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I wanted to share some simple and basic 'Fundamental Analysis' with regards to my 'Long' Gold and Silver trades and 'Short' S&P 500 trade. The Gold price is continuing to rise as equities around the world are declining. Gold is priced in USD and US Equities are in 'bear market' territory. US Federal Reserve has raised interest rates by 25 base points. There are a lot of 'risks' at the moment in terms of equities declining, Trump's Trade War with specifically China and monetary policy. These conditions are favourable for Gold going forwards. For those who may not be familiar let me explain when a market is in 'bear market' territory. It is when a market has declining by 20% or more from its highs. The biggest worry is any 'recessionary impact' that may come going forwards. A lot of people have obtained cheap credit whilst interest rates have been at all time lows. If interest rates begin to increase then if these people have not managed their risk properly then they could be in trouble as their repayments begin to increase. Business are effected by interest rate increases too so as their loan repayments increase their costs increase which could lead to job cuts. On top of this major technology stocks have entered into a 'Death Cross' recently. Now for those not familiar with what the 'Death Cross' actually means then it is when a share's 50 day moving average goes below its 200 day moving average. This tends to signal a change in trend from upwards to downwards. I think it could take months or at least the first quarter of 2019 for this bear market to try and bottom if not longer. I have a 'feeling' that this is going to be a enormous downtrend and those who do not short such opportunities are going to miss some exceptional opportunities. These are just my personal thoughts based on my 'gut' and 'instincts'. So please do not take this as 100% likely or it is given. I could just as easily be wrong. Now in the past on IG Community traders have posted many threads and posts about 'Buy the Dips'. I would absolutely not buy the dips right now on such indices trending strongly downwards. What I would be looking to do is 'Sell The Rips'. This is the opposite of the buy the dips. During any prices rises during a downtrend one adds to their position and adds to their short position. It is being reported that indications are the more declines are likely to be seen in the weeks and months ahead. It seems the major indexes are producing new lows which gives me the impression that the worst is still to come. What makes it difficult for us traders is that volatility is increasing. This is great for day traders and shorter term traders but for anyone who holds long positions it becomes difficult with the risk of stop losses getting executed. The dynamics of the current scenario is fascinating. I never thought I would be 'Long' Gold and yet I am. Risk tolerance is declining and along with it the markets are declining. Now one could infer that the price action of Gold is making it look like a potential safe haven for investors. There is the potential of a weaker dollar which could lead to higher Gold prices. I have openly stated I am not a fan of Gold. However, I saw an opportunity to get in early on what seems to be a trending upwards movement based on price action. We have the US Government shutdown which seems to be becoming a regular occurrence. For me this creates uncertainty in the market which is going to bad for stock markets and positive for the likes of Gold. When one adds the US Monetary Policy into the mix then one can see why things are unravelling the way they are.

The US 500 which is the (S&P 500) is an attractive potential shorting opportunity. As many of you know I like to be as open and transparent as possible. I like to keep things simple and really add significant value to the IG Community with real live trades. I have today opened a short position on the US 500 at 2506.91 via IG's Spread Betting platform. I should get daily credit interest as well - 😉 Why did I pick this to short ahead of the other indices? Well first of all it has lower margin requirements than other indices. This is extremely important when one is adding to short positions as the price continues to move downwards thus trying to maximise profits. Also the trends seem similar when comparing it to the Dow so why use up extra capital on margin requirements? Again I am sharing some of my live trades with the IG Community and will share my views, thinking and rationale behind any decisions. I will not hide behind complex analysis and complex theory that many may find difficult to follow or understand.

didn't think this required its own thread, but thought it was interesting. Saw it on reddit today. "In the 1640's the Dutch inhabitants of New Amsterdam built a 12' wall to keep the bad hombres out. In 1664 the British ignored the wall and took New Amsterdam by sea. It's now called New York. They took down the wall and built a street. It's called Wall Street" also, If you visit the street there is still a piece of the original wall in the ground. and then some non-finance related dutch/NYC facts : Coney Island = Conyne Eyland, meaning rabbit island (Konijn Eiland in modern Dutch). Staten Island = named in honor of the Staten-Generaal, a government body. Nassau = Name of the royal Dutch house (think "Windsor"). Brooklyn = Breukelen in province Utrecht. Harlem = Haarlem in Noord-Holland. Rhode Island = Roode Eylandt (red island in Dutch). Yankees = the common first names of Dutch men, "Jan" and "Kees" slurred together. Yell that at any Dutchman and you were likely to guess his name. ...thus concludes our history lesson for the day

@TrendFollower Not sure if it helps, but recently IG added 2 volume-based indicators to their offering: Volume-Weighted Moving Average and Ease of Movement. Maybe that covers your strategy?

The FT have recently posted a great article which I tried to share to friends but you needed to have subscription. Given its the last hour of work and it's quiet as hell I thought I may as well give a synopsis of the major events which have happened this year. which ones do you remember? which ones did you trade? ...and what are the expectations for next year? so without further a do The beginning of the year started with a solid rally in equities as Trumps reduced taxation and corporate freedom pushed markets 3% higher in January. This was the perfect set up to the crash which was inevitably looming ... Who remembers the VIX catostrophy which came on the back of Bond market damage on equities, great figures from average US earnings, and a new fear of inflationary measures by the Fed? XIV - the inverse vix - went crazy and lost a significant proportion of its value overnight. This finally collapsed in Feb on the 5th as all other institutions rushed to hedge their exposure. Cambridge Analytica was the big one in March with Facebook kicking off the FAANG draw down. This not only dented Facebook but fears over increased regulation for techies kicked the sector down a notch. Dollar has been having a weird year, especially during the first half of the year, smattered by trade war talks, April was the start of the rally. Dolar basket saw an 8% rally between April and mid-August prompting a JP analyst to comment that it was the "most notable phenomenon" of the year. Turkey melt down - A word of warning to all country leaders (especially the Turkish). Do NOT say that interest rates are ""the mother of all evil". Unless you want your whole country to experience a currency crisis. Italian bond yields went crazy in 2018 especially after late May after the two populist parties drew power via a coalition after the March elections . EM focus continued with the Argentinian emergency which was the most notable S.American event with interest rates lifted from 45 to 60% in August. Peso dropped 12% in a single day. October was bond season- and also significant losses in the S&P. Powells statement that rates were far from neutral led to increased expectations of 3 rate rises before the end of year. Oil, whilst original expected to (at least by some) go to 100 bucks was cut short after the 86 dollar mark was hit. US oil output, Iranian production, weakening demand... these all hit the industry and has resulted in a significant pull back. Finally pulling into December the crypto fall of the previous 12 months has started to see signs of life. Nothing can really dent the 80% + sell off over the last 12 months ... but some recent vol moves in late December are giving the hopeful signs of life. there we go - it's now 5pm and home time for me. Merry Christmas all. Looking forward to some discussion and chat towards the end of the week. Article for Ref: https://www.ft.com/content/5c7f9262-0364-11e9-9d01-cd4d49afbbe3

@Exhale_Trading, yes Google Finance used to offer this but do not anymore. @igungho, You may want to consider the following (cannot guarantee that they will still work) for the US stock market. Yahoo Finance Alpha Vantage IEX Finam Stooq You may also want to consider the following for the US markets: NetFonds Duckascopy The above are all free options which I assumed you were asking about. You may also wish to consider the following: http://eoddata.com/Projects/Intraday.aspx http://www.kibot.com https://www.quantstart.com/articles/Downloading-Historical-Intraday-US-Equities-From-DTN-IQFeed-with-Python https://www.tickdata.com/equity-data/

