Trading Systems 101

Traders buy and sell for a variety of reasons. Some traders will make decisions based upon news headlines or gut feelings. One may read that gasoline prices are at record levels and decide they have to go down, while with equal certainty another trader decides the news justifies even higher prices. These strategies rely on luck, rather than mathematical probabilities, to succeed.

Trend Analysis using Open Interest and Volume

Open Interest (also known as Open Contracts or Open Commitments) refers to the number of active or open contracts for any given security. It applies to the futures and options markets but not to stocks. In the futures market it refers to the total number of contracts long or short in a delivery month or

What is a Trading System?

A trading system is a collection of formulas and rules that generate buy and sell recommendations. Trading systems have been developed for decades, but the recent advances in technology with the pc and internet have increased interest in them and broadened the number of people actively involved in their use. Technical indicators such as oscillators,

Trading the Inside Day Breakout Strategy

An inside day is a day where the range is contained within the preceding day’s range. For a valid inside day breakout set up there should be at least two consecutive inside days. The more inside days in a row, the greater the chance of the volatility breakout trade occuring. Longer term timeframes such as

Global Macro Trading Strategies

The term global macro is used to describe a trading strategy used by various hedge funds. Hedge Funds using the global macro strategy take positions in on the basis of macroeconomic forecasts and analysis in a global context. Global macro analysis covers areas such as interest rates, government policies and inter-government relations. An example of