Synopses & Reviews
Earn consistent profits trading commodities, even if you're a newcomer to the commodities markets! Carley Garner's A Trader’s First Book on Commodities, Second Edition is today's most practical and realistic introduction to successful commodities trading. More than any other primer, it recognizes that the most important trading decisions are made long before the first trade is executed. Drawing on years of dealing with retail traders from all walks of life, experience levels, and amounts of risk capital, Garner answers the most pressing questions newcomers ask -- and the questions they haven't realized they need to ask. This extensively updated Second Edition reflects major changes in the market over the past three years, including new trading challenges, platforms, tools, data resources, and risks. Garner presents a hard-eyed look at the collapses of MF Global and PFGBEST, their failure to honor the sanctity of “Customer Segregated Funds” accounts, the implications for investors, and techniques for mitigating these new risks. She has added new charts and example trades throughout; new coverage of commodity impacts arising from recent events in Europe; important information about new technological improvements and competitive intraday position margin standards; and much more.
About the Author
Carley Garner is a senior market strategist and an experienced commodity broker with DeCarley Trading, a division of Zaner Group, in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a columnist for Stocks & Commodities and the author of Commodity Options, A Trader’s First Book on Commodities, and Currency Trading in the FOREX and Futures Markets. Garner writes two widely distributed e-newsletters, The Financial Futures Report and The DeCarley Perspective. She is also a regular “Real Money” contributor at TheStreet.com.
Her work has been featured in multiple magazines, including Stocks & Commodities, Futures, Active Trader, Option Trader, Currency Trader, Your Trading Edge, Equities, and PitNews. 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.DeCarleyTrading.com.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Boom and Bust Cycles of Commodities...and Now Brokerage Firms 1
Chapter 1: A Crash Course in Commodities 19
Chapter 2: Hedging Versus Speculating 43
Chapter 3: The Organized Chaos of Open Outcry and the Advent of Electronic Trading 51
Chapter 4: Account Access, Trading Platforms, and Quote Vendors 59
Chapter 5: Choosing a Brokerage Firm 77
Chapter 6: Finding a Broker That Fits and Choosing a Service Level 99
Chapter 7: Order Types and How to Use Them 113
Chapter 8: Making Cents of Commodity Quotes 131
Chapter 9: Figuring in Financial Futures—Stock Indices, Interest Rates, and Currencies 157
Chapter 10: Coping with Margin Calls 193
Chapter 11: The Only Magic in Trading—Emotional Stability 201
Chapter 12: Trading Is a Business—Have a Plan 211
Chapter 13: Why You Should Speculate in Futures 229
Chapter 14: Futures Slang and Terminology 239
Index 259