Thanks to everybody for your responses. Regarding my "i should find something more worthwhile to do" comment, I was just trying to be honest with myself. The fact of the matter is, while I like the idea of making more money, I don't like the idea of ...

time commitment

Why should I buy US T-bills? I realize rates a fairly high right now (about 5%). But, my investments are for the long-term. I'm relatively young (24). And over a period of years stocks will likely do better than bonds, even if they don't look so hot ...

Grains & Agricultural Futures

I myself have recently considered investing in corn for the long term (that's right, I said investing--I'm not to interested in short term trading). The problem is, I have no idea how to even buy corn futures. I have absolutely zero futures trading ...

Grains & Agricultural Futures

I mean if I had the probability density function of price distribution as a function of time after a position is taken. I don't have that information. I was simply speculating that it was symmetrical for short time periods, and that the width of the ...

my first trading plan (very primitive)

Good point Merlin. That's why I was hoping to actually do a study on the distribution of prices as a function of time. if I had that information, I could actually do the calculation and see if limiting losses with a stop would more than offset the ...

my first trading plan (very primitive)

the trend is your friend — Thanks everybody for your advice. I really do appreciate it. Here's one question I forgot to ask in my initial post. I think we've all heard the phrase, "the trend is your friend". Obviously, this means one should ...

a few questions from an interested trader

Thanks for your advice Dennis. By the way, am I correct to assume when you say "do the fundamental work" you mean learn as much as you can and practice before investing, and not research a currency's fundamentals (interest rates, inflation, etc.)? I ...

a few questions from an interested trader

Thanks Narafa for the extensive explanation of the FFT. That was a much more thorough explanation than I proveded. It actually insn't overly difficult to write an algorithm to do an FFT on a data set (I believe that's the whole point of the "fast" ...

Fourier Analysis

I had the same question myself. Originally I thought that a Limit buy differed from a Stop sell by the direction from which the price approached the limit order. For example, a Stop sell at 110.12 would only work if the price came DOWN to 110.12 ...

Basic Questions about Limit Orders

Thanks a lot Merlin. Although the path to becoming a trader isn't cut and dry, I guess becoming a trader is a lot like any other profession--there is nothing that can replace research, practice and persistance.

How did you begin trading?

While your explanation was certainly clear Merlin, I have to say that Narafa's explanation is a bit easier to remember. In any case, I'm glad to hear I'm not the only person who's had difficulties with the terminology.

Basic Questions about Limit Orders

Thank you very much for clearing that up Merlin. It seemed logical to me that there would be four ways to enter the market when you combine buy or sell with limit or stop. I just couldn't figure out which combination meant what. And suprisingly, I ...

Basic Questions about Limit Orders