Metatrader 5 Overview

1. Principal: This is the face value of the bond; the amount that the first bond buyer initially loaned to the company or government issuing the bond. This is also known as the par value.

2. Coupon Payment: This is the numeric amount of interest payments that are scheduled to the bondholder. For instance, if a bond pays an investor $3,000 twice per year, the coupon amount is $3,000.

3. Yield: The yield is the sum of coupon payments in a year divided by the amount paid for the year. For instance, if a bond buyer pays $100,000 for a bond, and the bond issues 2 coupon payments of $3,000 per year, the yield is 6% (2*3,000/100,000). This is also known as the bond equivalent year, or the annualized yield.

4. Maturity Date: The maturity date is the date that coupon payments will end, and the original principal will be repaid. For instance, if a bond with a principal of $100,000 and bi-annual coupon payments of $3,000 has a maturity date of January 1, 2040, that means the bond will no longer issue coupon payments, and will give the bondholder the $100,000 that was initially borrowed, on January 1 of 2040.

5. Call Date: If a bond has a call date(s), that means the government or corporation issuing the bond has the option of paying back the principal and ending coupon payments on the call date --- which is scheduled before the maturity date specified. For instance, if a bond with a maturity date of January 1, 2040 has a call date of January 1, 2027, that means the bond issuer can pay back the principal in 2027 and no longer make any have payment obligations related to the bond.

Now that we understand the basic jargon, we are one step closer to incorporating bonds into our income investment strategy, which we'll continue to focus on in this series.

Step Coupon Bonds: These are bonds whose coupon rates increase over the duration of the bond. Often these bonds start by yielding below what similar bonds do, but end up with a higher than average yield. It should be noted that many step coupon bonds are callable, and have a call schedule that mirrors the step coupon rate schedule. In other words, instead of paying the higher interest rate when it may be due, the bond issuer has the right to call the bond (return the par value to the bondholder).

Putable Bonds: These bonds allow the bond holder to redeem them at face value pre-defined intervals. Putable bonds are basically the inverse of callable bonds. Bondholders typically pay a premium for putable bonds, which is another way of saying that the coupon rate on putable bonds is lower because of the buyer is essentially paying for a put option on the bond in addition to the bond itself.

Tax Status: Various bonds have different tax implications. For instance, many government bonds around the world allow interest-income to be tax-free, while corporate bonds are often taxed as ordinary income is (it should be noted that tax rules are subject to the jurisdiction one is in, as well as their own personal situation). When comparing bonds, understanding the tax implications can provide a complete picture on the yield that the bond will actually provide.

Survivor's Option. Survivors option bonds are those that, in the event the bondholder passes away, allows the beneficiary to inherit the bond with the option of redeeming it at par value. Bonds with a survivor's option often have many conditions -- i.e. how jointly held bonds are handled if one bondholder passes away, proof of death and inheritance rights that must be provided, time limits on providing this proof, limits the amount of the survivor's option --- and thus it is paramount for bondholders with survivor's options to read the fine print. Survivor's options are usually of interest to large estates that are handled by professional executors.

Three new videos on Virtual Hosting in MetaTrader 4 and 5 are available on YouTube channel. Now, you need only six minutes to find out how the service works, what benefits it provides and how you can manage it.




the source

Reducing trading to it's most basic fundamental level
What is happening? Why do prices fluctuate? Why should order flow play a critical role in your methodology? It's an auction. When buyers overwhelm sellers, the market goes up. When sellers overwhelm buyers, the market goes down. This is why size matters. What we're trying to do is ride the coattails of guys who move size and ride the wave created by all the small traders who pile on board and help create the domino effect.

The importance of a good DOM
Most people do not understand why order flow is important because they have never seen a good DOM.

An inside look into the world of proprietary trading firms
Explanation of how prop firms work and how they train traders.

Technical analysis vs. reading the tape
Charts only show you the past price. They do not show you how the market traded at that price. How much volume changed hands and the way that exchange affected price makes a difference if you are contemplating getting involved in that area.

Predicting the future
Believing I know where the market will be an hour from now, let alone three days from now, is believing that I know something the rest of the world does not know. If large institutions, speculators and high frequency trading programs who move thousands of contracts and actually move the market are not currently involved and showing no signs of playing the game (i.e. a slow market with very little volatility), why would I want to be involved?

Video samples showing different types of action
Would like to show a few samples of prices being hit during fast action vs. dead action. Not going to show any actual trades as I do not want it to look like I'm pitching myself or cherry picking winners. Just want to demonstrate how sometimes it's obvious that you should probably be going one way if you're contemplating an entry and other times there's simply no educated guess to be made. This is clearly seen in the order flow.

Methodology vs. psychology
Developing a winning methodology is only the first part. The next part, which is equally important, is developing a proper risk methodology and understanding your own psychology when it comes to adhering to this risk methodology.

John Grady's trading career began the same way as most. He lost money for many years by experimenting with various strategies which were based on misguided ideas about how the markets work. After multiple failures using traditional technical and fundamental analysis, he took a job as a proprietary trader for a large futures trading firm in Chicago. While trading there, he learned the importance of order flow (a.k.a. reading the tape) and he also learned why the markets behave the way they do. He currently trades for himself and he also runs an educational business which helps other traders develop scalping strategies that are based on understanding order flow.

a simple forex trading strategy

Adam has two decades of experience in the industry as a trader, analyst and system developer, covering the full range of liquid markets and timeframes from scalping to long-term investing. He has traded privately for his own account, held a number of positions for investment firms, spent a few years at the Nymex, and now is a Managing Partner and CIO at Waverly Advisors - a boutique research and advisory firm for which he writes daily market commentary and trade notes.

Why blend quantitative and discretionary tools?
How to understand randomness and why it matters.
Tools for analyzing market problems.
Specific trading patterns.
Putting it all together: the process of becoming a trader.

Ernest Chan will give a very detailed look into Factor Models in this webinar. Factor models are well-known among long-term investors who favor stock selection models, but there are some exotic factors from which shorter term traders can also benefit.

He will discuss the various factor modeling techniques and the more exotic factors recently discovered.

Ernest Chan:

• Quantitative Strategist
• He was a principal of EXP Capital Management
• Supervised Drexel-Burnhan-Lambert’s commodity department in Los Angeles
• Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University
• Managing Member of QTS Capital Management, LLC.
• Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at Nanyang Technological University in Singapor

Ernie Chan is the author of "Quantitative Trading: How to Build Your Own Algorithmic Trading Business" published by John Wiley & Sons in 2009.

• Market Data is Fractal -- Longer waves have bigger swings than shorter waves.
• Spectral Dilation describes data over the full range of tradable cycles.
• Aliasing noise swamps shorter wave data.
• Aliasing noise is best removed using a SuperSmoother filter.
• Spectral Dilation effects are mitigated by a Roofing Filter.
• Price turning points must be anticipated for effective swing trading.
• Trading System Performance is best evaluated using Monte Carlo techniques.

Al Brooks, E-mini day trader for over 20 years, covers in detail exactly how he trades the market from chart type, time frame, set-ups, entries, exits, money management.

'I have produced a 23 minute tutorial on Bollinger Bands. If you are not using this important indicator, you should be!'