Trading for a Living Blog

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!

Investors in theory can wait for a long time to see their stock pick to play out. A company’s stock may be ridiculously cheap. But it may stay like that for a long time before it catches everyone else’s attention and the price is bid up. It might be good for investors to learn a few tricks from traders especially day trading that can help them make a few quick bucks.

Successful day trading requires an innate sense of discipline. Successful day trading requires the sense when to commit money to a trade and when to cut the losses and run. However, if you are an investor who has never day traded, you might have done so much research and committed so much time waiting for a position to work out that you might forget the cardinal rule of traders: The market doesn’t know you are in 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.

One of the tricks that you can learn from day traders is momentum investing. In momentum investing, you look for securities that are expected to go up in prices accompanied by the underlying momentum. When investing, you try to buy low and sell high. In momentum investing, you buy high and sell even higher!

Now most serious momentum investors are infact swing traders who hold positions for a few weeks or a few months. Most of them employ some sort of momentum indicators to help them identify when it is good time to buy a stock. Some of the indicators that can be used is the Relative Strength Index (RSI), Moving Average Convergence and Divergence (MACD) and the Stochastic Index.

Momentum investing can also lead to bubbles like that happened in the dot com bubble in the last few years of 1990s. It is always a good idea to do some fundamental research on the companies before doing momentum investing.

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You must have traded ETFs. No, then let me first introduce you to ETFs. ETF is the short acronym for Exchange Traded Funds. ETF are a basket of stocks or other assets that have been designed to closely track a stock index, a market index, sector index or any other index. Now trading stock indexes is what many trader do. You can trade stock indexes with options. However, trading ETF Options can be a more profitable venture for you!

The most important difference is that Index Options are cash settled on expiry while the ETF Options are settled with the underlying instruments that is shares of that ETF. Since with an ETF Options, you can also own the underlying security, you can use various combination strategies.

Stocks have dividends that are paid out periodically to the stock holders. Dividends are an important part of the return that a stock gives over a certain period of time. Now when you are trading index options or ETF options both of them get affected by the dividend payments on the underlying stocks. You need to take this fact into account when calculating the values of puts and calls with an Options Calculator otherwise your investment returns may not be what you have been anticipating.

Now, ETF Options are more flexible than the Index Options as you can use the underlying ETF as well in your options strategies. If you have already traded stock options, ETF options should not be difficult for you. You can hedge your ETF position with an option on the ETF.

Now when trading ETF Options, you can use the famous Protective Put Strategy by combining long ETF with a long put. This way you can hedge against the downside risk with a small increased cost to the ETF. A Protective Put will limit the downside risk to the put strike price.

Similarly, you can use a Covered Call on ETF. A Covered Call is formed by taking combining long ETF with a short call on that ETF. The short call will give you some income in the shape of a premium and reduce the cost of the position. This will also slightly reduce the risk of the position. But on the other hand, a covered call will limit the upside profit potential. Your max profit now will only be limited to the call strike price.

Now, you can also use a Collared Position as well by combining a long ETF with a long put and a short call. This combination limits the downside risk to the put strike price with a slight increase in the cost of the ETF. This net increase in cost by taking a long put is offset with the premium brought in by the short call. On the other hand, the limited but high risk is turned into limited risk only.

Whatever options strategies you use with the ETF, you should first paper trade those strategies and instruments. This is an inexpensive way of test these strategies and can be a good lesson in unexpected risk of either of these securities.

An important fact that you need to know is that not all ETFs have options written on them. This should not surprise you as there are many stocks that don’t have options written on them. Another important fact that you should know is that ETF Options are always American Style. American Style options can be excercised anytime before expiry. You can even trade LEAP Options on ETFs. LEAP Options are long term options having expiry of more than nine months to less than two and a half years.

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Learn about the best stocks to buy right now with some of the best information that you are going to find. There is a simple way to make money when you know what to buy, but the thing is that you have to learn how. Here are some tips to help with your purchasing decisions for stocks.

Although there are few people out there with the knowledge that easy money is possible with stocks, it has to do with the lack of tools that they have. Knowing the right information can help you to find the best way to make money. This is what you will learn right now.

