VKY asked:


What are bonds, penny stocks, warrants, equities, blue chips, unit trusts, futures, options trading etc… etc. Are there books explained in plain English which is easy for one to understand?

Norma

Raul Lopez asked:


Trading the Forex market has become very popular in the last years. Why is it that traders around the world see the Forex market as an investment opportunity? We will try to answer this question in this article. Also we will discuss come differences between the Forex market, the stocks market and the futures market.

 

Some of the benefits of trading the Forex market are:

 

Superior liquidity.

Liquidity is what really makes the Forex market different from other markets. The Forex market is by far the most liquid financial market in the world with nearly 2 trillion dollars traded everyday. This ensures price stability and better trade execution. Allowing traders to open and close transactions with ease. Also such a tremendous volume makes it hard to manipulate the market in an extended manner.

24hr Market.

This one is also one of the greatest advantages of trading Forex. It is an around the click market, the market opens on Sunday at 3:00 pm EST when New Zealand begins operations, and closes on Friday at 5:00 pm EST when San Francisco terminates operations. There are transactions in practically every time zone, allowing active traders to choose at what time to trade.

Leverage trading.

 

Trading the Forex Market offers a greater buying power than many other markets. Some Forex brokers offer leverage up to 400:1, allowing traders to have only 0.25% in margin of the total investment. For instance, a trader using 100:1 means that to have a US$100,000 position, only US$1,000 are needed on margin to be able to open that position.

Low Transaction costs.

Almost all brokers offer commission free trading. The only cost traders incur in any transaction is the spread (difference between the buy and sell price of each currency pair). This spread could be as low as 1 pip (the minimum increment in any currency pair) in some pairs.

Low minimum investment.

The Forex market requires less capital to start trading than any other markets. The initial investment could go as low as $300 USD, depending on leverage offered by the broker. This is a great advantage since Forex traders are able to keep their risk investment to the lowest level.

 

 

Specialized trading.

The liquidity of the market allows us to focus on just a few instruments (or currency pairs) as our main investments (85% of all trading transactions are made on the seven major currencies). Allowing us to monitor, and at the end get to know each instrument better.

Trading from anywhere.

 

If you do a lot of traveling, you can trade from anywhere in the world just having an internet connection.

 

Some of the most important differences between the Forex market and other markets are explained below.

 

Forex market vs. Equity markets

 

Liquidity

 

FX market: Near two trillion dollars of daily volume.

Equity market: Around 200 billion on a daily basis.

 

Trading hours

 

FX market: 24hr market, 5.5 days a week.

Equity market: Monday through Friday from 8:30 EST to 5:00 EST.

 

Profit potential

 

FX market: In both, rising and falling markets.

Equity market: Most traders/investor profit only from rising markets.

 

Transaction costs

 

FX market: Commission free and tight spreads.

Equity market: High Commissions and transaction fees.

 

Buying power

 

FX market: Leverage up to 400:1.

Equity market: Leverage from 2:1 to 4:1.

 

Specialization

 

FX market: most volume (85%) is made on major currencies (USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF, CAD and AUD.)

Equity market: More than 40,000 stocks to choose from.

 

Forex market vs. Futures market

 

Liquidity

 

FX Market: Near two trillion dollars of daily volume.

Futures market: Around 400 billion dollars on a daily basis.

 

Transaction costs

 

FX market: Commission free and tight spreads.

Futures market: High commissions fees.

 

Margin

 

FX market: Fixed rate of margin on every position.

Futures market: Different levels of margin on overnight positions than day time positions.

 

Trade execution

 

FX market: Instantaneous execution.

Futures market: Inconsistent execution.

 

 

All this makes the Forex market very attractive to investors and traders. But I need to make something clear, although the benefits of trading the Forex market are notorious; it is still difficult to make a successful career trading the Forex market. It requires a lot of education, discipline, commitment and patience, as any other market.

