Speculation

Just as the speculation in stock markets gained steady ground, the usually inclined minds for easy money, whoever had certain funds I banks or at hand, went for the kill! Early bird gets the worm. There was a catch though. The ramification of money is singular because it brings in greed. And the impending fluctuations made the investors look for other options too, like forex trading.With the population getting fiercely into forex trading, several companies with an eye on the financial aspect, started to diversify and start their own trading houses.Finotex forex trading option is one of the most telling operators of foreign exchange. With the number of clients on a vertical ascension, the company has kept the rules quite simple.It is the basic learning house, the nursery of Forex trading.The valuable tips, the layman’s definition of changing trends and the abiding trick of when to hold and when to sell! They all teach the greenhorn a lot of the mystic ways of money and its trade.

What Can You Expect?

Here is an example of what you can expect from Intramarket spread trading. We think you may be pleasantly surprised!!This spread was entered not only on the basis of seasonality, but also by virtue of the formation known as a Ross hook (Rh). The spread moved from -69.0 to -7.5 = $3,075 per contract. The margin required to put on this spread was only $608, thus the return on margin is more than 500%.Here is an example of an Intermarket spread. Look at the the following chart: Would you want to have been long live cattle from December until February?But, what about a spread between Live Cattle and Feeder Cattle?The spread moved from -10,200 to -7,200 = $3,000 per contract. The margin required to put on this spread was only $540. The return on margin is more than 550%.Lastly, we show you another intermarket spread. This one was made between Euro and British Pound. Although you might have made money on a Euro trade, you would have suffered from serious whipsaw during the entire length of the trade.What about a spread between the Euro and the British Pound?You didn’t have to be in this spread for very long in order to take some fat profits: During February the spread moved from $32,500 to $36,187.50 = $3,687.50 per contract.How do I start trading spreads?We can barely scratch the surface of what is available in the almost lost art of spread trading. There are times when seasonal spreads, coupled with chart formations, make a lot of sense. Backwardation in any market often provides an excellent signal for entry into a spread.All the best in your trading,

The Foreign Exchange market, also referred to as the "Forex" or "FX" market, is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average turnover of approximately US$1.5 trillion. Foreign Exchange is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. The world’s currencies are on a floating exchange rate and are always traded in pairs, for example Euro/Dollar or Dollar/Yen.

Why Spreads?

The rationale behind spread trading is one of the best-kept secrets of the insiders of the futures markets. While spreading is commonly done by the market "insiders," much effort is made to conceal this technique and all of its benefits from "outsiders," you and me. After all, why would the insiders want to give away their edge? By keeping us from knowing about spreading, they retain a distinct advantage.Spreading is one of the most conservative forms of trading. It is much safer than the trading of outright (naked) futures contracts. Let’s take a quick look at some of the benefits of using spreads:* Intramarket, and some Intermarket, spreads require considerably less margin, typically around 25% - 75% of the margin needed for outright futures positions.* Intramarket, and some Intermarket, spreads offer a far greater return on investment than is possible with outright futures positions. Why? Because you are posting less margin for the same amount of possible return.* Spreads, in general, trend more often than do outright futures.* Spreads often trend when outright futures are flat.* Spreads can be filtered by virtue of seasonality, backwardation, and carrying charge differentials, in addition to any other filters you might be using in your trading.* Spreads can be used to create partial futures positions. In fact, virtually anything that can be done with options on futures can be accomplished via spread trading.* Spreads allow you to take less risk than is available with outright futures positions. The amount of risk between two Intramarket futures positions is usually less than the risk in an outright futures position. The risk between owning the underlying and holding a futures contract involves the least risk of all. Spreads make it possible to hedge any position you might have in the market. Whether you are hedging between physical ownership and futures, or between two futures positions, the risk is lower than that of outright futures. In that sense, every spread is a hedge.* Spread order entry enables you to enter or exit a trade using an actual spread order, or by independently entering each side of the spread (legging in/out).* Spreads are one of the few ways to obtain decent fills by legging in/out during the market Closing.* Live data is not needed for spread trading, saving you $$ in exchange fees.* You will not be the victim of stop running when using Intramarket spreads.

