Posts Tagged ‘Mutual Funds’

Shocking Stocks Short Selling Facts!

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Many brokerage firms make it easy to sell short. When you place the order to sell a stock, the brokerage asks you whether you are selling shares you own or selling short. In case of short selling, the brokerage firm goes about borrowing the shares for you to sell. It loans the shares to your account and executes the sell order.

In some cases, the brokerage firm cannot borrow the shares as so many people have sold the stock short that there are no more shares to borrow. In that case, you will have to find another stock or use another strategy.

Now, shorting is one of the favorite strategies employed by day traders. A day trader may short stock on the mundane reason like its price had been going up for three days and it’s time to come down! Day traders are not fundamental traders. Day traders are simply interested in the daily volatility in the stock. Most even don’t do any financial or fundamental analysis of the companies whose stocks they are trading. Almost all are technicians or what you call technical analysis experts.

In simple words, once the stock starts to move down, you cannot short it. You will have to wait for its price to move up on the last trade, before your short selling order can be executed by the broker. Now, you cannot straight away short a stock as there are mechanisms in place employed by msot of the stock exchanges that don’t want a massive shorting attack on a stock. There is the famous Uptick Rule that has been put in place to prevent that from happening. What the Uptick Rule means is that you cannot short a stock unless it moves up on the last trade. This rule has been placed to prevent a stock from being driven down to almost zero by short sellers.

How much risky short selling can be? Well, in theory there is no stopping a stock price to reach the sky. So if you are wrong in your short selling decision, your loss can be catastrophic. But don’t worry, short sellers also use stop loss so if the price starts to move up, your position will get closed automatically by the stop loss order.

There is something known as Short Squeeze. A short squeeze happens when the stock of the company that you have shorted has some good news that drives the stock prices high. Now if this happens, many short sellers might lose money and even get margin calls. When they get desperate to buy back the stock, its prices go even higher hurting them more.

If you have already shorted that stock, you might get a call from your broker to return that stock immediately. In such a case, you will have to immediately return the stock even if it doesn’t make any sense to you!As said before, companies, investors and many brokers hate short sellers. They think that short sellers had intentionally driven down the stock prices. So sometimes, they will spread rumors of good news to create a momentary short squeeze. Sometimes, a campaign will be started by the owners of a particular stock instructing their brokers not to loan out their stocks to short sellers.

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ETF Trading System: Trading Made Easy

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

You might have heard quite a bit about the etf trading system. Probably the biggest and most loved advantage of using the ETF trading system is it provides a general way of diversification. The funds that you have are baskets or containers. This is a different concept from having a stock of one company.

There area number of ways you can increase the funds by using the ETF trading system, however its always advisable that you use a good system to track ETFs. If you don’t have much experience with this kind of trading that it will probably be suitable if you used a good piece of software. There are a number of packages which have only be designed for tracking purposes. So these are not just intended to be used by newbie’s but also experienced users.

The biggest motive behind using a good software ETF trading system is that is time and money saving. You will learn more using a piece of software than years of trading without it. This is especially true for people who are just beginning to take their first steps in ETF.

When you use a good software you ensure that you start getting the most profits. An etf trading system gives you access to various commodities which include oil and various metals which the etf system you can keep a track of your metals.

Businesses tend to purchase these commodities and then hold on to them. The most difficult to track and manage is oil. Oil also has a very high level of risk associated with it but investors see it as an attractive commodity. Business men find etf trading useful because its very tax efficient and compared to other forms of trading its also cheap.

The Mutual fund system is not as convenient as the ETF trading system. The reason being is when you are trading in mutual funds they are only filled when the markets are closing. But ETFs or Exchange Traded Funds are purchased and sold on exchange terms. This is an opportunity to get opening and closing positions when the market is open.

This gives you the power to stop as well as go ahead and limit the orders you take. With the right software you get the data you need to base your decision off making it easy for you to make a profit. Since you don’t have to wait for markets to close you get instant updates of the profits you have made.

Exchange traded funds also called ETF in short is something everyone can get into regardless of who they are they just should have this drive towards making money. By consulting a broker you can increase your chances of making money, but that will cost you a lot of money on the other hand a software system is better suited. The system will provide you with everything you need in order to start and continue trading.

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Candlestick Patterns- The Hanging Man, the Hammer and the Spinning Top!

Friday, March 5th, 2010

There are many candlstick patterns that you can master. Candlestick patterns can be highly profitable trading signals. However, some patterns appear frequently and can be easily spotted. Hanging Man and the Hammer are the two among them. Both are different. Hanging Man is bearish while the Hammer is bullish.

How to spot the Hanging Man and the Hammer? These candlestick patterns are easy to spot on the chart. When you spot a very small candle body accompanied by a pretty long wick on the bottom, it is a Hanging Man if it appears at the top of the uptrend and it is a Hammer if it appears at the bottom of the downtrend.

Now suppose, you find the Hammer or the Hanging Man. What you need is to look for the confirmation the next day! Now, in most of the cases, you will also find a small wick on the top of the candle body.

If the opening price on the next day is less than the previous day\’s close, you have a true Hanging Man. If not, then that was not a true Hanging Man. Now suppose, you think that you have spotted the Hanging Man in an uptrend. Wait for the confirmation the next day with the opening price.

A Hammer should have a very small candle body with a long wick at the bottom. Similarly suppose, you think that you have correctly spotted the Hammer in a downtrend. You should confirm this with the opening price on the next day. If the opening price is higher than the closing price the previous day, you have a true Hammer. If the opening price is not higher than the closing price the last day, it is not a true Hammer!

When you trade candlestick patterns, you need to look for the confirmation on the following day to confirm that the candlestick pattern formed was indeed true. Once you have the confirmation signal, you can safely trade on that candlestick pattern. If you cannot get the confirmation, you should ignore that pattern considering it to be false. Most of these candlestick patterns are ideally suited for the daily charts.

Spinning Top is just like the Hanging Man and the Hammer. Spinning Top is a signal that the battle between the bulls and the bears ended in a draw. It will start next day again with ony side giving in. What this means is that an explosive move in the price action can take place the following day.

Spinning tops appear much more frequently and are very easy to spot with a very small body in the middle of the candlestick and almost equal wicks on the two sides. A spinning top is a nice indication that the trend is about to change direction. Knowing about a trend change early is a highly profitable trading signal.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Master Candlestick Charting with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide! Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report FREE.

Spot Trading Gold On Forex Shocking Secrets

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

If you have ever fallen in love with a beautiful person, you then know the value of giving a gold ring or a gold necklace as a token of your true love. Gold has always been considered to highly valuable from the dawn of civilization. It is still considered to be the ultimate currency and a safe haven in times of political and financial uncertainity. Recently gold price crossed the historical barrier of $1,200 per troy ounce. Gold market is in an uprecedented uptrend for the last ten years!

In the last decade, many investors turned towards forex after the historic crash in the stock market. Many small investors lost more than 60-70% of their saving accounts in the stock market crash. Now, forex is a great money making opportunity. It is being said that forex trading will make many millionaires in this decade.

Now, many forex brokers also allow you to trade gold in the spot market from the same platform that you trade forex. If you have been trading forex, you can easily trade gold too. Now when you trade currencies, you take a long or short position on two currencies.

There are many currency pairs that you can trade like the GBPUSD, EURUSD, UADUSD, NZDUSD, JPYUSD. Spot trading gold on forex is almost similar with gold replacing one currency in the pair and the other currency is always USD. In case of spot gold trading on forex, you trade one ounce of gold in the spot market againt US Dollar (USD). So just like when you trade a currency pair, when you trade gold on forex, you are taking either a long or a short position in gold against USD.

So, in spot gold trading on forex, you are trading one troy ounce of gold against USD. Interestingly the symbol for this is also XAUUSD with XAU representing one ounce of gold. Now, suppoe the price quote in the spot market is 1100 XAUUSD. What this means is that one troy ounce of gold in the spot market right now is equal to $1,100 USD.

Just like any currency pairs, stock or for that matter any security, the price quote in the spot gold market has got a bid-ask spread. Suppose the price quote in the spot market is 1110/1115. This means is that you can buy one ounce of gold at a rate of $1,115 and sell one ounce at the rate of $1,110 to your broker. Now, spot gold trading on forex is a fast moving market. Due to the fast moving nature of the spot gold market, the spread keeps on changing throughout the day!

Spot gold market is a fast moving market and the price quotes keep on changing. So, suppose just after 60 minutes, you find the quote to be 1120/1126. You see a profit and decide to get out selling at $11,200 making a profit of $30. Now if you had used leverage, you would have needed a much lower initial investment to make a profit of $30 in just 60 minutes. Now a standard lot in currency trading is equal to $100,000. But in case of gold on forex, a standard lot is equal to 10 troy ounces of gold. So, if you find the price quote to be 1112/1117 and you are interested in going long. In that case you will have to buy 1 lot of gold that is equal to $11,170.

