Forex Trading Right For You

With Forex trading in the news lately, it seems everyone is curious about what it is and how to get involved. It is not hard to learn the basics of forex trading, but before you start to invest
your hard-earned money you need to understand the risks. Forex trading is a process where you are risking your capital on a particular currency and hoping that the currency's value will rise over time. If it does you can sell it at a profit and collect the difference. If it doesn't, you could lose a lot of money.

Before you jump into forex trading, you need to be sure of your tolerance for risk and have clear goals for how much you are willing to invest. Because of the volatility involved with forex trading, you should never invest money you can't afford to lose. You should also keep very detailed records of your trades and the results. This will help you become a better trader and make future trades easier for you.

Forex trading has its risks just like any other investment, but if you take the time to study the market you could do quite well. Before you start trading, you need to do a few things to get started. First, you need to find a broker and a trading system. A broker is the connection for you to buy and sell with forex trading. Finding the right broker is essential to your trading and you should take some time to find a broker that you are comfortable with and will meet your needs. Most of the online brokers are very complete operations and will supply you with information about trading prices and volumes of the currencies and allow you to execute your trades as well. Some of them will also provide you with a wealth of information on the forex trading process and have volumes of detailed information on the various currencies and their historical performance against other currencies. This information is crucial in your decisions on what to trade and when.

When you pick your broker, see if they allow you to trade using a demo account. If they do, this is a good way for you to practice with the process of forex trading. It also allows you to try out different strategies to see if they hold any merit. Trade with this demo account for a few weeks until you feel comfortable with the process of forex trading. Once you have the confidence on how to trade, only then should you make your first trade with your hard-earned money.

In addition to the price and volume of trades most brokers make available to their clients, some of them have trading systems you can use. These are very sophisticated software programs that track the currency in real time and can help you make a decision as when to invest and when to sell. Because these programs track so many quickly changing factors, they can help you immensely in making your trades at the exact right moment. Forex trading is not for everyone, but if you have the tolerance for risk and do the research, it can be a great way to turn a sizeable profit very quickly.

How to Read Forex Charts

If you are a beginner then you would have difficulty in reading the forex chart.
Beginners have difficulty in understanding the forex chart. If you are planning to trade in currency then you should know the different ways of reading the forex chart. Due to this reason you should try to gain the knowledge about reading the charts. If you know this then you would be able to earn huge profits in short duration of time. You would find that the experienced trader would always take the proper training before entering into the market of forex. If you are a learner then you should always start the trade with the nominal amount. You should no invest huge amount at a particular point of time.

If you want to learn the ways of reading the forex chart then you can purchase this software that would provide you required knowledge about the forex market. This software would aid you to keep the track of the money that you invest in this market and it would also keep the track of your time that you spend in this market. This software would help you to keep a track of the amount that you have invested in the firm. This software is handy. If you are interested to become a forex trading pro then you should try to take the maximum use of this software. If you use this software then you chart using this software then you would get the perfect knowledge about the forex trading that is offered by the forex market.

Currency trading market is considered to the largest market in the whole world and it one of the busiest markets. You would have problem of keeping the track of the forex market. You would be able to keep the track of the various trends that are prevailing in the market. if you are using the this software as a tool then you should study the changes that are taking place in the forex market. The knowledge that you have gain would aid you to trade in the market.

If you want to install this software then you need to explore yourself to net. You can use different trends and pattern of the forex chart. You can use the special tools that can be generated in short duration of time. You can use this tool to examine the software that you are using. The forex charts would help the trader to take the decisions about the market in which you are dealing. Forex charting software would provide relief to the people that want to become successful and want to get the deal that they want. There are different methods that can help you to the knowledge that you want to have. This would help you to make the future predictions about the forex market. This would help in charting the different types of software. There are various types of software in the market. You need to select the software as per your needs and requirements. You need to be careful in selecting the software for your deal.

Forex Software System Trading

There are many people that are not aware about the importance of the forex software system trading.

Forex system trading software is called as forex robots. Robots are considered to be the assistance of the automated. This helps the currency trader to live a simple life. The forex market keeps on changing. It would change in seconds. Due to this you would have difficulty in taking the profit of the changes that are taking place in the market. So, many forex trader use forex to take the benefits of the changes that are taking place in the market. The trader use software to increase their profits.

You would not have any difficulty in configuring the automatic forex trading software. You would not have any difficulty in operating this software as there are many in which you just need to follow the manual steps that are given by the training videos. There is some software that provides the facility for the demo accounts as this would aid the system managers to increase their faith in the software system. They even provide the facility for autopilot.