Intermarket

An Intermarket spread can be accomplished by going long futures in one market, and short futures of the same month in another market. For example: Short May Wheat and Long May Soybeans.Intermarket spreads can become calendar spreads by using long and short futures in different markets and in different months.Inter-Exchange SpreadsA less commonly known method of creating spreads is via the use of contracts in similar markets, but on different exchanges. These spreads can be calendar spreads using different months, or they can be spreads in which the same month is used. Although the markets are similar, because the contracts occur on different exchanges they are able to be spread. An example of an Inter-exchange calendar spread would be simultaneously Long July Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) Wheat, and Short an equal amount of May Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBOT) Wheat. An example of using the same month might be Long December CBOT Wheat and Short December KCBOT Wheat.

What Is a Spread?

A spread is defined as the sale of one or more futures contracts and the purchase of one or more offsetting futures contracts. You can turn that around to state that a spread is the purchase of one or more futures contracts and the sale of one or more offsetting futures contracts. A spread is also created when a trader owns (is long) the physical vehicle and offsets by selling (going short) futures. Furthermore, a spread is defined as the purchase and sale of one or more offsetting futures contracts normally recognized as a spread by the fact that the two sides of the spread are actually related in some way. This explicitly excludes those exotic spreads put forth by some vendors, which are nothing more than computer generated coincidences which are not in any way related. Such exotic spreads as Long Bond futures and Short Bean Oil futures may show up as reliable computer generated spreads, but bean oil and bonds are not really related. Such spreads fall into the same category as believing the annual performance of the U.S. stock market is somehow related to the outcome of the Super Bowl sporting event. In any case, for tactical reasons in carrying out a particular strategy, you want to end up with:* simultaneously long futures of one kind in one month, and short futures of the same kind in another month. (Intramarket Calendar Spread)* simultaneously long futures of one kind, and short futures of another kind. (Intermarket Spread)* long futures at one exchange, and short a related futures at another exchange. (Inter-exchange Spread)* long an underlying physical commodity, and short a futures contract. (Hedge)* long an underlying equity position, and short a futures contract. (Hedge)* long financial instruments, and short financial futures. (Hedge)* long a single stock futures and short a sector index. The primary ways in which this can be accomplished are:* Via an Intramarket spread.* Via an Intermarket spread.* Via an Inter-exchange spread.* By ownership of the underlying and offsetting with a futures contract. Intramarket SpreadsOfficially, Intramarket spreads are created only as calendar spreads. You are long and short futures in the same market, but in different months. An example of an Intramarket spread is that you are Long July Corn and simultaneously Short December Corn.

