The choice of futures brokers for commodity trading is not simply selecting to start a business relationship with a person, but it includes understanding the investment philosophy and available service of the futures brokerage firm. When choosing commodity futures brokers, there are several concepts to consider:

• Type of brokerage or the clearing arrangement
• A history of ethical business practices
• Amount of time doing business
• Level of commissions
• Level of service

Type of Brokerage Firm
Primarily there are two types of clearing arrangements for futures brokers, namely Futures Commission Merchants (FCM) and Introducing Brokers (IB). An FCM is a group of futures brokers that accepts orders to buy or sell options or futures contracts and accepts money or other assets from customers in connection with such orders. An IB, on the other hand, is a commodity broker who delegates the work of the trade execution, floor operation and back office operations to a FCM and acts primarily as an intermediary for your investment options.

History of Ethical Business Practices
Think about it this way; you will trust your commodity broker with a lot of money. Shouldn’t he or she have a history of doing things the right way? In addition, the brokerage firm should always have your best interests in mind and resolve any problems in a fair way. A good way to check this is to contact the National Futures Association and find out if the broker has any disciplinary actions against him or her; a few minutes worth of checking might be your best investment advice.

Amount of Time Doing Business
80% of all businesses go under within the first five years. A beginner investing makes enough of his or her own mistakes; a futures broker is even more vulnerable. Because of this, it is wise to choose someone who has five or more years in the business, giving them time to establish their investment abilities.

Level of Commissions
One of the most common investing mistakes is not knowing the cost of doing business. Commodity trading creates a lot of trades, so the cost can accumulate quickly. It is a wise investment basic to know how much the commissions run for your trades; you can easily find this out before deciding on your futures broker.

Level of Service
You need to ask yourself; how much help do I need? If you are learning to invest, you will likely need more involvement from your futures broker; if you have a lot of experience, you might need less. It is important to decide this because the level of support varies whether you are using a discount futures broker or a full service brokerage firm. Either way, it is important to honestly evaluate your current abilities and choose based on your needs.

Conclusion
Selecting a futures broker and a brokerage firm are very important decisions; no brokerage firm can guarantee that you will make money but it is a very important part of the process. You will find that choosing a futures broker for your commodities trading that will handle your account with the highest degree of integrity and professionalism will enhance your trading experience.

Market Direction:  Whether trading commodities, stocks, or futures, candlestick signals allow investors to quickly identify reversals and trend continuations, no matter which market they are trading. Investor sentiment is involved with all investment entities. The simple use of corresponding indicators makes the analysis of price movements easy to analyze, even if there is not a major market index to correlate. Stocks have the extra influence of the market indexes indicating the general sentiment of a market. Commodities and currencies do not have that extra input. However, commodities and currencies have the advantage of less outside influences. Once a trend is started in a commodity price, that trend usually persists relatively consistently. That is usually due to the effect of supply and demand. Stock prices have many more outside influences that can affect their movements.

As illustrated in the July Oats chart, once a trend starts, that trend remains fairly consistent. This makes applying other technical confirmation more easy to implement. Candlestick signals, at appropriate levels, are much easier to project when a price trend is ready to reverse. This is nothing more than applying what has been identified for centuries as high probability reversal signals occurring at obvious support and resistance levels.

July OATs

Candlestick signals makes the analysis of a market trend much easier to evaluate. As witnessed in the Dow for the past five trading days, the Bulls have not rampantly left the market. The buying has come into the trend during the day. Currently, the Dow is trading at a logical support level, the 50 day moving average and the bottom of a trend channel. This may not indicate that we are at the bottom yet, but it gives a viable level to be watching for indecisive trading, as we saw in Monday's trading.

DOW

The huge advantage candlestick signals provide is being able to immediately identify what investor sentiment is doing in specific conditions of a market trend. The Dow chart clearly indicates sideways motion. Will prices support at obvious support levels? That question is much easier to answer when knowing what the signals are indicating at levels everybody else may be watching. This is not a difficult analytical task. The information conveyed in the signals have been thoroughly scrutinized by traders making their living off what the signals are telling. Japanese Rice traders identified important information about investor sentiment in one of the most basic commodities of all, Rice. Learn what the candlestick signals reveal, and you will have control of your own investment future for the rest of your life.

Good investing,

The Candlestick Forum Team

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