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Showing posts with label FOREX. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FOREX. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

What is Forex?


FOREX - the foreign exchange market or currency market or Forex is the market where one currency is traded for another. It is one of the largest markets in the world.

Some of the participants in this market are simply seeking to exchange a foreign currency for their own, like multinational corporations which must pay wages and other expenses in different nations than they sell products in. However, a large part of the market is made up of currency traders, who speculate on movements in exchange rates, much like others would speculate on movements of stock prices. Currency traders try to take advantage of even small fluctuations in exchange rates.

In the foreign exchange market there is little or no 'inside information'. Exchange rate fluctuations are usually caused by actual monetary flows as well as anticipations on global macroeconomic conditions. Significant news is released publicly so, at least in theory, everyone in the world receives the same news at the same time.

Currencies are traded against one another. Each pair of currencies thus constitutes an individual product and is traditionally noted XXX/YYY, where YYY is the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currency into which the price of one unit of XXX currency is expressed. For instance, EUR/USD is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, as in 1 euro = 1.2045 dollar.

Unlike stocks and futures exchange, foreign exchange is indeed an interbank, over-the-counter (OTC) market which means there is no single universal exchange for specific currency pair. The foreign exchange market operates 24 hours per day throughout the week between individuals with forex brokers, brokers with banks, and banks with banks. If the European session is ended the Asian session or US session will start, so all world currencies can be continually in trade. Traders can react to news when it breaks, rather than waiting for the market to open, as is the case with most other markets.

Average daily international foreign exchange trading volume was $1.9 trillion in April 2004 according to the BIS study.

Like any market there is a bid/offer spread (difference between buying price and selling price). On major currency crosses, the difference between the price at which a market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") to a wholesale customer and the price at which the same market-maker will buy ("bid") from the same wholesale customer is minimal, usually only 1 or 2 pips. In the EUR/USD price of 1.4238 a pip would be the '8' at the end. So the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.4238/1.4239.

This, of course, does not apply to retail customers. Most individual currency speculators will trade using a broker which will typically have a spread marked up to say 3-20 pips (so in our example 1.4237/1.4239 or 1.423/1.425). The broker will give their clients often huge amounts of margin, thereby facilitating clients spending more money on the bid/ask spread. The brokers are not regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (since they do not sell securities), so they are not bound by the same margin limits as stock brokerages. They do not typically charge margin interest, however since currency trades must be settled in 2 days, they will "resettle" open positions (again collecting the bid/ask spread).

Individual currency speculators can work during the day and trade in the evenings, taking advantage of the market's 24 hours long trading day.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Forex Mistakes - 5 Common Mistakes Losers Make and How to Win at Forex


Forex trading is more popular than ever and it's a known fact that everything about Forex trading can be specifically learned but 95% of traders still lose. So how do you avoid the losing majority and enter the elite 5% of traders, who make huge gains? Let's find out.

Here are the reasons the vast majority of traders lose and there all avoidable mistakes.

1. They think they can get rich with no effort

These traders follow cheap software packages which claim big gains with no effort and they soon get wiped out. If you want to make money, you need to make an effort - it's as simple as that.

2. Not Understanding the Dangers of Leverage

Leverage can work for or against you and most traders simply leverage their money to much and get wiped out. Over leveraging an account, will sooner or later lead to a wipe out so use sensible leverage. Leverage of 10 or 20:1 is enough for most traders.

3. Over Trading

Forex trends last for many weeks, months or years yet, most traders try and scalp a few pips in a day or two. The result is they take low odds trades, lose or make marginal gains which never cover their inevitable losses.

Keep in mind, you don't get rewarded for how much you trade, just how much you make per trade! So focus on high odds trades which are long term.

4. Over Complicating a Trading System

Many traders think 10 indicators are better than 2 but this is not true. If you make your system to complex, with to many rules, it will simply have too many elements to break in real time trading. All the best systems are simple and yours should be too.


5. Not Trading With Discipline

If you want to enjoy profits longer term, you need to have strict money management and trade with discipline. This means you take your losses and keep them small -Sounds simple?

Well most traders can't do it, they let their emotions get involved, run losses or override their system rules and lose. Forex trading is not about ego or being right all the time, it's about making money and you can actually lose far more trades than you win and still make money, if you run your profits and cut your losses.

All traders even the top ones, will lose for periods and you will too and how you deal with these losses, will determine if you enjoy long term currency trading success or not.

Winning at Forex Trading

If you want to win at Forex trading you can. You need a simple robust trading strategy you have confidence in combined with the discipline to trade it.

You need to keep losses small and run your profits - this has always been the way to succeed and always will be. If you put in the effort and have the right mindset, no other business can make you as much money as global Forex.