Recently we have touched on an interesting and oft little know resource that technical and fundamentals traders alike leverage. The US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission issues the positions "commitments" of traders on the exchanges covering a wide range of markets (see link below). https://www.cftc.gov/MarketReports/CommitmentsofTraders/index.htm Now traders will use this in different ways, as with everything in trading there are likely to be several different approached. Here is how I use COT data within my trading methodology. Note that I am a long term swing traders so I am looking for major trend changes to enter high probability/low exposure positions. Note also that a big part of this strategy for anyone doing it is to be contrarian when it makes sense (i.e. bet against the herd at the end of the trend as they pill over the cliff!). I am using Gold to illustrate this as I have been actively using it to inform my Gold trading, especially when I went Long in Sept & Nov 2018 (see my Gold and Silver Rally thread for the history on that one if you are interested) The bottom line on this is quite simple. When the the Non Commercials are heavily net one way or the other, based on historical swings and peaks and this occurs where my technical analysis is showing a turn I get ready to go the opposite way. most of these Non Commercials are trend followers and have to be in the market, where as retail traders can sit it out and wait, this is our one big advantage. The chart below shows annotations of where the Non commercials have been peak Long when the market turns down and vice versa. Food for thought. PS I use the combined Futures and Options data set.

@Nelsy-Boy, In my experience if the price of an asset moves with low volume then it is a 'weaker move' against when the price of an asset moves on high volume which to me represents a 'stronger move'. The volume tends to go with the trend. To me it shows how much conviction traders have on the trend in play. A word of caution here @Nelsy-Boy. Volume can be manipulated to make it look like there is higher volume to attract trades. I am not sure if you have come across the Volume Price Trend (VPT) Indicator? It shows the strength of the price change and the price direction of the asset in question. I am sure if you look this up then you will find plenty of material on this. I personally tend to look for an increase in volume when trying to identify trends both on the upwards and downwards. If I see volume increasing as the price is increasing / decreasing then it is telling me that the trend is getting stronger. There are other indicators to consider but this is just one of many that can go into the 'basket' before making a final assessment / conclusion on whether the trend is strong enough to trade. So to answer your question, in my personal opinion, more times than not if the price moves a big chunk higher with little volume then this is not as positive as if the price moved with higher volume. So to summarise below: Price moves upwards / downwards on low volume = Potential weaker move / trend Price moves upwards / downwards on higher volume = Potential stronger move / trend

So the market is closed and my position is open. At one stage yesterday evening I was up 100 points. I finished being up 87 points. I opened this trade on Thursday so it has been open only for two days but an excellent start.

@tomcagsey, No problem. Ok at least we are clear that you are looking at investing to create long term wealth. This forms the 'foundation' of my own personal investment portfolio. I will talk about what I do personally and then you can decide how you wish to proceed. That will be your decision. First of all one must have an investment plan with a clear strategy they intend to execute to fulfil their aims and objectives. I invest in 20 different investment funds every month via direct debit. I am using a 'Cost-Pound Averaging' strategy. However, when there are any major dips, corrections, reversals, etc. I invest lump sums into these funds to assist in producing better returns for me when the funds begin to recover. I will never invest lump sums unless there is a major drop otherwise I will merely continue investing every month. I have being using this strategy for many years now and it has worked a treat and nearly every year I am in double digit annualised returns. My investment fund portfolio has never overall been in a loss since inception. It has always been in profit by using this strategy. Now that is not to say that you must follow my strategy. I am merely presenting what I actually do. I always think one must learn to walk before they can run. If you are new to investing then investing in funds, OEICS and investment trusts is going to be better than starting to invest in individual shares. That will come later. Start to build an investment portfolio. If you are young then you can invest in 'capital growth' funds. If you are approaching retirement then you may want to consider 'income' funds. I intend to switch from capital growth funds to income funds when I am more nearer to retirement. I am no anywhere near that stage yet! In terms of research this is down to what 'themes' and 'countries' you think will be successful. So for example, I am investing in Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Robotics funds. That is a theme. I am also investing in Frontier Market, Emerging Market, Micro Cap, Small Cap and various other funds. I am a high risk capital growth investor so the choice of my funds reflect my risk profile and tolerance as an investor. If you wish to build an income fund portfolio or create your own income portfolio by investing in stocks directly based on yield and income generated then that would be different to what I do. Having an interest and awareness of 'Economics' I find helps. Conducting research, reading material that can give you the knowledge to make effective investment decisions is very important. I believe in the long term 'India' growth story. Therefore, I invest in a India fund. Now there will be many funds that invest in India and you have to pick the one that you think based on costs and performance to date will perform the best going forwards. What is their asset allocation? Which companies is the fund investing in? Why have other funds outperformed a particular one you are looking at? What are the economic conditions in the country you are looking at investing in? This is just an example. You will need to carry out plenty of reading and conduct lots of research on the different types of funds available. Which investment themes do you understand more? Do you have any expertise in a particular theme? What are you views on the US economy? How do you think the UK economy will do after Brexit? What is your understanding of the potential of Asia? Do you understand the difference between investing in large cap funds over mid cap and small cap funds? What about micro cap funds? It will be a long journey with plenty of hard work but it will be worth it if you begin to create long term wealth for yourself and your family of course.

Theresa May's government holds onto power, winning a no-confidence vote in parliament last night by 325 votes to 306. The Prime Minister has now set out to reach a cross-party solution for Brexit, although this will be extremely difficult as the PM was snubbed by the leader of the opposition last night saying that she is in charge of a "zombie government". Sterling remained steady as the currency traded around the 1.2875 mark against the dollar after, as expected, Mrs May's government won the vote of no-confidence. US equities closed higher on Wednesday after strong quarterly earnings by Bank of America and Goldman. The S&P 500 rose by 0.2% whilst the Dow increased by 140 points, both driven by the financial sector. The Nasdaq followed and increased by 0.15%. Stock markets in Asia were mixed as concerns continue over rising tensions between the US and China. Japan's Topix gained 0.4% at the close, followed by the MSCI Asia Pacific Index which added 0.1%. On the other side of this, the Shanghai Composite and the Hang Seng both slid by 0.1%. Oil slipped 0.5% down to near $52 per barrel as the US reach record output levels, counter-acting the signs of shrinking supply by OPEC+. Gold traded slightly lower at $1,291.65 per ounce. UK, US and Europe: Calls from the opposition and some leading Brexiteers for the Prime Minister to resign seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Last night, Theresa May's government survived a vote of no confidence tabled by Jeremy Corbyn, winning the vote by 325 to 306. It's unclear what is going to happen next in these extraordinary circumstances. Mrs May will seek further concessions from the EU in an attempt to get her 'Plan B' deal through the House of Commons, which the PM must layout to parliament next week. Looking ahead, earnings season continues with Netflix, Morgan Stanley and Taiwan Semiconductor posting results later today. It's unclear what is going to happen next in these extraordinary circumstances... South Africa: Last night saw US markets trading in positive territory led by gains within the banking sector after The Bank Of America reported better than expected earnings. Asian markets and US Index futures are however trading lower this morning tempering the previous days gains somewhat. Last night saw British Prime Minister Theresa May surviving a vote of no confidence in parliament, helping restore some stability in the British Pound. Oil and precious metal prices are trading modestly lower this morning, while base metals are trading positive on the day. Tencent Holdings is up 0.8% in Australia, suggestive of a similar start for major holding company Naspers. BHP Billiton is down 0.2% in Australia suggestive of a slightly weaker start for locally listed diversified resource counters. The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) concludes its monetary policy meeting today where no change in lending rates is the expected outcome. Economic calendar - key events and forecast (times in GMT) Source: Daily FX Economic Calendar Corporate News, Upgrades and Downgrades Primark announce this morning that like-for-like sales fell in the 16 weeks to the 5th of January caused by reduced footfall during November, according to the retailer. Fiserv is set to acquire payment processor First Data in a deal worth $22 billion in one of the largest deals we have seen in the financial technology industry. Bank of America shares soared by 7% yesterday after quarterly profit reached a record level of $7.3 billion. Goldman Sachs also beat expectations yesterday as earnings per share reached $6.05, beating estimates of $4.53, and posting revenue of $8.08 billion for the quarter. In a statement, CEO David Solomon said "We are pleased with our performance for the year, achieving strong top and bottom line results despite a challenging backdrop for our market-making businesses in the second half". Asset manager firm BlackRock profits fell short of expectations as the company's assets under management has fallen 5% over the last 12 months down to $5.98 trillion. IGTV featured video Information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Markets Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients. See full non-independent research disclaimer and quarterly summary.

this is a tax question. For presenting to the TAX department I want to get a 'TAX statement' showing total profit/loss. How can I get this statement?

The IG web trading platform has several alert functions which can be used to notify you of potential trading opportunities and market volatility. We have different alerts for all types of traders, from the technical analyst to the long-term investor. Before we get into the different alert types it’s worth making sure your Notification Preferences on MyIG are set up correctly and notifications are turned on within your mobile settings area. The blog article on the right may be of help if you would like a walk through of turning on notifications. Setting up Price Change alerts A Price Change alert will notify you of either a percentage move or a points-based movement over a set time frame. These alerts are great for applying to assets in your open positions window, as well as markets you are looking to trade on. Percentage or points-based movement Variable time frame of 5 minutes, 1 hour or 1 day Add a message if you wish These will continually trigger until you remove them from the ‘Alerts’ fly out on the left-hand side. Therefore, if you set up an alert to be notified if Spot Gold moves by 1% in a day, and there are three days’ worth of 1% movements back to back, you’ll be alerted for each of these moves. Price Change alert ideas Set up a Price Change alert for a 2% move in a day for a major index such as the S&P or Wall Street. This sort of move in a single day would probably suggest a key market event has happened. Set up a Price Change alert for an x% move in a stock you have on your watch list. Maybe a significant move would present a swing trade opportunity. Setting up Price Level alerts A Price Level alert will notify you when a specific price point has been breached by the market. You can be notified if either the buy or sell price passes your desired threshold. Be alerted to a specific price movement, e.g. If the buy price of gold reaches 1290 Add a short message if you wish These are only triggered once Price Level alert ideas Set a Price Level alert on the VIX Volatility Index if the price reaches 17, 20, and 25. A VIX movement above 20 generally suggests market volatility and potentially opportunity to trade. Historically the median of the VIX is around 17, and anything below this suggests markets are likely to be a little flat. Setting up support and resistance levels but want to re-evaluate the markets when those price points are reached? Use a Price Level alert. Setting up Indicator alerts You can set up indicator alerts from the dealing platform under the alerts tab. You need to pick a resolution and price for the alert to look at, and then you can start adding indicators. Use indicator alerts to be notified of your criteria being hit from your technical analysis Choose to be alerted once, or multiple times Add up to 4 indicators from a choice of 11 to the same alert Add indicators on the charts by right clicking to get a rough idea of when/if your alert will trigger. Indicator alert ideas These alerts can be as simple or as complicated as you like. You can find a lot of information on technical analysis on IG.com, YouTube, or by searching for strategies related to ‘x’ indicator. For example; A crossover strategy: when two moving averages cross, for example the short term 50 MA moving above the 200 MA, it may indicate an upward price trend. Setting up macroeconomic alerts from the Economic Calendar You can access IGs Economic Calendar from within the dealing platform down the left hand fly out. Once the calendar has opened in a new tab select the date and use the ‘check’ tick column if you want to be notified about an event. Clicking the cog at the top of the column allows you to set the specific notification preferences for these alerts (for example, notify before or after the event, and how you want to be notified). Try it out by searching for the next Non-Farm Payroll (NFP) figure and set the alert to be notified 15 minutes before the event, as well as on the event. You should receive a notification with expectations, along with the actual results afterwards.