Brandon

gannglobal asked:

http://GannGlobal.com Has Crude Oil and the Energy Complex made a final top? We look at this question and the implications of history as we give our forecast for crude oil futures and cash based using WD Gann and Historic Market Analysis. Get more of these videos: http://GannGlobal.com

Roberta

EminiAddict asked:

Visit http://www.eminiaddict.com/ I focus on utilizing cutting edge trading strategies to give me an edge over other market participants. My main focus is on day trading and swing trading stock index futures. With intraday setups, I can react to the daily ebbs and flows of the markets. My analysis of market internals keeps me on the right side of the days order flow. In this newsletter you will see Live Index Futures Trading, Daily Market Analysis Predictions, Market Resources, and Tips and …

Michelle

Abhishek Agarwal asked:


What we know as Commodity Futures of Trading Commission is a United States government sponsored non dependant organization that is created to oversee and to record futures contracts concerning trading activities that take place on the futures exchanges in the US. It was initiated by the United States Congress in the year1974, and it has full rights to suspend, to fine and to impose legal restrictions on a citizen or an organization that is fraudulent, behaves with misconduct or similar cases of rule breaking.

This agency also takes care of printing weekly updates regarding the holdings of the twenty plus market segments that exist at present.

The reports which are named the ‘commitments of traders report’ or COTR as popularly known, are handed out towards the end of every week, usually on Friday. The report contains info on open interest splits initiated by non-reportable as well as reportable open interest and commercial as well as non commercial interests.

Safeguard the public and market members from abusive or manipulative routiness in relation to the sales of financial futures, commodities or options, and also to make certain that all the transactions are made in a transparent and financially viable and competitive method.

When it was just initiated, the CFTC was only present to check out regulatory options and commodity future markets in the States. However, with the inception of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in the year 2000, it saw quite an expansion in role as far as its duties go.

Through effective oversight, this agency sees to it that the futures markets are able to give market participants some means to offsetting pricing risk and prices discoveries.

The CFTC employs five commissioners, every one of which is given the post of the president and each serves a five-year interval. One of these five is named the chairman, with the due approval of the existing senate, with respect to rules stating that not any more than 3 commissioners can be selected from the very same political party, and this makes it a fair selection process to all concerned.

The CFTC is based out of Washington but it does have offices in most metros.

The CFTC has 6 main operating units namely:

a. Divisions of the Clearing and Intermediary Oversight

b. Divisions of Market Oversight

c. Divisions of Enforcement

d. Offices of the Chief Economist

e. Offices of General Counsel

f. Offices of Executive Director

Every unit holds a specific function; each sharing the goal to make sure that every transaction conducted under this body satisfies regulations and is in the interest of existing market members.

There is a whole lot of info on how to properly make futures trades on the CFTC web pages, which you can check out at www.cftc.gov.



Leon

InformedTrades asked:

http://www.informedtrades.com/ The 5th lesson in a series on charting patterns which goes over the rising and falling wedge patterns for traders of the forex market, stock market, and futures market.

Mario

adamazoulay asked:

A Supershort

Leon

Mark Nikolos asked:


Introduction

Auto loan is the type of loan which is used for the purchase of automobile. The car loan comes into the category of the personal loans. Because of these loans the car sales are going upward. Usually the banks take initiative for the car finance.

There are basically two kinds of car loans and these are as follows - long term loans and short term loans. Long term loans are those loans after which the borrower can pay the amount back in the following time periods:

• 36 months

• 48 months

• 60 months

Since long term auto loans have a very flexible repayment nature, you can easily really on it. The above mentioned repayment schedule will vary to lenders to lenders. Whether in local market or online there will be ocean of lenders. If you can handle then direct deal is possible otherwise you can take help of some expertise relevant to this market. Only great negotiation will be fruitful so be courageous and smart while dealing.

Process to avail these loans

Long term auto loans are generally secured types provided by different lenders. Since repayment schedule is some long lenders will be on the risk side always. To minimize it lenders can put high rate of interest but the loan amount will be healthy. Just check out the best long term deal and grab it. Online dealing will be very smooth since there will be less paper works. You have to submit some proofs regarding your citizenships, age and employment status. As soon all those is verified by the lenders loan amount will be transferred to your bank account.



Milton

I Jackson asked:


A futures contract has a limited life span. It is also not the cash commodity that is really in play here. Instead, traders use a futures contract for hedging against price fluctuations or to gain some profits from potential variations in the price of commodities. In other words, if you are the buyer of the futures contract, you will agree with the seller to buy the underlying commodity at a set date and at a fixed price. The change in price between the fixed price and the actual price of the underlying commodities, will determine whether you gain profits or suffer losses on your futures contract. The seller and the buyer usually liquidate their respective short and long positions independently before the futures contract expires, and very rarely take delivery of the commodities in play.

