Forex Trading Puts Food On My Table Lyrics

O que é dinheiro Todo mundo usa dinheiro. Todos nós queremos, trabalhamos e pensamos sobre isso. Se você não sabe o que é dinheiro, você não é como a maioria dos humanos. No entanto, a tarefa de definir o que é o dinheiro, de onde ele vem e o que vale para aqueles que se dedicam à disciplina da economia. Embora a criação e o crescimento do dinheiro pareçam algo intangíveis, o dinheiro é a forma como conseguimos as coisas que precisamos e desejamos. Aqui, observamos as características multifacetadas do dinheiro. (Obtenha uma vantagem de curto prazo no mercado monetário. Este veículo de investimento é muitas vezes a medida perfeita para aumentar o seu dinheiro.) O que é dinheiro antes do desenvolvimento de um meio de troca. As pessoas trocaram para obter os bens e serviços de que precisavam. Isto é basicamente como funcionou: dois indivíduos, cada um possuindo uma mercadoria, o outro desejado ou necessário, entraria em um acordo para negociar seus bens. Esta forma inicial de troca, no entanto, não fornece a transferibilidade e a divisibilidade que tornam a negociação eficiente. Por exemplo, se você tem vacas, mas precisa de bananas, você deve encontrar alguém que não só tenha bananas, mas também o desejo de carne. E se você encontrar alguém que tenha a necessidade de carne, mas sem bananas, e só pode oferecer coelhos. Para obter a sua carne, ele ou ela deve encontrar alguém que tenha bananas e quer coelhos. A falta de transferibilidade de troca de mercadorias, como você pode ver, é cansativa, confusa e ineficiente. Mas isso não é onde os problemas terminam: mesmo que você encontre alguém com quem trocar carne por bananas, você não pode pensar que um monte delas vale uma vaca inteira. Você teria que planejar uma maneira de dividir sua vaca (um negócio confuso) e determinar quantas bananas você está disposto a tomar para certas partes de sua vaca. (Pode ser difícil falar sobre o dinheiro com seus filhos, especialmente quando os tempos são difíceis. Falando sobre o dinheiro Quando os tempos são difíceis tem algumas dicas para facilitar.) Para resolver esses problemas veio o dinheiro das commodities, que é um tipo de moeda baseada Sobre o valor de uma mercadoria subjacente. Colonialistas, por exemplo, usaram peles de castor e milho seco como moeda para transações. Esses tipos de mercadorias foram escolhidos por vários motivos. Eles eram amplamente desejados e, portanto, valiosos, mas também eram duráveis, portáteis e facilmente armazenados. Outro exemplo de dinheiro de commodities é a moeda dos EUA antes de 1971, que foi apoiado pelo ouro. Os governos estrangeiros conseguiram assumir a moeda dos EUA e trocá-lo por ouro com a Reserva Federal dos EUA. Se pensarmos sobre essa relação entre dinheiro e ouro, podemos obter uma visão de como o dinheiro ganha seu valor: como as peles do castor e o milho seco, o ouro é valioso apenas porque as pessoas querem isso. Não é necessariamente útil - afinal, você não consegue comer, e não irá mantê-lo aquecido à noite, mas a maioria das pessoas pensa que é lindo, e eles sabem que os outros pensam que é lindo. O ouro é algo que você pode acreditar com segurança é valioso. Antes de 1971, o ouro, portanto, serviu como um símbolo físico do que é valioso com base na percepção das pessoas. (Você não precisa de um MBA para aprender a economizar dinheiro e investir no seu futuro. Siga as 8 Dicas Financeiras para Jovens Adultos para descobrir mais.) Impressões Crie Tudo O segundo tipo de dinheiro é dinheiro fiat. O que elimina a necessidade de representar uma mercadoria física e assume o seu valor da mesma maneira que o ouro: através da percepção e da fé dos povos. O dinheiro do Fiat foi introduzido porque o ouro é um recurso escasso e as economias que crescem rapidamente não podem sempre mina o suficiente de ouro para suportar seus requisitos de dinheiro. Para uma economia em expansão, a necessidade de ouro para dar valor ao dinheiro é extremamente ineficiente, especialmente quando, como já estabelecemos, o valor é realmente criado através da percepção das pessoas. Fiat dinheiro, então se torna o símbolo da apreensão do povo de valor - a base para o que o dinheiro é criado. Uma economia que está crescendo é, aparentemente, fazer um bom trabalho para produzir outras coisas que são valiosas para si e para outras economias. Geralmente, quanto mais forte for a economia, maior será o seu dinheiro (e procurado) e vice-versa. Mas, lembre-se, essa percepção, embora abstrata, deve de alguma forma ser apoiada por quão bem a economia pode produzir coisas e serviços concretos que as pessoas desejam. É por isso que simplesmente imprimir dinheiro novo não criará riqueza para um país. O dinheiro é criado por uma espécie de interação perpétua entre coisas concretas, nosso desejo intangível por elas e nossa fé abstrata no que tem valor: o dinheiro é valioso porque a queremos, mas nós queremos isso só porque pode nos obter um produto desejado Ou serviço. Como é Medido Claro, o dinheiro é a conta de 10 que você emprestou ao seu amigo no outro dia e não espera de volta em breve. Mas exatamente quanto dinheiro está por aí e quais são as formas necessárias. Os economistas e os investidores fazem essa pergunta todos os dias para ver se há inflação ou deflação. Para tornar o dinheiro mais discernível para fins de mensuração, eles o separaram em três categorias: M1 Esta categoria de dinheiro inclui todas as denominações físicas de moedas e moedas, depósitos à vista. Que estão checando contas e contas AGORA. E cheques de viagem. Esta categoria de dinheiro é o mais estreito dos três e pode ser melhor visualizada como o dinheiro usado para fazer pagamentos. M2 Com critérios mais amplos, esta categoria adiciona todo o dinheiro encontrado na M1 a todos os depósitos relacionados com o tempo, depósitos de poupança e fundos não monetários do mercado monetário. Esta categoria representa dinheiro que pode ser facilmente transferido para dinheiro. M3 A classe mais ampla de dinheiro, o M3 combina todo o dinheiro encontrado na definição do M2 e acrescenta a ele todos os grandes depósitos a prazo. Fundos institucionais do mercado monetário, acordos de recompra de curto prazo. Juntamente com outros ativos líquidos maiores. Ao juntar essas três categorias juntas, chegamos a uma oferta de dinheiro do país. Ou quantidade total de dinheiro dentro de uma economia. Como o dinheiro é criado Agora que discutimos por que e como o dinheiro, uma representação do valor percebido. É criado na economia, precisamos tocar em como o banco central (o Federal Reserve nos EUA) pode manipular a oferta monetária. Entre outras coisas, um banco central tem a capacidade de influenciar o nível de oferta monetária de um país. Vamos ver um exemplo simplificado de como isso é feito. Se quiser aumentar a quantidade de dinheiro em circulação, o banco central pode, claro, simplesmente imprimi-lo, mas, como aprendemos, as contas físicas são apenas uma pequena parte da oferta monetária. Outra maneira para o banco central aumentar a oferta de dinheiro é comprar títulos públicos de renda fixa no mercado. Quando o banco central compra estes valores mobiliários do governo. Coloca o dinheiro nas mãos do público. Como um banco central, como o Federal Reserve, paga por isso. Por mais estranho que pareça, eles simplesmente criam dinheiro fora do ar e transferem para aquelas pessoas que vendem os valores. Para diminuir a oferta de dinheiro, o banco central faz o contrário e Vende títulos do governo. O dinheiro com o qual o comprador paga o banco central é essencialmente retirado da circulação. Tenha em mente que estamos generalizando neste exemplo para manter as coisas simples. (Para mais informações, consulte o Tutorial de Reserva Federal (Fed).) Lembre-se, desde que as pessoas tenham fé na moeda, um banco central pode emitir mais disso. Mas se o Fed emite muito dinheiro, o valor irá diminuir, como com qualquer coisa que tenha um suprimento maior que a demanda. Então, embora tecnicamente possa criar dinheiro fora do ar, o banco central não pode simplesmente imprimir o dinheiro como quiser. Quando as despesas totais de um governo excedem a receita que ele gera (excluindo dinheiro de empréstimos). O déficit difere. Em geral, uma estratégia de publicidade em que um produto é promovido em meios que não sejam rádio, televisão, outdoors, impressão. Uma série de regulamentos federais, afetando principalmente instituições financeiras e seus clientes, passou em 2010 em uma tentativa. A Gestão de Carteiras é a arte e ciência de tomar decisões sobre mix e política de investimentos, combinando investimentos para. Uma configuração de casa conveniente onde aparelhos e dispositivos podem ser controlados automaticamente remotamente de qualquer lugar do mundo. A estratégia de selecionar ações que negociam por menos do que seus valores intrínsecos. Os investidores de valor procuram ativamente os estoques de. Comércio dos mercados, por John Carter Juntou-se a fevereiro de 2006 Status: Membro 313 Posts Bem-vindo ao CD-ROM das Lições de Negociação do Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Meu nome é John Carter, e eu tenho negociado ativamente por 17 anos, desde que eu fui estudante de segundo ano no ensino médio e em tempo integral desde 1996. Eu sou o presidente da Trade the Markets, Inc. tradethemarkets. Uma empresa de informação de mercados financeiros que funduei em 1999. Eu também sou um CTA (Commodity Trading Advisor) e princípio da Razor Trading, uma empresa de gerenciamento de dinheiro. As escolhas diárias dos boletins que escrevo todos os dias são negociadas automaticamente para clientes em vários corretores. Em outras palavras, eu faço minha vida comercial. Eu encontrei o DOT de mini-tamanho do CBOT para ser um excelente contrato de futuros para o comércio, especialmente para pessoas que estão apenas começando a negociar futuros. Ao começar, quero dizer qualquer pessoa que tenha negociado ativamente por menos de cinco anos. Dito isto, estou encontrando mais e mais CTAs e gerentes de dinheiro aproveitando todos os benefícios que o CBOT de tamanho reduzido Dow tem para oferecer. O volume é muito quotthickquot, o que significa que grandes encomendas podem ser colocadas com deslizamento mínimo, e também significa que um comerciante pode entrar e sair desse contrato de forma rápida e eficiente. Além disso, eu gosto de usar as opções Dow de tamanho mini CBOT para se posicionar para movimentos de quotswingquot de mercado maiores. Eu também estou encontrando muitas oportunidades comerciais com o CBOT eletrônico 100% eletronicamente lançado, eletronicamente negociado 100 oz. Ouro e 5.000 oz. Contratos de prata, bem como as opções agora disponíveis nesses contratos. E é claro que existem algumas peças legais disponíveis em um dos meus antigos favoritos, os futuros da CBOT 30-Year Bond. Estarei a discutir peças específicas em todos estes mercados nessas lições comerciais. Eu tive a oportunidade de trabalhar com muitos comerciantes, e descobri que muitos deles vivem em um estado de fluxo constante, preso entre dois mundos que combinam o melhor e o pior que a negociação tem para oferecer. Por um lado, os comerciantes individuais podem entrar e sair dos mercados com facilidade e eficiência, os fundos maiores só podem sonhar. Os comerciantes têm a liberdade de criar nichos específicos para si mesmos que um enorme fundo de pensão nunca poderia conseguir ou duplicar. No entanto, com tanta liberdade vem um preço: os mercados não podem proteger um comerciante de si mesmo. Um comerciante individual, ao contrário de um gestor de fundos, não é supervisionado e tem a liberdade de atuar sem controle da forma que eles escolherem. Esta liberdade geralmente reforça os maus hábitos, e o resultado líquido é um mercado que se move e prospera de forma a evitar que pessoas com a maior quantidade possível ganhem consistentemente dinheiro. É por isso que é imperativo para um comerciante encontrar um grupo de configurações de alta probabilidade a seguir. Uma vez que as configurações são descobertas, é então até o comerciante ter a disciplina para seguir um conjunto específico de regras para entradas e saídas. Os comerciantes que fazem isso têm uma vantagem sobre todos os outros, e uma maior probabilidade de sucesso. Os comerciantes que têm baixa probabilidade de sucesso geralmente confiam em seus próprios sentimentos intestinais para gerenciar uma posição. A linha inferior é que os comerciantes que desenvolveram um conjunto de regras para negociar têm uma chance de fazer isso a tempo inteiro para se viver. Aqueles que não se preocupam em desenvolver um conjunto de regras tornam-se carne fresca para o resto de nós. Não deve ser surpreendente saber que eu aprendi tudo isso com o melhor professor que o mercado tem para oferecer: grande dor e sofrimento. Meu pai, um corretor com Morgan Stanley, me fez começar a negociar opções quando eu era estudante de segundo ano no ensino médio. Continuei a negociar ativamente no ensino médio e na faculdade. Eu rapidamente desenvolvi uma abordagem muito consistente para o meu comércio: eu rotineiramente transformaria uma conta de 10.000 em cinco ou baixos seis números ao longo de um ano. Eu então me compraria um item de aluguel e um par de gizmos agradáveis. Então eu me sentaria e decidiria quais outras coisas maiores e melhores que eu queria comprar. Uma vez que entendi isso, eu voltaria à negociação. Armado com essas visões de quotbigger e coisas melhores, eu iria mergulhar de volta aos mercados. Uma coisa peculiar aconteceria comigo: eu tenderia a devolver o resto da minha conta comercial em menos de um mês, e eu teria que começar de novo do zero. Isso aconteceu não uma vez, mas três vezes. O comércio mais memorável aconteceu logo na faculdade, quando consegui devolver a maior parte de uma conta de negociação de 150.000 em menos de uma semana (isso é o que acontece quando compra 200 OEX Ponts em 7.20 e vendê-las uma semana depois por 75 centavos) . Felizmente, eu tinha bastante imóveis neste momento que eu poderia vender uma das propriedades para aumentar uma nova participação comercial. Isso fez com que eu continuasse com a busca de comerciantes do quotthe. Eu joguei todos os meus indicadores e comecei com um gráfico limpo. Visitei com outros comerciantes, aqueles que tiveram sucesso fazendo isso há mais de 20 anos, através de muitas condições de mercado diferentes. O que me impressionou ao visitar seus escritórios é que todos tinham sistemas muito simples, mas onde eles se destacaram estavam em sua metodologia de negociação. Durante essas visitas, houve duas coisas que me bateram: você pode conhecer um mercado melhor do que qualquer outro comerciante vivo, mas se você aplicar a metodologia de negociação incorreta nesse mercado, perderá dinheiro. Você pode saber mais sobre análise técnica do que qualquer outro comerciante vivo, mas se você estiver negociando o mercado errado para sua personalidade, você perderá dinheiro. Este foi um verdadeiro abridor de olho em ambos os aspectos, e descobri que o CBOT de tamanho reduzido Dow é um ótimo mercado para trocar por personalidades de muitos povos. Isso é algo sobre o qual falarei mais sobre isso. Havia algo mais sobre essas visitas que também tocaram um sino comigo. Demorou um tempo para descobrir, mas finalmente entendi: sempre que me concentrei nas configurações e não nos resultados, fiz tudo bem. Sempre que me concentrei nos resultados e não nas configurações, fui morto. Por que é isso? Uma vez que eu coloquei minhas mãos em uma conta de negociação de tamanho decente, eu começaria a pensar em coisas como, quot Eu quero transformar essa conta em um milhão de dólares. Em vez de se concentrar nas configurações, eu me concentraria em fazer um milhão Dólares. Isso me levou a pular nos hábitos comerciais que arruinam todos os comerciantes: apostando tudo em um comércio, não usando uma parada, porque o quot de comércio para se exercitar, e se concentrando em fazer um milhão de dólares em vez da configuração comercial. Uma vez que percebi isso, comecei a fazer duas coisas de forma diferente: primeiro, comecei a tirar lucros da minha conta de negociação no final de cada semana. Isso me manteve focado em produzir uma renda estável, ao contrário de fazer uma grande matança. Em segundo lugar, comecei uma competição entre as várias configurações que usei. Desta forma, eu poderia medir o desempenho de cada uma das minhas configurações no final de cada mês. As configurações que ganharam dinheiro, eu continuava usando. As configurações que perderam dinheiro, eu despejei. Isso foi incrivelmente importante para minha negociação. A única maneira pela qual eu poderia continuar com a minha competição era executar minhas configurações de comércio da mesma maneira, cada e sempre. Sempre que eu me desviasse de uma configuração padrão, gostaria de marcar isso no meu jornal comercial como um comércio de preços razoáveis. Eu acompanhei o desempenho nestes também. Depois de cerca de seis meses de rastrear meus negócios de impulso (uow, esse mercado está indo mais alto, eu tenho que entrar), percebi que eles não estavam me fazendo dinheiro. Eu disparei meu comércio de impulso e aprendi a ficar com minhas configurações. Uma vez que isso começou a funcionar de forma consistente, comecei a me concentrar no comércio a tempo inteiro, e eu não olhei para trás. Uma grande parte da minha transição foi mental e desenvolveu o que eu chamo de um estado de espírito quotprofessional, algo sobre o qual falarei mais na seção 6. Essas lições de negociação foram criadas para o comerciante ativo e é uma coleção de estratégias apresentadas em ambos escritos Formulário e através de vídeos que eu atualmente uso na minha própria negociação. Eu discuto os níveis exatos de entrada, saída e parada de perda para todas essas configurações. Os comerciantes do dia que utilizam este CD-ROM aprenderão por que se basear apenas em indicadores é um jogo perdedor, descubra estratégias específicas para entrar em um comércio cedo e aprenda as diferenças de saber quando fazer a fiança e saber quando aguentar o passeio. Os comerciantes Swing aprenderão a deixar de lado seus preconceitos e deixar o comércio levá-los quando a ação de preço confirmar que seria uma boa jogada para fazê-lo. Enquanto este CD-ROM é destinado a comerciantes em tempo integral, há configurações ao longo deste guia que funcionará para pessoas que trabalham em tempo integral e só podem negociar a tempo parcial. Isto é o que eu fiz há vários anos e tem