Futures Trading – The Advntages Of Trading Futures Markets

Trading futures contracts have several advantages over other investments:

1. Futures are highly leveraged investments. To ‘own’ a futures contract an investor only has to put up a small fraction of the value of the contract (sometimes as little as 2-3%) as ‘margin’. In other words, the investor can trade a much larger amount of the commodity than if he bought it outright, so if he has predicted the market movement correctly, his profits will be multiplied compared to the amount deposited as margin. This is an excellent return compared to buying a physical commodity like gold bars, coins or mining stocks.

If all this is a bit over your head, or you’re looking for a solid day trading strategy, I suggest you join me on one of my live webinars by visiting this site.

The margin required to hold a futures contract is not a down payment but a form of security bond. If the market goes against the trader’s position, he may lose some, all, or possibly more than the margin he has put up. But if the market goes with the trader’s position, he makes a profit and he gets his margin back.

For example, say you believe gold in undervalued and you think prices will rise. You have $3000 to invest – enough to purchase:

10 ounces of gold (at $300/ounce), or 100 shares in a mining company (priced at $30 each), or enough margin to cover 2 futures contracts. (Each Gold futures contract holds 100 ounces of gold, which is effectively what you ‘own’ and are speculating with. One-hundred ounces multiplied by three-hundred dollars equals a value of $30,000 per contract. You have enough to cover two contracts and therefore speculate with $60,000 of gold!)

Two months later, gold has rocketed 20%. Your 10 ounces of gold and your company shares would now be worth $3600 – a $600 profit; 20% of $3000. But your futures contracts are now worth a staggering $72,000 – 20% up on $60,000.

Instead of $600 profit, you’ve made a $12,000 profit!

2. Speculating with futures contracts is a position investment. You don’t have to literally store three tons of gold in your garden shed, 15,000 litres of orange juice in your driveway, or have 500 live hogs running around your back garden!

The actual commodity being traded in the contract is only exchanged on the rare occasions when delivery of the contract takes place (i.e. between producers and dealers). In the case of a speculator (such as yourself), a futures trade is purely a paper transaction and the term ‘contract’ is only used because of the expiration date being similar to a ‘contract’.

3. An investor can make money more quickly on a futures trade. Firstly, because he is trading with around ten-times as much of the commodity secured with his margin, and secondly, because futures markets tend to move more quickly than cash markets. Similarly, an investor can lose money more quickly if his judgment is incorrect, although losses can be minimised with Stop-Loss Orders. Our trading method uses stop-loss orders to protect capital and lock in profits and thus makes the method robust and dynamic.

4. Futures markets are usually fairer than other markets (like stocks and shares). These markets are regulated by independent authorities in every country in the world. The transactions are transparent and trading activity is reported daily. Transactions are placed through a Clearing House and finally all trades are guaranteed by the Exchanges. This means that there will always be a seller for every buyer and a buyer for every seller.

5. Most futures markets are very liquid, i.e. there are large volumes of contracts traded every day. This ensures that market orders can be placed very quickly as there are always buyers and sellers of a commodity. For this reason, it is unusual for prices to suddenly jump to a completely different level, especially on the nearby contracts (those which will expire in the next few weeks or months).

6. Commission charges are small compared to other investments.

Futures contracts offer traders simplicity, flexibility and cost savings. There are no costs attached to the leverage received and transaction fees are small which means futures are head and shoulders above all other leverage products. Futures are the second most liquid markets in the world which means that orders are filled immediately and at the desired price.

All in all, futures are the perfect traders market.

Futures Trading – A Beginners Guide To Trading Futures

What is Futures Trading? Futures’ trading is a form of investment which involves speculating on the price of a commodity rising or falling.

What is a commodity? Most commodities you see and use every day of your life:

the corn in your morning cereal which you have for breakfast, the lumber that makes your breakfast-table and chairs the gold on your watch and jewelry, the cotton that makes your clothes, the steel which makes your motor car and the crude oil which runs it and takes you to work, the wheat that makes the bread in your lunchtime sandwiches the beef and potatoes you eat for lunch, the currency you use to buy all these things…

… All these commodities (and dozens more) are traded between hundreds-of-thousands of investors, every day, all over the world. They are all trying to make a profit by buying a commodity at a low price and selling at a higher price.

Futures’ trading is mainly speculative investing, i.e. it is rare for the investors to actually hold the physical commodity.

