Owner: Futures Blogger URL:http://www.FuturesBlogger.com Join Date: Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:51:35 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: How to day trade futures: Articles, trading tips, charts and videos, including futures trading strategies, systems and resources, plus money management and trading psychology for successful traders. You will find that these strategies will work for Forex Site statistics:Click here
Using Support And Resistance to Develop Futures Trading Triggers 2007-07-30 04:23:19 Many traders new to futures trading make the mistake of thinking in terms of stocks. Futures trading is concerned not with individual stock performance but with the macro logic of the market. Futures traders watch the indexes, not the stocks. Remember, the market is always seeking equilibrium, constantly oscillating between previous highs and lows. Futures traders use support and resistance to gauge the range of the day and locate potential market turning points. Learn to successfully and consistently locate these turning points and the spread becomes your playground — and cash cow! (more…) Read more:Support
, Resistance
, Trading
, Triggers
Gear Up For Trading Success: Hone Your Technique 2007-07-25 11:07:51 Technique, psychology and money management are the three essential elements that must be mastered to become a successful trader. You’ve developed a money management system, you’ve got your head in the profit zone (see our posts dated July 19 & 20), now comes the hard part: developing a system and honing your technique. (more…) Read more:Trading
, Success
New Video Reveals Secrets of Futures Trading 2007-07-25 07:10:45 Curious about futures trading? Want to see how we pros do it? I have prepared a short video that takes you through the start of a typical market day. Click here to watch the action. (more…) Read more:Trading
, Secrets
, Futures Trading
Get Your Head Into The Profit Zone 2007-07-20 17:33:46 To be a successful futures trader you have to master three essential elements: technique, psychology and money management. Mastery and balance of all three elements is vital to success. In our last post we talked about the importance of money management. Today we’re going to discuss psychology. (more…)
Don’t Quit Your Day Job — Yet! 2007-07-19 06:15:28 Success as a futures trader is dependent on your ability to master technique, psychology and money management. Life as a trader can be phenomenally successful, but it can be equally risky, particularly while you’re learning to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. It would be a mistake to quit your day job until you’ve mastered the three elements of successful trading. Master only one and your lack of knowledge and expertise in either one of the other two areas may bring you to the brink of disaster and topple you over. Remember, mastery and balance of all three elements is vital to success. (more…) Read more:mdash
What Are E-Minis? 2007-07-17 05:54:00 E-mini futures trading is a specialized type of derivative futures index trading. E-minis are small futures contracts on the S&P 500 index, the NASDAQ 100 index, Russell 2000, or the Dow 30 index. It’s a way for small individual investors to participate in the broad movements of the market. The lure of index futures trading is the excitement of pitting yourself against the broad market, not individual stock issues. Trading e-minis allows even relatively small investors to try their hand. (more…) Read more:Minis
The Birth Of The Futures Market 2007-07-13 14:57:16 In a Windy City a long time ago . . .
Though some suspect the ancient Phoenicians and Greeks may have dabbled in futures trading, the modern futures market was born in Chicago with the establishment of the Chicago Board of Trade in 1848. Know as the hog butcher to the world, Chicago was also the commercial hub connecting Midwestern plains farmers with East Coast food merchants. Telegraph lines, railroads and shipping all passed through Chicago. It was to Chicago that Midwestern farmers came in the 1840s to sell the wheat that fed the world. (more…) Read more:Market
Telephone Clerk Charged With Trading Fraud 2007-07-12 07:17:22 “US District Court has ordered a telephone clerk of a NYMEX Floor Brokerage operation to pay more than $3.6 million for defrauding his employer.”You can read the full article here from the Commodities Futures Trading
Commission website. (more…) Read more:Clerk
, Charged
S&P eMini Trades 6-19-07 2007-07-09 22:09:52
Safe Sling Shot Trades
When is it a safe bet to enter a continuation trade? Always look back to the most recent support or resistance (more…)
Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Futures Trader? 2007-07-09 18:54:56 With the right tools futures trading can be as easy as 1-2-3. Successful trading is 90% mental, 90% money management and 10% signals. So do you need to be a superman to become a successful trader? No, it only seems that way!
You do have to hone your skills, learn your trading system inside and out, develop a money management plan that works for you, and learn to read market signals. And you have to practice, practice, practice to develop confidence in your system and your abilities. Futures trading is not for the faint of heart. It’s a risky business that attracts the world’s best and brightest. A game of skill, futures trading is equally a battle of sharp wits and killer instincts. Develop yours and the world is your oyster! (more…) Read more:Trader
How to Develop Good Futures Trading Habits 2007-08-03 06:55:39 I always tell my new clients: “One of the most important things you can do to improve your trading is to develop specific patterns of behavior.”
