World Trade Forex

Make Money Online With Forex Trading!

2009-01-18T17:39:00.000-08:00

There is a great, new way for everyone from students to housewives to make money online. It's called forex trading and it's actually easy to get into, and easy to do. Here's why one of the easiest ways to earn income is to make money online with forex trading.

1. No Knowledge Needed!

Seriously, you really do not need a whole lot of knowledge or any experience with stocks and bonds to be successful in Forex. Of course any experience can help, and having a basic understanding behind the logic of how it all works is helpful, but still you can get up and running in an afternoon and potentially start to see profits overnight with forex trading.

2. Around the Clock Profit.

Forex runs all day and all night, 24 hours. This means around the clock potential profits. You are not limited to a certain window during the day where profits can only be made. Working around the clock means more opportunities to make profitable trades. Now does that mean you have to stay up 24/7 and monitor your computer? NO! In #3, I'll explain how major money making is possible with little time investment on your part.

3. Run Forex Trading on Autopilot!

To make money online with forex trading easily and effectively you need an automated forex trading robot program. Believe me, it's definitely worth it! This is basically how you can get started immediately with forex and potentially profit overnight. With an autopilot robot system everything is set up for you. You just download the program, start the installer, and your essentially ready to make money online with forex trading.

Here is the BEST forex trading robot program for complete automation and very high earnings - http://ForexRobotCourse.blogspot.com/

Many people have easily doubled their money in the first month using this system. Check it out - http://ForexRobotCourse.blogspot.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jessica_Flowers

Online Forex Trading is Not Appreciated

2009-01-16T11:22:00.000-08:00

With the start of the New Year, the year 2009, the Bloggers Communities are all fired up with the end of year Googles Page Ranking. Cries of frustrations and joys are equally aloud. There were Bloggers who celebrated the New Year more than before because their Blogs are well ranked. A fellow Blogger even boasted about achieving a PR 5 within two months. I salute this particular Blogger. But at the same time there are also Bloggers who lamented because their Blogs were demoted by Googles.

Congratulations, to those fellow Bloggers for their achievements. To those who are “Demoted”, all I can say as a newbie in Wordpress Blogging is to keep on trying in order to achieve your target. To other Newbies, we must take note that we have a lot to learn from the senior established bloggers the tricks of the trade.

When I started to reflect on the Blogger who got PR 5 within two months I decided to join the crowd just for the sake of to be abreast. I checked my Googles Page Ranking as well. Your guess of the result will be as good as mine. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t surprised when this Blog, Forex Trading Puzzle is not ranked at all by Googles.

When I started blogging on this particular Blog, Forex Trading Puzzle, my main objective was more of educational. I am trying to encourage others to learn Online Forex Trading as much as possible before they start trading with live accounts because I strongly believe that Online Forex Trading could be a good source of income provided that the traders have a sound knowledge and solid foundation on Online Forex Trading.

So in the past two months or so I have been trying to write more about the basics of Online Forex Trading, sharpen my writing as well because I have not been writing for a long time, played about the setting of the Wordpress functions and Search Engine Optimization so that my posts are well listed by search engines. The target was to get a placing in major search engines.

As a newbie to Wordpress Blogging I also spent a fair bit of time in choosing a suitable Wordpress Theme, learning and getting used to the features of the theme. I tried a couple of dozen of Wordpress themes. It was not as easy a task as what I assumed. But I learned a lot about Wordpress Blogging through trial and error and believe me that there’s a lot more for me to catch up.

As what I have said earlier, my intention is more of educational because I would like to share my experience in Online Forex Trading as source of income. My posts so far are the very basic of Online Forex Trading and this could be the reason Google is ranking it. It’s too basic. It is not interesting. It is not a niche topic. In fact it could be boring to some. It is also possible that Googles does not appreciate articles that are too basic as Online Forex Trading is as old as the Himalayas.

Pip Value Calculator

2009-01-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

Use this pip value calculator if you want to know a
price of a single pip for any Forex traded currency. Use this
free Forex tool to calculate and plan your orders when dealing with many or
exotic currency pairs. All you need to do is to fill the form below and press
the "Calculate" button:

Although knowing the actual value of a pip in the U.S.
dollars is trivial for such currency pairs as EUR/USD, GBP/USD, it is quite
hard to tell the pip value for these currency pairs if your
account is denominated in other currencies, or for any other pairs,
which have a base currency other than your account is. These currency pairs also
require the knowledge of the bid/ask price to convert the pip value to the
account currency.

Position Sizing Calculator

2009-01-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

If you are serious about earning moneys from your Forex Trading, by purchasing our calculator, you will be able to more effectively:

Energize your trading.
Amplify your profits.
Grow your time-energy-money equation exponentially.
Perform more effectively.
Get the results you seek.
Improve your proficiency.
Stay focused on your trades while securing your account.
Focus on clear strategic targets.
Improve MONEY MANAGEMENT.
Master risk / reward - the "Holy Grail" of trading.
Keeping losses small, and gains bigger.

How To Get Started In Forex Trading

2009-01-16T10:16:00.000-08:00

You may have been hearing about the foreign exchange market (Forex) and the investment advantages it offers. You would like to try it out, but don't know where to start. This short guide will give you the basics in Forex and tell you what you need to participate in this fast growing field.

Foreign exchange used to be limited to large players such as national banks and multi-national corporations. In the 1980's the rules were revised to allow smaller investors to participate using margin accounts. Margin accounts are the reason why Forex trading has become so popular. With a 100:1 margin account, you can control $100,000 with a $1,000 investment.

Forex is not simple, however, and education is needed to make wise investment decisions. Although it is relatively easy to start trading on the Forex, there are risks involved, so finding out as much as possible about the market is a good move for any beginner.

Forex traders usually require a broker to handle transactions. Most brokers are reputable and are associated with large financial institutions such as banks. A reputable broker will be registered as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as protection against fraud and abusive trade practices.

Opening a Forex account is as simple as filling out a form and providing the necessary ID. The form will include a margin agreement that states that the broker can interfere with any trade it deems to be too risky. This is to protect the interests of the broker — most trades, after all, are done using the broker's money. Once your account has been established, you can fund it and begin trading.

Many brokers have different types of accounts to suit the needs of individual investors. Mini accounts allow you to get involved in Forex trading for as little as $250, while standard accounts may have a minimum deposit of $1000 to $2500 depending on the broker. The amount of leverage — using borrowed money — varies with accounts. High leverage gives you more money to trade for a given investment.

HOWEVER — beginner traders are advised get accustomed to Forex by doing paper trades for a period of time. Paper trades are practice transactions that don't involve real capital. They allow you to see how the system works while learning how to use the various software tools that are at provided by most Forex brokers.

Most online brokers have demo accounts that allow you to make free paper trades for up to 30 days. Every new Forex investor is strongly advised to use these demo accounts at least until they are showing consistently steady profits.

Each broker has their own set of software tools to aid in making transactions, but there are a few tools that are common to all Forex brokers. Real time quotes, news feeds, technical analyses and charts, and profit and loss analyses are some of the features you should expect to see on most online brokers' web sites.

Almost every broker operates on the Internet. To access their online services you should have a reasonably modern computer, a fast Internet connection, and an up-to-date operating system such as Windows XP. Once your account is set up, you can access it from any computer — just enter your account name and password. If for some reason you are not able get access to a computer, most brokers will allow you to make trades over the phone.

Trades are commission free, meaning that you can make many trades in one day without worrying about incurring high brokerage fees. Brokers make their money on the 'spread' — the difference between bid and ask prices.

by Hana Lee

Forex Money Management

2009-01-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

Put two rookie traders in front of the screen, provide them with your best high-probability set-up, and for good measure, have each one take the opposite side of the trade. More than likely, both will wind up losing money. However, if you take two pros and have them trade in the opposite direction of each other, quite frequently both traders will wind up making money - despite the seeming contradiction of the premise. What's the difference? What is the most important factor separating the seasoned traders from the amateurs? The answer is money management.

Like dieting and working out, money management is something that most traders pay lip service to, but few practice in real life. The reason is simple: just like eating healthy and staying fit, money management can seem like a burdensome, unpleasant activity. It forces traders to constantly monitor their positions and to take necessary losses, and few people like to do that. However, as Figure 1 proves, loss-taking is crucial to long-term trading success.

Amount of Equity Lost	Amount of Return Necessary to Restore to Original Equity Value
25%	33%
50%	100%
75%	400%
90%	1000%

Figure 1 - This table shows just how difficult it is to recover from a debilitating loss.

Note that a trader would have to earn 100% on his or her capital - a feat accomplished by less than 1% of traders worldwide - just to break even on an account with a 50% loss. At 75% drawdown, the trader must quadruple his or her account just to bring it back to its original equity - truly a Herculean task!

The Big One

Although most traders are familiar with the figures above, they are inevitably ignored. Trading books are littered with stories of traders losing one, two, even five years' worth of profits in a single trade gone terribly wrong. Typically, the runaway loss is a result of sloppy money management, with no hard stops and lots of average downs into the longs and average ups into the shorts. Above all, the runaway loss is due simply to a loss of discipline.

Most traders begin their trading career, whether consciously or subconsciously, visualizing "The Big One" - the one trade that will make them millions and allow them to retire young and live carefree for the rest of their lives. In FX, this fantasy is further reinforced by the folklore of the markets. Who can forget the time that George Soros "broke the Bank of England" by shorting the pound and walked away with a cool $1-billion profit in a single day? But the cold hard truth for most retail traders is that, instead of experiencing the "Big Win", most traders fall victim to just one "Big Loss" that can knock them out of the game forever.

Learning Tough Lessons

Traders can avoid this fate by controlling their risks through stop losses. In Jack Schwager's famous book "Market Wizards" (1989), day trader and trend follower Larry Hite offers this practical advice: "Never risk more than 1% of total equity on any trade. By only risking 1%, I am indifferent to any individual trade." This is a very good approach. A trader can be wrong 20 times in a row and still have 80% of his or her equity left.

The reality is that very few traders have the discipline to practice this method consistently. Not unlike a child who learns not to touch a hot stove only after being burned once or twice, most traders can only absorb the lessons of risk discipline through the harsh experience of monetary loss. This is the most important reason why traders should use only their speculative capital when first entering the forex market. When novices ask how much money they should begin trading with, one seasoned trader says: "Choose a number that will not materially impact your life if you were to lose it completely. Now subdivide that number by five because your first few attempts at trading will most likely end up in blow out." This too is very sage advice, and it is well worth following for anyone considering trading FX.

Money Management Styles

Generally speaking, there are two ways to practice successful money management. A trader can take many frequent small stops and try to harvest profits from the few large winning trades, or a trader can choose to go for many small squirrel-like gains and take infrequent but large stops in the hope the many small profits will outweigh the few large losses. The first method generates many minor instances of psychological pain, but it produces a few major moments of ecstasy. On the other hand, the second strategy offers many minor instances of joy, but at the expense of experiencing a few very nasty psychological hits. With this wide-stop approach, it is not unusual to lose a week or even a month's worth of profits in one or two trades. (For further reading, see Introduction To Types Of Trading: Swing Trades.)

To a large extent, the method you choose depends on your personality; it is part of the process of discovery for each trader. One of the great benefits of the FX market is that it can accommodate both styles equally, without any additional cost to the retail trader. Since FX is a spread-based market, the cost of each transaction is the same, regardless of the size of any given trader's position.

For example, in EUR/USD, most traders would encounter a 3 pip spread equal to the cost of 3/100th of 1% of the underlying position. This cost will be uniform, in percentage terms, whether the trader wants to deal in 100-unit lots or one million-unit lots of the currency. For example, if the trader wanted to use 10,000-unit lots, the spread would amount to $3, but for the same trade using only 100-unit lots, the spread would be a mere $0.03. Contrast that with the stock market where, for example, a commission on 100 shares or 1,000 shares of a $20 stock may be fixed at $40, making the effective cost of transaction 2% in the case of 100 shares, but only 0.2% in the case of 1,000 shares. This type of variability makes it very hard for smaller traders in the equity market to scale into positions, as commissions heavily skew costs against them. However, FX traders have the benefit of uniform pricing and can practice any style of money management they choose without concern about variable transaction costs.

Four Types of Stops

Once you are ready to trade with a serious approach to money management and the proper amount of capital is allocated to your account, there are four types of stops you may consider.

1. Equity Stop
This is the simplest of all stops. The trader risks only a predetermined amount of his or her account on a single trade. A common metric is to risk 2% of the account on any given trade. On a hypothetical $10,000 trading account, a trader could risk $200, or about 200 points, on one mini lot (10,000 units) of EUR/USD, or only 20 points on a standard 100,000-unit lot. Aggressive traders may consider using 5% equity stops, but note that this amount is generally considered to be the upper limit of prudent money management because 10 consecutive wrong trades would draw down the account by 50%.

One strong criticism of the equity stop is that it places an arbitrary exit point on a trader's position. The trade is liquidated not as a result of a logical response to the price action of the marketplace, but rather to satisfy the trader's internal risk controls.

2. Chart Stop
Technical analysis can generate thousands of possible stops, driven by the price action of the charts or by various technical indicator signals. Technically oriented traders like to combine these exit points with standard equity stop rules to formulate charts stops. A classic example of a chart stop is the swing high/low point. In Figure 2 a trader with our hypothetical $10,000 account using the chart stop could sell one mini lot risking 150 points, or about 1.5% of the account.

Figure 2

3. Volatility Stop
A more sophisticated version of the chart stop uses volatility instead of price action to set risk parameters. The idea is that in a high volatility environment, when prices traverse wide ranges, the trader needs to adapt to the present conditions and allow the position more room for risk to avoid being stopped out by intra-market noise. The opposite holds true for a low volatility environment, in which risk parameters would need to be compressed.

One easy way to measure volatility is through the use of Bollinger bands, which employ standard deviation to measure variance in price. Figures 3 and 4 show a high volatility and a low volatility stop with Bollinger bands. In Figure 3 the volatility stop also allows the trader to use a scale-in approach to achieve a better "blended" price and a faster breakeven point. Note that the total risk exposure of the position should not exceed 2% of the account; therefore, it is critical that the trader use smaller lots to properly size his or her cumulative risk in the trade.

Figure 3

Figure 4

4. Margin Stop
This is perhaps the most unorthodox of all money management strategies, but it can be an effective method in FX, if used judiciously. Unlike exchange-based markets, FX markets operate 24 hours a day. Therefore, FX dealers can liquidate their customer positions almost as soon as they trigger a margin call. For this reason, FX customers are rarely in danger of generating a negative balance in their account, since computers automatically close out all positions.

This money management strategy requires the trader to subdivide his or her capital into 10 equal parts. In our original $10,000 example, the trader would open the account with an FX dealer but only wire $1,000 instead of $10,000, leaving the other $9,000 in his or her bank account. Most FX dealers offer 100:1 leverage, so a $1,000 deposit would allow the trader to control one standard 100,000-unit lot. However, even a 1 point move against the trader would trigger a margin call (since $1,000 is the minimum that the dealer requires). So, depending on the trader's risk tolerance, he or she may choose to trade a 50,000-unit lot position, which allows him or her room for almost 100 points (on a 50,000 lot the dealer requires $500 margin, so $1,000 – 100-point loss* 50,000 lot = $500). Regardless of how much leverage the trader assumed, this controlled parsing of his or her speculative capital would prevent the trader from blowing up his or her account in just one trade and would allow him or her to take many swings at a potentially profitable set-up without the worry or care of setting manual stops. For those traders who like to practice the "have a bunch, bet a bunch" style, this approach may be quite interesting.
Conclusion

As you can see, money management in FX is as flexible and as varied as the market itself. The only universal rule is that all traders in this market must practice some form of it in order to succeed.

