forex fire

It is so easy to become completely bogged down trying to keep up with the company news updates, you know, the feeds you get on the financial news channels. This causes you to get frustrated and often confused. There’s a lot of very interesting information, but does it serve to help our trading decisions? Remember, no two people have the same perspective on anything, and that includes the stock market. The analysts you watch and listen might well have very good and valid reasons for talking a stock up or down, depending upon their own investment criteria.

Here are 3 reasons to help you see why technical analysis works:

1. Every day trading decision, and I mean every one of them, without exception, ends up in one and only one result; price. The price of the stock at close of trading is where the whole picture finishes. You can do anything you like with company data; analyse it, pull it apart, listen to speculators, traders, journalists, but the result a closing is always the same.

2. It is correct that history does not necessarily reflect the future, and that’s quite right, no one would argue the case. But, and it’s a big but, it has been proven time over, that human psyche does repeat itself, the brain functions the in the same manner all the time. What you see on technical day trading charts is the result of past thinking, of past psyche. It will be argued until the end of time that you cannot trade for the future, based on historical data. But the technical data that is delivered and shown by these charts does lend itself to narrowing the odds enormously in our favour, IF used correctly. There are too many successful technical traders to suggest otherwise.

3. To see an excellent example, watch the price of a stock that’s moving in a trend, or range, and you can see that same patterns, by and large being repeated, day in, day out. All of a sudden, the price pushes beyond the upper and lower price boundaries that it’s held for the past few days or weeks, and you have a potential buy or sell trading opportunity.

There are traders who use only fundamentals, and still argue against technical trading, but if you have the time, a blend of both is best. The advantage of using chart set ups is that you can better gauge, and fine tune, where you are going to place you entry and exit positions.

How would you like to discover more about the techniques successful traders use to make profitable trades?

Download them free here: Day Trading Course

Ian Jackson is an authority on Day Trading information, learning the hard way - and now he reveals how you can learn the business too, without all the growing pains.

The human race has gotten familiar with the idea of trading since time immemorial. It has been the people’s outlet for survival, prosperity and progress, and for the exchange of their feelings, ideals, and experiences too. With a little back up of history, it can be traced back to when some of the primeval groups started swapping certain useful items with one another in the absence of money so that they could fulfill their daily provisions. Nonetheless, trading is an integral part of man’s life. It transcends race, religion, and sex as it is a common thing for all throughout the world. In this article, you will get a full blast of the information regarding the types of day trading and its pros and cons.

The following are the types of day trading which are qualified by the time frame in which the traders prefer to keep their stocks.

Basic day trading. This refers to the day that the trader opts to collect the stocks and then keep them floating for quite sometime in the effort of selling them all at once at the end of the day. The trader is both the seller and purchaser. One of its primary benefits is that he saves his stocks from being affected due to the unstable prices on the market.

Swing day trading. Bigger profits drive the trader to maintain the stocks under his custody for a longer period of time. Its downside is for the stocks to be gravely affected by the changing prices in the marketplace.

Position trading. With this, the trader buys the stocks and organizes them to last for a couple of weeks and sometimes even months. The trader is usually a good player because he waits for the best time to sell the goods.

Online trading. This type may cover any of the abovementioned day trading types except that the selling and purchasing of the stocks are done through the World Wide Web.

Day trading is a task that requires one’s full attention specifically because the stock market constantly fluctuates. If you are serious about this kind of business, you’d better be active and aware of what goes on around you. The stock market is one of the most uncertain places on earth.

You can’t define the outcome of your endeavor unless you try it yourself. Nevertheless, exercise full caution when dealing with stocks.

Miodrag Trajkovic is an expert on information related to Day Trading, Day Trading Systems, Day Trading Strategies, Online Day Trading and Day Trading Websites.
For more information visit his website http://daytrading.explore-me.com.

Online day trading courses are the like the fast lane on the expressway: They can be your fast track to financial success. The majority of us have been brought up and raised to believe that the track to financial success is to get good grades, go to a prestigious college or university, graduate, and get a good, secure, stable job, work for forty years while you sock money away in a retirement account, and then cash in and retire at the age of 65.

