TheRiskBlog

Very often a customer wants to learn all there is about the futures markets. He is not interested in the opportunity to make money in equities, all he wants is to trade futures. Now, there are a few things to know about these markets and how to deal with risk when trading futures. Here are things you really need to know…

Days like these are most interesting as far as risk management goes. Most of the times stock prices follow a chaotic pattern. Forecasting them is not easy if at all impossible but sometimes subtil changes in the surroundings make things forcastable. This happens when

What can I say about the book?
Jack Schwagers “Market Wizards” is without a doubt one of the most important books about markets, trading, traders and risk management and therefore   you should read it.

The reason is very simple.

There is quite a bit math involved with risk management. To be on the safe side we have to cope with ratios, P&L equations, risk engines, no trade zones, beta, volatility and so on. Most of this stuff is straight forward though and can be done with only a little knowledge of the formulas behind it. But here is an article about something that has not yet found its way into risk management.

When people start out as traders they always have one goal. And that is to make money - preferably lots of it. People have different ideas but most often we hear something along the line: “..i want to be able to make a living trading…”, and “…i have this amount x right now but at the end of the year i would like to have doubled it…”.

Now this is all fine but how do you reach such a lofty goal? Let´s have a look at a few ways:

Maybe you know those days, when you start with positive expectations and a big portion of optimism into the trading day. The news are good, the futures pre-market are in the green and some of your favourite stocks gained some points overnight. And you can’t wait to hear the opening bell.

If there was one big news this week, it was surely Warren Buffetts acquisition of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) railroad. But although the deal itself is interesting, another thing caught my attention.

Today I want to show you how I create overnight positions in trending stocks. Like in every investment you first have to choose an initial risk stop that doesn’t threaten your account, but unlike intraday trades it is important for overnight positions to stretch the trading range.

Equity markets have come a long way in 2009. And now everybody wants in on the move and everybody wants to own stocks since they are moving up. That describes the same situation we faced at the start of the century after Dotcom stocks moved over the edge. Sure this time the situation is different, we are in the middle of one of the worst crisis we have seen so far and it is an event felt worldwide. But that doesn´t mean stocks can go up forever.

The economy is not following nearly as quickly as markets suggest. The stock market has outperformed the real economy by far. So what do we need to do

If there is one crucial factor for an economy to grow, it is consumer spending. And with Christmas sales not far away we need to ask whether the consumer is back and wants to spend as much as he did last year or more.