If all this is a bit over your head, and you’re looking for a solid day trading strategy, I suggest you join me on one of my live webinars by clicking here.

What is a Futures Contract?
To the uninitiated, the term contract can be a misleading however the term is used because a futures investment has an expiration date. It is similar to other forms of short-term contract. You don’t have to hold the contract until it expires. You can cancel it anytime you like. In fact, many short-term traders only hold their contracts for a few hours – or even minutes!
The expiration dates vary between commodities, and you have to choose which contract fits your market objective.

For example, if today was June 30th and you think Gold will rise in price until mid-August. The Gold contracts available are February, April, June, August, October and December. As it is the end of June and this contract has already expired, you would probably choose the August or October Gold contract.

The nearby (to expiration) contracts are usually more liquid, i.e. there are more traders trading them. Therefore, prices are a true reflection of trading activity and less likely to jump from one extreme to the other. But if you thought the price of gold would rise until September, you would choose a back-month contract (October in this case).

Nor is there a limit on the number of contracts you can trade. Many larger traders/investment companies/banks, etc. may trade thousands of contracts at a time!

All futures contracts are standardised in that they all hold a specified amount and quality of a commodity. For example, a Pork Bellies futures contract (PB) holds 40,000lbs of pork bellies of a certain size; a Gold futures contract (GC) holds 100 troy ounces of 24 carat gold; and a Crude Oil futures contract holds 1000 barrels of crude oil of a certain quality.

A Short History of Futures Trading
Before Futures Trading, a producer of a commodity (e.g. a farmer growing wheat or corn) could find himself at the mercy of a dealer when it came to selling his product. The business of transacting between producer, agent and end-use needed to be legalised so that specified amounts and quality of product could be traded between producers and dealers within a specified time-frame.

Contracts were drawn up between the two parties specifying a certain amount and quality of a commodity that would be delivered in a particular month…

…Futures trading had begun!

In 1878, a central dealing facility was opened in Chicago, USA where farmers and dealers could deal in ‘spot’ grain, i.e., immediately deliver their wheat crop for a cash settlement. Futures trading evolved as farmers and dealers committed to buying and selling at a specified time in the future. For example, a dealer would agree to buy 5,000 bushels of a specified quality of wheat from the farmer in June the following year, for a specified price. The farmer knew how much he would be paid in advance, and the dealer knew his costs.

Not too long ago futures markets consisted of only a few farm products, but now they have been joined by a huge number of tradable ‘commodities’. As well as metals like gold, silver and platinum; livestock like pork bellies and cattle; energies like crude oil and natural gas; foodstuffs like coffee and orange juice; and industrials like lumber and cotton, modern futures markets include a wide range of interest-rate instruments, currencies, stocks and other indices such as the Dow Jones, NASDAQ and S&P 500.

Who Trades Futures?
It didn’t take long for businessmen to realise the lucrative investment opportunities available in these markets. They didn’t have to buy or sell the ACTUAL commodity (wheat or corn, etc.), in order to trade the price movement of a commodity. As long as they exited the contract before the delivery date, the investment would be a simple trade. This was the start of speculation in the futures markets, and today, around 97% of futures trading are speculative by nature.

Futures Trading Offers Incredible Opportunity

In the current investment market, where tried and true stocks are faltering, now may be the time to expand your portfolio to include online future trading and future option trading.

Futures Trading?

Futures trading is essentially trading on the predicted worth of a commodity at a determined date. A futures contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell a certain amount of a commodity at a pre-determined price. In most such contracts, the deal is predicated upon the expectation that actual delivery of the commodity will take place in order to satisfy the terms of the contract.

Some futures contracts, however, ask for a cash settlement instead of delivery of the actual commodity, and these contracts are usually liquidated before the agreed upon delivery date in the contracts.

What is great about this type of trading trading is that it’s based on tangible objects and thus, the value of futures is set more on reality-based events than stock trading, which fluctuates on more intangible properties, such as the moods and emotions of investors.

Trading Futures Is Easy!

It has become incredibly easy thanks to the easy access offered by the internet and online future trading. Day trading over the Internet can be a tricky business, however, and there’s not a lot of margin for error for newbies. To get the best results from day trading futures, future option trading and stock market futures online, you need to find a site that can offer dependable advice from proven experts about the amazing opportunities offered by the online futures market.