Gold and USD have an inverse correlation relationship. What this means is that the gold prices and USD move in opposite direction in the long term. This inverse relationship may not hold in the short term. But if you are a trend trader or a position trader, you can hedge your position in currency pairs that have correlation with gold prices by taking opposite positions in the spot gold on forex market.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Download this 1 Minute Forex Trading System FREE. Get this Forex Swing Trading Forex-4 Pack Training Kit FREE!

Bullish Or Bearish Engulfing Candlestick Patterns Can Be Highly Profitable

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Engulfing candlestick pattern is a double stick pattern. Double stick candlestick patterns do not appear frequently but when they do appear, it can mean a trend reversal is about to take place. Spotting a trend reversal before it happens is something that can be highly profitable in trading.

Double candlestick patterns are more complex than single candlestick patterns. You have to wait for two days for the pattern to shape up. It happens most of the time that you spot a double candlestick pattern developing on the first day but when you follow it the next day, you get disappointed as the pattern fizzles out.

There are trend continuation patterns and trend reversal patterns. An Engulfing Candlestick Pattern is a very important trading signal about the reversal of a trend. Two stick patterns are rare! However, it doesn\’t mean that these two stick candlestick patterns do not form at all. They do! But don\’t frequently. So if are able to spot a two stick pattern correctly, you can make a highly profitable trade.

A Bullish Engulfing Candlestick Pattern has a candle on the second day that completely covers the first day bullish candle. The open on the second day candle is lower than the open on the first day.

What this means is that bears are still in control of the market. Remember, a bullish engulfing candlestick pattern has to appear in a downtrend to be meaningful. But when this appears, it means that bulls will soon take control of the market and overcome the bears. When the bulls get into action, so much buying takes place that opena and high of the previous day both are surpassed.

Similarly a bearish engulfing candlstick pattern has to appear in an uptrend in order to be meaningful. When this pattern appears bears get into action. Short sellers think that the prices have gone too high and start massive selling in order to take profit and exit before others also start selling.

Soon, the price of the security is pushed down lower than the open of the first day. The second day candle is bearish and completely covers the first day candle. When the bearish engulfing pattern appears, it is an indication that the uptrend has reversed and a downtrend has started now.

Now, the most important thing for any trader is where to place the stop loss. In case of a bullish engulfing candlestick pattern, place ths top loss on the low of the first day to be on the safe side. And in case of a bearish engulfing pattern, place the stop loss near the open of the second or signal day. This way even if the pattern is not confirmed with the subsequent price action, you are on the safe side. Happy trading!

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report FREE. Master these Candlestick Patterns with this 82 Page FREE PDF Candlestick Guide.

Harami And The Harami Cross Candlestick Patterns Can Be Highly Profitable!

Monday, March 1st, 2010

Harami is a two stick candlestick pattern or what you may call a two day candlestick pattern observed on the daily charts. The first day candle is longer than the second day candle. Harami candlestick pattern can be bullish as well as bearish.

A bullish Harami candlestick pattern is formed when the first day candle is bearish. Rather the first day is very bearish and occurs on a downtrend. But on the second day, the bulls come into action and try to move the prices higher. But bulls are not very successful. The second day close is still lower than the first day open and the first day\’s high is never surpassed. However, the second day is a signal that the bulls have started to take the stand and stop the current downtrend.

The second day is still a down day that follows a bearish trend. On the second day, the open is higher than the close of the first day. The bulls ruled the second day as the close is higher than the open.

What this means is that the bulls are still cautious about their success and fear that the bears might return to take the prices lower again. However, when this does not happen, it gives confidence to the bulls encouraging more buying in the market and the reversal of the trend.

Just like with other candlestick patterns, a Harami pattern can fail. So to be on the safe side when trading on the Harami, place the stop loss close to the open of the second day or what you call the signal day.

Harami pattern has got few variations. On of them is the Bullish Harami Cross Pattern. The first day in case of a Bullish Harami Cross is a bearish candle. The signal day or the second day is a Bullish Doji with an open higher than the close of the first day and the close lower than the open of the first day. Now,a Bullish Harami Cross is not formed very frequently. But when it does form, it means an sudden trend reversal. So you should act immediatetly when you spot it.

When a bearish Harami is formed what this indicates is that bears have taken hold of the market now and are about to push the prices down signalling a downtrend is about to start! The bearish Harami is similar to a bullish Harami. It is formed in an uptrend. The first day is a usual bullish candle that forms in an uptrend. The second day candle is a bearish candle. It\’s open is lower than the close of the first day. And it\’s close is higher than the open of the first day.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Get these Forex Scalping Cheatsheets FREE! Master these Candlestick Patterns with this FREE 82 page PDF Candlestick Guide!

