Day Traders: Habits for Successful Trading

By Tim Hunt

There is excellent money to be made in day trading, but, unlike what some may think, it is not a simple job. To be successful, you'll need to put in some work.

Day trading stocks and commodities is a great job and a quite profitable one as well. It requires certain traits for success, and certain habits will need to be internalized.

The first habit that must be cultivated a good sense of time. Day trading is not the sort of job for someone who is always late, or can't get out of bed before 11 AM. The best time for determining how you'll strategize to play the market on a given day is right before the opening bell. The opening bell rings at 5 AM in Hawaii and Alaska, at 6 AM in California, and at 9 AM in New York. Getting up early isn't the only requirement; you'll need to be alert and ready with a good internal clock.

A second critical habit is a good set of numerical analysis skills. Making and losing money based on gut hunches is a given, but you'll also need to make educated choices based on what you've read, summarized, and synthesized so that you can make good judgments quickly with this background knowledge. All of this needs to be done fast, and you'll need to quickly judge trends in financial markets and apply these snap analyses to your trading decisions.

Although you'll need some good quantitative skills, you don't have to be a mathematician to be a successful day trader. You can cultivate your quantitative skills with just a bit of practice.

A third habit that breeds success for day traders is patience and the ability to make keen observations. These habits must be combined with an excellent short-term memory. Patience can be tough to muster when you face the disappointment of missing a stock at its peak, or when you lose money because your low never came to pass. Try not to let these challenges drag you down. Also be sure to keep your cool when you score a winning trade.

Dedicated research is the fourth important habit for day traders. While you won't need to perform in depth analysis of accounting statements as in long term conventional investing, you will need to analyze the constant inflow and outflow of data to have a good knowledge base for making judgments on the fly. On the other hand, don't get so caught up in research that you lose the ability to think and act quickly.

Remember that you don't have to do all of this research and analysis alone. High level traders have many research tools and tricks, and various data analysis tools close by.

If you decide to pursue a career change in the field of day trading, you'll need to start by building a support team, including a broker, and some investors who can help you apply leverage to the market. Recognize that you will need to work, and it's a kind of work that requires focus, drive, and dedication.

If, after reading the skills listed above, you think you have what it takes to be a successful day trader, day trading may offer you a challenging and fun way to make a great living. It's a job that can be a ton of fun, and can provide tremendous riches ? in more ways than one. - 23229

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We hope this day trading advice motivates you to enter into this profitable venture. Click Here to learn about a proven trading strategy that is making plenty of people great money!

What Impacts the Price of a Stock? How Useful is Historical Data?

By Marv Doniger

There are a myriad of factors that are commonly used by investors to evaluate potential stock investments. These investment opportunities are often identified through the use of the numerous stock screeners that are readily available to investors. Common searches seek to identify companies that have a low Price Earnings, Price to Book Value, or Price to Cash Flow Ratio; high Dividend Yields; high Returns on Assets, Invested Capital, or Earnings; low Debt to Equity; and high Cash balances. In fact there are pre-defined stock screeners such as the Contrarian Strategy, Dogs of the Dow, Momentum Stocks, New 52-Week Highs, etc. that can be used to identify stocks in which to invest. The implicit assumption in using stock screeners is that there is a relationship between this data and the future performance of a stock. Should this assumption be valid then all one would have to do is run his/her magic screener and buy those stocks with his/her favorite criteria such as low Price Earnings Ratio and high Dividend Yield. In order to validate the premise that the data obtained from stock screeners influences the price of a company's stock, the change in the price of the Dow 30 Industrial stocks from 1999 to 2009 was compared to changes in the Returns they generated, their Financial Condition and Performance over that same time period. Returns included Returns on Equity, Invested Capital and Assets as well as Dividends paid to investors. Financial Condition included Current Ratio, Debt to Equity Ratio, along with Interest Coverage and Dividend Coverage. Performance included Sales, Earnings, Book Value and Cash Flow trends. A correlation analysis was conducted to determine the relationship of the price of each of the companies comprising the Dow Industrials and these factors. The hypothesis being that there was a statistically valid relationship between these factors.

