Since the recession a few years back, through a combination of stimulus packages and market rehab, stock trading is reaching record highs. This is also a product of the proliferation of new start-ups and businesses from a younger generation that embraces a DIY culture. However, despite the market highs, the U.S. government debt exceeds 17 trillion. That equates to almost $149,000 per individual taxpayer.

A recent string of data shows that the United States economy is quickly recovering from what will likely be described as an insignificant quarterly contraction. A slack in the labor market is continuing to be absorbed. Average hourly earnings, employer costs for compensations, and employee cost indices describe that upwards pressure on labor costs is being experienced.

When it comes to investing, one of the most common mistakes made by novices and professionals is attempting to catch the bottom of a stock. This act is commonly referred to as trying to catch a falling blade or knife.

Fibonacci ratios or numbers have an amazing impact on what many traders think or even do. He was capable of creating a sequence of numbers that are somehow relatable to all aspects of life, from the air speed to a momentum move in the trading markets, click here to learn more. This is remarkable in my strong opinion and should certainly be a part of everyone's knowledge bank. We have created a unique tool that offers a graphical representation based on his phenomenon.

There are many great trading strategies and types of methodology around the financial industry. Each and every one of them are based on the simple concept of supply and demand equilibrium. A trader using fibonacci ratios, moving average crossovers or over-bought/over-sold indicators may not use any form of zones, whereas a support and resistance trader may use many zones. However both of them are directly related to the direction that price will move next, while the direction itself is solely based on an imbalance between the buyers and sellers.

In our experience a trading career is a lot like becoming a software engineer in the sense that it is not just about the language you are learning, it is about something MUCH more! It is important not to lock ourselves into a box or limit our manor of thinking so that we may always have a clear picture of what the supply or demand imbalance is and where it will be.

Market correlation can be a great asset to anyone's stock trading portfolio. It is crucial to know which markets and asset classes work best together for high reward and low risk opportunities. Just because two markets coincide with each other often, this does not make it suitable to use as correlation for upcoming trades. In this article I will discuss the leading indicator and how it can benefit you when trading stocks.

There is only one thing that causes the markets to move in any given direction (up, down and/or sideways) which is order flow. Order flow can be defined in many different ways but for this article we will refer to it as any order that is placed on an exchange to buy or sell an instrument. The common law of the financial market's equilibrium dictates that whomever has the most orders wins.

Find the recording to our latest free supply and demand webinar below. During the session we gave a brief introduction to Pure Financial Academy and covered some of the basic concepts that any and all supply and demand traders should be aware of to make high probability trade decisions. 

The most important thing is being able to have an accurate read on the markets to determine the upcoming direction. By locating the abundance of buy and sell orders in any given market we are able to follow the institutions with consistency. When trying to determine where the institutional orders reside we use a set of filters that help to alleviate low probability trades. A few of those filters include:

The financial markets are always reacting to orders being placed by institutions, commercial traders and even individuals all over the world. Each asset class and instrument will have its own trading hours depending on what exchange it is traded on in the world. Regardless of when these orders get placed, if they are not filled they remain on that particular exchange until they are executed. For all intensive purposes futures and forex markets are the best for this topic because they are open for the majority of the day and night.

Scalp trading is a very popular topic amongst many futures, forex and stock traders. It can be profitable and fun IF you have the personality for it. Scalp trading requires a lot of time in front of the monitors typically and can provide many trades during each session. While this may be right up your ally, some would strongly argue that they do not wish to stare at a monitor nor do they want to spend a lot of time doing an analysis of the financial markets. Our philosophy is that there really is no "right" or "wrong" way to trade as long as you are making money.

The financial markets are a complete mystery right? Wrong. In this article I will give my perspective on the financial markets and attempt to bring an understanding to the movement of price through Supply and Demand Zones Theory. First we must look at the market's underlying source which is pure psychology. Each individual, commercial or institutional trader around the world make up this psychology and are force fed massive amounts of news to influence their thoughts. Media is the main source of news and can be rather manipulating to many if the information is not interpreted in the correct sense. Luckily for us there is a single piece of information that we all have which cannot be manipulated, price action. It is our job to interpret the data and analyze accordingly. Price tells us every action and reaction that has occurred for any given instrument therefore telling us what the majority of traders were thinking at that time and placing a historical value on that instrument. It also leaves foot prints along the way to indicate where upcoming opportunities may take place. This leads us to our zone trading methodology.

Supply and Demand Forex, Futures, Stocks

Order flow analysis gives a low risk ability to see where upcoming market turns will take place. Order flow is a term used to represent the supply and demand of any given instrument. Supply and Demand is an economic model of price determination in a market. It concludes that in a competitive market, price will function to equalize the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in an economic equilibrium of both price and quantity. When supply exceeds demand there is a turn in price action. Price is driven down due to the quantity of goods being produced and the lack of demand for those particular goods.When demand exceeds supply there is a turn in price action. Price is driven up due to the quantity of goods being demanded and the lack of supply for those particular goods. To simplify the terminology supply refers to sell orders while demand refers to buy orders. It is important to note that a transaction must consist of both a buyer and a seller to exist. Whoever has the most orders wins. The equation is as follows:

There are three types of traders that make up the financial markets from trading and investing. Each type of trader will be unique in many ways regardless of which category they fall into. Some characteristics that make each trader unique include their trading strategy, risk tolerance, style of trading (intra-day, swing, long-term) and ability to control emotions. The majority of traders around the world are going to be known as retail traders or as I like to call them homegamers.

Supply and Demand Trading is used by many well known institutions, commercial and individual traders to assess high probability trading opportunities. In order to do so we use methods to locate a definitive area where there are many orders waiting to be filled, otherwise known as “unfilled orders”. Before moving on let’s define the difference between “filled” and “unfilled” orders.

Filled Orders

These are orders that have been placed and executed by a broker to an exchange and the transaction has already taken place. An example of a filled order would be if you hit the buy button for 1 futures contract and there is an available contract at your specified price for sale you would take ownership of that contract. When you take ownership of this contract that order has now been filled and therefore your order is no longer waiting.

Probably the most rewarding thing as an educator is hearing the success that your graduates are having. As stated time and time again in our live mentorship room, the most important thing one can learn is "how to read market direction". By reading the market's direction we are able to make highly educated trading decisions based solely on the psychology of the traders in that particular market. Each pile of orders placed in any given market leaves footprints that we can use for future reference. It is our job as a trader to read price and determine where the "unfilled" orders are so that we may fill them.

Below are two emails from a PFA graduate sent earlier today. Because he has a good read on the market's direction, he is capable of trading at the highest probability times in both directions. It may be important to note this is not something that is attempted daily because it is not offered each day, however reading price and market direction will let you know when a high probability entry with low risk is being offered.

As a new trader the process to get started can be extremely overwhelming. There are many options out there for data providers, brokers, trading platforms and more. In today's article I will focus on the NinjaTrader Platform. There are some needed steps to get up and running. Just downloading NinjaTrader is not enough.

Let me explain a bit about the process. With any platform there are key components that you must have in order for it to produce data on your screen and place live trades.

Today I want to touch on "how to simplify your technical analysis". Trading doesn't need to be extremely complicated! We want to buy at levels where the buy orders reside and sell at levels where the sell orders reside. So our only job as a professional trader becomes locating these levels to obtain the highest probability trading opportunities. Using pure price action we are able to do exactly that using very definitive methods to determine where the "unfilled orders" are sitting on the exchange for any given financial market.

Before continuing, let me clear the air by saying that this is by no means the only way to make money in the markets and as long as anyone is making money that makes them a successful trader with no need for change. Having said that let's look at the markets just like anything else in life (example below).

Today we will look at a brief video of our Supply and Demand Trading methods on the Emini Russell. You will see via the video below that the US Index markets continue to put in higher highs exhausting the buyers which creates corrective waves and/or pullbacks. These corrective waves generate volatility in any given market forcing more willing buyers and sellers. Utilizing supply and demand trading methods we are able to add probability in our favor. The Emini Russell offered an opportunity to take part in a short term sell with the potential of a larger move. Click to see the video below.....

With more and more individual traders around the world, we are seeing many interested in trading supply and demand levels or zones. Many of them have seen a webinar or event or even a YouTube video discussing the importance of institutional order flow. I will certainly agree with the importance and add to it. There is much more to trading supply and demand zones than simply looking at a chart and picking out levels that price increased or decreased quickly away from.

Market Manipulation

When looking for these levels on any given price chart it is important to note they are excellent trading opportunities only if all criteria is met, not just the level itself. Institutions and other large money traders use these levels not only for trading opportunities, also for manipulation. If they see a level that most retail traders will assume is supply or demand, this may be a great time to use it against the mass public. A great example of this would be "pivot" lows and/or highs. Most often when you see a pivot point it is simply formed due to a previous area of supply or demand. An institution may now use this "pivot" to manipulate traders allowing them to think price will turn there by forming a small base or pause, only to continue pushing price in the same direction.