Posts Tagged ‘options’

Option Trading Strategies: How To Resist Your Personal Greed And Exit As A Success.

Mar 16, 2010 Shares Investment

Many traders make a very respectable income from trading options on a full-time basis. There are nevertheless a couple of rules you should never break when playing the options trading game. Following sound option trading strategies will minimize your risk and maximize your profits in the long run.

What is options trading? This is when you risk a small amount of money to buy an option on a trading instrument, for example a stock. If the price goes up, you get the full benefit of the price increase. If it goes down, you lose the money that you risked on the option.

This sounds too good to be true. In the investment world the principle involved is called ‘leverage’ and it can certainly make a lot of money for the experienced trader. It is not impossible to double your investment in a very short period of time.

Options are nonetheless not only an easy way to make money. It’s also an easy way to lose money. You can wipe out your whole trading account in no time at all. That is why your trading strategy should never involve risking more than a certain percentage on any particular options trade. Experienced traders will never risk more than five percent on any one trade.

Should you ever risk your whole investment account on a specific options trade and things go wrong, you will end up in financial ruin. While the profits of a ‘good’ trade in this regard is very alluring, the risk associated with this is just too high.

The main reason why people often lose money with options trading is because they get greedy and they don’t use their common sense. The prospect of doubling their money in a short period of time makes them lose all sense of perspective and they do things that no sane trader should.

Your best weapon with options trading, as with any other form of investment, is diversification. The potential profits from a single successful trade is so high that it can easily offset losses from four bad trades.

When you diversify, you should keep in mind that buying options on five different types of platinum mining stocks is not true diversification. It could easily happen that all of them go down, because they are in the same industry. You should therefore have a balanced portfolio with stocks from different industries in the same way as if you were buying the full-priced stocks.

Option trading strategies should therefore always involve a good dose of common sense. Don’t ever let greed get the upper hand. Then you are no longer trading, you are gambling.

In order to receive future options trading, you should search for the correct website that gives the best options to strategies. You will search for that the option trading strategies can be found on the net to help you.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Candlestick Trading Patterns- The Hanging Man, the Hammer and the Spinning Top!

Mar 8, 2010 Uncategorized

Hanging Man and the Hammer are two different candlestick patterns. The patterns are not identical. Hanging Man is considered to be bearish and the Hammer is considered to be bullish.

How to spot the Hanging Man and the Hammer? These candlestick patterns are easy to spot on the chart. When you spot a very small candle body accompanied by a pretty long wick on the bottom, it is a Hanging Man if it appears at the top of the uptrend and it is a Hammer if it appears at the bottom of the downtrend.

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

If you think that you have spotted a Hanging Man appear on the top of an uptrend, wait for the next day’s opening price. If the opening day is lower than the last day’s close, you have spotted a true Hanging Man.

Similarly, if you spot a Hammer at the bottom of a downtrend, you need to confirm it with the opening price on the following day. If the opening price on the next day is higher than the closing price on the last day, the Hammer formed was a true Hammer.

When you trade candlestick patterns, you need to look for the confirmation on the following day to confirm that the candlestick pattern formed was indeed true. Once you have the confirmation signal, you can safely trade on that candlestick pattern. If you cannot get the confirmation, you should ignore that pattern considering it to be false. Most of these candlestick patterns are ideally suited for the daily charts.

Spinning Top is just like the Hanging Man and the Hammer. Spinning Top is a signal that the battle between the bulls and the bears ended in a draw. It will start next day again with ony side giving in. What this means is that an explosive move in the price action can take place the following day.

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. Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report FREE. Master Candlestick Charting with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Shocking Stocks Short Selling Facts!

Mar 8, 2010 Uncategorized

Short Selling Stocks is one of the favorite day or swing trading strategy. Many traders short stocks. Now many stock brokers make it very easy for the investors and traders to short stocks. Now a days, most of the trading is being done online. When you sell a stock, a message will ask you whether you are selling stocks that you own or you are selling short. With one click, you tell the broker that you are short selling. The broker than goes about and arranges the shares for you to short sell. These shares are a loan to your account.

