Futures Trading Blog

TradePilotPro asked:

Trading Fufures

BELKA

Financial Guru asked:


Hello I am a college student utilizing a free trading program for one of my classes. I recently bought Light Crude Oil for 59,800 and the last price was 60,460. I bought 10 blocks of this. So my total was around 604,600. The future i bought was CLV6.NYM and i bought it on 9/26/2006. Im not able to Trade this stock with anyone and im just interested what is goin on with it. Its sitting in my portfolio. Any help would be greatly appreciated

JANVIER

Derivatives asked:


If neither hedgers nor speculators have private information, should both be expected to make zero average profit from futures trading ? Why?

BARMORE

IraEpsteinFutures asked:

iraepsteinfutures
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Futures Trading, Online Trading, Metals Review, Sales: 800-284-3010

LAUVER

sumanthross asked:


my stock broking company (networth) sold my stocks with out prior information or intimation and with out asking cheque for maring call they just sold my stocks can i take legal action against them

LAYER

Mark Crisp asked:


Trading futures can be risky business if you don’t have a reliable, quality system to back you up. With all the futures trading systems on the market today - including some that could set you back a few grand - how do you find the trading system that’s right for you? Here are some factors to check when you’re deciding on a trading system.

Look at which markets the system trades

Naturally, this will depend on which futures you’re most interested in. In general, though, look for a trading system designed to trade major commodity, currency and stock index futures. This includes agricultural, energy such as oil and coal, softs like coffee and sugar, and precious metals. That said, most trading systems will work better the more liquid the market.

Check out the reporting features

The ability to receive an accurate report and analysis is half the reason to use a futures trading system in the first place. First, make sure you can easily access basics information on the futures. That alone isn’t enough, though. You should also be able to view more complex reports like chart patterns and Fibonacci retraces.

Consider the maximum drawdown

Some trading systems advertise excellent profits over a period of several years, but avoid mentioning that their drawdowns may be more than the initial capital invested and could last for longer than a year. Before you settle on a system, take a close look at both the dollar amount of the drawdown and how long it may last.

Steer clear of “curve fitted” systems

A curve fitted trading system is one that’s adjusted to fit recent past market data. The problem is these systems have never been traded to show they actually work. They’re usually based on short-term, one-off trends that may not be accurate for predicting future trends.

Read the reviews

As with any other important purchase, it helps to check out how satisfied current users are with the trading system you’re considering. It will also let you know about any quirks in the system that may not be mentioned in the advertising. Consider not only the trading system itself, but issues concerning the company that created it, such as any extra services they provide and customer support.

Look for a system that’s easy to use

If the system you choose is so complex it gives you a headache every time you try to use it, it won’t be much good to you no matter how accurate the data it provides. Ideally, you want a system that’s completely intuitive. One good way to assess this is to try out the demo version and see how well you can use it without reading up too much on it first. If you find yourself having to look at the instructions just to perform basic operations, you should probably look for another system.

Most quality trading systems allow you offer you a free downloadable trial even an online demo you can work with for a while to see how well the system meets your needs. Remember, though, everyone’s preferences are a little different, so look for a futures trading system that works for you, not just one that gets good reviews.



POLINO

Darren Mclaughlin asked:


Let’s look at the basic facts about options trading before we go any further. Like any human endeavor, options trading is best described in very careful language so that there’s no confusion about our meaning. First, let’s take a look at exactly what an “option” is. An option refers to just that, the option to purchase certain stocks or certain commodity items by a certain date. This means you do not gain controlling interest in the stock or commodity until that date. For this reason, options can, and often do, expire worthless. There are two types of options contracts:

1) Contracts to buy blocks of stocks by a certain date 2) Commodity futures which are options to buy blocks of hard goods by a certain date

If you have options on 10,000 bushels of corn, whoever sold it to you cannot sell it to someone else until the expiration date of your contract has expired. In exchange for giving you this right, they wrote the contract and took money from you. If you don’t exercise your options prior to the expiration date, they will expect full control of their corn again, and will sell it someone else. What makes options such fascinating instruments are these facts:

1) With options you can sell that which you don’t own or ever plan on buying 2) You can buy something you don’t ever plan on physically holding and sell it for a profit

Another great thing about options is their inherent flexibility: although you have the right to buy or sell a certain stock or commodity, the choice is yours. You’re not forced to exercise your options. You can always sell your options contract to someone else. Many traders of commodities and options always sell the contracts only and have never taken physical possession of any underlying asset they’ve ever traded. The leverage in options gives you a chance to earn extremely high returns. These types of options we’re describing are referred to as covered options. With covered options you actually plan on or do own the underlying asset that you purchase options contracts for. Uncovered options are the exact opposite. Like the word uncovered means exposed, uncovered or ***** options are considered more dangerous, because you are merely speculating without having an ownership interest. You are exposed to the risk without the benefit of owning the asset.

Options trading involves a great deal of leverage in the form of margin loans to your trading account. All options trades are highly leveraged, so you need to add margin interest to your calculated costs when considering a career in trading options. Pricing and potential returns on options trading depend very much on real world circumstances. If you purchase corn futures, for instance, there are literally hundreds of variables that affect the price of the corn, and hence your investment. If a corn shortage is expected in a certain part of the world, your investment might hit big because the price of corn could rise dramatically. On the contrary, perhaps government subsidies have introduced a glut of corn into the world market. In that case, your investment might tumble. Futures contracts for commodities and options contracts on stocks are strictly based on guessing what events will happen in the future. Of course you’ll always attempt to make as accurate as a guess as possible, but let’s face facts: in this world unforeseen things can and do happen. For this reason, protect your downside, and only invest with money you can afford to lose. Options trading can be very profitable, but unsurpisingly it’s also very risky.



GERST

angelinacook asked:

Simple Futures Trading System

VANDERWOUDE

Doron L asked:


I have been trading the FXCM Micro demo platform and have been doing well. I used to trade futures and was wondering if there is a huge difference in fills from the demo platform to real.

MAINWARING

Woody A asked:


..as we have no futures exchange in this country.)

Also, where could one find a study regarding how the Philippine economy is affected by growth/turbulence in the United States?

ELLEGOOD