Tiger Woods doesn’t plop the ball on the ground and flail away. He follows a regimented and very carefully practiced series of steps to give himself the best possibility of success. Following a pattern of behavior time after time has helped to make him the world’s most successful golfer. (more…) Read more:Trading
, Futures Trading
Win Or Lose, In Futures Trading It’s How You Play The Game That Counts 2007-08-09 00:52:18 You’ve heard the maxim: A win is not always a win and a loss is not always a loss. It’s true in many aspects of life and particularly in futures trading. Making a profit does not always indicate a correct trade. Likewise, losing money does not always indicate a wrong trade. What is essential for futures traders to realize is that the inherent rightness or wrongness of your trading method can not be determined by the outcome of any one single trade. Those who incessantly tinker around with their system, trying to fine tune it to perfection after every trade, are doomed. Those who jump from system to system, searching for that elusive perfect system, are doomed. (more…) Read more:Trading
, Counts
, Futures Trading
Futures Traders Make Money Betting on the Direction of the Market 2007-08-06 20:11:46 Futures traders make their money betting on the direction of the market. The market can only do two things; reverse or continue the trend. In short term day trading, the trend is not always your friend! On a normal day, the e-Mini S&P market fluctuates and reverses as much as 40 points. Catching these turns and continuation moves is the goal of futures day traders. (more…) Read more:Money
, Direction
, Market
How Successful Futures Traders Handle Loss 2007-08-12 01:34:03 If you are a futures trader, you’ve already learned that losing is part of the game. How you handle loss emotionally will determine whether you succeed or fail as a futures trader. You cannot allow yourself to become emotionally incapacitated by loss. Like the song goes: You have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again. (more…) Read more:Handle
Shortcuts To Trading Success 2007-08-19 17:20:38 When you’re climbing the learning ladder to success (see our last post), that last step is a huge leap! You may find yourself at the conscious competence level for a very long time before everything becomes so practiced and so ingrained that you reach unconscious competence and start trading in the zone as a master trader. Even when you’re in the groove and really working it, it takes time and practice, practice, practice before your routine and technique click to autopilot and using your system becomes automatic and effortless. (more…) Read more:Shortcuts
, Trading
, Success
Making Loss Work For You As A Futures Trader 2007-08-15 18:31:00 If you learn to make your losses work for you, they can become your ally, not your enemy. Last time we talked about loss and how it can galvanize you to refine your system and improve your approach, setting you up for success as a futures trader. It’s like they say in sports, “No pain, no gain.” Loss motivates you to learn. (more…) Read more:Trader
Climbing The Learning Ladder To Trading Success 2007-08-23 00:19:34 Loss is the futures trader’s bugaboo, that annoying little wisp of fear in the back of your subconscious that keeps you from pulling the trigger and achieving success. To succeed as a futures trader you have to squelch thoughts of previous failures and concentrate on learning the new skills that will lead you to success. (more…) Read more:Learning
, Ladder
, Trading
, Success
The Education Of A Successful Futures Trader 2007-08-26 00:26:39 Becoming a successful futures trader doesn’t happen overnight. You don’t read a book and Voila! another successful futures trader dazzles Wall Street. It would be nice, but it’s just not going to happen. Once you decide to become a futures trader there’s a lot of hard work ahead. (more…) Read more:Education
, Trader
The Importance Of Loss In Achieving Futures Trading Success 2007-08-09 12:01:48 Whenever my team lost, the coach would tell us, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” Over the years I’ve learned there’s truth to that statement but that, personally, I’d rather win. I’ve also learned the power of loss. My dad used to say, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Good words to remember for a futures trader. It’s from the small losses that you learn how to win. (more…) Read more:Trading
, Success
No Room For Emotion In Futures Trading 2007-09-22 01:14:27 If you’re going to be a successful futures trader, you have to learn to take emotion out of the equation. Learn to trade like a robot. There’s no room for emotion in futures trading.
Futures traders learn to trust themselves and their system. If you start letting emotion rule your decisions, fear, anger and greed will undermine your carefully planned and practiced strategies. It is by persistently following your system, by dispassionately relying on what your charts tell you, by religiously following your indicators that you will succeed as a futures trader. (more…) Read more:Emotion
, Trading
, Futures Trading
The Value Of Stop Losses To Futures Traders 2007-09-18 00:25:20 Futures traders use two types of stop losses when they trade: mental stops and physical stops. It’s important to understand the difference between the two and figure out how and when to use them. The purpose of a stop loss is to limit your trade losses. When traders set a stop loss, they are determining the specific price at which they will sell to limit their loss — in other words, their exit strategy. (more…) Read more:Value
, Losses
Futures Traders Need To Learn When NOT To Trade 2007-09-14 11:20:29 Successful futures traders have learned that there are times with NOT trading is the most successful strategy. Achieving success as a futures trader is 90% mental preparation. If you are not mentally prepared, do NOT trade. It can be dangerous and financially disastrous to trade if you are distracted, angry, worried, scared or emotionally distraught. Just as physical illness, tiredness or pain prevent you from focusing on your trading, so does emotional distress. You must have your head in the game every second to succeed as a futures trader. (more…) Read more:Trade
How to Build a Solid Futures Trading System 2007-09-10 23:58:18 Last time we talked about how to evaluate the effectiveness of a futures trading system. But how do you build a solid trading system? Just like anything else:
Start with your goal. What do you want to accomplish or achieve? What end result are you aiming for? This is your goal.
