Stocks Related Articles

Traders Mindset (Part I)

Aug 31, 2009 Stock Investing

Can you control your emotions? Can you behave like a robot? Certainly not! Human beings are emotional creatures. Our mind is capable of playing emotional tricks on us. It is often said that we are our own worst enemy. In forex trading, this is the ultimate truth. Most of our trading decisions are guided more by emotional than logical thinking.

Emotions can work against us. Emotions can work for us. Your battles are won or lost in your mind first. Victories are won and lost in ones mind. We can get seduced into unfavorable situations by our emotions. A traders mindset is the most important ingredient of success. If you have the mental strength to control your emotions, you can become a consistently profitable trader.

Forex trading is not for everyone. Do you have a strong desire to succeed in forex trading? You will end up like the majority who end up losing their money if you just want to try your luck or dabble in trading. Do you have the passion for trading forex?

You must be highly self motivated in order to become a successful forex trader. Are you ready to devote a lot of time and effort into picking up the trading skills and knowledge? You must have a concrete plan of action and not be afraid of failure.

You cannot succeed without knowledge and skills. If you want to succeed at anything, you should immerse yourself in that thing. Learn every nitty gritty. This is the only way to succeed. So you need knowledge and skills in trading currencies in order to become a successful forex trader. To attain consistent success in forex trading, a huge amount of time, effort and money is required for a trader.

Do you understand that you can suffer losses in trading? Are you willing to accept losses as part of trading? You are going to make mistakes while trading. Are you willing to learn from your mistakes? Do you have a traders log that you use to reflect on each lost trade and learn from it?

Every trade needs proper planning. Dont try to rush into a trade. Many traders enter into the trade based on someone elses market analysis. Most depend on market analysis from an analyst. If the trade turns out to be a loser, most of us tend to blame the market analysis and the opinion of the analyst. It is easy to blame others.

Dont be trigger happy? Only pull the trigger when you are confident that you have done your analysis to confirm what others are saying. Is it fair to blame someone when you could have done further market analysis on your own? When you could have planned your trade in a better way, it is foolish to blame others for your mistakes.

Fear and greed are two demons that are going to haunt you in every trade. Fear and greed are the two most important and dominant emotions that affect not only the individual traders but also the currency markets. A trader is constantly under the influence of fear and greed when trading. Can you be greedy when others are fearful? Do you need to be fearful when others are greedy? In fact, these two emotions are the main drivers of the forex markets.

Fear makes you over pessimistic about a currency pair. Similarly, greed is going to make you over optimistic in thinking that a currency is going to appreciate. In nutshell, fear and greed are behind the steering wheel of the currency market. When fear takes over, the market turns bearish. When greed takes over, the market becomes bullish.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Know Swing Trading. Learn Forex Trading!

Tags: betting, business, credit, debt, finance, forex, gambling, investing, mutual funds, poker, retirement, Stock Investing, stocks, trading, wealth building

Tips for Trading Symmetrical Triangles Long with CFDs

Aug 31, 2009 Stock Trading

The symmetrical triangle is sometimes referred to as a wedge. It is a very well known and easily recognized chart pattern that has been used by many successful traders over the years. A symmetrical triangle is formed when the price action is contained within two lines. The top line slopes down while the bottom line slopes up towards the top line. The angle of the two lines is similar giving rise to the name symmetrical.

Symmetrical Triangles, A Traders Favourite Pattern

Symmetrical triangles show no clear breakout direction. Just over half (56%) of the patterns break upwards and this is likely due to the upward bias of the markets. The average gain is 0.85% in 9 days with less than half of the breakouts (44%) being profitable.

Improve Your Trades

When you look at the performance of a symmetrical triangle surprisingly the pattern works better when the market is falling. Trading symmetrical triangles when the market is in a down trend or consolidating improves your trading results. If the sector is consolidating or rising this also improves the performance of the pattern.

A breakout from a symmetrical triangle should be after the pattern has travelled at least 30% of the length. If it breaks out early in the pattern it will produce smaller profits. In a similar way longer patterns that have a length of 25 days or more produce smaller returns.

Volume is very important with symmetrical triangles ensure that the volume is highly supportive of the breakout with the volume as the share rises 40% or more than volume as the share falls.

Symmetrical Triangles Can Be Very Profitable

Following a series of simple rules to determine which symmetrical triangle to trade can improve results dramatically. By applying these filters symmetrical triangles are profitable on 55% of the trades and return an average of 1.87% per trade in 11 days. This is a very profitable pattern to trade.

Note: Statistics for this article have been provided by Patterns Trader after analyzing over 60,000 chart patterns on the Australian market from 2000 – 2008.

Jeff Cartridge has been trading chart patterns since 1998 and created the website LearnCFDs.com A Simple Timeless Method for Huge Gains

Tags: CFD Trading Symmetrical Triangles, Chart Pattern Trading, Contracts for Difference, Stock Market, Stock Trading, Trading CFDs, Trading Chart Patterns, Trading Stocks, Trading Symmetrical Triangles, Trading Symmetrical Triangles Long

Top 5 Investing strategies

Aug 31, 2009 Stock Investing

1. Advertising: Advertising now occupies the first position amongst all the other investment strategies. With world racing with enormous speed, there is also a subsequent development in the field of media. There are plenty of organizations and companies that are totally dependent on the public people-they manufacture products expecting the public to buy them so that they can make a fortune. And for these products to gain exposure, it needs some level of advertisement among the public. This is where the advertising companies come into the scene. As the number of products increase rapidly, there have been a great demand for advertisements in the same pace. Investing in such advertising companies can ear you good fortune.

2. Using Long-Standing Investment Strategies: Prefer long run investing strategies that will help guard the investment capital from losses and risks. Enduring strategies comprise dividend investing, with the intention that one can bring in compounded interest which actually sums up in the long run. Investment strategies like these seek to decrease the losses in capital, and are generally more conventional than temporary investing strategies and practices. One might receive a little a smaller amount of a come back with this conservative investing, however the advantage is that the risks are very much lower.

3. Set aside some amount of your income: Setting aside some money as investment is a better investment strategy. No one likes to risk his life when he gets retired and also no one knows how much money he’ll get when he retires. So, it is very important to ‘make hay when the sun shines’. Set apart some amount of your incomes and invest in some fruit-yielding area so that you don’t have to suffer much when you are at your retiring age.

4. Diverse Investments: Diverse investments are other popular forms of investment strategies nowadays. These are generally invested in collaboration with some popular or prospective organizations. Profits generated by the companies are shared amongst the company people and the investors based on the amount each has invested in it. Diverse Investments are generally made keeping the long term returns in mind. This clearly states that one cannot expect higher return over a short period of time. Generally speaking, it is not wise for the investor to withdraw from diverse investments in the middle of its operations-doing so cannot help the investor in any form. The more you stay with the company, the more value your share acquires. Stay with the company as long as you can so that you can generate higher return for the investments you make. You can withdraw at any point of operation.

5. Recognize the pattern: Just investing in something expecting high return is nothing but a foolish task, particularly in stocks. In an investment field such as a stock market, it is very beneficial to recognize the pattern of the stocks so as to make necessary changes in one’s own investment strategy. Stock market is terribly volatile and what is now present cannot continue in the next second. Recognizing the pattern beforehand can help you establish your stocks in the market.

The top investing strategies do not occupy the same positions every time. The positions keep on changing according to the market trends. It is highly advised to research the market and recognize the ‘fruit-yielding’ areas that promise you higher returns for the investments you are making. Also, be prudent in your decisions and never make hasty decisions in a hurry. Thinking before you act twice can benefit you a lot and can possible help you employ a safer approach.

Read more about investing strategies by being directed an archive of articles on this subject and other sources knitted closely to investing strategies.

Tags: finance, information on investing, investing, investing financially, Investing in stocks, investing money, Investment Strategies, investments, Stock Investing, Stocks and shares

News Straddling (Part VI)

Aug 30, 2009 Stock Investing

News straddling strategy depends on the use of a stop-limit order. A stop-limit order is basically an order that becomes a limit order once the currency reaches the designated stop price. At the specific price the stop-limit order becomes a limit order. The stop-limit order will instruct the broker to buy or sell at the specific price only when the specified stop price has been reached.

