Six Reasons Why You Should Start Forex Trading Now!

By Daniel Longacre

Forex trading pertains to currency dealing that functions 24 hours a day and where more than 2 trillion dollars exchange hands everyday. Previously, Forex market business was only available to huge corporations. Now, it's reachable to everyone, counting you.

Cause 1: Flexibility of Trade

If you feel restricted to earning money through your own savings and effort, then you should actually think about Forex trading. In Forex trading, there is no restriction on how much you can profit, apart from your own modal and policies of investment|assets. In Forex trading, there are many efficient sellers and customers all over the world. So, immediately after you are determined on your sales, your position seals and you won't be affected by unexpected market fluctuations.

Reason 2: Instability

Unevenness of course signifies insecurity, and this can be transformed either into an advantage or necessary risk that you must take. So, put into your mind that the greater risk that you put into the trade, the greater likelihood of profits that you'll gain. Bear in mind though, you might incur losses if you take too high a risk.

Reason 3: Accessibility

As mentioned earlier, Forex trading is 24 hours a day and there's no limit on where and when to trade. There won't be any doubts anymore as you travel as you can trade anywhere and anytime you want.

Cause 4: Profit Prospective

The high prospect of earning from forex trading is the best attraction to investors all over the globe. By having a small modal to start off with, you can receive more proceeds in return. Furthermore, if you know the strategies and techniques, there's no say in how much you can earn. Yet, you must do a concrete plan initially before you begin trading.

Causes 5: Margin

This is to compliment the instability in trading. As in normal investments, the margin might be around 2:1 or 3:1, which signifies if you endow 1 dollar, you'll receive 2 dollars in return. Conversely, in the forex market business, the margin is almost 200:1, which indicates if you spend $200, you'll get $20000 in return. The con is that as you can produce more rapidly, you can also lose money faster. Therefore, it depends on you to possess a solid investment plan and sufficient knowledge to take greater risk than you had before.

Reason 6: Paper Business

Paper trading signifies that you start on a mock business and pursue the market operations without paying any money. This enables you to garner knowledge, learn and perform a few fundamental methods before you make your first active business.

So, it is up to you whether you are willing to take some threats in order to gain some huge profits. - 23200

About the Author:

The experts hate it when their personal methods about forex get exposed! Now they're fuming mad about this blog Profits Run and trying to shut it down.

Tips for Trading Ascending Wedges Short with CFDs

By Jeff Cartridge

Traditional thinking suggests that the ascending wedge is most profitable when traded short. In reality this conclusion is not supported by the evidence. An ascending wedge is formed when the price action is contained within two lines. Both the bottom line and the top line slope up, but the bottom line has a steeper slope meeting the top line.

Ascending Wedges Profitable, No Surprise

Ascending wedges are one of the least predictable patterns that are available to trade short. With just 32% of the patterns breaking down, ascending wedges struggle to deliver good returns when they do. The average gain is 0.02% in 8 days with less than half of the breakouts (42%) being profitable. These results are marginal and barely profitable, but selecting the right conditions can make trading ascending wedges attractive.

Specific Setups to Improve Profitability

Trading ascending wedges when the stock and the market are in an up trend or consolidating improves your trading results. The sector should be falling or in consolidation to make the best profits.

Ascending wedges that breakout early in the pattern, produce similar results to those that breakout later, so this is not an important filter to use. Mid range patterns with a length less than 30 days and more than 5 days produce the best results.

Ensure that the volume is supportive of the breakout, i.e. volume as the stock falls is greater than volume as the stock rises. Avoid patterns that have two closes the same prior to the breakout as this is often a sign of an illiquid stock. Lower highs or lower lows prior to the breakout produce better results.

Trading Ascending Wedges Can Be Profitable

You can improve your trading results by using a series of filters that have been outlined here. These filters are harsh, significantly reducing the number of trades to get good results. (1275 trades are reduced to just 74). This select group of ascending wedges delivers an average profit of 1.46% in 10 days and is profitable on 48% of the trades. Overall this makes ascending wedges possible to trade short.

