Many analysts are of the opinion that commodity investing maybe the best investments in the early part of the 21st century. Take the name of oil, oil is the most heavily traded commodity in the world right now. Gold is another commodity that is reaching record price levels. Gold prices for the first time have breached the unheard of $1000 per ounce barrier. Investing in commodities may be the something that investors thought of boring and dull only a few decades back but not anymore now. If you are interested in investing in companies that are involved in the production, transformation and distribution of commodities, than one of the best ways to do so is through investing in the Master Limited Partnership (MLP).

The shares that an MLP issues are called Units and the investors who own them are known as Unit Holders. MLPs are public entities that trade on public exchanges. An MLP issues shares that trade on an exchange just like a company stocks that trades on an exchange. You can invest in an MLP by buying its shares on an exchange.

When you invest in an MLP, you are essentially investing in public partnership. There are tax advantages to investing in MLP. Unlike regular corporations, an MLP is only taxed once. Now most of the MLPs trade on the New York Stock Exchange. A few MLPs also trade on the NASDAQ and the AMEX.

Congressional Legislation, any MLP that derives 90% or more of its income from the production, distribution and transformation of commodities qualifies for this tax exempt scheme.

Since an MLP has got the tax exempt status it will only have to generate only $1.54 for each dollar that you invest in it. Suppose you invest $1 in the stocks of a regular corporation and you are in the 35% tax bracket. Corporate tax is 30% of its before tax income. This means that for each dollar that you invest you need to get at least $1/ (1-0.35) =$1.54 just in order to breakeven. So the corporation will have to generate $1.54/ (1-0.3) =$2.2 for each dollar that you invest in order to return you $1 after tax profit. In most cases, the majority of these GPs in MLPs are other corporate entities setup with the specific purpose of running an MLP. This tax advantage gives an MLP competitive advantage as compared to other corporations when competing for assets. This means a huge advantage for an MLP. Now an MLP is run by a General Partner (GP).

However, most GPs do a good job of running the MLP as it is in their financial interests. Now you must know as a limited partner in an MLP, you have limited voting rights. This means when you invest in an MLP, you are giving away the keys of ownership to the GP. This means you are out of the decision making in an MLP.

An MLP is obligated to distribute all available cash back to its unit holders on a quarterly basis, so you will be getting a quarterly income from your units. Secondly as the MLP expands and grows overtime, its units may give you capital gain as well. Investing in MLP units can give you quarterly cash flows as well as appreciation of the unit price.

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The reason MLPs exist is to distribute all available cash back to the MLP unit holders. As said, this has to be done on a quarterly basis. The following factors are considered before determining the amount of cash distributed to each individual investor:

1) The difference between the total cash flow and the cash flow ploughed back into the MLP for futures growth. 2) How many units you hold as an MLP investor. 3) The incentive distribution rights created for the GP.

So once you decide to invest in commodities, you have many investment options like mutual funds, stocks, ETFs as well as MLPs. You must do your due diligence while making your investment decisions. There are always pros and cons of each investment vehicle!

Investing in MLPs is quite simple. Since an MLP is a publicly traded entity. You can simply invest in an MLP by calling your broker and telling him or her how many units of a particular MLP you are interested in buying. So investing in an MLP is just like investing in stocks.

There are not many MLPs registered in US. Something like 50 MLPs is being publicly traded in the United States. Out of these 50, 40 are energy MLPs meaning that they are involved in the storage terminals, pipelines, transportation, refining and distribution. Majority of MLPs trade on NYSE with a few trading on NASDAQ and AMEX! So you don’t have to do your research from a long list of MLPs. MLP sector is growing.

You only need to remember this 90% of the income that comes to an MLP should come from the production and distribution of commodities for these MLPs to have the tax exempt status. Moreover, investing in pipelines and other energy infrastructure offers steady cash flow streams for an MLP.

So when you invest in an MLP, you should look for answers to the following questions: 1) What’s the historical payout of the MLP? 2) How much is the cash flow? And so on. If your brokerage firm has published some research on the MLPs, you can reference that.

Now investing in MLPs do come with some risks like most of the infrastructure is like pipelines and drilling rigs that are vulnerable to natural disasters and earth quakes like the Hurricane Katrina, so any such event can have a negative impact on your investment.

Since the MLP is fairly small at this moment, there can be liquidity issues in withdrawing your investment from an MLP. These are some of the risk that you can face while investing in an MLP. There is another risk related with the management. You don’t have much say in the management of the MLP. Running an MLP is basically a GP show. If you are not satisfied with the performance of the management or its policies only thing that you can do is to withdraw your investment from that MLP.