The main advantage of using the stop-limit order is that the trader can decide ahead of time the price at which the trade will get executed in the News Straddling strategy. However, the stop-limit order may not get filled at all. This is exactly what our strategy is. Either we get the price that we want or we dont trade!

Due to the fast moving nature of the market, the currency price may not stay within the limit range for the order to get executed. Second reason could be there is not enough supply and demand at the price at which the order is to be filled.

By placing the stop limit order, we are instructing the broker that the entry price is either filled at the limit price or better. If not possible than the order is not executed at all! It is better that the position is not filled at all if we are not able to trade at the entry price that we want. Using stop-limit order helps us avoid risking slippage.

However some brokers do not allow stop-limit orders on their platforms. If the broker does not allow the use of stop-limit order, simply look for another broker that does allow it. Simple as that!

The news straddling approach is conceptually similar to a channel breakout strategy. Most often, a horizontal channel is formed prior to the release of the news. This channel may be identified on the intraday 5 minute or 60 minutes chart.

First draw a lower line connecting the two lowest points, forming the support line. Then draw a second line connecting the two highest points to form the resistance line. The two line snow forma channel. The channel should be roughly like 40 pips wide.

A channel basically tells that neither the bulls nor the bears are over enthusiastic about their bias before an important new release. Once you have identified and drawn the channel on the 5 minute chart, monitor it for 20 minutes prior to the news release.

Place a stop limit long entry order a few pips above the resistance level and a stop limit short entry order a few pips below the support level of the channel. Name of the game is that we either enter at the price that we want or we completely stay out of the market. Place your entry order not more than a few minutes before the news release.

For a long entry, a stop sell order is placed at least 20 pips below the resistance level. For a short order, a stop sell order is placed at least 20 pips above the support level. Each stop-limit entry order must be accompanied with a specified stop loss order and profit-limit orders.

What should be your take profit target? The initial take profit target could be equal to the width of the channel. A staggered profit taking could also be considered. You can set your initial profit objective for half of your lot size and you could set profit target equal to the twice the width of the channel for the rest of the position.

Tags: betting, business, credit, debt, finance, forex, gambling, investing, mutual funds, poker, retirement, Stock Investing, stocks, trading, wealth building

Learn Forex Trading-Get Ahead Early

Aug 30, 2009 Stock Chart

Learn Forex Trading and stay ahead of the game, because in the world of cut-throat business, it pays to be prepared. When trading forex it pays to know who the players are, know the market conditions and the risks involved. Be aware of what you are looking at: the currency you are trading, the factors that affect the value of the currency you are trading, your trading strategy and current market trends. You can be ahead of the curve if you take the time to learn forex trading.

A forex trading course can be fundamental to learn forex trading.A couple of reasons to look at a forex trading course would be:

Why do you need a forex trading course? To really learn forex you need to understand charting, forex terminology, and some of the common processes pertaining to forex trading. A forex trading course will provide all of this and more so you can learn forex.

A good forex trading course not only provides the technical tools to learn forex but it will also teach you to control your emotions and stress when trading forex. Forex trading demands discipline, which you can get if you will invest in a good forex trading course to learn forex.

To learn forex trading you should invest in a forex trading course that includes the following:

*Forex Trading Basics- This should include the basic language used when trading forex. It should give good definitions as well as offer some discussion on terms like how to leverage a trade, charts and how to use indicators to analyze them, margins, and order types to use when you learn forex trading.

*Analytics-Technical and fundamental analysis should be discussed along with the software and or tools you will need to use when trading forex. A good forex trading course will help you learn forex analysis which can keep your losses low and your profits high.

*Learn Forex Trading Values- This can be the key to becoming a successful forex trader, by having the understanding not only of the value of money but also the discipline it takes to trade forex without emotion. Learn forex with a good forex trading course and you will learn these trading values.

