Archive for the ‘Commodities’ Category

What to Look For in a Commodities Futures Broker

Friday, February 12th, 2010

Futures brokers provide services for traders to buy or sell a commodity or financial instrument. Futures are defined as buying or selling of a specific commodity sometime in the future with a specific time identified by the trader for a specific price. The same is true for trading financial instruments.

Futures brokers must be accredited which means they have to be knowledgeable and have experience in the commodity or financial instrument the trader has interest in trading. This is necessary since the futures broker provides advice to the trader on the trends of the commodity and the current situation and future expectations of that commodity. The trader depends upon the broker to provide reliable information in order to establish and order a future transaction.

Most futures broker’s commission is based on the frequency of trades made by the investor as well as the volume of trades. They usually have a minimum commission per trade to ensure their commission for the work efforts. Of course each futures broker differs so it is best to check all competitors to establish the right futures broker for you before you open a trading account. There is a minimum deposit required to open an account to execute futures trading, and it can also include monthly account fees or other charges.

An accredited futures broker will provide traders with information on price movements, global markets and other news that can affect futures transactions. They are able to lend advice on what they envision market prices and trends over the next duration of time. This information provides the means for the trader to make a decision on investments.

Many full service brokerage firms offer experienced futures brokers as part of their overall offerings to traders and investors. This extends the services they can provide to their clients and allows them to extend into any type of selling and buying of stocks, options or futures.

For the top Futures Brokers comparisons, reviews and resources visit http://www.yourbrokerguide.com

Article Source: What to Look For in a Commodities Futures Broker

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Commodities Broker – The Best Way to Find The Right Broker For You

Friday, February 12th, 2010

When you look at the account details of your potential commodities broker, you are looking at their commissions, fees, and the minimum investment that is required to trade commodities using their services.

A commodities broker offering cheap commissions may not always be the best choice. More times than not, cheap commissions will reflect their customer service and how they work with you.

The fees brokerages will charge are generally standard across the industry. When asking about fees, look for the following: Clearing, Exchange, Brokerage, and NFA. Any other additional fees mentioned beyond these four should draw a red flag.

When researching the customer service aspect of a commodities broker, look at their availability, trading services, and advice/educational resources. Of course, your personal broker will not be personally available 24/7, but make sure they offer a 24 hours trading desk that you can contact to place your trades at any time.

Some brokers will offer full-service trading support. When looking to become a full-service client, ask for past trade recommendations in order to see how they study the markets. If looking to trade for yourself as a discount client, your personal broker should always be available for any questions you may have about the trading platform or any other concerns.

Many potential clients will not ask about receiving free resources from their commodities broker in order to further educate themselves on commodities trading. Most investors who opt for a full-service broker do so to become educated in futures trading so they can one day trade for themselves.

When looking for a commodities broker, an important feature to look for is a state-of-the-art trading platform. Make sure your broker’s platform is customizable, has streaming news and quotes, great charting tools, and has a simple order entry system. It is also helpful to find out if your broker will personally assist you in learning the different aspects of their trading platform.

THERE IS A SUBSTANTIAL RISK OF LOSS IN FUTURES INVESTING AND IS NOT SUITABLE FOR ALL INVESTORS.

For more information on trading futures and options, to download a free e-book, or to practice trading on a state-of-the-art platform, visit: Commodities Broker.

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Article Source: Commodities Broker – The Best Way to Find The Right Broker For You

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Five Ways to Get Fast Cash

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

Five Ways to Get Fast Cash
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jeremiah_Carstarphen]Jeremiah Carstarphen

Before I go into the five ways to get fast cash, I want to make it clear that I do not condone borrowing money to but stuff that has no value. The only way I would even borrow money myself is if I know that I can make more money. I am a lot more cautious in borrowing money now since losing my home to foreclosure and filing for bankruptcy.

5 Ways To Get Fast Cash

1. Borrow from your credit cards: If you will make more money than you will be paying in credit card payments, then this could be a quick easy solution to get fast cash. A good example of this is borrowing money from your credit card to get a piece of software or equipment that will help you to make money in your business.

The biggest disadvantage of borrowing from credit cards are the high interest rates that you have to pay back over time. The biggest advantage of borrowing from a credit card is that you can get an interest free loan if you pay it back before your first payment is due.

