REALITY BASED TRADING COMPANY
www.rb-trading.com
Novice and aspiring futures traders will find this Website useful. It's an educational site that provides realistic views on the subject of trading futures. Information at this site is based on the insights, trading tools, and systems of the late Bruce Babcock. Babcock started Commodity Traders Consumer Reports and went out of his way to attempt to debunk scams and develop ways that retail traders can succeed.
Reality Based Trading Company's Website for futures traders continues the work of the late Bruce Babcock. |
Reality Based Trading's Website offers a link that takes the Net surfer to information ranging from the way the futures market operate to the creation of a successful trading plan. Contents include "The truth about the commodity markets," "Learning to trade correctly," and "Psychological pitfalls," among other topics. |
The design of Reality Based Trading Company's homepage is simple and straightforward. Links on the left-hand side are gateways to enormous amounts of information. But this is not a site where you can get up-to-date market information. Instead, it contains general information, trading principles, and techniques.
The "Answers to FAQs" section provides answers to common questions asked by beginning futures traders, such as how much money is needed to start trading commodities; how to choose a broker; what kind of returns to expect; and whether it's possible to make a living by trading.
The "Trading for beginners" link takes you to information ranging from the way the futures markets operate to the creation of a successful trading plan. Contents include "The truth about the commodity markets," "Learning to trade correctly," and "Psychological pitfalls," among other topics.
The "Informative commentaries" section contains articles written by Babcock that both novice and experienced traders will find beneficial. Articles include "The best way to trade with limited capital," "The only way to day trade," and "Trend indicators and price components."
From this Website, you can gain access to related Websites and see the various products that Reality Based Trading offers, including books, software, and trading systems. The company markets books authored by Bruce Babcock, software such as the Gann Pivot System, and systems such as the NYFE for Life and The Fractal Wave Algorithm, Charts, and Systems.
This site will provide you with a straightforward view of futures trading. It is well designed and has a fair amount of useful information. If you have contemplated trading futures but have been hesitant to start, check out this site. It may inspire you to open an account with a futures broker.
FUTURESOURCE
www.futuresource.com
A one-stop site saturated with free information targeting futures traders is a rare find. Futuresource.com is one such site. A look at the homepage shows that it covers a lot of ground. FutureSource offers a free membership, and once you register, you have access to most features this site has to offer.
There is a premium paid-subscription service available that gives you access to market information 24 hours a day with minimally delayed quotes, enhanced charting tools, and real-time news. Additional subscriptions are available for advisory and weather services.
Once registered, you can access delayed quotes for all futures contracts. These are refreshed every two, five, 10, and 30 minutes, depending on your preference. The quotes table contains details such as the open, high, low, close, volume, and open interest. Price charts can be accessed from the quote section or directly from the homepage.
FutureSource.com is packed with features, including quotes, charts, news, hourly market updates, analyst commentary, feature stories, and products and services.
Price charts are impressive. Once you select the specific contract delivery date, you have the option of viewing bar, candlestick, or line charts. You can use different timeframes such as daily, weekly, monthly, and tick to view charts. There are 27 indicators that can be used on the charts, and paid subscribers are permitted to change the parameters. Registered, but unpaid, members must use the default parameters. The one disadvantage here is that you can't view more than one study simultaneously.
There are links to options, time & sales, quotes, and daily historical data. The daily historical data is available in ASCII format, making it possible to export the data and use it with analytical software.
In addition, you have access to news items from an extensive list of sources. You have the choice of viewing the news either by category or by service. A selection will result in a list of headlines, and clicking on any of them will provide you with details of that specific news event.
Registered members also have access to Trader's Forum, which is a discussion board of topics related to futures trading. These are divided into broader categories such as options, agriculture, weather, and financial, to name a few.
The "searching for stops" section contains buy/sell stop recommendations for the various futures markets. These stops are based on support and resistance levels and help to provide a second opinion.
An interesting section is "Features for traders." It contains articles about strategies that some of the more experienced traders have created, something that will be of interest to technical traders.
The technical charts section is one of the most attractive features on this site. It includes charts that are undergoing significant price movements. These charts include a brief technical study by Jim Wyckoff and are updated regularly. The charts and their interpretations, although brief, are very clear and provide a good idea of where the action in the futures market lies.
Overall, this is a very informative site that can be valuable to all futures traders. It provides you with a bird's-eye view of the futures markets and keeps you up to date with market activity.
Originally published in the December 1999 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 1999, Technical Analysis, Inc.