Trading /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Become a savvy trader and make money in both up and down markets

These days, the market is volatile, and you need to know how to ride the waves and navigate the changing tides. Trading For Dummies is for investors in search of a clear guide to trading stocks in any type of market. Inside, you'll get sample stock charts, position trading tips and techniques, and fresh ways to analyze trends and indicators. Learn how to make smart decisions by identifying the stocks, bonds, funds, and commodities that will net you the maximum gain. Assume more risk, reap more benefits, build a more aggressive portfolio, and enjoy the greater gains that come with short- and medium-term trading methods.

This is a perfect Dummies guide for experienced and novice traders and investors seeking the most-up-to-date information on trading wisely in any market.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (1)
• About This Book (2)
• Foolish Assumptions (2)
• Icons Used in This Book (3)
• Beyond the Book (3)
• Where to Go from Here (4)
• Part 1 Getting Started with Trading (5)
• Chapter 1 The Ups and Downs of Trading Stocks (7)
• Distinguishing Trading from Investing (8)
• Seeing Why Traders Do What They Do (8)
• Successful Trading Characteristics (9)
• Tools of the Trade (10)
• Taking Time to Trade More Than Just Stocks (10)
• Position trading (10)
• Short-term swing trading (11)
• Day trading (11)
• Going Long or Short (12)
• Managing Your Money (12)
• Understanding Fundamental Analysis (13)
• Getting a Grip on Technical Analysis (14)
• Putting Trading Strategy into Practice (15)
• Trading at Higher Risk (17)
• Remembering to Have Fun! (17)
• Chapter 2 Exploring Markets and Stock Exchanges (19)
• Introducing the Broad Markets (19)
• Stock markets (20)
• Futures markets (20)
• Bond markets (21)
• Options markets (22)
• Reviewing Stock Exchanges (22)
• New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ICE) (22)
• NASDAQ (24)
• Amex (now NYSE MKT LLC) (25)
• Electronic communications networks (ECNs) (26)
• Understanding Order Types (26)
• Market order (27)
• Limit order (27)
• Stop order (28)
• Stop-limit order (29)
• Good-'til-canceled order (30)
• Other order types (30)
• Chapter 3 Going for Broke(r): Discovering Brokerage Options (31)
• Why You Need a Broker (32)
• Exploring Types of Brokers and Brokerage Services (32)
• Full-service brokers (32)
• Discount brokers (34)
• Direct-access brokers (34)
• Proprietary trading firms (36)
• Futures brokers (36)
• Services to Consider When Choosing a Broker (36)
• Types of orders supported (36)
• Data tools (37)
• Charts (37)
• ECN access (38)
• Knowing the Types of Brokerage Accounts (38)
• Cash accounts (38)
• Margin accounts (38)
• Options (39)
• IRAs and other retirement accounts (39)
• Choosing the Right Broker for You (41)
• Considering more than price (41)
• Doing a little research (42)
• Understanding how you'll be paying (43)
• Getting to Know the Rules (43)
• Margin requirements (43)
• Settling trades (45)
• Free riding (45)
• Chapter 4 Putting Your Key Business Tool to Work: The Computer (47)
• Making Use of Your Computer (48)
• Identifying trading candidates (48)
• Managing your account (49)
• Improving your trades (49)
• Finding Price Charts (49)
• Checking out Internet charts with delayed prices (51)
• Considering Internet charts with real-time prices (51)
• Looking into charting software (52)
• Digging Up Fundamental Data (53)
• Accessing Analyst Reports (54)
• Selecting a Trading Platform (54)
• Browser-based trading environments (55)
• Integrated trading platforms (56)
• Features to consider (57)
• Determining Computer Requirements (58)
• Weighing Windows versus Mac versus Linux (58)
• Configuring your computer system (59)
• Accessing the Internet (61)
• Picking a browser (61)
• Securing your computer (61)
• Part 2 Reading the Fundamentals: Fundamental Analysis (63)
• Chapter 5 Fundamentals 101: Observing Market Behavior (65)
• The Basics of the Business Cycle (66)
• Understanding how periods of economic growth and recession are determined (67)
• Using economic indicators to determine the strength of the economy (68)
• Relating bull markets and bear markets to the economy (70)
• Employing a Sector Rotation Strategy (70)
• Early recovery (71)
• Full recovery (72)
• Early recession (72)
• Full recession (73)
• Sector rotation (73)
• Understanding Economic Indicators (74)
• Interest rates (74)
• Money supply (75)
• Inflation rate (76)
• Deflation (78)
• Jobless claims (78)
• Consumer confidence (79)
• Business activity (80)
• Using Data from Economic Indicators (81)
• Chapter 6 Digging Into Fundamental Analysis (83)
• Checking Out the income Statement (84)
• Revenues (85)
• Cost of goods sold (85)
• Gross margins (86)
• Expenses (87)
• Interest payments (88)
• Tax payments (89)
• Dividend payments (89)
• Profitability (90)
