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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) / Explain to me the Business and where the Options Explorer fits in?

« Last post by TradingAdmin on May 28, 2015, 11:29:38 pm »

You have a Trading Business where you trade on the International Exchanges in the commodities markets.  You need an account with a Broker that are able to route your orders through to the relevant Exchanges (Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, etc.)  This is the nature of your business - you buy and sell commodities in these markets.  The Broker you use and the decisions you make are entirely up to you - it is your business..

You don't need Options Explorer in order to run your business.  If you know what you are doing you may run your business entirely on your own, your own style, from wherever you are in the world.  You have access to all the data you may need, you have free access to price and charting data, news and advisory services - your Broker will provide you with online training courses and video seminars and whatever else you need to get started (as a service, free of charge).

Options Explorer provides you with a set of tools to give you an edge above the rest of the market.  The majority of Traders out there have no idea on whether a specific option is cheap or expensive, or about why a certain strategy has a better chance to succeed, or what the probability of success is or not.  They simply don't know - they trade on "feeling" on their "gut".  Options Explorer allows you to take the market data and analyse it, to find the options that are expensively priced, to create smart investment strategies, to analyse and plan your trading positions.  It is a set of tools that put the odds of being successful into your favour.

But it is not a requirement for your business. We need to separate the two.  You have your business which you may run from wherever you are in whatever way you want to run it.  You are in full control of that business.  Then there is Options Explorer, which is available as an optional set of tools to give you an edge on the market.  You do not require it to make a success out of your business - however the Trader that does have access to it are in a better position than the Trader without it. (Provided you use it correctly - you may have all the tools in the world, if you don't use it, then it is of no benefit to you)   

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) / How much money do I need to start trading?

« Last post by TradingAdmin on May 28, 2015, 11:00:36 pm »

You need money in your trading account for two reasons:

• To post margin for the positions you want to enter, and
• Floating capital to absorb the price fluctuations (real-time profit / loss) for the positions that you have entered and to absorb changes in margin requirements over time

The amount of margin you require depends on the commodity(ies) that you want to trade in - see this link (http://www.investdifferently.info/futureslist.php), the second table for a list of the margin requirements for the different commodities we are looking at.  (NB Please Note:  These margin requirements changes over time, sometimes becoming considerably more, sometimes dropping in value).  There are few commodities with margin less than $1,500.  You want to be able to enter at least two contracts.  Therefore margin alone you are looking at $3,000 or more.  Add a floating balance of at least the same - $3,000 - and you look at a minimum account size of $6,000.

The broker we use requires a minimum deposit of $10,000 to open an account.  You may trade with less, but that is the minimum requirement to OPEN an account.  Of course you do not have to use our broker, you may use any broker you like, as long as he is able to route your orders through to the necessary Exchanges.  There are brokers out there that will allow you to open an account with $3,000.  But to be realistic about this, $3,000 is severely limiting your trading possibilities (unless you are prepared to be really patient and wait for the right opportunities - which means you will probably not trade every month).

What should be clear is that this is not a get rich quick scheme.  You cannot start with $100 or even $1,000 and hope to make a success out of this business.  You need to make a substantial investment, you need to be serious about this business.  However if you are prepared to make the investment  and you are prepared to learn how to, you can make a success out of this business.