In this post I take a look at the 10 steps I took to become a successful trader and what I would recommend you to consider as well if you are serious about trading.

1) Ensure that you get educated in the subject. Most "newbie" traders develop the misconception that they have to predict the future in order to make money, and take guesses as to which way the market is going to move. The business of trading is based on probabilities, not predictions and you have to learn about how to notice the indications that put probability on your side to make constant profits.

2) Have access to a computer and internet connection. It is important to have an updated laptop and/or desktop. Many of the older models run extremely slow and do not have the disk or memory space to facilitate the software. A fast internet connection is also important. Nothing is more infuriating than a slow connection as this can cause issues when placing your trades, moving stops or exiting tr... Read more »

There are essential concepts for TradeStation Traders to understand if they expect to be successful at trading. Read through this article for a clear understanding of the 3 vital aspects of trading; price action, volume (time segmented volume), and real time support and resistance. Of these three, price action is the most critical.

Price and time are what creates price action in the form of bars or candlesticks on your trading charts. Understanding price action is critical. If you try to trade against price action, you will lose money. Price is always right, and it never takes your opinion into consideration. Traders will all too often get sidetracked into searching for some magic indicator, many of which have tremendous lag. These typical lagging indicators are too far removed from price action to be the basis for making trading decisions. Traders that primarily use these lagging indicators can end up making correct decisions based on bad indicators which res... Read more »

Many people think that it is risky to trade stock index futures. Is this the case? Well, it can be, if you don't educate yourself first, but if you can put some of your portfolio aside for this type of trading, the advantages really do far outweigh any disadvantages.

Futures trading is simply the buying (or selling) of an instrument which gains in value (or loses value) in the same way as the underlying index. Unlike buying the whole index, however, a future has a specified 'maturity date' when you are effectively closed out automatically.

Other advantages include:

1. Leverage.
2. Gaining exposure to an underlying index as a whole. This can be used to gear up a long term exposure (why put $1000 into a tracker fund each month, when you can simply buy a mini-sized Dow contract with $1000 margin, giving you a total value of $10,000?).
3. Hedging your regular portfolio. Say you have $10,000 in your portfolio, but expect a big short te... Read more »