Posts Tagged ‘mutual funds’

Know What Is Trading Volume And Open Interest

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Trading volume of a security is a direct real time market sentiment indicator. A high trading volume is an indication that the current trend is likely to continue. Now, good volume analysis needs to be combined with other technical indicators in order to make a trading decision.

Now, volume figures are not available to currency traders in view of the over the counter unregulated nature of the currency market. However, volume figures are available to stocks and futures traders. The release of the volume figure in the futures market is delayed by one trading day.

Higher trading volume steadily moves towards the closest month to delivery in the futures market. Delivery month in the futures market is the month when the contract is settled and the physical delivery of the asset takes place. Higher trading volume is good for traders as it can mean a better price.

A Limit Up Day is a sign of strength however, a limit down day is usually followed by trading collars. You should know the Limit Days in futures market. Limit days are those days when a futures contract makes a big move in a very short period of time with heavy volume.

Open interest is the number of open contracts of a security in the market during a given trading period. Open interest is particularly an important tool for futures traders. Volume data alone can be confusing. So as a trader, you need to use volume data in conjunction with technical indicators. This way, you can understand the signficance of trading volume change and the trend change. You should also understand how volume data is reported in the stock and the futures market.

Open interest only applies to futures and options contracts and not to stocks. Open interest is the number of contracts entered into during a specific period of time but have not been liquidated or settled.

Open interest gives you information about the total number of short and long contracts. Open interest varies with the number of traders entering and leaving the market. It rises by one when a new buyer and a new seller enter the market. Similarly falls by one when a buyer and a seller leave the market. Charting open interest on a daily basis in conjunction with the price charts helps you keep track of the trend in the futures market and can be a very useful tool.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Know this shocking Dow Futures secret that can make you rich. Download this very simple 1 Minute Forex Trading System FREE that makes money instantly anytime.

Short Selling And Short Interest Ratios Shocking Secret

Monday, March 15th, 2010

Short selling is a way to make money when a security price starts falling. When you expect a stock to fall in price, you borrow it from your broker and sell it. After sometimes buy it back in order to return it to your broker. The difference between the selling price and the buying price in this case is your capital gain.

Short selling works if the price continues to fall. If the price does not fall or retraces after sometime, you can make a hefty loss on your short position. The loans that are taken in order to go short have to be repaid! If the lender asks them or the price goes up, the trader has to buy back shares in order to make the repayment. Now, the harder it becomes to get the right number of shares in the market, the more desperate the trader will become and the higher the prices can go.

Short selling in stocks is done by investors with the expectation of a making a capital gain when they expect that stock price to go down in the near future. Short selling is also done by the fund managers to hedge their stock portfolios. Now, in other markets like the currencies, futures or the options market, you don’t have to borrow the security in order to go short. You can straight away go short by selling that security or currency in the market.

There is something very important that you need to keep an eye on when you go short selling. It is known as Short Interest Ratios. New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and NASDAQ, both report the short interest in stocks listed on them,however, this is done on a monthly basis as brokers need sometime to collect the data of shares that they have lended to their clients for shorting. This will help you monitor the rate of short selling in the market. If the rate is too high, it means that too many investors are taking short positions and you need to avoid it.

Short Interest Ratio is very important for short sellers. Short Interest Ratio can give you important clues about other short sellers in the market. Too much short selling can only drive the stock price down.

So what is the Short Interest Ratio? Short Interest Ratio is the number of shares of a particular stock that has been shorted in the market. Plus the average daily volume for that stock in the same month and also the number of days of trading at the average volume that it would require the market to cover the short positions in that stock. It also reports the percentage change in the short positions from the previous month.

A high short interest ratio should make you nervous if you have taken a short position in that stock as most of the investors who are short will soon become desperate to dump that stock in the market and cover their short positions. The problem with Short Interest Ratio is that it is not calculated frequently. It is calculated on monthly basis. So, the trader cannot use it to gauge the short positions in the market on a daily or weekly basis. However, it can give you the general trend in the market.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done masters from Harvard University. Read this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading FREE Report. Turn $200 into $100K in just 3 months with this Penny Stock Trading FREE Report.

