One of the most popular technical analysis indicators is the simple moving average also known as SMA, if you learn how to use these correctly they can be a very useful tool to help you to make good trading decisions.

The 50 simple moving average, or 50 SMA, is simply the sum of the last 50 values for each period, divided by 50, this is a moving window, as time moves on so does the average. Notice that I used the term period because this indicator works on any time period in exactly the same way.

It can be used on monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, 30 minutes, 15 minute and on whatever time period you want to monitor and trade. Although the SMA is the most commonly used there is also the exponential moving average or EMA. This is a weighted version of the formula using the mathematical exponent function to give more weight to the more recent values, this has the effect of making it a much faster average that many traders like.

The reality is that it probably does not matter if you used the SMA or the EMA, what does matter however is that you use one or the other and then be very consistent with it. Do not switch between them, it is more important that you trust your chosen indicator then a slight difference in its value.

The SMA is oftern used to determine what the trend of the stock is, depending on the value used it could be a short term, medium term or long term trend. An important point to note is that moving averages are most useful when the stock is trending, if the moving average is flat, i.e. horizontal on your chart it can become very choppy, this is a good time to not trade.

The general rule is that if the current price is above the SMA the trend is up, if below the trend is down. This is very important to know because it forms the basics of trend trading and trading with the trend.

For the short term trend many traders like using a 5-8 SMA or EMA, here is a trading secret, never trade again the direction of the short term tend, this is really just common sense when you think about it.

Moving averages often act as support or resistance, many traders use the 15, 21 or 30 SMA for this purpose.

There are a number of other very important moving averages that you need to know about, these are the 50, 100 and 200 SMA, and this mainly applies to the daily and weekly charts. A lot of the big players in the markets, the mutual funds, investment banks etc use the 50 and 200 SMA as support and resistance, if they decide to buy or sell based on these you need to follow suite, the 100 to a lesser extent. These are very useful averages to watch if you trade EFT’s like an Oil ETF.

A useful tip is that when a stock breaks through one moving average it will often move all the way to the next, for example, if a stock breaks the 30 it may move to the 50 before finding some support or resistance.

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Do you understand Mutual Fund Investing? What about alternative energy mutual funds?   You may be a savvy investor in the stock market or not, but you’ve probably heard the term “Mutual Fund.” A few years back knowing nothing about the workings of stock investing was pretty common. This can lead to losing some of your hard-earned money in the money markets.

Mutual funds are collections of stocks and bonds that are owned by groups of people rather than one individual investor. This makes it a more advantageous since it allows the investors to buy with less money than it would take to purchase the same value on their own and it spreads the risks among a group of people.

The performance of a mutual fund depends mainly on the efficiency of fund managers who manages a portfolio of stocks on behalf of investors. Making informed decisions, choosing a rated and well-performing fund manager is critical to your financially future in the green mutual funds market. So its critical you understand the basics points of Mutual Funds Investing.

Its true that there really is no method or strategy invented in investing that is completely safe and without risks. Mutual funds, however will have lower risks than many other investment options, that makes them attractive for those who lack the knowledge and skills in investmenting. Mutual funds often have much better rates of return than the average savings account and the risks are minimal in this type of investment, particularly compared to riskier options.

There are basically three types of mutual funds with some variations on each.

• Money market funds. These funds are great for the long-term investor who have a slow and steady approach to investing that are better than leaving your money in interest-paying savings account.
• Equity funds that provide slow growth over time with a little income along the way. 
• Fixed income funds that are created to provide a current income over time. This is great for those who have retired or investors that are extremely conservative.

Diversification is one of the key ingredients of a healthy portfolio and consulting a web directory will help you get diversified in a broader way. If you are young and just beginning your career and in no real hurry for retirement, this is the one of the safest ways to invest your money for the long term. But with most mutual fund investing you don’t have the high payoffs that many investors seek to include for their retirement planning.

Technical analysis of the stock market, or any other market such as Forex, Bonds, Futures, is how most traders and investors make their trading decisions. This is as opposed to fundamental analysis which most people more agree is pretty much done as a way of making trading decisions, unless of course you are Warren Buffet!.

You only have to think back to major stock market scams like Enron to know that it is almost impossible for the average, and even very sophisticated fund manager or hedge fund trader to really know what the real financial state of a company is.