Presently, two sites are making people a lot of money. This could be the reason why others do not want to share the secret of how they are making money with stocks. That kind of stuff tends to happen when others want to keep all of the profits for themselves and not let others in on it.

Two of the sites, you should consider looking at, is TrendFollowingStrategies.com and TodayHotStocks.com . Over the years, TrendsFollowingStrategies.com, has done a lot of research with the method by use of trend following indicators. This helps you to make more money with stocks and is something done with an automated system. Yeah, I know it is hard to believe, but now there is the potential to make money with one of the best programs that are out there. Anytime the market changes, the software that the company uses alerts them of the changes.

Additionally, the company does not use risky investments that are likely to lose your money. Many of the recommendations they have correspond to Exchange traded funds (EFTs) since there is less risk involved. Gain more of an understanding of the process that they do by visiting their page. Another thing you will enjoy is the 100% guarantee that they offer. This means that if you are not happy within the first 60 days they will refund all of your money.

The other place to go with a great source of information for the best stocks to buy right now is TodayHotStocks.com. You will find the option of a newsletter filled with great information, as well as some free tips and other information. Both of these sites are two places that you are sure to have an increase in the money that you make.

Find more on todays hot stocks and stock trading newsletters.

Any investor is aware that investing is a little like gambling. There are no guarantees that your investments will produce the returns you expect. Hot stocks can be an especially risky market. That’s why, when I came across Today’s Hot Stocks while I was doing some market research I doubted that it would work the way they claimed.

There are so many variables involved with hot stocks trading, I didn’t see how a software program could accurately take everything into account. I never believe everything I read anyway. There are a lot of scammers ready to take your money and run. Given that the newsletter wasn’t expensive, I decided to try out the newsletter for two months.

I signed up for the Today’s Hot Stocks newsletter six months ago and I haven’t looked back. The program doe everything it says it will do and I have been making a great return on my hot stocks. Sure, I’ve had occasional losers, but not as many as I had before trying this newsletter. The returns on the winners have been better than most of my own picks.

I’m still not putting all my eggs in one basket, the best way to protect your money is to invest it with diversity in mind. I have to admit, though, that I’m really impressed at the returns I’m getting on hot stocks. Today’s Hot Stocks news letter has made a believer out of me. I’ve done some trend following and I know how that software works, but my returns haven’t been as reliable as with hot stocks.

I usually use different sources to research my investments and most of those sources are free. I was a little reluctant to pay for a newsletter, but I am glad I decided to pay attention to my friend, even though I thought he was crazy.

I admit that I like the money back guarantee. Today’s Hot Stocks allows you to try the newsletter and email alerts for up to sixty days, and if you aren’t happy they will give you a full refund. I thought I’d be getting that refund, but I am more than satisfied with my results and I’m happy to keep paying for their advice. I wouldn’t even be in this great market if it wasn’t for Today’s Hot Stocks, and of course, my friend.

Sure you can get free advice on hot stocks, but you usually get what you pay for. Free advice isn’t necessarily good advice. The software used by hot stocks is remarkably accurate. OK, the market doesn’t always behave predictably and sometimes you may suffer a loss, but the program does help to minimize your losses and takes your emotions out of the equation.

I’m still a pretty conservative investor, but I’m glad i added hot stocks to my strategy. The 37% return I’ve made over the las three months is impressive and I plan to keep trading in this market for the foreseeable future. Even if you’re conservative like me, I suggest you try Today’s Hot Stocks newsletter and discover a new, lucrative investment strategy.

Find more on best stocks today and hot stocks.

Trend following is a stock market strategy that takes advantage of both the swings and roundabouts of the market. It is a method that employs risk management to minimize possible losses. Traders who employ trend following enter the market after a trend has been established, they do not attempt to forecast trends. They determine how much to take a position in a selected issue based primarily on the size of the trading account and the stability of the issue.

The systems that monitor trend following are pre programmed to exit if there is a surprising downward turn to the trend. The trader will wait and re-enter if the trend re-establishes itself. The point of trend following is to follow the trend after it is established.