Day trading, by its very nature, is the literal antithesis of the traditional school of thought. With day trading, you can exponentially multiply your money simply by investing it into the market.

Don’t get all excited, though. It sounds a lot simpler than it really is. As with any vocation or business, you cannot expect to be successful unless you possess the requisite knowledge of the particular field of endeavor. And that’s where online day trading courses enter the picture.

You would be ill-advised to get involved with day trading without educating yourself on the mechanics of how the stock market works and without and understanding of the various strategies and investment vehicles through which you can make money. Doing so would be financial suicide.

However, once you are properly armed with the knowledge of day trading and who has access to a competent coach who can mentor you, then you can have at it! Day trading is to a day job as the hare is to the tortoise. The main difference is that you have to be a really smart hare if you are going to outsmart the tortoise!

Do you have what it takes to become a professional day trader?

Every trader should test the trading strategy that they’re using. And, while testing your trading strategy, you should keep detailed records of the wins and losses in order to produce a performance report. Many software packages can help you with that, but a simple excel sheet will do the trick just as well.

Below are three things crucial to every performance report.

Average Winning Trade and Average Losing Trade

The average winning trade should be bigger than the average losing trade. If you can keep your wins larger than your losses, then you’ll make money even if you just have a 50% winning percentage. And every trader should be able to achieve that. If you can’t, reverse your entry signals as described previously.

Profit Factor

The profit factor will tell you how many dollars you’re likely to win for every dollar you lose. The higher the profit factor, the better the system. A system should have a profit factor of 1.5 or more, but watch out when you see profit factors above 3.0, because it might be that the system is over-optimized.

Maximum Drawdown

The maximum drawdown is the lowest point your account reaches between peaks.

Let me explain:

Imagine that you start your trading account with $10,000, and, after a few trades, you lose $2,000. Your drawdown would be 20%.

Now, let’s say you make more trades and gain $4,000, which brings you to $12,000 ($8,000 + $4,000 = $12,000). And after this, on the next trade, you lose $2,000. Your drawdown would be 16.7% ($12,000 - $2,000). The $12,000 was your equity peak; that was the highest point in the period we looked at.

If you started your account with $10,000 and the lowest amount you had in your account over a six-month period was $5,000, then you had a 50% drawdown.

You would need to make $5,000 from the lowest point in order to recoup your losses. Even though you lost 50% from your high of $10,000, you would need to make 100% on the $5,000 to get back to your original amount.

Conclusion

The above examples provide you with some guidelines, but it’s up to you to decide whether the numbers in the strategy’s performance report work for you or don’t.

Ultimately, YOU’RE the one trading the strategy, and YOU’RE the one who has to feel comfortable with the expected results of your strategy.

Markus Heitkoetter is the CEO of Rockwell Trading, Inc. and the author of “The Complete Guide to Day Trading.” Loaded with easy-to-use information, proven and reliable trading strategies, and clear-cut guidelines to success, the result of this book is a practical hands-on approach to day trading. Check it out at http://www.thecompleteguidetodaytrading.com

Day Trading 101: when you begin trading, you’ll need a strategy. And part of that strategy will include the timeframe that you use for your trades. Obviously, for day trading, your timeframe will be less than one day.

Popular intraday timeframes are 60-minute, 30-minute, 15-minute, 10-minute, 5-minute, 3-minute, and 1-minute.

When you select a smaller timeframe (less than 60 minutes), usually your average profit per trade is relatively low. On the other hand, you get more trading opportunities. When trading on a larger timeframe, your average profit per trade will be bigger, but you’ll have fewer trading opportunities.

Smaller timeframes mean smaller profits, but usually smaller risk, too. When you’re starting with a small trading account, you might want to select a small timeframe to make sure that you’re not over-leveraging your account.

However, when selecting a very small timeframe like 1-minute, 3-minute, or 5-minute, you may experience a lot of “noise” that is cause by hedge funds, by scalpers, and by automated trading.

You might think that you see an emerging trend just to realize that it was only a short manipulated move and that the trend is over as soon as you enter the market.

That’s why I recommend using 15-minute charts. This timeframe is small enough for you to capture the nice intraday moves, but it’s big enough to eliminate the noise in the market and correctly displays the “true trends.”

When developing a trading strategy, you should always experiment with different timeframes. A trading strategy that doesn’t work on a small timeframe might work on a larger timeframe and vice versa.

Start developing your trading strategy using 15-minute charts, and if you’re unhappy with the results, change the timeframe first before changing the entry or exit rules.

Markus Heitkoetter is a professional day trading coach and the author of “The Complete Guide to Day Trading.” Visit http://www.thecompleteguidetodaytrading.com to learn a 7-step approach for developing your own profitable trading strategy.

You may wonder if you really need a broker. The answer is yes. If you intend to day trade, then you must have a broker. And it doesn’t matter whether you are trading stocks, futures, forex, or options: unless you are a member of the exchange, you won’t be able to place your orders without a broker.

Stock-, futures-, and options-brokers are required to pass different tests in order to obtain their licenses. These tests ensure that the broker knows his business and will be able to support you if needed.

In most cases, brokers earn their money from commissions on sales. When you instruct your broker to buy or sell, they earn a set percentage of the transaction. Many brokers charge a flat ‘per transaction’ fee.

There are two types of brokers: full-service brokers and discount brokers.

Full-service brokers can usually offer more types of investments, may provide you with investment advice, and are usually paid in commissions.

Discount brokers typically do not offer any advice or research; they just do as you ask them to do, without all of the bells and whistles.

So, the biggest decision you must make when it come to brokers is whether you want a full-service broker or a discount broker.

If you are new to investing, you may need to go with a full-service broker in order to ensure that you are making wise investments. They can offer you the skills that you lack at this point. However, if you are already knowledgeable about the market you want to trade, then all you really need is a discount broker to make your trades for you.

Selecting the right broker can be a tedious battle for most traders. There are more than a hundred online brokers today and additional choices are becoming available all the time.

You’ll need to double your diligence if you’re looking for a forex trading broker. Since the foreign exchange market is worth trillions of dollars, it offers lucrative opportunities for brokers to set up their firms online. And since the foreign exchange market is decentralized, it can be hard to identify quality brokers amongst all of the unscrupulous brokers with fraudulent practices.

Your chances of finding an honest and reliable forex trading broker will dramatically increase if you use the following guidelines:

- Always request references that you can actually speak with.

- Do a check with the local regulatory agencies and make sure that the forex trading broker is registered. For U.S.-based brokers, see if they are registered as Futures Commission Merchants (FCM) with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), and registered with the National Futures Association (NFA).

- Compare the account details, such as the minimum deposit required, leverage, spreads, and so on. Ask them specifically if commissions are chargeable, lot fees, etc. This is to ensure that you do not incur hidden costs. Some sneaky brokers will deliberately give you an impression that they are the cheapest to use, but in actual fact, they’ll hit you where it hurts when it comes to hidden charges.

- The trading platform needs to be user-friendly. Many traders, especially first-timers, find it challenging to navigate trading software. Just making sense of the charts and currency prices can be a challenge. So, if there are demo accounts, try them.

These are just a few recommendations, but they should help immensely. Remember, this broker or brokerage is going to be your teammate when it comes to making you a wealthy person. So be picky and be cautious.

Markus Heitkoetter is a professional day trading coach and author of “The Complete Guide to Day Trading,” which lays out the art of day trading in a practical hands-on approach. For more information on Heitkoetter’s day trading manual, please visit http://www.thecompleteguidetodaytrading.com

While day trading offers a lucrative opportunity, it still has some inherent disadvantages that are hard to get over for many people. Here are some of them:

Loss of money

The trade is very lucrative but is also very dangerous. Many traders walk out at the end of the day with a depleted account which would not even pass as a paycheck. Depending on the decisions one makes during trading, a person could lose several hundreds to thousands of dollars

Improper money management

Because this trade revolves around money, and the money invested here could be lost at any time of the day, a trader then faces the risk of spending the money he could not afford to lose. He might find the need to borrow money from lenders or use his money intended for bills as funds for trading.

Demanding Job

Day trading is not a laid-back type of job. You have to dedicate a certain time of your day to it with full focus depending on the income you want to achieve. Also, it is a highly stressful job which demands you always make make-or-break decisions while being time pressured. For people who find it hard to focus for lengthy period, they may find this trade a bit frustrating especially when very little is actually happening.

Huge stressors

Being a trader requires you to endure huge daily stressors, not only on the perspective of possible money losses, but also because the job will require you to give all your focus on what’s happening in the markets that could affect your trades. You will also have to constantly watch the fluctuations in the prices and the market plus the indicators that will help you decide where to put your next trade.

Overnight Gaps

Trading ends as the day closes so any market activities overnight won’t affect you in anyway- even if sometimes it could be advantageous on your part.

A moving market is not a guarantee

Sometimes, the market is so active but you’ll end up with a loss or a breakeven. This could be attributed to wrong decisions on what shares to buy or to sell or wrong timing in entering the trade.

Overtrading

Overtrading - is defined as either taking too many opportunities or trading too large shares - is very prevalent in day trading. Amateurs and emotional trades find it hard not to overtrade which puts them at a lot more risks than necessary.

Miodrag Trajkovic is an expert on information related to Day Trading, Day Trading Systems, Day Trading Strategies, Online Day Trading and Day Trading Websites.
For more information visit his website http://daytrading.explore-me.com.

Every trader should test the trading strategy that they’re using. And, while testing your trading strategy, you should keep detailed records of the wins and losses in order to produce a performance report. Many software packages can help you with that, but a simple excel sheet will do the trick just as well.

Below are three things crucial to every performance report.

Net Profit

The first figure to take note of is the total, or net, profit. Obviously you want your system to generate profits, but don’t be frustrated when, during the development stage, your trading system shows a loss; try to reverse your entry signals.

You might have heard that trading is a zero sum game. If you want to buy something (e.g. a certain stock or futures contract), then somebody else needs to sell it to you. And, you can only sell a position if somebody else is willing to buy from you at the price you’re asking.

This means that if you lose money on a trade, then the person who took the other side of the trade is MAKING money. And vice versa: if you’re making money on a trade, then the other trader is losing money. In the markets, money is not “generated.” It just changes hands.

So, if you’re going long at a certain price level, and you lose, then try to go short instead. Many times this is the easiest way to turn a losing system into a winning one.

Average Profit Per Trade

The next figure to look out for is the average profit per trade. Make sure this number is greater than slippage and commissions, and that it makes your trading worthwhile. Trading is all about risk and reward, and you want to make sure you get a decent reward for your risk.

Winning Percentage

Many profitable trading systems achieve a nice net profit with a rather small winning percentage, sometimes even below 30%. These systems follow the principle: “Cut your losses short and let your profits run.” However, YOU need to decide whether you can stand 7 losers and only 3 winners in 10 trades. If you want to be “right” most of the time, then you should pick a system with a high winning percentage.

Conclusion

The above examples provide you with some guidelines, but it’s up to you to decide whether the numbers in the strategy’s performance report work for you or don’t.

Ultimately, YOU’RE the one trading the strategy, and YOU’RE the one who has to feel comfortable with the expected results of your strategy.

Markus Heitkoetter is the CEO of Rockwell Trading, Inc. and the author of “The Complete Guide to Day Trading.” Loaded with easy-to-use information, proven and reliable trading strategies, and clear-cut guidelines to success, the result of this book is a practical hands-on approach to day trading. Check it out at http://www.thecompleteguidetodaytrading.com

Daytrading emini futures markets can be a very lucrative occupation. And while you can do this from the convenience of your home, it’s very important to approach it as a business and not just some costly hobby. In fact, only those who treat this occupation strictly as a business truly succeed in it as opposed to getting lucky for a while. Even a longer while.

There are some important elements that anyone thinking about daytrading needs to know about. Some ingredients that determine success or failure in this business or, as matter of fact, in any business, for they are universal, even though specifics do differ from one business to another.

In any solid successful business venture, it all starts with a sensible plan. Daytrading eminis is no different in this respect. You need to have a plan of which markets to trade with what tools and strategies. Obviously, this means planning for your expenses on such tools and strategies, planning for drawdowns that are impossible to avoid and thus having a cushion to withstand them. You should also have some idea of how much you will make on your investment and to this end running tests is of paramount importance. It makes little sense to start trading live if you are not successful in a simulated trading.

A successful business person has a strong belief system. It’s the mental foundation of success. The same is certainly also true of successful traders. Successful business people, just like winning traders, are optimists. They have faith in their skills and faith in the future of their business. They avoid self-defeating thoughts that their environment is bound to give rise to. They are dedicated to overcoming any obstacles they encounter.

However, even with the best plan and the most solid mental grounding, your success may still be very elusive unless you buttress it with sharp focus and unwavering self-discipline.

Both focus and the quality of one’s belief system depend on a variety of things, the most important of which seems to be one’s lifestyle. To be more specific, it is how you nourish your body and your mind that determines your mental and physical energy levels. Working out, particularly if done in a systematic manner, is known to boost not only your stamina, but your brain power as well. The same goes true for right food and the right amount of sleep. Meditation, taking vitamin supplements, especially those of group B that regulate mood, can also help.

Viewed this way, daytrading eminis is hardly only a function of having right trading strategies. Sometimes even with the best strategies but not enough focus or belief in one’s ability to execute one ends up a failure.

You can find more articles about trading eminis and trading in general in A Word of Advice section of this author’s site at: http://www.eminimethods.com/advice.html

Waldemar Puszkarz, Ph.D., is a web veteran with 15 years of web surfing under his belt. By training, he is a theoretical physicist, but his interests are much broader than science and include trading financial markets, sports betting, poker, and researching online business opportunities. He is also an avid book reader and sports afficionado. Currently he is making his living mostly as a day trader. He has been in the trading trenches for almost a decade during which he has traded a variety of financial instruments. He is the owner and webmaster of Eminimethods.com (http://www.eminimethods.com) which provides free common sense trading education and simple trading systems for e-mini and stock markets as well as reviews of honest online business opportunities in Meet HOBO section of his site.

Day trading may seem easy for some people, but it is a lot harder than it seems. Others felt the need to do an intensive study on the financial market before they could achieve success. But while gain is relatively hard to attain, it is not impossible. Here are some strategies that might be helpful for traders.

Concentrate on a certain group of stocks like currencies or financials. Or you may decide to look into other kinds of companies like technology and oils. In any case, make sure that you know how the industry works. With that information, you can make better analysis and, in the process, make better decisions with your stocks.

In buying stocks, some use charting software with built-in hot lists. One strategy is to pull up the hot list and look at the stocks being traded. If you find one that meets your criteria, then purchase the same. If none of them meets the criteria, then do not do any trading for the day. Experts will tell you not to dwell too long on one kind of stock, as you may tend to purchase it even if you must not.

Another strategy is to concentrate on one trade per day. There are some long-term traders who swear by the saying “less is more.” More trading does not necessarily result to successful trading. By making single transactions per trading day, they feel that they’ve made better decisions.

But this does not necessarily mean that multiple transactions should be avoided. Some traders like the idea of making multiple transactions because they think that their money moves faster, and in effect, profit as well.

But never spend more than you can afford. While loans may be readily available, remember also that you need to pay the amount loaned plus whatever charges and interest. Investing all your money is risky, so make sure that you do not use all of it.

These are some tips which you can use when day trading. You may follow one of the strategies or define your own by integrating one or more of them. Some experts suggest on not deviating from your plan or strategy. On the other hand, there were some who changed plans and got the results that they wanted. Whichever plan you choose, in the end financial gain is all that matters. So it is important to trade wisely at all times.

Miodrag Trajkovic is an expert on information related to Day Trading, Day Trading Mistakes, Day Trading Strategies, Online Day Trading and Day Trading Systems. For more information visit his website http://daytrading.explore-me.com