. By exiting a trade that is going against you with only a small loss, you will have preserved your trading capital for future trades.

Secondly, stop losses help eliminate emotional trading. As a trader, you need to guard against staying in a trade too long while hoping for a turnaround. Set correctly, your stop loss will allow for small fluctuations in price but protect you from more powerful momentum going against you.

How to Set an Effective Stop Loss

Let's use the following example: Assume my research shows that Stock XYZ is poised to run up. It closed the previous day at $41.53, with a daily high for that day of $41.95. I typically set an entry point at least $0.10 higher than the previous day's high, so in this case my entry point might be $42.05. Using a reward to risk ratio of 2:1, I would place a stop loss at $41.75 and an exit price of $42.65. This trading plan provides a potential upside gain of $0.60 and minimizes any loss to $0.30.

When setting stop losses, remember to consider a stock's recent resistance levels as well as a stock's recent trading range.

Trailing Stops - Adjusting Stop Losses Within a Winning Trade

Experienced day traders have found that approximately 1 in 10 trades exceeds expectations, i.e. the stock's momentum carries the price beyond the targeted exit price. When this happens, I recommend using trailing stops. In the above example, let's say that Stock XYZ exceeded our expectations, going beyond $42.65. In this case, I would adjust my stop loss up to $42.65 to lock in the first $0.60 of profit and keep adjusting the stop loss upward in $0.10 or $0.15 increments to "trail" the upward momentum. Setting trailing stops is like pocketing winnings at a black jack table. It takes some of your winnings off the table, ensuring that you walk away with a profit.

How To Find The Best Day Trading System

As far as I am concerned there is only one way to find the best day trading system and that is to ask the owner of the service to show you a real time track record, by this I mean how many actual dollars the system has made on the open market for the seller. These figures should extend over a reasonable time scale, preferably at least two years worth of trades need to be shown.

I'm afraid to say that if you ask for such a real time track record chances are you will not get it. Why? Because most day trading systems flat out do not work, it's that simple, I'm sorry to be the one to have to break this to you but I'm afraid it's the truth.

The problem is that day trading itself is based on flawed logic and as such does not work. Sure you can have a few lucky trades and make good money, but all in all the systems usually lose much more than they earn.

Often these sites, offering what they say is the best day trading system, will have testimonials claiming to have made silly amounts of money in minutes but the sad truth is these are most likely one-offs and exceptional scenarios.

Some sites have a hypothetical track record showing a good amount of money made over a set time period. The problem is hypothetical track records are just that, it is easy to make a hypothetical track record up once you know where the prices have been. If you knew exactly what the closing prices were going to be then it would be impossible not to make money.

OK so if day trading systems do not work then how come there are so many on the market? Simple, people believe the hype and they love to buy the dream. If you can promise easy money people just lap it up, it's human nature. Studies show that around 90% of people fail to put these systems in action even after buying and just jump on the next big thing. People fail to ask the most important question of all and that is "have YOU made any money?". This is the question people need to ask the vendor when looking to buy the best day trading system and if the vendor cannot provide solid proof of earnings then steer well clear.

I'm sure there are good day trading systems out there that do turn a profit for their owners but if you had such a system then you should ask yourself would you make it available to the public?

Perks of Automated Forex Day Trading

Are you interested in automated forex day trading? There are many things that you should know about automated forex trading, and this is a great place to learn about it. The idea of automated forex day trading is recently getting more and more popular. Futures exchange was the first to adopt this system and later on, the FX market followed suit and employed automated forex day trading.

- Efficiency

This system is very efficient and successful because of its capability to carry out a deal or a trade - real time. This means that there are no lags and fewer complications when trading and these results to more income generated. Achieving this level of efficiency is very hard to do by manual means especially if the decision to trade or not to trade can only be done in a time window of a few seconds. There are even instances wherein the window of opportunity is just a few milliseconds! There are instances wherein the trader is not in his desk and the opportunity suddenly presents itself, while sometimes a trader will skip deals for a while if he recently came from losing deals. These factors are eliminated by an automated system.

- Versatility

An automated system allows you to trade in diverse fields. It makes it possible for you to trade in varying markets as well as an array of time zones. Many trading models can be used by the trader since the system will be the one managing each trading model. Short term data can be analyzed by the system and this provides you with an advantage since you can use the data analyzed for making decisions based on what is currently happening in the market. Analyzing where the market will go in the next 15 or so minutes is impossible without using an automated forex trading system.

- Improved liquidity

Liquidity is greatly improved by the use of automated trading systems. This can be deduced by observing the behavior of the futures exchange market after employing an automated forex trading system.

- Setback

Traders are foreseeing that a problem may arise when the time comes that all traders will adopt the automated system. The volume of orders may be so great that the existing bandwidth as well as current equipment used may not be able to accommodate this influx of information in real time. Existing systems might be able to carry the load and crash which will result to chaos in the market. As of now, safety controls have been created and set in place to prevent this scenario from happening.

