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| Introduction: The Boom and Bust Cycles of Commodities…and Now Brokerage Firms | |
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| What Has Changed? | |
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| The Speculator's Role in Volatility | |
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| Commodity Volatility Leads to Fortunes Made and Lost | |
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| Commodity Brokers Boom and Bust Too | |
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| How to Protect Yourself from Another MF Global or PFGBEST | |
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| What Regulators Are Doing to Protect Clients | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| A Crash Course in Commodities | |
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| How It All Began | |
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| The CME Group | |
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| Evolution of the Forward Contract into a Futures Contract | |
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| Cash Market Versus Futures Market | |
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| Contract Expiration | |
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| The Mechanics of Futures Contracts | |
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| Futures Spreads | |
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| A Brief Introduction to Commodity Options | |
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| Hedging Versus Speculating | |
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| Commodity Hedgers | |
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| Commodity Speculators | |
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| The Organized Chaos of Open Outcry and the Advent of Electronic Trading | |
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| The Pit | |
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| Electronically Traded Markets | |
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| Side by Side | |
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| Account Access, Trading Platforms, and Quote Vendors | |
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| Commodity Quotes Can Be Costly, But They Don't Have to Be | |
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| Open Outcry Quote Reporting and Access | |
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| Electronic Quote Transmission | |
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| Subscribing to Quotes | |
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| Charting | |
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| Free Trading Platforms and Market Access | |
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| Paid Trading Platforms | |
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| Auto Approval Versus Manual Approval | |
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| Multiple Order-Entry Methods | |
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| Popular Premium Trading Platforms | |
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| Order Desk ("The Desk") | |
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| Is It Worth Paying Platform Fees or Subscribing to Quotes? | |
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| Choosing a Brokerage Firm | |
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| Introducing Brokers, Futures Commission Merchants, and Broker/Dealers | |
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| Fill Quality | |
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| Behind the Scenes of Transaction Costs | |
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| Discount Brokerage or Full-Service Specialization | |
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| What You Should Know About Commission Structure: Blanket or Variable Rates? | |
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| Market Access | |
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| Beyond Your Broker | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Finding a Broker That Fits and Choosing a Service Level | |
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| Understand Your Broker's Business | |
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| Get to Know Your Futures Broker | |
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| Full-Service Broker or Self-Directed Online? | |
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| Why Using a Broker May Be a Good Idea | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Order Types and How to Use Them | |
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| Order Types | |
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| Placing a Trade with Your Broker | |
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| Placing a Trade Online | |
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| Making Cents of Commodity Quotes | |
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| Quoting Grain Futures | |
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| Not All Grains Are Created Equal | |
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| The Meats | |
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| Foods and Fiber | |
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| Precious Metals Futures | |
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| Gold, Platinum, and Palladium Futures | |
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| The Other Metal Futures | |
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| The Energies | |
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| Figuring in Financial Futures-Stock Indices, Interest Rates, and Currencies | |
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| The Boring But Necessary Basics | |
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| Stock Index Futures | |
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| Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures | |
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| NASDAQ 100 Futures | |
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| S&P 500 Futures | |
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| Russell 2000 Futures | |
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| Interest Rate Futures | |
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| Treasury Bond and Note Futures | |
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| Eurodollar Futures | |
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| Currency Futures | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Coping with Margin Calls | |
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| What Is Margin? | |
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| Day Trading Margin Versus Overnight Margin | |
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| What Are Margin Calls? | |
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| How to Handle a Margin Call | |
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| The Margin Call Countdown | |
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| Accepting Margin Calls | |
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| The Only Magic in Trading-Emotional Stability | |
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| Three Emotions in Trading: Fear, Greed, Frustration | |
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| Vengeful Trading Is Counterproductive | |
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| Capital Preservation, a.k.a. Risk Management | |
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| Trading Is a Business-Have a Plan | |
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| The Trading Game Plan | |
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| A Trading System Alone Isn't a "Business Plan" | |
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| Constructing a Business Plan in Trading | |
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| Price Speculation (Ideally, Prediction) | |
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| Choosing a Trading Vehicle | |
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| Risk Management | |
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| Why You Should Speculate in Futures | |
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| Speculating in Futures Versus Speculating in Equities | |
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| Risk Capital Only | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Futures Slang and Terminology | |
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| Bull Versus Bear | |
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| Spread | |
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| Contract Month Slang | |
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| Red Months | |
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| Fill | |
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| Blow Out | |
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| Blow Up | |
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| Keypunch Error | |
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| Busted Trade or Moved Trade | |
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| Fat Finger Error | |
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| Net Liq | |
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| Equity | |
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| Customer Segregated Funds Account | |
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| Beans | |
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| Commodity Currency | |
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| Dead Cat Bounce | |
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| Bottom Fishing | |
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| Chasing the Market | |
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| Limit Moves | |
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| The Tape | |
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| Trading Solution and Front-End Platform | |
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| Proprietary Trading | |
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| Running Stops | |
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| Short Squeeze | |
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| Babysitting | |
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| Scalp | |
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| Slippage | |
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| Working Order | |
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| Unable | |
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| Handle | |
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| Overbought/Oversold | |
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| Debit/Account Debit | |
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| Round-Turns | |
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| Trading Environment | |
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| Index | |