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Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #18 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #18 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What is the Blockchain? - The Blockchain is a decentralized ledger that is append-only meaning that data can only be added to it. Once information is added, it is extremely difficult to modify or delete it. The Blockchain enforces this by including a pointer to the previous Block in every subsequent Block. The pointer is a Hash of the previous block. Hashing involves passing data through a one-way function to produce a unique Fingerprint of the input. If the input is modified even slightly, the Fingerprint will look completely different. Since the Blocks are linked in a Chain, there is no way for someone to edit an old entry without invalidating the Blocks that follow, allowing a secure structure. What Is a Blockchain Consensus Algorithm? - A consensus algorithm is a mechanism that allows users or machines to coordinate the agreement of what is a valid block in the Blockchain in a distributed setting. It needs to ensure that all participants in the system can agree on a single source of truth. Types of consensus algorithms include Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). What is Proof of Work? - Proof of Work (PoW) is a mechanism for preventing the same bitcoin funds from being spent more than once. Proof of Work consists of a consensus algorithm, which is a protocol that sets out the conditions for what makes a block in the Blockchain valid. It ensures the security and integrity of bitcoin’s distributed ledger. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Hedging Portfolio Risk Hedging bitcoin exposure with the Bakkt ® Bitcoin (USD) Cash Settled Monthly Futures (BMC) contract is a way to manage portfolio risk by taking a directional position opposite to the underlying asset as protection. For example, a hedger may have plans to hedge downward price movement in bitcoin using futures contracts based on in-house market and portfolio analytical processes. The market analysis may use common technical analytical techniques such as support and resistance to formulate the trade decision. If bitcoin is expected to weaken as it nears the resistance area, the hedger may plan to enter into a short futures position using the Bakkt ® Bitcoin (USD) Cash Settled Monthly Futures contract under either price levels of $27,500 or $32,500 to lock in the value of their underlying bitcoin position. Alternatively, if the hedger was in a short bitcoin position and wanted to hedge their position as price rose, entering a long futures position above price levels $12,500 or $16,500 could be considered. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #17 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #17 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What is a custodian? - A custodian is a financial institution that holds customers' assets or securities for safekeeping to prevent them from being stolen or lost. The custodian may hold equities, bonds, derivatives, or other assets in electronic or physical form on behalf of its customers. Custodians could offer related financial services such as account management and reporting, transaction settlement, and compliance related to anti-money laundering and tax regulations. What is an exchange? - An exchange is a venue where buyers and sellers trade equities, bonds, derivatives, and other tradable assets. Exchanges are often regulated by financial regulators and provide liquidity, which give market participants the ability to buy and sell assets at a fair market value. What is a financial regulator? - Governments have various agencies in place given the responsibility to regulate and oversee financial markets and companies participating in the financial system. These agencies each have a specific range of duties and responsibilities that enable them to act independently of each other while they work to accomplish similar objectives. For example, in the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has oversight of the securities industry (stocks and shares), whereas the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulates and oversees derivative markets (futures, swaps, and options). RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Position and Risk Management Risk management is the responsibility of market participants designed to limit risk exposures that specifically applies to the participants financial profile in the market. The financial profile of a participant may include their role in the financial market or the amount of capital under their responsibility to be managed in the market, and therefore the risk variables that each would need to identify may be unique. For both corporate and individual investors, the market to trade would be a key variable to clearly state and support with reasons for trading or investing. Reasons for selecting one market over another could include price volatility, liquidity, daily volume traded, size of the minimum price increment, and value of the minimum price increment. Comparing these variables between markets will help decide the suitability and/or risk of each. For example, if Mini-Brent Crude Oil futures (BM) moves around $2.00 per day (or 2 points) and a point is worth $100, a trader might experience a $200 fluctuation in their account balance for one day. Another example is the U.S Dollar / Singapore Dollar (USDSGD), which could move 70 pips or more per day and trading a standard lot size with each pip worth $10, a $700 fluctuation could be expected for one day. Market participants may also manage their risk through the size of their positions. The larger their position size, the greater is their exposure and the smaller their position size their exposure is lower. Investors should determine the risk that would result from various position sizes and select the size that ensures that their risk limit is not exceeded. Finally, setting stops with a specified loss amount provides protection if the market does not move in the desired direction. It helps to prevent creating a loss scenario which is larger than an account can handle. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
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ICESG:SDX1!Education
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Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #16 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #16 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What is liquidity and what is its significance? - Liquidity refers to the availability of a product and ensures market participants have the ability to buy and sell easily. A liquid market increases the likelihood for finding a counterparty when entering or exiting a trade. What is volume a measurement of in trading? - Volume in trading refers to the total number of contracts exchanged between buyers and sellers of a market during trading hours over a given period. Higher trading volumes are considered more positive than lower trading volumes because they indicate the availability of orders in the market allowing better order execution during the trading session. What is open interest in the derivatives market? - Open interest is the total number of outstanding derivative contracts, such as options or futures that have not been settled for an asset. Open interest equals the total number of bought or sold contracts, not the total of both added together. Increasing open interest represents new or additional money coming into the market while decreasing open interest indicates money flowing out of the market. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Diversification: Futures Spreads with Currency Futures A futures spread is usually created when one futures contract is sold simultaneously to the buying of a second related futures contract in order to capitalize on a discrepancy in price. Currency futures spreads combine the use of different currencies usually paired to the U.S. Dollar with the same contract month to express a relationship between the two currencies usually taking into account their strength or weakness relative to each other. For example, the Singapore Dollar (USDSGD) may be seen to be strengthening (price movement is downward) while the Chinese Yuan (USDCNY) may be seen as being very weak (price movement is upward). To take advantage of this observation, we would want to buy Singapore Dollar (sell the USDCNY future) and sell the Chinese Yuan (buy the USDCNY future) and as a result eliminate the U.S. Dollar. However, it must be noted that not all currencies are quoted in the same way like the Australian Dollar futures is quoted “AUDUSD”. It means then that to take advantage of a strong Australian Dollar and a weak Chinese Yuan quoted as “USDCNY”, an investor would need to buy both the AUDUSD future and the USDCNY future. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #15 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #15 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What is an Interest Rate Differential? - An interest rate differential is a change in the interest rates between the currencies of two countries. It is a measure of how money from two countries compares to each other. What is the Carry Trade? - The carry trade is where an investor borrows in a currency where the interest rate is low and converts those funds into a currency where the interest rate is higher. For example, if one currency has an interest rate of 5% and the other has a rate of 1%, it has a 4% interest rate differential. If you were to buy the currency that pays 5% against one that pays 1%, you would be paid on the difference with daily interest payments. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Diversification: Portfolio Risk Using FX Futures Portfolio diversification is the process of investing your money in different asset classes and securities in order to minimize the overall risk of the portfolio. For both corporate and individual investors, having access to markets that enable the building of a diversified portfolio is an important consideration when managing futures focused accounts. Similar to managing risk, the market to trade would be a key variable to clearly state and support with reasons for trading or investing. Reasons for selecting one market over another could include price volatility, liquidity, daily volume traded, size of the minimum price increment, and value of the minimum price increment. Comparing these variables between markets will help decide the suitability and/or risk of each. For example, the parameters for a price driven strategy may be designed to be applied to any market whether it be index equity futures or forex futures. However, the signals for entry may not always trigger if a trader were just to focus on a single index equity futures. Having access to markets such as the Micro MSCI USA Index futures could add diversification to a portfolio in an efficient manner. Having access to other futures markets to apply the strategy to allow for the creation of a diversified portfolio with varying entry and exit points or the ability for more trading oriented investors increased opportunities to execute price driven strategies more often across a range of futures markets. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #14 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #14 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What defines a Bear Market? - A bear market is when a market or even individual securities experiences extended price declines. The condition observed in the equity markets is where securities prices fall 20% or more from recent highs triggered by negative investor sentiment and/or overall pessimism in the markets. What defines a Bull Market? - A bull market is the condition seen in a financial market or individual security in which prices are rising and/or are expected to rise. Commonly the rise in price is observed over an extended period of time and can last months or years. What is Inflation? - Inflation is a rise in prices and is often expressed as a percentage change over a period of time. Inflation could also be interpreted as a decline of purchasing power over time, meaning that a unit of currency buys less than it did in prior periods. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Diversification: Portfolio Risk Using FX Futures Individual investors taking a portfolio approach with managed futures and spot foreign exchange could be entering into emerging market currency positions including for example Hong Kong Dollar, Singapore Dollar or South Korean Won. Depending on the view of each of the currencies in the portfolio, it could be constructed to eliminate exposure to the U.S. Dollar. However, there may be a time during which investors would like to introduce U.S. Dollar exposure and they could do so by using Mini US Dollar Index ® Futures with a contract value of $10,000. For example, the U.S. Dollar Index ® may be observed to be in a medium term uptrend and an investor may want to consider entering into a long position in the Mini US Dollar Index ® Futures based on their strategy of choice and exit the position when either their profit target is achieved or their loss limits are triggered. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #13 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #13 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What is Bitcoin and from where did it originate? - Bitcoin is a digital form of a medium of exchange with no central bank control which issues fiat currencies. Instead, the financial system involving bitcoin is managed by thousands of computers distributed around the world, a decentralized ledger, where anyone can participate by downloading open-source software and connecting to the ecosystem. The invention and implementation of bitcoin is credited to the person or persons known Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. The white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System“ states that bitcoin was to be, “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” What is the Blockchain? - The Blockchain is a decentralized ledger that is append-only meaning that data can only be added to it. Once information is added, it is extremely difficult to modify or delete it. The Blockchain enforces this by including a pointer to the previous Block in every subsequent Block. The pointer is a Hash of the previous block. Hashing involves passing data through a one-way function to produce a unique Fingerprint of the input. If the input is modified even slightly, the Fingerprint will look completely different. Since the Blocks are linked in a Chain, there is no way for someone to edit an old entry without invalidating the Blocks that follow, allowing a secure structure. What is Mining? - Mining is the process in which transactions between users are verified and added to the decentralized ledger. The process of mining bitcoin is responsible for introducing new coins into the existing circulating supply and is one of the key elements that allows bitcoin to work within the peer-to-peer decentralized network, without the need for a third party central authority. What Is a Blockchain Consensus Algorithm? - A consensus algorithm is a mechanism that allows users or machines to coordinate the agreement of what is a valid block in the Blockchain in a distributed setting. It needs to ensure that all participants in the system can agree on a single source of truth. Types of consensus algorithms include Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). What is Proof of Work? - Proof of Work (PoW) is a mechanism for preventing the same bitcoin funds from being spent more than once. Proof of Work consists of a consensus algorithm which is a protocol that sets out the conditions for what makes a block in the Blockchain valid. It ensures the security and integrity of bitcoin’s distributed ledger. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Alternatives: Correlation in Futures Investors could allocate a portion of their portfolio to establish a managed futures position and use market correlations to determine alternative markets to enter that meet their account size and risk parameters. For example, the Asia Tech 30 Index when charted against bitcoin shows a positive correlation between the two markets. Traders or investors may have interest in gaining exposure to bitcoin, but due to their smaller account size, may prefer to participate in a market that is correlated and fits their capital limitations. In this case, the Micro Asia Tech 30 futures contract could be a viable alternative to trading bitcoin with its lower margin requirements. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #12 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #12 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What is Hedging? - Hedging is the action taken through the use of a financial instrument to minimize the loss or risk of the loss of value of an asset due to adverse asset price movements. Who are Hedgers? - Hedgers are market participants such as commodity producers who want to lock in selling prices of commodities they produce, or food manufacturers who want to lock in buying prices of raw materials purchased. Market participants also include financial institutions handling financial assets and use derivative products such as futures to manage the risk of a portfolio of financial assets. What is the difference between Physically Delivered vs Cash Settled Futures Contracts? - Physical delivery is a term in a futures contract which requires the actual underlying asset to be “physically delivered” upon the specified delivery date, rather than being traded out with an offsetting contract. Cash settled futures on the other hand allows for the net cash amount to be paid or received on the settlement date of the futures contract. Futures exchanges may offer both types of contracts to market participants who have different purposes for trading futures contracts. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Diversification: Correlation in Futures Investors could allocate a portion of their portfolio to establish a managed futures position to deliver non-correlated results under most market conditions, which may serve as a risk mediator within an overall portfolio. This may deliver lower relative returns during periods of price stability. However, during periods of market stress, managed futures could outperform the broad market. For example, the Asia Tech 30 index which has no Thai companies as a component stock would not be expected to have any Thai Baht (USDTHB) currency exposure and which could be included in a managed futures portfolio at times where there is no or low correlation between the two markets and could be used as a hedge during times of negative correlation. Diversification: Portfolio Focused on Asset Returns Individual investors who have a portfolio of foreign stocks will have a return that is composed of the return of the foreign currency-denominated stock plus the change in currency exchange rates. Therefore, investing abroad means having exposure to two different sources of risk and return made up of the underlying asset and the exchange rate. For a long-term investor, the focus on return-generating assets may be the priority rather than returns from currency exchange rates. This could imply removing currency risk through a clearly defined hedging strategy process initially and then adding back currency exposure at a later stage if it is determined that currency exposures could improve a portfolio’s return. Investors would need to analyze their expected returns with and without currency exposures and determine their net currency exposure that they would like to remove. U.S. Dollar based portfolios could use futures contracts such as the Mini US Dollar Index ® Futures to hedge a basket of foreign stocks denominated in their respective domestic currencies. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #11 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #11 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What is Fundamental Analysis? - Fundamental analysis is a method of determining a market’s “real value” or "fair market" value through the collection and examination of financial and economic information. Information gathered may include financial metrics which identify business drivers of the market, and could involve financial modeling of the market. Fundamental analysts search for markets that are currently trading at prices that are higher or lower than what is expected to be their fair market value. If the fair market value is calculated to be higher than the market price, the market is deemed to be undervalued and could be considered to be bought. Conversely, if the fair market value is calculated to be lower than the market price, the market is deemed to be overvalued and could be considered to be sold. What is Technical Analysis? - Technical analysis is a method employed to evaluate a market and identify trading opportunities with a focus on inputs that include price and/or volume. Various financially based calculations and statistical models are commonly employed to derive price trends and patterns based upon which trading decisions are made. Technical analysts believe past trading activity and price changes of a market could be valuable indicators of a market’s future price movements. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Portfolio Diversification Portfolio diversification is the process of investing your money in different asset classes and securities in order to minimize the overall risk of the portfolio. For both corporate and individual investors, having access to markets that enable the building of a diversified portfolio is an important consideration when managing futures focused accounts. Similar to managing risk, the market to trade would be a key variable to clearly state and support with reasons for trading or investing. Reasons for selecting one market over another could include price volatility, liquidity, daily volume traded, size of the minimum price increment, and value of the minimum price increment. Comparing these variables between markets will help decide the suitability and/or risk of each. For example, the parameters for a price driven strategy may be designed to be applied to any market whether it be index equity futures or forex futures. However, the signals for entry may not always trigger if a trader were just to focus on a single index equity futures such as the Micro MSCI Europe Index futures. Having access to other futures markets, such as the Mini Onshore Renminbi/US Dollar Futures, can introduce both a foreign currency and Asian element to a portfolio. This allows for the creation of a diversified portfolio with varying entry and exit points, or the ability for more trading oriented investors, increased opportunities to execute price driven strategies more often across a range of futures markets. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #10 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #10 ---------------------------------------------------------------- What is the Notional Value of a Futures Contract? - Notional value of a futures contract is how much total value the contract theoretically controls. Contract Size * Underlying Price = Notional Value Mini US Dollar Index® Futures (SDX) for example has a contract size of $200 x Index value and assuming the SDX price is 98.000, the notional value of the futures contract is $19,600.00. What is the difference between Margin and Leverage? - Margin is the amount of money deposited with the broker to control a futures contract. It is determined by the futures exchange and maybe adjusted by the broker to manage risk to their clients. Leverage is the ability to use less money to theoretically control 1 futures contract compared with buying the product underlying the contract outright which amounts to the notional value of the futures contract. To calculate how much leverage a futures contract gives, divide the notional value of the contract by the margin. The SDX example above had a notional value of $19,600.00 and with a margin requirement of $380, is equal to approximately 51 times leverage on our money ($19,600.00 / $380 = 51). What is a Point and a Tick? - Point is the smallest price increment that can occur on the left side of the decimal point. (Example. 90.000) Tick is the price movement that occurs on the right side of the decimal when looking at the price of a futures contract and is the smallest possible price change measured by markets. A Point is composed of Ticks. (Example. 90.000) Mini US Dollar Index® Futures (SDX) has a minimum price fluctuation of $0.005 representing one tick and would move from 90.000 to 90.005. It takes 200 ticks to make one point or a move from 90.000 to 91.000. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Hedging Portfolio Risk Hedging spot Australian Dollar (AUD) exposure with the Mini US Dollar Index® Futures (SDX) contract is a way to manage portfolio risk by taking a directional position opposite to the underlying asset as protection. For example, a hedger may have plans to hedge downward price movement in AUD using futures contracts based on in-house market and portfolio analytical processes. The market analysis may use common technical analytical techniques such as support and resistance to formulate the trade decision. In the chart (Figure 1), if AUD is expected to weaken as it nears the resistance areas, the hedger may plan to enter into a long futures position using the Mini US Dollar Index® Futures (SDX) contract at or under the price levels of $0.7560 or $0.7460 to lock in the value of their underlying AUD position. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #9 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #9 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is Hedging? - Hedging is the action taken through the use of a financial instrument to minimize the loss or risk of the loss of value of an asset due to adverse asset price movements. Who are Hedgers? - Hedgers are market participants such as commodity producers who want to lock in selling prices of commodities they produce, or food manufacturers who want to lock in buying prices of raw materials purchased. Market participants also include financial institutions handling financial assets and use derivative products such as futures to manage the risk of a portfolio of financial assets. What is the difference between Physically Delivered vs Cash Settled Futures Contracts? - Physical delivery is a term in a futures contract which requires the actual underlying asset to be “physically delivered” upon the specified delivery date, rather than being traded out with an offsetting contract. Cash settled futures on the other hand allows for the net cash amount to be paid or received on the settlement date of the futures contract. Futures exchanges may offer both types of contracts to market participants who have different purposes for trading futures contracts. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS - Common application of financial market instruments for managing risk and opportunities. Risk management is the responsibility of market participants designed to limit risk exposures that specifically applies to the participants financial profile in the market. The financial profile of a participant may include their role in the financial market or the amount of capital under their responsibility to be managed in the market, and therefore the risk variables that each would need to identify may be unique. For both corporate and individual investors, the market to trade would be a key variable to clearly state and support with reasons for trading or investing. Reasons for selecting one market over another could include price volatility, liquidity, daily volume traded, size of the minimum price increment, and value of the minimum price increment. Comparing these variables between markets will help decide the suitability and/or risk of each. For example, if Mini-Brent Crude Oil futures (BM) moves around $2.00 per day (or 2 points) and a point is worth $100, a trader might experience a $200 fluctuation in their account balance for one day. Another example is the U.S Dollar / Singapore Dollar (USDSGD), which could move 70 pips or more per day and trading a standard lot size with each pip worth $10, a $700 fluctuation could be expected for one day. Market participants may also manage their risk through the size of their positions. The larger their position size, the greater is their exposure and the smaller their position size their exposure is lower. Investors should determine the risk that would result from various position sizes and select the size that ensures that their risk limit is not exceeded. Finally, setting stops with a specified loss amount provides protection if the market does not move in the desired direction. It helps to prevent creating a loss scenario which is larger than an account can handle. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #8 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #8 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is a Digital Asset Wallet? – A Digital Asset Wallet is a technology-based tool used to interact with a blockchain network. There are two types of wallets commonly grouped as software and hardware wallets. Alternatively, depending on their working mechanisms, they may also be referred to as “hot” or “cold” wallets. Digital asset wallets generate the necessary information to send and receive digital tokens (“tokens”) via blockchain transactions. Significant information contained in the wallet includes an “address”, an alphanumeric identifier that is generated based on the public and private keys. It is a specific location on the blockchain to which tokens can be sent to and it may be publicly shared with others. The private key should not be shared as it gives access to tokens held by the user, regardless of the type of wallet used. Digital assets essentially never leave the blockchain as they are just transferred from one address to another within the blockchain network. What is the difference between a “Hot” and “Cold” Wallet? – Digital asset wallets may be defined as “hot”, “warm” or “cold,” according to their working mechanisms or the way they operate. A hot wallet is any wallet that is continuously connected to the Internet. These wallets are easy to set up and enable funds to be readily accessible, making them convenient for users to transact. Centralized finance exchanges (CeFi) tend to provide their users with wallet technology to access their accounts, whereas decentralized finance exchanges and applications (DeFi) would require users to obtain a third-party wallet technology provider that allows them to connect to DeFi services. Cold wallets are not connected to the Internet and use a physical medium to store information offline, such as private keys, making them resistant to online hacking attempts. While less convenient, cold wallets serve as a safer storage option. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS – Portfolio Focused on Global Macro Strategies – Global macro strategies are used by funds to base their holdings on their overall economic and geopolitical analysis of various countries. Holdings may include long and short positions in various equity, fixed income, currency, commodities, and futures markets. These funds take longer-term directional views of markets and may not always hedge their positions, but could actively manage their fund to take advantage of what they see as short-term moves opposite to their main view. An individual investor with a long-term view of Brent crude oil who maintains long dated futures positions could consider using front or near month Mini Brent Crude Futures to actively take advantage of shorter-term retracements to certain price levels. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #7 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #7 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is Bitcoin and from where did it originate? – Bitcoin is a digital form of a medium of exchange with no central bank control which issues fiat currencies. Instead, the financial system involving bitcoin is managed by thousands of computers distributed around the world, a decentralised ledger, where anyone can participate by downloading open-source software and connecting to the ecosystem. The invention and implementation of bitcoin is credited to the person or persons known Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. The white paper “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System“ states that bitcoin was to be, “A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.” What is the Blockchain? – The Blockchain is a decentralised ledger that is append-only meaning that data can only be added to it. Once information is added, it is extremely difficult to modify or delete it. The Blockchain enforces this by including a pointer to the previous Block in every subsequent Block. The pointer is a Hash of the previous block. Hashing involves passing data through a one-way function to produce a unique Fingerprint of the input. If the input is modified even slightly, the Fingerprint will look completely different. Since the Blocks are linked in a Chain, there is no way for someone to edit an old entry without invalidating the Blocks that follow, allowing a secure structure. What is Mining? – Mining is the process in which transactions between users are verified and added to the decentralised ledger. The process of mining bitcoin is responsible for introducing new coins into the existing circulating supply and is one of the key elements that allows bitcoin to work within the peer-to-peer decentralized network, without the need for a third party central authority. What Is a Blockchain Consensus Algorithm? – A consensus algorithm is a mechanism that allows users or machines to coordinate the agreement of what is a valid block in the Blockchain in a distributed setting. It needs to ensure that all participants in the system can agree on a single source of truth. Types of consensus algorithms include Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). What is Proof of Work? – Proof of Work (PoW) is a mechanism for preventing the same bitcoin funds from being spent more than once. Proof of Work consists of a consensus algorithm which is a protocol that sets out the conditions for what makes a block in the Blockchain valid. It ensures the security and integrity of bitcoin’s distributed ledger. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS – Diversification: Portfolio Focused on Pairs Trading Strategies – Many individual investors use a pairs trade as a trading strategy that involves matching a long position with a short position in two markets with a high correlation. In currency trading, the most economically and politically stable and liquid currencies are commonly the focus of market participants as the focus for currency pairs trading like these eight most traded currencies: U.S. dollar (USD), euro (EUR), Japanese yen (JPY), British pound (GBP), Australian dollar (AUD), Canadian dollar (CAD), Swiss franc (CHF), and Chinese Yuan (CNY). If an individual investor is pairing EUR with CHF as part of their pairs trading portfolio, they could use common technical indicators like moving averages as part of their analysis in forming a trade decision. For example, EURUSD on 4th May had crossed the moving average, but USDCHF had not shown similar price action, which could indicate the potential for follow through failure in the EURUSD to the downside. Contrast this with the 16th June where both EURUSD and USDCHF had both crossed the moving average and had clear follow through subsequently. Investors would need to analyze their expected returns with and without currency eThe investor could alternatively consider trading the Mini US Dollar Index ® Futures given that the analysis could point to an opportunity being in the U.S. Dollar, which had been removed as a factor in this pairing. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #6 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #6 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is Hedging? – Hedging is the action taken through the use of a financial instrument to minimize the loss or risk of the loss of value of an asset due to adverse asset price movements. Who are Hedgers? – Hedgers are market participants such as commodity producers who want to lock in selling prices of commodities they produce, or food manufacturers who want to lock in buying prices of raw materials purchased. Market participants also include financial institutions handling financial assets and use derivative products such as futures to manage the risk of a portfolio of financial assets. What is the difference between Physically Delivered vs Cash Settled Futures Contracts? – Physical delivery is a term in a futures contract which requires the actual underlying asset to be “physically delivered” upon the specified delivery date, rather than being traded out with an offsetting contract. Cash settled futures on the other hand allows for the net cash amount to be paid or received on the settlement date of the futures contract. Futures exchanges may offer both types of contracts to market participants who have different purposes for trading futures contracts. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS – Diversification: Correlation in Futures – Investors could allocate a portion of their portfolio to establish a managed futures position to deliver non-correlated results under most market conditions, which may serve as a risk mediator within an overall portfolio. This may deliver lower relative returns during periods of price stability. However, during periods of market stress, managed futures could outperform the broad market. For example, the Asia Tech 30 index which has no Thai companies as a component stock would not be expected to have any Thai Baht (USDTHB) currency exposure and which could be included in a managed futures portfolio at times where there is no or low correlation between the two markets and could be used as a hedge during times of negative correlation. Source: ICE Connect Diversification: Portfolio Focused on Asset Returns – Individual investors who have a portfolio of foreign stocks will have a return that is composed of the return of the foreign currency-denominated stock plus the change in currency exchange rates. Therefore, investing abroad means having exposure to two different sources of risk and return made up of the underlying asset and the exchange rate. For a long-term investor, the focus on return-generating assets may be the priority rather than returns from currency exchange rates. This could imply removing currency risk through a clearly defined hedging strategy process initially, and then adding back currency exposure at a later stage if it is determined that currency exposures could improve a portfolio’s return. Investors would need to analyze their expected returns with and without currency exposures and determine their net currency exposure to be removed. U.S. Dollar based portfolios could use futures contracts such as the Mini US Dollar Index ® Futures to hedge a basket of foreign stocks denominated in their respective domestic currencies. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #5 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #5 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is the bid-ask spread? – Bid-ask spread is the amount by which the ask price exceeds the bid price for a market. The bid-ask spread is the difference between the highest price that a buyer is willing to pay and the lowest price that a seller is willing to accept. An individual looking to sell will receive the bid price while the one looking to buy will pay the ask price. A wide spread may indicate low supply or demand for a market at that point of time during the trading period, while a narrow spread would indicate sufficient supply and demand for a market meaning strong buying and selling competition is at play. What is the role of a market maker in the financial markets? – Market makers are market participants who ensure there is enough liquidity and volume of trading in the markets and offer to sell a market at the ask price and will also bid to purchase a market at the bid price to traders and investors. How does the bid-ask spread relate to liquidity of a market? – The size of the bid-ask spread from one market to another differs mainly because of the difference in liquidity of each market. Certain markets are more liquid than others and that commonly is reflected in their lower spreads. Price takers demand liquidity while market makers supply liquidity. For example, foreign currency futures would have very low spreads during the trading day given the use of currencies as a medium of exchange to do business globally compared to live cattle futures, which relates more to businesses in the United States domestic market. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS – Diversification: Futures Spreads with Currency Futures – A futures spread is usually created when one futures contract is sold simultaneously to the buying of a second related futures contract in order to capitalize on a discrepancy in price. Currency futures spreads combine the use of different currencies usually paired to the U.S. Dollar with the same contract month to express a relationship between the two currencies usually taking into account their strength or weakness relative to each other. For example, the Singapore Dollar (USDSGD) may be seen to be strengthening (price movement is downward) while the South Korean Won (USDKRW) may be seen as being very weak (price movement is upward). To take advantage of this observation, we would want to buy Singapore Dollar (sell the USDSGD future) and sell the South Korean Won (buy the USDKRW future) and as a result eliminate the U.S. Dollar. However, it must be noted that not all currencies are quoted in the same way like the Australian Dollar futures is quoted “AUDUSD”. It means then that to take advantage of a strong Australian Dollar and a weak South Korean Won quoted as “USDKRW”, an investor would need to buy both the AUDUSD future and the USDKRW future. Diversification: Portfolio Risk Using FX Futures – Individual investors taking a portfolio approach with managed futures and spot foreign exchange could be entering into emerging market currency positions including for example Hong Kong Dollar, Singapore Dollar or South Korean Won. Depending on the view of each of the currencies in the portfolio, it could be constructed to eliminate exposure to the U.S. Dollar. However, there may be a time during which investors would like to introduce U.S. Dollar exposure and they could do so by using Mini U.S. Dollar Index ® Futures with a contract value of $10,000. For example, the U.S. Dollar Index ® may be observed to be in a medium term uptrend and an investor may want to consider entering into a long position in the Mini U.S. Dollar Index ® Futures based on their strategy of choice and exit the position when either their profit target is achieved or their loss limits are triggered. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #4 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #4 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is the role of a financial custodian? – A custodian or custodian bank is a financial institution that holds customers’ securities for safekeeping to prevent them from being stolen or lost. Custodians are responsible for the safety of assets and securities and provide services that include trade settlement, investing cash balances as directed, collecting income, processing corporate actions, providing valuation of securities positions, and providing recordkeeping and reporting services. What is the role of a financial exchange? – An exchange is a marketplace where securities, commodities, derivatives and other financial instruments are traded. The core function of an exchange is to ensure fair and orderly trading and the efficient dissemination of price information for any financial instrument trading on that exchange. What is the role of financial regulators? – A regulator authorizes, supervises and regulates, financial institutions operating in a country to ensure the soundness of the overall banking and financial system. This supervision enables financial institutions to operate and provide efficient banking and financial services. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS – Portfolio Diversification – Portfolio diversification is the process of investing your money in different asset classes and securities in order to minimize the overall risk of the portfolio. For both corporate and individual investors, having access to markets that enable the building of a diversified portfolio is an important consideration when managing futures focused accounts. Similar to managing risk, the market to trade would be a key variable to clearly state and support with reasons for trading or investing. Reasons for selecting one market over another could include price volatility, liquidity, daily volume traded, size of the minimum price increment, and value of the minimum price increment. Comparing these variables between markets will help decide the suitability and/or risk of each. For example, the parameters for a price driven strategy may be designed to be applied to any market whether it be index equity futures or forex futures. However, the signals for entry may not always trigger if a trader were just to focus on a single index equity futures such as the Micro MSCI USA Index futures. Having access to other futures markets to apply the strategy to allow for the creation of a diversified portfolio with varying entry and exit points or the ability for more trading oriented investors increased opportunities to execute price driven strategies more often across a range of futures markets. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #3 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #3 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is liquidity and what is its significance? – Liquidity refers to the availability of a product and ensures market participants have the ability to buy and sell easily. A liquid market increases the likelihood for finding a counterparty when entering or exiting a trade. What is volume a measurement of in trading? – Volume in trading refers to the total number of contracts exchanged between buyers and sellers of a market during trading hours over a given period. Higher trading volumes are considered more positive than lower trading volumes because they indicate the availability of orders in the market allowing better order execution during the trading session. What is open interest in the derivatives market? – Open interest is the total number of outstanding derivative contracts, such as options or futures that have not been settled for an asset. Open interest equals the total number of bought or sold contracts, not the total of both added together. Increasing open interest represents new or additional money coming into the market while decreasing open interest indicates money flowing out of the market. RISKS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR CORPORATES AND INDIVIDUAL INVESTORS – Position and Risk Management – Risk management is the responsibility of market participants designed to limit risk exposures that specifically applies to the participants financial profile in the market. The financial profile of a participant may include their role in the financial market or the amount of capital under their responsibility to be managed in the market, and therefore the risk variables that each would need to identify may be unique. For both corporate and individual investors, the market to trade would be a key variable to clearly state and support with reasons for trading or investing. Reasons for selecting one market over another could include price volatility, liquidity, daily volume traded, size of the minimum price increment, and value of the minimum price increment. Comparing these variables between markets will help decide the suitability and/or risk of each. For example, if bitcoin (BTC) moves around 1,000 points per day and each point is worth $1, a trader might experience a $1,000 fluctuation in their account balance for one day. Another example is the U.S Dollar / Singapore Dollar (USDSGD), which could move 70 pips or more per day and trading a standard lot size with each pip worth $10, a $700 fluctuation could be expected for one day. Market participants may also manage their risk through the size of their positions. The larger their position size, the greater is their exposure and the smaller their position size their exposure is lower. Investors should determine the risk that would result from various position sizes and select the size that ensures that their risk limit is not exceeded. Finally, setting stops with a specified loss amount provides protection if the market does not move in the desired direction. It helps to prevent creating a loss scenario which is larger than an account can handle. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:BMC1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #2 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #2 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is the Notional Value of a Futures Contract? – Notional value of a futures contract is how much total value the contract theoretically controls. Contract Size * Underlying Price = Notional Value. Bakkt ® Bitcoin (USD) Cash Settled Monthly Futures (BMC) for example has a contract size of 1 bitcoin and assuming the BMC price is $60,000.00, the notional value of the futures contract is $60,000.00. What is the difference between Margin and Leverage? – Margin is the amount of money deposited with the broker to control a futures contract. It is determined by the futures exchange and maybe adjusted by the broker to manage risk to their clients. Leverage is the ability to use less money to theoretically control 1 futures contract compared with buying the product underlying the contract outright which amounts to the notional value of the futures contract. To calculate how much leverage a futures contract gives, divide the notional value of the contract by the margin. The BMC example above had a notional value of $60,000.00 and with a margin requirement of $18,000.00, is equal to approximately three times leverage on our money ($60,000.00 / $18,000.00 = 3.33). What is a Point and a Tick? – Point is the smallest price increment that can occur on the left side of the decimal point. (Example. 90.000) Tick is the price movement that occurs on the right side of the decimal when looking at the price of a futures contract and is the smallest possible price change measured by markets. A Point is composed of Ticks. (Example. 90.000) Mini US Dollar Index® Futures (SDX) has a minimum price fluctuation of $0.005 representing one tick and would move from 90.000 to 90.005. It takes 200 ticks to make one point or a move from 90.000 to 91.000. Risks and opportunities for corporates and individual investors: HEDGING PORTFOLIO RISK – Hedging bitcoin exposure with the Bakkt ® Bitcoin (USD) Cash Settled Monthly Futures (BMC) contract is a way to manage portfolio risk by taking a directional position opposite to the underlying asset as protection. For example, a hedger may have plans to hedge downward price movement in bitcoin using futures contracts based on in-house market and portfolio analytical processes. The market analysis may use common technical analytical techniques such as support and resistance to formulate the trade decision. In the chart (Figure 1), if bitcoin is expected to weaken as it nears the resistance areas, the hedger may plan to enter into a short futures position using the Bakkt ® Bitcoin (USD) Cash Settled Monthly Futures contract under either price levels of $46,000 or $52,000 to lock in the value of their underlying bitcoin position. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:BMC1!Education
by traddictiv
Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #1 (short read)Bites Of Trading Knowledge For New TOP Traders #1 --------------------------------------------------------------- What is Hedging? – Hedging is the action taken through the use of a financial instrument to minimize the loss or risk of the loss of value of an asset due to adverse asset price movements. Who are Hedgers? – Hedgers are market participants such as commodity producers who want to lock in selling prices of commodities they produce, or food manufacturers who want to lock in buying prices of raw materials purchased. Market participants also include financial institutions handling financial assets and use derivative products such as futures to manage the risk of a portfolio of financial assets. What is the difference between Physically Delivered vs Cash Settled Futures Contracts? – Physical delivery is a term in a futures contract which requires the actual underlying asset to be “physically delivered” upon the specified delivery date, rather than being cash-settled. Cash settled futures on the other hand allows for the net cash amount to be paid or received on the settlement date of the futures contract. Futures exchanges may offer both types of contracts to market participants who have different purposes for trading futures contracts. Risks and opportunities for corporates and individual investors: HEDGING – Hedging currency exposure with the Mini U.S. Dollar Index ® futures contract is a way to manage business currency risk by taking a directional position depending on business requirements for conversions to or from the U.S. Dollar. For example, a hedger may have expected the U.S. Dollar to weaken from 93.50 on 31st March (based on an analysis involving the overall downward trend in the market having retraced to the Fibonacci retracement level 76.8%) and may have had plans to convert U.S. Dollars to Singapore Dollars over the coming months to make payments to suppliers in Singapore Dollars. The hedger could have opened a short position using the Mini U.S. Dollar Index ® futures contract at or around 93.50 to lock in the value of the U.S. Dollars that they planned to use in the future at the time of payment to the supplier. TRADDICTIV · Research Team -------- Disclaimer: We do not provide investment advice, nor provide any personalized investment recommendations and/or advice in making a decision to trade. Before you start trading, please make sure you have considered your entire financial situation, including financial commitments and you understand that trading is highly speculative and that you could sustain significant losses.