- Risk Management

Another big issue that concerns forex traders is risk management. Even automated forex trading systems require a risk management tool to ensure that there are no errors while trading. Risk management tools requires that before opening a position, checks should be conducted to ensure that no excessive correlation is present in already existing positions. To be 100% sure that the check is accurate and free of error, the whole system must first be synchronized. But as the technology used in forex trading progresses and evolves, these will no longer be issues to be concerned about.

There are even instances wherein the window of opportunity is just a few milliseconds! There are instances wherein the trader is not in his desk and the opportunity suddenly presents itself, while sometimes a trader will skip deals for a while if he recently came from losing deals. These factors are eliminated by an automated system.

These are some of the things that you should know about automated forex day trading. The information provided here will give you a better grasp and knowledge about this topic. Hopefully this will be helpful when you are deciding to try this kind of business.

The Advantages of Day Trading

Historically, stock trading has been the domain of professional traders. Trading has been in essence a "private club" with restricted access. Day trading has changed that. For the first time, amateur traders have the tools (real time quotes and order execution) to compete with the professionals.


Speed advantage of day trading

The key advantage of day trading is its speed. Now the technology is advanced enough to afford day traders the ability to receive and observe real-time price quotes tick by tick and to send electronically an execution order directly to the NASDAQ market maker. Electronic order execution is fast. Confirmations are received in seconds. Exiting trades is as easy and fast as entering the trade positions.


Control advantage of day trading

The other key advantage of day trading is the control of trading. Day traders are always in control of their own trading. They are their own brokers. They examine the financial data, ascertain the trends, and make their own decisions to buy or sell. Day traders do not have to worry about the price slippage. They monitor market prices tick by tick. During trading, at any point of time the trader always knows the stock's best BID or ASK price.


Going home "flat"

At the end of the trading day, day traders close all of their trade positions and go home "flat". Day traders do not need to worry about a "long" or "short" position - because they do not have overnight positions. Without any open positions, day traders do not carry any overnight risk exposure.

Day Trading Futures

Day trading used to be the sole domain of the floor traders. They always have the advantage of bargains on commodities. They have the advantage of being able to judge the market breath, and thereby make the proper predictions with the correct price for a stock. However they don't get any commission or pay any commission.

The trend has changed and benefits brokers. They once paid a sizeable amount to day traders for brokerage or commission with systems, because they did not have market reports. This is not the age of trade done by papers only. Today's real trade is done by system. The trader decides whether to do short term trading or long term trading considering the market position and accessing the future market, because frequent changes in the market may put traders at risk of incurring embarrassing losses. Since there is a lot of media hype in the stock market and super volatile stock prices, -- caution and understanding are the name of the game.

Any one can, with minimal leverage, play to win without stock picking ability and without any money management. The future game really is not about the volatility of the prices but it has an extreme effect on the leverage.

Since the future is uncertain, day brokers are well managed with their teams and well equipped with the recent advancement of technology for conducting trading. The eagerness for money has become a mindset of peoples all over, no doubt for that the targeted future is to be achieved.

Forex Day Trading Systems

Usually, we associate trading with purchasing a commodity, bringing it home or to our business premises, and then selling it. Similarly, we purchase stocks and shares in the stocks and shares market, hold them until their value increases and then sell them off.

Times have changed, and now trading can be done on a daily or even hourly basis in the stocks and shares market, and also in the foreign currency markets. This has become possible due to the forex day trading services, also called intra day trading.

Due to intra day trading or day trading, people can make money on the trading day itself. Day trading, despite differences in times zones throughout the world, is also popular because the forex market remains open 24 hours a day.

Another reason that attracts people to day trading is the fact that the forex market is the most liquid market in the world. The moment your transaction is executed, your profits are credited to your bank account. This has become possible due to the decentralized clearing system, which allows the market to remain liquid day and night.

Another advantage of day trading is that you don't need to invest a lot of money to make profits. You don't have to incur huge losses either. This is, of course, if you pay attention to the guidance provided by your brokering company about the entry and exit times. There are many forex-trading companies that can train you for day trading so that your transactions are not reduced to gambling. These companies provide you with trading strategies and data charts that guide you when to buy or sell. They also teach you to interpret forex quotes, and also how and when to buy and sell the currencies by interpreting various technical and analytical studies.

Exploring The World Of Day Trading

Are you looking into a career in day trading? In the past, the tools for day trading were available only to professionals. But thanks to the power of the Internet, everything you need to get started is now conveniently online. If you have a nose for business, guts and a sharp instinct for how the market shifts, the maybe day trading is the job for you.

What is day trading? Basically it is daily, online stock trading with very short investment. The individuals who do this day in and day out are called traders, not investors in the traditional sense. A day trader is someone who will buy a stock that has high volume and liquidity and will sell that same stock within a few minutes up to a few hours.