In some cases, the brokerage firm cannot borrow the shares as so many people have sold the stock short that there are no more shares to borrow. In that case, you will have to find another stock or use another strategy.

Now, shorting is one of the favorite strategies employed by day traders. A day trader may short stock on the mundane reason like its price had been going up for three days and it’s time to come down! Day traders are not fundamental traders. Day traders are simply interested in the daily volatility in the stock. Most even don’t do any financial or fundamental analysis of the companies whose stocks they are trading. Almost all are technicians or what you call technical analysis experts.

You have to be careful about the uptick rule as stock exchanges have rules in place to help maintain an upward bias in the stock market. What this means is that you can only short a stock when the last trade was a move up. In other words, you can’t short a stock that is moving down.

How much risky short selling can be? Well, in theory there is no stopping a stock price to reach the sky. So if you are wrong in your short selling decision, your loss can be catastrophic. But don’t worry, short sellers also use stop loss so if the price starts to move up, your position will get closed automatically by the stop loss order.

Now, don’t get caught in the market with short selling when good news spreads about the stock that you had shorted driving its price up. This is known as Short Squeeze. Once that happens, almost all short sellers get desperate to dump their stocks and exit but when they try to buy back the stock, they get more hurt as the prices go even higher and higher on rising demand for the stock in the market.

If you have already shorted that stock, you might get a call from your broker to return that stock immediately. In such a case, you will have to immediately return the stock even if it doesn’t make any sense to you!As said before, companies, investors and many brokers hate short sellers. They think that short sellers had intentionally driven down the stock prices. So sometimes, they will spread rumors of good news to create a momentary short squeeze. Sometimes, a campaign will be started by the owners of a particular stock instructing their brokers not to loan out their stocks to short sellers.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Read this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading FREE Report plus the shocking Profit Button Report that applies no matter what you trade-stocks, forex, futures or options! Turn $200 into $100K in just 3 months with this Penny Stock Trading FREE Report!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Harami And The Harami Cross Candlestick Patterns Can Be Highly Profitable!

Feb 28, 2010 Stock Investment

There are simple as well as complex candlestick patterns. There are single stick, two stick as well as three stick candlestick patterns. Harami is a two stick candlestick pattern. Two stick patterns take two days to form on daily charts. A Harami is formed whent the first day candle is longer than the second day candle. Harami can be bullish as well as bearish!

A bullish Harami candlestick pattern is formed when the first day candle is bearish. Rather the first day is very bearish and occurs on a downtrend. But on the second day, the bulls come into action and try to move the prices higher. But bulls are not very successful. The second day close is still lower than the first day open and the first day’s high is never surpassed. However, the second day is a signal that the bulls have started to take the stand and stop the current downtrend.

The second day is still a down day that follows a bearish trend. On the second day, the open is higher than the close of the first day. The bulls ruled the second day as the close is higher than the open.

Bulls and bears are always fighting with each other for the control of the market. When a bullish Harami is formed what this means is that the bulls are still cautious about their success and fear that the bears might return to take the prices lower again. However, when this does not happen, it gives confidence to the bulls encouraging more buying in the market and the reversal of the trend.

Now, like most of the candlestick patterns, a Harami can fail. What this means is that you need to confirm it with the price action on the following day. Always place the stop loss first when you trade. When you spot a Harami, place the stop loss near the open of the second day.

Harami pattern has got few variations. On of them is the Bullish Harami Cross Pattern. Now,a Bullish Harami Cross is not formed very frequently. But when it does form, it means an sudden trend reversal. So you should act immediatetly when you spot it. The first day in case of a Bullish Harami Cross is a bearish candle. The signal day or the second day is a Bullish Doji with an open higher than the close of the first day and the close lower than the open of the first day.

The bearish Harami Pattern is the other way around. The first day candle is bullish but the second day candle is bearish with the open lower than the close of the first day and the close higher than the open of the first day. But this means is that bears have taken over the market and soon a new downtrend is going to develop.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Read this shocking 40 page FRWC Brutal Truth Report on trading robots and how to test and optimize them FREE. Downlaod this 82 page PDF Candlestick Guide FREE!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What Is Momentum Investing? How It Can Make You Rich?

Feb 28, 2010 Stock Investment

There is a difference between trading and investing. Trading is always short term while investing is long term. The time horizon in trading can be as short as a few minutes to a few days to a few weeks. Whereas in investing, the time horizon can be months to years. Many people day trade or swing trade stocks, currencies, futures, options, ETFs, commodities or other markets. In day trading, a trader opens a position and closes it in the same day making a quick profit. In swing trading, a trader tries to ride a trend in the market as long as it lasts. On the other hand, an investor is least pushed about the short term swings in the market. He or she has a long term time horizon like a few months to even a few years. This long time horizon matches their investment and financial goals!

Now a company’s stock may have a good long term prospects supported by strong fundamentals. But the stock may stay still for a long time before it catches the attention of the media and the investing public before it’s price get’s bid up. So an investor might have to wait for a long time before realizing a return on his or her investment. Many investors can learn a few tricks from day traders that can help them make a quick profit in a matter of days orn weeks instead of months or years.

Many investors when they fall in love with their investments on the long run forget this cardinal rule of trading that you have to cut your losses. Market least care who you are and how long you have been in it.There is a general problem with so many investors. They fall in love with their investment after doing so much research and committing so much time for the position to work. Now, day traders are always hit and run types. They have developed an innate sense of discipline among themselves that teaches them when to commit money to a trade and when to cut and run.

Now as a momentum investor, you need to look for securities that are going up in prices especially if accompanied by the underlying growth. What this means is that instead of buying low and selling high, what you will be doing is buying high and selling even higher.

When a security goes up in price with a strong demand underneath it, it said to have price momentum behind it! Now, as a long term investor, you should look for securities having momentum behind them just to avoid getting stuck with securities for months before they start moving. It pays to be patient. But it works even better when the money that you invested works for you while you wait.

Now, when the price of a stock or security increases because of strong demand, it is said to have momentum behind it. When, there is momentum behind a security, it means that it’s price will continue to icnrease as long as it has got momentum. This way by investing in stocks having momentum behind them, you avoid the risk of getting stuck in stocks that might not move for months and months.

Now, when doing momentum investing, you need to also do some fundamental research behind the company. As most of the momentum investing done during the dot com bubble was on hearsay without being supported by any strong fundamentals! However, if too many investors start practicing momentum investing, it sometimes leads to bubbles like the tech bubble that happened at the end of 1990s.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard. Read this shocking 40 page PDF FREE FRWC Brutal Truth Report on trading robots! Get this FREE 40 Page Investing in Gold Report by Robert Prechter!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Back Testing Your Trading System-Know These Shocking Limitations

Feb 27, 2010 Stock Investment

Your trading system needs thorough testing before you decide to trade live with it. A trading system might comprise of a set of indicators. You need to know how well your trading system and its set of indicators work in a particular market.

For this you can do back testing. Back testing is a method that uses historical data to test how well your indicators work in a particular market. You can use back testing software that enables you to look at the past market data and test how well the indicators and your trading system have worked in the past market.

Backtesting results are no guarantee that the trading system will perform well under live market conditions. Things that worked in the past might not work now. Similarly something that didn’t work in the past, may work now! You never know!There are many problems with historical data. There is no slippage in backtesting. Slippage is one of the most important problem that a trader faces while trading live. The other problem that the backtest ignores is the widening of spreads under volatile market conditions.

So when you look at back testing results, you should look at them with scepticism. But it doesn’t mean that backtesting is entirely useless! What we can say is that no two trades are exactly alike.

Back testing can give you a feel how a particular market behaves under certain conditions. Back testing can also spot you certain general characteristics of the market like the seasonal trends and market tendencies.

