Overview

You can make large profits by trading commodities--but you’ll need significant practical knowledge of the associated risks and market characteristics before you start. A Trader’s First Book on Commodities is a simple, practical and useful guide for new commodities traders. Author Carley Garner provides specific guidance on accessing commodity markets cost-effectively, avoiding common beginners’ mistakes, and improving the odds of successful, profitable trades.   Drawing on her extensive experience teaching traders, Garner shows how to calculate profit, loss, and risk in commodities, and choose the best brokerage firm, service level, data sources, and market access for your needs. She’ll help you:   ·    Master the basics of trading commodities painlessly, avoiding beginners mistakes ·    Get what you need, and prevent paying for what you don’t need ·    Know what you’re buying, what it costs, the returns you’re earning and the risk you’re taking ·    Predict price, manage risk, and make trades that reflect your analysis   Garner demystifies the industry’s colorful language, helps you clearly understand what you’re buying and selling, and walks you through the entire trading process. She concludes with a refreshingly new look at topics such as trading plans, handling margin calls, and even maintaining emotional stability as a trader.   “This book provides the type of information every trader needs to know and the type of information too many traders had to learn the hard and expensive way. Carley offers practical need-to-know, real-world trading tips that are lacking in many books on futures. It will help not only the novice trader, but seasoned veterans as well. This book will serve as a must-have reference in every trader’s library.” --Phil Flynn, Vice President and Senior Market analyst at PFGBest Research, and a Fox Business Network contributor   “Refreshing–It’s nice to see a broker who has actually been exposed to the professional side of trading and who bridges that chasm between exchange floor trading and customer service. Carley takes the time to explain verbiage, not just throw buzz words around. A good educational read in my opinion.” --Don Bright, Director, Bright Trading, LLC   “This book has the perfect name, the perfect message, and the necessary information for any beginning trader. Take this book home!” --Glen Larson, President, Genesis Financial Technologies, Inc.   “As a 35-year veteran of the CME/CBOT trading floor, I can tell you…those who think they can begin trading commodities without knowing the less talked about topics that Carley discusses in A Trader’s First Book on Commodities are sadly mistaken. Anyone who trades their own account, or would like to, should read this book.” --Danny Riley, DT Trading  

Full Product Details

Author:   Carley Garner
Publisher:   Pearson Education (US)
Imprint:   Financial TImes Prentice Hall
Dimensions:   Width: 23.60cm , Height: 2.40cm , Length: 18.60cm
Weight:   0.580kg
ISBN:  

9780137015450

ISBN 10:   0137015453
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   11 February 2010
Audience:   General/trade ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Professional & Vocational
Replaced By:   9780133247831
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   Awaiting stock  

