Every trader has his own opinion about the market. The combined feeling that market participants have, that’s what you call market sentiment, young Padawan.

Gauging market sentiment may not be as difficult as you think. The Commitment of Traders (COT) report can be a clue on whether the market is bearish or bullish.

Now let’s get to the juicy part. How do you get a hold of the COT report? It’s as easy as 1-2-3, baby!

Meet the different playas in the futures trading field: hedgers, large speculators, and small speculators!

The COT report looks like a giant gobbled-up block of text. But don’t fret! There’s actually a pretty simple way to use it.

When the market sentiment shifts, should you go with the speculators or the hedgers?

Studying the School of Pipsology is about to get sweeter! Are you ready to create your very own COT indicator?

Put your thinking caps on because we’re gonna get down and dirty with the numbers to calculate for the percentage of speculative positions!

Keep in mind that although the COT report is a spankin’ sweet tool to use in gauging market sentiment, it does not always correlate to reversals.

Like how things are in the world of Star Wars, there is always fundamental force behind each movement in the market.

Trading the news is a double-edged sword. Sure, you can earn a lot of money by doing it but you also stand to lose a lot in times of increased volatility!

The most-watched news reports are from the U.S. Can you guess why?

“Buy the rumor, sell the news.” What the heck does that exactly mean?

Let’s take a look at an example on deciding whether to go long or short before a report is released.

Okay, you already know which market-moving report to trade. What do you do next if you want to let the market decide which side to take?

You could get burned a couple of times by trading the news so practice, practice, practice! It will be very rewarding once you get the hand of it.

Carry trades involve buying higher-yielding currencies and selling lower-yielding ones.

Seems too good to be true? Oh, but carry trades are true! Check out how they work in real life in the forex market!

Carry trades work well when risk aversion is low. Why?

There are only two things to consider when you pick a pair to do a carry trade, but that simplicity doesn’t make it any less easy.

Simply put, carry trades can work by making moolah out of the interest rate differentials of two currencies.