How A Forex Trade Works

A Guide For The Forex Currency Trading Beginner

For the Forex currency trading beginner a trade can be a little confusing until you break it down and come to grips with some of the trading terminology.

The purpose of any Forex trade is to swap one currency for another in the belief that the market will move and prices change such that the currency that you buy rises in value in relation to the currency which you sell.

The first important point is that each trade involves two currencies - the currency which you buy and the currency you sell. This gives us our first two important trading terms - the long position and the short position.

You take a long position when you buy a currency in the belief that it will rise in value and that you will able to sell at a profit.

If you sell a currency in the belief that it will fall in value you take a short position and hope to make a profit by buying it back again once the price has fallen.

The next important concept is that of the open and closed position. When you take a long position and buy a currency in the expectation that it will rise in value you open a position. When you later sell that currency to take you profit you close the position. The same is true when you take a short position and open that position by selling a currency in the expectation that it will fall in price and later close the position when you buy the currency back at the lower price.

Note: How does day trading work? You will often hear the term 'day trading' used and this confuses a lot of newcomers to the world of investing. When applied to forex trading, day trading simply means short-term trading effected by opening and closing trading positions within the same trading day, rather than running a trade over an extended period of time.

In Forex trading currencies are referred to by codes (developed by the International Organization for Standardization and known as ISO codes) such as USD for the US Dollar and GBP for the UK Pound. Prices for these currencies are quoted as either USD/GBP or GBP/USD with the first currency appearing in the quote being the base currency and the second currency being the counter or quote currency.

Here's an example quote to make things a bit easier to understand:

USD/GBP = 0.5260

In this case the US Dollar is the base currency and the UK Pound is the counter or quote currency. The base currency is always read as a single unit and so this quote means that it will cost 0.5260 UK Pounds to buy 1 US Dollar. Here's another quote:

GBP/USD = 1.9150

In this case it will cost 1.9150 US Dollars to buy 1 UK Pound.

In real world trading it's a bit more complicated as the market maker needs to add in his profit for selling you a currency or for buying currency from you. In reality therefore a quote might look more like this:

GBP/USD = 1.9238 1.9243

In this case the first figure is the 'sell' or 'ask' figure and the second is the 'buy' or 'bid' figure. The first figure is price at which a trader will sell the currency pair and the second is the price at which he will buy the pair. The difference between the two prices is known as the spread.

Prices are normally quoted to four decimal places and the fourth decimal place, which represents the smallest amount by which one currency can move against the other, is known as a 'pip'. In this case therefore the spread is 5 pips.

In our example therefore, if you wish to sell UK Pounds, the market maker will buy them from you at 1.9243 US Dollars per UK Pound and, if you wish to buy UK Pounds, 1 UK Pound will cost you 1.9238 US Dollars.

If you are just starting to learn Forex currency trading then this probably seems a little bit complicated but it represents the basis on which the Forex market operates and will quickly become second nature.

# What Is Day Trading?

We often hear the term 'day trading' today but just what is day trading?

In very simple terms a day trader buys and sells with a very short investment horizon which is typically measured in minutes with trading positions being opened and closed within the same trading day. Day trading is particularly suited to high volume, volatile markets such as the forex but is certainly not limited to currency trading. It is for example very commonly seen in the equity markets, although it tends to be seen on the more volatile exchanges such as the NASDAQ, rather than the NYSE or AMEX.

The principle is simply to spot an opportunity and then profit from it quickly getting in and out of the market with just enough time to make your profit and too little time to risk the market turning against you. For example, you might open a position at 11:00 am and close it out just a few minutes later at 11:07 am to take a small but quick profit and repeat this process as many as a hundred times in a single trading session.

Today this traditional definition has been widened somewhat and we now also refer to the practice of trading from home through an online broker as day trading. And, just to complicate matters, the term 'swing trading' has also started to appear recently to refer to traders with a slightly longer investment horizon of anywhere from one to five days.

Day trading in its truest form (buying and selling with a very short investment horizon) is a risky business and is not something which you should try unless you know exactly what you are doing as, while it can be very profitable, it can also produce very large losses very quickly.

Although we talk about 'investment horizons' it also needs to be understood that day trading is not the same as investing and you will be working to very short timeframes during which you will need to be glued to your computer screen jumping onto the wave of a trade as it gains momentum and the jumping off as it crests in order to ride the next wave. Spotting the waves as they roll in and knowing just when to jump on and jump off requires both skill and practice.

For those who enjoy the excitement of the roller coaster ride then day trading can be both exciting and profitable but it is not something for the novice forex trader and should only be contemplated once you have cut your teeth in the world of currency trading and gained a fair amount of experience.

How To Make Money In Foreign Exchange

The foreign exchange market is the world's largest trading market in which world currencies can be sold and bought and, while it has been in existence for many years, the market that we see now has been born out of substantial changes which took place in the 1970s when floating currencies and free exchange rates came into play.

There is no particular 'home' for the forex market and trading can be made from just about anywhere in the world, including using your own home computer. The trading market is also essentially open day and night because as the market is closing in one country the market in another country on the other side of the globe is opening. This means that you can trade at whatever time suits you whether it is during the afternoon or in the middle of the night. There will always be somebody somewhere who is happy to do business with you.

The secret when it comes to making money in foreign exchange trading is to start by learning the basics of the business and this means locating a high quality forex training course. It is not all that difficult to make money with foreign exchange, although you will certainly lose your shirt if you do not know what you are doing. Therefore, you must take the time necessary to learn what to do before you start and then must ensure that you spend a little bit of time working through a dummy trading account before you start trading with your own money.

When you do begin live trading start slowly and stay away from day trading until you are sure of your ground as this particular section of the market can be especially volatile and is influenced by numerous outside factors. As well, set yourself strict trading limits and do not go outside them. Put another way, do not trade with money that you cannot afford to lose because, while you will definitely make money, you will also encounter your fair share of loses while you get the hang of things.

And finally, ensure that you are using the best trading software available and do not be afraid to ask other people for help when you find that your are stuck!

The Importance Of Real Time Forex Charts

Trading in the foreign exchange market today means having a sound understanding of technical analysis and in particular an ability to keep track of currency pairs by learning the skill of reading live or real time forex charts. For the novice trader this also means finding a source of good online forex charts and, better still, free forex charts. Even better, if you can find yourself some free chart pattern recognition software for forex and learn how to use it you will be well on your way to trading with a fair degree of confidence.

Online forex charting conveys information about currency prices at specific time intervals ranging from as little as one minute up to several years and prices can be plotted either as simple line charts or as bar or candlestick charts showing price variations at specific time intervals.

Line charts are easy to read and give a broad overview of price movements which often allows you to clearly define patterns in price movements. By contrast, bar charts are not quite as easy to read but do provide far more information.

In simple terms the length of each bar on a bar chart indicates the price spread for a given period and the longer the bar the larger the variation between high and low prices. Opening and closing prices are shown on each bar so that you can see at a glance whether the price has risen or fallen and just what the variation in price has been. Although bar charts can be difficult to read, most chart pattern recognition software packages simplify the process of reading bar charts considerably.

Invented by the Japanese to analyze rice contracts, candlestick charts are similar to bar charts but are far easier to read as they are color-coded. For example, green candlesticks are used to show rising prices while red candlesticks show falling prices.

The beauty of candlestick charts is that the candlestick shapes when viewed in relation to one another form patterns many of which have been given names such as ‘Morning Star’ and ‘Dark Cloud Cover’ and once you learn to recognize these patterns it is an easy matter to identify trends in the market.

Although a real time forex chart can give you a great deal of information about a particular currency pair this is often supplemented using a number of technical indicators including trend, strength, volatility and cycle indicators all of which are used to predict both movements in the market and market volume.

The most commonly used Forex technical indicators include:

Average Directional Movement (ADX). ADX can be used to ascertain whether a market is approaching an upward or downward trend and how strong that trend is likely to be.

Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD). MACD indicates the momentum of a market and the relationship between two moving averages.

Stochastic Oscillator. The stochastic oscillator shows the strength or weakness of a market by comparing closing prices to a price range over a period of time. A high stochastic will indicate that a currency is being overbought while a low stochastic will indicate that a currency is being oversold.

Relative Strength Indicator (RSI). RSI is a 100 point scale which shows the highest and lowest prices over a given time. When prices move above 70 a currency is considered to be overbought and when prices move below 30 a currency is considered to be oversold.

