The first question. How do you identify whether this is a Hanging Man or a Hammer? Hammer and the Hanging Man both have a very small candle body accompanied by a long wick either on the bottom. If this type of pattern appears at the top of an uptrend with the long wick at the bottom, it is a Hanging Man. And if it appears at the bottom of an downtrend it is a Hammer.

Now, in most of the cases, you will also find a small wick on the top of the candle body. Now suppose, you find the Hammer or the Hanging Man. What you need is to look for the confirmation the next day!

If the opening price on the next day is less than the previous day’s close, you have a true Hanging Man. If not, then that was not a true Hanging Man. Now suppose, you think that you have spotted the Hanging Man in an uptrend. Wait for the confirmation the next day with the opening price.

A Hammer should have a very small candle body with a long wick at the bottom. Similarly suppose, you think that you have correctly spotted the Hammer in a downtrend. You should confirm this with the opening price on the next day. If the opening price is higher than the closing price the previous day, you have a true Hammer. If the opening price is not higher than the closing price the last day, it is not a true Hammer!

Whenever, you trade candlestick patterns, first spot them correctly than wait for the confirmation on the following day. The best chart for these candlestick patterns is the daily chart. Once, you get the confirmation, trade these patterns. They can be highly profitable. But in case, you don’t get the confirmation the next day with the price action, simply ignore the pattern as not true.

A Spinning Top is another candlestick pattern that reveals a tight battle between the bulls and the bears. Whenever, the battle between the bulls and the bears ends in a draw on a trading day, the following day, one side has to give in. When this happens an explosive move in one direction is highly likely.

How to identify a SPINNING TOP? A Spinning Top has a very small candle body in the middle with two equal wicks on the top and the bottom. This pattern appears very frequently in the daily charts and can be highly profitable if spotted correctly.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Master Candlestick Patterns with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide! Download your FREE COPIES of the HVMM Ultimate Day Trading System and the Universal Risk & Money Management Tool!

MLPs are public entities that trade on public exchanges. An MLP issues shares that trade on an exchange just like a company stocks that trades on an exchange. You can invest in an MLP by buying its shares on an exchange. The shares that an MLP issues are called Units and the investors who own them are known as Unit Holders.

Now most of the MLPs trade on the New York Stock Exchange. A few MLPs also trade on the NASDAQ and the AMEX. When you invest in an MLP, you are essentially investing in public partnership. There are tax advantages to investing in MLP. Unlike regular corporations, an MLP is only taxed once. Because of Congressional Legislation, any MLP that derives 90% or more of its income from the production, distribution and transformation of commodities qualifies for this tax exempt scheme. You must be curious how this tax advantage works out.

There is a tax exemption on MLPs. You must be curious how this tax advantage works out. Because of Congressional Legislation, any MLP that derives 90% or more of its income from the production, distribution and transformation of commodities qualifies for this tax exempt scheme.

This tax advantage gives an MLP competitive advantage as compared to other corporations when competing for assets. This means a huge advantage for an MLP. Now an MLP is run by a General Partner (GP). In most cases, the majority of these GPs in MLPs are other corporate entities setup with the specific purpose of running an MLP.

The role of a GP is very important in an MLP. You as an investor in the assets of MLP might have a very limited role or say in its running. You can think of yourself as a sleeping partner in the MLP. In most cases, the majority of these GPs in MLPs are other corporate entities setup with the specific purpose of running an MLP. This tax advantage gives an MLP competitive advantage as compared to other corporations when competing for assets. This means a huge advantage for an MLP. Now an MLP is run by a General Partner (GP). But you don’t have to worry much about the GP. Most GPs do a good job of running the MLP as it is in their financial interests. GPs know that if they don’t make sound management and investment decisions, most of the investors my eventually deicide to divest themselves from the units of the MLP. Now you must know as a limited partner in an MLP, you have limited voting rights. This means when you invest in an MLP, you are giving away the keys of ownership to the GP. This means you are out of the decision making in an MLP.

Investing in MLP units can give you quarterly cash flows as well as appreciation of the unit price. An MLP is obligated to distribute all available cash back to its unit holders on a quarterly basis, so you will be getting a quarterly income from your units. Secondly as the MLP expands and grows overtime, its units may give you capital gain as well.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading ! Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.

Candlesticks have a formation that displays the open, high, low and closing price of a currency, stock or commodity over a duration. You can typically choose the time frame that you want to show.

Day traders generally choose 5 minutes though 15 minutes can be your option for certain cases. Longer periods may be chosen for longer term trades.

The difference between open and close points are marked by the candle body. If it?s a white or blue / green on charts with color, the lower body is the open and while you were considering it, the value marked up. Should it be black or red in charts with color, the top extent indicates the opening value and during that period, the price moved down.

In candles, vertical lines pointing up from the top and down from the bottom are called wicks. The highest price ever obtained during the period is the top of the upper wick section. On the other hand, the lowest value is the bottom of the lower wick part.

The boon of this kind of analysis is that the trader can straight off see whether prices rose or fell over the period. A white or green candle manifests a rising price or bearish tendency and a black or red candle signifies a dropping price or bullish tendency.

The connection of open and close values to high and low values can be noted spontaneously. Then there is a solid candle without a wick.

The name for this is Marubozu pattern. This means that the opening and closing prices were never reached in either direction by the low and high prices.

The opening was the high price & the closing was the reduced price if the candle was red or black. The low price is the open and the close is the high price when the candle is green or white.

A relatively uniform upward or downward trend is defined by a long body. A reversal is designated by a long wick on the top or on the bottom.

For accurate trend identification a candlestick needs to be examined in conjunction with the others that preceded it. Then you can devise more complex candlestick patterns signifying the anticipated trends to come.

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You should be aware of the power of crude oil in the global economy. Crude oil trades around the world. Crude oil is one of the most heavily traded commodities in the world. Every day perhaps billions of dollars worth of crude oil gets traded. You must be thinking that crude oil contracts get traded between the oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Nigeria and so on with non oil countries. Now to your surprise, New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is considered to be the hub of crude oil trading in the world.

Light Sweet Crude is the high grade, low sulfur content crude oil that is more easily refined than the thicker oils. Now crude oil coming out of some of the Venezuelan and Saudi Arabian Oil wells contains high sulfur content and requires special refineries that only process the high grade sulfur crude oil. On the other hand Iraqi oil is close to the ground and has very low sulfur content. Ever heard of Light Sweet Crude? Sulfur content in oil is considered to be very important. Lower the sulfur content in crude oil, the easier and less costly will be its refining. The higher the sulfur content in the crude oil, the more expensive its refining will be.

At NYMEX, you can trade crude oil futures contracts based on Dubai Crude Oil, Brent North Sea Crude Oil, differential between the light sweet crude oil and the four domestic grades of crude oil and a few more. Oil options are also traded on NYMEX. Now Dubai Crude Oil Futures contract is very popular. So, NYMEX offers you a host of futures as well as options contracts based on crude oil.

A barrel of oil contains 42 US gallons. Crude oil is traded in US dollars per barrel. In other words, the price of crude oil is quoted in US dollars per barrel. Now trading at NYMEX can be open outcry during the regular treading hours as well as electronic web based trading after hours.

Open outcry or electronic, it doesn’t make a difference to you. Most of the traders now day trade futures contracts from the comfort of their homes. Open outcry trading takes place between 10: 00 AM EST to 2:30 PM EST. After hour trading takes place on NYMEX ACCESSS system, an internet based trading platform starting at 3:15 PM EST Monday through Thursday and ending at 9:30 AM EST the following day. Sunday trading starts at 6:00 PM EST.

Open outcry trading takes place between 10: 00 AM EST to 2:30 PM EST. After hour trading takes place on NYMEX ACCESSS system, an internet based trading platform starting at 3:15 PM EST Monday through Thursday and ending at 9:30 AM EST the following day. Sunday trading starts at 6:00 PM EST. It’s always good to visit the website of the exchange to know more. You can visit the website of NYMEX and read a more about the crude oil trading that takes place at that exchange. Trading oil markets requires constant vigil on your part in monitoring the global supply and demand of crude oil. You will need to know which country supplies how much and what the productions quotas are for the time being. This is pretty scary stuff. Now you must know this thing that real companies have huge trading desks with hundreds of traders all betting on the price of oil. Oil markets are about real people trying to figure out how much oil they would need in the next few months to years to run their businesses regardless of whether they are suppliers or users. Trading crude oil futures contracts require you to be in tune with the market sentiment. Trends in crude oil market don’t develop suddenly and they don’t reverse suddenly. This is something good for you as a crude oil futures trader.

