Total Trader » Forex Trading

The Best Reasons To Forex Trading

Total Trader — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:14:12 +0000

Foreign Exchange Market is a market where traders buy and sell currencies with the hope of making a profit when the values of the currencies change in their favor. People are making vast amounts of money from Forex trading. The Forex Market has a big potential for everyone, ranging from large corporate firms to ordinary, everyday people like you and me.

It is a very exciting trade with a huge money-making potential.

1. First and foremost, Forex trading allows for small investments. You do not have to be able to invest thousands of dollars to get started with this trade. You can start trading Forex with as little as $1000 and could be well on your way to earning more than that on your first day.

2. The Forex markets are always open! You are able to trade anytime and from anywhere in the world. No waiting for the stock exchange to open. The market is ongoing, with generally only minor breaks on the weekends.

3. The funds that you invest are liquid; you can cash them anytime you want. No waiting for days to get your stocks converted into hard cash.

4. The value of the Forex Trading market is COLOSSAL: it is 30 times larger than all of the US equity markets combined. It is the largest market in the world with daily reported volume of 1.5 to 2.0 trillion dollars. This massive value makes it a lucrative and desirable trade to invest in.

5. It is a highly stable trade and offers greater strength over other markets. Countries and people are ALWAYS going to need currency. Although the value of different currencies goes up and down, the fluctuations are not as dramatic as stock prices and generally follow a predictable trend.

6. You do not have to worry about exchange fees nor any hidden charges when you trade Forex. Forex brokers make only a small percentage of the bid and there are very respectable brokers available as well.

7. You make profits no matter which way the currency is going. You will not worry about a falling currency value if you know what to do with it and make good gains.

8. Forex is a very transparent market. Unlike equity markets, where analysts have an unfair advantage over the layman because of their insider knowledge, the relevant information for Forex is equally available to every one through international news. Therefore, all Forex traders are in a position to make pertinent decisions according to the current market situations.

9. Forex market is extremely quick! It takes not more than 1 to 2 seconds to complete your transactions because it is all done electronically, online and in Real Time.

10. The final good news is that you do not need any formal education, licensing, diploma or degree to trade Forex. All you need is to know how it works, trading strategies and some tips and techniques and you can be on your way to earn profits.

Should I be Forex Trading?

Total Trader — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:11:31 +0000

Never trade with money that if lost would adversely affect your life. One of the great dangers of this business is that over the years some rather unscrupulous people have portrayed foreign currency trading as a very lucrative way to turn a modest sum of money into a fortune with ease….If only you had their training or their system. “It’s like having your own personal ATM machine”, and other such outlandish claims of riches with ease. In fact I originally entered the Forex arena with just such beliefs. The reality is that trading foreign currencies is far from easy and is not best suited to everyone. Whilst it is possible to make a lot of money relatively quickly, it is also possible to lose part or all of your investment with the same speed.

Most people who are highly successful in any endeavour start off with a desire to do the work. As their knowledge of the subject grows, and their passion for the subject intensifies, they find that their level of success also increases.

It is rare indeed for anyone to achieve success in any field if all they entered that enterprise for was easy money. The only way to attempt to turn a modest sum of money into a large amount very quickly is to take some very big risks – not at all what Forex trading is really about. If you want to take some hefty risks, then it might be far better to go to the roulette wheel and place all of your money on Red or Black and then cross your fingers. I am not trying to persuade anyone to not trade the Forex market, but I do want you to be aware that there is considerable risk regardless of what trading system you may decide to use. On the upside, you can practice Forex trading with a demo account which is funded with “virtual money” and practice the craft in simulated real conditions. The charts will be live and real time and you can win or lose your “virtual money” in exactly the same way as if you were Forex trading for real, except that at the end of each Forex trading session you have actual not put any of your real money at risk. By practicing in this way, every “would be” Forex trader has the opportunity to see first-hand whether Forex trading would be suitable for them, and bear in mind that one’s own personality, emotional control and level of self discipline will have a major impact on the way that one trades. The secret to success in this business is to have a solid and reliable system that you have learned to trust. Then you must follow it to the letter through both wins and losses, using strict money management principles, knowing that the system, over time, generally produces more and bigger wins than losses.

Forget much of the nonsense that you may hear in the forums about setting goals of “just10 pips a day” etc. Trading does not necessarily work in that way. The market moves with no respect whatsoever for your goal.

You have to learn to take what is on the table, and at exactly what point in the move. Some days there will be lots of profit to be made. Some days there will not be much profit. Some days the market will take YOUR money. Some days will be NO TRADE days and you will need to have the discipline and emotional control to sit and wait and smile through them all. For all of these types of days are what go to make up a traders working life.

Forex trading can be one of the most rewarding business activities on the planet. It has all the elements of high success and high failure. It is demanding and has an above average level of risk which all adds to the appeal. But it is not a business to jump into with your life savings clutched in your hand and a burning desire to be rich.

If you have a couple of thousand dollars in cash and a family to feed and the car needs fixing and the rent or mortgage is due – Then it is highly likely that the Forex markets will just part you from your money. In fact one of the biggest reasons for failure in this business is an under-funded trading account coupled with an urgent need to make some fast cash If you have a few thousand dollars or more put aside that if lost would not adversely affect you or your family, and if you have the time and inclination to learn how to trade first, then you may be able to turn that money into a worthwhile sum……..OVER TIME. In that case, Forex trading might be the line of investment business for you. Remember though!!! There are no guarantees of success in this business.

Source: Martin Bottomley

The Best Forex Trading Platforms Tips and Guide

Total Trader — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:38:50 +0000

Most of the Forex trading platforms are powered with unique analysis and strategy-testing features to test all buy and sell rules. The best Forex trading platforms will be considered to help the investor in executing the trading most successfully by employing strategies to maximize the return. You can modify your trading strategies without incurring losses base on them.

To take the advantage of the liquidity of the market, the best Forex trading platform always comes with fully automated real-time online streaming data from the market. The best Forex trading platform connects your monitor to the markets. To handle transaction of heavy data and information traffic, the best Forex trading platform should provide the robust backbone.

More than one type of account must be offered by the best Forex trading platform, like mini account, standard account or institutional account. The best Forex trading platform should offer:

Tight spread on major currency pairs with cutting-edge trading technology

Trading history and print out any reports

Constant margin requirements in all volatile market condition

Performance, Security, Simplicity and Transparency

Real time margin and position monitoring.

Authentic market news and economic calendar

Technical analysis for all demo and live accounts

You can control when you are away from your computer with advanced mobile Forex trading platforms. You can access and trade your Forex account from anywhere with your mobile phone with the best Forex-trading platform with facilities of mobile trading.

Use of stops in forex trading – the key to staying in the game

Total Trader — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 01:40:45 +0000

The recent fall in the dollar has highlighted the need to trade with stops. My focus is the forex market so I can only speak from this perspective but what I say is applicable to not only forex trading but all trading. If you want to stay in the game, trade with stops. I cannot say it any clearer. The purpose of this article is to use the current forex market trends as an example of why a trader needs to be disciplined and use stops.

It feels like déjà vu whenever a trend emerges. I get calls from traders asking what they should do with a long or short position that is deep underwater. I ask the same question I always ask, “Where was your stop?” The usual answer is I didn’t use one. I just don’t get it.

Why don’t traders use stops? There is no clear answer but one reason may be a reluctance to take a loss even though taking losses is part of the business and a pillar of proper money management. This is why “hedging” has become popular on retail forex trading platforms although essentially it is a flat position and more often than not an excuse not to book a loss. This is a topic for a future discussion.

Another reason may be that the currency market often trades in ranges, even during trends when there is consolidation. These ranges can last for days, weeks or months. During these periods, range trading works and hanging on to a position, even one that is underwater, often gives a chance to recover the loss or even make a profit. The problem is when ranges break and trends take over. In these breakout periods there is often no turning back as a market runs away from the range trader. Those who employ a range strategy and trade with stops should be okay. It is the undisciplined trader who trades without a stop that faces disaster, especially in a market, such as forex, that trades with leverage.

Take the current market as an example. Since the start of July and after peaking at 1.6744 on June 30, GBP/USD, with exception of a brief one-day break of 1.60, traded in a 1.60-1.66 range with most of the activity within 1.63-1.66 since the middle of July. This was a good market for range traders as there was a lot of volatility within this range. However, the market broke the top of the range on the last day of July and continued to climb at the start of August to reach 1.7005 on August 4. For those trading a range from the short side and using a stop, this was part of the strategy as ranges do not last forever. For those trading a range from the short side without a stop, the result could be fatal and the trading account wiped out. Even if you managed to stay afloat despite not using a stop and the market eventually came back to your entry level, the emotional and opportunity costs were not worth the risk.

I assume there are skilful traders who do not use fixed stops but use dynamic stops or other techniques to manage a position. However, there is no trader I know of who has stayed in the game without employing prudent money management. For the retail forex trader, this means using stops.

Source: Jay Meisler

How good forex traders manage their actions?

Total Trader — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:22:33 +0000

Trading in the financial markets is surrounded by a certain amount of mystique because there is no single formula for trading successfully. Think of the markets as being like the ocean and the trader as a surfer. Surfing requires talent, balance, patience, proper equipment and astute discrimination. Would you go into the water if there were sharks swimming all around you or dangerous rip tides? Hopefully not.

The attitude to trading in the markets is no different to that required for surfing. By blending good analysis with effective implementation, your success rate will improve dramatically and, like many skill sets, good trading comes from a combination of talent and hard work. Here are the four legs of the stool that you can build into a strategy to serve you well in all markets.

Leg No.1 – Approach

Before you start to trade, recognize the value of proper preparation. The first step is to align your personal goals and temperament with the instruments and markets that you can comfortably relate to. For example, if you know something about retailing, then look to trade retail stocks rather than oil futures, about which you may know nothing. Begin by assessing the following three components.

1. Time Frame

The time frame indicates the type of trading that is appropriate for your temperament. Trading off of a five-minute chart suggests that you are more comfortable being in a position without the exposure to overnight risk. On the other hand, choosing weekly charts indicates a comfort with overnight risk and a willingness to see some days go contrary to your position.

In addition, decide if you have the willingness and time to sit in front of a screen all day or if you would prefer to do your research quietly over the weekend and then make a trading decision for the coming week based on your analysis. Remember that the opportunity to make substantial money in the markets requires time. Short-term scalping, by definition, means small profits or losses. In this case you will have to trade more frequently.

2. Methodology

Once you choose a time frame, find a consistent methodology. For example, some traders like to buy support and sell resistance. Others prefer buying or selling breakouts. Yet others like to trade using indicators such as MACD, crossovers etc.

Once you choose a system or methodology, test it to see if it works on a consistent basis and provides you with an edge. If your system is reliable more than 50% of the time, you will have an edge, even if it’s a small one. If you back test your system and discover that had you traded every time you were given a signal and your profits were more than your losses, chances are very good that you have a winning strategy. Test a few strategies and when you find one that delivers a consistently positive outcome, stay with it and test it with a variety of instruments and various time frames.

3. Market (Instrument)

You will find that certain instruments trade much more orderly than others. Erratic trading instruments make it difficult to produce a winning system. Therefore, it is necessary to test your system on multiple instruments to determine that your system’s “personality” matches with the instrument being traded. For example, if you were trading the USD/JPY currency pair in the Forex market, you may find that Fibonacci support and resistance levels are more reliable in this instrument than in some others. You should also test multiple time frames to find those that match your trading system best.

Leg No.2 – Attitude

Attitude in trading means ensuring that you develop your mindset to reflect the following four attributes:

1. Patience

Once you know what to expect from your system, then have the patience to wait for the price to reach the levels that your system indicates for either the point of entry or exit. If your system indicates an entry at a certain level but the market never reaches it, then move on to the next opportunity. There will always be another trade. In other words, don’t chase the bus after it has left the terminal; wait for the next bus.

2. Discipline

Discipline is the ability to be patient – to sit on your hands until your system triggers an action point. Sometimes the price action won’t reach your anticipated price point. At this time you must have the discipline to believe in your system and not to second-guess it. Discipline is also the ability to pull the trigger when your system indicates to do so. This is especially true for stop losses.

3. Objectivity

Objectivity or “emotional detachment” also depends on the reliability of your system or methodology. If you have a system that provides entry and exit levels that you know have a high reliability factor, then you don’t need to become emotional or allow yourself to be influenced by the opinion of pundits who are watching their levels and not yours. Your system should be reliable enough so that you can be confident in acting on its signals.

4. Realistic Expectations

Even though the market can sometimes make a much bigger move than you anticipate, being realistic means that you cannot expect to invest $250 in your trading account and expect to make $1,000 each trade. Short-term time frames provide less profit opportunities than longer term, but the risk with longer-term time frames is higher. It’s a question of risk versus reward.

Leg No.3 – Discrimination

Different instruments trade differently depending on who the major players are and why they are trading that particular instrument. Hedge funds are motivated differently than mutual funds. Large banks that are trading the spot currency market in specific currencies usually have a different objective than currency traders buying or selling futures contracts. If you can determine what motivates the large players then you can often piggy-back them and profit accordingly.

Alignment

Pick a few currencies, stocks or commodities and chart them all in a variety of time frames. Then apply your particular methodology to all of them and see which time frame and which instrument is most responsive to your system. This is how you discover a “personality” match for your system. Repeat this exercise regularly to adapt to changing market conditions.

Leg No.4 – Management (Implementation)

Since there is no such thing as only profitable trades, no system will trigger a 100% sure thing. Even a profitable system, say with a 65% profit to loss ratio, still has 35% losing trades. Therefore, the art of profitability is in the management and execution of the trade.

Risk Control

In the end, successful trading is all about risk control. Take losses quickly and often if necessary. Try to get your trade in the correct direction right out of the gate. If it backs off, cut out and try again. Often it is on the second or third attempt that your trade will move immediately in the right direction. This practice requires patience and discipline but when you get the direction right you can trail your stops and almost always be profitable at best, or break even at worst.

The Bottom Line

There are as many nuanced methods of trading as there are traders. There is no right or wrong way to trade. There is only a profit-making trade or a loss-making trade. Warren Buffet says there are two rules in trading: Rule 1: Never lose money. Rule 2: Remember Rule 1. Stick a note on your computer that will remind you to take small losses often and quickly – don’t wait for the big losses.

Forex Trading – How Can I Start?

Total Trader — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:40:56 +0000

The market of Forex currency trading has one of the biggest potentials for people to make money from it. As a result many people are currently interested in Forex trading and there are all sorts of information on the internet and in books and programs to learn about it.

While all this information is essential to your understanding of the market and how you can personally achieve wealth through it, you should keep certain strategies and tips in mind that overall summarize any information you will learn about this new business opportunity. You should invest a lot of time and energy studying in addition to reading articles like this one.

I would argue that the only proper way to do forex trading would be to first wait for the economy to stabilize, as the global economy right now is in turmoil and countries can suddenly increase or decrease their wealth which completely changes the Forex market at the time. Also be careful to keep your life in order. Any form of trading is a risky venture. It ALWAYS involves a risk of losing money, so keep that in mind when you invest, that you should never put your job or house on the line for something like this.

1. The first step to starting a successful career is to build a base of knowledge from which you can find your niche in the market and exploit it to your advantage. If you don’t know the basic strategies you will waste thousands of dollars and hours of your time on things that could have been avoided. You can choose automated Forex robots, or choose to go by yourself by learning from books or internet programs. Remember however that even if you use a automated software program you still need to learn the basics in order to tailor your robot to do exactly what you want it to do. An automated program is only as good as the one using it.

2. Manage your life before you manage your forex trading. Don’t be rash and believe in all of those get rich quick schemes, they are only playing off of your inability to make calm, calculated decisions when you’re infatuated with the idea of making money quickly. You need to have a plan laid out before you spend any money, you need a stable income to pay your rent, and DO NOT expect to suddenly make as much money as they advertise, give it at least 6 months before you can turn a profit.

3. Go slowly, walk, do not run. If you go all out chances are you’ll make some simple mistake that all beginners do and ruin your chances of slowly building a fortune, or you will quickly get discouraged and stop trading all together.

4. Currency will be around forever, unless of course aliens come and make everyone unite in peace and happiness. So until that day you have the opportunity to trade on the Forex exchange market. Spend your time being careful and plan everything out. Just like any new opportunity in your life, don’t rush into it headfirst and leave your back exposed, cover yourself, and don’t risk everything.

Major Forces That Affect the World’s Currencies

Eden — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:46:28 +0000

There are many economic and political forces that can significantly affect the way a currency moves. And typically, they are not fleeting events. They are often massive, long-term, global megatrends that can persist for many months and even years.

Below is a list of some of the key fundamental driving forces behind the long-term trends in the currency market.

Interest Rates

No matter what country a currency is issued in it will have an associated interest rate which, in the short term at least, is largely determined by that country’s central bank. And because interest rates are strongly linked to currency values, changes in interest rates can have an immediate impact on the strength or weakness of a currency.

Interest rate hikes typically have a positive impact on a nation’s currency. Higher rates attract foreign investors, who, in turn bid up the value of a currency. Then, as the currency gains strength, it can attract even more investors seeking the opportunity to make a profit.

Conversely, if a country’s interest rate falls, it will generally put downward pressure on the value of its currency.

Trade Deficits

Typically, a large trade deficit is very negative for a currency’s value.

Not long ago, for example, Brazil was running a trade deficit. That meant Brazilian businesses were importing a lot more than they were exporting. It meant they had to buy huge amounts of goods abroad. And to do so, they had to sell their own currency and buy foreign currencies. The more they sold their currency in exchange for foreign currencies, the more their currency fell in value.

The only world currency that has seem to be immune from a large trade deficit has been the U.S dollar. The primary difference is that the U.S dollar has been the world’s predominant currency for international transactions. And the U.S stock and bond markets have been the primary “home away from home” for international invertors.

And as long as they continue to recycle their dollars back to U.S. investments, America’s day of reckoning will be continually postponed, despite the largest trade deficits in history.

With just about any other country in the world, this would be almost impossible. The United States and the U.S. dollar has been an exceptional case only because of its special status in the world economy.

Economic Growth

When a country’s economy is among the strongest in the world, it tends to attract more investment capital, helping to drive up the value of its currency.

Plus, economic growth typically brings a greater probability of inflation and heightened concern by the government to do something to contain it. How? By raising interest rates. And as we just discussed, higher interest rates are likely to attract more international investors.

Between the strong economy, high interest rates and foreign investments, the country’s currency enjoys greater demand.

Solid economic growth is fundamentally bullish for a country’s currency. Weaker growth or recession are fundamentally bearish for the currency.

Inflation

Higher interest rates aren’t a pure magnet for international money, however. They act through filter- inflation.

For example, if Australian banks pay invertors 6% but inflation rate in Australia is 8%, international investors may say: “What good is 6%yield if it’s being wiped out by the declining purchasing power of the money?” They know that when a currency falls in value domestically, it’s also bound to fall in value internationally.

Meanwhile, if the Euro pays, say 4%, but has an inflation rate of only 1%, the attitude of international investor is likely to be: “The yield may be lower. But the purchasing power of Euro is declining far less. So I’ll accept the lower yield and continue to invest in euros.

Interest rates may impact short-term moves in a currency. But long term, the biggest factor is real rate of interest – the interest rates less the inflation rate.

Political Stability

If you look at fluctuations myopically on a day-to-day basis, it may appear that the foreign exchange market react greatly to spot political disturbances.

But if you look at the market from a broader perspective, you’ll see that it’s the sustainable , long-term economic forces that are the true driver

The one exception: If a country suffered from sustained, chronic political instability.

Market Psychology

An interesting aspect of any market is the way that market psychology can affect it.

In many cases, expectations alone can drive a market up or down.

Greed, fear and other emotions all play a factor how investors react to news, rumours, and expected announcements. And the reaction may – or may not – be in line with reality of the situation.

Forex Pips Explained

Total Trader — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 02:20:27 +0000

If you are interested in the great money making opportunity that is forex trading, you need to understand forex pips. The word pip stands for percentage in point and so pips are also sometimes called points.

A pip is the measure of rise or fall of a currency pair. You may wonder why this is not measured in dollars and cents. The answer is that the dollar is not always the quote currency and sometimes is not involved in a trade at all. If you were trading the British pound against the Euro for example, it would make no sense to have your profits and losses expressed in US dollars.

A pip is the smallest increment of a quoted currency. Most currencies are usually quoted to four decimal places so one pip is 0.0001 units of the quote currency. What this means in practice is that if you see EUR/USD quoted at 1.4143 and a few minutes later it has moved to 1.4144, it has risen one pip.

In the case of currency pairs like EUR/USD where the dollar is the quote currency, one pip will be $0.0001 dollars or 0.01 of a cent. This does not sound like much but even in a mini forex trading account you will probably be trading in lots of $10,000 so that would be $10 on that position size.

If you want to work out your profits for a currency pair where the dollar is the base currency (the one that is given first), you need to divide 0.0001 by the exchange rate. So for example if the current exchange rate for USD/CAD is 1.1182, one pip will be CAD 0.0001. To convert to USD you divide by 1.1182 giving one pip a value of 0.0000894. This equates to US $8.94 on a $10,000 lot.

When the Japanese yen is the quote currency the position is a little different. There can be around one hundred yen to the dollar, so the quote is normally only given to two decimal places. For example you might see USD/JPY quoted at 93.72. In this case one pip is JPY 0.01. Dividing by the exchange rate gives us the value in USD of 0.0001067 per pip or $10.67 on a $10,000 lot. So having the quote to only two decimal places gives yen pairs a pip value that stays in the same ball park as the other currency pairs.

You will usually find that you do not need to do all of these calculations yourself because most brokers will provide a tool to convert your pips into profit and loss figures for the dollar (or whatever currency your funds are held in). However, sometimes you may want to work out a trade on paper and in that case you will find you need to know how to work it out for yourself. You can set up the formula in a spreadsheet so you do not have to pull out your calculator every time you want to know the value of forex pips.

Forex Trading for Beginners – 10 Common Beginners Mistakes

Total Trader — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:18:06 +0000

This article is all about forex trading for beginners and mistakes NOT to make and the fact is most new traders do make them. Avoid them at all costs here they are…

1. Trusting a Forex Robot

You will make money for life by paying $100.00 for a forex robot. Does anyone believe this?

Yes thousands of traders – but what they really need to look at are the track records there all simulated in hindsight and not real and anyone can do that.

If you really want to wipe yourself out, using a 100 buck forex robot is a good place to start.

2. Day Trade or Scalping

This method is doomed to failure you can’t win because you can’t get the odds on your side and all short term volatility is random.

Sure, you hear day trading system vendors say they make money – but like robots above its simulated profit and you can’t spend simulated profits

3. Predicting Prices in Advance

A great way to lose. Prediction is another word for hoping and guessing and that won’t get you far in life, let alone forex trading.

Trade price action as you see it and not as you think it might be otherwise your predictions will end up as accurate as your horoscope.

4. Trading Forex News

The problem is prices don’t move to the fundamentals, they move to how traders perceive them and sentiment and you can’t trade news events. That’s why market crash when there most bullish and rally when there most bearish.

5. You wont get Weeks of Losses

Yes you will and you may even get months. That doesn’t mean you can’t win, you can but you have to lose to win. Many traders believe all the nonsense they read about trading with scientific accuracy and making a regular monthly income, well that’s not forex trading!

6. Over Leveraging

A very common error just because a broker gives you 200:1 leverage doesn’t mean you need to use it.

Most traders leverage up to high and a small move sees there stop hit and there trades wiped out. Use lower leverage, if you want to win.

7. Not Understanding the Odds & Money Management

Most traders simply don’t understand the odds of success and a fatal errors is to think the risk reward of a trade is the profit target – the stop its not.

We don’t have time to discuss this in greater detail here, just look up our other articles. If you don’t get your money management right, you will never win.

8. Not Knowing Your Trading Edge

If you ask most traders what their trading edge is you will be met with a blank expression but you need to know it and have confidence in it to lead you to success!

Your edge is why you will succeed when 95% of traders fail. If you don’t know what your trading edge is – continue your forex education until you do.

9. Lack of Discipline

If you don’t have a trading edge and know why you are going to succeed then you won’t have discipline.

Discipline is vital to currency trading success. You need the discipline to take losses short term and stay on track, to hit the winners and make overall profits. If you don’t have the discipline to follow your forex trading system, you don’t have one

10. Forex Trading is Easy!

Partially right it’s easy to learn but far harder than most people think to make money at and that’s why 95% of traders wipe themselves out quickly.

The Good News is

If you can get the right forex trading education and adopt the right mindset, you can learn currency trading the right way and make a great second or even life changing income in just 30 minutes or less a day.

The key is to work smart not hard, avoid the myths and losing traits and focus on being a winner.

6 Reasons To Trade The Forex Market.

Total Trader — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:45:47 +0000

More and more savvy investor and entrepreneurs are shunning traditional financial markets, like stocks, bonds and commodities and building their fortunes in the foreign exchange (Forex) marketplace.
The reason why they are turning to the all electronic world of Forex trading is its numerous advantages over any type of investments.
Even if you are an experienced Stocks or Commodities trader you will discover how powerful the Forex is.
You can make $200 to $3000 in less than 30 minutes of work everyday.
Forex Trading is much less risky than trading currencies on the futures market, much more profitable, and a lot easier, than trading stocks.
Why should you trade the Forex market?
Here are the reasons why…

The Forex market is open 24 hours, it never sleeps. You can enter a position, or exit whenever you want, whenever you are six days a week. You do not need to wait for the opening bell like if you was trading stocks. it is excellent for you as you choose the best time for you to trade.

The daily trading volume of the Forex is around $1.5 trillion dollars. It is 30 times larger than the combined volume of all U.S. equity markets. This means that 1,498,574 skilled traders could each take 1 million dollars out of the FOREX market every day and the FOREX would still have more money left than the New York Stock would have daily!

You profit in both raising and falling market. You have equal potential to profit in both a rising or falling market, because it’ s up to you to buy a currency, or to sell it, after you determined the market trend tendency.

You can trade from anywhere. If you like to travel, this is a dream business, you just take your lap top with you and that’ s it, you can make money from anywhere in the world, all that you need is to be sure that you can access an Internet Connection.

The leverage is considerable. In fact, you don’ t need a lot of money to trade Forex, it is recommended to start with $2000, but you can start with $300, then if you have a proved strategy, your investment will grow consequently, as you can trade up to 200 times your investment. You can trade 100,000- unit currency lots with as little as 1% margin, or $1,000. there is no comparison with the stock market where you need a big amount of money to start, if you want to see real profits. And beside that, you need to post 50% margin.

Price Movements Are Highly Predictable. Price movement or highly volatile in the Forex, however, the foreign currencies market is moving in trends, and you can identify these trends – as they repeat in cycle- with the technical analysis.

No commission fees. Unlike the stock market, brokers don’ t take commission on transaction.

To trade Forex, you don’ t need to have a lot of money to start; you can trade at any time, from anywhere, with a Internet connection, you will not have an order pending because of lack of liquidity, you will not have to work all during the day.
The forex market has many advantages over the other traditional investments, and for sure, it will give you more freedom, and more money.

Creating Profitable Forex Trading Systems in Five Easy Steps

Total Trader — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:41:08 +0000

One rule of thumb that every aspiring entrepreneur should consider is that to make colossal profits, you should be knowledgeable about how to do it by yourself—and not rely on other’s efforts. Being autonomous from other people will help you determine what things are best for your business.

Such rule applies on all types of investments, including foreign currency trading, or generally known as Forex trading. It cannot be denied that Forex is the biggest existing market around the globe, which is estimated to have an excess of 2 trillion U.S. dollars worth of foreign currencies are traded every day. It is larger than the magnitude of the New York Stock Exchange, which is approximately 50 billion U.S. dollars. Thus, Forex market exceeds all combined equity markets around the world.

With such colossal wealth circulating around the Forex market, one of your financial aims is to grab a main slice of that $2 trillion average each day turnover in the market. How you will be able to get a large portion of that average turnover if you do not know how you will manage your Forex business? Although you cannot live in the market alone (you need business partners and/or financial advisers to help you along), only you can decide what the best Forex business there is for you.

To get colossal profits out of your Forex trading career, you need to create your own beneficial system—a trading system that will bring your not just hundreds but thousands of dollars worth of Forex revenues. Such trading system is available on the market, but as previously mentioned, you need to be autonomous—and you need to have your own Forex trading system that will help you achieve your financial goals.

For new traders, it is tough for them to device their own trading system since they do not have too much knowledge about the Forex market. However, even a neophyte trader can device a trading system that will fit on his personal preference and needs—in just five easy steps!

Before we talk about the five trouble-free steps towards a profitable Forex trading system, you need to learn firstly the three main characteristics of a thriving Forex trading system. These are as follows:

1. A successful Forex trading system is easy. There is no need for a complicated trading system with too many rules. It is a proven truth that plain systems work better than difficult ones, and they have higher chances of success despite of the “brutal” characteristic of Forex trading.

2. A thriving Forex trading system cuts losses and runs profits. Remember that you need a trading system that gets the colossal possible profits and eliminates losses rapidly, if not at once.

3. A thriving Forex trading system follows long-term trends. You will never cover your losses if you are just generating small profits. Consider that the Forex market is worth $2 trillion U.S. dollars, thus there is no point in trading in exchange for just small profits if you have the chance to make trades for larger revenues. Focus on long-term trends and you will be able to see better results.

Now, here are the five easy steps in building a gainful Forex trading system:

1. As previously mentioned, your trading system must be as easy as possible. Incorporate few yet important rules and an extensive investment management system.

2. Always look for long-term trends (preferably on a weekly basis), then shift to daily charts and to time entry. This will help you analyse market trends efficiently.

3. The best way of trading foreign currencies is through breakout manner.

4. Every time watch for any break that you will note on your chart, which is normally confirmed by stochastic crossed with bearish divergence. This will be your great timing tool whether you will enter a particular deal or not.

5. You must add effective time management within your system. Time is gold and is one of your precious resources. Design a trading system that is time capable—where you can make best use of the potential of your time resources to generate huge profits.

Get away with difficult systems; it will just ruin your entire Forex trading career. Create a simpler one and see for yourself how lucrative it is.

Know Your Forex Terms – The PIP

Total Trader — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:21:25 +0000

If you plan to go into Forex trading and learn Forex basics, one of the first Forex terms you will be introduced to will be the Forex Pip. As you get more involved in Forex currency trading, you will continually encounter it, so you will essentially have to know and understand this important term, and many others like it, in order to learn how to trade Forex successfully.

PIP is the acronym for Percentage In Point, or Price Interest Point, which is used to measure profits and losses in Forex Trading. This is comparable to the term used in the stock market referred as a “point”. Basically, the PIP is the unit of measurement for the smallest value (price) change of a currency.

The PIP serves as an easy alternative for measuring the rise of fall foreign exchange currency values in the form of a percentage number. Forex spreads, or the difference between the bid and ask price (buy and sell quote), is measured in PIP’s, and is the major cost of Foreign currency trading. This amount is also used to pay the broker facilitating the trade. A lower spread means a lower the payment for the broker, and the trader gets to keep more profits.

The PIP is used in currency trading since the values in foreign exchange is not based on a universal currency, and its monetary value changes accordingly to the currencies involved with each individual trade. The dollar (USD), even though considered to be the most widely traded currency, is not and cannot be involved in all currency trades. For example, if there is trading of two common currency pairs such as the EUR/GBP, the profit and loss margins cannot be measured against the USD, simply because it does not make sense. Thus, Forex trade utilizes the PIP to simplify matters.

Most of the major Forex currencies are marked or quoted to the fourth decimal point, except the Japanese Yen. As an example, let’s assume you are quoted a bid for the EUR/USD quoted at 1.0090 and the ask price is 1.0095, the spread is 0.0005 or 5 PIP’s. In percentage terms, a PIP is 0.01% of a lot. Take for example the lot size of $100,000, 1 PIP is then worth $10. This is the value of PIP’s when using the USD is used as the quote currency.

Trading in one Forex pair, such as the EUR/USD is advisable if you’re a beginner. As you get more adept doing this, you’ll get a clearer picture of how the PIP measures your gain or losses.

Source: Bart Icles

Best Forex Indicators

Total Trader — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:48:19 +0000

Forex is defined as the foreign exchange market where professionals trade currencies in an attempt to make money. Many traders, most notably George Soros, have made a ton of money in this way. By exploiting the fluctuations in the price of currencies relative to one another, traders can effectively buy low and sell high many times over and make money on the difference.

While Forex trading can be a highly risky proposition, there are certain fundamental things about the market as a whole that help Forex traders try to predict what the price of currencies will do. These are called indicators, and while they don’t predict the future 100% of the time, many times these events play out as expected and are a big help to the trader.

One such indicator is the Simple Moving Average (SMA). This indicator was developed early on, and it’s still one of the most widely used gauges today. A moving average is a set of data, in that for each day, the average price of the currency is calculated over a previous number of days. So for example, to calculate a 10 day moving average, today’s average is calculated by averaging the prices for the previous 10 days. Yesterday’s average is then calculated by taking the average price for the 10 days before yesterday, and so on. Each average is then plotted to where the set of data becomes a line on a graph of prices. In effect, this line “smoothes” the market action, taking out a lot of the daily fluctuations that can confuse the trader. This makes it much easier to notice the overall trend of which direction the currency price is headed.

Another widely used indicator is the Relative Strength Index (RSI). This number is found by calculating the ration of the number of up moves to the number of down moves of the currency price over a given period. Simply put, an up move is when the price rises that day, and a down move is when the price closes lower than where it opened. A RSI of 70 or over tells the Forex trader that the currency may be overbought, and might be due for a price drop. Likewise, a RSI of 30 or below can indicate an oversold currency, which may be due for a jump in price.

The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is another indicator that is referenced a lot by traders. This one is a bit more complicated than the previous two, although the moving average is one component of the calculation. This indicator makes use of two lines, the first being a 26 day exponential moving average minus a 12 day exponential moving average. The other line, known as the “trigger line”, is usually a 9 day moving average. These two lines will continuously cross each other as the price of the currency fluctuates, and when the MACD line crosses above the trigger line, it’s considered a good time to buy the currency. When the trigger line then crosses above the MACD line, this indicates a good time to sell.

By making use of these and many other indicators, technical Forex traders can give themselves a better chance to make money than the average person. While trading in currency is not without a great deal of risk, it is these indicators that can give the trader a leg up and also make Forex trading an enjoyable experience.

Forex Trading Strategies

Total Trader — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 08:50:42 +0000

Forex trading strategies are essential for a trader to know exactly when to sell or buy a currency pair. The time of purchase or sale of foreign currency pairs is the most important point of a trade. The better that the trader is able to determine the time of entry / exit, the more profitable is a potential transaction. This can be achieved with sound Forex trading strategies.

Forex trading strategies in combination with technical analysis is usually used, especially to determine the time of entry / exit. Most often, a decision is made within seconds or hours.

Main Forex trading strategies are:

1. Support and Resistance

Sound Forex trading strategies, similar to this one, remain profitable, even though they started to be used long ago. When Resistance is broken, it can serve as a good sign to buy. This new position can be secure with the aid of a stop-loss placed directly below the level of a break. The level of a break now will become a level of support. New positions can also be opened, when in a descending trend the prices rise up to the Resistance line. New positions can also be opened, when in an uptrend the prices fall down to the Support line.

2. Scanning for the intersection of trend-lines

If you are very confident in a particular trend line (i.e., if you checked it many times), the intersection of this line by prices would be a perfect time to enter into a trade or to get out of it sooner. And, of course, do not forget about the other technical indicators. In the case where the trend-line is used as Support and Resistance: buy, when prices reach an upward trend line; sell, when prices reach a downward trend-line. This can become one of your Forex trading strategies, based on the intersection of the trend-lines.

3. Trading in the break

Three Forex trading strategies for trade at the time of breaks:

- Open a position in advance, in the anticipation of a break;

- If you see an unfolding break, open your position at the time of its occurrence;

- Wait for the inevitable roll-back after the break, because in the market after a break, there is usually a correction.

There is also a 4th option for Forex trading strategies based on break – open position in each of the phases described above. One position – before a possible break, second position – immediately after this break and the third position should be traded in the hope of the expected price correction, which is likely to happen.

4. Trading with positions of various time frames

1). Forex trading strategies, based on long positions, i.e., ranging from several days to several months. It is best to use this tactic in the presence of strong trends. At the same time, analyze short-term scales. Be sure to use in addition to technical analysis also the fundamental analysis, which is perfectly suited for long timescales.

2). Holding a position of a medium length – a few days (the safest of the Forex trading strategies, based on time-frames). It is also desirable to ensure yourself by looking at shorter trends. Analysis of the medium length position is more complex, but such positions are much more stable for profit. Of course you need to choose the right moment to open / close a position. Again, these positions require the use of both – technical and fundamental analysis.

3). Holding a short position – minutes or hours (the least safe of all the Forex trading strategies, based on time-frames). The advantage of short positions is that they have virtually no risk on the impact of fundamental news, as well as the price will not change while you were absent because you’ll be watching the prices the whole time. The disadvantage is that the risk of loss is great, as well as you have to constantly monitor prices during trading until closing. To make the right decisions, it is best to be armed with data on the volume of sellers and buyers. This will allow you to much more precisely determine the subsequent direction of the market. Such ultra-short-term trading can also be used at the time of breaks as well as in the rollback of prices after the break. Basically, such positions are better suited for traders with extensive experience, while for beginners such positions hold too much risk. The second strategy (trading in medium-term trends, with duration of up to several days) is most suitable for the novice trader.

Forex trading strategies based on technical analysis indicators will help you achieve the best results. Forex trading strategies are especially useful for choosing the right time to enter and exit the trades.

Source: Steve Maenshel

Forex Market: Currency Pairs and Forex Quotes

Total Trader — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:02:33 +0000

If you are new to the forex market, you might find forex quotes confusing. Do not allow yourself to be overwhelmed with forex quotes. In fact, reading forex quotes can be quite easy.

In reading forex quotes or currency pairs, there are two important things that you must keep in mind. First is that the currency being quoted first is what we refer to as the base currency. Second is that the value of base currency always equals to 1.

The centrepiece or focus of the forex market is the US Dollar. It is also often quoted as the base currency for a lot of pairs. A currency pair that has the US Dollar as the base currency is what we call “major”. Examples of major currency pairs are USD/JPY, USD/CAD, and USD/CHF. In major currency pairs, quoted currencies are expressed as the US Dollar, specifically, one (1) US Dollar for every, or a fraction of the, unit of the second currency quoted in the pair.

As an example, let us take the US Dollar and the Swiss Franc. In the currency pair USD/CHF, the base currency is the US Dollar. In the quote USD/CHF = 1.0806, one unit of the US Dollar is equivalent to 1.0806 units of Swiss Francs.

If a currency goes up, you must take note of the base currency. In the aforementioned pair, the US Dollar is the base currency. If the quote goes up, it simply means the value of the US Dollar has increased compared with the value of the Swiss Franc. If the quote goes down, then one can easily conclude that the value of the US Dollar has depreciated to a certain degree.

There are cases when the US Dollar is not the base currency. We often see the US Dollar as the quoted currency when it is paired with the Australian Dollar (AUD), British Pound (GBP), and Euro (EUR). Let us take the AUD/USD currency pair quoted at 0.8044. This shows that one unit of Australian Dollar is equivalent to 0.8044 or less than one unit of US Dollar. One can conclude that the Australian Dollar is weaker than the US Dollar. If the quote goes up, then it means that the US Dollar has weakened against the Australian Dollar.

Currency pairs do not always involve the US Dollar. These currency pairs are referred to as cross currencies. Examples of which are EUR/AUD, EUR/JPY, CHF/JPY, and EUR/SGD. Let us take the currency EUR/SGD pair quoted at 2.0373. This shows that one unit of Euro is equivalent to more than two units of Singapore Dollar or 2.0373 Singapore dollars.

Source: Bart Icles

Forex Option Trading to Diversify Your Forex Trading

Total Trader — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:36:35 +0000

Forex option trading is a hedging instrument, used not only by big financial institutions, but also by many individual Forex traders. Forex option trading is a great tool for implementing both, hedging and speculating strategies. Forex options are among the most liquid options in the world. The buyer in this case becomes a holder of a foreign currency option. The seller becomes the writer, or the granter.

The forex option holder receives the right to exchange a predefined amount of currency at a predefined date and price. The option buyer is obligated to pay a premium to the seller of the option. In fact, this is the only liability of the buyer, making Forex option trading a field with very limited liabilities. The forex option seller has two ways to precede with his/her option – to buy the contract back or to hold it until its expiration.

Forex option trading requires buying at a fixed price, in a fixed amount as well as at a fixed expiration date. All of this unties you from the dangerous market fluctuations.

Do Forex options always get exercised? As a matter of fact, most of the time the options are not exercised by their purchaser with the Forex option trading; options are often offset until they expire. If the option gets exercised, a spot position is assigned to the option holder. There also is a threat of an option expiring worthless, if at the expiration time the strike price is lower than the purchase price.

As mentioned above, you only pay a fixed price for the transaction when you buy a Forex option. Forex option trading will safeguard you against losing more than you have invested into the option. In the event of the final strike price on the market being higher than the purchase amount, you will instantly profit. In the event of the final strike price on the market is lower than the purchase price, you will lose. However, you will never lose more money due to this fixed price, in case your transaction becomes worthless.

Forex option trading is applied strictly at the international exchanges, since it is a hedging instrument. While being probably riskier than regular Forex trading due to its uniqueness, Forex option trading is also potentially much more profitable.

There are two types of options in Forex option trading- call options and put options. Call options give the right to buy currency, and put options give the right to sell currency. Both these options generally change in respond to the change in volatility, i.e. if the volatility falls, the prices of both options also fall. There are common and customized Forex options, respectively called “plain vanilla” and exotic.

In order to shield yourself from potential losses, it is better to follow general safety with Forex option trading:

1. Do not place a large chunk of your total capital into Forex option trading.

2. Do not try to trade at all times. It is better to patiently wait for the proven signals.

3. Trade on a Forex option trading demo account prior starting to trade live.

Forex option trading is a good way to learn and understand more about the Forex market. Forex option trading is a risky but also potentially very profitable Forex trading instrument.

Source: Steve Maenshel

Forex Markets

Total Trader — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:23:59 +0000

The five most traded currencies in the world are US Dollars, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Swiss franc and the Euro. Country specific scenarios like unemployment, higher inflation, and political uncertainties in a country usually cause a decline in the value of the currency of that country. The US Dollars participation in more than eighty percent of world transactions makes it undoubtedly the most significant currency in forex markets.

Currency Markets

The fluctuation in the value of a currency is solely based on demand and supply parameters. For example, the more the number of transactions made with a currency, the more it becomes valuable. So a currency having less demand would devalue fast, and that would have an impact on its rate value. Of course all this depends on a country’s economic standing i.e. whether the people have the most employment, and whether there are more needs for commodities and supplies. If a currency is valuable, it definitely attracts other investors to take a chance on buying it. Therefore a powerful currency would have a consistent price rate that doesn’t devalue for a long period of time.

With the advent of globalization, currency exchanges constitute some of the biggest transactions in the world money markets. To understand the value of a home currency you would have to compare it with another currency foreign to it. For example, you could express 1 US $= 0.694 British Pound Sterling at current values.

One way of understanding forex markets better is by comparing it with the stock markets. Just as you would buy stocks of different companies in the stock market and make a profit when the prices rise, in forex markets the only difference is that you buy currencies and book a profit when the currency becomes more valuable. You could become a small investor in the forex market with a capital as little as $1000 or invest big, because there are a wide variety of forex brokers to cater to all your needs.

There are many kinds of trading methods that will help you analyse current market conditions so that you could predict future trends. To be successful, you have to predict the trends before it occurs, so you could buy currencies and sell them when the prices rise. In some cases, it would mean buying a currency that was dropping in value and then profit from the currency when it takes an upward trend. What does all this mean? It simply means you have to always keep abreast of what is happening in forex markets, by analysing the markets thoroughly.

As explained in earlier articles, there are two ways to analyse forex markets in terms of trends and make a prognosis on future opportunities. These methods are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis.

A person using fundamental analysis would look at the current economic climate, political events and a variety of economic indicators to try and predict currency moves. Generally it is the large institutional players who look to fundamentals for predicting price moves. As a day trader you should be looking at technical analysis more. However technical analysis which uses historical price patterns in economic data to predict future moves takes into reckoning three major assumptions.

They are:

The fact that all market forces are taken into account in price movement. In other words, technical analysis does not take into account economic conditions, because it presumes that the market has already accounted for that.

It presumes that currency price movements form market patterns that follow predictable paths.

It further presumes that there are historical trends in price movements. What this means is that, when circumstances are similar the same pattern would likely be repeated.

Is technical analysis necessary?

Yes for a day trader it is very important provided he learns to supplement it with fundamental analysis. The greatest advantage of technical analysis is, it could be used for a wide range of currencies and markets in different parts of the globe almost simultaneously. Although it may look complicated to a beginner, technical analysis is a very important tool for the day trader.

How does technical analysis go about doing what it does?

Technical analysis goes about its business by interpreting charts that are constantly updated in real time and could be viewed in different ways—as for example, you could see in the charts price movements over certain periods in time, interfaced with analytical features that help you predict future trends. Most often the charts are to be found in the broker’s online trading platform. Truly there is no substitute for charts in forex trading.

Learn To Day Trade Forex

Total Trader — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:55:01 +0000

The most important thing that you should make very clear and understand is that Forex is not a get rich quick scheme. Skilled Forex Traders can and in fact do make good profits in Forex Trading. However like any other business whether small or big, success just doesn’t happen overnight, in a few weeks or in a few months. You should use this great formula for success: Profits = Patience+Practice+Persistence.

As they say there is no substitute for hard work and diligence. Practice trading on a demo account and pretend that virtual money is your own real money. Do not open a live trading account until you become profitable on your demo account. Stick to the plan and you can be successful.

In the beginning, just choose two major currency pairs that you will trade. It becomes very difficult to keep tab on the all four. You need to start with a major currency pair because the spread is the best and they are the most liquid. The EUR/USD pair is the most commonly traded pair and usually has the best spread because of its liquidity.

The USD/CHF is the most volatile and moves the most during the trading week. The USD/JPY moves a lot on the news out of Japan. GBP/USD is the most stable of the above three pair.

You should follow and understand the daily forex news and analysis of the professional currency analyst. It is important for you to get a birds eye view of the currency markets and the news that affects the prices of the major pair that you want to trade. You should also know and understand what the key technical support and resistance levels are in the currency pair that you want to trade.

Support is the predicted level when buying pressure overcomes the selling pressure. It is at this point the currency pair moves up on the charts. Buy at the support level. Resistance is the predicted level when selling pressure overcomes the buying pressure. It is where the currency pair moves down on the charts. Sell on the resistance level.

All the best forex news and analysis is available freely online. Most of the forex brokers provide this information on daily basis if you open an account with them. Read the technical news and analysis. Write down on a piece of paper the direction the analyst is saying about the currency pair you are trading. Also note the key support and resistance level for that pair.

Learn how to use technical indicators and always trade with stop losses. It is worth your time to be patient and learn how to use technical indicators on the charts that you will be reading shortly.

Learn to be disciplined when you are trading. Avoid emotions in trading! Stick to a good system and a plan. Depending on your risk appetite and strategy, set your stop losses accordingly when you trade. Try not to trade your gut feeling.

10 Forex Trading Tips to Help You to Succeed in Currency Trading

Total Trader — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:12:47 +0000

So many people fail in trading Forex. But you don’t have too, some people ask me if there any rules to become a successful trader. When I think about my trading I clearly see 20 rules that if followed can make you consistently profitable trader. Some of them you probably know. The only thing is left is to implement them in your trading.

1. Plan your trades and trade your plan.

It is absolutely necessary to have a plan so you know what you will do in such and such market situation. In fact the lack of planning ahead probably the biggest reason of failure of most traders.

2. Fear and hope are the two worst enemies for trader.

You need learn to control your emotions. Not to get rid of them. They are actually engines that keep you going. However engines that go out of control are very dangerous.

3. Always keep the records of the results for your trading.

If you want to repeat your successful trades over and over, if you want to avoid failure you went through, then you need to keep track of your decisions and actions. That’s why you need to record all your trading results.

4. Keep the positive attitude regardless of the results of your trading.

Result of a single trade mean very little. The long term result is what you are looking at. Therefore keeping the positive attitude no matter what the result of a current single trade will help you to move over it to the next more profitable one.

5. Think about Forex only when you are trading.

In order to succeed in FX you need to learn to focus. Whatever you do focus on it. That means if you are not trading focus on whatever you do and forget about the market.

6. Stop-loss is the key to your success in trading. Always cut your losses.

The golden rule of traders states: never-ever trade without stop loss orders. If you do it’s a surest way to lose your trading account entirely.

7. Always devote your time to study the market.

Set up aside certain amount of time to go through the price charts and economic news to better understand the price movement.

8. Always set your profit limit in each trade.

The same as with stop loss orders you need to know your profit target for each trade. I had so many potentially winning trades that turned into a losers just because I didn’t have a clear plan for taking profit.

9. Trust your own opinion before entering the market.

Facts are priceless. Opinions are worthless. Those who follow so called “gurus” in trading will never be able to make a significant profit. Take the full responsibility for your actions don’t hunt for opinions just because you are afraid to act upon your own opinion.

10. Keep your stop losses untouched during the trade.

It comes back to the rule number one. Once you have planned your potential risk and placed the stop loss, don’t touch it until price reaches the profit target or stop loss. By moving the stop loss you are changing a significant parameter of your trading system. That is the way to turn a winning into a losing one.

Everyone knows that currency trading is a good opportunity to make significant amount of money. At the same time it is the best opportunity to lose even bigger amount of money. I hope the above tips will help you to preserve your trading capital and gradually to grow it.

13 Quick Tips for Forex Trading Success

Total Trader — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:11:47 +0000

#13: Back-test, but be logical. Back-testing a given strategy can prove priceless when done correctly, but remember to take the results with a grain of salt. Be especially wary of trade results shown on websites claiming astronomical gains since most of these results simply are not attainable under live market conditions for many reasons.

#12: Always analyse similar pairs in the forex market before placing any trade. Similar pairs can be defined as any tradable currency pair containing 1 of the 2 currencies you are about to trade. For example, by looking at no less than 4 US Dollar pairs before trading, one can determine if the pair will be moving based mostly on the US Dollar or the opposing currency. This can easily be done with the Japanese Yen and others as well.

#11: Be wary of trade ideas coming from other individuals or groups in the many online trading forums, blogs, or chat rooms. Only evaluate trade recommendations from trusted parties who have a proven track record of success. Remember this is your business, and to have a consistently profitable business, you need to execute reproducible trades based on your own strategies and ideals. Don’t build your house on sandy soil; lay a good foundation of continuing education and the rewards will come many times over.

#10: Longer-term charts (ie. monthly, weekly, daily) have logarithmically more importance upon technical analysis than shorter-term charts (ie. 1 minute, 5 minute, 15 minute). For example, a support or resistance level on a daily chart will hold much more importance than a similar line than a 5 minute chart. Most reputable traders will recommend trading on longer term charts, especially for those who are new to trading or have limited time to trade due to other commitments. Find your comfort zone and stick with it until you become consistent; even a slight edge in this market can set you free financially.

#9: Do not use any trading robots, expert advisors, or other “black box” automated trading software until you learn how to trade on your own first. Educating yourself is the key to success; deep roots will equal a tall tree that can weather any storm.

#8: Trade with a friend, group, partner, or mentor when you begin your journey of learning the forex market. Many of the glamorous ideologies of forex traders showered in riches come from high-risk, difficult to reproduce strategies. The way to often become most profitable in this market is to have consistency, be disciplined, and to repeat this over and over and over again. Forex trading, done properly, is not intended to be flashy.

#7: Be sure to use a forex broker with great service and support, along with low spreads. With the recent regulations we are much more protected against possible broker-related issues, but many traders are still paying much higher spreads than average when placing trades. Do your research on forex brokers to analyse not only the safe, financially sound companies, but also those that allow the lowest fees. Paying the bid/ask spread in the forex market is just one of the costs of doing business, but with the extreme level of competition in today’s marketplace there is no need to accept paying even 1 pip more than you should elsewhere.

#6: Have a backup power supply and internet access available at all times when you are trading. This can be as simple as a battery-powered laptop with a wireless access card. Don’t rely solely on the phone number of your broker as if there is a company-related trading issue; their lines will likely be slammed busy. Bottom line: be sure to have some redundancy incorporated into your trading plan; treat this like a true business and it will reward you like one.

#5: Break your trade order into 2 or 3 smaller orders to give yourself more control, both actual and psychological. As most forex brokers do not charge commissions to trade this market, they earn their fees through the bid/ask spread; you have no extra cost of placing 3 small orders rather than 1 single large one. Doing this allows you to place tighter stops on some orders, while adjusting the profit taking on others. Closing part of an order will give the same effect, but by having a few live at the same time, it is easier psychologically to set them and let them run.

#4: Trading profit comes from 1/3 psychology, 1/3 money management, and 1/3 trading strategy. It’s easy to get caught up in the “next best thing” or the potential of finding a “holy grail” system, but remember that most of your profits come from learning the things that are not quite as exciting. Trading psychology and money management are critical to any success in the forex market; without them you will be grouped with the 95% of those who lose their capital time and time again. Money management is the key to unleashing potential for compounding profits; it is an absolute necessity to learn. Do your research on the most highly coveted trading psychology texts and dig in ASAP.

#3: Be aware of world news releases. Even if you prefer to not trade news events, be certain to know when the major events are planned to take place. As a second line of asset protection to your business, a good live news feed is also recommended when you are trading. Knowing what is going on in the world is one of the most critical keys to forex trading success; without this knowledge, your chances of success are limited.

#2: Always use a well planned stop loss when placing any trade and never, ever, move it further from your entry point for any reason. Although it is a simple rule to put on paper, it’s often difficult to follow…always follow this rule.

#1: Always trade any new strategy in a demo account before going live in a real money account. Many traders simply become gamblers by placing trades live without the proper testing and education necessary to place the odds in their favour. It is also all too common for traders to have excellent results in a demo account or with paper trading, then lose all their capital once they go live in a real money account. Be realistic and treat your demo trades as real funds; that is the only way for a demo account to work over time. If you begin to have a winning pattern in the demo account, be 100% certain to follow all the rules exactly in your live account. Often, a good transition is to begin with a demo account, then go to a live mini or micro account where very little capital is risked before trading your regular sized account. Many times one can make the transition in trading psychology from demo to live when taking the added step of testing the proven system by trading very small lot sizes first.

Although these few trading “nuggets” are only the tip of the iceberg, I hope that they can pique your interest enough to warrant further research and attention. I wish you the best in your trading!

Source: Jason Gospodarek

Advantages of Forex Trading

Total Trader — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:43:20 +0000

Foreign exchange trading involves buying and selling different currencies. It works on the theory that is similar with share market. As we know that to make the profit, you have to buy at lower price and sell at higher price, or we can also sell at higher price first and buy at lower price. But its not as easy as it sounds. By studying certain market conditions, you can actually make profits in forex. All you have to do is to analyze the forex in a correct way and do the good trade.

Why to go for Foreign exchange trading? There is an option to invest in stock market also but here are a few important advantages of currency trading over stock market.

24-hour Trading

Forex trading is done on 24-hours basis. This market is open throughout day and night as somewhere in the world, there must be this buy and sell trading is going on. Traders involved in forex trading strategy can always get that first hand information and can act accordingly. The currency rate is actually run through telecommunication all over the network of banks 24 hours a day from 00:00 GMT on Monday to 10:00 pm GMT on Friday. There are ECNs (Electronic Communication Networks) which bring together buyers and sellers.

Greater Liquidity

There is a superior liquidity in the market as there are always buyers and sellers to purchase and sell foreign currencies. Forex trading market size is 50 times bigger than the New York Stock Exchange and liquidity of such large market ensures price stability. Forex trading stop orders could be carried out more simply. This makes Forex trading signal more liquid and permits Forex traders to take benefit of trading opportunities as they happen rather than waiting for the market to open the next day.

100:1 High Leverage in forex trading

100 to 1 leverage is commonly available from online forex dealers, which substantially exceeds the common 2:1 margin offered by equity brokers. This gives them a huge leverage in their trading and presents the potential for extraordinary profits with relative small investments. Leverage can also go the opposite way and may lead to huge losses if you are not careful.

Forex trading transactions have no commissions. Forex Brokers can earn money by fixing their own speculation between what a currency could be bought at and what it could be sold at. In difference, Forex traders have to pay a commission fee or brokerage fee for every futures transaction they come in to the view. The forex market is so large that no one individual, bank, fund or government body can influence it for a long period of time. In forex trading strategy, you can trade between seven currencies but not everyone trade in all.

There are certain trading signals that give indications to the trade. These forex signals are delivered by email, instant messenger or direct to your desktop.

How Does an Online Forex Broker Work?

Total Trader — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 01:48:39 +0000

Before you begin trading in the FOREX markets you will need to set up an account with what is called a Forex Broker. Once you start your search for the perfect broker, you could feel overwhelmed by the number of them who extend their services online. Deciding on a broker requires a little bit of research on your part, but the time spent will give you a much better idea of the services that are accessible and the fees charged by several of this brokers.

Properly speaking, a forex broker is an individual or a company that buys and sells the orders placed by the trader according to his decisions. This way brokers earn money by billing a commission or a fee for their services.

All serious brokers need to be connected with a large financial organization such as a bank in order to provide the amount of funds necessary for margin trading. These credentials will ensure you have peace of mind, knowing that you have security against any case of fraud and abusive trade exercises.

What you’ll always want will be to find a broker who carries out orders quickly and with minimum slippage. All reputable online brokers will extend automatic execution of orders and will let you know their policies regarding slippage. An effective broker should be able to tell you how much slippage can be expected in both normal and volatile markets.

Margin accounts are the foundation of Forex trading, so you better be sure you clearly understand the broker’s margin terms before setting up your trading account. You also need to acknowledge the margin requirements and how margin is calculated. It may be the case that margin change according to the currency traded; or maybe the margin is the same every day of the week or perhaps not; so you have to check and get all this information pretty clear.

Additionally some brokers could offer different margins depending on what kind of account you are trading, i.e. a mini or standard account.

One more thing that you should consider is that the trading station software available to you from your broker is really important for your success as an online forex trader. You should get a feel for the options that are available by examining a demo account at a few of the available online brokers. Always keep in mind that above all, you are looking for reliability and the ability to execute well in fast-moving markets.

How To Trade Forex?

Total Trader — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:55:56 +0000

How to trade Forex? Trading Forex is actually quite simple. Forex trading involves merely choosing a currency pair, the amount of the base currency and the buy or sell action. Next you place your order and wait for the favorable time to perform a counter transaction to derive profits. How to trade Forex and make profit? Learn to place your orders correctly by trading on a demo account for a period of time.

Each currency quote consists of two currencies. The first currency in the pair is called the base currency and the second one is called the counter currency. The value of the first currency always equals one, while the value of the second currency is calculated against the first currency. Forex prices are expressed in pips, being the fourth decimal of the price. Understanding quotes is vital in order to learn how to trade Forex.

Margins and Leverage in Forex trades

In order to safeguard your capital, learn how to trade Forex without taking leverage from a broker. If you can put down a small amount of your own money (called margin), the dealer will provide you with more money (called leverage). Leverage will allow you to trade with more lots. Is margin trading good or bad? Same as bank loans and mortgages, margin trading may be both good and bad. While providing you with more opportunities, it will also tremendously increase the possibility of losses.

Demo Account

Trading with a demo account is definitely one of the easiest ways to learn how to trade Forex. A Demo account will safeguard you from incurring any real losses while making mistakes at the time of your trading. At first, you will most likely often make mistakes when selecting the time of entering and exiting the trades, such as you may be too late or too early. Mistakes that you make while trading on a demo account will not cost you a dime. However, if you skip this essential step, you may join the 90% of failing Forex traders.

Understanding Currency Pairs

There are lots of different currency pairs, and you should choose the right one. It is a good idea to choose the most traded currency pair, when you are just starting to learn how to trade Forex. This currency pair is USD/EUR. No matter what currency pair you select, you should try to learn its distinctive features well, before proceeding to trading other currency pairs. This is very important because every currency pair will have its own distinctive features as well as the reasons behind the fluctuations of this currency pair, such as various fundamental factors.

Currency Quotes in Forex trades

Learn to understand the currency quotes, because Forex trades are done in terms of quotes. Quotes are two-sided, and involve two prices: Bid price (price at which base currency will be sold, simultaneously buying the counter currency) and Ask price (price at which base currency will be bought, simultaneously selling the counter currency). Understanding of Bid/Ask is one of the first steps in learning how to trade Forex.

Unfortunately brokers, just like banks do not really care whether you win or lose in your Forex trades. You will still have to pay them back. If you lose the money that they gave you. It is better not to trade on margin at all, and to only trade with your own money.

It’s very easy to learn how to trade Forex. However, how to trade Forex with a profit? Allow enough time to train on a demo account before proceeding to real-life trading.

Source: Steve Maenshel

Understanding How To Scalp The Forex Market

Total Trader — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:56:45 +0000

When it comes to trading the forex market, there is one thing that really stops a lot of traders, and it involves greed. Because there are millions of traders out there who think that making money in the forex market is easy. This has to do with the fact that a lot of traders buy courses that promise to make them millions, only for them to realize they have been scammed.

Most people end up losing money on a daily basis because even though the forex markets move everyday, the fluctuations are barely visible. Only a huge movement can be predicted, which is a rarity.

Only, and make money using my system of foreign exchange earnings are expected to be small in the day to day fluctuations in these very small. Your small, rather than the daily earnings, are trying to homer daily. The higher low, fluctuating from 50 Pip Forex market is 80 percent of the time. Not earn enough money in these market conditions following a system intrusion methods and trends.

Since it is easy to make 20-30 pips a day, my sincere advice to you would be to switch off the screen as soon as you are done for the day. You will be only paying your broker if you turn out to be over ambitious. So please protect your profits.

Don’t make the same mistakes that so many other people make. They think they will become a millionaire by the end of the first week. Your job should be to make money in a steady manner. Trading is a lot like a marathon, not a sprint.

Most of the break-out or trend following systems only gives you advice on huge movements in the forex markets. My scalping system is not like that. Using this system you can trade everyday for less than 3 hours. You are setting up a successful home based business, making a lucrative profit, having a great life style and it is good money too.

Unfortunately many of you have been cheated by Get rich quick schemes in the forex markets. On the net even I have seen may unbelievable schemes which claim to make $250 with only $100 software. If only that were true!

Source: Mike Hardaway

Top 8 Tips To Help You Start With Forex Trading

Total Trader — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:55:40 +0000

1. Educate yourself.

As mentioned, the money market can be a profitable venture but it can also be full of financial risks. Before getting too excited to trade, one of the very important currency trading tips that you must follow is to educate yourself about the forex industry. Of course, it is always a wise move in every venture you get into. Among the important things you have to learn is market analysis and analyzing the factors that affect the value of a country’s currency. It would help a lot to have a background in macroeconomics, international trade, in-depth understanding of the financial market as well as understanding on how a nation’s economic policies as well as political situations affect your main concern – the currency.

2. Plan and make a strategy.

In the money market, it is important to be a quick decision maker and be able to take action, but you also have to make a plan and strategy. It is also

3. Be aware of the high risks.

Currency trading indeed involves a high level of risk, so before you decide to participate in forex market, you have to determine if you can handle the big risk that comes along with it. Experts often say that forex trading is not for everyone. In currency trading, you must be able to determine how much money you are willing to lose, and if you are wiling to lose a part or all of your investment.

4. Choose the best currency trading software.

In deciding for your forex trading software, make sure that you are also making a wise choice. Make sure that your software provides security of your data as well as personal information. Also make sure that you choose a software that has round-the-clock support services especially when it comes to server support and backup. These currency trading tips are indeed important to help you have a secure transaction online.

5. Choose a reliable and trustworthy broker.

In forex trading, you can also get a broker to help you deal with sellers and buyers in the money market. In choosing one, make sure also that you getting a reliable and trusted one. They can also be a factor in your success in forex trading.

6. Practice.

Indeed, if is one of the most important currency trading tips to keep in mind. Do not to jump into forex without practice. This is essential to help you learn the tools o the trade. You can make use of demo accounts to practice your strategy in forex.

7. Beware of forex scams and frauds online.

In dealing online, make sure also that you are not dealing with fraudulent individuals and companies. Always check track records as well as company or individual backgrounds. If they are giving you too-good-to-be- true offers, you might want to think twice about it. If they are giving you a risk-free forex trading, that could be a warning that you are not dealing with some legitimate services.

8. Be extra careful in transferring funds.

Whether online or by mail, always make sure you are sending money or transferring funds securely. This of course is a must in anything you do online that involves money, especially if it involves a large amount.

Keep in mind these currency trading tips before you get yourself involved in forex trading. Keep in mind that forex is involves high risk and indeed, is not for everyone.

5 Ways to Improve your income from Forex Trading

Total Trader — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 01:49:46 +0000

Forex Trading or Currency Trading today is a $3 trillion industry, and I am not talking about the yearly investments or revenues of this trade, I am talking about the daily investment stats of this monstrous industry.

This means that trades of over $3 trillion occur each day across Forex exchanges throughout the world. If you have been trying to get a bigger slice of this magnanimous industry then these tips would surely help you to earn more with the same amount investments and time.

1. Be Flexible:

By flexibility I mean that you need to trade in a cross culture environment if you want to get the max out of Forex trading. This means that you cannot restrict yourself to a particular exchange centre such a London or New York. You need to diversify your investments and give ample time to investments in different exchange centres. This is because of the fact that a particular exchange may have its lull times when the trading is slow, so instead of investing in theses exchanges at this time try to invest in exchange that are livelier at the same time.

2. Be confident:

Confident is a very big factor when it comes to Forex trading. If you are not confident about your decisions, then you are not going to make profit. You should try to have faith in your abilities and should never get pressured into taking decisions that you would not like to take. Confidence can improve your ability to take risks and thus give you more profit.

3. Take good care of leverage:

One of the basic rules of Forex trading is manage your leverage amount very carefully. You may get tempted to leverage 10 to 20 times the amount of money you have in your account but this should be avoided at all costs. Everyone knows that larger the amount leveraged, larger is the risk of loss and the debt arising from it. Expert traders never leverage more than twice the amount they have in their account.

4. Avoid large trades:

Instead of focussing on a single large trade, one should try to play it safe by investing into many small trades. This will reduce the risk of you losing all your money in case a trade goes wrong. Also smaller trades can generate better profits than a single large trade, this is because of the fact that for a small trade you may not be afraid of losing money and can hence put it in the market for a longer time, whereas for a large trade you would try to get your money out of the market at the slightest change in currency value in order to avoid any major loss.

5. Get a good Forex Broker:

This is the aspect that is ignored by almost all traders, but an expert trader knows that this is one thing that matters a lot and can be controlled. The correct way to choose a Forex broker is by the task of research. Never choose a Forex broker because of the fact that he is providing you with some incentives. Always try to look into the working policies of a broker before choosing to invest with him or her. Try to go in for brokers who offer demo accounts, so that you can test a broker’s interface before opening a real money account with the broker. Always choose a broker who is compatible with your style of trading and allows you to implement your strategies.

These are some of things, which if followed religiously would enable a Forex Trader to earn more profit than he would earn without the use of these strategies.

Understand Forex Accounts

Total Trader — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:33:21 +0000

For trading success, good money management is the key. Many traders ignore this aspect of trading at their own peril and get their account blown in a few weeks of trading. Trading discipline means using a trading system based on money management rules that limit your risk and avoid making trading decisions based on emotions.

One of the worst blunders that trades can make is to try to trade without sufficient capital. This does not mean that you should have a lot of money before you start trading; it only means that you need to have enough capital in your account to take advantage of the movements in the markets. Low capital increases your chances of getting blown out.

Many forex brokers fix the minimum amount required to open a standard account as $2000. However, it is recommended by most of the professional traders that you should start with at least $5000-10,000 to get good results. A trader with limited capital is always a worried trader. He is always looking to minimize losses beyond the point of realistic trading. Never ever trade live without practicing on the demo account for a few months. First, try to double your account at least three times in a row on the demo account.

A regular account or a standard account often also called 100k account lets you trade a $100,000 standard lot with a $2000 deposit. This $2000 is kept as the margin by the broker. This is a 2% margin.

Dont use more than 4X leverage while trading in the start. Too much leverage is dangerous for you.

Its not that leverage is bad. It is a double edged sword that cuts both ways. It increases your profit but at the same time wipes you out in case of a slight miscalculation on your part. Its just that you need to understand and learn how to use it. You can only do so with practice. With practice and more experience, you can increase the level of leverage in your trading.

Mini accounts are great for beginners. You can open a mini account with most of the brokers with a deposit of only $1000. The mini account was developed to accommodate investors who were looking for bringing more diversification to their stocks portfolios. This small dollar requirement allows many small investors to participate in the forex markets. Many were previously unable to do so. Some brokers offer micro accounts as well.

One lot on a mini account means $10,000. On a mini account, you have a different lot size as compared to the standard account. Pip size on a mini account is also small as compared to the standard account. A pip size on the mini account is equal to $1 instead of $10 as on a standard lot.

A mini account is a great way for beginners to practice forex trading. If you lose 100 pips on a mini account, it means losing only $100 as compared to losing $1000 on a standard lot. You can say a mini account reduces your risk by 10%. But it also reduces the amount of profit that you can make. Start with at least $1000 on a mini account.

Source: Ahmad Hassam

Mini Forex Trading – For Small Scale Investors and Beginners

Total Trader — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:28:29 +0000

Any one planning to invest in the Forex market can start doing so by first opening a mini Forex account before actually getting a standard Forex account. Many people are under the impression that online Forex currency trading involves a large quantity of money. This isn’t correct. With a mini Forex account, first-time investors can begin with small amounts ranging from $ 1000 to $ 2000, where the value of a pip will be $ 1 thus reducing the risk of losing a large sum of money.

In the standard Forex account, a broker may allow a leverage of 100-1 with a deposit amount of $ 10,000 and can trade up to $ 1,000,000. In terms of losses, a 10 pip loss on a standard trade of $ 100,000 would mean a loss of $ 100, whereas in a mini Forex account would mean a $ 10,000 equals $ 10 only.

Free demo platforms are now being offered online by Forex brokers to let you practice and get familiar with an online Forex trading account for lesser manageable amounts. Beginners will then have the chance and confidence to practice efficiently their trading skills and strategies without having to worry about their losses or balances, and worry about a margin call.

Take note that almost 90% of people who trade in Forex end up losing their investments – and these are just the beginners. With too many people who are unfamiliar with what Forex currency really is all about quickly get disappointed, frustrated, and angry when rushing in blindly, hoping to gain a quick and easy profit.

A mini Forex trading account offers a alternative to small scale investors to get a chance to do actual trading without exposing a huge monetary amount.

Forex Trading Tips

Total Trader — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:07:34 +0000

Tip 1. Gamblers go to casino. All unproved, spontaneous actions in Forex trading — are a part of pure gambling. Any attempt to trade without analysis and studying the market is equal to a game. Game is fun except when you are losing real money

Tip 2. Never invest money into a real Forex account until you practice on a Forex Demo account!Allow at least 1 month for demo trading. Consider this: 90% of beginners fail to succeed in the real money market only because of lack of knowledge, practice and discipline. Those remaining 10% of successful traders had been sharpening and shaping their skills for years before entering the real market.

Tip 3. Go with the trend!Trend is your friend. Trade with the trend to maximize your chances to succeed. Trading against the trend won’t “kill” a trader, but will definitely require more attention, nerves and sharp skills to rich trading goals.

Tip 4. Always take a look at the time frame bigger than the one you’ve chosen to trade in. It gives the bigger picture of market price movements and so helps to clearly define the trend. For example, when trading in 15 minute time frame, take a look at 1 hour chart; trading hourly would require obtaining a picture of daily, weekly price movements. If a trend is hard to spot — choose a bigger time frame. Up and down market patterns are always present. Always make sure you know the dominant trend, unless you are a scalper. Scalpers have no need to spend their time studying big trends, what’s happening in the market here and now (during 5-10 minute time frame) should be of only importance to a Forex scalper.

Tip 5. Never risk more than 2-3% of the total trading account.

One important difference between a successful and an unsuccessful trader is that the first is able to survive under unfavourable conditions on the market, while an unsuccessful trader will blow up his account after 5-10 unprofitable trades in the row.Even with the same trading system 2 traders can get opposite results in the long run. The difference will be again in the money management approach. To introduce you to money management, let’s get one fact: losing 50% of total account requires making 100% return from the rest of money just to restore the original balance.

Tip 6. Put emotions down, trade calm. Don’t try to revenge after losing the trade. Don’t be greedy by adding lots of positions when winning.

Overreaction blocks clear thinking and as a result will cost you money. Overtrading can shake your money management and dramatically increase trading risks.

Tip 7. Choose the time frame that is right for you. Choosing wise means that you are comfortable and have time enough to analyse the market, place and close orders etc. Some people can’t wait for hours for the price to make a move; they like action and therefore prefer smaller time frames. On the contrary, for others 10-15 minutes is a hustle to be able to make the right decision.

Tip 8. Not trading or standing aside is a position. When in doubt — stay out. If it is not clear where the market will move — don’t trade. In this case saving present capital is and absolutely better choice than risking and losing money.

Tip 9. Learn to use protective stops. Respect them and don’t move.

Hoping that market will turn in your direction is a very delusive hope. By moving a stop loss further a trader increases his chances to end up with much bigger loss. When holding to a losing trade too long, and even if funds permit, traders as a rule are very reluctant to accept big losses, thus often continue “hoping for best”. In the mean time invested money is stuck in the open trade for unknown period of time (weeks and even months) and cannot be used for opening new positions. Not working money — dead money. Also this will result in constant interest payments for holding open positions.

Tip 10. “Keep it simple, stupid” — applies to indicators, signals and trading strategies. Too much information will create a controversial picture of when to trade and when not to. To avoid lots of confusion create a simple but working method of trading Forex.

Tip 11. Think about risk/reward ratio before entering each trade.

How much money can you lose in this trade? How much can you gain? Now, make a decision if the trade is worth entering. Example: if trader is looking for possible 35 pips gain and possible 25 pips of loss, such conditions are not worth trading. Compare it with the situation when a trader has 100-120 pips of potential gain and only 10-20 pips of possible loss. This is the trade to open!

Tip 12. Never add positions to a losing trade. Do add positions when the trade has proven to be profitable. Don’t allow a couple of losing trades in a row become a snowball of losing trades. When it is obviously not a good day, turn the monitor off. Often not trading for one day can help to break a chain of consecutive losses. Trying to get revenge can often make things worse.

Tip 13. Let your profits run. Let your position be open for as long as the market wishes to reward you. Of course, for this traders need a good exit strategy, otherwise they risk to give all profits back… Running two or more open trades gives an option to close some positions earlier and keep others running for higher profits.

Tip 14. Cut your losses short. It’s better to finish unprofitable trade quickly than wait for the situation to get worse. Don’t put a stop loss too far — it’s your money you risk. Better calculate the best spot to enter when a potential loss would be minimized. Again: respect your stop and don’t move it “cherishing hopes”.

Tip 15. Trade currency pairs in respect to their active market hours.

Learn about overlapping market hours: when two markets are open and highest volume of trades is conducted.For example, Australian and Japanese trading sessions are overlapped from 8pm to 1 am EST. At that time trader can successfully trade AUD/JPY currency pair.

Tip 16. Choose the right day to trade. This recomendation is often wrongly taken as an optional thing, because everyone knows that Forex market is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Yet, choosing the time to trade can make a difference between successful and hopeless trading. It’s proved and highly recommended not to trade on Mondays, when the market has recently awaken and is making first “probation steps” to form a new or confirm a current trend; and on Fridays afternoon, during the huge volume of closing trades. The best days to trade are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Tip 17. Learn about Fibonacci levels and how to use them for trading.

Fibonacci can be very helpful in trading, even partially using the study, for example, to determine the best exit, can bring traders to a new edge of trading.

Tip 18. Always ensure that a signalling bar/candle on the chart is fully formed and closed before you enter a trade.

A golden rule of trading: “Always trade what you see, not what you would like to see” is the best explanation here.

Tip 19. If you ask for someone else’s advice as about how and when to trade

in other words, choose to rely on live trading signals from other traders, make sure you do it for your benefit, not for disaster. If you use such signals to discover how other traders do analysis and study on the price — you are on the right track and soon you’ll be able to do analysis yourself.

But if you’re just blindly following recommendations and your only task is to push the correct button… think again.

Tip 20. Using a highly leveraged account comes at a cost. It will, of course, give a trader more financial gear to trade, but for inexperienced traders high leverage, and, in fact, any Forex leverage can be disastrous. When a trader signs up for a high leverage without knowing how to accurately use it to own advantage, he simply signs up for additional risks that multiply with higher leverage in a tight “friendly” proportion.

Tip 21. Learn to measure trading success by the end of the day, week and then month and year. Do not judge about your trading success on a single trade. To be successful traders don’t need to win every trade, they also don’t become rich in one trade — they need to be profitable in a long run.

Tip 22. There is no such thing as a secret approach to understanding the market. Take the time to develop a solid trading system and find out that the secret to trading success lies in hard work and constant learning.

The 8 Economic Factors That Affect The Forex Market

Total Trader — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 03:43:40 +0000

Where economic theory will affect the Forex market on a long-term basis, the affect of changes in economic data is much more immediate. Oftentimes, the biggest companies in the exchange market are the various countries that participate in market activities and there currency is likened to shares in that country. It follows then that the country’s economic data is analogous to the earnings data of a company or business entity.

News and information regarding a country’s economy can have a direct impact on the direction that the country’s currency is heading in much the same way that current events and financial news affect stock prices, hence the importance of economic factors. The following eight economic factors will directly affect a currency’s movements in the Forex market.

Factor 1 – Employment Data

Non-farm payrolls is the name given to the data that pertains to the number of people who are employed within the US economy, and it is released the first Friday of every month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Strong decreases in employment indicate a contracting economy, while strong increases are perceived indicators of a prosperous economy.

Factor 2 – Interest Rates

This is always a major focus in the Forex market. Since the central banks mandate monetary policy and supply, they are the prime focus of investors and the various market participants.

Factor 3 – Inflation

This is the measure of increases or decreases in pricing levels over a period of time. Due to the immense number of goods and services available in a country, usually a grouping of these goods and services are used to measure changes in the pricing. Increases in pricing indicate an increase in the inflation rate which in turn can devalue that country’s currency.

Factor 4 – Gross Domestic Product

This is the measurement for goods and services that were finished over a period of time. The GDP is broken down into 4 categories:

1. business spending

2. government spending

3. private consumption

4. total net exports

Factor 5 – Retail Sales

The measurement of sales recorded by retailers over a period of time is a reflection of either increased or decreased consumer spending, depending on whether sales are up or down for the comparative period a year ago. This indicator gives market participants an idea as to how strong or weak the economy is.

Factor 6 – Durable Goods

Goods that have a lifespan of three or more years are considered durable goods and they are measured in quantities that are ordered, shipped, or unfilled over a period of time. These are also an indicator of economic spending or the lack of it.

Factor 7 – Trade and Capital Flows

Currency values can be significantly impacted by monetary flows that result from certain interactions between countries. When imports exceed exports, there is a tendency for the currency value to decline. Increased investments in a country can lead to the opposite result.

Factor 8 – Macroeconomic and Geopolitical Events

Elections, financial crises, monetary policy changes, and wars can influence the biggest changes in the Forex market. These events can either change and/or lead to reshaping of a country’s economy

Top 10 Currencies Traded On The Forex Market

Total Trader — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:47:56 +0000

The FX market, also known as the foreign exchange market, is a way for companies, banks, and individuals to trade currencies to try to gain on their initial investments. The Forex market is different and unique; the three markets (US, Europe, Asia) have at least one running at all times during the weekdays; this makes this a 24 hour a week-day market, working constantly on the week days to make sure currencies can be traded.

All currencies have the opportunity to be traded, but there are obviously major players that are traded the most on the FX market. There are 10 players on the market that find themselves a part of a majority of the trades that happen on the Forex market.

The Norwegian Krone, the Hong Kong Dollar, and the Swedish Krona

The Norwegian Krone is the number 10 most traded currency in the Forex market, as it is a part of nearly 1.5 percent of the daily transactions that happen. The Hong Kong dollar is the number 9 most traded currency as far as the forex market is concerned. Hong Kongs Dollar is a part of nearly 2 percent of the daily transactions. The Swedish Krona is a part of over 2 percent of the daily trades on the forex market.

The Canadian Dollar, the Australian Dollar, and the Swiss Franc

The Canadian Dollar finds itself at number 7 on the forex most traded list with over 4percent of the daily transaction on the forex market. The Australian Dollar finds itself with over 5 percent of the daily forex transactions and at number 6 on the list, and the Swiss Franc finds itself at number 5 with over 6 percent of the daily transactions.

The British Pound and the Japanese Yen

The British Pound, often compared to the US dollar, finds itself at number four on the forex most traded list by being apart of nearly 17 percent of the daily transactions. The Japanese Yen comes in at number 3. The Yen is featured in slightly over 20 percent of the daily transactions on the forex market.

The Euro and the United States Dollar

The Euro is an interesting currency, as it is the currency for multiple countries. This includes countries like Germany. Germany has the bank that does the most trading in the forex market. The Euro is the number two most traded currency on the forex market, as it is a part of nearly 37 percent of the daily transactions. The United States Dollar is easily the most powerful currency on the market, as it is a part of nearly 90 percent of the transactions that occur daily. As the number one most traded currency, it has 5 of the top 10 most active traders on the forex market.

The 8 Economic Factors That Affect The Forex Market

Total Trader — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 01:41:59 +0000

Factor 1 – Employment Data

Factor 2 – Interest Rates

This is always a major focus in the Forex market. Since the central banks mandate monetary policy and supply, they are the prime focus of investors and the various market participants.

Factor 3 – Inflation

Factor 4 – Gross Domestic Product

This is the measurement for goods and services that were finished over a period of time. The GDP is broken down into 4 categories:

1. business spending

2. government spending

3. private consumption

4. total net exports

Factor 5 – Retail Sales

Factor 6 – Durable Goods

Factor 7 – Trade and Capital Flows

Factor 8 – Macroeconomic and Geopolitical Events

Elections, financial crises, monetary policy changes, and wars can influence the biggest changes in the Forex market. These events can either change and/or lead to reshaping of a country’s economy

Forex Trading Tips – Top 3 Money Management Rules to Succeed in Forex Trading

Total Trader — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 02:20:29 +0000

Most of the people whom I have met are only interested in searching for a great FX trading system but neglected on the money management part. You could find yourself in dead end if there is a lack of discipline in following the money management rules even if you know how to trade FX successfully.

Money management is what full time and professional Forex traders seen as one of the most important factor to succeed in Forex trading.

Below are the 3 proven techniques that FX trading experts ALWAYS practice:

1. Only Risk Maximum Of 5% of capital Per Trade

Capital Preservations are very important; it can determine whether you are able to survive in the long run in the Forex market. The reason for risking only maximum of 5% is that you still have ample capital to trade even if you loose a few trades. I risk only 1% of my capital per trade.

Never put all the eggs in one basket. Although you might have Forex trading signals which gives you good probability trades, but this #1 rule should form a general part of your trading system, so that you don’t risk too much on a trade.

2. Have a Healthy Risk to Reward Ratio

A lot of Forex traders only care about making profits in the market. Some don’t mind making small profits although their risk for that particular trade is higher. This is a huge mistake. Never risk more than what you can potentially make. For example, you should have a reward of at least 60 pips when you risk 30 pips, this is a healthy risk to reward ratio of 1:2.

This rule ensures you to be profitable, winning more than you loose. So let’s say out of 5 trades, if you loose 3, which is total of 90 pips (30 pips lost per trade), you win the other 2 trades (60 pips per trade), you will still make 30 pips net(120 pips – 90 pips).

3. Do Not Open Multiple Positions Until First Trade Is In Profits

You may be confident that the first Forex trade that you opened will be profitable, but do not open a second position until you see the profits from the first trade. This helps you to keep calm if the first position is in loss, and you don’t have another burden from the second trade.

Those above may seem simple but actually require much discipline in real fact. That is what makes the difference between professional traders and retail traders, you need the right Forex education.

Forex Option Trading to Diversify Your Forex Trading

Total Trader — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:23:08 +0000

Forex option trading is often used by large financial institutions for their hedging strategy implementation, as well as it is used by a large number of day traders as a speculative instrument. Forex options are a specific type of a trading instrument, which has its upsides and downsides. One of the special features of Forex option trading is that it’s extremely liquid. Forex option buyer is called a holder, while Forex option seller is called the granter.

FX options give’s the owner the right (not obligation) to exchange a particular amount of one currency into another currency on a particular date and at a pre-agreed rate. Forex option trading is known for incurring only a limited liability. The buyer only has one obligation – to pay a premium to the seller prior to the purchasing of the foreign currency option. The seller can either buy the contract back before it expires, or to hold the contract until its expiration.

FX option trading requires buying at a fixed price, in a fixed amount as well as at a fixed expiration date. All of this unties you from the dangerous market fluctuations.

Forex options may be exercised or not exercised. Actually, most often options in Forex option trading are not exercised by the buyer, and are offset before their expiration date. In case the option does get exercised, the option holder is assigned a spot position. An option may also expire and become worthless, if by the time of its expiration the strike price is out-of-the-money.

Call options give the owners the right to buy the currency. Put options give the owners the right to sell the currency. Both call and put Forex option prices are predominantly influenced by volatility. Increasing volatility results in both call and put options to grow in price. There are two types of put and call option contracts in Forex option trading. Common (plain) options are called “plain vanilla” options and customized ones are called “exotic” options.

Are there any ways to make your Forex option trading less risky? Yes, for that try to follow the below general guidelines:

1. Do not place a large chunk of your total capital into Forex option trading.

2. Use only the proven signals with your Forex option trading.

3. Try your Forex option trading first on a demo account, in order to gain a valuable practical experience without risking any money.

Forex option trading is an additional Forex trading strategy. In order to become better diversified, you may wish to learn more about Forex option trading in addition to regular Forex trading.

Source: Steve Maenshel

Quick Start Tips For Beginners in Forex Trading

Total Trader — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:08:03 +0000

Don’t let the size and complexity of the Forex market keep you from taking your piece of the pie. Trading FX can be done if you use the right tools and do the right research. Just like the stock market, you make money off of the ups and downs of the market. The Forex market is open 24/5 which means no matter where you are you can trade Forex.

Several years ago Forex trading was not available to individuals. If you were not a broker for a large financial institution, a bank, or a large corporation you were not allowed in this fast paced, liquid market. The financial requirements were large and very strict to be able to trade currency with the big traders. That has all changed over the last few years and now you can become part of the largest financial market in the world with very little start up capital.

The opportunity to earn large profits has made Forex trading hugely popular. But with large gains there also comes large risks. You must understand even seasoned traders lose money trading Forex.. There is a lot of information available online to help educate you on Forex trading. You can also open a demo account to practice on before you actually start trading real money, as well as mini accounts that start you out small and work your way up to full contracts.

Trading demo accounts will teach you many things about trading Forex but many experts say the best lessons come in actually trading on the market. Learning the language and studying the charts.

Here are three simple things you need to start trading the Forex market:

1. Home office set up with a computer that has high speed internet

2. A funded Forex account

3. A good Forex trading system

Along with these three basic things you need to trade, you should also remember to get a basic understanding of charts. Charts will help you understand what is going on with currencies around the world and will help you plan your trading strategy. Learning to trade Forex can lead to large profits but remember it does not come without risks. Prepare yourself with a good investment plan, a trading system, and begin with one of the free demo accounts offered by a Forex brokers. You can be, working from home, trading Forex and being part of the largest financial market in the world.

Source:Henri Ritand

7 Reasons Why Forex Is A Superior Trading Arena For Individuals

Total Trader — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:25:52 +0000

Over the last decade or so, the Foreign Currency Exchange markets and trading platforms have become a superior arena for active individual investors. Trading world currencies for the difference in exchange rates can be a lucrative hobby and a very satisfying lifestyle. Following are some points to ponder when comparing the Forex market with stocks, bonds, commodities and mutual funds.

1. Liquidity

An average day in the Forex market sees approximately 1.9 trillion US dollars worth of trade. Almost every country in the world has institutional and individual traders who are active and have a personal interest in this largest of commodities. Over 7000 international banks and small and large speculators make up the largest market in the world.

2. Leverage

Leverage is the use of a tool to influence the directional trend of a mass that would otherwise be much more difficult to control, if not impossible. Previously only master traders with a $100 million account had access to the inter-bank currency exchange.

With the recent enormous international growth this market is now open to the home computer. Individual traders now have the same leverage guarantees that international banks have had for years. A small amount of money can be used to control a very large contract of foreign currency. Up to 100:1 leverage is available, and higher in some cases. This means $1000 can be used to hold $100,000 worth of another currency, I never advise to ever use the total leverage available.

3. Brokers

As a trader gains experience, a full service paid broker is no longer necessary. All trades can be initiated and terminated from the trader’s choice of office. The home office needs high speed internet, a telephone line, and a computer. Location is only limited to these requirements. The Forex market is operated online by several hundred large banks processing trades of governments and large companies, and has no real central location.

4. Software

A number of free software applications are offered by brokerage houses specifically written for the average home computer. The greater power the computer has will naturally offer more local speed, but most current computers will work fine. These programs offer real-time charting, several dozen indicators, live price feed and the capability to sell and buy currency pairs immediately online.

Software programs costing $2000 and up are available with advanced features, but are not necessary for the beginning trader. More complicated software may only increase the education period, and hinder time better spent learning trading strategies.

5. Hours of Trading

The Forex market is truly global, trading 24 hours a day every day. Short periods during the weekend have slower activity, but with time differences around the world, these periods are minimal. Someone is actively trading somewhere virtually round the clock.

6. Live Practice

Most brokers offer a free demo version of their live software, easily downloaded and installed. No account deposit is needed. The programs work exactly like the real versions, with buy/sell capability, real-time data updates; a realistic $100,000 account with active profit and loss; open, pending and closed trades; and actual stop, limit and market trades.

The trader can practice trading tactics until confident and successful.

7. Initial Investment

Recent developments now allow a minimum account deposit of $1500. This mini-account offers lower leverage.

Brokers naturally offer conservative training courses, so the trader should look elsewhere for more advanced mentoring. A lot of training is available on the internet, and websites offers access to cutting-edge successful strategies developed by a mathematician. Not all successful strategies are made public. Do your due diligence to find the methods that work for you.

Source: Kelly Archibald.

The Forex Market and Its Success Potential

Total Trader — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:52:17 +0000

The Forex market (or Foreign Exchange market) has become one of the most lucrative forms of trading in history. Until recently, this market was limited to government banks and lending institutions. Today, any investor can take advantage of this profitable market easily.

In this unique market, currency is bought and sold based on the fluctuation of exchange rates. You’re actually buying one type of currency with another type of currency and profiting from the difference if you buy and sell at the right time.

For instance, someone who buys Euro dollars with U.S. dollars will profit if U.S. dollars are worth even more at the time of selling (exchanging Euros back into U.S. dollars). It works similar to other stock market ventures except the broker makes money from the difference in the buy/sell amounts for the two countries.

There are three factors that can affect the value of currency and the exchange rate between two countries. Interest rates can change on a daily basis depending on the country’s currency value. These interest rates affect the lending rates used to buy foreign currency when borrowing to do so.

The unemployment rate also affects a nation’s currency value. The economy is usually very weak at times of high unemployment, thus causing the value of the currency to decrease. A third factor is when major political events take place in a country such as elections, national disasters, wars, etc.

These three factors alone can cause the exchange rates among countries to fluctuate tremendously, and they are worth watching if you’re planning to invest in the Forex market.

The Forex market offers plenty of earning potential once you understand how it works. One reason this market is so lucrative is because you are able to trade any time of the day. It’s not limited by corporate schedules or anything else.

Another reason you can profit is because brokers will lend you the money to get started – up to 100 times of your cash on hand! So, you’ll have tremendous trading power right from the start, I do not advise to use anywhere near the full amount.

Forex For Absolute Dummies

Total Trader — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:11:51 +0000

Forex refers to the foreign currency exchange market, the world’s largest financial trading market.

Bid – to buy

Ask – to sell

Liquidity – financial ease of transaction, i.e. cash

Trading volume – the amount traded

Bid/ask spread – the difference between the proposed buying price and the actual selling price

OTC – over the counter

Exchange rate – the difference between currency values; for instance, a Canadian dollar is valued at .86 of a US dollar

Hedge funds – large mutual funds companies that control vast amounts of money and are able to manipulate the value of a currency through speculation

Central bank – the national bank of a nation, which usually exerts control over the value of that currency

Forex trading is the investment in the currency of one nation. Multinational Corporations doing business across national boundaries find value in keeping their cash reserves in a variety of countries, and holding their funds in a myriad of ways. Individual investors over the decades have discovered that there is profit to be made in investment and speculation in the currency markets.

Surprisingly, the Forex market itself is not unified. One can find many small Forex markets specializing in trading various currencies. The most commonly traded currencies in Forex speculation are the US dollar, the Australian dollar, the British pound sterling, the Japanese yen, and the European Euro..

The major cities in which trades occur include New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney. It’s a 24 hour process. When Asian trading ends, European trading commences, and when European trading ends, then American trading opens. Naturally, when American trading ends, it is time for Asian trading to open house once more… and so on.

Currently, the most actively traded currency is the US dollar, involved in 90% of all trades. This is followed by the Euro involved in 36% of all trades, then by the yen in 20% and the pound in 17%.

Our fastest rising currency in trade is the Euro, however the US dollar is still the favoured anchor point– and the currency watched so as to judge how others will react. Differences in value of currencies come from the current events. GDP growth, inflation dips, interest rate swings, budget and trade deficits, surpluses and other economic conditions all shift currency values. Investors, for this reason, follow the news very closely. There are 24 hour cable news channels and many web sites devoted to news that aid currency speculators.

The Forex market is highly susceptible to rumours. In fact the central banks of countries frequently manipulated local currency value by sowing rumours about interest rate hikes and other economic propaganda that impacts the value of the domestic currency. When this news is false it is called a dirty float- and it dismays the market.

Forex Trading Online

Total Trader — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 02:54:59 +0000

The internet is indeed a gift of today’s advanced technology. It has changed the communication industry and now it is being used for different kinds of tasks. It seems that everything is possible through the internet. Before, the only way to trade in the Forex market is to be there physically. But now, you can trade even in your own home or in the office as long as there is an internet connection.

If you think that only the intelligent individuals are involved Forex trading, you’re wrong because at present, average individuals can already trade in the market, provided they have adequate capital. The behaviour of different currencies in the Forex market can be compared to the movements of regular stock. The economies of most countries around the globe are fluctuating. Some currencies are highly priced but there are also currencies which have very low values. The Forex market is alive twenty four hours each day and so you can do your transactions at any time of the day and night. If you have an internet connection at home, you can monitor the Forex market trends and other vital info.

Forex trading also have mechanics. For you to understand the trade’s mechanics, you will need some helpful tools. Before you invest in the Forex market, you have to ensure that you’ve already developed the right trading skills to prevent loses as much as possible.

There are some Forex firms that help new traders in becoming more skilled in Forex trading by giving free demos, guidance, and helpful Forex news. You can even start investing in the Forex market with only $1000. Starters often feel uncomfortable but as days and months pass, you can get the hang of it. With the aid of the internet, it’s much easier to learn about the current Forex market trends. You can also rely on a good Forex broker especially if you’re new in Forex trading. Brokers can help you in developing trading strategies or in finding efficient trading systems. Aside from that, a good broker can also help you with fundamental and technical analysis of relevant data.

You too can earn promising rewards if you’re willing to assume some risks in Forex trading. However, it is vital that you minimize such risks so as not to lose your investment. Make use of all the possible online tools so that you can make educated Forex decisions.

What are your needs? You must be able to identify your needs so that you can choose a good trading system or perhaps a reliable broker. Take your time when researching about the latest trading systems offered in the market. Don’t forget to check the background of the broker as well.

Forex trading online can be easily carried out and you can expect a higher success rate once you properly use the tools. As a trader, you need to be disciplined and you must be very careful with all your trading decisions; being hasty will not get you anywhere

Forex Trading Is For Everyone

Total Trader — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:31:37 +0000

Forex trading is done on a much Larger scale than any other kind of market in the world. Over two trillion dollars is traded every single day. About seventy five percent of all Forex trading is done by ten international Banks with names you’re familiar with: Merrill Lynch, and others. National Banks and other financial institutions account for another huge amount of the FX Markets. Forex trading by individuals, people like you and me only accounts for about two percent of all trading.

There are many people who have an interest in trading FX. This is understandable because there is a lot of money to be made and there are many successful traders out there. There are people who want to treat trading as a full time occupation and other people who want to do it part time. The amount of time that you want to put into Forex trading is your choice.

The rise of online FX trading has seen the amount of capital required to open a trading account come down to a level where anyone can start. However the fact is that the majority of all traders lose money at some stage. What is the answer if you want to be successful in Forex trading? Quite simple, make sure that you go through the right process and develop or choose the right system.

A friend once said to me many years ago that investing in Forex wasn’t easy but it was simple and this is very true. It is simple because anyone can learn to trade with the right commitment and education and also be very successful. But it’s obviously not easy because over 90% of traders fail. The good news though is that you can be successful if you understand the right way of trading Forex.

Keeping it simple is the key and the most important point to remember. Not only can you learn an effective trading method but you can do so very quickly. Those traders who try and be clever by designing and using complicated and difficult systems, very often lose money. Why is this? The answer is that complicated and difficult trading systems have too many parts to them and therefore too many opportunities to brake down. A very important point to also remember is that the success in Forex trading is due to effective money management and the ability of the trader to keep losses small.

It goes without saying that it is essential that you know what you are doing when entering the Forex market. There are a number of options for those who want to increase their knowledge about this market. Some of these options are testing the systems that you will be using, tutorials, trading strategies and knowing the terminology.

Most traders fail because they can’t take a losing trade and are psychologically unprepared for the fact that losses are always going to happen. Even the best traders will lose at some time in their trading career. But, instead of getting angry, frustrated and giving up they learn from these setbacks, accept the losses and most importantly, keep these losses small and under control. Keep your equity intact in the losing periods so that when profits come in, you use them to cover the losses that have been incurred.

I know of many traders who lose the majority of their trades and this percentage loss can be as high as 80%. However when they do win, their gains can be very high because they invest their profits and these profits are very large compared to their losses. When you have learnt an effective trading method, all you need to do in order to be successful is to trade with discipline and confidence. Look at losing in the short term as the key to winning in the long term. Make sure that you get a very good Forex education and learn to trade effectively. If you do all this it will not be long before you are making large profits.

The most important fact that differentiates the winners from the losers in the Forex market is quite simple. It is the discipline and ability to trade a winning system and keep the losses low. Traders fail to win because as soon as they start to lose they make the very big and damaging mistake of either changing their system, letting their losses get too big, start revenge trading or simply give up trading.

Learning and using a logical and simple system is the easy part. Developing the right mindset to trade it with discipline is the hard part. If you don’t have the discipline to follow your trading system, you don’t have a system. It is as simple as that.

In short, Forex trading can be very lucrative, but only if you know what you’re doing. Before starting on any investing, study the details of how the market works, what causes the fluctuations in the market, how to interpret the financial indicators, and all the other ins and outs of the market. Forex trading is a serious venture. There is much potential for profit, but there is even great potential for loss, due to inexperience and lack of knowledge.

Adding Leverage To Your Forex Trading

Total Trader — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:53:36 +0000

In the foreign exchange markets, it is common to find leverage of 100:1 or even more. However, just because the market maker or broker may offer you leverage as high as 100:1, it doesn’t mean you have to use all the leverage available. In fact, if you are a savvy trader, you will only use high leverage when you can calculate and manage the risks associated with the high leverage to your advantage. We’ll show you how this is profitable without being problematic.

Margin and Leverage Basics

Using money borrowed from a broker/dealer to purchase securities or foreign exchange is known as “buying on margin”. A trader will usually place a certain amount of money in his or her brokerage account and the broker will use that money as a deposit to allow the trader to buy securities or foreign exchange contracts valued at a multiple compared to the deposited amount.

Leverage is the use of other people’s money to buy or sell contracts or securities. If a broker offers a 20:1 leverage, it means he is willing to allow the trader to borrow 20-times the amount of money in the account to make a trade. So, if a contract is worth $10,000 and the broker is offering 20:1 leverage, a trader will only need to have $500 in his or her account to purchase the contract worth $10,000. If the value of the contract goes to $11,000, the trader will make a profit of a $1,000. This would represent a return of 10% on the contract purchase price, but a return of 200% on equity.

The extreme amounts of leverage that are common in the forex markets occur because the forex is the largest and most liquid market in the world, making it very easy to get into and out of a position. This allows a trader to control, with a certain certainty, how much he or she is willing to lose on a trade. Because it is possible to exit a position quickly and efficiently, forex brokers allow their clients to benefit from high leverage.

Forex vs. Stocks and Futures Markets

Leverage in the forex markets is much higher than in most other markets. For example, if you trade equities, you will be able to borrow twice the amount of money you have in your account. In the case of futures, you may be able to borrow 20-times the amount of funds you have in your account. In the forex markets, because the leverage is so high, the broker or market maker will require you to sign an agreement specifying how a losing position will be dealt with. Because a highly leveraged account poses a greater risk for both the market maker and the trader, there is usually a mechanism in the agreement that will allow the market maker to automatically liquidate a trader’s position if it loses 75% of the margin or deposit. To safeguard the broker/market maker and to ensure that the trader does not have to add extra funds to the account, the losing position will be automatically closed at a certain point in time if the losses on that position threaten to be more than the amount of money available in the trading account.

Traders should read the agreements they have with their market makers very carefully in order to understand how a losing leveraged position will be addressed.

Should a Trader Use All the Margin Available?

Generally, a trader should not use all of his or her available margin. A trader should only use leverage when the advantage is clearly on his or her side. For, example, a trader should plan a trade and know exactly where to exit the trade if the market moves in the desired direction. Once the amount of risk in terms of the number of pips is known, it is possible to determine how much money will be lost if the trader’s stop-loss is hit. As a general rule, this loss should never be more than 3% of trading capital. If a position is leveraged too much, so that the potential loss could be, say, 30% of trading capital, then the leverage should be reduced until the potential loss is no greater than 3%. Each trader will have his or her own risk parameters and may want to deviate either more or less than the general guideline of 3%.

Another thing for the trader to note is that the larger the amount of money one has for trading, the easier is it to use leverage safely. Because a leveraged position can lose money just as quickly as it can make money, a trader should have enough funds to act as a cushion against any drawdown or adverse moves without the risk of being automatically liquidated and losing the bulk of his or her trading capital.

The specific risk of leverage is the fact that traders use borrowed money to buy or sell a contract. Unless the market is making a favourable move, losses will be magnified by the amount of leverage employed.

How Should a Trader Calculate How Much Margin to Use?

Suppose that you have $10,000 in your trading account and you decide to trade 10 mini USD/JPY lots. Each move of one pip in a mini account is worth approximately $1, but when trading 10 minis, each pip move is worth approximately $10. If you are trading 100 minis, then each pip move is worth about $100. Thus, a stop-loss of 30 pips could represent a potential loss of $30 for a single mini lot, $300 for 10 mini lots and $3,000 for 100 mini lots. Therefore, with a $10,000 account and a 3% maximum risk per trade, you should leverage only up to 30 mini lots, even though you may have the ability to buy or sell more than that.

Conclusion

Trading in the forex markets offers many potentially profitable opportunities. Using leverage can magnify these opportunities to a very large degree. Using leverage requires a complete understanding of risk management and the use of properly defined stop-loss orders in the market. It also requires that traders be disciplined enough to follow the rules necessary for taking advantage of leveraged markets. Leveraged positions can be a trader’s best friend or his or her worst enemy – it all depends on mindset and trading habits. Good traders are disciplined and adhere to their risk management rules.

Source: Selwyn Gishen

Six Trading Tips for the Forex beginners

Total Trader — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:25:38 +0000

For those of you who are new to the forex market, or even for those of you who are considering becoming a forex market trader, this article is for you. Welcome to forex 101, where you will learn exactly who forex is and what it does. Also for the forex newbie’s, you will find a list of six trading tips that will help you in your transactions.

For those of you who are new to the forex trading market, first you will need to know the meaning of the term “forex” which stands for Foreign Exchange market. This pertains to the international foreign currency exchange market where currencies of all kinds are bought and sold. The forex market got its start back in the early 1970’s when floating currencies and free exchange rates were first introduced. At this time, the forex market traders were the only players on the market to decide upon the value of one type of currency against another, all solely based upon a particular currency’s supply and demand.

The forex market is very unique for a number of reasons. First of all, this is one of the few markets that require very little trading qualifications and is free from any external control and can not be manipulated in any way. 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. To open a forex account, all you have to do is simply fill out an application and provide all the necessary identification. The application will include a margin agreement will state if the broker will be allowed to intervene with any trade when it appears too risky. This agreement is made to protect the interests of the broker because most trades are done by using the broker’s money. However, once you have established an account, you can fund it and begin trading in the forex market.

2. In order to become a successful trader, you will need to adapt your own trading strategy. There is no one strategy that will work for all the traders, each individual trader will need to develop their own approach to the market. While some traders may relay solely on technical analysis, others may prefer a more fundamental approach, while the more successful traders use a combination of both. Each individual trader will need to learn the best approach for them selves in order to gain a more comprehensive overview of the forex market in order to prepare for any entry and exit points.

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. Before you take any position, look over the top five currencies to make sure you’re not missing something. The top five foreign in forex are: USD/Yen, Swiss franc/USD, Euro/Yen, Euro/USD and Pound/USD.

5. For newbie’s, it would be safest to have two accounts because you learn as you 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.

Source: Mike Sanders

Wise Forex Investment Through Forex Education

Total Trader — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:26:31 +0000

With all the investment services being offered in the Internet today, just thinking about all of it will really give you a big headache. Investments like stocks, securities, real estate, bonds, shares, equities, mutual funds, and commodities investments are all good ones to consider, but one of the better investment opportunities that you should be looking into is online Forex currency investing.

You need to start out in the right direction with having a proper education and the correct Forex training to strengthen your confidence and knowledge in currency trading matters.

The Forex market is the largest and most liquid of all existing markets of today, and is one that operates in all major countries in the world. It’s one of the largest sources of income, savings, and investment opportunities open to anyone thanks to the Internet. For decades it has been restricted and primarily dominated by large companies and financial institutions.

Diving in head first into this huge and diverse market, you might want to consider making a bee line for the most appropriate Forex training programs that are available in the Internet. Going ahead in any business without proper knowledge of its basic operating functions is a recipe for a disaster waiting to happen. You can get all the proper training you’ll ever want and need in the form of online classes and tutorials.

One of the best trainings you can avail online is a Forex demo account where you get to play with “fake money” to practice with prior to doing the real deal; it will let you get a feel how it’s like doing currency trading, and you can gauge your performance with the trading system you’re using without actually losing your money in the process. With being properly trained in Forex trading, you’ll be able to adjust to the varying changes of the market – which will be in constant states of fluctuation most of the time.

The really great thing about online Forex currency trading is that it allows you to trade whenever you wish to do so, as it operates in a 24 hour basis, and in 5 days a week you’ll never run out of trades to invest in. Just keep in mind to keep learning as you go along with your day to day trading, and to keep reading all the material you can get about Forex currency trading. With a positive attitude, and self-determination, you’ll go a long way in this industry.

Source: Bart Icles

Fx Trading Secrets: No Magic, Follow The Basics

Total Trader — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:53:38 +0000

Why there are hundreds of people trading forex market daily. How they are making money out of it? This particular article tells you the essential tricks for making money in forex market. But trader must keep in mind those whole essential criteria for the profitable trade is consistency when it comes to decision making.

1. Trades Consist of Two Currencies, Not One – You should never undertake a forex trade without considerable knowledge of the both currencies involved. Take the time to research any currencies you are considering prior to pulling the trigger on your trade.

2. Do Your Homework! (FX Trading History) – Before you begin trading, make sure to learn the basics of the forex market. Forex trading is heavily affected by global news, both real and perceived. Knowing how to discern between the two only reinforces your success.

3. Trading for small profits, 10 pips or less: Many a times new traders place very tight orders in order to take small profits. This is not a good approach as one may get profits in the short term but he is surely risking his earning for the long term. Because with tight trades it is not possible for you to recover the difference between the bid and ask price.

4. Plan your strategy: Planning one’s strategy is one of the important aspects of FX trading secrets. One needs to follow whichever strategy he decides. There is hundreds of different profit making strategies so one must choose any one of them whichever suits to your nature and try to stick to it.

5. Business, Never Personal! (Stay Level Headed) – Forex trading, as with most business ventures, is a rational endeavour. If you are experiencing outside stresses or pressures unrelated to forex trading, you should consider taking that day off. Your pockets will thank you.

6.Read Your Technical Analysis – A well prepared analysis can contain key information on when to buy and sell the market. You can determine whether the market is long, short or over extended by paying attention to a technical analysis. Keep abreast of them.

7. Believe in Yourself! (Confidence) – Forex trading is not a “get rich quick” scheme. It takes studying, planning, and most importantly, confidence. When your software says you are up, but your bank account says otherwise, its easy to get discouraged. Make sure to study the basics and master your skills before entering the market. A steady approach can take all of the magic out of “forex trading”, steel your confidence, and earn your the profits you desire!

Source: John Eather

Learn to Develop Trading Discipline

Total Trader — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:24:28 +0000

You need to develop trading discipline. If you come to a point in your market analysis in a trading session when you have no confidence on the accurate direction of the market forecast, choose not to trade. Always remember, a lost opportunity is better than lost capital.

You should wait for the market conditions to become clearer before you enter a trade. You should increase the probability of success by trading when the trade setups are strong and risk to reward ratio is not more than 1:2. This is far more important in forex than in stock markets. The forex markets move a lot as compared to the stock markets.

You need to learn that high leverage will give you the opportunity to make a lot more money much quicker. But in case you go wrong, currency markets are ruthless. You can get your account wiped out. You don’t see an opportunity clearly. Try to sit on the sidelines. You don’t have to trade every time. Wait for the market conditions to become clearer. You should learn to be a patient trader. Wait for the market to come to you.

A very conservative yet a very effective trading method would be to never use leverage of more than 20% on your capital. So you should only trade 1 lot with a $10,000 capital in your account. Using good money management rules and trading discipline, you can grow your account realistically in a short period of time.

The compounding factor of money is very powerful. Many people want to get rich quick. They try to take unnecessary risk. Don’t focus on proper trading principles. Develop the discipline in yourself to follow simple money management rules.

If you are trading a mini account, start by trading one position of one tenth of a lot. You will not make much money in the beginning as the position size is only one tenth of a normal lot. But the percentage of returns will compound over time and let you trade a much larger sum of money with the passage of time.

As a trader, you should make realistic goals that can be achieved over time. You should always trade with the money that you can afford to lose! Never ever trade with money that you cannot afford to lose! It is foolish. You should never borrow money to trade. You should not use money that you would use to pay monthly utility bills. You should not use your life savings. You should not think like a gambler.

Source: Ahmad Hassam

Forex Market Update 15-12-09

Eden — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:40:30 +0000

Market Comments:

The Yen caught a tailwind to open the week on a much stronger than expected Q4 Tankan survey and on assist from Bunds, which rallied strongly in the European session after last week’s rather steep sell-off. An interesting juxtaposition of article on our Bloomberg terminal this morning as one article proclaims “Yen Favored for Carry Trades as Japan Faces Deflation”, while another shouts “Why Japanese Government Bonds Yielding 1.3% Offer World’s Highest Returns”. The former article is rather interesting as it argues that Japan could become the funding currency of choice for carry trades as its Libor rate drops below the US rate. Another potential JPY negative in the New Year is fiscal concern as the government looks to stimulate its way out of a new deflationary rut with heavy spending that will only add to the world’s heaviest public debt burden. This could be a growing theme in 2010 and we may have seen a “distant early warning” of this with the large recent rally in USDJPY. The latter article simply points out that Japanese debt was the world’s best performer in November due to the Yen strength. The flipside of deflation is, of course, that each unit of a currency in a deflationary country becomes more and more valuable over time – and this is the paradox of the carry trade and trying to sell low yielders.

Pound rebounds on Dubai bailout
Abu Dhabi agreed to shovel $10 billion dollars into the real estate black hole of Dubai World, which allowed the latter to make good on debt payments that come due today and to buy time in an effort to renegotiate the terms of other debt. This boosted the pound overnight, with EURGBP trading back below 0.9000 at times in the European session after a weak close on Friday . Tonight we get the RICS House Price Balance from the UK. It is hard to believe that UK housing has come full circle and is actually appreciating in price on YoY comparisons. The RICS balance has fast reached close to the peak of its historical range.

Chart: GBPUSD
Three days in a row of indecision for GBPUSD heading into today. The recent break of the 1.6250 neckline-like area failed to generate a firmer southerly push for the pair, but neither was there a strong upside reversal. The recent low just below 1.6200 was very close to the key 0.618 Fibo, so that level will be in focus on any further weakness. A break could lead to a test of the 200-day moving average, which is fast rising toward the 1.6000 handle. To the upside, bears would be discouraged by any close back above the 1.6350/75 area.

Looking ahead
The divergence in the old theme of the USD and risk appetite moving in a reflexive lock-step is clearly being challenged of the last week, a very interesting divergence from past behavior. Let’s see if this persists – it certainly makes it easier to believe in a continuation of the greenback rally when we don’t have to fixate on this correlation. To get the strong USD correction fully into gear here, we’d like to see CAD and AUD fail key support levels vs. the greenback as well. AUD remains supported on the recent employment report and continues to enjoy strength from risk appetite. The key support levels in AUDUSD at the moment are 0.9015 and 0.8900. To the upside, the important tactical resistance line is clear at 0.9125.

Key event risks out of the US this week that will help determine whether the USD rally has any legs include PPI tomorrow and CPI Wednesday ahead of the week’s main even later Wednesday: the FOMC meeting and “rate decision” – i.e., monetary policy statement tweaking.

What are Forex Pips?

Total Trader — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:32:18 +0000

Forex is a good way of supplementing your current income, while still maintaining your present work. So it is really important that you familiarize yourself with its terminologies to make you better understand the many events and happenings in the market. One of the most important things you will come across is the term Forex pips.

Now you may ask, what are Forex pips? A PIP is the acronym for the term Percentage In Point. To put it in simple terms, a pip is the least or smallest price increment in Forex Trading. Most currency pairs are priced to its 4th decimal place – with the exception of the Japanese Yen with a pip equal to its 2nd decimal point, or .01 yen. The pip equivalent of a $ 1 is 0.0001 ( or 1/100th of a cent). A pip is how Forex currency traders measure gains or losses.

A major currency pair between a EUR/USD might be bid at 1.1600 and offered at 1.1605, the spread difference or your profit would be 5 pips. The currency market trades in pips to simplify matters, such as when major Forex traders like central banks that trade in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the value for each 0.0001 would be worth thousands of dollars.

To be successful in Forex trading, you need to maximize your pips as much as possible with having more pip gains than pip losses. Although, its not possible to win all the time, its advisable to have better spreads in your long term trading. So its best to buy currency when it is at its lowest value, and then sell it once determining factors point it at its peak or highest value. But with the numerous and complicated factors affecting the rise and fall of currency values, its really easier said than done.

Source: Bart Icles

Choosing a Forex Trading System

Total Trader — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:00:42 +0000

One of the biggest trading markets in the world is the foreign currency exchange market. It is also one of the most attractive trading markets as it is open to online trading or trading through the internet. Forex trading can be very profitable and it is important that you do substantial research to have a better understanding of the forex market before you decide to participate in trading.

When participating in forex trading, one of the things that can help you a lot is having a reliable foreign currency exchange trading system. Forex investors, whether large or small, find forex trading systems valuable. There are lots of information that you need to manage when you participate in forex trading. Forex trading systems help you find your way through the minutiae of data involved in the simplest of forex transactions.

Forex trading systems make it easy for investors to monitor outside market factors and indicators of the daily nature of the market, especially with the use of charts, graphs, and report tables. There are many different forex trading systems online, from the simplest to the most comprehensive, from the smallest to the largest.

In choosing a forex trading system to use, try to review testimonials posted by people who have actually used the system. Take note of those who do not like a certain system and list down their reasons for not being satisfied with that forex trading system. However, most testimonials and reviews that you will come across online will often speak of good points and satisfaction with the forex trading system being marketed. Take extra caution in totally believing reviews and testimonials. Always do proper research so you can better understand a system that is new to you.

It is also important that a forex trading system is profitable. There is no point in engaging in forex trading if you are not gaining profits. If you just want to break even, better stop forex trading as all the hassles that you have been through will only prove to be a waste of time. Forex trading systems must help you gain profits, and at the same time not too expensive that you are no longer able to see any return on your investment.

How does one tell if a forex trading system is profitable? Factors like drawdowns and time to profit are typical indicators of the profitability of a forex trading system. A drawdown is the maximum difference in the equity of a forex trading system over a certain period of time. Time to profit is the actual time it takes a forex trading system to achieve a positive result. These two factors help measure the survivability of a certain forex trading system.

Keep in mind that finding the forex trading system that best suits you is a blessing in forex trading. Do substantial research and apply the tips you have gathered along the way. The most popularly used forex trading system might just not be the one that best suits your needs.

Source:Bart Icles

Forex Trading: A Brief History

Total Trader — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:24:07 +0000

The foreign exchange or forex market is perhaps the biggest market in the world. With the leverage, high liquidity, and availability it offers – not to mention its low dealing costs, more and more people are becoming interested in engaging in forex trading. Although the forex or currency trading market is largely the sphere of financial institutions, practically anyone who is interested in forex trading can learn the basics, engage in the market activities, and earn the benefits.

So how did the foreign exchange come to be? One can say that it all started with the introduction of minted coins to trading. As years passed, stable governments introduced paper as “I owe yous” and gained popular acceptance during the middle ages. These paper “I owe yous” later became the foundation of what we know today as currencies.

With the rise of banks and central banks came the concept of the convertibility of currencies into gold. Prior to World War I, exchanging paper money for gold did not happen often. On several occasions, the failure to print paper money in proportion with a government’s gold reserves led to inflation that in turn resulted to political instability. To counteract these devastating results and protect local national interests, governments started to agree on foreign exchange controls to keep market forces from reproving monetary irresponsibility.

After World War II, countries faced the biggest challenges on monetary inflation. To address this, governments have reached the Bretton Woods agreement that suggested a currency exchange system built on the US dollar. This resulted in a system that dealt with fixed exchange rates that reinstated the gold standard to a certain degree, fixed the value of the US dollar, and fixed the value of other main currencies to the dollar.

In the 1960s, national economies moved in different directions that placed the Bretton Woods agreement under increasing pressure. For quite some time, several realignments helped keep the system alive but the Bretton Woods agreement finally collapsed in the early 70s when President Nixon suspended gold convertibility in August 1971. However, governments continued to trade currencies based on fixed rates, and even set off regional efforts to stabilize the monetary volatility.

The European Economic Community or EEC introduced another system based on fixed exchange rates. This came to be known as the European System of 1979. Although this modern system almost met its end in 1993, efforts to stabilize currency continued in the region and it has successfully renewed the attempts to fix currencies and replace many of these currencies with the Euro.

Today, the foreign exchange market remains to be one of the most lucrative and dynamic trading markets in the world. It continues to exist not only to facilitate trade and investment, but also to place appropriate value on multifarious international currencies.

The Best Day Trading System – How to Find It?

Total Trader — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:06:57 +0000

Day trading in the stock market has become one of the most sought after careers in the world. Many people have tried it with mixed results. While most people fail miserably with their trading system, others get rich with theirs. Regardless of who is trading, you’re not going to get very far without a good system. This is why some people make enough money to do this as their full-time job while others lose some money and go back to their day jobs. So what is the secret to finding a profitable trading system?

The biggest thing that you need to do is research. There are literally thousands of different trading systems out there that you can use. You could try short-term trading, swing trading, or long-term trading. You could deal with penny stocks, well-established companies, or exclusively energy companies. There is really no shortage of possible strategies to pick from.

One popular way to trade is through the use of analysing software. There are many short-term investment vehicles that deals with penny stocks. They look for high reward/medium risk stocks to invest in. They’ll sit and analyse penny stocks every day all day. When they recognize a profitable trade opportunity, they’ll tell you when and what to buy. You’ll get an email that says what to do and you do the rest. In this manner you can get some very profitable trades in your account. You’re only going to get one or two trades per week, but when you get a trade, you can feel safe that it will be a good one.

Overall, there are many great trading systems for people of every kind. If you are just looking for a way to supplement your trading strategy, you can undoubtedly find the method for you. Get out there and start looking for that perfect system today.

Source: Peter Skotnicky

Total Trader » Forex Trading

The Best Reasons To Forex Trading

Should I be Forex Trading?

The Best Forex Trading Platforms Tips and Guide

Use of stops in forex trading – the key to staying in the game

How good forex traders manage their actions?

Leg No.1 – Approach

1. Time Frame

2. Methodology

3. Market (Instrument)

Leg No.2 – Attitude

1. Patience

2. Discipline

3. Objectivity

4. Realistic Expectations

Leg No.3 – Discrimination

Alignment

Leg No.4 – Management (Implementation)

Risk Control

The Bottom Line

Forex Trading – How Can I Start?

Major Forces That Affect the World’s Currencies

Forex Pips Explained

Forex Trading for Beginners – 10 Common Beginners Mistakes

6 Reasons To Trade The Forex Market.

Creating Profitable Forex Trading Systems in Five Easy Steps

Know Your Forex Terms – The PIP

Best Forex Indicators

Forex Trading Strategies

Forex Market: Currency Pairs and Forex Quotes

Forex Option Trading to Diversify Your Forex Trading

Forex Markets

Currency Markets

Is technical analysis necessary?

How does technical analysis go about doing what it does?

Learn To Day Trade Forex

10 Forex Trading Tips to Help You to Succeed in Currency Trading

1. Plan your trades and trade your plan.

2. Fear and hope are the two worst enemies for trader.

3. Always keep the records of the results for your trading.

4. Keep the positive attitude regardless of the results of your trading.

5. Think about Forex only when you are trading.

6. Stop-loss is the key to your success in trading. Always cut your losses.

7. Always devote your time to study the market.

8. Always set your profit limit in each trade.

9. Trust your own opinion before entering the market.

10. Keep your stop losses untouched during the trade.

13 Quick Tips for Forex Trading Success

Advantages of Forex Trading

24-hour Trading

Greater Liquidity

100:1 High Leverage in forex trading

How Does an Online Forex Broker Work?

How To Trade Forex?

Margins and Leverage in Forex trades

Demo Account

Understanding Currency Pairs

Currency Quotes in Forex trades

Understanding How To Scalp The Forex Market

Top 8 Tips To Help You Start With Forex Trading

1. Educate yourself.

2. Plan and make a strategy.

3. Be aware of the high risks.

4. Choose the best currency trading software.

5. Choose a reliable and trustworthy broker.

6. Practice.

7. Beware of forex scams and frauds online.

8. Be extra careful in transferring funds.

5 Ways to Improve your income from Forex Trading

1. Be Flexible:

2. Be confident:

3. Take good care of leverage:

4. Avoid large trades:

5. Get a good Forex Broker:

Understand Forex Accounts

Mini Forex Trading – For Small Scale Investors and Beginners

Forex Trading Tips

The 8 Economic Factors That Affect The Forex Market

Factor 1 – Employment Data

Factor 2 – Interest Rates