By Boris Schlossberg, Senior Currency Strategist, FXCM

Source: Investopedia & GoForex

133 Trading Tips

2009-01-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

1. Learn the basics of Forex trading. It's amazing how many people simply don't know what they're doing. In order to compete at the highest level in the trading business and be one of the few truly successful participants you must be well-educated about what you are doing. This does not mean having a degree from a well-respected university - the market doesn't care where you were educated.
2. Forex trading is a zero sum game. For every long there is also a short. If 80% of the traders are on the long side, then the remaining 20% are on the short side. This means further that the shorts must be well capitalized and are considered to be strong hands. The 80%, who are holding much smaller positions per trader, are considered to be weaker hands who will be forced to liquidate those longs on any sudden turn in prices.

3. Nobody is bigger than the market.
4. The challenge is not to be the market, but to read the market. Riding the wave is much more rewarding than being hit by it.
5. Trade with the trends, rather than trying to pick tops and bottoms.
6. Trying to pick tops and bottoms is another common fx trading mistake. If you're going to trade tops and bottoms, at least wait until the price action actually confirms that a top or a bottom has been formed before you take a position in the market. Trying to pin-point tops and bottoms in the foreign exchange market is very risky, but exercising a little patience and waiting for a proven top or bottom to form can increase your odds of profiting and somewhat reduce your risk.
7. There are at least three types of markets: up trending, range bound, and down. Have different trading strategies for each.
8. Standing aside is a position.
9. In uptrends, buy the dips; in downtrends, sell bounces.
10. In a Bull market, never sell a dull market, in Bear market, never buy a dull market.
11. Up market and down market patterns are ALWAYS present, merely one is more dominant. In an up market, for example, it is very easy to take sell signal after sell signal, only to be stopped out time and again. Select trades with the trend.
12. A buy signal that fails is a sell signal. A sell signal that fails is a buy signal.
13. Let profits run, cut losses short.
14. Let your profits run, but don't let greed get in the way. Once you've already made a nice profit on a trade, consider taking either some or all of the money off the table and move on to the next trade. It's natural to hope that one trade will end up as your "winning lottery ticket" and make you rich, but that is simply not realistic. Don't hold the position too long and end up giving all your well-deserved profits back to the market.
15. Use protective stops to limit losses.
16. Use appropriate stop-loss orders at all times to cut your losses and never, ever sit back and let your losses run. Almost every trader at some point makes the mistake of letting his or her losses run in hopes that the market will eventually turn around in his or her favor but, more often than not, it simply leads to an even greater loss. You win some, you lose some. Simply learn to cut your losses, take your occasional lumps and move on to the next trade. And if you made a mistake, learn from it and don't do it again. To avoid letting your losses run, get into the habit of determining an acceptable profit target as well as an acceptable risk tolerance level for each and every Forex trade before entering the market. Then simply place a stop-loss order at the appropriate price - but not so tight (close to the market) that the stop could quickly take you out of the position before the market has a chance to move in your favor. Using a stop is always the smart move.
17. Avoid placing protective stops at obvious round numbers. Protective stops on long positions should be placed below round numbers (10, 20, 25, 50,75, 100) and on short positions, above such numbers.
18. Placing stop loss is an art. The trader must combine technical factors on the price chart with money management considerations.
19. Analyze your losses. Learn from your losses. They're expensive lessons; you paid for them. Most traders don't learn from their mistakes because they don't like to think about them.
20. Stay out of trouble, your first loss is your smallest loss.
21. Survive! In Forex trading, the ones who stay around long enough to be there when those "big moves" come along are often successful.
22. If you are a new trader, be a small trader (mini account) for at least a year, then analyze your good trades and your bad ones. You can really learn more from your bad ones.
23. Don't trade unless you're well financed... so that market action, not financial condition, dictates your entry and exit from the market. If you don't start with enough money, you may not be able to hang in there if the market temporarily turns against you.
24. Be more objective and less emotional.
25. Use money management principles.
26. Money management increases the odds that the trader will survive to reach the long run.
27. Diversify, but don't overdo it.
28. Employ at least a 3 to 1 reward-to-risk ratio.
29. Calculate the risk/reward ratio before putting a trade on, then guard against holding it too long.
30. Don't trade impulsively; have a plan.
31. Have specific goals and objectives.
32. Five steps to build a trading system:
* Start with a concept
* Turn it into a set of objective rules
* Visually check it out on the charts
* Formally test it with a demo
* Evaluate the results
33. Plan your work and work your plan.
34. Trade with a plan - not with hope, greed, or fear. Plan where you will get in the market, how much you will risk on the trade, and where you will take your profits.
35. Follow your plan. Once a position is established and stops are selected, do not get out unless the stop is reached or the fundamental reason for taking the position changes.
36. Any successful trading system must take into account three important factors: price forecasting, timing, and money management. Price forecasting indicates which way a market is expected to trend. Timing determines specific entry and exit points. Money management determines how much to commit to the trade.
37. Don't cherry-pick your system's set-ups. Trade every signal.
38. Trading systems that work in an up market may not work in a down market.
39. Establish your trading plans before the market opening to eliminate emotional reactions. Decide on entry points, exit points, and objectives. Subject your decisions to only minor changes during the session. Profits are for those who act, not react.Don't change during the session unless you have a very good reason.
40. Double-check everything.
41. Always think in terms of probabilities. Trading is all about thinking in probabilities NOT certainties. You can make all the "right" decisions and the trade still goes against you. This does not make it a "wrong" trade, just one of the many trades you will take which, through probability, are on the "loosing" side of your trading plan. Don't expect not to have negative trades - they are a necessary part of the plan and cannot be avoided.
42. The place to start your market analysis is always by determining the general trend of the market.
43. Trade only with a strategy that you've proven to yourself.
44. When pyramiding (adding positions), follow these guidelines:
* Each successive layer should be smaller than before.
* Add only to winning positions.
* Never add to a losing position. One of the few trade management rules that we can state we never break is 'Never add to a losing trade'. Trades are split into winners and losers, and if a trade is a loser, the chances of it turning right around and becoming a winner are too small to risk more money on. If indeed it is a winner disguised as a loser, why not wait until it shows it's true colors (and becomes a winner)before you add to it. If you do this you will notice that nearly always the trade ends up hitting your stop loss and does not look back. Sometimes the trade turns around before it hits your stop and becomes a winner and you can count yourself very fortunate. Sometimes the trade hits your stop loss and then turns around and becomes a winner and you can count yourself unlucky.
* Whatever the result, it is never worth adding to a loser, hoping that it will become a winner. The odds of success are just too low to risk more capital in addition to the initial risk.
* Adjust protective stops to the breakeven point.
45. Risk Control
* Never risk more than 3-4 percent of your capital on any trade
* Predetermine your exit point before you get into a trade
* If you lose a certain predetermined amount of your starting capital, stop trading, analyze what went wrong, and wait until you feel confident before you begin trading
46. Don't trade scared money. No one ever made any money trading when they had to do it to pay the mortgage at the end of the month. Having a requirement to make X dollars per month or you will be financially in trouble is the best way I know to completely mess up all trading discipline, rules, objectives, and leads quickly to disaster. Trading is about taking a reasonable risk in order to achieve a good reward. The markets and how and when they give up their profits is not under your control. Do not trade if you need the money to pay bills. Do not trade if your business and personal expenses are not covered by another income stream or cash reserve. This will only lead to additional unmanageable stress and be very detrimental to your trading performance.
47. Know why you are in the markets. To relieve boredom? To hit it big? When you can honestly answer this question, you may be on your way to successful Forex trading
48. Never meet a margin call; don't throw good money after bad.
49. Close out losing positions before the winning ones.
50. Except for very short term trading, make decisions away from the market, preferably when the markets are closed.
51. Work from the long term to the short term.
52. Use intraday charts to fine-tune entry and exit.
53. Master interday trading before trying intraday trading.
54. Don't trade the time frame. Trade the pattern. Reversal patterns, hesitation patterns and breakout patterns appear often. Learn to look for the pattern in any time frame.
55. Try to ignore conventional wisdom; don't take anything said in the financial media too seriously.
56. Always do your homework and stay current on global events. You never know what's going to set off a particular currency on any given day.
57. Learn to be comfortable being in the minority. If you are right on the market, most people will disagree with you. (90% losers,10% winners).
58. Technical analysis is a skill that improves with experience and study. Always be a student and keep learning.
59. Beware of all tips and inside information. Wait for the market's action to tell you if the information you've obtained is accurate, then take a position with the developing trend.
60. Buy the rumor, sell the news.
61. K.I.S.S - Keep It Simple Stupid, more complicated isn't always better.
62. Timing is especially crucial in Forex trading.
63. Timing is everything in Forex trading. Determining the correct direction of the market only solves a portion of the trading problem. If the timing of the entry point is off by a day, or sometimes even minutes, it can mean the difference between a winner or a loser.
64. A "buy and hold" strategy doesn't apply in Forex trading.
65. When you open an account with a broker, don't just decide on the amount of money, decide on the length of time you should trade. This approach helps you conserve your equity, and helps avoid the Las Vegas approach of "Well, I'll trade till my stake runs out." Experience shows that many who have been at it over a long period of time end up making money.
66. Carry a notebook with you, and jot down interesting market information. Write down the market openings, price ranges, your fills, stop orders, and your own personal observations. Re-read your notes from time to time; use them to help analyze your performance.
67. Don't count profits in your first 20 trades. Keep track of the percentage of wins. Once you know you can pick direction, profits can be increased with multi-plot trading and variations in using your stops. In other words, now is the time to get serious about money management.
68. "Rome was not built in a day," and no real movement of importance takes place in one day.
