Options trading is one of the best ways to profit from the volatility in the underlying stocks. The more the stock price swings, the more profitable an options contract can be. With options, you can build a much larger stock portfolio as compared to the direct investing in those stocks.

Options get effected by volatility in the market as well as the time. You need to know certain dates that are very important if you are seriously into stock options. These dates are known as the Witching Dates. Now many people trade stocks. For them stock options should not be new. They can invest in stock options. However,stock options are a bit tricky.

These options on futures expire on different dates. These dates are known as Double Witching Dates, Triple Witching Dates and Quadruple Witching Dates. So need to know what happens on these dates. Now options contracts are written for a specific period of time. All expire on the third Friday of the month of their expiry. Options contracts are available not only on stocks but also on futures.

Double Witching Days are those when any two of the different classes of options contracts like the stock options, stock index options or the stock index futures options expire. Triple Witching Days is when these three classes expire on the same date. This date is the third Friday in the last month of each quarter. Quadruple Witching Days are those when these three classes of options contracts expire along with the individual stock futures options.

So what are Double Witching Dates? These dates are those when the two different options contracts on stock indexes, futures and stocks expire. It can be stock index options and stock options or stock options and options on stock index futures options. Similarly Triple Witching Dates are those when three different categories of options contracts expire on the same date. In the same way, Quadruple Witching Dates are those when four different categories of options contracts expire.

Now stock options and stock index futures options are different contracts. You need to understand the difference between them. Now when you trade a stock index futures options contract, you need to first master trading that stock index futures contract.

Knowing these dates helps you to trade or not trade on that date keeping in view the options contract that you are trading. So when you trade options you need to understand these options witching dates as they can affect your portfolio returns.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Give 14 days RISK FREE Trial to the Options University Trade Alert Service! Read the story of Richard Samuels, a post office mailman with a head injury and how he made a fortune with these Neutrino Forex Signals!

Everyone is talking about gold. Recently gold prices breached the historical barrier of $1200 per ounce for the first time. Everyone started investing in gold. Gold prices made a retracement. Now this doesn’t mean that the bull run in the gold market is over. However, there is another metal that has ten times more potential as compared to gold.

Yes, I am talking about silver. Silver is also a precious metal that has been considered valuable since ancient times. Gold was the best and silver the second best in human history. Kings and queens would hoard gold and silver as a store of their wealth. Even during ancient times, gold and silver functioned as a sort of international currency.

However, silver has far more industrial applications as compared to gold. Silver is being used extensivley in the electronic industry, batteries,solar panels, TV, water, medical applications plus a host of other industries. With the global economy finally out of the recession this year, demand for silver in these industries will skyrocket.

Now the supply of silver is limited. What this means is that silver price is going to rocket when the demand is going to increase. There is a limit to oil price increase. When the oil price becomes too high, consumers stop using private transport and switch to public transport. Gold has not many industrial applications. So high gold prices don’t have much impact on the global economy.

On the other hand, silver has a large industrial demand. Now an important question that comes to our mind is that is this rise in silver prices speculative or due to the real fundamentals. As said before, high silver demand is going to drive this price rise.

So in nutshell, this might be the best time to invest in silver stocks. However, investing in Silver ETFs can be an even better option as compared to silver stocks. The bull market in silver is going to last long as the global economy enters its expansion phase.

Always do your research before making any investment decisions. There are not many Silver ETFs. One that you can research and invest in is the Silver ETF with New York Stock Exchange Ticker Symbol SLV. You can find others.

There are a few silver mining companies that focus exclusively on the mining and refining of silver. Investing in the stocks of these silver mining companies can also be one of the options. Whatever, you decide this is the best time to invest in silver that you shouldn’t miss!

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Read this 40 page shocking Gold Investing And Silver Investing FREE Report. Read the story of Richard Samuels, a post office mailman with a head injury and how he made a fortune with these Neutrino Forex Signals!

Volatility in the market is something that you need to understand when trading. High volatility means that the price action is moving between two wide prices. Low volatility means that the price action is moving between two very narrow prices. Now, knowing that the market is volatile is very important. How do you measure volatility. Statistically we measure volatility with standard deviation. But there is a highly popular technical indicator that does it for you graphically by plotting the standard deviations. This is the Bollinger Bands. Two bands are plotted. One above the moving average with a period of 20 and one below the moving average. Period of 20 is used because it is a good representation of an intermediate trend.

Bollinger bands may be applied to any market or security. Any timeframes from daily, weekly, monthly to intraday can be used. Primary advantage of using these bands is to check if the prices are relatively low or high.

Volatility is a very important variable for an options trader. The more volatility there is on the underlying stock, the more option price will swing. Now when the volatility in the market is low, these bands get narrow and when the volatility in the market increases,these bands widen too.

Now, prices can be within the band or outside the band. When prices are outside the bands, this is taken as a signal that the trend is most likely to continue. When prices are above the upper band, this is taken as a sign of strength in the market. However, when the prices are below the lower band, this is taken as a sign of weakness in the market.

When the bands happen to tighten as they do when the volatility in the market decreases, rapid and substantial price moves often take place after the band tightens. This is something an experienced trader always keeps in mind. Now, Bollinger Bands are mostly used in conjunction with other technical indicators like the Commodity Channel Index (CCI), Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD), Relative Strength Index (RSI) and others.

Now the recommended setting for these bands is two standard deviations above and below the moving average with the period 20. These bands will keep on moving close or away from the moving average as a function of the market volatility.

In case of very short timeframes, the moving average period should be lowered to 10 and the standard deviation should also be decreased to one and a half for the two bands. But sometimes, you want to trade a longer timeframe. In that case, 50 is usually used as the period for the moving average with longer trends and the standard deviation settings for the two bands should be increased to two and half standard deviations.

