Have you ever considered investing in the stock market? Even with the way the stock market is moving? With today’s economy, stock trading is extremely risky for beginners. If you don’t know what you are doing in stock trading, you can lose your investment very quickly.

There is an alternative that many new investors do not know about. It’s called “Binary Stock Option Trading.” Basically, Binary Stock Options only have two outcomes. Either you win a certain percentage of your initial deposit or you lose your initial investment, but when you lose, you still walk away with a small percentage of your initial investment.

The best part of Binary Stock Option Trading is that you are now able to do this online with a minimum investment of $30. If you are new to stock trading, Binary Stock Option Trading may be the way to go. You do not need to know much about the market or how to read complicated charts and graphs. Also, you do not need to download any complicated trading platforms, as there are easy to use online trading platforms that you can use directly online.

If you are interested in learning more about Binary Stock Option Trading, visit www.EZmoneytrader.com to learn some simple techniques that will guide you to making money online with Binary Stock Options. Investing can be extremley profitable when you know how to invest properly. The number one reason why new investers lose money is because they were never taught how to make it. Happy Trading.



By: Mike Edwards

About the Author:

2009 Hot Stock Picks >> Stock Market Tips .. Strategies for Making Money Day Trading Stocks Online

By.- http://www.StressFreeTraders.com

A beginner usually feels very attracted to the stock market while for example discovering a stock that’s being reported in CNBC or the news program and watching it rise steady fast and make new highs from $10 to $70 in just 2 months.

While learning about this successful news story he’s saying to himself “Oh boy if I was one of those lucky guys who bought that stock back when it was priced at $10 I easily would have tripled my money by now… That means my 10 grand would transformed in to a whooping 70 K! hassle free … I would have been able to grab one of those big HUMMERs on the spot and probably pick up a nice Rolex by the way!”

The stock market news constantly reports of hot stocks that are breaking out and making tremendous gains on the same day or doubling in price in just a few hours. Back in the bull market of the late 90’s you could easily see a good number of hot stocks sprouting out every week.

Those years surely made it look like every body could easily take LONG SHOTS and make a shiny pile of gold every day in the stock market. But today’s market is a different story. A totally different animal.

Some say that the stock market has gotten more realistic. Fantasy land is over and GAMBLING YOUR WAY TO RICHES is not an option anymore. You might get lucky a few times, but your constant loses can wipe you out sooner or later.

The fact that the bull market period has ended for now doesn’t mean that you can’t make a great deal of money in today’s market. A lot folks from many walks of life keep making excellent profits on a daily basis, pocketing hundreds & thousands of dollars by trading stocks online.

Success in stock trading starts by applying a wiser and REALISTIC methodology for choosing hot stocks as well as for getting in and out of them with profits in mind.

You need to look at the stock market more realistically. You got to learn that you can benefit when stocks go up and also when they FALL down.

You got to WORK SMARTER and get more selective about the hot stock trading opportunities that you choose. You need to embrace the nature of day trading and be fully prepared to take advantage of stocks that are poised for a BIG RISE on the same day.

The bottom line is you have to PREPARE YOUR SELF to be successful, just like you would do it in other areas of your life in order to achieve success.

Learn to choose among the hottest stocks and dramatically improve your trading results today at http://www.StressFreeTraders.com



By: Stock Trader

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:

Day trading is basically the buying and selling of stocks over a relatively short period of time, sometimes minutes. It was once only available to floor traders and investment banks but now the Internet has made day trading accessible to anyone with a computer system. There is good money to be made (and lost) using this method.

As an example, a day trader might buy 1000 shares of stock A at 10:00 as the price begins to move upwards on good news, then sell it at 10:04 when the stock price has risen (for example, by $0.50). The day trader would make $500 profit, less his commission which with today’s low commission rates of around $30 or less per trade, that’s a nice $440 or better, excluding taxes.

Day trading usually follows one of two approaches, either beating the spread or attempting to catch short term trends. The spread is the difference between what is being offered for a stock (the bid) and the price being asked for the stock (the ask). With spread trading, you attempt to buy at the ‘bid’ and sell at the ‘ask’ as many times as possible. Spread traders can make hundreds of this type of trade every day.

