"You get out of an investment what you put into it, so the first decision you have to make is how much time you are prepared to devote to the initial task of acquiring a basic knowledge of investment."
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Can You Make Money Online Trading Forex?
The forex market is filled with scam offers and pie in the sky promises. On the other hand, it is the largest, most liquid market that trades twenty four hours a day. So how to find your way through the maze of offers that are out there, well here are four steps to becoming a successful trader.Becoming a successful Forex trader basically comes down to four things:1) Learning about the markets and your appitite for riskHow the markets work, what moves them, etc is a simple matter as these markets are not that complicated. Determining how well you are suited to trading is a difficult process however. Finding out how you react to stress and perform when real money is on the line can be a life long process2) Finding and learning a system that fits your personality and life styleThere are as many different systems as there are traders, many have been proven over time, so really the only question is which one suits me.I know many will dispute this point, however it really is not as complicated as some try to make it. Most of those making it hard are really just trying to sell you something. There are many free systems that once learned and traded can make you wealthy3) Testing that system until you have an edge.Testing is the heart of becoming a good trader. Most people don't do this. If you test something until you can prove and edge, no matter how small it may seem, you just need to trade it over and over to make money.4) Trading that system exactly how you tested it, until you are wealthy.Many traders are always looking for that magic system that will make money fast. The secret to wealth is to stick to the system you have tested and proved and do it until you acumulate wealth. Not chase the latest trading software or system.When you are ready to trade this market, keep these four simple steps in mind and then do not let anything stand in your way of becoming the trader you want to be.
Forex Trading- The Most Successful Forex Strategies
You want to catch the serious profit in forex dealing you need to trend watch forex trends which are worse term. here we are going to give you a 3 step simple method which if you use it correctly, will help you catch every superior forex trend and lead you to long-term term currency dealing success.Most beginner traders don't bother trying to trend following forex lengthier term - instead they try forex scalping or day trading. These methods focus the trader on small moves and they hope to catch small profit however as most short term moves are random, this leads to equity eliminate.The other alternatives are swing trading and long term forex trend following and this article is all about the latter method. If you look at any forex chart, you will see long-term term trends that last for months or years. These moves can and do yield serious profit - present we will outline a simple method to get them.BreakoutsBy far the best way of catching the serious moves is to use a forex dealing strategy based around breakouts. A breakout is simply a move on a forex chart where a new high or low is made and resistance or support is broken.It's a fact that most leading moves start from new highs or lows.While it might appear that you are not buying or selling at the greatest level, you are in terms of the odds of the trend continuing. Most forex traders make the mistake of waiting for the breakout to come back and get in at a better price but these traders never get on board. The grounds for this is if a breakout occurs, then you have a new strong trend and a pullback is not very likely to occur.
What's the Best Forex Strategy?
Many forex traders find themselves asking the age old question what's the best forex strategy? To know the answer to that question, one must look at the history of trading. Not just forex trading, but trading, in general.The moment that the first bell rang on the stock market floor, traders were coming up with strategies to beat the market. Obviously they didn't have the technology that most of us have at our disposal. They didn't have the thousand dollar charting platforms that so many traders are overpaying for, just for the privilege of using them, nowadays. So how do you think the successful traders of the past made their money?Well, one way was through fundamental analysis. They were able to comprehend a company's financial statements such as balance sheets, income statements, statement of cash flows, etc. to know a bargain when they saw one. But these kind of people would be categorized as investors, not traders. Traders generally believed in technical analysis over fundamental analysis.So how did traders of that generation made their money? Simple. They understood the concept of price action. Plenty of floor traders became rich just by paying attention to how the other floor traders were trading the respective stock.How come a concept as simple as price action has been pushed back in favor of all the technological bells and whistles that most people use in their day to day trading?People, today somehow feel that the best forex strategy has to be in these maze of indicators,colors, noises,and whatever else is en vogue nowadays. Its really quite sad that it has gotten to this point.Traders used to pride themselves on how they were able to truly understand the market, but in the present time we live in, they are more worried about understanding what their indicators are telling them.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Forex Glossary
Ask (Offer) — price of the offer, the price you buy for.
Aussie — a Forex slang name for the Australian dollar.
Bank Rate — the percentage rate at which central bank of a country lends money to the country's commercial banks.
Bid — price of the demand, the price you sell for.
Broker — the market participating body which serves as the middleman between retail traders and larger commercial institutions.
Cable — a Forex traders slang word GBP/USD currency pair.
Carry Trade — in Forex, holding a position with a positive overnight interest return in hope of gaining profits, without closing the position, just for the central banks interest rates difference.
CFD — a Contract for Difference — special trading instrument that allows financial speculation on stocks, commodities and other instruments without actually buying.
Commission — broker commissions for operation handling.
CPI — consumer price index the statistical measure of inflation based upon changes of prices of a specified set of goods.
EA (Expert Advisor) — an automated script which is used by the trading platform software to manage positions and orders automatically without (or with little) manual control.
ECN Broker — a type of Forex brokerage firm that provide its clients direct access to other Forex market participants. ECN brokers don't discourage scalping, don't trade against the client, don't charge spread (low spread is defined by current market prices) but charge commissions for every order.
ECB (European Central Bank) — the main regulatory body of the European Union financial system.
Fed (Federal Reserve) — the main regulatory body of the United States of America financial system, which division — FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) — regulates, among other things, federal interest rates.
Fibonacci Retracements — the levels with a high probability of trend break or bounce, calculated as the 23.6%, 32.8%, 50% and 61.8% of the trend range.
Flat (Square) — neutral state when all your positions are closed.
Fundamental Analysis — the analysis based only on news, economic indicators and global events.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) — is a measure of the national income and output for the country's economy; it's one of the most important Forex indicators.
GTC (Good Till Cancelled) — order to buy or sell of a currency with a fixed price or worse. The order is alive (good) until execution or cancellation.
Hedging — maintaining a market position which secures the existing open positions in the opposite direction.
Jobber — a slang word for a trader which is aimed toward fast but small and short-term profit from an intra-day trading. Jobber rarely leaves open positions overnight.
Kiwi — a Forex slang name for the New Zealand currency — New Zealand dollar.
Leading Indicators — a composite index (year 1992 = 100%) of ten most important macroeconomic indicators that predicts future (6-9 months) economic activity.
Limit Order — order for a broker to buy the lot for fixed or lesser price or sell the lot for fixed or better price. Such price is called limit price.
Liquidity — the measure of markets which describes relationship between the trading volume and the price change.
Long — the position which is in a Buy direction. In Forex, the primary currency when bought is long and another is short.
Loss — the loss from closing long position at lower rate than opening or short position with higher rate than opening, or if the profit from a position closing was lower than broker commission on it.
Lot — definite amount of units or amount of money accepted for operations handling (usually it is a multiple of 100).
Margin — money, the investor needs to keep at broker account to execute trades. It supplies the possible losses which may occur in margin trading.
Margin Account — account which is used to hold investor's deposited money for FOREX trading.
Margin Call — demand of a broker to deposit more margin money to the margin account when the amount in it falls below certain minimum.
Market Order — order to buy or sell a lot for a current market price.
Market Price — the current price for which the currency is traded for on the market.
Momentum — the measure of the currency's ability to move in the given direction.
Moving Average (MA) — one of the most basic technical indicators. It shows the average rate calculated over a series of time periods. Exponential Moving Average (EMA), Weighted Moving Average (WMA) etc. are just the ways of weighing the rates and the periods.
Offer (Ask) — price of the offer, the price you buy for.
Open Position (Trade) — position on buying (long) or selling (short) for a currency pair.
Order — order for a broker to buy or sell the currency with a certain rate.
Pivot Point — the primary support/resistance point calculated basing on the previous trend's High, Low and Close prices.
Pip (Point) — the last digit in the rate (e.g. for EUR/USD 1 point = 0.0001).
Profit (Gain) — positive amount of money gained for closing the position.
Principal Value — the initial amount of money of the invested.
Realized Profit/Loss — gain/loss for already closed positions.
Resistance — price level for which the intensive selling can lead to price increasing (up-trend).
Scalping — a style of trading notable by many positions that are opened for extremely small and short-term profits.
Settled (Closed) Position — closed positions for which all needed transactions has been made.
Slippage — execution of order for a price different than expected (ordered), main reasons for slippage are — "fast" market, low liquidity and low broker's ability to execute orders.
Spread — difference between ask and bid prices for a currency pair.
Standard Lot — 100,000 units of the base currency of the currency pair, which you are buying or selling.
Stop-Limit Order — order to sell or buy a lot for a certain price or worse.
Stop-Loss Order — order to sell or buy a lot when the market reaches certain price. It is used to avoid extra losses when market moves in the opposite direction. Usually is a combination of stop-order and limit-order.
Support — price level for which intensive buying can lead to the price decreasing (down-trend).
Swap — overnight payment for holding your position. Since you are not physically receiving the currency you buy, your broker should pay you the interest rate difference between the two currencies of the pair. It can be negative or positive.
Technical Analysis — the analysis based only on the technical market data (quotes) with the help of various technical indicators.
Trend — direction of market which has been established with influence of different factors.
Unrealized (Floating) Profit/Loss — a profit/loss for your non-closed positions.
Useable Margin — amount of money in the account that can be used for trading.
Used Margin — amount of money in the account already used to hold open positions open.
Volatility — a statistical measure of the number of price changes for a given currency pair in a given period of time.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) — virtual environment hosted on the dedicated server, which can be used to run the programs independent on the user's PC. Forex traders use VPS to host trading platforms and run expert advisors without unexpected interruptions.
Aussie — a Forex slang name for the Australian dollar.
Bank Rate — the percentage rate at which central bank of a country lends money to the country's commercial banks.
Bid — price of the demand, the price you sell for.
Broker — the market participating body which serves as the middleman between retail traders and larger commercial institutions.
Cable — a Forex traders slang word GBP/USD currency pair.
Carry Trade — in Forex, holding a position with a positive overnight interest return in hope of gaining profits, without closing the position, just for the central banks interest rates difference.
CFD — a Contract for Difference — special trading instrument that allows financial speculation on stocks, commodities and other instruments without actually buying.
Commission — broker commissions for operation handling.
CPI — consumer price index the statistical measure of inflation based upon changes of prices of a specified set of goods.
EA (Expert Advisor) — an automated script which is used by the trading platform software to manage positions and orders automatically without (or with little) manual control.
ECN Broker — a type of Forex brokerage firm that provide its clients direct access to other Forex market participants. ECN brokers don't discourage scalping, don't trade against the client, don't charge spread (low spread is defined by current market prices) but charge commissions for every order.
ECB (European Central Bank) — the main regulatory body of the European Union financial system.
Fed (Federal Reserve) — the main regulatory body of the United States of America financial system, which division — FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) — regulates, among other things, federal interest rates.
Fibonacci Retracements — the levels with a high probability of trend break or bounce, calculated as the 23.6%, 32.8%, 50% and 61.8% of the trend range.
Flat (Square) — neutral state when all your positions are closed.
Fundamental Analysis — the analysis based only on news, economic indicators and global events.
GDP (Gross Domestic Product) — is a measure of the national income and output for the country's economy; it's one of the most important Forex indicators.
GTC (Good Till Cancelled) — order to buy or sell of a currency with a fixed price or worse. The order is alive (good) until execution or cancellation.
Hedging — maintaining a market position which secures the existing open positions in the opposite direction.
Jobber — a slang word for a trader which is aimed toward fast but small and short-term profit from an intra-day trading. Jobber rarely leaves open positions overnight.
Kiwi — a Forex slang name for the New Zealand currency — New Zealand dollar.
Leading Indicators — a composite index (year 1992 = 100%) of ten most important macroeconomic indicators that predicts future (6-9 months) economic activity.
Limit Order — order for a broker to buy the lot for fixed or lesser price or sell the lot for fixed or better price. Such price is called limit price.
Liquidity — the measure of markets which describes relationship between the trading volume and the price change.
Long — the position which is in a Buy direction. In Forex, the primary currency when bought is long and another is short.
Loss — the loss from closing long position at lower rate than opening or short position with higher rate than opening, or if the profit from a position closing was lower than broker commission on it.
Lot — definite amount of units or amount of money accepted for operations handling (usually it is a multiple of 100).
Margin — money, the investor needs to keep at broker account to execute trades. It supplies the possible losses which may occur in margin trading.
Margin Account — account which is used to hold investor's deposited money for FOREX trading.
Margin Call — demand of a broker to deposit more margin money to the margin account when the amount in it falls below certain minimum.
Market Order — order to buy or sell a lot for a current market price.
Market Price — the current price for which the currency is traded for on the market.
Momentum — the measure of the currency's ability to move in the given direction.
Moving Average (MA) — one of the most basic technical indicators. It shows the average rate calculated over a series of time periods. Exponential Moving Average (EMA), Weighted Moving Average (WMA) etc. are just the ways of weighing the rates and the periods.
Offer (Ask) — price of the offer, the price you buy for.
Open Position (Trade) — position on buying (long) or selling (short) for a currency pair.
Order — order for a broker to buy or sell the currency with a certain rate.
Pivot Point — the primary support/resistance point calculated basing on the previous trend's High, Low and Close prices.
Pip (Point) — the last digit in the rate (e.g. for EUR/USD 1 point = 0.0001).
Profit (Gain) — positive amount of money gained for closing the position.
Principal Value — the initial amount of money of the invested.
Realized Profit/Loss — gain/loss for already closed positions.
Resistance — price level for which the intensive selling can lead to price increasing (up-trend).
Scalping — a style of trading notable by many positions that are opened for extremely small and short-term profits.
Settled (Closed) Position — closed positions for which all needed transactions has been made.
Slippage — execution of order for a price different than expected (ordered), main reasons for slippage are — "fast" market, low liquidity and low broker's ability to execute orders.
Spread — difference between ask and bid prices for a currency pair.
Standard Lot — 100,000 units of the base currency of the currency pair, which you are buying or selling.
Stop-Limit Order — order to sell or buy a lot for a certain price or worse.
Stop-Loss Order — order to sell or buy a lot when the market reaches certain price. It is used to avoid extra losses when market moves in the opposite direction. Usually is a combination of stop-order and limit-order.
Support — price level for which intensive buying can lead to the price decreasing (down-trend).
Swap — overnight payment for holding your position. Since you are not physically receiving the currency you buy, your broker should pay you the interest rate difference between the two currencies of the pair. It can be negative or positive.
Technical Analysis — the analysis based only on the technical market data (quotes) with the help of various technical indicators.
Trend — direction of market which has been established with influence of different factors.
Unrealized (Floating) Profit/Loss — a profit/loss for your non-closed positions.
Useable Margin — amount of money in the account that can be used for trading.
Used Margin — amount of money in the account already used to hold open positions open.
Volatility — a statistical measure of the number of price changes for a given currency pair in a given period of time.
VPS (Virtual Private Server) — virtual environment hosted on the dedicated server, which can be used to run the programs independent on the user's PC. Forex traders use VPS to host trading platforms and run expert advisors without unexpected interruptions.
LiteForex Forex Broker
LiteForex is one of the leading MetaTrader 4 Forex brokers that accept e-currencies (such as WebMoney) as the payment method. Accounts can be started with the minimum of $1, which combined with flexibility of MetaTrader platform makes LiteForex an ultimate choice for the traders that want to test their automated trading strategies on real account, but without risk of losing too much money. CFD trading is also available, so Forex traders can diversify some of their portfolio into stocks traded on NYSE.
Start trading with $1.
Commission free trading.
Leverage from 1:100 to 1:200.
Receive monthly interest on your balance.
Competitive fixed bid/ask spreads.
Really fast order execution.
Account deposits via wire transfer, WebMoney, e-Bullion, Liberty Reserve and AlertPay.
Many different account types available.
33 currency pairs, 8 currency indexes, 32 CFDs and 2 metals to trade.
One of the best trading platforms - MetaTrader 4.
Reliable dedicated trading servers.
24 hours a day, 5 days a week trading support.
Partnership opportunities for serious clients.
It is easy to start trading with LiteForex - all you have to do is just register at their website, download their MetaTrader 4 client software, deposit money via one of the available methods (takes no more than an hour) and start trading!
Start trading with $1.
Commission free trading.
Leverage from 1:100 to 1:200.
Receive monthly interest on your balance.
Competitive fixed bid/ask spreads.
Really fast order execution.
Account deposits via wire transfer, WebMoney, e-Bullion, Liberty Reserve and AlertPay.
Many different account types available.
33 currency pairs, 8 currency indexes, 32 CFDs and 2 metals to trade.
One of the best trading platforms - MetaTrader 4.
Reliable dedicated trading servers.
24 hours a day, 5 days a week trading support.
Partnership opportunities for serious clients.
It is easy to start trading with LiteForex - all you have to do is just register at their website, download their MetaTrader 4 client software, deposit money via one of the available methods (takes no more than an hour) and start trading!
Forex for Dummies
Forex Basics
If you've already read the "What is Forex?" section then you should know what Forex market is and what it is all about. If not, please, do it. There are five essential aspects of foreign currency market a beginner trader (and an old one as well) should be aware of:
Forex Fundamental Analysis
Forex Technical Analysis
Money Management
Forex Trading Psychology
Forex Brokerage
Understanding and mastering these sides of trading are crucial to organize your Forex trading experience.
Forex Fundamental Analysis
Fundamental analysis is the process of market analysis which is done regarding only "real" events and macroeconomic data which is related to the traded currencies. Fundamental analysis is used not only in Forex but can be a part of any financial planning or forecasting. Concepts that are part of Forex fundamental analysis: overnight interest rates, central banks meetings and decisions, any macroeconomic news, global industrial, economical, political and weather news. Fundamental analysis is the most natural way of making Forex market forecasts. In theory, it alone should work perfectly, but in practice it is often used in pair with technical analysis. Recommended e-books on Forex fundamental analysis
If you've already read the "What is Forex?" section then you should know what Forex market is and what it is all about. If not, please, do it. There are five essential aspects of foreign currency market a beginner trader (and an old one as well) should be aware of:
Forex Fundamental Analysis
Forex Technical Analysis
Money Management
Forex Trading Psychology
Forex Brokerage
Understanding and mastering these sides of trading are crucial to organize your Forex trading experience.
Forex Fundamental Analysis
Fundamental analysis is the process of market analysis which is done regarding only "real" events and macroeconomic data which is related to the traded currencies. Fundamental analysis is used not only in Forex but can be a part of any financial planning or forecasting. Concepts that are part of Forex fundamental analysis: overnight interest rates, central banks meetings and decisions, any macroeconomic news, global industrial, economical, political and weather news. Fundamental analysis is the most natural way of making Forex market forecasts. In theory, it alone should work perfectly, but in practice it is often used in pair with technical analysis. Recommended e-books on Forex fundamental analysis
Forex FAQ
What is FOREX?You can read the detailed answer in the separate section of the site — "What is Forex?".
How can I start trading Forex?You'll need to register a trading account with a Forex broker, such as Marketiva. Then you can begin using their Forex client program to buy and sell currencies. This will take less than 5 minutes of your time!
Who owns Forex and where is it located?It's not owned by anyone in particular. Forex is an Interbank market, meaning that it's transactions are conducted only between two participants - seller and the buyer. So as long as existing banking system will exist, Forex will be here. It's not connected to any specific country or government organization.
What the working hours of Forex market?Forex market is open from 22:00 GMT Sunday (opening of Australia trading session) till 22:00 GMT Friday (closing of USA trading session).
What is margin?Margin is money you need to have in your broker account to secure your open position. Different brokers require different amount of margin money to keep your positions open.
What are the "long" and "short" positions?Long position is a "buy" position, meaning that this position will be in profit if price goes up.Short position is a "sell" position, meaning that this position will be in profit if price goes down.
What is the best Forex trading strategy?There is none. You should constantly develop your own strategies for every possible market situation, if you want to be in profit. Specific strategies can only be good for a certain period of time and for certain currency pairs.
How much money I need to start trading Forex?With Marketiva you can start trading Forex with as little as $1. Usually, the minimum amount varies from $100 to $10,000 ($100,000 and more for Interbank trading).
I can't (or don't want to) install any Forex trading software on my computer. Can I still trade Forex?If you don't want (or it is not possible) to install new software to start trading Forex then a good option for you would be using web based trading platform. You can browse our Forex brokers list to find those which support such platform. Here are those brokers which have web based trading options: Easy Forex, ForexYard, Oanda, Saxo Bank, ACM, Interactive Brokers.
I've downloaded the expert advisor for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What should I do?You can read the MetaTrader Expert Advisors User's Tutorial to find out how to intstall those expert advisors.
I've downloaded a custom indicator for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What should I do?You can read the MetaTrader Indicators User's Tutorial to find out how to intstall those indicators.
How can I start trading Forex?You'll need to register a trading account with a Forex broker, such as Marketiva. Then you can begin using their Forex client program to buy and sell currencies. This will take less than 5 minutes of your time!
Who owns Forex and where is it located?It's not owned by anyone in particular. Forex is an Interbank market, meaning that it's transactions are conducted only between two participants - seller and the buyer. So as long as existing banking system will exist, Forex will be here. It's not connected to any specific country or government organization.
What the working hours of Forex market?Forex market is open from 22:00 GMT Sunday (opening of Australia trading session) till 22:00 GMT Friday (closing of USA trading session).
What is margin?Margin is money you need to have in your broker account to secure your open position. Different brokers require different amount of margin money to keep your positions open.
What are the "long" and "short" positions?Long position is a "buy" position, meaning that this position will be in profit if price goes up.Short position is a "sell" position, meaning that this position will be in profit if price goes down.