As the following chart shows, dividends had a statistically significant impact on the change in the price of the stock of Exxon Mobil, Hewlett-Packard, Merck, and Verizon. It had a moderate impact on the price of the stock of Alcoa, Bank of America, DuPont, General Electric and JP Morgan Chase. Earnings had a strong impact on the price of Citigroup's and Exxon Mobil's stock. The stock price of Caterpillar, Chevron, Johnson & Johnson, McDonalds, Proctor & Gamble, and United Technologies was moderately impacted by earnings. Price changes in the stock of Exxon Mobil were statistically significantly impacted by its Dividends, Cash, Earnings, Book Value and Cash Flow and moderately impacted by its Return on Invested Capital, Dividend Coverage and Sales. Another company whose price movement could be partially explained by change in these factors is Caterpillar. There were moderately statistically significant relationships between its price and its Returns on Equity, Investment and Assets; its Interest and Dividend Coverage; as well as its Earnings and Cash Flow. Perhaps one of the most astonishing results is that there were no statistically meaningful relationships between the changes in the price of the stocks of 3M, American Express, AT&T, Boeing, Intel, IBM, Kraft, Microsoft, Pfizer, Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart and the measures of Returns, Financial Condition, and Performance used in the analysis. To put it another way, the price movement of 40 percent of the Dow Industrials bore no statistically meaningful relationship to changes in these factors.

FACTORS AFFECTING STOCK PRICE of DOW 30 INDUSTRIALS RETURNS FINANCIAL CONDITION PERFORMANCE Dow 30 Components Company Equity Invested Capital Assets Dividends Current Ratio Debt to Equity Interest Coverage Dividend Coverage Cash Sales Earnings Book Value Cash Flow 3m Co Alcoa Inc ● American Express Company, AT&T Inc. Bank of America Corporation ● Boeing Co., Caterpillar Inc. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● Chevron Corp ●● ● ● ●● ● Citigroup, Inc. ●● ● E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co ● Exxon Mobil Corp ● ●● ● ●● ● ●● ●● ●● General Electric Company ● General Motors Corporation ● Hewlett-Packard Co. ●● ● Intel Corporation International Business Machines Johnson & Johnson ● ● ● JP Morgan & Chase & Co ● Kraft Foods Inc. McDonald's Corporation ● ● Merck & Co., Inc. ●● Microsoft Corporation, Pfizer Inc, The Coca-Cola Company, The Home Depot, Inc. The Procter & Gamble Company ● ● ● ●● United Technologies Corporation ● ● ● Verizon Communications ●● Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Impact ● Moderate ●● Significant Data Standard & Poor's

Based on the previous examination of the relationships between the price of the Dow Industrials stocks and certain measurements of their historical data, it should be apparent that stock screeners, in and of themselves, are not sufficient tools to use in selecting potential stock investments. Even if there were statistically significant relationships between the historical price movement and the data used in the stock screener, it does not mean that those relationships would continue in the future. Wall Street constantly warns that past performance is not indicative of future results, yet investors search the past to divine the future. It is like driving in traffic by looking through the rear view mirror and missing the collision ahead that is about to happen. As events of the past eighteen months have proven, highly improbable events can occur and inflict unforeseen casualties on investors. Since equity markets are supposedly discounting future events, investors should look through the windshield to see what is ahead of them and use the rear view mirror to see if the vehicle behind them has any relevance to their ultimate destination.

Marvin Doniger, Managing Partner of Doniger & Associates, is the author of A Common Sense Road Map to Uncommon Wealth, which is a treatise on managing careers and finances. His perspectives have been developed from his lifelong study of investing, his actual experiences as a registered representative, an individual investor, as well as from working for large companies in industry and as a management consultant to Fortune 500 companies. He is a leader in his industry. - 23229

About the Author:

Mr. Doniger received a Masters in Business Administration from Columbia University Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts University. He has taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in production control, inventory management, information technology and finance at Fitchburg State College and Webster University. CONTACT INFORMATION: Tel: 949-661-5456 Email: Marv@DonigerAssociates.com www.donigerassociates.com

Becoming a Forex Trader

By Mark Abbots

Fluctuations faced in the financial market offers a great platform to make an extra buck. Forex systems are one such popular tool that has been a great attraction to the traders on account of the revenue it can generate, if played through the right way. Forex system offers the stage to buy and sell the foreign exchange currency 24 hours a day for more than five days a week. Online trading permits the exchange of Forex from any geographical location at any point of time.

To obtain profit from Forex systems, the basic concepts about Forex systems should be understood properly through appropriate ways. Beginners can acquire knowledge about Forex systems through different Forex related books available in the market, which explains about basics of trading and about Forex as well.

The educative seminars, typically held free of cost, held by the seasoned players in the Forex market, are a great way to learn more about the Forex system. Their past experiences can act as a great guide in directing the future players through the right channel. Some of the seminar conductors offer the books based on their understanding of the Forex system, adding to the advantage.