Develop a plan to achieve your goal. You’ll need to factor in the risks, rewards, terms and conditions necessary to achieve that goal.
Execute the plan and closely monitor the results.
Make incremental changes to your plan until it reliably produces the results you want to achieve.
Take your internal temperature. Gauge your emotions. Can you trade these signals and play the probabilities for gain vs loss laid out in your system. You must have confidence in your system and the mental fortitude to play it.
(more…) Read more:Trading
, Build
, Solid
, System
Show Me The Money! What Charts Show Futures Traders 2007-09-04 12:58:01 Show me the money! In a nutshell that’s the goal of futures trading: to make money. Charts
track money. They peel away the rumors and the news reports, the CEO’s prognostications and your neighbor’s hot tip. They show us what master day trader Oliver Velez terms the footprints of money (ref. Tools and Tactics for the Master Day Trader by Oliver Velez and Greg Capra). (more…) Read more:Money
In Futures Trading, What Is The Spread? 2007-10-01 00:18:24 You can profit in futures trading when you understand what the spread is and how to make it work for you. An arbitrage technique, the spread is the purchase of one futures contract and the simultaneous sale of a different but related futures contract. The goal of the futures trader is to make money on the change in the price difference between the two contracts. (more…) Read more:Trading
, Spread
, Futures Trading
Practicing For Success As A Futures Trader 2007-09-28 01:35:09 Practice makes perfect, my mother used to say. It’s as true of futures trading as of anything else. Before you put your hard-earned cash on the line, you need to practice trading if you want to succeed as a futures trader.
Making practice trades allows you to: (more…) Read more:Success
, Trader
Negative Personality Traits Affect Futures Trading Success 2007-10-13 08:33:54 There are certain psychological characteristics that can negatively impact your ability to succeed as a futures trader. Learn to recognize these behaviors in yourself and guard against them.
Cheapskate. Many people are foolishly cheap. They are so anxious to start trading on the futures markets that they ignore the necessity of first acquiring the proper education, tools and software to succeed. These people will lose more money in their first round of trades than they would have spent on the tools that would have allowed them to succeed. You can’t be “penny wise but pound foolish,” as my grandmother would say. Don’t nickel and dime your training budget. If you truly want to succeed as a futures trader, spend the money to learn from the best and acquire the best tools available. Click here to hear what my students have to say and learn more about my Futures Trading
Secrets Course.
(more…) Read more:Negative
, Personality
, Traits
, Affect
, Success
, Futures Trading
The Impact Of The Media On Futures Markets And Traders 2007-10-07 01:27:22 The power of the media to lead public opinion has been demonstrated time and again. While the fourth estate would argue that they are merely reporting the news, they do, in fact, manipulate – and to a certain extent create – the news, particularly with regard to the economy and the markets. The market is a reflection (some would say, prediction) of national and world economy. In part, market movement is driven by the emotions of people, their confidence or fear, satisfaction or greed. (more…) Read more:Markets
Futures Traders Can Increase Profits By Trading Options 2007-10-04 02:06:09 In 1982 the futures markets started trading options. The appeal of trading options as opposed to futures is the potential to increase profit — often substantially — while limiting risk.
What is an option on a future? An option gives the buyer the right but does not obligate him to buy or sell a particular futures contract at a set price at any time prior to a specific date. When the option is exercised, it is the actual futures contract that is delivered to settle the transaction, not cash. (more…) Read more:Trading
, Options
Hone Mind, Body To Achieve Futures Trading Success 2007-10-16 00:27:50 Just as a craftsman keeps his tools sharp, clean and well organized, so must a futures trader keep his “tools” in peak operating condition. A futures trader’s ultimate tools are his mind and his body. Yes, we use systems, triggers, indicators, charts and other tools and tactics — all important. But without the human trigger they are useless. If you do not take care of your physical and mental self and keep yourself in peak trading condition, you will not be able to maintain the level of concentration, stamina, quick reflexes and clear thinking necessary to succeed as a futures trader. (more…) Read more:Trading
, Success
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