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 a few 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 both 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 stay in the game 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 essential 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 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 take the time 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.

Technorati Tags: day trading, futures trading, investment, online trading, stocks, technical analysis, trading

Google ‘Technical Analysis’ on the net and you will be inundated with choices, but after much reading I uncovered Top Dog Trading.

Long before I finally started trading Share markets, I realised that fundamental analysis was out of the question, but interpreting share charts was what I preferred.

What made me decide to take the Top Dog Trading course to learn Share trading?…. A number of things besides the absolute necessity to trade better and to stop depleting my trading account with losses; was that I quickly grasped what Dr Barry Burns was saying on his website and most of the training is supported by the detailed videos which makes it much easier to follow his chart interpretations. A further qualifier was Barry’s CV; it is impressive, a business man to whom trading is a business, he is also a accomplished speaker and writer.

So I signed up for his free 5 video course on learning to trade to see if I would feel comfortable with his techniques.

Prior to this, I had completed several other courses on technical analysis relating to Share trading but cannot say that I really gained the understanding of share trading that would minimise my trading losses, all that has change having met Dr Barry Burns, now I am comfortable with the share trading strategies I have learnt.

In his courses Barry details the principals simply and clearly, then gives upto date chart examples with all their confounding moves showing how to turn the rules into profitable trades. This is all done via a vast selection of videos.

With Barry’s courses I have not only become comfortable in how to execute his methods but also embraced a far deeper comprehension of the Share market & the associated charts and probably more importantly the money management and personal attitudes that are so intrinsic to becoming a profitable Share trader.

Barry’s tutorials are the best Share trading courses that I have found and I would highly recommend that you give his FREE course a go. This tutorial has 5 videos that walk you through some of the most powerful trading material I’ve ever come across.

Provided you follow the principals Barry explores, you will end up with a good ratio of wins to losses with tight control on the losses, so when one does a trade that goes against you (which all traders do) the hurt is not too great.

I personally took the course, loved it, and learned a lot from it and have moved to Barry’s more in-depth courses. My wish to understand more about Share trading will never again produce the losses of the past.

Try Barry’s Free Video Course for yourself:

Technorati Tags: Dr Barry Burns, Learn Share Trading, learn to trade shares, online share trading, share trading, share trading course, technical analysis for shares, Top Dog Trading, Top Dog Trading Review, trading shares

When someone is looking to trade the stock market, most do not realize there is a big difference in the time of day that really affects how stocks act. Not using this information makes it harder to make money through any type of trading, short term, long term, or even day trading. In addition to the time of day, each method or trading system will also have certain times of the day in general where they work better or worse based on market conditions. This type of action can only be discovered by tracking the signals or stock picks that are flagged, then seeing over time when the best use is.

The first 30 minutes is usually the craziest time. Stocks will have bigger swings, up and down as a lot of times there are not established orders from larger mutual and hedge funds in the names to counter this volatility. It is a great time for daytrading and short term trading of stocks because of the increased volatility, but with that also comes increased risk of a stopout. Also there is not much in terms of support and resistance created yet, but you can look at the last hour of the prior day for guidance there. Sometimes using a stock trading system can be of assistance when the market has increased volatility, assuming you have thoroughly researched and tracked the trading ideas it might send out.

From 10am EST until about 11:30-45 EST is prime time for trends to develop. Of course the times are not exact, but a time range where a decent, continuing trend will try to develop. Also the volatility calms down alot, making it easier to put in a stop that is closer to the actual price when day trading. For longer term investing, usually this is not the time to make a decision on entrance, its too early in the day. An exception would be any entrance based off a daily breakout, or some other key fundimental news that is just starting to push the price of the stock. Entry when that happens is ok during this time.

From about 11:45 until 1:15pm EST stuff usually slows down alot, and fake moves can happen. What I mean by fake moves is stuff will look weak, then rally up sharply, or stuff will look strong (like it will continue) and then abruptly sell off. Most of this is just due to decreased volume and liquidity. Program trading bots and Algorithm trading bots love this period of time. Basically they try to fade every move, or create appearance of X happening, suck some traders in, then do Y instead. This also makes it very difficult for most traders, as it will seem just when a move gets started, it abruptly ends, especially hard for those learning to trade. Of course there are enough names that do really move and keep going, but these are impossible for the most part to sort out from the ones that stop and reverse until the move is too late.

Stuff will generally pick up after 1:15 for about 45 min or so, then slow down again near 2pm EST. Often, 2:30pm EST is a key time to watch - reversals often start here. A good deal of the time the market will put in a short term top or bottom near this time and then reverse trend into the close. Does it happen all the time? no. But it does happen enough of the time its well worth paying attention to. Volume should pick up after about 3-315 EST into the close, whether there is a 2:30 reversal or not. This is again a good time for day trading, AND its good for watching for longer term additions as you can see if the stock is holding gains, pushed above key resistance, has made a major reversal on daily chart etc.