For example, some markets especially the commodities market is highly seasonal and cyclical in nature. We can take the example of agricultural commodities like wheat, grains,corn, cotton, coffee and stuff like that. In case of the stock market, there is much talk of the January Effect. Well, it is there no doubt about it. Some years, it is highly pronounced and others it is not that pronounced. Similarly stock prices tend to rise at the end of each month and the first few days of the new months. The reason for this is that many institutional investors tend to put the new funds to work at the end of the month and the beginning of the new month! Now in other markets, you might not find any seasonal trends. For example, there is very little seasonality in curreny market or the bond market.

Back testing can also help you establish the amount of time a particular market tends to run in a certain direction. For example, in case of US Dollar Index, its trend lines tend to last for months to years.

But to tell you the truth, backtesting can only give you a rough guess about the performance of the trading system under live trading conditions. There is no substitute for live trading results!

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Download this 1 Minute Forex Trading System FREE that makes money anytime instantly! Read this shocking FREE 40 page PDF FRWC Brutal Truth Report that exposes everything about trading robots!

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Less Adjustments with Option Strategies

Feb 22, 2010 Financial Investment

When the volatility is going down and the stock markets are moving in an upward trend, you could say that this is the right time to use the condor strategy. The Condor is a negative Vega option spread, meaning that you can make more money by using the Condor when the volatility is moving downward.

I have been making cash on the stock market the last few months with very little adjustments and/or work at all. This is one of the best things you have with the Iron Condor strategy. Sometimes the stock market is very quiet; this means with the Condor you can make money just about every day. It is this type of option strategy and skillful managing that will make money when the underlying stays within a tight price range.

This is one time that the stock market will give us the chance to really enjoy our option strategies. When it’s not so high maintenance, it is a great way to make a living. It is a great way to be able to make money this way. It is very low stress, and at times you will have a steady income.

I like the much more conservative approach to the Iron Condor that is being taught by San Jose Options. While other courses teach an aggressive approach, you are taking on a higher risk of losing your money. You will have to do a lot more adjustments, more often, and this causes a problem in a market that is moving up and down a lot. This aggressive trading of the Condor method will only lead you to more adjustments, more stress, more headaches and loosing overall.

Most important thing about my new trading method is that my positions are much safer, and at the same time, I do not have to worry or do so many adjustments. Before I was making changes every single week and hoping for the best. Now, I have a much better way to trade the Iron Condors and I really thank San Jose Options for teaching me a much better way.

Looking to find the best deal on a Stock Market Course, then visit www.sjoptions.com to find the best advice onTrading Options.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Using Automatic Forex Trading Software For Bigger Profits

Jan 24, 2010 Financial Investment

Forex trading has gained tremendously in interest and popularity in recent years mostly due to the introduction of automatic and automated forex trading systems. The market that was open to banks and similar big financial institutions is now luring medium and even small investors.

Forex market is the place where currency of one country is traded for currency of another country. These trades happen round the clock with transactions of billions or perhaps trillion of dollars everyday, making it one of the largest and most active financial markets.

As the internet has become widespread and technology advances, sophisticated automated forex trading systems has become very common. It makes participating in the forex market very easy. Anyone who has a computer, internet connection, forex brokerage account can participate in the market.

As the global market is practically open 24 hours, trading forex requires constant monitoring. Therefore with the automatic and automated forex trading systems, it can let you specify a currency, entry and exit price beforehand. With just a small seed amount and a broker, your orders will be executed instantly.

You can profit from the forex market without even become an expert in trading with an automatic forex trading system. In a good automated trading system, it is the program who will executes the trades for you through your managed accounts.

With a reliable auto trading platform, you are not required to do the actual trading yourself and therefore you save your time. And if you can watch the market constantly, you can mange multiple accounts from your trading platforms, simultaneously, which was never possible with manual trading. Automated forex trading systems present advantage of trading multiple systems and multiple markets.

You do not need to miss any profitable trade even if you are not present in front of your computer terminal. An automatic and automated forex trading allow your trades to be made at any time of the day or night, regardless of your presence.

With an automated system, it can help you take advantage of using a few forex strategies and systems. You can then diversify your investment and lower your risk as the system will trigger trades based on different trade indicators.

By using an automated system, it can eliminates your human emotions and psychology. This is important as those can often affect you in making proper and profitable trading decisions. Also only with the automatic system, you will be capable of monitoring a few currency pairs at a time and execute all of the trading signals.

Having said so much about automated forex trading system, you will still have to learn about the basics of forex trading. You should understand some fundamental analysis, technical indicators.

Just being automated, the trading system never guarantees you success as the market is influenced by many variables and parameters. The forex automated system is not just mechanical, but is fully programmable and you can customize them according to your needs.

Read about a Forex robot that is capable of doubling your money every single month. Click here to see the live proof of a $5100 real money deposit turning into $42,500.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A Short Article About Investing With Options

Jan 11, 2010 Financial Investment

When someone is looking for a great turnout with their investment, it is important that they know about how to do their investing with options. After learning about this technique and the best ways of earning a profit, they can either opt for puts or calls. This should only be done after the basics have been studied and the options are weighed. Options are very complex, so make sure you study before trading them.

If the stock that is being eyed is headed low, it is best to buy puts. Puts make money when the underlying asset drops in price. The way to find the direction of the investment would be to look up the price chart of the index or stock. The investor can use technical indicators and draw support and resistance lines to forecast a direction. The direction of the stock’s value is the determining factor in whether the investor will use calls or puts.

The investor has an advantage by purchasing these short lived and limited investment funds we call options. There is a lot of leverage as well as limited risk. When the ups and downs of the stock that the person is wanting to purchase is closely watched, it can help them decide on which stock to invest in and which to stay away from.

The expiration and delivery date of the investment contract is important. If the contracts only have a few days left, then most likely the buyer will lose money on the trade. For a better chance at making a return, the investor might choose options that last a few months.

When much research has been put into the stock that the investor would like to purchase, only then it’s considered a good time to buy options. Many times, there is more money when it comes to investing with options when compared to buying traditional stock. There is lots of leverage with options. Most of the options offered to the public will expire after just a few months. Be sure to check any expiration dates that may be associated with the options that are purchased.

Leverage can work for the put options also, and it also gives an advantage over selling stock short. Buy using puts, the risk is limited, but if you sell a stock short, the risk is unlimited. There is the direct transaction between sellers and buyers when options are sold over the counter. All option contracts have an expiration date.

Discover how you can go about investing for your future. Through the options field and other choices that you face. Make that money grow for you now!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Why You Should Take A Stock Market Course

Jan 10, 2010 Financial Investment

There are a few things you need to know before single handedly going out and trying to trade on the stock market. A stock market Course can be found online that are free, in some book stores around the world, and sometimes you can find seminars that are being offered in your area.

There is a lot of money involved in the stock market; everyone seems to know that fact. The thing is there are many people that do not have the experience or knowledge to be successful when they try it. This can often turn them away from the trillion dollar enterprise; therefore miss their chance at getting a piece of the pie.

Taking a class with help you better understand the history off the trade. It will teach you what hedge funds, stock investors, and auction markets are. As well as when bankers started to begin to trade government securities.

It is very important to learn how to buy, sell, and trade. In order to do this effectively and efficiently. It can and will get rather confusing if you try to do this on your own with little to no knowledge of the trade. Taking a course will ensure that you get the right set of skills to achieve what you are looking for.

The past 18 months have offered many opportunities to get involved in the stock market. Problem is those that want to use their money for investments usually do not have the correct knowledge of how to do so.

The techniques and methods of trading, selling and buying can be learned by taking a educational course. These are skills that are taught everyday in more than 30 financial education centers world wide. Join a free work shop to learn more on how to acquire these skills and have more success in the market.

To earn more cash and learn your trading options, you may want to look into a stock market course. With the course, you will gain the knowledge you need in order to be successful at the market.

Tags: , , , , ,