Moving Average. The moving average is simply the average price for a set time period when compared to other prices during similar time periods. For example, the moving average of closing prices over a 14 day time period would be equal to the sum of the 14 closing prices divided by 14.

Bollinger Bands. A Bollinger band consists of three lines - an upper and lower line indicating the range of price movement and a middle line showing the average price. When the market is volatile the gap between the upper and lower bands will widen and when a bar or candlestick crosses one of the bands it will indicate a currency which is either being overbought or being oversold.

# The Advantages Of Automated Forex Day Trading

An increasing number of people are being drawn to Forex trading in preference to the many other forms of investment available today and it is not hard to see why.

The Forex market is the largest trading market in the world with a steadily growing trading volume which has risen from some $500 billion dollars to $2 trillion in the last twenty years. It is also an incredibly liquid market which is not tied to any particular trading floor and operates around the clock across the world making it effectively a permanently open market. As one market closes another is opening and you can effectively follow the markets around the world as you trade and even all but eliminate the fact that the market in your home country will close for the weekend.

It is no wonder therefore that Forex trading attracts a wide and growing variety of both big and small traders each of whom enjoys a wide choice of trading strategies based upon the myriad of factors which affect foreign exchange rates. For many traders coming into the market it is the fact that there are so many different things that affect currency exchange rates which they find most attractive as it allows them to use a huge range of different tools when working in this extraordinarily exciting market.

Perhaps the greatest influence today however on the future growth of the market and its popularity lies in automation which has never been easier to accomplish and which brings with it many more advantages than disadvantages.

Automated Forex trading allows trades to be conducted in real time anywhere in the world and virtually eliminates the losses so often seen in manual systems which are trying to operate in such a fast moving and volatile environment. Anyone who has traded using a manual system will know only too well the frustration of a row of losses caused by nothing more than a simple time delay in buying and selling and will appreciate the value of automated currency trading.

Automatic Forex trading also brings with it the ability to operate in a wide range of different currency markets at the same time without any regard for the time zones of the markets concerned. If you are sitting in the United States at 2 o'clock in the morning then automatic trading allows you to conduct business with traders on the other side of the globe in several different countries all at the same time with ease.

One problem for many traders is that of risk management and this too is reduced as we move to automatic Forex trading. Manual systems often leave traders nervous about whether or not payment will be made after the completion of a trade but as payments can now be synchronized in real time this is far less likely. Indeed, as the automated trading system continues to develop it is clear that the settlement system will also be updated and such risks are likely to be all but eliminated in the near future.

Computer technology has advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few years and will continue to do so for many years to come. More importantly, access to that technology easily and cheaply from the comfort of our own homes and now the ability to access the best mini Forex fully automated trading means that we can all now manage our own investments with ease. For those in the currency trading world automated Forex day trading will certainly come as a welcome addition to an already great investment vehicle.

# The Importance Of Selecting The Best Forex Training

The Forex market is fun and lucrative although it is also highly competitive and volatile and anybody who wants to join in the fun will have to locate the best Forex training course available.

Any basic Forex trading course will incorporate a number of different components of trading including trading processes, concepts and terminology that are all necessary to give the beginner confidence as he ventures into the marketplace for the first time. The best Forex training will also focus particular attention on the size of the market and volume of trading and prepare the beginner to think on his feet and to take quick and accurate decisions.

Novice traders will need to learn things like the different orders placed in selling and buying, margins, bids, rollover and leverage. He will also need to be aware of the psychology of trading and the need for patience, stress management, commitment, discipline and much more. In addition, the novice trader must master the skills of market analysis and need to gain a clear understanding of technical and fundamental analysis and acquire the skills of creating and reading Forex charts.

A knowledge of the history of Forex trading is yet another important element of any Forex trading training, in spite of the fact that it is generally overlooked altogether or covered merely in passing. However, a clear knowledge of the background of the market combined with an understanding of a lot of the mistakes made as the market has grown is extremely useful in helping to establish a trading strategy.

Luckily there are many ways to study Forex trading today and novice traders are spoilt for choice. However, this is of course both good and bad and makes picking the method which is best for you somewhat difficult.