One thing to note here, is in recent times they have shifted the 2:30pm stuff to the last 45 minutes of the day (meaning instead of 2:30pm est, they do this at 3-3:15 est).  Most of it is noticing the pattern of behavior so you can anticipate what might happen.  A big part of trading is not just knowing what trade setups happen in real time, its anticipating patterns of behavior.

Technorati Tags: bot, commodities, day trading, daytrading, fx, information, learn to trade, online trading, stock market, stocks, trading, trading robot

To be specific, the actual phenomenon of Forex trading is not the fact that there are more and more people turning to it as an investment opportunity, nor is it the fact that it has been growing steadily for the past few years. It isn’t even the fact that more and more investors cropping up from all sectors of society.

The phenomenon of the Forex market is the day trade, which was once the exclusive landscape of many large financial firms, banks and investors/speculators, has now stretched to hundreds of thousands of casual traders which do most of their work from the comfort of their own home.This is because of the fantastic trading tools and support that we can get online and as more people have access to this, the Foreign Exchange market just gets bigger by the dozen, in every second.

The term ‘Day Trading’ is referred to as the act of buying and selling of financial commodities within a day, such that the investor can calculate his investments at the end of the day when the positions are closed. These people are called day traders and they range from large banks, financial institutions to – only recently – a large portion of casual ‘at home’ internet traders. The most important point to be a successful day trader is the ability to analyse the movement of the potential movement in price.

This makes for a lot of research and a good eye for financial positions. Day traders make their money through cumulative results, they don’t settle for the long view but are content to make a little a day and hopefully at the end of the month, the sums will total to something viable.Since the risks are lower, it is not a wonder that day trading is usually preferred. Day trading always incurs smaller amounts than long term positions (traditionally) and Forex is one of the best instruments to day trade with because of the fact that the Forex market is liquid.

The ability to pull out whenever you want as well as to make your investment decisions into actions is one of the most important things about day trading Day trading is reactionary and impulsive, and it requires a market that shares the same properties. Within the Forex market, movements called percentage in points (pips) happen all the time in all areas of trading (spot, forward, future, swap, options, ETF trading) – and they happen within the course of different regional markets in different days.

Forex is an ideal day trade market because of its flexibility and and liquidity, allowing you to make decisions, almost within an instant.If you are planning to start on FX trading, I suggest you to go for day trade first. It is a safer option for the casual investor – then as you gain confidence, you might want to diversify your portfolio. Be a smart investor and start small. Once you think you mustered enough skill and confidence, hit the bigger market.

Technorati Tags: day trade, forex market, forex trading

In the current credit crunch environment, the best remedy for feeling alone in the market is for you to get more involved in your own investing decisions. The problem is that most individual investors do not have the knowledge, resources, or time to spend doing their own research, stock selection, execution, and position management.

The development and expansion of the internet has solved part of this problem in that the internet now provides timely information and resources, right at the fingertips of the individual investor.

Annual reports and accounts, profit statements, balance sheets, graphs, investment bank research, and even analyst video conferences are easy to have online. Now, day traders have all the investment tools required to make their own investments.

However, for many the problem is still around. Why? Because, all the tools in the world are no good to you, if you don’t know how and when to use them. In fact, most options experts trade blind and do not use the investment tools correctly, leaving their investment decisions questionable.

So now what should options traders do? The answer is to get a professional training company to help you start. Not to make your decisions for you, but to assist you in making your investment decisions and to help educate you as to the `how` and `why. `

You need to become more involved, and the first step in the involvement process is education.

The specialists will say there are three outcomes to take into account after buying a stock on the stock market.

First, the stock can increase in value and this is usually a good result.

Second, the positions can fall and this is typically a disappointing outcome.

Third, the stock can go nowhere – which is also generally a bad outcome. It is inferior because not only could you have invested that money in options with lower risk that may have yielded a profit but you also incurred commission charges on the entry and exit which compounded your loss.

So, we see that there are three possibilities that can occur when you take on a new position, and two of them are unsuccessful. Now, what if we inform you that by adopting a certain strategy correctly, you can massively increase your possibilities of success?

Rather than having two of three outcomes go wrong, you would have two of three outcomes that could go right. And, the 3rd scenario, the bad position wouldn’t be quite as bad.

It can happen by using just one of the many strategies involving teaming stocks with options. Sound attractive? Brilliant, but let’s not forget to build a robust foundation first. Click here to find out how an home options trader made $9,900 with four positions and get free options reports.

Technorati Tags: budget, budget 2009, day trading, online options trading, options trading, paradigm shift, wealth building