Day trading happens only during the day. Those who do day trading usually stay glued in front of the computer and monitoring which stocks have a fast turnover. During the day trading, they quickly buy a large number of stocks at a time and sell it once they see the stock gain within the day. Day traders will make a purchase of a stock, hold it for only minutes watching constantly for the stock to go up or down, selling if it goes down only two or three cents and holding if it goes up to about five or six cents and selling. The stock is almost never held over night as there are many other opportunities and a stock that takes hours to move is not worth holding.

Day trading can be a very high paced and stressful lifestyle. There are millions of day traders across North America but it can be a very fast way to lose everything. Some people are making over $5000.00 a day but it takes months and sometimes years to learn and master day trading.

The broader meaning of the term day trading includes those who trade daily from their homes or offices, through Internet brokerages. These day traders might buy and sell stocks in minutes, but might also hold some overnight or longer. The latest buzzword for this is "swing trader," those who keep a stock within in a few days before finally selling them. To some, particularly the so-called bandits, day trading is just a numbers game. They do little research and just watch for moving stocks with good spreads. Others are more scientific about it, relying on news and technical analysis to catch everyday price fluctuations.

Day trading requires a certain amount of capital. Generally, day trading should have enough trading capital to buy at least 1000 shares of any given stock on any particular day. There are very few stocks priced under $20 that have the degree of liquidity necessary to make them suitable for day trading. This means that a novice day trader should normally have day trading capital of at least $20,000 to start. In addition, the new day trader should treat this as 100% risk capital and should not have to unduly worry that the whole amount of this capital may be lost very quickly.

You must also be aware that not all stocks are suitable for day trading. Day trading should never trade unlisted or thinly traded (low volume) stocks. These stocks have poor liquidity and hence a higher price volatility. This may make it hard for you to exit your day trading position quickly at a fair price. Trade only high volume, well-known stocks.

Forex Currency Day Trading For Beginners

You sell your money to the bank (or other) and it allocates some interest payments to your savings account from its profits. Have you seen a Bank's profits?

What do Banks do with your money? Well, they accumulate many small savers' money to lend to a borrower. The borrower buys his loan and repays it with added interest. The difference between interest rates is used by the institutions to pay salaries, pensions buy buildings and the usual business expenses.

THE WORLD PRESS occasionally reveals. "INSIDER DEALINGS" where an individual is accused of amassing huge profits from a fast book financial transaction that proves to be illegal.

Sandwiched between "INSIDER TRADING" and interest are a range of products on sale by banks. Mortgages, shares bonds and so on . Very rich individuals and organizations do not leave all their wealth in savings accounts. They trade in art. gold, diamonds, huge properties huge film productions, rare cars and such. Some buy and sell consumer items such as coffee, tea etc.

So can individuals with a few hundreds of their own currency hope to buy and sell something for a smiling profit? There's eBay. Antiques. Some gamble on a wide variety of events such as roulette, horse racing etc. On-line poker (5m PC users play every day)

Now revealed. There is a legal ethical place where you take profits and not interest. You buy and sell without taking delivery. It's far from the bottom layer of the sandwich, situated above shares. It's Foreign Currency.

Forex attracts about 2 trillion dollars a day in transactions. Someone may tell you that this makes dealings in shares small fry. Forex used to be the exclusive realm of the world banks, but computerization replaced old style traders. Banks fund Forex Trading rooms, worldwide.

Immediately, the reader identifies with a PC. Your machine may be capable of earning you a tiny, tiny part of the 2 trillion dollars. You may start with just a few hundred dollars of your own currency, but you essentially need some education, Powerful information to enable you to trade like a professional. You, buy and sell money?

How can there be a risk if you buy something and don't sell it, until there's a higher price? Forex systems eke out patterns of transactions, perhaps following the big loaves, expecting a crumb. Stories of $300 becoming $30,000 within a year: have you heard them? Banks make profits because they trade from especially designed rooms.

You do not need a degree in maths, experience or qualifications to make money 24/7 from anywhere in the world. Forex Day Trading is legal, ethical, exciting and profitable long term. A simple technique at the roulette wheel explains - the pattern is red, black, red, black - what would you choose next? That the pattern continues or is likely to finish? Make a decision and wait for that pattern to appear on any table's display, then act.

Whilst you may take the banks interest in one hand, the staff are elsewhere making huge profits.

Online Stock Market Trading - Stock Trading At Finger Tips

Claims that online stock trading may be unsafe and revealing can be misleading, according to millions of users all over the world. Undoubtedly Internet trading has waved a special place in the lives of investors all over the world. Not only does it saves time but also tends to maximize the comforts of other investors. Now day traders and other investors can continue working their jobs and take care of the invested savings at one time. All they need is a PC to work and a registration with a registered online brokerage firm.

