Futures Trading Guide

Day Trading Money Management + Levels & Reports for 8.7.2014

August 6th, 2014 Filed under Day Trading, Day Trading Webinar, futures trading education, Indices, Trading Guide | Comment (0)

Hello Traders,

For 2014 I would like to wish all of you discipline and patience in your trading!

Voted Number 1 futures trading blog!

A word or two about day-trading and money management…..

Trading futures and even more so, day-trading futures has grown significantly over the last few years, as seen by the increase in daily volume on some of the more popular electronic markets. (The Mini SP had 3,575,702 contracts traded on February 27^th! Yes, that is 3.575 MILLION contracts….)

New traders as well as more experienced traders often wonder and search for the “holy grail” and the answer is different for each trader. Many factors influence what may be a good route for one trader versus a better alternative for another. Experience, risk tolerance, the person’s schedule, financial situation along with other factors will greatly influence what is a suitable trading method for one trader or another.

One COMMON solution different traders can implement when it comes to day-trading is what I call: “Treat your daily Profit/Loss as you would treat an open trade” and allow me to expand:

As brokers we have seen different traders survive in this business, making progress and even getting to the point of consistently finding their set ups, however their main downfall is that “one bad day” where they may give up recent gains, lose a large percentage of their account or even lose their whole account.

A practical solution for eliminating those disastrous days and giving you a better chance for survival is using “stop losses, trailing stop losses and daily stop limits” for every given trading day.

Let’s assume for hypothetical purposes that trader A is day-trading with $10,000 of risk capital. Part of her preparation for trading should be an understanding of her trading style, how active she is, how much on average does she risk per trade and other factors to help her calculate what her DAILY LOSS LIMIT should be. If you as a trader can be discipline enough to set your own daily loss limit and on days when you have reached your daily loss limit, simply stop trading for that day, you will give yourself better odds in surviving the day-trading arena and preventing days where you may loss a big portion of your account. Surviving to trade another day is a crucial element when it comes to day-trading.

Read the rest of this entry »

3 Points to Futures Trading Psychology & Economic Reports 7.25.2014

July 24th, 2014 Filed under Future Trading News, Futures Trading, Trading Guide | Comment (0)

Hello Traders,

For 2014 I would like to wish all of you discipline and patience in your trading!

Voted Number 1 futures trading blog!

Many different ways to make and lose money trading futures, even more so when day trading.

Today’s action in stock index futures led me to write about:

Three main approaches out there in my opinion.

The first is what I call the “trend is your friend”. A trader looks at few different time frames, looking to see if there is an established trend on longer time frame (example 60 minutes chart) and then trying to look for pull back on lower time frames and “join the trend”. Only works for certain markets and only works few times of the month as most days markets do not have an intraday trend.
Second method is what we call break out. Traders will look for markets that have been in a lower volatility situation using indicators such as ADX for example. Then they will look at the chart to find what they feel are levels that if broken can fuel a stronger move in the same direction. These levels can be extracted visually looking at the chart or using highs/ lows of X periods. This method works better on some markets than others. I noticed that crude oil and gold futures tend to have better chances of a continued breakout move than the mini SP 500 for example.
The third one many traders use and believe in is “mean reversion”. Stock index futures in my opinion will fall into this category many trading days and today’s session ( July 24th 2014) was a good example. Market tested yesterday’s highs, then tested lows and traded in between. Traders will sometimes use RSI or Williams %R to get a feel for when the market gets away from the mean and will use counter trend methods in this case. Use of stops when counter trend trading is even more important as you do NOT want to get caught on the few days a month when these markets do incur a break out situation…..

Read the rest of this entry »

Futures Trading Article by Jim Wyckoff & Levels 4.09.2014

April 8th, 2014 Filed under Future Trading News, Futures Trading | Comment (0)

Connect with Us! Use Our Futures Trading Levels and Economic Reports RSS Feed.

1. Market Commentary
2. Futures Support and Resistance Levels – S&P, Nasdaq, Dow Jones, Russell 2000, Dollar Index
3. Commodities Support and Resistance Levels – Gold, Euro, Crude Oil, T-Bonds
4. Commodities Support and Resistance Levels – Corn, Wheat, Beans, Silver
5. Futures Economic Reports for Wednesday April 9, 2014

Hello Traders,

For 2014 I would like to wish all of you discipline and patience in your trading!

Voted #1 futures trading blog!

Knowing What You Don’t Know in Trading Marketsby Jim Wyckoff www.jimwyckoff.com

The headline of this educational feature may be a bit confusing, but I will explain what I mean shortly. First, I want to reiterate that trading futures, stock and FOREX markets is not an easy undertaking. It disgusts me that there are a few unsavory people in our industry that portray trading as an easy, get-rich-quick scheme, or as some endeavor for which there are “secrets” to be learned from those who hold “trading secrets.”Folks, the plain truth is that there are no trading secrets and no easy paths to quick success in trading markets. Beware of anyone who tries to tell (or sell) you such.One of the biggest obstacles to success in trading markets is a lack of knowledge and understanding of the process of trading. The “process of trading” includes understanding financial leverage, market behavior and trader psychology. Understanding the process of trading can be achieved with perseverance and a willingness to continue to learn.It’s not coincidental that trading markets is similar to most other human endeavors: Hard work and experience are required to achieve notable success. A person who enjoys classic automobiles would not attempt to tear down and successfully rebuild an engine without having some previous experience, or without having learned about the workings of an automobile engine-including knowing about the tools involved in the operation.I have written numerous times that learning about different trading tools, different markets and different trading strategies provides a solid foundation on the road to trading success.Ironically, I believe a major advantage of being an experienced trader is knowing what you don’t know about markets and trading. Yes, you heard that right: Knowing what you don’t know.