Like many things the starting point for many people is going to be a book or two on Forex trading and this is certainly a very good place to start as it is relatively inexpensive and will normally assist considerably when it come to deciding whether Forex trading is really right for you. However, although this will provide you with an excellent introduction, you will want some type of more personal training before starting to trade and this means attending seminars, enrolling for a Forex training class locally, taking a Forex training vacation or opting for one of the numerous online Forex training courses.

Regardless of the route you decide to select you have to do your homework carefully and consider exactly what you will be getting for your money. There are many excellent free Forex training courses available but you will need to pay for really good training and this is one investment that you must make and the expense of your training will certainly be worth it in the end. However not all training course are the same and some will provide you with much more value than others. If you can seek out the opinions of trusted friends and colleagues about their opinion of what is the proven best Forex training and, where this is not possible, then shop around and ask plenty of questions before you commit yourself.

Foreign currency trading is an exciting world that is luckily now open to even those among us with relatively small capital and it can be both great fun and profitable. Beginning trading without some type of sound Forex trading training is however a recipe for disaster.

# Learn Forex Trading Online And Get Ahead Of The Game

Today's business world is highly complex and it is vital to know your way around. As far as Forex trading in concerned this means knowing the players, the market and the stakes. You have to be familiar with such things as the value of the currency that you are trading, the factors which increase and decrease the value of your currency and trading strategies and market trends.

As a novice this also means that you have to begin with some type of Forex education. A Forex trading course will teach you all about predicting and charting movements of the market together with the best time to purchase or sell a commodity and will introduce you to basic terminology and the trading process.

As Forex trading is done in real time and decisions often must be made quickly, a trader should also be emotionally prepared to cope with the stress, challenges and demands of the marketplace and these too will be included in any good Forex trading course.

So precisely what should you look for when selecting a Forex training course?

All Forex training courses should include the basics on such things as types of orders, leverage and margins which are essential in Forex transactions. It also needs to teach basic terminologies, analysis and software.

Analysis is fundamental to successful trading and any Forex course must look in reasonable detail at both technical and fundamental analysis including the tools used and the pros and cons of each.

However the basics and theories of foreign currency trading are not enough and good Forex course should also teach you correct money management and the development of a good trading psychology and disposition. It is far too simple for traders to become too emotionally involved in trading and it is critical to success that traders understand the importance of such things as discipline, patience and commitment.

Possibly the most important part of the best Forex training courses however is the provision of an apprenticeship program allowing you to gain real-life experience. There is no more effective way to discover how to trade foreign currencies than experience gained in actual trading. Forex courses should therefore offer the opportunity for simulated trading that is as near as is possible to live trading. It is also important that students are given the the opportunity to discuss their trading with their fellow students and to get one-to-one feedback as they practice trading.

For those who want to discover the rules of the game and get a good grip on the market there are several websites offering courses and workshops on Forex trading. Most of these sites offer courses on software and trading tools, trading strategies, networking, risk and money management, technical analysis, market trends and a great deal more.

Nowadays the Internet not only provides the perfect forum for learning Forex trading but also lets you trade from the comfort of your home and allows corporations and private individuals to play the game and conduct their business in this virtual world.

Online Forex trading has opened up the world of foreign currency trading and provides the opportunity for everyone to make considerable money today. But, it is critically important to equip yourself with the knowledge you need before you dive in.

A Forex Trading Mentor Is The True Key To Successful TradingAccurate information is the secret to success in many areas of our lives and a knowledgeab

Accurate information is the secret to success in many areas of our lives and a knowledgeable and informed Forex trader will have a better awareness of how currency markets move and therefore a far better chance of making a good profit from trading. If you do not have the necessary knowledge then you are going to be effectively shooting in the dark and, although you may meet with success occasionally, overall you are virtually guaranteed to lose in the longer term.

There is an almost unlimited quantity of information available on foreign currency trading with thousands of books having been published and hundreds of Internet sites providing advice. Therefore, if home-study is appealing to you, then there are numerous step-by-step guides which will take you through the minutiae of Forex trading.

However, one problem with the information and advice available though Internet sites is that it is often very patchy and may lack any real structure. There is unquestionably a wealth of advice out there, a lot of it excellent and comprehensive, but locating just what you need and following it in a logical order could prove difficult.

If you are serious about learning the finer points of Forex trading then there is little doubt that you will need to arm yourself with a good study course which presents the material in a structured and logical manner. Courses of this nature, of which there are many, vary in cost from those which are free to those costing a thousand dollars or more and, as a rule, you are likely to get just what you pay for.