Fluctuations in futures contract pricing

Fluctuations in the price of a futures contract are driven by a variety of different and largely unpredictable factors. Interest rates make the greatest power plays. If you are trading in a currency futures contract, the policies and trading activities of the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury and foreign central banks, will impact interest rates and then, currency pricing. If you are playing stock indexes, you will find that your futures contract is influenced by anything that influences the stock market in general. Once again, interest rates are a serious factor to consider. If these hike, there will some pain in the stock market and pressure on your much hoped for gain. Naturally not only interest has an impact. General economic factors, seasonal influences as well as the expected future pricing of a commodity should all be kept in mind.

The price of a futures contract is a great deal more turbulent than that of the average stock on the stock market. A commodity could be upwardly mobile one year and in a downward spiral the next. Nobody who trades in a futures contract can afford to rest on his or her laurels. The commodity trader will (ideally) need to make use of both fundamental analysis and charting, to better predict what the future could hold.

Fundamental analysis is a bit of a hard slog: supply and demand need to be closely monitored. If there is greater supply than there is demand, the commodity price will most certainly plunge and if there is too little supply to meet the demand, the futures contract trader could make very good gains from the resultant commodity price increases.

Pricing changes in commodities are generally influenced by fundamentals, natural disasters, poor seasons, politics and perception. You can use charting to find those formations or patterns that pre-empt bullish or bearish shifts. Bar charts make for a simple, yet effective tool for the futures contract trader. It contains information on the particular futures market price movements, volume and open-interest. These commodity charts are compiled daily, weekly and monthly. The historical patterns will abet your efforts to gain a long-term view of the market. You should however also be looking at things like moving averages and oscillators when planning your trades.

Who plays the futures contract game?

As we mentioned earlier in this article, there are two motives for buying futures contracts: One is for hedging commodity price changes and the other for making money out of those inevitable changes. Those who hedge are generally also those who have some sort of a requirement for the underlying commodity. In example, if the commodity is wheat, it may be a miller that is hedging against higher future wheat pricing. The speculator on the other hand, has no interest in the underlying commodity and will buy a futures contract purely to make a quick buck.

Effectively there are two types of futures contract hedges: a long hedge and a short hedge:

Short hedge - Futures are sold, normally by a trader who either owns the underlying commodity or who stands to suffer some sort of a loss if the pricing drops.

Long hedge - Futures are bought, normally by somebody who uses or processes the commodity, because there is concern that the pricing will increase. The trader could sell the futures contract at a later date, potentially for more than he would have to pay the producer at that point in time - and pocket the profits.

The speculators have a role to play here too, albeit that they do not have a natural long or short position. Their sole aim is to buy low and sell high. In the process, they cause the liquidity needed as they frequently take the opposite side of the trade of the hedger.

Advantages of futures contract trading

There are a variety of advantages to be had from trading in futures contracts:

Owing to volatility one can potentially make more money sooner from futures contract trading than from trading on the stock market if your trading judgement is sound. If not, you could end up losing more money faster too.

Futures are highly leveraged investments. You only need to raise a small fraction, between 10% and 15% of the underlying futures contract value as margin, whilst enjoying the full value of the contract as it dips and peaks. The money put up, is a performance bond. A further upside is that there is no interest on the difference between the margin and the full contract value.

The way in which a futures contract trades, makes it one of the most fair and efficient markets. It takes place publicly by open outcry after all.

Comparatively low commissions are charged on futures contract trades, and only once a position is liquidated.

The majority of the commodity markets are liquid and broad. There is quick turnaround on futures contract transactions, and subsequently a smaller chance that adverse market movements will take place between the decision to trade and the execution of the trade.



Ethel

Woody Pecker asked:


…i work for a company that has over 100 locations in the U.S. Business is high demand, stock is still fairly low. It’s traded on Nasdaq and I’ve been buying through the company for about a year and sometimes it’s up and down but I’ve not lost any money. They are going to open 6 locations in Europe in the near future and I hear this business is high demand there also. Is this going to hurt my investment or help it?

Sandra