Trading Journal - Your Trading Pillar for Success

If you are trader (whatever it is - stock/options/future/forex) and never had your trading journal started, this is my genuine advice - Start it now !!! And do not wait !!! 

Trading journal is one of the upmost criteria for a successful trader, of course, it is equally important for all the beginer trader. But from the start, you will be definitely facing discipline issue as recording down every single trade is not an easy task for every one, especially for a person that is not very well organized for his stuff.

But once you started it, you will start to see more results, it is just a like a journal, to understand yourself better. A trading journal will let you understand yourself more about your trading style and behaviour.  

Then why do we need to have trading journal? The reasons are simple:

1. First, it gave you more time to think before you enter your trade while you still entering data in your trading journal before entering the market. Many times, you realised that your trade is based on emotion more than analysis. Give yourself a valid reason why you enter the trade, and what is your exit strategy. 

2. Second, it provide reference information when you trace back why did you enter the trade in the first place. Whether the result is making profit or loss, your record is important for you to know what you did right and what you did wrong. 

3. Lastly, to calculate the profit/loss in a systematic way, as well as providing a performance chart for yourself to track your profit/loss, as well as your winning/lossing trade ratio, etc. 

If you are excel expert, you can make a simple trading journal by using excel.  If you are not, and would like to use what the expert promote - here is one for you. 

My friend Grag has introduced a trading log sheet to me which I find it very useful and comprehensive. 

You can find out more from here - http://tradingspreadsheets.com/

For all Stocks / ETF, E-mini Futures, and Forex (Fx) Currency Pair traders!

   Plan it... Trade it... Track it !!!.

 A glance at the "Spread`Suite's" 8-different sheets

This trading spreadsheet is basically created with excel, with all the necessary information to guide you how to use it. Like all the software you use, first thing first is to familiar with product you are going to use.

You want the excel do the rest of the calculation after you key in the necessary data, this is one for you. It allows you to record your "entry note" and "exit note" in the comment column, because the reason you enter and exit the trade is upmost important, it let you understand your trading behaviour bettter. 

It provides your performance chart based on your monthly profit/loss, and most importantly you can now track every single trade you entered. 

I would say it is basically a comprehensive trading journal package whatever you need to analysis your trading performance. 

To your successful ! Cheers ! Find out more about trading from http://www.traderwork.com/ 

Trading Journal - Your Trading Pillar for Success

http://www.traderwork.com/ - Reveal the Secrets of Options Trading !

If You are looking for free Options Trading Resources adn tips, this site is for you.

Present to you, TraderWork.com http://www.traderwork.com/.

I would love to share more information about options trading, tips, articles as well as my trading journal.

It is a wordpress theme with 3 column, 2 sidebar at the right with easier browsing other information I would to promote.

You can easily find the recent post, category and tag cloud at the right, or simply using the search box.
If you love articles, simply click on the article category, and my articles under Paul's article category.

Pages are all on top, just below the blog title, I have optimized it so user can find more useful information there.

Trading is an art, as well as building a website. I hope you like the new appearance.

Free free to stop by and give me some comments, both positive and negative, I welcome that!

http://www.traderwork.com/ - Reveal the Secrets of Options Trading !

Investing in bank stocks

by A.W. Berry

In the United States, during the 1990's several federally implemented acts contributed to banking deregulation that had begun the previous decade. These Acts essentially gave banks the ability to operate with more freedom and with greater commercial horizons. The new laws allowed banks to operate more freely from state to state and to engage in other banking functions. The result became banks that could provide a multitude of services.

Key U.S. Banking Institutions:

A few major U.S. banks are listed below for illustrative purposes. These are just a few of many U.S. banks, several of which play important roles in various aspects of economics and banking services.

Bank of America (BAC): Bank of America is a very large commercial bank that deals with day to day bank services on a world-wide scale across the United States. This company is a large capitalization bank with share value of 223 Billion dollars and offers a wide array of consumer and commercial banking products. 

Meryl Lynch (MER): Meryl Lynch is another large bank that operates primarily in the investment banking sector of the U.S. economy and globally. This bank has a market capitalization of near 61.5 Billion dollars, and its major products and services include brokerage, institutional investing, and financial advising services along with several related banking products and services. 

Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): Countrywide Financial is yet another very large bank that deals primarily with mortgage lending within the United States. Its market capitalization is near 11 Billion dollars and in 2007 its share prices fell dramatically due to financial turbulence caused by factors relating to a weak housing market.

Benefits of Investing in Banking Stocks:

Banking stocks are a unique to the type of services and products they offer. While the stocks may fluctuate significantly in value over the short run, many large and stable banks offer the potential to grow steadily over longer term horizons. A few of the functions that can lead to a banks asset and profit growth are listed below.

*Mergers and Acquisitions: Banks that facilitate, finance and engage in a high volume of corporate mergers and acquisitions have the potential to yield an increase in profit margin due to the increase in return on assets associated with these banking activities.

*Initial Public Offerings: When companies increase in size or become public, they often seek additional financing for expanded operations and project implementation. Banks that facilitate these activities well can benefit from them.

*Credit Services: Banks that engage in credit services have the potential to earn substantial profits dependent on the creditworthiness of their clients and interest rates they are able to charge.

Risks of Investing in Banking Stocks:

*Sector Downturns: In the case of the aforementioned banks, an economic downturn in any one of the markets these banks deal in could cause a lot of volatility in the share prices of those companies. As we have seen, the downturn in the United States housing market led to stock volatility in shares of Countrywide Financial Corporation.

*Economic adversity: If an economy turns sour, the banks may be the first to feel it as consumers, corporations and institutions run to banks to liquefy their assets, default on loans and redeem their funds. These factors and changes in currency valuation, federal banking policy and profitability can be another risk of investing an banking stocks.

Key Metrics of Banking Institutions:

Since there are many types of banks engaging in a variety of services choosing the right financial metrics to assess these companies can be tricky. Nevertheless, the two following measurements indicate a banks essential capital and operational stability.

*Capital Reserve: The amount of unused liquid assets a bank maintains on its balance sheet is an indicator of solvency. Capital reserve amounts in excess of 10% are considered sufficient by U.S. regulatory agencies. An example formula for assessing capital reserve is the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) which divides capital by assets such as loans which are weighted for risk.

*Daily Value at Risk (VAR): A VAR calculation can be used to determine the risk level of its investments and/or banking products using a multiplier for precaution. An example of this calculation takes the potential dollar value loss within a specific time period using the worst 10% of investment assets multiplied by 4. If over 365 days, a bank's worst 10% of loans cost them $20,000.00. Multiplied by four, and divided by 365, their daily value at risk would be $80,000.00//365 or $219.18 of risk per day or $80,000.00/year. Naturally, the higher this value is in comparison to other banks, the greater the measured risk of the banks investments.

Learn more about this author, A.W. Berry.

Investing in bank stocks