Better Trades - a Better Teaching Strategy

Do you really want to learn your stock market trading strategies from someone who has never traded?

One of the problems of the Internet is that there are hundreds of people and countless websites that say they know how to use the stock market when they are simply regurgitating the information available everywhere. If you're trying to build your personal wealth, reading the same information found on virtually every trading website simply won't help. Fortunately, there's a better way.

BetterTrades is a truly unique educational company in the world of trading. We rely on live events that you attend in person to ensure that you are learning trading information unavailable anywhere else. Interactive seminars, live mentoring, online courses and specialized trading information are also used to help you get a maximum return. Our interactive multi-training makes BetterTrades an exceptional resource for any trader either new or experienced.

One of the best things about Better Trades is that all of the instructors are experienced traders who have worked extensively with the stock market in the past. With over 200 years of combined experience, you'll find a team that has written a multitude of books and designed thousands of seminars. You'll also find the only team who can help you meet your personal wealth goals.

Many of the instructors began their stock market experience with virtually no training. For some, trading was a hobby. As they realized that they were able to fulfill their own financial goals, trading became much more. Because our instructors began their trading career as novices, you'll get realistic advice that teaches you the necessary skills to get started. Free of the technical jargon that can confuse many beginners, you'll learn how to make a fortune no matter what the market conditions.

With thousands of satisfied students to date, BetterTrades is an educational company that provides personalized advice. With highly educational classes that will teach you to apply smart trading tactics, you could turn a few hundred dollars into thousands in just a few months. If you're not trading as successfully as you like, it's time to contact BetterTrades.

Better Trades is for those who truly want to learn how to trade in the stock market. After all, why would you use another company whose instructors have never traded when you can work with a faculty that has made its own personal fortune from the techniques offered in each class? Contact BetterTrades today, and start your trading education.

Read more: articlesbase

Considerations Before Becoming a Part Time Currency Trader

These days, earning extra is what most people are concerned with. One of the promising jobs that you can take on is as part time currency trader. The currency trading business is a stable one mainly because currencies are needed all over the world. The demand is always there although it may fluctuate from time to time depending on the supplies on hand and on the devaluations that may happen. But for the most part, currency trading is indeed a worthwhile business to get into.

However, there are a few important points that you need to consider before becoming a part time currency trader such as the following:

1. How much time can you devote on this part time job?

It is important to note how often you can do currency trading especially if you are going to work for a full-time trader or a broker. Time is of the essence when it comes to foreign currency trading. Keep in mind that different currency markets open and close depending on their specific time zones. Sometimes it is crucial to be there just as a particular currency market opens. Knowing the time you can allot for the job would also give you an idea on which currencies would be best for you to trade.

2. Do you have any currency specialty?

You should understand how your main currency works. One of the most important things to note in this business is how fragile currency values are. They can change within a snap and there are lots of factors that account for such changes. If you are a beginner in this whole business, it would be best to start with big currencies such as dollars and euros. This would help you test the waters and figure out your own style.

3. What forex system would you apply to your business?

There are many different trading methods that you can actually consider. But it might be good to try them all or read up on them before you implement them on your own business. Test the waters with these methods. This would help you figure out what system would eventually cause a bigger profit stream for your business.

Aside from these important questions, budget might also be an important thing to consider even if you are just going to be a part time currency trader. This is especially true if you are just starting in this business and you are yet to have a solid footing within it. So where can you spend such budget? Here are some recommendations:

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      Automated forex system – You can go as part time currency trader in terms of the actual time you manually focus on it. But if you want to utilize the market much better, purchasing and setting up an automated forex system can allow you to be a full time trader minus being actually there.
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      Forex broker – These professionals would be able to help a lot in terms of establishing your network and knowing the ins and outs of the market.

Source : articlebase

The Chicago Board of Trade in the US

When is someone in the US is making reference to the 'Board Of Trade' they are usually talking with respect to the stock market and typically the Chicago board of trade (known as CBOT) which is the worlds oldest options and futures exchange. Also the Chicago Boards building is often referred to by the exchange name.

Kansas city also has a board that is associated with trading, it is a options and a commodity futures exchange that is regulated by the 'Commodity Futures Trading Commission'. Of course New York has a similar exchange which is a physical commodities futures exchange.