Etf Trading Strategies: Trading And Not Failing

Monday, March 1st, 2010

When you get into etf trading its thing that allows you to succeed is using tried and true etf trading strategies. This is something that you need to develop and which takes time even if you work on it the right way. You can however purchase a bunch of books on etf trading strategies and then use the knowledge that you get from those books towards improving the way you trade. In a way its like learning from other people\’s mistakes which saves you making a lot of your own mistakes.

If you want to come up with a good solid and winning ETF trading strategies you need to first have a bit of experience in the ETF market. It will also do a great deal of good if you have some one or somebody who can teach you the about ETF trading strategies. The basis of a good ETF trading strategy is that it takes many things including good information into consideration.

Learning from other people\’s experience is good because it will save you a lot of money, and time when it comes to developing a winning strategy. The best way to learn is from stories of other people\’s success as well as their mistakes. Your job is to go and use what they tell you to develop your own unique trading style which can be adapted to the every changing etf trading market.

The etf market is constantly in the process of change the market today will never be the same so there is no real way for you to know how the market will be the same day but a year from now. You cannot predict the market\’s trend and there are also times when you need to trade against the market\’s flow if you want to make money. You need to know when you set with strategy in motion.

People who have been etf traders for a few years begin to have their own style of trading. Some styles my seem a bit unique while others will appear to look great. However these styles are based on the trader\’s own unique experiences and knowledge. Yes in the etf market you can experience extreme lows and extreme highs but this is something even the pros experience, you however need to make a profit in the long run in order to be successful.

The ETF trading strategies you come up with needs to be designed in a way that makes it so flexible that you can would it to your taste and requirements. You also need to be able to accomplish this as soon as possible before the market takes another turn.

So even if you have been trading for a while if you are not able to change your style and your rules to adapt you are going to fail at etf trading. So your strategy needs to be flexible.

Regular traders develop what is called market sense, this market sense then helps them develop winning etf trading strategies but that\’s with only a few market traders. People who are looking to do a lot of trading need to start developing this kind of mindset which expects this sort of change and their system should manage this change on a routine basis. This is the trademark of a successful etf market trader who constantly adapts his etf trading strategies.

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ETF Options Investing Secrets

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

You must have traded ETFs. No, then let me first introduce you to ETFs. ETF is the short acronym for Exchange Traded Funds. ETF are a basket of stocks or other assets that have been designed to closely track a stock index, a market index, sector index or any other index. Now trading stock indexes is what many trader do. You can trade stock indexes with options. However, trading ETF Options can be a more profitable venture for you!

ETF Options are settled with the underlying instruments that is shares of ETFs. This gives you the chance to use various combination strategies with ETF Options that you cannot normally use with Index Options.Now trading ETF Options is somewhat different than trading Index Options. Though both track almost similar indexes but Index Options are settled in cash at expiry.

Stocks have dividends that are paid out periodically to the stock holders. Dividends are an important part of the return that a stock gives over a certain period of time. Now when you are trading index options or ETF options both of them get affected by the dividend payments on the underlying stocks. You need to take this fact into account when calculating the values of puts and calls with an Options Calculator otherwise your investment returns may not be what you have been anticipating.

If you have traded stock options before, trading ETF Options should not be difficult for you. As said before, since ETF Options get settled with ETF shares, you can use the different options trading strategies on them unlike the Index Options that get settled in cash. This makes ETF Options a much superior instrument as compared to Index Options.

Using Protective Put Strategy by combining long ETF with a long put can hedge against the downside risk limiting it to the put strike price with a slightly increased cost for the ETF.

Similarly, you can use a Covered Call on ETF. A Covered Call is formed by taking combining long ETF with a short call on that ETF. The short call will give you some income in the shape of a premium and reduce the cost of the position. This will also slightly reduce the risk of the position. But on the other hand, a covered call will limit the upside profit potential. Your max profit now will only be limited to the call strike price.

Now, you can also use a Collared Position as well by combining a long ETF with a long put and a short call. This combination limits the downside risk to the put strike price with a slight increase in the cost of the ETF. This net increase in cost by taking a long put is offset with the premium brought in by the short call. On the other hand, the limited but high risk is turned into limited risk only.