These firms are sheer at providing access to stock exchange and get tips for investing in stocks from time to time. Once an investor gets registered, the blues and reds of stock exchange start dancing on the screens and hence using the tips of experts and other research work available online, any trader can make money in stocks. As such, the comfort provided by Internet trading is not only the reason for its unleashed popularity. The other factors that contributed to it's heartedly acceptance all over the world can be listed as follows.

Easy and handy: online stock trading is the easiest way to trade in stocks. Whether in office or at home, by just few clicks everyone can get access to online investments. The companies are listed on screen and all you have to do is to buy and sell stocks. Also, no more tiring paper works and stockbroker clinging add on to independent and easy investing in stocks.

Facilities and services: with the recognition of online trading, there are many firms that are providing sheer services. The banks, for instance, provide joint trading, savings and current accounts. Also, other broking firms provide easy trading at low brokerages that attract other people to trade in stocks.

Self-trading: working through Internet does not need the traditional way stockbroker clinging and going to stock market trading. With easy accessibility the tips and expected future moves are provided online which helps an investor to trade independently. With most of the research work and expert's tips available online, there is no need for the broker to be present in person.

Cost: the cost for opening a

Stock Trading - Get Familiar!

Gut instincts and unthoughtful decisions; if these you think are the keys to success then better be ready for bitter experiences. The stock market is a total calculative and objective market that needs due care and attention to grab on to sheer returns. Hence, for fruitful returns, it is important to get familiar with various aspects of stock trading. Just a few words on that may intrude trading for better.

At first, understand the difference between any trading and investment. It should be noted that trading is easy and quick but investments take time. Don't expect huge profits over the night. It takes time for profit generation and needs whole package of consistency, patience and intelligence. In other words, discipline is the key to trade in stocks.

The grass of other side always seeks green, that's why; it is no use to copy other's investments. Utilizing one's own brains according to the conditions always pays off. It is inevitable to know the investments to be made and the type of the tools to be devised. Familiarity of the stocks to be invested in is necessary. Another tip for stock investing is being less greedy. Trying to squeeze the last drop of profits generally ends up in losses. Stock market, being fluctuating tends to have sudden moves, hence, try sell the shares at their rise rather wait them to be at their peak.

Stop running after tips and rumours- this is another valuable thing to be familiar with. Each individual has his own estimates and individual evaluations. Stock trading is basically done on future forecasts and calculations. Hence, chasing the tips and estimates may end up making losses. To avoid such situations, using self evaluation devising expert's tips is the best decision to rely on.

Future price appreciation appraisals must be the main focus rather the gains and losses. Any day trader when sell a

Online Day Trading - 5 Must-Know Guidelines To Make You An Expert Online Day Trader!

A lot of people are taking up trading as a means to get successful quickly. Day trading isn't very different from any other trading system on the grounds that involves purchasing and selling stocks and other goods. But apart from this basic aspect, there are other factors about day trading that need to be considered.

Even though some sources claim that day trading is the most uncertain branch of trade which may involve huge losses at the end of a single deal, you cannot exclude this possibility from other branches of trade either. And then a little bit of experience will quickly show you that when you have a good plan to work with your chances of success are much higher.

The success of your day trading venture depends on your capital and the strategies you adopt. You require an initial investment to buy stocks, but after that it is all about tact and manipulation.

The following guidelines should help you get started on online Day Trading:

1. Failure may not always be the stepping stone to success. It is necessary that you are well informed about this field before you let yourself incur a huge loss which may not give you a second chance. The best educators are those already experienced in the field. In addition to this, you can always seek help on the internet. If you work through brokerage firms, they will give you advice on what to buy from time to time. But let the final word be according to your judgment, it is your money.

2. Keep track of what goes on within the market. Chose a compatible partner who is also skilled in trading, somebody you can share experience, knowledge and technique with.

3. Online trading requires you to keep up technically. Purchase the best hardware and software. You cannot afford to lose a moment due to incompetent hardware. Choose the best system with a high speed internet connection which will help you keep pace with movement of your stocks. You need to react instantly at times from the live data streaming you see online. A slow internet connection can mean disaster.

4. Persevere from the bottom up by trading in a small scale and build your business from this point. Even if you incur loss in the initial stages, it will be of less magnitude than the loss you may incur on a big capital. This is the stage at which experience begins so do not be hasty.

5. Do not let a loss weigh down on your morale and at the same time do not let victory make you overconfident. Treat success and failure the same way keeping in mind the lessons they teach you.

Online day trading has almost become a pastime for many. The internet has made it possible for many people to use it as a second means of income, since they can trade right from the comfort of their homes.

Day Trading Sites - Choosing One for Profits

With the rise of online trading we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of day trading sites offering a variety of day trading systems, e-books and courses to help you scalp the market and make small regular profits that can build wealth, let's look at choosing the best.

