FOREX Trading Strategies

FOREX Trading Strategies

To be a successful FOREX trader you need to develop and adhere to a trading strategy. There are many different strategy's available and no particular one is good for all traders; rather, each trader needs to develop his or her individual approach to the FOREX. We each have special skills that separate us from others and the FOREX trader needs to find what works best for him/her. Some traders rely solely on technical analysis while others prefer fundamental analysis, but many successful FOREX traders use a combination of both to get a broad overview of the market and for plotting entry and exit points.

Technical analysis, or charting, relies on one key concept: Prices move by trends. The common saying in FOREX and stock trading is 'The trend is your friend.' If prices are moving in one direction, the strength of the move can be observed by looking at the chart. Market movements have identifiable patterns that have been studied for many years and a thorough understanding of these trends and how to use the trends to make FOREX trading decisions form the basis of a good trading strategy.

There are many analytical tools available to study market movements. FOREX traders can use computer software or even pen and paper to perform their own analysis. Books abound describing many of these strategies. The beginner FOREX trader should study each one well and acquire a working knowledge of the concepts. Study each method until it is mastered, then use itthe strategy to fully learn it. Once mastered, move on to the next strategy and repeat. It is a simple practice to "trade" FOREX simply on paper, without entering any actual trades. In fact, this method is highly recommended until the beginning FOREX trader builds some confidence.

Support and resistance levels are used in many FOREX trading strategies. 'Support' refers to the price level that is repeatedly seen as the bottom - when the price reaches this level it tends to rise. Prices will seldom fall below the "support" line. At the opposite spectrum is the Resistance levels. Resistance appears to be the peak that a price will reach when buyers and sellers seem to agree. At this apex prices will move up no further. The space in between "resistance" and "support" is known as the "trading range". Prices can move back and forth within this range for some time. The longer the time frame spent in this range, the more important the signal triggered when prices move outside of the range.

When currency prices break through either support or resistance levels, the prices are expected to continue in that same direction. As mentioned, the longer prices stayed in a trading range, the more significant the "breakout", if prices move above "resistance" or "breakdown", if prices fall below "support" For example, if the price rises above the previous resistance level, it is seen as bullish - the price should continue to rise. This signify's that more buyers have entered the market and this increased "buy" pressure will move prices higher. Conversely, when sellers are too many and buyers few, a "breakdown" could signify prices moving lower again until buyers and sellers once again reach equqlibrium. To find support and resistance levels, price charts need to be analyzed for unbroken support and resistance levels. Charts can be analyzed in any time frame; short term traders will study daily or even hourly charts while the long term trader will use weekly or monthly charts to easily see the long term trend. Traders can use support/resistance levels to determine when to enter or exit a transaction.

Moving averages are another common tool in FOREX trading strategies. If a trader only uses the closing price of a currency at the end of the day as a guide, it is hard to establish the true direction of the move. Moving averages "smooth" out the large moves and give us a much clearer look at the currency price. One average used is the simple moving average (SMA) shows the average price in a given period of time over a specified period of time. A 10 day SMA simply takes the past 10 day closing price of a currency and averages out the 10 day data. Another popular moving average is a weighted moving average. While similiar to the SMA, the WMA puts more emphasis on the last several days trading. So while still showing a 10 day average, more weight is added to the last couple of trading days to better reflect the true trend. When prices are above the MA, they will tend to stay above the MA line. When the MA is below the line, price decline can be expected as well.

These are examples of trading strategies that can be used individually or in combination. In practice, the FOREX trader should have a repertoire of trading tools to examine market conditions and to support the findings of one trading method or another. Experienced traders will rely on several, rather than one, key indicators to base their trading decisions on.

Similarly, fundamental analysis can be used to reinforce technical findings, or vice versa. The FOREX trader will study currency valuations, inflation rates, and other key financial indicators to decide whether a currency is "cheap" or "expensive" Ideally, the FOREX trader will use several indicators into account when plotting a trading strategy.

Every trading strategy should provide clear guidelines about when to enter a trade, what to expect in terms of market movement, when to exit a trade, and how much loss can be accepted in case the deal moves against the trader. Following these simple guidelines and learning about technical analysis can help you become a successful FOREX trader.

Read more of this informative series designed for the beginning FOREX trader at http://www.informationisthekey.com/forex

Introduction To Forex Trading

There are many markets: markets for stocks, futures, options and currencies. These are probably the most accessible markets for everyday traders like you and I. People easily understand the basics of trading shares, so I will occasionally use examples from that market.

I began trading shares first and then I moved on to trading currencies; therefore, most of the examples I will be using in this book are derived from trading currencies.

If you do not know a lot about currency trading, allow me to introduce it to you. It is what I trade and I believe that it is one of the best markets to trade because of its efficiency. The transaction costs to execute a trade are minimal and most brokers provide you with the tools and data you need to make your trading decisions, they usually provide them for free. The market is open 24 hours a day which allows you to design your trading hours around your daily commitments. It is very volatile, which is great for those people who are looking for day-trading opportunities.

The foreign exchange market is the market in which currencies are bought and sold against one another. People may loosely refer to this market under different labels, including foreign exchange market, forex market, fx market or the currency market.

The foreign exchange market is the largest market in the world, with daily trading volumes in excess of $1.5 trillion US dollars. All transactions involving international trade and investment must go through this market because these transactions involve the exchange of currencies.

It is the most perfect market that exists because it has a large number of buyers and sellers all selling the same products. There is a free flow of information and there are little barriers to participate.

The currency exchange market is an over-the-counter (OTC) market which means that there is not one specific location where buyers and sellers can actually meet to exchange currencies. Instead, transactions are conducted by phone, fax, e-mail or through the websites of brokers who specialize in currency trading.

The major dealing centres at the time of writing are: London , with about 30% of the market, New York , with 20%, Tokyo , with 12%, Zurich , Frankfurt, Hong Kong and Singapore , with about 7% each, followed by Paris and Sydney with 3% each. Because of the fact that these centres are all over the world, foreign exchange traders can execute transactions 24 hours a day. The market only closes on the weekends.

THE MAIN ?PLAYERS' IN THE FOREX MARKET

The five broad categories of participants are: consumers, businesses, investors, speculators, commercial banks, investment banks and central banks.

Consumers, including visitors of countries, tourists and immigrants, do need to exchange currencies when they travel so that they can buy local goods and services. These participants do not have the power to set prices. They just buy and sell according to the prevailing exchange rate. They make up a significant proportion of the volume being traded in the market.

Businesses that import and export goods and services need to exchange currencies to receive or make payments for goods they may have bought or services they may have rendered.

Investors and speculators require currencies to buy and sell investment instruments such as shares, bonds, bank deposits or real estate.

Large commercial and investment banks are the ?price makers'. They are the ones who buy and sell currencies at the bid-and-offer exchange rates that they declare through their foreign exchange dealers.

Commercial banks deal with customers on one hand, and with the Interbank or other banks, on the other hand. They profit by utilizing the bid-and-offer spread. The bid price is the exchange rate that the buyer is willing to buy and the offer price is the exchange rate at which the seller is willing to sell. The difference is called the bid-offer spread. They also make profits from speculating about whether the exchange rate will rise or fall.

Central banks participate in the foreign exchange market in their effective duty as banks for their particular government. They trade currencies not for the intention of making profits but rather to facilitate government monetary policies and to help smoothen out the fluctuation of the value of their economy's currency.

Marquez Comelab is a private forex trader. He is the author of the book: The Part-Time Currency Trader ? A Trading Guide For Working Men And Women. The book outlines the process of how you can develop your own trading methodology that suits your psychology and financial circumstance to buy and sell currencies in the forex market, while minimizing your risks. See: http://www.marquezcomelab.com.

Some Reasons Why You Should Trade Forex and Two Important Forex Concepts You Must Know

These days everyone is talking about Forex trading and the great opportunity this activity represents for people willing to brake free from the corporate world and start working from home or any where else without losing their current lifestyle and even improving it.

Some of the great reasons why Forex trading is a great way of entering the capital markets is that is all commission-free and it has a low transaction cost. All the best forex brokers have these characteristics and even Mini FX traders (i.e., traders starting with accounts having a capital as low as $250), who are just starting in this field, can buy and sell currencies online always commission-free.

