Monthly Archives: November 2009

Stock Trading

Setting Your Trading And Investing Goals

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What’s the best way to go about setting your trading or investing goals? Well, as with most goal setting in your life it involves two important elements: perceived difficulty, and how specific you are in stating your goal. These two elements play an important part in attaining your goals.

The more perceived difficulty in the goal and more specific the goal is, the more likely you will raise your level of performance to achieve your goal. This is because with these two elements of challenge and focus, people are more likely to try harder, achieving a higher performance which produces better overall results.

In a trading example a goal to earn $50,000 next year through your trading activity is good. However, a goal to achieve, say $51,600 will likely produce better performance as it is perceived by your brain as more specific.

A lot of people think you should set easy goals. Not so. The best goals are difficult goals that are specific. Goals should be difficult and specific. So if you believe that your trading goal of $51,600 is easily achievable then raise it to a level that you believe will be more challenging, perhaps $72,400.

Don’t be unrealistic though, as you are more likely to perform if you believe you can achieve your goal. Base your goal on your knowledge, training, skills and past experiences. If you know it can happen, that you can make it happen, then your performance can increase.

As you work towards achieving your goal, your belief in the importance of achieving your goal will make you more committed to your goal. As you assess your progress you will be reinforcing your commitment when seeing results. This will strengthen your performance to achieving your goal.

Seeing progress in share trading can be from something as straight forward as a running tally of your earnings year to date. You want to earn $72,400 from your trading this year. You see yourself at $38,100 in July and you know you are well on your way based upon simple arithmetic.

Often when we start off in trading/investing we do not set goals. Often we’re just happy to see ourselves make some money. This unfortunately is not specific or difficult – it is not going to challenge or focus your performance.

So, why not think through your trading or investing goals. Set yourself an attainable, but difficult specific challenge and measure your progress. You will be amazed how you feel about your results.

Kevin Hogan talks about “the least acceptable result” in his book “The Psychology of Persuasion”. Your least acceptable result is often the true goal that people achieve from any activity – what is your trading/investing least acceptable result. Make your least acceptable result your goal and watch your trading/investing performance results.

Looking to find the best share trading course, then visit Just Shares to find the best advice on how to trade shares and share trading education.

Forex Trading

A Forex Software Primer

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Because of automatic forex trading systems, there has been an increase in interest in making money through foreign exchange trading. This was a market which only saw banks and other large financial investors as players in years gone by but these days it has become attractive to medium and small time speculators. What happened? What makes this one of the largest financial trading markets in the world?

Anyone with a forex brokerage account and some experience in trading can now operate forex trading thanks to the internet, advanced networking and communication technologies. Close and constant monitoring is required if you want to keep a positive position though as the global market never sleeps and your investments can be wiped out if you don’t monitor them closely. With the help of automated systems, you can pick up a currency, it’s asking and selling price ahead of any buying and then make a manual decision or automate the buying and selling process. All you require is your seed money and a broker because your buy and sell orders can be executed in quick time.

You can profit from forex trading without becoming an expert as automated systems can make things happen. The trading program acts like a human expert and manages the trading for you. Automated systems also help you save time as you do not handle the trading yourself. A reliable trading platform would let you manage a number of accounts at the same time which is impossible in manual trading. With these programs, you can also manage multiple trading systems in many markets.

With automatic forex software, you can trade any time of the day or night and you do not have to be present. It is easier to be alerted to profitable trades, even when you are nowhere close to your computer. The system helps you to deploy all the profitable forex strategies using a variety of techniques and flags. You can plan your investment and spread your risk when you know that each system is built to be triggered by specific trade indicators.

The automated forex trading system also does away with all human emotions which often affect rational trading decisions. You have the power to manage several money-pairs and effectively trade in them too.

Several factors and conditions control the market, so no automated system can assure you of profits all the time, however, you can always program and customize any automated forex trading system to trade within your own set parameters.

Forex software can help you get an advantage in the market. Don’t miss out.

Forex Trading

Make That Forex Trading System of Yours WORK

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Forex traders come in different types. There are the pros of the forex world while there are also the beginners or the novice traders. No matter how much experience a forex trader has, whether he/she is only starting in forex trading or wether he/she has been trading for a long time, the one thing that they have in common is a forex trading system. The forex trading system is a system that you follow in forex trading. It may be a system that you got from others, or it may also be something you are able to come up on your own, or it may be a combination of a forex trading system that you got from others then modifying it depending on how you think a particular part of the system will benefit you in trading.

In formulating your own forex trading system, first and foremost you’ll have to have a good background on forex trading. Getting trading tips from people who have actual trading experience is a plus because in doing so, you are getting the tips that actually have worked for other people and at the same time you can confirm if you have learned forex the right way.

After you have developed your own forex trading system, it is recommended that you practice actual trading first in a dummy account. In this way you can practice your system and do some adjustments without losing real money in the process. But you should remember that trading in a dummy account is a lot different when trading actual money. You should be able to control your composure even after incurring some losses and not lose discipline in implementing your trading system when you do actual trading.

A good forex system is aimed at one thing: Make your profit as big as possible. This is easier said than done however, as the percentage of successful traders is much less than the unsuccessful ones. A good forex trading system will give you an edge in trading because it makes you track your trades in all angles, helps you set up forex trading indicators to your advantage, helps you read the market better, helps you read trade signals for the right entry and exit trading points, and it helps you have sound money management skills.

