Rectangles - Long Trading Strategy with CFDs

By Jeff Cartridge

The rectangle can be traded very successfully on the long side entering the trade as the stock breaks out to the upside. The pattern forms when the two boundary lines that contain the price movement are parallel. The bottom line and the top line are both near to horizontal. Sometimes these may be called a channel or a consolidation, but the most famous version of this pattern was a variation by Nicolas Darvas, published in his book ?How I Made $2 million in the Stock Market?.

Rectangles, Unpredictable But Profitable

Rectangle breakouts show a slight bias to the upside with patterns breaking up 54% of the time. This upward bias is likely due to the overall bullish bias of the market as the symmetrical nature of the pattern does not clearly indicate a breakout direction. The breakout of rectangles can deliver strong returns with 56% of the patterns being profitable. The average return for the long trades is 1.15% in 12 days.

Specific Setups to Improve Profitability

As would be expected rectangles work well when the market, sector and stock are bullish. For best results the market, sector and the stock should be consolidating or in an up trend.

Rectangles are sensitive to the length of the pattern with breakouts that occur between 10 and 35 days, from the start of the pattern, performing the best. While the pattern breakout works best in the range specified, it is not important if the pattern breakout is early or late in the pattern.

If the volume is in support of the breakout the results are better. Supportive volume means the volume on the way up is higher than the volume on the way down. The best results are achieved if the high is higher or equal before the breakout and do not trade patterns that are formed around an outside day candle.

Rectangles Can Be Very Profitable

By following these simple rules profitability of trading rectangles can be improved substantially. With an average return per trade of 1.89% in 13 days and an extremely high hit rate of 71% it is understandable why many traders are drawn to the rectangle.

Note: Statistics for this article have been provided by Patterns Trader after analyzing over 60,000 chart patterns on the Australian market from 2000 - 2008. - 23223

About the Author:

Jeff Cartridge is the author of Supercharge Your Trading with CFDs and created the website LearnCFDs.com A Simple Timeless Method for Huge Gains

Tips To Trade Penny Stocks Like A Pro

By John Gilbert

You have to keep various things in mind while buying and selling penny stocks. It is important to choose good stocks for which you need to research them before buying any stock.

You can get the information about profitable trades from various alert services. These will help you buy the stocks that are expected to rise in price. Many experts run their own alert services.

While choosing a service, you should look at the reputation of the service provider. If you do not check the reputation of that person, you may end up losing money by doing trades that are poorly researched.

You should keep all the records in an excel worksheet. This will help you to do the penny stock trading professionally. You can also use other software available for the purpose. You can use Microsoft Excel or other freely available software for the purpose.

There are many forums about stock trading. You can be a part of conversations at such forums. You can get expert tips and get free alerts from real people. You can learn a lot from such forums.

You should also sign up for the professional training programs for penny stock trading. You should learn from an expert. It can be very profitable for you if you know how to trade. You can sign up for an online or offline training program.

You will also find various tools and services offered for penny stock traders. Many tools and services can help you make more money. To get maximum benefits, you should sign up with a full service online broker.

Penny stock trading is a very profitable business for smart traders. You should get the advice from all sources but apply your own research before making a decision to buy any stocks. Thus you can use all these tips to do well as a penny stock trader. - 23223

About the Author:

Investment in Stocks can generate big returns if done the correct way. Penny Stocks can generate the highest profits in the shortest period of time.

The Pros/Cons Of The Dollar

By Adela Thomas

Money in the United States, a model of what gold and silver can do for a country. The goal of the US Federal Reserve is to have more money in their vaults than they have out. Thats the core-essential difference in other countries and the U.S.

The money game in the U.S. has many players with each one making their contribution to the very best economic machine in the world. Since the Americans installed their form of currency into the world, things have never been the same.

Sure the dollar can go up in value and it can go down, but make no mistake about it, the dollar is a great method of financial recourse and the world knows this. The US dollar is a bit down right now, sure it is. The stability of dollars was created first by backing every dollar by a fixed amount of gold. The dollars were a replacement of gold, and it was easier to carry and store than gold.

Then as the economy became larger, more people needed more money to exchange hands at a faster rate. The government then had to allow the dollar to be backed by silver as well so that they could print more and keep up with the economic growth. Not doing so would cause some people to hoard money, and it would slow down the velocity of money. When this happens there is deflation, and danger of things being worth less, and money being hard to find as people hoard it.

Soon the economy would go global, and this is why the government is having troubles printing enough money to keep up with the demand for dollars as the internet now allows money to exchange hands in seconds. In order for the system to keep working, money will have to change hands even faster.

There is one danger, and that is that inflation will become a problem. If there are more and more dollars being printed, while the velocity of money will still flow at a very fast pace, dollars could potentially lose their value. Even worse, as the government mismanages money, the danger is that the rest of the world no longer has the faith in the dollar. This will mean that they might no longer accept dollars, and that would result in a lot of money with no place to go. This can result in hyper-inflation like with what happened with Germany before World War 2. However, at the moment, the rest of the world has also printed lots of their currency, so the dollar remains the best bet. If you are nervous about hyper inflation, your best bet is to buy gold, silver, and non perishable food. - 23223

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

Top Coffee Commodity Trading Tips, Watch Coffee Market Fundamentals

By Marianna Gomes

There is potential for coffee commodity trading observers to make some great profitable trades, after a UN food agency report pinpointed the need for global food production to increase by over 70% by 2050. Over the years, along with crude oil, coffee has been a major traded commodity, so the markets will follow closely any material change in coffee futures prices, especially when crop yields can be affected by dramatic weather changes. An important factor for this popular commodity is good rainfall, so it's not surprising that most coffee beans grow between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

Ideally, to achieve high crop yields growers want a temperature range of 17 to 23 centigrade, together with stable climate and encouraging soil conditions. According to a recent Cafedirect report, coffee farmers in developed countries are suffering damage to their crops. Rising temperatures are forcing coffee growers to shift to higher altitudes, and these higher temperatures encourage more disease caused by pests. Given that coffee beans are best grown with small temperature variations, clearly climate change will have a growing impact on coffee growers.