2. Sell something: If you do not have credit, then an option for you would be to sell something. It is amazing how much stuff we accumulate over time. Most of this stuff that we own we don’t even use. The accumulation of stuff comes from the habit of spending money. Most people spend more money than they save and a lot of this money is spent on stuff. You can also accumulate a lot of stuff by accepting every freebie that comes your way.

The good thing about accumulating all of this stuff is that you will always have something that you can quicly sell to get fast cash. This becomes a problem when you develop an emotional attachment to this stuff and just will not let it go. I call this disease “stuff-itis”. A lot of us suffer from it.

If you offer people a good deal on your stuff you should be able to sell it quickly. The internet provides us with exposure to people all over the world which gives us a greater opportunity to sell our stuff.

3. Borrow money from a friend: If you have a “something for nothing mentality” this might not be a good option for you. If you borrow money from a friend, then I suggest that you pay it back as quickly as possible. Also give them something to gain by paying them back with interest. This will make them more willing to lend money to you again in the future. These same rules apply when borrowing money from a family member.

There are a some cons to borrowing from friends and/or family members. The scripture that reads “the borrower is slave to the lender” is never more true than in this situation. You will find that your friend’s attitude changes toward you. This change may be subtle, but it will change. Also if you do not pay the money back in a timely manner you risk losing the friend.

You may not be able to lose a family member but they probably will not like you and will label you as a moocherif you do not pay them back.

4. Rip-off Loans: The sole reason for these places to exist is to rip off poor people or people in dire situations who desperately need to get fast cash. This could be you. The advantage of borrowing money from a rip-off loan place is that it is usually easy to get approved for a loan. You might just need to provide a laundry list of references so that they can call and harass them if you do not pay your bill on time.

Be sure to pay the money back before your payment is due, otherwise you will pay a ridiculous interest rate. Although the rip-off loan places that I am referring to here strictly lend cash money, I also include rent-to-own, buy-here-pay-here, and car title pawn dealers all in this same category.

5. Hard money loan: You might be able to convince a stranger to loan you money if they feel that it is a good investment. Hard money loans are more common in real estate deals and usually have minimal requirements that you need to meet in order to qualify. These type of loans come with a high interest rate as well.

Those are my top 5 ways to get fast cash, but the absolute best way to get fast cash is to develop good money management skills so that you will never be in a situation where you need to get fast cash again. If you learn to manage your money effectively, when an emergency comes up you will have the cash readily available to take care of it. Much success,

Jeremiah Carstarphen

The Cartoon Coach
Get Better, Do Better, Be Better http://www.thecartooncoach.com

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Five-Ways-to-Get-Fast-Cash&id=3604208] Five Ways to Get Fast Cash

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Yet to come

Sunday, January 24th, 2010

I remember finding what I thought was a great deal, but not having the cash to take advantage of it. I asked myself “Where can I get fast cash?” In hindsight it was a bad deal, but greed got the best of me and I was able to come up with $30,000 in less than 48 hours. Here are my top 5 ways to get fast cash.

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Top Precious Metals Funds by RJ Camposagrado

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Featuring top performing Precious Metals funds, because precious metals offer better protection against inflation, which cannot be said of almost all other reasonably liquid assets. These funds primarily invest in equity securities of companies that are involved in mining and processing of gold and other precious metals.

Investors can get such precious metals funds by checking out the entire list of the Zacks #1 Rank Precious Metals Equity Funds.

5 fantastic Examples of Precious Metals

US Global Investors World Precious Minerals (UNWPX) seeks long-term capital appreciation. It also aims to provide protection against inflation and monetary instability. It was incepted in November 1985.

Instead of directly investing in precious metals fund invests a greater part of its assets, at least 80%, in firms principally engaged in the exploration, mining and processing of these metals. This precious metals fund focuses on selecting junior and intermediate exploration companies from around the globe.

Shareholders have to make a minimum initial investment of $5,000 to enter this Zacks #1 Rank (“Strong Buy”) fund. The precious metals fund has an expense ratio of 1.50% against a category average of 1.47%.

Frank E. Holmes has been lead manager of the fund since June 1999. Holmes was formerly President of the Toronto Society of the Investment Dealers Association and is CEO and Chief Investment Officer of U.S. Global Investors, Inc.

Franklin Gold & Precious Metals A (FKRCX) seeks long-term capital appreciation. It was incepted in May 1969.

At least 80% of the net assets of this precious metals fund are invested in gold and precious metals operation companies. This precious metals fund also aims to produce current income from dividends or interest received from its investments.