• Looking at Cash Flow (91)
• Operating activities (92)
• Financing activities (93)
• Investment activities (94)
• Scouring the Balance Sheet (94)
• Analyzing assets (95)
• Looking at debt (96)
• Reviewing goodwill (97)
• Determining Stock Valuations (97)
• Earnings (98)
• Earnings growth rate (98)
• Figuring Your Ratios: Comparing One Company's Stock to Another (99)
• Price/earnings ratio (100)
• Price/book ratio (100)
• Return on assets (101)
• Chapter 7 Listening to Analyst Calls (103)
• Getting to Know Your Analysts (104)
• Buy-side analysts: You won't see them (104)
• Sell-side analysts: Watch for conflicts (104)
• Independent analysts: Where are they? (106)
• The Importance of Analysts (107)
• Tracking how a company's doing (108)
• Providing access to analyst calls (108)
• Pointers for Listening to Analyst Calls (110)
• Understanding the analysts' language (111)
• Developing your listening skills (112)
• Locating Company Calls (115)
• Identifying Trends in the Stock-Analyst Community (115)
• Part 3 Reading the Charts: Technical Analysis (117)
• Chapter 8 Seeing Is Believing: An Introduction to Technical Analysis (119)
• Understanding the Methodology (120)
• Finding everything in the price (121)
• Seeing that price movements are not always random (122)
• Balancing supply and demand (122)
• Understanding where you've been (123)
• Understanding where you're headed (125)
• Answering the Detractors (125)
• Walking randomly (126)
• Trading signals known to all (127)
• Executing Your Trading Plan (128)
• Using StockCharts.com (129)
• Chapter 9 Reading Bar Charts Is Easy (Really) (131)
• Creating a Price Chart (132)
• Looking at a single price bar (133)
• Measuring volume (134)
• Coloring charts (136)
• Identifying Simple Single-Day Patterns (136)
• Single-bar patterns (136)
• Reversal patterns (138)
• Recognizing Trends and Trading Ranges (139)
• Discerning a trading range (139)
• Spotting a trend (141)
• Paying attention to time frame (142)
• Searching for Transitions (143)
• Support and resistance: The keys to trend transitions (143)
• Finding a breakout (144)
• Sipping from a cup and handle (147)
• Deciding what to do with a double bottom (148)
• An alternative double-bottom strategy (149)
• Looking at other patterns (149)
• Chapter 10 Following Trends to Boost Your Probability of Success (151)
• Identifying Trends (152)
• Supporting and Resisting Trends (153)
• Drawing trend lines to show support (154)
• Using channels (156)
• Trending and channeling strategies (156)
• Seeing Gaps (158)
• Common gap (158)
• Breakout or breakaway gap (158)
• Continuation gap (159)
• Exhaustion gap (159)
• Island gap (160)
• Waving Flags and Pennants (161)
• Withstanding Retracements (162)
• Three-step and five-step retracements (162)
• Subsequent trading ranges (164)
• Dealing with Failed Signals (165)
• Trapping bulls and bears (165)
• Filling the gaps (165)
• Deciding whether to reverse directions (166)
• Chapter 11 Calculating Indicators and Oscillators (167)
• The Ins and Outs of Moving Averages (168)
• Simple moving average (169)
• Exponential moving average (171)
• Comparing SMAs and EMAs (173)
• Interpreting and using moving averages (175)
• Support and resistance factors (177)
• Deciding the moving average time frame (177)
• Understanding Buy and Sell Pressure through Stochastic Oscillators (178)
• Calculating stochastic oscillators (179)
• Interpreting stochastic oscillators (179)
• Tracking Momentum with the MACD (181)
• Calculating the MACD (181)
• Using the MACD (183)
• Revealing Relative Strength (185)
• Calculating relative strength (186)
• Putting relative strength to work (187)
• Part 4 Developing Strategies for When to Buy and Sell Stocks (189)
• Chapter 12 Money Management Techniques: Building a More Robust Portfolio (191)
• Achieving Your Trading Goals with Smart Money Management (192)
• Managing Your Portfolio (193)
• Thinking of trading as a business (193)
• Recognizing the trader's dilemma (194)
• Finding a better plan (195)
• Protecting Your Principal (197)
• Recovering from a large loss: It ain't easy (198)
• Setting a target price for handling losses (199)
• Strategies for managing profitable trades (201)
• Understanding Your Risks (205)
• Market risks (205)
• Investment risks (206)
• Trading risks (206)
• Chapter 13 Combining Fundamental and Technical Analyses for Optimum Strategy (209)
• Seeing the Big Picture (210)
• Knowing when the Fed is your friend (211)
• Keeping an eye on industrial production (211)
• Watching sector rotation (212)
• Finding the dominant trend (216)
• Selecting Your Trading Stock (221)
• Trading Strategies (223)
• Trading the bullish transition (223)
• Trading in a bull market (223)
• Trading the bullish pullback (224)
• Trading the bearish transition (224)
• Trading in a bear market (225)
• Trading the bearish pullback (225)
• A hypothetical trading example (225)