ICESG:SDX1!Education
by traddictiv
HOW-TO Add Precision To Entries & Exits With AutoUFOs (patented)HOW-TO Add Precision To Entries & Exits With AutoUFOs (patented) What does this invite-only script do? This app aims to plot Price regions in a chart where potential BUY and/or SELL Orders are in a pending state. Those potential Orders are expected to be in waiting mode and could be executed once that market revisits or returns to those Price regions. The above concept is the reason for the name of this indicator: Un-Filled Orders (UFOs). Once those potential Un-Filled Orders are filled, a bounce or movement is likely to happen and therefore those UFO areas could be selected for Entries and/or Exits for any type of trade or investment. This may include but is not limited to long-term, intermediate-term, short-term or hedging. The desired trade duration (position, swing or intraday trades) would depend on the time interval (time frame) selected when applying the indicator. For example; by applying the indicator to a chart selected with a daily time interval this is likely to produce trades that could potentially last multiple days or applying it using a 60 minute time interval would likely produce trades that could last a few hours and so on. Note: Those Price regions identified are referred to as UFOs and are automatically plotted in the form of oval shapes in the charts which are also known as “Flying Saucers”. Note: This app can be applied to any interval based on Time (Second, Minute, Daily, Weekly and Monthly Bars), ranges or other. The visual example displays Green and Red UFO Price areas in a chart where Green would suggest that BUY Un-Filled orders may be waiting and Red would suggest that SELL Un-Filled orders may be waiting to be filled. A trader could decide to buy when Price enters the Green UFO and sell when Price enters the Red UFO. Based on that concept, those colored UFOs could be selected to plan trades where a trader, investor or a hedger; is planning to catch and ride a Market move and profit from it (Directional Strategies: Enter or Exit Long or Short Positions). They are expecting that the market will move in a certain direction after hitting and reacting to those Un-Filled Orders (colored areas in the chart) and later reach a certain Exit Price. is planning to profit from selling Out of The Money (OTM) options and collect time decay as these traders are hoping that they will expire OTM (Non-Directional Options Strategies such as Iron Condors, Credit Spreads, Strangles, Straddles, etc.: Profit from time passing while a Market trades within a Range or sideways). They are expecting that a market will not reach a certain point in the chart before a certain date and sell or write options to collect premium waiting for their expiration date while price stays within certain limits without surpassing the Strike Price of the Options sold.  How to manually insert this indicator into a TradingView chart? Step 1: Locate the upper toolbar within the Chart where you plan to insert this indicator, Click on Indicators and Click on Invite-Only Scripts Step 2: Select “AutoUFOs” by left-clicking on it Note: Once this app is inserted in a chart it then needs to be calibrated. Please refer to the Section on Calibration to understand how to perform this process. Which components are displayed? The example illustrates the various components available when using AutoUFOs®: UFO Bands: Are a visual representation of Price regions in a chart where BUY and/or SELL Orders are potentially still in a pending state: Un-Filled Orders (UFOs). Different Colors... Green UFOs would suggest that BUY Un-Filled Orders may be available and Red UFOs would suggest that SELL Un-Filled Orders may be available and waiting to be filled. 4 possible colors are available to visually represent UFOs. Two are variations of Red and the other two are variations of Green. The app assumes that the “purer” the color the greater the potential for a larger amount of Un-Filled Orders. - Red Pure Red Maroon Red - Green Pure Green Olive Green Flying Saucers: The round Flying Saucers are located where the app identifies the greatest concentration of Un-Filled Orders. The app highlights where the key price points are by plotting inner circles within the UFO Band. UFO Price Labels: The two figures displayed point at the upper part of the UFO Band and the lower part of the UFO Band. What Visual settings are available? TradingView has an enormous amount of available customizations that impact the visual look of a chart and the indicators in it, hence our AutoUFOs® app can look slightly different depending on some of those customization settings. Below are a few options that have been proven useful to some of our app users. Keep in mind that TradingView often adds new settings and functionality and therefore other settings not covered in this how-to idea could be helpful as well. To access the customization menu left-click on the wheel located on the bottom right part of the chart.   Indicator Last Value Label: Left-click to check or uncheck. This setting will display or hide the UFO Price Labels. No Overlapping Labels: Left-click to check or uncheck. This setting will stop or allow the UFO Price Labels to overlap. Apart from the above customization options, AutoUFOs® for TradingView has one important input that varies the way on how the UFO Bands are displayed on the screen. To access this input locate the "AutoUFOs" indicator title on the upper left part of your chart and click on the settings wheel. HideHitUFOs: Left-click to check or uncheck. This setting will display UFO Bands with a greater or a lesser concentration of Un-Filled Orders. Note: The grey UFO Bands represent areas of price with a lesser concentration of Un-Filled Orders and therefore these are likely to produce lower probability trades. How to calibrate this app? Calibration is a key process in defining how the analysis is carried out and will impact the potential results obtained by the user using this app. The calibration input is down to the user’s personal judgement and is at their own risk. A few steps will be needed to calibrate AutoUFOs®. The following steps will need to be repeated in a cycle until the app user is satisfied with the results. Step 1: Access the input dialog box by following the below steps: Locate the AutoUFOs indicator title on the upper left part of your chart. Click on the settings wheel. Notice the default calibration setting is set to 0.5. Feel free to change to any value between 0 and 1. click "OK" Step 2: Find and left-click on the “Replay” button located in the upper part of your chart. This will get you ready to begin a back-test process in order to adjust the calibration input.   