Archive for the ‘Trading in General’ Category


What Are Managed Futures?

Most investors are unfamiliar with the alternative investment known as managed futures.  In fact, many investment advisors are also unfamiliar with the opportunities available in managed futures.  So, what exactly are managed futures?  The following information has been derived from a report produced by CME Group. The term managed futures describes a diverse group of [...]

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The Professional Approach To Trading Futures

Professional traders approach trading in a different manner compared to the average person.   Professional traders approach trading in a similar manner to how a martial artist develops their skills as a fighter.  They first determine their trading doctrine, which is their overall approach to trading in the markets.  They then develop strategies in accordance to [...]

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Weekly Futures Markets Commentary

While most investors have been fixated on the stock market as the Dow Jones Industrials made new all-time highs, there was plenty of action elsewhere in the futures markets. Interest Rate Futures The short end of the yield curve remains stable as the Fed continues to imply that they will hold steady on short rates [...]

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Successful Futures Trading – Own Your Strategy

Many years ago I discovered that a friend of mine from college worked for a very famous futures trader at an offshore location.  I immediately contacted him and we had the opportunity to talk about a few trading war stories.  I had only been trading for a couple years and had made some money using [...]

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Futures Trading 101 – Is There A Holy Grail?

In their book “Street Smarts” published in the mid-1990′s, Larry Connors and Linda Raschke gave one of the strategies they presented the tongue-in-cheek name “Holy Grail.”  The beauty of the strategy was its simplicity….you look for a strong trend, a pullback to a 20 period moving average, and then resumption of the trend to enter [...]

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How High Will Gas Prices Go?

If you haven’t noticed, unleaded gas prices have been rising pretty sharply in recent weeks.  Here in my neck of the woods, prices bottomed out late last year at under $3.30 per gallon, and today I noticed them up to $3.74. So far this year, RBOB gasoline futures have traced out a similar pattern to [...]

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Futures Markets Provide Opportunities Uncorrelated to Traditional Investments

The great recession began in the Fall of 2007 and some would argue that we have not yet begun a recovery.  At that time, the S&P 500 peaked with a high close just under 1550.  Over the next 18 months or so, it declined to a low under 700, or a drop of over 50%. [...]

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Should Investors Be Concerned With Fundamental Analysis?

Most investors have a need to know WHY an investment will go up or down in price.  As a result, most of the analysts you see on the financial networks tend to spew out information regarding the fundamentals of the economy, individual stocks and commodities.  Unfortunately, most of this analysis doesn’t do the investor any [...]

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New To Futures Trading? Try The Currencies

If you are new to futures trading, I highly recommend you consider the currency futures first, and forget about day trading.  Why the currencies?  Simply because they trend better than any other market. I’ve found that most new futures traders want to jump head first into trading anything that moves, and they are particularly fond [...]

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Successful Futures Trading

I participate in a few investing forums, particularly those dealing with alternative investments such as futures trading and forex trading.  What I find most prevalent among the participants in these forums is that they are looking for some sort of holy grail methodology that will propel them to riches over night.  For instance, I read [...]

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