69. Do not overtrade.
70. Have two accounts. One real account and the other a demo account. Learning doesn't stop when trading real dollars begins. Keep the demo account and use it to test alternative trades, alternative stops, etc.
71. Patience is important not only in waiting for the right trades,but also in staying with trades that are working.
72. You are superstitious; don't trade if something bothers you.
73. Technical analysis is the study of market action through the use of charts, for the purpose of forecasting future price trends.
74. The charts reflect the bullish or bearish psychology of the marketplace.
75. The whole purpose of charting the price action of a market is to identify trends in early stages of their development for the purpose of trading in the direction of those trends.
76. The fundamentalist studies the cause of market movement, while the technician studies the effect.
77. Rising commodity prices generally hint at a stronger economy and rising inflationary pressure. Falling commodity prices usually warn that the economy is slowing along with inflation.
78. The longer the period of time that priced trade in a support or resistance area,the more significant that area becomes.
79. There are three decisions confronting the trader -whether- to go long, go short or do nothing. When a market is rising, the best strategy is preferable. When the market is falling, the second approach would be correct. However, when the market is moving sideways, the third choise - to stay out of the market - is usually the wisest.
80. Channel lines have measuring implications. Once a breakout occurs from an existing price channel, prices usually travel a distance equal to the width of the channel. Therefore, the trader has to simply measure the width of the channel and then project that amount from the point at which either trendline is broken.
81. The larger the Pattern, the Great the potential. When we use the term "larger", we are referring to the the height and the width of the price pattern. The height measures the volatility of the pattern. The width is the amount of time required to build and complete the pattern. The greater the size of the pattern-that is, the wider the price swings within the pattern (the volatility ) and the longer it takes to build - the more important the pattern becomes and the greater the potential for the ensuing price move.
82. The breaking of important trendlines. The first sign of an impending trend reversal is often the breaking of an important trendline. Remember however, that the violation of a major trendline does not necessarily signal a trend reversal.The breaking of a major up trendline might signal the beginning of a sideways price pattern, which later would be intedified as either the reversal or consolidation type.Sometimes the breaking of the major trendline coincides with the completion of the price pattern.
83. The minimum requirement for a triangle is four reversal points. Remember that it always takes two points to draw a trendline.
84. The moving average is a follower, not a leader. It never anticipates; it only reacts. The moving average follows a market and tells us that a trend has begun, but only after the fact.
85. Shorter term averages are more sensitive to the price action, whereas longer range averages are less sensitive.In certain types of markets, it is more advantageous to use a shorter average and, at other times, a longer and less sensitive average proves more useful.
86. When the closing price moves above the moving average, a buy signal is generated. A sell signal is given when prices move below the moving average.
87. A buying signal on a two-moving average combination occurs when the shorter term of two consecutive averages intersects the longer one upward. A selling signal occurs when the reverse happens, and the longer of two consecutive averages intersects the shorter one downward.
88. Shorter average generates more false signals, it has the advantage of giving trend signals earlier in the move. The trick is to find the average that is sensitive enough to generate early signals, but insensitive enough to avoid most of the random "noise".
89. Cutting losses is painful for every trader. The ability to cut one's losses in time is the sign of a seasoned trader.
90. A channel breakout suggests a target for the currency price equal to the width of the channel.
91. Long term charts provide important information regarding long-terms or cycles. The trader can get a correct perspective regarding the real direction of the market in the long run, the strength or direction of the current trend occurring within that trend, or the possibility of a breakout from the long-term trend.
92. Common Points All Of Reversal Patterms
* The first signal of an impending trend reversal is often the breaking of an important trendline
* The larger the pattern,the greater the subsequent move
* Topping patterns are usually shorter in duration and more volatile than bottoms
* Bottoms usually have smaller price ranges and take longer to build
93. The head-and-shoulders formation is confirmed only when the completion of the three rallies and their reversals is followed by a breach of the neckline. The failure of the price to break through the neckline on closing prices basis puts on hold or negates the validity of the formation.
94. The double-top formation is confirmed only when the full completion of the two rallies and their respective reversals is followed by a breach of the neckline (the closing price is outside the neckline). The failure of the price to break through the neckline puts on hold or negates the validity of the formation.
95. The flag formation is a reliable chart pattern that provides two vital signals: direction and price objective. This formation consists of a brief consolidation period within a solid and steep upward trend or downward trend. The consolidation itself tends to be sloped in the opposite direction from the slope of the original trend, or simply flat.
96. A Breakaway gap provides the direction of the market.
97. The runaway or measurement gap provides the direction of the market. This gap confirms the health and velocity of the trend.
98. The runaway or measurement gap is the only type of gap that provides a price objective. The price objective is the previous length of the trend, measured from the runaway gap, in the same direction as the original trend.
99. The exhaustion gap provides the direction of the market.
100. Near the beginning of important moves, oscillator analysis isn't that helpful and can be misleading. Toward the end of market moves, however, oscillators become extremely valuable.
101. When the oscillator reaches an extreme value in either the upper or lower end of the band, this suggest that the current price move have gone too far too fast and is due for a correction of some type.
102. The oscillator is most useful when its value reaches an extreme reading near the upper or lower end of its boundaries. The market is said to be overbought when it is near the upper extreme and oversold when it is near the lower extreme. This warns that the price trend is overextended and vulnerable.
103. A divergence between the oscillator and the price action when the oscillator is in an extreme position is usually an important warning.
104. Oscillator - the crossing of the zero line can give important trading signals in the direction of the price trend.
105. Because of the way it is constructed, the momentum line is always a step ahead of the price movement. It leads the advance or decline in prices, then levels off while the current price trend is still in effect. It then begins to move in the opposite direction as prices begin to level off.
106. RSI is plotted on a vertical scale of 0 to 100. Movements above 70 are considered overbought, while an oversold condition would be a move under 30. Because of shifting that takes place in bull and bear markets, the 80 level usually becomes the overbought level in bull markets and the 20 level the oversold level in bear markets.
107. The first move of RSI into the overbought or oversold region is usually just a warning. The signal to pay close attention to is the second move by the oscillator into the danger zone. If the second move fails to confirm the price move into new highs or new lows, a possible divergence exists. At that point, some defensive action can be taken to protect existing positions. If the oscillator moves in the opposite direction, breaking a previous high or low, then a divergence or failure swing is confirmed.
108. Stochastics simply measures, on a percentage basis of 0 to 100, where the closing price is in relation to the total price range for a selected time period. A very high reading (over 80) would put the closing price near the top of the range, while a low reading (under 20) near the bottom of the range.
109. One way to combine daily and weekly stochastics is to use weekly signals to determine market direction and daily signals for timing(it depends from the type of the trader). It's also a good idea to combine stochastics with RSI.
110. Most oscillator buy signals work best in uptrends and oscillator sell signals are most profitables in downtrends. The place to start your market analysis is always by determining the general trend of the market. Oscillators can then be used to help time market entry.
111. Give less attention to the oscillators in the early stages of an important move, but pay close attention to its signals as the move reaches maturity.
112. The best way to combine technical indicators is use weekly signals to determine market direction and the daily signals to fine-tune entry and exit points. A daily signal is followed only when it agrees with the weekly signal (daily-weekly, 4 hour-daily, 4 hour-1 hour).
113. The failure of prices to react to bullish news in an overbought area is a clear warning that a turn may be near. The failure of prices in an oversold area to react to bearish news can be taken as a warning that all the bad news has been fully discounted in the current low price. Any bullish news will push prices higher.
114. -Elliot Wave Theory- A complete bull market cycle is made up of eight waves, five up waves followed by three down waves.
115. -Elliot Wave Theory- A trend divides into five waves in the direction of the longer trend.
116. -Elliot Wave Theory- Corrections always take place in three waves.
117. -Elliot Wave Theory- Waves can be expanded into longer waves and subdivided into shorter waves.
118. -Elliot Wave Theory- Sometimes one of the impulse waves extends. The other two should then be equal in time and magnitude.
119. -Elliot Wave Theory- The Finobacci sequence is the mathematical basis of the Elliot Wave Theory.
120. -Elliot Wave Theory- The number of waves follows the Finobacci sequence.
121. -Elliot Wave Theory- Finobacci ratios and retracements are used to determine price objectives. The most common retracements are 62%, 50% and 38%.
122. -Elliot Wave Theory- Bear markets should not fall below the bottom of the previous fourth wave.
123. -Elliot Wave Theory- Wave 4 should not overlap wave 1.
124. Support and resistance are the most effective chart tools to use for entry and exit points. For purposes of placing stop loss, support and resistance levels are most valuable.
125. One of the commodities most effected by the dollar is the gold market. The prices of gold and the U.S. dollar usually trend in opposite directions.
126. The Yen is sensitive to changes in the price or structure of the raw material markets.
127. The commodity-producing countries (Canada, Australia, N. Zealand ) are more dependent on Japan than the other way around.
128. The Yen is sensitive to the fortunes of the Nikkei index, the Japanese stock market and the real estate market.
129. The majority of the pound transactions take place in London with a volume decreasing significantly in the U.S. market, and slowing down to a trickle in Asia. Therefore, in the New York market, many banks have to stop quoting the pound at noon.
130. Swiss Franc has a very close economic relationship with Germany, and thus to the euro zone.
131. The major markets are London, with 32 percent of the market,New York with 18 percent and Tokyo with 8 percent. Singapore follows with 7 percent, Germany has 5 percent and Switzerland, France and Hong Kong have 4 percent each.
132. Don't use the markets to feed your need for excitement.
133. Don't be too greedy or too cautious.

by AKFOREX

Choosing A Forex Strategy

2009-01-16T06:34:00.000-08:00

Technical analysis and fundamental analysis are the two basic areas of strategy in the FOREX market which is the exact same as in the equity markets. However, technical analysis is by far the most common strategy that is used by individual FOREX traders. Here is a brief overview of both forms of analysis and how they directly apply to forex trading:

Fundamental Analysis

If you think it's hard enough to value one company, you should try valuing a whole country instead. Fundamental analysis in the forex market is often an extremely difficult one, and it's usually used only as a means to predict long-term trends. However it is important to mention that some traders do trade short term strictly on news releases. There are a lot of different fundamental indicators of the currency values released at many different times. Here are a few of them to get you started:

* Non-farm Payrolls

* Purchasing Managers Index (PMI)

* Consumer Price Index (CPI)

* Retail Sales

* Durable Goods

You need to know that these reports are not the only fundamental factors that you have to watch. There are also quite a variety of meetings where you can get some quotes and commentary that can affect markets just as much as any report. These meetings are often brought out to discuss any interest rates, inflation, and other issues that have the ability to affect currency values.

Even changes in how things are worded when addressing certain issues such as the Federal Reserve chairman's comments on interest rates; can cause a volatile market. Two important meetings that you have to watch out for are the Federal Open Market Committee and Humphrey Hawkins Hearings.

Just by reading the reports and examining the commentary, it can help FOREX fundamental analysts to get a better understanding of any and all long-term market trends and also to allow short-term traders to be able to profit from extraordinary happenings. If you do decide to follow a fundamental strategy, you will want to be sure to keep an economic calendar handy at all times so you know when these reports are released. Your broker may also be able to provide you with real-time access to this kind of information.

Technical Analysis

Just like their counterparts in the equity markets, technical analysts of the FOREX trading market analyze price trends. The only real difference between technical analysis in FOREX and technical analysis in equities is the time frame that is involved in that FOREX markets are open 24 hours a day.

Because of this, some forms of technical analysis that factor in time have to be modified so that they can work with the 24 hour FOREX market. Some of the most common forms of technical analysis used in FOREX are:

* The Elliott Waves

* Fibonacci studies

* Parabolic SAR

* Pivot points

A lot of technical analysts have a tendency to combine technical studies to make more accurate predictions on your behalf. (The most common method for them is combining the Fibonacci studies with Elliott Waves.) Others prefer to create trading systems in an effort to repeatedly locate similar buying and selling conditions.

Choosing Your Strategy

Most successful traders will develop a strategy and perfect it over a specific period of time. Some people will focus on one particular study or calculation, while still some others use broad spectrum analysis as a means of determining their trades. Most experts would likely suggest that you try using a combination of both fundamental and technical analysis, with which you can make long-term projections and also determine entry and exit points. Of course, in the end, it is the individual trader who has to decide what works best for him.

When you are ready to get started in the FOREX market, you should open a demo account and paper trade so that you can practice until you can make a consistent profit. Many people who fail have a tendency to jump into the FOREX market and quickly lose a lot of money because of a lack of experience. It is important to take your time and learn to trade properly before you start committing capital.

You also need to be ale to trade without emotion. You can't keep track of all stop-loss points if you don't have the ability to execute them on time. You must always set your stop-loss and take-profit points to execute automatically, and don't change them unless you absolutely have to. Make your decisions and stick to them. Otherwise you will drive yourself and your brokers crazy.

