Sunday, October 4, 2009



Online Forex Trading Strategies


The advent of the internet and the onset of the recession has led to a greatly increased level of interest in FX online trading.New brokerage web sites are springing up all the time and it's difficult to decide which one to opt for.This article sets out 3 questions you must ask your broker before you open an account.

1. Are you an FCM (Futures Commission Merchant) broker or an ECN (Electronic Communication) broker?The reason for this question is this. FCM brokers very often have their own dealing rooms and often don't pass on their customers' trades to the actual FX market. They match one customer with another, or alternatively bet against them. With all their facilities and the ability to manipulate the prices on their system you can guess who stands the better chance of winning the trade.

ECN brokers don't have their own dealing rooms, but pass on all trades to the market, as they should. They therefore cannot bet against you, but simply collect the "spread", whether your trade is profitable or not. They also have no restrictions on trading or hedging, and tend to have the best prices and spreads.


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2. Where are you registered and how much is your capital?
Make sure that your broker is not registered in an offshore jurisdiction (you don't want problems if you decide to withdraw your money). He should be registered in the US, the UK, a major European country, Australia or Japan, with the appropriate regulating authority.

In the UK it's the Financial Services Authority and in the USA it's both the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the National Futures Association. Ensure the company's capital is at least $7 million (USD), or £5 million (GBP). Any less and there's a danger it could go bust and take your money with it.

3. Can I trade with covered warrants and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) as well as spread bets?Most brokers will direct you without even asking towards spread betting because that is the most profitable kind of account for them. But there are other methods of trading fx which can, once you master them (which is not difficult), be far more profitable for you.

When you make a spread bet on a currency pairing, for example the British pound and the US dollar (GBP/USD), there will be a "spread" that you have to overcome before you get into profit. This is how the broker makes his money (if he's not actively betting against you, as often happens).


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So, for example, as I write, the GBP/USD pair are trading at 1.5107. If your broker has a 3 point spread he may set his sell/buy prices at 1.5706/1.5709, so you can go long (buy) at 1.5709, but the price would have to move up 3 points to 1.5710 (i.e. 1.5709/1.5712 at your broker) before you would be at "break even" point. The same applies in reverse if you chose to sell, or go short. You are always at a disadvantage compared to the market or your broker.

This, coupled with absurdly low "stop loss" levels, makes it almost inevitable that the new trader will lose all his money before long. The low amount of capital required by most brokers to open an account, which is pushed as being generous on their part, enabling the "ordinary Joe" to "open a currency trading account and start profiting", actually works against you.


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If you have only a small amount of capital in your account then, unless you are going to risk nearly all of it on each trade (in which case you are doomed to lose all your money even more quickly than normal) you are going to have to trade with tight stop loss levels.

In the volatile fx market, where prices move erratically and seldom go up or down in a straight line, this is crazy. The few successful traders in this market employ large stop loss levels, even on trades they are very sure about. This enables them to ride the volatility of the market.

The only practical solution to this anomaly is to avoid spread betting altogether, and use instead covered warrants and Exchange Traded Funds. Hence this question. You may, however, have to go further than your broker in order to learn how to trade these instruments. But the information is there, if you look.

Friday, September 25, 2009

How NOT To Do a Forex Demo

I opened up my first Forex demo account with the intention of making a fortune by trading in the Forex market. It is a given that before you attempt to trade, you should open a demo account, and I am grateful that I had the intelligence to at least do that before I started live trading.

I had seen ads for a large Forex broker, and because they seemed to be well-known and popular, I decided to go to that broker's website and apply for my Forex demo account. The application process took only a very few minutes, and after confirming my e-mail address, I was on my way, or so I thought.

When I finally got the trading platform downloaded and installed, and opened it up for the first time, I was confronted with a dazzling array of numbers, currency symbols and tables that were very unfamiliar. I did see that there were charts available, and since I had some experience with charts in the stock market, I decided to start there.

I opened a few charts for what I later learned were some of the major currency pairs, and even found some indicators that I was familiar with. I applied a few indicators, and played around with the charts until I had a very impressive looking screen in front of me.

I returned to the main trading screen, and proceeded to watch the prices change quite rapidly before my eyes. It all got more and more intimidating, and I never got much beyond that point. I think that I bought 1 lot of a currency pair, and watched the prices move for a few minutes, and then sold it again (for a loss). But other than that, I didn't do anything else with my Forex demo at that time.

The problem is, I had gone about the whole thing backwards. There really is no sense in opening up a Forex demo account unless you have a system that you are intending to trade, and that you want to test and practice with before you start live trading. You have to have a plan, which means a system that you intend to follow, to determine four things:

What currency pairs you will trade.
When to buy.
How much to buy.
When to sell.

Unless you know the answer to those 4 questions, a demo account is going to be nothing more than a very intimidating screen full of currency pairs and moving prices.It wasn't until about a year later that I found a system that made sense to me, and finally opened a demo account that I would really use. And when I opened up the trading platform this time, I knew exactly what I was going to do, because my system answered those 4 key questions for me.

