October 2018 – Page 2

Forex Trading Educational Courses

Posted on October 15, 2018 by blogger

Forex trading educational courses come in a wide array of varieties. The best ones are usually written by a professional trader that just wants to right so much of the wrong information that circulates the internet in regards to effective ways to trade the forex market. It can be a difficult and frustrating task as an aspiring trader to disseminate the differences between prospective forex educational courses just by their sale page; usually these pages give out very little information in regards to what the course actually does or what the main method behind it is.

One of the main questions you should ask yourself before purchasing a forex educational course is what do you know about it before purchasing it? If you cant really gather any idea of what the course is about, what you are going to learn, or specifically what trading method the course author is teaching, than this is probably a good indication that the integrity of the author is not on the up and up. Anyone who stands behind their forex educational course will actually want to give chunks of the material away for free so that people know what they are getting and it doesnt seem like another big forex scam.

If you can actually gather some information about what the forex course is going to teach you the next question you should ask yourself is, does the method make logical sense to me and will it fit with my personality? If the method seems overly complicated right up front than it is probably more trouble than its worth. You can successfully trade the forex market with a simple and straight forward method, no need for messy indicators or fancy expert advisors that dont actually teach you anything about market dynamics. Finding a method that meshes well with your personality is important as well. Are you someone who wants to spend numerous hours in front of the computer watching the charts? Or are you someone who wants to just analyze the market for an hour a day at most and then get on with the rest of your life?

There are many forex educational courses out there but only a small majority have anything of real substance to teach you. Many of the forex courses you encounter will end up just being vague general information about the way the forex market works that you can find out fore free on many websites. Many other forex marketers are trying to sell a software program or a programmed indicator that they claim will make you insane returns every month showing back tested results on their website that they purposely fit their data to in order to make it look extremely profitable.

Be aware of all the possible pitfalls involved in trying to find an honest forex trading course that is truly effective as outlined in this article. If you take these factors into account and really make sure you are getting a solid forex education in a relevant trading technique than you will be on the right path. Forex trading educational courses are not created equal and with wide spread marketing of forex related materials on the internet the aspiring forex trader needs to be very cognizant of all the possibilities.

Is Automated Trading Realistic for the Individual Trader

Posted on October 13, 2018 by blogger

As an individual professional trader you have some fantastic advantages in the markets over institutional traders and long term investors; however you also have a number of areas where the odds are stacked against you. Two of the major stumbling blocks have been budget restrictions and limited resources.

The large institutional traders have huge budgets for research and development as well as programming and technology. Retail traders are subject to the limitations of their own time and ability. As a retail trader you rely on your own ability to trade error free and are hindered by your time restraints. You don’t have the luxury of handing over your positions to your Hong Kong or London trading desks when you head off to bed. In order to succeed at trading you need to focus on your advantages and minimise the weak areas. One of the best ways of minimising the weaknesses faced by an individual trader is to incorporate automated trading into your strategy to eliminate most of the problem areas faced by independent traders.

Automated trading systems were first developed and used by large institutional market participants but with the development of advanced trading platforms available to individual traders, the world of automated trading strategies is now open to the retail trader allowing him or her to compete on an equal footing with the large banks and institutions.

Electronic trading platforms such as Ninjatrader and Metatrader, available to the retail trader to trade foreign exchange via their broker of choice, has revolutionised trading for individuals. These programs allow end users to write their own automated trading plans and Forex trading systems. You can automate trading in very much the same way as the institutional traders have been doing for some time to gain an edge over the market.

These platforms have proprietary scripting languages, which enable individual traders to develop their own scripts, indicators, money management systems and ultimately automated trading systems. Due to the fact that these languages are open source there is a large community of developers sharing systems, ideas and expert advisors with other individual traders. This sharing of ideas, research, knowledge and coding allows traders to learn and improve their trading results.

However, this still left the retail trader with the need to learn a programming language and development skills which takes many hours of learning as well as a process of trial and error. Costly errors could be made in the process especially if you are not an experienced programmer to start with. With the advances in trading software the process of developing an automated trading plan for those not experienced in programming has become significantly more user friendly. The building of your own system is also well support through modern software trading programs by allowing us to fully adjust and backtest our system before running it in a live account.

