1. Desire to succeed as a futures trader - There is a specific type of people who can trade futures. It's not a business that everyone can be successful at. You need to be willing to learn, be ready to jump at an opportunity, and have the ability to take risks. And, you can't discount the need to push yourself harder to succeed faster.
2. Perseverance and motivation - If you desire to be a successful futures trader, then you will definitely need to be determined and motivated about your goal. A right step in this direction is to learn how to trade futures the right way.
3. Discipline - For trading futures you need to have a disciplined approach to everything. This includes learning nuances, doing technical analysis, and to make smart and right choices of futures trades. A good way to approach trading futures is to treat it like a business. This will help you to acquire discipline as well as have targets in life.
4. Getting help to enter the domain - To trade futures you must try to learn the tricks of the trade by training under someone you know as well as attend seminars, read books, etc. By having someone to help you enter this trade, you can pick up the techniques, terms used, and practices that can help make a successful futures trader out of you.
There are many who want to learn to trade futures, but are turned off by its reputation of being a fast moving marketplace. While this is true the risk can be maintained with sound money management methods along with a system on trading futures properly.
The first lessons when you learn to trade futures is to know when to exit the market. If your system requires you to exit, than without thought or hesitation you should exit. This is a good habit to get into as you remove emotions from your trading. When you remove emotions, you enhance your chances for a better trade. A good method to exit the market if your position is losing money, is to use stop-loss orders.
The most important trading tool when you learn to trade futures is the use of futures trading charts. Futures trading charts let you see prices move and allows you to analysis where stop-loss orders, profit targets and market entry points can be set and made. This allows you to create a trading plan before you actually enter the trade.
Now that you know that attributes or qualities required to trade futures successfully, it's time to understand why trading futures is such a viable option to earn money. You probably already know that trading futures is one of the best ways to make money. Traditional approaches are good for those traders who don't want to risk too much yet earn a decent return. The chances of success in commodity and futures trading are very high.Some of the commodities you can trade in are:
1. Agriculture - A popular commodity used for trading futures. It includes food grains such as wheat, corns, and soybean. Foods such as coffee, sugar, etc are also commonly traded futures.
2. Currency Trading - Forex trading typically involves buying and selling of various currencies. Some of the commonly traded currencies in the futures market include the US dollar, the British pound as well as the Japanese yen.
3. Interest Rate- Trading futures here include finance related things such as interest rates and bonds.
4. Energy Futures - Gas and crude oil futures are traded under energy futures.