There are others, for example there is what is known as a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, this originated as a committee of inquiry sometime in the 17th century and evolved slowly over time into a government department with a diverse range of functions. Also worthy of passing mention is the Vancouver Board (of trade) which is a non-profit group which seeks to facilitate and promote the Pacific region as a centre that is available for travel, commerce and trade.

Here we will give focus and a little history of the CBOT (mentioned above). The CBOT came about to provide a central location where sellers and buyers could meet and arrange their 'forward' contracts.

These 'forward contracts' could be traded on the exchange, these were the first 'futures contracts'. It can also be noted that one of the hallmarks of the CBOT exchange was that the futures contracts were standardized, so that futures traders had known standard futures contract sizes.

The listing of these standardized forward contracts (Futures contracts) was first done by the CBOT in 1864. Around 1919 the Chicago Butter and Egg Board was shuffled around to allow traders to carry out futures trading and its name was changed to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (the CME).

The CBOT has been located at West Jackson Boulevard, Chicago since about 1930 and initially was the tallest building in Chicago. The building is now considered a national historical landmark.

The CBOT trading 'floor' is made up of trading pits. Whilst the trading pits are still used and are considered the favoured place for complex option trades to be filled, the advent of electronic trading has seen the use of trading pits decrease.

Source : ezinearticles

Successful Currency Trading - Understand These 3 Key Points and Make Triple Digit Gains!

The fact is 95% of all currency traders lose money but they don't lose because they don't have the potential to win, they lose because they either get the wrong education or have the wrong mindset. If you understand the 3 key points in this article, you can avoid the losing majority and get on the road to Forex trading success.

The first point we will look at is obvious yet, the majority of novice traders make the mistake and its this:

1. Trusting Cheap Automated Software

The advertising copy is convincing but it should be obvious that making huge gains with no effort for the cost of a few hundred dollars or less is to good to be true and it is - these cheap Forex robots all lose money that's why there so cheap! You don't make money with no0 effort in Forex trading, thats why 95% of all traders lose.

2. Hard Work and Intelligence are no Guarantee You Will Win

another huge group of traders think that if the harder they work the better their chances of making money and the more complex and clever their strategy is the more money it will make. Both these assumptions are wrong - You are judged on how much money you make and that's all. To make money, you only need a simple trading strategy. Simple strategies work best, as they are more robust than complicated ones with fewer elements to break.

You can learn a strategy which can make money in a few weeks and be making triple digit gains in just 30 minutes a day.

Discipline Is as Important as a Goo Trading System

You can have a trading strategy which has the potential to make money but you must realize it's potential. You need to apply the system with rigid discipline through losing periods and keep losses small - most traders however can't do this because their emotions get involved and when they do, they over ride their system, let losses run, trade more than they should but if you can't follow a trading strategy with discipline - you don't have one!

Forget Being Clever and Make Money!

You only need a simple system to win and you don't need to be clever to learn one or to apply one successfully in the market. The problem with people who think their clever is - they don't accept losses and argue with the market and that leads to disaster.

So get a simple system, be humble, take your losses and stay on course and if you do this, you are on the road to making big currency trading profits in 30 minutes a day or less.

Source : ezinearticles

The Chicago Board of Trade in the US

1. Win-to-loss ratio When assessing the performance of a trading system, one of the first statistics that gives you a good indication of tradability is the win-to-loss ratio. Quite simply, this is the ratio of the average winning trades taken against the average losing trades taken. If this ratio indicates you are, on average, winning more than you are losing, you are on the right track.

But don't get caught up in this statistic on its own, because it doesn't tell the whole story. It doesn't consider the size of your winning trades versus the size of your losing trades. Remember the Turtles? Their win-to-loss ratio was 40:60, but they were still hugely profitable.

2. Average wins and losses In addition to the win-to-loss ratio, you will want to make sure that the average value of your winning trades is greater than the average value of your losing ones. Say your back testing consisted of 200 trades. If 150 are losing trades and only 50 are winning trades, obviously your win-to-loss ratio is 25:75. But that on its own isn't enough to determine if a system is good or bad.

