Options Trading in Progress

Today we will discuss why your results in your demo account will probably contrast sharply with the results in your live account. When most people start trading, they believe their results trading with fake money will be the same as their results trading with real money. Of course, that is almost never the case. The reason for this is that a person's emotions greatly impact their decision making ability when real money is on the line . We will go over why this is, and we will go over some tips for blurring the line between demo accounts and live accounts. First off, I want to point out that I am not slamming demo trading. Trading a demo is how everyone should learn the basic mechanics of the trading platform. It also allows people to practice following their strategy and practice entering orders. If a trader goes in a slump, it can be effective to switch to the demo for a while. When a trader is in a slump, their brain is so focused on the money they are losing that they

I am willing to bet that almost every person that has attempted to trade has heard some variation of "you should follow the trend" spoken as gospel. There are many traders who use a system called "trend following". Of course, this type of system is more complicated than just looking to see if prices are going up or down. But to the novice, this sounds like easy money. In fact, on this very site I have seen multiple comments to my features that basically say "this is so complicated, all you have to do is follow the trend...trading is easy!" Needless to say, it isn't that simple. First, we must decide how to define an uptrend and a downtrend. The easiest way to do this, is by looking at a plain old chart. If there are consecutive lower lows and consecutive lower highs, that is a downtrend. If there are consecutive higher lows and consecutive higher highs, that is an uptrend. That part really is that simple. There are many tools available to he

What is concentration? For some traders, concentration is a mystical legend of some magical act performed by other traders, those who have access to magical spells. For others, it is a naturally occurring ability that is so second nature that they arent even really aware that they are concentrating. For the vast majority, however, concentration is an act that falls somewhere in between a magical feat and a second nature instinct. When we are feeling strong and positive, concentration comes easily. When we allow our negative emotions to cloud our ability to focus, we end up with poor concentration. Concentration is the act of focusing on one external or internal position or task without disruption from other thoughts. That is why when we have negative feelings about something unrelated to the task at hand (or on occasion really excited feelings about some unrelated topic) we find concentration so difficult. The mind is generally controlled by what we want to see, think, an

The History Of Money: Currency Wars Money has played a very important role in every war since its creation. Ancient kings played with the percentages of precious metals in their coins to create more money to raise armies, feudal lords tried to undermine each other's treasuries and counterfeiters have run rampant throughout history. The most famous currency war, however, took place between the British Empire and its colony in America. Currency Wars In the 17th century, England was determined to keep control of both the American colonies and the natural resources they controlled. To do this, the English limited the money supply and made it illegal for the colonies to mint coins of their own. Instead, the colonies were forced to trade using English bills of exchange that could only be redeemed for English goods. Colonists were paid for their goods with these same bills, effectively cutting them off from trading with other countries. In response, the colonies regressed ba

Getting Into The Gold Market From ancient civilizations through the modern era, gold has been the world's currency of choice. Today, investors buy gold mainly as a hedge against political unrest and inflation. In addition, many top investment advisors recommend a portfolio allocation in commodities, including gold, in order to lower overall portfolio risk. We'll cover many of the opportunities for investing in gold, including bullion (i.e. gold bars), mutual funds, futures, mining companies and jewelry. With few exceptions, only bullion, futures and a handful of specialty funds provide a direct investment opportunity in gold. Other investments gain part of their value from other sources. Gold Bullion This is perhaps the best-known form of direct gold ownership. Many people think of gold bullion as the large gold bars held at Fort Knox. Actually, gold bullion is any form of pure or nearly pure gold that has been certified for its weight and purity. This includes coins,

Why Gold Matters While economic recessions usually draw many comparisons to The Great Depression, so far there has been little (if any) historical precedent to the monetary and fiscal stimulative policies that our country embraced in the fall of 2008. For many investors, gold has never been seriously considered as a long-term investment. Yet in investing, to completely dismiss an idea simply based on reasons that are ultimately based on pre-existing views is not an intelligent idea. If anything, one should examine the situation for his or herself and come up with an independent reason as to whether or not an investment is to be made. The Gold Conundrum The topic of investing in gold came to the forefront of many investors' minds during the 2008-2009 recession. The most obvious reason for this is due to the rise in the price of gold. Market watchers love to sensationalize any stock or asset class that is experiencing a rise in price as the next possible investment to latch on.

Throughout the ages, gold has captivated societies, and in a post-gold-standard world, many feel that with the instability that occurred in the first decade of the 21st century, some form of the gold standard should be brought back. There were inherent problems with the gold standards implemented in the 19th and 20th centuries, and many people are failing to realize that gold, under the current free market system, is a currency. Gold has often been thought of in relation to the U.S. dollar, mainly because it is usually priced in U.S. dollars, and there is a rough inverse correlation between the USD and gold prices. These factors must be considered when we see that the price of gold is simply an exchange rate: In the same way one could exchange U.S. dollars for Japanese yen, a paper currency can also be exchanged for gold. (Learn more about the origins of currency. Gold Is a Currency Under a free market system, gold is a currency, although it is not often thought of as one. Gold has a

If you can't keep your emotions in check when trading, you will lose money. Lots of it. Pipsychology was created to help minimize this from happening to you. The most significant action that you can do to improve trading profits is to work on yourself. Really knowing yourself and how you think can give you an edge that others in the market don't have. My goal is to share practical advice to improve your forex psychology without boring you to death. Hopefully you can develop the mental edge you need to become the best trader you can be. Patience. It's a virtue...Especially in trading. Arnold H. Glasgow, an American humorist, once said, "The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it." Developing your trading plan will take time. Developing skills will take time. Waiting for the right trades requires patience. Entering and exiting a trade at the right moment requires patience. Discipline. Discip

Admit it. There was a time in your trading career that you thought every single forex trader other than yourself was "a few fries short of a happy meal" and didn't deserve your time of day. You thought to yourself that since only 10% of traders make it, the guy you've been arguing with on the forums about the best moving average system is probably just another unprofitable trader giving unsolicited advice. He's just one of those retail traders who spends more time lurking forex forums instead of actually trading. In trading, people are tempted to do things on their own. And who could blame them? In general, traders are competitive thinkers, and the purpose of creating systems is to have that "edge" over other traders that will lead to more profits than losses. A trader normally feels that his system is better than -insert name of disagreeable forum user here--, so why should he listen to him or her. On the other hand, for others, there is t

For the currency market, the Thanksgiving Day holiday usually means low liquidity and thin trading volumes. It’s a time for traders to relax, regroup and spend time with family. Most people end up taking both the Thursday and Friday off, but for those of us that are still looking trade on Friday, it is important to know that historically, the Friday after Thanksgiving, is a volatile one. The table below shows that for the EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/JPY (the three most actively traded currencies), the trading range on Thanksgiving Day is usually very narrow. Between 2005 and 2007, the range between the high and low in the EUR/USD was no more than 55 pips. When the financial crisis hit in 2008, trading ranges expanded and have remained wide since then. However one pattern that has been fairly consistent is the risk of big move on the Friday after Thanksgiving. In 2003, the daily trading range of the EUR/USD and GBP/USD tripled on Friday but in 2004 and 2005 for example, the trading ra

The trade was made after PPI news was released on Tuesday, notice that during the news there is a very high peak the market turn to become a hammer bar indicating that the market has no intention to move upward. This is a very good trade that is made after CCi 6 X ZL.

The foreign exchange market, or forex, is the market in which the currencies of the world are traded by governments, banks, institutional investors and speculators. The forex is the largest market in the world and is considered a 24-hour market because currencies are traded around the world in various markets, providing traders with the constant ability to trade currencies. The forex opens at 5pm EST on Sunday and runs until 4pm EST on Friday, running 24 hours a day during this time. But between the Friday close and the Sunday open, the forex market does not trade. The opening prices for the week are the initial trading prices on Sunday and the closing prices for the week are those of the last trade on Friday. However, over the course of the week, there really are no closing prices for the forex as there is at least one market open at some place in the world at all times. However, we often hear quotes for the opening and closing prices for currency pairs in the financial media. For exa

Trading psychology is the most important aspect of a trader's success. This may surprise some readers, specifically those that are new to trading. However, the psychological makeup of a trader is more important than market knowledge, market analysis, and even money management. The reason psychology is so important is that even the best information can be distorted by a poor mindset. Most new traders think the key to profiting in trading is knowing more about the market. For instance, most new traders clog their screens with every indicator they can find, read up on European GDP trends, and feel that pro traders have some sort of secret knowledge. However, this inevitably does not provide the lofty results the novice trader expects to achieve. After realizing that excessive market information doesn't help (and may hurt) results, the next moment of truth most traders have is money management. Instead to trading 1 lot every time, or even trading the maximum lots their

International currency exchange rates display how much one unit of a currency can be exchanged for another currency. Currency exchange rates can be floating, in which case they change continually based on a multitude of factors, or they can be pegged (or fixed) to another currency, in which case they still float, but they move in tandem with the currency to which they are pegged. Knowing the value of your home currency in relation to different foreign currencies helps investors to analyze investments priced in foreign dollars. For example, for a U.S. investor, knowing the dollar to euro exchange rate is valuable when selecting European investments. A declining U.S. dollar could increase the value of foreign investments, just as an increasing U.S. dollar value could hurt the value of your foreign investments. Factors That Influence Exchange Rates Floating rates are determined by the market forces of supply and demand. How much demand there is in relation to supply of a currency will d