As said before, these bands are traded in conjunction with other technical indicators. In case of the stock market, a period of 20 for the moving average is okay. Trading these bands is one of the most powerful concepts that is available to any trader whethet stocks, futures, forex, options or commodities.

Now these bands do not provide absolute signals when prices touch these bands. These signals should only be taken as relative and confirmed in conjunction with other technical indicators.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Download this 1 Minute Forex Trading System FREE that makes money instantly anytime you want. Read the story of Richard Samuels, a post office mailman with a head injury and how he made a fortune with these Neutrino Forex Signals!

Everyone knows what a stock index is. It is price weighhed or value weighted measure of a basket of stocks. Indexes are very important in the world of investing. If you want to invest in commodities, you should invest in a commodity index.

Now just like the stock indexes, commodity indexes track the performance of a basket of commodities like coffee, sugar, cocoa, cotton, lean hog, live cattle, feeder cattle, heating oil, gas oil, unleaded gas, crude oil, natural gas, aluminum, copper, lead, nickel, wheat, corn, soybeans, Zinc, gold, silver and so on.

The commodity index that you need to keep in mind is the important Reuters/Jefferies Commodity Research Bureau Index (CRB).Now the most important commodity index is the Goldman Sachs Index (GSCI). GSCI is based on 24 commodity futures contracts. Now most of the commodities have pretty liquid futures market and these markets are very important in setting the prices in the whole sale as well as retail commodity markets.

CRB is widely followed by institutional investors and economists as a benchmark. CRB tracks the performance of a basket of 19 commodities that are selected on the basis of their liquidity and performance. Another is the Dow Jones- AIG Commodity Index (DG-AIGCI). DG-AIGCI is also widely followed by the commodity investors and places a premium on the liquidity and production value of the commodities so that all commodities are well represented while at the same time no commodity dominates the index.

Rogers Commodities Index (RCI) has a grand list of 35 commodities and tracks the most commodities amongst the different commodity indexes. Deutsche Bank Liquidity Commodity Index (DBLCI) is the newest kid. There are many ways to invest in these commodity indexes.

The best and the most direct method is to trade futures contracts on one of the commodity index. A few of these indexes have futures contracts that track their performance. You can also trade futures contracts on individual commodities included in the index.

Now, futures trading is not for everyone. Many investors are afraid of futures trading. So, if you are that type, you can invest in a commodity mutual fund.

Last but not the least, is the great investment opportunity that Commodity ETFs ( Exchange Traded Funds)provides. This is a highly popular alternative that a good investor should not miss. These Commodity ETFs track the performance of a commodity index and provide you with a great opportunity to profit from the boom in the commodity market!

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. Get FREE COPIES of the HVMM Ultimate Day Trading System and the Universal Risk & Money Management Tool! Get these three great Swing Trading Reports FREE-The FOREX-4 PACK, Quantum Swing Trading and the Profit Button just now!

We all dream of throwing away some money into investments and seeing that money grow. In hindsight, we’ve seen plenty of fortunes made via this means and always wish that we were a part of it.

You’ll always find investors speculating to look for the next industry or trading vehicle that might bring them riches. Whether it was the recent oil explosion from a few years ago or any of the other modern bubbles, there’s been no shortage of situations like these.

At the moment, there are quite a few opportunities like this. Since the market has moved so heavily in both directions during the course of the last year, a lot of money has been lost and made.

For everyone who’s lost money, there have been others who have made money. If you’re looking for places to potentially make a fortune or lose it all, here are some volatile markets that may excite you.

Perhaps the biggest fad in today’s market is that of the ETF, which stands for exchange-traded fund. Whether you’re buying an ETF that’s tied to the banking industry, the energy industry, or the overall market as a whole, there are plenty of ways to profit from an ETF and they all involve the directional movements of certain industries.

Many people love the concept of stock options, and with good reason. You could easily double or triple your money (or much more) with a successful options trade. Unlike traditional equities, this could all occur over the course of a few days. This kind of thing happens all the time with options trades, since they’re highly leveraged. Just remember that your investment could just as easily disappear should things go the other way.

If you’re interested in profiting from the growth or demise of other economies, you should definitely look into Forex trading. This all has to do with the foreign exchange market and millions of people actively trade Forex currencies.

Try any of these out if you’re short on investment ideas. Just remember though – where there’s reward, there’s risk.

Ivybot is a very cutting edge Forex trading robot. Read this writer’s critique of the product, which dispels the concerns of an Ivybot scam.

Trend following indicators is a way that many people invest in stocks. It’s a strategy that is used which will use long-term moves on how markets have done in the past to figure out what to trade and what to keep.

With this method you will watch the way that the market goes and invest according to those movements in the past on the stocks. You will look at current market price for the stock, moving averages, and also any breakouts that have happened in the past.

When traders do this type of method they will not be forecasting the stocks and what is going to happen. Instead they are simply following a trend that has been shown in the past. Looking to the current prices of the stock, equity levels and what the market’s current volatility. Those are the main components that will be used by the trader when using this method.

Not a method that will be used on new stock that hasn’t yet established any trend, but on those old standbys that have been around for a while. Price is always a top consideration when using trend following indicators. When a trader is using this method they will try and use indicators to figure ups and downs in the market.

Also how much will be traded during the trend will need to be figured out as well. If the market is at high volatility though trading will most likely be reduced in order to cut the losses on the trades. If you use trend following indicators, price and time are always going to be very important.

The following questions will be able to be answered when you use this type of method. Shares that will be traded during the trend, how to enter the market and at what time. Risk to be taken on each trade, cutting of unprofitable stocks, and how to get rid of profitable stocks.

Find more on trend following trading and trend following index.