Phantom of the Opera is a marvelous performance that will send your feelings through an array of emotions from sadness, happiness, to fright. When planning on attending a performance of the Phantom of the Opera make sure you bring your opera glasses.

The story of the Phantom of the Opera begins in Paris sometime in the 1800’s when two men take ownership of an old theater house believed to be haunted by a ghost. The ghost is said to be the spirit of a construction worker of the theater named Erik, who haunts the theater. The truth of the matter is that Erik is very much alive, although severely disfigured from birth. To cover his disfigured face, he wears the mask which has become the symbol of this wonderful performance.

As time passes, Erik tells the one of the performers, Christine, that her dead father who is has sent him to train her with voice lessons. The voice lessons take place in Christine’s dressing room. This may sound fairly normal, but Erik is on the other side of the wall training her as he told Christine he is a spirit. As Erik trains Christine she becomes a phenomenal singer. Christine takes the leading role in a performance.

As Christine is performing one night on stage, Christine faints, and a man in the audience comes to save her. This man Raoul, we find out is a childhood friend of Christine, and begins to fall in love with her. Raoul begins to attend her performances, gifting her with flowers, and visiting with her often.

Erik begins to become jealous of Raoul, and their relationship. Erik can no longer hold himself back from seeing Christine and meeting her in person. Of course, Erik is wearing his famous mask. Erik brings Christine to his area where he hides out and lives under the opera house.

Christine becomes frightened and angered at Erik and wants to be let go back out into the world. Erik makes a promise to let her go after five days of being with him. Erik gives Christine a tour of his home which if very strange and horrific. Chills will be sent down your spine. Make sure you have your opera glasses out for this moment in the theatre.

During a powerful duet in the performance with Christine and Erik, Christine wonders who this phantom really is, and why he wears this mask over half of his face. Remember to use your opera glasses at this point, as Christine grabs his mask by surprise and takes it off. Erik, now upset, and feeling betrayed, decides that he will not release Christine, and that she will remain there with him always. You will feel at this point, the love that the Phantom has for Christine, and the deep desire he has to feel that love in return.

We will not reveal the ending of this wonderful performance; suffice it to say it is an epic one. You will never forget the impressions that this musical leaves on your heart. The costumes, music and storyline will truly astound you. This is a performance that demands to be seen again and again to full appreciate, for this reason it has remained on Broadway so long! As we always recommend bring your opera glasses to appreciate this wonder to the fullest.

Many traders are seeking high probability trading strategies for trading CFDs. The attraction of these strategies is obvious as the more often a strategy is correct, the easier it is to trade.

A string of losing trades is less common with this type of strategy, which minimises the effects of leverage and subsequently drawdown.

However traders seeking high probability trading strategies may be missing the whole point of trading.

Being Right and Making Money Are Different Things

It takes two numbers to gauge the performance of a trading strategy. The hit rate (how often the strategy is profitable) and the risk reward (wins relative to losses). It is the combination of these two factors that determine the effectiveness of the strategy.

Consider the following trading strategy that is profitable 95% of the time. The strategy wins $100 on each profitable trade, so from 100 trades the strategy makes $9,500 trades on average. But what happens on the other 5% of the trades.

If the average loss is $2,500 then the strategy loses $12,500 based on 5% of the 100 trades. Even though this strategy is right very often it still loses money. It is not one or the other measure in isolation, it is the combination of win% and the risk reward.

Even High Probability Trading Strategies Can Lose

The strategy that is often used to get high probability trading strategies is to use wide stop losses and small profit targets. One hot selling product is FAP Turbo, the forex trading robot, that uses this idea to achieve a hit rate of 95%.

All goes well until you experience a series of large losses. The losses can be reduced by tightening the stop loss, but this is very likely to reduce the number of times the strategy wins.

Find the Balance

Finding an optimal relationship between the level of the stop loss and the success rate of the strategy requires testing the idea to determine the trade off between risk/reward and success rate.

In my personal testing around trading chart patterns I have found that the best trades go well from the start and do not look back. Tight stops can be used with a positive impact on the results of the strategy. I have also found that using profit targets limits gains and while it improves the overall win percentage it does not improve the overall profitability of the strategy.

It Is About Making Money, Not Being Right

Strategies that follow the trend are not right very often and win about 30% of the trades. The wins are much bigger than the losses with a risk reward greater than 3. This combination produces a profitable strategy.

Scalping relies on a high win% usually 70% or more, but usually have a low risk reward where profits are equal to losses. This is another profitable strategy.

When assessing trading strategies it is not about being right, but about making money that is important. High probability trading strategies may or may not deliver you this result.

CFD finance is easy to understand if you can grasp the mechanics of trading Contracts for Difference. To enter a CFD position you must pay a small margin. The margin that you pay is insurance for the CFD provider against any loss you may make. The value of the margin varies each day as the value of the position changes. The margin money does not buy the underlying stock.

To hedge your position the CFD Provider will buy the underlying stock when you enter a CFD and to do this has to front up with the full purchase price. In effect the CFD Provider is lending you the cash while you hold the CFD position open.

CFD Finance when Buying CFDs

When you buy a CFD the CFD Provider will charge you interest on the money. The rate of interest is applied to the face value of the position, i.e. the number of contracts times the current price.

Buying 100 contracts of AAPL at $160 using CFDs will result in interest being charged on $16,000. So when you are trading long you are charged CFD finance on the whole position.

CFD Finance When Selling CFDs

When you sell a CFD short you theoretically receive the money for the sale immediately. In reality you do not see the money in your bank account, but the CFD broker will receive it, if the broker shorts the underlying stock.

So selling 1000 CFD contracts of CBA at $33 would mean that you would receive interest on $33,000. This is how CFD finance works when trading short.

Costs Of CFD Finance

Interest rates vary from provider to provider but are usually based on the following formula. A reference rate of interest plus a margin of 2 – 3% for long positions and a reference rate of interest less a margin of 2 – 3% when trading short. The reference rates used are typically the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) rate or the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR).

The interest rate difference from the margin that the CFD broker charges is one of the ways the CFD broker makes money. CFDs could be considered to be a complicated way of lending money for the CFD broker.

When Is CFD Finance Charged

Interest charges are calculated daily and do not apply to positions opened and closed on the same day. Intraday trades are therefore exempt from interest, while trades held overnight will incur charges.

When trading CFDs the impact of CFD finance is minimal as interest rates are currently at about 6% per annum while CFD positions can easily fluctuate 6% in a day.