When trading the Forex markets you don't have to worry about fees you may have to pay to your broker; there are also none of the usual fees to which futures and equity traders are accustomed to pay always; no exchange or clearing fees, no NFA or SEC fees.

Over-the-counter currency trading involves a bid/ask spread and that's how the brokers make money. The good news is that the currency market is capable of offering you a round-the-clock liquidity and this way you will receive tight, competitive spreads both in intra-day and night trades.

Now, once you enter the world of forex trading you will need to learn about two very important concepts. These are; "Pips" and "Buying and Selling Short". Let's talk about "Pips" first. Currency pairs prices are considered always to go out to 4 significant digits. For example; if one currency pair is trading for 1.3451 then if the price increases to 1.3452, that would be a "one-pip" increase in the price of this particular currency pair. This is an increase of one hundredth of a percent of the value of the currency pair you are trading at the moment. And depending the type of account you are using, regular or mini, each pip will have a value of $10 or $1. So if you make 10 pips a day with a regular account you would have made $100 and with a mini-account $10.

The concept of "Buying" in Forex refers to the acquisition of a particular currency pair to open a trade and "Selling short" refers to the selling of a particular currency to open a trade, i.e, just the opposite. When you Buy, you are expecting the price of the currency pair to increase with time, i.e., you buy cheap to sell high; which is easy to understand. In the case of Selling short, it looks a bit more complicated. Here the way to make money is to initially sell a currency pair that you think will lose value in a given period of time and then, once it happened, you will buy it back at the new price but now you can sell it at the previous greater price the currency had when you opened the trade, so you earn the difference in prices. It may seem kind of tricky when you are starting, but once you are in front of your trading station it will look much simpler.

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

Forex Trading Software

If you are looking to get started trading the Forex, you will find that there are numerous software programs available (both web based and desktop based) for you to use in your trading. In fact, most brokers offer clients a software package for free or as part of their trading account. Usually the software that comes with your trading account is a very basic "bare bones" model. Sometimes, more features are available for a price. The software packages your broker provides can be an important consideration in choosing a broker. You may want to download and try some different packages using a demo account. This will give you a better idea of which software package you find most suitable to your unique style of trading.

Forex trading software comes in two basic flavors - desktop software, and web based software. Which one you choose to work with depends on your preference and other more technical factors. Obviously, the Forex market is very dynamic and you need to have the most reliable up to date connection to the data as possible. Your internet connection speed is a factor here, and if you can afford it, you really should be connecting via broadband.

Your internet connection speed is just one of the factors you should consider when selecting forex trading software. The biggest consideration should be one of security.

Generally speaking, web based forex software is more secure than a desktop based software package. Why is that? Well, with a desktop software, your information and data is stored on your hard drive thus making it vulnerable to numerous security issues. If your computer became infected by a virus, your personal data and the integrity of your trading system can become compromised. Likewise, in the event of hard drive failure, your important data can be lost. Then there is the threat of prying eyes accessing your trading systems.

Luckily, if you choose to go with a desktop based software for your forex trading, you can do some things to limit the risks. For starters, a dedicated computer just for trading the forex would be a wise investment. Due to the popularity of forex trading, there are computers made specifically with a forex traders needs in mind. Even if you cant afford a dedicated machine, you should still apply the following tips to your trading computer:

* Password protect your trading software and personal data * Make regular backups of your trading data * Use a anti virus program and keep it up to date * Update your trading software regularly

If you choose to go with a web based trading software, allot of the security and maintenance issues are handled by the provider. Online based forex systems are hosted on secure servers, the same type of servers credit card processing is handled on. This gives you a great deal of protection, as your data is encrypted. Also, backups and mirrors of your account data are made by your software provider to protect you from data loss.

Aside from the security considerations, you may find that an online based trading software is simply more convenient. There is no software to download as the software runs in your regular web browser. This means that you always will have access to the latest versions and features. Also, if you travel you will certainly appreciate the ability to log in and trade from any computer with an internet connection.

As you can see, there are many options in forex trading software. You ultimately should choose to work with the software that you personally find easiest and most intuitive to use.

For more information on Forex Trading Software and Forex trading systems, visit our sites, Forex Investing, and Forex Today

FOREX Signals Reviewed

Timothy Rohrer

I started in the FOREX market in June of 2002. With hardly any experience at all, I really did not know what I was getting into, other than I wanted to be a full-time trader making tons of money from home. Little did I know from the start that my lifestyle as I knew it was about to change drastically.

The Problem

I initially began with a demo account and did okay for a month. Throughout the course of a month I managed to compile 23 wins and 2 loses, for a net profit of $1,219. I thought to myself, this is excellent; I am ready to begin with a live account and to trade for myself. Moving from a demo account to a real my psychology was blind sided. I was afraid to trade using the same techniques and trading system I had used to become successful with my demo account. The ending wasn't pretty. I ended up losing a lot of sleep, $4458 and the only thing I gained was un-wanted stress. Out of cash and with other investments failing, I needed to find something quick that was going to get me where I wanted to be financially.

The Solution

I did not need the stress of trading anymore, so I decided to look for a decent FOREX signals provider. I wanted a system that was going to make me money every month and better yet a system that would trade for me.

I tried program after program only to lose more money. It seemed as though either the signal providers sent too many signals or the FOREX signals were horrible to begin with. Still trying to work my day job as a CPA, I was not always able to catch every signal either. I was in desperate need of an automated FOREX trading system.

I happened to be browsing the internet one day looking for things such as FOREX signals, automated trading signals and FOREX profits. I did manage to stumble across an extremely reliable trading system that has averaged 600 pips per month over the past 3 years. I couldn't believe my eyes, and they had the data to back up there trading track record. It's 2006 and I have been using this piece of software for exactly 1 year now and I could not be happier. The software offered excellent signals that I was able to take in the evenings and if I wasn't at my computer I had a text message sent to my cell phone so that I could call into the trading desk and place the trade. As of January 2006, my total net profit from trading has amounted to $82,000.

Tim Rohrer is an established FOREX trader. There is only one forex signals system that has been providing an income for many years. http://www.forex-investing.us

Forex Trading: Margin Usage and Introduction to Hedging

A good rule of thumb for either a mini-account or standard forex account, is to limit your margin usage for each trade to 5% - 10% of your usable margin.

As an example, if your usable margin is $5000, to trade safely, limit your margin usage for each trade to a maximum of $250. This means trading only 1 full lot for each trade. This is assuming that you are trading in a CMS Universal account with 400:1 margin. Your use of margin is increased with a smaller ratio, as most other brokerages only offer a smaller ratio, normally 200:1 or even 100:1.

As your account grows and your usable margin grows, you can increase your margin usage and trade bigger mini or full lot sizes. If you lose money and your account shrinks, drop your margin usage back down to smaller sizes. You need to learn to keep your eye on your usable margin, especially if you've suffered some losses.

Protect your usable Margin by not having more than 2 open hedged or unhedged position at any one time. Your usable margin & equity will get eaten up by un-hedged open positions that go bad in the wrong direction...this is a really good reason why you want to use stops, and if you hedge, hedge tightly.

IMPORTANT: Don't just keep putting on positions because you think it's a good opportunity. First sell a position and book some usable margin before you put on another position.

NOTE: Hedging does not use up more margin! Use it to protect your equity & usable margin, esp. in an emergency situation!

If you break the hedging rules, and your positions go against you and you aren't properly hedged with stop losses, you'll quickly see your usable margin degrade. If it degrades enough so that your usable margin goes into the negative, you'll get a margin call. This means that the operators will automatically start selling some of your lots in your oldest losing positions in order to beef up your usable margin. This makes your unrealized loss become a realized loss...and the money is gone from your account.

If you lose too much useable margin, they won't even let you trade in your account, the message they'll give you when you try to put on a new trade is, 'Account in Untradeable Condition'.

If this happens, you might have an open position that needs to be hedged immediately or you might need to sell an old position. Or you might need to deposit more money into your account. Then you can start trading smaller lots to win back some usable margin.

You can lose your entire account balance if you're not careful. One other good thing about forex trading is that you will never lose more money than is in your account, you won't have to sell your house if you get a margin call! Stick to the rules above and this won't happen to you. You'll make more money than you thought possible and without the stress of loss.

Cynthia Macy is co-author of 'The Day Trade Forex System: The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide To Online Currency Trading'. http://www.daytrade-forex.com http://www.successtrading2000.com http://www.professionalforextradingonline.info http://www.shorterminvestingsite.com

Short Introduction to Elliot Waves as a Resource in Forex Trading.

