tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:23:30 +0000http://www.futures-forex.com/noreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)Blogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-8310311236659799165Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:22:00 +00002008-08-15T10:23:30.858-07:00for online retail fx trading the main players arefxcm - horrible firm make you trade on 10-15 pip prices via dealer intervention once you make a couple of winning tradesgft - software designed by an acountant and poor dealers not honoring tradescmc - 2 pip spread probably best of the bunch in usasaxobank - insure account balance up to 40 k eur - which noone else does if you can handle a non http://www.futures-forex.com/2008/08/fx-trading.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-7714396301454985586Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:28:00 +00002008-07-03T08:29:14.945-07:00So everyone knows, if you trade futures you will loose money, sometimes a lot of money.This site is for trading education of paper trading ideas only!Disclaimer - I am not a commodity trading advisor. The information on this siteis for trading education only. There are no trading recommendations for any one, I sometimes post things that I want to keep track ofindividual made on this site and thishttp://www.futures-forex.com/2008/07/futures-trading-disclaimer.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-4301394000399010275Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:45:00 +00002008-06-24T21:46:25.142-07:00I just ran across this site where a floor trader from the Chicago pits says he learned about this 30 years ago.He talks about the publication in 1202 of the "The Book of Calculation" Not sure if that has anything to do with it or not, but his video is about Fibonacci numbers.Fibonacci Retracement Rule - I have found Fibonacci numbers interesting for a while, I have read several books on them, http://www.futures-forex.com/2008/06/fibonacci-retracement-rule.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-3632668301026686766Tue, 22 Apr 2008 05:29:00 +00002008-04-21T21:29:34.351-07:0010-year T-note Futures - One U.S. Treasury note with $100,000 face value at maturity.One U.S. Treasury note having a face value at maturity of $100,000. U.S. Treasury notes with remaining term to maturity of at least six and one half years, but not more than 10 years, from the first day of the delivery month. The invoice price equals the futures settlement price times a conversion factor, plus http://www.futures-forex.com/2008/04/10-year-t-note-futures.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-2259612780710079572Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:05:00 +00002008-04-09T15:06:32.457-07:00The 10 Year T-Note contract trades through CBOTSymbol = ZN for the electronic contractSymbol = TY for the pit traded contractPoints are worth $1,000 and quotes are broken down into 1/32 of a point; i.e., 84-16 equals 84 16/32, 84-165 equals 84 16.5/32Contract Months Mar, Jun, Sep, DecLast Trading Day Seventh business day preceding the last business day of the delivery month.Trading HoursOpen http://www.futures-forex.com/2008/04/t-notes.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-1985969767728956602Wed, 27 Feb 2008 04:42:00 +00002008-02-26T20:42:51.686-08:00I have been watching cotton prices, since I have several contracts and am just holding them for the right time to get out.From the "Rule of Thumb" that farmers are suppose to use when figuring out what crops they are going to plant for the next season it now looks like this:Current prices for December 08:Oats 457Corn 556Wheat 1149Soybeans 1428Cotton 85So the prices based on corn should now be:http://www.futures-forex.com/2008/02/futures-prices-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-8521795639029911823Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:55:00 +00002008-02-18T13:56:13.290-08:00I just bought some more T-notes. And once again I am not sure of their value or how to order them.I sold one contract at 117.000 and bought it back at 116.000 and made $1000So I know it's a thousand bucks for a full point, from my statement I also figured out that they trade in 32nds. Each whole point is broken down into 32 parts each worth $31.25Because I sold one at 116.20 and it closed at http://www.futures-forex.com/2008/02/t-note-prices.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-1568054310255126278Thu, 24 Jan 2008 06:51:00 +00002008-01-23T22:53:01.074-08:00I have been looking for the last half hour for the "Rule of Thumb" that farmers are suppose to use when figuring out what crops they are going to plant for the next season.I just found it:1:2:3:5:5 1- Oats 2- Corn 3- Wheat 5- Soybeans 5- CottonThe current prices for December 08 are:Oats 336 Corn 484 Wheat 866 Soybeans 1167 Cotton 74So the prices based on corn should now be:Oats 242 Corn 484 Wheathttp://www.futures-forex.com/2008/01/commodities-rule-of-thumb.