April 21, 2010 - Issue #529

In This Issue

1. Cannon Trading Financial Widgets
2. Find Your Futures Trading Blood Type
3. Economic Calendar

1. Cannon Trading Financial Widgets

Cannon Trading Financial Widgets are small bits of financial content that you can add to your website or to your iGoogle homepage. We've built a series tools that allow you or your visitors to follow the market.

Browse our financial widgets now →

Here's a sample widget displaying the upcoming week's economic calendar:

Other available Cannon Trading Financial Widgetsinclude:

• Energy Prices
• Precious Metals Prices
• Exotics & Softs Prices
• Grain Prices
• Economic Dashboard
• Mini Futures Prices
• Commodity Futures News

Learn more about widgets at Wikipedia.

2. Find Your Futures Trading Blood Type

by Ilan Levy-Mayer, Vice President, Cannon Trading. Originally published in SFO Magazine.

Perhaps the greatest luxury I have in this business is the ability to observe the experiences of many traders with different personalities, life schedules and risk capital, each trading in a variety of markets? What most astute brokers realize is that, over time, as some individuals prematurely exit winners while others desperately cling to losers, it becomes quite possible to match different "blood types" of those traders with their correct "trading diets." Clearly, we're not talking the medical blood type here, but in the figurative sense it makes the right point. With practice, it's not too hard to determine blood types (type of trading best suited to the individual) based on the personality of the trader, and then prescribe a diet based on that individual trader's capital, experience, risk profile and schedule.

Discovering Your Blood Type and Trading Diet

Just like a diet, where there is no right plan for everyone, in trading there is no single plan for all traders. Before deciding whether to "cut out the carbs," "add more fiber," or simply avoid certain markets, do some self-assessment, starting with personality. For example, are you hesitant or impulsive? Patient or short-tempered? Identify strengths and weaknesses, and then let someone close to you help pinpoint those personality pros and cons. Have a tough skin; it's for your own good.

To further understand your personality, keep a trading journal to help zone in on specific traits and how they affect your trading. Remember, understanding your personality is one thing; understanding it when you're trading is another. While patience with children is good, patience with a losing trade is not. A journal enables traders to review winning and losing trades and identify factors that aided in success or contributed to failure. After reviewing inner traits, don't forget to review the outer ones — your schedule and risk capital. Think long and hard about how much you have available in terms of time and risk capital when it comes to trading, and don't delude yourself. In addition, look at how you are using your time and risk capital. Go over the market(s) you are trading, the style of trading and time frames you are using. Is this market, this style and this time frame suitable to your risk capital and personal schedule? Are they suitable to your personality?

Doing some self-assessment is absolutely essential to determining what type of trading diet you should be on, as the examples later will make clear. But first let's define the trading blood types and their respective diets.

Blood Types and Trading Diets:

Continued...

Ilan Levy-Mayer is currently a senior commodity broker and the Vice President of Cannon Trading Company. Cannon is among many introducing brokerage firms and is considered a leader in providing futures trading, forex trading, and option trading services since 1988. Ilan helped pioneer online trading for today's industry that allows traders from all across the world to partake.

Ilan started out as a professional basketball player in Israel where he played for 5 years until he suffered from a major knee injury. Ilan could no longer play Basketball at his full potential after undergoing knee surgery so he decided to go back to college. He received his MBA in Finance and Marketing from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After about a year of working in real estate he started a new job as an Institutional Account Executive in a start-up internet company that led him to the United States.

As the V.P. of Cannon Trading Co., Ilan wrote several articles about trading and the trading psychology as well as being quoted a number of times in different publications in magazines such as: SFO (Stocks Futures & Options), Futures and "Bloomberg" just to name a few.

3. Economic Calendar

Source: Moore Research Center, Inc.

* Please note that the information contained in this letter is intended for clients, prospective clients, and audiences who have a basic understanding, familiarity, and interest in the futures markets.

** The material contained in this letter is of opinion only and does not guarantee any profits. These are risky markets and only risk capital should be used. Past performances are not necessarily indicative of future results.

*** This is not a solicitation of any order to buy or sell, but a current market view provided by Cannon Trading Inc. Any statement of facts herein contained are derived from sources believed to be reliable, but are not guaranteed as to accuracy, nor they purport to be complete. No responsibility is assumed with respect to any such statement or with respect to any expression of opinion herein contained. Readers are urged to exercise their own judgment in trading!