There are essentially two types of course available.

First, there is an Internet course which generally permits you to follow the course at a time to suit your lifestyle and also at a pace with which your are comfortable. The chief drawback with this type of course is that you are studying alone and it is not always simple to find the assistance you require if you run across something which you do not understand.

Second, there is a old fashioned 'classroom' course. Courses of this nature are held frequently in many major cities and provided you with the advantage of studying with other people and with an instructor who can help guide you through the problem areas. Against this, you will need to travel to your classes and follow a class schedule. Missing a lesson may also present problems as it is not necessarily easy to catch up.

You can also attend typically 2 or 3 day seminars that immerse you in Forex trading and give you an extremely fast introduction to currency trading. Though there are a large number of seminars held, they tend to be aimed at more advanced traders and are only occasionally put on for the benefit of novices.

You will also see a couple of variations of the normal Internet course and these are CD ROM and video training courses. The first will often include several interactive segments and, as it is created to be run on your PC, will use several different Internet sites to help in the learning process. The principal problem with both CD ROM and video training courses is that they frequently provide little support and simply leave you in the dark when you run into a problem.

At the end of the day however and, despite the huge quantity of material available and the ease of taking a home-study course in various different formats, the unquestionable key to success in learning Forex trading is to study at the hands of an experienced trader, or Forex trading mentor.

A course, of whatever type, can certainly provide you with the technical information you need, but the true key to making significant profits from Forex trading is to be found in possessing a knowledge and insight of trading strategies which only years of experience and practice can bring. Trading alongside a master Forex trader will certainly not be cheap but, as long as you can afford it, it will pay off in the long run.

An Introduction To Fundamental Analysis

It is generally said that information is the basis of profitable Forex trading but, though correct and timely information is indeed vital for currency trading, it is the examination of this information that is the real key. There are currently two main forms of analysis used in Forex trading – fundamental and technical analysis - and in this short article we are going to examine precisely what is meant by fundamental analysis.

At its simplest, fundamental analysis looks at both political and economic conditions that could have an affect upon currency prices and Forex traders who use fundamental analysis rely upon news reports for information on a whole range of things including, economic policy, inflation, growth rates and rates of unemployment.

Basically, fundamental analysis provides an outline of currency movements together with a broad picture of economic conditions that could well alter the value of a particular currency. With this picture in mind, Forex traders will then frequently move on to use technical analysis to then plot entry and exit points into the market and to complement the information gained using fundamental analysis.

The Forex market is much like other markets and is affected by the laws of supply and demand, which are also affected by economic conditions. Two economic factors affecting supply and demand are interest rates and the strength of the economy and the strength of the economy is affected by the gross domestic product (GDP), foreign investment and the economy's balance of trade.

Various economic indicators are published by governments and other sources and are normally considered to be sound measures of economic health that are followed by all sectors of the investment market. Almost all economic indicators are published once a month although some are released more often and usually weekly.

Two of the key fundamental indicators are international trade figures and interest rates, but other extremely helpful indicators include the, consumer price index (CPI), producer price index (PPI), purchasing manager's index (PMI), durable goods orders and retail sales.

Interest rates are an especially important indictor because they can have either a strengthening or weakening affect on a currency. High interest rates could, for instance, attract foreign investment which strengthens the local currency, while investors in the stock market frequently react to rising interest rates by selling in the belief that higher borrowing costs will have an adverse affect on many companies. High volume selling by stock investors can quite often result in a downturn in both the stock market and the national economy.

Indicators of international trade are also particularly important for the Forex trader. A deficit on the trade balance, indicating that imports have exceeded exports, is usually seen to be an adverse indicator as money leaving the country to purchase goods from overseas could well have the affect of devaluing the currency. However, fundamental analysis will also indicate market expectations and these will often dictate whether a trade deficit is unfavorable. For instance, it may be the case that a county usually operates on a trade deficit and that this has already been taken into consideration in fixing the price of its currency. In general terms, trade deficits will only affect currency prices where they are higher than the market would usually expect to see.

Each country has got its own set of economic indicators (presently there are some twenty-eight major indicators being used in the United States) and these strongly influence the financial markets. For this reason, Forex traders need to be conversant with them and study them carefully when preparing their trading strategies.

