Saturday, June 30, 2007
Forex Trading
All the forex advice you need to become a successful trader is available on the internet for free.
Here we will show you where to get the best forex advice for free and turn you into a profitable trader.
A common error
A common error made by many novice forex traders is to think that they can buy a system or an e-book from a guru for $100 or so and buy success.
Now, while there is some good forex advice sold on the net, the bulk of it is not worth the money.
Most of it is sold by salesmen (who have never traded) or failed brokers who cant trade and decide they may as well sell advice.
It is common sense that you cannot buy forex success for $100 or so, as if the forex advice worked then it would not be sold.
A quick way to decide if sold forex advice is worth your hard cash is to ask for a real time track record of real money made in the markets.
After that look for a money back guarantee.
If you don’t get both the above don’t buy it.
The reason you should do it on your own is that if you get your own forex advice and study it you will have confidence in it.
This means you will be more likely to follow it with discipline when you come to trade it.
It is far harder to follow someone else’s advice with discipline than your own, as you will always understand your own better.
The internet has all the information you need for free and here are some topics to look up and study
1. Technical analysis
Everything you need to know can be found on the net from advantages to the chart formations.
2. Technical indicators
You will know how to draw charts and what the formations mean from Point 1. Now you need some timing indicators.
Good ones to look up are: Bollinger bands, stochastics, moving averages, RSI and MACD. By all means look up others but the above are the ones we find most useful for entering a market
Go to a free chart service such as futuresource.com and look at them on some live charts.
3. Breakouts
Now you have looked at some charts and some indicators to help you identify and enter trends you need a methodology.
Perhaps the easiest methodology to use is a breakout method.
Look it up.
It’s easy to understand and easy to implement and it works.
4. Putting it altogether.
With the forex advice you have you can build a simple system to trade.
Base the system on breakouts and use chart support and resistance to spot profitable trading set ups.
You can then experiment with various technical indicators to help you enter breakouts.
Our own personal way of trading uses chart support and resistance to set up trades.
We then define entry with stohastics (a momentum indicator) and RSI which is an indication of the strength of the price and that’s it.
There is a lot of forex advice on the net that makes forex trading more difficult than it really is.
In fact, anyone with the free forex advice on the net can build test and implement a system based upon sound logic.
Keep in mind
The majority of traders fail because they lack discipline.
This comes from the fact that they don’t have confidence in their system and throw in the towel as soon as they have a few losses.
By taking some time to build your own system, you will have confidence in it and will be more able to follow it with discipline.
The fact is all the forex advice you need to build and trade a system for yourself is free.
If you put in the time and effort your study will be handsomely rewarded.
By: Sacha Tarkovsky
Related links:
Becoming A Forex Trader Means Mastering The Tools Of The Trade
Best Forex Currency Trading System
Forex Trading – If you Work To hard You Will Lose!
Monday, June 25, 2007
Forex Trading A Simple, Easy Tip To Increase Your Profits
The simple tip below is ignored by most traders - yet if you include it in your trading plan, will see your risk decrease and profits increase and that s what all traders want!
Most novice traders don t use this tip and lose.
Learn the significance of this tip and use it and it is simply:
Trade with Price Momentum
Many traders like to predict where prices are going to go but they should really be trading on the facts and that s exactly what looking at shifts in price momentum does.
It gives you clues to where prices may go next.
Lets Loom at a common error that novice traders make to illustrate the point.
Many traders love to buy dips to support and many will use trend lines or moving averages.
As prices approach the support level, they buy into the support and hope that it holds.
This is a huge mistake!
If you rely on hope you are going to lose.
This is why looking at price momentum is so important.
If the momentum of price starts to weaken into support and turns the odds of support holding have increased.
Acting on the Facts
To watch prices come into support and rather than diving in and taking a position - WAIT for price momentum to weaken into support and turn back up away from support.
This is the cue to take a position, as price momentum is now moving away from support and odds favour the bulls.
Why dont traders fo this more often?
Traders find this hard to do, as they don t like the fact they missed a bit of the move by waiting, but this is the only way to get the odds on your side.
Consider this:
Support obviously can either hold or break and you don t know which will occur in advance it s impossible to predict you are simply guessing and that s a good way to lose.
If you look at price momentum you will be acting on confirmation that the odds are in your favour.
A trader who is patent and disciplined and acts on confirmation has a far better chance of success than one who guesses or predicts where prices may go.
So what are good indicators to look at?
The best indicator by far in our opinion is the stochastic indicator we don t have enough room to cover it in detail here but it s a great indicator for graphically showing shifts in price momentum.
We like to combine the above indicator with the Relative Strength Index(RSI), another great momentum indicator.
We never take a trade unless price momentum points the same way as our trade.
Forex trading is an odds game and by using momentum indicators you will increase your chances of success and of course your profit potential.
By: Sacha Tarkovsky
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GRAB 3 X FREE TRADER PDF'S AND MUCH MORE! On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader including features, downloads and some critical FREE Trader PDF's and more FREE Forex Education visit our website at www.net-planet.org/index.html
Forex Software - Choosing the Best
When it comes to forex trading the forex software you choose is essential. There are so many forex trading companies all competing for your business that choosing the right forex software can be quite a difficult task. Most of the forex software products available offers live online forex trading platforms but what other components are vital when it comes to your forex software.
Key Elements For Your Forex Software
Before purchasing any forex software there are a few essential items that should be included. The most important is security and your online forex trading software should include a 128 bit SSL encryption which will prevent hackers from accessing any of your personal details and information such as your account balance, transaction history, etc.
Providing the best security for your forex trading will include a company that provides 24 hour technical server support for your forex software, 24 hour maintenance should anything go wrong, daily backups of all information, and a security system that has been designed to prevent any unauthorized access. Along with these security protocols there are also some forex trading companies that use smart cards and fingerprint scanners to ensure that only their employees can have access to their servers.
Another important factor when it comes to choosing your forex software is to check what the company s downtime is like. When it comes to trading forex and particularly your online forex trading you need to ensure that the forex software you choose is reliable and available 24 hours a day. The forex software you choose for your forex trading should also have technical support available at all times should your session be cut short.
Ensuring that all the above features are listed in the forex software you choose will help to ensure your forex trading success.
We have made the most comprehensive research on forex. Check it out on online forex system best forex online source. All about Forex on http://www.leandernet.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Oliver_Turner
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Forex Trading Systems
You should build your own trading systemA trading system on the Forex market is a type of strategy that allows traders to trade with a set of rules. There are many free trading systems and strategies printed in trading articles, journals, books and on trading-related websites. I would have to say that if you are not inclined to learn how to develop your own trading methodology, then perhaps you should consider giving your money for someone else to invest. Give it to someone who is trading a system that he developed and tested himself because he is more likely to have the confidence and courage to follow his own trading system.Why you need a forex trading system?It’s easy to trade with a system.A good system provides consistent result. What makes a good trading system?It’s simple. Forget complicated systems with lots of rules - it’s a proven fact that simple systems work better - and are less likely to fail, in the brutal world of trading.A trading system with profitable expectation.It provides good ratio of reward/risk.A system of comprehensive risk management including market exposure weightings, stop-loss provisions and capital commitment guidelines that preserve capital during trend-less or volatile periods. Once you learn how to develop trading systems and strategies, you can then be better equipped to test them as well. By this point you might even find that the system created by yourself is the best one for you, because it becomes the system more suited to your profit objectives while operating within your risk tolerance levels. It is likely that once you develops this level of competence, you will simply acquire other trading systems only to dissect them, grab the parts you likes and add them to your own system. To me, the irony is that for a trader to know which system to purchase, you must first learn how to create a system. And after knowing how to create a system, he will no longer have the need to buy one.
Learn Forex
How do I begin? Please give it to me SIMPLY.
1. The best advice on how to learn to trade profitably is to learn from experts with proven track records. Many learning styles are available to beginners at all levels: books, CDs, online courses, group seminars, even one-on-one mentors who will come right your home for a few days. We outline our Forex-Trader picks in Learning Forex Trading. Learning to trade from experts is worth every penny and has saved us untold thousands in mistakes.We would not recommend starting forex trading without any training. It is not hard to learn, nor difficult to trade successfully, but you must first provide yourself with a basic functioning knowledge of ’the game you’re in’.
2. While you are learning you will need charting software to practice reading the Market. Charting is an indispensable tool that shows you in real-time data what the market is doing moment by moment and also what the market has done in the past. As you learn to analyze these charts you can determine what trades to enter and exit, where to set your stop losses, limits etc. There are several good charting software services that you can subscribe to online monthly. See our Forex-Trader tested Charting Software picks in Tools of The Trade.
3. Then, to perform your actual trades online you need a real-time ’trading platform’ to execute your ’buys’ and ’sells’ directly in the Foreign Currency Market. You obtain a trading platform from a Forex Clearinghouse that is connected real-time to the interbank market. There are many good Clearinghouses (also confusingly called Brokerage Firms, Market Makers, etc.) that provide you with the trading platform to trade the funds in the account you have opened with them. Before you begin trading your ’real’ money, while you are learning, you will practice on your own ’demo account’ with play-money in it, which will be provided to you by the clearinghouse you plan to trade through. The contractual relationship you enter into with your Clearinghouse is a very important one because the Clearinghouse you choose determines many trading features and financial advantages to you both as a trader and as an investor. Forex-Trader tested Clearinghouses are reviewed in Tools of The Trade.
We have outlined a Getting Started path with uncomplicated steps. This is the path that we would take if we were beginning trading over again today with ’what we know now’. The products and services we mention in these steps are all ones that we have personally used for some time with consistent success. As always you are free to forge your own path, and if you do, happy hiking. There is a mountain of products and services try out, and if you find ones you like better we would love to compare notes with you.
Explain More About Charting Services
To trade successfully you also must have good charting software and instantaneous data feeds critical to helping you analysis and interpret the movement of currencies moment to moment so you know when/why to buy or sell — this you subscribe to monthly. You can get a 2 week or more demo to familiarize yourself with one that has the features you like. The costs also vary, and some companies require a year commitment. There are some free charting services offered through the clearinghouses, but they tend to lack the tools to be truly useful. There are also some costly proprietary Specialty Software charting ’hybrids’ which are market forecasters tools that look more like video games than charts.
Explain More About How Clearinghouses Work
A good clearinghouse (i.e.. your computer access/link to the live Forex Exchange Market) is the partner with which you trade the money you have deposited with them in your trading account. After trying and demo-ing many we have found a small handful that are truly excellent for the beginner (and continue to be excellent as you grow) — meaning user friendly, legally accountable to regulatory bodies, and offering fair costs (spreads) for their services/trading software platforms. There still are many worrisome ones practicing in this closing era of unregulated forex trading (new Commodities laws are imminent).
The topic of matching the right clearinghouse for your needs is discussed more in Tools of the Trade, because it depends on a number of factors — how much you can open an account with, how much the clearinghouse profit spread, what your liquidity needs are, your minimum/maximum stop loss and margin requirements, even where you live and how much time you have to give to trading in a 24 hr. day.
How Much Does it Cost to Begin to Trade?
Learning to trade will entail the cost of books and whatever traiining method you choose. It will also include a reliable computer with a minimum 128 Mb of memory to run the charting software and trading platform. Ongoing ’costs of operation’ include the monthly costs of high-speed internet, charting software, the email forecasting subscriptions — plan on spending $150./mo. up for ongoing costs.
What about Pooled Clearinghouse Accounts to Trade with More Leverage?
We strongly do not recommend pooled accounts in any circumstance. Perhaps you are considering self-trading a pooled- together family account because it would give you a perceived advantage of more leveraged funds to trade (50:1 up to 100:1 leverage) — any risks of loss represent a potential risk to family relationships, and for this reason alone we do not recommend aggregating with family or friends.
However much worse are the too-numerous negative experiences of people allowing their investment funds to leave their control to become part of a ’managed’ pooled account. Not only is it a very risky investment idea, it is illegal for anyone to ’pool’ accounts without compliance with SEC (a USA Securities Exchange Commission) or international equivalent license. Never relinquish direct control over your money/trading account to anyone (i.e.. the ability to make withdrawals, deposits etc. directly by your own authority into your own account).
A good fund manager, if you do choose to go the (legitimate) Managed Account route rather than the Self-Trader route, will make certain you have your own ’segregated account’ in your own name in a bank or brokerage firm. These individual segregated accounts can still be traded together as though they were in a single account by a designated trader as long as the clearing house uses a trading platform that allows it. You, as the investor/account holder, have direct access online to your account activity at all times, and direct control over your own account in your own name (just like a bank account). The importance of this, for the safety of your funds, cannot be over emphasized.
Forex - You Need A Real System!
Forex Trade Main Drawbacks of a Forex Trader
Why is it that very few traders succeed in the Forex trading environment while the grand majority of traders fail to achieve success? Although there is no hard answer to this question, there are a few things that will put you one step ahead and will definitely put the odds in your favor.
The main purpose of this article is to guide you through some important aspects of Forex trading. But in a different way, instead of telling you what to do or the best way to do it, it will tell you what to avoid. Sometimes it is better to identify the main drawbacks on a discipline and then isolate them so we have the best results at a certain level of development.
The search for the Holy Grail
Many traders spend years and years trying to find the Holy Grail of trading. That magic indicator or set of indicators, only known by a few traders, that will make them rich in a short period of time.
Fact: Well, there is no magic indicator, nor a set of indicators that will make anyone rich in a short period of time. The main reason of this is because market changes, every single moment is unique. Every Forex trading system will fail from time to time. Our work here is to find a Forex trading system that fits our personality as traders, otherwise the trader will find it