About Cord Blood

The Facts About Cord Blood Banking
By Brenna Smithy

Parents are often opting these days to save their newborn's umbilical blood for the possibility the baby or a close family member might need it to treat a disease. Statistics available so far indicate only a one in 2700 chance the baby will need the cord blood and a one in 1400 chance other near family members may need it. However, this blood can be used for non-family members and is being used to treat diseases and save lives. It is less likely the blood will be a match for non-family members but many matches are made successfully.

Cord blood banking is the process of obtaining and storing a newborns umbilical blood. The umbilical cord is the cord that attaches from the babies belly button to the placenta in the mother's womb during pregnancy. The umbilical cord is the channel for provision of nutrients and oxygen to the growing fetus. Until recently the umbilical cord and the placenta were considered medical waste and simply disposed of after birth.

Stem cells, researchers discovered, could cure many diseases such as leukemia and help others such as brain injury and Alzheimer's. Umbilical cord blood is full of these precious stem cells. Cerebral palsy has been successfully treated with stem cells. As research continues it is believed even more uses for stem cells such as spinal cord repair will be discovers. Stem cell research is at the cutting edge of medicine and the possibilities for new healing modalities for diseases using stem cells are enormous.

Harvesting umbilical blood is totally painless to both mother and child. If you wish to donate your child's cord blood or harvest for private or public use you need to let your doctor and the bank of your choice know by the 34th week of pregnancy. The cord bank will send professionals to collect the blood from the umbilical cord after it is cut and the placenta has been delivered.

Approximately 80ml or the equivalent of 3 ounces of blood is collected. The blood needs to be collected within 10 to fifteen minutes of birth which is why arrangements must be made ahead of time. The collection of this blood does not interfere with the birth in any way. Donating to a public bank is free of charge.

After collection the cord blood is tested for any diseases. If any such diseases are discovered the family will be notified. The blood is then processed and slowly frozen to -196 degrees. The blood can be stored indefinitely so long as the temp is maintained. Cord banks have multiple back up sources of power to avoid any loss of this precious resource.

If you can afford to harvest and store your newborns cord blood by all means does so. Banking can give you peace of mind for the future health of your child. If you cannot afford to harvest and store your newborns cord blood considers donating it. It cost you nothing and is painless but may save someone's life. The cord and its blood are simply discarded if it is not harvested and will help no one. Who knows, maybe someone else's donated cord blood will help you or a family member one day.

Cord blood banking can be done privately or publicly. Public banks take donations or blood from any child whose parent decides to give that gift. Some parents cannot afford the price to store their child's cord blood but nonetheless decide to donate it to a bank so that others can be helped.

Private cord banks have an initial set up cost of 1500-2500 dollars and a yearly fee to store the blood of 100-150 dollars. Some public banks will agree to keep a portion of the blood for family use if the rest is made available for general public use. Research which cord blood bank you wish to use carefully and when you have decided give your baby or perhaps someone else the precious gift of life.

For more information on cord banking check out my article at [http://www.chordbloodbanking.net/why-are-stem-cells-important/]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Brenna_Smithy/924225
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Facts-About-Cord-Blood-Banking&id=6546791

Saving Money On Gas ???????

The Ultimate Guide To Saving Money On Gas
By Matt Mason

No matter how good your cash flow plan is, "uncontrollable" gas prices can hit you when you least expect it. Today we will go through some ways to get back at "The Mann" and maybe even by the end of this article, you will be gung ho about getting gas!

When I was young, I used to always be so fascinated by gas prices and how they would jump up and down. I always wondered... why is that? I realize that crude oil prices fluctuate and since gas is made from crude oil, then the price of gas must fluctuate also. But what is interesting, is that there are a lot of different things besides gas that are made from or with crude oil. Some of those things are plastics (which leech into our foods and the filtered water in bottled water), mineral oils (found in most lotions), petroleum (Chapstick, Carmex etc etc), gasoline... oops, I mean Vaseline, table salt (that's why it ain't "Sea Salt" and causes high blood pressure) and more. So I wonder why the price of these things don't fluctuate hardly at all (especially when the price of crude oil soars).

Anyway, whatever the reason, it really doesn't matter. Gas prices are something that we can't control, but we can definitely control ourselves. So without further adieu, let's get into some of the ways that you can save money on gas. I will this newsletter down into 3 categories (Pumping Gas, On Road and Off Road).

