The gold market offers high liquidity and excellent opportunities to profit in nearly all environments due to its unique position within the world’s economic and political systems. While many folks choose to own the metal outright, speculating through the futures, equity, and options markets offers incredible leverage with measured risk.

Trading the yellow metal isn’t hard to learn, but the activity requires skill sets unique to this commodity. Novices should tread lightly, but seasoned investors will benefit by incorporating these four strategic steps into their daily trading routines. Meanwhile, experimenting until the intricacies of these complex markets become second-hand.

Summarily
Trade the gold market profitably in four steps. First, learn how three polarities impact the majority of gold buying and selling decisions. Second, familiarize yourself with the diverse crowds that focus on gold trading, hedging, and ownership. Third, take time to analyze the long and short-term gold charts, with an eye on key price levels that may come into play. Finally, choose your venue for risk-taking, focused on high liquidity and easy trade execution.

What Moves Gold
Each of these forces splits down the middle in a polarity that impacts sentiment, volume, and trend intensity:
1. Inflation and deflation
2. Greed and fear
3. Supply and demand
Market players face elevated risk when they trade gold in reaction to one of these polarities, when in fact it's another one controlling price action.

Understand the Crowd
Gold attracts numerous crowds with diverse and often opposing interests. These are long-term players, rarely dissuaded by downtrends, who eventually shake out less ideological players.

Read the Long-Term Chart
Take time to learn the gold chart inside and out, starting with a long-term history that goes back at least 100 years.

Choose Your Venue
Liquidity follows gold trends, increasing when it’s moving sharply higher or lower and decreasing during relatively quiet periods. This oscillation impacts the futures markets to a greater degree than it does equity markets, due to much lower average participation rates.