A Shockingly Simple Stocks Momentum Indicator

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Trend trading is the one of the best and most profitable trading strategy used by many traders. Infact, spotting a trend at the right time and riding it till the end can make you rich. When you are trading a trend, you are intereste din knowing how fast the trend is changing or what you may call moving whether it is moving up or down. When the rate of change of a trend goes up, it means that the price action is soon going to follow suit and rise as well!

Momentum was the velocity multiplied by the mass of the object. Now first what is a momentum? You must have read about the momentum in high school physics.Velocity was the rate of change. Now. a simple way to calculate the momentum of any security price is to divide the closing price today by the closing price ten days back and then multiply it by 100! So when we talk of momentum in trading, we are talking of the rate of change of any security prices.

This gives you the momentum indicator. If the prices didn’t go anywhere momentum indicator will be 100. If the prices went up, the momentum indicator will be greater than 100 and the prices went down, the momentum indicator will be less than 100. Now, a trend is expected to continue if the momentum indicator is greater than 100.

How do you know that the security prices will continue to rise in the future? By looking at the business fundamentals like the sales or profits, if you find them to be rising and accelerating at the same time the security price is rising,there is momentum behind this move! This momentum indicator tells you what is most likely to happen in the future not what happened in the past. So it is a leading indicator. You must have heard about momentum investing or you can even call it momentum trading. In momentum investing , you buy a security at a high price and sell it even at a more higher price unlike ordinary investing where you buy low and sell high. The trick is to know that the price will continue to rise when you do momentum investing.

Now, investors can also use momentum in their investing decisions. Momentum investors are looking for securities that are rising in prices especially if accompanies by acceleration in the underlying growth. The knock on momentum investing is that instead of buying low and selling high, your goal is to buy high and sell even higher.

Remember the Dot Com Bubble that burst and hurt many people a decade back. Lot of people were doing momentum investing without doing fundamental research on the stocks that they were investing in. So you need to do some fundamental research as well to ascertain that the rise in prices of a stock are sustainable over the long haul or not. So when you are doing momentum investing, you are looking for a security or a stock that has a potential to move big. How long this big move might take to materialize? Well, the expectation is for the big move to happen in a few weeks to a few months. Just like in ordinary physics, when a ball is set in motion, it will continue moving unless stopped. This is what the Newton’s First Law says. You can expect a security price to keep on rising as long as something drastic doesn’t happen to stop that rise. So what can be that something drastic? It can be a sudden breaking news about the misdoings of the management that have not been known to the public before. I am just giving you one example. There can be more. So before you do your momentum investing, it is always better to do some fundamental research on the company.

Now just like price momentum that we have been talking about above, we can calculate the earnings momentum. Earning momentum is the province of the investors. The investor looks at the quarterly earnings of the company to see if it is going up at a faster pace say from a steady pace of 10% a year to 12% or 15% and so on. If the earnings growth rate is going up what this means is that the underlying price is also going to accelerate.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report plus the shocking Profit Button Report that applies no matter what you trade- stocks, forex, futures or options FREE. Read the story of Richard Samuels, a post office mailman with a head injury and how he made a fortune with these Neutrino Forex Signals.

Trading Interest Rate Futures And Knowing The Yield Curve

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Interest rates are the most important financial variable for the market and the economy. No matter what market you trade, you need to keep close watch on interest rate changes. Whether you trade currencies, stocks, futures, options, commodities, ETFs, bonds or invest in mutual funds or if you are real rich in a hedge fund, the return can be seriously affected by the interest rate changes. A Yield Curve is very important in finance. It gives you the picture of different interest rates in the economy. A Yield Curve is infact a relationship between the different interest rates and the time to maturity of different treasury bills, notes, bonds in the economy. When you trade the interest rates, you need to keep an eye on the yield curve!

When you look at a Yield Curve these interest rates are plotted on the vertical axis with the time to maturity of these financial instruments on the horizontal axis. There can be three different shapes of a Yield Curve. The Normal Curve, The Flat Curve and the Inverted Curve. Now as said before there are two types of interest rates in the economy; short term and long term. The return offered on the Treasury Bills is the short term interest rate while the return offered on the Treasury Notes and Bonds are long term interest rates. Let’s discuss these three different shapes now. On the Normal Curve, the short term interest rates are lower than the longer term interest rates as investors need a premium to invest long term. A Normal Curve represents normal economic activity where investors get rewarded for investing long term in the form of a higher long term interest rate on these financial instruments in the shape of a premium over the short term interest rates.

Now, most of the time you will come accross the Normal Yield Curve. But sometimes, you will find the Yield Curve to be Flat. When you find the Yield Curve to be Flat, it means that all the interest rates in the economy are equal. What this indicates is that economic activity is slowing down.

However, when the economy starts to go into a recession, you will suddenly find an Inverted Yield Curve. On an Inverted Yield Curve, the longer term interest rates are lower than the short term interest rates.What this mean is that the economy is slowing down and investors are reluctant to invest long term thinking it to be risky. An Inverted Yield Curve is a leading indicator of an economy doing down into a recession. When there is a financial crisis like that happened in the early part of 2008, you will find the Yield Curve to be Inverted. Investors are shying away from investing in long term projects in the economy.

If you want to trade interest rates short term than Eurodollars are the best instruments that you can trade. Eurodollars are well suited for small traders because of the low margin requirements. Eurodollars also tend to be less volatile and have a highly liquid market due to the large number of market participants. However, like any other futures contracts, Eurodollars position needs to be carefully monitored. Ten Year T Notes and T Bonds can be highly volatile. You can also trade options on these interest rates futures.

Now, when you trade these interest rate futures contracts, you need to keep an eye on the market constantly. Futures trading can be risky and in a matter of few minutes you might get wiped out in the market and get a margin call from your broker. Trading interest rate futures is no different than trading anyother futures contract. If you haven’t traded futures before, a good idea would be to first paper trade these contracts for at least two months so that you get a feel of how these futures contracts gets traded and how the market behaves!

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Know this shocking Dow Futures secret that can make you rich. Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report, FOREX-4 PACK Training Kit and the Profit Button Report that applies no matter what you trade-stocks, forex, futures or options FREE.

Profitable Candlestick Patterns-The Bullish White Marubozu

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Bulls and bears are always fighting for the control of the market. Candlestick charts are the best way to know who is controlling the market. With one glance on the candlestick chart, you can find out whether the bulls were in control or the bears. There are many candlestick patterns. The most basic and the most powerful candlestick pattern is the the long white candle. When this candle is formed, it means that bulls have been controlling the market throughout the day pushing the currency prices or the security prices higher throughout the trading day. This is one of the most bullish candlestick pattern to form on the chart!

As prices rise through the day, sellers do come in but not enough to stop the prices from continuing to rise. When sellers do show up during the trading day, buyers buy from them and the prices move higher.

This is an indication that the buyers are not done with their buying. The following day the bulls will still be in control and pushing the prices further higher. This is an indication of the fact that there are not enough stocks or securities in the market to satisfy the buying appetite of the investors. With high demand and low supply, the prices will continue to rise! Now, what this means is that prices have been constantly rising throughout the trading day. The closing price was equal to the high of the day or very near the high of the day.

Now, a true White Marubozu is a special variation of the long white candle with the closing price equal to the high of the day and the opening price equal to the low of the day. However, a White Marubozu may not be formed quite frequently on the chart. Most of the time, you are going to find the white long candle with a wick on either side of the candle body. These wicks will be small offcourse. What this indicates is that the closing price was close to the high of the day but not equal to it. In the same way, the opening price was close or near to the low of the day but not equal to it!

To figure out that you are indeed looking at a long white candle, determine the area covered by the body of the candle that is between the open and close. This area should be at least 90% of the distance between the high and low. If so, you have a long white candle.

On a long white candle day, a lot of price action is covered by a very short amount of time. Price action doesn’t move in one direction for that matter without retracing some part of it. This normal retracing of the price action gives you a chance to act on the signal provided by the bullish long white candle.

With long white candlesticks, the low price on the candlestick is a good support level. Support is the level where the buyers are expected to support the price of the stock or for that matter the security.

There are some variations to the bullish long white candle. Three are very important. The first is the Long White Marubozu that has no wick. It is all candlebody. This is the most bullish of the candlestick patterns. The second important variation is the Opening White Marubozu. In this case, the open price is equal to the low of the day. What this means is that the there is no wick below the candle body. The other variation is the Closing White Marubozu. In this case, the closing price is equal to the high of the day. What this means is that there is no wick on the top of the candlebody.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Master these Candlestick Patterns with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide! Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report plus the powerful FOREX-4 PACK Training Kit and the Profit Button Report FREE just now!

Doji Candlestick Pattern-Something Unique And Highly Profitable!

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Candlestick Charting is one of the most powerful tools in the trading arsenal of any trader. Candlestick Charts apply to any market no matter what you trade-stocks, forex, futures, options, ETFs, commodities, bonds and others. With one simple glance on the chart, you can figure out the sentiment of the buyers and sellers in the market. There are many candlestick patterns that are used as trading signals. Some are simple while others are complex. Doji Candlestick Pattern is a simple pattern that is very easy to spot. It has no body. It is formed when the opening and the closing prices are the same. So, this pattern is all wicks with no stick. It literally looks like a Cross on the chart. So you can easily spot it. But it is very rare as the security opening and closing prices are seldom equal! Doji has some variations. We will discuss these variations in this article!

In other words, the opening and the closing prices should be the same for a Doji to be formed. So for a Doji to be truly formed on a trading day, throughtout the trading day heavy buying or selling may take place but at the end of the day, the price should be where it had been at the start. In other words, the opening and the closing prices should be the same for a Doji to be formed.

When a Doji is formed with the opening and the closing prices equal, it is a signal that the battle between the bulls and the bears had been a draw during the trading day. Soon, either the bulls or the bears are going to previal. In other words, a trend reversal is about to take place.

Now, a Dragonfly Doji is a unique variation to the Doji Candlestick Pattern. It is formed when the opening, the closing and the high prices are all equal. Something quite rare and unique. So how is a Dragonfly Doji is formed? It is formed when the security price opens. It is traded down during the early part of the day. At some point in the trading day, the price action starts to recover and climb. It eventually closes at the high which happens to equal the open of the day. Something unique!

When a Dragonfly Doji is formed, bears initially decide to rule the market. But at some point the bulls step in and decide to buy again. When the bulls step in, they start pushing the price up. As the bulls dominate the trading day, the security price ends up right where it had started.

The low on this pattern can be taken as the support level because this was the level at which the bears entered the market and started buying. Dragonfly Doji is considered to be a bullish candlestick pattern.

When a Bearish Gravestone Doji Pattern is formed, it is a signal that a prolonged downtrend is about to start in the market. The second important variation to the Doji is the Bearish Gravestone Doji. This pattern is formed when the open and close of the day is equal to the low of the day. This is something opposite to the Dragonfly Doji where the open, the close and the high were equal.

A Doji pattern is very easy to spot on the candlestick chart as there is no body just the wick. Open close and either low or high all three are equal and the candle looks more like a cross. When you spot the Doji, get ready for a trend change in the price action.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Master these Candlestick Patterns with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide! Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report plus the shocking Profit Button Report that applies no matter what you trade-stocks, forex, futures or options FREE!

Know These Short Selling Shocking Facts

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Short Selling Stocks is one of the favorite day or swing trading strategy. Many traders short stocks. Now many stock brokers make it very easy for the investors and traders to short stocks. Now a days, most of the trading is being done online. When you sell a stock, a message will ask you whether you are selling stocks that you own or you are selling short. With one click, you tell the broker that you are short selling. The broker than goes about and arranges the shares for you to short sell. These shares are a loan to your account.

In some cases,a stock gets so much shorted that there are no more shares of that stock left for you or your broker to borrow anymore. Now, you cannot always short a stock instantly. Most of the investors work on rumors. In that case, you simple will have to cross your fingers and see how the other short sellers do on that stock while you search for another stock to short!

Now, shorting is one of the favorite strategies employed by day traders. A day trader may short stock on the mundane reason like its price had been going up for three days and it’s time to come down! Day traders are not fundamental traders. Day traders are simply interested in the daily volatility in the stock. Most even don’t do any financial or fundamental analysis of the companies whose stocks they are trading. Almost all are technicians or what you call technical analysis experts.

You have to be careful about the uptick rule as stock exchanges have rules in place to help maintain an upward bias in the stock market. What this means is that you can only short a stock when the last trade was a move up. In other words, you can’t short a stock that is moving down.

How much risky short selling can be? Well, in theory there is no stopping a stock price to reach the sky. So if you are wrong in your short selling decision, your loss can be catastrophic. But don’t worry, short sellers also use stop loss so if the price starts to move up, your position will get closed automatically by the stop loss order.

Know something known as Short Squeeze. Once that happens, almost all short sellers get desperate to dump their stocks and exit but when they try to buy back the stock, they get more hurt as the prices go even higher and higher on rising demand for the stock in the market. Now, don’t get caught in the market with short selling when good news spreads about the stock that you had shorted driving its price up.

Now many companies, brokers and investors hate short sellers and try tactics to bust them. Sometimes, they will issue good news or spread rumors of good news to create a squeeze. Other times, they can ask the stock holders collectively to tell their brokers not to loan out their shares. What this means is that short sellers have to buy back the shares and return them to the brokerage firm and close their short positions even if it does not make any sense.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Turn $200 into $100K in just 3 months with this Penny Stock Trading FREE Report!Read this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading FREE Report plus the shocking Profit Button Report that applies no matter what you trade-stocks,forex, futures or options!

Bullish Necklines, the Bearish Meeting Lines and the bearish Piercing Line Candlestick Patterns

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Trend is your friend. But how do you know it is really your friend. Trend can only be your friend if you know that the trend is going to continue or it is about to reverse ahead. Otherwize, trend trading is going to give you a loss. Candlestick patterns can help you anticipate whether a trend is going to continue or reverse ahead. There are many candlestick patterns. Bullish Necklines is one of them. It is a two stick trend confirmation pattern that tells that the trend is expected to continue. There are two type of Neckline Patterns, the In Neck and the Out Neck. When you spot the Bullish Neckline in an uptrend, it is a signal that the trend is expected to continue for sometime.

On the first day, there will be a long bullish candle indicating that heavy buying took place during the day. On the second day or what you call the signal day, there will be a bearish candle that can be long or short with a closing price almost close to the first day. Necklines pattern is a two stick pattern. What this means is that it takes two days on the daily chart for this pattern to form.

If the closing price on the second day is very near the closing price on the first day, the neckline candlestick pattern formed is known as the on neck pattern. If the closing price on the setup day is a little lower than the closing price on the second day, it is known as in neck pattern.

You might be thinking that this is not much of a difference. Well, this is true but nevertheless, you should be aware of this slight difference between the In Neck and the On Neck Patterns. Both these patterns are telling the same thing that the uptrend is going to continue in the near future. So even if you are not able to differentiate between the In Neck and the On Neck, don’t worry much. You must at least be able to identify that a Neckline Pattern has been formed.

In case of the bearish meeting line candlestick pattern, you see a strong up day on the setup day with a long bullish candle. On the signal day, you find a gap opening which entices the sellers to step in the market. The selling continues throughout the day. As a result a long bearish candle is formed with the close of the day very near its low plus the close of the day very near to the close of the setup day. Now this a trend reversal pattern.

Another trend reversal pattern is the Bearish Piercing Ling Pattern. This candlestick pattern is formed when on the first or the setup day, a bullish long candle is formed meaning that the bulls have been in control of the market throughout the day. The second day or what you call the signal day, there will be a bearish candle formed. This means that on the second day or what you call the signal day, the sellers started selling pushing the price action down past the opening price to the midpoint of the first day candle. This bearish candle should have an opening higher than the first day’s high.

When this Bearish Piercing Line Candlestick Pattern is formed, it means that the price action has lost it’s momentum. This pattern usually occurs in the last stages of an uptrend and when it happens, it means that the trend is about to reverse itself.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report FREE! Master these Candlestick Patterns with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide!

Candlestick Patterns- The Hanging Man, the Hammer and the Spinning Top!

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

Hanging Man and the Hammer are two different candlestick patterns. The patterns are not identical. Hanging Man is considered to be bearish and the Hammer is considered to be bullish.

The first question. How do you identify whether this is a Hanging Man or a Hammer? Hammer and the Hanging Man both have a very small candle body accompanied by a long wick either on the bottom. If this type of pattern appears at the top of an uptrend with the long wick at the bottom, it is a Hanging Man. And if it appears at the bottom of an downtrend it is a Hammer.

In less than ideal cases, you might also find a small wick at the top of the candlestick. When the Hanging Man or the Hammer appears, you need to look for the confirmation on the next day.

If the opening price on the next day is less than the previous day’s close, you have a true Hanging Man. If not, then that was not a true Hanging Man. Now suppose, you think that you have spotted the Hanging Man in an uptrend. Wait for the confirmation the next day with the opening price.