When picking a trading site or a site offering tips on futures trading you need to consider how well the site fits your needs as an investor, the credibility of the information being presented and the user-friendliness of the site or the advice.

A good trading site offers a variety of easy-to-use, simple options for both long term trading and day trading futures. Money never sleeps and neither should your site, so good technical support and fail-safe infrastructure is a must. Because futures trading can be very confusing to the novice trader, it’s important to use a site that offers a quick reference for users or to have access to a good online tipsheet or newsletter.

Credibility is important in stock trading, so it is important that the site you turn to for advice is affiliated with real experts who have a proven track record in successful future option trading and in trading stock market futures as well.

The boom times may be over, but there is money to be made in the current economy by trading futures. With the right advice and a reliable Web platform, you can earn incredible gains in the futures trading market.

Author: Daniel Webb
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Methods of Online Futures Trading

Nowadays, online futures trading is available and more advance which result to more benefits. The copied price deal on the futures market is always updated and because of this, person involve in trading receives clearness and speed of the market. Online futures trading is access in computer anytime and anywhere around the world and it support people to trade on the future market. Through internet, you can see the most recent information from different parts of the world with the comfort of the place where you belong and that is how online futures trading can offer you.

Futures Trading is a process used to eliminate threat from happening, when the market swings and online futures trading have the same meaning but more convenient. Futures contract is the agreement involving the buyer and seller about their asset at exact time and set-price. It also balance asset tactic to lessen failure caused by price stability. In general, futures trading passed the future exchange and future contract is consistent for the price, delivery and amount on every date and month. Futures Exchange provide definite normal characteristic contract to make a possible responsibility with no disposal of fixed assets in futures Trading.

The Major way of dealing, in futures contract is situate ahead of development by having the same and opposed transaction The Futures price in the market set by futures contract traders and has an expiration date where you can know immediately to online futures trading. Normally, expiration day is during the final Thursday of the month. There are three cycles offered by Futures Contractors, which are one month, two months and three months. The expiration of three months in a new contract established for trading and it is set during Friday that go after the Last Thursday.

Proper price discovery lean a hand to the development of futures trading that gives benefits for different people engaged where you can see fast on the online future trading. In addition, Futures Contract is much valuable for the procedure because it gives suggestion price that may succeed that can help to give a practical price.

Trading permit traders to examine the majority current exchange and traders can also arrange into the engine exchange trading and acquire the verification of the agreement which online futures trading can helps a lot for immediate results.

To guarantee the operation of the futures trading completed to the exchange, definite inbuilt method example of this is rolling settlement. Rolling settlement meaning that all the traders with uncompleted at the last part of the day are already established. The buyer and seller needs to pay for both safeties of two parties. Weekly agreement method is another method being used, meaning the traders dealings done in a week can take long time to think.

Many people learned and suggest that online futures trading can let anyone who finds it profitable to pursue but professionalism and education about it is necessary. You should know how to control emotions, have discipline, motivation, commitment towards online futures trading and non-online futures trading. Another good about online futures trading is you do not need to be physically present to purchase, sale, distribute and stock because you have the power of precise quantity of commodity without seeing them.

If you are searching for a good investment, online futures trading is a good one. It can give a positive result for an income rather than investing impartially. There are many benefits you can receive from online futures trading like the convenience where you can see on your computer screen about your position, account money and amount of margin needs for your projected trade. You can be sure about the control, accuracy and speed of online futures trading. Thousand of people are getting rich because of online futures trading where they invest small amount of money that can turn to be unexpected profit.

The Significance of Future Trading

Future trading channels are very particular about the future price rates. Since this trading is done in famous futures exchanges, the price for future largely settles on the basis of demand and supply law. This situation happens between the trading of bond and contract, where the trends are made based on this fiscal law. In the future trading, the sellers as well as the buyers predict higher prices in future. For the most part, the cost of contract stays in effect throughout the whole market situation. Fluctuations in the value may cause lowering down of the bonds. Therefore, trading in this market is largely dependent on the profit margins than the cost of merchandise.

Futures trading terminologies are also important for the investor’s undertaking in this market. These terms includes essential methodologies, which should be clearly understood, especially by the novice futures traders.

“Settlement price” is one of the main term that is commonly used in the future trading. The “settlement price” is the final price established in the future agreement or future contract at the closing session of trading. This price is set for a specified date as ordered in the Futures market and remains unchangeable. On the other hand, the “delivery date” or the “settlement date” is the date of Futures deliverance of the bond.

Owners of the Futures contract are under the compulsion to obtain and deliver bonds as per the contract rules. This is completely different from the option trade, where the options buyers possess absolute rights to their assets and do not have any to undergo any type of obligation.

In the Futures trading, the buyers and the sellers are under no obligation to settle the contracts within the specified delivery date. On the completion of a deal, the sellers provide the assets to the purchasers. If money is settled in the Futures contract, then the loss incurring situations are changed to profit making.

The above mentioned features are just a small insight to the Futures trading. There is a plenty of information which needs to be studied and discussed before you can actually venture the future trading and become successful. There are many things that need to be considered before getting involved in the future trading market. You must be well aware of the terminologies, methodologies and strategies related with future trading to ensure higher profits in every deal. It is essential to master them well in advance to avoid any financial losses in future.

Author: Michael Antony
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What Are Futures?

In the world of finance, there are many uncommon and niche terms used, which are alien to the rest of the world. ‘Futures’ is one of those terms that is used to identify a form of a financial contract. Futures Contract is a standard contract, to buy or sell a certain asset at a certain date in the future, at a specific time. Usually futures contracts are traded on a futures exchange.

The futures contract detail the quality, quantity and the price of the underlying asset. Usually there are many motives for making a futures contract. Since it is a business agreed to be performed in the future at a specific time and for a specific price, the buyer of the underlying asset is protected against the price fluctuations of the asset in the market. This may result in profit or sometimes, a loss to the contract holder as there is an obligation to buy or sell at the specified price.

Many contracts in the financial world assign the ‘right’ to do something to the contract holder. Futures contracts differ in this aspect by assigning ‘right’ and ‘obligation’ to the contract holders (both parties) for performing what the futures contract details. Some futures contracts call for a physical delivery of the asset and others are settled in cash.

Many assets, especially commodities are subjected to futures contracts in futures exchanges. As an example, there is seller who would like to sell a high volume of corn at the next harvest. Although, the corn is not produced yet, the producer wants to make sure that a proper price is paid for the corn in the future. Then there is a buyer who is looking for corn from the next crop, who will be willing to pay the current market price for it or something similar. In this case, the seller and the buyer can form a futures contract on a specific price, through which both the seller and the buyer are protected against the high price changes.

There are two main traders of futures; hedgers and speculators. Hedgers are interested in the asset subjected to the futures contract and they seek to hedge out the risk of price changes. Speculators usually have no interest or practical use of the assets subjected to the futures contract. They usually buy futures for selling them later with profit to interested parties.

Futures and ‘Forwards’ looks the same in the finance market but they have two significant differences. Firstly, Futures are traded in Futures exchanges, but forwards are traded over the-counter. Secondly, Futures have a less credit risk while forwards carry a high risk.

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An Introduction to Options and Futures Trading

In the world of finances, futures and options are classed as “derivatives”. They are financial instruments whose prices are calculated by the price of another underlying asset or security. Generally, futures and options are used to guard against risk and for speculative roles. Whenever an investor from Europe purchases shares of an American company on the NYSE, for instance, he is exposed to some stock price fluctuations and currency exchange rate risks. To minimize his overall degree of risk, the investor can purchase currency options to make certain the exchange rate is fixed when he sells off the stock and converts the American dollars back into euros. We will now take a better look at how futures and options work.

Futures

A future is merely an agreement to purchase or sell an asset for a preset price at a specified date in the future. A future’s fundamental asset can be, amongst a lot of other things, an agricultural commodity, individual shares, stock market indices, bonds, and interest rates. A future contract will have fixed delivery dates, traded units, and other clearly defined terms and conditions.

For illustrative purposes, let’s imagine that you’ll “open” a futures position by either purchasing or trading an equity futures contract where the underlying asset are shares. Whenever you’re anticipating the price of the stock to go upwards in the near future, you will purchase a futures contract that will oblige you to receive a specified number of shares at a preset price on a certain date in the future. This is known as a long futures position. If, on the other hand, you’re anticipating the price of the stock to go downwards in the near future, you’ll sell a futures contract that will oblige you to deliver a specified number of shares at a preset price on a certain date in the future. This is known as a short futures position.

Like any other kind of investment, futures contracts carry a risk – that market prices may not go in the direction you thought they would. Nevertheless, they enable you to profit both in a rising and a descending market. When you invest in shares, you typically profit from purchasing low and selling high. But with a short futures position, you can still make money even if the stock price drops.

Options

An option gives its holder the right to purchase (call option) or sell (put option) an underlying asset at a planned price before or on a particular date in the future. But unlike a futures contract, the holder of an option is not obligated to take any action. If the holder decides not to exercise the option, all he stands to lose is the premium he gave for it.

Imagine you currently have a number of shares of a specified company’s stock and you plan on selling them in a month. If you anticipate the share price to drop in this one-month time period, you could purchase a put option that will give you the right to sell your shares at a preset price at any time within the next thirty days. Whenever your expectations turn out to be right, you’ll be able to sell your shares at a price that is more than the market value.

Options could be utilized as an insurance mechanism against future dips in the price of an underlying asset. The purchasing of options arrives with limited risk as the holder of the option only stands to lose the option premium if his anticipations of market movements do not happen. Additionally, they allow you to take part in market price movements without actually having to take on the underlying asset.

Hopefully, this brief article has served to shed some light on what futures and options are and how they function. The examples preceding were very simplified and were only meant to show the basic concepts of derivative trading. In reality, trading with derivatives is a good deal more complex and warrants additional reading. You need to be extremely acquainted with the different types of products to be successful and fruitful in your positions.

Author: Larry Haywood
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What You Need To Know When Trading Derivatives And Futures

The Derivatives and Futures Market is the most potentially profitable market in the world. But it can be the most distructive one too!

Derivatives

A derivative is a financial term for a specific type of investment from which the price over a certain time is derived from the performance of the underlying asset such as commodities, shares or bonds, interest rates, exchange rates or indices like stock market index or consumer price index.

This performance can determine both the amount and the timing of the payoffs. The diverse range of potential underlying assets and payoff alternatives leads to a huge range of derivatives contracts available to be traded in the market. The main types of derivatives are Futures, Forwards, Options and Swaps.

Futures

A futures contract is a standardized contract, traded on a futures exchange
to buy or sell a certain underlying asset. at a certain date in the future, at a pre-set price.

The future date is called the delivery date or final settlement date. The pre-set price is called the futures price. The price of the underlying asset on the delivery date is called the settlement price. The futures price, normally, converges towards the settlement price on the delivery date.

A futures contract gives the holder the right and the obligation to buy or sell, which differs from an options contract, which gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation, and the option writer (seller) the obligation, but not the right.

In other words, the owner of an options contract can exercise (to buy or sell) on or prior to the pre-determined settlement/expiration date. Both parties of a “futures contract” must exercise the contract (buy or sell) on the settlement date.

To exit the commitment, the holder of a futures position has to sell his long position or buy back his short position effectively closing out the futures position and its contract obligations.

Futures contracts, or simply futures, are exchange traded derivatives. The exchange acts as the counterparty on all contracts and sets margin requirement etc.

Forwards

A forward contract is an agreement between two parties to buy or sell an asset (which can be of any kind) at a pre-agreed future point in time. Therefore, the trade date and delivery date are separated. It is used to control and hedge risk.

One party agrees to buy, the other to sell, for a forward price agreed in advance. In a forward transaction, no actual cash changes hands. If the transaction is collaterised, exchange of margin will take place according to a pre-agreed rule. Otherwise no asset of any kind actually changes hands, until the contract has matured.

The forward price of such a contract is commonly contrasted with the spot price which is the price at which the asset changes hands ( on the spot date, usually the next business day ). The difference between the spot and the forward price is the forward premium or forward discount.

A standardized forward contract that is traded on an exchange is called a futures contract.

Futures vs. Forwards

While futures and forward contracts are both a contract to trade on a future date, key differences include:

Futures are always traded on an exchange, whereas forwards always trade over-the-counter.

Futures are highly standardized, whereas each forward is unique.

The price at which the contract is finally settled is different:.

Futures are settled at the settlement price fixed on the last trading date of the contract (i.e. at the end)

Forwards are settled at the forward price agreed on the trade date (i.e. at the start)

The credit risk of futures is much lower than that of forwards:

Traders are not subject to credit risk due to the role played by the clearing house. The profit or loss on a futures position is exchanged in cash every day. After this the credit exposure is again zero.

The profit or loss on a forward contract is only realised at the time of settlement, so the credit exposure can keep increasing

In case of physical delivery, the forward contract specifies to whom to make the delivery. The counterparty on a futures contract is chosen randomly by the exchange.

In a forward there are no cash flows until delivery, whereas in futures there are margin requirements and periodic margin calls.

Options

An option is a contract whereby one party (the holder or buyer) has the right but not the obligation to exercise a feature of the option contract ( e.g. stocks ) on or before a future date called the exercise or expiry date.

Since the option gives the buyer a right and the seller an obligation, the buyer has received something of value. The amount the buyer pays the seller for the option is called the option premium.

Most often the term “option” refers to a type of derivative which gives the holder of the option the right but not the obligation to purchase (a “call option”) or sell (a “put option”) a specified amount of a security within a specified time span. (Specific features of options on securities differ by the type of the underlying financial instrument involved)

Swaps

A swap is a derivative where two counterparties exchange one stream of cash flows against another stream. These streams are called the legs of the swap. The cash flows are calculated over a notional principal amount. Swaps are often used to hedge certain risks, for instance interest rate risk. Another use is speculation.

Swaps are over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives. This means that they are negotiated outside exchanges. They cannot be bought and sold like securities or future contracts, but are all unique. As each swap is a unique contract, the only way to get out of it is by either mutually agreeing to tear it up, or by reassigning the swap to a third party. This latter option is only possible with the consent of the counterparty.

Author: Ricky Schmidt
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Understanding Futures Trading

Many people have the notion that commodity futures trading is very difficult to understand. It may only seem difficult when you are new to futures trading, but once you understand the inner workings and get a hang of it, you will be well on your way to success.

People have a common misconception that commodity exchanges determine or establish the prices at which commodity futures are bought and sold. This is not true. Prices are determined by supply and demand conditions. Just keep in mind that if there are more buyers than sellers, prices will be forced up and vice versa.

Buy and sell orders, which originate from all sources and are channeled into the exchange-trading floor for execution, are actually the ones to determine the prices. These buy and sell orders are translated into actual purchases and sales on the trading floor.

The major function of the futures market is the transfer of risk, and increased liquidity between traders with different risk and time preferences, for instance from a hedger to a speculator. Futures trading is a method used to eliminate or minimize risks that occur when the prices in the market fluctuates.

Futures contracts are exchange-traded derivatives. A futures contract is traded on a futures exchange, to buy or sell a certain underlying instrument at a certain date in the future, at a pre-set price. Futures contracts are basically for assumption or hedging.

There are two groups of futures traders: the hedgers, who are interested in the underlying commodity and are seeking to hedge out the risk of changes in price; and the speculators, who are interested in making a profit by predicting market moves and buying a commodity “on paper” for which they have no practical use. For example, commodities in the market can be bought today at today’s price, with the speculation of selling them at a higher price in the future.

On the other hand, hedging protects against fluctuations in market prices. This protection is made by allowing the risks of price changes to be transferred to professional risk takers. For instance, a manufacturer can protect itself from price increases in raw materials they need by hedging in the futures market.

Hedging has two types, hedge sale and hedge purchase. A person can buy a commodity and sell futures at the same quantity as protection against fluctuation in prices when he is still holding the stock.

You might think that this is gambling, but the fact is that speculation refers to the condition of a legitimate enterprise based on the current condition of the market trends. However, it is very risky for inexperienced futures traders who try to predict the market and speculate without having enough resources or experience.

Since the prices are distributed via telecommunications network and the internet, it makes online futures trading very convenient and simple for an individual. Nowadays many brokers offer their services for trading commodity futures online. Because more risk is involved in online futures trading than stock trading, you must judge for yourself whether or not it is worth the added risk of trading commodity futures online.

Keep in mind that an investment in futures can result in losses. Past performance results does not necessarily indicate future performance results.

Author: Susan Jan
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Day Trading Futures

When day trading futures, you enter and exit all positions in the same day – never carrying a position overnight. Since the overnight moves of the market are difficult to predict, many traders avoid risk by day trading. Ironically, the public believes that day trading is the riskiest way to trade.

THIS IS A MYTH!

Some traders day trading futures, make 1 to 3 trades per day, trying to catch the major intraday moves. Others trade in-and-out very frequently, trying to scalp a small profit on each trade. (My style uses a unique blend of these two strategies.)

For those day trading futures, the Emini Stock Index Futures have become the most popular day trading vehicle because of their liquidity, leverage, and the ease of trading them online. You can go short or long with equal ease unlike stocks where its easier to go long than short due to the up tick rule.

The time relationship of the eminis (and the big contracts) to the cash indices is important to understand. Lets start from square one.

The S&P 500 stock index (the cash index, symbol SPX) is central to day trading futures. It has an Exchange Traded Fund (the Spyders, symbol SPY) that trades like a stock, but without the up tick rule. The price of the S&P 500 cash index moves up and down with the 500 stocks that make up the index. The SPYders follow the S&P 500 cash index very closely. You can trade Exchange Traded Funds such as the SPY (and QQQQ for the Nasdaq 100) online from home. But for day traders, they are not as favorable as day trading futures.

The concept of futures is a little confusing, but it boils down to this: the financial industry has turned the S&P 500 cash index into a contract that trades like a stock. The contract (or futures contract) has a price that goes up and down from one moment to the next. It has a chart that looks just like stock chart, and you can make money with it by buying low and selling high, or vice versa. Thats a complicated as it needs to be for now.

The big contracts or SP Maxis were invented first and theyre still around. With the big contracts, a lot of money changes hands. When the price of the SP Maxis moves one point, $250 per contract moves with it. The SP Maxi contracts trade in a literal pit where the traders, called locals, shout at each other, buying and selling for everyone who wants a piece of the action.

The locals are not public servants, of course, they make money for their own accounts. They have the advantage of being able to read each others body language and the tone of the other traders voices. They see what the strongest traders in the pit are doing. They have several other advantages too, their costs per trade are tiny compared to the publics commissions.

The locals arent born as professional traders though, they learn to trade like everyone else, except they have a huge advantage in learning as well because they learn to scalp first! Their instant access and low commissions make this possible compared to others, but those day trading futures online can take advantage of scalping trades as well.

Scalping is basically limiting your losses to only one or two ticks while taking any profit you get as you get it. Its easier than going for several points per trade, Ive been using this strategy day trading futures with much success.

Locals also use the spread (the difference between the bid and ask price), to grab quick profits from orders that come in on either side of the market. This makes scalping easier for them.

In the past, all these advantages made it impossible for a retail day trader to be a successful scalper. It was insane to try. And to this day many traders have the idea that scalping is too difficult for the public because you have to compete against traders with an unfair advantage.

But all that has changed now. If you follow some simple, yet important guidelines then you too can be successful scalping and day trading futures online.

They took the concept of the Maxi futures contracts and came up with smaller contracts (the eminis) that move $50.00 per SP point instead of $250.00. This allows all traders, big and small, to trade the stock index futures.

But even more radically, they set it up so that the smaller contracts (the eminis) are traded only through computers. This was revolutionary, they bypassed the pit, taking away the advantage of the locals, and leveling the playing field in a way that has never been done before. And to level the field even more, retail commission costs fell like a rock. Today, any trader day trading futures with a small account can pay $4.80 per round turn (entering and exiting a trade).

This means that scalping is open to the day trading public for the first time in history. But most people who are day trading futures dont even realize where the new advantage really is.

Scalping is one of the keys to making a living day trading futures as I do, because I follow a simple rule: “Every trade starts out as a scalp until proven otherwise” .

The SP emini futures became more and more popular and more liquid, breaking a lot of records along the way.

The SP Maxis futures and the SP emini futures are both derived from the S&P 500 index (symbol SPX), which, as I said, has an ETF that trades like a stock (symbol SPY).

So the question is – which of these is the leader and which are followers?

Today the emini futures track the Maxi contracts almost tick for tick, with the eminis beginning to lead the Maxis at times, and also overshooting the Maxis at emotional extremes, such as the at the top of an intraday rally.

Both the SP eminis and the SP Maxis (the futures) lead the S&P 500 cash index by a variable amount of time, often in the range of a fraction of a second. Some people call this the tail wagging the dog, because the futures are derivatives of the stock indices, but call it what you want, the futures are leading the way.

The fact that the futures lead the markets makes their chart patterns more pure and reliable for support and resistance trading. This makes a huge difference to me.

I use the stock index futures (the eminis and Maxis) for calculating daily support and resistance areas, which are the basis of my own trading style a style of trading that has paid my bills and built my financial security for about 20 years now.

Author: Mike Reed
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Beading Necklace

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