Hoping and praying that the stocks that you just bought will go up is not the best strategy to use, however it is the one very often used by the average Joe stock trader who is stock trading internet. The only good point they have is that in bull markets most stocks will go up.

Statistics show that in a bull market about 75% of the stocks will follow the general trend and go up, and in a bear market 75% will also go down. Trading with the trend is the best way to trade as 8 or 9 out of 12 stocks will follow the trend and give you the best chance of making gains on your stock purchases.

But what if you own some good stocks and don’t want to sell when the market is clearly going down, or about to go down?. There are a couple of tactics that you can consider, both of which involve the use of options, CALL options and PUT options. There is the widely known strategy called Covered Calls, and the much lesser known one called the Married Put.

If you are going to trade options it is essential that before you start trading you get the best option trading education that you can. You should also practice stock trading until you are comfortable with the process. This is a very important point that must be taken seriously, if you don’t understand the terminology and the theory then you should not be trading options. If the terms Put option, Call option, Married Put and Covered Call are new to you then don’t trade until you have studied sufficiently.

Selling calls against your stock in 100 share increments is the basis of the covered call strategy and it can provide about a 2-7% buffer against the loss in stock price. However a bigger drop in stock price will not be compensated for using the covered call strategy, in general.

Stocks in a bear market, and even in a bull market, can drop quickly on news or earnings releases, as much as 15 to 40% within a month. Using covered calls to protect your stocks will only provide limited protection of less than 7% at best and so will not save your account if the stock takes a 40% tumble.

The better solution to providing down-side stock protection is the option strategy called the Married Put. As the name suggests the PUT that you buy is used to provide protection when the stock goes down because Put options increase in value when the stock decreases in value. The term married is used because the option that is selected has to be very compatible with the stock, in other words a good match, if the strategy is to work.

The selection of the best Put option is not straight forward and involves several criteria which are listed below:

1. The strike price of the option

2. The current stock price

3. Choice of options, in or out of the money

4. Put expiration time

Even though the married Put protection only has a limited life span if offers much more protection than the covered call. It can provide as much as 95% loss recovery in the event of a significant drop in the stock price.

The downside of the good protection is that you have buy the Put which is a debit whereas the covered call is a credit. But there are ways of offsetting this expense and there is much more to this strategy when executed correctly. The Married Put can be made to pay for itself and used to generate very good gains if the market, or stock to be specific, moves a lot.

The general idea of the Collar Trade is to combine the covered call and married Put strategy into one, this is what is called the Collar Trade. In effect you put a collar around the stock, sell a call and buy a PUT. If you do this correctly most of the cost of the Put can be offset by the credit from the covered call so you can protect your valuable stock at almost no cost. Yes this is a great strategy which the general public is unfortunately very ignorant of, and most brokers don’t understand.

The strategy that I have outlined above is unknown to the average stock market trader but is one of the best trading systems you could have.

The most successful floor traders are those that have the most experiance, this is no coincidence at all and should be a pointer for those who aspire to become a good trader. Day trading can be likened to being a sportsman, such as a golf pro or tennis champion, you need to be trained and in good physical shape. Skills are needed which must be developed over time and practiced until they become 2nd nature. If you want to learn how to day trade you must be prepared to put in the effort. Here are some of the key skills that you must develop as a trader.

1. Technical analysis can be used for futures as well as the more standard stocks, options and bonds that most people trade. This can give you a large edge over other traders who have not taken the time to study the charts support and resistance areas, trendline and patterns. Learning technical analysis is really a must do if you want to trade futures successfully.

2. This is a very simple point but is very important, always have your trading plan prepared before you enter a trade, never try and create it on the fly, you will be much too emotional. Make sure that you have an entry and exit point in your plan.

3. Keep your losses small!, this is the one thing that every trader must do if they want to trade for a long time. By doing this you will preserve your capital allowing you to trade another day. Your small wins will compensate your small losses allowing your big wins to give you an overall profit

4. Over trading is a big mistake that a lot of amateurs make. Professionals tend to be more patient and wait for the better opportunities to come along, this is called cherry picking and takes both patience and discipline. These are must have skills that you must develop.

5. This is a big day trading tip, it is important that you track all your trades and review them to see where you are making the mistakes. This is hard work, but this is what separates the professionals from the amateurs. Unless you do this you will keep on making the same mistakes. The best way to do this is to keep both a daily and weekly log.

6. Only trade when you are both physically and mentally prepared. This is often overlooked but is very important. Do you think a tennis star can win a game when they are tired and mentally not focused?, it’s unlikely. Being prepared means getting a good nights sleep, having your trading station and charts well prepared before the market opens, taking the time each and every day to review your trading plan and rules. Finally you must have the mental frame of mind and confidence that you are going to be successful today in your trading.

7. If you are new to trading futures make the effort to paper trade until you are very confident that you are going to make money. You will know when you are ready because you will start to hate paper trading knowing that you could be making real money profits on a consistent basis.

Remember that the markets only trend for about 20-35% of the time, the rest is either sideways or very choppy, if you want to do trend trading to win you must be fully prepared when the opportunities arise.

If you are new to forex trading or have only a small amount of capital available right now, mini forex trading could be the way to go for you. It allows you to trade with real money while limiting your risk to a relatively small amount. Generally the lot size of trades for a mini account is only one tenth of the lot size for a standard account with the same broker.

Mini Forex Trading Or Demo?

Somebody starting out in forex has several options:

1. Start out right away with live trading in a standard brokerage account, investing from $1,000 to $5,000. This would be very risky for a beginner and is not recommended.

2. Begin with live trading in a mini forex account. Generally you need $250 for these accounts but you may be able to find brokers who will let you start with even less.

3. Start out with a demo Forex day trading account where you are picking up trading skills without investing any real money at all, then when you are consistently making profits, switch over to either a mini account or full brokerage account depending on your capital and your strategy.

Advantages Of A Mini Forex Trading Account

Most people choose option 3, the demo account. They feel much safer using ‘toy money’ online for several days, weeks or months. A demo account also gives you the opportunity to try out the various different strategies that you are probably reading about.

However there can be problems with running a demo account for too long. Some forex traders and trainers say that it lulls you into a false sense of security. It is much easier to take risks when there is no real cash involved, and you will be practicing with strategies that you may be uncomfortable using in real life trading.

So what can happen is that the demo account teaches you to make profits using medium to high risk strategies, but when you are faced with a real cash situation you may lose your nerve. This usually results in bad decisions made on the spur of the moment and ’strategy hopping’ where you are constantly switching from one plan to another. Losses are almost inevitable in this situation.

For this reason, some experts recommend starting with a mini account and using real money almost from the get-go. You would only use a demo account for a small number of trades to familiarize yourself with the technical side of operating your account and making trades. In this way you are likely to learn strategies that can work for you in the long term.

Disadvantages Of A Mini Trading Account

When you are trading small amounts, you must expect to pay more in percentage terms to the broker. This eats into your gains. In the long term this can have a massive effect on your results and can make the all-important difference between profit and loss. Therefore, most traders operating a mini account will be aiming to switch to higher value trades as soon as they have the capital to do so.

However you choose to start, you will need to accept that forex trading is high risk by its very nature, like all forms of investment that offer the possibility of large gains in a short time. You should only invest cash that you are prepared to lose if things go against you.

Starting out with a mini Forex account can be a great way for someone who is new to forex to pick up the techniques for real. Mini forex trading could be the best way to find out for sure whether foreign exchange trading is right for you.

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If you are about to start, or are already in the process of learning how to trade, or day trade, you may have already been searching the internet using Google or Yahoo for day trading training education, tools, software or seminars, and have found that there is a lot on offer.

For example “trading course” brings up 758,000 pages in Google and “trading seminar” another 109,000 pages, the question is what should you be looking for when buying trading education. In this article I’ll point out some of the things to check before spending your hard earned money on your trading education.

1. If buying a live trading seminar check carefully where the location will be, have you fully priced the expensive of travel, hotels, meals and car rental?, it may be much more than you expect.

2. What is the return policy, this can vary widely between trading education companies, for some you only have a 3 day cooling off period while for others you may have up to 12 noon or the end of the 1st day to ask for refund if you decide this was not right for you.

3. For a live seminar are you also given a set of DVD’s of the same or similar content?, so often live seminars fail to explain all the very important details involved in day trading. Having a set of DVD’s enables you to review the content over and over again at home until you get it. Beware that some companies will charge you extra for the DVD’s even though you have already paid for a live trading seminar.

4. Check the internet for positive and negative feedback on the company and trading seminar. Use search terms like “company name review or “company name scam”. Often reviews are posted in trading forums, these can be found by searching for terms like “trading forum”.

5. A head of time try and find out exactly who will be presenting the seminar. The last thing that you want is a professional “teacher” giving a seminar on trading, what you want is a “trader” who makes his living by trading and only does a few seminars a month out of interest and for personal reasons, not because they need the money.

6. If you are buying an online day trading or investing course where the content is 100% viewed online you should get at least a 30 day 100% cash back guarantee, if not stay away.

7. If you are buying a course or trading seminar in which DVD’s and manuals are being shipped to your house, again you should expect a 30 day 100% money back return policy, less shipping and handling, again if not stay away.

8. It’s very likely that you will have questions after taking either the live or online course or watching the DVD’s, make sure that you will be able to ask questions and have them answered, either one on one or in a forum setting.

9. Last, but not least, before buying do a lot of window shopping. The price for trading seminars, either stocks, options, Forex or futures varies widely from $47 for an ebook to over $25K for a comprehensive set of training. You may be able to find the same material much cheaper at a different company.

Also be aware that day trading education and seminar companies are always running specials and offering discounts, before you buy search the internet carefully for any deals and also call the company directly and ask for a low price guarantee. Make sure you are paying the lowest price possible for the course or seminar before you commit to it.

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If you are about to start, or are already in the process of learning how to trade, or day trade, you may have already been searching the internet using Google or Yahoo for day trading training education, tools, software or seminars, and have found that there is a lot on offer.

For example “trading course” brings up 758,000 pages in Google and “trading seminar” another 109,000 pages, the question is what should you be looking for when buying trading education. In this article I’ll point out some of the things to check before spending your hard earned money on your trading education.

1. Becareful of the hidden costs involved in a trading seminar that is away from home, account for the expense of hotels, meals travel and car rental?, it may be much more than you expect.

2. What is the return policy, this can vary widely between trading education companies, for some you only have a 3 day cooling off period while for others you may have up to 12 noon or the end of the 1st day to ask for refund if you decide this was not right for you.

3. For a live seminar are you also given a set of DVD’s of the same or similar content?, so often live seminars fail to cover all the very important details involved in day trading. Having a set of DVD’s enables you to watch the content over and over again at home until you get it. Beware that some companies will charge you extra for the DVD’s even though you have already paid for a live trading seminar.

4. Check the internet for feedback on the company and trading seminar. Use search terms like “company name review”, “company name refunds” or “company name scam”. Often reviews are posted in trading forums, these can be found by searching for “trading forum”.

5. A head of time try and find out exactly who will be presenting the seminar. The last thing that you want is a professional “teacher” presenting a seminar on trading, what you want is a “trader” who makes his living by trading and only does a few seminars a month out of interest and for personal reasons, not because they need the money.

6. If you are buying an online day trading or investing course where the content is 100% viewed online you should get at least a 30 day 100% cash back guarantee, if not stay away.

7. If you are buying a course or trading seminar in which DVD’s and manuals are being shipped to your house, again you should expect a 30 day 100% money back return policy, less shipping and handling, again if not stay away.

8. It’s very likely that you will have questions after taking either the live or online course or watching the DVD’s, make sure that you will be able to ask questions and have them answered, either one on one or in a forum setting.

9. Last, but not least, before buying do a lot of window shopping. The price for trading seminars, either stocks, options, Forex or futures varies widely from $50 for an ebook to over $25K for a comprehensive set of training. You may be able to find the same material much cheaper at a different company.

Also be aware that day trading education and seminar companies are always running specials and offering discounts, before you buy search the internet carefully for any deals and also call the company directly and ask for a low price guarantee. Make sure you are paying the lowest price possible for the course or seminar before you commit to it.

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Does everybody need forex trading training or do some people have a natural talent for trading currency on the forex market? You will not be surprised to hear that nobody is born understanding all of the ins and outs of foreign exchange trading. While it is true that some kinds of experience or personality traits can be useful and can mean that you will pick it up more quickly, everybody needs some kind of training if they plan to make a profit.

But there are many kinds of stock day training available these days and it may be hard to judge what is the best. With so many websites, blogs, articles and ebooks available on the internet, often low priced or even free, it is tempting to think that we may be able to pick up all we need to know for dirt cheap.

However, it can be a big mistake to limit yourself to this kind of piecemeal training. There are some great ebooks and free systems out there but others are outdated or never had any success at all. As a beginner you will find it hard to know which ones to trust.

Even the best ebooks generally do not cover everything you need to know. They may focus on one or two strategies that are not necessarily the best match for your situation. The money saved on training may be lost several times over once you start currency trading for real.

In most cases you will be better advised if you sign up for formal training through a membership site. This is likely to be run by a trading group or an experienced forex trader. They will have set up a step by step process that you can work through from complete beginner to knowledgeable trader.

Beginners are usually attracted to forex day trading by the lure of quick and easy money and most know nothing about it when they start. It is great to have a system that covers pretty much everything and a trader who can answer your questions.

Many formal forex training programs have a forum where you can discuss your strategies and results with others. Sharing information in this way can be a good way to learn. In fact, in many cases the forum itself is worth the cost of membership and many people remain members after completing the program just to have this exposure to the knowledge and experience of their fellow traders.

Solid forex training is unlikely to be free except at the most basic level. If you just want to dabble in the forex market as an experiment, without caring too much whether you win or lose, you may be satisfied with free training. The best type of free training is often given a way as a teaser or taster by sites or brokers who hope you will then join them as a paying member. In fact, you can often pick up top level tips this way and a free report from a reputable trader will often be more useful and valuable than a $20 ebook.

Whatever type of training you choose, be sure to follow it exactly. Don’t skip over the first steps hoping to get straight into making cash - that would be a fast route to disaster. Test out the system you are being taught, either with small trades or in a demo account. Ask questions. Make sure you get every bit of wisdom from the training you have chosen so that you put yourself in the best position to turn a profit on completion of the forex trading training program.

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There is no doubt about it, forex trading books are very useful for the new currency trader and equally for traders who want to improve their skills with new strategies. There is a very wide variety of currency trading training resources available both online and offline these days including members-only websites, forums, online courses, seminars, conferences and even one-on-one tutoring from an experienced mentor. But there are times when a good old fashioned book is just the thing that you need.

No matter whether your currency trading book is published on paper or downloaded as an ebook, it can be the best way to learn in many circumstances. It wins over other options on both convenience and price.

You can open it up whenever you need it. You can re-read it whenever you want, repeating the more advanced passages and exercises as many times as you need to before everything is fully absorbed so that it becomes like second nature.You can also schedule your training sessions for the best times to suit your life.

Another advantage of forex books is that you save time by skipping over the things you already know. If you have any experience at all, going over the basics can waste a lot of your time in training that is based around seminars or even audio or video sessions online while you wait for everyone else to be shown the techniques that you have already mastered.

There are new books on forex day trading being published almost every week, so it is useful to know what to look for and how to pick out the best. Just as with any other market where money is involved, you need to know how to identify and stay clear of any scams that you might come across. The old rule is very valid here and you may want to post it up on the side of your PC as you browse for books online: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!”

Having said that, the currency trading market is a place where you can expect to find a certain amount of hype. Do not be too quick to make negative judgments just because a book or ebook is advertised with a fair amount of hard sell. Remember the advertising copy is probably written by a professional copywriter, not the author of the book.

So you can safely ignore most of the hype in the promotional advertisements and look for the things that you really need to know. These are:

1. What areas of expertise are covered in the book.

2. Whether it is right for you, i.e. whether it is aimed at traders of your skill and experience level.

3. What are the benefits that you personally can hope to gain from it.

The first of these should be very clear from the advertising. If it is not, try asking to view the contents index of the book. The other two points will require a closer reading of the promotional material keeping your own individual situation in mind.

If you can take a look inside the book you will soon see whether it is well written. You are looking for something that is down to earth, logical and practical. Professional presentation and editing is a good sign of a reputable and successful author or publisher. If you are a beginner you will want step by step information. In any case, hyped up language inside the book itself is definitely a warning sign.

Another thing that you should do before getting a book or ebook, even if you plan to buy in a book store, is to do internet searches on the book title and author name. Look for any news stories about the writer. Is he or she a successful real life trader, or just someone hoping to make cash from a lucrative trend? You need to be sure that the information in a currency trading book is good before you risk real money on the strategies it suggests.

You can also look for reviews written by buyers who are actually using the information they have learned successfully. It is true that some of these may earn a commission on sales of the book but a good review will help you figure out whether the book is right for beginner, intermediate or advanced traders, and how it fits your idea of what you need to know from forex books.

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