Day Trading Education | Support and Resistance Levels

Jump to a section in this post:
1. Market Commentary
2. Support and Resistance Levels – S&P, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Russell 2000
3. Support and Resistance Levels – Gold, Euro, Crude Oil, T-Bonds
4. Support and Resistance Levels – March Corn, March Wheat, Jan Beans, March Silver
5.Economic Report for February 2, 2012

1. Market Commentary

Many clients new and veteran have asked me in the past for different resources as far as day-trading education so I wanted to share a few pointers from my colleagues at Naturus.com about day-trading in general and day-trading futures in specific.
This ain’t rocket science. But it ain’t easy either.
Day-trading is just the process of buying and selling a futures contract within the same session.
It sounds pretty simple. If you buy and the price goes up you make money. Buy low, sell high (or sell high and buy low) and go fishing.
But knowing how it is done is not remotely close to knowing how to do it.
Learning to trade is a bit like learning to play the piano. You can’t learn by reading about it, or by watching somebody else do it, any more than you can lose weight by watching work-out videos.
You have to do it yourself, which means spending time – lots of time – in front of the screen, trading and analyzing. Experience isn’t just the best teacher; it is the only teacher.
The problem is that you can get hurt while you are learning. When you risk your money in the market, the guys taking the other side of your trade are much more experienced and much more skillful. They are pros, and there is no minor league where you can learn without getting hurt.

2. There are no “secrets” that will show you how to “Master the Markets”
Life would be a lot easier if there were. Everybody would love to have a sure-fire way of winning. But if you think about it a little, you can see why it is impossible. There is no sure fire way of always knowing the winning trade.
Trading is a zero-sum game; for every winner there is a loser. If you believe you have a sure-fire way of winning, the guy on the other side of your trade is using a sure-fire way of losing. Your winning edge than becomes is his losing edge.
What would you do if every time you used a particular trade set-up you lost money? You’d stop using it. Right? And so does the person (or more likely the computer-based trading program) you were hoping to take advantage of.
So even if you find a set of circumstances that works for a while, it won’t last, because the smart money won’t take the other side of the trade, and the dumb money goes broke.
There are good trade set-ups that have a better-than-even chance of succeeding, especially for nimble retail traders working against big institutions. We show our members some high-probability trades that often work. Often, but not always.
Succeeding in day-trading depends more on how well you manage your trades, and especially how you manage your losers, than it does on finding the “secret.” There are no sure things.
Oh, and there ain’t no free lunch either. Sorry.

3. Curb your enthusiasm
New traders are eager. Successful traders are patient.
When new traders get into the market for the first time they can see everybody else making money – it looks so easy! – and they want to rush in and get some.
When they find out it isn’t as easy as it looks, they become discouraged and quit.
Learning any complex skill takes patience, but many new traders are creatures of impulse. So they become another statistic – confirming that a very large majority of all day-traders lose money.

For new traders (and even some experienced traders who are struggling) there are three iron rules:

i) Learn first; trade later.
ii) Start slow and small
iii) Control risk. Only increase your risk when you increase your competence.

Good traders are rational; they calculate the probability of success, the value of rewards, the cost of loss, before they enter a trade.
But you can’t make rational decisions if you trade your “gut feeling.” It may work for a while but in the end, you’ll get a belly-ache.
So curb your enthusiasm; this isn’t a way to get rich quick. But maybe you can learn how to get rich slowly.

Naturus.com has been providing real-time calls for experienced traders and practical, hands-on training for newcomers since 2004. Clients of Cannon Trading are eligible for special discounts. To learn more, visit http://tinyurl.com/7jeyv75 or contact admin@naturus.com

2. Support and Resistance Levels – S&P, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Russell 2000

3. Support & Resistance Levels for Gold, Euro, Crude Oil, and U.S. T-Bonds

4. Support & Resistance Levels for Corn, Wheat, Beans and Silver

5. Economic Reports

Challenger Job Cuts
7:30am

Unemployment Claims
8:30am

Prelim Nonfarm Productivity
8:30am

Prelim Unit Labor Costs
8:30am

Fed Chairman Bernanke Testifies
10:0am

Natural Gas Storage
10:30am