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| Currently a member of The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a floor broker and as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA). I am the President of Futures Flight, an Introducing Broker (IB) for MF Global, and a member of the National Futures Association (NFA). MORE |
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| Food For Thought |
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What are you paying for gasoline, what would you pay for bread? In today’s world you pay unheard of prices for energy, but at the same time prices for food is relatively still a bargain. There are markets such as Electronics that are unique in the marketplace because it is always selling “a more and better product” for less price as time goes on. What is price and what is “worth”? From a traders perspective “price” is just a measurement, from a sellers (producer/distributor) view it is compensation, from a buyers (consumer/commercial) view it is the cost to obtain goods or services. From a traders view “worth” is the last trade price, to the seller it is what the buyer is willing to pay, and to the buyer it is based on their needs, wants, and financial condition.MORE
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| Insights to New Contract or All Time Highs |
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“Things do what they do until they do not do them anymore” as I stated in some articles in my website.
For whatever the reasons of a situation that causes markets to go down quickly (break) or rally to contract or new all time highs, have some things in common such as, they will overdo the price that is realistic, logical, or sustainable. MORE |
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| Future Trading |
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Futures Trading
Day Trading, Swing Trading, and Long Term Trading
Futures trading involve a plan, and the knowledge of the factors that a person needs to succeed, or it is just a matter of time before you will lose your money. Futures are highly leveraged trading vehicles, like a car if you go too fast or lose control, you will crash. Let us strap on our seat belts and begin.
When I have a thought, idea, and time frame for a market that I want to speculate and make a trade in, I formulate a plan based on those three things. First issue is how much money (%) I want to commit to this trade, even if it involves day trading with a per day loss cut off. Now I consider the risk and reward from the best strategy derived from my thoughts, idea, and time frame. Discipline to execute your plan is needed for success.
I would suggest using common sense and logic, it will help you stay grounded and out of trouble.
The Day Trader:
This is the type of trading that has many different ways to approach with many variables and infinite possibilities. I have traded with “legends” on the trade floor and all types of traders and characters, but that is another story. MORE
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| Butterfly Spreads Sept. 2, 2007 |
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How do you reduce the cost of high priced options?
The high cost of buying an outright call or put option on many markets (i.e. S&P, Energies, Metals, and Grains) make ownership quite expensive and in most cases a bad bet unless held for a short period of time. The vertical spread is my first choice in placing a bet on which direction the market will go.MORE |
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| Selling Option Premium with known risk |
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Instead of buying an option vertical spread, you can sell it. When you do this strategy, you know what your risk and reward is. You do not have to worry about losing an amount of money that is more than your limit of risk.MORE |
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| Consultant & Market Strategist |
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Your consultant should provide their years of experience to be at your service, to help you with the many aspects of trading for success.
They should be like a personal trainer, coach, mentor, market strategist, overseer, and advisor, or limited to what is exactly needed by the client.
You pay for a golf pro to help you with aspects of that game, get a second opinion from a doctor, get advice for your taxes and so on….. Why would you not want the same respect for your brokerage accounts? MORE
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| 2007 |
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| Mindset |
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Trading Is an Art Form
There is much that is difficult for the spirit, the strong reverent spirit that would bear much: but the difficult and the most difficult are what is strength demands
-Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
The act of trading should be approached from the perspective of an artist’s eye-view. Don’t worry, this doesn’t mean you need to be able to draw even a stick figure. It means, however, that trading is a creative activity: one that involves owning your own mind so that you are in control of it, working and reworking ideas, having the strength to be bold and the experiential knowledge to be so at the right times. At the same time, one must not forget that every creation implies destruction. Indeed, for there to be creation in the first place, one needs a free space upon which to do so. MORE |
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| Option Trading |
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Options are vehicles to take you where you want to go, they do not tell you where the market is going. You are the driver. They are to be driven by your thoughts, ideas, and time frame to allow you to profit if correct.
There are many trade offs between futures and options. When you understand how options work and know the right strategy for the given time frame, it can avoid some of the pitfalls in futures trading, such as improper risk/reward, getting stopped out, emotional decisions, money management, and letting a trade that did not work turn into a bad trade, losing even more than what would have been made if right...MORE |
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| Stock Index Comments and More |
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Trade the S&P with KNOWN risk. Trade Ideas!
Remembering back to 2000-2003 and the average trading range was 35 handles ($1750 for 1 emini S&P contract), 100 plus handle months, and waking up to the market being 10-15 handles higher or lower was common. Since March 2003 when the rally started in the S&P market and ending in July 2007 (at least for now), 10 handles was the normal day high to low, 50 handles for the month.
Now the average trading range is again at 34 handles, opportunities that I have not seen in a long time are back. Depending on your trading approach, there are infinite possibilities of trading this market using options. MORE |
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| Vertical call spread-Gold |
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If you think the gold market is going up and you want to be a buyer, you could buy the gold futures contract and for every $1 that gold goes up you make $100, and every $1 down you lose $100.( gold futures contracts are 100 ounces $1 X 100 ounces = $100).
Buying options allows you to KNOW your total risk if wrong and what you can make if you are right. One of the advantages of buying an option is that you can stay in your position in a choppy market and not get shaken out.
