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Dec 21

Day Trading Rules to Live By

By adminNo Comments

Most people looking to make money in the markets believe that the answer lies in finding some simple technical analysis strategies that will catapult them to profitability.

The truth is that trading is not as simple as beginners believe. It is a profession, and like any profession it requires a learning curve. Reading a book or getting a few simple “tips” is not going to turn you into a professional trader.

After studying for a length of time, it’s not uncommon for students to begin their search for the “holy grail.”

They search for more indicators, chart patterns, gurus, alert services or the latest secret day trading strategies and other things that will provide their answer to becoming successful.

But here’s the fact. Success lies within you .. and it won’t come easy.

In fact, one of my favorite success principles is this:

“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.”

Let’s apply this to trading in the form of my list of “Day Trading Rules to Live By” … all of which have to do more with you than with the market.

The consistency you need is in your mind, not in the market. Many in the market get frustrated because the market often behaves differently than they expect. You can’t rely on the market to be consistent. It is largely a random walk. But there are times when the market does setup with a probability scenario that gives you an edge. Your job is be consistent in trading those probability setups and trade them every time they occur.
Trade like a cat. Most beginners over trade. It’s one of the most common trading sins. Your job is to be better than other day traders in having the discipline to wait like a cat in the brush until just the right moment (your high probability setup) and then jump on the trade without hesitation.
Successful trading is simply a game of not making mistakes. Keep a list of your day trading rules posted on the wall or on your monitor and then follow those rules perfectly. You must be more disciplined than the average trader. Never depart from your rules no matter how good a trade “looks” or “feels” to you if it violates your objective and back-tested rules.
Only trade when you are in an optimal emotional state. Never trade when you are tired or are in an emotionally unstable situation (after a fight with a spouse or friend for example). Day trading is more like athletics than academics. Trading on such a short time frame requires you to be able to make split second decisions, and you’re risking a lot of money when you do. Make sure your mind is sharp and your emotions are centered.
Keep a detailed trading log. Every day trading course I’ve seen has a trading log. Yet my experience in dealing with trading students demonstrates that less than 10% of them actually use it. This is a huge mistake. Not only should you log every trade, but you should also record how you felt and what you were thinking as you took the trade. In this way your logs will become a type of “biofeedback” mechanism for you. Personally, this was the difference that made all the difference for me.

These 5 day trading rules are not the type of rules that you were probably looking for. The masses want rules about indicators, price bars, where you get in and where you get out.

Granted, you definitely need clear objective rules about those things as well. Yet thousands of traders have those types of rules, and yet continue to fail because those rules are about market action.

They fail because they don’t have, or don’t follow, the more important rules the rules about their own action.

If you find yourself resisting the importance of these rules about your own behavior, realize that you are one of the masses who feels the same way. But since the masses fail at day trading, you must set yourself apart and do something different than them.

Following these 5 day trading rules are what the retail traders fail to do. Not because they can’t do them, but because they are unwilling to do them. And remember, “Successful people do what unsuccessful people are unwilling to do.”

Dr. Barry Burns is the owner of Top Dog Trading which teaches people how to avoid the long learning curve in day trading

He started his study of the markets under the direction of his father, Patrick F. Burns, who became independently wealthy through trading and had over 70 years of trading experience before passing away in 2005.

He has been the featured speaker at DayTradersUSA, and developed a 5 Day Course for WorldWideTrders.

Dr. Burns has been a headlining guest speaker for the Market Analysts of Southern California, given seminars around the country at many Wealth Expos as well as many Traders Expos, been interviewed on the Robin Dayne “Elite Masters of Trading” Radio Show, and is the former moderator of the FuturesTalk chat room.

He has a doctorate in Hypnotherapy and is a certified NLP practitioner, and therefore able to help people with the psychology of trading.

Dec 20

Day Trading Forex Currency – How to Begin Day Trading Foreign Currency?

By adminNo Comments

Day trading Forex currency was up until recently something that most people did not have the opportunity to engage in. This is because of the limits set on the size of trades. They were previously and still are very high. In other words day trading Forex currency required substantial amounts of money. The kind of money found in large corporations and banks. However, brokerage houses and other companies began purchasing and trading these larger quantities and began pulling the individual day trader in by breaking these larger amounts into smaller pieces and allowing them to be traded.

Because of this, day trading currency has gone from something that could only be handled by businesses to being something that everyone can participate in. There are a few things that any person interested in day trading Forex currency needs to know. The first thing is that the currency market runs 24/7 since it is always business hours somewhere in the world, there are no set hours that the market is on such as with the stock exchange.

