David: Here’s 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.

If you are 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 learned 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 asks 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.

The 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 easy 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.

Make Killer Trading Profits You Dream About! Learn how by visiting www.tripletradingprofits.com.

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What are realistic returns when commodity trading? As a professional a 15% CAR over many years is possible with proper risk and money management rules. Learn more at www.myinvestorsplace.com

The idea of books is to improving their knowledge and learn from more successful traders. The trading journal should allow you to record and later analyse your trades, allowing you to spot areas for improvement. This could be called self coaching. But does it work? In this article we will explain why it is difficult to make self coaching work and why you should consider enlisting the help of a trading coach.

To improve your performance, obviously you must do something differently. If you read books or analyse your trades you may even find areas that you think you must improve. The problem is, that finding what you need to improve is not that difficult. Even starting the change is not that difficult. The difficult part is sustaining the change.

A change is easy to start but hard to continue. The brain is ‘wired’ to work in a certain way and to work in a different way will feel uncomfortable and strange. It is easy to slip back into the same habits and ways of thinking. It is very difficult to do this on your own. This is where a trading coach can help, by monitoring your trading habits and keeping you on the right track.

What does any coach do? They identify what you need to work on, teach you, support, encourage and motivate you. This is something that also may be possible to do in the short term yourself, but the effort fades quickly. A trading coach can offer objective advice, and keep you going when you have self doubt. A trading coach will tell you things you don’t know, analyse your strengths and weaknesses and work with you to develop a trading plan.

Learn more about a trading coach and how they could help you. Visit www.tradingcoachdirectory.com to choose the best trading coach for your needs.

While those scientists of the stock market might have just been bewildered, regular people all over the world were more like stupefied. With so much faith in global economic systems, including the overall stock market, and the understanding that governments are supposed to have a series of checks and balances in place to avoid potential catastrophe, the grim dismal situation was first met with disbelief by regular people.

The world stock market’s value has been estimated at close to seven hundred trillion dollars, with the role of the United States economy in that market significant, at around forty trillion dollars. However, the last year or so has been a see-saw ride of recovery, with times looking up and times looking extremely dismal. Entire countries have been bankrupted through the cause and effect of foreign investments. Famously, the entire country of Iceland, a small island nation with only two or three national banks, managed to lose the entire country’s savings just because of the faltering power of the dollar and the Euro in unison.

International industry is a major component in how the financial troubles of one major industrialized nation could impact so many others. Many business are now international, especially corporations with a great deal of power and market shares. To do business well in the 21st century is to understand it as an international enterprise, and since investments are tied into a world scale, it’s no wonder that stock markets crashing can have such an epic and global effect.

Part of the reason that the last crash impacted so many countries worldwide is that, instead of simply investing in national markets, many different investors of all tiers go outside of the country to other markets around the world. With an already fuzzy business of regulation, it gets even more confusing when people are working through international banking institutions.

What’s surprising is that no one was there sounding the alarm louder when the slip started to take place. After all, the United States has survived one Great Depression and dodged a financial bullet in the 1980s. There were supposed to be systems in place to stop things from getting to the point where worries were justified, let alone the point where the federal government has to step in and international leaders are wringing their hands.

It wasn’t just the market, but the banks, that played a part in the latest near-collapse. With so many banks folding left and right, not just in the United States but in many European nations, and even as far away as Asia, federal governments had to scramble. In some countries, like Iceland, the federal government couldn’t bail out the banks and outsiders had to step in, while in the United States, the government now owns shares in Bank of America, like it or not, and BoA has been an integral part of taking over other failing banks.

Playing the market has always been a little bit unpredictable, but the recent events are truly unprecedented. While regular people reading the newspaper might feel as though they have missed something significant in their inability to process recent current events in the financial sector, the fact of the matter is that it is baffling things were allowed to get this bad.

Damian Papworth enjoys stock market investing. It is a major element of his work from home income.

1. What is the Price-to-Earnings Ratio for the security in question? Finding out what the PE ratio for a security is allows investors to determine how much revenue each dollar they invest generates for the company. Obviously, the lower the PE ratio, the cheaper the stock price. This ratio can be used to determine how expensive a stock price is relative to comparable securities.

2. Know the debt-to-equity ratio for the security in question. This ratio allows investors to determine how much debt a company owes for every dollar in equity they own. The higher the ratio, the more debt the company has to repay. In difficult times, debt-to-equity can often predict solvency issues. Since this ratio will vary from industry to industry, make sure that securities are compared within the same industry, otherwise the comparison is worthless.