As a crude oil futures trader you will need to know how to handle the seasonal cycle in the oil market as well as the weekly cycle. Now every week usually on Wednesday the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) releases their weekly supply data reports. If you want to trade crude oil futures than you should know Mark Soberman! What you need to do is click on the link on the left that says FREE EVIL GENIUS TRADING KIT. This trading kit is from Mark Soberman. Don’t worry its 100% safe and legal. You only need to come out of your comfort zone. Download the free kit and find a unique method to trade the crude oil futures! When a trend in the crude oil market develops, it may last for a few months to a year. It all depends on the global supply and demand situation of the crude oil. If you can spot a trend in the crude oil market in its early stage and ride it till its reversal, you can make a good profit. Now, just keep this in mind that crude oil prices are highly susceptible to global geopolitical situation and react violently to any political global uncertainty.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading ! Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

Trading in energy futures is centralized at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), the world’s largest physical commodity futures exchange. NYMEX trades futures and options contracts for crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, gasoline, coal, electricity and propane. NYMEX is also home to trading in metals. Trading in NYMEX is conducted in two divisions: 1) The NYMEX Division and 2) The COMEX Division. For smaller traders NYMEX offers e-mini contracts for oil and natural gas that also trades on the GLOBEX network of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME).

For smaller traders NYMEX offers e-mini contracts for oil and natural gas that also trades on the GLOBEX network of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Trading in NYMEX is conducted in two divisions: 1) The NYMEX Division and 2) The COMEX Division.

Sometimes the rise in oil prices leads to the increase in interest rates through the bond market and the actions of central banks and the other times the opposite happens. Rise in oil prices if often inflationary. As a trader, you should know this fact that oil price rise often tends to slow down the economy and lower retail sales as well as consumer confidence with lower traffic on the highways.

High oil prices are considered to be inflationary and tend to slow down the economy. Low oil prices are always considered good for the economy. As a trader, you should know this fact that oil price rise often tends to slow down the economy and lower retail sales as well as consumer confidence with lower traffic on the highways. Sometimes the rise in oil prices leads to the increase in interest rates through the bond market and the actions of central banks and the other times the opposite happens. Rise in oil prices if often inflationary. Now all these effects have a time lag factor built in them. If the crude oil prices increase or jump suddenly like that in’73, it takes time for the increased oil prices to start affecting the other factors in the economy.

No new major discovery of an oil well has been made in the past two decades. This means that the supply of oil is dwindling while the global demand for oil is on the rise. Now you need to understand the Peak Oil Concept. Peak oil is the concept that the world oil production has peaked and the production of oil will never be as high again. Oil prices and the interest rates generally move in the same direction when viewed over long periods of time.

In any case, most of the experts now agree that in the next 10-20 years, the oil production will peak and after that it will start declining. Now you should keep these facts in the background of your mind as a trader.

Now this means that in the short run, following oil prices can be a highly profitable strategy. Your aim as a trader is to make quick profits by trading the price fluctuations in the oil market. So the important facts that you need to keep in the back of your mind while trading oil is: 1) Demand fluctuates but supply of oil is finite. 2) The world runs on oil and any threat to the supply of oil often leads to rising prices. As an oil trader your primary goal is to consider the effects of events on the supply of oil and correlate this effect with your charts.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Trade Dow Futures . Learn Commodity Trading ! Visit the Uber Article Directory to get a totally unique version of this article for reprint.

You may be wondering what exactly is a trading coach. A trading coach is someone with many years of experience trading the markets. Trading coaches will help other people or groups of people get started or improve their trading skills. They can look at where you are in your trading career and offer unbiased advice on how to improve. Often someone else looking over your trading results will see something that you could improve that is obvious to them but not you. Some people wonder why a successful trader would want to be a trading coach. Trading is a lonely business and some trading coaches gain a lot of satisfaction from helping and seeing other people achieve success in trading.

It is possible to work with a trading coach privately or in a group. Your budget may dictate which option you choose, but even if they can afford it, many people prefer the interaction and learning that comes from being part of a group. If you choose a private session you will get the undivided attention of the coach and you will get advice tailored to your situation. Location doesn’t have to be a limiting factor when choosing a coach, as these days, coaches will work on the phone, using the internet and Skype or in person.