ESMA admits more retail traders lost money after the introduction of the leverage cap than before, so the exact opposite of the primary intended effect. But not to worry, we're fine says ESMA. https://www.leaprate.com/forex/regulations/esma-admits-more-retail-cfd-traders-lost-money-after-leverage-cap/

about 380 odd points profit? Nice to get a good trade on over the spike. But unfortunately from an analysis point of view because this is a one off flash, it may be worth removing from your analysis. (or put on the same trade again if you think it could remain going down)

I agree with the Trend follower post I think to me it means trying to be right when is saying otherwise. I would wait until price reaches my risk to favorable reward level. In trading I believe the amount of risk is only sure thing.hence I would always wait until odds are in my favor,it is tempting to enter early due to herd state.

Natural Gas is still continuing its downward move. I think it was @Nelsy-Boy who asked why I entered at 4100 level. Why not? It met the criteria of my indicators and signals which were inferring a downtrend in play. Also based on the parabolic move upwards prior there had to be profit taking, stop losses being triggered and short positions being opened to amplify the move downwards. I entered the short at 4100 and it is now at the time of this post 2904. Sometimes traders can over do the analysis and make a trade more complicated than it needs to be. Also traders can convince themselves not to trade based on over analysis. My experience, 'gut' and 'instincts' told me that the 'short' trade was on. I appreciate there will be many times when my 'gut' and 'instincts' will be wrong but this is where experience in monitoring price behaviour helps a lot. You get the feel of how the markets behave under certain circumstances and how trends tend to emerge. A lot of work is in the anticipation and making assumptions. You can then follow the price action to see if they confirm your assumptions. This is what I call the 'Testing' stage. This forms a very important part of my trading strategy.

@Kodiak, that is an interesting chart and bitcoin does seem to be in tune with Awesome (think colour of bars rather than above/below zero) and with the divergence as well . Not supposing a massive retracement but quite possible that there is room to the upside. Is interesting to see the degree to which all cryptos are big long with IG clients atm. You need to click on each one to find the approx number of clients long. Not always a contrarian indicator. @cryptotrader mentioned a possible crypto rally just recent in another thread.

OK @Nelsy-Boy, I don't really trade the derivative crosses much, except for EURGBP, I prefer to stay with the primary USD crosses as I believe the USD is still the main FX market driver so don't have much to offer on those trades. One thing though, FWIW, no one likes taking losses but it is a art of trading so while we don't have to be happy about it we do have to be philosophical and treat them as learning opportunities. Also depending on your attitude to stop exposure, taking a loss does not necessarily mean your overall trade idea is wrong, just too early perhaps OR it may mean you need to think about reversing your direction. All depends on your methodology of course. So net I don't worry about losses so long as I practice good money management and are seeing movements I can easily rationalise as falling within my road maps.

Hi - the commission on options is incorporated into the spread, and there is no overnight funding. Hope this helps.

This is definitely coming and is one of our approved projects, however I don't have a specific date or delivery schedule. We are building the share dealing platform from the ground up, based on the new web trading platform structure, but specifically for the most optimum share dealing experience.

@Nelsy-Boy, Ok in that case if I was not going to use 'Trailing Stops' and then how would I set my stop losses in a volatile market? I would use price action and moving average indicators to assist me. So you may want to look at when the price reverses on a long position and goes below the 20, 50, 100 or 200 DMA depending on your risk management strategy. For day traders the stop losses will be pretty tight. For longer term trend traders they have more flexibility and can have wider stop loss range as long as they are trading with the trend and that trend is strong and bullish. My Silver trade is doing twice as well as my Gold trade but they are both doing well and as I expected. Both are in profit. Yes, I will keep on updating on this thread with how both trades are doing. It will be very interesting to see how long I am in this trade from a 'Time Period' perspective. It could be days, weeks or months. Who knows?