Learn forex trading with the help of a trading course that offers simulated trading boards or rooms or even real time trading gives you invaluable experience. As a student being able to discuss what you have learned, your trading strategy, or views on the latest indicators will keep you ahead of the pack in the forex market.

A forex trading course is a great way to jump-start learning forex trading. If you invest in a good trading course, learn the basics, study the market, learn how to analyze the fluctuations in the market, and manage the psychology of trading you can be on the road to success. Being well equipped will lead to higher profits as well as the ability to successfully learn forex trading.

Tags: currency market, education, Financial, forex, forex education, forex trading, forex trading course, learn forex, learn forex trading, money, Stock Chart, work from home

Money Management in Trading Systems

Aug 30, 2009 Stock Trading

How to manage money when buying stocks, futures, or options — what you must know before you buy.

Many people have a very crucial problem, they take on more risk than they can. It really doesn’t matter if you’re very young, if you take risk to the extreme and continue down that path, you will by mathematical law in all probability lose money.

Lets say you had an almost sure investment that was 85% likely to succeed. When it succeeded you double your money. You put all your money on it. The problem is, when the investment fails, you lose everything. Now it is just a fact that you will eventually lose everything if you continue to invest everything. You only need one trade and you are wiped out completely. Now, even if you invested 90% of your money on an investment that would win 80% of the time, you still are taking on too much risk to win in the long run. If you lose once, you will need a 1000% return just to get back to even. That simply will not happen forever, and even if it did, the large loss would limit your potential for gain so much, that you’d be better off not taking on the maximum risk.

Now, your risk of losing everything can never be completely 100% eliminated, even with conservative strategies. If you flip enough coins, eventually you’ll get a very rare event such as 100 heads in a row. However, you’ll also get 100 tails in a row. The idea is that you have a strategy that yields you more when you win, and/or wins more than it loses. in this case there will be several losses in a row, but there will also be several wins in a row. If you manage your money properly, you will still have enough money if you get several losses in a row, to be able to more than make up for it when you get several wins in a row. If you are forced to limit the amount of capital after so many losses, that you cannot invest with the same amount after the losses, you may be unable to win enough to make up for those losses. The idea is to keep your investments small enough to limit the chances of that happening. Although almost nothing is a sure thing, by using proper money management, you tip the odds in your favor.

Even if you have a profitable method, if you do not manage your risk, your profitable method becomes unprofitable. It’s not usually the investment vehicle, it’s the investor that ultimately determines how quickly you fail, and ultimately whether you are able to succeed. Under the same context, it’s not usually the type of car, but the driver that determines whether you cause an accident. In order to protect yourself, you must keep your positions at a manageable level, and make sure to keep yourself limited by these rules that will limit your risk of ruin and keep the odds in your favor so you can stay in the game.

So how exactly does one manage money in a trading system? You need to determine probability of a move taking place. If you buy OTM option, the stock will have to move larger for success to occur. Of course if it does, the reward will be greater. There are probability curves based on a random walk theory that will assist you in determining the probability of a move taking place, until you know any better, use these. However, you also should use your own records of your system Determine both your risk/reward (your average % win divided by your average percentage losses, and in addition figure out your likelihood of success. When you do this, you can use what’s known as the Kelly Criterion By using the formula as follows Kelly % = W – [(1 - W) / R] Kelly % = The maximum percentage of your capital you should invest per position. W = Winning probability R = Win/loss ratio

A trading system that contains good money management rules will not only outperform one without, but it will also help protect your capital, and keep you in the game.

Tags: forex, futures, how to buy stock, Investment, investments, Options, Stock, Stock Market, Stock Trading, stock trading systems, stocks, system, systems, trading, trading strategy

You Can Invest In The Stock Market

Aug 30, 2009 Stock Chart

Stock market investing has always seemed like a game of cat and mouse. When you have caught the mouse you are happy, however when it leaves or the market decreases you are extremely upset. Despite the present state of our economy people are still engaging in investing in the stock market. In fact the internet has opened up a lot of doors to online investments as well in stock picks.