One of the big myths of trading is that you can make money day trading - if you ever see a day trading site that has a track record of gains, look for the disclaimer below or a similar one. Read it carefully:

"CFTC RULE 4.41 - Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not been executed, the results may have under-or-over compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profit or losses similar to those shown".

So this means you can make up any track record you like, as you are simply simulating it and know the closing prices - try and find a day trader with a real time track record audited over the longer term ( 2 years plus ) and your in for a long search.

Day trading and long term profits are a contradiction in terms - why?

The simple reason is - you can never get the odds in your favor and are guaranteed to lose. All short term volatility is random, support and resistance levels in these time frames are meaningless and you simply can't set levels that are valid to key off and get the odds in your favor. Of course this is obvious. We have a huge mass of traders millions of them, trading all with different systems and personalities and to say you can measure what they will do in a few hours is laughable and totally incorrect.

Many traders say that human nature is constant and therefore prices move to a scientific theory. You will often find them use such theories as - Gann, Elliot and Fibonacci but they don't work.

Why?

Because human nature is constant but we certainly don't conform to a scientific theory when trading! We are creatures of emotion and you can't measure these scientifically. If there were a scientific theory that worked, we would all know the price in advance and there would be no market.

Most day trading sites are not run by traders at all there run by marketing organizations that sell simulated track records with hyped copy, to appeal to nave or greedy traders - they make their income from selling product and the trader takes the losses in the market. If you want to make money avoid day trading sites and day trading it really is that simple instead, look to trade longer term trends where you can get the odds in your favor.

Emini Futures Systems - Why Emini Futures Systems Fail?

For two main reasons. Either the market refuses to cooperate or the developer refuses to accept the trading reality. It is the latter case that is much more serious and can do more damage to your account than the former.

Yes, the market can refuse to cooperate and it does so time and again, but if your system is simple and robust and you adopt a proper time perspective you should be able to withstand the market changes and come ahead as a winner when all is said and done. It may happen though that the system goes through a prolonged period of flatness when its equity curve refuses to grow and instead remains stuck in a range. This can obviously be frustrating and can cause some to abandon their systems prematurely. That's why it is important to start in a drawdown of at least 50% of the previous maximum drawdown and allow oneself a 150% drawdown reserve in case the market decides to continue digging in your equity curve. When you do this and stick to a 6-12 month time frame, you stand a very good chance to make money. No one can predict how much though and so sometimes when the year of trading the system comes to a close you may feel rather disappointed if the previous years prepared you to expect a better performance. It has been my experience that simple, robust (non-optimized) mechanical trading systems rarely completely fail, they might though test your mental strength more than you anticipated it. It is probably best to have no expectations, but simply set a reasonable time horizon and take what the market gives you.

The other failure mentioned above is of human nature and, unlike the previous one, it can be avoided as it is entirely up to the system developer. The failure of this kind usually happens for two reasons: either the system overtrades or its slippage is not properly accounted for. The developer is to blame for both of these problems.

Obviously, both of these situations can take place too and when this happens you have a recipe for a disaster. While frequent trading per se does not have to be detrimental to the system performance, in reality it is as it leads to more trading mistakes: the more often you trade, the more likely you are prone to various life imperfections and the actual performance suffers as a rule. It is however the other factor, the slippage that is not properly accounted for, that can easily kill your account, particularly if overtrading also takes place. While the slippage for the market and stop orders (the so-called 'regular slippage') can be easily estimated and taken into account, this is not so for the systems that use limit orders. (To be quite frank with you, I have seen vendors touting their systems as the true Holy Grail that would turn out to be only mediocre when regular slippage was taken into account. Their performance looked great simply because they traded frequently, but with slippage taken into account this was not so at all any longer.) The non-fill slippage (for limit orders) is harder to take into account and when ignored, it can easily lead to very inflated profits that will never materialize in actual trading. Obviously, the more often the system trades the bigger this kind of slippage is. The net result is a great looking equity curve that serves as a disguise for a losing system! It is only one way to make sure that something like that does not happen and that is to eliminate from your testing all the trades that only touched the entry but did not manage to penetrate it by at least one tick. I do this routinely to the systems I trade and if they survive such cleansing, I know that they are robust and can be trusted. Alas, this approach is rarely ever practiced by other vendors.

So who designs these kind of systems? Well, either really incompetent developers or the people of the mentality of used car salesmen, always eager to sell you their latest lemon. Because that's what it is, the lemon! Don't assume that systems like that do not exist on the market. They do, some vendors even seem to specialize in them, and they can do a lot of damage to your account rather fast. Your losses can be faster than if the market refused to cooperate, so whenever you see a great looking equity curve that belongs to a system that uses limit orders, do not assume immediately that this curve has much to do with reality as this may cost you a lot.

