Posts tagged stocks

Principles Of Investments In The Stock Market – Part 4

This is the last installment of the series on stock market investment principles. We discussed about the first seven principles in the past three articles. Now we will be discussing the last three principles. If you wish to view the article in its entirety please visit my blog.

8.) You must devote your time to study – When you want to invest in the stock market you should devote time to study what it’s all about. You can’t just place in your money and hope that it will somehow grow someday. You have to read books and materials on the stock market. When I started investing I dug out materials in the internet related to the stock market especially the Philippine stock market. I bought books on the stock market. The Philippine stock exchange has an “investor’s primer” for those who are new to the stock market. (See the Philippine stock exchange website for more information.)

Attend seminars on stock market investments. There are several brokerage firms that conduct free seminars for newbies in stock market investing. Last year, CITISEC Online did a 2 day free seminar. I took the time to attend that seminar. This brokerage firm is one of the most innovative, active and well managed brokerage in the Philippines. The information you will learn in the seminars is very helpful. Continual study is required if you want to succeed in the stock market. Once you stop learning you stop to succeed.

Read all the materials you can and attend all the seminars you can in order to learn. Don’t be discouraged when there are terms you could not understand. For example just reading this post alone, you would probably raise your hands and tell yourself not to invest anymore since there are some terms you could not understand. You don’t even know what “points” are when I was talking about them in point number 2. You don’t even know what the heck is the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) or what does “Blue Chips” or “Bull run” mean. Worse you don’t even understand what a stock is and how it basically works. But so what? I started out not knowing what some of these things are.

Stuff like these are never taught in school. I only learned them by reading and having a hands on experience in trading. I highly suggest that you watch the movie “Pursuit of Happyness” This is a story about one man’s struggle to learn the stock market. Years later he made millions through stock trading. This movie is based on a true story and is sure to inspire you!

9.) News Clues – Know today’s news and use them to your advantage. There are a thousand factors that are in the news that will definitely have an effect as to which direction the market will take. The most important page that an investor should read is the business page. This will give you an idea as to which stock should be bought or sold. My preferred daily news reading is the Philippine Daily Inquirer. I get ideas here on the possible directions the market will take.

10.) Don’t delay today is the best day to start – Experience is the best way to learn. You may start small but the most important thing is that you start right away. Put off procrastination. Study how to go about it without rushing, but don’t delay. If you already know the basics about investments start buying your first stock. Making your first profit from your first sale is truly rewarding.

Would you want to know more about investment strategies ? Visit the blog of Zigfred Diaz where he blogs about several interesting topics such as investments, money management, business, making money online and Stock market investing

Today Hot Stocks, the Solution to the Sorry Economy

If you have gotten tired of trying to strategize and predict the movements of the stock to earn the profit you are dreaming of, them you may want to get help from several stock market newsletters that are easily the craze in today’s financial markets, whether stock, forex, ETF, index funds, commodities, etc.

Newsletters and alerts for the Forex market, stock market and commodities market used automated computer systems to predict market trends for traders. There are programs that are fully automated and can actually make trades without any human intervention. Newsletters are less expensive are less expensive than software programs and can send email alerts to help you pick winning stocks.

One newsletter that is getting great results for traders is Today’s Hot Stocks. This newsletter sends email alerts to subscribers and provides regular updates on market trends. This kind of information can make a big difference in today’s often unpredictable market. The newsletter allows traders to make decisions with confidence without having to constantly monitor the market.

These stocks are expected to give you great returns on the money you have invested regardless of the economy’s state. No recession are supposed to hinder the earnings you can get from Today Hot Stocks. Its creator went on to show various statistics of the earning it made during the year of the greatest meltdown ever, 2008.

If your system has worked to make profits for you during the recent recession, you certainly have a winner. Today’s Hot Stocks helped its subscribers to make money despite the predictions of gloom and doom surrounding the stock market. As the economy improves, profits are likely to go up and subscribers will have even more success by following the advice in the newsletter.

Its creators swear that this is exactly what Today Hot Stocks can do for you. It went on to show various proofs to that effect and more testimonials to support their claim. A visit in their website which is http://www.todayhotstocks.com, will give you a clearer idea of what they can do for you.

The programmer that designed the software for Today’s Hot Stocks was a trader who understood the importance of choosing only the best performing stocks , and knowing when to buy and sell the stocks. The system has no human emotions and makes only logical decisions.