With investing on the internet, you eliminate the middle man also known as your broker. You are able to make your own decisions about your investments and where you would like them to go. There are a wide array of different brokerage platforms that you can become apart of.

There are many different aspects that you need to look further into before you begin engaging in any type of stock market investing. One of the first factors that many people seldom bare to look at is the way that the stock market can inadvertently play with your emotions.

You need to be prepared for both the good as well as the bad sides of investing. If you give up every time a stock that you have invested in decreases in value, you will never be able to make a substantial amount of money with your investments.

Many people try to avoid getting themselves involved in the technical aspect of investing. However, the greater knowledge that you have concerning the market the smarter investments you can then commence to make. Studying various things such as investment charts and things of that nature will only help further your knowledge about the market and benefit you in the long run.

You should also seek out as much information as you possibly can concerning a company that you are drawing an interest in investing in. Look over that companies financial reports and determine if you think it will be a good idea to invest your money in that particular company or not. After all everyone is into stock market investing in a means to earn an extra income not to lose everything.

Tags: business, finance, investing, Stock Chart, Stock Market, Stock Trading

Discover The Truth About Out Of The Money Covered Call Option Writing!

Aug 30, 2009 Stock Chart

Incredible things have been promised by many websites and e-books regarding investment training strategies. One of the more common stock market trading strategies taught is to sell covered call options on stocks. These websites promise that you can earn up to 10% monthly returns using that very strategy. Sound good? Read on.

I will be the first to admit that selling out-of-the-money covered calls can bring lucrative monthly returns under the right circumstances. This strategy has been successfully used by me. However, this strategy is not without its disadvantages. The public has not been properly educated by the website and e-book marketers. They market this strategy as conservative with little risk. They leave you holding the bag when it all goes wrong.

Selling out-of-the-money covered calls works when the stock market is going up in value. They also work when the stock market is neutral, meaning the market trades sideways with little swing up or down. I don’t know about you, but when was the last time the stock market traded sideways for any length of time?

We are currently in the midst of an extremely volatile market. We have recently seen swings in the Dow as much as 200 points in either direction on any given day. Hardly a profitable market for an out-of-the-money covered call writer. Once that stock you are holding starts to decline, so do your profits. I can assure you that profits can evaporate very quickly. I have seen stocks fall from $10 per share to $1 per share over night! There is never enough premium on an option sale to cover that kind of decline.

The key to out-of-the-money covered call writing is to select stocks that will get called. Too many advocates of this strategy do not want the stock to get called. They want you to keep the stock so you can sell a covered call option on it the next month. This is a flawed strategy. You need to select stocks that are trending up in value, hence, a rising market. Those are the stocks that will maximize your profit. If the stock gets called, I know I ended up making my maximum anticipated return.

What if the stock shoots way up in value? The stock simply gets called away if it rises up past the strike price and stays there through expiration. Isn’t that what you wanted to begin with? Because you did not participate in those gains you may feel like you left money on the table. If that upsets you then just buy the stock outright and don’t sell covered call options on that stock. Why not just let the stock get called away, take your profit and move on? Then look for another stock to buy and sell calls on for the next month.

Remember, selling out-of-the-money covered calls can provide an excellent source if income in a rising stock market. However, the stock market we find ourselves in today is less than ideal for this strategy. There are, however, other strategies that will offer significant protection in a volatile or declining stock market.

Tags: baby boomer, covered calls, investing, investments, Options, retirement, Stock Chart, Stock Market, strategy, wealth building, writing

The Forex-trading Foreign Currencies Daily

Aug 30, 2009 Stock Trading

I am sure, most of you when you read this word ‘forex’ would turn over the page showing no interest in the topic as you don’t know what it is or might just read a line or two to know what forex is all about. In both the cases I am going to tell you about forex trading.

Well it’s pretty simple forex stands for foreign exchange; it’s also known as FX. When trading in forex you are buying one currency and at the same time selling another-that is, the sold currency is exchanged for the one you are buying. Forex is a busy faculty. Traders are on their toes every minute. They have to wait for signals and change their decisions at the drop of a hat. Huge profit can be made, and big losses can be made. Its part of the game.

