Thursday, October 1, 2009

Making It In The Bucket Shops

By Paul Carlyle

Of course I had my ups and downs, but was a winner on balance. However, the Cosmopolitan people were not satisfied with the awful handicap they had tacked on me, which should have been enough to beat anybody. They tried to double-cross me. They didn't get me. I escaped because of one of my hunches.

The Cosmopolitan, as I said, was my last resort. It was the richest bucket shop in New England, and as a rule they put no limit on a trade. I think I was the heaviest individual trader they had that is, of the steady, every-day customers. They had a fine office and the largest and completest quotation board I have ever seen anywhere.

And the funniest thing was that not later than ten days after the Cosmopolitan people tried to double-cross me a New York operator did them out of over seventy thousand dollars. This man, who was quite a market factor in his day and a member of the New York Stock Exchange, made a great name for himself as a bear during the Bryan panic of '96.

He was forever running up against Stock Exchange rules that kept him from carrying out some of his plans at the expense of his fellow members. One day he figured that there would be no complaints from either the Exchange or the police authorities if he took from the bucket shops of the land some of their ill-gotten gains.

In the instance I speak of he sent thirty-five men to act as customers. They went to the main office and to the bigger branches. On a certain day at a fixed hour the agents all bought as much of a certain stock as the managers would let them.

Just then Dave Wyman by the ticker, began: "Su-" and quick as a flash I slapped my tickets on the counter in front of the clerk and yelled, "Close Sugar!" before Dave had finished calling the price. So, of course, the house had to close my Sugar at the last quotation. What Dave called turned out to be 103 again.

A fellow told me the originator cleaned up seventy thousand dollars net, and his agents made their expenses and then pay besides.

He played that game several times all over the country, punishing the bigger bucket shops of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis.

Everybody in the room heard me and began to look toward us and ask what was the trouble, for, you see, while the Cosmopolitan had never laid down, there was no telling, and a run on a bucket shop can start like a run on a bank. If one customer gets suspicious the others follow suit. So Tom looked sulky, but came over and marked my tickets "Closed at 103" and shoved the seven of them over toward me. He sure had a sour face.

Say, the distance from Tom's place to the cashier's cage "wasn't over eight feet. But I hadn't got to the cashier to get my money when Dave Wyman by the ticker yelled excitedly: "Gosh! Sugar, 108!" But it was too late; so I just laughed and called over to Tom, "It didn't work that time, did it, old boy? - 23309

About the Author:

Understanding Exchange Traded Funds

By Mike Swanson

As of June 2007, SPY ETF has become the largest exchange stock trading fund in the world. It is sponsored by PDR services LLC, which in itself is a subsidiary of American Stock Exchange LLC. It does, however, have some considerable competition on the market. The most formidable ETFs holding stock picks are listed on the New York Stock exchange as IVV, RSP, SH, RSU, SSO, RSW, SDS, UPRO and SPXU.

The ETF (exchange-traded fund) is a way of conducting business on the stock exchange. The value of an ETF is set at the value of the stocks or bonds it represents. This means the value of said assets over the course of the trading day. There are currently 680 active ETFs on the US markets, which are worth about $610 billion.

SPDRs were launched in January 1993 by the Boston asset manager, State Street Global Advisors. They were devised by Nathan Moss, an American Stock exchange executive. In May 1995 they were joined by the MidCap SPDRs. They are now listed on the New York Stock Exchange as "SPY" and as "MDY".

ETFs are routinely criticized for several reasons. First, that they are short-term in scope. Second, they do not provide sufficient diversification. Third, the so called tax advantages are worthless to investors using tax deferred accounts. Fourth, they can be used to manipulate market prices. Most concede that a broadly diversified ETF can be a wise investment.

Their origin lies with the Index Participation Shares (IDSs) of the late 1980s. IDSs were traded on the American Stock Exchange and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Eventually the practice was stopped following a lawsuit by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Te Toronto Stock Exchange then began to trade its own version of IDS. These proved to be extremely popular, and the American Stock exchange looked for something similar that they could use. The result was the ETF. SPDRs are often referred to as "spiders" or "spyders". - 23309

About the Author:

Forex Trading Software Means Faster Execution And Increased Trade Volumes

By Todd Joyner

The concept of automated Forex trading system is mind-boggling.
The exchange-traded futures market was the first to switch on automation. Then, the traders on the Interbank spot Forex market decided to catch up with the latest trend and moved to to the new automatated system.

Automated Forex trading system enables traders to execute their trade on spot Forex market automatically and anytime of the day, based on existing technical indicators and custom trading rules. There are various features included in the automated trading system, such as: Account equity management; Stop and/or limit orders; Discretionary market orders; and
Various technical analysis indicators within your discretion for enabling trend-following systems.

Automated Forex trading systems supports many of the following indicators. The technical support will depend on the technology used as well as the available features of the system.

Weighted moving average, exponential moving average, simple moving average, variable moving average, triangular moving average, time series moving average, wilder average true range, vertical horizontal filter, Standard deviation, Trailing stops, Mass index, Fixed limits and stops, and others.

The success of the automation process to the Forex market is attributed to several factors, such as the following:

1)Its ability to perform or execute trades in real time. Because of the automation, a trader can close trades within a few milliseconds. It is impossible in manual systems, as previous trades are normally closed after several hours. In addition, there are also instances wherein a trader incurs several losses in a row that prevents him from making any fresh transactions. Thus, with automated Forex trading system, this problem could be avoided.

2)The ability to greater diversification. With automated trading system now in place, a trader can trade in various local as well as international markets within varying time zones. In other words, you can place trade or close deals with different traders from various markets around the world even at the middle of the night.

3)The ability to analyze short-term data. This feature is not available in manual trading system. Thus, traders using automated system have the bigger advantage since they can predict market trends in less than an hour.

4)If you will consolidate the features as well as the benefits of automated Forex trading system, it will give you a solid conclusion: with the Forex market on automation, you will be able to place more trades on a single day, thus increasing the average volume trades daily.

5)Let us take the following scenario: If you are trading using the manual system, you will notice that it takes time before a trader confirms if he will accept your deal or not. He will look on the market condition first as well as the exchange rate of the currencies that you are trading with. Thus, if it takes time before a transaction will be finalized; there would be fewer trade volumes.

6)Now, if you are using the automated Forex trading system, the evaluation of exchange rates and market conditions could be done within a few minutes, since Forex data are now updated in real time. Probably after less than an hour, you will be able to take your position whether you will push through the deal or not. If a Forex transaction per trader is averaging within an hour, a single trader can place as much as 8 trades within the regular trading hours and additional trades beyond the regular trading hours. There are thousands of traders in just a single market who can place such average number of trade per day. Combining it with the number of Forex markets around the world, the figure is just huge enough.

7)In addition, the technology is changing continuously, thus there is a tendency that the average number of trades per day will increase, thus a possibility of increased trade volumes on daily basis. With faster trade execution, that is a certain possibility.

The Forex trading market is now at the helm of automation. Transactions are now faster, and earning money through Forex trading is now easier. - 23309

About the Author:

How To Select Trading Window Frames? (Part II)

By Ahmad Hassam

When you are planning for a trade, the first step is to identify the type of trade into which you will enter. Do you want day trading, swing trading or positions trading? It all depends on your trading strategies. What matters most to a trader or an investor is how to create a positive cash flow.

Once we acknowledge what our goals and objective are than we can narrow our expectations. Is it a day trade? Is it a swing trade or is it a long term positions trade?

Suppose I am a day trader. My expectations are for X amount of a given range. I will expect that if I miss 20% of the bottom and 20% of the top then I can expect to capture 60% of the average daily range. I will generally be able to identify what the average range for the day is.

First I will have to structure my computer and charts to a format that is conducive to day trading. So how do I start? How many pips you want to make in a specific time frame like eight to six bars from entry? 30 pips or 40 pips!

If you trade Euro, Yen or Pound, then for day trading, use the 15 minute time frame for the dominant trend. Use the 5 minute time frame as a shorter time frame trigger to go with the 15 minute signal. Use the 5 minute time frame to exit a position in day trading.

How do you make your entry and exit decisions in day trading. First look at the 15 minutes chart than take a look at the 5 minutes chart to make your trading decision. The key to remember is when the 15 minute time period is in the buy mode, take the 5 minute buy signals. Similarly when the 15 minute time period is in sell mode, take the 5 minute sell signals.

As a day trader you can watch the 60 minute time period, but if you are in a trade based on the 15 minute and the 5 minute time, these are the time frames you need to monitor for that specific trade.

Keeping an eye on the 60 minute time period will help you identify the current trend and a potential change in the trend if a moving average crossover occurs. Keep in mind your profit targets and where you are in range.

Suppose you are trading Euro/USD currency pair. The odds are that your profit potential is in the range of suppose 30 pips or less if the average true range (ATR) is 80 pips based on the past 14 trading days and if the Euro is already down 50 pips when a sell signal is triggered. How do you calculate these things?

Using good forex charting software will help you automatically calculate all the daily, weekly, monthly pivot points as well as the daily range, support and resistance, S-1, R-1 and other stuff.

Learn pivot point trading. Pivot points are the best leading indicators that tell you the market sentiment at any point of time. You should learn how to calculate pivot points. Using pivot points in day trading can give you an edge. For day trading use the 60 minute time period for calculating the monthly pivot points, 15 minutes time frame for calculating the weekly pivot points and the 5 minute time frame for calculating the daily pivot points. - 23309

About the Author:

Forex Traders Will Want The Ivybot Fully Automated System

By Todd Manter

IvyBot is here. So you have heard of these Automated Forex Systems referred to as Robots or EA's right? Well we have been fascinated with this "Automated" idea where Forex Traders can earn income while relaxing by the pool. Don't get me wrong creating an automated trading system in the Forex trading markets that can consistently make you money is not easy. This is where IvyBot comes onto the scene in a big way.

It is estimated that only 5% of retail forex traders have consistently profitable currency trading system. It is usually based on deep understanding of economy (fundamental analysis), awareness of the patterns of market reaction on specific economic events (technical analysis), and proprietary set of "tools and instruments". Clearly, you want to jump in to get your feet wet in forex trading, but what if your toolbox is almost empty. One way to start is to follow professional trader guidance. It does not break your wallet to subscribe to quality forex trading signals (for instance, I offer them free), then test their consistency on your training account and finally apply these alerts for live trades. Continue reading on as we introduce you to IvyBot.

Economy news that people watch on TV just to have something to chat with their friends later apparently aren't of great value. The very same news disturb currency market, providing possibilities to make money on the market movements and therefore become remarkably tangible. Training and experience is required to interpret news into the trading terms and the final product of such interpretation is called Forex Trading Alert or Signal. Now read below for what makes IvyBot the #1 FX Trading System.

4 Robot for the price of 1. Each Robot attacks different currency pairs. The creators constantly update the software as the markets change. The members areas is filled with Instructional Videos making it easy for anyone to setup. They have "Real" bonuses that are better than most products by themselves. "Real" support via Email tickets, answered in 24 business hours.

Forget all the hyped up systems that promise results, but don't have any "Real" Forex Pro's behind them. This is the only system that is created by Forex Pros and will consistently be updated by them to ensure ongoing profitability! Take a look for yourself: IvyBot Forex Income - 23309

About the Author: