There is a lot of hype surrounding options trading, and for good reason, it’s a good way make a lot of money 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 trading 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 quite 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 described above 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 trades options?, in my opinion you should not do directional option trades until you become an expert stock trader 1st. This is because you must 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.

A couple of weeks ago Money Philosophy decided to get back into the stocks game after having been out of it for a few years. Money Philosophy was drawn to stocks such as C & GM which had taken a big hit since the stock market fell through the floor in September of 2008. These stocks looked like they were rebounding and he was thrilled about the chance that they may eventually reach their old peaks.

His C and GM picks were very successful and that got him interested in looking for other stocks similar to them. He found a couple of penny stocks, LJPC and CTIC, that looked like they may break through with big gains.

That turned out to be correct as both LJPC and CTIC ended up being huge gainers.

He decided that he may really be onto something with the way he was selecting these stocks so he decided to try to create a stock screener which would find more penny stocks like them the moment before they were about to “pop” with big gains.

The reason I’m writing this blog post today is because his first stock buy with this new screener reached a high 40% above it’s open today and that certainly impressed the heck out of me. Obviously my imagination is off and running with the big gains I could make by following his stock picks.

I definitely don’t expect every stock pick he makes to have this kind of gain. No way. And it’s important to know that a gain isn’t “real” until the point where you actually sell the stock. Deciding when to sell is just as important as deciding when to get in. The really cool thing is that he also makes a post on his blog (and on his Twitter account) when he sells.

He does not share the precise way he screens for these winning stocks as I guess he’s too selfish to share all of his secrets but he shares much more than  most do.

He does not suggest that people should buy his picks. There’s nothing to gain from that. You should always do some of your own investigating before deciding whether or not to buy a stock.

While it may be tempting to download The Day Trading Robot or Easy Forex, I certainly think anyone would have better results just by doing what he’s doing. And the great thing is that it’s totally free.

One of the most popular technical analysis indicators is the simple moving average also known as SMA, if you learn how to use these correctly they can be a very useful tool to help you to make good trading decisions.

The 50 simple moving average, or 50 SMA, is simply the sum of the last 50 values for each period, divided by 50, this is a moving window, as time moves on so does the average. Notice that I used the word period because this indicator works on any time period in exactly the same way.

It can be used on monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, 30 minutes, 10 minute and on whatever time period you want to monitor and trade. Although the SMA is the most widley used there is also the exponential moving average or EMA. This is a weighted version of the formula using the mathematical exponent function to give more weight to the more recent values, this has the effect of making it a slightly faster average that many traders prefer.

The truth is that it probably does not matter if you used the SMA or the EMA, what does matter however is that you use one or the other and then be very consistent with it. Do not switch between them, it is more important that you learn to trust your chosen indicator then a slight difference in its value.

The simple moving average is primarily used to determine what the current trend of the stock is, depending on the value used it could be a short term, medium term or long term trend. An important point to note is that moving averages are most useful when the stock is trending, if the moving average is flat, i.e. horizontal on your chart it can become very choppy, this is a good time to not trade.

The general rule is that if the chart price is above the SMA the trend is up, if below the trend is down. This is very important to know because it forms the basics of trend trading and trading with the trend.

For the short term trend many traders like using a 5-8 SMA or EMA, here is a trading secret, never trade again the direction of the short term tend, actually this is really just common sense when you think about it.

Moving averages can often act as support or resistance, many traders use the 15, 21 or 30 SMA for this purpose.

There are a number of other very important moving averages that you need to know about, these are the 50, 100 and 200 SMA, and this mostly applies to the daily and weekly charts. A lot of big players in the markets, the mutual funds, investment banks etc use the 50 and 200 SMA as support and resistance, if they decide to buy or sell based on these you need to follow suite, the 100 to a lesser extent. These are very useful averages to watch if you trade EFT’s like an Oil ETF.

A useful tip is that when a stock breaks through one moving average it will often move all the way to the next, for example, if a stock breaks the 30 SMA it may move to the 50 before finding some support or resistance.

A844534297

There is a lot of hype surrounding options trading, and for good reason, it’s a good way make a lot of money 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 trading 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 full out on margin you get get 1:2 leverage, but thats about it. With options it is not quite 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 the reverse can 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 management plan is.

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 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.

Gann Square of Nine or Gann Pyramid as it is also called, is one of the most useful tools in the investment industry. Though it is somewhat more complicated than other tools, once mastered it is very useful when applied to financial analysis.

The Gann Square of Nine is most often used to confirm the significance of highs and lows in terms of stocks, commodities and other types of investments. Imagine being able to predict when to buy a particular stock and how much to pay. The Gann Square of Nine makes this not only possible, but also a reality that has worked for many investors over the past century.

It is important here to note that Gann Square of Nine should never be used to choose tops and bottoms when selecting stocks, but it can be utilized to provide additional information to confirm how significant a recent high or low point in the market was when a break in a trend occurs. Gann Square of Nine is similar in shape and concept to a wheel or circle, and is often also referred to as the Gann Wheel.