Pumping Gas

Fill It Up - If possible, fill your tank up all the way. Try to avoid $10 here and $10 there because with each trip you make to the gas station you are wasting gas, even if you are doing it on the way to somewhere else!

Find The Right Place - If you are traveling, try not to fill up at service stations that are visible from the main highways. Their prices tend to be higher. They know that most people who stop in won't be in a position to compare prices and in some cases are desperate. A better thing to do would be to take a city exit and look somewhere within the city. There is normally a lot more competition there and you will, in most cases, get lower prices.

Find The Right Time - The time of day that you fill up your gas tank does make a difference. It is best to fill up your tank early in the morning or late at night (preferably in the morning). This is because the ground is cooler. Gas station's storage tanks are below ground. Cooler ground = dense gas. Hotter ground = expanded (more vaporized) gas. You get more gas for your gas in the morning.

Also, if you see a gas truck pumping gas into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, don't buy any gas. The gas is probably being stirred up as it is being pumped in and you may pick up some dirt that will eventually settle to the bottom.

Be Patient - Speaking of vapors, when you pump your gas, always make sure you use the lowest setting. The faster you pump, the more of the gas becomes vapor and goes right back into the hose. For this same reason, you will always want to fill up your tank when it is no lower than half full. The more air that is occupying the gas tank, the more room for the gas to evaporate.

On Road

Warm Up Quickly - Stay away from long warm ups. Your car, even in cold weather, doesn't need to warm up 5-10 minutes. A couple of minutes is plenty time to get the circulation going in your car. After that you are wasting gas.

Turn Off Your Car - Keep your car off as much as possible. When you idle you get zero miles per gallon. Yes, it takes gas to turn on a car but only about 20-30 seconds worth of idling. If you are at a railroad track or waiting in line at the emissions, then you can turn your car off and save money. Another way that you can save money is to go inside restaurants rather than going through the drive throughs (where you have to idle a lot). The more you idle, especially with the A/C on, the more gas you waste.

Drive Steady - Try not to slow down and speed up. Driving at a consistent speed saves you money. If you can, use cruise control. Every time you accelerate, you use gas. Stay a safe distance behind the car in front of you while driving so that you won't have to slow down and speed up as much. If you do have to stop (such as for a light), take off slowly. That fast acceleration will burn more gas.

Never rest your left foot on the brake. That extra pressure can cause drag that will waste gas and will wear down your brakes faster.

Stay Away From Heavy Traffic - Because of the things I just mentioned, a traffic jam is the enemy. If you are normally stuck in a traffic jam after work, then maybe you can find something to do in the area until the traffic dies down, if feasible. You won't lose as much time as you may think (even though you may leave 30 minutes later), and you may cut 15-20 minutes off your travel time.

Use A/C Efficiently - Use your A/C when you are driving at higher speeds. Open your windows when driving at lower speeds. When you open your windows, it increases drag and lowers your fuel efficiency, but not that much at lower speeds (35-40 mph). At lower speeds your A/C will burn more fuel, but at higher speeds the drag will burn more.

Off Road

Stay Cool - Always try to park in the shade. If you can't, then park your car so the gas tank is pointing away from direct sunlight. When your car heats up, so does your gas tank. Gasoline will evaporate right out of your tank regardless of the weather. You will also need less A/C to cool off once you get back in the car, if you do this.

Keep Your Cap Tight - Keep that gas cap tight. Make sure that it has a seal in it and that it is keeping those gas vapors in while keeping the air out. Get another gas cap if the one you have doesn't fit tightly.

Pack Light - If you have ever had a car packed full of people and luggage, then you know that it makes a big difference when trying to accelerate! The less weight you have in your car the less fuel you use. You want your car to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Get as much junk out of your trunk (and back seat) as possible. Only carry what you need. But... Don't throw your kids out!

Pump It Up - Keep your tires inflated! Inflate them to the specified level. This will reduce the contact area of your tire on the road and keep friction down. You can lose up to 6% in gas mileage for every pound of under inflation, so check your tires regularly.

Use The Right Tires - If you use snow tires, take them off in the summer. Deeper treads cause more friction and cuts down on fuel efficiency.

Keep Your Car Tuned Up - A sluggish engine wastes gas. Replace your air filter when needed. You can look in your owners manual to find out how often you should do this. It's not expensive at all and in most cases is very easy to do yourself. This saves more gas than you know.

