Articles By Martin Chandra

There is no greater asset for an entrepreneur than an absolute conviction that you know what you're doing. If you don't feel sure of yourself, why should anyone else trust you?

A rose by any other name may still be a rose, but what you name your business will affect how the market perceives you. A business name that may seem catchy or cute can often translate into something misleading or ineffective.

Being a spare room entrepreneur is more than just a way of making a living, it is a way of living your life. It isn't an easy way to live. In the past, being in business independently was the norm, and people typically worked and lived in the same place.

Off-floor trader Rick Redmont gained his first experience trading stocks as a college student during the bull market of 1961. "I had $10,000, which turned into $20,000. I followed the Chartcraft point and figure book-but it didn't really matter what you bought.

Off floor trader Tom Bierovic, trades according to a set of rules he has developed over the years, but uses his own discretion on top of these rules. Bierovic believes he was lucky because he was introduced to the futures business at a very young age. His father was a trader at the MidAmerica Exchange and Tom would plot daily and weekly bar charts of the agricultural contracts for his allowance money.

Trader and consultant Tom DeMark has invented dozens of proprietary technical indicators over the years and relies strictly on the technical principles of market timing for his research and trading. In fact at one point in his career, DeMark went through the CFA program (certified financial analyst), but chose to never complete it.

I believe a good trading system should be considered for inclusion in one's portfolio in order to potentially enjoy superior returns. Finding a good trading system, however, can be a very difficult process.

As a trader in the Eurodollar futures pit at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Angelo Reynolds cites mental toughness and courage as two of the necessary factors to successful pit trading. "I knew I always wanted to be involved in the markets," Reynolds said.

Glenn Neely locks horns with traditional Elliott wave theoreticians and has developed his own approach to trading the markets, which he calls NEoWave Theory. Neely first encountered the Elliott wave theory back in the early 1980's while he was working off-shore in the oil industry.

After spending six years trading on the floor, first at the Pacific Coast Stock Exchange and then at the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Linda Bradford Raschke shifted gears and moved to an off-floor office in 1987. After trading her own money for several years, she moved into the money management side of the business in early 1993. Raschke, along with her partner Rick Genett, manage about $25 million.

Futures trader and author Grant Noble looks to the mass news media in order to garner signals of major market bottoms or tops. Only, he looks to the media with a contrarian perspective.

George Lane completed his 47th year of trading in December 1996 and is still going strong. After many years of trading in the grain pits in downtown Chicago, Lane has shifted to screen trading during his "retirement" in a small community about 80 miles south of Chicago.

Trader Lee Gettess focuses on risk control as a major factor in determining his success in the commodity markets. However, it wasn't always that way. Gettess received his introduction to the commodity futures markets via a telephone call from a broker.

Day-trading is a very serious business; if you don't have all the right ingredients in place before you begin trading, you're dead. One of the most important aspects of the day-trading business is your "team:"

Trader and consultant Cynthia Kase relies on a series of proprietary technical indicators that has developed for her trading signals. Kase makes her trading decisions strictly based on these technical indicators and doesn't rely on fundamental analysis at all.

Trader George Fontanills first began utilizing options in order to go "delta neutral" on his futures positions, which would allow him to "still sleep well at night." Since he began using options in conjunction with his futures trading, Fontanills believes he has found a way to accelerate his profits while decreasing his risk.

The day-trader is a cross between an extrovert and an introvert with both characteristics in balance. The introvert aspect is depicted by the disciplined workaholic with a reclusive concentration. The extrovert aspect is depicted by an aggressive, competitive, self-motivated individual striving to be the best in a selective profession.

Walter Bressert earned a college degree in economics, which taught him "economists don't know much about the way the world works." An active trader for many years, Bressert relies on cycles and oscillators in his intraday futures trading, in which he primarily focuses on the S&P 500 contract.

Jake Bernstein, one of the futures industry's best-known traders, started trading "by accident" he told FWN. Bernstein was a psychologist who responded to an ad in the newspaper regarding "ag futures." A broker started calling him and Bernstein opened an account.

At 6:45 a.m. the traffic already is building on the expressways that feed into downtown Chicago. From inside your car, the only real difference between winter and summer at this time of day is that in summer the sun is already up. In the dead of winter, traders only see the sunshine on vacation.

Volatility and liquidity are the two elements independent trader George Angell looks for in a market to trade. Currently, Angell exclusively trades the S&P 500 futures, putting on intraday trades only, never holding positions overnight. "Liquidity and volatility are the two things you have to have. You can't day-trade something like oats--it wouldn't work" Angell said.

Trader and marathon runner Larry Williams sees parallels between successful trading and successful marathon running. Williams, who recently completed his sixteenth marathon run, pointed to "pain and agony" as being two of the obvious similarities between trading and long-distance running.

Japanese candlesticks offer a "mathematical expression of psychological market sentiment" to trader Gary Wagner, who utilizes these Eastern technical indicators in conjunction with Western tools to actively trade for himself.

According to independent trader Joe Stowell, persistence and courage are two key characteristics necessary for success in trading. Persistence certainly has paid off for Stowell, who traded part time off and on for 20 years, before leaving his job as a school teacher to trade full time.

While many traders focus either on technicals or fundamentals as they develop their trading strategies, trader Ben Warwick focuses on a market's reaction to news. Warwick has developed his own method of trading, which he calls it "event trading."