Foreign exchange markets help international trade and investment. The biggest markets currently are the London, New York and Tokyo foreign exchanges. This is in terms of how much foreign currency they trade respectively. The UK is therefore the largest turnover market.

Any time there is political unrest in a country, you can see the currency rapidly lose its value. Whenever there is a Presidential election, the value of the U. S. Dollar fluctuates greatly, as well. It’s hard to know when currency is going to gain or decline in value. A large deal of investing on the Forex is through speculation.

Forex trading is open 24 hours starting from Sydney and following the globe as the sun rises and the day begins. One should not forget FX is the most traded market in existence.

Forex trading software has now been introduced and have changed the entire game. They are web based platforms that sift through the confusion of the trade. They are so easy to use that it is now possible for anyone to wake up and give it a try. Forex trading for dummies if you please. They find the most trending currencies and markets for you. They will project likely highs and lows for you on a daily basis and they are numerous.

Using Forex trading software allows the user to look at statistical analysis. This allows the user to make better informed decisions faster. They allow direct online trading. Their biggest advantage off course is that they simplify the whole process.

A Forex robot is like a personal professional trader in your computer. It will manage all your money accounts in the trading process. It does all the work for you searching and investing even without your further input. Basically you do not have to monitor your own trading.

The advantages of forex trading bots and softwares are that they are actually smarter than you. They are not developed by an individual. They have inputs from dozens of people all specialized in Forex trading. One may rather gamble with a bot than trust their own instinct.

If not this, forex has even introduced automated forex software which runs signals and strategies from third party signal providers in the account. Using these traders can monitor, control and configure trades from signal providers. This automated trading software doesn’t need you to keep track of the trades. The management of money and execution is automatic, and includes trailing stop losses, stop and limit orders and trade updates. By using this you cannot miss any trade and sleep peacefully. Want to give forex trading a shot because you think you have the nag of handling this trading market then go ahead and test yourself!

Tags: business, currency trading, finance, forex, investing, Investment, Stock Market, Stock Trading, trading

CFD Trading Strategy – Symmetrical Triangles Downside Breakout

Aug 28, 2009 Stock Chart

The symmetrical triangle can be traded on the short side entering the trade as the stock breaks out of the pattern to the downside. The pattern forms when the two boundary lines that contain the price movement converge to a point. The bottom line slopes up toward the top line which slopes down. Both lines have nearly the same slope as each other which is why the pattern is called symmetrical.

Symmetrical Triangles, Not Usually Traded Short

Symmetrical triangles provide no clear breakout direction, but 45% break out to the downside making it possible to trade on the short side. Just 44% of these breakouts are profitable and on average the profit per trade is only 0.33% over a period of 9 days. The symmetrical triangle is not one of the best chart patterns when it breaks to the downside, but applying some filters can make this pattern more attractive to trade.

Improve Your Trades

When you look at the performance of a symmetrical triangle in bearish market conditions you will see the results were stronger than they were in more bullish years. The market, sector and stock should be in a down trend or consolidating to make the best profits.

Symmetrical triangles that breakout early in the pattern, which is not many, produce inferior results to those that breakout later. The best results are achieved when the stock climbs up from the lower boundary and collapses back before reaching the upper boundary of the pattern.

Ensure that the volume is supportive of the breakout, i.e. volume as the stock falls is greater than volume as the stock rises. One last filter that improves the results is to look for the share to close lower prior to the breakout.

Short Trading Symmetrical Triangles Can Be Profitable

Incorporating these simple changes when selecting symmetrical triangles to trade short, dramatically improves the results. With an average return per trade of 1.58% in 9 days and a hit rate of 47% it is possible for symmetrical triangles to be traded short successfully.

Note: Statistics for this article have been provided by Patterns Trader after analyzing over 60,000 chart patterns on the Australian market from 2000 – 2008.

Tags: CFD Trading Strategy, Chart Patterns, Stock Chart, Stock Market, Stock Market Trading, Symmetrical Triangles, Trading Chart Patterns, Trading Stocks, Trading Symmetrical Triangles, Trading Symmetrical Triangles Short