Sick and tired of making monthly debt payments?

Check out this great information getting out of debt. Learn these tips on the best way to get out of debt [http://freeyourmindonline.net/best-way-to-get-out-of-debt.html].

If you are looking towards creating a cash flow plan, check out this personal finance software [http://freeyourmindonline.net/resources/personal-finance-budgeting.html] and take control of your finances today!

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Matt_Mason/140330
http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Ultimate-Guide-To-Saving-Money-On-Gas&id=6376885

Photo Recovery Software ???????

Top 6 Free Photo Recovery Software to Get Your Lost Photos Back
By Coco Qiu

Digital camera is quite popular now. In digital camera, all photos are stored in a small clip of memory card. This small clip is easily to be damaged logically or physically. Once damage happens, it will lose some or all the photos in it. About going CRAZY? Fortunately, most of the time we can restore these lost photos. And below I will introduce you some FREE photo recovery software which would help a lot for getting back lost photos. Notice that recovery software can only be helpful when the lost is not caused by physical damage.

1. Geeksnerds Digital Photo Recovery Software

Free recovery tool can recovers digital image files from hard disk drives, flash drives and other storage devices supporting FAT file system. It supports BMP, PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF and Tif images and provides options for searching in Sub-folders. The best thing of it is that user can stop the process at any time of scanning process and recover the desired files, which saves lots of time.

However, this software can only recover digital image files lost due to accidental deletion.

2. AnyFound Photo Recovery

AnyFound Free Recovery Software supports recovery of photos, images, pictures and snap shots photographs by accidentally deleted, lost or missed from Windows hard disk partitions and removable storage devices.

Basically, Anyfound Photo Recovery is a good free photo recovery software. One of the weak points is that it can only recover image files. If you have some video in your camera, you can do nothing about it.

3. ArtPlus Digital Photo Recovery

Free Art Plus Digital Recovery tool can help you recover lost images from corrupted or accidentally formatted digital camera memory cards. And this program can read all memory cards currently available on the market.

4. Smart Image Recovery

Free Smart Image Recovery tool is an image recovery tool for deleted images restoration (jpg, gif, png) from any devices. The software is able to recover graphics even a drive was formatted or you re-write some files.

It supports OS Windows NT/XP/Vista/Windows® 7 as well.

5. PicaJet Photo Recovery

Free PicaJet Recovery helps you to recover deleted or formatted images from almost any type of media cards (just like MemoryStick, CompactFlash, SecureDigital, MicroDrive, MemoryStick, etc.) used by digital cameras.

6. MjM Free photo data recovery software

This free recovery software will only recover jpg photographs from formatted memory cards, deleted photos or corrupt memory cards. It is unable to recover photos from memory cards that are not recognized by windows as a device.

I believe that these free recovery software can be helpful. And when these software can't help you get a desirable recovery result, you need to use a cost software. The price of most cost photo recovery software is at a range from $39 to $129. I personally recommend Wondershare Photo Recovery which has a lowest price $29 and is now on discount of only $19.

A cost recovery tool like Wondershare Photo Recovery is simple to use. It can support recovery for comprehensive picture formats from any device. And it can not only recover lost photos but also lost videos in your camera. When users are using a free demo, they can scan to preview the recoverable images and only perform purchase when they think the recovery result is satisfying.

I know photos are really important to many persons and I understand how frustrating when you accidentally lost them. Hope that with all these excellent free recovery software, everyone can find the precious memory back!

This author is a student in Winston Collage who has great interests in System Security and regularly writes for Wondershare Data Recovery and Wondershare Photo Recovery [http://www.data-recovery-utilities.com/photo-recovery/#172].

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Coco_Qiu/452584
http://EzineArticles.com/?Top-6-Free-Photo-Recovery-Software-to-Get-Your-Lost-Photos-Back&id=3353482

Trading Psychology Lesson ?????

Trading Psychology Lesson - Impulse Trading
By Carl Capolingua

• In this article we're going to investigate the concept of good and bad trades.
• We'll note that good trades are a result of making 'good trading decisions' but alas may still have 'bad outcomes'.
• Conversely, bad trades are a result of making 'bad decisions' and on occasion may actually result in 'good outcomes'.
• The trader's best weapon in breaking the mould of most novices who lose wads of cash in the market is to focus only on making good trades, and worrying less about good or bad outcomes.

In our Workshops we attempt to deliver students strategies which help identify the best trades to suit particular and personal trading specifications. We have a number of trading strategies which can be used to reap rewards from the stock market, with each strategy using a particular structure or 'setup' to formulate a smart trade. Most traders however don't have such a structure, and as a result, too often succumb to the dreaded 'impulse trade'.

This is a largely overlooked concept in investing literature and refers to an unstructured, non-method, or non-setup trade.

Succumbing to Spontaneity

We've all been there!

You look at a chart, suddenly see the price move in one direction or the other, or the charts might form a short-term pattern, and we jump in before considering risk/return, other open positions, or a number of the other key factors we need to think about before entering a trade.

Other times, it can feel like we place the trade on automatic pilot. You might even find yourself staring at a newly opened position thinking "Did I just place that?"

All of these terms can be summed up in one form - the impulse trade.

Impulse trades are bad because they are executed without proper analysis or method. Successful investors have a particular trading method or style which serves them well, and the impulse trade is one which is done outside of this usual method. It is a bad trading decision which causes a bad trade.

But why would a trader suddenly and spontaneously break their tried-and-true trading formula with an impulse trade? Surely this doesn't happen too often? Well, unfortunately this occurs all the time - even though these transactions fly in the face of reason and learned trading behaviours.

Even the most experienced traders have succumbed to the impulse trade, so if you've done it yourself don't feel too bad!

How it Happens

If it makes no sense, why do traders succumb to the impulse trade? As is usual with most bad investing decisions, there's quite a bit of complex psychology behind it.

In a nutshell, traders often succumb to the impulse trade when they've been holding onto bad trades for too long, hoping against all reason that things will 'come good'. The situation is exacerbated when a trader knowingly - indeed, willingly - places an impulse trade, and then has to deal with additional baggage when it incurs a loss.

One of the first psychological factors at play in the impulse trade is, unsurprisingly, risk.

Contrary to popular belief, risk is not necessarily a bad thing. Risk is simply an unavoidable part of playing the markets: there is always risk involved in trades - even the best structured transactions. However, in smart trading, a structure is in place prior to a transaction to accommodate risk. That is, risk is factored into the setup so the risk of loss is accepted as a percentage of expected outcomes. When a loss occurs in these situations, it is not because of a bad/impulse trade, nor a trading psychology problem - but simply the result of adverse market conditions for the trading system.

Impulse trades, on the other hand, occur when risk isn't factored into the decision.

Risk and Fear

The psychology behind taking an impulse trade is simple: the investor takes a risk because they are driven by fear. There is always fear of losing money when one plays the market. The difference between a good and a bad trader is that the former is able to manage their fears and reduce their risk.

An impulse trade occurs when the trader abandons risk because they're afraid of missing out on what looks like a particularly 'winning' trade. This impulse emotion often causes the investor to break with their usual formula and throw their money into the market in the hope of 'not missing out on a potential win'. However, the impulse trade is never a smart one - it's a bad one.

If the trader identifies a potential opportunity and spontaneously decides they must have the trade - and then calms down and uses good strategy to implement the transaction - then this is no longer an impulse trade. However, it the trader disregards a set-up trigger or any form of method in making the trade, they've thrown caution to the wind and have implemented a bad trade.

Result of the Impulse Trade

Impulse trades typically end in one of three ways:

1. The ill-conceived impulse trade results in a loss (odds-on outcome!)
2. The impulse trade results in a loss, but subsequently becomes the trigger of a valid setup. The trader ignores the setup for the sake of their previous loss and misses out on the next win.
3. The impulse trade that actually wins. Occasionally an impulse trade will work out in the trader's favour. This is sheer luck!

From another viewpoint, however, a winning impulse trade is bad luck because it reinforces the taking of a bad trade simply due to a good outcome.

One winning impulse trade will spur on more and under the right market conditions some of these may also have good outcomes. It's a natural tendency for traders to focus on winning outcomes - regardless of the quality of the decisions which caused them.

This is a particularly dangerous situation for traders as all of their negative trading traits (which would usually cause losses in normal market conditions) are being reinforced.

As one would expect however, more often than not, bad trades made from bad trading decisions will result in losses. When the market eventually 'rights itself' and the aberration which allowed some bad trades to have good outcomes disappears, the trader is left confused as to what constitutes a successful approach, and is undoubtedly nursing big losses.

The trader has failed to focus on the quality of the trading decision, but rather than the quality of the outcome. In this way the impulse trade is little more than gambling, because gambling is based on pure chance whereas good trading is based on calculation and reason. There is risk inherent in both trading and gambling, but in the former, risk is accommodated and is simply an expected outcome in an overall proven winning strategy.

One must remember at all times that trading psychology is an incredibly important part of setting up a winning trading career.

If one doesn't remain calm, a few winning impulse trades are going to be outweighed by the eventual losing impulse trades, and cause a whole bundle of trading psychology issues down the track.

Curing the Impulse Trade Urge

So, how does one know that they're at risk of an impulse trade, i.e. how does one stop the problem before it develops?

If you're feeling panicky about your portfolio or a potential trade, that's the first sign. Stress will push you into the region of 'unreason', and you'll be more susceptible to making a bad, impulse decision.

If you think you might be at risk of making an impulse trade, ask yourself these questions:

• Do you feel that you are rushing to get into a trade in case you 'miss' it?
• Are you basing whether to take this trade or not on a prior trade, either missing that trade or it being a loss?
• Do you feel sick or nervous just before, or just after you've entered a trade?
• Have you focused on making a good trading decision, that is, are you following your trading methodology?

If the answer is 'yes' to the first three questions, and 'no' to the last question, then you are very likely making an impulse trade.

Don't panic

As in all trading psychology problems, there is one solution - don't panic. Of course, quelling panic isn't easy. Remember that panic comes when a fixation causes a situation to seem direr than it actually is.

The best way to avoid panic and indecision is to always trade based upon a proven trading plan which clearly defines the conditions by which you enter and exit the market, and perhaps more importantly, how much of your capital you are going to risk on each trade.

Any sense of disappointment which comes with a losing trade is therefore the result of adverse conditions in the market for the traders trading system - not the trader. When this is the case, you should not ascribe self-blame and create a massive trading psychology complex.

You have to remember that not all trades will win and that when you lose money using a proven system, you shouldn't panic. When you've lost money on an unstructured, impulse trade however, it is time to start looking at your trading psychology mindset.

In both cases stay away from panic or it will control your next move.

Trading Psychology is a key part of out Workshops. We'll teach you the common pitfalls which catch out novice traders and give you the mindset to take your trading to the next level.

Carl has delivered presentations on trading and investing to over 20,000 people throughout Australia and New Zealand and has helped countless clients to improve their trading outcomes. He also writes the long running and popular 'Terms of Trade' column in the finance section of Melbourne's Saturday Herald Sun newspaper.

Carl is currently the Head of Education at Australian Stock Report. Carl and his team teach technical analysis, money management, and trading psychology to intimate classes in a live trading environment. These workshops utilise strategies designed to take advantage of trading opportunities on all asset classes including equities, FX, commodities and indices.

Click to find a Workshop near you or sign up to a FREE trial of Australian Stock Report.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Carl_Capolingua/916742
http://EzineArticles.com/?Trading-Psychology-Lesson---Impulse-Trading&id=6128077

How ?? Futures Trading !!!!

Futures Trading - Is It For You?
By Barbara A Cohen

What is the Futures Market and why would anyone want to trade it?

Wikipedia's response is: A Futures Market is a financial exchange where people can trade Futures Contracts.Well, what is a Futures Contract? A Futures Contract is a legally binding agreement to buy specified quantities of commodities or financial instruments at a specified price with delivery set at a specified time in the future.

It is important to emphasize the word Contract. The first important difference between the Futures Market and, say, the Stock Market is that the Futures Market trades contracts, not shares of stock. You are not buying and selling a share (or piece) of a company. A Futures Contract is an agreement between investors to trade a specific quantity of a commodity or financial instrument, for example, gallons of gas or tons of wheat.

It is fairly simple to see how commodities work. An airline, for example, agrees to purchase 100,000 gallons of fuel for their planes at the current market price, but does not take delivery until sometime in the future.

That was why Southwest Airlines made money when the price of fuel was $140/barrel and other airlines had none. They had negotiated Futures Contracts with several oil companies years earlier when the price of oil was less expensive, and waited for delivery until 2007-2008. When the price of oil is cheap again, they'll be buying Futures Contracts for delivery in 2011/2012.

That's all well and good, you say, but that's not really using a trading system with trading strategies, that negotiating.

For every Futures Contract, there is a degree of risk. Futures Contracts leverage risk against the value of the underlying asset.