What is the best Forex trading strategy?There is none. You should constantly develop your own strategies for every possible market situation, if you want to be in profit. Specific strategies can only be good for a certain period of time and for certain currency pairs.
How much money I need to start trading Forex?With Marketiva you can start trading Forex with as little as $1. Usually, the minimum amount varies from $100 to $10,000 ($100,000 and more for Interbank trading).
I can't (or don't want to) install any Forex trading software on my computer. Can I still trade Forex?If you don't want (or it is not possible) to install new software to start trading Forex then a good option for you would be using web based trading platform. You can browse our Forex brokers list to find those which support such platform. Here are those brokers which have web based trading options: Easy Forex, ForexYard, Oanda, Saxo Bank, ACM, Interactive Brokers.
I've downloaded the expert advisor for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What should I do?You can read the MetaTrader Expert Advisors User's Tutorial to find out how to intstall those expert advisors.
I've downloaded a custom indicator for MetaTrader platform but I don't know how to install it. What should I do?You can read the MetaTrader Indicators User's Tutorial to find out how to intstall those indicators.
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.
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.
Advantages of the Forex Market
What are the advantages of the Forex Market over other types of investments?
When thinking about various investments, there is one investment vehicle that comes to mind. The Forex or Foreign Currency Market has many advantages over other types of investments. The Forex market is open 24 hrs a day, unlike the regular stock markets. Most investments require a substantial amount of capital before you can take advantage of an investment opportunity. To trade Forex, you only need a small amount of capital. Anyone can enter the market with as little as $300 USD to trade a "mini account", which allows you to trade lots of 10,000 units. One lot of 10,000 units of currency is equal to 1 contract. Each "pip" or move up or down in the currency pair is worth a $1 gain or loss, depending on which side of the market you are on. A standard account gives you control over 100,000 units of currency and a pip is worth $10.
The Forex market is also very liquid. When trading Forex you have full control of your capital.
Many other types of investments require holding your money up for long periods of time. This is a disadvantage because if you need to use the capital it can be difficult to access to it without taking a huge loss. Also, with a small amount of money, you can control
Forex traders can be profitable in bullish or bearish market conditions. Stock market traders need stock prices to rise in order to take a profit. Forex traders can make a profit during up trends and downtrends. Forex Trading can be risky, but with having the ability to have a good system to follow, good money management skills, and possessing self discipline, Forex trading can be a relatively low risk investment.
The Forex market can be traded anytime, anywhere. As long as you have access to a computer, you have the ability to trade the Forex market. An important thing to remember is before jumping into trading currencies, is it wise to practice with "paper money", or "fake money." Most brokers have demo accounts where you can download their trading station and practice real time with fake money. While this is no guarantee of your performance with real money, practicing can give you a huge advantage to become better prepared when you trade with your real, hard earned money. There are also many Forex courses on the internet, just be careful when choosing which ones to purchase.
When thinking about various investments, there is one investment vehicle that comes to mind. The Forex or Foreign Currency Market has many advantages over other types of investments. The Forex market is open 24 hrs a day, unlike the regular stock markets. Most investments require a substantial amount of capital before you can take advantage of an investment opportunity. To trade Forex, you only need a small amount of capital. Anyone can enter the market with as little as $300 USD to trade a "mini account", which allows you to trade lots of 10,000 units. One lot of 10,000 units of currency is equal to 1 contract. Each "pip" or move up or down in the currency pair is worth a $1 gain or loss, depending on which side of the market you are on. A standard account gives you control over 100,000 units of currency and a pip is worth $10.
The Forex market is also very liquid. When trading Forex you have full control of your capital.
Many other types of investments require holding your money up for long periods of time. This is a disadvantage because if you need to use the capital it can be difficult to access to it without taking a huge loss. Also, with a small amount of money, you can control
Forex traders can be profitable in bullish or bearish market conditions. Stock market traders need stock prices to rise in order to take a profit. Forex traders can make a profit during up trends and downtrends. Forex Trading can be risky, but with having the ability to have a good system to follow, good money management skills, and possessing self discipline, Forex trading can be a relatively low risk investment.
The Forex market can be traded anytime, anywhere. As long as you have access to a computer, you have the ability to trade the Forex market. An important thing to remember is before jumping into trading currencies, is it wise to practice with "paper money", or "fake money." Most brokers have demo accounts where you can download their trading station and practice real time with fake money. While this is no guarantee of your performance with real money, practicing can give you a huge advantage to become better prepared when you trade with your real, hard earned money. There are also many Forex courses on the internet, just be careful when choosing which ones to purchase.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
A Few Forex Tips To Help You Achieve Success
Few Forex Tips To Help You Achieve SuccessYou can earn a lot of money through Forex and it in fact only requires that you learn from some tips that will show you how to maximize your profits from dealing in foreign currencies. The simplest Forex tip is to use weekly charts to boost your profitability. This means that you have to take the trouble of checking the weekly charts so as to be able to gain a proper perspective of the currency market. Such weekly charts are ideal for learning and finding out more about the major trends that are taking place and they will also help you understand the proper support as well as resistance levels as too gains insights about entry points.Don't OvertradeAnother simple Forex tip is learning to avoid from doing too much trading. It pays to understand that fewer trades you enter into the better are the chances that you can realize a handsome profit. It is more important that you concentrate on getting things right rather than indulging in quantity trading. Smart Forex operators earn money from doing the right things well and avoiding doing the bad things. In fact, the more successful traders earn high amounts of money from doing only limited amount of trades.A healthy appetite for risk is essential to succeeding with Forex and so you have to learn how and when to take risks which however must be judiciously taken and which should not deteriorate into starting to gamble in the hope that you will make a major killing. At the very least a person that is averse to taking risks must abstain from doing Forex deals.For those people that do small Forex trades it is not a good idea to branch out because it is in fact necessary that they concentrate and focus on their limited trades instead of trying to expand their dealings without having already tasted success.You can also succeed with Forex by setting yourself realistic targets. The more realistic you are the better are the chances that you will be able to work hard enough to realize your objectives. You should decide to engage you in Forex and then give your all to succeeding and also keep in mind that your targets are not too farfetched or unrealistic.With these tips in mind you should get started with Forex and bear in mind also that to be successful you will need to learn how to focus your efforts on the best trades that should be used with best odds of succeeding. Weigh your options and set realistic targets and then do your best to realize a profit.
Dealing With Online Forex Brokers
Online forex brokers can turn out to be your competitive advantage in the line of foreign currency trading. They are deemed as a valuable asset especially if you wanted to enter into a high stakes game of currency trading. Because of these, forex brokers are highly esteemed in the market and there are some misconceptions that have also been formed around them. With the industry booming, it's about time that some of those misconceptions be straightened out once and for all.The Truth behind Trading with BrokersMost of the time, we feel way too assured for our own good when we get the services of online forex brokers. We tend to feel that we are in the hands of experts so all we have to do is sit back and relax as they do all the needed work for us. So when things don't turn out quite the way we expect them to, we tend to put all the blame on the brokers. Sometimes we even feel cheated that we are paying for nothing. But the truth is that we are also to blame for the losses we incur.All forex brokers know that in the trading arena, losses amounting to 95% are but a common thing. This is why most of them choose to abide by the rules of day trading. Exchanging currencies are very dynamic and at the end of the day, all your broker ever really does is to provide you with leads. The hand that still makes all the vital decisions is yours and not your broker.Brokers and Offered LeverageOne of the selling points used by most forex brokers is the leverage they offer. Leverage is the profits that you can be promised by relying on just one forex broker alone. Some even go as far as giving 300:1 and unfortunately some people take the bait. In truth, 20:1 is the maximum that brokers can handle and assure you with. It's easy to believe that they can do it with a spectrum of trading methods but at the end of the day, keep in mind that these brokers are human too. They can only do so much to cover that much and also consider the fact that you may not be their only client.Listening to Your Forex BrokerOne of the great offers that a forex broker can perhaps give you as an extra benefit is their word of advice. You would especially appreciate this if you are new in the game. But the thing is, you should not swallow every piece of advice that your forex broker will give you. Online forex brokers are hired to help you find opportunities but they should never be the ones made to handle the course of your business. At the end of the day, you should still listen to your own gut feel and instincts.Also, you should never buy most of the things that your forex broker tells you out of the context of work. As much as possible, keep your relationship at a professional level
Stock Market Trading- 3 Strategies to Make you a Millionaire
Stock Market Trading- Are you ready to become a millionaire. Here are 3 proven strategies to make you become a more successful trader and increase your wealth. They can be used if you are forex trader, stock market trader.If you want to catch the serious profit in Forex Trading you need to trend watch Forex trends which are worse term. here we are going to give you a 3 step simple method which if you use it correctly, will help you catch every superior Forex trend and lead you to long-term term currency dealing success. This will add more money to your bottom line than most other strategies.For you to become a successful Forex Trader, you must set rules and then follow them. Successful Forex Traders have discpline.Most beginner Forex traders don't bother trying to trend following Forex lengthier term - instead they try Forex scalping or day trading. These methods focus the trader on small moves and they hope to catch small profit however as most short term moves are random, this leads to equity eliminate.The other alternatives are swing trading and long term Forex trend following and this article is all about the latter method. If you look at any Forex chart, you will see long-term term trends that last for months or years. These moves can and do yield serious profit - present we will outline a simple method to get them.BreakoutsBy far the best way of catching the serious moves is to use a Forex Trading strategy based around breakouts. A breakout is simply a move on a Forex chart where a new high or low is made and resistance or support is broken.It's a fact that most leading moves start from new highs or lows.While it might appear that you are not buying or selling at the greatest level, you are in terms of the odds of the trend continuing. Most Forex traders make the mistake of waiting for the breakout to come back and get in at a better price but these traders never get on board. The grounds are if a breakout occurs, then you have a new strong trend and a pullback is not very likely to occur.Most traders don't buy or sell breakouts and that's exactly why it's such a powerful method.The only point to keep in mind is a support or resistance which is ruined, should be valid and that means at least 3 points in at least 2 different times frames. The more tests and the greater the spacing between the tests the more valid the level is.