You may find some trading coaches also offering home study courses. Although there may be an extra cost for this, when you compare it to the cost of actual trading coaching sessions, it can be good value. Instead of paying for the time of the trading coach to explain basic trading concepts and systems, learning from the course is an alternative. Once you have learned the basics, you can then use the time with the trading coach most effectively.

Some group sessions meet in person, and others use online forums for questions and answers. Recently online ‘trading rooms’ have become popular for trading coaching. In a trading room, the coach uses software that allows the group to see the coach’s screen and allow the group to ask questions and then hear the answer as the coach answers the questions in real time. Often the coach will be analyzing a live forex or stock market, and this gives the group a chance to understand the thought process of the coach and a chance to ask questions.

There are many areas that a trading coach can help with. It may be that your trading plan needs work. You may need assistance in technical analysis to improve your trade selection. It could be that you are able to select good trades but then are not able to manage them to extract the most profit from them. Regardless of the area, if you are able to identify where you need help, you will be able to get the most out of a coach.

Learn more about a trading coach,

Visit trading coaches to get a complete list.

Always remember, trend is your friend. Trading in the direction of the trend is the best trading strategy. Never try to trade against the trend. So determining the primary direction of the trend is highly importanct for you. Primary trend is the direction of the market that offers the least resistance forward making money. When you follow a primary trend in a bull market you look for strong stocks and in a bear market you look for stocks showing weaknesses. The most important thing that you should in a market is its primary trend. In order to determine the primary direction of the trend, you need to draw correct trendlines. This is an art that traders learn with experience. A wrong trendline means lost trades. You use the following tools to determine the primary trend! Knowing the primary trend and trading in its direction increases your chances of making money. So how do you find the primary trend and what tools you need to determine the primary trend?

Trendlines: Knowing how to draw and use trendlines gives you an excellent start on any trade. To correctly draw a rising trendline on the chart, start with the lowest low on the chart and connect it to the lowest low preceding the highest high in the chart without bothering about the prices between the two points. Similarly to draw the down trendline, draw a line connecting the highest high on the chart to the highest high preceding the lowest low of the chart without passing through the prices between the two prices.

Moving Averages: Moving averages are sues to smooth out the market’s trend over a given period of time and serve as an important support and resistance levels. Support level is the price where the prices stop falling and the buyers step in overcoming the selling pressure. A break in the support level is an indication that more weakness may be ahead.

A break above the resistance level is an indication that the market is going strong. Resistance level is the price where prices stop rising and the sellers overcome the buying pressure. You should always keep this rule in mind that you should be out of the market by selling as soon as the key support is broken. On the other hand you should buy into the market as soon as the key resistance is broken.

Oscillators: Oscillators are technical tools whose movements up or below a certain level give you an important trading signal. What is more important to know is the fact that oscillators produce useful mathematical data that can help you tell whether the market is overbought or oversold and whether the momentum of the primary trend in the market is still strong or there is a potential change in the primary trend ahead? Two important oscillators that you should be familiar with are RSI and MACD. Oscillators are graphic depictions of points derived from the mathematical formulas that are plotted below the price charts. Knowing these mathematical formulas is not important as a trader. MACD is a highly popular technical indicator and is widely used by the traders in divergence trading.

Bollinger Bands: Bollinger bands are calculated by plotting points one or more standard deviations above and below the 20-day moving average. However, you can calculate Bollinger Bands with any moving average. Bollinger bands are also known as volatility bands or envelopes. Bollinger bands give you visual evidence when the market has travelled too far in any one direction.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try these cash printing Forex Signals from heaven. First trade on your Forex Demo Account! You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

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Those professional traders who are successful do have certain characteristics in common. One such trader, nicknamed Big A, has pinpointed 5 charactristics:

1. Having a mentor is something successful traders invariably have. That’s why it is so helpful adopting a mentor who has already succeeded in the market. You can accelerate your learning by having a mentor who is prepared to teach you his successful system.

2. Successful traders remain emotionally detached. Ask yourself, if you make a trade, can you forget about it until your planned exit strategy is met? As BIG A admits, it can be great fun to see your tading account soar upwards in a few days, but paying too close an attention can be dangerous. 99% of emotion can be removed with his after market trading plan.