A Hammer should have a very small candle body with a long wick at the bottom. Similarly suppose, you think that you have correctly spotted the Hammer in a downtrend. You should confirm this with the opening price on the next day. If the opening price is higher than the closing price the previous day, you have a true Hammer. If the opening price is not higher than the closing price the last day, it is not a true Hammer!

Whenever, you trade candlestick patterns, first spot them correctly than wait for the confirmation on the following day. The best chart for these candlestick patterns is the daily chart. Once, you get the confirmation, trade these patterns. They can be highly profitable. But in case, you don’t get the confirmation the next day with the price action, simply ignore the pattern as not true.

Spinning Top is a signal that the battle between the bulls and the bears ended in a draw. It will start next day again with ony side giving in. What this means is that an explosive move in the price action can take place the following day. Spinning Top is just like the Hanging Man and the Hammer.

Spinning tops appear much more frequently and are very easy to spot with a very small body in the middle of the candlestick and almost equal wicks on the two sides. A spinning top is a nice indication that the trend is about to change direction. Knowing about a trend change early is a highly profitable trading signal.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Get this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading Report FREE. Master Candlestick Charting with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide!

Spot Trading Gold On Forex Shocking Secrets

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Have you ever given a gold ring to your friend as a token of your true love? Gold has been the most precious metal from the dawn of civilization. It is still considered to be the ultimate currency and the ultimate store of value in times of political uncertainity. For the last ten years, the gold market is in a secular uptrend with the spot prices having recently breached the historical barrier of $1,200 per troy ounce. After that there was a retracement and the prices did come down to around $1,100 per ounce but this uptrend is expected to continue for sometime.

Forex trading is the hottest market right now after the recent stock market crash. Many small investors lost their lifetime saving in the stock market crash of 2008. Investors have turned towards forex in droves. Forex trading is considered to be a recession proof business as there is neither a bull market nor a bear market in currencies. Currency prices are always quoted relative to one anther and currencies are traded in pairs. What this means is that if one currency goes up the other goes down. It is being said that many millionaires will be made in the currency markets.

When you trade a currency pair, you go long on one currency and short on the other. In other words, you simply buy one and sell the other. Many people don’t know this that you can trade gold on forex too. Many forex broker platforms that you use to trade forex, allow trading of gold and silver against the US Dollar (USD) from the same platform. Both these precious metals have high demand in the industrial sector and as the global economy recovers from the recession, the prices of gold and silver are expected to skyrockets as industrial production picks up and consumers start buying again.

But when you trade gold, you take long or short position in gold in the spot market with the opposite position in US Dollar (USD). In other words just like trading a currency pair like EURUSD, JPYUSD, GBPUSD and other pair involving USD as the counter currency when you trade gold, you are trading against USD.

Now, suppoe the price quote in the spot market is 1100 XAUUSD. What this means is that one troy ounce of gold in the spot market right now is equal to $1,100 USD. So, in spot gold trading on forex, you are trading one troy ounce of gold against USD. Interestingly the symbol for this is also XAUUSD with XAU representing one ounce of gold.

Just like any currency pairs, stock or for that matter any security, the price quote in the spot gold market has got a bid-ask spread. Suppose the price quote in the spot market is 1110/1115. This means is that you can buy one ounce of gold at a rate of $1,115 and sell one ounce at the rate of $1,110 to your broker. Now, spot gold trading on forex is a fast moving market. Due to the fast moving nature of the spot gold market, the spread keeps on changing throughout the day!

Now a standard lot in currency trading is equal to $100,000. But in case of gold on forex, a standard lot is equal to 10 troy ounces of gold. So, if you find the price quote to be 1112/1117 and you are interested in going long. In that case you will have to buy 1 lot of gold that is equal to $11,170. Spot gold market is a fast moving market and the price quotes keep on changing. So, suppose just after 60 minutes, you find the quote to be 1120/1126. You see a profit and decide to get out selling at $11,200 making a profit of $30. Now if you had used leverage, you would have needed a much lower initial investment to make a profit of $30 in just 60 minutes.

Gold is also know as anti dollar. What this means is that their is an inverse correlation between gold and USD. This inverse relationship can help you hedge your positions in other currency pairs.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Download this 1 Minute Forex Trading System FREE. Get this Forex Swing Trading Forex-4 Pack Training Kit FREE!


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