The Forex market has the largest volume of trades per day among all the capital markets you can trade. This characteristic together with it's high leverage and around the clock trading schedule makes Forex very attractive for traders around the world.

Once you enter the world of forex trading you will realize that this market has strong trends that seem to follow a repetitive pattern in all the different time frames you can use to analyze the market conditions.

Ralph Nelson Elliot also observed this and after analyzing a great number of charts he discovered in the late 1920's that the markets move in a repetitive manner that is far away from being a totally chaotic behavior. The markets move in cycles and they reflect the mass psychology of the active elements participating in them, with a characteristic ebb and flow that can be divided and analyzed as "waves" of this active elements psychology in their daily dealing with the markets.

But Elliot not only discovered the repetitive nature of the markets cycles but he also realized that this patterns had a fractal nature. This means that the patterns not only repeated with time but that in a given period of time the characteristic wave pattern would repeat at different scales (days, hours, minutes).

The Elliot wave pattern can be divided in five constitutive waves with the first of the waves called the impulsive wave. The fractal nature if this waves was evident to Elliot when he observed that in every impulsive wave, when observed at a smaller time scale he would find the characteristic five waves of the pattern he had found and if he now looked at the impulsive wave of the smaller impulsive waves in an even smaller scale he would find again five ways, etc.

Elliot waves are very important in Forex because he identified the specific patterns that you can observe when trading this market and considering the repetitive nature of this patterns you can make a pretty accurate forecast of what the markets will do next. Giving you a huge advantage in your daily encounters with the currency markets.

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

Fear And The Profitable Forex Trader.

Forex trading is one of the most looked for occupations for many people these days. Around the world people is getting tired of fixed working hours and tight cubicles that limit their aspirations of a more relaxed and satisfying working life.

In order to start Forex trading the new trader doesn't need a fortune or good Wall Street contacts that will let him become part of the chosen ones. The only thing the new forex trader needs is some starting capital (as low as $100, but an amount around $5000 would be more recommendable) and the free forex trading platform that will be provided by the Forex broker.

But one thing is to start Forex trading and other very different is becoming a profitable Forex trader. In order to become a profitable trader the new trader will immediately discover the imperative need of having an accurate knowledge of the markets and a good understanding of the forex technical indicators. Concepts as Moving Averages, Fibonacci levels, Bollinger Bands, etc; are the basic knowledge every trader must have.

This basic knowledge is indeed essential but once in front of the trading station, with real money on the line and with an open trade subject to the currency markets oscillations; things will start to get tricky even if the basic technical concepts of forex trading have been understood by the beginning and sometimes also by the experienced trader.

Knowledge will start to fade in front of one of the most basic instincts we humans beings have. Fear will ask for an entrance to the traders mind and if let in by the inexperienced trader, it will turn the making of critical decisions difficult and many bad trading moves may follow.

It is very natural to be afraid and let fear invade us if we are not really sure of what we are doing or we can not afford to lose even a cent in a bad trade; or seen in a different approach, the trader is so anxious and perfectionist that he won't let him lose anything and will take it very seriously if he loses a trade.

Fear is one of the worst enemies of the Forex trader. In order to become a profitable trader it is essential that the person involved in trading understands that he must leave fear aside and stick to the trading plan he has constructed and arranged before, always understanding that losing trades happen to everyone and they are always part of a profitable trading career. A forex trader must learn how to profitable use his stops without heavily compromising the capital in his trading account, i.e., he must play safe but realizing that a calculated risk must be undertaken in order to maximize profits.

In short, fear is a natural emotion we all humans have given the right environment is present; therefore it is the trader's obligation not to arrange a "fear environment" around him and be psychologically prepared for the ups and downs of the trade. No one is prefect and that's an even deeper truth in forex trading.

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

Three Important Forex Concepts For New Traders.

As you enter the world of Forex you will find yourself learning and using many new concepts that you may not have used or heard before.

Three of this important concepts that you must understand are what "Pips" are, What "Volume" is and what you do when "Buying" and "Selling Short". They may look more like four concepts but Buying and Selling are like the two faces on the same coin so we can consider them as a single concept.

Lets first introduce what Pips are. Maybe you have heard or read already how many pips a day you can make using some trading system. In short, currency pairs prices will go out to 4 significant digits. For example; if one currency pair is trading for 1.3451 then an increase to 1.3452 would be a "one-pip" increase in the price of this particular currency. This is an increase of one hundredth of a percent of the value of the currency pair you are trading. And depending the type of account you have, regular or mini, each pip will have a value of $10 or $1. So if you make 10 pips a day with a regular account you would have made $100 and with a mini-account $10.

Now we can talk about the Volume; trading Volume is a quantity that tells traders how much money is being traded at one particular moment. And the forex market is known by its high volume of trading during most of the time markets are open. Some times there can be spikes in the volume during some type of news breaks and during the time New York stock exchange is open. The volume of transactions in Forex, even in a slow day, will always be much higher than the volume traded in other large exchanges at their full capacity.

Now maybe the most obvious of the concepts. Buying refers to the acquisition of a particular currency pair to open a trade. Selling short refers to the selling of a particular currency to open a trade. When you Buy, you are expecting the price of the currency pair to increase with time, i.e., you buy cheap to sell high. In the case of Selling short, it looks a bit more complicated. Here the way to make money is to initially sell a currency pair that you think will lose value in a given period of time and then, once it happened, you will buy it back at the new price but now you can sell it at the previous greater price the currency had when you opened the trade, so you earn the difference in prices. I know it seems kind of tricky, but once you are in front of your trading station it will look much simpler.

Understand well these three concepts and you will start with solid steps you trading career.

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

Three Reasons Why Forex Trading Is Great.

As a Forex trader you will always be attempting to make more profits than losses from the fluctuations of exchange rates between currencies in the forex market; in short, this is what is called forex trading. The good news is that nobody is going to ask you for a diploma, or somehow verify the amount of hours you've spent studying the foreign exchange market (FOREX). All you need is the proper training and the tools that will help you become a profitable trader. But this is not the only advantage you get when trading forex, compared to other ways of investment and speculation as stocks. You have a other great advantages that will make you decide for forex and forget about stocks and commodities. 1): There will Never be a Bear Market in FOREX.

You can have access to a mutually-inclusive (two-way) exchange of world currencies. In other words; currencies trade in "pairs"(for example, US dollar vs. yen or US dollar vs. Euro), one side of every currency pair is constantly moving (up or down) in relation to the other one. Thus, when you buy a particular currency, you are actually simultaneously selling the other currency in that particular pair. As the market moves, one of the currencies will increase in value while the other will decrease proportionally. It is up to you to choose the correct currency to be long or short. Since currency trading always involves buying one currency and selling another, it all means that you have equal potential for profits in both a rising or falling market.

2): Trade with High Leverage - up to 200:1 Leverage.

Every trader participating in the forex market is allowed to trade foreign currencies on a high leverage basis - up to 200 times your investment with some brokers. This is primarily attributed to the higher levels of liquidity within the currency markets. Standard 100,000-unit currency lots can be traded with as little as 1% margin, or $1,000, which is a pretty nice feature of forex. Mini Forex accounts are permitted to trade with just 0.5% margin -- in other words, just $50 allows you to control a 10,000-unit currency position. Futures traders, who are asked for margin requirements generally equal to 5%-8% of the total contract value, will immediately appreciate that the FOREX market provides much greater leverage; and stock traders, who must post at least 50% margin, may think they are dreaming.

3): Most Price Movements Are Highly Predictable.

Many times currency prices in the forex market may be volatile, but they have the great advantage that generally repeat themselves in relatively predictable cycles, creating trends. The strong trends that foreign currencies develop are a significant advantage for traders who use the "technical" methods and strategies.

Unlike stocks that sometimes seem to simple lay down in narrow price alleys, currencies rarely spend much time in tight trading ranges and have the tendency to develop strong trends. It is known that over 80% of the trading volume in forex is speculative in nature and, as a result, the market frequently overshoots and then corrects itself. As a technically-trained trader, you can easily identify new trends and breakouts, which provide for multiple opportunities to enter and exit trading positions.

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report onFibonacci Tradingand learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#What's Fibonacci Forex Trading?

Fibonacci forex trading is the basis of many forex trading systems used by a great number of professional forex brokers around the globe, and many billions of dollars are profitable traded every year based on these trading techniques.

Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician and he is best remembered by his world famous Fibonacci sequence, the definition of this sequence is that it's formed by a series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers; 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ...But in the case of currency trading what is more important for the forex trader is the Fibonacci ratios derived from this sequence of numbers, i.e. .236, .50, .382, .618, etc.

These ratios are mathematical proportions prevalent in many places and structures in nature, as well as in many man made creations.

Forex trading can greatly benefit form this mathematical proportions due to the fact that the oscillations observed in forex charts, where prices are visibly changing in an oscillatory pattern, follow Fibonacci ratios very closely as indicators of resistance and support levels; maybe not to the last cent, but so close as to be really amazing.

Fibonacci price points, or levels, for any forex currency pair can be calculated in advance so that the trader will know when to enter or exit the market if the prediction given by the Fibonacci forex day trading system he uses fulfills its predictions.

Many people tries to make this analysis overly complicated scaring away many new forex traders that are just beginning to understand how the forex market works and how to make a profit in it. But this is not how it has to be. I can't say it's a simple concept but it is quite understandable for any trader once he or she has grasped the basics and has had some practice trading using Fibonacci levels along with other secondary indicators that will help to improve the accuracy of the entry and exit point for every particular trade.

Free chapters of a forex day trading system can be downloaded at the author's website in case you are interested in learning more about Fibonacci forex trading.

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

http://www.1-forex.com

"How To" Start Trading The Forex Market? (Part 5)

What are *PIPS* ?

Currencies are traded on a price/ point (pip) system. Each currency pair has its own pip value.

When you see a FOREX price quote, you'll see something listed like this:

EUR/USD 1.2210/13

Explanation:

a) If you want to BUY the EUR/USD ( meaning you BUY EUROS and SELL US$ ) you buy 100,000 EUROS and you SELL 122,130 US$, or in other words you receive 122,130 US$ for 100,000 EUROS.

B) If you want to SELL the EUR/USD ( meaning you SELL EUROS and BUY US$ ) you buy 122,100 US$ and sell 100,000 EUROS, or in other words you receive 100,000 EUROS for 122,100 US$.

The difference between the bid and the ask price is referred to as the spread. In the example above, the spread is 3 or 3 pips.

Since the US dollar is the centerpiece of the FOREX market, it is normally considered the 'base' currency for quotes. In the "Majors", this includes USD/JPY, USD/CHF and USD/CAD. For these currencies and many others, quotes are expressed as a unit of $1 USD per the second currency quoted in the pair.

For example a quote of USD/CHF 1.3000 means that fore one U.S. dollar you receive 1.30 Swiss Francs. or in other words, you receive 1.30 Swiss Franc for each 1 US$.

When the U.S. dollar is the base unit and a currency quote goes up, it means the dollar has appreciated in value and the other currency has weakened. If the USD/CHF quote above increases to 1.3050 the dollar is stronger because it will now buy more Swiss Franc than before.

The three exceptions to this rule are the British pound (GBP), the Australian dollar (AUD) and the Euro (EUR). In these cases, you might see a quote such as EUR/USD 1.2080, meaning that for EURO you receive 1.2080 U.S. Dollars.

In these three currency pairs, where the U.S. dollar is not the base rate, a rising quote means a weakening dollar, as it now takes more U.S. dollars to equal one Euro, British pound or an Australian dollar.

In other words, if a currency quote goes higher, that increases the value of the base currency. A lower quote means the base currency is weakening.

Currency pairs that do not involve the U.S. dollar are called cross currencies, but the calculation is the same. For example, a quote of EUR/JPY 134.50 signifies that one Euro is equal to 134.50 Japanese yen.

HOW TO BUY ( going " LONG ")and SELL ( going " SHORT ") in the FOREX Market?

Keep in mind 2 very important rules:

RULE # 1) Cut your LOOSING trades and let your WINNING trades RUN

YOU WILL HAVE LOSING TRADES. Every FOREX trader has. The secret is, that a consistent, disciplined trader, at the end of the day, adds up more winning trades than losing trades.

When you and see on your charts, without any doubt, that you are in a losing trade, don't keep losing money. Most of the novice traders are lowering their stop loss just to "prove they are right" or "hoping that the market will reverse". 99% of these trades, are ending up with more losses. Most of the profitable trades are usually "right" immediately.

Remember, smart traders know there are many other opportunities. CUT your losses short and compound those winning positions.

RULE 2) NEVER EVER trade FOREX without placing a Stop Loss Order.

PLACE a STOP order, right along with your ENTRY order, via your online trading station, to prevent potential losses.

Before initiating any trade, you have to calculate at what point ( price) you would be wrong, because the market changed direction, and would want to cut your losses.

To make profits, in the FOREX, a trader can enter the market with a *buy position* (known as going "long") or a *sell position* (known as going "short").

As an example let's assume you've been studying the EURO. The EURO is paired first with the U.S. dollar or USD.

Your trading methods, rules, strategies, etc., tell you that the EURO will rice in the next 2 weeks, So you buy the EUR/USD pair meaning you will simultaneously buy EUROS, and SELL dollars).

You open up your excellent trading station software (provided to you for free by Fenix Capital Management, LLC www.fenixcapitalmanagement.com ) and you see that the EUR/USD pair is trading at:

EUR/USD: 1.2010/1.2013

As you you believe that the market price for the EUR/USD pair will go higher, you will enter a *buy position* in the market.

As an example, lets say you bought one lot EUR/USD at 1.2013. As long as you sell back the pair at a higher price, then you make money.

To illustrate a typical FX SELL trade, consider this scenario involving the USD/JPY currency pair:

REMEMBER Selling ("going short") the currency pair implies selling the first, base currency, and buying the second, quote currency. You sell the currency pair if you believe the base currency (USD) will go down relative to the quote currency (JPY), or equivalently, that the quote currency (JPY) will go up relative to the base currency (USD).

HOW TO CALCULATE PROFIT OR LOSS?

The Profit Calculations, on the Short-sell trade scenario below, may seem somewhat complicated if you've never been in the FOREX market before, but this process is continually calculated through your broker trade station (software). I show you this process below so you can SEE how a PROFIT might occur.

The current bid/ask price for USD/JPY is 107.50/107.54, meaning you can buy $1 US for 107.54 YEN, or sell $1 US for 107.50 YEN.

Suppose you think that the US Dollar (USD) is overvalued against the YEN (JPY). To execute this strategy, you would sell Dollars (simultaneously buying YEN), and then wait for the exchange rate to rise.

Your trade would be the following: you sell 1 lot USD (US $100,000) and you buy 1 lot JPY (10,754.000 YEN). (Remember, at 0.25 % margin, your initial margin deposit for this trade would be $ 250.)

As you expected, USD/JPY falls to 106.50/106.54, meaning you can now buy $1 US for $106.54 Japanese YEN or sell $1 US for 106.50.

Since you're short dollars (and are long YEN), you must now buy dollars and sell back the YEN to realize any profit.

You buy US $100,000 at the current USD/JPY rate of 106.54, and receive 10,654,000 YEN. Since you originally bought (paid for) 10,754,000 YEN, your profit is 100,000 YEN.

To calculate your P&L in terms of US dollars, divide 100,000 by the current USD/JPY rate of 106.54

Total profit = US $938.61

Veteran Trader Martin Maier is the Founder of Fenix Capital Management LLC He is the developer of various futures and commodities trading programs and his systems have been ranked and rated by various large American Investment Profile Rating Companies such as STAR and MAR.

?How To? Start Trading The Forex Market? (Part 5)

What are *PIPS* ?

Currencies are traded on a price/ point (pip) system. Each currency pair has its own pip value.

When you see a FOREX price quote, you'll see something listed like this:

EUR/USD 1.2210/13

Explanation:

a) If you want to BUY the EUR/USD ( meaning you BUY EUROS and SELL US$ ) you buy 100,000 EUROS and you SELL 122,130 US$, or in other words you receive
122,130 US$ for 100,000 EUROS.

B) If you want to SELL the EUR/USD ( meaning you SELL EUROS and BUY US$ ) you buy 122,100 US$ and sell 100,000 EUROS, or in other words you receive 100,000 EUROS for 122,100 US$.

The difference between the bid and the ask price is referred to as the spread. In the example above, the spread is 3 or 3 pips.

Since the US dollar is the centerpiece of the FOREX market, it is normally considered the 'base' currency for quotes. In the "Majors", this includes USD/JPY, USD/CHF and USD/CAD. For these currencies and many others, quotes are expressed as a unit of $1 USD per the second currency quoted in the pair.

For example a quote of USD/CHF 1.3000 means that fore one U.S. dollar you receive 1.30 Swiss Francs. or in other words, you receive 1.30 Swiss Franc for each 1 US$.

When the U.S. dollar is the base unit and a currency quote goes up, it means the dollar has appreciated in value and the other currency has weakened. If the USD/CHF quote above increases to 1.3050 the dollar is stronger because it will now buy more Swiss Franc than before.

The three exceptions to this rule are the British pound (GBP), the Australian dollar (AUD) and the Euro (EUR). In these cases, you might see a quote such as EUR/USD 1.2080, meaning that for EURO you receive 1.2080 U.S. Dollars.

In these three currency pairs, where the U.S. dollar is not the base rate, a rising quote means a weakening dollar, as it now takes more U.S. dollars to equal one Euro, British pound or an Australian dollar.

In other words, if a currency quote goes higher, that increases the value of the base currency. A lower quote means the base currency is weakening.

Currency pairs that do not involve the U.S. dollar are called cross currencies, but the calculation is the same. For example, a quote of EUR/JPY 134.50 signifies that one Euro is equal to 134.50 Japanese yen.

HOW TO BUY ( going ? LONG ?)and SELL ( going ? SHORT ?) in the FOREX Market?

Keep in mind 2 very important rules:

RULE # 1) Cut your LOOSING trades and let your WINNING trades RUN

YOU WILL HAVE LOSING TRADES. Every FOREX trader has. The secret is, that a consistent, disciplined trader, at the end of the day, adds up more winning trades than losing trades.

When you and see on your charts, without any doubt, that you are in a losing trade, don't keep losing money. Most of the novice traders are lowering their stop loss just to ?prove they are right? or ?hoping that the market will reverse?. 99% of these trades, are ending up with more losses. Most of the profitable trades are usually "right" immediately.

Remember, smart traders know there are many other opportunities. CUT your losses short and compound those winning positions.

RULE 2) NEVER EVER trade FOREX without placing a Stop Loss Order.

PLACE a STOP order, right along with your ENTRY order, via your online trading station, to prevent potential losses.

Before initiating any trade, you have to calculate at what point ( price) you would be wrong, because the market changed direction, and would want to cut your losses.

To make profits, in the FOREX, a trader can enter the market with a *buy position* (known as going "long") or a *sell position* (known as going "short").

As an example let's assume you've been studying the EURO. The EURO is paired first with the U.S. dollar or USD.

Your trading methods, rules, strategies, etc., tell you that the EURO will rice in the next 2 weeks, So you buy the EUR/USD pair meaning you will simultaneously buy EUROS, and SELL dollars).

You open up your excellent trading station software (provided to you for free by Fenix Capital Management, LLC www.fenixcapitalmanagement.com ) and you see that the EUR/USD pair is trading at:

EUR/USD: 1.2010/1.2013

As you you believe that the market price for the EUR/USD pair will go higher, you will enter a *buy position* in the market.

As an example, lets say you bought one lot EUR/USD at 1.2013. As long as you sell back the pair at a higher price, then you make money.

To illustrate a typical FX SELL trade, consider this scenario involving the USD/JPY currency pair:

REMEMBER Selling ("going short") the currency pair implies selling the first, base currency, and buying the second, quote currency. You sell the currency pair if you believe the base currency (USD) will go down relative to the quote currency (JPY), or equivalently, that the quote currency (JPY) will go up relative to the base currency (USD).

HOW TO CALCULATE PROFIT OR LOSS?

The Profit Calculations, on the Short-sell trade scenario below, may seem somewhat complicated if you've never been in the FOREX market before, but this process is continually calculated through your broker trade station (software). I show you this process below so you can SEE how a PROFIT might occur.

The current bid/ask price for USD/JPY is 107.50/107.54, meaning you can buy $1 US for 107.54 YEN, or sell $1 US for 107.50 YEN.

Suppose you think that the US Dollar (USD) is overvalued against the YEN (JPY). To execute this strategy, you would sell Dollars (simultaneously buying YEN), and then wait for the exchange rate to rise.

Your trade would be the following: you sell 1 lot USD (US $100,000) and you buy 1 lot JPY (10,754.000 YEN). (Remember, at 0.25 % margin, your initial margin deposit for this trade would be $ 250.)

As you expected, USD/JPY falls to 106.50/106.54, meaning you can now buy $1 US for $106.54 Japanese YEN or sell $1 US for 106.50.

Since you're short dollars (and are long YEN), you must now buy dollars and sell back the YEN to realize any profit.

You buy US $100,000 at the current USD/JPY rate of 106.54, and receive 10,654,000 YEN. Since you originally bought (paid for) 10,754,000 YEN, your profit is 100,000 YEN.

To calculate your P&L in terms of US dollars, divide 100,000 by the current USD/JPY rate of 106.54

Total profit = US $938.61Veteran Trader Martin Maier is the Founder of Fenix Capital Management LLC He is the developer of various futures and commodities trading programs and his systems have been ranked and rated by various large American Investment Profile Rating Companies such as STAR and MAR.

5 Reasons to Trade Forex Instead of Stocks

While Forex trading is becoming more popular in the United States, the vast majority of investors still do not understand the massive advantages offered in the foreign currency market when compared to equities or fixed income trading. When you fully grasp the following concepts, you'll understand why you might want to reconsider your current investment strategies.

1. Currency prices are not heavily influenced by institutional investors. In stock trading, there is a limited amount of volume on a daily basis. Each stock has a specific number of shares on the open market and trade prices are governed by the number of people attempting to buy or sell shares at a specific point in time. This makes the market vulnerable to price swings when a large investor is attempting to buy up or unload large amounts of shares. For example, if some pension fund owns 10% of a company and suddenly decides to liquidate their position, the market is now flooded with sell orders. Since the amount of shares attempting to be sold will outnumber the amount of buy orders, the price of the stock will start to drop as the number of buyers days up. This creates losses for the remaining shareholders. On the other hand, the forex market is so massive and has so many investors that no single investor can possibly have a major impact on pricing. There are too many units of Euros, Dollars, Yen, etc for any single institution to hold even close to a controlling interest in any currency.

2. Margin requirements are significantly lower in forex trading than equity trading. While the exact amount of margin allowed is determined by each broker, the restrictions are usually much less stringent when trading forex. Margin allows the investor to "play with house money." In essence, you're borrowing money from the broker to invest in your own account. While this can be risky, it can also be insanely profitable. For example, let's say you have $10,000 of your own money to invest. If you open up a margin account at an equity broker, you can usually margin up to 50% of the value of stock. So if you buy $10,000 in Microsoft stock, you can borrow another $5,000 to own a total of $15,000 in value. With your forex account, the margin requirement is often as low as 1%. Which means that if you buy $10,000 in Euros, you can use your broker's money to buy another $1,000,000. So you now own over $1 million in Euros. Now lets say that the value of each investment increases 10%. Your $15,000 in Microsoft stock is now worth $16,500. You sell it, pay back the $5,000 you borrowed, and you pocket $1,500 in profit (minus any fees or interest). Your return on investment is 15%. If your Euros went up 10%, your $1 million is now worth $1.1 million. After selling and repaying your broker, you profit $100,000 before any interest. That's a return on investment of over 1,000%. Of course, you need to be extra careful when trading on margin. Imagine if the transaction went the other way. You'd be in a much bigger hole in the forex scenario. But the potential for enormous gain is there and is one of the major reasons why forex trading is so attractive to serious investors.

3. Forex trading is open 24 hours a day. Unlike the U.S. stock markets, you can trade forex any time of day from Monday through Friday. If a major news story breaks when you're holding stock, and it's after hours, you're stuck holding onto your position until the market opens the next day. By the time this happens, everyone else knows the news and there's thousands of buy/sell orders waiting when the opening bell rings. This will dramatically influence your trade price and negate any advantage you might have had by being one of the first to react. Keep in mind that many corporations withhold major news such as earnings reports and personnel moves until after the market closes. They do this to minimize emotional trading, which is smart for them to do but also hurts savvy investors. Since Forex trading is open 24 hours, you can place your trade order whenever major events occur.

4. The foreign exchange market is more liquid than the equity market. Forex is the largest market in the world. Every day, an average of $1.4 trillion dollars is traded, and the amount of securities (foreign currencies) is minuscule when compared to the number of companies traded in the equities market. This means that there are always buyers to be matched with sellers, which means that you'll have a much better chance to get a fair and accurate price on your trade than if you were trading a low volume stock where the bid and ask spreads can be very large.

5. Forex trading offers the advantage of limited risk. This is one of the large advantages over the futures market. When you buy a futures contract, you are obligated to buy or sell a specific amount of a specific commodity at a specific time for a specific price. Which means that if disaster hits, you're out of luck. For example, lets say you buy a futures contract to sell corn. If news breaks that reports an outbreak of deaths caused by a pesticide used in corn crops, the price on your contracts will drop through the floor, limits will drop, and you could be stuck in your position and end up taking massive losses. This would not happen in the forex market since you can leave your position at any time.

This article is just a small piece of the free Forex Trading Course at forexgameplan.com. Go learn about this incredible market and sign up today while the 30 day course is still free.

An Open Invitation To Frustrated Forex Traders That Desire Unlimited Success In The Market - Part 1

Why does one Forex traders succeed and another fail? What sets the winners apart from the losers? Well, you won`t be surprised to know that there are certain characteristics that all successful Forex traders share. While many investors take actions that aren`t in their best self interest, such as making trading based on emotions, rather than on logic, or holding on to a losing position so they won`t have to admit they made a bad trade, successful Forex traders don`t do these things. But there are some actions that they take regularly, so regularly that they become habits. Learning about these characteristics and habits will help make you into a successful trader as well.

To start, successful Forex traders are goal oriented. Most people perform at their best when they`re reaching for a clear goal. There are three basic qualities that make up a clear goal. First, the goal must be realistic. If your goal is to double your money every day, it sounds great, but it`s not realistic. Setting unrealistic goals can undermine your self confidence, you will be setting yourself up to fail. Secondly, the goal must be attainable. Just as with a realistic goal, an attainable goal must be within your current capabilities. The best goals are short term goals; make your first goal a small one, and then continue to increase your goals as you experience success.

The third trait is measurability. Goals that aren`t precise and can`t be quantified or measured, aren`t goals at all. If your goal is to be wealthy, you need to specify what wealthy means. My guess is that your definition of wealth will change as your net worth increases. If you can`t define your goal, and measure your progress towards it, then you have no way of assessing your progress. It becomes impossible to make any changes to your techniques and strategies that may help you reach your goal. Successful Forex traders set goals, and they also are confident they can reach their goals. Confidence is the key to staying rational, logical, and disciplined while you are trading. Starting with small, realistic goals will help build your confidence in yourself and your abilities.

Successful Forex traders also apply skill and logic to all their trading decisions. They learn every day, and they use what they know to make intelligent choices on every trade. Successful Forex traders don`t worry about missing out on the next big thing, they focus on making good trades. One of the most common mistakes inexperienced Forex traders make is to trade when they see an opportunity they think might be too good to miss. Jumping into a position based on a hunch, or on the belief that you may be missing an opportunity, is no different than gambling. Almost every investor at one time or another has felt a rush of enthusiasm for a trade, based solely on their desire not to miss out on a great opportunity that might be available. Successful Forex traders know their market, and are disciplined in their trades so that they aren`t swayed by these kinds of concerns.

While these Forex traders know their market, it`s simply not possible to understand and stay in touch with everything that occurs in all the types of investment vehicles and markets across the world. While some Forex traders have developed systems that allow them to trade in multiple venues, for instance, in different stock markets around the world, most Forex traders specialize in a particular type of investment, and in a particular market. If you enjoy trading in commodities futures, that enjoyment will help you to focus and stay in touch with events in the commodities futures market. If you aren`t interested in currency trading, don`t trade in it. Your lack of knowledge and motivation will cause you to lose focus and make mistakes. Successful Forex traders tend to specialize; they pick an area to study and they follow it closely, learning from past trends and patterns, and from their own trades. If you`re a beginning trader, I recommend focusing on one investment vehicle and it`s market. Learn all you can, about the market and about yourself, before you move into other investment types.

Whether you`re a beginning trader, a trader with some experience, or someone who makes his or her living strictly from trading, you can be successful. Many people think they have to have significant capital, or years of experience, to trade successfully. That`s not true. It`s also true that if you don`t stay disciplined, focused, and rational, you`ll end up as a losing trader, regardless of your level of expertise. All successful Forex traders started as small investors; they didn`t trade more than they could safely risk, they learned from their mistakes, and they developed systems that worked for them and that fit their personal styles. There aren`t different strategies for different levels of Forex traders because the principles are the same for everyone in the markets: logical, focused, disciplined trading creates success.

David Jenyns, leading expert in designing profitable trading systems, offers a huge free collection of trading related tips and tricks. http://www.freetradingsystems.org/READ my articles; you'll FIND the most powerful insider trading plans & tips ever put together. Searching for these on your own, is a needle in a haystack (hard to find). I trade everyday & my progressive efforts found the perfect trading card, a set system & plans that really work. These online trading systems are unbelievably powerful, lucrative, reliable, yet simple to use. Until recently, I've kept this formula to myself. NOW, I reveal all.

What is Forex?

If you read about investing, you've seen the word forex pop up. But because forex doesn't get much publicity in the major publications and websites, many investors don't know that forex is just short for "foreign exchange." So trading the forex market is simply trading foreign currencies. As recently as ten years ago, currency trading had high barriers to entry, so only large banking and institutional firms had access to the tools and systems required to play in the forex game. Recently, however, technology has developed to the point that any individual investor can hop right in and trade with one of the many online platforms.

When buying and selling in the forex market, you'll see that there are four "currency pairs" that dominate the percentage of trades. Those four are the Euro vs U.S. Dollar, US Dollar vs Japanese Yen, US Dollar vs Swiss Franc, and US Dollar vs British Pound.

The goal when investing in currency is to be holding a currency that appreciates in value in relation to the other currencies. To use an overly simplistic example, if you bought 50 British Pounds for 100 US Dollars, held the Pounds for 1 week, and in that period the value of Pounds increased in relation to US Dollars, you could then convert those Pounds back into dollars for, say, $120.

Unlike the domestic stock markets, the forex is open for trades 24 hours a day. Much like the phrase "it's always noon somewhere," it's always business hours at some region of the globe. Since every country trades on the FX market, and it's open all day, the daily volume is roughly $1.2 trillion, which dwarfs that of the NYSE. Another comparison to make in order to truly realize the magnitude of the forex market is with the currency futures market (which has around 1% of the daily volume).

One other important distinction to make is that currency trading is not centered on an exchange like the NYSE or NASDAQ. There is no central body or organization required to act as middleman. Trading circulates between major banking centers around the world.

Until recently, there were strict financial requirements and massive minimum transaction sizes which prevented individual investors from trading. But with the advent of the internet came the FX brokers. A forex broker is similar to an online stock trading account such as etrade. Anybody can open an account and buy and sell in any quantity. Because the brokers have thousands of investors placing orders through them, they are able to meet the large minimum transaction size by purchasing in large blocks and distributing currency amongst the purchasing investors.

Although it is now easy to start trading forex, it is a complicated and complex market. While it offers fantastic opportunity for wealth, it is also very easy to lose your shirt in a hurry. Before trading forex, do your homework and read as much as you can find before investing your hard earned money.

This article is just a small piece of the free Forex Education at forexgameplan.com. Go learn about this incredible market and sign up today while the 30 day course is still free.

Beginning Forex - How Are Lots Traded and What The Heck is a PIP

If you are new to Forex, no doubt you are confused by all of the strange and unfamiliar terminology. For example, what is a pip? Also, you are probably already aware that Forex trading can be risky. How can you limit your loss and best protect your funds? This article briefly covers how currency lots are traded to help you better understand how to plan your trading strategy and manage your funds.

In Foreign Currency Exchange (FOREX), earnings are expressed in "pips". Pip is short for Price Interest Point, also called points. Whereas the smallest denomination in USD is the penny ($.01), in Currency Exchange, funds can be traded in an even smaller denomination, $0.0001. This means that very small movements in currency prices can create large profits.