Understand that, if the average of your wins were, for example, $2000 and the average of your losses were $500, you are still coming out on top ((50x2000)-(150x500)=$25,000).

3. Expectancy A trading system's expectancy is perhaps one of the most powerful statistics you can have because it is a way of quantifying the performance of a system that is independent of the size of the trading float.

In short, it produces the expected dollar return for each dollar risked by the trading system. This is different to the reward-to-risk ratio and average wins to losses that we described above, in that it defines a return in dollar terms for every dollar that you risk. If your system has an expectancy of +0.75, on average, you would expect to make 0.75 times the amount you risked in the trade. If you risk $1, then you would expect to make, on average, $0.75 for every trade you take.

As a guide, if you can achieve expectancy of $0.60, you're heading in the right direction.

4. Maximum consecutive losses Look back through your testing results to see, statistically, how many losses in a row your system sustained while still being profitable. This is important to know upfront, since this statistic will give you confidence during those low times when it feels like you should throw in the towel.

For example, imagine you have been hit with five or six losses in a row. Without knowing your maximum consecutive losses, you might think your system isn't working. This is where most naive traders go wrong. The truth be known, based on the historical data, your system may have actually sustained 10 losses and still been profitable.

5. Maximum drawdown The maximum drawdown is the worst period of 'peak to valley' performance of your system, regardless of whether or not the drawdown consisted of consecutive months of negative performance.

This statistic is automatically calculated, so it's just a matter of asking yourself: am I comfortable with that size loss? If not, you will need to do more system tweaking to get it to a level that you can live with.

Again, it all comes back to the risk-to-reward ratio. Typically the more risk you take, the greater the reward. I have traded a system in the past that returned 140% p.a. Now that sounds great, but that particular system had a maximum drawdown of 80%. Could you trade a system where it's likely you'd lose 80% of all your capital at least once while trading it? Could you stomach that?

It's important you trade a system you're comfortable with.

6. Number of trades Then there's the number of trades a system gives over the course of a year. I find this an invaluable, yet rarely talked about, statistic.

Your trading system should not give too many or too few trades. The number of trades that a trading system gives should be approximately the same as that which can realistically be taken.

The two sides of the coin are equally dangerous. If a system gives too many trades, you will be forced to choose between signals, therefore adding ambiguity to the system. With ambiguity comes human discretion and this often has a detrimental effect on the performance of the trading system.

On the other hand, if a system gives too few trades, your trading capital will not be fully utilised and you may not be taking full advantage of the available trading opportunities.

So how do you calculate the optimal number of trades for a trading system?

This is done with the calculation called 'opportunity'. Opportunity helps determine your optimal opportunity for a trading system.

7. Profitability Profitability is simply the return on investment over a yearly term.

Source : ezinearticles

Applying Martingale Betting System in Trading

Martingale is a well-known money management system used in gambling. I used to talk about it before in one of my money management articles. This time I will confess to you my experiences of using the martingale system.

I knew this system from one of my friends. He persuaded me to raise money by betting in an online casino. He also showed his and other friends statements to me. At that time, I was attracted by the money so I applied for an account and started playing card game by using the martingale system.

Everything seemed perfect in the beginning. I earned large amount of money easily. The casino did not let this went on for long time. I started to lose my money. All my profits were gone, even my initial capital was also gone. Eventually, I stopped gambling but did not stop using martingale system. Not until I faced ruin of my one trading account.

How I applied the betting system to my trading later was very simple. I just defined the ranges of stop and exit from the point where I entered a trade. Then I opened a position with an amount of money. The target point and stop loss were set for the position.

If I won the trade, I would enter another trade with the same amount of money. If I lost, I would also enter a new trade but with the double amount of money from the previous one.

It happened all over again, everything was great in the beginning, and I won trades many times in a row. I had never lost more than three times in a row. I got a confidence in this money management system.

Suddenly, a drawdown came by. I faced a string of losses, it swallowed my trading account. Everything was gone. I had to start over again.

You may think that I was not good enough; otherwise I would not lose so many times in a row. You may be far better than me but you also have the risk of ruin which I also mentioned to before.

I hope my experience will be example for other traders. You do not need to face this experience yourself. It takes times to re-raise the trading capital from scratch again.