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-3382764905176614977Mon, 29 Oct 2007 07:46:00 +00002007-10-29T00:46:37.822-07:00This is why I don't listen to the news much anymore.It seems like every time I read anything in the news the markets are doing something different, take today for example.Sugar You might think that sugar would have traded higher this week in sympathy with crude oil, given its use in ethanol production, but you would be wrong. March sugar finished the week down .06 at 10.15.HogsThe USDA said on http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/10/why-i-dont-listen-to-news.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-4286157769086973677Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:16:00 +00002008-01-31T16:08:56.058-08:00The old site where I would look up old futures prices is gone, so I had to look up a new site to find out what the price of sugar was for last month when the news letter service I subscribe to rolled from October 07 to March 08I have not been able to find any sites that have this information, but after a lot of searching I was able to find one site that would give volume information: http://http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/10/historical-futures-prices.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-2525433982792886639Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:46:00 +00002007-10-22T16:47:02.092-07:00CottonIt looks like the harvest for December 07 cotton is coming in pretty good, so the price looks like it is limited as far as how high it can go.But I think the upside for December 2008 is much better, based on the price I would expect further loss in planted area for the next year as some cotton farmers can switch to more profitable crops.The more news we have about possible decrease in the http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/10/cotton-and-lumber-futures.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-1673652716767060589Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:08:00 +00002007-10-18T16:08:31.284-07:00Today I put in a market on close order to sell my November Lumber and buy May 08 Lumber.I also entered a market order about 30 minutes before the close for May 08 lumber, the last tick was 2810 and my buy was filled at 2829 then it went back to 2810, So that market order cost me $209 kind of expensive, but it shouldn't make much of a difference, I will just hold it another 19 points and make the http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/10/lumber-order-market-on-close.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-7689753523229826234Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:27:00 +00002007-10-13T00:27:56.755-07:00My broker tried to call me and sell me on trading something, that really gets annoying.Anyway, the newsletter I get says that China is really having a problems with their pork, and they eat a lot of it.They have purchased something like 60 million pounds.Here is what Forbes had to say:BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - China's pork prices are likely to rise further as blue-ear disease spreads due to the warm http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/10/starting-to-trade-hogs-and-more-cotton.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-5325461673610421362Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:02:00 +00002007-10-05T21:02:54.542-07:00When I attended Robert Wiest's seminar last month, (I guess I forgot to write about it)I met a couple of the futures brokers that he uses for scale trading.I got the contact information from 3 of them, but now since I didn't get published on here I am not exactly sure where it is.Anyway, I contacted one of the brokers I met at the seminar:Jim Byrne 800-250-3450http://www.byrneinvest.comI have http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/10/scale-trading-broker.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-6492134786347248879Sat, 22 Sep 2007 08:13:00 +00002007-09-22T00:13:48.435-07:00My commodities news source seems to have died this week, I have checked it several times and nothing, so it looks like the site is gone for good.After checking around some, I found 3 other sites that seem to have some good news about futures.http://futuresource.quote.com/news/index.jsp - up to date news broken down by commodity group.www.dailyfutures.com/week-in-review/ - this one has a nice http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/09/commodity-news-sources.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-5021195940424648779Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:27:00 +00002007-09-11T07:27:30.549-07:00I mailed in a check to my broker to save a couple dollars by not sending a wire.Then I deposited the money in the wrong account, so the check bounced, my broker charged me $50 and my bank is charging me $25.So that was a waste of seventy five bucks.I also have a $10,000 T-Bill in this account, but it has been almost 3 weeks now and my broker still will not let me make any trades.I have been http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/09/futures-broker-depositing-money.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-1300618795178829539Mon, 10 Sep 2007 22:04:00 +00002007-09-10T14:04:22.735-07:00Many of the quote services do not give you prices for futures, they only have quotes for stocks. Of the ones that do have futures a lot of the time it takes a lot of work and clicking around to check a few different commodities.I was using charts to check the prices at MF GlobalHere is the chart for cottonhttp://www.mfglobalfutures.com/resources/getquotes.cfm?page=chart&sym=CTN09I noticed I was http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/09/futures-quotes-vs-charts.