There are three basic types of spreads:

• Intramarket spread. On the same exchange, in the same commodity, a long position is taken in one contract month balanced by taking a short position in a different contract month.
  For example: Buying November corn and selling May corn.
• Intermarket spread. Futures contracts are bought on one exchange balanced by the sale of the same contracts on another exchange.
  For example: Buying wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade and selling wheat on the Kansas City Board of Trade.
• Intercommodity spread. A long position is taken in one commodity, balanced by a short position in a related commodity.
  For example: Buying oats and selling corn.

Trading on the spread is considered to be less risky than holding a long or short position. Why? Because you are not trading on changes in the actual prices of the commodity. You are only trading on changes in the price difference.

You may already be reading and visiting internet sites or participating in a local traders club. These are great places to start your education. You’ll gain ideas and theories from which you can start to build your system. But they can’t deliver a fully realized system, ready to use and proven to perform. As in many fields, education is only the first step to success. You have to learn by doing. You can’t really learn how to trade without actually trading.

You can save yourself years of lost time and money by following in the footsteps of a master trader. Futures trading is a complex profession. It is often easier to learn successful trading techniques, what and how to chart, indicators to watch for, and how everything comes together by watching over the shoulder of a successful professional trader. It’s the apprenticeship approach to learning and it has considerable value in futures trading.

If you want to fast track your education as a futures trader, you need to find a successful winner to emulate. There is no faster way to learn the intricate ins and outs of this complex venture than by watching someone who has already achieved mastery. Look for someone who trades daily and makes money consistently. Many people talk the talk but few actually walk the walk. You don’t want to emulate someone who has just written about futures trading, you want as your mentor someone who has proven his success in the marketplace.

That’s why I developed the Futures Trading Secrets Course. After spending thousands of hours and thousands of dollars testing what’s out there and finding out what works and what doesn’t, I wanted to pass along my knowledge. They used to say, “Those who can, do and those who can’t, teach.” I believe that those who can should do and teach. That’s the reason I turned my successful trading system into a teachable interactive course. It’s the next best thing to looking over my shoulder. I show you proven techniques you can master on Sims before trading on the e-Mini. Click here to find out more about me and how I developed the Futures Trading Secrets Course. See what our students say. I provide continuing mentoring through internet group training and one-on-one coaching, as well as on our Futures Trading Room website which is available only to our students. And I’m always available by phone — just don’t call until after the market closes!

Learning is a four-step process, each step in the ladder building upon the previous step and leading us to the next step until we reach our goal. We move from unconscious to conscious knowledge and from incompetence to competence as we move up the learning ladder.

1. Unconscious Incompetence: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know!
   Everyone starts out at this level. You’re curious about futures trading. You are mesmerized by the potential rewards (are those $$ in your eyes?) and think you can beat the high risks. It just doesn’t look that hard. We call this the babe in the woods phase. You’re totally clueless. You have no idea how much you need to learn to become successful.
2. Conscious Incompetence: You Know That You Don’t Know!
   You’ve had a couple of losses and gotten the wind knocked out of your sails. You feel incompetent and realize just how little you know. You finally realize how much you have to learn before you can start trading profitably. You have entered the fire in the belly phase. You are driven to learn everything you can. You are totally focused on developing, practicing and perfecting your system.
3. Conscious Competence: You Know That You Know!
   Magic! You’re winning! Your system is working and you’re on top of the world. But you are still conscious of every detail, watching every indicator constantly, working hard to keep everything in focus while you work your system. You are in the groove and working it.
4. Unconscious Competence: You Don’t Know That You Know!
   You have arrived! You are trading in the zone. You are working your system automatically and effortlessly. You have become a master trader!

Drop Your
Stress Level Through the Floor and

Shoot Your

Trading Through The Roof

in
Just 5 Minutes!

Here are some shortcuts you can use to make that last step up the ladder of success more quickly.

• Hard wire your response. Through constant, consistent repetition you can hard wire action patterns in your brain. If you always follow the same pre-trade checklist; if you always use the same colors, same indicators and same set up in your charts; if you always follow the same post-trade checklist; you program your brain to elicit the same response every time.
• Don’t get discouraged. Automating a response may take 10,000 or 30,000 or even 50,000 repetitions. Don’t give up. Achieving mastery of anything takes practice and usually a lot of it. Think of all the hours you spent playing catch with your dad, all the “strikes” it took before you could consistently hit the ball, all the long boring hours in right field until you finally developed the skills to play shortstop — it takes a lot of practice to learn to do anything well.
• Practice makes perfect. Before you put your money where your mouth is, I highly recommend using SimBroker to practice. Trading in the virtual world will teach you to recognize and react appropriately to your trading signals. Carefully monitor your win-loss ratio, profitability and consistency. When you can reliably win trading in the virtual world, you’re ready to put your cash on the line.
• Show me the money. Use SimBroker to practice your money management until you automate your response. By mastering and automating your money management skills, you are two-thirds of the way to a successful trade. Learn to master your emotions and you’re home free.
• Watch the clock. You can have great success with time of day trading. There are certain time periods during the day that are generally more volatile than others. Watching your indicators at these prime time points can help you pinpoint profitable trades.