Today, the experienced Forex traders conduct seminars free of cost to the future trend setters of the forex market. The books, if any, written by these experts based on the challenges and obstacles faced by them, can tell the way the market operates. Opening a demo account with an online trader can take a beginner through an artificial setting that works exactly like a real Forex market. The absence of real Forex investment helps in testing the various currency options that can be used to reap greater revenue. Once you are confident of yourself, then you can make your entry into a live Forex market.

An intelligent Forex trader keeps the basic guidelines in the back of his mind through every operation. He understands the role played by the diversified currencies and the various combinations in generating larger returns. Through the insight he has gained from demo accounts, he starts his play in those he is most comfortable with.

Once the trader has acquired good knowledge regarding the Forex systems he can start trading in the Forex trading market and start earning. The trader will be able to acquire profit once he gets good experience in the Forex market. The trader has to keep certain points in mind while trading in the Forex market. The main point is the diversification of money. Another important point to be kept in mind is that the trader should not get emotional. Most of the traders do mistakes and face loss in the Forex systems due to their emotions. There will always be fluctuation in all kinds of business if you get excited and emotional for every fluctuation in the market you will not be able to concentrate in the next transaction because of which you might face loss. So, be calm and earn good profits from Forex trading Systems. - 23229

About the Author:

Mark has written numerous articles about have a forex trading platform and also about Forex Trading Systems Review.

Stock Market Investing Guide

By Riz Goodman

Stock market is a great way to make money however not a lot of people have been able to play the game right. The reason is that most investors never have the game right and they will always plunge into the market without understanding how the stock market works.

There a few places from where you can actually get the real knowledge about the stock basics as well as the stock market terminology. If you are looking at online place then the best place to start are the stock exchanges site of NYSE, NASDAQ and FTSE. These have ample of terms and terminology apart from the fact that they have a nice introduction to the way the market works.

Stock market games and financial magazines is another way to provide you with decent amount of insight into the working of the financial industry including stock market.

Futures and options should not be traded initially. Get your hands dirty with stocks initially. These are very high risk products and chances are that you will burn your cash in little time. That is why it is better to wait and watch and learn the game.

After a few weeks of understanding the next best thing is to open up an account with an online share broker and use that account to buy a first few stocks. Never buy high number of shares but small amounts to begin with.

Stock Market is a risk place so you should be well prepared. In that preparation make sure that you have the risk taking ability. The stock market is not for the faint heart - 23229

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Get the understanding of the stock market basics before you start stock market investing.

What Forex Trade Is

By Bart Icles

Forex Trade is the platform where the trading of the different currencies of the world's countries is traded against each other. Forex or FX is the acronym for Foreign Exchange. In Europe the currency being used or that is in circulation at present is called the Euro (EUR), and in the United States, the currency is the US Dollar (USD). An example of a forex trade is to buy and sell currencies that are being paired such as, the Euro and the US Dollar or EUR/USD. The left currency is the quote currency - in this case, the euro and the dollar is the base currency.

Forex trading is usually made through a Forex broker, with the forex trader choosing the currency pair that he wants to participate in accordingly. Trade orders can be done almost instantaneously with just a few clicks of the mouse to the designated broker, who then passes the order along to the Interbank Market partner to fill the position. When the trade is closed, the broker closes the position on the Interbank Market and whatever the gains or losses are is then credited to the clients account.

The advantage forex trade has over other investment markets is that it is not being controlled by a central trading system or entity, and that it happens in one continuous movement all over the world. Operating in a 24 hour period, it opens on a Sunday evening in Australia and closes on Friday in New York.

Forex trade happens all day and all night, except on weekends. Thus, any trader is able to find many price quotes for his traded currency pair and can therefore choose whatever action is most advantageous and profitable on his part. It is termed as an Over the Counter (OTC) market trading system wherein a currency can have multiple quotations for its price.

If you compare Forex trade with other investment markets such as futures or stock trading, it is more liquid yet volatile. With this set up, forex trade offers its market players the chance to make transfers of larger amounts of money with little effect on its price. With such freedom, traders can choose to trade with whatever currency they choose to, if the opportunity to gain profits from it presents

Forex trade offers traders the freedom of choosing to participate in any currency they want, and all the while get helpful information from market speculators, trade conditions of leading economies and major commodities behaviors. - 23229

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Is automated forex trading misleading? What is forex trading? Come visit our blog to find out the answers to these questions and more.