Showing posts with label forex trading. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forex trading. Show all posts

Thursday, 1 March 2012

Currency Swing Trading - Why Novices Can Build Big Profits With This Method

Currency swing trading is the perfect method for a novice to use because it overcomes the main barrier that most traders have when trying to achieve currency trading success...
It overcomes the problem of discipline. Most traders lack discipline and it's the big difference between success and failure and swing trading requires very little as profits and losses come quickly. It also overcomes the impatience of most traders who like to trade.
Before we continue you might say well, forex day trading requires even less because the moves are shorter but the problem you have with day trading is it simply doesn't work.
Why?
Because all moves within a day are random and you can never get the odds on your side and you will eventually lose.
You get a lot of vendors telling you that you can make money day trading but look at their track records - there all simulations in hindsight and that means nothing.
Swing trading is easier than long term trend following from both a discipline point of view and a patience point of view but can be just as profitable.
You're Aim
You are looking for reactions within the major trends when prices get over bought and oversold and trading into these levels and a swing trading based upon the following will work.
You simply need to use trend lines and Bollinger Bands - the latter tells you the volatility and is a great tool. Check our other articles for more details. When prices become overbought and oversold and testing resistance or support you have a potential trade.
Confirm the Move
Before it gets to this level you need to check the strength of price it should weaken into resistance and strengthen into support ( never guess always wait for confirmation), you check the strength of price with momentum oscillators and two great ones to use are the stochastic and RSI.
You're Stop
If they support your view you trade and your stop goes behind the support or resistance level tested.
Hit and Run
You should take your profit early and not trail a stop and your profit should be taken in when the price moves toward the next level of support or resistance. Currency swing trading profits disappear quickly, so you simply take them early or "hit and run and bank"
Simple but Effective
Now the above is a simple currency swing trading system I have used for 20 years or so and it's worked well for me and can for you and you can pile up triple digit profits. Don't be put off by its simplicity all the best systems are and this means they are robust with fewer elements to break.
You can learn to swing trade in a week or so and it will take you less than 30 minutes to apply. It's fun, exciting and can and does make big profits - try swing trading and you maybe glad you did.
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Saturday, 25 February 2012

How to Lose it All in Forex - 3 Easy Steps

Many new Forex traders have a naïve sense that Forex is easy. Ofttimes, this impression originates from hyped Forex advertisements like "How I made 300% per month in Forex!" and "Earn like professionals do! Use 100% Automatic Forex signals'... to 'Earn Thousands of Dollars Each Day!". These hype mongers distort the realities of Forex trading. They create a false sense of trading ease and in doing so are building an impressive army of new and ambitious Forex losers.
If you have spent any time researching Forex you have likely come across the statistic that 90% of Forex traders ultimately lose money in Forex. While, I don't know if someone has ACTUALLY commissioned a study to prove that statistic's accuracy, my experience in most every financial endeavor, including Forex, is that 90% of people do fail. Take selling Real Estate as an example, the common saying is that 10% of the salespeople make 90% of the money. And why is that? Because making money requires EFFORT. So it is with Forex, beating the market in Forex requires more than just a computer program that takes the trades for you. It takes more than just opening a demo account and practicing for a week. The traders in Forex that are successful long-term are those that take the time to truly understand what moves the Forex market, execute with complete discipline a strong trading strategy and management plan, and have learned to control the emotions that will destroy any trader.
With that said, I have compiled a list of 3 Easy Steps to lose it all in Forex. I have also included counter measures that will help you turn those losing steps upside down and make you money.
1) TRADE FOREX ON YOUR OWN. The simplest way to lose it all in Forex is to say to yourself: "I don't need anyone else's help. I bought this 'Forex auto trader robot monster thing'" or "I read 'Forex Guide to Making Billions', This is going to be easy."
Counter Measures -Don't stop learning. Interact daily with other Forex traders by visiting Forex Forums or chat rooms. Join a signal service and try to figure out why and how the signals are chosen. Read blogs written by other Forex traders and market analysis by Forex professionals. And if you don't have the time, find someone successful who KNOWS how to trade Forex and hire them to trade for you.
2) UNDERCAPITALIZED - OVERLEVERAGED. Want to lose it all in Forex? Open a "micro account" at your broker and trade with $250 or open a "mini account" and trade with $2500 or a "standard account" with $25000. Most pros trade a standard lot for every $50,000 and a mini-lot for every $5000. But the loser says, "Why trade with such low risk? I'm not going to lose it all."
Counter measures - Continue to trade a demo account until you save up enough money to trade $1000 in a "micro account", $10,000 in a "mini account" and $100,000 in a "standard account". Design a system that does not risk more than 2 or 3% per day. I trade two strategies. One risks, on average, 0.25% per trade and takes about 8 trades per day (2% risk per day). The other risks 0.75-1.25% per trade and takes about 5 trades per week.
3) JUST GIVE UP. Lose confidence in your trading strategy. Stop believing in your money management plan. Give up on yourself and your ability to trade. This will not happen when you are winning, it only happens when you are losing. Here is how it goes: You start trading and soon find yourself in a winning streak. Your confidence builds and you come to believe that your system is invincible. Then comes the losing streak. After the first loss you say, "bummer". After the second you say "that sucks". The third makes you start to question your trade rules and the fourth loss has you throwing your arms up in the air and saying "This trade system just doesn't work". What all to often happens next is that the you STOP trading the strategy and return to the drawing board to find another system. The final result - you have given up and your account balance is smaller than when you started. This can turn into a deadly cycle. Each time, you build a new system only to give up when it starts to lose. Eventually you quit all together having lost significant money in Forex.
Counter measures - Remember that you WILL have losing streaks in Forex. Learn to understand why your system works and why it loses. Consult your system backtest and note the maximum drawdown and losses. Know your system and it's limitations. Stick with your plan. The great American author, Harriet Beecher Stowe once said: "When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
You CAN lose it all in Forex. In fact losing it all is much easier than making it big. But for every nine Forex traders not doing the right things to win, there is one disciplined, educated, persistent trader sticking to his plan, using the right leverage for his trades and leaning on others for help. It is this one noble trader in ten that makes it in Forex.
Echo FX prides itself on being an experienced, honest, disciplined, and emotion-free Forex Account Manager and quality Forex Trading Education provider. For more information about the company, their Managed Forex Account Programs, or Forex Trading preparation solutions - visit http://www.echocurrency.com (Forex Managed Account) and http://www.AcademyofForex.com (Forex Education)

Currency Arbitrage - The Safest Profits

The forex market has many profiting opportunities. Many of them are related to news, like interest rate changes or the employment report. Some of them are related to trading systems which can generate a long term income stream. Few traders can trade on their own, without any other distractions. All these methods involve risk. However, there is one method that does not involve any risk at all. It is called arbitrage.
Arbitrage is the action done on assets that are traded in two different markets. To make a profit, the two markets must have different prices for the same asset. When such a difference exists, traders can buy the asset in the market with the lower price and sell it higher on the second market. Since this price difference attracts many traders, it is closed very quickly. However, there are more clever types of arbitrage which you can use.
Forex arbitrage can have a few forms, but the most popular ones involve two currencies and three currencies. Two currency arbitrage can be done with two different brokers offering different spreads. The two spreads imply that there must be at least one quote which differs between the brokers, either the bid, the ask, or both. Whichever that is, a smart trader can use this situation to make a safe profit.
Three way forex arbitrage is more sophisticated and harder to catch. It requires a true understanding of exchange rates. This type or arbitrage happens when the exchange rates of three currencies don't match all ratios, and there is a gap between expectation and reality. For example, if one currency is worth twice the second one, and the second one is worth three times the third, then the first one is equal six times the third. If one of these numbers is changed without properly changing the others, it opens a door for many arbitrageurs.
Currency arbitrage may be risk free, but doing it properly takes patience and very complex computer programs. They also tend to close extremely quickly, as they are being used by others. If you see an arbitrage opportunity, try your best to use it, but don't devote your entire time for arbitrage. Making a living this way is very hard, since those opportunities are very rare.
To start using forex arbitrage, get yourself a good forex broker from the forex broker reviews of Great-Info-Products.com.
About the author:
Nadav Snir is a stock market trader and forex trader. You can find more information about forex trading and forex brokers at his site at http://Great-Info-Products.com/Forex/index.html

Thursday, 23 February 2012

Futures Exchanges - Knowing Where To Do Business

Good for you! You’ve been reading, you’ve put together a trading rules to lay the foundation for your futures trading plan and you’ve even been paper trading to prove your trading plan. Now you are ready to learn more about where you will be doing your business; it’s time to talk about the futures exchanges.
General Futures Exchange Information
As you know at this point, you will not actually do business with the futures exchanges listed below. You will work with your broker who will take your futures orders to the exchange floor for you. Since you have been paper trading, you probably have already established an account for commodities trading so we won’t go over that again. While there are futures exchanges throughout the world, we will focus on the ones in the US. The markets we will outline are in Minneapolis, Kansas City, New York and Chicago.
History of Futures Exchanges in the US
The modern futures trading began in Chicago, IL in the early 1800s. Chicago, with its location at the base of the Great Lakes, is close to the farm of the U.S. Midwest which made it a natural center for transportation, distribution and trading of agricultural produce. Gluts and shortages of these products caused extreme changes in price. An exchange was needed that would bring together a market to find potential buyers and sellers of a commodity instead of making people bear the burden of finding a buyer or seller. In 1848, the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the world's first futures market, or futures exchange, was formed. Trading was originally in futures and the first contract was written on March 13, 1851.
Futures Exchanges
Different futures exchanges trade different commodities. In addition, each future exchange accepts different futures orders. Since not every exchange allows every order it is necessary to talk with you broker about which orders are permitted in the markets you trade. The following is a list of the major commodity exchanges, their commodities, and the orders that they accept:
Chicago Board of Trade

Location: Chicago, IL

Commodities
• Corn

• Oats

• Soybeans

• Soybean Oil

• Soybean Meal

• T-Bonds

• T-Notes

• Muni Bonds

• 5 Year Notes

• 2 Year Notes

• DJIA Index
Acceptable orders: Market, Market on Close, Limit, Stop, and Fill or Kill Orders
Chicago Mercantile Exchange

Location: Chicago, IL

Commodities
• Live Cattle

• Lean Hogs

• Lumber

• Feeder Cattle

• Pork Bellies
Acceptable orders: All futures orders are acceptable.
Index and Option Market

Commodities
• S&P 500

• Mid-cap 400

• NASDAQ 100
Acceptable orders: All futures orders are acceptable.
International Monetary Exchange

Location: Chicago, IL

Commodities
• T-Bills

• Euro Dollars

• Canadian Dollar

• Euro Currency

• Australian Dollar

• Mexican Peso

• Euro Yen

• Japanese Yen

• British Pound

• Swiss Franc
Acceptable orders: All futures orders are acceptable.
New York Comex

Location: New York, NY

Commodities
• Copper
Acceptable orders: For Copper only, acceptable are Market, Market on Close, Limit, Stop, and Fill or Kill.
Commodities

• Gold

• Silver
Acceptable orders: For Gold and Silver, acceptable are Market, Market on Close, Limit, Stop, and Fill or Kill. Stop Limits are acceptable only on a not-held basis.
New York Cotton Exchange

Location: New York, NY

Commodities
• Cotton

• Orange Juice

• Dollar Index
Acceptable orders: Market, Market on Close, Limit, Stop, and Fill or Kill.
New York Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange

Location: New York, NY

Commodities
• Coffee

• Sugar

• Cocoa
Acceptable orders: All futures orders are acceptable.
New York Mercantile Exchange

Location: New York, NY

Commodities
• Unleaded Gasoline

• Platinum

• Palladium

• Heating Oil

• Crude Oil Natural Gas
Acceptable orders: All futures orders are acceptable.
New York Futures Exchange

Location: New York, NY

Commodities
• New York Stock Exchange Index

• CRB Index
Acceptable orders: All futures orders are acceptable.
Kansas City Board of Trade

Location: Kansas City, MO

Commodities
• Kansas City Value Line

• Kansas City Mini Value Line
Acceptable orders: All futures orders are acceptable.
• Kansas City Wheat
Acceptable orders: Market, Market on Close, Limit, Stop and Fill or Kill.
Minneapolis Board of Trade

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Commodities
• Minneapolis Wheat

• Minneapolis White Wheat
Acceptable orders: All futures orders are acceptable.
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