Common Futures Trading Mistakes
All successful futures traders have a system in place that will help them make better trades and effectively keep losses to a minimum. These strategies have been developed over time by the traders themselves or in combination with other trading systems. You can improve your odds of success by avoiding the common mistakes that many make when their new strategy is starting to work for them. These include:

·        Not Sticking With Your System:Just when a trading strategy is starting to show promise, many traders will deviate or abandon the system that they are using. This change means that you will not be able to unemotionally evaluate the market, leading to incorrect analyses and ultimately, losses. Instead, when you start to see signs of a change taking place in trend, you should be prepared to adapt your strategy to the changing conditions. This gives you the flexibility to make consistent profits in any type of market.

·         Not Protecting Yourself:Futures trading (like all trading) does involve a certain degree of risk, so it is important to protect yourself. There are a few ways to do this, such as using a sell or buy limit or stops your losses to a comfortable level, or by using heading strategies like buying puts. This will keep your losses to a minimum while maximizing your profits

·         Not Staying Focused:To trade successfully, your undivided attention is required to be able to read and evaluate the markets effectively. Sometimes distractions are unavoidable, but you always want to have as few distractions as possible when you are trading. This will help you to focus properly, thus increasing your odds of more profitable trades.

·         Not Being Open to New Ideas: The markets are always changing. No matter how great you think you are as a trader, there's always a new idea that can help you improve your trading results. Too often, traders get caught up in thinking that they already know enough and they aren't willing to learn anything new. As the market conditions change, this type of trader is left behind with nothing to show but losses. However, if you remain open to new ideas, you will be able to change with the markets - and profit consistently, no matter what they do.

The Oracle of Omaha became the world's richest person by adhering to simple but critical tenets. Here are his rules for smart living and savvy investing.

Lesson No. 1: Be frugal

If the economic downturn is forcing you to live simply, look on the bright side: It's making you more like Buffett.

Buffett lives in the same modest house in Omaha, Neb., that he bought more than five decades ago. He drives his own car.

How this does makes him a better investor? First, it gives him more to invest.

Second, a frugal investor will demand this quality from managers. Buffett is leery of corporate waste. Excessive executive pay or silly perks are red flags. Buffett once quipped that companies stack pay committees with "sedated Chihuahuas."

Third, frugal people don't need fast returns to support extravagant lifestyles. This leaves them free to think more clearly about when to buy and sell stocks, making them much better investors.

Lesson No. 2: Wait for the 'fat pitch'

Resist the itch to constantly buy or sell stocks.

 Have the patience to wait a long time until some market turbulence brings the "fat pitch," as Buffett calls it, or stocks of great companies trading at really cheap valuations.

Lesson No. 3: Be a contrarian

A great way to make money is to go against the crowd. "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful," Buffett explained in a 1986 letter to shareholders. So be skeptical of the conventional wisdom. Not because the crowd is always wrong but because the crowd's wisdom is probably already reflected in market prices. When the investing public is extremely negative, it's usually a good time to buy stocks. When investors are confident, be careful.

Lesson No. 4: Stick with what you know

One of Buffett's basic rules is: If you don't understand a company's product or how it makes money, avoid it. He calls this "staying within your circle of confidence."

This isn't always easy. During the late 1990s boom, Buffett famously avoided tech companies, confessing that he could not understand what they did. He looked dumb until the bubble burst. "Ultimately, when it came full circle, he was proven right," Lowenstein says.

Lesson No. 5: Don't depend on others to say you're right

If you are in need of constant affirmation about your investment decisions, particularly from the stock market, you won't be able to invest like Buffett.

That's because Buffett makes outsized returns by purchasing disliked value stocks that are so beaten down they're often virtually ignored by the talking heads. They won't be on TV every week telling you that you made the right choice.

Why do you trade?

Let me guess...

Because you want to make huge load of money and be able to buy anything you wish and count yourself among those few richest people.

While this is a perfectly valid reason, it will most likely to lead excessive greed and ultimately lead to your trading account's destruction.

You might as well take your money to Casino instead, and gamble it away. Once your money is all gone, at least it was entertaining.

Greed is the worst motivation for trading. The market will always punish greed and will always reward moderation.

Never try to make all of your money on one trade.

If you do, you are not trading, you are gambling!

There is a fine line between traders and gamblers. When there is real money on the line, there are always those who take blind chances.

If you want to be successful, do NOT think like a gambler, do NOT take blind chances and do NOT solely rely on luck.

Luck comes and goes just like the gambler.

It's the trader who remains and wins.

Wish you all the best to be a successful trader.

I have always questioned the relationship between the gold prices and the currencies and specially the US Dollar. In general, here is my overall conclusion:

1- Gold Bull Markets are short in time and Gold Bear Markets are much more longer in time. There are always exceptions, but this is the main rule

2- 90% of gold companies who are engaged in mining, processing & production, marketing and selling gold fund their operations using loans from banks and financial institutions

3- So, gold production is mainly financed using debt. And since bull markets are short and bear markets are longer, financing must be made when interest rates are at historic lows or low enough to justify injecting money into gold production

4- When interest rates start to rise, money starts to pull out and little investments are left over in the production proccess

5- When investors buy gold, they know that gold pays no interest and has no dividend to offer them, so they are mainly looking for price appreciation of the instrument itself. In most cases, it's very wise to buy gold or gold companies stocks when interest rates are at the lows, because that's the time where all gold companies start working and start making profits

6- The reason Gold prices and the US Dollar always go in opposite directions is that lower interest rates for the USD is always accompanied by declining stock prices, and people don't want to invest their money in the US stock market or even buy US bonds or open saving accounts,so they have 2 alternatives, either invest overseas, or invest in gold

7- Another reason, people think of gold as an insurance against any unwanted surprises. Many investors and funds use gold stocks as a portfolio hedge, increasing and decreasing the owned percent of gold stocks based on the interest rates and the overall performance of the US stock market

HAPPY TRADING

THANK YOU