Goverment Web Sites
The Web sites of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC -- www.cftc.gov), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA -- www.usda.gov), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (www.federalreserve.gov) are useful in their own ways. If you're a data hound, there's no better place to look than the St. Louis Fed's Web site (stlouisfed.org/default.cfm)
The CFTC Web site is a great resource for reviewing trading laws and regulations and finding out what kind of recent advisory rulings have been handed down. When laws and regulations change, your trading can be affected. These changes can affect anything from higher fees to what you can and can't trade under certain circumstances.
The USDA Web site runs the gamut from importan crop and livestock reports to vital weather information. The USDA site can be of great use to you when you trade commodities.
The Federal Reserve Web site offers the Fed Beige Book, a great summary of where the Fed things the economy has been and is headed. The Beige Book is the Fed's road map for interest rates, and it sets the stage for much of the action in the bond and stock markets.
The St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank Web site is full of charts and statistics that I like to use when I'm doing my history homework, such as when I want to see a chart of interest rates for the last several years. This site is also different from the Fed's main Web site in that it has a more news-oriented, less academic feel to it.
General Investment Information Web Sites
The Economy section of the Wall Street Journal.com: This section of Wall Street Journal's Web site is one of my favorites. It's an excellent resource for catching up on the big picture before you trade. The editorial content is first calss, but for a futures trader, the best part is the data library, where you can find charts that chronicle the major economic indicators and enable you to perform a good visual inventory of economic activity.
Investor's Business Daily's "The Big Picture" column: This is a great resource for getting a fix on the overall trend of the stock market. This column can help your timing of stock index futures as it features clear and easy to understand analysis of when the stock market changes its major trend, up or down. This is a subscription service which has an excellent digital web site (www.investors.com), which I highly recommend and use of a daily basis.
Marketwatch.com's "Commodity Summary" (www.marketwatch.com): This summary provides a great overview of the commodities markets, usually with a pretty heavy emphasis on oil. The best part: It's free, but it works better if you register.
Reuters.com (www.reuters.com): Another excellent free news site, I especially like to check out Reuters early in the morning because it offers good summaries of the overnight markets.
Barchart.com (www.barchart.com): The most complete Web-based charting service specializing in the futures markets, Barchart.com offers real-time data to subscribers, but its delayed data and charting are excellent for beginners who are trying to get a grip on the knowledge part of trading befoore they move on to the real thing.
CandlesExplained.com (www.candlesexplained.com): This free site is from Greg Morris, the author of Candlestick Charting Explained (McGraw-Hill). It's a good site for anyone who wants an online review or a quick reference to candelstick charting beyond what's available in this book.
FX-charts.com: You can find free, real-time, foreign exchange charts at www.fx-charts.com/pgs/toolbox_livecharts.php. This is a great place to get a good feel for real-time charts in the currency market. The charts also have indicators that you choose, including the ability to draw your own trend lines.
Joe-Duarte.com (www.joe-duarte.com). Sure, this seems like self-promotion, but it's not. If you like what you read in this book, what a better place to get more of the same as well as clarifying any doubts that you may get from time to time. I offer a good deal of market timing information, especially using ETFs for trading energy, stock indexes, and currencies. it is a paid subscription site, but also offers a good deal of free information.
Commodity Exchanges
The Web sites of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME -- www.cme.com), the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT www.cbot.com), and the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX www.nymex.com) are excellent resources, especially for beginning traders.
All three exchanges provide excellent overviews of the commodities that trade within their jurisdictions, margin requirements, and delayed charting.
Trading Books
Trading Commodities and Financial Futures (Financial Times-Prentice Hall, 2005) is written by George Kleinman, and author with a pure trader's mind-set. It offers an excellent step-by-step guide into the analysis and execution of trading.
Starting Out in Futures Trading, 5th Edition, by Mark J Powers (Probus Publishing, 1993, largely out of print) offers a trader's point of view, moving between an analyst's and an academic's perspective on the futures markets. You can find used copies at very low prices online.
[Duarte also mentions the Murphy Triad, as well as other books]
Newsletter and Magazine Resources
The Hightower Report (www.futures-research.com): As Fred Sanford of Sanford & Son used to say "This is the big one, Elizabeth." The Hightower Report is the m ost widely circulated futures newsletter in the United States, and it covers the entire futures complex.
Consensus National Futures and Financial Weekly (www.consensus-inc.com): This subscriber-supported service, whose major calling-card is its weekly sentiment index, provides a poll of bullish and bearish investors on all commodities and futures, from interest rates to energy and livestock.
Futures Magazine (www.futuresmag.com): The name says it all; it's the monthly bible of the industry covering all aspects of the trade.
Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities (www.traders.com): This magazine is written by traders, and it's where I got my start as a writer and analyst. It's a good resource to scan regularly for good trading ideas.
Active Trader: Similar to Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities: This publication tends to offer more about short-term trading.
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