How To Use Stock Charts

By Michael Swanson

Day traders everywhere have begun to watch the stock charts very closely as a hint to what investments to make. You can do this as well. It is fairly easy if you keep a close eye on the stock charts.

Stock charts were created to help any investor and the stock market beginners in deciding which decisions to make in their investing. They will show you easily if a stock has risen or dropped and how well the company is doing.

Investing your money is extremely important. If you do a good job with your investments, you could make a large amount of money and not have to fear for your future. Once you retire from working, you may rely on your stock decisions to live a comfortable life.

If you make poor decisions in regards to your stock purchases, you could find yourself with the need to work well past your scheduled retirement age. If you do not have the funds available to retire, you are left with no choice.

When deciding where to invest your money, take a look at the stock charts for different companies or regions. Do not limit yourself, spend some time researching all of your options before spending your hard earned money.

If a stock has shown steady increases it is a good chance that the increase will continue. This may be a good stock for you to invest in. On the other hand, if the stock has shown steady decreases, you may want to stay away from investing in that stock.

The expert day traders that spend their lives studying the stock market and making important investment decisions will be the first ones to tell you that the market is unpredictable completely. You can study the stock charts and identify a good option but you cannot be positively guaranteed that this stock will do well the next day or the next month. - 23309

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Trading Strategy - Descending Triangles Downside Breakout

By Jeff Cartridge

Descending triangles have been very popular with traders on the short side and are not so often traded when it breaks in the upward direction. A descending triangle is defined by two lines, one on the lower boundary of the price movement which is horizontal and one on the upper side which slopes down.

Descending Triangles, One Of The Best

Descending triangles are one of the most predictable patterns that are available to trade short. With 57% of the patterns breaking down descending triangles can deliver good returns when they do. The average gain is 0.92% in 9 days with about half of the breakouts (45%) being profitable. These results are good but selecting the right conditions can make trading descending triangles very attractive.

Specific Setups to Improve Profitability

When you look at the performance of a descending triangle in bearish market conditions you will see the results were stronger than they were in more bullish years. Trading descending triangles when the market is in a down trend or consolidating improves your trading results. The sector should be falling to make the most profits. Unusually the trend of the sector at the end of the pattern, prior to the breakout is less important than the sector trend at the start of the pattern.

Breakouts can occur anywhere along the length of the descending triangle pattern. Another key to picking successful short breakouts from descending triangles is to look for a turning point up from the lower boundary that fails to reach the upper boundary and then falls away.

If the volume supports the breakout the results are better. Supportive volume means the volume on the way down is higher than the volume on the way up.

Trading Descending Triangles Can Be Profitable

Incorporating these simple changes when selecting descending triangles to trade short, dramatically improves the results. With an average return per trade of 2.55% in 10 days and a hit rate of 48% descending triangles are one of the most profitable patterns to trade on the short side.

Note: Statistics for this article have been provided by Patterns Trader after analyzing over 60,000 chart patterns on the Australian market from 2000 - 2008. - 23309

About the Author:

Jeff Cartridge has been trading CFDs since 2002 and created the website LearnCFDs.com Discover Patterns of Success

Automated Forex Trading System - The Benefits

By Jane MacRae

Automated forex trading is something anyone interested in forex trading should know about.

Forex trading is another name for foreign currency trading. Investors simply buy one of the world's currency when it is low and sell it when it is high, and make a profit with the balance.

Do not be fooled by its simple concept, the actual forex trading process is filled with complexities. The forex market moves at a fast pace, and changes occur from time to time. An automated forex trading system can be just what you need to keep up.

As said by its name, an automated forex system automates the process of currency trading. Probably to some people, a more hands-on, manual approach might seem like the best way to go. However, the benefits of using an automated system are something most players will not pass by.

1. It works restlessly

The forex market is a restless market. It is live 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

You are not a machine. You need to sleep, to eat, to entertain, to shop, to pick up your kids from school. There is no way you can monitor everything that happens on the forex market, all hours of the day and night, manually.

Now, with automated forex system, you can become more efficient. The system does not require breaks, and It can monitor the market changes restlessly. Even while you are sleeping, brushing your teeth, or running errands, your automated system can be making money for you.

2. It Does A Number of Jobs

The forex market moves fast and, sometimes, a lot of different things can happen at once. Even if you are sitting in front of your computer, diligently monitoring the market, you can still end up missing amazing opportunities.

This is not a problem for an automated forex system. No matter how fast something happens, no matter how many different things happen at the same time, your automated trading system will still keep track.

3. It Does Not Give Ways to Emotions

Sometimes, emotions can get in the way of making sound business decisions. On the forex market, where making the right split second decisions can mean the difference between making and losing money, being impulsive, indecisive, unsure, or rash can do you financial harm.

An automated forex system will never have problem with emotions. Once you tell the system what to do and when to do it (based on your knowledge of the market) those things will get done, and in a timely manner.

Undoubtedly, automated forex trading can bring currency trading to the next level. Because of such, the number of automation software is on the rise in the market. You should do yourself a favour by checking out some really good ones, as the benefits an automated system will bring about are just an asset you can not afford to live without. - 23309

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Click here for our review of a leading automatic forex trading system in the market, which will grant you a huge advantage over your competitors. Also check out this related article about forex currency trading beginner.

Trading Systems: Money Management

By Maclin Vestor

How to manage money when buying stocks, futures, or options -- what you must know before you buy.

Many people have a very crucial problem, they take on more risk than they can. It really doesn't matter if you're very young, if you take risk to the extreme and continue down that path, you will by mathematical law in all probability lose money.

Lets say you had an almost sure investment that was 85% likely to succeed. When it succeeded you double your money. You put all your money on it. The problem is, when the investment fails, you lose everything. Now it is just a fact that you will eventually lose everything if you continue to invest everything. You only need one trade and you are wiped out completely. Now, even if you invested 90% of your money on an investment that would win 80% of the time, you still are taking on too much risk to win in the long run. If you lose once, you will need a 1000% return just to get back to even. That simply will not happen forever, and even if it did, the large loss would limit your potential for gain so much, that you'd be better off not taking on the maximum risk.

Now, your risk of losing everything can never be completely 100% eliminated, even with conservative strategies. If you flip enough coins, eventually you'll get a very rare event such as 100 heads in a row. However, you'll also get 100 tails in a row. The idea is that you have a strategy that yields you more when you win, and/or wins more than it loses. in this case there will be several losses in a row, but there will also be several wins in a row. If you manage your money properly, you will still have enough money if you get several losses in a row, to be able to more than make up for it when you get several wins in a row. If you are forced to limit the amount of capital after so many losses, that you cannot invest with the same amount after the losses, you may be unable to win enough to make up for those losses. The idea is to keep your investments small enough to limit the chances of that happening. Although almost nothing is a sure thing, by using proper money management, you tip the odds in your favor.

Even if you have a profitable method, if you do not manage your risk, your profitable method becomes unprofitable. It's not usually the investment vehicle, it's the investor that ultimately determines how quickly you fail, and ultimately whether you are able to succeed. Under the same context, it's not usually the type of car, but the driver that determines whether you cause an accident. In order to protect yourself, you must keep your positions at a manageable level, and make sure to keep yourself limited by these rules that will limit your risk of ruin and keep the odds in your favor so you can stay in the game.

So how exactly does one manage money in a trading system? You need to determine probability of a move taking place. If you buy OTM option, the stock will have to move larger for success to occur. Of course if it does, the reward will be greater. There are probability curves based on a random walk theory that will assist you in determining the probability of a move taking place, until you know any better, use these. However, you also should use your own records of your system Determine both your risk/reward (your average % win divided by your average percentage losses, and in addition figure out your likelihood of success. When you do this, you can use what's known as the Kelly Criterion By using the formula as follows Kelly % = W - [(1 - W) / R] Kelly % = The maximum percentage of your capital you should invest per position. W = Winning probability R = Win/loss ratio

A trading system that contains good money management rules will not only outperform one without, but it will also help protect your capital, and keep you in the game. - 23309

About the Author:

Maclin Vestor teaches about trading systems. You can learn more about system trading and find a Trading System that works for you at his blog.

Are You Aware Of 2 Simple Ways To Avoid Bankruptcy?

By Emma Elvie

It seems as though financial pressures on a family are a lot more difficult can common in today's society. However even though you may believe that filing bankruptcy is your only way out; the truth is that you should do everything that you can to avoid bankruptcy. It should be the last choice in your long road to overcoming your financial pressures.

If you really want to avoid bankruptcy and find some alternatives to bankruptcy then you have come to the right place; we wanted to provide you with 2 simple options that anyone can use when trying to avoid bankruptcy. One of the most sought after options is obtaining a debt consolidation loan and closing all existing credit lines so that you do not have a lot of debt.

A debt consolidation loan is when you take out a new unsecured loan to pay off all your outstanding debts and has been known to help people avoid bankruptcy. However before you go and borrow any money to pay off your current debt; you want to ensure that the interest rate that they give you for the loan is not ridiculous.

This allows people to repay their higher interest credit cards and therefore can literally save them hundreds of dollars each and every month. The best part is that the debt consolidation loans will usually have to be repaid over a long period of time; therefore you will have a chance to get back on your feet again.

Speaking to a credit counselor who can help you set a strict budget that will enable you to repay your debt is another great option. I know that it feels as though there is nothing that you can do to avoid bankruptcy; the reality is that unless you are willing to ask you may not even be aware of any of the alternatives that you can use.

Be honest with yourself about your finances after all you are the one who has to continue to live with them and visit our website below. You will discover some more valuable information and resources that will help you avoid bankruptcy. - 23309

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How To Stop Bankruptcy It Is Not Too Late! How To File Bankruptcy Online