This makes day trading currency a 24 hour event. Day trading is defined as buying and selling during the trading day. Since the Forex, market does not close this presents somewhat of a gray area. As a result, day trading Forex currency is left to the decision of the trader and the times the markets for those pairings he or she is trading in are open.

Day trading Forex currency usually involves the use of software. This can be either install or web based. Web based applications are usually faster and more efficient. These software applications help to present all the various markets that are currently active and what the exchange rates are doing so that you can make profitable and successful trades.

The software applications that are designed for day trading Forex currency also usually have built in trackers to help you keep track of your progress so that you can see the results of your day trading Forex currency. You can even print these reports off to use with market analysis and see the various effects that the economy had on the numbers in your trades.

There are a number of advantages to this type of trading and it is not difficult to learn how to make successful and profitable trades. There are also a number of tutorials that can assist in you learning how to work both the software applications and the market. These tutorials help to teach you what not only drives the market but what also represents risks you should take and which ones you should avoid. These are all necessary when trading on the Forex market and presents a valuable learning tool.

Learning how to make successful trades is something that is essential in order to be able to make a living day trading Forex currency as a result everyone interested should take the time to learn how to work the market and the software applications associated with it. This will help to ensure that you have a chance at making a good living with the Forex market.

For a list of the top forex day trading software check out:

Forex-Software-Review.com [http://www.forex-software-review.com]

Steve Somerton writes informative articles on various subjects including Day Trading Forex Currency – How to Begin Day Trading Foreign Currency? You are allowed to publish this article in its entirety provided that author’s name, bio and website links must remain intact and included with every reproduction.

Oct 17

What is Currency Day Trading? Can You Handle the Risk?

By adminNo Comments

One of the biggest financial markets in our economy is the foreign exchange market, which involves a lot of currency day trading. The foreign exchange market and currency trading are not as complicated as they may sound but the rise in the number of people involved in this kind of short trading requires more of an explanation.

Day trading is when a trader buys and sells in a financial market and the trades take place the day that they are made. You can participate in a variety of types of such short-term trading including stock trading, stock option trading, commodity trading, and currency day trading. This is different from swing trading in which the stocks or other traded items are retained for a period of time instead of just for that one day.

People who participate in day trading buy and sell without retaining the stocks or other commodities overnight. You cannot participate in this kind of trades unless you are able to raise enough capital to purchase a minimum of 1,000 shares of stock in one day. If you are new to the idea of this short-term trading, you need to know that you should have about $25,000 in capital available and you should be willing to risk losing all this capital.

Successful day trading requires knowing when to cut your losses. You also have to be able to pick up on trends, go with market flow and to do all this without emotion. The best way to succeed in day trading is to purchase and sell the stocks that sell in higher volumes so you can sell them without problems.

How Is Currency Day Trading Different From Other Short Term Trading?

Currency day trading is different from most day trading because you can participate even if you are not able to raise $25,000 in capital. When you participate in this foreign exchange trading, you can do so with just a few hundred dollars in capital. You can open a mini account in the forex market with very little money.

The benefit to participating in this type of foreign exchange is that you can trade all day and night because the FX market never closes. That means no matter what your schedule, you will be able to find time for trading currency pairs.

You can easily buy and sell currencies all day long. You are able to trade with minimal capital, which means you are not going to lose a lot of money if you use stop losses and stick to your system. You can also use leverage to increase your trade amounts.

Should You Use Margins?

Normal day trading comes with a margin of 4 to 1. That means a $25,000 investment would allow you to trade up to $100,000. Currency day trading gives you a 50 to 1 margin so you can turn a little bit of capital into some great large trades.

You can use as much or as little leverage as you are comfortable with when you are participating in short term forex trades, sometimes called scalping forex, so you do not have to take risks you do not want to take. The FX market is always moving so there is a lot of liquidity. The number of currencies in the foreign exchange market is much less than the stocks in the regular market so you do not have as much to keep track of.

Day trading forex currency does have its risks, as well as its rewards. You have to be smart about your trading, though. The market is constantly changing so you have to watch for the ideal time to buy and sell. You can win and lose trades just like that so it is possible to earn big profits in a small amount of time. Currency day trading requires you to educate yourself about the market, the trends you may see and the best strategies for trading so you can maximize your profits.

Next, there are automated Forex robots like the popular FAP Turbo EA that can help novice Forex traders to make a profit and minimize the risks inherent to Forex. Visit this web site http://forexstrategiestoday.com/229/currency-day-trading now for extended friendly reading on currency trading, short term trading, scalping Forex, reviews and much more. If you want a solid foundation for your Forex trading this web site offers it to you at no cost.