How professional traders optimize profits

Futures spread trading is probably the most profitable, yet safest way to trade futures. Almost every professional trader uses spreads to optimize his profits. Trading spreads offers many advantages which make it the perfect trading instrument, especially for beginners and traders with small accounts (less than $10,000).The following example of a Soybean-Spread shows the advantages of futures spread trading:Example: Long May Soybeans (SK3) and Short November Soybeans (SX3)Four Advantages of Futures Spread TradingAdvantage 1: Easy to tradeDo you see how nicely this spread starts trending in mid February? Whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader, whether you use chart formations or indicators, the existence of a trend is obvious. (If you are looking for a concept of how to identify a trend, we strongly recommend visiting http://www.tradingeducators.com/?source=Tradejuicetrading_philosophy.htm). Spreads tend to trend much more dramatically than outright futures contracts. They trend without the interference and noise caused by computerized trading, scalpers, and market movers.Advantage 2: Low Margin requirementsMany spreads have reduced margin requirements, which means that you can afford to put on more positions. While the margin on an outright futures position in corn is $540, a spread trade in corn requires only $135 — 25% as much. That’s a great advantage for traders with a small account. With a $10,000 trading account risking 8% of your account, you can enter 6 corn spreads, instead of only 1-2 outright corn futures trade. How’s that for leverage?Advantage 3: Higher return on marginEach point in the spread carries the same value ($50) as each point in the outright futures ($50). That means that on a 3 point favorable move in corn futures or a 3 point favorable move in the spread, you would earn $150. However, the difference in return on margin is extraordinary:Corn futures - $150/$540 = 27.8% returnCorn spread - $150/$135 = 111% returnAnd keep in mind that you can trade 6 times as many spread contracts as you can outright futures contracts. In our example you would achieve a 24 times higher return on you margin.Advantage 4: Low time requirementsYou don’t have to watch a spread all day long. You do not need real-time data. The most effective way to trade spreads is using end-of-day data. Therefore, spread trading is the best way to trade if you do not want to watch or cannot watch your computer all day long (i.e. because you have a daytime job). And you can save all the money you would have had to spend for real-time data systems (up to $600 per month).So where is the catch?If futures spread trading is so fantastic, why does it seems that hardly anybody trades spreads? Well, it is not true that hardly anybody trades spreads: the professional traders do, every day. But either by accident or design, the whole truth of spread trading has been hidden from the public over the years.The purpose of this website is to inform you about futures spread trading. In the following we will answer the Three frequently asked questions:* What is a spread?* Why trade spreads?* What can you expect when trading spreads?

How to create a perfect Forex trading system?

1. First of all, you need to make sure your trading system fits your trading personality; otherwise you will find it hard to follow it. Every trader has different needs and goals, thus there is no system that perfectly fits all traders. You need to make your own research on various trading styles and technical indicators until you find a concept that perfectly works for you. Make sure you know the nature of whatever technical indicator used.

2. Secondly, incorporate price action into your system. So you only take long signals if the price behavior tells you the market wants to go up, and short signals if the market gives you indication that it will go down.

3. Third, and most importantly, you need to have the discipline to follow your Forex trading system rigorously. Try it first on a demo account, then move on to a small account and finally when feeling comfortably and being consistent profitable apply your system in a regular account.

The Perfect Forex Trading System

Trading the Forex market has become very popular in the last few years. But how difficult is it to achieve success in the Forex trading arena? Or let me rephrase this question, how many traders achieve consistent profitable results trading the Forex market? Unfortunately very few, only about 5% of traders achieve this goal. One of the main reasons of this is because Forex traders focus in the wrong information to make their trading decisions and totally forget about the most important factor: Price behavior.Most Forex trading systems are made off technical indicators. But what are technical indicators? They are just a series of data points plotted in a chart; these points are derived from a mathematical formula applied to the price of any given currency pair. In other words, it is a chart of price plotted in a different way that helps us see other aspects of price.There is an important implication on this definition of technical indicators. The fact that the readings obtained from them are based on price action. Take for instance a long MA crossover signal, the price has gone up enough to make the short period MA crossover the long period MA generating a long signal. Most traders see it as "the MA crossover made the price go up," but it happened the other way around, the MA crossover signal occurred because the price went up. Where I’m trying to get here is that at the end, price behavior dictates how an indicator will act, and this should be taken into consideration on any trading decision made.Trading decisions based on technical indicators without taking price action into consideration will give us less accurate results. For example, again a long signal generated by a MA crossover as the market approaches an important resistance level. If the price suddenly starts to bounce back off that important level there is no point on taking this signal, price action is telling us the market doesn’t want to go up. Most of the time, under this circumstances, the market will continue to fall down, disregarding the MA crossover.Don’t get me wrong here, technical indicators are a very important aspect of trading. They help us see certain conditions that are otherwise difficult to see by watching pure price action. But when it comes to pull the trigger, price action incorporation into our Forex trading system will definitely put the odds in our favor, it will generate higher probability trades.