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-1252112587970646796Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:30:00 +00002007-09-08T23:30:48.965-07:00I am signed up for the American Scale Trader newsletter and I am going to try and do all the trades in my account that they recommend and see how close I can come to the 32% that they have been averaging.The problem I am having at this point is the first scale that he is recommending is to start scaling lean hogs at 70 which is about the top third of the trading range.I like the hogs and cattle http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/09/trading-hog-futures.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-5283502535447092283Sun, 02 Sep 2007 15:52:00 +00002007-09-02T07:53:01.789-07:00Day-trading takes start up money and a certain type of attitude to turn it into your career. To be a successful day-trader you have to learn how it works and not run out of money before you learn what you need to know to be profitable.You also have to be able to handle the emotional ups and downs of trading, and not get too caught up in the fear/greed of it all.I went to Texas to learn how to http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/09/day-trading-futures-and-stocks.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-2452886927453696335Mon, 27 Aug 2007 06:00:00 +00002007-08-26T22:00:44.270-07:00I spent all day yesterday attending a seminar by Robert Wiest the author of the book "You Can't Lose Trading Commodities" The first half was a little slow because it was intended for someone who had never traded before and I have been trading off and on for the last 10 years or more.But I was glad I went because the last half he got into how he gets his fundamental information he uses, and what http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/08/you-cant-lose-trading-commodities.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-9177896438872863340Sun, 26 Aug 2007 07:15:00 +00002007-08-25T23:15:11.955-07:00I have gone back through all the scale trader newsletters for the last 6 months, and have figured out all the open positions they currently have.5 March 08 Cotton 3 October 07 Sugar #114 November 07 LumberAnd the mini soybean scale that starts at 870 and buys every 5 cents down, selling every 12 cents up.My plan is to go ahead and buy all these contracts now, then put in the sell orders and scalehttp://www.futures-forex.com/2007/08/scale-trader-newsletter.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-8122403049540353923Wed, 22 Aug 2007 04:56:00 +00002007-08-21T20:56:34.993-07:00I just found out that each exchange has their own minimum margin requirements, and you can look up each one at the different exchange.Before I thought they were set by the broker, but it looks like the exchange sets the margin then your broker can add to it if they want to, also if a commodity starts moving around much, then the margin can go up dramatically, so these are just the margin http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/08/future-exchange-margin-requirements.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-117342480953126363Fri, 09 Mar 2007 07:20:00 +00002007-03-08T23:20:09.616-08:00The July Cotton contract dropped almost to 52 and now has recovered back up to 55.  I was thinking that I would buy some more when it was down, but when it hit 53 it really started looking like it was going to go to 52 and that’s what I was waiting for.Now it’s all the way back up over 55 again and it looks like I waited too long again to buy.  Oh well.I really think that the high prices of corn,http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/03/july-cotton-futures-lumber-sugar.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-117182557031133896Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:06:00 +00002007-02-18T11:06:10.353-08:00I was looking at some of the popular mutual funds,And I don’t quite understand this, but some of the stocks for the funds are going up faster than the funds themselves.Looking over the mutual fund stocks, some are going up 30% a year.If you invest in the mutual fund and they have a bad year then you can lose money, but the fund is still charging fees and making good money from managing a large http://www.futures-forex.com/2007/02/i-was-looking-at-som.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15875599.post-116365215716033621Thu, 16 Nov 2006 04:34:00 +00002006-11-15T20:42:37.173-08:00Last week I had a sell order in on cotton at 56.95 the market climbed up to 56.80 so I had a profit of $900 and I was shooting for a profit of $975. My orders had already been entered so I usually don’t change them once I enter the order, I just wait for it to hit my price. Well 3 days later cotton has dropped to 54.00 a full $500 below where I bought it. This is one of the down sides to http://www.futures-forex.com/2006/11/trading-cotton-futures.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Sam I Am)