Note: Statistics for this article have been provided by Patterns Trader after analyzing over 60,000 chart patterns on the Australian market from 2000 - 2008. - 23200

About the Author:

Jeff Cartridge is a private trader and created the website LearnCFDs.com Trading Chart Patterns - All The Insider Tricks

Tips On Choosing The Best Mutual Funds

By Gene P. Llewellyn

One of the easiest ways to invest your money today is through the use of mutual funds. Mutual funds are professionally monitored investment options. They collect money from a group of people and they make a common investment. The money is invested in stocks, bonds and other forms of securities that the markets offer. They are very advantageous to those wishing to invest but do not have a large sum of money.

Choosing the best mutual funds to invest in will however need further scrutiny. This is because mutual funds are further subdivided into many types of funds. We shall look at a few of the common types of funds. We will begin with the open ended fund. It is called an open ended fund because once you join you can end the fund any day you wish. It is a good option because it allows for investors to get out when they see that it is not working out for them.

The exchange traded fund is a mutual fund that combines the open ended fund and a closed end fund. Their edge is that they deal in kind. With people being able to trade in kind then the members of the fund avoid all the procedures/expenses of transferring securities into money daily. This is not the case of the open ended fund.

When choosing the best mutual funds for your money needs there are the equity funds. The equity funds are all invested into the stock exchange market. This allows for fairly high returns to the members of this fund. I assume the risk that comes with it is very high though.

Before choosing the best mutual funds one will also come across the bond funds. There are about three types or more of the bond funds. We can mention one or two of these. The first one which is a very attractive option is the term fund. The term fund will have to wait a certain agreed duration before the returns are seen by the investor.

Another type of the bond funds is the municipal bond. It can also be a very attractive option when choosing the best mutual fund to suit you. The municipal bond is issued by the local government or by some of their agencies. The upside to the municipal bonds is that they have some tax benefits included for the investor. When the returns come they are not deducted income tax. This is a very big deal to many people.

When choosing the best mutual funds you will have to take a look at the money market funds. Money market funds are respected by many because they have the lowest risk of all the mutual funds that we have. Many people do not go into investment opportunities because they are put off by the risk. This mutual fund is the best for such people.

When choosing the best mutual funds one has to get to know all these different types of funds. I do not mean only skimming through them but learning them thoroughly. This will make sure that you will end up with the mutual fund that will end up proving worthwhile. If you want to invest then you must invest wisely. - 23200

About the Author:

If you want to become a smarter investor Inside Mutual Funds is your source for more suggestions on finding the best green mutual funds and growth stock mutual funds. For this and more information on how to select mutual funds and to help improve your portfolio, visit us today.

S&P Futures Explained (Part III)

By Ahmad Hassam

The E-mini S&P futures contract trade almost 24 hours per day with a 30 minute maintenance break in trading from 4:30 to 5:00 PM daily. The monthly identifiers for the E-mini S&P futures contracts are H for March, M for June, U for September and Z for December.

In case you lose at the end of the day you are likely to pay in a big way. If you are a new E-mini trader you be careful as traders are expected to pay for the difference between the margins for the entry and exit points. The day trading margin is less than the margin to hold an overnight position in S&P 500 E-mini Futures contract. The margin requirements for E-minis are much less than the normal contract.

All futures contracts are settled daily (assigned a final value price). Based on this settlement price, the values of all positions are marked to the market each day after the official close. Your account is then either debited or credited based on how well your positions fared in that days trading session. In other words, as long as your positions remain open, cash will either come into your account or leave your account based on the change in the settlement price from day to day.

As losses are not allowed to accumulate without some response being required, this system gives futures trading a rock-solid reputation for creditworthiness. It is this mechanism that brings integrity to the marketplace.

Leverage: Because futures markets are highly leveraged, the effect of price changes is magnified. With stocks, you typically pay the price in full (i.e., without leverage) or on margin (50 percent leverage). If you speculate in futures and the market moves in your favor, leverage can produce large profits in relation to the amount of your initial margin. However, if the market moves against your position, you also could lose your initial margin and then some.

For example, assume that youve decided to put $10,000 into a futures account. You buy one E-mini S&P 500 index futures contract when the index is trading at 1000. Your initial margin requirement for that one contract is $3,500.

Each one-point change in the index represents a $50 gain or loss because the value of the futures contract is $50 times the index. You could realize a profit of $2,500= (50 points) ($50) if the index increases 5 percent, to 1050 from 1000. Conversely, a 50-point decline would produce a $2,500 loss. The $2,500 increase represents a 25 percent return on your initial investment of $10,000 or a 71 percent return on your initial margin deposit of $3,500.

Conversely, a decline would eat up 25 percent of your original $10,000 or 71 percent of your initial margin. In either case, an increase or decrease of only 5 percent in the index could result in a substantial gain or loss in your account. Thats the power of leverage.

Leverage can be a beautiful thing. When everythings going your way, it makes your money work harder and produces more in a shorter period of time than if you paid for everything in full, up front. Indeed, leverage is the key, distinctive aspect of futures trading as compared with stock trading.

Now suppose you buy an E-mini S&P 500 contract worth $50,000 by using $5,000 in your account. However, the contracts value drops to $45,000 as the prices fall by 10 percent instead of going up. This is the dark side to leverage. Your $5,000 is completely gone. Leverage is the one ingredient that can produce either horror stories or happy endings. Youll be obligated to put up even more money if the market keeps moving against you unless you get out of the position with an offsetting sale when your maintenance margin level is violated. It is extremely important that you fully understand the power of leverage and how to manage it well to get the happy ending. - 23200

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading futures and currencies. Trade Dow Futures and S&P Futures!

Learning to Trade Commodities, Choose Your Commodity Trading Course

By William Davies

When you start learning to trade commodities you will find yourself seeing commodity futures trading in a completely new light. Whether it is in a particular sector such as coal or copper or maybe across the whole range of commodity markets, your knowledge of these trading products will grow. Many have heard the mention of the New York Mercantile Exchange and crude oil trading against the background of a growing energy security concern and how many factors influence prices. Consider also what are the driving forces of prices in gold, palladium and other precious metals, and why do sugar prices spike?

If you want to achieve success in these markets, you first need to find a very good commodities trading provider. So how will you go about learning to trade commodities? What are the key knowledge areas of trading if you want to move ahead in commodity markets? Look out for locations where commodity trading training courses are available. It is more than likely you will have a choice to either attend lessons at your chosen location or study from home using an online training program .

Why should you choose to go to a commodity trading school? One advantage is immediate face to face contact with your coaches and you might be able to have one to one coaching. Your tutors may well have real world trading experience under their belts, and may indeed still be active commodity traders. If so you will really want to use their knowledge to the full. Also you can share thoughts with colleagues as you network with them after the course.

While on location you benefit from watching "live" trades executed by your tutors, who can give you feedback about the price action. It is arguably better to understand a technique when you observe it happening in real time, rather than in theory. Here you get a sharp edge to your learning curve in commodity trading, and the coaches can offer you help as you tailor your personal commodities trading plan. The expansion of global trading centres means that you are likely to find a training centre close to your home, such as in Dubai, Singapore, London, Toronto, as well in US cities like Philadelphia, New York, Milwaukee, Dallas and Chicago.

Let's look at the alternative of training courses for commodity trading online. What are the benfefits here? If your commitments mean you cannot get to a centre when the courses run or you live too far from the location, the online version is ideal. When you take up this option you have maximum flexibility and you cover both technical and fundamental aspects of trading.

If you choose the online commodities trading course they will usually provide an e mail contact with your coach, with supportive resources like charts and forums on their website. It may be they also offer CDs and DVDs and a software package which you download so that you can simulate trades and learn different trading methods and techniques.

So you are about to start learning to trade commodities. What will be covered? Broadly speaking, courses focus on fundamental analysis, that is supply and demand for commodities and how these are affected by inflation and in the case of crops, weather patterns. Traders also use technical analysis to compliment the former approach. This includes looking at commodity charts for price action, using techniques like Fibonacci numbers, Japanese candlesticks, moving averages, volume and support and resistance lines.

You will also see how easy electronic trading of commodities can be and you will learn what a futures contract is and how to place orders, set your commodity futures margin, along with an appreciation of why market participants hedge their positions. Then there is the matter of managing risk and minimising losses of capital in what are leveraged instruments. And when you start learning to trade commodities you will certainly cover the important role played by psychology when you have to stick to your commodity trading plan. - 23200

About the Author:

The author, William Davies, contributes articles for a website on Commodities Trading, offering an informational resource for those wanting to learn more about markets. Find out how you could begin learning to trade commodities here.