The most vital indicator for a trend supporter is cost. He may take other considerations into account, but price is the ruling factor. The timing of the trade is the second important factor, while it is less important than the quantity of the trade. Before the trader buys, he has an exit technique prepared knowing when he is going to sell whether the trade is profitable or not. The software allows for a stop loss to be set when the loss reaches the maximum satisfactory amount.

Before entering a trade, most trend supporters will test it on their software so they can guage the probable hazards and gains. The software is programmed with various factors in relation to the particular trade. The trader then decides if he should make the trade under consideration.

Trends are effected by events that cannot be foreseen. An issue in a upward trend can go down due to an event or can go up. Hurricane Katrina is an example of an event. As soon it it became clear the hurricane would hit the city of New Orleans, gas prices rose. Trend disciples in the commodities and exchanges commenced investing heavily in oil which drove prices up farther. There has been some feedback of trend following, especially in the commodities market. Some critics believe that trend disciples basically effect the market.

By definition, all market investing is speculative. Following trends is a selected technique for utilising highs and lows in the market and using them to your own advantage. Unlike hot stocks, which involve holding stocks for very short periods, hours or days, trend following involves keeping stock for longer periods, although the basic principle is quite similar. In trend following one might hold the stock for a week or a month depending on the trend.

I you do not have a plan and the right information when you enter the market, you will pretty much certainly lose cash. Learn all you can and employ trend following along with other proven methodologies and you will make the best of your investment greenbacks.

Find more on market trend signal and stock market trend following.

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The is a new game in the stock market nowadays called hot stocks. This goes against the standard Wall St. Recommendation of buy low and sell high. The new hot stocks strategy is to buy high and sell even higher. The way it works is that you purchase stocks that are rising in price and sell them while they are still rising. The time between the buy and the sale is short.

Purchasing an undervalued stock and waiting for the price to rise is certainly smart idea. It may take a bit for the stock value to go up and in that time your cash is tied up. When you get a hot stock, whose price is rising, you can sell in short time and still earn a profit.

This investment plan is especially suited to day traders. You’ve got to be conscious of the market trends and select stocks that are showing a noticeable consistent increase. Buy the stock and after it rises enough to give you a profit, sell it. Don’t feel tempted to hang onto it beyond making a good profit. This is a method, not a get rich quick scheme.

If you happen to pick a stock that starts to stagnate or drop in price, sell it right away, even if you have to take losses. Never think the stock will recover and you will get your investment back. If it drops lower you will lose even more. The idea is to maximise your gains and keep your losses as small as possible.

Hot stocks are temporary investments and shouldn’t be held onto for over a day or two. Keep on top of the market trends and your stock prices so you can sell at the most advantageous time. This technique of investment has hazards and infrequently you will lose. That is’s alright. The main thing is to chose more winners than losers.

Anyone that is trading seriously in the market should use more than one plan. Hot stocks are great, but they are often high risk. Your portfolio should be diversified, with proved stocks from different business sectors. This helps offset losses and protects your investments. Hot stocks should be part of your investment plan.

Hot stocks only work as a short term investment. These are stocks which should be purchased and sold in less than a week. If the stock continues to rise after you sell, that’s’s OK, you definitely made a profit. The stock could just as easily drop in value.

If you are employing a broker for your stock transactions, you will have to pay a fee each time you buy or sell a stock. This may have a repercussion on your bottom line. There are online trading services that are less dear than brokers for transactions of this type. If you are considering making an investment in hot stocks, you should look into techniques to save on brokerage charges. This will be considerable when many transactions are concerned and could even wipe out your profits.

By investing cleverly and using different investment techniques you can make cash in the market. Hot stocks are a part of an overall investment plan. Your investments should be spread across different money instruments to guard your principal and maximize your return. Hot stocks will help you achieve your monetary goals, but shouldn’t be your sole finance investment. The stock market can be like the lotto, so bet with your head, not over it.

Find more on best growth stocks and hot stocks.

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The foreign exchange market, also called forex or FX, is trading one currency for another. It is one of the largest markets in the world and everyone from central banks to companies to individuals participates in it. Retail traders are now only a small portion of the entire forex market with speculators making up the biggest portion. The market itself is almost completely liquid and operates 24 hours a day. The chance to make money depends on the belief that the currency you buy will increase in value compared to the one you sold, allowing you to make a profit on the margin.