This precious metals fund has an expense ratio of 1.01 % against a category average of 1.47%. As of July 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 17%.

Steve Land has been lead manager of this precious metals fund since April 1999. Land is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has been with Franklin Templeton Investments since 1997.

Van Eck International Investors Gold A (INIVX) seeks long-term capital appreciation by investing in common stocks of gold mining companies. The fund may take current income into consideration in picking investments. It was incepted in January 1956.

This precious metals fund does not directly invest in gold or bullion, but invests in securities of companies principally engaged in gold-related activities, as well as in instruments that derive their value from gold. A company must derive at least 50% of its revenues from gold-related activities to be considered for investment purposes.

The precious metals fund has an expense ratio of 1.44% against a category average of 1.47%. As of June 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 14%.

Joseph M. Foster has been lead manager of the fund since July 1998. Foster joined Van Eck Associates Corporation in 1996 and is a portfolio manager with the firm.

USAA Precious Metals and Minerals (USAGX) seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation and provide protection of the invested capital against inflation. Providing current income to investors is a secondary objective. It was incepted in August 1984.

This precious metals fund doesn’t invest in gold directly, but in gold mining and other precious metals and mineral mining companies, with at least 80% of its assets invested in such firms. With the right mix of companies, the fund can benefit disproportionately when underlying commodity prices rise, while avoid the worst losses of commodity-price downturns.

Shareholders have to make a minimum initial investment of $3,000 to enter this Zacks #1 Rank (“Strong Buy”) fund. It has an expense ratio of 2.50% against a category average of 1.47%.

Mark W. Johnson has been lead manager of this precious metals fund since January 1994. Johnson is a Chartered Financial Analyst and is executive director of equity investments with USAA Investment Management Company.

Midas Fund (MIDSX) was incepted in January 1986. The precious metals fund seeks capital appreciation and protection against inflation and, secondarily, current income.

This precious metals fund invests at least 65% of its assets in companies which are directly or indirectly involved in the business of mining, and processing precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum. It may invest up to 35% of its assets in selected growth companies.

The precious metals fund has an expense ratio of 2.43% against a category average of 1.47%. As of September 2009, it has a portfolio turnover of 62%.

Thomas B. Winmill has been lead manager of the fund since January 2002. Winmill has been president of Midas funds since 1995 and the distributor since 1991.

Discover Many More Funds

Learn more about the new Zacks Mutual Fund Rank and discover some of the best market-beating mutual funds by browsing our mutual funds section. This part of Zacks.com offers a variety of tools, including mutual fund research, a new mutual fund screener, helpful answers to frequently asked questions and quick access to prospectuses and other information.

By applying the Zacks Rank to mutual funds, investors can find funds that not only outpaced the market in the past but are also expected to outperform going forward.

Top Precious Metals Equity Funds

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Trading Is Not Rocket Science!

Tuesday, July 17th, 2007

Despite what some people may lead you to believe; day trading, swing trading and trend trading is not anywhere as difficult as they would like you to think. It really boils down to two key components.

First, you have to have an approach that helps you identify trades that have a consistently high probability of making money. Once you have this you must exploit this “edge” over and over again.

The only way to do this is to use the necessary discipline to never deviate from your system. The minute you start tinkering or tweaking things is when you will lose your edge!!!

You will most likely be tempted to do this after you have had a few losers. This is the time however to keep your focus and remind yourself that your system has a statistical advantage that has held up over time.

Think about this for a moment? If you go gambling in Las Vegas and can even gain a 1% advantage over the house you can make a literal fortune by exploiting this edge. That little one percent advantage can make the casino lose a whole lot of money over time. As a matter of fact the minute they notice that you have a viable system they will label you a cheat and ban you from the playing. It sure is a good thing that can’t happen to traders!

Now consider what happens if you have a trading strategy that produces trades that go into the money more than 60 to 80% of the time?

Now the second step to success is to manage your emotions. Two of the biggest indicators of a trader who is not managing their emotions are FEAR & GREED. These two emotions will wipe out every trader over time, both experienced and inexperienced alike.

Let’s talk about them for a minute…

FEAR: Fear of losing money or fear of being wrong is what causes traders to have this emotion.

“Trading with scared money” often causes the fear of losing money. This is when a trader is risking money that should be used for the rent, food, children’s education etc. If this is the case the only solution is to find additional funds that you are willing to put at risk. This helps to put the mind at ease and reduces the fear.

Fear of being wrong is simply the part in all of us that just doesn’t like to be wrong. The cure for this is to simply realize and accept that losses are part of this game. Think about this? A baseball player only need hit the ball once for every three times at the plate and this will get him into the Hall of Fame.

I feel this every once in a while and remind myself that… My approach for trading has both historically and real-time produced consistent winning trades. This gives me the confidence to step up to the plate and keep swinging. Also I tell myself that the only way to earn the big money is to get into the game.

GREED: Traders who are greedy are often the exact opposite of the ones who are fearful. They have no fear and this can get them into trouble. They will tend to over trade, not follow the rules and basically “wing it”. Sometimes this will work, but it always ends up back-firing.

One of the biggest problems when greed sets in is the inability to know when to take profits. These traders are so bent on making a killing that they are never happy. If they are up 10, 20 or 30% they don’t even think about cashing out, as they want more. This often leads to the inability to see the trade turning against then and they will allow winning trades to turn into big losing ones.

One solution for this is to realize that making 3, 5, 10 or 15% on a regular short time basis adds up really quick. I know for me personally, once I was confident in my methodology, I no longer felt the occasional feelings of greed. Now I don’t worry about “going for broke” as I know that there is always another good trade waiting for me.

Dr. Jeffrey Wilde, a trading veteran with 16 years of experience is a trading coach to over 3500 traders in 63 countries. His new blog http://www.askjeffwilde.com offers free trading articles, tips and advice. He also teaches a variety of courses found at http://www.win-at-trading.com and http://www.fastforexprofits.com

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Commodities – An Overview

Monday, July 16th, 2007

Commodities are products traded solely on the basis of price. The products are undifferentiated products, goods or services that are not traded based on quality and features, only on price. Historically, commodities were items of value, of uniform quality that were produced in large quantities by many different producers. The items from each different producer were considered equivalent. Commodities are defined by an underlying contract and standard, rather than the quality of the product.

History

Chicago was the birth place of the first commodities market, way back in the 1840s. Farmers would bring their wheat to the market and exchange it for good, hard cash. Futures contracts developed from there. A farmer would contract with a dealer to sell a set amount of produce to him at a set date for a set price. It was comforting for both parties – the farmer knew how much he was going to get paid and the dealer knew exactly how much he was going to pay for these commodities.

This practice of commodities trading evolved over the years that ensued. The farmer would decide not to sell and cede the contract to another farmer to fulfil, or the dealer might decide that he did not want the produce anymore and then on-sell the contract to another dealer.

Naturally supply and demand entered the equation. If the harvests were poor, the produce would fetch a much higher price and if the crops were abundant, a leaner price prevailed. Before long, speculators were in on the act. They started trading the futures contracts in the hope of buying the commodities at a low price and selling these for a handsome profit.

What defines a successfully tradeable commodity?

To successfully trade, commodities must:
Be standardized. If the commodities industrial or agricultural, it must be unprocessed. Have an adequate shelf-life, if these are agricultural.

There should be sufficient fluctuation in supply and concomitantly price. The reason for this is that without the risk factor, profits are meagre and unappetising. Examples of commodities are: electricity, wheat, chemicals, metals, pork bellies, RAM chips, labour and currency.

Difference between commodities and stocks The main difference between stocks and futures contracts from a trading perspective is that, unlike stocks, which you could keep for a very long time, commodities are held for a very short time only. Futures contracts are used to hedge commodity price-fluctuation risks or to take advantage of price movements, instead of trading the actual cash commodities.

How are commodities traded? Commodity Future and option trading take place at exchanges such as the Chicago Board of Trade, Euronext.liffe, London Metal Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange, and other online trading systems. At the exchanges, areas are provided, each designated for a different futures contract. Those trading on the floor must be members of the exchange and registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Those traders, who are not members, work through brokerage firms who are.

To conclude Commodity future option trading is both complex and risky, so the shoe may not necessarily fit just anybody’s foot. If you are considering commodity future option trading, you should evaluate how much you are prepared to lose should push come to shove. Choose a trading method that you are comfortable with and that is best suited to achieving your objectives. The bottom line in commodity future option trading is that, if you exercise good judgment and manage your risks effectively, commodities trading are likely to richly reward your efforts!

Discover awesome, proven techniques for trading online; stocks, shares, currencies, FOREX etc. for both the novice and experienced trader at http://www.TradingOnline4u.com

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