Just by reading the balance sheet and other quarterly reports they release gives you a very limited insight into the real health of the company. Whereas the technical analysis charts of the company tend to give the real picture of what the market thinks of the value of the company. In the case of Enron even simple technical analysis told you to SELL when the stock was in the $80-90 range, this is why technical analysis of stocks is so popular.

So what are the secrets to technical analysis?, I’m about to tell you, here are my golden rules:

* Only use 3-5 simple technical analysis indicators

* Make sure that you understand how the indicators that you have selected work, what the parameter settings are and in what market conditions they are effective

* After selecting your indicators and parameter settings don’t mess with them.

The real secret to technical analysis is to become VERY familiar with your choosen indicators, and really this can only be done by watching and studying the market, so that you get to the point that you TRUST them.

The fact is that in any market, for each bar period, there are only 5 pieces of information, the open, close, high, low and volume, yet there are now hundreds of indicators. Most of these indicators are displaying much the same information and so are redundant.

For the record my set of indicators are:

* 4 Simple Moving Averages

* Bollinger Bands

* MACD

* Stochastics

But the way I use them is quite special, to learn more about how to become an expert at technical analysis visit:

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In order to provide for your retirement investing has become increasingly important over the years, as the future of social security benefits becomes unknown. There are of course many forms of investment, but the main two that are available to the average man in the street are real estate and stocks. If you are interested in investing in the stock market maybe you should read some of Warren Buffet books!.

It is a very normal need for people to want to insure their futures, and they know that if they are depending on Social Security benefits, and in some cases retirement plans, that they may be in for a rude awakening when they no longer have the ability to earn a steady income. Investing wisely is the answer to the unknowns of the future because it has been shown that most people need much more money to live on in retirement that they think.

You may have been saving cash in a low interest savings account over the years. Now, you want to see that money grow at a faster pace. Perhaps you’ve inherited money or realized some other type of windfall, and you need a way to make that money grow. Again, investing can be the answer.

Leaving money in a safe bank account earning maybe 5% a year, if you are lucky, is considered investing by many, but in general it’s a pretty poor deal, after accounting for inflation you are growing your money very little in real terms.

Investing is also a way of attaining the things that you want, such as a new home, a college education for your children, or expensive ‘toys.’ Of course, your financial goals will determine what type of investing you do.

Trading stocks can also be a form of investing if you have a medium to long term outlook, but make sure that you get some good trading education 1st.

If you want or need to make a lot of cash fast, you would be more interested in higher risk investing, which will give you a larger return in a shorter amount of time. If you are saving for something in the far off future, such as retirement, you would want to make safer investments that grow over a longer period of time.

The overall purpose in investing is to create wealth and security, over a period of time. It is important to remember that as you get older you will not always be able to earn an income… you will eventually want to retire.

You also cannot count on the social security system to do what you expect it to do. As we have seen with Enron and other frauds, you also cannot necessarily depend on your company’s retirement plan either. So, again, investing is the key to insuring your own financial future, but you must make smart investments.

When considering investments you have also got to be very carefull to avoid investment trading scams, things to look out for are unrealistic rates of return.

Did you know that there are 4 mains types of trader and depending on what sort you are will determine many parts of your trading strategy and trading plan. The 4 types are: scalping, day trading, swing trading and position trading. When you determine the type of trader that you are it will also determine the time frame in which you will be making your trade. This will be a very important decision that you need to make when deciding how you want to learn to day trade.

1. Scalping Trader, if you scalp the market this means that you are only looking for a few ticks profit per trade and you may only be in the trade for a few seconds or a minute at most. trading. Some people will also call this day trading but it’s really micro day trading, buying the bid and selling the offer, it’s high speed trading and you might end up doing 10-50 trades a day. This is a very stressful way of trading for many people.

2. Day Trader, the true day trader opens and closes their trade within the same trading session, usually this mean the same day, but unlike a scalper the trade may be held for a few minutes up to several hours. Usually day traders make about 2-6 trades a day and most of them will be in the 5-30 minutes range. This is a less stressful way of trading than scalping but it still requires a lot of attention and quick decision making.

3. Swing Traders, swing trading usually means that a position is held for between 1 to 5-10 days, although some swing traders may keep a trade on for longer most are within this time period. For many this is the idea way to trade because it allows you to review your trade overnight, at the very least you have several hours to make your trading decisions.

4. Position Traders, this just means that you are going to hold onto your trade for longer than a few days, maybe even as long as 1 to 2 months.

If you are still working out how to day trade then it may be better to go with the longer time frames as it gives you more time to think.

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