Step 3: Notice the vertical red line. Move it to a desired date/time in the past and left-click in order to set that date/time as the origin of the back-test. Step 4: A new chart will load with the last bar on the chart being the one where the above vertical red line was located. Use the rectangle drawing tool to mark two UFO Bands of your choice where one should be Green and the next one should be Red or vice-versa. Step 5: Once this is done you are ready to replay the market and observe how this market reacted to your current settings. Using the replay bar, click on play and observe the movement of the new candles forming until price touches one of your rectangles and make notes to report if price turned and reached the rival UFO Band marked with the opposing rectangle or if price didn't react properly to the UFO Band you selected. Note: When performing this process you could certainly add additional rules that you may have in your current trading plan and combine those rules while you perform this back-test process. Note: Since some failed trades are to be expected, one of the objectives of this calibration process is to fine-tune the settings of the app in a way where you gain an adequate performance and by doing so you become familiar with its functionality and while you begin developing the skillset needed to trade efficiently with it. Step 6: In order to exit the chart replay mode, click on the cross located on the right extreme of the “Replay” floating tool bar Step 7: If this exercise was satisfactory enough, you could decide that the Calibration parameter used will be the one you would use for your trades moving forward. If you are not fully satisfied with the statistical performance obtained, you would need to go back to Step 1, change the calibration input to a greater or lesser value between 0 and 1 and redo the above back-test process until reaching results that are satisfactory enough. Note: When performing this process you could chose to use the AutoUFOs® app by itself, calibrate it and then add additional trading rules when trading, or you could run the process and combine your trading rules together with the app and run the calibration process altogether. Note: The chart replay mode does not work with continuous futures ticker symbols such as ES1!, CL1! or GC1!. When calibrating the app to trade Futures products you would need to avoid using continuous ticker symbols and use contract-specific ticker symbols.   Examples on how to use this app? The following approaches describe two different ways on how a trader, investor or a hedger could use this app. There probably are many other ways to make this app useful and we would love to receive your suggestions and know more about your experiences as well. Please treat the following examples for demonstration purposes and feel free to comment below and phrase your questions, experiences and ideas. Going Long (by Buying Low and Selling High in order to profit from a rising market) or Going Short (by Selling High and Buying Low in order to profit from a falling market) The thought behind Going Long or Going Short is to enter a market ready to catch and ride a market move in a given direction and profit from it: Going Long would profit from an upwards move, where Going Short would profit from a downwards move. In order to do so, the opening and closing time of the trade is critical since entering or exiting too soon or too late would end up in a problematic situation. The Un-Filled Orders (UFOs) concept behind the AutoUFOs® app could certainly be useful when aiming to identify the best moment to initiate a trade and when to finalize it and collect any profit that may have been produced. Selling Options and keep the Premium collected The thought behind Selling Options and keep the Premium collected is based on identifying certain places on a price chart that are not likely to be reached and Sell Options with strike prices beyond those places. The Options contracts sold would be Out of the Money (OTM) and they would remain OTM until their expiration date as long as the Market price does not reach the Strike price of the Options sold within that given period of time. If all of the above was true, the trader would have collected the Premium for selling those Options that would expire worthless, allowing the trader to keep that previously collected Premium. The Un-Filled Orders (UFOs) concept behind the AutoUFOs® app could be useful to theoretically identify certain places on a chart that are likely or unlikely to be reached anytime soon. Keeping in mind the concept that when a market enters a UFO the expectation would be to see a reaction or a bounce from that price region adding duration to a trade. Think of a case where those UFOs are quite far from the current available price or cases where there are multiple UFOs upon UFOs. In this instance it would be reasonable to expect that a market with these characteristics is unlikely to surpass any of those UFOs anytime soon and therefore an Options trader could capitalize on a setup like this by Selling Options where price is unlikely to reach. In addition to this, time passing would lead to a decay of the Options Premiums helping this type of trade to accumulate profitability little by little, keeping in mind that nothing stops time from passing. Furthermore, think in terms of probability and ask yourself the following question: what is of a higher probability? To determine with precision where a market is going to turn and where it is headed to, or to determine where a market is not likely to go within a certain amount of time? If you would rather choose the second case you may be interested in using advanced Options Strategies such as Iron Condors where a profit would be produced from time passing while a Market trades within a Range or sideways. In other words while a Market remains trading within a Range defined by Red UFOs and Green UFOs causing its price to remain range bound during a given period of time as a consequence of the potential bounces produced when its ¬¬price travels from UFO to UFO (Green-to-Red or Red-to-Green). Note: In all cases described in this how-to idea, it would be advisable to have a contingency plan on what to do in case a market moves against the trader, investor or the hedger. The use of Stop Market Orders, Protective Long Options Contracts or any other type of risk management technique could be useful. These sort of decisions are to be taken by the user of this app. Legal Considerations Disclaimer: When using this App you understand and acknowledge that the risk of trading can be substantial and that each investor and/or trader must personally consider whether this is a suitable investment. Past performance, whether actual, or indicated by simulated historical tests of indicators, is not indicative and in no way a guarantee of future results. Your actual trading may result in profits or losses as no trading system is, or can be, guaranteed. By using this app, you accept full responsibility for your actions, the trades taken and any profits and losses made. You also agree not to hold the developer of this app responsible for any outcome arising out of your use of this app.
NYMEX:CL1!Education
by traddictiv
6