Whatever business or field you are into today, most likely, there is an online community out there that can support you. For small caps investors, the best place to seek support is a penny stock forum. Of course you cannot discount the advantages of learning from dedicated blogs for penny stocks. Websites that give focus in this trade have useful information too. But a stock market forum involves people who are actually online real time.

You can see who is online, how many people are joining in each topic, and how many people are in the forum website. The information exchange is real. It’s live. It’s like talking to people and sharing your views about penny stocks. They in return share their opinions. You also get stock price recommendations. It’s like going to a stock market online party where all that people talk about is stocks, stocks, and stocks. Of course why not?

Within this article, you will discover the most common topics found in a penny stock forum. If you are a new investor in stock market, it will be easier for you to look for these titles (or something that is close to it).

1. Questions on penny stock trading. All questions about penny stock trading is posted here. Apparently, this forum thread is usually created for open discussions about general penny stock information and the business.

2. The charts for stocks. Well you know what a stock chart is. If you don’t, either read more about it or join this thread. This category talks about technical indicators and trends using charts.

3. Software for the trade. This thread is dedicated to new softwares, trading platforms, operating systems, and other technical software stuff you could find in the internet about small cap investment today.

4. Stations for trading. This topic can vary depending on the topic starter. One penny stock forum would start this topic by asking you your top ten trading stations.

5. Momentum of penny stock picks. Day traders know what this means. This is a thread that should have a lead on day trading.

6. Ticker symbols. There are new companies coming in every now and then and ticker symbols are always required. If you want to check on ticker symbols of companies used in the stock market, look for this thread.

7. Foreign exchange topics. Well as the title implies, it’s about foreign stocks in the stock market. Of course expect to find foreign currencies here.

8. Day traders and stock option traders. Either it’s about momentum stocks or day trading and stock options, these special fields in penny stock trading also deserves a rank in the top-ten list in this penny stock forum article.

9. Stock market university. This is also another term commonly used in most popular penny stock websites for free stock market education. Unlike static webpages, people get to interact with you when you have questions.

10. Canadian stocks sold. Again as the title suggests, it’s about Canadian stocks. That shouldn’t be difficult, right?

The major advantage of a penny stock forum is that you get to interact with other investors who have the same interest, same concerns, as you do. And you’ll be surprised that people would share back. It’s a never ending discussion of ideas and even jokes. You meet new friends online. And best of all you also earn.

It is no coincidence that the most successful floor traders are in general those with the most experience. This is because I believe that trading is essential a skill based activity which requires both practice and experience. There are many similarities between very competitive skill based sports, like golf or tennis, and trading. Here are 7 of the key skills that you must develop as a trader.

1. Futures markets are just like any other market wether it be stocks, options or bonds. They will obey the laws of techincal analysis as well as any other market, providing there is enough volume to make the market liquid. So when trading futures look for support and resistence, trendline and chart patterns. Learning techincal analysis is not as hard as most people think, you just need to spend enough time looking at charts because it is really a visual skill.

2. Always have a trading plan before you enter the trade, and more important than your entry point is your exit point. Your exit strategy could include multiple points including several price targets where profits are taken and a stop loss point.

3. Ask any experianced trader who makes money every month and they will tell you the number one secret of trading is to keep your losses small. Amateurs take a long time to learn this. By doing this your small losses will cancel your small wins and you will be left with your big wins which is how you will make money over time.

4. Professional traders tend to be more patient than amateurs and wait for the market to come to them, amateurs on the other hand tend to over trade, which is a big mistake. Learn to be patient and cherry the best opportunities, this requires both patience and discipline but they are skills that can be easily mastered.

5. Keep both a daily and weekly log of all your trades. It is essential that you follow up with all your trades, both good and bad, to learn what your mistakes were. To become a very good trader it is simply a case of eliminating all your mistakes. This does not mean that you don’t have loses but it means that you followed your trading plan and kept your losses small.

6. Only trade when you are both physically and mentally prepared. This is often overlooked but is very important. Do you think a tennis star can win a game when they are tired and mentally not focused?, it’s unlikely. Being prepared means getting a good nights sleep, having your trading station and charts well prepared before the market opens, taking the time each and every day to review your trading plan and rules. Finally you must have the mental frame of mind and confidence that you are going to be successful today in your trading.

7. Paper trading is a good way to test out your trading system. Many people discount paper trading as not being realistic as when using real money because of the emotions involved. However here is one very important point to understand, if you cannot make money paper trading you absolutley will not do it with real money, the converse is not true however.

A futures contract is a legally binding agreement between a buyer and a seller that calls for the seller to deliver to the buyer a specified quantity (and quality, for commodities) of a specific asset at a future date for a price agreed today.

It is important not to get confused about what the word future refers to. Futures traders are not trading future prices, we are trading today’s prices, but the settlement is taking place in the future. So we buy if we think prices will increase and sell if we think prices will drop.

When a contract is either bought or sold you don’t have to hold it until the settlement date. It is easier to either sell or buy it when there is a profit in the trade, at the current market price. There are a number of exchanges that regulate the buying and selling of futures contracts such as the CBOT (The Chicago Board Of Trade) and the LIFFE (The London International Futures And Options Exchange.

The origins of the futures markets can be traced back to farmers and merchants who wanted method managing the risks in their business against bad weather or failed crops. The use of futures contracts helps them to maintain a more constant price for their products when the demand can vary a lot.

The farmer and the merchant are often trading against each other, trying to get the best price at both ends of the trade. By using futures they can limit the risk of waiting until the crop is actually harvested when the supply and demand can change dramatically. It also helps them to be able to plan a head knowing what profits they can expect to obtain.

By using a form of futures contract long before harvest time both the farmer and the merchant can reduce their risks by setting the price.

Futures markets have evolved to include markets whose underlying asset is a financial asset, such as a bond or a portfolio of stocks. Most of the contracts traded can be classified as either commodity futures or financial futures, depending on whether the underlying asset is a commodity or a financial asset.

The CBOT was started in 1848 for the benefit of the farmers and merchants. The exchange was to regulate both the quality and quantity of the actual crop that was being traded. Today the CBOT offers many contracts on items like wheat, silver, corn, bonds and soybeans.

In 1919, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) was created. The exchange has provided a futures market for many commodities including pork bellies & live cattle. In 1982, it introduced a futures contract on the S&P 500 stock index.

In London the big financial futures exchange is the London International Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE). Here financial instruments such as the FTSE100, the GILT and Short Sterling are traded, the exchange is relativily new and opened in 1982.

In Germany the EUREX is a big exchange and is 100% electronic, it started out as the DTB in 1990 before electronic systems became popular, at the time open outcry pits systems were still in use by many exchanges.

One of the biggest futures markets in the world was the German Bund, which, during the first half of the 90’s, was the biggest contract traded on LIFFE. The Bund pit on the floor of LIFFE was the biggest and the most active, it was the heart of the trading floor. The Bund was also traded on the DTB, but in much smaller quantities.

You can make a lot of money very fast by trading futures, mainly because of the leverage that can be obtained. At the same time of course it is just as easy to loose money if you don’t know what you are doing. It is very important when trading futures to have a good trading plan as well as having the discipline to stick to the plan and follow the rules.