http://profitabletradingtips.com/trading-investing/future-trading-charts Future Trading Charts Both day traders and those trading on a longer timeline commonly use future trading charts to guide their purchases and sales of futures contracts. Whether one trades stock futures on, commodity futures, or Forex futures, the use of future trading charts provides an overview that is essential. No matter which day trading strategy one chooses to employ, future trading charts make technical analysis of price patterns possible. By accessing market sentiment, traders are often able to gain higher profits and limit losses in both quiet and volatile markets. Lighting a Candle in the Darkness The Christian Bible tells that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Another great world culture, Japan, gave us candlestick trading, a means of providing light to those trading in confused markets. Japanese candlesticks, the trading kind, are rectangles superimposed on an equity price chart. The top and bottom of the rectangle tell us the opening and closing prices of the day. When the market opens low and closes higher the rectangle, called the candle, is white. When the market closes down the candle is black. The entire range of trading for the day is demonstrated by lines extending above and below the candle. These are the shadows of the candle. The point of using the old Japanese candlestick method or modern but similar technical trading methods is that market price patterns repeat themselves. There are any number of potentially profitable day trading strategies in which traders use future trading charts based on candlesticks or candlestick principles. Keeping Track as Well as Predicting the Future There are two valid uses of future trading charts. The first is to have a clear idea of what you are doing when trading futures. Traders keep abreast of fundamentals that drive prices and of market sentiment of the moment. Following prices without future trading charts is trading in a vacuum. Following prices with future trading charts is trading in context and commonly more profitable and less prone to error. The other valid reason to use future trading charts is to audit one’s trading results. Smart traders keep track of how they do. This is not just a matter of reviewing trades when losses occur. It has to do with always seeking to improve performance. Traders audit results and they audit process. Results tell us if we succeeded or failed. Auditing process helps traders improve their game, make more money on subsequent trades, and learn ways to hedge trading risk and limit both the frequency and amount of losses. Facts, Not Attitude Lead to Profits Often times a contrarian approach to day trading futures is viewed as a negative view of life in general. This is not really true. A smart trader uses future trading charts to follow the market, assess market sentiment, and compares what he sees in price patterns to market fundame