A Synopsis Of What It Takes To Trade The Forex Amrket With Success!

A synopsis of what it takes to deal with success trading the forex market This is the first article of a series whose purpose is both educational and practical. And above all they aim to be interactive meaning that any comments suggestions or ideas are more than welcome. Lets start from the basics. The first thing someone needs is very good education. And this requires a lot of thorough research as there are many sources but not all are worth the money for their services. So in this sense an online forex course could be a good idea along with some books. But here comes the first major problem. Which course and which books, which aspects to cover? The technical analysis issue? The maxim goes with the trend? The candlesticks analysis? And which system to use and follow? There are thousands of them! So before we even begin a trader is confused. And confusion is a very bad enemy but it can be arranged. How it can be arranged? With some simple steps. Such as simplicity. The more you know the better chances you have to succeed trading forex and it all comes down to probabilities. Education is a must to all trading aspects from stocks to futures to forex. But forex has two unique features. High liquidity and extremely high leverage. And although the liquidity is a very good feature high leverage is not. At least not until you know what you are doing. Here we focus again on education. Besides a participation in a forex course either online or not, an amount that will be put away as an investment for education is the first thing a trader must do. Some ideas are to focus on analyzing the current conditions of the market and to have a bias for a specific currency pair. A system such as following the trend could be the core of a trading strategy. And a demo account with many virtual trades as many as possible for a long period of time is the next step. Now the most important part of the trading action is to make a plan, stick to it and apply very strict money management rules because if the capital is finished and it very easy this to happen then our trading career will finish within a few days, months or even hours. Lets face the truth that trading is not easy. It is unfortunately far easier for someone to lose all his account rather than make wild profits beyond each expectation. That is because emotions and psychology are very crucial for success. Some of the most important emotions are fear, uncertainty, euphoria and revenge. Revenge comes into play very often as when someone loses an amount wants desperately to get it back and often the outcome is that more loses come simply because the trader is on the wrong side of the trend! Discipline and patience are virtues that distinguish a good trader from a mediocre trader. Without specific goals and a written procedure a trader is like a cargo ship that has sailed without any destination. Someday the fuel will be exhausted and many dangers from the weather to the potential physical damages may happen. Risks exist all the time. The point is how to deal with them. One of the most useful phrases is taken from the movie Forrest Gump.Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you going to get! It is true. Be as prepared as possible. Do not let the brokers excite you promising very high returns and extremely high leverage? Do some very thorough research before opening an account funded with real money. Compare the bid-ask spreads and technical support to name only a few aspects. Be very skeptical to previous results as offered from many signal services. The major aim should be to learn to trade and make your own decisions and not blindly follow some others decisions and opinions. Confidence and experience come with the passage of time. So we mentioned simplicity before. Being realistic and having a controlled life balance is very important. One major goal should be consistency so as to have the ability to make profits each month and keep them. Fundamental news is another important issue and in essence the technical analysis is the mirror of fundamentals. Expectations change rapidly and emotions also. And if you think about it emotions and expectations mainly move the forex market. Most times like the recent Fed rate hike decision a move is under way but the danger is when it will be finished and certainly not getting in at the wrong time after all the move is completed. The best approach for a trader would be to set specific goals and if achieved then stop trading. The worst idea is to trade in a choppy market where random noise will make it difficult to get specific profits. So a tested system with very precise rules such as entering exiting and having stop-loss orders may not be a holly grail but is surely one very good approach to start with and focus on it. Pivot points are such a system. At least it is a good start. They encompass education, discipline, strict criteria, and targets and are a proven system that major players use. They are not foolproof always as nothing is certain but they deal with high probabilities and this is very important. Also a very practical way is to act as organizes as possible. Meaning that: 1.Develop your own trading journal where you will be writing down your trades and a brief explanation of what made you place a particular trade so as to evaluate performance. Note each day the major economic releases if any because it is often wise to be out of the market before the release of the news and trade only after having a much clearer opinion of what price action may be. Remember it is all about high probabilities. 2.A risk/reward ratio of 1:2 meaning that you risk an amount to get at least the twice if all go well is suggested but sometimes it is best to be conservative and even apply an 1:1 ratio by applying very strict risk management risking no more than 2-3% of total capital per trade. Survival is everything. 3.It would be a good idea from time to time to have breaks from trading. Opportunities exist always so stopping trading when losses of 10-20% maximum of trading capital have accumulated is a good way to revaluate what is going on before a large amount of capital is lost. Trading is not gambling it is a way of investment. The philosophy should be to define realistic goals such as a number of pips per day and if achieved then stop trading. Greed is another bad enemy of traders. On the contrary the notion of compounding profits and retiring a portion of them each month is a good way to build a solid account and keep monitoring its growth. So in this first article we touched briefly many ideas from education to psychology to a proven trading system etc. Each idea will have more in depth analysis in the very near future. Your comments and suggestions will help us a lot to focus on what you need or want to analyze. Above all interactive communication brings the best results. That’s all folks!

“Stop Hunting” - a Simple FOREX Strategy

Today FOREX world is built around large leverage and constant use of margin, in equities, standard margin is set at 2:1, in options, the leverage increases to 10:1, in the futures market, the leverage factor is increased to 20:1, but in the FOREX market the leverage sets the highest bar by increasing to 100:1 ratio and can climb up to 200:1 meaning that you can invest $100 for a $20,000 value control! An experienced trader would limit his leverage to no more than 10:1. Alongside leverage usage, or as in many FOREX rookies’ cases using too much leverage, comes the opportunity for either extremely profitable or extraordinarily dangerous and huge loses. You can double your account overnight or lose it all in a matter of hours if you make use of the full margin at your disposal. Considering that fact, most FOREX traders use “stops” order / “stop-loss” - they simply do not have the luxury of nursing a losing trade for too long because their positions are highly leveraged, and here you can step in and take advantage of this knowledge. Stop order in a nutshell is a form of insurance or security measure that is given to buy or sell when a currencies' price surpasses a particular point. Using stop loss is critical for long-term survival. By setting a predetermined entry or exit price, investors usually use this system to minimize their loses when off for the business day or any other situation in which they are unable to monitor their portfolio for an extended period. The main FOREX strategy which takes advantage of this knowledge is “Stop Hunting” , which attempts to force some foreign currency exchange investors out of their positions by driving the price of a currency pair to a level where many investors have chosen to set their stop-loss orders (aka “weak longs”), by understanding that the human mind naturally seeks order, most stops are clustered around round numbers ending in "00" (i.e. if the EUR/USD pair was trading at 1.1380 and rising in value, most stops would reside within one or two points of the 1.1400 price point rather than, say, 1.1417). Absorbing that fact alone is priceless knowledge (the price of a currency pair can experience sharp moves when many stop losses are triggered); professional traders place their stops at less crowded and more unusual locations. The possibility of profit from these unique dynamics of the foreign currency market is huge and proven.

The Start Line Of The FOREX Tradeology

The foreign currency exchange market is available for people from all over the world. More and more people take their first steps in FOREX trading, contributing to its volume and making it viable and easy to use for the ordinary individual, in contrast to only a few years back when only pros, hedge funds, major banks and institutional traders used the FOREX market. The key explanation for this turn of events is the Internet which dramatically increased accessibility. Almost all firms are now offering, free or in return for signing-up, easy to operate software for online FOREX trading. Traders’ essential goal in FOREX is to estimate which currency will increase in worth against a different currency, and so getting a hold of a method which helps you to foresee future movements can help you in gaining a nice fortune. Realizing the fact that you are always trading by a ratio between two currencies should clarify the cause for seeing these letters arrangements: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, and GBP/USD etc. The five most important and highly popular currencies are the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Euro and Swiss Franc. The FOREX market is open 24 hours a day; major firms keep brokers working shifts uninterruptedly so people from all over the world can trade always. This is attributable to the fact that nowadays most trades are carried out through company brokers. Fear not, you can rest well at nights and even enjoy a day off every once and a while without being logged-on the FOREX market 24/7. All you have to do is give your broker your “stop-loss” / “stop-orders” to buy or sell currency once they have reached a certain price, thus preventing major losses. The FOREX is considered to be a solid market. Nothing like the stock market which is highly unstable, this market is friendly and easy to comprehend. Another plus is that it has high liquidity which grants you the prospects of getting your money in or out at any given time. Be careful though, even when the FOREX seems like a playground to you, please seek your broker or another pro-trader’s counsel before getting involved in this market unless you have a lot of money to spend that you don’t really need. The big boys of FOREX would not care too much about seeing you lose all your life savings.

The Dangers Of Highly Leveraged Trading In Forex

If you are a forex trader considering one of these '400-1 leverage' offers, you should first know: 1. The rules of the game you are about to play. 2. About leverage in Forex and how it works, not for you, but for the broker. Here is how it works: Leverage can be beneficial but it can be your worst enemy. 400-1 means that US$1000 can control a $400,000 position say against the Yen. This is great but it also means that even a small move against your position can wipe your account clean. This is obviously very bad news for you but great news for the broker! Why Is It Great News For Them? Well, the first thing that traders must realise is that Forex firms make their own markets - they make the bid-offer price to clients. They use the assumption that as most highly leveraged speculators lose then it's good business to take the opposite position to them. This is done automatically, so when a client buys Dollars against the Yen, the broker sells short the Dollar. When the client covers the position (either for a profit or loss) the broker is taken out also. If the client wins the broker loses and vice-versa. This is how the leverage game is played. So, who do you think usually wins in this game? No, not you. It’s the broker. It’s a statistics game and the statistics say highly leveraged speculators lose. Ok then. If the brokers stand to gain when a client loses, what is the best way to make sure that the clients lose Bigtime? Easy, let them trade huge positions on a limited amount of capital so that the odds even for the best and most talented traders are pretty much - ZERO. Why do you think that the ads of '400-1 leverage' are splashed all over the brokers websites? They are selling you the supposed ‘benefit’ when in turn, the reality is that the only ‘benefit’ is to them. Conclusion: If you want to play the leverage game in forex, understand how the game works. The game basically works this way: The broker is the shark. The retail trader is shark food. If you are serious in your quest to make money currency trading – educate yourself on the risks involved.

Day Trading the Forex Market Profitably - Part 2

To trade volatile and liquid markets Since your job as a day trader is to capture intraday swings it is crucial that the market you are trading has enough movement to allow you to do this. It is also important that the market you are trading has enough liquidity so that order fills do not suffer from excessive slippage. You have to select a market that its volatility is permanent and not a temporary occurrence. Since you are basing your trading method on catching intraday price swings you have to know that you are trading in the right place. As a day trader volatility is your ally and you have to know that you can count on it every single day (or at least 90% of the days). Liquid markets will provide you with good order fills. As a day trader this is very important since you are aiming at smaller profit objectives and hence larger slippage will eat away more of your profits. When trading several times a day this adds up and can be the difference between success and failure. As a forex day trader you have to apply all the above rules and principles plus other criteria that are unique to the forex market. Time of day trading The forex market is a 24 hour market. Never stops except on weekends. Within this 24 hour period different currencies behave in different manners. As a day trader it is very important to know the personality of the currency you are trading. For example, the GBP/USD is more volatile in early to mid European session then any other liquid pair. For a day trader trading in these hours it would be wise to take advantage of the price swings the GBP/USD pair offers instead of trading some other currency pair that constantly shows no movement. The USD/CAD pair is silent in the early to mid European session but starts to have more price movement toward the start of the US session. Spread and liquidity Forex brokers do not charge you a commission for every trade you make (at least most forex brokers). Instead, they make their profit on the bid/ask spread which is measured in pips. As a forex day trader you are aiming at capturing small price swings sometimes several time per day. Also, your profit objectives are obviously much smaller than the swing traders profit objectives. All this means one thing: every pip counts. You cannot afford to trade currency pairs with large spreads, if you do your profit will get eaten up to a point where you will not be trading with an adequate risk/reward ratio. Forex day trading must be done with liquid pairs. Most forex brokers will provide you with a very narrow spread for the most liquid currency pairs. As an example, many brokers are now offering a 2 pip spread for EUR/USD and USD/JPY and a 3 pip spread for USD/CHF and GBP/USD. These are the most liquid pairs and the ones a day trader should focus on. Volatility As a day trader volatility is you friend, a friend you cannot afford to trade without. In its basic definition, volatility is simply the amount of price change with relation to time. Volatile currency pairs have various price swings (price changes) during a small period of time (one day). These price swings are what a day trader lives on. In the forex market volatility many times comes hand in hand with liquidity. The most liquid pairs are the ones that are the most volatile. The big 4: EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF are the most liquid pairs that provide the best volatility and hence opportunity for the forex day trader. Within these four pairs, the GBP/USD is the most volatile. Although it is not the most liquid (the EUR/USD is), but it is the most volatility. This pair, traded with the right broker (one that provides a 3 pip spread) can present many profitable opportunities for the astute day trader. In conclusion, the forex day trader has to be prepared not only with the basic day trading rules, skills and principles. His job is to incorporate into his trading the characteristics and uniqueness of the forex market. Remember, every currency pair might present different opportunities and it is your job to always focus on the ones that best fit the purpose and objectives of day trading. I hope to have contributed to your forex trading education and I thank you for taking the time to read this article.

Forex Trading Guide

Like many people I am sure you are interested to know more about Forex trading. To put it bluntly Forex trading can be either one the best ways to make or lose LOTS of money. Only those who take the Forex market seriously will be able to make money with it in the long term. The Forex trading market is beyond a doubt the world’s largest market where all exchanges happen instantaneously. Thus, trades are a key challenge for even the most knowledgeable Forex bankers and traders. They have to learn and consider many factors before performing even a single trade. At first when currencies began to be traded openly, only large banks were allowed to perform trades. These days, due to the advent of internet trading and margin accounts almost anybody can begin Forex trading. This in turn, has added to the liquidity of the Forex market, and has resulted in a huge increase in the number of individuals who are now active in the market. So, does this mean it is easy to earn money through Forex trading? To answer this we must consider a few things. Some data by Forex brokers seems to suggest that 90 percent of traders end up of losing their capital, 5 percent of traders have been able to break even and only 5 percent of them attain steady beneficial results. Thus, it seems that trading successfully is no simple task. However, if you can learn to be among the 5 percent who make consistent money you can do extremely well by using Forex trading. To help you in this end I have listed five key ways to improve your odds dramatically of making money in the Forex market. 1. Education Successful traders are knowledgeable about the Forex market. They have chosen to educate themselves about every single vital detail of Forex trading. The best traders know that every trade that they perform is an opportunity to learn something new. 2. Forex Trading System All of the profitable traders have a Forex trading system or strategy. Furthermore, they have the will power to stick strictly to that system, because the best traders know that by sticking with their system they stand a far greater chance of earning money. 3. Price Behavior Knowledgeable and successful traders also include price behavior in their systems. They have learned that prices can change quickly and suddenly but are prepared to deal with those situations when they arrive. 4. Trading Psychology First-rate traders are aware of psychological issues that affect the choices of other traders make when Forex trading. They know that people do not always act rationally, and as a result this can alter the expected outcome of a trade. This can help them both when deciding to enter into a trade or when to exit. 5. Money Management This is far and away the most important factor that will determine whether or not you become a successful trader. Averting the hazard of financial ruin is the main concern of all top traders. This means both adequately funding your trading account (only with money you can afford to live without of course) and never entering into trades that can potentially wipe out all of your assets. Better to start trading small and always use stop-loss orders to guarantee that your first trades are not also your last. This is by no means an exhaustive list of everything you need to know but it outlines some of the areas you need to consider before making even that first trade. Now you know that it is not easy to earn money in the Forex market, however it is achievable. However, success does not happen overnight and anyone promising you that it can is trying to sell you snake oil. It is an ongoing processes not something you pick up in a weekend. Trading success depends on the trader, and how hard you are willing to work to achieve your Forex trading goals. Also, remember to try to have some fun. The clearest sign that Forex trading is not for you is if you find the prospect of learning about how the Forex market works boring or dull. If this is the case you won’t stick with it long enough to make money and you will be among the 90 percent who fail. Just remember these three important things: be disciplined in your trading habits, manager your money wisely and enjoy the experience of Forex trading.

Six Forex Trading Tips for Newbies

You have decided to be a trader in the forex market, and you have no idea on how to begin. Let's first start by defining what the forex market is and what it does. The term "forex", also known as the foreign exchange is a market for the sale and purchase of all kinds of currencies. It originated in the early 1970's when floating currencies and free exchange rates were first introduced. At this time, the forex market traders were the ones who set the value of one type of currency against another. Nowadays, the market forces determine the value of a currency against another. One unique aspect of the Forex market is that very little trading qualifications are required of anyone intending to trade therein. Independence from external control ensures that only the market forces influence the currency prices. As the largest financial market, with trades reaching up to 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars, or USD, the money moves so fast, it’s impossible for a single investor to substantially affect the price of any major foreign currency. In addition, unlike any stock that is rarely traded, forex traders are able to open and close any positions within seconds, because there are always a number of willing buyers and sellers. 1. The first thing you need to do is open a forex account. You will have to fill an application form which includes a margin agreement stating if the broker will be allowed to intervene with any trade when it appears too risky. Since most trades are done using the broker's money, it is only logical that he protect his interests. However, once you have established an account, you can fund it and begin trading in the forex market. 2. Adopt a trading strategy, that has proven to be successful for you. Remember that strategies will work differently for different traders, so don't try to adopt a strategy that works well for another trader. It might backfire on you. The two available approaches are either technical analysis or fundamental analysis. A combination of the two is a more preferred choice for experienced traders. 3.Understand that prices move by trends. Forex has a popular saying, “The trend is your friend.” There are certain movements that have been studied over many years in order to identify a pattern in the trend. These trends need to be understood in order to understand a good trading strategy. For small accounts that are $25,000 and under, trading with a trend may help improving your odds when compared to bi-directional trading. Most newbie’s will look to trade in any direction, when they should be trading with a trend. 4. Ensure you know which are the top five currencies pairs in the foreign exchange. These are USD/Yen, Swiss franc/USD, Euro/Yen, Euro/USD and Pound/USD. 5. For newbies, it is advisable to maintain two accounts to ensure you learn to play the trading game. Keep one real account, one that you will actually use to trade real money; and the second account should be a demo, one that you can use to test alternative moves in the trading game. You can easily use your demo account to shadow the trades in your real account so you can widen your stops to see if you are being too conservative or not. 6. Always examine the one hour, four hour and daily charts that concern your trades. Although you can trade at 15 and 30 minute time intervals, doing so requires a handful of dexterity.