A program based on the knowledge of an experienced trader that can only make logical decisions about the most promising stocks is a big advantage for traders. By analyzing hundreds of factors that can effect the market and considering the probable outcome, the program chooses the best stock trades. The system’s creator provides this valuable information to subscribers.

Aside from being less expensive for traders than automated software, the newsletter give traders more control over individual trades. With an automated program, your trading is done without you input. With this newsletter, you can review the information and decide for yourself if you want to make a particular trade. Traders who subscribe to Today’s Hot Stocks are making profits every day from the information they receive.

It doesn’t cost anything to look at the website and see if this system can work for you. Bonuses may be offer with some subscriptions and there is a complete money back guarantee. If you are not satisfied with Today’s Hot Stocks, the site will refund your money. Too bad the stock market doesn’t have that kind of guarantee.

The cost of Today’s Hot Stocks is $47.00 per month which is a fraction of the profits you can generate with the information provided by the newsletter.

Click here for more on hot stocks and stock newsletter.

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Forex And Other Financial Markets (Part I)

The New York time between 3:00 PM EST to 7:00 PM EST is best suited for scalping with the counter trend strategy. Off hours between 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM EST is when all the world banks are closed. The U.S. banks are closing their doors and the Asian banks have not yet opened. This is a great time to scalp the market using a counter-trend strategy, because no larger banks are moving money (i.e. the markets) at that time. Just as with the London close, there is no set way in which the New York afternoon market plays out. On more active days where prices have moved significantly, the lower liquidity can cause additional outsized price movements. So traders just need to be aware that lower liquidity conditions tend to prevail and adapt accordingly.

Today we live in a global economy. Internet is just one example of it. You are browsing online searching for handbags. You like one but it is priced in Euros. You take out your credit card and make the payment without bothering about the foreign exchange transaction that you have made. Your credit card company is supposed to take care of everything. Todays global economy has become as simple as that. Why do investors need to exchange their domestic currencies for foreign currencies? Many want to invest in foreign assets. For that they need to convert their domestic currency into foreign currency. Companies involved in import and export business need foreign exchange to order new consignments or make payments. Multinationals need foreign exchange to repatriate profits. Big banks need foreign exchange and the list goes on. The forex market does no exist in a vacuum. You may have heard of other markets that exist like the gold, stocks, bonds, oil, futures and commodities.

There is a fair amount of noise and misinformation about the supposed relationship among these markets and the individual currency pairs. You can always find some correlation between two markets over time.

Crude oil futures contract trade on NYMEX. Gold futures trade on many exchanges. Dow futures trade on CBOT. S&P futures trade on CBOE. Stocks get traded around the world in different stock exchanges. NYSE is the most famous stock exchange. The forex market is 10-15 times bigger than all the worlds stock markets combined. There are many financial instruments and contracts that get traded in different financial markets all over the world. All these individual financial markets function according to their own internal dynamics based on data, news, positioning and sentiment. However, always keep this in kind that all the various financial markets are markets in their own right.

These markets will occasionally overlap and display varying degrees of correlation due to various underlying economic factors. So you should view each market in its own right perspective and trade accordingly.

However, its always important to be aware of whats going on in the other financial markets. Lets discuss some major financial markets and see what conclusions we can draw for currency trading.

Gold: The combination of currency trading and gold trading is ideal. Both are almost perfect hedges. Gold is considered to be an alternative to the US Dollar and a hedge against inflation. Gold is commonly viewed as a store of value in times of economic and political instability and uncertainty.

Over the long term, the relationship between Gold and US Dollar is mostly inverse or negative. A weaker US Dollar is generally accompanied by higher gold prices and a stronger US Dollar is accompanied by lower gold prices.

In the short term, the relationship between gold prices and US Dollar may not be as solid as it has been historically in the long term. This makes short term relationship between the gold prices and US Dollar generally tenuous. However, in the short term, each market has its own dynamics and liquidity. Overall, the gold market is much smaller than the forex market. There is only a limited and finite quantity of gold. No major gold mine has been discovered in the past many decades. Only the discovery of a major gold mine can bring the prices of gold right now.

If you are a currency trader than it is not difficult for you to trade gold also! Al most the same technical analysis tools are used in gold trading as in currency trading. Extreme movements in the gold prices tend to attract currency traders attention and usually influence the US Dollar in a mostly inverse fashion. At the same time, gold traders tend to keep an eye on whats happening to the US Dollar.