The spread betting companies make the rules

If you buy shares with the purpose of holding them for a relatively short period of time and then selling them, you will be engaging in the activity known as trading. The trader is set apart from the type of person who buys shares with the intention of holding them for a long period, perhaps forever, with the expectation of benefiting over a long period by having an income from dividends with a large capital gain in many years time.As a trader, you will only have to worry about what the market does. There are very clear definitions of what you can expect to get when you decide to open or close your position. True, you will have a spread to contend with (the price at which you can buy from the market maker will not be the same at a given instant in time as the price at which he will buy from you) but this will be, to a large extent, transparent to the normal trader in a market with normal liquidity.You will, in effect, be pitted against, and find yourself interacting with, the great body of other traders who are interested in the same securities as yourself. The market will dictate the outcome, for better or worse.When you start dealing in equity or index options, the position changes. The spread then becomes a significant item, and you will be up against option contract expiry dates, as well as the market as a whole, but at least you are still dealing in a real market, unlike in spread betting.

Limited securities where spread betting can be used

Financial spread betting companies are more interested in taking bets on the various stock market and other indexes than in the value of the shares of individual stocks. This limits the scope for their customers. One of the advantages of trading individual company stocks is that the trader can make quite informed judgments about the potential of the company.s share price performance based on its assets, cash and cash flow position, the markets it sells into and so on. Where indexes are converned, the only meaningful criteria are broad based economic indicators, such as interest rates and consumer sentiment. The individual investor.s potential for standing out from the crowd, so important for success in investing, is largely not present.

Differences between Spread Betting and Share Trading

Good Differences - Spread Betting Versus TradingNo taxesRight now, there are no taxes on spread betting profits. No stamp duty, and no capital gains tax if you are fortunate enough to have a gain. This situation could change. The authorities in a number of jurisdictions are studying spread betting with a view to bringing it under the auspices of the same agencies that regulate mainstream investments. When this happens it is reasonable to expect that there will be some political pressure to impose taxes as well.Going short is the same as going longShort selling is when a trader takes the view that the market, or a particular stock, is in a downward trend, or the price is about to collapse for some reason. There are a number of mechanisms to allow this belief to be exploited. The most common are short selling of the share, and the purchase of PUT options. Of course, if you already owned the share it is open to you to simply sell it, or if you wanted to retain the stock you could sell covered CALL options.Where short selling or the purchase of PUT options is contemplated, the trader will immediately come up against a number of obstacles. In order to sell short, the broker must be able to borrow the required number of shares to sell, until such time as the trader decides to close his or her short position and buy them back. This could prove to be difficult. In addition, certain shares will not be eligible for short selling at all. These will be securities that are already at a low price to begin with. In Europe, in particular, many brokers will not allow anyone to sell short.As far as options are concerned, things are not always equal with regard to PUTs and CALLs. Very often, the most liquid market exists on the CALL side and, while you will not normally have great difficulty in purchasing your PUTs, there could be a problem in finding a market when you want to sell them. You could, of course, keep them to maturity, but this increases the risk.In spread betting, all other things being equal, there is no difference between playing the long side and the short side, except that in one case you want the price to go up, while in the other you want it to go down.Bad differences - Spread Betting Versus TradingTransaction chargesIt is often claimed that one of the advantages of spread betting is that there are no transaction charges like there would be if you were to deal with a normal stockbroker. This is true, but in many cases you would actually be better off financially to pay the broker.s charges, because spread betting effectively disguises the charge within the spread. We deal with the whole idea of the spread below.Finite lifetime of the contractThis is a difficulty that also exists in regard to options, of course. Both spread betting contracts and option contracts will expire on a certain date. With options you get to choose the date, but for a price (of course). You can buy options with expiry dates that are more than a year away (these are known as LEAPs), or for certain months in between. The more liquid options can be purchased for expiry on almost any month of the year, while the less traded will have expiries in about three month cycles.With spread betting there is normally only one expiry month available at any one time but, one way or another, the fact that a time will arrive, and in the near future, when your whole position could expire worthless, is something to bear very much in mind.