vantagens se feito corretamente. Minhas estratégias de negociação intradiárias favoritas são utilizadas principalmente nos futuros do Dow de mini-tamanho CBOT. No entanto, eu também tenho algumas estratégias favoritas que utilizo para CBOT Electronic 100 oz. Ouro e 5.000 oz. Futuros de prata, bem como o CBOT U. S. 30-year Treasury Bond. Nessas aulas de comércio, vou passar algum tempo discutindo os mercados de futuros e como eles funcionam. Isto é para iniciantes que nunca negociaram futuros - minha abordagem tirará o mistério deles. A partir daí, falarei sobre por que prefiro comercializar o Dow sobre tamanho normal do CBOT, E-mini SampP e o E-mini Nasdaq. Depois desta seção, então falarei sobre minhas principais estratégias de negociação intradía e swing. Espero que esse conhecimento ajude a melhorar o seu próprio programa comercial da mesma maneira que melhorou o meu. O comércio é a profissão mais enganosa do mundo. Uma pessoa não pode caminhar para um aeroporto, saltar para um 747, e tirar a pista sem qualquer treinamento prévio. No entanto, as pessoas abrirão rotineiramente uma conta e começarão a comercializar sem qualquer orientação. Para mim, a maior diferença na minha negociação ocorreu quando eu aprendi a ignorar meu cérebro e apenas me concentrar em um punhado de boas configurações. Uma vez que eu aprendi as configurações, o próximo desafio era ter a disciplina para segui-los da mesma maneira, a cada vez. Eu fiz isso registrando minha atividade comercial e focando os resultados para cada configuração. Embora eu não consiga suportar seu ombro e ajudá-lo com sua disciplina, posso mostrar-lhe as configurações que eu uso para trocar a vida. Se você não estiver familiarizado com o mercado de futuros, não se esqueça de ler a próxima seção (Seção 2) sobre como funcionam os mercados de futuros. Caso contrário, você pode pular diretamente nas configurações. Vamos começar. Registado em fevereiro de 2006 Status: Membro 313 Posts Esta é a pergunta que eu recebo mais frequentemente por outros comerciantes que não estão familiarizados com os mercados de futuros. Eu comecei como comerciante de ações e opções, então eu sei o que você está pensando. Eles são assustadores, certo. No entanto, na minha experiência, uma vez que você entende e depois troca de futuros, você nunca volta às ações. Pense nisso como um bom desafio que o ajudará a entender melhor os mercados de futuros. Isso não é de modo algum compreensível. Há livros inteiros escritos sobre o assunto. No entanto, se você negociou apenas ações, os mercados futuros são provavelmente um mistério e talvez até um pouco ameaçador. No entanto, se você já aprendeu a importância da gestão rigorosa do dinheiro, você realmente apreciará o que a negociação de futuros tem para oferecer. Normalmente, uma vez que as pessoas tentam negociar futuros, eles simplesmente param de negociar ações. A facilidade de entrada nos lados longo e curto e a capacidade de se concentrar em alguns mercados em vez de centenas de ações os torna uma mudança refrescante para o mundo dos estoques. Aqui é como eles funcionam: primeiro, existem muitos tipos de contratos de futuros. Você pode trocar qualquer coisa do cobre ao café, dos índices de estoque à prata, ou do Carne de porco ao Palladium. Não se preocupe com a maioria destes por enquanto. Em algum momento, depois de se sentir confortável com o comércio de um punhado destes, você pode querer olhar para mais deles. Mas eu sei que muitos comerciantes que trocaram um mercado de todas as suas vidas comerciais e estão indo muito bem, obrigado. Estes são os principais mercados de futuros que eu sigo: CBOT mini-tamanho Dow (YM) E-mini SampP (ES) E-mini Nasdaq (NQ) de tamanho completo 100 oz. Ouro (ZG) de tamanho completo 5.000 oz. Silver (ZI) 30-year US Treasury Bond (ZB) Note que alguns destes são quotminiquotot e alguns deles são quotfull-size. quot Existem contratos completos no Dow (DJ), SampP 500 (SP) e Nasdaq (ND), mas estes são comercializados em poços e eu prefiro trocar os contratos eletrônicos quotminiquotais menores. Por causa da transparência e imediação do comércio eletrônico. O novo tamanho completo de 100 oz. O ouro e os contratos eletrônicos de prata de 5.000 onças são uma mudança refrescante dos antigos contratos de ouro negociado em ouro (GC) e Prata (SI). Mais uma vez, eu prefiro trocar a versão eletrônica desses contratos pelas versões comercializadas. Existem também os contratos eletrônicos CBOT de ouro pequeno (YG) e mini-tamanho Silver (YI) que são bons para o comércio. O fato de a CBOT possuir futuros de ouro e prata de tamanho completo e simples significa que você tem a opção de negociar o contrato mais apropriado para o tamanho da sua conta. O importante a lembrar para o comerciante do piso fora (como no comércio) é concentrar-se em contratos eletrônicos em vez de contratos negociados com fossa. Os enchimentos eletrônicos são instantâneos e os mercados são totalmente transparentes, nivelando o campo de jogo para todos os participantes. Além disso, a tendência do volume parece estar fluindo para fora dos contratos do poço e nos contratos eletrônicos. A eletrônica é onde a ação é, e é aí que você quer negociar. Para obter gráficos nos contratos acima, você precisará dizer ao seu fornecedor de cotações que deseja adicionar cotações do CME (para o ES e NQ) eo CBOT (para o Dow, Bonds, Gold e Silver). CBOT Advantage, produto de dados CBOTs, oferece uma prova gratuita de duas semanas para cotações e gráficos que você pode usar para verificar os dois mercados sem baixar qualquer dinheiro. Por sinal, a palavra quotE-miniquot é marcada pela CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange), e é por isso que você vê quotmini-sized Dowquot em vez de quotE-mini Dowquot porque ele se dedica ao CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade), que é Uma troca diferente. Embora eu siga YM, ES e NQ, eu prefiro a negociação YM. Vou falar sobre por que eu prefiro negociá-lo na próxima seção. Aqui está um vídeo que mostra como encontrar informações adicionais sobre os contratos futuros que deseja negociar. Isso irá ajudá-lo a saltar rã antes de qualquer outro comerciante iniciante. Pontos-chave: Como os Futuros funcionam Primeiro, quando você compra um contrato de futuros, você não está fisicamente comprando nada. Esta é simplesmente uma forma de participar do movimento de preços do mercado de sua escolha. Se você acha que um mercado vai mover 10 pontos, você pode comprar um contrato de futuros, longo ou curto, e ganhar dinheiro em movimento se ele for em sua direção. Além disso, se você possui um contrato de futuros de índice de ações que expira, você não vai conseguir um bando de certificados de ações descartados na sua porta. O contrato expirado será convertido em dinheiro, e você verá o dinheiro em sua conta. Para o movimento de preços: se você tiver 1 contrato no E-mini SampP, e ele move 1 ponto (ou seja, 1032.75 a 1033.75) que se traduz em 50 em seus lucros e perdas (PampL). Para o E-mini Nasdaq, um movimento de 1 ponto equivale a 20. Para o Dow de mini-tamanho CBOT, um movimento de 1 ponto é 5,00. Então, se você comprar 3 SampPs, e você obtém 10 pontos, isso é 50 x 10 pontos x 3 contratos 1500,00. Para o Nasdaq e o Dow, é o mesmo, exceto que você usaria 20 por ponto no Nasdaq e 5,00 por ponto no CBOT Mini-sized Dow. A Figura 2.1 mostra um CBOT de tamanho mini Dow com 10 contratos. No gráfico acima, uma movimentação de 27 pontos no CBO mini-tamanho Dow com 10 contratos é 1350.00. Claro, isso vai em ambos os aspectos, de modo que a gestão do dinheiro é a chave absoluta para futuros de negociação. É imperativo que você conheça sua parada antes de começar, e você consegue isso, não importa o que. No mercado de futuros, esperar e rezar pode levar a uma ruína. No entanto, a coisa legal sobre os futuros é que eles são tão rápidos e que o preenchimento é tão limpo que você pode ficar parado, então, alguns segundos depois você está de volta. Você não pode ter medo de sofrer pequenas perdas, período. Reentry é apenas uma comissão fora. Contratos eletrônicos foram estabelecidos especificamente para comerciantes: são super liquidos e os enchimentos são instantâneos. Se você acha que o mercado vai se desfazer, você pode comprar um estoque como o INTC e vê-lo sentar-se lá enquanto o mercado arrasa sem você. Você estava certo no mercado, mas sua escolha de ações não se moveu com o mercado. Com o CBOT mini-sized Dow futuros você está negociando o mercado. É o que é. Não há jogos. Você pode reduzir um downtick. Isso faz uma grande diferença ao tentar se preencher durante uma quebra. Se você reduzir o KLAC no mercado em uma quebra, você não pode ser preenchido por 20 centavos até ter um aumento. Se você reduzir os quotes de futuros no marketquot em uma quebra, você obtém um preenchimento rápido ao preço atual do mercado. Com estoques, você teve quotbullets por um tempo onde você poderia configurar isso com seu corretor e curtir um estoque em um downtick. Infelizmente, estes foram recentemente removidos. Eu costumava ser um grande comerciante de opções OEX para negociações diárias. Depois de negociar futuros, parei de trocar opções de OEX. Os spreads e o prémio das opções agora são ridículos. Onde mais você pode estar morto logo em uma jogada intradiária e ainda perder dinheiro O mercado de opções de OEX Embora eu use opções para negociação de swing, eu não iria trocá-las com um pólo de 10 pés. Não quando os futuros Dow mini-tamanho CBOT são tão limpos e eficientes. Você pode fazer a maioria de suas negociações quotat o marketquot e obter excelentes preenchimentos, ao contrário de ações e especialmente ao contrário das opções. Para estoques, você precisa de um comércio de 25 mil. Para futuros você pode abrir uma conta com 5.000 (ou menos) e comércio de dia. Não há quotday tradingquot regras ou classificações. Para comprar um dos contratos de futuros discutidos nessas aulas de negociação, você precisa de cerca de 2.000 em sua conta. Isso varia de intermediário, e pode ser menor, mas esta é uma média. Este quotdepositquot dinheiro exigido por um corretor antes de começar a negociar é chamado de margem, e você pode pensar nisso como colocar um adiantamento de 3 em uma casa. Então, se você tem uma conta de 10.000, você pode comprar 5 contratos, e às vezes mais usando taxas de margem intradiária mais baixas. No entanto, para fins de gerenciamento de dinheiro, recomendo sinceramente pensar sobre quantos contratos você troca em sua conta. Esta é uma parte crítica do seu plano de negociação. Só porque você pode trocar 5 contratos em uma conta de 10.000 não significa que você deveria normalmente negociar 1 contrato por cada 10.000 a 15.000 que está na minha conta. Dessa forma, sua conta balança não será tão severa, e você poderá negociar com uma cabeça de nível. Um comerciante amigo manda comercializar um contrato por cada 50.000 em sua conta. Ele ganha dinheiro e nunca é estressado. Para contas gerenciadas, costumo negociar 1 contrato por cada 25.000 na conta. Por outro lado, eu vi programas que dizem ter uma conta de 5.000 e negociar 5 contratos e, ao fazer isso, você pode fazer seis números por ano. Isso é louco e você seria melhor doar esse 5.000 para caridade, porque você vai perder tudo negociando dessa forma. Existem poucas garantias na indústria de futuros, mas perder toda a sua negociação de dinheiro com essa margem de quotmaxed é a única aposta certa disponível hoje. Existem agora futuros sobre ações. Usando Single Stock Futures negociados nos EUA em OneChicago, como negociações de swing em combinação com futuros de índice é uma ótima maneira de negociar e hedge suas apostas. Embora alguns dos símbolos tenham um volume real baixo, o volume do quotreal é baseado no estoque subjacente. Se você quer comprar 100 contratos (1 contrato com 100 ações) e você coloca uma ordem limite entre a oferta e a oferta, você receberá um preenchimento quase instantâneo. Com os futuros, no final do ano, você não precisa listar cada comércio de futuros individuais, como você faz ações para sua declaração de imposto nos EUA. Você obtém um formulário 1099 do seu corretor com o seu lucro ou prejuízo total para o ano. Tudo o que você coloca na sua declaração de imposto é esse número no 1099. Isso é muito mais fácil e muito menos demorado do que listar todos os negócios, como você tem que ver com ações. E a boa notícia é impostos Para as ações, você tem que mantê-las ao longo de um ano para se classificar na taxa de rendimento mais barata do termo quotlong. Para os futuros, você obtém um 1099 que diz, por exemplo, 20 mil ganhos para o ano. Destes, 60 do dinheiro são tratados como ganhos a longo prazo (taxa de imposto mais baixa) e 40 na taxa de curto prazo. Esta é a regra quot6040quot. Esta regra é válida mesmo se você for plano no final de cada dia de negociação. Você pode negociar futuros no seu IRA. Isso significa que você pode obter ações curtas em seu IRA (Single Stock Futures) ou os índices, que você não tem permissão para fazer em um IRA regular. Para configurar o seu IRA para negociação de futuros, você precisa primeiro passar por uma Trust Company configurada especificamente para fazer isso. O que você faz é abrir uma conta com a Trust Company e, em seguida, enviarão os fundos ao seu corretor de futuros. Desta forma, ele permanece classificado como um IRA e você não precisa pagar impostos sobre quaisquer ganhos. Nem todo corretor de futuros é experimentado com isso. Se você está interessado em fazer isso, certifique-se de trabalhar com um corretor que já fez isso antes. É uma forma de trazer diversificação para uma parcela de seus fundos de aposentadoria. Cada veículo de futuros do índice de ações tem quatro contratos negociados a cada ano: março (H), junho (M), setembro (U) e dezembro (Z). Você quer trocar o mês mais próximo, já que é onde o volume está concentrado. Por exemplo, se hoje for 15 de fevereiro de 2005, o mês mais próximo é o contrato de março de 2005. Para obter uma cotação para o contrato de março de 2005 no CBOT de tamanho mini Dow, você entraria no símbolo, mês e ano. Neste caso, isso seria YM (símbolo), H (mês março), 05 (ano 2005). O símbolo completo seria YMH05. Isto é para a TradeStation. Para Esignal seria YM H5. Cada serviço de cotação é um pouco diferente. Quando um contrato expira, você apenas começa a negociar o próximo contrato. TIP: Os futuros do índice de ações expiram no mesmo dia em que expiram as opções, na terceira sexta-feira do mês em que estão sendo negociados. No entanto, você quer começar a negociar no próximo mês na semana anterior à expiração, já que todo o volume será Mude para o próximo mês na quinta-feira da semana anterior. As obrigações mudaram três semanas antes. Cada contrato é um pouco diferente. Se você não tem certeza, basta perguntar ao seu corretor, anotá-lo e colocá-lo junto ao seu PC (ou enviar um e-mail para CBOT ou CME para descobrir o que você precisa saber se não estiver listado nos seus sites). Desta forma, você nunca vai arruinar isso. Além disso, como são contratos de futuros que expiram em datas diferentes no futuro, há sempre uma diferença de preço entre dois contratos com base na expectativa de mercado de onde cada contrato irá liquidar. Enquanto o contrato de março de 2005 pode dizer 10686 para o DOT de mini-tamanho do CBOT, o contrato de junho pode dizer algo como 10694. Além disso, note que normalmente existe um 10 a 20 pontos diferentes entre o preço de futuros Dow mini-tamanho CBOT eo Dow Jones Industrial AverageltsupgtSMltsupgt preço em dinheiro. Há uma explicação muito complicada para isso envolvendo projetos justos e projetos quotfuture de preços justos e yada, yada, yada. Mais grande imagem, isso é apenas algo a ter em conta. Tenha em mente que você está trocando contratos e calculando pivôs. Isso é o básico. A chave é apenas se sentir confortável com seu layout do corretor de futuros. Do some quotpaper tradesquot on their simulator to get a feel of the system, and when you start out, just trade one contract to get a feel of how it works. You will make mistakes, and a mistake on 1 lot is a lot cheaper than a mistake on 10 lots or more. If you have never used a futures broker before, be sure to talk to other traders to check out rates, levels of service, and so forth. If you want some more quotFutures 101quot reading, the CBOT has a publication called quotTrading In Futures - An Introductionquot that you can read online or order for free, plus theres an online interactive tutorial available in the education area of cbot . Lets now take a look at why the CBOT mini-sized Dow is my favorite futures contract to trade. Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts Now that we have covered Futures 101, lets take a look at why I prefer to trade the CBOT mini-sized Dow (YM) over the ES or NQ, and, for that matter, individual stocks and options. In its simplest form, the markets rise on a day-to-day basis because current demand for stocks exceeds current supply. This has nothing to do with being in a secular bear market, a cyclical bull market, high PE ratios or Maria Bartiromos choice of a necklace. This has everything to do with what traders are willing to pay for a stock or market today . It doesnt matter if demand is falsely created by a hedge fund quottaking the streetquot (buying large amounts of a single stock to drain a market maker of its inventory, forcing them to buy it back at a higher price). Or a squeeze that whacks shorts and forces them to cover, or a rumor that a biotech stock is being cornered by Martha Stewart. Demand is demand and that is what drives markets higher. The inverse is equally true: If there is too much supply in the market, prices will fall. Although supply and demand can be more difficult to measure with a single stock, it is very easy to measure with a popular index such as the DowltsupgtSMltsupgt. This is why I feel strongly that one of the best contracts out there to trade for both beginning and professional traders is the Chicago Board of Trades mini-sized Dow futures contract. The specific reasons are as follows: Bang for the Buck For disciplined traders who use live stops, the leverage in trading CBOT mini-sized Dow futures over stocks is a huge plus. Better Spreads than the E-mini SampP and E-mini Nasdaq The CBOT mini-sized Dow has the same specifications as the popular E-mini SampP contract: 1 point in the E-mini SampP about 10 points in the mini-sized CBOT Dow 1 point in the E-mini SampP 50 10 points in the CBOT mini-sized Dow 50 Figure 3.1 shows movement in the Dow and SampP over the exact same time frame. The Dow has moved 13 points lower (from the high at point 1 to the low at point 2), and during this same time, the SampP has moved 1.5 points lower. The Dow moved lower in thirteen 1 point increments. However, the SampP made a similar move in 6 quarter point increments. A quarter point on the SampP about 2.5 points on the Dow. This is a huge different in the spread The key here is that a trader will get picked off on stop runs less frequently if he or she uses the CBOT mini-sized Dow over the E-mini SampP. Why is this Again, the E-mini SampP moves 1 point in 4 quarter point increments. The CBOT mini-sized Dow will move an equivalent 10 points in ten 1 point increments, giving the trader six extra places to place a stop or target. This is a huge advantage over trading the E-mini SampP and will save a trader a lot of money over the course of a trading career. By trading the CBOT mini-sized Dow, the trader is essentially cutting the spread by 60 percent. That money goes straight into the traders pocket. In addition, due to the spread, you will get your stops picked off more in trading the SampPs on stops that are placed equivalently on YM. I will show specific examples of this in Section 5. The spread is even worse in the NQ. Whereas the SampPs will move 1 point in 4 quarter point jumps, the Nasdaq will move the same 1 point in 2 half point jumps. This goes back to what I talked about earlier in quottrading the right market for your personality or trading method. quot My Multi-Pivot system (one of the strategies I will talk about) works good on the SampPs, but it works great on the CBOT mini-sized Dow, because of the way the market is quotbuiltquot and the way it moves. Liquidity Although perfect for the smaller retail trader, the CBOT mini-sized Dow has caught fire and now has the liquidity to move size, chalking up daily trading volume of well over 100,000 contracts per day. In trading, volume begets volume, and YM will continue to expand even more as traders, commodity trading advisors and managed funds take advantage of the trading advantages for this contract. Figure 3.2 shows weekly volume growth in the CBOT mini-sized Dow since its inception. Keeping on the Path of Least Resistance A trader can watch the 30 stocks in the Dow to get a very good idea of how the index is acting or is going to act. I like to place all 30 Dow stocks in a window and have them automatically sorted from strongest to weakest each day on a Net Change basis. Getting a feel for all 500 stocks in the SampP 500 at a glance is as impossible. Figure 3.3 shows all 30 Dow Stocks sorted by the Net change. With this I can glance at it and see that 22 out of the 30 of the stocks are red (down on the day). This filter gives me a clean, easy downward or upward bias to the market as I can watch more stocks going red, or going green, as the markets start to fall apart or try to improve. If a trader currently is in an individual stock, he can have all kinds of outside influences move the price. Maybe insiders are dumping their own stock. Maybe an analyst has just issued an upgrade while his trading department is dumping shares off to an unsuspecting public. Maybe the company is giving positive forward guidance as its last hope to stave off bankruptcy proceedings. The factors affecting an individual stock are endless. However, when investors in general want to sell stocks, the Dow reacts by heading south. If they want to buy, the Dow spurts green. The quotDow effectquot encompasses individual investors, hedge funds, program traders and arbitrage traders. In addition, the Dow moves actively in all buy and sell programs. Supply and demand at its finest - this is what makes the CBOT mini-sized Dow futures contract such a beautiful instrument to trade. This, combined with the much tighter spreaders than the ES or NQ contract, make it the best contract to trade for intraday trading. Now that we have covered how futures work, and why I like to trade the CBOT mini-sized Dow, section 4 will discuss why you should diversify your trading into precious metals and bonds, and then well start looking at my trading strategy. Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts There is one very good reason to know how the Gold, Silver and Bond markets work, and that reason can be summed up in one word: OPPORTUNITY. Although the Dow is one of my favorite markets to trade, there are plenty of times when it is stuck in a trading range, going nowhere. As you can see in the chart below, while the Dow was stuck in a trading range over a period of four months in 2004, Gold, Silver and Bonds all had nice, very tradeable up trends. Although the chart below is based on a daily timeframe over the course of nearly half a year, the same thing happens on all time frames, from the 1 minute chart to the weekly chart. While one market is chopping, another market is trending. Traders have the best opportunity to make money in markets that are trending. By watching all four markets, you can rotate your trades into the markets that have the best trends, and stay out of the markets that are chopping around. Gold: Trading Where the Action Is By trading gold, you will be in good company. No other market in the world has the universal appeal of the gold market. For centuries, gold has been coveted for its unique blend of rarity, beauty, and near indestructibility. Nations have embraced gold as a store of wealth and a medium of international exchange, and individuals have sought to possess gold as insurance against the daily fluctuations of paper money. Gold is also a vital industrial metal, as it is an excellent conductor of electricity, is extremely resistant to corrosion, and is one of the most chemically stable of the elements, making it critically important in electronics and other high-tech applications. Thats all well and good, right But as a trader, all I really care about is if the market in question provides good trading opportunities. Over the last several years gold has become a great market to trade with plenty of volatility and trending price action. One of the biggest questions I get regarding these other markets is a simple, yet essential question: How do they work in regards to my PampL If I buy gold and it goes up 4.00 an ounce, how much money did I just make Lets take a look. CBOT full-sized 100 oz. Gold Futures CBOT mini-sized 33.2 Gold Futures As you can see in the charts above, a 1.00 per ounce move in CBOT full-sized 100 oz. Gold results in a 100.00 per point per contract move, while a 1.00 per ounce move in CBOT mini-sized 33.2 oz. Gold results in a 33.20 per point per contract move on your PampL. Both contracts are great to trade, and the decision on whether or not to trade the full-sized Gold depends largely on your account size. If you are trading a smaller account (under 25,000) it is probably better to stick with the CBOT mini-sized Gold. Silver: Great Volatility Silver has attracted mans interest for thousands of years. In ancient times, silver deposits were plentiful on or near the earths surface. Relics of ancient civilizations include jewelry, religious artifacts, and food vessels formed from the durable, malleable metal. In 1792, silver assumed a key role in the United States monetary system when Congress based the currency on the silver dollar, and its fixed relationship to silver. Silver was used for the nations coinage until its use was discontinued in 1965. At the turn of the century, an even more important economic function was emerging for silver, that of an industrial raw material. Today, silver is sought as a valuable and practical industrial commodity as well as an appealing investment. The largest industrial users of silver are the photographic, jewelry, and electronic industries. Again, this is all well and good right But as a trader, can we do anything with this market The answer is a resounding yes. Later in these lessons, I will be showing examples of specific plays with silver, but for now lets make sure we understand how it works in relation to the PampL. CBOT full-sized 5000 oz. Silver Futures Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts When it comes to executing a specific setup, traders generally fall into three categories: Those that know the setup like the back of their hand, but fail to make money due to a flawed trading methodology Those that know the setup better than their spouses bad habits, but fail to make money because the setup is being used on the wrong market Those that know the setup better than the varied plot lines on Alias . but fail to make money because of poor money management The point of this, of course, is to emphasize the importance of establishing a trade setup from a three-pronged approach. In addition to the actual setup, there also needs to be a foundation from which to operate the setup. This foundation consists of the following: The trading methodology, the money management technique, and the knowledge of the best markets to trade for that particular setup. In other words, its a lot more than just quotwhats the entryquot Without this additional data, a trader is like wounded antelope in the center of a lion pride, where it is not a question of quotifquot the antelope is going to get whacked faster than a newly discovered FBI informant within the Mafia, but rather of quotwhen. quot For a trader without this three-pronged approach to their trade setups, the possibility of ruin is not a question of quotif. quot Its only a matter of quotwhen. quot I utilize 8 setups in my daily trading routine. My first, favorite, and the one that determines my trading for the rest of the day, is based on the opening gap. Each day in the market there is one opportunity that represents the lowest-risk trade available, and that is the opening gap. Gaps occur when the next days regular cash session opening price is greater or lower than the previous days regular cash session close, creating a quotgapquot in price levels on the charts, similar to that space we see each night between David Lettermans two front teeth. However, when it comes to gaps, not all markets are created equal. Gaps in quotsingle itemquot markets do not act the same as gaps in quotmulti-itemquot markets. Examples of quotsingle-itemquot markets include bonds, currencies, grains and energies. These markets are made up of a single component, and a news item on this single component controls the entire market, instead of just a portion of it. On the other hand, a quotmulti-itemquot market such as CBOT mini-sized Dow makes a great candidate for gap plays, because there are individual components of this index that will respond differently to various news items. This means that, although the market may gap up on a news item, there will be individual stocks within the index that will either ignore the news or sell off on the news, weighing the index down and creating an opportunity for the market to fill its gap. Dow Gaps Are Best Although the Dow is the best quotgapquot market to trade, the individual components of this index do not set up consistently for these plays. Individual stocks are like politicians, in that each day they can produce a fresh skeleton from the proverbial closet. Earnings announcements, corporate scandals and insider deals can create gaps in price that never get filled. Due to the unpredictable nature of the individual stock, they make poor candidates for gap fills. Along these same lines, the Nasdaq market is heavily weighted towards technology, and gaps in price can take longer to fill as the technology news of the day plays out. In addition, the SampP 500 has such a broad array of stocks, that it can make it more difficult to get a clean gap fill. In the end, the Dow represents a small group of large, individual stocks from different industries, and it is therefore the best market to play when it comes to gaps. The magic of gaps is that they are like an open window, and like all windows, at some point they are going to be closed. The key, then, is to be able to accurately predict when the days gap (window) is going to be filled (closed). What is as important as analyzing the gap itself is analyzing the market conditions that produce the gap. The reason for the gap is immaterial. What matters is the pre-market volume. For example, a professional gap with high pre-market volume can take weeks to get filled. Much more common are gaps that are news reactions or fishing expeditions. These are smaller in nature, fill quickly and can be faded regularly. The question, then, is if I ignore the reason for the gap, what is it that Im looking for that determines whether or not I will take the setup The key action I am watching is the pre-market volume in a specific set of cash stocks. I particularly like to watch KLAC, MXIM, NVLS, and AMAT. What Im looking for is the pre-market volume in these stocks as of 9:20 a. m. Eastern time, 10 minutes before the regular cash session open. If these stocks are trading under 30,000 shares each at this time, the gap (up or down) has an 85 chance of filling that same day. However, if it jumps up to 50,000 shares each, the gap only has about a 60 chance of filling that same day. On these particular days, the midpoint of the gap has an 85 chance of being hit, so I do take this into account on these particular days. Finally, if the pre market volume jumps to over 70,000 shares each, the chances of the gap filling that same day drop to 30. Why does this work Think about it when comparing a car driving on an empty tank of gas versus a full tank of gas. If the market is really set up to move, then there will be real volume coming into the cash market. If the market is just setting up a head fake, then the volume in the cash market will be low, as there wont be any conviction in the move. Ignore the news and follow the money. Here is how I use this information to manage my trades: lttable borderquot1quot cellpaddingquot0quot cellspacingquot0quot widthquot631quotgt lttbodygt lttrgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot257quotgt Pre-Market Volume in Key Stocks lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot112quotgt lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot262quotgt lttdgt lttrgt lttrgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot257quotgt Less Than 30,000 lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot112quotgt Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts Most beginning traders are taught by their brokers to use 3:1 risk reward ratios, risking one point to get three points. As the traders wonder why they always get stopped out just before the market turns, their broker is tallying up commissions generated on the day. In general, wider stops produce more winning trades. They key with wider stops, of course, is to only play setups that have a greater than 80-percent chance of winning. The gap play Im describing, with the parameters that I use, has a greater than 80 percent chance of winning. What is important to remember for gap plays is that an active program of trailing stops will negatively affect your winloss ratio. Once the parameters are set in place, the best thing a trader can do is to walk away and let the orders do their job. Although tweaking is a good thing to do when giving a car a tune up, tweaking the parameters of a gap trade will not work. One important thing to remember: If 80 percent of these plays win, that means 20percent of them lose. I actually like losing trades for one main reasonthis leaves an quotopen gapquot in the markets. An open gap is like a magnet, and there is an 80 percent chance that the markets will fill than gap within 10 trading days. Whenever the markets leave an open gap, I mark that level on a Post-It Note and place it on my computer. Lets take a look at an example in this next video. Here is a link that will launch a four fminute video on your screen. In it you will hear me talk about gaps, with a few example plays. The example of that last 62 point gap in the video you just watched is my favorite type of gap. I called it the quotBahamas Gapquot as it represents a low-stress trade. The gap fills quickly and is a pleasing move in which to participate. It should be noted that gaps of under 10 Dow points are not worth playing. Lets take a look in more detail at the video you just watched. As Ive already said, I always love it when you have these quotopen windowsquot out there in the markets. As you saw in the last video, they act as black holes, eventually sucking prices back to their gapping levels. You always want to be conscious of where the open gaps are located, and I like to use a chart like the one posted below to give me a continuous visual reference. As you can see, the gaps will come back and get filled at some point. Now, lets take another look at the chart I used in the video: This chart was traded using a 100,000 account, and utilizing 9 contracts for a full position. On August 18, we gapped up a modest 44 points in the Dow prior to some economic numbers, as seen in the prior video. I short at the open. We rallied, sold off into the economic numbers, and then shot higher once the numbers were released. I had a 66-point stop, and the markets rallied just through that level, producing a loss of 330 per contract, or 2,970. I head into the next trading day knowing there is now a quotblack holequot gap below. I can actually hear the sucking sound. The next day we have a modest low volume 13 point gap higher that works out quickly, for 65 per contract (585). The day after, we get a nice 52 point gap lower that takes a few hours to fill, but creates few headaches, for 260 per contract (2,340). The next day we get a 44 point gap higher that comes close to our stop but eventually fills the gap for 255 per contract (2,295). Finally on August 22 we get the quotsucker gapquot when Intel announces quotcautious upside earnings revisions. quot The market explodes and gaps up 62 points, right into key resistance. I short the gap, as the pre-market volume is again low. Six bars later, my target is hit for 62 points or 310 per contract (2,790). The sucking sound of the black hole below is getting louder . During the afternoon session we get a bear flag consolidation. I set up a quotsell stopquot at 9392 to let the market take me into a breakdown of that flag formation. I get the fill and set my stop above intraday resistance at 9455. My target is the 818 quotblack hole gapquot at 9304. The market spends the rest of the day on its hands and knees, dry heaving, trying to hold back the internal pressure. This pressure proves to be too much and the market eventually falls over. I hold my position over the weekend and Monday morning the markets quickly fill the gap for an 88-point gain or 440 per contract (3,960). These are a series of great trades, and I encourage you to watch the video again to see how they operate. Gaps are the one moment of the trading day where everyone has to show their poker hand, and this creates the single biggest advantage for the short-term trader. Understanding the psychology behind the gaps is paramount to playing them successfully on a daily basis. The gaps are so powerful that many traders make a nice living playing these set ups alone. The key is to know how they work and to develop a solid methodology and set of rules to trade them. After reading this article, the serious trader will have a better foundation for a plan to trade the markets successfully on a full-time basis: a proven set up to play, markets that best fit that set up and a plan of action to maximize the play. That is pretty much everything the trader needs to survive and thrive in this greatest of professions. Trading the markets is the greatest job in the world. There are no bosses offering contradictory instructions and, even better, no employees to baby sit. Each year thousands of people flock to the markets like lemmings to the sea. Yet, many fewer than that manage to avoid flinging themselves over the proverbial cliff. How does a trader break away from the herd and ease into a consistently profitable trading routine The key to staying profitable consists of sticking to the following three concepts: Staying in the Right Frame of Mind Keeping on the Path of Least Resistance Knowing What to do When Things go Wrong Staying in the Right Frame of Mind In a moment we will look at a very easy and potentially very profitable strategy to trade the CBOT CBOT mini-sized Dow. Before utilizing this or any strategy, however, a trader first must create the optimal mindset for executing trades. This is very similar to the quotchicken-and-eggquot theory: Without a professional state of mind, a trader simply cannot produce consistent profits over the long haul. In a similar vein, without that egg, the future existence of the chicken is over Being a professional is all about maintaining a state of mind, and a trader is never going to make consistent money until he or she achieves that frame of reference from which to operate. Here are five nuggets of wisdom that Ive learned over the years to help establish the right frame of mind: Professional traders focus on limiting risk and protecting capital. Amateur traders focus on how much money they can make on each trade. Professionals always take money away from amateurs. Embracing your opinion leads to losses. When a trader rationalizes a decline by saying things like, quotthey are just shaking out weak hands here, quot or quotthe market makers are just fishing for stops, quot then the trader is embracing his own opinion instead of listening to the market. This is also called quotbeing an amateurquot and leads to a one-way revolving door called financial ruin. Amateur traders turn into professional traders once they stop looking for the quotnext great technical indicatorquot and start controlling their risk on each trade. In reality, traders are not trading stocks, futures or options. They are trading other traders. Be aware of the psychology and emotions behind the person who is taking the opposite side of your trade. Professional traders actively take small losses, and they do so because they know their most important job is to protect their capital. After all, re-entry is only a commission away. Amateurs resort to hop e to save their trades. In life, hope is a powerful and positive thing. In trading, hanging onto a trade based only on hope is very similar to a trader spending the rest of his life filling holes in rotten teeth when he has no skill as a dentist. In other words, it aint pretty. Once you get in the right frame of mind, you will be in a much better position to execute trades in a professional, and therefore profitable, manner. Now lets take a look at discovering which side of the market to trade. Heres the key: Professional traders do not care about being on the short side or the long side of the market. They care about being on the right side . Keeping on the Path of Least Resistance The finely tuned art of technical analysis involves a process similar to a jury weighing the presented evidence during a trial and then deciding upon an outcome. By the same token, my final trading decisions must be backed by evidence, not by emotion. The stronger the evidence, the greater the likelihood that a specific price action may occur. By contrast, the stronger the emotion, the stronger the likelihood that a trader is about to imprint the exact high or the exact low of the day. Based on this, I use a very simple technical system to trade the CBOT mini-sized Dow futures. Before we look at this, lets take a step back and see how I view the big picture each trading day: As the above video shows, before the trading day starts, I always like to glance at the larger time frames first. The key to consistent profits is to trade on the path of least resistance. The path of least resistance starts from the larger time frames and moves down through the ranks to the smallest time frames. Think of the weekly chart as a thousand pound weight on your chest. Then think of the five-minute chart as a Two-pound weight on your chest. Which is going to create more pressure on your body It is ridiculous to try to move the two-pound dumbbell without taking into account the larger 1,000- pound weight bearing down on top of it. During the week of May 2, 2003, the weekly chart experienced an upside moving average crossover and it hasnt looked back. I dont care how many books are being published that discuss the coming doom of the world economies. I dont care how overbought we are. I dont care how many traders are flaunting their superiority in that they would never go long stocks in this environment (Bearish geniuses in 2003 were almost as common as bullish geniuses in 1999). What matters to me is this: Is the current big picture perspective one based on too much supply or too much demand This weekly chart makes it crystal clear that, as of this writing in early Jan 2005, current demand for Dow stocks continues to exceed the current supply. Sure, half of this demand is from frantic short covering, but that doesnt matter. Again, demand is demand. Período. By glancing at the charts I showed you in the video, I know to spend most of my energy focusing on the long side. I will keep any shorts I initiate on a tight leash. I will follow this procedure until this situation reverses itself and the 9 period moving average is trading below the 18 period moving average on the weekly chart. Until that happens, there isnt much point in fighting the trend. That is a losing game. For the trading day Im about to show you, I jotted down the following information based on the Weekly, Daily, and 60 minute charts I showed you in the video. This gives me an idea of where the quotheavy pressurequot is located. I use a table like this: lttable borderquot1quot cellpaddingquot0quot cellspacingquot0quotgt lttbodygt lttrgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot136quotgt lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot233quotgt Pressure Heading into the Day lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot137quotgt lttdgt lttrgt lttrgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot136quotgt lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot233quotgt lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot62quotgt lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot62quotgt lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot75quotgt lttdgt lttd valignquottopquot widthquot137quotgt lttdgt lttrgt lttbodygt lttablegt Although this system is deceptively simply, it is very clean about keeping a trader on the right side of the trend. Trades can be set up on all time frames, and there are, of course, ways to maximize this system utilizing a few other indicators. A very effective addition is the Keltner Channels with a 3.0 average true range. Keltner Channels are similar to Bollinger Bands in that they will form what looks like a moving average trading channel on your chart. With this quotchannelquot in place, a trader can get out of his position if prices hit one of the upper or lower bands of the channel, instead of waiting for the next crossover to liquidate. If I get out of a position when it hits a Keltner Channel, I still wait for the next crossover to initiate my next position. Keltner Channels are canned indicators that are available on most charting systems. Traders are notorious for tweaking systems, and that is a good quottweakquot for this system. However, it also works fine without them. The biggest mistake I see people making with this crossover system is they use stops that are too tight and they are too aggressive about trailing them. I place a 50 point stop in the YM and I dont trail it at all. Trailing a stop on this setup will almost always get you out at a bad price. Let the system do the work. When Things Go Wrong: Exchange Crashes Weve covered my first two topics, Staying in the Right Frame of Mind, and Keeping on the Path of Least Resistance. Now, lets take a look at the third, Knowing What to do When Things go Wrong. Because as sure as the sun is going to rise tomorrow, things will go wrong On Thursday, May 1, 2003, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange crashed at 11:40 a. m. Eastern time, and trading in the E-mini SampPs was halted at the 905.00 level. They were still halted at the end of the day, even though the big contracts rallied strongly to close at the 915.00 level. Globex did not reopen until the next morning. A lot of people were stuck short with E-mini SampPs during this time, including myself. What to do Many newbies froze. quotI had no idea what to do, quot said Scott Sether, a private trader from St. Paul, MN. quotIve been trading E-mini SampPs for about six months, and to be honest I was like a deer caught in the headlights. My broker told me he would keep me posted on when they would reopen. All I know is I couldnt get out of my trade until the next morning. I was short ten contracts and I lost 6,500.quot Many traders were stuck short this day. The floor traders knew this. How did they react Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Imagine the floor traders as a bunch of sea gulls. Then picture the traders who were stuck short as a recently unguarded sack lunch on the beach. Get the picture When the CME finally reopened the next morning, traders who were stuck short ended up having to swallow some sizeable losses. The key, of course, is for traders to know about their available choices if something like this occurs in the future. In this instance, Scott could have hedged by going long two of the big SampP contracts. However, it turned out that his broker is one of the many quote-brokersquot out there that only trades electronic futures and does not trade any open outcry products. Scratch that idea. In addition, if a trader was short only a couple of E-mini SampPs, it would not have been appropriate to hedge with the bigger contract (one big contract five minis). So what to do In this instance, Scott could have gone long the CBOT mini-sized Dow, which is what I did. Once I was alerted to the trading halt, I immediately went long an equivalent number of CBOT mini-sized Dow contracts on the CBOT. Once completed, because of the high correlation between the Dow and SampP, I was perfectly hedged through whenever trading would again resume, which turned out to be the next morning. When it became evident that the market was going to quotkill the shortsquot who were stuck, I continued to pile on additional contracts to my CBOT mini-sized Dow trade. Not only did I completely hedge my losses in the E-mini SampP, I made nice profits on every long CBOT mini-sized Dow I owned over and above my hedge amount. By the time the CME opened the next morning, the SampP had rallied more than 15 points. What turned out to be a disaster for the unprepared trader turned into a windfall for traders who were prepared for the worst-nightmare scenario. It is important to be aware of the different choices a trader has each day. Awareness brings empowerment and the ability to turn the inevitable glitch on an exchange into a powerful trading opportunity. There is a ton of information out there, and many traders get easily confused on what to use and how to use it properly. By getting in a professional state of mind and by focusing on trading the CBOT mini-sized Dow, a trader has the best of both worlds an easy view of the current supply and demand situation and a clean instrument with which to trade that information. This simple system will keep the trader from second guessing himself, will keep a person on the path of least resistance, and will keep losses small while allowing winners a chance to run. And thats about everything the trader needs to make a living at this greatest business in the world. Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts One of the simplest and most effective position entry techniques I use is based on what I call multi-pivot levels. The main advantage of this system is that it is price-based as opposed to indicator-based. By the time most indicators generate a buy or a sell signal, the move is already well under way. By following this price-based methodology, there are many instances where I get into a trade before the indicator-based traders, and I usually end up handing off my position just as a buy or sell signal is being generated on a stochastic or other oscillator type system. This is also a good system if you dont have time to stare at the charts all day long, or have a penchant for chasing the market higher and lower. Playing the pivots automatically creates trader discipline because the entries and exits are pre-determined before the trading day even starts. There is no big mystery or secret to the pivots. They are readily available and have been around for a long time. These are support (S) and resistance (R) levels calculated by floor traders using a simple mathematical formula. These levels became widely known and have moved off floor. Today many traders are aware of them and try to use them, but in my experience they are using them incorrectly. To add to the confusion, there are different formula versions and different time frames that are used when calculating pivots. So, to get started, lets look at what I use, which is one of the standard pivot formulas: lttable classquotnobordertableleftquot alignquotcenterquot borderquot0quot cellpaddingquot0quot cellspacingquot0quot widthquot300quotgt lttbodygt lttrgt lttd nowrapquotnowrapquot valignquotbottomquot widthquot300quotgt R3: R1 (High - Low) lttdgt lttrgt lttrgt lttd nowrapquotnowrapquot valignquotbottomquot widthquot300quotgt R2: Pivot (High - Low) lttdgt lttrgt lttrgt lttd nowrapquotnowrapquot valignquotbottomquot widthquot300quotgt R1: 2x Pivot Low lttdgt lttrgt lttrgt lttd nowrapquotnowrapquot valignquotbottomquot widthquot300quotgt PIVOT: High Low Close3 lttdgt lttrgt lttrgt lttd nowrapquotnowrapquot valignquotbottomquot widthquot300quotgt S1: 2x Pivot High lttdgt lttrgt lttrgt lttd nowrapquotnowrapquot valignquotbottomquot widthquot300quotgt S2: Pivot - (High - Low) lttdgt lttrgt lttrgt lttd nowrapquotnowrapquot valignquotbottomquot widthquot300quotgt S3: S1 - (High - Low) lttdgt lttrgt l ttbodygt lttablegt Once a trader has this formula, then the key data that is needed is the high, low and close of the previous session. For my own trading, I like to utilize 24 hours worth of data to capture the highs and lows. However, I will use settlement prices for the close, as this is the closing price that matters. Once I get this highlowclose data, I plug it into an excel spreadsheet with the formulas listed above. This information generates seven important levels for the next trading day: a central pivot, then three levels above (R1, R2, and R3) and three levels below (S1, S2 and S3). The central pivot has the most weight of the seven levels. In addition to these daily levels, I also utilize the midpoints between these levels (you can also go through and add the weekly and monthly levels to provide additional target levels). It is important to note that it is extremely rare when a stock index hits its R3 or S3 levels. This is important to know because if a market rallies to R2 or a sells off to S2, that usually ends up being the exact high or the exact low of the day. This knowledge will help temper a traders emotions and keep them on track to follow this system. This is a fade play. Im looking to buy pullbacks to pivot levels or sell rallies to pivot levels in teh direction of the prevailing trend. Trading rules for pivot buys (sells are reversed): Set up an intraday chart that shows 24-hours worth of data, so you can view any overnight highs and lows. Insert the pivots and the midpoints onto your chart. The first pivot play is done in conjunction with a price gap. If there is a price gap down, then buy a decline into the closest pivot level. If there isnt a playable gap (over 10 YM points), then wait until 9:45 a. m. Eastern time to initiate the first play. I wait for the markets to penetrate a pivot level, moving up at least halfway to the next pivot level, then I set up a bid to buy the first retracement back to the first violated pivot level. I enter my trades with limit orders only. I Place orders quotjust in front ofquot the pivot. For YM I use 3 points. For example, if you are trading the YM, and the pivot level is 10000, then I would buy a decline to 10003 and short a rally to 9997. Sometimes the pivot will be an odd number, such as 10003.68. In this case I always round in the direction of the trade. So, if Im bidding for a long, I will round 10003.68 to 10004, and my bid will be 10007 for a long and 10001 for a short. My stops and targets, then, would be quotjust in front ofquot these appropriate long and short levels. Once filled, place an order to close the first half at the next pivot level, and the second half at the pivot level after that, using the same quotjust in front ofquot parameters. I place a 20 point stop for the YM. If the first target is hit, move up the stop to your entry level pivot, minus the quotjust in front ofquot fractions discussed in rule 3. For example, if you get in to a YM long position at 10003, and the pivot is at 10000, then your new stop would be 9997 once the first target is hit. If I am in a trade at the market close, and neither my stop or target has been hit, I will close my position out quotat the marketquot at 4:10 p. m. Hora do Leste. I dont initiate any new positions after 3:30 p. m. Eastern time, but I will manage existing positions into the close. The markets never have a sustained move above R3 or below S3. If we trade to those levels, I will always fade the move. If I get two losers in a row, Im done with pivots for the day. In Figure 7.1, the CBOT mini-sized Dow futures open mixed and begin selling off early in the session. I place an order to short the next rally to midpoint at 10118, but I dont get filled. Once we break down through the Daily Pivot, I move my order to short down to 10091. This time I get filled, and I place a stop at 10111 and an order to cover half my position at 10069. Im filled on the first half of my order, and I then move my stop down to 10097. My next target is 10041. My next target is hit and Im now flat. The market continues to move lower and tests the next pivot level. I place an order to short at the pivot level above, right at 10035. The market is acting really slow. I put my orders in place and go grab some lunch. By the time I get back Im still not filled, which is why I absolutely love the low volume August trading. It takes a couple of hours but I end up getting filled later in the afternoon. I place a stop at 10055 and my first target is 10015. This target is hit quickly and I move my stop down to 10041. My second target is hit at 9988 and Im now flat. Since the market continues to trend lower, I place a bid to short at the next overhead pivot level and I place an offer at 10008. The market trades right up to this level but I dont get filled. When the market collapses I move my offer down to 9982, but this doesnt get filled either. In Figure 7.2, the markets open mixed and rally into the midpoint at 10189. I set up to buy the first pullback and I place an order at 10163. We come very close to this level, but not quite, and I dont get filled. The market rallies through the next pivot level, and I move my bid up to 10192. The market doesnt even look back and keeps on going, moving up through yet the next pivot level. I move up my bid against to 10221. This time I get filled and place a stop at 10201 and my first target is 10238. The first target is hit quickly and I move up my stop to 10215. My second target is hit at 10261 and I am now flat. The market rallies and I place an order to buy at 10267. I dont get filled and the market closes near its highs. In Figure 7.3, the Dow gaps down and I place in a bid at 10077. I get filled and place a stop at 10057 with my first target at 10090. My first target is hit and I move up my stop to 10071. The Dow continues to rally and my second target is hit at 10104. I place an order at 10096 in order to buy the next pullback. I get filled and place a stop at 10076. The market slows to a crawl for the next hour and nothing happens. Then momentum begins to pick up and Im out of my first half at 10104. I raise my stop to 10090. My second target is hit at 10118. The Dow continues to rally to the next pivot level. I place an order to buy a pullback at 10124. I dont get filled. The market pushes higher to the next level and I raise my bid to 10144. I get filled and place a stop order at 10124 with my first target at 10157. My first target is hit quickly and I raise my stop to 10138. My second target is hit at 10171 and I am now flat. The market continues to rally to the Daily R3. This is a rare event The markets hardly ever get through R3, and I always fade initial moves to these levels. I place an order to short at 10185. I am filled and place a stop at 10205. The markets push up to 10200 and fade into the close. Since neither of my parameters are hit, I cover at 4:10 p. m. Eastern time at 100176. The pivot levels work so well in this regard for three reasons: The first, and most obvious, is that a lot of traders watch these daily levels, so there is a self-fulfilling prophecy involved. The same can be said for Fibonacci Levels, but they do not hold nearly as well as the pivots. Why I elaborate on this in the next two points. On the floor, it is a traders goal to grab two points in the SampP 500 and get out, or 20 points in the Dow and get out. The floor traders all operate in a big circle, with the longer term players in the center of the circle, and the newer players on the outskirts. In its purest form, the traders in the center will get in on a trade, lets say its a long, and then sell their position to the guys on the outside of the circle. What happens is that the traders on the outside, by the time they see the market moving, are the last ones in the pit to get in on the move. If they are lucky, they will then be able to turn around and sell it to the public. As the guys on the outside are selling to the public and closing positions, the guys in the center are selling to the public and opening new short positions. And the cycle renews itself like this throughout the day. This causes a specific dynamic in the markets, generating specific cycles of speed and rest on an intraday basis. They focus on the pivot levels to base their entries and to also gauge market action. The pivots play on this in that they are spaced out to catch these quotpatches of momentum. quot A Dow Pivot is usually 30-50 points apart, and this is the type of movement that perpetuates the cycle I just described. Like a hawk, the floor traders in the center of the circle are catching half this move, dumping it, and waiting for the next level to be hit. One of the main reasons these pivots work has to do with the vast majority of inexperienced traders out there. The floor traders start a trade, and the inexperience of most traders causes the momentum that finishes a trade. How Because the average trader relies on a lot of different quotindicators, quot they are getting in and out of their positions way too late, which causes losing trades and a specific cycle of market movement as their stop placement slowly and steadily increases the velocity of market movement in the direction of their stops. Indicators are just that, an quotindication. quot This is like your girlfriend slapping you across the face, and you taking it as an quotindicationquot that she might be angry with you If it takes a slap across the face to realize this, then you are following the wrong indicators. By the way, all market indicators are the wrong indicators, as they are all lagging. Price action is pure. This over reliance on indicators by the majority of traders is what helps this system to work. By the time the average trader gets a buy signal, the pivot play is almost over and users of this system will be selling their position to the indicator-based trader. Then the subsequent reversal that takes place is because of all the stop losses sitting out there, like trout sunning themselves on top of a lake. easy targets for the hawks who come swooping down from overhead. The market pauses, drifts down, and picks up steam and rips through all of the stop losses, pausing when the run is over. This quotpausequot generally happens at a pivot level. Its where the floor traders are beginning to accumulate their next position for the next cycle of play. Now knowing how this cycle works, lets take a look at a video of a live trading day where I played the pivots, where I sold half at the next pivot level and used a trailing 8 and 21 period exponential moving averages to trail the second half of my position. Ive worked with many traders, and one of the things they find most valuable is to look at exactly the same chart Im looking at throughout the trading day. In this next video, I discuss a recent day of trading that focuses on the pivots, but also combines my discussions regarding moving averages and gaps, as well as utilizing some of my own indicators. Lets take a look at the trading we did in the CBOT mini-sized Dow on Friday, January 7, 2005, using the pivots in the video. The pivot levels work mainly because of the psychology painpleasure cycle that perpetuates the markets each day. Traders who follow only indicators will buy a position when it is halfway to three-quarters the way off its pivot, and it is these traders who provide the stop losses to perpetuate the next cycle of market movement. If you rely only on indicators for your entries, instead of using the price action of the pivots, you will get in and out of these cycles too late, and you wont make any money trading. What is nice about this system is that a trader doesnt have to watch it very closely once he or she is in a position. Im not an aggressive trailer of stops. I like to get in a position, set my parameters, and then focus on other things. Depending on a traders work situation, he could do this at the office, especially on the West Coast of the U. S. and especially if he had an order system that automatically bracketed trades. This way you can place the parameters, and then go to the next meeting or appointment. Let the parameters baby-sit the position . This is much better as well because it takes human emotion out of the equation. Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts I like to focus part of my trading day on scalp plays, where Im jumping in and out of the market with a little piece here, and a little piece there. However, I also like to focus a part of my time on catching potentially bigger intraday moves, as well as multi-day and multi-week moves. What Ill do is focus on scalp plays in one account, and use a second account for swing plays. The quotSqueeze Playquot is a diverse setup that can be used for both scalp plays and swing trades. The Squeeze Play takes advantage of quotquiet periodsquot in the market when volatility has decreased significantly, and the market is building up energy for its next major move higher or lower. This indicator was introduced to me by my trading partner, Hubert Senters, and it has become an integral part of my own trading plan. These quiet periods are identified when Bollinger Bands narrow in width to the point that they are trading inside of Keltner Channels (I just use the default settings on TradeStation for both of these indicators). This marks a period of reduced volatility and signals that the market is taking a breather, building up steam for its next move. I use this signal on various time frames. On the CBOT mini-sized Dow, for example, a squeeze on a two-minute chart can move 10-20 YM points, on a five-minute chart 30-50 points, and on a daily chart, several hundred points. The kicker, of course, is that the smaller the time frame, the more frequent the signals. A two-minute chart may fire off 3-5 signals in a day, while the daily chart will fire off 6-7 signals over the course of an entire year. This is a momentum play. I will buy strength and sell weakness. Trading rules for buys (sells are reversed): Set up a 24-hour chart so the overnight activity can be accounted for in this indicator setup. The quotheads upquot on this indicator is the first black dot. This is not a trade signal, but a quotheads upquot that a trade signal is setting up. The signal on the indicator is the first gray dot after a series of black dots (this will be shown in detail in the charts that follow). Once the first gray dot appears after a series of black dots, I go long if the histogram is above zero. Once the signal fires, I just place a market order. This is a momentum play and I dont want to be messing around with limit orders that may not get filled. For day trades, I place the following minimum money management stops. If the stop is also near a key price support level, I will take that into consideration and adjust accordingly. For example, if my entry is 1104.00 on the SampPs and the Daily Pivot is at 1101.75, I would move my stop to just below that pivot level to 1101.50, for a stop of 2.50 instead of 2.00. I find that nine times out of ten, I just use the default stop. For swing plays and position trades (taken off the daily charts) I place the following stops. I take into consideration the same key levels as discussed in number 4.My target is based purely on the momentum of the trade. Once the momentum signal starts to weaken, I get out of the trade at the market. I dont trail stops. Lets look at some example trades. The chart in Figure 8.1 shows how to set up the elements of this play into whatever time frame you want to view. For intraday trading, I like to watch the five-minute chart. You can watch the one - and two-minute charts, but generally these signals are not as powerful as the five-minute signal, though they are tradeable. The Keltner Channel is the pair of thick black lines and are set at the default parameters of on TradeStation of 20 and 2. The Bollinger Bands are the thinner, gray lines and are set at the default settings of 20 and 1.5. At the bottom is a 12 period (on the close) momentum oscillator. At point 1, you can see that the Bollinger Bands have gone inside the Keltner Channels. This indicates that the market is going into a quiet period, and it is a quotheads up. quot This is not a signal just a heads up that when the Bollinger Bands pop back out, it will be time to take a trade. Here you can see that the Bollinger Bands have come back outside the Keltner Channels. It is time to take a trade. If the momentum oscillator is above zero at this point, I go long. If it is below zero at this point, I go short. I dont mess around with limit orders. I just jump in at the market. This is just an example of what triggers the entry and exits. I will look at specific plays in a moment. One of the things Hubert did was turn all of the things in the first chart in Figure 8.2 into an easy to read indicator, which is what I now use. You can see on the bottom when the Bollinger Bands go inside the Keltner Channels, the dots turn black. This is a heads up that the markets have entered a quiet period. At this point the Bollinger Bands come back out of the Keltner Channels. Since the Momentum Oscillator is above zero, this is a long signal. On the indicator, this is measured by when the dots turn back to gray after being black. When I see that first gray dot, that is my signal to take a trade. Then, if the histogram is above the zero line, I go long, and if it is below the zero line, I go short. Again, this is just to show you how the indicator works. In the next examples I will go over some actually plays. I prefer to take off all of the quotclutterquot that is on the price chart and just use the indicator. But now you know how the indicator works. On the two-minute chart of the CBOT mini-sized Dow in Figure 8.3, we get a black dot a little after 10:00 a. m. Eastern time. This is a signal that the Bollinger Bands have narrowed and are now trading inside of the Keltner Channels. I know when I get the next gray dot, I will have a trade signal. In this case, the gray dot happens right away. Usually there is more than one black dot, but once in a while it will just have the single instance, and thats ok. I find it is best to just take the signal when they come. Humans tend to mess up their trading when they try to out think their positions. When the next gray dot appears, the histogram is above zero, so I place an order to buy YM at the market. I am filled at 10164. I place a 20 point stop at 10144. My target is open as Ill be waiting for the momentum to falter as my exit signal. The market pushes higher and Im watching the histogram. As long as it makes higher highs, I stay in the trade. When it makes its first lower high, I will get out. At 10:30 a. m. Eastern time we get a lower high on the histogram and I exit at the market. Im out at 10198 for a gain of 34 points. In Figure 8.4, on June 28, the markets traded in a tight range all morning, creating a long series of black dots on the 5 minute YM chart. Remember, the black dots indicate that during this time frame, the Bollinger Bands are trading inside of the Keltner Channels, marking a period of very low volatility. A little after 1:30 p. m. Eastern time the first gray dot appears. The histogram is below zero, so I take a short at the market. Im filled at 10426 and I place a 20 point stop at 10442. The goal is to stay in the trade as long as the histogram is making lower lows (or in the case of a long, higher highs). It makes its first higher low nearly two hours later, and I exit at the market (if you were just watching the momentum oscillator, you would exit as it starts to turn higher). Im out at 10325 for a gain of 101 points. In Figure 8.5, on September 10, the five-minute squeeze on YM fires off. About an hour earlier there was a single gray dot, and I went long here. However, the very next dot went back to black. This means that the Bollinger Bands came out of the Keltner Channels, then went right back in. This is a rare occurrence, but when it happens, I just get out and wait for a solid signal. In this case I was in and out and lost 6 YM points. About 50 minutes later we get the setup again and the dots turn gray. For this next trade, with the histogram above zero, I go long and place a 20 point stop. I am in at 10263 and I place a stop at 10243. The histogram continues to move higher until 1:30 p. m. Eastern time, at which point it starts to lose momentum. I cut the position loose at 10309 for a gain of 46 points. In Figure 8.6, a little after 10:00 a. m. Eastern time on July 1, the first gray dot appears on the five-minute YM chart. The histogram is below zero, so I go short at the market. My entry 10402. The markets drift down and the histogram begins to level off. The markets continue to make lowers lows and suddenly the selling accelerates, pushing the histograms down deep into their range territory. They begin to bottom out around 11:20 a. m. Eastern time and I cover at the market. Im out at 10312 for a gain of 90 points. In Figure 8.7, on September 2, the five-minute YM chart goes into alert status around 1:15 p. m. Hora do Leste. Six black dots appear, showing that the Bollinger Bands are trading inside the Keltner Channels. When the next gray dot appears at 1:50 p. m. Eastern time, the histogram is above zero so I go long at the market. I am filled at 10183. I place a 20 point stop at 10163. The market cruises higher and the histogram begins to start making lower lows at 3:30 p. m. Hora do Leste. I exit at the market and am out at 10278 for a gain of 95 points. Not every five-minute squeeze ends up with a big move like this, but Ive found that when there is a big move, it is generally kicked off by a squeeze on the five-minute chart. I have a rule in trading that says, quotNever fight the direction of the five-minute squeezequot It supersedes all of my other intraday trading rules and setups. We looked at a lot of five-minute squeezes on YM, so I wanted to look at a daily squeeze as well. In Figure 8.8, at the end of November, the daily YM went into quotblack dot modequot, and I awaited the next gray dot. We got it on December 1, and since the histogram was above zero, I went long shortly after the open and got filled at 9804. I placed a stop at 9654, 150 points below. The YM rallied into early January and started losing momentum during the second week of the New Year. I exited on January 9, soon after the open at 10506 for a gain of 702 points. Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts Daily Squeezes and Options on the CBOT mini-sized Dow I like to use the daily squeeze to set up option plays on the CBOT mini-sized Dow. This way I can be positioned for bigger moves that occur when the daily squeeze fires off, but still be able to intraday trade in the same account without offsetting my position. Lets take a quick look at a video that shows how to use options and the daily squeeze together. Using the Squeeze for Gold and Silver The squeeze also works great for the CBOT 100 oz. Gold and 5,000 oz. Silver futures contracts, as well as the CBOT mini-sized Gold and Silver contracts. I watch the daily as well as the intraday charts on these contracts, always alert for the next squeeze signal to fire off. Using the Squeeze for the U. S. 30-Year Treasury Bonds The squeeze is also one of my favorite ways to play the U. S. 30-year Treasury Bond futures. I will use this on both daily and intraday charts. Lets look at some static charts, and then well watch another video. I love using the five-minute squeeze on the YM, but it works on other markets as well. In Figure 8.9 is a chart of the U. S. 30-year Treasury Bonds. Around 11:30 a. m. Eastern time the dots turn black, signaling that we are entering into a period of very low volatility. About 90 minutes later we get a gray dot, and since the histogram is above zero, I go long at the market (Point A). Im filled at 111 932 (Point C). I place a 7-tick stop at 111 232 (if you arent familiar with bonds, 1 tick is 31.25. So if you lose seven ticks, that equates to 218.75, or approximately 44 YM points). The momentum starts to peter out about forty minutes later, and when the histogram makes a lower high (Point B), I exit at the market. Im out at 111 1132 for a gain of 2 ticks (Point D). At one point I was up 10 ticks on the trade (the equivalent of 63 YM points) but the market rolled over quickly, which can happen. Whats more important is to stay in the signal until it ends. This way when a big move happens you will be able to stay in the trade and let your profits run. On this five-minute chart in Figure 8.10 of the U. S. 30-year Treasury Bonds, we go into quotblack dotquot territory around 10:45 a. m. Eastern time, and I set back and wait for the next gray dot to appear. This happens a little after 12 Noon Eastern time (Point A) and since the histogram is below zero, I short at the market. Im filled at 110 3032. I place a stop at 111532 (If you are not familiar with bonds, each point goes up to 3132. When it goes to 3232 it becomes a new point. For example, when bonds are at 110 3132 and they move up 1 tick to 110 3232 this reads as 111, and so on). The momentum to the downside builds and bonds sell off. Once the histogram makes a higher low (Point B), I cover my short at the market and Im out at 110 2632 for a gain of 4 ticks. Around 1:30 p. m. Eastern time we go back into quotblack dot modequot and I get prepared for my next trade. About 45 minutes later we get our first gray dot (Point C) and since the histogram is below zero I short at the market. Im in at 110 2132. I place a stop at 110 2832. Bonds sell off and move lower into the close. I cover at the first higher low at Point D and Im out at 110 1632 for a gain of 5 ticks. The market rolled over again quickly thereafter and closed on its lows. On this daily chart of the U. S. Treasury 30-year Bonds in Figure 8.11, we can see that these markets consolidated heavily for nearly a month during most of April 2003. When the first gray dot appeared after this consolidation (Point A), I went long and was filled at 113 1332 (Point C). Because this is a daily chart, I give the trade more room and use a 35 tick stop at 112 1032. Bonds rally through the entire month of May, finally losing momentum in June. Bonds get nearly as high as 122 before crashing on economic news (Point D). That kicks off a lower histogram reading (Point B), and I exit at the market at the end of that day, getting out at 119 3132 for a gain of 6 1832, or the equivalent of a 1,312 point move in YM. Squeezes show me when the markets go into quiet mode. The only reason markets go into quiet mode is because they are building up energy for their next major move. I like to be on the alert for this move, and of course on the alert for the direction of the move. With the squeeze, I have a clear indication of when to take the trade, and once Im in, I just dont mess with the trade. When it starts to lose momentum it is pretty clear, and that is the signal I use to get out. Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts In watching the markets over the years, Ive observed that most reversals take place after three consecutive higher closes, or three consecutive lower closes, and this tendency is valid for all times frames. The key to this setup is that it is based on consecutive quotclosesquot and not just intraday or daily high and low price action for an individual bar. In other words, the highs and lows are not important. Im not interested in three higher price highs or three lower price lows. I want to see where the action settles or closes, as that is where the rubber meets the road. The hard way to follow this play, especially intraday, is to stare at the charts and keep track of consecutive lower or higher closes until you get three in a row. This can cause a person to go bug-eyed, as well as insane, and is recommended only for those who get a thrill from quotthe little things in life. quot Im not a big fan of staring at charts and would be a prime candidate for the mental hospital if I did this with the naked eye. Instead, Ive developed a simple indicator in TradeStation that will quotpaintquot the first bar in the sequence after the third bar has met the criteria for a signal. Once I see the paint bar, I just place a market order and Im in the trade. Even better, I set up an audio alert so that if Im down the hall, Ill hear the signal and come back to my computer to place the trade. This works when Im on the phone with my wife as well, though she has yet to appreciate the importance of the signal and my urgent need to hang up in the middle of our conversation. Such is the life of a trader. Here is how it works: I am watching the charts and I get three bars in a row that make higher closes. At the close of the third consecutive bar, my paint bar appears on the chart, and it is marked over the first bar in the sequence of third bars. I place an order to go long at the market. To get out of this long position, I just wait for three consecutive lower lows to occur, and that will be my signal to exit the trade, and potentially go short. Although this is a very easy trade to execute, it may not make sense right out of the gate. Dont worry, if this sounds a little unclear, we will be looking at some charts soon enough. I use this signal on various time frames. For scalping the CBOT mini-sized Dow, Gold, Silver and U. S. 30-year Treasury Bond futures, I like to use the 144 tick chart and the five-minute chart. For swing trades, I will use both sixty-minute and daily charts. THIS IS A MOMENTUM REVERSAL PLAY. I WILL BUY A REBOUND AFTER A SELLOFF UPON CONFIRMATION AND SHORT A PULLBACK AFTER A RALLY UPON CONFIRMATION. TRADING RULES FOR BUYS (SELLS ARE REVERSED): Set up a 24-hour chart on intraday charts so the overnight activity can be accounted for in this indicator setup. This can be used on all time frames. The larger the time frame, the larger the parameters and potential move. For daily charts I will use the regular session hours. After three consecutive higher closes, go long at the market, at the close of the third bar in the sequence. The trade is valid until you get three consecutive lower closes, at which point you would exit the trade. If the market is still open for an intraday trade, you can simultaneously exit a long and establish a new short position. If Im in an intraday trade (fifteen-minute chart or smaller) and the market closes before giving an exit signal, I will exit at the market 4:10 p. m. Hora do Leste. For time frames that are sixty-minutes and above, I will stay in them overnight and exit at the next signal. This could be the next day for a sixty-minute chart, and it could be a month later for daily charts. In Figure 9.1, in this daily chart of the CBOT mini-sized Dow futures, a long signal occurs on August 10, which paints the August 6 bar. I go long at the close of August 10, and Im filled at 9916. Im now waiting for the next reversal signal in order to exit the trade. The next signal hits on September 7, nearly a month later. Im out at 10278 for a gain of 362 YM points. This is a good example of a play for people with insomnia, or who are living in a time zone overseas that is contusive to this type of trading. In Figure 9.2, on October 1, a reversal signal setup on the U. S. 30-year Treasury Bonds in the wee hours of the U. S. night. Im working on my newsletter late at night (the pros and cons of writing a nightly newsletter), and I take the short. Im filled at 112 132. I will stay in the trade until the next reversal signal. A few days later I get a reversal signal on October 4. I cover at 111 832 for a gain of 2532. For those of you who are not familiar with bond pricing, 132 31.25. So a move of 2532 781.25 per contract. I wanted to use this last example in Figure 9.3 to show how I would flow in and out of positions intraday, going both long and short. The first signal on October 6, in YM, was painted at 10:35 a. m. Eastern time. This means, of course, that I am going short at the close of the last bar in the sequence of three bars, which is 10176. The next reversal is noted on the chart at point 3. I cover at 10169 and simultaneously go long. The easy way to do this is to double the amount of contracts you are trading on your exit order. So, if you are long 10 contracts, then you place an order to sell 20 contracts in order to exit your 10 long contracts, and at the same time establish a new position that is short 10 contracts. The next signal occurs at point 5. I go long at 10186 and simultaneously go short at this same level. The next signal occurs at point 7. I cover my short at 10173 and go long at the same level. Figure 9.4 is a good example of a swing play on the CBOT 100 oz. Gold contract. On November 4, there is a buy signal on the daily charts, and I go long at 433.00. The market moves steadily higher, without much in the way of pullbacks. Finally, on December 7, I get a reversal signal and Im out at 453.70, a profit of 20.70 per contract, or 2070.00. This also works great on the 100 oz. Gold intraday, as well as the 5,000 oz Silver contract. Take a look at the following video for example plays in the CBOT mini-sized Dow, Gold, Silver and U. S. 30-year Treasury Bonds. This setup is especially useful for traders who like to try to buy bottoms or short tops. While it is foolish to short a stock just because its quottoo high, quot or buy a market because its quottoo low, quot its fine to short that high flyer or buy that all out loser once you get a reversal confirmation with this signal. It doesnt mean that the exact highs or the exact lows are in place, but it does mean that there has been a temporary shift in power, and it is your signal to step in and establish a position. Whether this is an intraday reversal on a five-minute chart, or a total market reversal off a daily chart, the concept is exactly the same. In addition, this play is based on pure price action, and I appreciate its simple and effective nature. Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts The best intraday trades take place when a trader is able to catch the major portion of an intraday reversal. One of the best ways to do this is with a specific price pattern that we call bricks. We call them quotbricksquot because the price pattern that is formed looks like a bunch of building blocks that have been placed on top of a regular bar chart. These building blocks are formed on the chart due to specific price action. A series of three consecutive higher closes will form an quotupquot brick, and a series of three consecutive lower closes will form a quotdownquot brick. If you have a hard time pulling the trigger, this is a good play to use with BUY STOP and SELL STOP orders, as you will see in a moment. If you dont have a hard time pulling the trigger, then you can just wait for the signal and then go in at the market. This is one of those plays that is difficult to explain, but easy to show. In this case, a picture is worth at least 1000 words. Lets go through the trading rules and then go over a couple of actual plays. THIS IS A MOMENTUM REVERSAL CONFIRMATION PLAY. TRADING RULES FOR BUYS (SELLS ARE REVERSED): Set up a 24-hour time frame on an intra-day chart so the overnight activity can be accounted for in this indicator setup. This is best used on smaller time frames, typically under five minutes. Once a market shifts direction, count backwards to the third brick in the formation. Then draw a horizontal line across the top of this third brick back. Once the price action breaks above this horizontal line, go long. Hubert and I use this setup on the CBOT mini-sized Dow, and we both manage this trade differently, so I will go over both of our methods. For Hubert, he places a 10 point stop from the entry. Then when he is up 10 points, he sells half his position, and moves his stop to breakeven -3 (so if his entry was 10545, then his new stop is 10542). If the market goes up another 10 points, he sells a quarter of his position, and then moves up his stop 6 points to breakeven 3 (so if his original entry was 10545, his new stop is 10548). He then hangs onto his last quarter of the position to exit at his discretion. This typically involves a move that accompanies an extreme tick reading. For myself, I will get into the same trade and use a 20 point stop. I will exit half my position at 15 points, and then stay in the trade until there is a brick that has formed in the opposite direction. I dont trail the stops. Both methods have worked well for us, and this is a good example of how different traders can take the exact same setup and modify the trading methodology to fit their own particular personality. Lets take a look at some actual plays: On this two-minute chart of the CBOT mini-sized Dow futures in Figure 10.1, a long signal occurs around 1:00 p. m. Eastern time when the price action reverses and crosses above the horizontal line created by the third brick back in the series. The quotupquot bricks are blue, and the quotdownquot bricks are red. In this instance, YM rallies up to 10689. Our entry is at 10629. Hubert is using a 10 point stop and Im using a 20 point stop. Hubert exits half at 10639, a quarter at 10649 and the remainder at 10675 when YM comes up against key resistance. I exit the first half at 10644, and I stay in the second half until the bricks reverse and Im out at 10672. On this two-minute chart of the CBOT mini-sized Dow futures in Figure 10.2, a short signal occurs around 11:00 a. m. Eastern time, when the price action reverses and crosses below the horizontal line created by the third brick back in the series. In this instance, YM declines to 10646 before reversing. Our entry is at 10704. Huberts stop is 10 points, while mine is 20 points. Hubert exits half at 10694, a quarter at 10684 and the remainder at 10668 when YM sells off through key support on an extreme tick reading. I exit the first half of my position at 10689 and exit the second half at 10658 when the market reverses and generates a new brick long signal. The brick plays can take a little while to understand exactly how they work. Hubert has put together a video that shows how bricks work in more detail, as well as discusses additional sample plays. This setup is great when trying to catch an intraday reversal. Too many traders try to do this but end up getting burned. They short the market and it just keeps going higher, or they buy the market and it gets flattened. There is no reason to try to catch the exact high or the exact low in a market move. That involves too much risk and has a low probability of success. With this confirmation signal, a trader will be made aware of when the move is confirmed to be over, and still be able to catch the quotmeat of the move. quot Joined Feb 2006 Status: Member 313 Posts Trade The Markets was founded by John Carter in 1999, and is an online provider of short-term financial market commentary designed for both swing and intraday trading of stocks, options and futures. We focus on the power of short-term price movements to produce steady profits. We are just as likely to be long as we are short. Utilizing leading software and core trading techniques, our strategy for stocks is to scan through thousands of price charts each trading day. For futures trading, most of our intraday trading techniques are focused in the CBOT mini-sized Dow, Gold and Silver, as well as the U. S. Treasury 30-year Bond futures. We apply a combination of technical analysis, pattern recognition, and market outlook to discover short-term, high probability trading opportunities in these and other markets. Who Are the People Behind Trade The Markets Everyone who contributes to Trade The Markets is a full time trader who either had the benefit of learning to trade from a successful mentor, or graduated from the school of hard knocks8212losing money every way imaginable before developing their own successful trading rules. We all trade full time for a living, and most of work with managed funds and accounts. This website was the natural outcome of posting trades with each other, and the desire to help out others who want to give trading a shot. By posting our research to the site each evening, and by calling out live trades in our audio live trading rooms, we are helping ourselves because it forces us to do a full night8217s worth of research each evening, and gives us an extremely disciplined approach to the markets. Were also helping our members and have shown that we can also save traders valuable time--when you are running short on time, we still do a full nights worth of research and post our findings and specific trading ideas for the next day. What8217s The Different Between Your Stuff and Others There are four things we specialize in that make us stand out from the crowd: Entry and Exit Point Focus, Real Track Records, Education, and Accountability. We are a quotno-hypequot site that focuses on what works over the short term. And we post all of our trades, the good, the bad, the great, and the ugly, so you can evaluate for yourself how we do in all market conditions. We offer three newsletters that focus on stocks, options and futures. We also have a live audio trading room where our voices come out through your computer speakers, and we are able to share the charts we are using live with our members. In there, we discuss our trading philosophy and record our trades as they happen, in real time. The newsletters are generally published five days a week and have intra-day updates. Each focuses on a particular area of the markets. Each newsletter provides market commentary, a model trading portfolio, trading ideas with specific entry, exit, and stop loss price levels, and tips on how to find these trades on your own. Our typical holding period is a few days to a few weeks, making it ideal for part time traders who don8217t have time to sit in front of their computers monitoring the markets all day. If you click on the link below, you will see a recent example of our 8220E-mini amp Single Stock Futures Newsletter8221 where we focus on setting up swing trades in the CBOT mini-sized Dow, Single Stock Futures, U. S. 30-year Treasury Bonds, and other markets. View the PDF below: In the Live Audio Trading Room, we focus mostly on intraday trading of the CBOT mini-sized Dow. The Live Audio Trading Room is geared towards active, full time traders and it has been a huge hit with our members. The link below will hook you up to a video that talks more about our philosophy and backgrounds, as well as some information about our newsletters, trading room, and opportunities for further education and experience. Free two week trials are available for everyone at our site, tradethemarkets. By logging into the live trading room, you will be able to ask questions 8220free8221 for two weeks. This is a great way to get any questions asked about this tutorial. However, please confine your questions to between 12:00 Noon 8211 2:00 p. m. Eastern time, as we are trading the rest of the time. Room membership is limited, and you must be voted into the room by the existing members if you wish to stay beyond the two weeks. If you have any questions regarding any of the trading strategies presented here, please feel free to contact me at jcartertradethemarkets. or call us toll free at 888-898-8118. If you have any questions regarding the CBOT mini-sized Dow, Gold, Silver or U. S. 30-year Treasury Bond contracts, feel free to contact the CBOT at wwwcommentscbot. What made you want to pursue a career in physical therapy and what are your your goals After going through two years of physical therapy after my ACL surgeries, it opened my eyes to what all the profession entailed. I liked how it incorporated teaching, helping others and science. As of right now, my main goal would be to specialize in sports rehab. I8217d also love to work in a clinic that helps professional athletes. What do you look forward to most I look forward to helping my patients. I8217m ready to start making a difference in peoples8217 lives and helping them in any way that I can. It8217s always just been something that I8217ve done. Plus, my friends call me the mom of the group. I always just assume the role of the helper. I know it will be such a rewarding job, and I can8217t wait to get to that part of my life. How has Maryville University prepared you for your future Maryville has prepared me in numerous ways. I work as a Pack Leader and that8217s taught me how to be a good ambassador, have great communication skills and how to teach people about our university in a fun and exciting way. Also, in each of our classes we are taught professionalism and how to best represent ourselves in all that we do. When we finally get to go out on clinicals, that will be the best way that Maryville helps prepare us for what8217s to come. They teach us all of the basic information we need to know at school, but having so many different types of clinical experience will be what really makes us the most prepared for our future. Its that time of year again when people are trying to figure out what gift to get their significant other. This might be one of the largest challenges some people face the entire year. It is important that the gift will be remembered and mean something special to him or her. Listed below are several tips to the perfect present. Create a list of everything they like. For a few minutes create a list of things your significant other likes and enjoys. Write down everything that can be thought of, big or small. This can Include favorite color, food, state, sport, restaurant, etc. Creating a list will help fire up your brain and potentially produce you with some really great gift ideas. Ask their family and friends. Who better to ask than the people that your significant other grew up with It is almost guaranteed that their friends and family will have inside knowledge about what your significant other would love to receive. Maybe they wanted a certain toy growing up but never got it or they have a secret obsession that they would never dare tell anyone about. Make some handmade crafts. Nothing is more personal and unique than a gift that was made by hand. A handmade craft shows how much time, effort and thought was put into the gift. Handmade gifts can be personalized for your significant other and shows how important they are. It is also a great way to test and show off your artistic talent. Examples of handmade gifts: picture book, quilt, gift basket, necklace, etc. Personally, I enjoy receiving gifts that are homemade and sentimental. It shows a lot about how much the person cares about you and is a creative way to show affection, William Stimic, junior, said. Monogram or customize it. Imagine receiving a blanket with a blown up picture of you and your significant other, or imagine receiving a coffee mug with your favorite quote from The Office. There are several websites out there that create customized gifts for a cheap price. All you have to do is upload a picture or write a quote, choose what you want it on, such as a pillow, blanket, coffee mug, shower curtain or shirt and they will make it and ship it to you. Again, this is a very personal gift that you have a lot of control over what it looks like. 8220One of my favorite gifts that I received was a personalized photo album of me and my boyfriend. I could tell he put a lot of thought and effort into it. This Christmas, I made a very special love book for my boyfriend. It is a cartoon picture book about how we met and all of the wonderful things we do together,8221 said a girl that wants to stay anonymous so she does not ruin the surprise. If you dont have the time or the artistic ability to make something, you can always fall back on buying a valuable, wearable object. If the significant other is a female, you can never go wrong with buying jewelry. If you know their favorite color, you can buy a necklace or earrings that has that color incorporated in it. If the significant other is a male, a great gift could be a watch, necklace, hat, sunglasses, etc. The holiday season is a great time for giving gifts, but they are not the only way to show love and affection. Often times the best gift is spending time with your significant other. Go for a walk, look at Christmas lights, make a dessert or go shopping for a Christmas gift you both could use. Gift or no gift, it is important that whatever the significant other receives is memorable. George Ivanov Georgi Ivanov is known as George around campus, but to his fans he is known as BUL Nightmare. He was born in Bulgaria, but moved to the states as a child. Ivanov was predestined to wrestle as his father was a part of the Bulgarian National Wrestling Team first, and from the young age of 5, George started his wrestling career. For the Love of Wrestling Ivanov explained that to do well in wrestling, you have to completely alter your lifestyle. The more you commit, the more you get out of it. Countless hours of training, eating right and staying in a positive mindset traits that make winners. Unlike other sports, wrestling is completely individual, Ivanov trains for him and himself only. I love that you don8217t rely on anyone once you step on the mat. It8217s you against your opponent and whoever is more prepared that day, wins. Although he8217s never truly considered himself a great wrestler, two large companies, Nike and BodyBuilding, believed in him enough to sponsor him. It takes a very talented and skilled athlete to get great sponsorships like these, 8220It8217s humbling that two of the most well-known athletic companies in the world sponsor me. I still can8217t believe it.8221 In Rio, Nike had a house where all of the athletes they sponsored were invited to visit. In the house, there was a wall that all of the athletes sign. I cannot describe how it felt to be included with so many amazing athletes. As assistant wrestling coach here at Maryville, Ivanov has already given back to many younger wrestlers. Although he is not sure where wrestling will take him in the distant future, he now is focusing all of his attention on the wrestlers here to prepare them for their competition season. I would like to thank Dr. Lombardi, Marcus Manning, Jeff Miller, Coach Denney and everyone who supported me on my way to my Olympic journey. Obrigado. Giordan Harris Giordan Harris has fought hard to earn all his accomplishments thus far. Raised on Ebeye, one of the Marshall Islands, 8220Swimming in the ocean is something that everyone did, but competitive swimming isn8217t something that happens,8221 said Harris. Around the age of 6, Harris started his schooling at the military base on a neighboring island. There he met one his best friends, who convinced him to join the swim team. It was not until he was 12 and was traveling to his first international meet that his family started to realize just how accomplished Harris would become. I remember being terrible when I started, but I eventually fell in love with swimming and just rode the wave to where I am now. A Natural Love for the Water Harris says that he was attracted to swimming, because it is a hardworking sport. Even after making both the national swim and basketball teams, he still thinks swimming is the harder, because of 8220the practice to performance ratio, as he says. In a single practice, Harris will swims between 9,000 and 12,000 meters, but when it comes to competition time, his race is only 50 meters or under 25 seconds. Growing up, I was only supposed to play basketball. When I decided to swim, everyone thought I was crazy. 2 Olympics, 2 Cities Harris says his mother, Mary, has been with him every step of the way. Having sacrificed so much, it was special to be able to share his first Olympic experience with her during the 2012 Olympics held in London. He says swimming in the games was a dream come true and wants to keep chasing it, so look out for him at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Before we walked out in the opening ceremony during the 2012 Olympics in that moment hearing the crowd screaming, all the emotions hit me. I was happy. I was proud. I was excited. I was scared. I was nervous. Every emotion hit me. His mother started the first Marshallese swim team, The Martial Island Swim Federation, and built it from the ground up. Giordan aspires to further establish the team and help young swimmers achieve their goals. In addition to helping with the swim team, Harris also wants to travel around the Pacific teaching children how to swim. According to Harris, drowning is extremely prevalent among the islands. He believes that the right exposure to water will lead to less drownings, and he wants to aid in that mission first hand. Everyone assumes that because you are from an island and around the ocean all the time, you can swim. That8217s the way people always view it, but because we are surrounded by water, there is more opportunity to drown. Music to know: Finals The stress of finals can be a lot for students, and many find peace in music. Some prefer calming sounds with no lyrics, others relax to the sound of dubstep. Whatever your preference, here is a playlist of songs we think you should know for finals week. If I Was A Fool by Josh Turner and Carson McKee Okay, hear me out on this one. This song is easily the most impressive combination of guitar, mandolin and voice I have ever heard. The best part Its recorded live in a basement by two guys who sound amazing together. Give it a listen and find yourself in love with the storytelling lyrics and relaxed vibe. Bonus: motivation to get your work done and learn how to play an instrument like them. Hallelujah by Lindsay Sterling This song has no lyrics, making it a perfect studying song to keep you focused on your work, but keeping you awake and motivated with its intensity. Its also a Christmas song, which is motivating in itself to keep your eyes on the prize: Christmas break. Welcome Home by Radical Face This indie song has a fast tempo which helps to keep you focused and working. The quiet lyrics are a perfect background noise to your term-paper writing and flashcard-making night. It is calming and mellow to help destress, too. The Sound of Silence by Disturbed Disturbed is not known for their slow songs, but rather their heavy metal sound. In this song, the balance between the gentle piano and the singers dark voice make for a beautiful balance and create an intense, motivational study song. First by Cold War Kids While being a little more mainstream, this song keeps a steady beat and uses peppy drums to establish a calm and focused atmosphere. It makes for great background noise to your next study session. Bonus: you dont know the lyrics so you wont be tempted to sing. Something Like Olivia by John Mayer As one of my personal favorite songs, John Mayer gives a mellow and fun vibe while singing about his dream girl, Olivia. A fun guitar tune combined with simple drums are a great way to get your study on. Old Pine by Ben Howard (Peking Duk Remix) This song has more of an electronic vibe, either to wake you up at 3 A. M. or stay focused so you wont be up that late at 3 P. M. The original song is good alone, but I like the remix and its tendency to get me motivated to get done. It has gentle lyrics and does a nice job of fading out other noises to keep you focused on your work. American Money by Borns This is a more alternative song, with confusing lyrics and a trippy music video. I like its alternative feel and the way it keeps a loud, steady beat combined with loud vocals and gentle guitar. Easy to study to and stay on task, give it a try. 8220I like this song, because it is so upbeat. It keeps me motivated and awake when I am so bored of studying,8221 Kaelyn Creely, junior, said. Good luck with studying, and don8217t forget about practicing safe habits during this stressful week. Breakfast is important, sleep is important, and remember to relax. You can do it, finish strong Everyone has had a scenario where them and their group of friends keep disagreeing on where they should eat or which restaurant is the best. Now there is no need for those useless arguments. In order to find the most popular restaurant, Maryville Universitys students were surveyed about their favorite pizza, sandwich, burger, breakfast, and barbeque restaurant. Favorite Delivery: Jimmy Johns When it8217s late at night and food is all the mind is thinking about, there is nothing better than getting a meal delivered right to your doorstep. Based on the survey, the most popular restaurant that delivers is Jimmy John8217s, a sandwich shop. Runner up: Papa John8217s Pizza Honorable mentions: Dewey8217s Pizza, Global Quesadilla and Dominos Favorite Burger Joint The most popular burger restaurant around St Louis, as chosen by Maryville students, was Circle 7 Ranch. Circle 7 Ranch is a sports bar and grill located off Clayton Road in the New Ballwin Grove Shopping Plaza. Circle 7 Ranch offers a variety of burgers including the option to build your own. For students who are 21 and over, Circle 7 Ranch offers personal Table Taps where guests can pour their own ice-cold draft beers. There8217s nothing better than that. Every time I go to Circle 7, I stuff myself full of food. Nothing is better than the burgers with guacamole on them. It is a great place to hang out with friends and get a few drinks while chowing down on a burger,8221 Erik Schafer, sophomore, said. Runner up . Five Guys Honorable mentions . Red Robin, Top Shots, Square One and Stacked STL Favorite Breakfast Restaurant: Uncle Bill8217s Imagine waking up Sunday morning after a late night out and you can not get the thought of fluffy pancakes or an omelette out of your head. So what restaurant can fulfill this desire There is no better place than Uncle Bills to get a stack of pancakes with a side of hashbrowns. Uncle Bill8217s, located on Manchester Road, is open 24 hours and has all you can eat pancakes after 11 p. m. I love going to Uncle Bill8217s when it8217s all you can eat pancakes. I usually go for a late night snack. It8217s a great place to be social and eat delicious food, Trevor Jost, senior and pancake enthusiast, said. Runner up . First Watch Honorable Mentions . The shack, IHOP, Original Pancake House, Waffle House and First Watch Favorite Barbecue: Sugarfire Smokehouse Everyone enjoys hot, fresh barbecued food, and the best barbecue, as voted by Maryville students, is Sugarfire Smokehouse. Sugarfire offers sausage, brisket, ribs, turkey, smoked salmon and anything else imaginable. Even better, everything is made fresh on that day, they open at 11 a. m and close when they run out of food to serve, so get there early. The closest Sugarfire is 15 minutes away in Valley Park off of Meramec Station Road. Runner Up . Shaved Duck Honorable Mentions . Dalie8217s Smokehouse, Bandanas, PM BBQ and Pappy8217s Smokehouse Favorite Pizza restaurant: Imo8217s Honorable Mentions: Dewey8217s Pizza, Stefanina8217s, Papa John8217s and Cecil Whittaker8217s Favorite Sandwich Restaurant: Jimmy John8217s Runner up: Jersey Mike8217s Honorable Mentions: Subway, Potbelly8217s, Which Which and P8217sghetti8217s Maryville Arts and Science professor Candace Chambers has been recently presented with an award for incorporating technology into teaching in different ways. Chambers received this honor at the Focus on Technology and Teaching conference in St. Louis. She is a physics professor at Maryville and uses the Maryville iPads in all of her lectures, labs and homework assignments to create an interactive classroom experience. Candace compared using iPads in the classroom to her learning to use a calculator while learning physics in college. The assignments using the iPads have been popular among students Chambers explained and students really put a lot of time and effort into creating really nice content. 