In this video educational series, Rick Thachuk, President of World Link Futures, Inc. - a registered educational Commodity
Trading Advisor - delivers nearly one hour's worth of instruction covering topics of special interest to beginning commodity traders.
Presentations include actual commodity charts, marked-up when necessary for illustration, call-outs that emphasize important points,
and even actual web pages as Rick takes you through a journey of relevant Internet web sites.
What is a futures contract? What is deferred delivery? What happens at contract expiration? What are contract specifications? Soybeans example.
The speculator's strategy. Closing a futures position. Selling BEFORE you buy. What is volume? What is leverage? Contract value versus margin.
The risk of commodity trading. Time: 13m 35s.
How is a bar chart constructed? Interpreting a bar chart: signals of strength or weakness. Gap movements. Corn example. Bar charts over different time intervals: intra-day, daily, weekly, monthly. Advantages of each. Comparing trading range to volatility. Looking for technical reversals. Time: 6m 55s.
The market order. Cotton example. When to use a market order. The limit order. When to use a limit order. The limit buy and the limit sell. The pro's
and con's of a limit order. The stop order. When to use a stop order. Protecting a position with a stop order. Comparing the limit and stop order.
Good-'till-cancel versus day order. Time: 6m 38s.
Pricing conventions. Prices for different contract expirations. Last, high, low, opening range, settle and change. Gold prices from actual NYMEX web site.
Soybean prices from actual CBOT web site. Grain pricing conventions. Ten-year Treasury Notes from actual CBOT web site. Bond pricing conventions. Importance
of the contract specifications. Time: 6m 51s.
Conversion values: comparing a change in price to the change in value of the corresponding futures contract. Sample buy and sell trades.
Chart examples for gold, regular vs mini-sized, silver, E-mini S&P 500, soybeans and more generally all grains, cotton, cocoa, orange juice,
sugar, lean hogs and other meats, 10-year Treasury Notes and bonds in general. Time: 8m 39s.
What is margin? Initial versus maintenance margin. What is marked-to-market? The margin call. What to do when a margin is called.
Margin when buying: oats example. Margin when selling: lean hogs example. Why margins change. Where to find margin requirements.
Sample margin requirements for all commodities from actual broker web site. Margin of mini-sized contracts.
How to reduce the risk of receiving a margin call: calculating when to get out of a bad trade. Time: 14m 35s.
How do you manage the risk of loss when commodity trading? Using the stop order to close a bad trade. Buying example in gold.
Calculating a stop order's price based on how much you want to risk on the trade. Trailing the stop order to lock in profits.
Selling example in cocoa. When to enter a stop order. Time: 7m 08s.