Options trading is risky in the sense that it has both time volatility as well as price volatility. Now, many traders trade options without getting good options trading education. What you need to do is first paper trade these strategies and master them. This way you will learn how to deal with unexpected risk.

An important fact that you should know is that ETF Options are always American Style. American Style options can be excercised anytime before expiry. You can even trade LEAP Options on ETFs. LEAP Options are long term options having expiry of more than nine months to less than two and a half years.Another important fact that you need to know is that not all ETFs have options written on them. This should not surprise you as there are many stocks that don\’t have options written on them.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Read this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading FREE Report. Get this 40 page shocking FRWC Brutal Truth FREE Report that exposed everything about trading robots!

Inverted Hammer Candlestick Pattern-An Important Trend Reversal Signal

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Inverted Hammer Candlestick Pattern is a trend reversal pattern. This pattern can be bullish as well as bearish and occurs rarely or what you can say not frequently.

Now an inverted hammer can get formed in a downtrend as well as an uptrend. In a downtrend, the first day is a bearish candle signalling that the bears are still in control of the market. An Inverted Hammer is a quite rare pattern as the price action needed to produce it does not takes place frequently. But if it does, it is an important signal that you shouldn\’t ignore.

An inverted hammer has a very small body at the bottom with a long wick at the top. As the high is way above the body, most of the trading took place near the small area close to the low. This low serves as the support for the upcoming days.

But before trading on an inverted hammer signal, you need for the confirmation on the following day. Now, if you find the open of the next day higher than the low of the previous day, the inverted hammer pattern formed last day was a true pattern. You can now trade this inverted hammer pattern by placing a stop close to the open of the day.

Now, when an inverted hammer is formed in an uptrend, it means that the uptrend is about to reverse itself into a downtrend. On the first day, you will find the usual bullish candle signalling that the bulls are in control of the market. This is followed by a gap opening and more buying.

But at some time, the bears take hold of the market. The bears start to push the prices lower. The close is equal to or very close to the low of the day. When you spot a bearish inverted hammer, you can sell or go short by placing the stop close to the open of the second or the signal day.

Once, you have placed the stop, you have limited your risk. In case, the market moves in the direction as anticipated, you make a nice profit. Placing a stop loss is very important in trading risk management. If the subsequent price movements do not confirm the inverted hammer, the stop loss comes into action and takes you out of the market at an acceptable loss. If you are an aggressive trader, you can place the stop loss close to the high of the inverted hammer.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Read this shocking 40 page FRWC Brutal Truth FREE Report on trading robots and how to trade with them! Master these Candlestick Patterns!

Back Testing Your Trading System-Know These Shocking Limitations

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Your trading system needs thorough testing before you decide to trade live with it. A trading system might comprise of a set of indicators. You need to know how well your trading system and its set of indicators work in a particular market.

For this you can do back testing. Back testing is a method that uses historical data to test how well your indicators work in a particular market. You can use back testing software that enables you to look at the past market data and test how well the indicators and your trading system have worked in the past market.

Now, back testing is done with historical data. What this means is that although your trading system might perform very well with back testing, it may not work in the present market. Market conditions keep on changing and what worked in the past may not work in the present. In the same way, what didn\’t work in the past may start working now.

What we can say is that no two trades are exactly alike. So when you look at back testing results, you should look at them with scepticism. But it doesn\’t mean that backtesting is entirely useless!

Back testing can also spot you certain general characteristics of the market like the seasonal trends and market tendencies. Back testing can give you a feel how a particular market behaves under certain conditions.

For example, some markets especially the commodities market is highly seasonal and cyclical in nature. Now in other markets, you might not find any seasonal trends. For example, there is very little seasonality in curreny market or the bond market. In case of the stock market, there is much talk of the January Effect. Well, it is there no doubt about it. Some years, it is highly pronounced and others it is not that pronounced. Similarly stock prices tend to rise at the end of each month and the first few days of the new months. The reason for this is that many institutional investors tend to put the new funds to work at the end of the month and the beginning of the new month!

Backtesting can help you figure out how long a trend might last in a particular market. For example, US Dollar Index trendlines might last for months to years. In other markets too backtesting can help you figure out important trends that lasts for last times.

Now when you back test your trading system and the set of indicators, you can check their accuracy. For example, if you using a trading system based on moving average crossovers, you can back test it using different combinations. Then monitor each combination under live conditions to see which works the best.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Download this 1 Minute Forex Trading System FREE that makes money anytime instantly! Read this shocking FREE 40 page PDF FRWC Brutal Truth Report that exposes everything about trading robots!