The selection and management of a vertical spread are only two-thirds of the game. Closing out, rolling or morphing the position has to be analyzed and executed with the same due diligence as was used in the selection and management processes.

Looking at the closing out of a vertical call spread, we find there are three possible outcomes that must be addressed. The spread can finish out-of-the-money and valueless. For a call spread, this scenario occurs when the stock closes at or below the lower strike of the spread. In this scenario, in order to close out the spread, one would just let it expire. Both options finish out of the money so no residual position will be left over.

If the spread finishes fully in the money, (at maximum value) that is with both options in-the-money, then both options will be exercised. You will exercise your long call and your short call will be assigned. They will cancel each other out and you will be left with no residual position. This scenario occurs when the stock price closes lower than the lower strike call involved in the spread.

The difficult scenario is when the stock closes in between the two strikes of the spread. This scenario, the closing of the stock between the two strikes creates a situation where one strike winds up being in-the-money while the other ends up out-of-the-money.

When both options expire in-the-money, they are both exercised-one creating a long stock option, the other creating a short position thus canceling each other out. This is not the case here. Here, one option, the one that is in-the-money will leave a residual stock position and since the other option is out-of-the-money, it will not be able to be used to offset the residual stock position created by the expiring in-the-money option.

There are two actions that could be taken. Choice number one involves trading out of the spread on expiration Friday just before the close. Because of the bid/ask spread of the two options, you will probably have to give away some of your profits in order to close out the position. Giving up a portion of the profits may be the best thing to do in order to avoid naked, unlimited risk.

If you only trade out of the in-the-money option, you run the risk (albeit short-lived because you are doing this late on expiration day of the expiring month) that the stock moves adversely and the out-of-the-money option suddenly becomes in-the-money. If that happens, you will now be naked the residual stock position. Of course, if there is still time, you could always trade out of the option then but that is very risky. However, if the stock is at a relatively safe distance from the out-of-the-money you may want to just close out the in-the-money option and let the out-of-the money option expire worthless.

The two factors that must be considered are: the combination of the distance of the strike from the stock price in relation to the short amount of time for the stock to get there, and the amount of money saved by not buying back the out-of-the-money option. Remember, this is being done at the very end of the day on expiration day. These options only have minutes of life left. So, knowing this, the risk is somewhat mitigated, but still there none the less.

The catch is the proximity of the stock to the out-of-the-money option. If the stock is close to the out-of-the-money option, you would be best advised to trade out of the spread entirely.

Again, as stated before, if the stock closes either with the spread fully in-the-money, or fully out-of-the-money, the position will adjust itself through the exercise process leaving no residual position. If the stock price finishes between the two strikes, there will be a residual position. We discussed above how to trade out of this position. Your second choice is not to trade out and allow yourself to go through the expiration process. You must remember that if you are going to accept a residual stock position, you must be able to afford it.

Then, if you have 10 July 50 calls and you exercise them you will be receiving 1000 shares of stock at $50.00 per share. Thus, you must have $50,000.00 of cash and/or margin in your account to receive the stock. If you do not have enough cash and/or margin to accept delivery of the stock, then you must trade out of the position before it expires.



By: Ron Ianieri

About the Author:



www.TransWorldFutures.com

Seasonal Spread Trade for Consistent Returns

Spread trading is a unique trading concept not all that familiar to the average commodity investor. The typical commodity trader analyzes a particular market, either from a technical or a fundamental standpoint, sometimes combining the two; makes a determination as to whether the market exhibits either a bullish or bearish bias, and then wagers by going long a futures contract or purchasing a call option, or by going short a futures contract or buying a put option. There are a number of variations on the theme, but the idea is basically the same.

The following demonstrates the inherent disadvantages, in the above two scenarios, of an outright futures position or the purchase of an option;

1. Size of account. The average investor has a limited account size, and can only withstand a certain amount of drawdown associated with any particular trade. The limited size of trading account necessitates the placement of a protective stop order above or below the position. The premature assumption of a position and the inherent volatility associated with commodity markets leaves the position vulnerable to a one or two day move that triggers the stop order, sidelining the trader as the position oftentimes turns back around. As the market moves in the trader’s favor, the advisability of using trailing stops, adjusting the protective stop in the direction of the trade makes sense in theory, but oftentimes the market will open well above or below the stop order, blowing out the stop and oftentimes taking away a substantial amount, if not all of the profit that was being locked in.