Oct 15

Should You Day Trade Stocks Or Futures Contracts?

By adminNo Comments

It seems most of the articles I read in the article directories suggest day trading exchange listed stocks. This is a bit difficult for me to understand, as futures contracts offers some distinct advantages over trading stock issues. As a longtime trader, I have extensive experience trading both of these equity instruments and understand the way both function. Not that there’s anything wrong with trading stocks, as good money can easily be made trading stock issues. In my opinion, though, trading futures contracts, especially the e-mini contracts, have a multitude of individual advantages so as to make them a prohibitive favorite for day trading.

Needless to say, I can hear the stock day traders protesting loudly as many have been very successful in day trading their favorite stock. I can understand this, as a certain amount of money can certainly be earned in the stock business. However, the leverage to maximize your gains simply doesn’t exist in day trading stocks. Further, day trading stocks entails a significant capital outlay in order to get started. On the other hand, getting started in the futures trading business requires a far smaller outlay of cash and seems better suited for the smaller investor.

From the onset, though, any futures day trader realizes that the high level of leverage that futures trading involves will maximize your profit; but it’s also important to realize that high levels of leverage can also maximize your loss. For that reason alone it is important to practice and learn sound money management practices when trading futures. Contrary to popular belief, trading futures is not like going to the casino. There are very specific methodologies that must be learned and employed in order to be successful trading futures. To be sure, it is my belief that many beginning and poorly trained futures traders habitually over trade their accounts and take unnecessary risks in their trading activities. This approach is a sure way to deplete your futures trading account.

While some stocks can be fairly active, there activity pales in comparison to the financial index e-mini futures contracts. This healthy activity in the financial index e-mini contracts makes them a popular and profitable equity instrument to trade. And traders have flocked to the e-mini contract in droves. To be sure, the ES e-mini contract is the fastest growing financial instrument in the short history of futures contract trading. Currently the average volume on the ES contract has consistently exceeded 1.4 million contracts per day. That is to say, there are no liquidity problems in the e-mini marketplace.

In my trading activities, I trade the financial indexes in the futures market. I do this because all of my prior experience in trading has been centered in the financial arena. There are scads of other e mini contracts to trade, but I have found the financial indexes fit well in my trading plan. Further, I do not employ any fundamental analysis when trading the e-mini contracts. I am a scalper, and find scalping among the most effective methodologies for day trading the e-mini contract.

On the other hand, day trading stocks is a different proposition. While some technical analysis can be employed to trade stocks, there is a healthy amount of fundamental analysis that goes hand-in-hand with trading stocks. For intraday trading, fundamental analysis can be a difficult road to hoe. Many stock day traders may have to wait several days before their analysis results in their fundamental expectations.

As a scalper, I have no trades to hold overnight, and every night at bedtime all of my money is in cash. I can be an impatient person, and detest trying to de-cipher, or predict, which way the market may move. As a scalper I spend no time predicting market moves; I react to what the market is offering and exploit breakouts and breakdowns as they occur on the chart. I find that simply trading the chart in front of me greatly reduces my market risk as my investment horizon is usually between 10 and 15 minutes. I would contrast that to the stock day trader who may wait days before his plans come to fruition.

Of course, when trading futures contracts we run very tight stops to minimize downside risk and try to let our winning trades run. This is often easier said than done, but with practice you can become quite proficient in this technique. In short, scalping allows me to minimize downside risk and take advantage of significant market moves as they present themselves. I spend no time waiting for the market to move in my desired direction, I spend my time discerning potential movement in the market as the chart formation indicates. No, I am not much on predicting the market; I spend my time reacting to the market and hence reduce my potential risk exposure to a very narrow time band.

Especially for beginning traders, I highly recommend learning the scalping method as a way to profit in the market. It does take some time and practice, but the learning curve is not a prohibitively difficult one and I have had many traders find success in as short as 2 to 3 months. It is my opinion that scalping futures contracts is a superior method to trade. Most traders tend to graduate from scalping and move into swing trading or longer-term trading techniques. As for me, I have spent the last 25 years scalping and have no desire to graduate to swing trading. I suppose I am stuck with the simple elegance and efficiency of trading e-mini contracts. Additionally, I covet the peace of mind I receive by not holding trades overnight or committing myself to a certain direction of the market in order to profit

Real Live Trading Doesn’t Lie. Spend 3 days with me, in my trading room, and see if you are one of the many that can profit from a fresh and unique view on trading e-mini contracts. Sign up for your free trading experience by clicking here.

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