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Trading would be almost impossible without charts and technical analysis. Trading is all about anticipating and predicating rather than forecasting. Technical analysis is the best tool a trader can have. A picture is worth more than a thousand words.

The most important thing that you should in a market is its primary trend. Primary trend is the direction of the market that offers the least resistance forward making money. When you follow a primary trend in a bull market you look for strong stocks and in a bear market you look for stocks showing weaknesses. Knowing the primary trend and trading in its direction increases your chances of making money. So how do you find the primary trend and what tools you need to determine the primary trend? You use the following tools to determine the primary trend:

Trendlines: To correctly draw a rising trendline on the chart, start with the lowest low on the chart and connect it to the lowest low preceding the highest high in the chart without bothering about the prices between the two points. Knowing how to draw and use trendlines gives you an excellent start on any trade. Similarly to draw the down trendline, draw a line connecting the highest high on the chart to the highest high preceding the lowest low of the chart without passing through the prices between the two prices. Key support is the area above which the prices have held for sometimes. Key resistance is the area above which the prices have not been able to rise for sometimes. A market breaking above the key resistance or below the key support is a signals a new trend.

Moving Averages: Support level is the price where the prices stop falling and the buyers step in overcoming the selling pressure. A break in the support level is an indication that more weakness may be ahead. Moving averages are sues to smooth out the market’s trend over a given period of time and serve as an important support and resistance levels.

A break above the resistance level is an indication that the market is going strong. Resistance level is the price where prices stop rising and the sellers overcome the buying pressure.

Oscillators: Oscillators are graphic depictions of points derived from the mathematical formulas that are plotted below the price charts. Knowing these mathematical formulas is not important as a trader. What is more important to know is the fact that oscillators produce useful mathematical data that can help you tell whether the market is overbought or oversold and whether the momentum of the primary trend in the market is still strong or there is a potential change in the primary trend ahead? Two important oscillators that you should be familiar with are RSI and MACD.

Bollinger Bands: Bollinger bands are also known as volatility bands or envelopes. Bollinger bands give you visual evidence when the market has travelled too far in any one direction. Bollinger bands are calculated by plotting points one or more standard deviations above and below the 20-day moving average. However, you can calculate Bollinger Bands with any moving average.

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The day before the President’s day is the worst day and the day after the Easter is the worst day after. However, you should keep in mind that a lot of other factors also come into play and you have a lot of room for error. The next best holiday bets are the Labor Day and the Memorial Day because they fall before the first day of trading in September and June respectively.

Children love Santa Claus. Do the markets love Santa Claus? You must have heard about the Santa Claus Rally? Most of the folks usually feel fairly good about themselves around this time of the year. The best time of the year to own stocks is the Santa Claus rally which for all practical purposes is the 17 day stretch from December 21 to January 7. This is the best time of the year. People are happy and the markets are happy.

FED always wants the consumer confidence high during this part of the year. The more shopping the consumers are going to do, the more companies are going to sell and earn. The more companies earn, the more their stock prices go up.FED tends to lower interest rates during holidays in order to go into the New Year with less of a worry if the economy is slowing down. There is a low trading volume which tends to exaggerate the trend if the economy is not doing well and is slowing down. However, when you are dealing with seasonality, you should keep these facts in your mind:

1) The market is not longer static. The seasonal effect may get interrupted by other events. More and more people have real time access to information and larger amounts of capital than at any time in the past.

2) At the end of the year, institutional investors want to make their results look as good as possible to their shareholders and tend to buy the stocks and so on. Institutional investors like mutual funds, hedge funds and insurance companies have become important players in the markets. So in case of an event free environment, seasonal tendencies may hold up fairly well.

3) People want quick profits. Many people make a living from investing and trading. These are the times for day traders and swing traders. With fewer people willing to hold stocks for longer periods, it is very difficult to predict seasonality. The days of long term investing or what you call buy and hold are dead! Frequent market crashes have taught the investing public that investing for the long term is fairly risky. So there is more short term trading going on. Value investing is gone and speculation is in.

4) Derivates and outside the market trading activities can result in highly unpredictable patterns. The recent market crash was the result of CMO and Default Swaps bringing down the banks and Insurance companies in ways that had not been anticipated or foreseen by the analysts. Many had assumed that derivate securities are safe. Infact they have highly unpredictable tendencies.

So with everyone talking about the seasonal tendencies in the market, it reliability becomes less diminished. Then there is a change in demographics also taking place. With the aging of the population, the overall trend will be towards more income producing investments.