Oil: A lot of confusion is usually spread on the relationship between oil and US Dollar and other currencies like CAD and JPY. Correlation studies show no appreciable relationship to that effect in the short run which is where most of the currency trading is focused. The idea behind these theories is that if the country is an importer of oil, its currency will be hurt by the higher oil prices and helped by lower oil prices.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Develop Your Own Forex Trading System!

Currency Profile Of GBP (Part I)

British Pound is also known as the Cable. The name most probably struck in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. United Kingdom (UK) is the fourth largest economy in the world. UK has a service oriented economy with manufacturing representing a small part of GDP. Manufacturing is only equivalent to one fifth of GDP.

The British capital market systems are one of the most developed in the world and as a result finance and banking has become a strong contributor to the GDP. London is still the forex center of the world. London Stock Exchange is still the second most important stock exchange in the world after the New York Stock Exchange.

The energy production industry accounts for 10% of GDP which is one of the highest shares of any industrialized nation. Although majority of UK GDP is from services, UK is the largest producer and exporter of natural gas to EU.

This is important for forex traders as increases in energy prices such as oil will significantly benefit the large number of UK oil exporters. Overall, UK is a net importer of goods with a consistent trade deficit.

The largest trading partner of UK is the EU with the trade between the two accounting for almost 50% of UK imports and exports activities. The United States on an individual basis still remains UKs largest trading partner.

The leading import sources for UK are Germany, France, United States, Belgium and the Netherlands. The leading exports markets for UK exporters are the United States, France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

UK had rejected adopting Euro as its currency in June 2003. However, the possibility of Euro adoption will still be in the backs of minds of pound traders for many years to come. Now, if UK decides to join EMU, it will have significant ramifications for its economy.

One of the primary arguments used against adopting the Euro is that UK has sound macroeconomic policies that have worked very well for the country. The most important of these ramifications is the adjustment of UK interest rate with the Eurozone interest rate in case UK decides to join EMU.

There are many arguments in favor of Euro entry and many against.UK is a highly political country with government officials highly concerned about the voter approval ratings. Right now Brits are not in favor of a Euro entry. The voter opinion can change overtime. However, if the voters do not support Euro entry, the likelihood of EMU entry will decline.

Bank of England: The Bank of England (BOE) is the UKs central bank. The Monetary Policy Committee is the nine member committee that sets the monetary policy for UK. It consists of a governor, two deputy governor, two executive directors of the central bank and four outside experts. The committee was granted operational independence in 1997.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Try These 1500 Pips A Day Forex Signals From Heaven. Know Forex Rebellion!

Know Forex Pips (Part I)

by Ahmad Hassam

How can you make many pips per each trade in forex trading? Forex trading revolves around making pips. Almost every trader wants to make as many pips as he/she can per trade. Pip is an extremely important concept in the foreign exchange trading. A forex pip is the smallest unit of price movement in the exchange rate of a currency pair. Pip stands for Percentage in Points or some refer to it as Price interest point.

Pip is almost similar to the tick found in other financial markets like the futures market. Earned pips are the reward for a good trade. Traders trade foreign exchange in order to make as many pips as they can. And lost pips are the punishment for a bad trade.

Forex pip refers to one point change in the fourth decimal place of the most major currencies. Why most? Because there is a currency that is expressed up to two decimal places relative to the other currencies. Japanese Yen!

So for most of the currency pairs the exchange rate would be expressed like x.xxxx where a change of 0.0001 would constitute one pip. A pip would be the equivalent of 1/100th of one percent or one basis point. You must be familiar with the concept of basis points used in calculating thee interest rate changes.

For the handful of currency pairs featuring the Japanese Yen like GBP/JPY or USD/JPY, the exchange rate format would look like xxx.xx where a change of 000.01 would constitute one pip.

Calculating the exact value of each pip for the currency pair and lot size traded is the job of the brokers trading platform which should include a pip calculator created especially for this purpose.

Here is a simple calculation: Pip= (Lot Size) (No of Lots) (Pip Size). It is better that you also know how the exact value of a pip for a currency pair is calculated. The result of this equation will be denominated in the quote currency.

Quote currency is the second currency in the pair. The second currency in the pair is also known as the counter currency. The first currency in the pair is known as the quoted currency. However, the most popular name for the first currency in any currency pair is the base currency. So in the currency pair, EUR/USD, EUR is the base or quoted currency. USD is the quote or counter currency.

If the quote currency is already in US Dollar, no conversion is needed for the US Dollar denominated trading accounts. For example no conversion is needed for the currency pairs, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, CHF/USD, JPY/USD etc. In such a case the value of the pip will always be equal to $10.

When the US Dollar is the counter currency or the quote currency, it simplifies many things for the forex traders whose accounts are primarily in US Dollar. It helps to keep in mind that all currency pairs with the quote currency as US Dollar (ending in the US Dollar) will be $10/pip for a standard lot, $1/pip for a mini lot and $0.1 for a micro lot. This includes heavily traded pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD and AUD/USD.

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EUR/USD

by Ahmad Hassam

EUR/USD is the most liquid currency pair in the currency markets. There are four currency pairs that are known as the major currency pairs namely EUR/USD, GBP/USD, CHF/USD and JPY/USD that are heavily traded in the global currency markets. The rest of the currency pairs dont have the liquidity to trade big volumes as these four pairs do. Almost like 90% of the global currency exchange is in these pairs. Out of these four pairs, EUR/USD has the most liquidity and is the most popular among the currency traders all over the world. EUR/USD is the most heavily traded currency pair in the global currency markets at the moment. Most of the currency traders are in fact speculators. Trading currencies can be exciting and lucrative. Its a great market because of the way politics affect the trends. Elections, strikes, and sudden developments, both good and bad, can lead to significant trading profits if you stand ready to trade the EUR/USD is a convenient currency pair because it encompasses the policies and the economic activity and political environment of a volatile but predictable part of the world: Europe.

Inflation is not good for any economy. Most central banks fight inflation by increasing or decreasing interest rates in the markets. In the United States, where the free-market approach and a usually vigilant Federal Reserve make more frequent adjustments on interest rates. France, Italy, and Germany, the largest members of the European Union (EU), normally operate under high budget deficits and tend to keep their interest rates more stable.

The general tendency of the Fed is to make the dollar trend for very long periods of time in one general direction. Aside from the technical analysis, here are some general tendencies of the euro on which you need to keep tabs:

1) As said before most central banks in the world have a strict agenda to fight inflation. Given Germanys history of hyperinflation in the first half of the 20th century and the repercussions of that period, namely the rise of Hitler, the European Central Bank (ECB) is almost fanatical about inflation. That means that the European Central Bank most of the times raises interest rates more easily than it lowers them. However, right now keeping in view the severe global recession, ECB has lowered the interest rates drastically to stimulate economic activity across the Eurozone.

2) The US and the EU are two major trading partners. This gives EUR/USD currency pair very interesting characteristics. EUR/USD pair is affected by what is happening politically and economically both in Europe and the US. The European Central Banks actions become important when all other factors are equal, meaning politics are equally stable or unstable in the United States and Europe, and the two economies are growing. For example, if the U.S. economy is slowing down, money slowly starts to drift away from the dollar. In the past that meant money would move toward the Japanese yen; however, because the market knows that Japans central bank will sell yen, the default currency when the dollar weakens is often now the euro. USD is inversely correlated to the gold prices. All these facts should be taken into consideration while forming your bias about a particular currency pair.

3) EUR/USD currency pair is heavily influenced by the political developments in the Eurozone. The flip side is that the market becomes jittery and often sells the euro during political problems in the region, especially when the European economy is slowing. These types of trends are minor in nature and tend to wither out with the calming of the political situations. However, day trader and the swing traders want to benefit from these minor trends. These minor trends can be highly profitable.

As a word of caution, its okay to form an opinion and have some expectations, but the final and only truth that should make you trade is what the charts are showing you. Candlestick charting is one way to read the markets. There are many candlestick patterns that are used to signal trend reversals or change in the market behavior. The more proficient you become in reading candlestick charts the more profitable your trades would be. As usual, you want to closely monitor major currencies and the cross rates. The direction that counts is the one in which the market is heading. Candlestick charts are a good way to read the direction in which the markets are heading.

Combining fundamental analysis with the technical analysis can give you the edge as a forex trader. Fundamental analysis can help you determine the strong/weak currency pair. Use fundamental analysis to determine if USD is expected to lose value and EUR is expected to gain more strength that means that the currency pair EUR/USD is perfectly timed for swing trading. Use technical analysis to make the entry and exit decision.