Learn to Trade Forex - 5 Simple Yet Powerful Trading Rules


Do you think that forex trading is easy or difficult? If you are like most people, you would feel that forex trading is a risky and difficult financial game.

If you think it this way, how can a game with only two options (buy and sell) be so difficult?

It has lesser commands than your typical Xbox360 game! The reasons why most traders can keep losing money are that they are not following the simple rules that have made the top traders so rich. Now learn to trade forex with these 5 simple and powerful trading rules that the top traders use.

1. Obey the trend or else they will kill you

People say that trends are friends. Well, I would say trends are like wave of tsunami that sweeps anyone away who goes against it. Do not try to trade against trend or you will surely get killed.

Trends are so powerful because they are directed by the majority of the traders. They all have the same opinion where the prices should go. So learn to trade forex by following the trend. It will greatly improve your net profits in the long term.

2. Stick to your trading plan and embed it into your DNA

If trend is like a tsunami wave, a trading plan would be the actions to get you out safety and profitably.

Most traders get confused in the trading market due to the zig zag manner in how the prices move. These are noises in the market and will often interfere with your emotions to trade properly. In this kind of situation, you need to follow your trading plan to keep calm. Learn to trade forex like a robot who only follows the trading plan.

3. Trade with the money you simply do not care

Money is the holy idol of many people. Nothing wrong about that but the temporary loss and gain of it during trading will constantly affect you to trade properly.

If you are having this problem, treat your money as a business inventory instead. It is simply an expendable business inventory that you have to sacrifice to make you more money.In order to do that, you should allocate money that you can afford to lose without any pain. Learn to trade forex without any pain and then you can follow your trading plan faithfully!

4. Trade the currencies that is world is looking

Noise is a killer in forex trading. It causes traders to exit or enter at the wrong time. The noise level in thin currencies is the worse. Big traders can manipulate the currencies easily to hit your stoploss before continuing your intended direction.

We do not want to put ourselves in difficult spot so we only trade the major currencies. These currencies are traded by most the forex traders in the world and thus they follow a steady trend.

Learn to trade forex using the big 5 currencies only: USD/EUR, USD/JPY, USD/GBD, USD/CHF, and EUR/JPY. They have high liquidity as they are traded by the majority of the traders.

5. Make Forex dull and professional

Make forex trading another dull routine of yours. Every day you simply fulfill this routine by following your trading plan.

Excitement and any kind of emotions do not make you any money. They are merely making you ineffective in trading. If you are trading with the money you can lose without any pain, there is absolutely nothing in forex trading that can cause your emotions to go wild.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Become a Professional Forex Trader From Home in 4 Simple Steps!


The good news is anyone can learn currency trading online so anyone can become a professional Forex trader from home, if they follow the 4 simple steps outlined in this article.

You can be any age, male or female or of any educational background, there is nothing to stop you earning a great second or perhaps even a life changing income - if you want too. Let's look at our 4 simple steps to trading like a pro.

1. Accept Responsibility

You will see a lot of vendors online who claim you can make easy money by following their cheap software packages and guess what? None of them work, otherwise they wouldn't be sold so cheaply! Traders fall for these systems all the time and think by paying a hundred dollars or so, they will get rich with no effort but that's a fantasy and not reality.

To win at Forex trading, you have to accept responsibility for your destiny and learn skills and get the right mindset for success. This doesn't mean you have to work for months on end, you can learn Forex trading in a couple of weeks and soon be making big profits in just 30 minutes a day or less.

2. Use a Simple System Based on the reality of Price Change

To win you only need a simple system and this has always been true. Make a system to complex and it will simply have too many elements to break.

Keep it nice and simple and also don't try and predict market highs and lows, trade the reality of price change and base your system on breakout trading. We don't have time to cover this great methodology here but we have written about it in our other articles so look it up.

3. You Can't be Perfect Accept Your Losses


You can't win every trade and when you trade on leverage its important you keep losses small, you are going to have them so take them and then run your profits when you get them. I know traders who lose 70% of the time yet, still make triple gains because their winners are so big. Money management and preservation of equity is the foundation Forex trading success is built on so pay attention to it.

4. Trade with Discipline at ALL Times

Most traders can't trade with discipline; when they lose they start to run losses, revenge trade, swap systems or stop trading. You must trade with discipline at all times and follow your system, always remember - if you can't follow a system with rigid discipline, you don't have a system

Why You can Win

Forex trading is a learned skill and its as much about having the right mindset, as having a good method but you can learn both and soon become a professional Forex trader from home, making a tripe digit income in 30 minutes a day or less.



Friday, July 17, 2009

How to Trade Forex and Make Enough Money


In times of financial hardship certain people rise to the challenge while others sink into depression and fail to take action. In today's world, regardless of what country you might reside in, there are many people wondering where there next pay check is going to come from or if they are going to receive one at all. While others among us are vastly under employed and under appreciated that for there own self worth feel a need to improve there economic condition. Learning how to trade Forex is becoming more and more popular as each year passes as a path to financial freedom and security.