The following are the 6 steps that would help you to configuring the forex robot:

1. You should try to download the MTA trading software that would help in the soft functioning of your software.

2. You should add the forex robot in the MT4 software.

3. There are many developers that can help you to register the forex robot.

4. You can try to open metatrader software and then you drag the forex robot on the pair graph that you want to select and want to take the advantage of the facility.

5. You should try to complete the basics configuration of the instructions that are given by the software. You can add or you can deposit the investment that is made by you.

6. After this you should watch the changes that are taking place in the market or in the software.

The most important advantage of the forex market is that it is open for 24 hours in a week. Due to this it is considered to be the global market. You can trade form any corner of the world. You can accesses this market whenever you are free. You don’t need to decide a particular for operating this forex market. it would allow you to trade any time form any where in the world. Sometimes it would be impossible for you to stop trading. You can use the forex robots to set certain limitations.

If you want to gain information about the trading system then you need to look at net there are many sites that would help you to collect the information that would be helpful in forex trading market. Net would aid you to make comparison and then select the software are per your needs and demands. You need to be careful in selecting the software as there are many software companies that would try to misguide you and it would not provide you the guidelines that you need.

Forex trading brokers

FXClub is an online forex and futures broker, established in 1995, and one of the longest running online retail forex brokers. FXClub is different from your average online broker in some ways for good and bad, which we will look at in this review. What sets FXClubs apart from other brokers is mainly one thing: Zero Spreads. Most online brokers make their profits by adding a few pips on every price they charge the client. This way they make money of every trade being made. How much is being taken in spreads is different from broker to broker, but it is a known fact that brokers that charge spreads often raise them during hectic trading times, such as when there is a release of forex news. FXClub does not use spreads, but instead charges a fixed commission on all trades.
This is in my opinion a good thing. Why? Because the broker will then be interested in you being successful and profitable. After all they will make money whether you win or lose, so it is in their best interest to see you succeed. Brokers who take their commission in spreads are more likely to engage in practices such as stop-loss-hunting and manipulation to get their profits. Even if this is rare, it is a real risk when you are trading online with some brokers.
Well, FXClub does offer you the option to trade with spreads in a classic account, so it’s really up to you.
FXClub has other nice features for the beginning and advanced forex trader. You can open a mini account with only $10. While $10 is obviously never going to be enough to make any meaningful money it is still appreciated that you can open an account and start trading with no more than that.
Of course there is also the option to test your skills first with a demo account. Try your trades on real time data and a fully functioning platform before committing any real money. Always recommended for new traders.
A thing that I really liked about FXClub was the large educational library available to clients. FXClub has been around for a long time and I think it shows in all the comprehensive guides and tutorials they have had written over the years. They also offer very good instructional videos and interactive seminars.
Another practical advantage of forex club is the desktop and mobile software available, which makes trading forex trough FXClub very flexible.
I took the time to test their support and as I can tell, they are open 24 hours and generally friendly.
I have traded with FXClub for some time now. It was actually the first broker I started out with some years back with only a couple of hundred bucks and very green. As I learned and won (and lost), I never had any problems with them, withdrawing and deposing was fast. They are definitely a recommended broker for new and old traders.

A Forex Quote Reading

Quoting Convention

Quotes in the currency market can be a bit confusing because any position you take in the market is actually two different positions.

In FX you’ll see currencies listed in Pairs. This permits you more options in FX then you get in other markets. For example, you may be bullish on Euro and will therefore buy want to buy the Euro. In FX, you can chose what you want to buy those Euros with. You can buy them with USD, or you can buy them with JPY if you prefer. You can buy Euros with a long list of other currencies that we offer.

So a currency pair will be displayed in this manner.

EUR/USD

The first currency listed is referred to as the “base currency”. The second currency listed is considered the “counter currency”. So for EUR/USD, the Euro is the base currency and the US Dollar is the counter currency. If the pair is trading at 1.4700, that quote tells us how much of the Counter currency it would cost to buy one unit of the base currency. So it would cost $1.47 US to buy one Euro.

When it comes to placing a trade, keep in mind that any time you take a position you are doing so in terms of the base currency. So if you buy a pair, you are buying the base currency. If you sell a pair, you are selling the base currency. Then it’s easy to keep in mind that you are always doing the opposite with the counter currency. So, if you buy EUR/USD, you are buying Euros and selling US Dollars.

If that is still a bit too confusing, you can think of it simply this way. Buy if you expect the rate to go up. Sell if you think the rate will go down. Simple as that!

You will always see a two-sided quote in FX. In your FXCM account you will always be shown a Buy price and a Sell price. They can also be referred to as the “bid” and “ask” respectively. The Buy price is the rate that you can buy that pair at, and the Sell price is the rate at which you can sell that pair. The difference between the two prices is called the “spread”. The spread is determined by the price providers and liquidity in the markets at that precise moment. FXCM has up to 12 interbank firms streaming prices into our platform. The platform filters those feeds for the best Buy price and the best Sell price, and passes them on to account holders with a small mark up.

A spread exists for all tradable instruments, stocks, bonds, futures, options, etc, it just isn’t always visible to the trader.

So now you hopefully understand how currency pairs are quoted and what you are buy and what you are selling when you place a trade.

FOREX METALS AND CRUDE WEEKY REVIEW

Markets were pretty steady last week until concern of Greece deficit contagion across Europe intensified on Thursday and rocked financial markets around the world. Credit-default swaps on the debt of Greece, Spain and Portugal rose to record highs today amid concern that European governments will struggle to fund their deficits. There were even talks in the market that Greece's problem is a 'dressed rehearsal' for US and UK, which also have huge budget deficits. MSCI World index dropped 2.2% to 1095.4 while DOW breached 10,000 level twice before closing at 10,012.23. Dollar managed to ride on risk aversion with dollar index closed above 80 level and the Japanese was also broadly higher across the board. Nevertheless, DOW's refusal to give away 10,000 level and late Friday's pullback in risk aversion argues that flight-to-safety fund flow has possibly peaked in near term and we might see the markets stabilize a bit in near term.

One point to note is that data released from CFTC on Friday showed that speculative accounts built a record net euro short position and flipped their net yen short position to a net yen long as per February 2. Speculators increased their euro short position to -43,741 contracts from last week's short of -39,539, which was in sharp contrast to record net euro long of +119,538 contracts seen May 15, 2007. Speculative accounts had a net yen long of +7,135 contracts, comparing to to the net yen short of -4,347 contracts seen last week and the December 1 position of +56,907 contracts, which was the largest net yen long of 2009.

Employment data released last week reminded the markets that global recovery is still fragile. US job market contracted -20k in January versus expectation of 20k expansion. December's figure was also revised down from -85k to -150k. Unemployment rate dropped from 10.0% to 9.7%, which was the best number in five months. However, that was largely due to a sharp increase in the number of people giving up looking for work as number of 'discouraged job seekers' rose to 1.1 million in January from 734,000 a year ago. New Zealand unemployment rate surged sharply from 6.5% to 7.3% in Q4. Nevertheless, Canadian employment data showed much better than expected expansion of 43k in January, the fourth gain in six months. Unemployment rate also dropped to 8.3%.

ECB kept its main refinancing rate unchanged at 1%. The introductory statement was very similar to the one released 3 weeks ago. The central bank believed current rates remain appropriate and risks to economic outlook are broadly balanced. Concerning gradual phase-out of extraordinary stimulus measures, the ECB said more details will be given in March. Concerning Greece's 3-year plan to reduce budget deficit, the President said it 'steps in the right direction' but 'they must fix the goals that they have set for themselves'.

BoE left rates unchanged at 0.50% and paused its GBP 200b asset purchase program as widely expected. The bank said in the accompanying statement that the current interest rate "would continue to impart a substantial monetary stimulus to the economy for some time to come." Meanwhile, the committee will "continue to monitor the appropriate scale of the asset purchase program and further purchases would be made should the outlook warrant them."

As a surprise to the market, the RBA announced to keep the overnight cash rate unchanged at 3.75%, following 3 consecutive hikes last year, as policymakers would like to gauge the impact of previous hikes and stimulus withdrawal. RBA noted that lenders in Australia has "generally raised rates a little more than the cash rate over recent months" and "loan rates have risen by close to a percentage point." The bank would seek to hold the cash rate steady for the moment to see the impact of these changes to the economy. Nevertheless, the bank maintained a tightening bias that "if economic conditions evolve broadly as expected, the Board considers it likely that monetary policy will, over time, need to be adjusted further in order to ensure that inflation remains consistent with the target over the medium term."

Looking at the charts, DOW's recover was limited by 55 days' EMA and fall from 10729.89 resumed. 10,000 psychological level is so far still stubbornly held but we'll expect it to be taken out decisively eventually. Whole medium term rebound from 6469.9 has completed at 10792.8 and we expect a correction to 38.2% retracement at 9102 at least.

VIX, the fear index, also made another high at 29.22 before settling at 26.11. It showed that investors' anxiety continue to build up which supports the view of more correction in stock markets.

Crude oil's decline resumed last week and the break of trend line support argues that whole medium term rise from 33.2 has completed at 83.93 already. Short term weakness to 68.59 support next and break there will confirm medium term reversal for key cluster support at 58.32 (50% retracement of 33.2 to 83.95 at 58.58) next.

While some consolidations might be seen initially this week, we'd expect risk aversion to come back sooner or later which bring another round of selloff in stocks and commodities. This should give dollar and yen another boost later in the month. Dollar index rose sharply to as high as 80.68 last week before closing at 80.26. Mentioned target of 38.2% retracement of 89.62 to 74.19 at 80.08 was already met. As noted before, our favored view is that consolidation from 88.46 has completed with three waves down to 74.19. Rise from 74.19 is possibly resuming the long term up trend from 70.70. Decisive break of 100% projection of 74.19 to 78.45 from 7.60 at 80.86 will suggest that such rise is developing into an impulsive move and will further affirm this case. In any case, we'll stay bullish in dollar index as long as 78.68 support holds.

Meanwhile, we'd also continue to favor yen a bit more than dollar. Developments in EUR/JPY and GBP/JPY are clearly supporting the more decline towards important lows of 112.10 and 118.81 made in 2009. USD/JPY's fall from 93.74 resumed last week and should be in progress towards 87.36 support next. AUD/JPY also displayed clear weakness last week by falling sharply to as low as 76.19. The break of 76.54 support indicates that whole medium term rebound from 55.11 has made a top at 86.71 on bearish divergence condition in daily MACD and RSI. We'd expect further decline towards 70.74 cluster support next (50% retracement of 55.11 to 86.17 at 70.64). Break of 80.68 is needed to be first sign of bottoming or outlook will remain bearish.

5 Golden Forex Trading Rules

As a trader in the forex market, I have come to understand the truth about trading and it mostly has to do with myself and my personality. Taking the time to learn the FX market and developing an awareness of yourself as a trader will aid you tremendously on your very own forex journey. To aid you along the way, I have developed my 5 golden forex trading rules.


1. Having an understanding the currency pairs, including which pairs has the most liquidity and volatility in order to decide when and when not to trade them. I want to know the pairs as well as my brother and that is why I trade just a few pairs.

2. Employing technical analysis to determine past price action to set future targets. I was raised a technician and will let technical analysis be my primary mechanism for trade management.

3. Understanding the market’s psychology and my own, and then incorporating this information as part of my forex trading strategy. Understanding the drivers of the market and my own nuances allows me to sleep in when I am too tired to trade the London session and plan my trading activity, including my daily forex education session, at the times of the day when my mental focus is at its sharpest.

4. Awareness of the fundamentals that will cause a currency pair price action. Knowing current events and anticipated news allows me to trade when the market conditions fit my trading style. This is one of the things I absolutely love about the forex market … you never have to wait long for an opportunity!

5. Risk management and trade execution to ensure my trades can achieve the maximum profit. I don’t want to be greedy and I don’t like to leave money on the table either. I will be trying to master this skill for the rest of my life!

Getting your forex education, practicing in a demo account, becoming aware of your own psychology and being persistent will allow you to succeed in the forex market as well.

Trade FOREX Like a Professional

Trade like a professional. Learn the rules, use the tools and techniques. Start small, use your head and not your heart. Learn the entry and exit points and go for medium term trades and not be glued to the screen.

Making money from trading “forex” trading requires skill, strategy, spare money and nerves of steel. Why? Because of the shear volatility in the market. Simply put, there are just too many unpredictable variables and any one of them could affect the position of a chosen trade. It is not all doom and gloom. Anyone can make money provided he/she uses his/her head and not their heart. In addition to that, they must follow and adhere to a some simple rules. An example of a simple rule which one particular trader followed was “ I come into the market to make $500 per day. And, as soon as I have made my $500 my work for the day is done ”. He goes home. Don’t be greedy. Always, have a clear head.

Here are the tools and techniques to help you trade:-

1)Learn to read the charts and understand the implications of currency movements. Charts give you an invaluable insight into any given trade, its history and some indication of its future movement. For example, if the charts show an upward trend of 2% per day for the past 5 days. That is a good signal. (Sharescope for a fee will give you access to a tool and data which you can analyse and play with)

2)At what point should you take a position? Normal rule of thumb is when the trade has moved higher than the previous high. Or lower than the previous low. Fifty two week high is also good indicator for a position. Conversely, 52 week low is good indicator. How can I learn about charts? That is very simply. Read a book by Martin Pringle. Martin explains charting to you using videos so nothing is left to chance.

