One of the complexities of trading foreign exchange is the whole rollover and carry interest aspect of things, as this recent question highlights. Hi John, My question is: What does carrying a trade past 5pm and thereby gain or pay interest, have to do with rolling over the T+2 forward currency contract? I understand that the banks would want to charge or pay interest at a given time, but why do some people call that carry trade and the interest associated with it rollover and why is the association so significant that on Wednesday...

An emailer by the name of Daniel asked: My question: Is “Essentials Of Trading” applicable to trading options? I was looking at trading options The answer is yes - in two ways. The first way my book is applicable to trading options is in the fact that it focuses on the foundational elements of trading in general. At its core, trading options is no different than trading any other market. You need to understand the mechanics of trading, price movement, and tracking your P&L. You need to have a strong trading plan...

Do you know the seasonal patterns which tend to play out in the forex markets? If so, then you were well positioned to take advantage of what we saw out of the likes of the dollar and the euro over the last couple of months. Both moved in accord with their historical tendencies during January and February. Take a look at as this chart of how EUR/USD tends to perform throughout the course of the calendar year. What the chart is telling you is that if you sell EUR/USD during the first 8 weeks or so of the calendar year, and hold...

A headline on the Business Insider blog caught my attention this morning: Once Again, Moody’s Is Behind The Curve, As The Debt Market Has Already “Downgraded” The US From AAA. The title of the story obviously served its purpose drawing me in, but after that it all fell apart as the author clearly demonstrated his personal bias in interpretting the information. The evidence provided to suggest the market has “downgraded” Treasury debt is that recently yields on Berkshire Hathaway, Proctor & Gamble,...

John, I have a question. I am a novice trader who has been trading the emini S&P’s for the past two months. I’ve always been fairly good at self-teaching. However, I keep hearing / reading everywhere that its important for beginning traders to have a mentor. How does one go about finding a mentor (aside from paying someone for “mentoring / coaching” ). Are there successful traders out there that are looking to help newbies like me, purely out of the goodness of their heart? If so, where do I find...

I’ve had a few questions come in over the last several days which don’t really require a full post to answer, so I’m going to hit them together. Here’s the first: If you love helping people get the most out of their trading, I would like to ask you where I can find good Elliot Waves handling materials or manual. I’m not an Elliott Wave practitioner, though I understand the concepts. At the top of the list of reference materials on the methodology has to be Elliott Wave Principle. A reader of the...

One of the books I put near the top of the pile in terms of practical usefulness is Way of the Turtle by Curtis Faith. Not only does is provide a view of Faith’s experience as one of the famous Turtles, but it also takes a good look at trading system design and development. In his new book, Trading from Your Gut: How to Use Right Brain Instinct & Left Brain Smarts to Become a Master Trader, Faith takes a different approach, one that would seem to contradict his earlier focus on systems. After all, instinct and gut...

Word has come out from Currensee that Oanda traders can now become members of the forex social network. This is big news because it opens the network up to customers of one of the biggest brokers around, one a lot of small and newer traders use because of its flexibility in terms of account and trade size. That means there could be a really big ramp up in membership. If you trade forex and haven’t already done so, you should check out Currensee, which is a network for active forex traders. This isn’t a forum, but...