Major Futures Trading Exchanges

By Ahmad Hassam

Most of the people who invest in stocks, only know about the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or the NASDAQ over the counter market. Futures trading is one of the ways to grow your wealth. There are many dozens of futures contracts that you can trade ranging from crude oil, gold, ethanol, heating, gasoline, silver, copper, wheat, corn, coffee, soybeans, pork bellies, cattle, interest rates, currencies and others.

Richard Dennis had started with only $400 and ended up making more than $200 Million trading commodities. If you want to trade commodities than trading commodity futures is the best way to profit from the boom in the commodity market. Now, let's discuss the three largest futures exchanges in the world. There are many futures exchanges in the world but these three are the most popular and the most important.

The number one is the CME ( Chicago Mercantile Exchange). The futures contracts that get traded on CME include among others stock index futures, foreign currencies, interest rates, commodities, environmental futures and others. Futures trading is no doubt risky but if you learn it, it can be highly profitable. As said before, Ricard Dennis and his turtles used to trade the most liquid contracts in the market.

The commodities futures that get traded on CME include live cattle, milk, lean hogs, feeder cattle, butter, limber, pork bellies, Goldman Sachs Commodities Index and fertilizer.

Major stock index futures contracts like the S&P 500, S&P 500 Midcap, S&P Small Cap 600, NASDAQ Composite, NASDAQ 100, Russell 2000 and their corresponding E-Mini contracts also get traded on CME.

You can easily trade almost all these contracts from the comfort of your home electronically using your computer.GLOBEX is the Electronic Trading Platform owned by the CME Group that allows the electronic trading of these contracts almost 24 hours a day.

The second most important futures exchange is the CBOT ( Chicago Board of Trade). Mini contracts on corn, soybeans and wheat are also available for trading on CBOT. The futures contracts that are available on CBOT include agricultural futures like the soybeans, ethanol, rice, corn, wheat and others.

A mini version of Dow Futures called the E-Mini Dow is also available. You can also trade mini versions of gold and silver futures contract on CBOT. CBOT gives you the opportunity to trade one of the most popular stock indexex the DJIA Dow Jones Industrial Average) in the form of Dow Futures.

The next major futures trading exchange is the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). This is infact the global hub for energy trading and offers futures contracts on light sweet crude, natural gas, unleaded gasoline, heating oil, electricity, propane and coal.

Futures trading is something that is not difficult to do once you get the hang of it. In the beginning, you should just paper trade these contracts for a few months! NYMEX also provides you with the opportunity to trade precious metals like the gold, silver, platinum as well as palladium. You can also trade metals like copper and aluminum on NYMEX. - 32177

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How Investors Gain In Business Daily

By Margaret Sharma

In investments one needs an information edge to succeed. No matter what area of investments one undertakes, research and self-education is the key that that sets into motion the variables that lead to positive change.

When investors see a positive development the greed among buyers tends to make the market rise. The short sellers are fearful. The bulls do not want to miss the rally and the stampede psychology roots itself.

When markets rise rapidly, short sellers feel the walls closing in on them and want to get out and cover their position. The rush to cover causes an even more steeper market rise.

This is the essence of market psychology. In a bull market eventually a price shock occurs. A major sale hits the market and there are not enough buyers to absorb the sale. The seeds of a reversal are planted. Bulls feel skittish. Bears bolder. Bulls dump their position and join the bears pushing the market even lower. The opposite occurs in a bull market.

The Investment Business Daily is a foremost investment and financial news source for the United States. The IBD gives continuous news coverage to important business news using photos, graphs and charts and editorials.

Global and U.S. business coverage is one of the special hallmarks of an IBD subscription. Their global outreach touches upon more strategic breaking business that has an impact on your finances than other daily news services. This coupled with exclusive rating analysis coupled to editorialized business political repercussions make the IBD a standout in investment publishing.

Fear and greed move markets however, the greater of the two emotions is fear. As long as short sellers are not willing to meet the ask and sell at the bid a decline continues. When bulls see their profits evaporate, they panic and sell at the bids.

Getting a subscription gives one front door delivery and a free online subscription. By ordering online one can save eighty percent off news stand prices. - 32177

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Information About Modern Artificial Intelligence

By Brayden Pulmer

A lot of men and women have thought for years that softwares would stroll beside human beings one time. No one would have guessed that day time would arrive so soon. Some believe that, combined with artificial intelligence, softwares could possibly be a critical threat to humanity. Till then, they is usually incredibly applicable.

Scientists have accomplished extensive testing and have discovered some extremely valuable and some not so great applications. Automations may be developed to specialize in several different fields. The easiest use for softwares is entertainment. A single like instance may be the RoboSapien which can supply children and adults alike with hours of enjoyable. RoboSapien was made to become easily reprogrammed apart from its remote handle purpose.

Another valuable field will be household duties. Specialized softwares may very well be produced for that physically or mentally handicapped. The disabled would be taken care of in periods when their guardians have been otherwise occupied. If the guardian had been to be taking a shower, repairing a meal, or working, softwares could surveil the disabled and alert an EMT or other certified individual if one thing have been to happen. They could also be valuable to complete minor chores like washing dishes, vacuuming, or pest manage.

Students in the University of Essex in England have developed a robot fish modeled after a carp. The model is equipped with chemical sensors to detect pollution and an internal monitoring system to assist it navigate and avoid collision with naval vessels and other obstacles. These robotic fish could also be equipped with video surveillance and sonar to aid help with deep sea exploration in locations people cannot go. Vehicles may be programmed to become effective softwares for risk-free automatic transportation, which could significantly decrease vehicular deaths.

Around the darker side, automations could potentially be applied for war. This may just be prevented, although. If programmers use the 3 laws of robotics suggested by Isaac Asimov for that core on the plan, the improper and immoral use of a robot may very well be averted. On the other hand, if armies applied them instead of flesh and blood people, there could be much less casualties and war may not be as heartbreaking.

These points are only the beginning of what robotic technologies will be capable of in the future. - 32177

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Futures: Soft Markets and Lots of Leveraging Power

By Nelson Pellew

Stocks are temporary loans, for all intents and purposes. You acquire a certain amount, based upon your wherewithal, and then you take possession of a certain amount of certificates entitling you to the value of your investment. When the market value of these stocks increases, you can sell your stocks for the market value, entitling you to the difference. Hence, when yours stocks "go up" you make a profit. But, when your stocks lose value, you quite clearly lose value as well.

Hard stocks, however, lead to hard losses. You may prefer the softer margins of the futures market. To begin this volatile career as a futurist, you need only pony up to the margins set by each commodity on the market. So, for instance, you like that the margin (think of margins as ante in a poker game) for wheat - or let's say sugar. The initial investment margin for a commodity, therefore, may be $5,000 or so.

Once you have invested the initial margin amount you may begin to wheel and deal using smaller increments known as e-minis. Now, it may help you to think of this margin in term of your own home. Imagine putting down 20% of your home's value in order to steer its potential open market value. Heady stuff, indeed. But be wary and stay focused or you will suffer the fate of many a day trader in the 1990s.

Now, thanks in part to the Online Trading Academy, let's indulge in a borrowed example. Let us presume that a given e-mini trading price is valued at $980. The market value is computed by taking the dollar value per e-mini point ($50) and multiplying it by the last trading price. Thus, $980 multiplied by $50 equals $49,000. Now, say the initial margin value, as set by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, is $5,625. This means for $5,625 you can determine a futures contract worth $49,000. This represents a 9:1 leverage ratio.

This tremendous leveraging power, however, comes at the cost of liquid capital. Replenishing undervalued or depleted e-minis means having instant access to cash. Your Roth IRA or trust fund will do you no good. If the market moves against your futures, you will be responsible for meeting your margins should they fall below market value. Failure to do so will handicap your ability to trade as quickly and lucratively as you might like. - 32177

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Parallel to Wall Street

By Nelson Pellew

The world of high finance is a world seldom visited by the uninitiated. Though the triumphs and monumental failures of Wall Street are well documented every day -- either by radio or scrolling ticker on any number of news or financial television programs. We have become de facto fans of the market. When it rises, we are supposed to be elated. When it crashes, we are supposed to be mortified -- and perhaps for good reason.

Of course, there is a parallel world of high finances that, though it does manage to be reported on, is not as readily consumed or followed by the masses. This, of course, is the world of the commodities future. To be sure, the futures market fails to garner the spotlight -- and perhaps that is for the best.

The futures market, regulated via the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, follows the highs and lows of commodities. The trading is conducted in increments known as electronically traded futures, or e-minis. E-minis futures trading contracts represent a portion of the so-called normal futures. These portions are "papers" that are traded day in and day out. However, to obtain access to e-minis, you must ensure your margin for any specific commodity has been satisfied.

This means if your futures fall short on wheat by a margin of X, then you would be responsible for paying that margin before you could qualify for a new e-mini docket. For the sake of convenience, the e-mini has become the standard for futures trades. Of course, buying and selling e-minis requires a fair amount of skill and research.

The optimal futures trader is one who has familiarized himself -- or herself -- with the complex terminology and methodology of the trade. You see, they are called futures because in essence, you are betting on or against the future price or value of a commodity. What will wheat sell for tomorrow? What will the price of sugar be in a week? You see, this requires a great deal of study and the refinement of some kind of predictive logic. - 32177

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Profitable Candlestick Patterns -Bullish Necklines, Bearish Meeting Lines & bearish Piercing Line

By Ahmad Hassam

Bullish necklines candlestick pattern is a two stick trend confirming pattern. When this pattern appears during the uptrend, it is a signal that the uptrend is still in force and is expected to continue for sometime in the future. Now, there are two type of neckline patterns, the in neck and the out neck pattern.

The candle formed on the setup day should be a long bullish candle that shows a lot of buying. On the signal day a bearish candle either long or short is formed with its closing price very near the close of the setup day.

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.

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. 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.

Now, let's talk about a trend reversal candlestick pattern; The Bearish Meeting Line. On the first day or what you call the setup day, you will find a long bullish candle.What this means is that heavy buying took place throughout the day. On the second day or what you call the signal day, you will find a gap opening. This gap entices the sellers to start selling that continues throughout the day. This will result in a long bearish candle on the second or what you call the signal day. This long bearish candle should have a close very near the open of the low of the day as well as the close should be very near to the close on the first or what you call the setup day. This is a Bearish Meeting Line Trend Reversal Pattern. What is means is that the trend is about to reverse itself soon!

In case of the bearish piercing line candlestick pattern, the setup day is bullish with long bullish candle. The signal day is bearish with an opening higher than the setup days high. What this means is that on the signal day sellers came rushing in, pushing prices down through the setup days opening price and below its midpoint.

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. - 32177

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Animal Research Over The Decades

By Adriana Noton

Animal research has undergone many updates and transformations of the years, and certainly within the past few decades. Even up until the 1980s many leading cosmetic giants were insisting that animal testing was necessary in order to prove that their products were safe for human use.

Many organizations came out of nowhere to help protect animals that were, in their eyes, being mutilated and killed needlessly in the name of beauty. These organizations quickly came to the defense of these animals and made certain that the general public was well aware of what was happening at these cosmetic companies by releasing photos of tiny helpless bunny rabbits that were blinded or even worse, for no good reason. Cosmetic companies were forced to find alternative means to test their products and now, all cosmetic companies carry disclaimers on their labeling to alert consumers to the fact that they do not engage in animal research.

Even up until the 1970s, companies involved in animal research were heavily involved in a practice called vivisection where animals were tested and forced to undergo painful procedures without anesthesia.

If an animal even happened to survive one of these "tests", he was simply brought back to his cage to await what was in store for him next. The use of vivisection was quickly stopped by legislation once the public was aware of all this inhumane suffering.

Regardless of these updates, medical research still needs animal research, yet most research facilities have been forced to find labs where they work away from the public eye and avoid as much scrutiny as possible. No longer housed in the basements of large inner city teaching hospitals, labs have sprung up behind secure barriers literally in foothills and desert communities.

Groups and organizations such as PETA have used what some have referred to as aggressive and unsavory tactics in their self appointed role of animal protectors, but it is largely due to their relentless investigations and the willingness of the mass media to listen, that unnecessary animal research and mutilation has been almost wiped out.

There have been, however, successful and much needed advances in various diseases and conditions that have plagued man for eons, all due to animal research. Researchers have been able to discover research methods, however, that do not mandate the death or permanent maiming of these creatures and instead they have learned to create vaccines and serums that have shown great promise in many diseases from cancer to AIDS.

With all that success, however, comes a new form of research: genetic engineering. This focuses on many types of cloning for replacement body parts, internal organs and skin. One of the most common procedures involves the use of mice on which to graft and grow human ears. Although the procedure has provided some incredible results and has been well received by both the medical community and recipients of their new fully functional ears, it does involve the ultimate (humane) euthanization of the host mouse. Because of this, there are qualified recipients who choose not to undergo the procedure. - 32177

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