There are two main theories related to analyzing forex transactions. The 1st is fundamental analysis which looks at the economic conditions surrounding the value of a currency to determine if its price is fair. The 2nd main analysis method is technical analysis which depends on analyzing historic patterns of a currency to predict where it will go in the future.

It used to be that forex – the trading of foreign currencies was a highly specialized series of financial products only available to major corporations and governments. If a retail customer was “lucky” enough to get involved via a syndicate setup at their stock brokerage of choice – that was their good or bad fortune. The national banks of many large or even unsubstantial countries are also involved in these commodities , either as fiscal policy to shore up or regulate varying national and international currency levels and values. Major firms would also “hedge” their bets by purchasing different brands and forms of financial valuations and instruments in an effort to remove risks and variations in their export product pricing levels.

It does not take much at all to cause panic and mayhem in the forex market. If anything it can be said that the whole process is not boring or mundane by any chance. A tropical storm such as Katrina can wreak great havoc and mayhem not only physically by its weather but also weather a storm on the dollar , Yen or British pound Sterling , their value and perceptions of future value. Economics it seems is always driven by the simple concepts of “supply and demand”. The major change in the 21’st century in 2009 and on into the new millennium of 2010 is the absolute breakneck speed of communication. What used to take weeks and months to traverse the globe in terms of communication and information now takes but a flash of a second. Sometimes as with natural disasters such as earthquakes or political assassinations , world and thus fortune causing changes can come out of the blue , instantaneously .

There are ways to protect you in such a volatile market such as stop loss trading. This is where you set a lower limit below which you do not want to pass and if the currency pair drops below this your trade will be made, there by protecting you from any further drop in the currency value.

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Pattern trading may be considered one form of breakout trading. There are basically two types of chart patterns. One are the chart patterns that generally represent price consolidation and include patterns like triangles, flags, pennants, wedges, rectangles and the head and shoulder pattern among others.

These chart patterns are mostly a signal for a breakout or a continuation of the existing trend. For the most part these chart patterns are traded when a breakout of one or another kind occurs. There is a famous head and shoulder shampoo also in the market. You might be using one. Dont confuse the head and shoulder with the name of a shampoo. It is a chart pattern that you must be familiar with if you want to continue reading this article otherwise first make yourself clear about these chart patterns and then continue reading this article.

The second type of chart patterns that are the Japanese Candlestick patterns! Candlestick patterns are not tied as closely with breakout trading. Now when we talk of pattern breakouts it should be clear which chart patterns constitute a continuation pattern and which chart patterns are considered reversal patterns.

The most common chart patterns found on the currency charts that are generally considered to be reversal formations include double tops/bottoms, triple tops/bottoms and head and shoulder tops and bottoms.

A continuation pattern means that the trend is going strong and the chances of its reversal are small. When a continuation pattern approaches breakout on the side of the pattern that would denote a continuation, technical traders patiently wait for a breakout. The most common chart patterns that are generally considered to be continuation patterns include flags, pennants, triangles, wedges, rectangles and others.

This type of trade is treated as a breakout trade with similar type of entry and stop loss placement as with standard support/resistance breakout trades. One benefit of pattern trading lies in the precise profit targets.

A good example is that of the head and shoulder pattern. The traditional signal for the trade is after that price breaks the neckline. Profit target is derived by measuring the height from the top of the head to the neckline then projecting that height from the neckline breakdown for the profit target.

In actuality, any type of breakout of these patterns whether in the direction of the continuation or reversal is eagerly watched traded event. Similarly the height of the rectangle is projected up or down to derive the profit target after the breakout in case of the rectangle consolidation pattern. Triangles, flags, pennants and other chart patterns also have convenient build in profit targets.

Candlestick patterns are most often used as important trade confirmation tools in conjunction with other technical indicators. Candlestick patterns in themselves are not usually considered as sufficient trading signals.

For example, it should not be taken as a reversal signal to buy low if the hammer candlestick pattern occurs after a steep well defined down trend. However, if this hammer candlestick pattern occurs right at a well established support level, the hammer candle may be taken as a strong signal that a potential long trade may be profitable.

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The day before the Presidents day is the worst day and the day after the Easter is the worst day after. However, you should keep in mind that a lot of other factors also come into play and you have a lot of room for error. The next best holiday bets are the Labor Day and the Memorial Day because they fall before the first day of trading in September and June respectively.

Children love Santa Claus. Do the markets love Santa Claus? You must have heard about the Santa Claus Rally? Most of the folks usually feel fairly good about themselves around this time of the year. The best time of the year to own stocks is the Santa Claus rally which for all practical purposes is the 17 day stretch from December 21 to January 7. This is the best time of the year. People are happy and the markets are happy.

There is a low trading volume which tends to exaggerate the trend. If the economy is not doing good and is slowing down, FED tends to lower interest rates during holidays in order to go into the new year with less of a worry. However, when you are dealing with seasonality, you should keep these facts in your mind:

1) The market is not longer static. The seasonal effect may get interrupted by other events. More and more people have real time access to information and larger amounts of capital than at any time in the past.

2) At the end of the year, institutional investors want to make their results look as good as possible to their shareholders and tend to buy the stocks and so on. Institutional investors like mutual funds, hedge funds and insurance companies have become important players in the markets. So in case of an event free environment, seasonal tendencies may hold up fairly well.

3) People want quick profits. Many people make a living from investing and trading. These are the times for day traders and swing traders. With fewer people willing to hold stocks for longer periods, it is very difficult to predict seasonality. The days of long term investing or what you call buy and hold are dead! Frequent market crashes have taught the investing public that investing for the long term is fairly risky. So there is more short term trading going on. Value investing is gone and speculation is in.

4) The recent market crash was the result of CMO and Default Swaps bringing down the banks and Insurance companies in ways that had not been anticipated or foreseen by the analysts. Many had assumed that derivate securities are safe. Infact they have highly unpredictable tendencies. Derivates and outside the market trading activities can result in highly unpredictable patterns.

Many things are changing. The world is always changing. There is a change in demographics also taking place. With the aging of the population, the overall trend will be towards more income producing investments. So with everyone talking about the seasonal tendencies in the market, it reliability becomes less diminished.

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There is a relationship between the trade size and the stop loss. Always move the stops closer to your current position when adjusting your stops due to an increase in trade size. An increase in trade size is usually caused by adding on or scaling in to a winning position. This lowers the risk in relation to your larger trade size.

As a rule, always set your stops on the same time frame as you entered your trade. Many traders want to know about moving stops based on different time frames. For example, if you had used a daily chart to enter your trade, use the daily chart to set your initial stop.

In day trading, you are supposed to close your position at the end of the day. Sometimes an opportunity arises and you decide to continue the trade overnight. For day traders there is a risk when holding a trade overnight. There is always a possibility of unforeseen event occurring during the night.

There will always be one time frame that is your hot favorite. Suppose you are trading a 15 minute time frame. Therefore your stop loss and position size are based on the 15 minute time frame. In stock trading, unexpected event may create a gap open. This may adversely affect your account value.

5 minutes before the close of the day, your trade is profitable and you see much more profits if you hold the position overnight based on your 15 minute chart. How do you decide to take the decision to let the trade continue overnight?

When deciding whether to let the trade continue overnight, consider the following 5 rules. 1) The 15 minute chart must indicate a solid trend in place. 2) You should place a new stop loss based on your daily chart. 3) The trade must currently be profitable. 4) Your risk should be no more than 2% of your trading account based on your new adjusted stop from the daily chart. Reduce your trade size. 5) When the market opens the next day, be sure to monitor your trade.

It is crucial from the profit point of view to refine your strategy. The more profitable you will be, the better your stop strategy is. The most common thing that can happen in case of a poorly placed stop loss is that you will get stopped out on a correction. After being stopped out, the market will race back in the direction you were initially betting on.

Now you should keep this in your mind that there are no perfect stops. There is also no way to time the market perfectly. Your goal should be to get the probabilities in your favor by choosing a risk/reward ratio of at least “. This risk to reward ratio will also tell you about the placement of your initial stop loss. Just dont forget, getting repeated stopped out will add to your commission fees and spreads making your trading cost higher.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Try This 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signal Service from heaven! Learn These Candlestick Patterns!