So, a PIP is the smallest unit a currency can be traded in. The actual value of a pip is not a set price. If you are trading with a standard account, a pip is worth $10. If you are trading a mini account, a pip is only worth $1.

The value of a pip changes based upon the size of your account, because the size of your account affects how much currency you can leverage. A standard full size trading account is 100,000 units of the base currency. If you are trading in USD, a standard account has a value of $100,000 USD.

A mini lot is 10,000 units of base currency. If you are trading mini lots, you can leverage $10,000. This is why a pip in a mini account is worth less than a pip in a standard full sized account.

While Forex trading allows you to leverage more funds than you actually have, this can be a double edged sword. While you can make profits on funds that you leverage (rather than own), you can also have losses amplified as well. There are several ways, however, to manage your risk when trading Forex. If you are interested in trading Forex, you should have a definite trading strategy. You must educate yourself to know when to enter and exit the market and what kind of movements to anticipate.

You can also place something known as a stop loss order. Stop-loss orders the typical way traders minimize risk when placing an entry order. A stop-loss order to exit your position if the currency price reaches a certain point.

If you are taking a long position, you would place the stop loss order below current market price. For a short position, you would place a stop loss order above current market price. This technique allows you to manage your risk and, just as the name suggests, stop your losses at a certain point.

As you can see, Forex trading can be complex, but once you understand the basic fundamental principals of how lots are traded, its starts to come together for you. Foreign Currency Trading can be quite profitable and and exciting way to invest.

For more FREE Forex Training Articles, visit: Forex

Forex And Commodities Futures And Options. What To Know Before You Trade.

The popularity of trading futures and options has been growly rapidly for several years. The ease of accessing constantly updated data online has prompted an increased fever by day traders to attempt to be successful and make money in this risky investment area. Individuals can now trade these markets with the same ease and speed as large companies.

Trading forex ( foreign exchange ) and commodity futures and options is not for everyone. It is a complex and risky business that experiences volatile price and value swings. Before you invest any money in forex, commodities futures or option contracts, you should:

? Consider your financial trading experience, goals, and financial resources and know how much you can afford to lose above and beyond your initial payment.

? Understand commodity futures and option contracts and your obligations before commiting your finances into trade contracts.

? Understand your risk exposure and aspects of trading by thoroughly reviewing the risk disclosure documents your broker is required to give you.

? Know who to contact if you have a problem or question.

? Ask more questions and gather more information before you open an account.

Commodity futures and option contracts:

A futures contract is a legally binding agreement between two parties to buy or sell a specific financial product or commodity in the future, on a designated exchange, for a specific quantity of a commodity at a specific price. The buyer and seller of a futures contract will agree now on a price for a product to be delivered, or paid, for at a specifically set date and time in the future, which is known as the "settlement date." Actual delivery of the commodity can take place in fulfillment of the contract, but most futures contracts are actually closed out or "offset" prior to delivery.

An option on a commodity futures contract is a legally binding agreement between two parties that gives the buyer, who pays a market determined price known as a "premium," the right (but not the obligation), within a specific time period, to exercise his option. Exercise of the option will result in the person being deemed to have entered into a futures contract at a specified price known as the "strike price." In some cases, an option may confer the right to buy or sell the underlying asset directly, and these options are known as options on the physical asset.

In the United States, an individual, cannot trade futures contracts and options on futures contracts directly on an exchange. A person or firm must trade on your behalf. People and firms who trade on your behalf as a customer generally must be registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Two general categories of trading accounts:

? Individual Account. In an individual account, trading is done only for you. An individual account may be setup as either a "non-discretionary" or a "discretionary" account. A "non-discretionary" account, means that you will make all of the trading decisions and the broker may not execute any transactions without your prior approval and consent. A "discretionary" individual account, means that you give permission to the broker firm carrying your account or some third party to make trading decisions on your behalf.

You may open an individual account with a registered Futures Commission Merchant or through an Introducing Broker. An Introducing Broker may accept your orders and transmit them for execution to a Futures Commission Merchant with which the Introducing Broker has a relationship. You deposit funds directly with the Futures Commission Merchant. In an individual discretionary account, you grant power-of-attorney to a Futures Commission Merchant, an Introducing Broker, one of their Associated Persons, or a Commodity Trading Advisor to make trading decisions on your behalf.

Commodity Pool. You may also trade commodities through a "commodity pool." This means you are purchasing a share or interest in the pool, and trades are executed for the pool as a whole, rather than for the individuals who have interests in the pool. Pool participants share in any gains or losses.

If you have a dispute or a problem arises out of your commodity futures or option account, first try to resolve the problem with your broker. If that is not successful, then you have options for resolving disputes: (1) the CFTC Reparations program; (2) industry sponsored arbitration; or (3) court litigation. In selecting a particular approach, you may want to consider the cost, length of time involved and whether or not the assistance of an attorney is required. More information on dispute resolution is available from the CFTC's Office of Proceedings (202-418-5250).

A Checklist "Before You Trade":

Make sure you have:

? Clearly identified your financial goals, including the amount of risk and loss you can handle?
? Determined how much assistance and help you may want from a trading advisor in making trading decisions?
? Checked the registration status and disciplinary history of the advisor or pool you select with the National Futures Association?
? Received and thoroughly reviewed the disclosure document -- before you open an account?
? Clearly understood the disclosure document, including the statement of fees, the potential for loss, your right to withdraw your funds and the "break-even analysis?"

Make sure you ask questions for anything that you do not understand. Remember, it is your money, make sure you know where it is going.

Call the CFTC or the NFA with any questions you may have?

http://www.cftc.gov
http://www.nfa.futures.orgArticle is courtesy of http://www.forex-trading-i.com/ . Visit for more information on Forex, Commodities and Futures Trading. This article may be freely reprinted as long as the author's resource box and url links remain intact.

Forex Trading

Forex trading has been growing rapidly among day traders since the 1990s, as day traders have seen the advantages that trading currencies can have over trading stocks. However, since there are fewer currencies for beginners to purchase over the large number of stocks available, forex trading can be much more difficult for a newcomer to learn and master. Still, there are some basic principles that someone new to forex trading should learn, and these concepts may even be helpful to the experienced trader.

The first principle of forex trading is to understand that trading is an investment, not an income. If you are looking to constantly boom in forex trading, then you may need to do a reassessment. forex trading, like other forms of trading, allows you to make a good return on your initial capital annually. However, during that year you need to expect some ups and downs in your forex trading. You could even have several months where you have consecutive losses. It is probably in your best interest to have another source of income while you do forex trading.

Another area where beginners sometimes find themselves frustrated is that they try to predict the forex trading markets. Thousands of traders have influence over the forex trading markets, along with politics and economic events, so there is no way to predict which way the market will move. There are some types of analysis that may provide an educated guess into market flow when doing forex trading, but they are not always reliable. Do not be discouraged, though, by the fact that you may lose on more trades that you gain on, as using sound money management can help you be successful with forex trading.

Making money from forex trading means that you need to make enough to cover your losses and gain profit to increase capital. When forex trading, you will need to allow your money-making trades ride while knowing when to cut your losses as soon as possible. forex trading means learning some finesse, as there can be a fine line where you will want to wait a little for the market to turn in your favor on your losing trades and also making sure you do not take your profit to soon on your better trades.

One way to handle your forex trading is to use a tested system and a money management strategy. There is no room for emotion when forex trading, so you will need to use a business-like approach that has been tested on market data. Using a tested approach will save you a lot of stress when forex trading. Also, using a sound money management strategy will allow you to use your capital in the best way when forex trading so that you can maximize profit and avoid major losses.

Read the rest of the article here: Forex Trading.

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Forex Trading Systems: Mechanical Vs. Discretionary Systems.

There are basically two types of Forex trading systems, mechanical and discretionary systems. The trading signals that come out of mechanical systems are mainly based off technical analysis applied in a systematic way. On the other hand, discretionary systems use experience, intuition or judgment on entries and exits. But which one produces better results? Or more importantly, which one fits better your trading style? These are the answers we will try to answer on this article.

We will first analyze the pros and cons about each system approach.

Mechanical systems

Advantages
This kind of system can be automated and backtested efficiently.
It has very rigid rules. Either, there is a trade or there isn?t.
Mechanical traders are less susceptible to emotions than discretionary traders.