2. Time. In the case of an options purchase, you are basically purchasing time. As the purchaser of an option, the time clock and the calendar become your worst enemy. The value of your option depreciates as you wait for the market to move in your direction. Typically the purchaser of an option witnesses the market go up and down, as the value of his option changes, all along the remaining time value decaying on an accelerated curve as the option expiration day grows nearer.

Spread trading on the other hand, is a way of effectively combating the above two problems. Time no longer is an enemy and volatility, to a certain extent, is effectively reduced. Margins are substantially less due to the relative conservative nature of the “hedged” trade, which the commodity exchanges themselves recognize. Margin requirements, for a spread, can be reduced anywhere from 20% to 90%

Spread trading has no directional bias. The market can go up or down, the trade is based only the relationship between the long and the short position, i.e.- as long as the long side of your spread outperforms the short side you will be profitable. Spread trades can be in the same commodity with different delivery months (i.e. buy July Lean Hogs and sell December Lean Hogs), or different commodities (i.e. buy March Swiss Franc and sell March Australian Dollar). Generally speaking, both sides of the trade will have the same overall directional bias, as in being both long and short in the Grains (long July Corn/short March Corn) , or in the Meats (long Live Cattle/short Feeder Cattle), or in the Metals (long Gold/short Silver). This allows for the built in “hedge”.

Seasonal spread trading is another opportunity to take advantage of this manner of trading. As there are many seasonal tendencies associated with various commodity markets, there are also seasonal tendencies associated with seasonal spread trades. Seasonality is a seasonal cycle that forms a similar, reliable pattern every year for many years.

Reliable seasonal tendencies are all around us.

Everyone is familiar with weather seasonality. In the winter months the temperature is colder than in the summer months.

Farmers will plant crops and harvest crops at about the same time every year.

In the summer months, Crude Oil is usually higher than in winter (because people drive cars more in summer).

In the winter months heating oil is usually higher than in the summer (because more people are trying to stay warm in winter).

At TransWorld Futures, www.TransWorldFutures.com, we go back over 15 years of research and analyze high percentage seasonal spread trade patterns. If a commodity doesn’t exhibit a high seasonal correlation, it is tossed out of the data base.

Any spread trade that has been successful 80% of the time or better over the past 15 years is certainly a possible candidate for exhibiting a seasonal tendency and worth analyzing further. Once the high percentage entry and exit dates are determined, it is time to examine the trade on the technical setup. Is the spread overbought or oversold, what are the resistance points? Basically does the trade look technically as well as fundamentally sound. There are a number of advisory services that offer seasonal spread trade recommendations based on historical analysis, but, by ignoring the technical set up, may result in entering the trade too early, resulting in unnecessarily large draw downs, or in entering too late, missing the trade altogether. We attempt to alleviate the stress, and do the leg work for you. The results from this unique form of trading have to be seen to be believed. Please contact one of our friendly brokers today, and learn about one of the most consistent trade indicators.

Rob Rutger

Senior Analyst

TransWorld Futures

Rob@TransWorldFutures.com

Toll free: 1-877-843-4519

International: 011-813-241-1902

Fax: 1-813-241-1927

www.TransWorldFutures.com



By: Robert Rutger

About the Author:

We are going to put together an imaginary spread scenario and set it in real life events. Consider that, in October, you begin to hear about IJK stock. It looks interesting, so you use a variety of sources to learn about it. (News, charts, outside analysts, Internet research, etc.) From your investigations, you decide that this stock is poised for a strong upward move and you would like to take advantage of it. Each share is $50.00 and you question whether you want to put out the capital for enough shares to make the trade worthwhile.

Now is the time to investigate IJK spreads. Since you are bullish on the stock, you look into the bullish plays of the call spreads and the put spreads. You check the pricing of both since you know that implied volatility and time decay affect your purchase and selling price if you decide to sell out the spread before expiration.

Imagine that you set the spread’s maximum potential gain at $10.00 using our formula. Then you decide that you want to buy a call spread, so you buy 10 IJK Nov. 50 calls and sell 10 IJK Nov 60 calls. This is the Nov. 50-60 spread. The spread’s cost is $3.50, which means you pay $3,500 for the trade. This is inexpensive when you consider that 1,000 shares of IJK stock would have cost you $50,000! You will now wait and follow the stock price of IJK. If you hold the position to expiration, you face the following losses or gains.