Southwest acquired risk. If the price of crude fell below the price they paid, they paid more than they had to. Simultaneously, they reduced risk because they thought that the price of oil would go higher than their contract price. In their case, the leverage was profitable.

Now look at the oil companies. They reduced risk, believing crude oil prices would fall below the contract price they negotiated with Southwest. They acquired risk because the price of oil rose higher than the contract (thereby losing additional revenue they could have earned). In this case, their leverage was not as good as it might have been.

Here's where you stop and say, I'm not Southwest Airlines. I'm an individual day trader. I don't want to buy 100,000 gallons of crude. How can I trade Futures?

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), where the majority of Futures contracts are traded, realized that individual investors want to trade Futures just like major institutions; individual traders want to leverage their risk as well. They also understand that small investors will not risk millions of dollars on gallons of gas contracts or tons of wheat. Therefore, the CME decided to create an investment environment that would entice individual investors to trade Futures.

Remember, as small investor, you have lots of exchanges available to you for your trading day. You can invest in large cap stocks on the NYSE, tech stocks with the NASDAQ, ETFs - AMEX, and options at the CBOT. To entice investors to trade Futures, the CME created an exchange that made other exchanges pale in comparison.

First off, the CME created emini Futures designed specifically for individual investors. The e in emini means that they are traded electronically. You'll have a trading platform right on your desktop where your trades go to the CME. The mini means that the contract is a smaller version of the exact same contract that the larger institutions trade.

The most popular CME emini is the S&P500. This contract is based upon the S&P500 index that represents the top 500 stocks in the NYSE. The S&P500 index is price-weighted, so some of the stocks have more weight or "importance" than others. (larger companies can move the value of the index higher or lower).

And you believed that trading Futures was just for commodities like corn, wheat, rice, crude oil.

Imagine for a moment that you could trade all the top 500 stocks at the same time. That would leverage risk. If one or two stocks did no perform well that afternoon, you would still have 498 other stocks to trade. No need to pick any specific stock. No reason to spend hours and hours doing research on stocks either. Why? Because you are trading all of them. Of course, it would cost a fortune to be able to trade 500 stocks at one time. Well, buying and selling S&P500 emini Futures Contracts is just like trading all 500 stocks at once, for a fraction of the cost.

How did the CME entice a day trader to trade emini Futures? Look at the advantages of trading emini Futures Contracts. You'll see why many professional day traders gave up other exchanges...

1) The S&P500 emini contract is very liquid, meaning that it has lots of volume, and lots of action. Lots of volume means you can enter and exit quickly, in as little as 1 second. When trading first began in 1997, this contract's trading volume averaged 7,000 contracts / day. Today, it is not uncommon to see 3-4 million contracts daily.

2) This a a completely electronic environment. The CME does not have Market Makers who could refuse to fill your trade like the NYSE. The CME book is FIFO, first in first out. That makes trading on the CME a level playing field for all investors, no matter if you are trading 1 contract or 100.

3) Commission for emini Futures is based upon a Round Trip instead of in-and-out.

4) The distinction between the Bid price (the highest price that a buyer will pay for a contract) and the Ask price (the lowest price that a seller will sell a contract for) is just one Tick on the CME. (The minimum price movement is known as a Tick. The S&P500 trades in 25 cent increments. 1 Tick = 25 cents. 4 ticks = 1 point. Pay out is a bit different... if you gain 1 tick in your trade, the reward is $12.50, with 4 ticks = $50. Compare a 1 tick - Bid / Ask difference without Market Makers with trading NYSE securities where the difference between the Bid and Ask can be significant, especially if quoted by a Market Maker who makes his living on the spread difference.)

5) Trading emini's means that you are only watching 1 chart, the same chart, every day, day in and day out. Wouldn't you become a really hot trader if you only had to watch 1 chart? Stock traders usually watch a basket of stocks at once, flipping charts back and forth for fear of missing some price action.

6) Basically, there is no research to do every evening. Remember, you are trading all "500 stocks" at the same time. You don't need to research this stock and that stock, worrying about pre-announcements, whisper numbers, quarterly reporting, and accounting minefields.

7) Option traders must be able to correctly trade 4 conditions in order to have consistent trading success: underlying price, strike price, volatility, and time decay. Option traders may be right and yet lose on their trade because time was not their friend and the option expired worthless before they could make a profit. Futures traders are only concerned about 2 conditions: an advancing market or a declining market. Time decay is not a problem for Futures traders.

8) Margin rates are favorable to Futures traders. You can trade 1 S&P500 e-mini contract for just $400 / contract on margin. To trade stocks, at a minimum you would need to buy a lot of 100 shares. An average stock is $25/share, or $2500 to get in the door. Here's a major difference. The SEC defines a day trade as a transaction that opened and closed within the same trading day. A "pattern day trader" is any trader who executes 4 or more trades within a 5 day period. To by an NYSE day trader, you must open and have in your brokerage account at least $25,000 (or your account will be frozen for 90 days should you be caught day trading). Day trading Futures has no such restrictions. A brokerage account requires far less capital. Most Futures brokers allow you to open an account with just $2,500. This opens the trading Market to even small investors.

9) You can be a day trader with futures and trade them "long" (expecting the contracts to go up). But you can trade futures short (expecting the contracts to go down). There are bans put on short selling stocks that are less than $5. There are no restrictions on short selling Futures Contracts. Why? These are contracts, not shares of stock. As a day trader, you want to take full advantage of the Market's volatility. If you cannot short, then half of trading is lost to you. If you have to wait until the Market swings back up in order to enter a trade, then on the trading days when the Market is down 200 points, that might be a long wait.

10) If you are trading with an IRA or 401k account, when you exit a trade, you don't have to wait for the trade to "settle" before you use that same money for the next trade. One second after you exit your current Futures trade, that same money is available to you for another trade. With stock trading, when you exit a trade, you may wait as long as 3 days for your money to settle before you can trade with that money again.

11) Because this is Futures trading, rules originally intended for commodities also apply to e-mini Futures. There is a 60/40 split on taxes: 60% of your trade is long term (15% tax bracket) and 40% of your trade is short term (28% tax bracket). Compare this to stocks...hold a stock less than 1 year, it is a short term trade. You must hold the stock for over a year to qualify for long term capital gains. With Futures, your trading is broken down by the 60/40 rule, even if your average trade is 2 minutes or less. At the end of the year, your Futures broker sends you a 1099-b, a 1 liner, a net number of all your trading, not each individual trade. Say you made $50,000. The 1099-b will show $50,000, that is all. Now you claim $30,000 as long term capital gains and $20,000 as short term (60/40 split). Doing your taxes is so much easier as well. Your broker gives you the net entry, not each trade. You make just 1 entry on your tax return. If you trade stocks, you must enter every trade. If you are a day trader and trade multiple stocks, it may take hours to enter all the transactions. With Futures trading, you are done in a snap.

12) Futures trade just about every day, round the clock, 24/6. The only day you cannot trade Futures is Saturday. Many stocks cannot trade off hours, and if they do, it is very light trading. The S&P500 e-mini is traded all over the world. Depending upon the time of day, there is heavy trading on the e-mini. For example, at 2:00am EST, the Japanese trade the e-mini. At 4:00am EST, the Europeans trade the e-mini. If you have insomnia, e-mini trading is definitely for you.

13) Unlike stocks that trade across multiple exchanges and have different Bid/Ask prices, there is just 1 exchange/1 price for e-mini Futures and that is on the CME. That means for e-mini Futures contracts, there is only one price the posted price.

14) Your fills are guaranteed. If you are in a trade and the e-mini price goes through your offer, you get filled. This can be a problem for smaller Forex traders. You may be in a trade waiting to exit with an offer to sell. The Forex contract goes right by your price and you don't get filled. Then you read in fine print on your Forex Brokers contract they do not guarantee fills. The CME Clearing House acts as the guarantor to each of its clearing members, thus ensuring the integrity of trades.

15) When contracts expire on the 3rd Friday of the contract month, futures contracts do not expire worthless. You roll your money over to the new contract, unlike Options that expire worthless.

Barbara Cohen [http://www.shadowtraders.com] CIO, [http://www.shadowtraders.com], and professional day trader, specializes in teaching students how they can be trading futures with their own trading system and trading strategies. Ms. Cohen has helped hundreds of traders achieve their goals trading. Find out if trading futures is for you by attending one of Ms. Cohen's Free Webinars. Check out my Futures Trading Articles. For more information, call 866-617-2037 today.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Barbara_A_Cohen/1036505
http://EzineArticles.com/?Futures-Trading---Is-It-For-You?&id=6211185