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A scalper is also a seeker of short term profits of the level of 25-50 pips. A scalper might use a 10 minute chart to follow the market, a 1 hour chart to determine the long term trend and the 5 minute chart to time the entries and exits for each trade. Scalper is a workable profile for a small retail trader. However, you should be able to view the overall trend of the market to gauge whether you are trading with or against the prevailing trend.

A Day trader is looking for larger profits something like 50-100 pips. A Day Trader might use a 15 minute chart to follow the market, a 4 hour chart to determine the long term trend and the 5 minute chart for making the entry and exit. Day trader is a good profile for a new trader.

Day trading is something that many people are successfully doing from the comfort of their homes. There are many people who now make a living from day trading. In day trading, you open a trade and close it before the end of the day. That means you do not keep it open overnight usually. Day trader is a good profile for a new trader.

However, sometimes you might not want to close the trade at the end of the day as the trade is in profit and you are expecting more profits if you continue with the trade overnight. There is a rollover cost if you rollover your trades overnight. Be sure if you want to day trade, you know your broker policy on rollovers and the rollover cost for you. A Day trader is looking for larger profits something like 50-100 pips. A Day Trader might use a 15 minute chart to follow the market, a 4 hour chart to determine the long term trend and the 5 minute chart for making the entry and exit.

Position trader is a risky and difficult profile for a part time or new trader. The longer you hold the position, the more you are at risk of getting the market surprises that no one can predict. A market surprise can be a sharp change in direction or volatility often occurring as the result of a major surprise announcement.

If you aim for a 1/3 risk/reward ratio, a Guerilla will risk 5-10 pips per trade, a scalper will risk 15-20 pips per trade, a day trader will risk 25-30 pips per trade and a position trader will risk 40-50 pips per trade. Each profile requires different scales of charts and time frames but also indicators and money management parameters.

Always try to maintain a risk/reward ratio of at most 1/3. This means the chances are 3 to 1 that you are going to make a winning trade. In other words, in the long run, you will have 3 winning trades for each losing trade. If you aim for a 1/3 risk/reward ratio, a Guerilla will risk 5-10 pips per trade, a scalper will risk 15-20 pips per trade, a day trader will risk 25-30 pips per trade and a position trader will risk 40-50 pips per trade. Each profile requires different scales of charts and time frames but also indicators and money management parameters.

The differences in money management techniques and attitudes are much less. Good traders tend to share money management and attitude traits. So do bad traders. Do you want to become a good trader or a bad trader?

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What is your profile as a forex trader? Have you ever thought of thinking which trading profile best suits you? A trading profile that matches your personality can make the difference between success and failure. Forex traders have different profiles. Your trading profile depends on the time frame you trade. Are you a short term trader like a day trader or a swing trader? Are you a long term trader like a position trader? So your time horizon can range from a very short term to a very long term. Find the time horizon that best suits you and bring all your trade plan considerations in line with it.

Discovering the bad traits in you early is going to help you get a firm toehold and develop into a good trader in the long haul. So determining your trader profile early on in your trading career is very important for your success as a forex trader. Good traders share common characteristics. Bad traders share many things in common.

Finding your right trading profile is essentially finding your own niche in the market. Once you know your profile, you can dig deeper for improvements. Too many traders jump from one type of trade and profile to another quickly and often. Forex markets are enormous, complex and deep.

So how you determine your trading profile? The primary considerations in determining a trading profile are: 1) How much profit you wish to achieve in each trade? 2) How much risk you are willing to take in each trade? 3) How long on average do you expect to hold your positions?

You should know this fact that the longer you hold a position, the more you can benefit from the developing trend. At the same time, the longer you stay in the trade, the more you are at the risk of a sudden news release or announcement that can be bone jarring for your trade.

A Guerilla Forex Trader is looking for very short term profits something like 10-20 pips. Trading costs can become highly significant for a Guerilla Forex Trader as he/she may be in and out of the market frequently. So what are the most probable trader’s profiles? The answer to this question will lead you to one of the following profiles: 1) Guerilla, 2) Scalper, 3) Day Trader and 4) Position Trader.

If you are new to forex trading, you cannot and should not be a Guerilla trader. Now read it very carefully, a Guerilla is not a good fit for a new trader. This profile is best left to the professional forex traders with direct access to the interbank market and very low bid/ask spreads. A Guerilla Forex Trader might follow a 5 minute chart to follow the market, the 30 minute chart to determine the long term trend in the market and 1 minute chart to time trade entries and exits. There is too much noise on the 1 minute chart and it will be very difficult to make sense of that noise.

You can only be profitable in the long run if your trading cost is less than your profits. So if you are a new trader just starting to learn the ropes, you should avoid Guerilla trading profile. You will not be able to cover your trading cost with this profile.

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