Trade Example #3: Gold


OK, let's look at another missed opportunity. This one was in Gold.

I'm sure you've heard all those ads on the radio trying to get you to buy gold coins?  Well, after you see this, you'll never invest in another gold coin again...because you'll know the proper way of investing in gold.

Here's the setup for this trading opportunity in Gold.
Notice this trade started on December 9th, 2002 and ended June 9th, 2003:

  • This is what we call "Swing Trading", where you stay in the market at all times and never exit until the contract ends. (No, this is not buy and hold.)

  • This is Gold and to trade one contract of Gold you must have $1,350.00 in your account. Again, if you traded two contracts then the amount of money you would need in your account would double, but then of course so would your profits. (In this example we are always only actively trading one contract; therefore never needing more than the initial $1,350.00.)
     

  • On December 9th we received our buy signal from our indicator, so we placed an order to buy one contract. 

    • We held this contract until February 12th, which is when we received our sell signal, but
      instead of selling just one contract which would exit our position with a profit of $4,610.00,
      we actually sell two contracts. 
       
    • Now follow carefully, what this does is liquidate, or offset, our first "long or buy" position,
      and sends us "short" with one contract. 
       
    • Now what do I mean by "short"?  What this means is that we sold one contract on
      February 12th, with plans to buy it back at a later date at a lower price. Profits are always
      made when you buy low and sell high, but in these markets...
       

  • "You can sell high first, then buy back low...later!"
    (That's why they call'em futures.)

    • This way, if you think the market is going down then simply sell first and buy back at a
      lower price later on. That's called going "short"!  The trading strategies are exactly the same
      for going "short," or selling as they are for going "long," or buying. (Buy when one line
      crosses or sell when the other line crosses. How hard is that?)

      • The key to your success is to always buy low and sell high. But remember,
        in the commodities industry it doesn't matter which order you do it in. You can
        sell high first, then buy back low later.
         
      • If this is a hard concept for you to grasp, don't sweat it, this is where many
        people struggle to understand. We cover this in great detail in our training CD-ROM's;
        besides, you don't have to sell short anyway, you can always just buy and go long
        if that's what you feel comfortable doing.
         
  • Now, back to our swing trade.  On February 12th, we went short, or sold another contract.  We held it until April 17th 2003 where upon we bought or went long "two" contracts. 

    • Again, what this did is offset our "short" position of February 12th, for a profit of $3,900.00
      and put us back into the market "long" with one contract.  We then exited this trade by selling one contract or offsetting our position on June 10th 2003 with a profit of $2,920.00.

OK, what's the wrap-up on this trade...
We were in the trade for a total of 189 actual days, or approximately six months. (You see, we never recommend that you get caught up in day trading, which means you jump in and out of the market a whole bunch of times in one day. That's crazy, and very risky business.)

 During that six month period of time, we needed to always maintain a minimum account balance of approximately $1,350.00.  Each time we exited the market, we immediately re-entered the market going the opposite direction. This is our swing trade strategy. 

  • After the entire six month period of time, we would have made a total profit of $11,430.00 trading just one contract of Gold. (No more buy and hold for me, and certainly no more gold coins.)
     
  • Here's something fun for you to think about. I have a friend who swing trades as many as 100 contracts at a time. Now I don't do that, I only aspire to be there someday. He drove over in his new black Ferrari the other day and invited me to come to Florida for the weekend. He said he was going to be spending a couple of weeks with his wife and kids at their house in Palm Beach. (No, I didn't go, I didn't feel comfortable about it. I'm shy and didn't want to impose -- but sometimes I think maybe I should have.)

Still not convinced anyone can do this? See my next example. If you are interested, go ahead and download or request a FREE Trial of Track 'n Trade Pro Charting Software and get started today!

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Legal Disclaimer: Their is risk of loss when trading futures, past performance is not indicative of future results.