Friday, July 31, 2009

Benefits of FOREX Trading

With the advent of the online Forex trading, forex traders can do business round the clock irrespective of the geographical location they have been placed. This is very important in contributing to the growth of the forex trading industry to the extent that the daily transactions have been increased to two trillion USD.

Opening of an online Forex trading account is very easy as there are many people who can offer this kind service to the trader. But they need to be very sure that they too deal with the same kind of currencies which the trader is interested in. There are free practice accounts allowing to test the skills of the trader offered by the provider with the usage of funny money before making transaction with real cash.

The traders can trade in different markets with different currencies at the same time without any problems. This is only possible because of online forex trading. This has brought in lot of flexibility and liquidity in online Forex. The trader is able to trade and access quotes in real time with online forex transactions.

Another important benefit of online Forex trading is that, it has eliminated the bulls and bears of the trade. We can say that the only trade market without the bulls and bears is the online forex trading market.

The most prominent feature of online Forex trading is the way it is being operated transparently. There is no hide and seek involved in the process. It makes it easy to compare and spot trends making the decision to buy or sell at the right time with ease. This is only possible due to availability of the information instantly to everyone all over the globe.

Online Forex trading does not involve any commission, or exchange fees, or hidden costs etc. The trade is done in a very fast pace as there is no kind of any delay involved in it. It takes only seconds to execute the trade, fill or confirm the same. Also it provides greater leverage to the small traders than any other market could offer them.

Although there is lot of benefits involved in the online Forex trading, there is also a flip side to it. Not everyone who had invested their money in online forex trading has become rich. The reason for that is online forex trading is very risky. The trader has to take a decision within a transaction of the second which can end up with a profit or with a loss.

FOREX Trade KeyWords

FOREX WORDS
OP = Open Position = Starting position of transaction.
TP = Target Position = Profit target of transaction.
SL = Stop Loss = Losing point that set on the transaction.
Pips = same as point that can get on forex transaction.
Buy = Do the transaction with up prediction.
Sell = Do the transaction with down prediction.
Cut Loss = Stop the transaction manually after the loss point is more that expected.

Advantages and Disadvantages Of FOREX Trading

Currency trading, or Foreign Exchange trading is rapidly becoming very popular around the world because of the exciting rewards it promises to offer.

Earlier, currency trading was available only to huge corporations and monopolies. They had unlimited resources and investment capabilities. Small scale investors or individuals were unable to participate because it was just too overwhelming.

Fortunately things are fast changing now. For the first time in the history of currency trading, even individuals and small-scale investors can think of currency trading. Because of the advent of the Internet and advancement in technology, a lot of information is now available to individuals. They now have the resources to speculate and make investments, oftentimes
free of cost.

Currency trading is most certainly not risk free. Like any other work that involves financial transactions, it has its own negative points. Just one example is the unpredictability of currencies. Since currencies rise and fall almost every second, they might be extremely high one minute and absolutely useless the next.

Thus, currency traders must be on guard at all times to be in touch with the changes that keep taking place on the market. Since the foreign exchange market runs 24 hours a day, monitoring it every moment can be quite a tedious task.

Another important thing to remember is that when one currency value falls, another shoots up. After all, these currencies are trading against each other and this balance has to be maintained. Thus, to minimize risks, trade on major currencies such as the Dollar, the Pound or the Yen. Since they are the most traded currencies, their value will not catapult too drastically - these are valuable currencies.

Make sure your research on the subject of currency trading is thorough before you delve into the actual trading. The returns might look tempting to you, but if you jump into it rashly then you stand to lose rather than gain these returns. The amounts of energy and finances you need to invest in this trade are considerable and thus it would be better to exercise caution about delving into the trade.

Keep yourself up-to-date by either doing this yourself or hiring an expert to do it for you. Knowledge about the market also lessens the chances of you being duped into trading at the wrong time. You will not be dependent on anyone else to know when to sell or buy and thus invulnerable to cheats.

Avoiding Pitfalls in Forex Trade

Fiorenzo Fontana, a trader and analyst at UBS wrote a very interesting article containing a lot of tips on how to avoid typical pitfalls and start making more money in forex trading.

All of his tips are very interesting and useful. Some of the less known are as follows:
  • Trade pairs, not currencies
  • Don't place very tight orders
  • Use reasonable stop losses
  • Increase your leverage in line with your experience and success
  • Don't trade during off peak hours
  • The best time to trade is when news is released
  • If you place a trade and it's not working out for you, get out
  • Trade in the direction the price is going
  • Learn the business before you trade - possibly the most important tip!

In the second part of the article, Fiorenzo gives a number of interesting tips relating to trader's behavior and psychology. Again, some of the less known are:

  • Focus on your current position(s) and place reasonable stop losses at the time you do the trade
  • Focus on one cross at a time
  • Don't trust demos - demo trading often causes new traders to learn bad habits. Once you know how your broker's system works, start trading small amounts and only take the risk you can afford to win or lose (new traders - remember that!)
  • Stick to your strategy and invest profits on the next trade that matches your long-term goals
  • Don't trade if you are bored, unsure or reacting on a whim
  • Read forums, blogs and chats around the net to get an unbiased opinion before you choose your broker

Aren't those tips good? Not too often such good pieces of advice are being given for free... You can read here all tips by Firenzo Fontana on how to avoid the pitfalls and start making more money in your forex trading.


FOREX Trader Success Tips

Forex trading, or any trading for that matter, is an occupation that requires experience and the accumulation of proficiency not unlike any other highly skilled profession. Whether you are a leading executive at a major publically traded company, a professional golfer or trading from your kitchen table, there are 5 key ingredients that one must possess in order to become successful.

1. You must be Passionate about what you do.

As Forex traders we all face one unique set of circumstances that does not exist in any other profession. We get rewarded for when we succeed and equally punished when we don’t! Could you image a corporate worker one quarter receiving a significant accomplishment bonus and the next quarter actually getting money taken from their paycheck for missing performance targets? Not on your life!


We do as Forex traders and that is why passion for what you do will carry you through the tough times that are part of your trading business. Asked yourself why you trade currencies and would you still do it if Forex were not potentially lucrative? Your answers will be quite revealing. You’ve got to feel your passion for trading!

2. You have to Apply Yourself and work hard at it.


I talk to so many people that enter into Forex trading with the aspiration of getting rich quick. Without putting the time and energy into really getting good at trading I see them jump from strategy to strategy looking for the goose that will lay the golden egg and eventually quitting while blaming everything else, except the true cause.

I got news for you – you are the goose and your Forex education is the golden egg. The magic has always resided with the magician and not some strategy. Work hard at trading and the rewards will eventually come your way. Remember what Tiger Woods said, “Funny, the harder I work the luckier I get.” Apply yourself as a trader and it will be no accident when your account begins to blossom.

3. You must Focus to really get good at what you do.

Now here is the hurdle most Forex traders struggle to get over. You have the passion and you are applying yourself to your trade, now focus and really get good at just at what you are doing. Be the expert to the experts at just that one thing. Become the master of a strategy or risk management methodologies. Really focus on getting good at it.

Stop jumping around or getting pulled from the last “latest and greatest” into the next “latest and greatest” and focus on one aspect of Forex trading and know it inside out. Know it strengths and weakness. Set your sights on becoming expert on just one aspect of trading and watch it spill over in all other aspects for your currency trading. This is the time to fail forward fast, use every setback as a learning opportunity that will propel you 3-steps ahead!

4. You must Push Yourself beyond the point everyone else might have quite.

In Forex Trading this is simple. Assume there is someone on the other side of your trade that is pushing themselves and sharpening their edge. To be successful you must you must do the same thing. Now is the time to examine your mental edge. Do you know the single most critical factor in any currency trade? It is you, the trader! Sharpening you mental edge is the most difficult aspect of trading, but also the most rewarding.

Start with your Forex education and gain the self-awareness necessary to maximize your strengths and suppress your weaknesses. Any expert will tell you that trading is 80% mental. It’s time to sharpen your trading to the razor’s edge and you do this through Forex education. A constant and never ending process that will become the cornerstone of your Forex experience.

5. You must, without wavering, be Determined and Persist to your objective.

You will fail. I can state that emphatically. However, you will not be defeated unless you allow your failures to control your trading. It is the old adage; failure is not falling of your horse, failure is refusing to get back on. Your success depends on your ability to dismiss the criticism, rejection, self-doubt and pressures associated with Forex trading.

Defining what is a winning trade, losing trade and bad trade will go a long way into developing you as a successful trader. Without the determination and persistence in all aspects of your trading life, obstacle will definitely appear closer and larger than they actually are.

Take a moment and assess yourself and your trading. Do you have the key elements to succeed? Which areas are presents development opportunities? When conducting a self-evaluation it is critical to be totally upfront and honest with yourself. After all, you will only be dishonest with yourself. One of the most interesting observations you can make is that all key success factors are interwoven. One factor supports the other. This is why your Forex education is a continuous journey of forex strategy, money management and self-mastery. Set these factors as your Forex education goals and take your currency trading to new heights.

Happy Trading!!

Daily Forex signal 31st JULY

D20P BUY A GBP/USD 1.6473

take profit 1.6493

stoploss 1.6443

ADVICE : SIDEWAY MARKET AHEAD

system option : add spread on buy order

SIGNAL VALID FROM 6.00 GMT - 18.00 GMT

RESULT WIN

Daily FOREX Signal 30 Jul 2009

D20P SELL A GBP/USD 1.6376
TAKE PROFIT 1.6356
STOP LOSS 1.6406
ADVICE : SIDE WAY MARKET AHEAD
( signal valid from 6 GMT to 18 hrs GMT)

Online FOREX Trading

The Forex market is a global entity that embraces most of the economies of the world and which behavior reflects a number of factors that at the end determine the performance of the countries economies, and being more specific for our Forex purposes, the performance of their national currencies.

When trading FOREX, you will need to approach the markets with the highest amount of knowledge you can gather so you can understand what the currencies are doing and why the price goes up or down. The are two kind of analysis you can use for this purpose; one is Technical analysis and the other is Fundamental analysis.

Technical analysis is aimed to the study of charts and the behavior of prices from a more mathematical point of view. And it’s from this kind of analysis that most indicators derive as Bollinger bands, Moving Averages, Fibonacci levels, etc.

But there is also the Fundamental analysis. This kind of approach is mainly based on the economic performance of a particular country and its currency. It’s also based on political events, natural phenomena that affect a country’s production capacity, etc. Also as factors that influences the value of a particular currency we could mention the acts of Congress regarding corporate tax structure, labor legislation reforms; of course the amount and direction of military spending, specially in times of global instability. Even the Supreme Court rulings on different issues can have an impact on the value of the currency in the international markets.

Without any doubt the Internal Revenue office will have also an important influence on the forex market with their rulings on corporate or personal tax , also the Commerce Department’s forecasts, prices for agricultural products, etc. Almost all important events in a particular country will have an influence on its currency.

As a FOREX Trader you should always have an eye on these events, at least the most important ones so you can have a reliable indication of what course will the forex market take and act accordingly always with the intention of having profitable trades.

FOREX Trading For Free

Maybe you are only testing the waters and learning the basics of the Forex market, but that doesn’t mean you should be left on the side and without access to a trading station and the ability to enter trades in real time. That’s something every aspiring Forex trader needs in order to feel the real emotions and sometimes hard decisions a profitabe forex trader must make.