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Treat Currency Trading As A Business

by Ahmad Hassam

If you are currently trading for a living or want to take on trading as a future substitute of a current job, then you should remember to take trading as a business. You need to treat it as a business.

You need to give some consideration to the fact that how you are going to deduct your monthly expenses such as your computer equipment, your quote feed, your DSL line, travel to investment conferences and continuing education seminars. How are you going to treat trading as a business? You should think whether you need to form a private limited company or a public limited company.

This can help you save thousands of dollars annually. You should seek advice from a tax specialist so that you can take advantage of all the regular and necessary expenses as business deductions.

Many people jump into trading without giving any consideration to these issues. For them the target is to start making money as early as possible. They need not waste time on other non trading issues. After you have consistently started making money in the market, it would be heart breaking to know that you cannot make expense deductions that could literally save you thousands of dollars.

Lets see what your expenses can be as a forex trader: You need to have a room where you have the required peace for trading. Then you have to have equipment that includes desktop computers, printers, laptop for travel and so one. Lets say these things cost you $5000. Suppose you rent a small one room office that could cost you like $500-1000 per month.

Attending investment conferences can provide you with lot of good trading ideas. You attend an investment conference that might cost you $1000 roundtrip airfare plus $500 per night for the night stay at a hotel. A price quote feed might cost you like $200 per month. You need a good DSL connection for your trading, $50 per month for the DSL expense.

You could be taking as little as $5000 to $25,000 per year in actual business expenses that could be deducted if you are running trading as a business and if you have business entertaining expenses and went to two investment conferences per year.

Do you have a business plan? What business plan you have in place to protect the money you make in the market. If you are a small time investor and decide that trading for a living is something that interests you, you should think do you have the financial resources, time and emotional makeup to trade full time.

As a long term trader what will you do when the market conditions change according to your system or methods? You need to cover your cost of living expenses, mortgage payments as well as your business expenses.

The forex market offers you a unique opportunity to participate on a pay as you go method because there are no commissions. Forex dealers provide free charts and quotes. But you have to cover the bid-ask spread each time you trade as a trading cost.

Suppose you are a day trader, you need to keep this in mind that trading is not free. You trade twice a day with a 4 pips bid-ask spread. Suppose you trade 5 lots ($100,000) each trade. So your daily trading cost will be $400 = (4) (2) (5) (10). If there are 200 trading days in a year, it means $80,000. Not to talk of your actual trading losses, first you need to cover $80,000 as your trading cost annually.

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Online Or Traditional Investing: Some Basic Information Is A Must About Securities

by Michele Perdue

Before we get into different types of securities it is important to know the very basic definition of investment securities. Investment securities are form of certificate or documents that shows that you have invested in a company or a business or a government entity. The two key types of securities are equity securities and debt securities.

Some basic securities types are as follows:

Bond: This follows in the debt security type wherein the issues of the bond pay interest at a predetermined rate. Bonds are issues by companies, public authorities, government and at times credit institutions. The method used for bond issuing is known as underwriting. The issuer keeps paying interest at regular intervals and pays the principal amount at a later date. Some of the different types of bonds are as follows:

Treasury bonds, Bearer and registered bonds, Participation bonds , and Convertible bonds

Derivatives: These are indirect financial instruments that are depended on direct securities such as bonds, equities. They are also known as hedging instruments. Some of the different types are as follows:

Futures Swaps, Index options, Covered and uncovered calls

Equities: These are the most common type of investment securities. They are in the form of stock or shares that gives the ownership in the company. General public has the option of becoming a shareholder in a large company. Some of the different options are as below:

Common stock, Preferred stock Dividends, Book value, Par value, and Depository receipts

Another unusual form of security is the contract to buy and sell commodity such as tea, coffee, wheat irrespective of the change in its quality. This is also one form of security that involves a contract.

If you wish to find out more valuable information about online investing then check out the best site with all of the needed content on online investing today.

Low Interest Rates Make Saving Money Difficult

Anyone who has money to invest is hurt by low interest rates. If you want to buy things on credit such as a car you might like the interest rates where they are now but people who have money sitting around are not happy. Right now the saying time is money does not really apply to bank cds and other investments where you make money by lending it to banks.

