Making Your Charts Easier To Read

By Dave Sumter

One of the biggest problems traders face is information overload. There is just so much data to crunch these days that it's easy to become overwhelmed. Coupled with ever changing strategies, and it's easy to see how confusion can strike.

We all know that the market is constantly changing, and that we need to adapt our strategies constantly to stay ahead of the pack. Coupled with this however is the fact that we should never change too many things at once.

From the beginning one should integrate into their trading, base practices that will span all strategies - behaviours and chart elements that will not change between strategies, and will become a familiar foundation for you to work on.

One of these practices is to ruthlessly make your charts more efficient through simplification. Always be looking for ways to make the information you see easier to process. There are a number of generic indicators available to do this these days.

Use color and graphics in place of text. We process visuals way better than we do text. Here's a quick example. If you only trade at certain times of the day, then use an indicator to color the background of your chart. This will be a lot easier than reading the time axis.

Another area of optimization is the use of sound. This is especially effective for processing events. Need to know when a new 30 minute bar starts, or when a signal fires? Use an audio alert.

Look for ways to combine multiple indicators into one. If you have multiple filters, combine them into a single visual one. Reduce what you have to look at on each chart.

Always be simplifying. Find methods that you can apply to multiple strategies. Whichever system you use, be it crossovers, divergences, pivots or something else, these principles will make your daily trading easier and more fun. - 23309

About the Author:

About the author: Dave Sumter is the owner of ChartCandy.com, a site focused on Ninja Trader. He also writes about internet entrepreneur topics on his blog.

Learn About Stocks and Precious Metals

By Adela Thomas

As a stock trader, you should ask, is the trader in you? if you like stocks and bonds and the exciting life of a financial trader, then it very well may be. The first thing to test this hypothesis out is the stock market. This is an area where you can see if you have what it takes to make it in the crazy fast world of high finance. The typical image of the floor of the Mercantile Exchange being filled with a bunch of guys that couldn't land jobs anywhere else is very outdated and sad. Instead stock traders are increasingly becoming some of the most sophisticated investors on earth. The ability to pick a winner in the stock market is what it all boils down to.

You can try trading for free using what's known as a paper money account. Of course when we think of money we think of the actual paper, but in this case paper money refers to fake money. There are paper accounts on numerous web sites on the internet. Most stock brokerage firms will have paper trading accounts, and there are many virtual stock market games and simulations around the net as well.

You can trade for stocks, but another market many people like to look into is the commodity market. Commodities consist of oils, metals, grains, and raw material and generally assets that are consumable.

The gold and silver game, precious metals and currency go hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly goes on a sandwich. The reason that precious metals are well, very precious to the human race is that we believe that they are rare and unique. This is true to a degree, however one should think about the supply and demand factors first and foremost. If diamonds and gold were easily excavated and mined and everyone could just dig into the soil of the earth and pull out tons of it, then would it be so valuable? Most likely it would not be.

One area that also gets a whole lot of attention is that of precious metals. Precious metals have always been a small piece of the industrial machine but mostly are used as an inflation hedge and as an asset backed alternative currency as more and more of the fiat currencies look long term bankrupt. When everyone thinks of precious metals they first think of gold. Gold has always been the standard by which most of the worlds economies are pinned to. The shiny piece of coin that moves worlds markets and commands a tidy sum. - 23309

About the Author:

Adela writes about many topics related to businesses and financing. He teaches about various things including business, finance, and money market accounts.. You can also learn more from him about how to make money online