Gold Futures Trading

Commodity Exchange (COMEX)
The Commodity Exchange (COMEX) offered from the CME Group (CME) Below are the four gold futures options you have with this ultra-popular, US-based exchange.
Gold (ZGN12.CBT): Trading under the symbol GC, these are your standard gold futures which are representative of 100 troy ounces of the precious metal. Prices are quotes in US dollars and cents per troy ounce and trading terminates on the third to last business day of every month. According to the home website, trading is conducted for delivery during the current calendar month; the next two calendar months; any February, April, August, and October falling within a 23-month period; and any June and December falling within a 72-month period beginning with the current month. Don't forget that these futures are also optionable.

Gold Futures Trading

Forex Swing Trading

 If you are new to trading the forex markets you don't need a great deal of money to start. Many fx brokers will let you start trading with a small deposit. You can leverage your money up to 200 to 1 which can be dangerous at that high of leverage you could wipe out your account on one bad trade. It's better to start out with 50 to 1 it is much safer until you to become a knowledgeable trader. Compared to the equities markets where you need large amounts of trading capitol to start trading.
  There are many types of news releases in the forex so movement of the different currency pairs happens daily. The fx market will offer more directional trading. Once you learn to recognize the trends. You need to learn to use technical chart analysis which will show you which way the trend is moving and make more profitable trades. Another great advantage is that you can invest in a forex newsletter which will remove most of the risk on your trades. This will put more money into your trading account. The other advantage to trading the forex is that there are no fees from the broker.

How to swing trade Forex markets

Gas ETF Gasoline commodities

Gas for vehicles is one of the planets most widely used commodities and is a byproduct of crude oil. In the United States, where gasoline is used in cars and light trucks, boats, recreational vehicles, and farm, construction and landscaping equipment, consumption was equal to about 360 million gallons per day during 2011  about one gallon each day for every person in the United States. The United States does not produce enough crude oil to match this demand for gasoline, and as a result, imports about sixty percent of the crude oil used by US refineries.

"RBOB," or reformulated gasoline blend stock for oxygen blending, is a newer blend of unleaded gas that is prepared for the addition of ten percent fuel ethanol, an alcohol based fuel produced by fermenting and distilling corn and other starch crops. Many gas stations now sell this mixture.

The biggest factor in the cost of gasoline is the price of the crude oil from which it is produced. In 2011, the retail price of gasoline was based on the cost of crude oil (68% of retail price); refining costs and profits (11%); federal and state taxes (11%); and distribution and marketing costs and profits (9%). A variety of factors influence the price of gas.

Economic and political areas of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region The area's valuable oil reserves, production, and refineries have caused many years of political unrest and fighting. Concern about near term and future oil supply can cause drastic movements in price.

ETF Gasoline commodities

SPY trading gaps

Trends end at supply or demand of the larger time frame and gaps might bounce off a trend line. Traders need proper out look and must look for the larger warning signs.  You will proceed for a period of time in that direction , but eventually end at supply.  Trading is the same way you need to learn charts and suppy and demand areas. You stop impulses at the walls formed from larger time frames. Gaps can take time to fill many traders do not trade the large gaps up or down. The S&P 500 SPDR (SPY) is essentially a passively managed, closed end mutual fund that allows you to buy and sell the stocks that make up the venerable S&P 500 Index. It does have large gaps from time to time mainly from overseas trading and news that came out over night. Pulling back the trends on our dueling channels, you can see the 'slope of hope' that the bulls continue to point to. Until such time that trend channel breaks look for green candles to form and change the trend.

SPY trading gaps

learning to trade gaps

 Traders need to learn the gaps and what are the trading opportunities associated with stock gaps at the open of trading. You need one thing to watch as you are looking at whether the gaps will fill quickly. The market makers will move a stock's price up or down before the market opens so traders need to be careful. After 30 minutes or so the stock price should stabilize and show some kind of trend.  Stock Gaps are caused by imbalances between buyers and sellers. If there are no sellers and an overwhelming amount of buyers want into a stock, they will be forced to raise their bid to the area where there are sellers so they can satisfy their demand. The reverse is true when sellers overwhelm the buyers.
 This usually occurs when there is news on a business or the stock markets have some kind of economic news. In trading, a trader should center their decision to buy or sell based on the price in relation to supply and demand. Understanding gaps with the supply and demand type of trading offers a powerful price direction indicator.  Breaking the demand level on the gap shows that the sellers could not locate any buyers willing to purchase at the former price level. This is extremely bearish and as a consequence, the price continues to slide. The opposite reaction would occur if the price gaps into, but not past a supply or demand level or support and resistance.

Stock and Forex Opening Gaps Trading

Gann line charts

If you see price breaking a previous swing top, then you are in an uptrend in the time frame and level  minor, intermediate, or major that you are trading in. You would continue to trade only in the long direction until you break a previous swing bottom of the same degree. The following chart of USO opens the day with a minor swing bottom. If we were already in an intermediate uptrend, a trader could use that as an opportunity to trade long intraday until a swing bottom is broken. In fact, traders may want to enter or add to longs when a new swing bottom is formed. After the minor swing bottom is broken, a trader should wait for a new intermediate or major swing bottom to form before entering any more long positions, the use of Gann lines on a chart can help in making safer trades. Many traders don't like to use them so its a personal preferance.In Gann trend indicators on a trading chart, a downtrend occurs when price breaks a swing bottom.

Gann line in trading

Managing your money when trading

 Managing your money when trading stocks or futures is the key to preserving your capitol. You need to get a good education on futures trading before you risk your money on futures trades. You need to develop your chart reading skills and learn when to place a trade. Seek out traders that have been successful and learn and develop a trading style from them. Most traders lose all their money because they did not learn a good trading style and just started to trade futures without any trading education.
  If you are just speculation on your stock or futures trades you will lose your money in a short period of time. The markets will take you money if you are not prepared which happens to most new traders. It is not easy money to be made but money to be lost if you try and trade without some knowledge of the futures markets. New futures traders accounts are opened everyday by inexperienced traders and they lose all their money in a day or so without trading experience and education. Trading futures takes education and learning to understand how the futures markets work. You need to learn the ins and outs before you ever make a trade.
  Once you have learned and done some study on futures you need to work on being a disciplined trader and stick with what you learned. Make sure to set up some rules and write them down in a ledger to follow when you start to make stock or futures trades. Decide what type of trader you will be. Are you going to swing trader ,long term trader ,or be a daytrader.