3. Find out what Professional Analysts feel about the stock in question. Since most public companies are reviewed by investment houses for possible inclusion in their own portfolio, these companies will often publicize their recommendations. These recommendations will vary, but will be either Buy, Hold or Sell. Finding out what the pros think about a particular security can provide further confirmation of a position that an investor is looking to take.

The tips noted here are nowhere near complete and exhaustive. However, investors who take the time to dig deeper by understanding these key areas and why the numbers or recommendations are as they are will find their trading success improve almost instantly.

For investors who would rather not deal with the research aspect of investing, mutual funds provide a great alternative as the research and effort is done by the fund company.

Learn more about Where To Invest and the best Bond Funds at Christopher Fitch’s website, the Mutual Fund Site.org.

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David: We have a question: do you suggest 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 very 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 do not 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 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 pop 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 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.

Want to learn more about Trading Systems? Visit www.freetradingsystems.org today.

%K = (Recent Close-Lowest Low (n) / Highest High (n) Lowest Low (n)) x 100

%D = 3 period moving average of %K

And (n) = the number of periods used for calculations

Hence, a 20 day stochastic oscillator would take the most recent close, the highest high of the last 20 days as well as the lowest low of the last 20 days. The general time period used is the 14 time period. These formulas are shown here for clarification only. One rarely ever needs to calculate these values manually, as the software used for charting will automatically plot it straight on your commodities chart.

Stochastic Oscillator – How Do We Use It?

Basically, Stochastic Oscillators have three types. Fast, full and slow. By default, most software for trading tends to use the fast one. Here, the oscillator comprises of two lines. The first one is %K which measures the raw momentum of the commodity. As discussed earlier, %D is just a simple moving average of %K, but is still more important than %K. Generally, it is seen that the %K line is the faster line, and the %D line is the slower one. A trader needs to look out for %D line and price both moving to either overbought territory, or the oversold territory. One can sell a commodity when it moves above 80, and then crosses over to begin moving down again and buy when it reaches 20 and begins to move up again. The slow or full stochastic oscillators are smoother, as compared to the fast stochastic. However, it is important to remember that just because the oscillator shows that it is above 80, this does not mean that it is overbought. It may well continue to trend upwards a long time after that.

Divergences

Sometimes, something unusual happens. There is sometimes a divergence between the prices and the stochastic oscillator. When prices are moving up the oscillator is showing that it is oversold, and vice versa. This tells us that the current trend is losing steam. So, if the commodity moves up, but the %D is going down, this would be a bearish sign. However, it must be noted that the signal is not considered a divergence till %K line moves across the %D line in a direction opposite to the price. One has to be careful with the stochastic oscillator as there are a lot of whipsaw possibilities. Divergence trades are best taken when the oscillator moves below 80 once, moves back up again, and gives a double top formation to move down again below 80.

It is not advised to use this oscillator by itself for commodity and commodity options trading. It is always better to get verification from as many different indicators, but this indicator will give you a very good idea about the trend momentum of a commodity.

How To Use Charts

A good trader will always use professional charting software that give him the right tools, and are comprehensive in nature. Good software will give the discerning trader the variety of tools he may requires for his daily trades. Some of the different types of charts that can be viewed by such software are candlesticks, bar charts, and open-high-low-close charts. Traders can (and often do) view these charts in many different time frames starting from as low as one minute to monthly and yearly as well.

In fact, most traders work with at least two or more timeframes when they are trading to get confirmation of a trade in more than one time frame at a time. They put in the indicators they want to use and check the filter to see what commodities result as trade possibilities. The biggest additional benefit of having charting software is to be able to incorporate your own custom indicators and oscillators that you can use in different time frames. Some softwares even allow you to build your own indicators by programming them into the software yourself. This flexibility is what makes having software for charting so useful and worthwhile.

Advantages Of Using Them

For commodity future traders and futures options traders, charts are exceptionally useful in determining the trades that they will take. Having technical filters help you short-list the commodities which are currently showing a buy or a sell. You can tell much more easily whether a commodity is trending or not. Simple tools such as it moving above a moving average with very large volume expansion can give you the signal you are looking for to buy into a commodity. It also helps you determine what commodities are concluding their trends so you can sell them if you have any lots. The data itself is easily available and many vendors add it at little or no cost as a package deal when you decide to open a broking or trading account with them.