Forex trading is one with a lot of potential for big return on your investment but at the same time, you can also lose big when you keep on making the wrong calls. Before starting your forex trading career, and if you really want forex trading to be a substantial source of income, you should have a forex trading system that WORKS.

A forex trading investment starts with a desire to learn and a drive to become a great trader. Learning forex signal software takes dedication and a good teacher. But once you learn how to trade and do so successfully your life will change and you have options and financial resources you never had before.

Forex Trading

Common Sense Guidelines For Currency Trading

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Someone had rightly said a long time ago that common sense is so common that nobody uses it. Well, if you are going to become a trader than you need a lot of common sense. If you don’t use common sense than you might as well not trade at all! OK, now a few common sense guidelines for you as a trader:

1) Don’t fall into the trap of some unknown broker. Your ability to trade effectively depends on consistent spread and ample liquidity. You should always look for a reputable broker. Anyone can open a position. However, your ability to close a position at a good price is more important.

2) Trading is all about making a long term winning plan. Just try to make more winning trades as compared to losing trades and over the long term you will be profitable. Use the power of compounding over the long haul and you have made your fortune. Trading means making consistent steady profits! Learn prudent money management rules. Avoid using excessive leverage that puts your investment capital at risk. Always trade with a stop! Never try to win big in one single trade. This is not trading, it is gambling. Always live to trade another day. If you believe in winning big than quit trading and start gambling! But if you do that you will only ruin yourself.

3) You should know how to calculate the risk/reward ratio for each trade. Only enter a trade when your risk/reward ratio is less than . Set a reasonable risk/reward ratio for your trades. Never ever override yours tops for emotional reasons. Don’t react to price action buying just because you think it is cheap or selling because you think the price is high now. Always use technical analysis to make your decisions. Never ever trade emotionally. Stick to your plan and maintain your trading discipline. Always develop and make a trading plan before you take up trading.

4) You are not a punter. Always plan each trade. Don’t punt. Punting is trading for the sake of trading without any planning or view.

5) Don’t leave stops at round numbers or obvious levels. If you do that chances are they will be triggered.

6) Don’t double up just in order to recoup your losses. In other words, only do that if it is part of a trading strategy. Don’t add to a losing position unless it is part of a plan to scale into a position.

7) You should develop trading discipline. When trading against the trend be disciplined in taking profits and don’t hold out for the last pip. When trading with a trend always use a trailing stop loss order.

8) Emotions are your biggest enemies in trading. Never make emotional decisions in trading. Avoid emotional highs or lows on individual trades. Consistency should be your target. Treat trading as a continuum. Don’t base your success on one trade.

9) Always keep an eye on the crosses. Try to trade multicurrency. This will hedge your risk.

10) Markets hate surprise news. You should know the economic calendar. Don’t trade just ahead of an economic news release. Always beware of volatility following the economic releases. Be cognizant of what news is coming out each day so that you never get surprised.

11) Stay away from illiquid times like holidays or pre-holidays when liquidity is thin. Beware of central bank intervention in illiquid markets.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. Try These Cash Printing Forex Signals From Heaven. Know A Forex Trading System With An ROI of 3000% Per Month! You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

Commodities Trading

Make More Profit With A Commodities Benchmark

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A commodities benchmark is some type of standard which you can compare an investment by. A standard is very helpful for people trying to figure out how much profit they are making compared to other investments. People looking for high rates of returns may want to use other standards than those looking for long-term and safer purchases.

The primary goal for those choosing a commodity benchmark is to find an index that is relevant to your investment. You want to measure your investment compared to other investments that are designed for similar purposes.

When you are trading crude oil, you will want to compare your investments to an energy index. If you are trading in a soft commodity, then you will want to compare your trades with an index weighted to soft commodities. You will also want to compare your investments to investments that are similar in size to your investment. So an ETF in gold should be compared with a precious metals commodity index while an ETF which follows agriculturals like wheat should shadow an index weighted to agriculture.

Another common commodities benchmark for investors is the Dow Jones AIG Commodities Index. The DJ AIG CI is a great index for comparing most commodities, because it is made up of the most heavily traded raw materials in today’s markets. This is one of the most widely used benchmarks also, because it helps investors in ETF’s for example to understand where they are situated compared to average commodity investments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is also a great way to compare your investments to the entire market. This index is formed of many large companies that go up and down with the overall movements of the market. This is a great way to compare your investment to the market also, because if you are doing as good as this market, you are doing as good as the average investment available anywhere in the market.

When you use a benchmark made of similar commodities, you will be comparing investments that are of the same caliber. This better helps investors understand how the average market is performing and how their own portfolio is performing.

For commodities investments, you will want to compare your investment to commodity indexes. This will show you if your investment is as profitable as other investments that are of the same risk level.

The best option for a commodities benchmark is a commodities index. By finding an index that tracks commodity values, you will be seeing how the market of commodities is moving relative to your own investments. This is a great way to measure how successful your commodities investments are overall. When using these benchmarks, your goal is aimed at beating the market. You always want your investments exceed the profits of the other options available to you in the open market.

The author, Selwyn Petrov, pens articles mainly on commodity trading and market matters. Discover more about the interesting features of commodities benchmarks here. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.