Automated trading on the Futures or Forex market is the process of running a computer derived program through your preferred trading software platform. You as the individual trader use the in-built wizards to set your trading system rules and the software will automatically execute your plan day and night as if you were sitting in front of your screens constantly. The key advantages of this are numerous.

Your trading plan running automatically through your trading software does not need to sleep and does not make mistakes. So you have 24 hours of error free, stress free trading. Its a dream come true for retail traders who can now compete on a level playing field.

Stock Market Trading – A Winning Approach

Posted on October 9, 2018 by blogger

Successful stock exchange trading is founded on several important aspects. All trading is founded on probabilities. You would like to place the odds within your favor whenever possible, prior to taking a job on the market. This really is achieved by implementing an effective trading plan. A strategy should encompass strategies, methods, techniques, and principles. An excellent illustration of an effective technique is the main one used William J. O’Neil. He or she is the founding father of Investors Business Daily, and probably the most successful stock exchange operators of-time.

A significant answer to successful stock exchange trading is money management. You just must reduce your losses short. A great policy would be to always sell a stock when it drops 10% beneath the purchase price. If you purchase a stock at $30.00 per share, plus it drops to $27.00, you market it regardless of what. This can stop you from having a huge loss, that will hurt not just your stock exchange account, however your psychological capability to trade properly.

Analysis makes a huge difference

Proper analysis is crucial in a number of different time-frames. This consists of the overall market direction around the daily chart. Could it be currently within an up-trend, down-trend, or basically moving sideways? Proper price and volume analysis will provide you with the solution. You may not wish to be buying stocks throughout a stock exchange correction. It is because about 75% of stocks stick to the general market. It will not seem sensible to battle the craze. Which is like attempting to swim up against the current of the river.

Have a logical and much more professional method of trading

The Alfa Trade approach you are taking to stock exchange trading can create a big effect on your current results. Analyze stocks closely. Search for trends, and get free from a job once the trend appears to be stopping. Usually do not hold out and hesitate once the market begins to go against you. Keeping a loser is among the biggest mistakes a trader could make. A much bigger mistake is contributing to a losing position. This can be a recipe for disaster. You need to only increase a stock or futures position following the market went within your favor, and you also are up cash on the job.

Volume is really a major clue

Volume ought to be a significant consideration within your stock exchange trading process. You would like to ensure a stock has enough following for any significant price advancement. An excellent test is definitely the market itself. If volume rises substantially, then big players like mutual funds or hedge funds know something, and therefore are getting involved. When the price rises simultaneously, this can be a buy signal. When the price falls, there is a sell signal.

Your stock exchange trading results could be amazing. Implement a logical, analytical approach, together with cutting your losses short, and letting your profits run. This can be a recipe for achievement. Remember to keep learning, and you will create a fortune trading the different markets.

Day Trading… A Scam

Posted on October 5, 2018 by blogger

There is over $480 trillion in the markets worldwide (Walker, 2008)! Many people try to find their piece of the pie learning to day trade; but the risky connotation and the reportedly low long-term success rate makes one question if day trading is really all that it is made out to be, or is it a scam?

Day trading is the buying and selling of various financial instruments with the goal of making a profit from the difference between the buying price and the selling price (Milton, 2008). Such financial instruments include futures contracts, options, currencies, and stocks. It is really no different than if you were to purchase a home for a reasonable price and sell it ten years later for more then you paid, except that when day trading, transactions can take as little as a few seconds. Most criticism comes from the fact that day trading has the potential to make a lot of money very quickly. Many see this as a get-rich-quick-scheme; others accept the risk and eventually learn that this presumption appears to be true. Only a select few learn to win trading and find long-term success. So, what makes these select few different from the majority who end up losing money? The answer, probabilities.

You see, those who are able to learn to win trading know something about the markets that many people do not understand. This well-kept secret is a simple rule of probabilities, and successful traders have become proficient in using it for their profit. The rule of probabilities simply states that events that have probable outcomes can produce consistent results, if you can get the odds in your favor and there is a large enough sample size.

Let me illustrate how this can work. I dont know if youre familiar with the uncertain, unpredictable games of gambling. People play it because they feel they have a chance to win, however slim that chance may be. If gambling is so uncertain, then how is it that casinos can be so profitable in a game of uncertainty? Well, casinos have applied the rule of probabilities to make it work for them. Fore example, the game of Blackjack is a highly unpredictable game; however, the rules of the game give the house a 4.5 cent edge on every dollar that crosses the table. With the odds in the houses favor, they arent concerned about which hands they win and which hands they lose. Taking into account all the big and small wins and losses, if $100 million dollars crosses all the blackjack tables in a casino during one year, the house would net $4.5 million.

Trading is literally a game of probabilities because there are so many different variables affecting a given price at a given time that it leaves the market essentially unpredictable. However, the very same rule of probabilities can be applied to day trading with similar results as that of the casino. Most people do not understand or learn how to make probabilities work for them, which is why so many end up losing money. The key is to figure out what gives you an edge on the market. What is it that can put the probabilities on your side? It may be a certain pattern in market movement, an indicator, reaction to certain types of news, or following momentum or volume. Whatever it is, it should be tested first. Learn to trade the signal on a simulator calculating its statistics over a large number of trades. Once you find the signal that works for you, you can relax because the rest is easy. Trade the signal every time you see it. You may win, you may lose but the key is where you end up over the long run. If you trade a live account the same way you tested your signal on the simulator, you too will profit because youve found a way to put the odds in your favor.

Learning to win trading is not as difficult as the majority of people think it is; and maybe that is what disguises so well the underlining difference between the few successful traders and the many unsuccessful ones. Of course there is more to trading than just probabilities, but if you can learn and apply the rule of probabilities, you will be well on your way to a successful future in day trading.

Sec Employee Personal Trading Compliance Requirements

Posted on October 3, 2018 by blogger

One of the main issues impacting compliance officers today is the difficulty of monitoring the personal trading activities of employees in accordance with best practice and industry regulations. Adherence to rules such as SEC Rule 17j-1 and Rule 204A-1 and adoption of the best practices recommended by the SEC can be very time consuming and distracting for any compliance department.
The main requirements of an Investment Adviser under rule 204A-1 and Rule 17j-1 are:
Adoption of Code of Ethics.
Process to monitor employee personal trading
Reporting by all access persons of all holdings within ten days of becoming an access person and at least once within each twelve month period thereafter.
Submission of transaction reports by access persons no later than 30 days after the end of each calendar quarter. The report must cover, at a minimum, all personal trading transactions during the quarter.
Trade Pre-Clearance approval of certain investments. Access persons must obtain approval before they directly or indirectly acquire beneficial ownership in any security in an initial public offering or in a limited offering.

The SEC when amending rule 17j-1 in 2004 also recommended that Investment Advisers adopt the following in their code of ethics.
Prior written approval before access persons can place a personal securities transaction (“pre-clearance”).
Maintenance of Restricted lists e.g. Lists of issuers of securities that the Registered Investment Adviser firm is analyzing or recommending for client transactions, and prohibitions on personal trading in securities of those issuers.
Maintenance of “restricted lists” of issuers about which the Registered Investment Adviser has insider information, and prohibitions on any trading (personal or for clients) in securities of those issuers.
Blackout periods when client securities trades are being placed or recommendations are being made and when access persons are not permitted to place personal securities transactions.
Reminders that investment opportunities must be offered first to clients before the Registered Investment adviser or its employees may act on them, and procedures to implement this principle.
Prohibitions or restrictions on short-swing trading and market timing.
Requirements for employees placing personal trades to trade only through certain brokers, or limitations on the number of brokerage accounts permitted.
Requirements to provide the adviser with duplicate trade confirmations and account statements.
Procedures for assigning new securities analyses to employees whose personal holdings do not present apparent conflicts of interest.

There are many Personal Trading or Compliance Management systems which allow firms to automate this employee personal trading process. These systems vary from systems which capture employee brokerage statements to systems which allow you to provide end to end employee personal trading surveillance.