3. Successful traders resist the temptation to make things happen. You will certainly get hurt if you enter a market early based on a hunch. The key is to be a follower, not a leader. If you have a proven system, follow it, and don’t try to make things happen outside of the system. Impulsive, trigger happy mouse clicking should be done on a demo account, not live with your money. Just don’t think when you get lucky a few times that it’s ok to “make things happen”. That is exactly why you should stick with the system you are using; deviate and die.

4. Preparation is essential for every successful trade; an unprepared trade is a gamble. It’s very important that you have a trading plan and that you stick to it. You must learn how to plan every trade, simply and quickly. In BIG A’s system, for example, only 5-10 minutes an evening is required for trading.

5. A successful trader usually expected to become very wealthy from trading. Can you picture yourself wealthy? A successful trader is able to. Do not limit yourself. Wealth and prosperity cannot be manifested on the outside if it does not exist within. If not you will self sabotage your trading account when it starts to get too high because of a subconscious hang up that you don’t deserve to be rich. It is important to learn how to think and overcome any hidden physiological obstacles that are hindering you from success. Your mentor can help you with that.

Big A actually has his own ETF trend trading course, in which he teaches his own system of day trading for exchange-traded funds.

The financial stocks were very strong today with the index up 5.73% today. WFC, Wells Fargo moved up 9.1%, JPM, JP Morgan Chase up 9.4%, BAC up 17.1%, MER up 17%, GS up 9.1%, AXP, American Express up 12.2%, BLK, Blackrock up 7.6% and STT, State Street Securities up 8.9%. It looks like we could see a slight pullback in the financials for a day or two and if the market is really strong, this group could resume upward to higher highs. This isnt a tradable comment and isnt the kind of high probability trade that suits my style so I cant recommend you try this. Look at these charts of the financial stocks; most of them have moved up off the bottom 60-80% already and are closer to being shortable than being bought long.

Virtually all the sectors moved up today except the housing but they were getting over extended. Oil stocks, ag-chemical companies, heavy construction, solar, tech stocks, pharmaceuticals (pharma), and coal and steel stocks were really strong, moving up from 12-31% (PCX).

The insurance stocks, HIG, PRU, MET, LNC, PFG, were mixed with more pressure down. See notes on Intraday and swing trades below.

Oil prices moved up today 7% and started that technical bounce of some sort that I was looking for. Interesting that oil prices moving up continues to move stocks upward but eventually this relationship will change back to a normally inverse one, probably sometime in 2009.

Food and beverage stocks (PEP, K, KFT, GIS, KO) are just churning, with no real pattern. Note that MCD, MacDonalds continues to get higher same store sales as cost conscious consumers are returning to the fast food chains. This pattern is likely to continue and this spike of $6 in the last 4 days (a lot for MCD) is a very bullish sign that usually precedes future direction of the stock.

Everyone is expecting the automakers to be bailed out and is now fully priced into the stock market. If there is any hiccup with the approval, or Congress requires a substantial change in the terms or causes a delay (as politicians usually do), this could cause some more power to any selling.

Intermediate Trade Positions: FXI, Xinhua 25 ETF got more buying today and continues to support the mildly bullish daily chart pattern. Any pullback with FXI is likely to be shallow and short-lived and could give people who were left out of the trade to go long on the next 2 or 3 day pullback. (REPEAT: The FXI etf has 40% financials, 20% telecomm, 25% energy stocks and this should be watched as a potential long purchase on an intermediate term (weeks to months). The technical indicators are and price chart are not very steep so the risk of a big sell off isnt high. Conservative investors may wait for a pullback while aggressive traders could take a small long position immediately. PTR, Petro China also looks good using the same analysis as above.

Swing Trades: If you bought XTO, COG, EOG, or NBL, these independent oil and gas companies could be sold tomorrow to capture that nice 7-15% profit in two days that they are up. Still watching the housing stocks such as DHI, TOL, PHM, LEN, are eventually going to be good short candidates as they move up. All is not right with the world in this housing sector because it has had a nice run up in stock prices. The life insurance sector (HIG, PRU, MET, LNC, PFG) already started to correct into a swing short trade, especially the lower priced and lesser know companies like LNC, Lincoln National and PFG, Principal Financial Group. Keep position sizes small, especially if you are new to selling short.

