Welcome to TraderPlanet's Feature Stories. Here you’ll find timeless financial content that is not closely tied to breaking news on the economy or financial markets. The articles in this section explore complex trading concepts and specific market interests. These articles are written by some of the world's best market analysts who enjoy the interaction with our readership — so post your comments and you may be pleasantly surprised by who responds!
The foreign exchange market, or forex, as it is more commonly called, is the biggest market in the world with over $4 trillion changing hands every single day. To put that into perspective, it is 12 times greater than the average daily turnover on the...
In my recent article, I introduced you to the concept of using options as a way to manage risk in a trade. THE BASICS As a quick recap there are two types of options: Call option - Gives the buyer the right to buy a stock Put Option - Gives the buyer the...
Did anyone get the license plate on that truck? That is an old cliche, however; for many weeks I have been fielding emails and calls with a similar theme. Many traders, plainly, have not believed the stock market could get this far without a significant...
High yield stocks and bonds have seen tremendous inflows of assets over the last four years as investors actively seek both growth and income to boost their portfolio returns. In a world of zero interest rates, being able to achieve a yield of over 5%...
If you are an active trader of securities for your own account, you may qualify under special IRS rules to file taxes as a business (this is true even if you don't have clients). As a one-employee business, you are eligible to participate in a...
A flash crash is a sudden and dramatic drop in prices - warranted or unwarranted - that seems to quickly spiral out of control. = = = This is part three of a four-part series on High Frequency Trading (HFT). In the first article the use of computers to...
The risk-on trade has met with varying degrees of cynicism, from "don't fight the Fed" to claims of a new a bubble. In our February article, we contemplated whether this was really the fifth year of a market recovery or something else. Today, with the...
Many investors and traders believe options to be very risky and weeklies to be even more risky. I do not agree. I believe options are neutral. They are simply tools that can be used to express trades. Options can actually control risk and position sizing...
"Hello, I am Mercedes Oestermann van Essen. I am a trader, author and trading psychology coach, and who are you?" ...Sounds easy doesn't it. Don't be fooled by the illusion of it all, because here's the rub: Viewed from a bigger perspective, I lied to...
When looking to place a trade in the U.S. stock indexes traders are presented with many different ticker symbols. But, what do they all mean? FUTURES MARKETS For example, symbols like the ES (S&P 500's), YM (Dow), TF (Russell 2000) allow you to trade...