If the stock does not move up as you expected and stays at $50 or decreases in value, your spread is worthless and you will lose the $3,500 that you paid for the spread. If the stock begins to move up, you will recoup your investment and move into profits. When the stock has moves up to $3.50, you are at the breakeven point. Every money advance after that represents profit.

At any time until expiration, you can sell out of the spread, but what you receive for the price are influenced by implied volatility and time decay. That will change your profit or loss. If you hold the spread until expiration and your bullish lean proves true, your maximum profit on your $3,500 investment is $6,500.

You paid $3,500 for the spread and received $10,000 at expiration with the stock at $60.00. That represents a $6,500 profit, which is a 186% return. If you had invested $50,000 for 1,000 shares of IJK and at expiration sold the stock for $60,000, your profit is $10,000 for a 20% return.

For many investors the reward/risk scenario of the spread is attractive because investors can limit the capital at risk and the time of risk/reward exposure. The spread also offers protection if your lean is bullish or bearish. Finally, the spread has the potential of a large percentage return on investment.



By: Ron Ianieri

About the Author:

Here we will outline three trading tools for bigger profits all futures traders can use.

These tools tend not to be used by many traders, but are heavily used by the savvy pro traders to enhance profit potential and you should consider them to in your futures trading.

Check them out for yourself and they will add a new dimension to your futures trading that could increase your trading profits to.

1. Gauging the pulse of the market

The “opening range technique is the ultimate filtering device for futures traders and is highly effective, as it allows traders to take the pulse of the market before entering it each day.

Say you have a buy signal from the previous days close, you can of course blindly buy the open, or you can use this filter.

Here is how it works:

1. Get the opening range and wait.

2. If prices are above the opening range go long with a market order

3. If they are not place a day order 3 ticks above the high of the opening range.

Here you are checking the pulse and strength of the market.

If prices move up your on board, if prices drop from the opening range you are kept out of a losing trade.

If your futures trading method is still telling you to be long, try again the next day. If your short of course, it’s the exact same in reverse.

Sounds simple? It is, but its very effective.

In our experience you can cut losing trades by up to 20% using this tool and it’s an excellent method for filtering your trading signals.

2. How to never a miss a big move

Richard Donchian’s four week rule outlined below may seem simple, but it is highly effective in catching big moves in futures trading.

We all know that most of the big moves each year in futures markets take place from market highs.

Most traders however want to buy dips to support and fail to get in on the big moves. This simple tool however will make sure you never miss a big move.

Here’s how it works.

Let’s assume you are looking at crude oil and spot a buying opportunity. Rather than buying a dip, wait for a new 4 week high and then take a long position.

You should only use this rule only in strong bull or bear markets, not ranging markets.

If you have a strong bull market, buy new four week highs and conversely, if you have a strong bear market sell new four week lows.

Its simple and a very effective tool try it out for yourself and see.

3. Intra commodity spreads

Again, another simple trading idea, which will give you risk reduction and staying power.

All you do is trade two different months in the same commodity

Your aim is to buy the month that is expected to increase most and sell another month to give you some risk protection.

Normally, the front month will move the most, so you buy it and sell a back month. This is known as a bull spread the reverse action in a bear market is a bear spread.

For example, the summer months are the strong ones in unleaded gasoline, so if your bullish buy them and sell a weaker back month as protection.

Spreading works particularly well in these futures markets:

Copper, energies, soybeans, wheat, coffee, sugar, cotton and all the meats expect bellies.

When using intra commodity spreads in futures trading, you need to take into account the general market trend and the strength of the spread. Spreading is great risk control vehicle and a way to get staying power an is a great tool for traders with small trading accounts.

All the above are simple tools, but don’t be deceived by their simplicity. If used correctly they can all enhance your futures trading and give you bigger profit potential.



By: Sacha Tarkovsky

About the Author:

Here we will discuss 3 tips which if you include them in your FX Trading strategy can turn a trading account making marginal money into big forex profits. These tips don not conform to the consensus way of making money but most forex traders don’t win!

1. Cut Back Trading Frequency

Most traders simply trade too much and you need to remember you don’t get rewarded for the amount you trade - just how many trades you get right and the profit they produce. The high odds big trades only come around a few times a month so look for them and trade them.

For example, I know traders who trade less than 10 times a year yet make 100% + annual profits and you can to.

Forget short term trading like forex scalping or day trading and hit the high odds trades only - the big trends that last for weeks or months. Look at any forex chart and you will see them, so lock into them and trade them.

2. Hit High Odds Trades Hard

When you have a high odds trade - hit it hard in terms of money you are prepared to risk. You hear a lot about risking 2% per trade but for a retail trader this is ridiculous. If you invest $1,000, that’s 20 bucks and your risk is so small, your going to get stopped out by random volatility. If you have a high odds trade risk up to 20%.

This is not being rash. If you have a high odds trade your confident in then you need to take a meaningful risk to make a worthwhile profit.

3. Don’t Dilute the Above!

Only run high odds trades and forget about diversifying. Diversification is supposed to reduce risk and maybe it does - but one fact is clear, it will dilute your profit potential at the same time.

Why when you have a great high odds trade do you want to dilute and reduce its profit potential?

Many people diversify so much, they never make anything! So don’t bother spreading trades around, hit the high odds trades, risk as much as you can afford and focus on it.

Many traders try so hard to reduce risk they actually create it and ensure they will never make any decent gains.

Trading is all about taking risk but this is not being rash, it’s about taking calculated risks, at the right time and knowing when to bet, how to bet and what stake to risk.

Your not trading forex to make 10 or 20%, you can do that with less risk elsewhere!

Your out to make 50 - 100% or more and the above is really common sense and if you try it, you will reduce your risk, turbo charge your gains and enjoy currency trading success.



By: Kelly Price

About the Author:

What is spread betting?

Simply put, financial spreadbetting is a tax free alternative to conventional trading.

Spread-betting is a very easy concept to understand. Indeed, if you already trade anything at all then you should have no trouble understanding the concept.

Do not get confused. For those of you out there who already trade derivatives, well, spreadbetting is just another derivative product. You do not actually buy the underlying stocks, you just speculate (bet) on where you think the prices will be at a point in the future. When you look at spread trading in this way, it becomes obvious that is basically the same as your regular trading in any other derivative instrument. When you close your position, your betting profit or loss is calculated as the difference between the opening price and closing price of the bet, multiplied your stake.

What are the attractive features of spreadbetting?

1. Spread betting is a derivative

As I explained above, spread-betting is just another derivative instrument. Like the typical derivative, spread trading gives you exposure to the movements of the underlying stocks, bonds, currency or commodity, without the need to actually own the financial security being traded.

2. Spreadbetting is a margin instrument

Typically, when you place a spread bet, you are only required to deposit about 10 percent of the total value of the trade.

This means that you get a bigger bang for your buck. Of course, you should be mindful that you can also lose more than your initial deposit if margin acts against you when a trade goes wrong. Whatever you do, always trade with discipline and never forget to use a stop loss.

3. It is capital gains TAX FREE!

The major advantage of financial spread-betting as it is currently structured is the fact that profits are tax free. Of course, as the spreadbet brokers are always quick to point out, tax laws are subject to change. But for now, the exemption from capital gains tax which can be as high as 40 per cent in the UK and Ireland makes this a potential lucrative and attractive vehicle for profitable short term traders.

Of course, it goes without saying that your ability to benefit from this particular feature of spreadbetting depends on the current legislation in your country. For those in the UK for instance, financial spread betting is classified as a bet rather than an investment or trade, and as such, is free from capital gains tax. So, you keep every profit you make. This tax-free attribute has meant that spread betting has enjoyed tremendous success and popularity in various jurisdictions including the UK and Australia.



By: Alex Ola

About the Author:

Soft Commodities

You can spread bet on the future price of Soft Commodities (Softs) like Coffee and Soybeans just like you can spread bet on the future price of Crude Oil, Gold, the FTSE 100 etc. Soft Commodity prices can rapidly increase on the back of high oil prices due to increased transport and energy costs. Prices are also affected by adverse weather conditions and political policies that force farmers to grow certain types of crop. But if you are spread betting on Softs what about the facts?

 

10 Facts for Spread Betting on Soft Commodities

 





One key factor affecting most Softs is the exchange rate. Because soft commodities are normally traded in US Dollars that means Soft futures prices will be affected by the exchange rates. If there are no other particular influences on supply and demand then if the Dollar goes down against the Euro, the commodities price (in Dollars) will go up and vice versa. This is not always guaranteed but it is an important correlation to take into account.