8220Using technology does not make learning better, but students can learn material faster and easier,8221 Chambers said. Chambers uses numerous different apps and software to always feel available to her students. She creates video lectures reviewing questions from the homework assignments and book work to send to her students. She calls them office hours on demand. This method allows for students to always engage in discussions and class lecture notes even under circumstances where they must miss class for a day. Candace shown with her in office using the green screen. Photo courtesy Michele Cotton. One of the newer apps that she uses is called Green Screen. This app is allows you to use a green screen to add a custom background to videos recorded on an iPad. To use this app, she installed a green screen in her office and can use it to put problems in the background of the videos made available to students. Her notes, presentations and teaching style make physics look engaging and exciting. Chambers puts a lot of thought and effort behind what is posted and presented to students. We have made it to the end, finals are here and the semester is over. That calls for many additional items on your to-do list, including get that D up to an A and find my textbooks I havent been using. With all the additional stress from exams, the bookstore and the Maryville One Fee have made book returns easy this year Now, onto finding those suckers. To help, I have compiled a list of places to look: Somewhere in Your Car (Trunk, Back Seat, Dashboard8230) Thanks to the Maryville OneFee, students8217 books are ordered and waiting. Make sure to check the back seat of your car where you put them after you picked them up that August day. Many students like having their books all ready to go at pick-up, but some have different opinions. I dont usually use all my books, so I dont like how I paid for all of them when I dont even use them,8221 Taylor Luebbers, sophomore, said. At least on the trip to the bookstore, you can try to get another one of those reusable bags. Books are full of information: pages and pages of facts about rocks, medicine and marketing strategies. While this impressive amount of knowledge could be read, it also can be Googled. Many times, books find themselves covered in dust under your bed, next to a pair of old socks and that shoe youve been looking for, so make sure to check under there first. Yes, you have a desk. And yes, there was a time when you thought you might use it. Try checking in the bottom drawer next to the package of loose leaf you havent needed. In the Northface Backpack You Definitely Needed Look in the pocket of your backpack you never open, it could be the answer to the mystery of why your bag is so heavy and back always hurts. Mystery solved. At Your Bae8217s Apartment Let8217s reminisce on the nights where studying never included studying but rather four hours of Guitar Hero, a pizza and a walk home in the morning. Now find that book and see if there are chapter summaries we can brush up on. On the Coffee Table (Or Anywhere Near the Netflix Account) That 6-inch textbook on anatomy makes an even better footrest. These textbooks are overwhelmingly useful and the options are really endless. Check the coffee table, and maybe under the couch if youre still stumped. Good luck in the book hunt8230and with that 65 percent in humanities. Remember to find and return those books to the bookstore by December 18. The bookstore employees think it should go a lot smoother this year than in the past. No more dealing with money which will be nice. All you need is your ID and the books, in any condition. December 18, people Maryville Universitys tuition for a full-time undergraduate student is 25,558. After 4 years of college, you have paid a whopping 102,232. There8217s a lot that can be done with 100,000. Below is an infographic that shows what someone can do with the money that pays Maryvilles tuition. What would you do with a 100,000 I would travel. - Rachel Thomas Buy as many acres as possible in deer country and hunt. - Andrew Beckerman Put half in my bank and invest the other in stocks and bonds. - Landon Paul I8217d use some of the funds to go on a nice trip post-graduation and put the rest in savings. - Alexis Arnold Seeing as how my parents have paid for most of my tuition, they would get a large bulk of that money. However, with the amount I would receive, I would spend the money on a new car and then I would probably save the rest for a rainy day. - Katy Haas I would travel the world for a year to places like china, japan, india, the Congo, Australia, South America any place you can imagine for. - Erik Schfer I would buy a really nice car like a Porsche or a Corvette. - Andrew Russel I would purchase land and build a soccer field so I can play with my friends, teammates and host soccer tournaments. - Bill Stimic Published on November 29, 2016 in Sports by Aileen Wolk Square off and check out some of Maryville8217s club sports this semester. Compete for passion or simply join for leisure, anyone is welcome. It may be difficult to picture now with finals looming on the horizon, but once next semester begins time will clear up as well. Club Sports provide a great balance for students academically, athletically and socially. It allows you to put as much time into your sport as you would like and doesnt require much of your free time, Coordinator Jarrett Fleming said. The students are definitely playing for their love of the sport and having fun while doing it. Take a peek at the new club sports now on campus: Boxing Chess Club Mens Club Volleyball Womens Club Basketball The following clubs are coed: Bowling Gaga Ball Golf Paintball Physique Running Table Tennis Tennis Ultimate Frisbee These arent the only ones. For a complete list of them, click here. When asked his personal favorite, Fleming said, I really dont have a favorite, I have an affinity for all sports. I would most likely start a football club due to my passion for the sport. Theres nothing like scoring a touchdown, its a rush I cant explain the feeling. I would have to work on my touchdown dance though. Theyre more than merely a fun competition. Theyre a way to grow as a team and as an individual. Skills such as time management, cooperation and leadership all manifest around the club. Teammates will become closer together and treat each others as equals. Individuals will grow stronger. The experiences wont disappear after college but will often go with graduates into the next steps of their life. It may not be until the graduation or even another 20 years down the road when one might look back and smile on these moments. Maryvilles sports arent off the map either. There are plenty of heavy-hitters in the leagues. A few have made a name for themselves beyond campus. It was really neat seeing the eSports team win a national championship last year, I dont think they expected people all across the country to know about them. They really enjoyed competing on the national level, even though I was probably more nervous than them during the games, Fleming said. The winner is yet to be determined in the match between Dr. Henderson and Ben Thal. Photo courtesy of Aileen Wolk. Ever wonder what it would be like to be the king of the world Were hoping to get as many people as we possibly can, both Treasurer Ben Thal and President Hannah Frederick agreed. Todos os níveis de habilidade são bem-vindos. They are both really excited to have chess club as a competitive sport. It took a lot to get to this point, all the meetings with Jarett, but it was worth it, Thal said. A competitive team usually has about 10 people on it, with four to five competing at a time. The club would love to have more members in general though. As long as you love the game, whether youre an expert who can win a game in six moves or a beginner who doesnt know a rook from a bishop, there will always be a spot open. The group has been meeting every Wednesday from 6:30 p. m. to 8:30 p. m. in Reid 2318 this semester. Email Ben Thal at bthal1live. maryville. edu if youre interested in joining or have any questions. Interested in joining a club sport or starting a new one. Fill out a questionnaire by clicking the name of the sport under the Prospective Athletes tab. Feel free to join more than one. President Obama signed a presidential order in September 2015 which allowed for additional time to file for financial aid, going into effect Oct. 1, 2016. For the first time in history, students will use the same tax information for two years of financial aid. This means the 2015 tax information will be used for fall 2016 through summer 2018. In the long run, this is a good thing, Martha Harbaugh, director of financial aid, said. The intent is to give people more time to review the information and make an informed decision and to have accurate data. While change is sometimes scary, Harbaugh and federal financial aid believe that this will make life easier. The good news about this is that you are not going to have to worry about estimating numbers. You have already filed it and can use the data retrieval option in the FAFSA website to pull in the data and populate the appropriate field and do all the work for you, Harbaugh said. 8220You will have to change some information, such as family size, number in college, asset information could potentially have changed. But of the 102 that FAFSA asks, this will take all of the tricky ones out of the equation. Harbaugh suggests that any family that saw a decrease in their adjusted family income should come to Maryville8217s financial aid office and see how they can help. When asked what this means to the Maryville students, Harbaugh said, From a sense of timeline, some programs this will not affect at all. For example, if you are using the Federal Student Loan Program, it is not going to make that much difference. What you would have been eligible for next August is what you are going to be eligible for in October.8221 According to Harbaugh, financial aid will begin packaging financial aid for current students in January 2017 so they can have updated GPA and credit hours. Missouri residents that are currently enrolled at Maryville should file their FAFSA no later than Jan. 15, 2017. 8220What the state of Missouri is saying is that if you file by Jan. 15, then they guarantee you funding for next year,8221 Harbaugh said. Those who file later than Jan. 15 will be waitlisted. If you or a parent is concerned with this prior prior year change, please contact financial aid and schedule an appointment to review your financial aid plan. For more information please refer to Maryville Universitys page of FAQs regarding prior prior year. Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS World) is a free-to-play digital battlefield game. Nosso sonho é oferecer a simulação mais autêntica e realista de aviões militares, tanques e navios possíveis. O download gratuito inclui uma vasta área de missão da região do Cáucaso e do Mar Negro que abrange muito da Geórgia. Ele também inclui o avião de ataque terrestre Sukhoi Su-25T e o famoso lutador TF-51D norte-americano da Segunda Guerra Mundial. O download vem com um dos mais poderosos planejadores de missão já projetados, jogos em rede completos e mais de 145 sistemas de armas AI, 113 veículos terrestres e trens, 16 navios e 73 aeronaves AI que permitem que você planeje e desempenhe missões altamente sofisticadas. O DCS World é amplamente extensível através de módulos DCS adicionais, bem como complementos e mods feitos pelo usuário, que você pode comprar e fazer o download em nosso site. DCS é uma verdadeira simulação de sandbox que também é projetada para cobrir vários períodos de interesse, como a Segunda Guerra Mundial, o Vietnã, a Guerra do Golfo e outros. Como exemplos de produtos que avançam para a conclusão do DCS, Normandy 1944 está em fase final de desenvolvimento e o Golfo Pérsico está muito atrasado. DCS World é fundamentalmente um jogo de simulação profundo, autêntico e realista, projetado também para oferecer um jogo mais relaxado para se adequar ao usuário e seu nível particular de experiência e treinamento. A ambição é levar os usuários do piloto novato até o operador mais avançado e sofisticado de sistemas de armas tão complexos como o A-10C ou o Mirage 2000C. O único próximo passo é a verdadeira Obrigado por seu apoio e por acreditar no DCS. A campanha BFM dos F-5E Aggressors coloca você no cockpit de um F-5E Tiger II, como um novo piloto Aggressor com o 65º Agressor Squadron na Base da Força Aérea de Nellis. Com base em procedimentos do mundo real você voará como Red Air contra as Forças aéreas azuis. Na chegada, você pilotará um vôo de familiarização em torno da Prova de Nevada e do intervalo de treinamento (NTTR). Então, você enfrentará uma série de desafiadoras missões de manobra básica de lutador (BFM) contra aeronaves similares e dis-similares. Seus adversários incluem F-4E, F-5E, F-14A, F-15C, F-16C, FA-18C, M-2000C, MiG-29G, CF-188 e MiG-21. A Operação Piercing Fury (OPF) é uma campanha dirigida pela história, consistindo em você liderando o A-10C Warthog Hawg Flight na região georgiana das operações (AO). Você será designado e comandado pelo Comando de Operações Especial Conjunto, fornecendo apoio direto às forças de coalizão convencionais e não convencionais na região contra os grupos extremistas do Exército Islâmico Al-Doran e de propósito especial. Suas habilidades serão testadas à medida que você executar On-Call Close Air Support (CAS), Combat Search and Rescue, auxiliar nas missões Capture-ou-Kill e fornecer o CAS para ataques Air-Assault por equipes de Forças Especiais em toda a região. A campanha coloca você diretamente na ação com muitas missões baseadas em cenários, operações e táticas do mundo real. A OPF permite que você experimente a perspectiva única de estar em uma zona de combate com base em comunicações realistas, proteção de força, bases de operação direta, postos avançados de combate e visão do criador da campanha Ranger79, um veterano de combate da Força Aérea dos Estados Unidos da Operação Joint Forge, Operação Sul Veja, Operation Enduring Freedom e Operation Iraqi Freedom. Sinta a adrenalina que proporciona apoio aéreo fechado no AO A Relíquia do Museu é uma campanha dirigida por história que ocorre entre os dois pequenos países ficcionais de Matova e Obristen. À medida que sua guerra se estende para o seu quinto ano, ambas as nações estão sentindo a tensão de não poder reabastecer nenhum dos seus veículos perdidos. Você vai voar como um personagem que, no início da guerra, era apenas um civil. Mas depois de ver a terrível situação em que o país está enfrentando, decide se alistar no Matova Army Air Corp. Com seus papéis de alistamento, ele também traz consigo seu avião pessoal que ele doou ao Museu anos atrás. P-51D High Stakes Campaign A campanha P-51D: High Stakes é uma campanha baseada em história única para DCS: P-51D Mustang. A premissa da campanha é que um poderoso homem de negócios e jogador chamado Maslov empregou o piloto Pilato Sinisite com promessas de montanhas de dinheiro. Em troca, Vasily precisa voar e dominar o venerável Mustang sobre uma série de 15 missões que testarão suas habilidades. Maslov colocará o Vasily em maior risco à medida que a campanha progride e Vasily precisará usar todas as suas habilidades para não só cumprir suas tarefas atribuídas, mas também salvar sua vida e, a longo prazo, sua honra. Para completar completamente cada missão e continuar com a próxima, Vasily precisará pousar seu Mustang no ponto designado na conclusão de cada missão. Além disso, devido ao enredo da história, Vasily precisará cuidar de seu Mustang e minimizar os danos para prosseguir através da história. Todas as missões de Vasilys incluem briefings detalhados e gráficos de mapa de missão. Cada missão também inclui briefing do joelho e páginas do mapa. Você está pronto para se juntar a Vasily nesta jornada épica A Campanha de Bandeira Vermelha F-15C 16-2 é uma descrição de voar a águia F-15C durante um exercício típico da Bandeira Vermelha nos céus sobre Nevada. Esta campanha inclui extenso arquivo de instruções, mapas e arquivos de cartas de formação para cada missão e foi projetado em consulta com o renomado autor Steve Davies, a autoridade no F-15C. All of the missions are based on input from real F-15C pilots that have flown in Red Flag exercises and will provide you a challenge that will test even the most skilled virtual pilots.