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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Commodity Futures Trading - How To Reduce Risk And Aim For Success

By Joseph Archibald

If you are reasonably new to commodity future trading then do keep in mind that there a number of things that can go terribly wrong - there is a large risk factor here. With this in mind its wise to risk only the capital you can afford to lose and nothing more. Do not borrow as I have done myself. Too much risk to take - believe me!

With commodities trading, in comparison to stocks and shares, there is a positive factor. There will never be a time when your investment is totally worthless. For example - gold, natural gas, corn will all have some financial value. It may well drop at times but it will never be worthless. Stocks and shares however can be worthless. Bankruptcy has hit many a company in the past 18 months.

Keep your wits about you and do not get carried away with your successes. Do not either have the mentality of making up your losses as soon as possible. If you do then you end up gambling and this is not what commodity trading should be about.

A common issue with trading in commodities however is that many traders carry with the commodity too much leverage. So for example, take a 100 oz. gold contract with a value of $1000 an ounce and thus a total value of $100,000. The margin or if you prefer - good faith deposit - to have 100 oz. of gold could be around 10% of the total contract value, which is $10,000.

Let us take an example to illustrate things, shall we. Let us presume that we invest in 100 ounces of gold which is selling at $1000 an ounce. The value of the gold would therefore be $100,000. The margin or good will deposit we have to make is $10,000 towards the $100,000 worth of gold - a total of around 10% is normal.

If things do go well then great, life is good and all is well, but chances are that if you continue to trade in this way - which is to some extent a gamble - you will lose out in the mid to long term.

With online trading there is a large advantage over what was previously available because of the speed of update to market fluctions. Login to your trading account at any time of day you like and you are updated to the second, or at least to the minute, regardless of the country your investments are made in.

So the basics to be aware of if you are just setting out with your commodity future trading then take it easy - do not rush to make lots of money as you will most probably end up being over exposed and therefore open to some hefty account losses. Its best to learn with experience, but while you are learning do think about tomorrow and keep enough funds available for times when things take a downturn. - 23218

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