Table of Contents

Introduction    The Rise and Fall of Commodities      1 A Commodity Rally for the History Books      1 A Day of Reckoning      7 The Speculators’ Role      8 Fortunes Made and Lost      10 Conclusion      13   Chapter 1:       A Crash Course in Commodities      15 How It All Began      15 The CME Group      17 Evolution of the Forward Contract into a Futures Contract      18 Cash Market Versus Futures Market      21 Contract Expiration      23 The Mechanics of Futures Contracts      25 Futures Spreads      32 A Brief Introduction to Commodity Options      33   Chapter 2:       Hedging Versus Speculating      37 Commodity Hedgers      37 Commodity Speculators      42   Chapter 3:       The Organized Chaos of Open Outcry and the Advent of Electronic Trading      45 The Pit      46 Electronically Traded Markets      47 “Side by Side”      48 Costly Commodity Quotes      54 Open Outcry Quote Reporting and Access      54 Electronic Quote Transmission      56 Subscribing to Quotes      57 Charting      58 Free Trading Platforms and Market Access      58 Paid Trading Platforms      59 Auto Approval Versus Manual Approval      60 Order Desk (“The Desk”)      62 Is It Worth Paying Platform Fees or Subscribing to Quotes?      63   Chapter 5:       Choosing a Brokerage Firm      65 Introducing Brokers, Futures Commission Merchants, and Broker/Dealers      66 Fill Quality      69 Behind the Scenes of Transaction Costs      70 Discount Brokerage or Full-Service Specialization      71 What You Should Know About Commission Structure: Blanket or Variable Rates?      72 Market Access      75 Beyond Your Broker      77 Conclusion      79   Chapter 6:       Finding a Broker That “Fits” and Choosing a Service Level      81 Understand Your Broker’s Business      83 Get to Know Your Futures Broker      84 Full Service Broker or Self Directed Online?      88 Why Using a Broker May Be a Good Idea      90 Conclusion      93   Chapter 7:       Order Types and How to Use Them      95 Order Types      95 Placing a Trade with Your Broker      108 Placing a Trade Online      111   Chapter 8:       Making Cents of Commodity Quotes      113 Quoting Grain Futures      115 Not All Grains Are Created Equal      119 The Meats      122 Foods and Fiber      125 Precious Metals Futures      130 Gold, Platinum, and Palladium Futures      131 The Other Metal Futures      133   Chapter 9:       Figuring in Financial Futures–Stock Indices, Interest Rates, and Currencies      137 The Boring but Necessary Basics      137 Stock Index Futures      138 Dow Jones Industrial Average Futures      141 NASDAQ 100 Futures      143 S&P 500 Futures      146 Russell 2000 Futures      151 Interest Rate Futures      151 Treasury Bond and Note Futures      153 Eurodollar Futures      164 Currency Futures      167 Conclusion      170   Chapter 10:     Coping with Margin Calls      171 What Is Margin?      171 Day Trading Margin Versus Overnight Margin      172 How to Handle a Margin Call      173 The Margin Call Countdown      175 Accepting Margin Calls      177   Chapter 11:     The Only Magic in Trading–Emotional Stability      179 Three Emotions in Trading: Fear, Greed, Frustration      181 Revengeful Trading Is Counterproductive      187 Capital Preservation aka Risk Management      188   Chapter 12:     Trading Is a Business–Have a Plan      189 The Trading Game Plan      190 A Trading System Alone Isn’t a “Business Plan”      191 Constructing a Business Plan in Trading      195 Price Speculation (Ideally Prediction)      196 Choosing a Trading Vehicle      198 Risk Management      199   Chapter 13:     Why You Should Speculate in Futures      207 Speculating in Futures Versus Speculating in Equities      208 Risk Capital Only      214 Conclusion      215   Chapter 14:     Futures Slang and Terminology      217 Bull Versus Bear      217 Spread      219 Contract Month Slang      220 Red Months      220 Fill      221 Blow Out      222 Blow Up      222 Keypunch Error      222 Busted Trade or Moved Trade      223 Net Liq      224 Equity      224 Beans      225 Commodity Currency      226 Dead Cat Bounce      226 Bottom Fishing      227 Chasing the Market      227 Limit Moves      228 The Tape      228 Trading Solution and Front-End Platform      229 Proprietary Trading      229 Running Stops      229 Short Squeeze      230 Babysitting      230 Scalp      231 Slippage      231 Working Order      232 Unable      232 Handle      232 Overbought/Oversold      233 Debit/Account Debit      233 Round Turns      233 Trading Environment      234   Index      235  

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Author Information

Carley Garner is Senior Market Analyst and Broker with DeCarley Trading and a columnist for Stocks & Commodities. The author of Commodity Options, Garner writes two widely distributed e-newsletters, The Stock Index Report and The Bond Bulletin.   Her work has been featured in Stocks & Commodities, Futures, Active Trader, Option Trader, Your Trading Edge, and PitNews Magazine. She has been quoted in media ranging from Reuters to Investor’s Business Daily and The Wall Street Journal. Garner provides free trading education to investors at www.decarleyrading.com.  

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