Just before we get started I want to introduce you to fundamental analysis. Fundamental analysis concentrates on the forces of supply and demand for a given security. This approach examines all the factors that determine the price of a security and the real value of that security.

An email prompted me to consider the significance of taking responsibility in trading. There is a natural tendency for most people, in any area of life, to not take responsibility for results and behaviors that appear negative. We want to see ourselves in a good light and it is tempting to try to avoid responsibility for acts that we consider bad.

Picture the scene -- you have done your an alysis and have been waiting for the breakout of a range. You might even have identified a head and shoulders or double bottom. So anyway, you have a trade all set up and you are just waiting for the move.

I have successfully given up two unhelpful behaviors, one was smoking which I stopped 10 years ago; and the other was drinking alcohol, which I gave up last year. Most people these days agree that smoking is a bad habit, but equally most people still consider drinking to be perfectly healthy in moderation.

What makes the best traders successful? Are they "lucky"? Have they discovered some "secret" indicator? No. They've learned the truth about trading. Trading success is a simple as 1-2-3.

Over the years I have trained many traders and I always advise that they spend at least three months paper trading before they go live with real money. Now even though I advise this I have never had a student actually do it. They all give up on paper trading after a few weeks and go live.

Today was a perfect day to test your discipline: We went long at 1190.00 and the reversing order was placed at 1192.25. Prices moved up to 1192.00 and reversed. One hour later we tried to reverse at 1191.00. Again prices moved up to 1190.75 and reversed.

I must admit, I am not smart enough to have devised these ridiculously simple trading rules. A great trader gave them to me some 15 years ago. However, I will tell you, they work. The rules are simple. Adherence to the rules is difficult.

Every minute more than 150 Million Dollars change hands in the electronic index futures markets like the e-mini S&P and e-mini NQ. You can win or lose thousands of dollars in a few minutes; the futures markets can make you rich in a few weeks or months or wipe out your account with no mercy.

Which way is the market moving? How far up or down will it go? And when will it go the other way? These are the basic concerns of the technical analyst. Behind the charts and graphs and mathematical formulas used to analyze market trends are some basic concepts that apply to most of the theories employed by today's technical analysts.

A common and effective way to gain perspective on stock price fluctuations is to compare the movement of your stocks to that of indices or market indicators. About 100 years ago, as the number of individual stocks grew, the need to measure how the stock market performed became obvious.

Before investing or trading, it is important to develop a strategy or game plan that is consistent with your goals and style. The ultimate goal is to make money (win), but there are many different methods to go about it.

Now I am very much aware that many market players do not like to short stocks. This bias against the short side of the market is totally understandable, especially given the fact that the widespread reluctance is garnered and perpetuated by the various exchanges and the other powers-that-be.

Stocks -- When you buy stocks you essentially own a little share of the company you just bought. The more shares you buy the more of the company you own. When the company whose shares you have bought makes a profit you will receive that profit in the form of dividends.

We traders have to try to achieve a state of impartiality. We have to accept that we will have losses as readily as we will gains. Reaching a stage where you can comfortably accept losses, in the knowledge that your method of trading will produce profits in the longer term, is the state we have to aspire to. Trading is not an exact science.

As humans we have a natural tendency to try and influence our surroundings and events we take part in. This is one reason as a species we have succeeded but it is also one of the fundamental flaws we all have when trying to achieve success as a trader.

One of the most basic and widely used indicators is that of momentum. Before I go on to tell you how we can use the momentum indicator to trade with, I want to explain the difference between a leading and a lagging indictor.

In this lesson I want to discuss intraday tactics that you should be aware of when you start to trade intraday. By intraday I mean very short time frames such as 1 minute, 5 minute and 15 minute charts. This will apply to traders who actively trade and probably trade frequently during the course of the day.

This technique can be used for any market that has a decent daily range. If you look at any chart, what do you see? You should see a succession of bars that are doing one of three things.

Let's just clarify what is meant by the term trader, sometimes called retail trader or day trader. This is an individual who trades the financial market whatever they may be using their own money. They may or may not be dependent on the results of their trading for their income. This does not include professionals who work for institutions or who manage other people's money.

We do everything for a reason. The reason behind any act is, for the most part, unconscious. If we want to change a behaviour we need to identify the reason, the underlying objective, and examine it. We need to examine it to determine whether this objective, this assumption, supports us in what we want to do now.

The foreign exchange markets move when some force makes one currency either more or less valuable than another. The cumulative purchase and sales of a currency cause it to move up or down and to become more or less valuable in relation to other currencies.

Many traders have a problem defining where they should place their stop loss. They have no problem entering a trade but often have a problem defining where they should take profits or cut their loses. In this lesson we will cover some of the popular methods of choosing a stop loss.

Wouldn't it be great if we could buy an option with five months left until expiration and sell an option with 2 months left until expiration for the same price? You couldn't lose. Well we can't. I love options spreads so much I realized something very important. We can buy a spread that has a lot of time value left at almost the same price as we can sell one with less time value left.

I divide trading skills into two distinct elements: anticipating the market and execution. The anticipating part is reading the market, whether through charts, systems, technical indicators or intuition. Anticipating/reading the market is the trading skill that most of us focus all our energy on, and it is the subject covered by most trading books and seminars.