It's silly to blame the market for the lack of cooperation and you cannot expect it to deliver. But you have the right to expect that the vendor provides you with reliable information about the realistic system performance. Since this does not always happen, there is no substitute for solid due diligence and the age-old saying about a fool and his money applies here as much as anywhere else.

Trading Psychology - Fear and Greed

No matter what system and tools are available to those who are day trading online, true success in trading still relies on the psychological strength of the individual trader. Day trading is a system based on rules, but as charts are analyzed and prices fluctuate, traders may find that they have a difficult time sticking to those rules when fear or greed become involved in the analysis. Successful traders are able to buy despite feelings of fear and sell despite feelings of wanting to prolong the holding of a stock.

A confident trader will still take the time to test and re-test a stock. At first glance a stock might look like it's in top shape and performing as expected, but a successful trader will not solely rely on first glance appearances. Those who day trade stocks know that in an instant the market can change and it's important to stay abreast of company information as well as market news and conditions. A successful trader will stick to the rules set up in day trading systems to ensure that his or her reactions remain unbiased throughout the trade.

Effective day trading strategies focus on providing consistent and disciplined actions. Successful traders have a consistent approach to the market and trading. They will take the time to systematically build up their own trading system that takes into account their own personal elements of risk control and they will take the time to stick to their original trading plan. It's not that traders shouldn't make changes based on market information, but that the changes made should be based on established trading rules that help traders determine what their entry and exit points on a trade should be.

Some of the best day trading tips that a trader can get help them deal with fear and greed. Many traders find that they may be able to memorize the rules and familiarize themselves with knowing how to accurately interpret stock charts, but they also need to learn how to prepare themselves to deal with fear and greed.

Fear in trading primarily takes on two basic forms - the fear of loss and the fear of missing out. The fear of loss leads to selling stocks prematurely and as a result, they aren't able to capitalize and recover fully on the trade. When they start to enter into trades, the trade isn't given enough time to mature and the trader sells so that more isn't risked.

The fear of missing out is another form of fear that compels people to abandon their rules so that they don't lose out on another major stock move. These fears need to be dealt with because they will impact a trader's entry and exit decisions.

Greed is the motivation for over-confidence. Dreams of "making it big" in trading can cloud a trader's perspective. Again, they abandon the rules of their trading system in the hopes that more money will come their way. Traders need to learn how to deal with greed so they can maintain their focus and not have their thoughts be swept away with illusions.

Trading Commodities - Margins

If you've been reading the newspaper lately, you've doubtless seen how much inflation has gone up over the last two years. You might be thinking, as many do, that this is likely to continue for the next two years. However, you can hedge your portfolio against inflation and maybe even pick up some profits by investing in gold.

Don't worry if you don't have $58,000 to purchase 100 troy ounces of gold at the current market price of $580 per ounce. Instead, you can buy a gold futures contract, as many speculators do. Instead of having to come up with $58,000, you only have to invest 5% of that total, or $2900.

That 5% initial investment is known as the initial margin. The exchanges and brokerage firms set the exact percentages on a daily basis. This is done per individual commodities futures contract. The exchanges monitor volatility, price and many other factors to figure out what acceptable levels of risk are. Then, they said the margins accordingly. The minimums are set by the exchange, but but brokerages will sometimes use requirements that are slightly higher.

If the price of gold rises by five dollars before the contract expires, that excellent. You've made five dollars per ounce of gold, times 100 ounces, which equals $500, excluding commissions of about $20. If you had purchased the gold straight out, you might be surprised to learn that your profit is exactly the same. However, look at the difference between doing an outright purchase and doing a futures contract in percentage terms.

$500 divided by $58,000 times 100% equals 0.86%, or just under 1%. This compares to $500 divided by $2900 times 100%, which equals 17.2%. This difference is from the effect of what is known as leverage. Even though you only invest 5% of the total purchase price, you get 100% (besides commission) of the profits, instead of 5% of the profits.

However, this is not only good with no bad. This type of reward carries risk of loss. Let's say the price had decreased five dollars and had never risen again before the contract expired. What you would have had would have been a $500 loss instead of a $500 gain.

Now, brokers have to protect themselves against the possibility of something like this happening, namely that you won't be able to cover your amount at contract expiration. Therefore, they do what's called a "margin call."

What this means is that all potential profits and losses are both calculated and settled on a daily basis. If the price drops under the minimum set by the broker, which is based upon the exchange minimum, brokers require that their clients deposit additional funds in order to bring their account back up to the level they initially had.

Now, here's the problem. Brokers may or may not give you enough time and notice to actually do that. Depending on what the price volatility is, the amount of money involved, and the quality of your relationship with them, brokers can and sometimes do liquidate your position and don't wait for you to cover.

Normally, most brokers will give you enough notice and reasonable time to cover this "maintenance margin," which is the amount needed to bring your account back up to the level they require. However, it's you, the trader, who is responsible for monitoring your own position and knowing what the guidelines are.

In addition to bringing your account back up to the previous level, you might also have to come up with even more money. Exchanges and brokers often do raise or lower the minimums they require, depending on what the current market conditions are.

Simply put, futures trading is fast-paced and puts you at higher risk in the world of commodities. It's not for everyone, but if you have a high tolerance for risk and can put additional funds in as necessary, and if you can withstand some losses as a matter of course, it might just be for you.

Day Trading Brokers - Tips On Choosing One

With the rise of online trading, traders are engaging in day trading and trying to make small regular profits and for this they need a day trading broker. If you want to choose one use the simple tips below.

Transaction Costs

The most important criteria in choosing a day trading broker is the cost of doing business. You should choose the lowest transaction cost you can. If you trade regularly then transaction fees mount up and impact your profit and loss.

Execution Only

If you want a day trading broker, you want them to transact orders only and don't want advice. Many brokers will offer you signals and alerts and advice - don't fall for it. If brokers could make money they would be traders and not brokers. If you want to be successful in trading then you need to do it on your own - only you can give yourself success.

Trading Platform

You need to be comfortable with the platform the broker uses and ensure that it's reliable and you have 24 hour support. In most cases, a broker will let you test drive the trading platform and you can see how you get on with it with a demo trading account before risking real money.

Size and Security

Look for well capitalized brokers that have been in business for a few years, are stable and look at regulation and protection of your money. Bigger is better when you are using a broker on an execution only basis.

You want a broker that has been known for reliability over the years and you can easily check this by looking on the web. You should always search the brokers name and check any good and bad press they have. In many instances you will surprised at what you find.

Funding

Look at how quickly you can fund your account and how quickly you can withdraw. You should also look to see if the broker accepts online payments, safely and securely.

When choosing a day trading broker (or any broker for that matter), check the above points and keep in mind that your major cost is your transaction fee and this should be as low as possible. If you want to day trade and want a day trading broker that can give you the best service, the above are common sense tips that will help you find one.

Day Trading Articles - How To Find The Best Authors

With the rise of day trading online, there are a lot of day trading articles on the net. If you want good information you want day trading articles that have been written by people who actually trade and thats what were going to look at here.

The vast majority of articles written on day trading are not written by traders at all.
There normally written by people who are simply trying to make money by appealing to traders to visit their site where they have ad words or products from vendors for sale. These products appeal to people who are looking for an easy way to make money in forex and they lose.

The fact is day trading simply doesn't work.

As an experienced trader, I find it amusing that people actually believe what some authors say in terms of day trading, here are just some examples:

"Predict market tops and bottoms with 90% accuracy"

"Scalp profits everyday"

"Earn $10,000 a month with this system"

Of course these day trading systems don't work as the track record that comes with them will have the disclaimer below (or a similar one), read it carefully:

"CFTC RULE 4.41 - Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not been executed, the results may have under-or-over compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profit or losses similar to those shown".

What this means is a vendor can make up any track record they like in hindsight, knowing the closing prices - but trading is actually a little more difficult, you have to trade without knowing the closing prices!

You will never see a day trading system with a track record of real gains, audited with account statements over the longer term. If you do - let me know because I have been trading for 25 years and never seen one. Day trading forex day trading stocks, day trading commodities, day trading CFD's - it doesn't matter - day trading does not work in any of them due to the following:

All volatility in short term time frames is random and prices can and do go anywhere, meaning that if you try and use support and resistance levels they wont help you with your trading signal or help you get profitable market timing. You therefore can't get the odds in your favour and will lose over time. This is fairly obvious when you consider that the price in any financial market is made by a vast diverse group of traders.

You simply cannot predict what this vast mass of people will do in a period of a few hours - the time period is simply to short. If you want to make money trading then you need to trade longer time frames, where you can calculate and get the odds in your favour. This means swing trading or trend following.

So the next time you read a day trading article you should be aware that the person writing it has probably got no experience on the subject they are actually writing about. There are lots of day trading articles and the vast majority of the authors have simply never traded.

Day Trading Sites - Choosing One for Profits

With the rise of online trading we have seen a dramatic rise in the number of day trading sites offering a variety of day trading systems, e-books and courses to help you scalp the market and make small regular profits that can build wealth, let's look at choosing the best.

One of the big myths of trading is that you can make money day trading - if you ever see a day trading site that has a track record of gains, look for the disclaimer below or a similar one. Read it carefully:

"CFTC RULE 4.41 - Hypothetical or simulated performance results have certain limitations. Unlike an actual performance record, simulated results do not represent actual trading. Also, since the trades have not been executed, the results may have under-or-over compensated for the impact, if any, of certain market factors, such as lack of liquidity. Simulated trading programs in general are also subject to the fact that they are designed with the benefit of hindsight. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profit or losses similar to those shown".

So this means you can make up any track record you like, as you are simply simulating it and know the closing prices - try and find a day trader with a real time track record audited over the longer term ( 2 years plus ) and your in for a long search.

Day trading and long term profits are a contradiction in terms - why?

The simple reason is - you can never get the odds in your favor and are guaranteed to lose. All short term volatility is random, support and resistance levels in these time frames are meaningless and you simply can't set levels that are valid to key off and get the odds in your favor. Of course this is obvious. We have a huge mass of traders millions of them, trading all with different systems and personalities and to say you can measure what they will do in a few hours is laughable and totally incorrect.

Many traders say that human nature is constant and therefore prices move to a scientific theory. You will often find them use such theories as - Gann, Elliot and Fibonacci but they don't work.

Why?

Because human nature is constant but we certainly don't conform to a scientific theory when trading! We are creatures of emotion and you can't measure these scientifically. If there were a scientific theory that worked, we would all know the price in advance and there would be no market.

Most day trading sites are not run by traders at all there run by marketing organizations that sell simulated track records with hyped copy, to appeal to nave or greedy traders - they make their income from selling product and the trader takes the losses in the market. If you want to make money avoid day trading sites and day trading it really is that simple instead, look to trade longer term trends where you can get the odds in your favor.

Emini Futures Systems - Why Emini Futures Systems Fail?

For two main reasons. Either the market refuses to cooperate or the developer refuses to accept the trading reality. It is the latter case that is much more serious and can do more damage to your account than the former.

Yes, the market can refuse to cooperate and it does so time and again, but if your system is simple and robust and you adopt a proper time perspective you should be able to withstand the market changes and come ahead as a winner when all is said and done. It may happen though that the system goes through a prolonged period of flatness when its equity curve refuses to grow and instead remains stuck in a range. This can obviously be frustrating and can cause some to abandon their systems prematurely. That's why it is important to start in a drawdown of at least 50% of the previous maximum drawdown and allow oneself a 150% drawdown reserve in case the market decides to continue digging in your equity curve. When you do this and stick to a 6-12 month time frame, you stand a very good chance to make money. No one can predict how much though and so sometimes when the year of trading the system comes to a close you may feel rather disappointed if the previous years prepared you to expect a better performance. It has been my experience that simple, robust (non-optimized) mechanical trading systems rarely completely fail, they might though test your mental strength more than you anticipated it. It is probably best to have no expectations, but simply set a reasonable time horizon and take what the market gives you.

The other failure mentioned above is of human nature and, unlike the previous one, it can be avoided as it is entirely up to the system developer. The failure of this kind usually happens for two reasons: either the system overtrades or its slippage is not properly accounted for. The developer is to blame for both of these problems.

Obviously, both of these situations can take place too and when this happens you have a recipe for a disaster. While frequent trading per se does not have to be detrimental to the system performance, in reality it is as it leads to more trading mistakes: the more often you trade, the more likely you are prone to various life imperfections and the actual performance suffers as a rule. It is however the other factor, the slippage that is not properly accounted for, that can easily kill your account, particularly if overtrading also takes place. While the slippage for the market and stop orders (the so-called 'regular slippage') can be easily estimated and taken into account, this is not so for the systems that use limit orders. (To be quite frank with you, I have seen vendors touting their systems as the true Holy Grail that would turn out to be only mediocre when regular slippage was taken into account. Their performance looked great simply because they traded frequently, but with slippage taken into account this was not so at all any longer.) The non-fill slippage (for limit orders) is harder to take into account and when ignored, it can easily lead to very inflated profits that will never materialize in actual trading. Obviously, the more often the system trades the bigger this kind of slippage is. The net result is a great looking equity curve that serves as a disguise for a losing system! It is only one way to make sure that something like that does not happen and that is to eliminate from your testing all the trades that only touched the entry but did not manage to penetrate it by at least one tick. I do this routinely to the systems I trade and if they survive such cleansing, I know that they are robust and can be trusted. Alas, this approach is rarely ever practiced by other vendors.

So who designs these kind of systems? Well, either really incompetent developers or the people of the mentality of used car salesmen, always eager to sell you their latest lemon. Because that's what it is, the lemon! Don't assume that systems like that do not exist on the market. They do, some vendors even seem to specialize in them, and they can do a lot of damage to your account rather fast. Your losses can be faster than if the market refused to cooperate, so whenever you see a great looking equity curve that belongs to a system that uses limit orders, do not assume immediately that this curve has much to do with reality as this may cost you a lot.

It's silly to blame the market for the lack of cooperation and you cannot expect it to deliver. But you have the right to expect that the vendor provides you with reliable information about the realistic system performance. Since this does not always happen, there is no substitute for solid due diligence and the age-old saying about a fool and his money applies here as much as anywhere else.