Why Technical Analysis Works Well In The Forex Market

If you are considering currency trading in the Forex market, or you are already involved in Forex currency trading, here's a money-making lesson that we can borrow from investors who use technical analysis to help them make investment decisions in the stock market.The goal of performing technical analysis when currency trading is to predict profitable currency pair movements by analyzing price trends. The principles of technical analysis in the equity markets are the same as those in the Forex currency trading markets. In fact, the only real difference between the two is that the Forex market is open 24 hours a day while the equity markets are not.This means that certain analytics that take time periods in consideration will need to be adjusted for Forex currency trading. Other than that, any of these common forms of equity technical analysis methodologies can be used when currency trading:Elliott Waves -- Developed by Ralph Nelson Elliott, this methodology is based upon the theory that market performance can be predicted by studying wave patterns that develop over a period of time.Fibonacci Studies -- Developed by 12th century mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci, this methodology is based upon the theory that changes in trends can be predicted based upon prices interacting with lines based upon certain sequences of numbers.Parabolic SAR -- Developed by J. Wells Wilder, this methodology is based upon the examination of prices in comparison to "stop and reversal" (SAR) numbers that indicate entry and exit points for a trade.Pivot Points -- A mathematical formula used to determine when to exit a trade based upon the numerical average of the high, low and closing prices.As I mentioned earlier in this article, the key difference between technical analysis in the equities market, and technical analysis in the Forex currency trading market, is the fact that it is possible to participate in Forex trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That key difference is also the primary reason that technical analysis works so well in currency trading.In order for technical analysis techniques to deliver maximum results, there needs to be extended periods of time available for patterns to develop and repeat. Because the Forex market never closes, and currency pairs are traded around the clock, definable patterns develop more quickly and the technical analyst has a plethora of Forex currency trading data available to work with.Because more data means more accurate forecasting results, technical analysts can see better results, in quicker time, when combining technical analysis and Forex currency trading.
Why Technical Analysis Works Well In The Forex Market If you are considering currency trading in the Forex market, or you are already involved in Forex currency trading, here's a money-making lesson that we can borrow from investors who use technical analysis to help them make investment decisions in the stock market.The goal of performing technical analysis when currency trading is to predict profitable currency pair movements by analyzing price trends. The principles of technical analysis in the equity markets are the same as those in the Forex currency trading markets. In fact, the only real difference between the two is that the Forex market is open 24 hours a day while the equity markets are not.This means that certain analytics that take time periods in consideration will need to be adjusted for Forex currency trading. Other than that, any of these common forms of equity technical analysis methodologies can be used when currency trading:Elliott Waves -- Developed by Ralph Nelson Elliott, this methodology is based upon the theory that market performance can be predicted by studying wave patterns that develop over a period of time.Fibonacci Studies -- Developed by 12th century mathematician Leonardo Fibonacci, this methodology is based upon the theory that changes in trends can be predicted based upon prices interacting with lines based upon certain sequences of numbers.Parabolic SAR -- Developed by J. Wells Wilder, this methodology is based upon the examination of prices in comparison to "stop and reversal" (SAR) numbers that indicate entry and exit points for a trade.Pivot Points -- A mathematical formula used to determine when to exit a trade based upon the numerical average of the high, low and closing prices.As I mentioned earlier in this article, the key difference between technical analysis in the equities market, and technical analysis in the Forex currency trading market, is the fact that it is possible to participate in Forex trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That key difference is also the primary reason that technical analysis works so well in currency trading.In order for technical analysis techniques to deliver maximum results, there needs to be extended periods of time available for patterns to develop and repeat. Because the Forex market never closes, and currency pairs are traded around the clock, definable patterns develop more quickly and the technical analyst has a plethora of Forex currency trading data available to work with.Because more data means more accurate forecasting results, technical analysts can see better results, in quicker time, when combining technical analysis and Forex currency trading.

What Is Forex ?