You should also realize that you need to follow the trends. If you go against the trend, you are just messing with your money because the FOREX market tends to trend more often than anything else and you will have a higher chance of success in trading with the trend.

The FOREX market is the largest market in the world, and every day people are becoming increasingly interested in it. But before you begin trading, make sure your broker meets certain criteria, and take the time to find a trading strategy that works for you.

by Giles Windholm

Forex Profits by Buying and Selling at the Same Time

2009-01-16T06:30:00.000-08:00

This article is one of a series which looks at the advantages and weaknesses of trading using the hedged, grid trading system to trade volatile markets.

We will look at how money can be made by breaking a number of trading truths or principles; * cut your losses and let your profit run and * there is nothing to gained by entering into buy and sell deals at the same time.

The hedged grid trading system uses the principle that one should be able to cash in at a gain no matter which way the market moves. No stops are therefore required at all. The only way this is logically possible is that one would have a buy and sell active at the same time. Most traders will say that that is trading suicide but let's take some to look at this more closely.

Let's say that a trader enters the market with a buy and sell active when a currency is at a level of say 100. The price then moves to 200. The buy will then be positive by 100 and the sell will be negative by 100. At this point we start breaking trading rules. We cash in our positive buy and the gain of 100 goes to our account. The sell is now carrying a loss of -100.

The grid system requires one to make sure that cash in on any movement in the market. To do this one would again enter into a buy and a sell transaction. Now, for convenience, let's assume that the price moves back to level 100.

The second sell has now gone positive by 100 and the second buy is carrying a loss of -100. According to the rules one would cash the sell in and another 100 will be added to your account. That brings the total cashed in at this point to 200.

Now the first sell that remained active has moved from level 200 where it was -100 to level 100 where it is now breaking even.

The 4 transactions added together now magically show a gain:- 1st buy cashed in +100, 2nd sell cashed in +100, 1st sell now breaking even and the 2nd buy is -100. This gives an overall a gain of 100 in total. We can liquidate all the transactions and have some champagne.

There are many, many other market movements that turn this strange "buy and sell at the same time" activity into gains. These will be covered in future articles and are covered in a free grid trading course which is available at the expert-4x.com website for those traders whose curiosity has been aroused.

by Mary McArthur

Forex The Future Investment

2009-01-16T06:24:00.000-08:00

There are many many advantages over the various other ways of investing. First of all it is a 24 hr market, except for weekends of course. You have the US market then the european and then the Asian. One of the great times to trade is during the over lapping periods. The USA and european overlap between 5am & 9am eastern and the Euro & Asian between 11pm & 1am eastern. Usually the busiest time and best to trade.

The is also the risk factor for the accounts. With futures and options you can get margin calls that can wipe you out. If you get caught in a bad trade not only do you lose the money in the account but you may have to come up with alot more from your pocket. It can be very risking. But not in Forex. Worst case senerio you could lose whats in you account. But you would have to do something really stupid. Like making a big trade on a Fundamental day and leave it alone. If market takes a bad move and you weren't there. OOOPS. But That wouldn't happen with a smarth trader.

Then there are the demo accounts which is an account where you can trade using all the right things, platform,charts,and information. But you are using play money, or what we call paper trading too.

Plus with Forex you have a mini account. Instead of needing thousands of dollars to get into it. You can open an account with as little as $300.00. Now of course you will be trading at 1 tenth of a trade. IN other words you controling 10,000 instead of 100,000.00 These are call lots. Which also means you will only risk 1 tenth too!

So if you would love to learn to do investing and not have near the risk you really need to take a closer look at Forex trading.

by Mike Pachuta

Professional Forex Training Software for Traders

2009-01-16T05:55:00.001-08:00

Forex Tester is a professional software simulator of the Foreign Exchange Market. It allows you to gain and improve trading skills without risking your money. You do not need to train in real time, waiting for days and weeks to test your trading ideas and strategies, Forex Tester will pack this time in hours and minutes.

This is an excellent forex training tool that will help you to:

Study trading on the FOREX market in a fast and convenient way.
Develop and test your own trading strategies without being a programmer.
Test your trading strategies on years of historical data.
Save your money and time.

The program has extended drawing tools that allow you to test trading strategies based on technical analysis. It provides some of the most popular technical studies such as: Fibonacci Retracement, Fibonacci Fan, Fibonacci Arcs, Andrews' Pitchfork and others.

Also, we added some of the most popular indicators and oscillators to Forex Tester and continue to increase their number.

For the advanced users and programmers we designed open interfaces with detalied documentation to help you create your own indicators and strategies. Thus, if you have your own ideas, you can implement them using Forex Tester API and significantly expand the program functionality.

Demo Video

Forex Glossary

2009-01-16T05:44:00.000-08:00

Ask (Offer) — price of the offer, the price you buy for.

Aussie — a Forex slang name for the Australian dollar.

Bank Rate — the percentage rate at which central bank of a country lends money to the country's commercial banks.

Bid — price of the demand, the price you sell for.

Broker — the market participating body which serves as the middleman between retail traders and larger commercial institutions.

Cable — a Forex traders slang word GBP/USD currency pair.

Carry Trade — in Forex, holding a position with a positive overnight interest return in hope of gaining profits, without closing the position, just for the central banks interest rates difference.

CFD — a Contract for Difference — special trading instrument that allows financial speculation on stocks, commodities and other instruments without actually buying.

Commission — broker commissions for operation handling.

CPI — consumer price index the statistical measure of inflation based upon changes of prices of a specified set of goods.

EA (Expert Advisor) — an automated script which is used by the trading platform software to manage positions and orders automatically without (or with little) manual control.

ECN Broker — a type of Forex brokerage firm that provide its clients direct access to other Forex market participants. ECN brokers don't discourage scalping, don't trade against the client, don't charge spread (low spread is defined by current market prices) but charge commissions for every order.

ECB (European Central Bank) — the main regulatory body of the European Union financial system.

Fed (Federal Reserve) — the main regulatory body of the United States of America financial system, which division — FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) — regulates, among other things, federal interest rates.

Fibonacci Retracements — the levels with a high probability of trend break or bounce, calculated as the 23.6%, 32.8%, 50% and 61.8% of the trend range.

Flat (Square) — neutral state when all your positions are closed.

Fundamental Analysis — the analysis based only on news, economic indicators and global events.

GDP (Gross Domestic Product) — is a measure of the national income and output for the country's economy; it's one of the most important Forex indicators.

GTC (Good Till Cancelled) — order to buy or sell of a currency with a fixed price or worse. The order is alive (good) until execution or cancellation.

Hedging — maintaining a market position which secures the existing open positions in the opposite direction.

Jobber — a slang word for a trader which is aimed toward fast but small and short-term profit from an intra-day trading. Jobber rarely leaves open positions overnight.

Kiwi — a Forex slang name for the New Zealand currency — New Zealand dollar.

Leading Indicators — a composite index (year 1992 = 100%) of ten most important macroeconomic indicators that predicts future (6-9 months) economic activity.

Limit Order — order for a broker to buy the lot for fixed or lesser price or sell the lot for fixed or better price. Such price is called limit price.

Liquidity — the measure of markets which describes relationship between the trading volume and the price change.

Long — the position which is in a Buy direction. In Forex, the primary currency when bought is long and another is short.

Loss — the loss from closing long position at lower rate than opening or short position with higher rate than opening, or if the profit from a position closing was lower than broker commission on it.

Lot — definite amount of units or amount of money accepted for operations handling (usually it is a multiple of 100).

Margin — money, the investor needs to keep at broker account to execute trades. It supplies the possible losses which may occur in margin trading.

Margin Account — account which is used to hold investor's deposited money for FOREX trading.

Margin Call — demand of a broker to deposit more margin money to the margin account when the amount in it falls below certain minimum.