• Chapter 14 Minimizing Trading Risks Using Exchange-Traded Funds (229)
• What Is an ETF? (229)
• Examining the advantages (230)
• Avoiding the flaws (231)
• Does Family Matter? (231)
• Market-weighted ETFs (232)
• Equal-weighted ETFs (233)
• Fundamentally weighted ETFs (233)
• Sector Rotation Strategies (234)
• Early recovery (234)
• Full recovery (234)
• Early recession (235)
• Full recession (235)
• Analyzing ETFs (235)
• Portfolio Construction (237)
• International trading with ETFs (237)
• Commodities and ETFs (237)
• Currency trading and ETFs (237)
• Leveraged ETFs (238)
• Inverse ETFs (238)
• Actively Managed ETFs (238)
• Chapter 15 Executing Your Trades (239)
• Entering and Exiting Your Trade (239)
• Keeping straight the bid and the ask (241)
• Understanding the spread (242)
• Devising an effective order-entry strategy (242)
• Timing your trades: Entering orders after the market closes (245)
• Reviewing a week in the life of a trader (246)
• Selling Stocks Short (251)
• Avoiding Regulatory Pitfalls (252)
• Understanding trade-settlement dates (252)
• Avoiding free riding (253)
• Avoiding margin calls and forced sales (254)
• Avoiding pattern-day-trader restrictions (256)
• The Tax Man Cometh (256)
• Chapter 16 Developing Your Own Powerful Trading System (257)
• Understanding Trading Systems (258)
• Discretionary systems (259)
• Mechanical systems (259)
• Trend-following systems (260)
• Countertrend systems (261)
• Selecting System-Development Tools (262)
• Choosing system-development hardware (262)
• Deciding on system-development software (262)
• Finding historical data for system testing (264)
• Developing and Testing Trading Systems (265)
• Working with trend-following systems (265)
• Using breakout trading systems (268)
• Accounting for slippage (270)
• Keeping a Trading Journal (273)
• Evaluating Trading Systems for Hire (274)
• Part 5 Risk-Taker's Paradise (277)
• Chapter 17 The Basics of Swing Trading (279)
• Selecting Stocks Carefully (279)
• Looking at Swing-Trading Strategies (281)
• Trading trending stocks (281)
• Trading range-bound stocks (285)
• Trading volatility (286)
• Money management issues (288)
• Using Options for Swing Trading (289)
• Getting a Grip on Swing-Trading Risks (291)
• Taxes (of course) (291)
• Pattern-day-trading rules apply (292)
• Chapter 18 The Basics of Day Trading (293)
• What Day Trading Is All About (294)
• Institutional day traders (market makers) (294)
• Retail day traders (294)
• Understanding Account Restrictions (297)
• The Fed's Regulation T: Margin requirements (297)
• Settlement: No free rides (299)
• Strategies for Successful Day Trading (299)
• Technical needs (300)
• Trading patterns (300)
• Scalping (301)
• Trend traders (301)
• Recognizing That Risks Are High (301)
• Liquidity (302)
• Slippage (302)
• Trading costs (303)
• Taxes (of course) (304)
• Avoiding the Most Common Mistakes (305)
• Chapter 19 Doing It by Derivatives (309)
• Types of Derivatives: Futures and Options (310)
• Buy now, pay later: Futures (310)
• Wait and see: Options (314)
• Buying Options and Futures Contracts (319)
• Opening an account (319)
• Calculating the price and making a buy (320)
• Options for Getting Out of Options (321)
• Offsetting the option (321)
• Holding the option (322)
• Exercising the option (322)
• The Risks of Trading Options and Futures (323)
• Minimizing Risks (324)
• Chapter 20 Going Foreign (Forex) (327)
• Exploring the World of Forex (328)
• Types of currency traders (328)
• Why currency changes in value (329)
• What traders do (330)
• Understanding Money jargon (331)
• Spot transactions (332)
• Forward transactions (332)
• Options (333)
• Looking at How Money Markets Work (334)
• Different countries, different rules (334)
• The almighty (U.S.) dollar (335)
• Organized exchanges (335)
• Taking Necessary Risks in the World Money Market (336)
• Understanding the types of risks (337)
• Seeking risk protection (340)
• Getting Ready to Trade Money (340)
• Part 6 The Part of Tens (343)
• Chapter 21 More Than Ten Huge Trading Mistakes (345)
• Fishing for Bottoms (345)
• Timing the Top (346)
• Trading against the Dominant Trend (346)
• Winging It (347)
• Taking Trading Personally (348)
• Falling in Love (348)
• Using After-Hours Market Orders (348)
• Chasing a Runaway Trend (349)
• Averaging Down (349)
• Ignoring Your Stops (350)
• Diversifying Badly (350)
• Enduring Large Losses (350)
• Chapter 22 Ten Trading Survival Techniques (353)
• Build Your Trading Tool Chest (353)
• Choose and Use Your Favorite Tools Wisely (354)
• Use Both Technical and Fundamental Analyses (354)
• Count on the Averages to Make Your Moves (355)
• Develop and Manage Your Trading System (356)
• Know Your Costs (356)
• Have an Exit Strategy (357)
• Watch for Signals, Don't Anticipate Them (357)
• Buy on Strength, Sell on Weakness (357)
• Keep a Trading Journal and Review It Often (358)
• Index (359)

Author notes provided by Syndetics