Luckily, for traders who are working on the Internet, many websites today provide an abundance of the latest information, but it is up to individual Forex traders to extract this information and then apply the principles of fundamental analysis to it before making their trading decisions.

Just What Goes Into Making A Successful Forex Trader?

Would you like to enjoy the lifestyle of successful forex traders? If you were to split foreign exchange traders into two groups – the successful and the less than successful – could you identify those characteristics which separate the two groups?

It does not really matter what we do in life, which includes foreign exchange trading, but, whatever we do, one thing that will have more affect on our success than anything else we do will be setting goals.

It is a simple fact that the human mind works best when it is given a roadmap to follow and, by setting a goal, you start building your roadmap by clearly defining the end point of your journey. However fixing a destination is not sufficient and you will also need to define the route which you are going to follow to get to your destination. Here is an example.

Suppose you decide you want to build a fortune as a foreign exchange trader, and who doesn't after all! This in itself is not however much help as any goal which you set needs to be measurable, otherwise you have no way of knowing whether you have reached it. So, at this point, you need to be clear about exactly what you mean by a 'fortune'.

Let us assume therefore you set a goal of making $1,000,000 in the next twelve months. Now you have a clearly defined destination. The next problem however is that, since you are almost certainly new to the world of foreign exchange trading, are still learning the ropes and possibly have limited capital to invest at this point, making $1,000,000 in the next twelve months is possibly an unrealistic goal.

As well as being measurable, goals also have to be realistic. It does not matter what goal you set for yourself in foreign exchange trading, but it must be within your reach. There is no point in deciding that you are going to win Wimbledon if you have never even picked up a tennis racket.

So, instead of aiming for $1,000,000 let us set a far more realistic target of say $120,000. Having done this, we then need to split this figure up into marker posts which we can put onto our roadmap and we can do this by looking at our target on a monthly instead of a yearly basis. This gives us a dozen $10,000 markers. However, if we continue along these lines we can then break our goal down further into weekly markers of $2,500.

At this point we have got something which we are able to examine against our current and recent experience and it is a fairly simple matter to see whether or not this figure is possible. Is it possible, against the background of your current experience, to make $2,500 trading foreign currencies in the coming week?

Your goals must be measurable and realistic, but they must also be attainable. It is one thing to set a realistic goal, but you also need to have the right tools, in the right place at the right time if you are going to reach that goal. If you are currently making $750 a week then you probably won't convert this into $2,500 overnight so, in this instance, your goal is unattainable and you will need to go back to the beginning and start all over again.

But, if $2,500 is feasible, then there is one additional step that needs to be taken before you are ready to head off on your journey. This final step is to paint a picture in your mind's eye of your destination.

Although you have set a goal of making $120,000 in the next twelve months, the money itself is of course not really what you are aiming for, but it is what you can do with the money which is important. So, having got your $120,000 what do you intend to do with it? If you want to buy yourself a new sports car then paint a picture in your mind's eye of driving into the sunset with the roof down and then you really have got a goal.

If you want to achieve success in foreign exchange trading then you have to set yourself a goal which is measurable, realistic and attainable and than paint a picture of your goal in your mind's eye. If you do this you will be amazed at how easy a matter it is to get to your destination.

Why Most Forex Traders Use Technical Analysis

For many years Forex traders based their trading decisions on fundamental analysis which examines both past and current political and economic events in order to predict movements in currencies.

However fundamental analysis is a difficult art requiring considerable knowledge and experience and the ability to handle and analyze enormous amounts of data. As if this were not enough, there is also considerable disagreement in many quarters about just what data is and is not important when it comes to fundamental analysis and, even when it is agreed that certain data is relevant, there is often further argument about just how much weight should be attributed to each factor in the equation.

Today there is also a second form of analysis which is widely used and which is known as technical analysis. While proponents of technical analysis would probably tell you that it is no easier and in many ways more difficult an art to master than fundamental analysis, the truth of the matter is that it is a lot easier to learn technical analysis and this in no small measure explains why so many traders are adopting it in preference to fundamental analysis and are opting for technical analysis training. Which method is better is of course a whole different argument.

In considering technical analysis it is necessary to understand its three underlying principles:

1. All sorts of things will produce movements in currency prices, including political and economic events, but the forces which produce currency price movements are not important. As far as technical analysis is concerned it is simply the price movements themselves which are important and not the reasons for them.



