Stock Market Trader Tools

By Frank Mariano

Here is an interview with a well-known trader to ask the hard questions regarding the necessary characteristics of a successful stock market trader, and also, how to maximize one's time when trading.

David: A question that has been sent in: I'm new to this game and I'm slowly but surely learning. How does one become a trader? What are the habits that are common to your family? Where must I begin so to speak in order to make the first confident step, to feel as a trader must, in knowing where to look. What I'm trying to find is an underlying process that will ensure the job's done successfully.

Like a blacksmith, in order to make a tool I need to understand the whole process in my mind before I begin. This is so I can know exactly what tool is to be used in order to develop design and the process to do this, in order to feel confident of the success, allowing that our best made plans can still fail due to unforeseen uncalculated constraints. How do I learn or find my basic processes associated to your profession?

Stuart: What I got out of this is what behaviors do we associate with a stock market trader? When I think of traders, I think of people who are structured, disciplined, they're planners, they're organized, they're efficient. A couple of important ones there are being organized and being structured. They have a methodology they follow; they have a routine that they follow, obviously complementing their plan.

David: He also mentions wanting to know what tools to use in order to develop and design and the process, when he was using the analogy of the blacksmith. There are the three m's the mindset, money management and method, making sure you have those in place. It is also taking it in the right steps. A quick overview: make sure you define your objectives. This will dictate what markets you will be trading and the methodology you will be using. Also what returns, and is it realistic.

As you look at some entries and exits and money management for that particular market and make sure you document those appropriately. Then you do some backtesting to build up the confidence or even some paper trading if you're not comfortable doing backtesting. Depending on what components you've got in your trading, some are easier to backtest than others and then you look at starting to trade your system. If you have backtested, keep monitoring your system, keep an eye on the stats as you go, to see that you are on track and you will be on your way to becoming a successful stock market trader.

Next question which is: my biggest issue is with time. With a full-time job, kids and working life limits my time. What sort of system can be used that would maximize my time? Many trading systems treat you as if all you have is all day trade, but a lot of people would rather have a system that uses less than an hour per day. How can this be done?

Stuart: Trading stocks medium term is probably the simple answer to that. I think the situation that person has raised a lot of people could relate to. That's how I started. Our ultimate goal is to give up work and trade full-time but we need to go through that apprenticeship to get to that point. While we do that we need the support and security of a full-time job until we can become a fully fledged stock market trader. - 31876

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Getting Started in Active Trading

By Jimmy Villaruel

David Jenyns and Stuart McPhee, well known, experienced traders, talk about the merits of keeping part of one's trading float back from active trading.

David: A question: do you recommend having all your trading capital in active trades or should some be kept as cash, and if so what percent?

Stuart: A good question, but it all depends. For example, my super fund I always have roughly ten percent in cash because, and this is probably more specific to Australian taxation law, during the year you have an obligation to pay tax, pay as you go. So I've always got that account with about ten percent of my capital - it's cash, it's secure, nothing will happen to it. It allows me to fulfill those tax obligations throughout the year as I have to pay as you go. But having said that, if that isn't a requirement for you and trading opportunities present themselves, there's no reason to keep some cash set aside. Using nearly everything in active trading is a great idea.

David: I'm in a similar frame of mind about that. If you're looking to trade the markets and you've set aside your trading float that's your intended purpose for the money assuming you have appropriate trading candidates. My gut feeling would be you should have, whenever possible, all your money invested. Obviously, it comes back to your system, making sure you are getting the signals. You don't want to put your money in just for the sake of having all your money in.

But I don't see any reason to limit, oh, I'll keep ten percent of the trading float just sitting in the account, just accruing interest, not involved in active trading. It's part of how you structure your wealth creation; you'll have a certain amount allocated for your trading float, you'll have a certain amount allocated for your real estate, you'll have a certain amount for cash in the bank. I see that separate from my trading float. Also with regard to backtesting you can see the utilization of your trading float. You can enter your trading float in like before. You can see over a set period of time whether you're fully utilizing or partially utilizing your cash and I always try to get as close to the top of that band as possible. So I'm as close to being maxed out as possible without being maxed out all the time.

If you're maxed out all the time and new trading opportunities come up and you don't have any capital available, it's going to throw out your backtesting a little bit because with trading opportunities you may not have been able to open.

Depending on which trade you ended up taking could significantly affect the ultimate end of your testing as to whether you made a profit or not because of whether or not you took a particular trade. So that's why if you are going to trade a particular type of system where you are constantly maxed out, where you look at Monte Carlo testing, where you look at what is the standard deviation of my trading system. How far is it between my backtesting results? What is the least profitable scenario and the most profitable scenario and you find that gap widens the more you fully utilize your cash.

You don't want to be maxed out as possible when you are doing backtesting. But definitely the major part of your float should be used for active trading. - 31876

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The Tower Of Forex - Terminology To Reach Each Other

By Tom K Kearns

If it is not enough that God came down from the heavens to see the Tower of Babel, and then separate each soul by a foreign language so that they could not talk to one another but now here lies a terminology, a language, to be used amongst the masses of foreign exchange so that they can understand one another leaving non-Forex citizens out of the loop.

As I set out to learn the language of the Forex player's world all I heard at first was babble. It all seemed to make perfect sense to the foreign exchange inhabitants. It is a language of shortened phrases, acronyms, and idioms that explain what is needed during the speeches of exchanges and trades. It is a language known best by traders. One that must be known and understood by any new or experience Forex civilian.

You will be left in the dust not being educated and fully prepped in this speech used to converse with fellow speakers. The journey into a career of a Forex trader can be forgotten if confused by the terminology or not aware of the sayings they use. For now at least.

The leading financial market of the world is Forex which trades all global currencies in real time. The basic language is a must to shine at all in the Forex market.

Terminology in the basics

The basic terminology of the Forex globe must be known to get by in the utmost way.

Bullish, if you are bullish you have a general tendency to trade on the long side of a currency pair and believe that pair will increase in price.

Bearish, if you are bearish you will have a general tendency to trade on the short side of a currency pair and believe that pair will decrease in price.

Buying a currency pair with the hope that the price will go up is referred to as Going Long.

Selling a currency that is not yet owned with the intent that there will be a decrease in price so that the currency pair can be put back at a lower price than it was sold for is called, Going Short.

Pip, as funny as it may sound, is popular as well. A pip is simply the smallest price change that a currency pair can make. It generally is equal to 10USD on full size lots of 100,000.

Range is also used, it defines itself my offering the seller information on the variety of prices being offered. The range gives the highest and lowest prices of the currencies.

A full range of definitions for the Forex language is offered on tons of websites and dictionaries. It is crucial to be prepped on the terminology needed for conversation if you are interested in a Forex trading career. Otherwise you will find yourself a lost soul roaming around, incapable of speaking to any fellow Forex inhabitants. Of course you don't want that. - 31876

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Affinity Fraud in the Forex Market, Beware

By Tom K Kearns

We were taught at our very young ages to look left and right before crossing the street; pay attention to the brightly colored cross walker that guided us, and the bus lights accompanied by the electrically pulled-out stop sign with the intent of restraining us from crossing the street. Now, in our older years concerns about money and internet scams, prompt us to keep an eye on the predators that prey upon us, like the bully at school after our lunch money.

Affinity frauds are the just some of the lions in the grass eyeing us like scrumptious meat. Affinity frauds pounce on the identifiable and very specific groups in the money markets, factions of religion, ethnicity and demographics. It is a new type of fraud in the Forex market that is being heavily watched. Some brokers play in the field of predators offering alleged investment opportunities to specific areas claiming affinity (similarity, likeness) towards them, to lure in a comfort feeling as in to better be able to reel them like fish to the hooked worm.

In a world of many peoples' the enormity of true connection is easily portrayed; via emailing, instant messaging and so on the quick and easy route to get things accomplished and get people connected is as effortless as watching ice cream melt in the son on a hot summer day. Individuals who are making investments with Forex brokers, or other types, need to be fully aware of this, and must carefully research the companies, regulators, and capital of their new found brokers, traders or investors.

Being legitimate with a few real customers is a typical move for these swindlers, forming the bond, working with them hand in hand, getting the testimonials, and then using that as collateral to fetch others. Being the lucky ones to be embarked on a fraud that can lead to damages they cannot live with is unfortunate for the "others". The lack of notifying the authority is all too common in this situation. Trying to fix issues within the group, and leaving them quickly shorthanded and alone is usually what happens instead.

Ways to avoid Affinity Frauds

1) The most important and first thing that should be done is to call and ask your state or provincial security agencies about the sales person, firm or company before investing ANYTHING. This simple maneuver can save most people a lot of money. See if the investment is allowed to be sold after asking if investor or company is registered. These investors do not care in any way for you and have a way with words so if they are not completely back away. DO your research.

2) Obtain written information from the investor on the procedures of the investment, risks of the investment, and procedures on getting your money out!

3) Get professional advice from an attorney, accountant, or financial planner. If you pay them or get it free from a friend, you will be better off.

4) Pay attention to testimonials dates. The investor's earlier people, that were legitimate, may have wonderful and enthusiastic things to say but later arrivals may not be so happy. Watch for repetitive names and out of the ordinary names. Be AWARE! - 31876

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How Do You Rate The Options University?

By Breandan Dean

More and more individuals in the market are starting to understand that options are a very good instrument for maximizing profitability, in addition to protecting capital and assets through proper hedging techniques.

In fact Options are typically known as the only true way of hedging. Whilst this can be true, it is only now that folks are really starting to realize the potential benefits of options, the issue is that they are still badly understood and basically used the wrong way by traders in the marketplace.

The way to make certain that a trader totally understands the way to make use of options in a way to maximize profits for his or her trading or business, is thru smart education and coaching. This is the single most significant issue that a trader will do in their career.

But, there is a common problem with this, in that the majority of the options trading companies teach options the wrong way round. This means that they teach basic options strategies to their students and then leave them to get on with trading live in the marketplace.

This is when the Options University comes into its own. they teach the philosophy that the real way to be ready to trade options properly, is initially by being able to find opportunities where Options can be used effectively.

They teach their clients to be able to search out the opportunities and once a trader is comfortable in doing this, they then go on on to coach the effective strategies and techniques for each different situation.

Options University offers a full vary of courses from the beginner level right through to advanced and mastery courses.

The company is run by experienced options traders who trade full time in the marketplace. This means they posess and expertise to effectively teach what they know. They additionally give live trading events and seminars, where traders can be trained and trade in live markets with professional traders.

No other options trading company currently uses this approach, or offers these opportunities to trade and learn next to successful professional traders.

However, if a trader is determined to understanding the full potential of options then they need to go further than simply signing up with the options university.

To become a successful options trader a student must be prepared to be a hundred% committed to the course and training.

An example of what is potential when fully committed Options University was shown two years ago when Ron Ianieri, one of the owners of Options University and an extremely well respected options trader within the marketplace, took a group of 12 inexperienced traders thru an full 3 month course which took them by the hand and led them all thru to a full options mastery level. - 31876

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Indicator-Based Forex Strategies.

By Andriy Moraru

No matter what type ofForex strategy you you follow, there must have been times when you entered Forex trades and then wished that you had never played it. The tactics described here will help you so you can cut down greatly on all of your trades that might in fact cause your joylessness. You have to keep in mind that a Forex indicator can always help in increasing a degree of reality to that strategy that you make use of for your Forex trading.

But with any indicator it obviously is considered as fluky if you try and perform trades depending on this factor alone. You can always be sure that if you make use of it with all your cautions that are set on the higher targets, then it can always help you to check that all of your dealing is just going in the perfect direction and that the trades are on high averages. The default setting with these forex indicators on charting case sets two different exponential moving averages at 12 and 26 days.

This is one point that is identified by a color line (but you have to keep in mind that the color might just differ based on the variation of charting package you use), which crosses a distinguished colored (9 EMA) which is also called as the triggering line. So the moment the 26/12 EMA overlaps the 9 EMA triggering line it states an upward momentum and also vice versa.

There are many Forex indicators that have a mid line or even termed as a void line that is often called as a line of water. So, when you are working with any indicator just above this middle line then the indicators states an upward trend. And in case this is right below the level then a bottom trend is indicated by the indicator. This is the fundamental strategy that is used by different indicators when you are trading in Forex trades.

Many indicators also provide you with a histogram that is in the type of vertical lines that might just appear below or above the center line. You have to ensure that there are a number of Forex indicators that are a type of lagging indicator which are designed to follow the market price action. Looking at the histogram can certainly give you a clear idea of the direction in which you Forex trading is leading at an early stage. - 31876

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Making Money With Momentum

By Christopher Fitch

As far as momentum goes, a lot of investors confuse trendline with true momentum. In fact, Momentum as a technical tool, tells investors whether that trendline is more apt to continue or reverse. Using technical analysis and events like Momentum, investors are less likely to buy high and sell low.

What Is Momentum Similar to the Moving Average Convergence-Divergence (MACD) oscillator, Momentum measures how much a security's price has changed over a given time. With a understanding of technical analysis and this particular event, investors will understand whether a slight pull back in price is part of the normal fluctuations of stock prices or if it is indeed a bearish signal for the price.

More specifically, Momentum tells investors about the strength of the underlying price trend. Using this type of technical analysis allows investors to determine overbought and oversold conditions in a security and decide whether opening or closing a position is called for. Such decisions are normally impossible to make based on security prices alone.

Calculating Momentum One of the downfalls with technical analysis is that there is a heavy mathematical component to many of the events. While this not entirely true for Momentum, investors will need to understand the basic formula required to obtain a Momentum reading. Simply, Momentum is calculated by dividing the Closing Price by the Closing price ten periods ago, and multiplying it by 100. [Close/(Close 10 time-periods ago) * 100].

Trading on Momentum When it comes to executing trades based on Momentum, the reading is quite simple to understand. Values above 0 are bullish and values below 0 are bearish. A word of caution however is that extremely higher low values might suggest a continuation of the existing trend. In the case of a sell, investors are urged to trade only if prices peak and then begin to fall and not trade before they begin to fall.

When it comes to trading on technical analysis events, investors should always use other events to confirm or refute positions they are currently considering. Never make a trade based on one technical signal. Momentum can often serve to confirm or refute other events or even the underlying price trend in a particular security.

Despite Momentum being a fairly simple even to calculate, combining it with a dozen or more other events can become burdensome. Most investors rely on trading software to calculate buying opportunities based on technical analysis. Some trading software will even make simple buy and sell recommendations. While understanding technical analysis is important, completing the work yourself is not. - 31876

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