Essentially, charts tell you when a commodity is trending for you to enter into a commodity trade or commodity option trade, give you stop levels, help you decide on a target for your trade, and give you an indication when the trend may be ending. Now, if these are not things worth having, then what are? Some comprehensive and popular software includes names like Metastock, Tradestation, and Advanced Get.

A visual aid is always easier to understand, and offers you the scope of being much more detailed in your study of any commodity. That is why charts are now the industry standard, and will make things much more easy for you if you too use them. At the end, you have to remember that these tools can only help you indicate a buy or a sell, but it is you who has to take the call and decide what you want to do.

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Day Trading Defined

Those who trade and complete all their trades within the period of a days trading session are known as day traders. Day traders have to square off all their trades by the end of the 24-hour period. That is their time limit. If they hold their positions for any longer, they can then be called position traders, and not day traders. They are the most common form of traders to be found in commodity markets.

Day traders like to churn their capital on a day to day basis to maximize its return. They prefer not to lock in capital for extended periods of time. More often than not, they have very limited capital to leverage, and cannot afford to block it all. Speed is the name of the game where day trading in commodity futures is concerned.

Facts About Day Trading

It has been observed that you stand a better chance of earning money in day trading commodity markets if you are prepared to invest a bigger amount of money. This is because more money gives you the option to diversify your investment and manage the risks better.

An important component of commodity futures trading and futures options trading, is using charts that allow you to decide what you want to do. Secondly, those who follow trends taste success.

As in all things, there are limitations that day traders face. The most important being that they trade in a single days session. Hence, they cannot let their profits run any longer even if they want to they are limited by time. They prefer by choice to take the money and run. Time is money, and time is limited. Another issue that crops up at some time or another for day traders is their stops. They cannot have too large a stop for fear of losing a lot of money. Therefore, they have to keep narrow stops, and thus increase their chances of being whipsawed out of a trade early. Ask any old hand about being whipsawed, and they will tell you that it is a part of the game. Daily ranges also limit targets, as the luxury of hanging on is not available. Quick profits are targeted, and many a time commodity day traders have to get out of a trade at the end of the day having made very little or no money from it.

However, day traders are not to be under estimated in any way. They truly form the volume numbers in the commodities market. Many intraday movements are because of day traders. They cause sudden spurts in commodity prices with heavy buying or selling. An integral part of the futures market, they form the backbone of the commodity market.

Moving Averages: How Do We Use them?

Moving averages identify trends and trend reversals, give a measure of a commodities strength, and help you arrive at support and resistance levels. Essentially, moving averages are indicators with lag, which is to say that they do not identify new trends but are useful in trend following. One of the most useful ways in which you can use moving averages as buy or sell indicators, is to have three moving averages running at the same time on the same chart. The idea is to have one short, one intermediate and one longer term time frame. When the first two move upwards and cross above the longer term one, it indicates an uptrend and one can buy. The reverse happens if the first two move below the third moving average. In that case, you can sell, as the commodity is in a downtrend. A good example of this would be a 10, 20, and a 30 day period moving average, plotted on a commodity chart.

Moving averages are also used by traders to determine support and resistance of a commodity. When the commodity reaches a moving average and struggles to move above it, you might have found resistance. If a commodity stops falling at a key moving average, it can be deemed to have found support. A prime example of this is a 200 day moving average, which is used to calculate long-term trend directions, and to find support and resistance in them.

Types of Moving Averages

There are different types of moving averages. The simplest one is the simple moving average (SMA), which is calculated by taking the normal arithmetic mean of a specified set of numbers. The exponential moving average (EMA) is calculated by giving weightage to more recent data. The EMA is regarded to be a better moving average compared to the SMA. Both of these moving average variants become very useful when used for trend following with moving average crossovers. Indicators such as the moving average convergence divergence (MACD) and Bollinger bands use moving averages as key components. The MACD shows the price divergence of two moving averages, by subtracting a 26 period EMA from the 12 period EMA. A third 9 period EMA is used to show us buy and sell signals when it moves above or below this MACD. Bollinger bands, so named after their creator, use two standard deviations plotted away from a 21 period SMA.

Whichever way you look at it, one cannot deny that using moving averages by themselves may not make you a millionaire in a hurry, but are brilliantly useful in helping you follow trends and plan your commodity trading and commodity options strategy.