 





Some of the main soft commodities that you can trade with the major spread betting companies are: Cocoa, Coffee, Corn, Lean Hogs, Live Cattle, Oats, Soybean, Soybean Meal, Soybean Oil, Wheat and Sugar. Note Soybean (US) and Soya bean (UK)





 





Commodities are often split into their main types eg Coffee is traded as higher quality Arabica (or Coffee ‘C’) and lower quality Robusta





 





As mentioned above, Softs are generally traded in Dollars, one of the exceptions is Cocoa (London) which is traded in Sterling





 





When spread betting on the future price of Softs the settlement date of your futures trade is normally in 1-3 months. Eg for wheat the settlement months are listed as March, May, July, September and December. The Wheat September market closed on 20 August and the Wheat December market closes on 19 November





 





You can spread bet on all commodities including softs tax free* and commission free with companies like FinancialSpreads.com and IG Index





 





As with all spread bets you trade in units eg with the Wheat (London) market you trade in £ per tonne, Coffee Robusta is $ per tonne.





 

The current spread for Coffee Robusta is $2196 - $2204. That means you can spread bet on Coffee to close lower than $2196 per tonne or higher than $2204 per tonne.

 

If you were betting £2 per dollar and the price of a tonne moves $20 then your profit / loss would alter by (£2 per dollar) x $20 = £40.

 

 





Although the units the commodities are traded in on the exchanges is fixed, when spread betting on commodities you trade in the currency that suits you eg Pounds per unit, Euros per unit or Dollars per unit





 

Eg Coffee Arabica is traded in 0.01cents / lb (pound).

 

Therefore you could bet 5 euros per 0.01 cent that Arabica goes up or down. If the price / lb then moved by 0.15 cents then your profit or loss would alter by 5 Euros per 0.01 cent x 15 = 75 Euros.

 

Likewise you could bet £8 per 0.01 cent that Arabica goes up or down. If the price / lb then moved by 0.20 cents then your profit or loss would alter by £8 per 0.01 cent x 20 = £160.

 

 





If you are still unsure how the mechanism works then companies like FinancialSpreads.com offer free demo accounts with a virtual £10,000. There you can trade Coffee, Corn, Equities, Forex etc on a copy of their trading platform





 





Note that Interest Rate changes can have knock on affects. Of course we all know the past performance of a market does not always predict the future performance. However in 2008 when the USA was lowering Interest Rates that caused weakness in the Dollar. That therefore increased the price of the soft commodities that were priced in USD. The lesson here is simple. Beware of interest rate changes when you are trading commodities





 

Spread bets carry a high level of risk to your money and may not suit all forms of investor. You can lose more than your initial investment so make sure you only speculate with capital that you can afford to lose. Likewise make sure you understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

 

* Note that tax law can change and can differ if you live outside the UK



By: Peter Jones

About the Author:

 

Are all the analysts still predicting a rise in crude oil prices? Which way should you bet on Oil to go next, up or down?

 

We have scoured the financial press for reputable sources predicting a drop in oil prices. There are not many. Of course the negatives with this sort of research come in three forms of self interest.

 

Firstly, the media want to print high oil price stories. That sells papers. Writing that Analyst Abc of Company Xyz predicts a drop to $130 is not going to shift the broadsheets.

 

Secondly, some predications could be seen as self-serving prophecies such Gazprom’s repeated forecast of $250 per barrel.

 

Thirdly, it is the role of many an employee to keep their company in the headlines. At least that was one charge levelled at Argun Murti of Goldman Sachs who predicted the $200 super spike. Although it was the same energy man who predicted that crude would hit $100 per barrel. As we all know, his previous prediction was correct.

 

If that is the case then who has said what about the price?

 

$60. Fadel Ghiet, Equity Analyst Oppenheimer. “Based on Supply and Demand…Crude Oil should not be above $60 per barrel”.

 

$80. But not before summer 2009. Simon Denom of Capital Spreads suggests that if the North Sea extraction costs are less than $20 per barrel then $80 is likely.

 

$150. Simon Denom. In the short term but not just yet. “The $150 level is within a single trading days range but we may pause for breath before we take the leap. Remember the delay at the $100 level where the market continually rejected the psychological three-digit number before breaking decisively through it?”

