High-Powered Investing All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2

Being a Savvy Futures and Options Trader

In This Chapter

Eyeing the relationship between the money supply and the futures and options markets

Studying key economic reports

Paying attention to the mood of the market

Digging into technical analysis

Successful futures and options traders can make money by anticipating market movement combined with following established trends and cutting losses. To understand what the markets are doing or anticipate where they're heading, you should be familiar with the current state of the global economy and the conflicting pressures that can impact it (financial crises, interest rates, and fiscal policy, for example), as well as the role of central banks in stabilizing those forces — all topics covered in this chapter.

Being a savvy futures and options trader also means being able to recognize economic trends early. To that end, this chapter also explains how to read and make sense of key economic reports.

Holding the Key: Interest Rates and the Money Supply

If you can figure out which way interest rates are headed and where money is flowing, ...