Disadvantages
Most traders backtest Forex trading systems incorrectly. In order to produce accurate results you need tick data.
The Forex market is always changing. The Forex market (and all markets) has a random component. The market conditions may look similar, but they are never the same.
A system that worked successfully the past year doesn?t necessary mean it will work this year.

Discretionary systems

Advantages
Discretionary systems are easily adaptable to new market conditions.
Trading decisions are based on experience. Traders learn to see which trading signals have higher probability of success.

Disadvantages
They cannot be backtested or automated, since there is always a thought decision to be made.
It takes time to develop the experience required to trade successfully and track trades in a discretionary way. At early stages this can be dangerous.

Now, which approach is better for Forex traders? The one that fits better your personality. For instance, if you are a trader that finds it hard to follow your trading signals, then you are better off using a mechanical system, where your judgment won?t play an important role in your system. You only take the trades that your system signals.

If the psychological barriers that affect every trader (fear, greed, anger, etc.) puts you in unwanted scenarios, you are also better off trading mechanical systems, because you only need to follow what your system is telling you, go short, go long, close a trade. No other decision has to be made.

On the other hand, if you are a disciplined trader, then you are better off using a discretionary system, because discretionary systems adapt to the market conditions and you are able to change your trading conditions as the market changes. For instance, you have a target of 60 pips on a long trade. But the market suddenly starts trending up pretty strongly, then you could move your target to say 100 pips.

Does it mean that trading a discretionary system has no rules? This is absolutely incorrect. Trading discretionary systems means that once a trader finds his/her setup, the trader then decides what to do. But every trader still needs certain rules that need to be followed, such as the size of the position, conditions that have to be met before thinking to get in the market, and so on.

I am a discretionary trader. The main reason I chose a discretionary system is that my trades are based on price behavior, and as you already know, the price behaves similar to the past, but it is never identical, therefore the outcome of every trade is unknown. However, I do have rigid rules on my system, certain conditions have to be met before I even think in getting in a trade. This keeps me out of trouble, once my setup is present and in accordance with the rules I have set, then I closely watch the price behavior and finally decide whether it is a good opportunity or not.

Whether you choose to be a discretionary or a mechanical trader there are some important points you should take in consideration:

1. You need to make sure the Forex trading system you are using totally fits your personality. Otherwise you will find yourself outguessing your system.

2. You also need to have some rules and most importantly have the discipline to follow them.

3. Take your time to build the perfect system for you. It?s not easy and requires time and hard work, but at the end, if done correctly, it will give you consistent profitable results.

4. Before going live, try it on a demo account or even on a small account (I will go for the second option, since psychological barriers will be present.) Raul Lopez is a full time Forex trader, his trades are based on a price behavior approach. Raul is also founder of http://www.straightforex.com a high quality Forex training company.

Forex Pivot Points: Mapping Your Time Frame

It is useful to have a map and be able to see where the price is relative to previous market action. This way we can see how is the sentiment of traders and investors at any given moment, it also gives us a general idea of where the market is heading during the day. This information can help us decide which way to trade.

Pivot points, a technique developed by floor traders, help us see where the price is relative to previous market action.

As a definition, a pivot point is a turning point or condition. The same applies to the Forex market, the pivot point is a level in which the sentiment of the market changes from ?bull? to ?bear? or vice versa. If the market breaks this level up, then the sentiment is said to be a bull market and it is likely to continue its way up, on the other hand, if the market breaks this level down, then the sentiment is bear, and it is expected to continue its way down. Also at this level, the market is expected to have some kind of support/resistance, and if price can?t break the pivot point, a possible bounce from it is plausible.

Pivot points work best on highly liquid markets, like the spot currency market, but they can also be used in other markets as well.

Pivot Points

In a few words, pivot point is a level in which the sentiment of traders and investors changes from bull to bear or vice versa.

Why PP work?

They work simply because many individual traders and investors use and trust them, as well as bank and institutional traders. It is known to every trader that the pivot point is an important measure of strength and weakness of any market.

Calculating pivot points

There are several ways to arrive to the Pivot point. The method we found to have the most accurate results is calculated by taking the average of the high, low and close of a previous period (or session).

Pivot point (PP) = (High + Low + Close) / 3

Take for instance the following EUR/USD information from the previous session:

Open: 1.2386
High: 1.2474
Low: 1.2376
Close: 1.2458

The PP would be,
PP = (1.2474 + 1.2376 + 1.2458) / 3 = 1.2439

What does this number tell us?

It simply tells us that if the market is trading above 1.2439, Bulls are winning the battle pushing the prices higher. And if the market is trading below this 1.2439 the bears are winning the battle pulling prices lower. On both cases this condition is likely to sustain until the next session.

Since the Forex market is a 24hr market (no close or open from day to day) there is a eternal battle on deciding at white time we should take the open, close, high and low from each session. From our point of view, the times that produce more accurate predictions is taking the open at 00:00 GMT and the close at 23:59 GMT.

Besides the calculation of the PP, there are other support and resistance levels that are calculated taking the PP as a reference.

Support 1 (S1) = (PP * 2) ? H
Resistance 1 (R1) = (PP * 2) - L
Support 2 (S2) = PP ? (R1 ? S1)
Resistance 2 (R2) = PP + (R1 ? S1)

Where , H is the High of the previous period and L is the low of the previous period

Continuing with the example above, PP = 1.2439

S1 = (1.2439 * 2) - 1.2474 = 1.2404
R1 = (1.2439 * 2) ? 1.2376 = 1.2502
R2 = 1.2439 + (1.2636 ? 1.2537) = 1.2537
S2 = 1.2439 ? (1.2636 ? 1.2537) = 1.2537

These levels are supposed to mark support and resistance levels for the current session.

On the example above, the PP was calculated using information of the previous session (previous day.) This way we could see possible intraday resistance and support levels. But it can also be calculated using the previous weekly or monthly data to determine such levels. By doing so we are able to see the sentiment over longer periods of time. Also we can see possible levels that might offer support and resistance throughout the week or month. Calculating the Pivot point in a weekly or monthly basis is mostly used by long term traders, but it can also be used by short time traders, it gives us a good idea about the longer term trend.

S1, S2, R1 AND R2...? An Objective Alternative

As already stated, the pivot point zone is a well-known technique and it works simply because many traders and investors use and trust it. But what about the other support and resistance zones (S1, S2, R1 and R2,) to forecast a support or resistance level with some mathematical formula is somehow subjective. It is hard to rely on them blindly just because the formula popped out that level. For this reason, we have created an alternative way to map our time frame, simpler but more objective and effective.

We calculate the pivot point as showed before. But our support and resistance levels are drawn in a different way. We take the previous session high and low, and draw those levels on today?s chart. The same is done with the session before the previous session. So, we will have our PP and four more important levels drawn in our chart.

LOPS1, low of the previous session.
HOPS1, high of the previous session.
LOPS2, low of the session before the previous session.
HOPS2, high of the session before the previous session.
PP, pivot point.

These levels will tell us the strength of the market at any given moment. If the market is trading above the PP, then the market is considered in a possible uptrend. If the market is trading above HOPS1 or HOPS2, then the market is in an uptrend, and we only take long positions. If the market is trading below the PP then the market is considered in a possible downtrend. If the market is trading below LOPS1 or LOPS2, then the market is in a downtrend, and we should only consider short trades.

The psychology behind this approach is simple. We know that for some reason the market stopped there from going higher/lower the previous session, or the session before that. We don?t know the reason, and we don?t need to know it. We only know the fact: the market reversed at that level. We also know that traders and investors have memories, they do remember that the price stopped there before, and the odds are that the market reverses from there again (maybe because the same reason, and maybe not) or at least find some support or resistance at these levels.

What is important about his approach is that support and resistance levels are measured objectively; they aren?t just a level derived from a mathematical formula, the price reversed there before so these levels have a higher probability of being effective.

Our mapping method works on both market conditions, when trending and on sideways conditions. In a trending market, it helps us determine the strength of the trend and trade off important levels. On sideways markets it shows us possible reversal levels.

How we use our mapping method?

We use the mapping method in three different ways: as a trend identification (measure of the strength of the trend), a trading system using important levels with price behavior as a trading signal and to set the risk reward ratio of any given trade based on where the is the market relative to the previous session.Raul Lopez is a full time Forex trader, his trades are based on a price behavior approach. Raul is also founder of http://www.straightforex.com a high quality Forex training company.