Category: General

Baseline for Active Investing

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Today's author is Jackie Ann Patterson, the editor of BackTesting Report. Previously Jackie Ann showed us how to pick up on a potential trend change as well as how to recognize a mature trend using the MACD indicator. Today she has returned to the Trader's Blog to share a method for testing your trading strategy.

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One of the ways that traders use to determine the success of a potential strategy is to use a baseline. A baseline is a benchmark or a standard for comparison. For example, some investors will use the gain/loss of the S&P 500 as a baseline of market performance. That may be useful for investing long-term in large-caps, but less applicable to active investing and shorter-term trading. This article shows you a different method of forming baselines and the win rate results for two types of stock market participants. Continue reading "Baseline for Active Investing" →

How I trade futures with MarketClub

Posted on by The INO.com Team

In March, I asked members how they used MarketClub and among the responses was a strategy from Loic, a futures trader out of Marseille, France. Loic was already trading futures before MarketClub came along and had developed a portfolio using our parent site, INO.com, along with a technical strategy that he had already developed. A couple years ago, Loic decided to give MarketClub a try and has been a member ever since.

This Friday, you will have the opportunity to see for yourself how Loic uses MarketClub to trade markets such as coffee, cattle, Japanese yen, and soybeans, among many others, as well as ask questions about his strategy. At MarketClub we try to provide trading knowledge from as many viewpoints as possible, so even if you're not a futures trader, you may learn a new trick or two to add to your trading arsenal.

Space is limited so we encourage you to register and reserve a seat for this webinar today:

Click to register - Friday, April 30th at 4pm EDT / 8pm GMT, "MarketClub Member Strategies with Loic"

Best,

Susan Jackson
Director of MarketClub Education
INO.com & MarketClub

10 Steps to Smart Trading

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Time and again on this blog, Adam has emphasized the need for a game plan (a.k.a.trading plan), but how many traders actually have a written trading plan?

Price Headley of Big Trends would like to share his list of trading plan essentials which lead to profitable trading in general. Comment and let us know what you think goes into a successful trading plan and be sure to visit Price at BigTrends.com

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You need to be able to answer one simple question when trading…

Could another trader execute my trading strategies if I gave them a copy of my trading plan?

If not, then you absolutely should stop trading right now until you can answer the 10 questions below.

Why you might ask?  By taking the time to write down your plan, you put yourself in the top 3% of individuals who have written goals and plans, giving you an immediate edge. Continue reading "10 Steps to Smart Trading" →

Q1: Gold vs. "World Cup Portfolio"

Posted on by The INO.com Team

We began Q1 with high hopes of keeping our winning streak alive, just as we had finished out the year on a very positive note with some strong gains in Q4 of 2009.

Q1 proved to be a challenging quarter for the "World Cup Portfolio." Out of the six markets we track, we had winning positions in four markets (that's the good news) and losing positions in the other two.
However, the big disappointment in Q1 was the gold market which produced our biggest quarterly loss of any market since we began tracking the "World Cup Portfolio."

The main reason for this loss was the choppy, trend-less action in the gold market. In the eleven quarters we have been tracking gold, we have made money in eight of those quarters. This is not the time to abandon trading gold, rather it is a time to continue with our game plan and "Trade Triangle" approach that has been so successful for this portfolio. Furthermore we have never had back-to-back losing quarters in gold.

On the brighter side, the grain markets proved to be resilient and just the ticket as corn, wheat, and soybeans all put in positive performances. The only other market to put in a negative performance in Q1 was crude oil. Continue reading "Q1: Gold vs. "World Cup Portfolio"" →