The main two varieties of any real economic significance to those following coffee commodity trading are Arabica and Robusta, both actively traded futures on major world commodity exchanges. The US is the biggest world consumer and importer of coffee, while the largest producer Brazil, produced almost 34 million (29% global output) 60-kg bags of coffee in 2007/8, mainly Arabica. The next biggest producer is Vietnam with a 15% world share at 17.50 m bags (Robusta), while Columbia was third with 12.40 m bags (Arabica) and an 11% share, and Indonesia was fourth largest producer in 2007/8 with 7.0 m bags.

Making up about 70% of green coffee bean production, Arabica thrives at altitudes of over 4,000 ft in warm, humid climates, which along with the right soil conditions gives the bean its characteristic aromatic flavour. Most Arabica grows in the high altitudes of countries like Columbia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela. The Santos grade of Arabica in Brazil is considered one of the best, with beans picked within the first 4 years of the coffee tree's life. While Robusta beans, which are a lower grade and grown mainly in South East Asia, are picked after 2-3 years, usually with Arabica there is a longer lead time of 4-5 years.

A drought can lead to coffee futures prices rising because a crop yield collapse hits supply. Lower crop yields due to higher than normal rainfall may also lead to higher prices. The crop for both current and the following year can be affected by freezing, which can be a problem particularly in Latin America for Arabica varieties in the higher altitudes. Over recent years serious freezing has occurred once in every six years in winter (June to August) months in the southern hemisphere, according to data. The coffee commodity trading observer needs to weigh up all these factors before they enter trades.

The first stages in coffee bean growth is the appearance of white blossom on coffee trees, followed by growth of green cherries from two weeks to 6-9 months, which eventually become reddish and then black cherries. There are two coffee beans in each cherry. The "dry" method accounts for most coffee production where cherries are stripped off the tree before the green beans are dried and graded, then shipped for roasting. Broadly speaking one pound of coffee comes from around 2,000 cherries (4,000 beans).

You are no doubt excited to start your coffee commodity trading activities, so before you take some potentially profitable trades make sure you choose a broker with an accessible electronic trading platform. The Arabica benchmark on ICE Futures US is the Coffee "C" futures contract, and you can also get exposure to Robusta futures contracts through the exchange. Should you want to trade only soft commodities but not as futures, you have the option to use an agricultural ETF which tracks a soft commodity index. Using these various derivative and investment vehicles, the trader has some good options for gaining exposure to these exciting coffee commodity trading markets. - 23223

About the Author:

The author, Marianna Gomes, focuses on soft commodities and pens articles for a helpful online resource ontrading commodities. Learn more about how you could benefit from coffee commodity trading tips here.

Tips on How To Get The Best Penny Stock Deal

By Malcolm Torren

Penny stock market can be a roller coaster ride for the investor. You can predict but you can never be too certain when you're going up and when you're going down. And the best part is that the excitement doesn't stop. That is if that's how you prefer to see it. Despite the risks being warned by many, you can still end the day with the best penny stock deal in the market. Because the best deal require knowing the best options. There will always be a way around it.

Before you jump into the penny stock bandwagon, it is important to prepare yourself. This is an investment you are dealing with. There will always be risks and loopholes. Mistakes will be made. The price to get the best penny stock deal may not come easy. But there are easy reminders to keep you on track. Here goes.

- Maintain a positive view. You bring your money into the challenge and this can be disturbing. Especially when you sense that your stocks are falling. Stay light with your views and stay alert. Your positive attitude can always help you make better decisions for your penny shares in the end.

- Learn the loops of the trade. This is very basic and elementary. There are secrets in stock buying. But opening your mind to learning can be one of your best weapons. A best penny stock deal doesn't come in a silver platter. You have to work for it. Understand the trends and the companies. Keep track of those who are consistent in the list. Most of all, learn the pricing changes.

- Consult others. There are many avenues to do this. In the internet alone, there are penny stock forums, message boards, and blogs that you can get insights from. If you can afford to subscribe to small caps newsletters, then do it. The best penny stock tomorrow may just be in the list. These are paid subscriptions so it safe to assume that it could be worth your money.

- Understand what you are getting into. Another way of saying it is to calculate your risks. Don't invest too much of what you have. A sound advice would be to keep it to a maximum of ten percent of your basic funds. If you have extra, the better. Just don't over invest. You may lose all of them.

- Get to know the players and learn the language. Aside from the basic buy-and-sell stock exchange concept, there are other stuffs to know. The role players are the stock broker, day traders, SEC, NYSE, NASDAQ, and more. Then there are some terms. There's the bull and the bear. There's the pump-and-dump. Learn and understand them.

- Experience will be your best mentor. Just like a roller coaster, the first ride is scary. But once you get the hang of it, you'll understand the highs and lows. Later on, you will know how, when, and what to anticipate. The key to winning the best penny stock is to never stop learning. Broaden your knowledge of the business. Keep a wise buy scheme always. The truth is, the penny stock business is not as easy as you think. Just keep your reminders easy to remember. Your last reminder must be to always learn from experience. - 23223

About the Author:

Discover more about penny stock pick. Find information on the best penny stock deals online!