Forex trading is now quite an acceptable occupation for private individuals. It used to be only available to top financial institutions, but the internet has enabled everyone, even people with a low starting capital, to trade the forex markets. So what makes forex trading so attractive?
Well the most obvious attraction is the earning potential. The amount of money you can make from forex trading is unlimited. The sky really is the limit. If you have a consistently profitable strategy, then you can use leverage to multiply your earnings. For example, if a forex broker offers 1:100 leverage, this means you can trade a $100,000 position with just $1000 and a $10,000 position with just $100.
This means that if you are successful your earnings will grow rapidly. Compare this with traditional share trading where if you wanted to buy $100,000 worth of shares, then you would have to have $100,000 in capital.
Another huge draw is the fact that the forex markets are open 24 hours a day during the week. So you can therefore trade during the hours that suit you. Plus there's the fact that liquidity is always high as currencies are traded in countries all around the world, which means that you will generally not have any trouble getting a large position filled at any time of the day.
Another advantage of forex trading is that it is very easy to open an account with a broker and start trading shortly afterwards. There are many top forex brokers nowadays and a lot of them have excellent trading platforms as well as top of the range charting software that you can use to make your trading decisions.
Charts are one of the key tools for any trader as they are invaluable in helping you to find possible trades. They are useful when trading any financial instrument, but they are particularly useful when trading forex because the price, particularly of the major currency pairs, generally conforms extremely well to technical analysis.
So overall there any many reasons why forex trading is becoming so popular. Of course it's very easy to start trading forex, but it's a lot harder to actually make money consistently from forex trading. This is why I recommend starting off by using a free demo account as this will enable you to become familiar with trading, without risking any of your own money. There is a steep learning curve and it's always best to come up with some form of trading system before trading for real.
James Woolley runs a forex blog where you will find free forex tips and strategies and a review of Zulu Trade, the revolutionary forex signals service.
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Monday, 4 August 2008
3 Simple Forex Breakout Strategies
Trading breakouts is one of the most popular methods of trading the forex markets because you often get large moves after a period of consolidation. So with that in mind, I've listed below three basic strategies you can use to trade these breakouts.
The first of which is based on technical analysis, and in particular the Bollinger Bands indicator. Bollinger Bands are envelopes based on a moving average and a standard deviation and are most useful in showing areas of support and resistance through the two outer lines of the envelope.
Therefore when the price breaks out of either the upper or lower limit, this very often is a strong indication that a breakout is about to take place in the same direction. It's particularly the case after a period of consolidation where the bandwidth of the Bollinger Bands has narrowed out. For greater success you can use the breaching of one of the outer lines to gain your attention, and then wait for a pullback to either the EMA (5) or EMA (20), for example, for a good entry point.
The second method you can use to trade breakouts is also based on technical analysis and involves various Exponential Moving Averages, or EMA's for short. This is a method I have developed over the years that makes use of the 5, 20 and 50 period EMA's (you can also use the 100 or 200 period EMA as well).
What you do is wait until the price, along with the 5, 20 and 50 period EMA's have all flattened out and are all very close to each other. Then you simply wait for a strong breakout from this narrow range and take a position close to the EMA (5) when the breakout takes place. This can be very rewarding when you catch a good breakout, particular when you use longer time frames.
The final method is based entirely on price and uses no technical indicators at all. It's based on the fact that the price does not stay in the same range forever and will at some point break out of the current trading range.
I have to admit I don't use this method myself but there are various ways you can trade this way. Some traders like to use the previous day's upper and lower price range, and trade any breakouts of this range the following day. Similarly some traders wait until a very narrow price range has formed and then wait for a breakout to occur.
So overall there are various different ways you can trade breakouts, all of which have their merits. Despite being quite basic methods, they can be extremely lucrative because the price often moves strongly in one direction or the other after a sustained period of consolidation.
Click here to read a review of ZuluTrade, the revolutionary forex signals service, and to discover why ZuluTrade is arguably the best forex signals service.
You can also click here for more forex trading tips.
The first of which is based on technical analysis, and in particular the Bollinger Bands indicator. Bollinger Bands are envelopes based on a moving average and a standard deviation and are most useful in showing areas of support and resistance through the two outer lines of the envelope.
Therefore when the price breaks out of either the upper or lower limit, this very often is a strong indication that a breakout is about to take place in the same direction. It's particularly the case after a period of consolidation where the bandwidth of the Bollinger Bands has narrowed out. For greater success you can use the breaching of one of the outer lines to gain your attention, and then wait for a pullback to either the EMA (5) or EMA (20), for example, for a good entry point.
The second method you can use to trade breakouts is also based on technical analysis and involves various Exponential Moving Averages, or EMA's for short. This is a method I have developed over the years that makes use of the 5, 20 and 50 period EMA's (you can also use the 100 or 200 period EMA as well).
What you do is wait until the price, along with the 5, 20 and 50 period EMA's have all flattened out and are all very close to each other. Then you simply wait for a strong breakout from this narrow range and take a position close to the EMA (5) when the breakout takes place. This can be very rewarding when you catch a good breakout, particular when you use longer time frames.
The final method is based entirely on price and uses no technical indicators at all. It's based on the fact that the price does not stay in the same range forever and will at some point break out of the current trading range.
I have to admit I don't use this method myself but there are various ways you can trade this way. Some traders like to use the previous day's upper and lower price range, and trade any breakouts of this range the following day. Similarly some traders wait until a very narrow price range has formed and then wait for a breakout to occur.
So overall there are various different ways you can trade breakouts, all of which have their merits. Despite being quite basic methods, they can be extremely lucrative because the price often moves strongly in one direction or the other after a sustained period of consolidation.
Click here to read a review of ZuluTrade, the revolutionary forex signals service, and to discover why ZuluTrade is arguably the best forex signals service.
You can also click here for more forex trading tips.
Tuesday, 29 July 2008
Becoming A Top Forex Trader - 3 Shortcuts To Success
Forex trading is extremely popular nowadays with many people being attracted by the huge sums of money that can be made, but most successful forex traders are only profitable because they've gone through a long and steep learning curve. There are, however, ways in which you can become a successful forex trader a lot quicker.
The first way is by subscribing to some kind of forex signals service. It should be noted that the vast majority of these subscription services are a big waste of time where you will nearly always lose money in the long run. However, there are a few good signal providers out there. The best ones are run by professional traders who actually trade their own signals.
So how does joining one of these top forex signals companies help you become a better trader?
Well apart from blindly following the service provider's signals, you can often learn an awful lot about successful trading by just watching and interacting with the pro trader who is creating the signals. Many of these premium signal providers will have live chat rooms where you can not only interact with the pro trader and ask them any questions, but also chat and exchange ideas with the other traders in the chat room.
The other way you can become a successful forex trader a lot quicker is by following an already successful forex trading system. So in other words rather than spending hours on end poring over charts looking to devise your own profitable system, why not use a system that's already out there and producing profits?
You can find a lot of successful trading systems just by visiting some of the top forex forums. Many top traders are prepared to share their successful systems because not only does it boost their ego, but it makes no difference to their bottom line how many other traders are trading their system as well.
Finally if you really want to become successful, then my best advice would be to find a mentor, ie an experienced trader, who has been profitable for several years, who can teach you how to trade successfully. Of course not everyone is lucky enough to know a successful trader in real-life but you can always search around online, even if it's just on forex forums, for successful traders. Then you can approach them for advice and offer to pay them for some one-on-one coaching if necessary.
So to sum up, if you want to become a consistently profitable forex trader, you can either go it alone and try and find your own profitable system, or you can use other traders to help you to become successful. So, for instance, you can use an existing forex trading system that's currently being used by other traders or you can gain advice either from a top forex signal provider who trades their own signals or an experienced trader who can mentor you and teach you how to trade.
Click here to read a review of Zulu Trade, the revolutionary forex signals service, and to discover why Zulu Trade is arguably the best forex signals service.
The first way is by subscribing to some kind of forex signals service. It should be noted that the vast majority of these subscription services are a big waste of time where you will nearly always lose money in the long run. However, there are a few good signal providers out there. The best ones are run by professional traders who actually trade their own signals.
So how does joining one of these top forex signals companies help you become a better trader?
Well apart from blindly following the service provider's signals, you can often learn an awful lot about successful trading by just watching and interacting with the pro trader who is creating the signals. Many of these premium signal providers will have live chat rooms where you can not only interact with the pro trader and ask them any questions, but also chat and exchange ideas with the other traders in the chat room.
The other way you can become a successful forex trader a lot quicker is by following an already successful forex trading system. So in other words rather than spending hours on end poring over charts looking to devise your own profitable system, why not use a system that's already out there and producing profits?
You can find a lot of successful trading systems just by visiting some of the top forex forums. Many top traders are prepared to share their successful systems because not only does it boost their ego, but it makes no difference to their bottom line how many other traders are trading their system as well.
Finally if you really want to become successful, then my best advice would be to find a mentor, ie an experienced trader, who has been profitable for several years, who can teach you how to trade successfully. Of course not everyone is lucky enough to know a successful trader in real-life but you can always search around online, even if it's just on forex forums, for successful traders. Then you can approach them for advice and offer to pay them for some one-on-one coaching if necessary.
So to sum up, if you want to become a consistently profitable forex trader, you can either go it alone and try and find your own profitable system, or you can use other traders to help you to become successful. So, for instance, you can use an existing forex trading system that's currently being used by other traders or you can gain advice either from a top forex signal provider who trades their own signals or an experienced trader who can mentor you and teach you how to trade.
Click here to read a review of Zulu Trade, the revolutionary forex signals service, and to discover why Zulu Trade is arguably the best forex signals service.
Monday, 14 July 2008
Intraday Trading - Forex v Shares
With the current financial markets being so volatile, a lot of traders have switched from long-term investing to short-term trading, as there's potentially a lot more money to be made. However which is more profitable - forex or shares?
Many people are able to make short-term profits from both forex and shares. I myself do alright from both forex and share trading but in my opinion forex trading is the more profitable. This is mainly because the chart movements are more predictable and the major currency pairs conform extremely well to technical analysis.
When you trade forex you know pretty much when all the market-moving news announcements and economic data releases are scheduled, so you can plan in advance to be out of the market when these announcements are made. Therefore you can concentrate solely on technical analysis knowing that the price of the currency pair you are trading is not going to be distorted by any unforeseen announcements. There are very occasional exceptions to this rule such as major news stories or unscheduled interest rate announcements, for example, that can move the markets but these are rare.
Unfortunately this is not the case when you are trading shares. Although most trading statements are scheduled and known in advance, you can still get company-specific news releases, which may be positive or negative. For example, you might get an announced news release mentioning a new contract win which could dramatically lift the share price, or conversely you could get a profit warning completely out of the blue which could cause the share price to plunge in a matter of seconds or minutes.
So you can never entirely relax when you are trading shares because there is always the chance of a market-moving announcement being made about the company. Furthermore although a lot of share price graphs do conform fairly well to technical analysis, this certainly isn't always the case, and sometimes the price will be more affected by the wider market. So a top FTSE 100 share could be majorly oversold on a technical basis, but if the FTSE 100 index takes a dive, then the share price of the company in question could well continue to fall even further.
So overall my personal preference when it comes to short-term trading is to trade forex because you can focus entirely on technical analysis, and can base your trading around the scheduled economic data releases. Plus of course the forex pairs, in my experience, conform slightly better to technical analysis than individual shares.
James Woolley runs a forex trading blog where you can learn forex trading and read a review of Zulu Trade, the revolutionary forex signals service.
Many people are able to make short-term profits from both forex and shares. I myself do alright from both forex and share trading but in my opinion forex trading is the more profitable. This is mainly because the chart movements are more predictable and the major currency pairs conform extremely well to technical analysis.
When you trade forex you know pretty much when all the market-moving news announcements and economic data releases are scheduled, so you can plan in advance to be out of the market when these announcements are made. Therefore you can concentrate solely on technical analysis knowing that the price of the currency pair you are trading is not going to be distorted by any unforeseen announcements. There are very occasional exceptions to this rule such as major news stories or unscheduled interest rate announcements, for example, that can move the markets but these are rare.
Unfortunately this is not the case when you are trading shares. Although most trading statements are scheduled and known in advance, you can still get company-specific news releases, which may be positive or negative. For example, you might get an announced news release mentioning a new contract win which could dramatically lift the share price, or conversely you could get a profit warning completely out of the blue which could cause the share price to plunge in a matter of seconds or minutes.
So you can never entirely relax when you are trading shares because there is always the chance of a market-moving announcement being made about the company. Furthermore although a lot of share price graphs do conform fairly well to technical analysis, this certainly isn't always the case, and sometimes the price will be more affected by the wider market. So a top FTSE 100 share could be majorly oversold on a technical basis, but if the FTSE 100 index takes a dive, then the share price of the company in question could well continue to fall even further.
So overall my personal preference when it comes to short-term trading is to trade forex because you can focus entirely on technical analysis, and can base your trading around the scheduled economic data releases. Plus of course the forex pairs, in my experience, conform slightly better to technical analysis than individual shares.
James Woolley runs a forex trading blog where you can learn forex trading and read a review of Zulu Trade, the revolutionary forex signals service.
Saturday, 21 June 2008
Trading Forex Using 1 Minute And 5 Minute Charts
Many forex traders attempt to trade using the very short term 1 minute and 5 minute charts, but most of these traders will inevitably end up losing money. So why is this, and why is short-term trading so difficult to make consistent profits from?
Well forex trading overall is quite difficult, but I've personally always found short-term trading using 1 minute and 5 minute charts to be even more difficult. The trouble you have is that you can have the best system in place that will find a perfect high probability trade for you, but then the pair may only move 5-10 points in your favour at most before reversing again.
So you can make a winning call a lot of the time, but because you're trading over such a short time frame, the movements will often be very small. You also have the spread to contend with because with a spread of 3 or 4 points on a lot of pairs, you need a decent sized move just to break even, let alone make a profit. Plus there's also the fact that a lot of forex brokers do not like scalpers and will often ban traders who do this.
If, however, you use a longer time frame you could use the very same system to trade the 1 hour or 4 hour charts, for example, to make a lot more points profit because the moves would be a lot bigger.
It's also of course a lot less stressful trading the longer time frames because you have more time to analyze the markets and plan your entries and exits. If you're trading lots of intraday positions it can be very stressful because you have very little time to think and react to situations. You also have instances of requotes and broker downtime which can destroy an intraday position, whereas these things won't have as big an impact if you are trading the longer term charts.
Of course there are traders who make money from very short-term trading, but they are few and far between. The majority will eventually be wiped out not matter how effective a particular trading system may initially appear.
In my opinion you're better off looking at 1 hour charts at the very least because the longer time frame you use for your charts, the more reliable your chosen technical indicators will prove to be in general. You can still be a profitable daytrader trading several times a day using 1 hour and 4 hour charts, and the moves will generally be a lot bigger as well, so there really is little point, in my opinion, in basing your main forex trading strategy on the 1 minute and 5 minute charts.
Click here to read James Woolley's review of Zulu Trade and to discover all the latest forex tips and strategies.
Well forex trading overall is quite difficult, but I've personally always found short-term trading using 1 minute and 5 minute charts to be even more difficult. The trouble you have is that you can have the best system in place that will find a perfect high probability trade for you, but then the pair may only move 5-10 points in your favour at most before reversing again.
So you can make a winning call a lot of the time, but because you're trading over such a short time frame, the movements will often be very small. You also have the spread to contend with because with a spread of 3 or 4 points on a lot of pairs, you need a decent sized move just to break even, let alone make a profit. Plus there's also the fact that a lot of forex brokers do not like scalpers and will often ban traders who do this.
If, however, you use a longer time frame you could use the very same system to trade the 1 hour or 4 hour charts, for example, to make a lot more points profit because the moves would be a lot bigger.
It's also of course a lot less stressful trading the longer time frames because you have more time to analyze the markets and plan your entries and exits. If you're trading lots of intraday positions it can be very stressful because you have very little time to think and react to situations. You also have instances of requotes and broker downtime which can destroy an intraday position, whereas these things won't have as big an impact if you are trading the longer term charts.
Of course there are traders who make money from very short-term trading, but they are few and far between. The majority will eventually be wiped out not matter how effective a particular trading system may initially appear.
In my opinion you're better off looking at 1 hour charts at the very least because the longer time frame you use for your charts, the more reliable your chosen technical indicators will prove to be in general. You can still be a profitable daytrader trading several times a day using 1 hour and 4 hour charts, and the moves will generally be a lot bigger as well, so there really is little point, in my opinion, in basing your main forex trading strategy on the 1 minute and 5 minute charts.
Click here to read James Woolley's review of Zulu Trade and to discover all the latest forex tips and strategies.
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