2. A currency price will follow a trend which can be identified by looking at the patterns which emerge in the market over time.



3. A currency price not only follows a trend in terms of looking at historical market data, but will continue to follow this trend in the future. In effect this principle reflects the technical analyst's view of human psychology and a belief that currency price movements are a consequence of the manner in which people have reacted, and will continue to react, in certain circumstances.

Many of the 'old school' and 'fundamentalist' Forex traders find it hard to accept the principles of technical analysis and still hold firm to the belief that you cannot accurately predict a currency's movement unless you have a sound understanding of just what factors affect the price of that currency and indeed just what effect these factors will have on its movement.

Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that many traders believe that this is not necessary and base their often extremely successful trading purely on technical analysis. No system, at least none that has been devised so far, will predict currency movements with one hundred percent accuracy but fundamental and technical analysis do a pretty good job.

In its simplest form technical analysis consists of taking historical price data (the foreign exchange market has over one hundred years worth of recorded price data) and feeding it into a computer which will then look for patterns in that data and display these in a graphical format. The trader can then look at the manner in which a currency's price is currently moving and compare this to similar past patterns to predict the future direction of that currency's movement.

This is of course a very much simplified view of technical analysis but in today's computer age it is easy to see why many younger traders entering the Forex market are drawn to technical analysis.

Forex Trading Strategies Are The Key To Successful Trading

Before venturing into the world of Forex trading it is vitally important that you stop and think carefully about the trading strategy that you are going to adopt, because forex trading strategies are the key to success in currency trading. There is no single strategy when it comes to trading in the foreign currency markets and every Forex trader has to develop his own strategy. It is important however to have a clearly defined plan from the very outset.

Some Forex traders choose to use a technical approach when it comes to trading while others are more at home with a fundamental approach. Both approaches are of course sound, but in reality most successful traders use a combination of the two to give them both an overview of the foreign exchange market and to permit them to plot specific entry and exit points for each currency trade.

The idea behind technical analysis is simply that prices rise and fall according to well established trends and that the currency market possesses clearly identifiable patterns which can be seen as long as you know what to look for. Knowledge and experience come into play here, but it is also a question of using the numerous analytical tools that are available and this means having a sound working knowledge not just the patterns of price movement but also of the tools at your disposal.

Many traders also rely on what are known as support and resistance levels. Here 'support' refers to a low price which is repeatedly seen as being the bottom of the market and from which there is a tendency for prices to rise. A 'resistance level is a high price beyond which a currency is rarely traded.

The principle here is that, should a currency break through either its support or resistance level, its price is likely to continue in that direction. So, if the price of a currency rises above its resistance level it is considered to be bullish and the price can frequently be expected continue to rise.

Another commonly used tool in foreign currency trading is that of moving averages. A simple moving average (SMA) shows the average price in a given time period (say 7 or 10 days) when the price is plotted out over a longer time period. Forex traders use moving averages to eliminate short term fluctuations in price and to provide a clearer picture of the movements in currency prices. A SMA can be plotted to indicate when prices are displaying a tendency to rise or fall. Prices which rise above the average will frequently continue to rise and, similarly, prices which fall below the average will often continue to fall.

These are just two of the many trading tools that can be used either in isolation or in combination and it is recommended that traders make use of several trading tools to analyze the market. If you are relying on just a single trading tool then trading can often be risky but, if the results from several different tools show that the market is moving in a particular direction then trading can be conducted with a fair degree of confidence.

Many traders will base their trading upon a fundamental analysis of the market and thus base their trading on such things as economic and political events, trade figures, inflations figures, unemployment rates and a host of other similar forms of data.

Fundamental analysis can be very powerful but it is perhaps at its most powerful when it is used alongside technical analysis, particularly as a tool to reinforce the indications derived from technical analysis.

In many ways it does not matter what trading strategy you adopt as long as you are happy that it can provide you with clear expectations about movements in the market and indicate to you just where you should be trading and when you should enter and exit individual trades.

A sound knowledge and understanding of fundamental and technical analysis should be every forgein currency trader's starting point when it comes to building a Forex trading strategy.