Silver is now trading above its 20, 50, 100 and 200 DMA. The 20 DMA is moving upwards, the 50 and 100 DMA are moving sideways though 50 DMA seems as if it wants to creep upwards. The 200 DMA which has just been hit moving downwards. What I would like to see to add further strength into this trade is all four of 20, 50, 100 and 200 DMA all moving upwards. So though the price is above all four of these moving average timeframes, the trend will be strong if they were all moving upwards in direction which they are not in this moment. Gold is different. Its price is also above the 20, 50, 100 and 200 DMA and it got there before Silver. The difference is that Gold's 20, 50 and 100 DMA are all now moving upwards which is extremely positive. Its 200 DMA is moving downwards but if this begins to move upwards the strength of the trend will be beautiful for Gold. It really will begin to shine. So we are not quite there yet on both Gold and Silver but certainly heading in the right direction. Now some may ask why not wait for the above before entering the trade. Yes that would be a valid entry point but I wanted to get into the trade as early as I could and it met my personal entry point indicators. The above for me will be trend and trade confirmation at its best.

@tomcagsey, Your first sentence states how you want to learn to 'invest' in the shares and stock market. You second sentence states you want to build your knowledge before you 'invest'. By the time you get to your third sentence you are stating you wish to acquire knowledge to become a successful 'trader'. First of all, investing and trading are different. For me investing is more about long term wealth creation whether that be for capital growth or for income. Trading for me would be a shorter time period and more speculative in nature betting on price movements in a certain direction. What you ask is a very simple question but very difficult to answer. If successful investing and trading was just about acquiring knowledge then there would be a lot of people who could merely acquire and retain knowledge and become profitable traders but it does not work like that. It is all about how much time, effort, dedication, discipline and capital (money) you want to put into this. There will be plenty of material on the Internet which you can read. There will be plenty of books you can read. Reading will be a good starting point. Acquiring knowledge is only the first step and no one can do this for you. You must read and learn yourself first. You are not a guest member so therefore one would assume that you have an account with IG and must use them to either invest or trade. You may like to begin with material on IG's website first which could be as good a starting point as any. I would not suggest you invest or trade until you really are ready and only you will decide when this is.

What is the EOM indicator? An indicator that highlights the relationship between price and volume and is particularly useful when assessing the strength of a trend. As implied by its name, it is used to measure the ease of movement in price. It is a volume-based oscillator that fluctuates above and below the zero line. In general, when the oscillator is above zero, the price is advancing with relative ease. When the indicator is below zero, the prices are declining with relative ease. A wide range (difference between highs and lows) on low volume implies that price movement was relatively easy, as it did not take much volume to move prices. Alternatively, a small range and large volume indicates that price movement was difficult as there was a relatively small price movement on high volumes. Other important things to remember with EOM The closer the EMV line is to zero, the less ease of movement on that specific period. The bigger the spike in the EMV line, the more ease of price movement, either positive (if above the zero line) or negative (if below the zero line). The ease of movement indicator can also be used as an average, by adding together various single-period ease of movements and dividing them by the number of periods being considered. By smoothing out the indicator over time it can be used to identify trends and areas of convergence/divergence. A graphic example Let’s review the EOM indicator by using it in a real-life example which took place at the beginning of Dec ‘18. Using the Wall Street 30 min chart we can see a correlation between the EOM indicator and subsequent market movements at the opening of the session on Monday. Looking at the chart below you can see there is a positive spike in the EOM line which holds for a few periods before it starts declining. The cause for the spike is likely to have been the bullish (but cautious) reaction to a ceasefire between the US and China on trade tariffs. This could have meant that traders were holding Wall Street pushing the price higher, however maybe not as many people bought into the rally, therefore creating a big range on low volume. To summarise: After the initial positive reaction from the markets, traders could have become more sceptic about the viability of the ceasefire, and therefore a more bearish reaction comes in to play. This increases the range as lower lows appear maintaining the EOM at a high level. As more and more traders become sceptic, highs become lower, decreasing the range, which paired with a stable volume results in a declining EOM line. As you can see from the graph, the EOM line reacts before the actual price does, as a tightening range indicates that investors are becoming more bearish, which can eventually lead to a decline in price if it sustained over a period.