ECNs or Electronic Communication Networks are a recent development. They are completely electronic exchanges with very low commissions and very fast execution of orders. As a method of encouraging traders to use their networks, some ECNs offer incentives in the form of a rebate. In some cases, this can allow a day trader to make money simply from buying and selling a stock at the same price.

Day trading can be very profitable if you get it right, but you need to research as much as possible and take advantage of the free simulation software that is available for you to practice with before you take the plunge. Remember, day trading isn’t for the faint hearted!



By: Andy Hargreaves

About the Author:

One of the best kept secrets in trading is that of reduced margin spreads. You cannot name a trading method that provides more safety or a greater return on margin than does a reduced margin spread, while also being one of the least time-consuming ways to trade. Have you ever asked yourself why it is that many of the largest, most powerful traders trade spreads? I’m going to show you why!

WHAT IS A REDUCED MARGIN SPREAD?

Because of perceived lower volatility, exchanges grant reduced margins on certain types of spreads. Spreads consist of being long in one or more contracts of one market and short in one or more contracts of the same market but in different months—an Intramarket spread; or being long in one or more contracts of one market and short one or more contracts of a different market, and in the same or different months—an Intermarket spread.

DISTORTIONS ABOUT SPREADS

There are some distortions about spread trading that need to be dispelled. If we get them out of the way, I can show you the tremendous advantages spread trading has over any other form of trading.

It is said that spreads do not move as much as outright futures. I agree 100% with that statement. However, spreads trend much more often than outright futures, they trend much more dramatically than outright futures, and they trend for longer periods of time than do the outright futures. For these reasons you can make much more money with spreads than with the outrights.

The second distortion about spread trading goes like this: “You have to pay double commissions when you trade spreads.” Yes! You have to pay two commissions for every spread you enter in the market. So what? You are trading two contracts instead of one. You pay two commissions because you are trading two separate contracts, one in one place and the other in an entirely different place. Paying two commissions for two separate trades is hardly unfair. Let me tell you what is unfair—paying a round turn commission for an option that expires worthless. Why don’t you hear people complaining about that? You pay for a round turn, and you receive only half a turn. Doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?

ADVANTAGES OF SPREAD TRADING

There are so many advantages to trading reduced margin spreads that I hope I don’t run out of room here before I can tell you all of them. Let’s begin with return on margin, i.e., yield.

Yield: As I write this, the margin to trade an outright futures position in soybeans is $1,050, whereas a spread trade in soybeans requires only $250, only 23% as much. If soybean futures move one full point, that move is worth $50. If a soybean spread moves one full point, that move is worth $50. That means either a 5 point favorable move in soybean futures or a 5 point favorable move in a soybean spread earns the trader $250. However, the difference in return on margin is extraordinary: In the futures the return is $250/$1,050=23.8%. For the spread, the return is $250/$250=100%. Think about that!



Leverage: This leads us to the next benefit of spread trading—with the same amount of margin, you could have traded 4 soybean spreads instead of one soybean futures. How’s that for leverage? Instead of making $250 on a five point move, you could have made $1,000. Reduced margin spreads offer a much more efficient use of your margin money.

Trend: Earlier I said that spreads tend to trend much more dramatically than outright futures contracts. Not only that, but they trend more often than do outright futures. I don’t have room here to show you the dozens of sharply trending spreads that can regularly be found in the markets, so we’ll have to settle for a recent one. You’ll have to take my word for it that this sort of trending happens frequently when trading spreads.

Opportunities: Because spreads tend to trend more often and more dramatically than do outright futures contracts, they offer more opportunities for earning money, and they do so without the interference and noise caused by computerized trading, scalpers, and market movers. Spreads avoid the “noise” in the markets. There are numerous reduced margin spread opportunities, enough to keep almost any trader busy. And it is the lack of interference by market makers and shakers that leads us to one of the most important advantage of trading spreads, whether they be reduced margin or full margin.