Investing in the currency markets, if done properly has been proven to be one of the safest forms of investment one can make when compared to stocks, bonds, real estate or a new business venture. The key words above were, "When done properly." Which leads to the question, how and where does a novice learn to properly invest and trade the Forex markets?

Fortunately for those searching for the answer to that question, obtaining a high quality Forex education has never been easier with advent of the internet and increased interest in the subject worldwide. There are numerous online currency courses designed to teach every possible aspect of investing and trading an individual could ever desire.

One person might want a simple quick way to make money in the markets that does not require a long learning curve. For them a currency class like Forex Trading Made E Z would be perfect. This program only teaches one easy to understand and simple to do trading technique that has produced substantial profits for former students for years.

Another person might desire a comprehensive Forex education that would supply them with a solid foundation to build an investment career on. For those people, you might want to consider the Forex mentoring programs. These are without question the class that provide the most outstanding education available today. My three favorites mentoring course are Fap Winner, Straight Forex and The Forex Brotherhood.

As you can see there is a currency course for everyone that wants to learn how to trade Forex and take there profits to the next level. I only mentioned a few of my specific favorite classes, there are many more that cover all levels of training in between what I discussed above. Make no mistake about it, people from every country on the globe today are becoming wealthy investing in the FX markets and taking time to learn currency trading is the first step to financial freedom that so many of us desire.

Forex Trading - Make Money From Home Based Business


What is Forex trading and how did the name originate?

The Forex trading name derived from Foreign Exchange. The first three letters of Foreign and the first two letters of Exchange are added together.

Forex trading is about dealing in international currencies to make money. When trading in the stock market we sell the currency of one country to buy that of another, hoping to make a good profit.

Before the onset of the internet, Forex trading was open only to multinational corporations and banks. Now, many people work from home with their Forex trading money business.

The Forex trader deals in Foreign Exchange at the most appropriate time to profit from the transaction. Dealing in the stock market requires a good ability to forecast the outcome of all currency transactions.

Trading in the forex market is popular because although there are frequent fluctuations in currencies, in percentage terms they may be small.

You may then wonder how trading in currencies can be such a lucrative earning opportunity since fluctuations in exchange can be so little. However, when trading in large volumes, a small change can mean a lot.

You can make a lot of money Forex trading online in the stock market. But there are certain conditions to follow before trading in foreign currencies.

A thorough knowledge about the trends in the stock market is required. You should also know the basics of this type of trading and risk taking. Alternatively, you can use a robot for attaining these conditions. Especially a robot that does all the forex trading work for you!

You gain if the fluctuation favors you and the reverse holds true as well. No one can accurately predict the trend of the currencies. Liquidity is another reason why Foreign Exchange is so popular.

You can make lots of money trading in currencies, even if your initial investment is quite low. So remember that even with a nominal investment, your earning ability is certainly very large.

Most of the great businesses are connected to the internet today, and Forex is no exception. It is now easy for you to work from home and start trading in foreign currencies. In fact, it is fully conducted online. You are at liberty to choose when to start trading, without having to meet any deadlines.

You can quickly start your own work from home Forex trading business. The process of trading online in the currency market is fairly simple for anyone to understand. Especially with a currency robot that does all the trading work for you.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Making Money With Forex - Is it Really Possible?

Due to the fact that 95% of forex traders are losing money right now, the idea of making money with forex seems like an impossibility to some. You can certainly understand why.

But let's examine why there is such a separation between the 5% who are marking money with forex and the 95% who are losing money. What makes these traders so different from one another.

Some people think that the 5% have some kind of "inside" information that the 95% aren't aware of. While that certainly may be possible, I seriously doubt that is the case for the entire successful trading public.

Some people believe that it's an intelligence issue. They somehow feel that this elite 5% had a better education, higher IQs, etc..... that they are able to grasp all the mysteries of forex trading, while the other 95% are just throwing darts at a dartboard. Well, that's wrong as well. I can tell you with great certainty that successful trading has nothing to do with intelligence. I've met some traders who make 7 figures a year who didn't even graduate from high school.


It really boils down to thinking outside the box. Many people conform to the ideas of using lots of bells and whistles. For instance, a lot of traders love the idea of slapping a bunch of indicators on a chart, and letting these indicators make their trading decisions for you. This is where many people go wrong, and this is why the failure rate is so high. If you want success, you should try to see the markets in its purest form, and for a technical trader, this means using price action.

John Templeton has been a successful forex trader after learning how to trade price action. Once he understood that all he needed to trade forex was on a plain chart with no indicators, his profits soared. He developed his own course, called Trading in the Buff, where he teaches traders how to properly learn forex