Now, I am happy to say that Forex trading is a big part of my life. I have since started a newsletter and blog, in which I share the system I use with anyone who is interested in learning this amazing way of making money. I encourage you to learn how to trade the Forex market. But I hope you will start a little more intelligently than I did, and that means, starting with a system!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

CURRENCY TRADING

Forex is also known as foreign currency trading or even just Foreign exchange. In a simpler way it means that a country's currency is exchanged for another country's currency. The most common foreign currencies that are traded in the forex are Japanese Yen, Euro, US Dollar, Swiss Franc and British Pound. But among these the US Dollar is the most popularly used currency in the world for almost all the third world countries in their commercial transactions.

The above five currencies makes up North American trading of more than 70%. Foreign currency trading is greater than other stock markets and also has a greater liquidity since it has a volume of trading around 50 to 100 times more than the New York Exchange that undergoes the trading of stocks and this New York Stock Exchange has the highest trade volume when compared to other stock markets.

The liquidity is mainly because of the nature of currencies and other factors like economical stability that control the currency's value. Due to this high liquidity and high volatility in the forex market, the forex traders can make profits at least more than five times that a trader does in trading liquid shares in the stock market.

There is a great volatility of 500 generated by the foreign currency trading whereas the liquid stocks generate only a volatility of only 60 to 100 and there are no transaction fees and other miscellaneous fees for doing currency trading with iforex.

The Currency Trading has gone up to $3.2 trillion every day in the present trend in the world and the technology advancement like internet also has been its key to development. The other reason is that it is recession resistant and has greater benefits than other financial investments such as stocks and bonds.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Forex Trading Platforms - Advantages of Forex Investing

Do you know the advantages of the forex market compared to other types of investments?Here's a little taste of the advantages associated with this type of investment vehicle.There are no major holds on your money like there are with other investment vehicles.To trade in the forex market, you don't need a lot of money to start investing.

You can get into the forex market with sums as low as Three Hundred Dollars (USD). This is known as what's called a "mini account".The forex market is also very liquid. In fact, you have total control of your money.The forex or foreign currency market is open twenty four - seven (24 hours per day), whereas the stock markets as most people know it are not.


Forex traders can be profitable in all types of markets (bear or bull). Forex traders can make a profit during up trends and downtrends. That won't happen with your typical stock market investing.Forex Trading can be risky UNLESS have a good system to follow, good money management skills, and strong self discipline.

If that sounds like you, then Forex trading can be a relatively low risk investment.This market can be traded at anytime during the day or night (remember it's 24/7). All you need is access to a computer and you'll have the ability to trade.

Don't forget to practice with "fake money." Most brokers have demo accounts where you can download their trading station and practice real time with fake money. This obviously is no guarantee of how you'll perform with the real thing, but it can give you quite the advantage when it comes time for you to trade with YOUR real money.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Understanding Forex Capital Markets

The Forex Capital Market in the foreign exchange arena worldwide is a nonstop,no nonsense cash market. The different currencies of nations are traded here for profit and the transactions are typically taken care of by dedicated brokers. Foreign currencies in the Forex Capital Market worldwide are consistently bought and sold.

This buying and selling of currencies takes place across local and global markets. The overall exercise is to ensure that the investments of the traders involved increase in value. These profits are in turn generated by the currency movements. The conditions in the Forex capital market arena are subject to change at any time and are substantially influenced by a number of real time economic news and events.

The main attraction of this market for retail traders includes 24x7 trading and nonstop access to the global Forex dealers. You can literally trade at any time of the day!The currency markets worldwide are enormously liquid and this nature of the market makes it easy to trade the major currencies (U.S. Dollar, Euro, Swiss Franc, Japanese Yen and British Pound).

This highly volatile and liquid market offers investors a number of profit raking opportunities.A trader's ability to quickly profit with the rising or falling of prices is what lures the industry big players to keep earning and investing regularly.The market offers foreign exchange trading within a leveraged arena, with low margin requirements. The market also offers investors and traders ample of options to benfit from with zero commission trading.

The currency market deals with sensitive capitl investments from all over the world, and aims to profit from volatile foreign currency movements around the globe. Forex trading within the dedicated market is always conducted in currency pairs. The numbers are referred to as foreign exchange rates and investors need to understand how to interpret its values.For example, the rate of EUR/USD = 1.4000 means that one Euro can be traded with 1.4000 U.S. Dollars.

The lucrative trading opportunities from all over the world enable the investor to enjoy the benefits of a high return on investment in the Forex market. Compared to other forms of trading, currency trading can potentially yield a 30% return (or more) within a very short time period. Also, compared to a stock which may be worth absolutely nothing in the case of a bankruptcy, it is highly unlikely that a currency can be completely worthless.

When trading currencies in this unique market, traders deal only when the currency being bought is expected to increase in value as compared to the currency being sold. This financial rostrum also flaunts scope for open trades or open positions, where the trader buys or sells a particular currency pair, but does not transact the equivalent amount to close the position.

The arena is very speculative in nature. The currencies in are traded in pairs and exchanged one against the other and exchange rates are mostly determined against the US dollar (USD). This financial market works along the determined minimum security that is intended to cover trading losses and the margin enables private investors totrade in high minimum units and enhanced rates of profit.

Monday, September 21, 2009

Trading Currencies - Forex Breakout Strategy

The Breakout Strategy is one of the most commonly used by professional and successful traders. Even though it is used by professionals, it is really simple to implement using regularly updated technical charts which are readily available online.Breakouts in the forex market occur anytime that a price breaks above or below a resistance or support point.These points are determined by technical analysis and anyone can find what the technical points are on charts online.

Sometimes I use the free technical charts available to all So, for example, let's say most recent technical chart on the the EUR/USD gives the following information: S1: 1.3609 S2: 1.3584 S3: 1.3560, and R1: 1.3657 R2: 1.3682 and R3: 1.3706. This means that S1 is the current first level of support for the EUR/USD and the last time the EUR/USD tested S1, enough buying occured that it did not fall any further.

If the EUR/USD falls through S1, then S2 is the next level of support, and finally S3is the third level of support.Likewise, R1 would indicate the first level of resistance through which it may be unlikely for the EUR/USD to be able to break above. If EUR/USD does break above R1, then R2 is the next level of resistance, and R3 is the third level.

Now that you fully understand the basics and the simplicity of reviewing the technical chart. It is easy to spot a breakout trading opportunity. When the price of a currency pair breaks below a support point or breaks above a resistance point, a high probability trade in the continued direction of the breakout may be executed. (If the currency pair breaks through a support point, then go short/place a sell order on that pair.

If the currency pair breaks above a resistance point, then go long/place a buy order on that pair.)The trick here is to enter the trade as soon as you possibly can after the breakout occurs.If you wait too long, you could miss the major move and actually enter too late, possibly even so late that the trade reverses for a loss. If you enter the trade and set a reasonable stop profit.

You will minimize your loss potential while setting yourself up to collect the big pip movements that are often associated with currency pair breakouts.Now obviously, a full breakout does not occur every time a currency pair breaks above or below a technical point. Sometimes it leaps above or below the technical point briefly and then pulls back.


Such incidents are often referred to as "false breakouts."

However, catching the trend on a true breakout is worth losing some pips on all the false breaks the trader has to take when using this strategy. Hundreds of pips can be gained when a trader enters a trade at the beginning of a true breakout. So by setting your stops correctly, you should not lose too many pips on false breaks, and you may even be able to grab a small profit even on a false breakout.

When you catch a true breakout, however, you could very well gain hundreds and maybe even 2 hundred pips. When this happens you can set a trailing stop and let the trade continue to run at no risk with your profits "locked in." The first time a trader catches a true breakout with great momentum behind it, the trader will definitely recognize the power and simplicity of the breakout startegy and will realize that all of the small losses on false breaks were well worth it!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Global Forex Trading

Forex is one of the greatest hommy work opportunity to make money. It gives an opportunity to make money from the comfort of your home and spending the time with family at the same time. It is also an opportunity which you can do along with your existing day job. Forex means foreign exchange and Forex trading means is the trading between foreign exchanges.

Forex trading requires some knowledge about the way the Forex market runs. You have to learn about he factors both local and the global which affects the market. If you want to succeed in this particular trading you must have the knowledge about the basics and facts. Global Forex Trading offers the chance to deal in real time online currency trading that makes millions of forex brokers become more rich every day.

Global Forex Trading has less publicity that stock and commodities market and even the futures, even more than $2 trillion of currencies are transacted every day on the global forex market.Compared to stocks and shares or commodity markets that have specific opening and ending trading times. At the same tim, Forex markets are available for trading anytime with price of currencies changes and fluctuates everytime.

Forex trading has become an extremely popular way to trade the global market, the largest and most liquid market in the world.The Forex Trading market is open 24 hours a day. Forex trading also gives free commission and available on more than 60 currencies worldwide.Global forex trading boasts that they provide the only forex trading platform that is suitable for both beginners and professionals.

Forex Trading has no restrictions of getting profits no matter what the market condition. Nowday, the Global Forex Trading is available not only for the large investors but the smaller one can take a part too.Leverage is the main key and powerful tool to Forex Trading wealth.You should have a good education in Forex trading to reach gain and profits consistently.

In Forex trading, you can get a leverage of 20 to 50 times commonly up to 100% margin in some special cases. In stocks or shares, you may be able to get it of 50 – 70% of your stocks or shares.Leverage is the main key and powerful tool to Forex Trading wealth. You should have a good education in Forex trading to reach gain and profits consistently. With that leverage comparison, you may be able become a millionaire fastest in Forex trading.

All things you need to know and learn it up in Forex trading ; knowing risk level - how much you are willing to lose, understanding the different forex trading systems as technical and fundamental and research the trading systems which you can be familiar with how they work.Also learning the trading trends, price history, support and resistance lines, familiar with the fundamental economic factors and its issues that effect to the Forex market.

Global forex trading is something not many people consider for investment – because of less information - but worldwide forex trading continues and become more and more popular recently. Individuals all over the world are investing in the Forex market and gaining thousands of dollars every day.