The good news is that there exists something called “Demo Accounts” and that all reputable Forex brokers will make available to their clients. With an account of this kind you will be able to use the same trading station software used by more experienced and professional Forex traders. With this account you won’t need real money from your pocket at all. You will be given an amount of “dummy money” you can use to enter trades in the market and this way you will test how good you really are trading the currency markets.

With this kind of account you can test how much you have understood about technical indicators as Fibonacci levels, Bollinger bands, Exponential Moving Averages, etc. You will be free to commit any mistakes and learn how to fix your trading in such a way that within a short time you will be ready to start trading with real money and with the confidence that you will be trading over a field you already know in great detail. This confidence will boost the amount of you make and in consequence your losses will be kept at the minimum possible.

FOREX Introduction

FOREX is the world’s largest and most liquid trading market. Many consider FOREX as the best home business you can ever venture in. Even though regular people have had the opportunity to take part in trading foreign currencies for profit (in the same way banks and large corporations do) since 1998, it is just now becoming the cool, hip, new "thing" to talk about at parties, business events, and other social gatherings.

Even though it has been somewhat of a loosely guarded secret, every day more and more investors are turning to the all-electronic world of FOREX trading for income and profit because of its numerous benefits & advantages over traditional trading vehicles, like stocks, bonds and commodities.

But, still, whenever something seems new or is just becoming a part of social conversation, news articles, and water cooler gossip, misconceptions have to be overcome, the mind
has to be open and the slate has to be clear for starting out fresh with the CORRECT information.

So, in this article, it is my attempt to give you some solid, but not over-detailed, information on just what the heck "FX" (FOREX) means, what it is, and why it exists.

As a successful trader said, Trading FOREX is like picking money up off the floor. Not trading FOREX is like leaving it there for someone else to pick up." Others in the industry
have also said, Trading FOREX is like having an ATM machine on your own computer.

Here's an explanation (one I feel you'll appreciate) of what FOREX is and how a bunch of traders, profit from it:

The Foreign Exchange Market, also referred to the "FOREX" or "FX" market, is the spot (cash) market for currency.

But, don't mistake FX as trading the futures market, where you buy a contract to purchase a particular currency at a future price in time.

What FX traders do is much less risky than trading currencies on the futures market, much more profitable, and a lot easier, than trading stocks.

So, you're probably wondering where it's at ... or ... how to access the FX market?

The answer is: FX Trading is not bound to any one trading floor and is not centralized on an exchange, as with the stock and futures markets. The FX market is considered an Over-the-Counter (OTC) or 'Interbank' market, due to the fact that the entire market is run electronically, within a network of banks, continuously over a 24-hour period.

Yes, if that's the first time you've heard about an all-electronic market, I know this may sound somewhat intriguing to you.

Here's what you are actually trading when you participate in the Foreign Exchange (FOREX) market:

Essentially, like the large banks who use the FX market to protect themselves from the fluctuating exchange rate of different currencies, as an investor, what a FX trader is doing is
simultaneously exchanging one countries currency for another. So, in actuality, they're electronically trading a currency-pair and the price that is quoted to us is the exchange rate
between the two currencies.

In other words, simply the quoted price is how many of the one currency is worth 1 of the other currency.

Example:

EUR/USD last trade 1.2850 - One Euro is worth $1.2850 US dollars.The first currency (in this example, the EURO) is referred to as the base currency and the second (/USD) as the counter or quote currency.

The FOREX has a DAILY trading volume of around $1.5 trillion dollars - 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 exchange every day!

The FOREX plays a vital role in the world economy and there will always be a tremendous need for the FOREX. International trade increases as technology and communication increases. As long as there is international trade, there will be a FOREX market. The FX market has to exist so a country like Japan can sell products in the United States and be able to receive Japanese Yen in exchange for US Dollar.

There's plenty of money to be made using FOREX for plenty of traders that use the right trading techniques / tactics that will allow them to profit immensely. And, with only 5% of the daily turnover of volume coming from banks, government and large corporations who need to hedge, the other 95% is for speculation and profit.