Commodities - Frequently Asked Questions

Q: On page 57 of your manual with regard to www.barchart.com, you say to look along the left sidebar of the Home page for a couple of headings - 'Glossary' and 'Futures 101'. Has the page now changed to what you refer to as I cannot see these in the listing.

A: Bob - yes, there has been a slight change to Barchart's site layout since the manual was completed.
Along the top you'll see "education" - click on that then look on the sidebar & take things from there.
Ian.

Q: Am I right in thinking commodity prices given by barchart.com are World prices (rather than just US contract prices) and will be the same in exchanges around the world (Subject to time difference? and different charges?)?
So to be sure barchart.com prices are on the same basis as my spread bet provider do I just need to check they are both for the same contract, eg SIN11?
I ask these questions as at Close 14 June 11 for Silver - Comex - SIN11 - July - Finspreads' price was 3537.5, barchart's price 35.441 (different time?) and Sharescope's price 3512.0 (LBM and not COMEX?)?

A: All brokers will give you whatever exchange you want - NYMEX, COMEX, LBM being the main ones - but it's a matter of checking which ones a spread bet provider uses. Don't forget too that spread bet companies will have 2 prices (bid & offer) & you need to adjust orders to reflect these.
Barchart provides "pure" data - ie with no spread costs involved. Sharescope gives you a choice of both LBM and NYMEX for the precious metals. In practical terms there is very little to be concerned about - just as long as you don't confuse £ & $!
Ian.

Q: Ian, why do I not appear to receive updated passwords every time you change them?

A: It's imperative that you 'whitelist' - ie actively add to your own email address book - the following address: courses@streetwisepublications.co.uk
All password changes are dealt with via my publishers and come from that address. It's also the case that if your own email address is a hotmail, aol, or yahoo one, then you may not even then receive the necessary message, because these ISPs have some kind of filter that makes emails from 'business' sources especially difficult to receive, so if you do have such an address you'll need to check in your junk mail box too. If you are still having trouble, please email the publisher as above - I don't deal with any admin matters myself.

Q: If you order a trade , how long should I expect to let it sit there before I cancel it. I don't have the sort of life where I can or want to sit glued to the screen all day to babysit these trades so on a practical level I need to get a bit of a system worked out .

A: I would only watch for an hour at most - but generally half an hour would do - you can have a quick extra trawl during that time & if something shouts at you, you can cancel something & order something else. If nothing happening within 'your' timescale then shut up shop & walk away.

Q: "Some of the manual charts don't seem that easy to read, & it's a pest having to keep revisiting the CDs to see them more clearly - can you help?"

A: "No problem - they are all viewable here"

Q: " I see nothing in the manual regarding the basis of the DMAs you use - could you elaborate please?"

A: "The DMAs are 'simple' and are based upon closing prices."

Q: "If there's a 'price spike' that goes through an otherwise obvious area of support or resistance, do you order a trade above (for a buy) or below (for a sell) or do you just ignore the spike & use the strongest part of the support or resistance to guide you?"

A: "It's often quite hard to decide but my rule of thumb is that if a 'spike' looks aberrant - eg if there has been a lot more than usual intra day movement but the actual open & close are within 'normal' parameters, then I ignore it when looking at where to place an order.
However, where it represents a 'normal' amount of action & it has ended either just above resistance or just below support (say by fewer than 15 pips) then caution would suggest opening a trade a couple of pips' leeway further away from the original support or resistance - ie counting the spike as having marginally probed towards your intended direction.
The only other thing to take into account is 'psychological' numbers' - eg $35 silver. If "a couple of pips' leeway" as above meant opening a buy trade @ $34.97, you would be well advised to wait for a break above such an important level.
I hope that suggestion helps - in probability terms, it works just fine - but it guarantees nothing on any specific trade!"