3)Taking a position means betting on the trade movement either up or down. If you take the view that the trade is going to go up then buy a 50 pence per point movement. What if the trade goes against me? Yes that is likely and can happen to anyone in the market. To prevent incurring big losses put a stop loss point some 10 or 15 points below the price of your trade. Say $/Euro is your trade; price of your trade is 1234 for the sake of illustration. Then your stop loss point will be 1219 meaning at point 1219 you will be taken out of the market and you will have lost £7.50 in total as opposed to unlimited loss. If, on the other hand, market follows your prediction and moves up 300 points; you will have made £150. You can bank that money by moving the stop loss point 15 points below the new position.

I am still very confused? Trading requires an understanding of the market, the charts and tools. Some tools are internet based so being familiar with the internet is a must. In order to really understanding trading, ones needs to go on a training course for weekend.

The other option is to learn by trial and error. All the spread betting companies offer you a free trading trial run with an imaginary account. What happens in practice is a make believe account with say $100,000 for you to play with? You go and try your luck until you have either made a decision to open a real account or you have spent all the money but did not make any progress. The other advantage of opening a real account is that you have access to a big learning resource consisting of audio and video presentations by experts of courses etc.

Finally, trading like a professional is not being glued to the screen but enjoying the experience. Therefore, the tips and words of wisdom from professionals are trade medium term trades as opposed to day trades. Last but not least, Market Wizard is a great book to read because all the traders: rich and poor, are interviewed for you to refer to and learn from. Good luck.

FOREX Trading Tips

To be successful in FOREX trading you need experience, capital and a solid trading system. Keeping things simple can also help you better focus on your trading. Here are some tips that can help you during FOREX trading:

1. The first and last ticks are always the most expensive. Get in late and out early.

2. Never add money when you are losing.

3. When everyone else is in, then it is time for you to get out.

4. Always determine a stop and a profit objective before you enter a trade. Place stops that are based on market information, and not your account balance.

5. It is always easier to enter a losing trade.

6. News is only important when the market doesn't react in the direction of the news.

7. In a bull market, you never want to sell a dull market, in a bear market, you should certainly never buy a dull market.

8. There are times, due to a lack of liquidity, or excessive volatility, when you should not trade at all.

9. It helps to read yesterday's paper each day to learn from what the market did.

10. There are at least three types of markets such as up trending, range bound, and down trading, and you should have a different trading strategy for each.

11. Up market and down market patterns are always there, with one always been more dominant. Select trades that move along with the trend.

Choosing A Forex Broker

With currency trading becoming ever more popular, the number of brokers is growing at a rapid rate. What should one look at when deciding which broker to open an account with? These are the important points to consider.

Spread

Because currencies, unlike futures and stocks, are not traded through a central exchange, the spread can be different depending on the broker you use, so it's well worth checking a few out before you open an account. Most forex brokers publish live or delayed prices on their websites so you can compare spreads, but check if the spread is fixed or variable. A fixed spread means exactly that - it will always be the same no matter what time of day or night it is. Some brokers use a variable spread, which might appear to be nice and small when the market is quiet, but when things get busy they can widen the spread which means the market must move more in your favor before you start to make a profit. Fixed spreads are generally slightly wider than the variable spreads are when at their narrowest, but over the long term fixed can be safer.

Execution

Some brokers will show live prices on their trading platform, but will they honor them when it comes to pushing the Buy or Sell button? The best way to find out is to open a demo account and give them a test drive. This will also give you the opportunity to see what the speed of execution is like - when you want to buy, you want to buy now, not sit around waiting for ten minutes whilst your order is confirmed!

Trading Platform

Good trading software will show live prices that you can actually trade at, not just indicative quotes. It will offer Limit and Stop orders, and ideally will let you attach these to your entry order. One-Cancels-Other orders are another useful feature - they mean you can set up your trade and then leave the software to get on with it. And the most important feature of all - can you actually understand the platform? Having all the bells and whistles is of no use if you can't use them, so again, get a demo account and give it a go.

Support

Forex is a 24 hour market, so your broker should offer 24 hour support. You might not be trading at 3am, but that could be what time it is in your brokers head office on the other side of the planet, so make sure there will be somebody there to pick up the phone if things go wrong. You should also check if you can close positions over the phone - essential in case your PC or internet connection crash at a critical moment.

Backing

Finally, before opening an account do a little homework and find out about the company. Forex brokers are regulated, but that doesn't mean they all have equal backing. If the market collapses, you want to know that they've got the reserves to cope with it and will still be around when you decide to withdraw your cash. If a broker is elusive when it comes to questions about their parentage and financial backing, then steer clear.

In Conclusion

Choosing a forex broker isn't difficult, but don't rush the decision. Check out a few, and always get a demo account first to make sure you're happy with the way everything works before sending off your opening balance.