It starts with the number 1 in the center and radiates out to the first square of nine. This begins with the number 2or number 1 to the left of the center, it then spirals clockwise to the number 9 in order to form its first rotation around the square of nine. This rotation then shifts one unit to the left of nine and the next rotation begins at the number 10. It then continues its spiral to the number 20 and so on.

Here is a picture of the Gann Square of nine:
http://www.stock-commodity-trading.com/gannsquare.gif

The Gann Square of Nine is a time and price calculator that figures the square root of numbers, both odd and even and their midpoints as well. It also seeks time and price alignments from a specified starting point or price level. One example of this would be a significant high or low point in a given market.

If you look at the numbers that appear on the grid that run down to the bottom left corner on the Gann Square of Nine, you will find them to be the square root of odd numbers. An example of this would be 5×5 = 25. On the other hand, you look at the numbers that run up to the top right corner on the Gann Square of Nine, you will find they are the square root of even numbers. An example of this is 4×4 = 16.

The numbers that run down to the bottom right corner will show you the midpoint between the squares of odd and even numbers. Let’s use the numbers 25 and 16 mentioned above to illustrate this. Here, the number 21 would represent their midpoint because it falls exactly between them.

The Gann Square of Nine is an arrangement of numbers with a specific order and a used in a number of ways. Further review of Gann Square of Nine will show you how it works and illustrate its usefulness in determining market highs and lows.

In order to provide for your retirement investing has become increasingly important over the years, as the future of social security benefits becomes unknown. There are of course many forms of investment, but the main two that are available to the average man in the street are real estate and stocks. If you are interested in investing in the stock market maybe you should read some of Warren Buffet books!.

It is a very normal need for people to want to insure their futures, and they know that if they are depending on Social Security benefits, and in some cases retirement plans, that they may be in for a rude awakening when they no longer have the ability to earn a steady income. Investing wisely is the answer to the unknowns of the future because it has been shown that most people need much more money to live on in retirement that they think.

You may have been saving money in a low interest savings account over the years. Now, you want to see that money grow at a faster pace. Perhaps you’ve inherited money or realized some other type of windfall, and you need a way to make that money grow. Again, investing is the answer.

Leaving money a safe bank account earning maybe 5% a year, if you are lucky, is considered investing by many, but in general it’s a pretty poor deal, after accounting for inflation you are growing your money very little in real terms.

Investing is also a way of paying for the things that you want, such as a new home, a college education for your children, or expensive ‘toys.’ Of course, your financial goals and timeline will determine what type of investing you do.

Trading stocks can also be a form of investing if you have a medium to long term outlook, but make sure that you get some good trading education 1st.

If you want or need to make a lot of cash fast, you would be more interested in higher risk investing, which will give you a larger return in a shorter amount of time. If you are saving for something in the far off future, such as retirement, you would want to make safer investments that grow over a longer period of time.

The overall purpose in investing is to create wealth and security, over a period of time. It is important to remember that as you get older you will not always be able to earn an income… you will eventually want to retire.

You also cannot count on the social security system to do what you expect it to do. As we have seen with Enron and other frauds, you also cannot necessarily depend on your company’s retirement plan either. So, again, investing wisely is the key to insuring your own financial future, but you must make smart investments.

When considering investments you have also got to be very carefull to avoid investment trading scams, things to look out for are unrealistic rates of return.

Bonds are one of the main stream types of investment along with stocks and real estate, and if you want to learn how to trade bonds make sure that you get a good education in the subject 1st. There are a number of important points that you must understand about bonds before you start investing in them. Not understanding these points may cause you to purchase the wrong bonds, at the wrong maturity date.

Like all investments it is important to learn about what you are investing in, and certainly don’t just take the advice given to you by a bond seller without checking it out 1st yourself. The three most important points that must be considered when purchasing a bond include the par value, the maturity date, and the coupon rate.

The par value of a bond refers to the amount of money you will receive when the bond reaches its maturity date. In other words, you will receive your initial investment back when the bond reaches maturity.

The maturity date is of course the date that the bond will reach its full value. On this date, you will receive your initial investment, and the interest that your money has earned.

Corporate and State and Local Government bonds can be “called” before they reach their maturity, at which time the corporation or issuing Government will return your initial investment, along with the cash that it has earned thus far. Federal bonds cannot be “called”.

The coupon rate is the interest that you will receive when the bond reaches maturity. This number is written as a %, and you must use other information to find out what the interest will be. A bond that has a par value of $2000, with a coupon rate of 5% would earn $100 per year until it reaches maturity.

Because bonds are not issued by banks, many people don’t understand how to go about buying one. There are two ways this can be done.

You can use a broker or brokerage firm to make the purchase for you or you can go directly to the Government. If you use a broker, you will more than likely be charged a commission fee. If you want to use a broker, shop around for the lowest commissions!

Purchasing directly through the Government is not nearly as hard as it once was. There is a program called Treasury Direct which will allow you to purchase bonds and all of your bonds will be held in one account, that you will have easy access to. This will allow you to avoid paying a broker or brokerage firm.

More advanced traders may try to buy and sell bonds to take advantage of the price movements, you can even swing trade them. But this is a very risky business if you don’t know what you are doing, you will need to take a swing trading course if this was something that wanted to, but again most people just buy and hold.

Did you know that there are 4 mains types of trader and depending on what type you are will determine many parts of your trading strategy and trading plan. The four types are: scalping, day trading, swing trading and position trading. When you determine the type of trader that you are it will also determine the time frame in which you will be making your trade. This will be a very important decision that you need to make when deciding how you want to learn to day trade.

1. Scalping Trader, if you scalp the market this means that you are only looking for a few ticks profit per trade and you may only be in the trade for a few seconds or a minute at most. trading. Some people will also call this day trading but it’s really micro day trading, buying the bid and selling the offer, it’s high speed trading and you might end up doing 10-50 trades a day. This is a very stressful way of trading for many people.

2. Day Trader, the true day trader opens and closes their trade within the same trading session, usually this mean the same day, but unlike a scalper the trade may be held for a few minutes up to several hours. Usually day traders make about 2-5 trades a day and most of them will be in the 5-30 minutes range. This is a less stressful way of trading than scalping but it still requires a lot of attention and quick decision making.

3. Swing Traders, swing trading usually means that a position is held for between 1 to 5-10 days, although some swing traders may keep a trade on for longer most are within this time period. For many this is the idea way to trade because it allows you to review your trade overnight, at the very least you have several hours to make your trading decisions.

4. Position Traders, this just means that you are going to hold onto your trade for longer than a few days, maybe even as long as 1 to 2 months.

If you are still working out how to day trade then it may be better to go with the longer time frames as it gives you more time to think.

A1528561

Although it may seem obvious to most stock market swing traders there are a number of simple rules that you can follow which will ensure that you have more success when buying stocks:

In the USA stock market there are 3 major indexes which are each made up of a basket of stocks, they are the S and P 500 (also known as the S&P500), the DOW 30 and the Nadaq 100. These stock indexes generally only contain major blue chip stocks, as long as you buy from these 3 groups you will at least know that you are getting a well known solid stock.

For example the DOW30 contains major industrials and large multinational stocks such as Home Depot (HD) and Johnson and Johnson (JNJ) whereas the Nasdaq 100 contains almost all technical companies such as Apple (AAPL) and Miscrosoft (MSFT).

Always buy a stock that is liquid, this means that it is a highly traded stock, this will enable you to quickly buy and sell at the price you want without having a delay. You will also get a smaller spread, thats the difference between the BID and ASK price of the stock. For a stock to be considered highly liquid it should trade at least 500,000 shares per day, ideally even more.

It is best to aviod stocks that are bellow $10 as this usually means the company is in trouble, although with the bear market of 2008/9 there have been a lot of good stocks at bargin prices between $5 and $10. Avoid buying a stock that is below $5 at anytime.

Another consideration to make is options, does the stock has options?, this will be important if you want to trade options around your stock, such as a covered call, or you may want to buy a PUT option inorder to protect your stock.

Be very cautious about buying a stock just before it’s earnings are released, stocks often drop significantly if they come out with a poor report. Earnings are released 4 times a year with one of them being the annual report.

If you are going to trade options make sure that you learn how to trade by getting some good education. There are many swing trading strategies that work well with stocks in todays volatile markets.

This is something that most people don’t even think about, but knowing what your risk tolerance and investment style are very important. This will help you choose investments that are more suited to you, and which the long run should do better as you will be less stressed and make fewer trading errors. 

While there are many different types of investments that one can make, there are really only three specific investment styles, and those three styles tie in with your risk tolerance, these are conservative, moderate, and aggressive.

Naturally, if you find that you have a low tolerance for risk, your investment style will most likely be conservative or moderate at best. If you have a high tolerance for risk, and are relativily young, you will most likely be a moderate or aggressive investor. At the same time, your financial goals will also determine what style of investing you use.

If you are saving for retirement in your early twenties, you should use a conservative or moderate style of investing, but if you are trying to get together the funds to buy a home in the next year or two, you would want to use an aggressive style. Being an active stock market trader would be considered an aggressive style for most people.

Conservative investors want to make sure that they maintain their initial capital and make very modest gains per year, they want to sleep well at night. In other words, if they invest $5000 they want to be sure that they will get their initial $5000 back. This type of investor usually invests in blue chip stocks and bonds and short term money market accounts. But remember trading stocks, even if they are blue chips can still be very risky as we have seen in the 2008/9 bear market.

An interest earning savings account is very common for conservative investors.
A moderate investor usually invests much like a conservative investor, but will use a portion of their investment funds for higher risk investments. Many moderate investors invest 50% of their investment funds in safe or conservative investments, and invest the remainder in riskier investments.

An aggressive investor is willing to take risks that other investors won’t take. They invest higher amounts of cash in riskier ventures in the hopes of achieving larger returns – either over time or in a short amount of time. Aggressive investors often have all or most of their investment funds tied up in the stock market.

Again, determining what style of investing you will use will be decided by your financial goals and your risk tolerance. No matter what type of investing you do, however, you should always carefully research the investment and never invest without having all of the facts.

If you think you are an aggressive investor and intend to trade stocks activily, make sure that you learn how to trade before making your 1st stock purchase.

A765456453