Invisibility: One of the primary problems with any kind of trading in the outrights, whether it be in futures or stocks, is that of stop running. The insiders love it when they can see your order. Even when your entry or exit is held mentally, they know where it is. They are keenly aware of where people place their orders. That is why they love Fibonacci and Gann traders. They know precisely where those people will place their orders. The same is true for anyone who uses one of the more commonly known indicators. The insiders fade moving average crossovers, and so-called overbought and oversold—regardless of which indicator is used to show either of those conditions. They know when prices have reached the outer limits of the Bollinger Bands, and they know the location of supposed support and resistance, etc. But with spreads, they have no idea of the location of your orders. You are long in one market and short in another. Your position is invisible to the insiders. They can’t run your stop, because you don’t have one. You cannot place a stop order in the market when trading spreads! Your exit point is entirely mental; it exists exclusively in your head. In that respect, spread trading is a more pure form of trading. It is the closest thing in trading to having a level playing field. Could that be the reason you hardly ever hear about spread trading?

Liquidity: Attempting to trade in “thin” illiquid markets is one of the surest ways to encounter serious stop running and bizarre price movements. However, other than occasional problems with getting filled, spread trading does not suffer from a lack of liquidity—which in itself creates more trading opportunities. I would never consider taking an outright position in feeder cattle. Feeders are a thin, illiquid market normally best left to professional interests. But a reduced margin (feeder cattle)-(live cattle) spread is something I look for all the time. Some of the moves in this particular spread are incredible. They are worth hundreds and even thousands of dollars per spread, several times a year. They are highly seasonal in nature due to the birth and growth cycles of cattle. The same thing is true of spreading both live and feeder cattle against lean hogs. These spreads are seasonal, which brings us to the next great advantage to spread trading - seasonality.

Seasonality: Whereas seasonality doesn’t always take place as planned, i.e., seasonality can come early, late, or not at all, but when it is happening, you can see it. It is obvious when a seasonal trade is working as expected. Seasonality is not subject to the whims of man. Seasonality is one of the strongest reasons for trading spreads. Crops are planted within a given period of time. Calves and piglets are born according to their birth cycle and they grow according to their growth cycle. Even futures based on financial instruments are seasonal, and many of them offer reduced margin spreads.

Backwardation: Along with seasonality comes the huge profits that can be made when an underlying goes into backwardation. This is true for any agricultural commodity as well as any financial instrument. I don’t have space here to explain backwardation, but when it occurs, which is commonplace, the spread between front and back months widens tremendously, thereby offering marvelous profit-making opportunities to the spread trader. As if that weren’t enough, the same opportunity becomes available when the period of backwardation ends and the relationship between front and back months returns to normal.

Probabilities: If we eliminate those trades in the outrights in which you get yourself whipsawed in a sideways market and maybe win or lose a little, the actual odds of winning on any trade is 50%. If you are long and prices move down, you lose. Conversely, if you are short and prices move up, you lose. It doesn’t matter how accurate is your trade selection, the bottom line is that your chances of being right once you enter a trade are one in two. However, when you enter a spread you are not primarily concerned with the direction of prices. Your primary concern is with the direction of the spread.

With a spread you can make money when both legs of the spread are moving up, both legs are moving down, when both legs are moving sideways but one more so than the other, or best of all, when the leg you are long is moving up and the leg you are short is moving down! As long as the leg you are long is moving better than the leg you are short, you will have a winning trade. There is only one situation in which you can lose with a spread, and that is to be dead wrong about both legs. So with a spread you can win even if you were wrong about the direction of price movement, as long as you’re not too wrong.

There are additional opportunities in spread trading, including spreads that require full margin. You can trade spreads with stock indexes, sector funds, and single stock futures. Did you know you can daytrade stock index and currency spreads? These are topics for another day and another time.

Unfortunately, either by accident or design, much of the truth of spread trading has been lost over the years. There are many more aspects to it than I have touched on here. Furthermore, there are some wonderful and inexpensive tools available that make spread trading a delight. Spread trading is one of the most relaxed ways to trade. It rarely takes more than 1-2 hours of your time each day, and more often than not, we are talking about only minutes per day to seek out and trade the wonderful opportunities that are available in reduced margin spreads.



By: Joe Ross

About the Author: