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

About the Author:

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.

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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Buy your Investors Business daily subscription and get a 80% discount off newsstand prices. Online access is free and delivered to your doorstep and get IBD subscription costs offering an additional 2 weeks free. Keep abreast of breaking business news, original analysis that you'll prize.

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

About the Author:

Brayden Pulmer has been creating articles about electronics for a long time. You can read his work on improving your electronics practices about stir crazy popcorn popper by visiting his new site on westbend popcorn popper.

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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Read more at article source: Futures: Soft Markets and Lots of Leveraging Power

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

About the Author:

The realm of emini futures trading is not for the faint of heart or the dull of wit. It takes a commitment to research and in-depth analysis few have the patience for. Prepare wisely.

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

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Master Candlestick Charting with this 82 page PDF FREE Candlestick Guide! 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!

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

About the Author:

Canada's top science authority offers vast knowledge on a variety of Canadian research topics, including mathematics research, nature and science, and physics research.

Trading Futures Like The Turtles

By Ahmad Hassam

A futures contract is a security just like a stock or a bond with some similarities and many differences. A stock gives you the right to own a small part of the company while a bond makes you a lender to a company or the government.

Futures contract as the name implies is a binding contract between two parties for the delivery of a commodity or an asset or even a financial instrument at some future date between the buyer and seller of that contract. Futures market is a highly regulated market with the CFTC responsible for its regulation. Buyers and sellers don't come in direct contact with each other. In between is the Central Clearing House that enforces the contract reducing the risk of party default!

Futures market is the backbone of the whole sale and retail commodity market ranging from oil, wheat, corn, heating oil, meat, cattle, soybeans and other foodstuff. So you can well imagine the importance of the futures market. Futures market serves the purpose of hedging and speculation.

Now, futures contracts are by design time bound and expire at a fixed date. These contracts get regulated through a central clearing hours so the risk of one party backing out of the contract is minimal. This limits the time and risk exposure experienced by hedgers and speculators.

Now you can easily trade these contracts by opening an account with a FCM brokerage and deposit an amount to start trading these contracts on margin. The minimum amount with most of the brokers is something like $5,000 but it can less too! Brokers allow leverage upto 10:1 when you trade on margin. Compare this to the leverage of 2:1 allowed by stock brokers. In the last decades, electronic trading has become highly popular among the traders. This includes futures as well.

In US, open outcry trading still takes place during the official hours at the different futures exchanges. However, most of these futures contracts also get traded electronically. GLOBEX allows electronic trading of most of these futures contracts 23 hours each day. Electronic trading provides a more level playing field, more price transparency and lower transaction costs.

The popular contracts that get traded on GLOBEX are the E-minis like the S&P 500, NASDAQ 100 and Dow. You can also trade E-mini gold futures as well as crude oil futures on GLOBEX. CME, NYMEX and CBOT are the three most important Futures Exchanges. GLOBEX allows you to trade most of the contracts that get traded on these exchanges.

You can find GLOBEX quotes on CNBC and Bloomberg! Now, GLOBEX trading continues during the night after the official close of CME, CBOT and NYMEX at 4:15 PM EST. However, overnight trading can be thin and highly volatile as compared to the official hours.

These GLOBEX quotes are real time and if you have taken a position with sell stop or a buy order, early next morning, you might find your position executed with a new position or out of the position altogether. Futures can be highly profitable if you know how to do it! - 32177

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Get your FREE COPIES of the HVMM Ultimate Day Trading System that can trade stocks, forex and futures and the Universal Risk and Money Management Tool! Read this shocking 40 page FRWC Brutal Truth FREE Report on trading robots that exposes almost everything!

What Is Momentum Investing? How It Can Make You Rich?

By Ahmad Hassam

As a trader, you are always looking for short term profit. While as an investor, you are willing to invest long term in a company or a security to make capital gain. In trading, you are always looking for making profit from the volatility in the market. Day trading has a short term time horizon of only one day. A day trader opens a trade and closes that trade in the same day to make a quick profit. Day traders need quick reflexes as well as a keen observation of the market volatility. Many people day trade successfully. However, on the other hand hand, many people have a long term time horizon of many months to years. They have a long term financial goal and this matches with their investment style.

An investor might have to wait for a long time before realizing a return on his or her investment. Many investors can learn a few tricks from day traders that can help them make a quick profit in a matter of days orn weeks instead of months or years. Now a company's stock may have a good long term prospects supported by strong fundamentals. But the stock may stay still for a long time before it catches the attention of the media and the investing public before it's price get's bid up.