What do I mean by this? I mean that there are certain elements of futures trading about which I do not “know,” and never will.

I don’t “know” what markets are going to do in the future. Some may ask, “How can you be in this business and not know what markets are going to do? How can you be a successful trader and not know where market prices are going?” My answer is that market analysis and trading (at least the way I see it) is not a business of bold predictions, but one of exploring market probabilities based upon market knowledge, price history, human behavior and trading experience. The fact that I “know that I don’t know” exactly what a market will do gives me a trading edge. Why? Because I will exercise more caution and think about and plan for what could happen if a trade turns against me. I know that some trades will indeed turn against me and that I need to have the capital to trade another day, so I won’t “put all my eggs in one basket.”

I prudently place protective buy and sell stops on trades because I do not “know” what the markets will do. I would rather absorb a small trading loss and be termed “wrong” about that trade, as opposed to risking trading with no protective stops and seeing a small loser turn into a big loser–all in the “hope” the market will turn around so I can be proven “right.”

(Do you see what I mean when I discuss human behavior? Most of us don’t like to be “wrong,” and will make decisions so that we are not wrong. In trading, sometimes the decisions traders make to avoid being “wrong” are not prudent decisions for those wanting to be successful traders in the long run.)

One sure fire clue I get that a trader does not have much trading and market experience (and needs more!) is when the trader tells me he or she “knows” a market is going to do something. What can be even worse is when a trader thinks he or she “knows” what the market is going to do, and then makes a trade that turns out to be a winner. That type of psychological reinforcement of a flawed trading characteristic only sets up the trader for a bigger disappointment at some point in the future-likely sooner rather than later.

Traders absolutely must respect the markets. Only the markets are 100% right. Traders who think they “know” exactly what a market will do are not showing the markets respect.

That’s it for now. Next time, we’ll examine another important issue on your road to trading success.

Jim Wyckoff is the proprietor of the analytical, educational and trading advisory service, “Jim Wyckoff on the Markets.” He has a website at www.jimwyckoff.com and his email address is jim@jimwyckoff.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Futures Trading Rules & Unemployment Reports 04.04.2014

April 3rd, 2014 Filed under Future Trading News, Futures Broker, Futures Trading | Comment (0)

Connect with Us! Use Our Futures Trading Levels and Economic Reports RSS Feed.

Hello Traders,

For 2014 I would like to wish all of you discipline and patience in your trading!

Voted #1 futures trading blog!

Today I must share an observation that may help many of you.

So many times as a broker I see clients who know how to make money… I see it in the daily statements, good winning %, consistent profits UNTIL….something happens. Either the client who is normally a day-trader decides to carry his/hers losing position and make it into a swing trade…..OR the trader is down and refuses to accept the fact it may be a losing day and decides to double down and get more aggressive because if this trade is a winner he will have another winning day….the examples go on and no I am not referring to anyone specific although many of you probably think I am talking about them.

I have done it before as a trader. It is the inability to accept a loss that creates this snow ball.

I am to a psychologist not a professional writer ( English is my second language if you did not tell by now (-:

What I am hoping for is that by writing this I may help the “good voice” inside your head that tells you DON’T double down OR just keep the stop win over that bad voice that is whispering to you to go ahead and reverse the position and double it when it is clearly not in your game plan… Trading is tough mentally, financially and emotionally, help yourself be a better trader by being a more disciplined trader.

ON A SIMILAR NOTE:

Monthly unemployment figures come out tomorrow morning. That would be a great time to excessive discipline and control of what is written above…..

Read the rest of this entry »

How Do I Get Started Trading Futures?

June 22nd, 2013 Filed under Commodity Brokers, Commodity Trading, Future Trading Platform, Futures Broker, Futures Trading, Trading Guide | Comments Off on How Do I Get Started Trading Futures?

So you’ve come this far. You’ve evaluated different vehicles of investment, and you have decided to expand your portfolio to include commodity futures. Now what? You are going to need a few tools at your disposal: a knowledgeable commodity broker that is quick on their feet, a reliable, efficient platform that will get you the information you require and executes your trades on a timely basis, and perhaps most importantly a plan.

Let’s begin with the most important requirement: because futures are so highly, there’s no doubt it can be a very risky asset class and you should only be trading with “risk capital”, or money that you can stand to lose and won’t affect your lifestyle if you do. Once you’ve accumulated your risk capital and you’ve come to terms with the nature of trading futures, you can take matters a step further by doing research on what kind of trader you want to be.

Read the rest of this entry »