Settlement Friday 10/13/06 Feb07 gold was $598.60, the 600call $2400, 660call $720.
This spread involves the buying of one strike price and selling another. For an example we will look at the gold market on the COMEX exchange. Feb07 gold settled Friday 10/13/06 at $598.60, the Feb.07 600call settled at $2400, and the 660call settled at $720. MORE |
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| How to select a broker |
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Before Beginning…
When selecting a broker the first thing you should consider is your needs. For example, if you never traded before you will need someone to answer questions concerning order placement, tick value, and margin requirements.
If you have some experience, you will…
After considering what it is that you want from your broker, you can begin the search for the one who suits you best. A good place to start when searching is in discount brokerage firms. Each firm is different when it comes to assistance from a self-directed order desk, broker assisted, or a full service broker, which is typical for a discount brokerage firm. MORE
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CHECK OUT THE NEW "TRENDS IN FUTURES"
"Trends in Futures," a weekly newsletter with daily updates that has been helping successful traders for over 20 years, now has a new editor, Howard Tyllas.
With his 35 years of trading experience, trading veteran Howard Tyllas will now give you his experience, knowledge and wisdom every trading day.
To see if Howard and "Trends in Futures" can help you be a more successful trader, please call 800-621-5271 or visit www.trendsinfutures.com.
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Subscribe Now!
Higher Level of Service
My numbers and trade recommendations go beyond mere “this is the trade”. What places my service on a higher level is the fact that I make it a learning experience. I not only give you the reasons I am taking the trade, I let you follow how I structure my trade, where my risk is, why I enter and exit technically my trades, my system of how I trade using my numbers, and daily support and resistance numbers that speak for themselves. Where can you find more accurate numbers than mine using 1 or 2 support, and 1 or 2 resistance numbers? I give future contract recommendations and also options on the futures contracts that I recommend.
Not only do you get insightful commentary, you pay a small amount based upon a 20 trading day month that breaks down to $5 or less per day.
No one can guarantee success, but you will learn from day 1 something that should help you in your trading.
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| Article in Futures Magazine Dec.07 |
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TRADERS ARE FACED WITH A NUMBER OF CHOICES, FROM HOW TO ANALYZE MARKETS TO HOW TO IMPLEMENT THAT ANALYSIS. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS INVOLVES THE TRADING VEHICLE ITSELF. MANY NEW TRADERS ARE INCREASINGLY TURNING TO OPTIONS.
Understanding options
12/1/2007
By Howard Tyllas
Options are vehicles to take you where you want to go. As a new trader, do not look to them to tell you where the market is going. You are the driver. Options are simply a tool you can use to exploit your analysis of the market in unique ways. MORE
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| Article in Futures Magazine Sept.07 |
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Options Strategy
Intrinsic options can act like a futures contract, but have a known risk.
9/1/2007
By Howard Tyllas
Intrinsic options have strike prices that are in-the-money. If the December gold futures contract is trading at $690 per ounce, the December gold $670 call option is in-the-money, or intrinsic for $20. If the $670 call is trading at $32, $20 is the intrinsic value and $12 is the premium. The $12 also is what the December $670 put is trading for. Using the same month and strike, the call, the put, and underlying futures price have a definite relationship to price. MORE
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| How to find an Approach, Strategy, & Money Management |
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How to formulate an approach that is right for you:
Before making a trade, only YOU (not your broker, friend, or advisor) should consider the following variables: the size of your account, how much you are looking to expand it, how long you are willing to wait to do so, and lastly, how much you are willing to lose. This process is vital to the foundation of your approach to trading. Unless you know the answers to those four questions you will most likely never be comfortable with your trading, have difficulty in knowing what time frame to trade in, utilize discipline, be able to remain unemotional, and to have a plan that will reflect your goals. MORE |
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| The Dialectics of Trading |
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Strategy, Risk/Reward, & Money Management
Not all trades are as carefully chosen as others. In the art of trading, the financial profit or loss of the trade is, with all due respect, a mere side-note to the exercise of mental strength and subsequent gain of knowledge. Thus, if one is to approach making trades with the desire to learn, it would be wise to care about the process being executed. Before making a trade, for example, you should consider the following variables: the size of your account, how much you are looking to expand it, how long you are willing to wait to do so, and lastly, how much you are willing to lose. Doing this preliminary work, that is, outlining the foundations through which you can later tailor your trading method, is necessary if one is to have a greater understanding of trading as an art. MORE
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| Intrinsic Option |
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Intrinsic options are option strike prices that are “in the money”. Meaning if June gold is trading at $650, the June gold $640 call is in the money or intrinsic for $10. If the $640 call is trading at $14, $10 is the intrinsic value, and $4 is the premium. The $4 also is what the June $640 put is trading for. Using the same month and strike, the call, the put, and underlying futures price, has a definite relation to price. If any of the three is out of line, there would be an opportunity to arbitrage for a local floor trader to take advantage of and lock in a profit no matter where the market goes after. This is called reversals and conversions. The reason I mention this is to help you understand the relations between the three MORE |
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