Market Order — order to buy or sell a lot for a current market price.

Market Price — the current price for which the currency is traded for on the market.

Momentum — the measure of the currency's ability to move in the given direction.

Moving Average (MA) — one of the most basic technical indicators. It shows the average rate calculated over a series of time periods. Exponential Moving Average (EMA), Weighted Moving Average (WMA) etc. are just the ways of weighing the rates and the periods.

Offer (Ask) — price of the offer, the price you buy for.

Open Position (Trade) — position on buying (long) or selling (short) for a currency pair.

Order — order for a broker to buy or sell the currency with a certain rate.

Pivot Point — the primary support/resistance point calculated basing on the previous trend's High, Low and Close prices.

Pip (Point) — the last digit in the rate (e.g. for EUR/USD 1 point = 0.0001).

Profit (Gain) — positive amount of money gained for closing the position.

Principal Value — the initial amount of money of the invested.

Realized Profit/Loss — gain/loss for already closed positions.

Resistance — price level for which the intensive selling can lead to price increasing (up-trend).

Scalping — a style of trading notable by many positions that are opened for extremely small and short-term profits.

Settled (Closed) Position — closed positions for which all needed transactions has been made.

Slippage — execution of order for a price different than expected (ordered), main reasons for slippage are — "fast" market, low liquidity and low broker's ability to execute orders.

Spread — difference between ask and bid prices for a currency pair.

Standard Lot — 100,000 units of the base currency of the currency pair, which you are buying or selling.

Stop-Limit Order — order to sell or buy a lot when the market reaches certain price. Usually is a combination of stop-order and limit-order.

Stop-Loss Order — order to sell or buy a lot for a certain price or worse. It is used to avoid extra losses when market moves in the opposite direction.

Support — price level for which intensive buying can lead to the price decreasing (down-trend).

Swap — overnight payment for holding your position. Since you are not physically receiving the currency you buy, your broker should pay you the interest rate difference between the two currencies of the pair. It can be negative or positive.

Technical Analysis — the analysis based only on the technical market data (quotes) with the help of various technical indicators.

Trend — direction of market which has been established with influence of different factors.

Unrealized (Floating) Profit/Loss — a profit/loss for your non-closed positions.

Useable Margin — amount of money in the account that can be used for trading.

Used Margin — amount of money in the account already used to hold open positions open.

Volatility — a statistical measure of the number of price changes for a given currency pair in a given period of time.

Essential Elements of a Successful Trader

2009-01-16T05:34:00.000-08:00

Courage Under Stressful Conditions When the Outcome is Uncertain

All the foreign exchange trading knowledge in the world is not going to help, unless you have the nerve to buy and sell currencies and put your money at risk. As with the lottery “You gotta be in it to win it”. Trust me when I say that the simple task of hitting the buy or sell key is extremely difficult to do when your own real money is put at risk.

You will feel anxiety, even fear. Here lies the moment of truth. Do you have the courage to be afraid and act anyway? When a fireman runs into a burning building I assume he is afraid but he does it anyway and achieves the desired result. Unless you can overcome or accept your fear and do it anyway, you will not be a successful trader.

However, once you learn to control your fear, it gets easier and easier and in time there is no fear. The opposite reaction can become an issue – you’re overconfident and not focused enough on the risk you're taking.

Both the inability to initiate a trade, or close a losing trade can create serious psychological issues for a trader going forward. By calling attention to these potential stumbling blocks beforehand, you can properly prepare prior to your first real trade and develop good trading habits from day one.

Start by analyzing yourself. Are you the type of person that can control their emotions and flawlessly execute trades, oftentimes under extremely stressful conditions? Are you the type of person who’s overconfident and prone to take more risk than they should? Before your first real trade you need to look inside yourself and get the answers. We can correct any deficiencies before they result in paralysis (not pulling the trigger) or a huge loss (overconfidence). A huge loss can prematurely end your trading career, or prolong your success until you can raise additional capital.

The difficulty doesn’t end with “pulling the trigger”. In fact what comes next is equally or perhaps more difficult. Once you are in the trade the next hurdle is staying in the trade. When trading foreign exchange you exit the trade as soon as possible after entry when it is not working. Most people who have been successful in non-trading ventures find this concept difficult to implement.

For example, real estate tycoons make their fortune riding out the bad times and selling during the boom periods. The problem with trying to adapt a 'hold on until it comes back' strategy in foreign exchange is that most of the time the currencies are in long-term persistent, directional trends and your equity will be wiped out before the currency comes back.

The other side of the coin is staying in a trade that is working. The most common pitfall is closing out a winning position without a valid reason. Once again, fear is the culprit. Your subconscious demons will be scaring you non-stop with questions like “what if news comes out and you wind up with a loss”. The reality is if news comes out in a currency that is going up, the news has a higher probability of being positive than negative (more on why that is so in a later article).

So your fear is just a baseless annoyance. Don’t try and fight the fear. Accept it. Have a laugh about it and then move on to the task at hand, which is determining an exit strategy based on actual price movement. As Garth says in Waynesworld “Live in the now man”. Worrying about what could be is irrational. Studying your chart and determining an objective exit point is reality based and rational.

Another common pitfall is closing a winning position because you are bored with it; its not moving. In Football, after a star running back breaks free for a 50-yard gain, he comes out of the game temporarily for a breather. When he reenters the game he is a serious threat to gain more yards – this is indisputable. So when your position takes a breather after a winning move, the next likely event is further gains – so why close it?

If you can be courageous under fire and strategically patient, foreign exchange trading may be for you. If you’re a natural gunslinger and reckless you will need to tone your act down a notch or two and we can help you make the necessary adjustments. If putting your money at risk makes you a nervous wreck its because you lack the knowledge base to be confident in your decision making.

Patience to Gain Knowledge through Study and Focus

Many new traders believe all you need to profitably trade foreign currencies are charts, technical indicators and a small bankroll. Most of them blow up (lose all their money) within a few weeks or months; some are initially successful and it takes as long as a year before they blow up. A tiny minority with good money management skills, patience, and a market niche go on to be successful traders. Armed with charts, technical indicators, and a small bankroll, the chance of succeeding is probably 500 to 1.

To increase your chances of success to near certainty requires knowledge; acquiring knowledge takes hard work, study, dedication and focus. Compile your knowledge base without taking any shortcuts, thereby assuring a solid foundation to build upon.

Risk Disclosure: Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to invest in foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.

Source: GoForex

Trading Examples

2009-01-16T03:22:00.000-08:00

Forex Trading Examples
Here are two detailed examples of intraday trading: this means that you open and close the position within one Forex day. Remember that the Forex day starts at 5:00 PM EST (10:00 PM GMT / 22:00), and ends a day after at the same time.

Long position example (buying position)

Detailed description
You have a EUR 1,000 account and would like to buy a full lot (100,000) of the pair USD/JPY.

Step 1
You decide to buy the pair at the following rates:
USD/JPY 110.00/110.03
EUR/JPY 160.00/160.03
NOTE: We will use the EUR/JPY rate to transform the trade currency into your euro account base currency.

To buy 100,000 USD with JPY, the broker provides you 100,000 USD x 110.03 (The ask price), which equals 11,003,000 JPY. With 11,003,000 JPY, you buy 100,000 USD.

Having used 1:100 leverage, you are able to open this position with a 1,000 USD investment (110,030 JPY). EUR 687.69 (110,030 JPY / 160.00) is used as margin to cover your position. You are left with a EUR 312.31 balance in your account. Now you have an open long position.