Many investors when they fall in love with their investments on the long run forget this cardinal rule of trading that you have to cut your losses. Market least care who you are and how long you have been in it.There is a general problem with so many investors. They fall in love with their investment after doing so much research and committing so much time for the position to work. Now, day traders are always hit and run types. They have developed an innate sense of discipline among themselves that teaches them when to commit money to a trade and when to cut and run.

When, there is momentum behind a security, it means that it's price will continue to icnrease as long as it has got momentum. This way by investing in stocks having momentum behind them, you avoid the risk of getting stuck in stocks that might not move for months and months.

When investing, you try to buy low and sell high. In momentum investing, you buy high and sell even higher! One of the tricks that you can learn from day traders is momentum investing. In momentum investing, you look for securities that are expected to go up in prices accompanied by the underlying momentum. Now, when the price of a stock or security increases because of strong demand, it is said to have momentum behind it.

Now most serious momentum investors are infact swing traders who hold positions for a few weeks or a few months. Most of them employ some sort of momentum indicators to help them identify when it is good time to buy a stock. Some of the indicators that can be used is the Relative Strength Index (RSI), Moving Average Convergence and Divergence (MACD) and the Stochastic Index.

Now, when doing momentum investing, you need to also do some fundamental research behind the company. As most of the momentum investing done during the dot com bubble was on hearsay without being supported by any strong fundamentals! However, if too many investors start practicing momentum investing, it sometimes leads to bubbles like the tech bubble that happened at the end of 1990s. - 32177

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard. Turn $200 into $100K in just 3 months with this FREE Penny Stock Report. Read this shocking 40 page PDF FREE FRWC Brutal Truth Report on trading robots!

How To Back Test Your Trading System? Know These Shocking Limitations!

By Ahmad Hassam

A trading system might consist of a few indicators and a number of rules that tell when to enter the trade and when to exit the trade. Trading system is considered to be proven and tested if there is some date that supports its performance under live market trading conditions. However, it might not be possible to test a trading system quickly under live trading conditions. To overcome such problems, backtesting has been developed. Backtesting is done with the use of a software.

How to do backtesting? Backtesting uses historical data to test the performance of the trading system under the past market conditions. Using a backtesting software makes it very simple and easy.

Now, back testing is done with historical data. What this means is that although your trading system might perform very well with back testing, it may not work in the present market. Market conditions keep on changing and what worked in the past may not work in the present. In the same way, what didn't work in the past may start working now.

So when you look at back testing results, you should look at them with scepticism. But it doesn't mean that backtesting is entirely useless! What we can say is that no two trades are exactly alike.

Back testing can give you a feel how a particular market behaves under certain conditions. Back testing can also spot you certain general characteristics of the market like the seasonal trends and market tendencies.

For example, some markets especially the commodities market is highly seasonal and cyclical in nature. We can take the example of agricultural commodities like wheat, grains,corn, cotton, coffee and stuff like that. In case of the stock market, there is much talk of the January Effect. Well, it is there no doubt about it. Some years, it is highly pronounced and others it is not that pronounced. Similarly stock prices tend to rise at the end of each month and the first few days of the new months. The reason for this is that many institutional investors tend to put the new funds to work at the end of the month and the beginning of the new month! Now in other markets, you might not find any seasonal trends. For example, there is very little seasonality in curreny market or the bond market.

Backtesting can help you figure out how long a trend might last in a particular market. For example, US Dollar Index trendlines might last for months to years. In other markets too backtesting can help you figure out important trends that lasts for last times.

There is no substitute for live trading results! To tell you the truth, backtesting can only give you a rough guess about the performance of the trading system under live trading conditions. - 32177

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Download these Forex Scalping Cheatsheets FREE! Read this shocking FREE 40 page PDF FRWC Brutal Truth Report that exposes everything about trading robots!

Why ETF Options Are Better Than Index Options?

By Ahmad Hassam

ETF investing has become highly popular in the last two decades. ETFs or what you call Exchange Traded Funds give you the benefits of both mutual funds as well as stocks. Now, ETFs are a basket of securities that are tailored to track a particular index whether it be a stock index, market index, a sector index, a commodity index, a currency index or other. You can trade options on ETFs as well. This makes ETFs a highly powerful addition to your portfolio.

The most important difference is that Index Options are cash settled on expiry while the ETF Options are settled with the underlying instruments that is shares of that ETF. Since with an ETF Options, you can also own the underlying security, you can use various combination strategies.

Index and ETFs both get affected by the dividends paid by the underlying stocks. So if you use options on them, these dividends on the underlying stocks should be incorporated into the puts and calls by using an options calculator.

As said before, since ETF Options get settled with ETF shares, you can use the different options trading strategies on them unlike the Index Options that get settled in cash. This makes ETF Options a much superior instrument as compared to Index Options. If you have traded stock options before, trading ETF Options should not be difficult for you.

Now when trading ETF Options, you can use the famous Protective Put Strategy by combining long ETF with a long put. This way you can hedge against the downside risk with a small increased cost to the ETF. A Protective Put will limit the downside risk to the put strike price.

Similarly, you can use a Covered Call on ETF. A Covered Call is formed by taking combining long ETF with a short call on that ETF. The short call will give you some income in the shape of a premium and reduce the cost of the position. This will also slightly reduce the risk of the position. But on the other hand, a covered call will limit the upside profit potential. Your max profit now will only be limited to the call strike price.

Another combination strategy that you can use with an ETF is forming a Collared Position. A Collared Position is formed with a long ETF and a long put combined with a short call. A Collared Position limits the limited but high risk to a limited risk only. The downside risk is now only limited to the put strike price. The premium paid in taking a long put position is offset somewhat by the premium that you get by writing a call.

Options trading is risky in the sense that it has both time volatility as well as price volatility. Now, many traders trade options without getting good options trading education. What you need to do is first paper trade these strategies and master them. This way you will learn how to deal with unexpected risk.

An important fact that you should know is that ETF Options are always American Style. American Style options can be excercised anytime before expiry. You can even trade LEAP Options on ETFs. LEAP Options are long term options having expiry of more than nine months to less than two and a half years.Another important fact that you need to know is that not all ETFs have options written on them. This should not surprise you as there are many stocks that don't have options written on them. - 32177

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Read this 49 page Quantum Swing Trading FREE Report. Get this 40 page shocking FRWC Brutal Truth FREE Report that exposed everything about trading robots!

E-Minis, But Not the Cooper

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.

The leveraging power of futures and e-minis is significant, but futures trading will require easy access to a great amount of liquid capital. Your 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

About the Author:

The futures market is a market brimming with e-mini trading potential. To experience the leveraging power of the futures market, one must have the marked skills to make it a profitable endeavor. Best of luck.

Sustainable Living with Greenhouses

By Judy Stevens

In the past greenhouses were used for small gardens and caring for individual horticulturalists prized flowers but commercial greenhouses are in the focus more lately with all of the attention given to green and sustainable living choices.

For example, universities and agricultural departments have built commercial greenhouses for their studies. These were only a larger version of smaller greenhouses made for individuals. Many elementary and pre-schools were also building greenhouses to teach and to educate the generations to come. These children and students were learning about our world, our earth, life, organic growing, eating habits and self-worth.

Hydroponics has been used more and more recently in greenhouse structures to transport the nutrients directly to the plant roots thus saving the earth's soil that is growing increasingly scarce.

Lately, there has been some information out about building acreage vertical instead of horizontal which is termed "eco building". It is the concept of building large high rises or using unused office buildings built in glass to house plantations and generate crops. This would allow cities and countries to grow a wide range of vegetation in places where there were no spaces, or available land. It would also allow crops to grow in countries where at one time they had to ship crops in from other countries. This would allow gaining more economical standards for some countries who at one time could not grow a particular crop, example, tomatoes. Such is true for some of the nations poor populations. If we can supply healthy food through greenhouse growing for those who normally have climates that don't allow healthy growth, we could feed a nation by building these greenhouse structures up.

Organic fertilizing has been an issue we have struggled with over the years. We know chemicals placed on our plants is bad for you and we know that harmones injected into our livestock is also harmful. With organic living we can control the insects by allowing the good insects to kill off the bad and growing indoors allows this cleaner "greener" living. Our world has always had some faction carrying the mantra of "getting back to nature" but now is the time to take action and do this.

The conscientiousness of our economy, green living, and saving the planet are all nice well meaning ideas, but building vertical greenhouses are a great way to conquer all of these giants. - 32177

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