Taro is an experience trader who trades in stocks, futures, forex. He strongly focuses on technical analysis, trading systems and money management.

Source : ezinearticles

Trading Stock Options: Good or Evil?

You have probably heard people refer to options as a risky enterprise, akin to gambling. And it is true that options trading can be very risky, especially when engaged in with minimal knowledge and preparation. The average stockbroker or financial planner does not have sufficient options knowledge to guide you in the use of options in your portfolio. But that doesn't mean options cannot play a role in a conservative portfolio of stocks.

The majority of today's options trading volume derives from institutional money managers who use options to protect their clients' stock portfolios. They are using options as insurance. Options may also be used to boost the income that may be derived from a conservative stock portfolio.

Options written on stocks are referred to as equity options and come in two forms: calls and puts. A call option gives the holder of the option the right to buy the underlying stock at the strike price of the option at any time before expiration. A call option is similar to a grocery store coupon for a five pound bag of flour at an attractive price; but the coupon is only good for 30 days and is limited to the purchase of one five pound bag. Similarly, a call option gives you the right to buy 100 shares of stock at a specific price and it is only good for a particular period of time.

Put options are opposite in character to calls and are more like insurance; a put option gives the owner the right to sell the underlying stock at the strike price of the option any time before expiration. Put options are often purchased when one expects a stock to decline in price, or it could be used as a form of insurance if I already own the stock; if my stock declines in price, my put option appreciates and compensates for a portion or all of that loss. An excellent analogy is house insurance; if I pay my insurance premium January 1 and nothing happens to damage my house this year, my insurance expires worthless, just as my put option will expire worthless if my stock just continues to appreciate. But if a hurricane damages my house during the year, my insurance pays for some or all of the repairs. Similarly, if my stock declines in price, my put option will increase in value, replacing some or all of the loss in my portfolio.

Equity options expire on the Saturday following the third Friday of each month. It is common to hear or read that equity options expire on that third Friday. While that isn't technically correct, it is true that Friday is the last opportunity to trade those options. Saturday expiration was established to give the Options Clearing Corporation and the brokerages time to settle their customers' accounts before the options technically (legally) lose their value.

Consider Hewlett Packard (ticker symbol: HPQ) as an example. HPQ closed May 28, 2009 at $34.70; the June $35 call option was quoted at $1.00 at the close. In the options quotations on a site like Yahoo Finance, you will see bid and ask prices posted. The Ask price is the price quoted if I wish to buy the option, while the bid price is what I would have to pay to sell my option. Options are quoted per share of the underlying stock, but are sold as contracts that cover 100 share lots of stock. The HPQ June $35 calls are quoted at an ask price of $1.00. Each contract is priced at $1.00 per share of the underlying stock; since each contract covers 100 shares of stock, the contract costs $100 and five contracts would cost $500. I have the right to exercise my options anytime before they cease trading on Friday, June 19, and buy 500 shares of Hewlett Packard stock at $35 per share or $10,500. Or I could simply sell my call options at the bid price anytime before expiration.

Options can be used in several very conservative ways in a stock portfolio. For example, if I own 300 shares of Hewlett Packard (HPQ), but I am concerned this market is softening and may take another dive downward, I could buy three contracts of the June $35 puts at $1.40 to protect my position. This put position would cost me $420 and protect me through June 19. As HPQ drops in price, the puts will increase in price, compensating for some or all of my loss on the stock. This is called a "married put" position. However, there is no free lunch in the market; if HPQ trades sideways or upward, I will lose my $420 of "insurance premium".

Another conservative use of options is the "covered call" strategy. If we continue with our example of HPQ and I think the stock is going to trade sideways or slightly up over the next few weeks, I could sell three contracts of the June $35 calls for $1.00, bringing $300 into my account. If HPQ is trading unchanged at $34.70 on June 19, the $35 call options will expire worthless, and I will have gained $300 or 2.9%. But if HPQ trades upward of $35, my maximum gain is capped at $330, or 3.7%.

Options trading can be very risky when used in a speculative manner, but options may also be used in conservative fashion with a stock portfolio, both protecting the downside and also increasing the income from the portfolio.

Source : articlescity