Step 2
When you sell the pair, the rates are:
USD/JPY 110.70/110.73
EUR/JPY 160.01/160.04

You sell USD at 110.70 for a total of 11,070,000 JPY. Your profit is 67,000 JPY ( 11,070,000 - 11,003,000), i.e. 67,000 JPY / 160.04 (ask price) = 418.65 EUR. This means that your account now contains 1,418.65 EUR (1,000.00 initial account's amount + 418.65 profit).

Using leverage to your advantage, you made a 61% (100 x 418.65 / 687.69) profit in one day. Only in the Forex market can you make such huge profits, so quickly.

Long summary
Step 1
When you buy the pair the rate is:
USD/JPY 110.00/110.03

You buy 100,000 USD against JPY at 110.03.

Step 2
When you sell the pair the rates is:
USD/JPY 110.70/110.73

The difference between the selling and buying price is 110,70 – 110,03 = 0.67 JPY: this is your profit for each USD invested, for a total of 100,000 USD x 0.67 JPY = 67,000 JPY, or 418.65 EUR, as seen above.

Short position example (selling position)

Detailed description
Your basic account currency is EUR, with an amount of 1,000 EUR, and you would like to sell 100,000 (a full lot) of the pair USD/JPY (selling USD against JPY).

Step 1
You decide to sell the pair at the following rates:
USD/JPY 110.00/110.03
EUR/USD 1.4000/1.4003
NOTE: We will use the EUR/USD rate to transform the trade currency into your euro account base currency.

Using a leverage of 100:1, you are able to sell USD 100,000 USD/JPY, selling USD 100,000 and buying JPY 11,000,000 (100,000 x 110.00). The 1,000 USD translates into EUR 714.29 (1,000 USD / 1.4000), which is margin to cover your position. You are left with a EUR 285.71 balance in your account. Now you have an open short position.

Step 2
When you buy the pair, the rates are:
USD/JPY 109.20/109.23
EUR/USD 1.4006/1.4009

You buy USD at 109.23 (ask price), for a total of 100,704.93 USD (11,000,000 JPY / 109.23). Your profit is 704.93 USD (= 100,704.93 - 100,000), i.e. 503.20 EUR (704.93 USD / 1.4009). Your account now contains 1,503.20 EUR (1,000.00 initial account’s amount + 503.20 profit).

You made a 70% (100 x 503.20 / 714.29) profit in a day.

Short summary
Step 1
When you sell the pair the rate is:
USD/JPY 110.00/110.03

You sell 100,000 USD against JPY at 110.00.

Step 2
When you buy the pair, the rate is:
USD/JPY 109.20/109.23

You buy USD at 109.23. The difference between the selling and buying price is 110.00 – 109.23 = 0.77 JPY: this is your profit for each USD invested, for a total of 100,000 USD x 0.77 JPY = 77,000 JPY, or 503.20 EUR, as explained above.

Source: forex internet

Forex Charts

2009-01-16T03:12:00.000-08:00

Line Chart

The line chart is the simplest charting option. Rate history is measured according to customizable time intervals, and the points, which illustrate the closing rate at that particular time, are connected by a line. The horizontal axis lists the time units (for example: 1 minute, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, etc.) and the vertical axis illustrates the rate value. For example, the graphic below details 100 intervals of 15 minutes on the horizontal axis, for a total of 1500 minutes (25 hours). This means that the closing rates are indicated at each 15 minute interval.

OHLC Bar Chart

One of the problems with the line chart is that only the closing rate is shown for every time interval, and doesn’t let us see changes that happened within this period. Using the OHLC bar chart, traders are able to see all price changes occurring within each time interval. Using the OHLC bar chart, traders may identify the opening rate (O), the highest rate (H), the lowest rate (L), and the closing rate (C), within each time interval, as shown on the graphic below (note that the opening rate is on the left, while the closing rate is on the right of the bar).

An OHLC bar chart, using 10 intervals of 15 minutes, looks like this:

Candlestick Chart

The candlestick chart, based on an old Japanese method, is similar to the OHLC. The body of the candle is red when the opening rate is higher than the closing rate. The body of the candle is green when the opening rate is lower than the closing rate. When the candlestick is green the top of the body, the thick center of the candlestick, represents the closing rate. When the candlestick is red the bottom of the body represents the closing rate. The two lines extending from the bottom and top of the body illustrate the high and low of each particular time interval.

A candlestick chart, using 11 intervals of 15 minutes, looks like this:

Source: forex internet

Forex Basics

2009-01-16T02:50:00.000-08:00

Forex Basics
Trading in Forex is very simple, however it is full of abbreviations and simplified procedures due to the necessity to act promptly and make the right move in the right time. All these abbreviations and simplifications are not always immediately clear to an un-experienced trader, so let's learn the fundamental concepts of Forex.

Currency pairs
The real goods in Forex are currency pairs and the terms and the procedures are related to them. It’s simpler to think about a currency pair instead of the two currencies that compose it. Following the gold rule, buy low and sell high, when you:buy the currency pair, the price must go up to earn from the deal (you buy cheaply, and you resell expensive).

sell the currency pair, the price must go down to make a profit (you sell expensive, and you re-buy cheaply).
The first currency in a currency pair is the “base currency”, while the second is the “quote currency”. Considering the pair EUR/USD, the EUR is the base currency, while the USD is the quote currency.

When you trade a currency pair, the amount that you trade refers to the base currency, so if you sell 100,000 EUR/USD, you practically sell 100,000 EUR, and if you buy 100,000 EUR/USD, you buy 100,000 EUR. This amount (100,000) is called “face value” in Forex lingo. A trade of 100,000 in face value is known as “standard contract” or a “lot”.

While the contract value (face value) is always expressed in the base currency of the pair, the profit or loss value is expressed in the quote currency because the price of the pair is expressed in the quote currency. If you bought the pair EUR/USD at 1.4000, and sold it at 1.4010, you earned 0.0010 USD for each EUR you bought. In other words, you earned 10 pips: in Forex lingo, the smallest measure of price move that a given exchange rate can make is called a PIP.

Spread

Each currency pair has two prices: the bid price and the ask price. Supposing that the pair EUR/USD has rate 1.4000/1.4003, the first value (1.4000) is the Bid price, the price at which the broker buys the currency pair, and that you receive when you sell the pair. The second value (1.4003) is the Ask price (or Offer price), at which the broker sells the pair, and that you pay when you buy the currency pair.

The difference between the Bid and the Ask price, i.e. the spread, is the gain of the broker. If the spread is 3 pips, as from the above example, when you trade 100,000 EUR/USD, the broker will earn 100,000 x 0.0003 = 30 USD, no matter if you make profit or loss.

A lower spread is better for the trader because it makes a higher profit. If the pair goes up by 10 pips (from 1.4000/1.4003 to 1.4010/1.4013), you will earn only 7 pips, because you bought at 1.4003 and you sold at 1.4010.

Leverage and Margin

If you buy a currency pair for an amount that a usual private trader can surely invest, lets say 1,000 USD, and the price increases by 1%, you earn only 10 USD, and your broker will earn only 0.30 USD. It’s not a great deal for you, but it’s a very bad deal for your broker. He spent the time and must earn his salary.

So the market makers invented a leverage financing: the trader must deposits only a presumed risk of the trade, i.e. margin, and the rest of invested amount will provide the broker. Margin requirement vary from 0.5% to 4%, depends of broker, i.e. the relative leverage (inverse value of the percentage margin) varies from 1:200 to 1:25.

Applying a 1:100 leverage on the example above, your profit, and the broker gain are multiplied by 100: your profit becomes 1,000 USD (100% of your investment), and the broker gain is 30 USD. Be careful with high leverage: the profit is multiplied, but the loss, too. In the same example, if you use 1:100 leverage and the price decreases by 1%, you loss entire invested amount (1,000 USD).

Source: forex internet

Account Currency:
Currency pair:
Position size, units:
Ask price (optional):

Results:
Price of pip: