You’ve heard the maxim: A win is not always a win and a loss is not always a loss. It’s true in many aspects of life and particularly in futures trading. Making a profit does not always indicate a correct trade. Likewise, losing money does not always indicate a wrong trade. What is essential for futures traders to realize is that the inherent rightness or wrongness of your trading method can not be determined by the outcome of any one single trade. Those who incessantly tinker around with their system, trying to fine tune it to perfection after every trade, are doomed. Those who jump from system to system, searching for that elusive perfect system, are doomed. (more…)

Futures traders make their money betting on the direction of the market.  The market can only do two things; reverse or continue the trend.  In short term day trading, the trend is not always your friend!  On a normal day, the e-Mini S&P market fluctuates and reverses as much as 40 points.  Catching these turns and continuation moves is the goal of futures day traders. (more…)

Many traders new to futures trading make the mistake of thinking in terms of stocks. Futures trading is concerned not with individual stock performance but with the macro logic of the market. Futures traders watch the indexes, not the stocks. Remember, the market is always seeking equilibrium, constantly oscillating between previous highs and lows. Futures traders use support and resistance to gauge the range of the day and locate potential market turning points. Learn to successfully and consistently locate these turning points and the spread becomes your playground — and cash cow! (more…)

Technique, psychology and money management are the three essential elements that must be mastered to become a successful trader. You’ve developed a money management system, you’ve got your head in the profit zone (see our posts dated July 19 & 20), now comes the hard part: developing a system and honing your technique. (more…)

To be a successful futures trader you have to master three essential elements: technique, psychology and money management. Mastery and balance of all three elements is vital to success. In our last post we talked about the importance of money management. Today we’re going to discuss psychology. (more…)

Success as a futures trader is dependent on your ability to master technique, psychology and money management. Life as a trader can be phenomenally successful, but it can be equally risky, particularly while you’re learning to dot the i’s and cross the t’s. It would be a mistake to quit your day job until you’ve mastered the three elements of successful trading. Master only one and your lack of knowledge and expertise in either one of the other two areas may bring you to the brink of disaster and topple you over. Remember, mastery and balance of all three elements is vital to success. (more…)

“US District Court has ordered a telephone clerk of a NYMEX Floor Brokerage operation to pay more than $3.6 million for defrauding his employer.”You can read the full article here from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission website. (more…)