How To Trade Options Correctly

Posted on February 7th, 2010 in Stocks Mutual Funds | No Comments »

Traders - Do You Really Want To Learn How To Trade, Stocks, Futures or Forex?

Click Here Now For A Free Trading Course

 

 

There is a lot of hype surrounding options trading, and for good reason, it’s a good way make a lot of cash fast, or can be used to grow your capital consistently month after month.

There’s also a lot of hype about how complicated it is and why you need to spend thousands of dollars on options trading education before you get started. Needless to say this last statement usually comes from trading seminar companies trying to sell your their trading course on options.

Lets cover a few of the basics about options and set you straight about a few important points. Firstly yes it is true that you can make a lot of cash trading options, but of course you can also lose just as fast.

When trading stocks your leverage is 1:1, if you go on margin you can get get 1:2 leverage, but thats about it. With options it is not as straight forward to calculate the leverage but generally speaking you can get between 1:5 and 1:10 when you buy an option on a stock, or ETF.

So with 1:10 leverage, when the stock increases by 5% your option can increase by approx 50%, and this can happen in just a few days, this is why swing trading strategies using options on stocks is so popular.

However the downside is that a big loss can also happen, if the stock drops by 5% your option can also drop by 50%, at which point you may want to close the trade and save some of your option value, it really depends on what your stop loss and risk.

What I’ve just described is called directional option trading where you are betting on the getting the direction of the stock movement correct, this is highly speculative. Options can also be used in option strategies which are much more non-directional, such as covered call trades, credit spreads and Iron Condors. In these trades there is much less dependance on getting the stock direction correct, but it still matters.

So should you learn to trade options?, in my opinion you should not do directional option trades until you become an expert stock trader 1st. This is because you really need to be very precise with your entry and exit strategy and trading plan, and be very good at technical analysis.

Whereas if you want to do non-directional option trades you don’t need to be such an experianced stock trader to be successful, but of course it does not hurt either.

Learning how to trade options is a very useful skill you have, but don’t rush into it and blow out your account. Make sure that you get a good options trading education before you start, and also make sure that you have a very solid stock trading education as well, such one from Top Dog Trading Review.

What are Penny Stocks?

Posted on January 31st, 2010 in Stocks Mutual Funds | No Comments »

Strictly speaking, penny stocks are stocks that the beginning investor, in many cases, could actually pay for to buy. You locate that penny stocks are especially in new or up and coming companies or companies that are on their final leg & treading water. This doesn’t indicate that even those companies that have fallen off the big lists are not worthy investments, all the similar they have been known to decide themselves up, reinvent themselves, and obtain themselves back on the big lists. For the sake of this article by the way, penny stocks are sometimes big companies going by a downward spiral, which makes them, only like the new companies, somewhat of a risk.

The SEC or Securities & Exchange Commission classifies penny stocks whether those that sell for less than $5 a share. Of course other exchanges consider those selling for fewer than three dollars or though one to be penny stocks. Essentially, penny stocks are those that are not exchanged on the prime stock exchanges for instance NYCE, AMEX, are NASDAQ.  It actually depends upon the exchange in which you’re trading. Penny stocks are a little extra unsafe than many of the rest by the way for great reason. Just as they are very risky on the other hand, they are also quite profitable for those who manage to trade penny stocks successfully.

The risks in penny stocks go well beyond the obvious and are part of the reason that payoffs are so rewarding for those who are fortunate. There is extremely little skill that goes into successfully trading penny stocks but many luck. If you’re a gambler at heart then this’s definitely your sort of investment. It is tremendously principal on the other hand that you enter into penny stocks trading through the firm understanding that you aren’t likely to be winning. In fact, probability are best that you will lose whether lots of as you produce from the prospect. There are those by the way, who have managed to defy the odds & win quite handsomely in the game we have come to know as penny stock trading.

Some things you will seek to keep in mind before you begin trading in this highly volatile market include the following. First of all, penny stocks aren’t love normal stocks where they’re heavily traded & there’s almost usually someone waiting in line to purchase. When you decide to sell it could be a when before a buyer comes along. This means that penny stocks are not the lots of liquid stocks on the planet & when you need quick entrance to your money this’s definitely not the stock for you.

One more item to remain in mind while it comes to penny stocks is that there is often extremely little info on these companies. Unless you have good research skills & the occasion and energy to put them to reason for your trading endeavors you’re really unlikely to discover lots of history and financial statistics on these companies as opposed to numerous publicly traded companies that are pretty much required to open their books to investors. This is unsafe to investors because knowledge is vital and schemes are plenty.

Every penny you invest in penny stocks should be a penny that you’re tremendously well prepared to loose & perfectly happy to earn a refund through. You can hit the lottery on your penny stock investment and earn exactly three to four (or more) moments what you invested in your stocks. Chances are that the opposite would be the case by the way and you would lose your investment. Whether long as you are prepared to deal with the consequences and let yourself to be pleasantly surprised when your trades pay off you might be the perfect people to trade in the penny stock market. When creating your decisions about the types of stocks, bonds, or funds you seek to include in your portfolio you may aim to include some penny stocks for the sake of diversity & to risk a small sum of money on a long shot. You never know when those long shots will pay off. Find more other useful articles about child term life insurance, term life insurance calculator and cheap term life insurance quote

How To Get Started in Active Trading

Posted on January 27th, 2010 in Day Trading | No Comments »

David Jenyns and Stuart McPhee, well known, experienced traders, discuss the merits of keeping part of one’s trading float back from active trading.

David: We have a question: do you recommend having all your trading capital in active trades or should some be kept as cash, and if so what percent?

Stuart: For example, my super fund I always have roughly ten percent in cash because, and this is probably more specific to Australian taxation law, during the year you have an obligation to pay tax, pay as you go.

But having said that, if that isn’t a requirement for you and trading opportunities present themselves, there’s no reason to keep some cash set aside. Using nearly everything in active trading is a great idea in the trading system.

David: I’m in a similar frame of mind about that. If you’re looking to trade the markets and you’ve set aside your trading float that’s your intended purpose for the money assuming you have appropriate trading candidates. My gut feeling would be you should have, whenever possible, all your money invested. Obviously, it comes back to your system, making sure you are getting the signals. You don’t want to put your money in just for the sake of having all your money in.

But I don’t see any reason to limit, oh, I’ll keep ten percent of the trading float just sitting in the account, just accruing interest, not involved in active trading. It’s part of how you structure your wealth creation; you’ll have a certain amount allocated for your trading float, you’ll have a certain amount allocated for your real estate, you’ll have a certain amount for cash in the bank. I see that separate from my trading float.

Also with regard to backtesting you can see the utilization of your trading float. You can enter your trading float in before. You can see over a set period of time whether you’re fully utilizing or partially utilizing your cash and I always try to get as close to the top of that band as possible. So I’m as close to being maxed out as possible without being maxed out all the time.

If you’re maxed out all the time and new trading opportunities pop up and you don’t have any capital available, it’s going to throw out your backtesting a little bit because with trading opportunities or investment trading you may not have been able to open.

What is the least profitable scenario and the most profitable scenario and you find that gap widens the more you fully utilize your cash.

You don’t want to be maxed out as possible when you are doing backtesting. But definitely the major part of your float should be used for active trading or trade entry.

Learn Share Trading: Top Dog Trading Review

Posted on January 20th, 2010 in Day Trading | No Comments »

Google ‘Technical Analysis’ on the net and you will be inundated with choices, but after much investigation I uncovered Top Dog Trading.

On starting my foray into trading Share markets, I realised that fundamental analysis was out of the question, but interpreting share charts was something I could get my head around.

What helped my decision to take the Top Dog Trading course to learn Share trading?…. A number of things besides the desire to trade better and to stop depleting my trading account with losses; was that I understood what Dr Barry Burns was imparting on his website and much or the instruction is explained on the detailed videos which makes it much simpler to get your head around. A further qualifier was Barry’s CV; it is impeccable, a business man who trades professionally, he is also a accomplished speaker and writer.

So I subscribed to his free 5 video course on learning to trade to see if I could learn from his teaching style.

Prior to this, I had already done several other courses on technical analysis covering Share trading but still did not feel confident in my analysis that would allow me to become a successful trader, all this changed once I came across Dr Barry Burns, I now feel confident that I can make the business of share trading, a success.

You will find Barry explains the principals simply and clearly, then gives upto date chart examples with all their un-predictable moves showing how to turn the rules into profitable trades. This is all done via a vast selection of videos.

With Barry’s courses I have not only fully comprehended how to trade his methods but also developed a far deeper understanding of the Share market & the associated charts but more critically the money management and personal attitudes that are such an important part of becoming a successful Share trader.

Barry’s courses are the best Share trading courses that I have found and I would strongly suggest that you give his FREE course a go. This course has 5 videos that walk you through some of the most powerful trading material I’ve ever seen.

Provided you follow the principals Barry explores, you will end up with a very profitable ratio of winning trades with tight control on the losses, so when one does lose (which all traders do) the financial pain is not too great.

I have completed the course, loved it, and gained a vast amount from it and have moved to Barry’s more advanced courses. My wish to learn Share trading will never again produce the losses of the past.

Try Barry’s Free Video Course for yourself, it’ll be the best thing you’ll do!

Free Top Dog Trading Course

Posted on January 2nd, 2010 in Currency Trading, Day Trading, Investing, Stocks Mutual Funds, Trading, Wealth Building | No Comments »

Here is a great free gift from Top Dog Trading, they have just finished creating a new course that gives you the most important things that turned Barry Burns own trading.

At first they were going to charge for it … but they have decided to start
the New Year by giving it away to all of their students, subscribers and readers.

Ot is just their way of saying “thank you” for your friendship, and to help you make this your best trading year.

There are no strings attached and you don’t have to “opt-in” to anything. Simply go to the site, download the PDF outline and then follow along with it as you watch the 3 videos (there is about one hour of training in all).

It’s there for you at the Top Dog Trading Blog

To access the course, just go to the front page of the blog and you’ll see the most recent post at the top of the page gives a quick introduction and then gives you the link to the course.

The post is entitled: “Top 20 Daytrader Secrets for Day Trading Stocks, Emini Day Trading, Forex and Other Markets.”

Just go to  Top Dog Trading Blog