Trend Following System - Building a System For Triple Digit Annual Gains
Forex markets trend long term, they always have and they always will as long as we have a free market and the big trends which reflect the underlying economic cycle can last for many weeks, months or even years. If you learn to trend follow correctly you can make huge long term profits in around 30 minutes a day... Many traders like to trade the market noise and trade short term but this is doomed to failure, as all short term volatility is random. If you trade the big trends you get better odds, more profits and spend less time on your trading. Lets look at trend following in more detail. If you want to succeed at Forex trend following, you should keep the key points in mind below when formulating your Forex trading strategy. Simple and RobustThe best trend following systems are simple and it's a fact that in Forex simple systems work better than complex ones, as they have fewer elements to break than complex ones. A graphic example of this is the free one we have on this site which has only one rule yet, test it and you will see how much money it makes. A Successful trend following system can be based on just looking at support and resistance and have a few indictors to confirm your view and that will work just fine.Use BreakoutsAll big trends start and continue from breakouts to new market highs or lows so if you are considering trend following, breakout methodology should be used in your Trading strategy. Breakouts are simple to understand and simply trade the reality of price change and trading breakouts is a highs odds way of trading Forex. Trade Infrequently I know traders that trade maybe once or twice a month and make triple digit gains and that's because they focus on the best high odds trades. You get nothing for effort in Forex trading, you're judged purely on results and if you are patient and wait for the best set ups you will increase your odds of success and reduce your work rate Acceptance of Short Term Volatility If you are tend following in Forex you are after trends that last for weeks, months or even years and you have to accept that you cannot predict tops or bottoms, you always have to give a bit back at the end of a trend and you also have to accept short term drawdown in equity against you as you follow the trend. Long term trend following, requires patience and discipline but if you caught just 60% of every major trend, you would make a lot of money
Online Forex Resources Are Abundant
Forex isn't the same as the stock exchange which carries positions for a much lengthier time span. Forex trading (also known as currency trading) is the buying and selling of currencies in order to make a profit. Trading in the Foreign Exchange market is a challenging opportunity where above average returns are available for educated and experienced investors who are willing to take above average risk. Using forex trading strategies that 99% of traders use will not make you successful. You will need arare, innovative and original tradingstrategies related to how the market behave in order to become more successful in the forex trading business than you have ever dreamed of. After understanding the basics of how the forex market works, you should start learning more in depth detail of how to trade and earn a huge profit. Aside from the traditional means of learning the forex market, there are a lot of forex books that can help in the process as well. Forex MarketWhile some markets have the luxury of industry standard authoritative sources, the forex market is fortunate to have many forex resources at the disposal of investors large and small. To really get a solid foundation to make logical, profitable forex buys, you need to build your house on solid granite. When it comes to initiating your way to learn forex trading system, the best way is to know about what exactly forex trading is all about and who are the actual players in this field. If one considers the weight and scope of the forex exchange and the volume of information one might need to conduct even the most simple of transactions, then it might be a good idea have a comprehensive understanding of the numerous forex resources available to the average and large investor. Forex ResourcesOnline forex resources are abundant and can range from entire forex platforms to articles that offer advice and information. While some might prefer the gut feeling and instinctual business acumen acquired on Wall Street, forex resources are essential for any, successful or unsuccessful, forex transaction. Forex resources must be culled from newspapers, local and national, market reports, and charts and graphs, along with the transactions of other investors considering their own forex resources. In the end, forex resources can be overwhelming and it pays, in large profits, for the forex investor to consider wise and well the extent of the forex resources he or she may wish to consider. When it comes to learning forex trading the fast andeffective manner, you need to learn it via obtaining goodknowledge and adequate skills to read all the importantforeign exchange quotes. This is a great way to learn forex. However, the sole purpose of obtaining a demo forex trading account is to train yourself in this field perfectly.
Can You Make Money Online Trading Forex?
The forex market is filled with scam offers and pie in the sky promises. On the other hand, it is the largest, most liquid market that trades twenty four hours a day. So how to find your way through the maze of offers that are out there, well here are four steps to becoming a successful trader.Becoming a successful Forex trader basically comes down to four things:1) Learning about the markets and your appitite for riskHow the markets work, what moves them, etc is a simple matter as these markets are not that complicated. Determining how well you are suited to trading is a difficult process however. Finding out how you react to stress and perform when real money is on the line can be a life long process2) Finding and learning a system that fits your personality and life styleThere are as many different systems as there are traders, many have been proven over time, so really the only question is which one suits me.I know many will dispute this point, however it really is not as complicated as some try to make it. Most of those making it hard are really just trying to sell you something. There are many free systems that once learned and traded can make you wealthy3) Testing that system until you have an edge.Testing is the heart of becoming a good trader. Most people don't do this. If you test something until you can prove and edge, no matter how small it may seem, you just need to trade it over and over to make money.4) Trading that system exactly how you tested it, until you are wealthy.Many traders are always looking for that magic system that will make money fast. The secret to wealth is to stick to the system you have tested and proved and do it until you acumulate wealth. Not chase the latest trading software or system.When you are ready to trade this market, keep these four simple steps in mind and then do not let anything stand in your way of becoming the trader you want to be.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Stock Market Trading - Winning Trading Plan
Successful stock market trading begins with a winning trading plan. It's as simple as that. If you develop a well-conceived trading plan to guide your actions in the stock market you will already have the advantage over most of your market competition. Put simply, it gives you the edge you need to win over the long haul when trading the stock market or forex market.A stock market trading plan will not guarantee your success in the markets, but a good plan will enable you to work methodically toward your stock market trading goals while reviewing on a regular basis what is working and what is not. It will act as a roadmap for your trading journey. It will enable you to respond positively and constructively no matter what happens with your individual trades. And, most importantly, it will help you control the only thing a trader can control: his or her own actions.Finally, stock market trading is a business. It can be a fascinating and sometimes thrilling business, but in the end it is a business. A trading plan helps you treat it as a business.
Forex Trading - A Simple Tip to Increase Your Profits and Reduce Your Effort Instantly!
The tip is based on the 80 - 20 rule which is used in a wide variety of areas of life for example, in business it says 80% of your profits will normally come from just 20% of your clients. In Forex terms it means - 80% of your overall profits will come from just 20% of your trades. The reality is that most Forex traders take far too many trades, if they cut back on their trading frequency and only hit high odds trades their profits will increase dramatically. They hold the following beliefs which are simply not true - They can make money by scalping or day trading These short term trades are low odds trades in fact - the odds are you will lose, as you are trading the market noise.- They need to be in the market just in case they miss a move If course this is rubbish, you can spot a move and enter when the time is right!- The harder the work and the more trades they make the more money they will make The work ethic doesn't apply in Forex; many people think with effort they can force money from the market and they lose. Be Smart and Aim for 100% Annual Profits I know traders that trade less than once a month yet still turn in triple digit annual profits! There not interested in working hard or trading all the time, their interested in making money and that means hitting the high odds trades and milking them for all their worth. These traders make a lot of money, not by working hard but working smart. Less is More Hit the Big Trends The high odds trades don't come around every day and you need to wait for them but when they do, they will give you high odds set ups, greater chances of success with less work and that is something all Forex traders want!
A Few Forex Tips To Help You Achieve Success
A Few Forex Tips To Help You Achieve SuccessYou can earn a lot of money through Forex and it in fact only requires that you learn from some tips that will show you how to maximize your profits from dealing in foreign currencies. The simplest Forex tip is to use weekly charts to boost your profitability. This means that you have to take the trouble of checking the weekly charts so as to be able to gain a proper perspective of the currency market. Such weekly charts are ideal for learning and finding out more about the major trends that are taking place and they will also help you understand the proper support as well as resistance levels as too gains insights about entry points.Don't OvertradeAnother simple Forex tip is learning to avoid from doing too much trading. It pays to understand that fewer trades you enter into the better are the chances that you can realize a handsome profit. It is more important that you concentrate on getting things right rather than indulging in quantity trading. Smart Forex operators earn money from doing the right things well and avoiding doing the bad things. In fact, the more successful traders earn high amounts of money from doing only limited amount of trades.A healthy appetite for risk is essential to succeeding with Forex and so you have to learn how and when to take risks which however must be judiciously taken and which should not deteriorate into starting to gamble in the hope that you will make a major killing. At the very least a person that is averse to taking risks must abstain from doing Forex deals.For those people that do small Forex trades it is not a good idea to branch out because it is in fact necessary that they concentrate and focus on their limited trades instead of trying to expand their dealings without having already tasted success.You can also succeed with Forex by setting yourself realistic targets. The more realistic you are the better are the chances that you will be able to work hard enough to realize your objectives. You should decide to engage you in Forex and then give your all to succeeding and also keep in mind that your targets are not too farfetched or unrealistic.With these tips in mind you should get started with Forex and bear in mind also that to be successful you will need to learn how to focus your efforts on the best trades that should be used with best odds of succeeding. Weigh your options and set realistic targets and then do your best to realize a profit.
Forex Trading Robots - What are They? And Why Are They Being Used So Much Nowadays?
There is no doubt that the Foreign exchange market is among the fastest growing market in the world today. Trading volumes of these markets are growing in an arithmetic progression every year. Traditional daily turnover in Forex markets were reported to be over US $3.2 trillion in April 2008. With this figure alone, no one should tell you how liquid Forex markets really are. Though the bad economy has greatly reduced the potential of the Forex matters, its still stand out as the most liquid markets you can find out there. Trading Forex is a very difficult and risky task. But given the huge amount of profits available in this market, people are flooding it on a daily basis with the aim of making some extra or full income from Trading Forex. With the financial crises around, and people loosing their jobs, some folks always think Forex trading can be a save heaven for them. But you should always take special care when getting in to such markets because: where there are big profits to be made, there is always the possibility of big losses as well.In any efficient economy, there would always be a supply to every demand. Given the complexity involved in trading in the Forex markets, there are quite a number of people who don't know enough about Foreign exchange markets but are interested in trading foreign currencies. Special software called Forex robots have been designed which could greatly reduce this complicated process involved in Forex trading.Most of this software is called Forex robots, meaning that they are capable of instructing you exactly on what to do in what circumstance. Others may even automatically do it do it for you. For example, the robot may instruct its user to sell a particular currency, and buy another currency based on the market data analysis made.While these robots could be right in most cases depending on the mark, it is good to take note that they are not always correct. There are just a software and like any other software, their output depends on their input. Garbage in, garbage out. This simply means that you may loose so much money if you don't a good robot that that has been effectively designed to take most of the parameters into account. The Forex market is actually beyond the reasoning scope of even a Forex robot. That is why no one can say with certainty that they can trade Forex without some losses here and there.Since Forex indicators have been programmed to run on some given pre- market indicators which have been judge by experts as key indicators preceding key events, it can be a wise idea to take a look at them if we intend to trade this very liquid market.
Monday, June 15, 2009
TRADING SECRETS
Definition
The precise language by which a trade secret is defined varies by jurisdiction (as do the particular types of information that are subject to trade secret protection). However, there are three factors that, although subject to differing interpretations, are common to all such definitions: a trade secret is information that:
is not generally known to the public;
confers some sort of economic benefit on its holder (where this benefit must derive specifically from its not being generally known, not just from the value of the information itself);
is the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.
The precise language by which a trade secret is defined varies by jurisdiction (as do the particular types of information that are subject to trade secret protection). However, there are three factors that, although subject to differing interpretations, are common to all such definitions: a trade secret is information that:
is not generally known to the public;
confers some sort of economic benefit on its holder (where this benefit must derive specifically from its not being generally known, not just from the value of the information itself);
is the subject of reasonable efforts to maintain its secrecy.
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