PART 4:

The Case for Stocks

Equities, of course, do present other sorts of opportunities. A few mentioned by Hubert Senters, a very successful trader who has years of experience trading, include the movement caused by sector rotations. If a given sector gets hot or cold, it often keeps moving in that direction regardless of the overall market. This inherently gives the trader both a direction and a group of stocks that can be traded in tandem.

PART 3:

Fewer Decisions in Futures

Of course, successful trading means choosing profitable entry and exit points. Like with the SPYs or DIA, trading the electronic futures indexes requires one less dimension of decision-making. Instead of having to pick a stock - based on technicals or fundamentals - and then get whipped around in it because of the overall market, one only has to form an opinion on the direction of the market for the time frame of the trade. As Adele Newton, a Boston-based trader who switched from stocks to futures says, "You only have to figure out market direction. Whereas with a stock, the market could be doing one thing, and the stock has news or the sector isn't doing well."

PART 2:

Finding a Broker

Of course, actually opening a futures account needn't be difficult. Aside from the mountain of paperwork, many good introducing brokers (IBs) exist. IB means "the firm or person that solicits and accepts futures orders from customers but does not accept money, securities or property from the customer." An IB must be registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and must carry all of its accounts through a futures commission merchant (FCM) on a fully disclosed basis."

PART 1:

A funny thing happened at lunch on Saturday. Joining friends from St. Louis who for many years have traded in real estate, I was asked by their guests the usual, "So, what do you do?" Trying to answer so as not to send them running, I answered softly and slowly, "Well...actually...I trade futures and also do some coaching of traders using principles from psychoanalysis."

In studying a chart for any liquid instrument, traders will observe that prices usually move in a series of peaks and valleys. The direction of these peaks and valleys provide us with a lot of valuable information about price action and direction. They also help us in determining the direction of a trend and levels of support and resistance. These valleys and peaks create opportunities for traders to enter or get out of trades. Professional traders always like to buy at support and sell at resistance, since these trades will usually have a much higher probability of success.

The zebras have been buying up all copies of this hot-selling reality book. What a boost to be able to turn around the victim mentality that has beleaguered the zebra community for thousands of years. Hey, it might just work; after all, zebras outnumber lions.

Believe it or not, I spend most of my days “doing nothing”. Yes, there’s a lot to do for RatioTrading (meetings, business calls, etc) and I am always managing my trades accordingly, but in all reality, I really do spend a lot of my time doing nothing.

Yogi Berra had a way of stating the obvious when he said, "If you don’t know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else."

However, obvious the importance of having a clear plan may be, many traders begin the trading day without any real plan.

Amateurs think trading is about finding the perfect

• Chart pattern
• Indicator
• Moving average
• Trading system
• Market guru

So where is the pot of gold? Look within.

Ancient argument: What determines success in trading?

1. A successful methodology
2. Psychology and discipline

Answer: BOTH!