The people that are hurt by low interest rates are those people that like to invest in bank certificate of deposits (CDs) and other investment that are guaranteed by the government. Government bonds would also fall into that category. Seniors often have their money in this type of safe investment vehicle because they need to be guaranteed that they will not lose the money. In exchange for the low risk, they are willing to make less that they might be able to in the stock market. However, with rates so low right now, they are making practically nothing on their money.

If you are looking for the best CD interest rates, you need to look in different places than your local bank. Right now many people are trying to find the absolute best rates they can find and they will have to search on the Internet to find them. No longer can you just look in your city and expect to find the best rate. A nationwide search is necessary to find the best CD and money market rates and luckily the computer and Internet allows you to do that.

Now though, you first step might be to hop online and start searching. You will have access to hundreds of banks and financial institutions any of which might be offering the highest yields. You can transfer the money electronically to any bank and so it matters not where the bank is physically located. Some people will not feel comfortable with doing this and remain with their local banks and that is understandable. However, to truly find the best CD rates, you need to be looking online.

One thing to take note of is that if you have a maturing bank CD, you will rarely get the best rate they offer by just letting it automatically roll over. For some reason that the banks will never disclose, you have to physically go into a bank and request the best rate on an expiring CD that you want to roll over. You will probably have to close out your CD and then open a completely new one to accomplish this. This is a minor inconvenience but one that you have live with if you want to get the best CD rates.

Do you want to learn about getting the best no risk CD rates? Please go to my website Interest Rates On CDs to learn more.

S&P Futures Explained (Part III)

The monthly identifiers for the E-mini S&P futures contracts are H for March, M for June, U for September and Z for December. The E-mini S&P futures contract trade almost 24 hours per day with a 30 minute maintenance break in trading from 4:30 to 5:00 PM daily.

If you are a new E-mini trader you be careful as traders are expected to pay for the difference between the margins for the entry and exit points. In case you lose at the end of the day you are likely to pay in a big way. The margin requirements for E-minis are much less than the normal contract. The day trading margin is less than the margin to hold an overnight position in S&P 500 E-mini Futures contract.

All futures contracts are settled daily (assigned a final value price). Based on this settlement price, the values of all positions are marked to the market each day after the official close. Your account is then either debited or credited based on how well your positions fared in that days trading session. In other words, as long as your positions remain open, cash will either come into your account or leave your account based on the change in the settlement price from day to day.

This system gives futures trading a rock-solid reputation for creditworthiness because losses are not allowed to accumulate without some response being required. It is this mechanism that brings integrity to the marketplace.

Leverage: Leverage can produce large profits in relation to the amount of your initial margin if you speculate in futures and the market moves in your favor. However, you also could lose your initial margin if the market moves against your position. The effect of price changes is magnified because futures markets are highly leveraged. You typically pay the price in full with stocks (without leverage) or on margin (50 percent leverage).

Suppose you buy one E-mini S&P 500 index futures contract when the index is trading at 1000 and you have decided to put $10,000 into your futures account. Your initial margin requirement for that one contract is $3,500.

Because the value of the futures contract is $50 times the index, each one-point change in the index represents a $50 gain or loss. If the index increases 5 percent, to 1050 from 1000, you could realize a profit of $2,500= (50 points) ($50). Conversely, a 50-point decline would produce a $2,500 loss. The $2,500 increase represents a 25 percent return on your initial investment of $10,000 or a 71 percent return on your initial margin deposit of $3,500.

Conversely, a decline would eat up 25 percent of your original $10,000 or 71 percent of your initial margin. In either case, an increase or decrease of only 5 percent in the index could result in a substantial gain or loss in your account. Thats the power of leverage.

Leverage can be a beautiful thing. When everythings going your way, it makes your money work harder and produces more in a shorter period of time than if you paid for everything in full, up front. Indeed, leverage is the key, distinctive aspect of futures trading as compared with stock trading.

But there is a dark side to leverage, too. For example, assume you use $5,000 in your account to buy an E-mini S&P 500 contract worth $50,000. Instead of going up, however, prices fall by 10 percent and the contracts value drops to $45,000. Your $5,000 is completely gone. Unless you get out of the position with an offsetting sale when your maintenance margin level is violated, youll be obligated to put up even more money if the market keeps moving against you. Leverage is the one ingredient that can produce either horror stories or happy endings. To get the happy ending, it is extremely important that you fully understand the power of leverage and how to manage it well.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading futures and currencies. Trade Dow Futures and S&P Futures!