 

$150. Ole Slorer, Analyst, Morgan Stanley. Estimate for 4 July. Note that Brent Crude Oil closed at $144.42 and Nymex US Light Crude (WTI) closed at $143.97 on 4 July. Close but no cigar.

 

$150. Nauman Barakat, Macquarie New York. Crude Oil will hit $150 per barrel sooner rather than later and that is with or without any further problems in the Middle East.

 

$200. Energy Strategist, Argun Murti, Goldman Sachs.

 

$200. A lot of energy brokers. According to the Financial Times, there were nearly 30,000 open contracts in July for Nymex December to hit $200. That is up nearly 90% since June. Up 600% since January.

 

$225. Jeff Rubin, Chief Economist, CIBC. Do not panic yet though. The CE of the Canadian Bank is only predicting $225 by 2012.

 

$250. Alexei Miller, CEO, Gazprom. He says Da to $250 per barrel by the end of 2008.

 

$300. There are some $300 per barrel Call Options being sold. However these have been widely described in the press as Lottery Tickets.

 

The current Crude Oil price with spread betting company Financial Spreads is $138.92 - $138.97 for Brent Crude September. With the crude oil market so volatile and trading a $4-5 dollar range in a single day is it best to stay out of the market or is it worth following all the, possibly self serving, predictions?

 

Note that spread betting carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all classes of investor. Only trade with money that you can afford to lose. Make sure you fully understand the risks involved. If necessary, seek independent financial advice.

* Note that Tax Law may be different if you pay tax in a jurisdiction outside the UK, it can also change.

 



By: Robert Thomas

About the Author:

Choosing a forex trading platform can be very hard if you dont know what to look for.

In this article you will learn the most important things that a good forex trading platform should have.

Hopefully after reading this article you will have everything you need to choose a good forex broker & platform   So for you to learn how to choose the right platform the will work well for you,you just need to continue reading this article and also refer your friend to this page in other for them to get it right,when choosing a trader platform.

 How reliable a company is. The easiest way to go here would just be to go to some brandname company. Of course, with smaller investments it might be complicated, but many of the big names also offer mini-accounts which start from anywhere between $300 - $2000 minimum. Additionally, get lost into some investing forums and see what other people are suggesting. And then preferrably ask about the platform/firm they suggested in some other forum as well. This way you will get general information about experiences with the firm and additionally, when people are ready to suggest something, it often means that THEY consider the firm reliable

 

- How big are the commissions? For forex and stocks the commissions are usually calculated differently. For stocks there is often a certain fee for a trade – anywhere between $4 - $40 or per trade…eg. $0.02 per stock. With forex the commissions are often automatically added into the spreads ( the difference between the ask and bid price), thus no extra commission is taken. I myself have looked around and considering that… 

 

1. I want to day trade not invest for longer term and

 

2. My initial investing capital will be only $1k-$5k

 

 …the commissions really need to be small. I won’t be looking to earn 10% with a stock and I won’t be working with big numbers. So a $20 commissions on stocks are pretty much killers…buy+sell=$40 only for commissions..and $40 and if I have just $1000 to play with this means that the stock price would have to move to my desired direction at least 4% just not to lose with this deal. And this is a killer. Especially if, as a day trader, I would be happy to take just 1% of profit per deal. So instead I suggest you to find a firm that offers eg. $4 per trade or $0.01 per share.  With forex – I have actually already tried to play on forex, without any knowledge of the market, just to try it out. The firm I used had 10 pip spread for mini accounts ( min deposit $25 )…and as I didn’t know a thing about pips and such ( if you don’t have any clue what pip is, check the forex channel on this site..there will be an introduction to forex markets soon) and only now I can say it’s a killer. Good platforms usually offer only a 2-5 pip spread and this is a lot better, independent of your portfolio value.

 

- With forex and small capital you also want to know what kind of leverage they are offering. Forex is good from the perspective that you might only have $1000 but you could buy currencies for $100k ( this case of course, you are risking all your money, but the possibility here is important). The leverage is different with different online brokers, usually between 50:1 and 400:1. I guess 100:1 or 200:1 is pretty good already while 50:1 might not do it.

 

- How does their platform look? While other people might say that this or that platform is very good, you might end up hating it. So I suggest you to register for free demo accounts on different sites and see yourself which you would be most comfortable with. For example if you don’t have a laptop with you all the time, it might be a good choice to go for a web-based platform, while if you do have access to your computer all the time, I would suggest a non-web-based platform as these tend to be a bit faster to use. But that again might be my personal fetish. And my 10-pip firm had web-based platform so I might not be as objective here as I could.

Tip #1 Real Time Quotes

This is extremely important. Forex trading is done 24 hours a day and you want to have live quotes. With live quotes you can be in full control of your funds and check them whenever you want.

Make sure to check if the broker platform offer live quotes 24 hours a day. This is really important i cannot stress this enough.

Make sure to check so the broker don’t slow the execution of the orders. This way you will enter a market at a different time than you wanted.

So make sure that the broker don’t slow the execution orders.

Tip #2 Easy to Use

The software you use should be easy to understand. You should be able to start trading immediately. Skip systems that take weeks to learn. They should be easy to use, that’s it.

You should also try to pick a software that doesn’t need any download, that you can access from every computer.

You could choose to download a software but make sure that it got live quotes.

Support

This is very important. Your broker shall provide 24 hours support no question about it. The forex market never rests and if you need assistance you should get it fast.

A good tip is to contact their support about any questions you have before you buy their services.

Trading Rates

Be sure to check if the software allows a freeze option when you decide to buy or sell. This way you get the rate you freeze and not the actual rate that occurs when the buy or sell is processed seconds later.

 Spreads

The spread is different from broker to broker. Make sure to check which spread the broker have. If they have larger spreads then the market have to move in your favor more than it would have if the spread was smaller.



harder to make a profit if the spread is larger so try picking a software that have a small spread.

 



By: tunde

About the Author:

Iron Condor Spread is the combination of a Bullish Vertical Credit Spread and a Bearish Vertical Credit Spread on the same underlying asset. Depending on how the spreads are constructed, option traders will potentially be able to obtain twice the collect premium over a single spread position. Since there are bullish and bearish spreads involved in the Iron Condor Option Trading Strategy, there is an upper break even and a lower break even point. Profit is realized when the underlying asset remains above the lower break even point or below the upper break even point. In other words, as long as the price of the asset is above your bullish short strike and below the bearish short strike, the option trader will profit from both spreads through time decay. This strategy can be used regularly on a monthly basis to consistently generate a healthy cash flow in your trading business.

Time decay erodes the value of option prices. There are not many option traders who understand the benefit with trading spreads because it simply looks too complicated. Well, it is not.

Iron Condor Spreads is a market neutral strategy that has positive time decay and negative gamma with limited risk. Traders with any level of option trading experience can use this trading approach. Depending on your brokerage expertise and software, these spreads should be available electronically with single click functionality. Some brokers may even provide better leverage when you trade Iron Condor with them.

The IronCondorSpread Newsletter was designed to identify low risk option trading opportunity when an index remains in a narrow trading range during the current expiration cycle. Holding period is always not longer than 60 days.

In trading, the only objective is to make money. As a trader, you should not into big gains or excitement. Constructed correctly, the iron condor spread can be a consistent income generator. Before getting into new positions, you should look for positions that have an extremely high percentage of profitability. If you have the odds of winning in your favor. you will likely be profitable in the long run.

To do so, look specifically for options that have a relatively higher level of volatility. This means to look for positions that are over priced. Establish a trade positions that you believe that the underlying asset will not move to anywhere new your short strike.

To achieve consistent profit, our Iron Condor positions will always have a wide profit range on the underlying asset. So, in the event that the underlying moves up, down or even sideways, you will always profit with time decay. Having a large profit range is important because it will almost certainly guarantee that we will profit consistently and also it does not require us to spend a lot of time to monitor our open positions. We like the idea of trading with little stress and with little work. Our usual profit target for each Iron Condor spread is 13% to 18%. Profit is usually realized within 60 days.

Iron Condor trading is an effective trading strategy because it is a limited risk approach. You will never lose more that you have allocated for each trade. Although it comes with a high probability of winning, losses can be kept low when the trade moves against you. As rare as losing month may be for us, keeping losses low is the key to any successful trading strategy. While making money is important, capital preservation is equally or more important.

The IronCondorSpread Newsletter, http://www.ironcondorspread.com is the premier website in Credit Spread and Iron Condor Spread Option Trading strategy.



By: Mike Conley

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