Day Traders/Intraday stock ideas: Intraday trading pattern has changed to no drop, and no obvious pop but just a steady climb upward. The bullish sentiment covered over any drop and pops in the intraday chart but it is likely we see a drop and pop re-appear tomorrow morning but nothing close to the big drops we have seen in the past. We probably will see shallower drops followed by big pops and LONG is the smart way to use this technique now. We might see a slight sell-off tomorrow anyhow so the drop and pop could coincide well with the market. The insurance companies should be a group to watch for short scalps tomorrow followed by long scalps but give it a lot of time before going long. Notice how long PRU took to hit bottom at 10:42am Pacific time before bouncing 10% in the following 90 minutes. This is an excellent group of stocks (HIG, PRU, MET, LNC, PFG) to trade tomorrow using intraday trades short and long OR swing trades short for a 2 or 3 days.

Concluding thoughts: The market continues to show more and more bullish signs and could be establishing a new trend for the coming weeks or months, although that is still slightly premature to be sure. Hold your intermediate and swing trades longer than before

Thoughts: Best odds only, be decisive, aggressive, mentally flexible, stay in position size, dont overtrade and wait a little longer to buy and wait a little longer to sell. You will find that will make you more money on your trades. Trade what you see, not what you hope for.

Dont trade unless the setup is there for you, then use the charts to tell you when the odds are heavily in your favor. I recommend wide stop losses when using this technique otherwise you get stopped out frequently which is expensive, frustrating and distracts you from the bigger picture of making a successful trade. Dont force anything to work for you tomorrow, let the setups develop and then take advantage of that. Be patient the next couple of days. Stay in position sizes without letting any intraday trade represent more than 10-15% of your total account value. As you build your account, your position size percentage should get smaller and smaller to lower your risk.

Have a great day and Ill talk to you tomorrow.

Mitch King

www.TradeStocksAmerica.com

Contents: stock trading, trading strategies, stock picks, stock market education, stock market investing course and educational stock trading videos.

Mitch King is the founder of TradeStocksAmerica.com. All material presented herein is believed to be reliable but we cannot attest to its accuracy. All material represents the opinions of Mitch King. Investment recommendations may change without notice and readers are urged to check with their investment counselors before making any investment decisions. Opinions expressed in these reports may change without prior notice. Mitch King and/or the staff at TradeStocksAmerica.com may or may not have investments in any stocks cited above before or after this newsletter is prepared. Opinions expressed in these reports may change without prior notice.

Disclaimer – Stock investing or stock trading has large potential rewards, but also large potential risk. There is risk of loss as well as the opportunity for gain when buying or selling stocks, bonds, option contracts or engaging in any strategy listed in the Daily Stock Report, The Wizard Training Course, The Trading Room and our seminar or workshops. You must be aware of the risks and be willing to accept the risks when investing or trading in any financial markets. Don’t trade with money you can’t afford to lose. This website is neither a solicitation nor an offer to Buy/Sell stocks. No representation is being made that any account will or is likely to achieve profits or losses similar to those discussed on this website. The past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results.

What exactly are they trading? Future commodity trading is not like the stock market where people buy shares of a stock. You do not actual own anything. You are just speculating on what the price will be of a commodity in the future.

When you want to put on a futures trade, you must first put up margin money. This is in case the market moves against you; you will have enough capital to pay the loss to the brokerage firm.

Although speculators make up the bulk of futures traders, the markets were intended to protect farmers from losing everything. A farmer can hedge in the futures and protect any loss he will have in the cash market. A farmer can sell the futures in wheat. He might do this if he thinks the wheat market will fall before the harvest. A bread manufacturer might buy the futures if he thinks the price will rise before harvest. Whatever happens to the wheat market, both will guarantee their price.

A speculator is interested only in trading to make a profit. If he thinks the market will rise, he can purchase the futures. If he thinks the market will fall, he can sell a futures. You do not have to own the contract first to sell it. You can first sell the futures contract.

There is risk in any type of trading. That is why some traders only buy futures options, so they know their risk is limited to what they paid for the option. Others who trade futures contracts use technical analysis like fibonacci trading. They will only enter trades that have certain criteria from the chart analysis.