Chapter 22

More Than Ten Additional Resources

In This Chapter

bullet Exploring futures through government and general-information Web sites

bullet Knowing the commodity exchanges

bullet Reading more books about trading

bullet Checking out the newsletters and magazines

If you’re going to trade on your own, you need some help, at least in the way of information, so you can apply what you’ve discovered in this book and in your newfound experiences with trading futures.

Literally hundreds of Web sites and publications deal with trading futures. This chapter lists and describes some of the more reliable information sources. Although the list may not be large, it is full of useful Web sites, books, and other sources of information that can actually help you become a better trader.

Government Web Sites

The Web sites of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC — www.cftc.gov), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA — www.usda.gov), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (www.federalreserve.gov) are useful in their own ways. If you’re a data hound, there’s no better place to look than the St. Louis Fed’s Web site (http://stlouisfed.org/default.cfm).

bullet The CFTC Web site is a great resource for reviewing trading laws and regulations and finding out what kind of recent advisory rulings have been handed down. When laws and regulations change, your trading can be affected. These changes can affect anything from higher fees to what you can and can’t trade under certain circumstances.

bullet The USDA Web site runs the gamut from important crop and livestock reports to vital weather information. The USDA site can be of great use to you when you trade commodities.

bullet The Federal Reserve Web site offers the Fed Beige Book, a great summary of where the Fed thinks the economy has been and is headed. The Beige Book is the Fed’s road map for interest rates, and it sets the stage for much of the action in the bond and stock markets.

bullet The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank Web site is full of charts and statistics that I like to use when I’m doing my history homework, such as when I want to see a chart of interest rates for the last several years. This site is also different from the Fed’s main Web site in that it has a more news-oriented, less-academic feel to it.

General Investment Information Web Sites

In this section, I list several important Web sites that can serve as libraries of information about trading futures, options, and other securities and financial instruments. Some of these sites require a fee; others don’t. I like them all and visit them regularly.

bullet The “Economy” section of Wall Street Journal.com: This section of the Wall Street Journal’s Web site is one of my favorites. It’s an excellent resource for catching up on the big picture before you trade. The editorial content is first class, but for a futures trader, the best part is the data library, where you can find charts that chronicle the major economic indicators and enable you to perform a good visual inventory of economic activity.

bullet Investor’s Business Daily’s “The Big Picture” column: This is a great resource for getting a fix on the overall trend of the stock market. This column can help your timing of stock index futures as it features clear and easy to understand analysis of when the stock market changes its major trend, up or down. This is a subscription service which has an excellent digital web site (www.investors.com), which I highly recommend and use on a daily basis.

bullet Marketwatch.com’s “Commodity Summary” ( marketwatch.com ): This summary provides a great overview of the commodities markets, usually with a pretty heavy emphasis on oil. The best part: It’s free, but it works better if you register.

bullet Reuters.com ( reuters.com ): Another excellent free news site, I especially like to check out Reuters early in the morning because it offers good summaries of the overnight markets.

bullet Barchart.com ( barchart.com ): The most complete Web-based charting service specializing in the futures markets, Barchart.com offers real-time data to subscribers, but its delayed data and charting are excellent for beginners who are trying to get a grip on the knowledge part of trading before they move on to the real thing.

bullet CandlesExplained.com ( candlesexplained.com ): This free site is from Greg Morris, the author of Candlestick Charting Explained (McGraw-Hill). It’s a good site for anyone who wants an online review or a quick reference to candlestick charting beyond what’s available in this book.

bullet FX-charts.com: You can find free, real-time, foreign exchange charts at www.fx-charts.com/pgs/toolbox_livecharts.php. This is a great place to get a good feel for real-time charts in the currency market. The charts also have indicators that you choose, including the ability to draw your own trend lines.

bullet Joe-Duarte.com ( www.joe-duarte.com ). Sure, this seems like self-promotion, but it’s not. If you like what you read in this book, what a better place to get more of the same as well as clarifying any doubts that you may get from time to time. I offer a good deal of market timing information, especially using ETFs for trading energy, stock indexes, and currencies. It is a paid subscription site, but also offers a good deal of free information.

Commodity Exchanges

The Web sites of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME www.cme.com), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT www.cbot.com), and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX www.nymex.com) are excellent resources, especially for beginning traders.

All three exchanges provide excellent overviews of the commodities that trade within their jurisdictions, margin requirements, and delayed charting.

Trading Books

Very few high-quality trading books about the futures markets are available, given the public’s major interest in stocks. Here is a good sampling of some of the better books that I’ve run across:

bullet Trading Commodities and Financial Futures (Financial Times-Prentice Hall, 2005) is written by George Kleinman, an author with a pure trader’s mind-set. It offers an excellent step-by-step guide into the analysis and execution of trading.

bullet Starting Out in Futures Trading, 5th Edition, by Mark J. Powers (Probus Publishing, 1993, largely out of print) offers a trader’s point of view, moving between an analyst’s and an academic’s perspective on the futures markets. You can find used copies at very low prices online.

bullet The Murphy triad: Author John Murphy has compiled and written what some consider a classic trilogy of technical analysis in these three tomes:

• Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications (New York Institute of Finance, 1999)

• Intermarket Analysis: Profiting from Global Market Relationships (Wiley, 2004)

• Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Methods and Applications (New York Institute of Finance, 1983)

bullet Candlestick Charting Explained by Gregory L. Morris (McGraw-Hill, 1995) is the easy-to-read-and-use bible for candlestick charting. No trader should be without this one in his or her library.

bullet Technical Analysis For Dummies by Barbara Rockefeller (Wiley, 2004) is a pretty good reference book that can be a companion to this book. It offers excellent tutorials for beginners, and it’s a great read for building a base for more complex fare, such as Murphy’s triad.

bullet Currency Trading For Dummies by Mark Galant and Brian Dolan (Wiley, 2007) is another excellent entry-level book that offers the basic principles of trading, not only in great detail but also in an easy-to-digest style. This book is great for someone who is interested in trading but isn’t quite ready to delve into it.

bullet Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefevre (Fraser Publishing, 1980) is the classic trading book. Although it deals with the stock market during a different era, no other book that I’ve ever read captures the spirit of speculating better. At the heart of it, this book is about cutting losses at small levels and letting winners run.

Newsletter and Magazine Resources

Many futures publications are available, and many of them can be accessed on the Internet. A few, though, have been around long enough to have become quite reliable, including the following:

bullet The Hightower Report ( www.futures-research.com ): As Fred Sanford of Sanford & Son used to say, “This is the big one, Elizabeth.” The Hightower Report is the most widely circulated futures newsletter in the United States, and it covers the entire futures complex.

bullet Consensus National Futures and Financial Weekly ( www.consensus-inc.com ): This subscriber-supported service, whose major calling card is its weekly sentiment index, provides a poll of bullish and bearish investors on all commodities and futures, from interest rates to energy and livestock.

bullet Futures Magazine ( www.futuresmag.com ): The name says it all; it’s the monthly bible of the industry covering all aspects of the trade.

bullet Technical Analysis of Stocks & Commodities ( www.traders.com ): This magazine is written by traders, and it’s where I got my start as a writer and an analyst. It’s a good resource to scan regularly for good trading ideas.

bullet Active Trader: Similar to Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities : This publication tends to offer more about short-term trading.