The Second Most Commonly Seen Forex Trading Mistake

The most commonly seen mistake in Forex trading is that of establishing a set of trading rules and then failing to stick to them because traders let their emotions come into play and allow their hearts, rather than their heads, to rule their trading. It is this very same problem of emotion that also leads to the second most commonly seen mistake in Forex trading - that of doubling up on a losing trade.

If you find yourself in a losing trade then, providing you've done your homework and conducted the trade on the basis of your market analysis, the simple fact is that the market has unexpectedly moved against you.

This is something which traders experience every day and is a fact of Forex trading. It happens because, despite the fact that we like to believe that the market is predictable, it is not. It is certainly true that the market will frequently follow a pattern which modern trading tools will pick up, allowing us to trade profitably most of the time. The market however also has a mind of its own and it will frequently catch out even the most seasoned of traders.

When you get into a loss in an open trade it is human nature to feel that this is a temporary situation and that the market will reverse in your favor and turn your loss into a profit. If it did not then it would mean that you would have to admit that you were wrong about the trade and this is something that many of us don't like doing.

However, human nature will often take you even further and urge you to confirm your original decision and to show your confidence in it. This commonly means doubling up on your losing trade to show your confidence in it. You are also urged into taking this action subconsciously because, once you have proved yourself right, your profit will also be that much greater as the trade recovers from a now low position. Put simply, greed also plays a part at this stage.

Now from time to time you will be lucky and the market will reverse and give you a good profit. Unfortunately however is compounding the error you have already made by doubling up on a losing trade and encourages you to repeat this action the next time you find yourself in a similar situation. In most cases of course your luck doesn't hold and the next time you try this trick you lose heavily.

You found yourself in a position in which your judgment about a trade was being challenged and you were faced with the possibility of having to admit that you were wrong.

You had done your homework and there was no reason why you should not have opened this trade just as you did. Unfortunately, the market then decided that it was going to take an unexpected turn which you could not reasonably have been expected to predict. You did not make a mistake, but simply experienced the unpredictability of the market which is part and parcel of foreign currency trading.

In most cases the mistakes which most Forex traders make are nothing more than a case of letting emotion rule their trading decisions. As long as you do your homework and stick to your trading rules you won't go far wrong but, if you permit your emotions creep in and influence your trading, you will find yourself in a growing number of losing trades.

The Most Commonly Seen Forex Trading Mistake

Successful Forex traders know that their success comes from establishing a set of trading rules and then following these to the letter. It is perhaps not surprising therefore to find that the most commonly seen Forex trading mistake is that of traders breaking their own trading rules.

The greatest danger any foreign currency trader faces is that of emotion and trading rules are established quite simply remove emotion from the trading equation.

Another danger for most traders is that posed by greed. None of us like to think of ourselves as being greedy but this is particular deadly sins that is always close by and has a habit of creeping up on us when we are not paying attention.

A successful trader can quite easily find himself in a winning run of trades earning perhaps $2,000 a day and think to himself that, if he can get this sort of profit day in and day out, it has to be possible to earn $2,500 or $3,000 every day. However, in order to test this theory the trader needs to push himself by relaxing his trading rules so that they can make up a few extra trades each day.

With a bit of luck profits may well increase over the following days, but how long is this going to last? The answer in most cases is not long and time and again traders find that any short term gains disappear. The result is all too often that they move from being one of the truly successful traders to being one of the 90% of traders who regularly lose money.

It is very easy to allow greed to tempt you into breaking your own trading rules and once in a while this strategy will prove successful. However, you are now beginning to trade on emotion and, as with many things in life, having done it once it is much easier to do it again and again.

In the world of foreign currency trading your trading rules are your best friend and breaking them will start you down a very slippery slope.

The Value Of Simulated Forex Trading To Currency Trading Success

As a novice you will probably begin trading by opening a Forex demo account and your first few trades will be paper trades, or simulated Forex trading, as you learn how the market works and how to use some of the trading tools. It is not long however before you are ready to move on and to put your paper trading days behind you.

But is it such a good idea to leave paper trading behind you?

Many successful Forex traders today are discovering that continuing to trade on paper from time to time can be both helpful and profitable.

Problems often arise for traders when they find themselves with a losing trade. Despite the fact that losing trades are an everyday part of trading life, you are always going to be affected by a trading loss and there is often a strong, albeit often subconscious, urge to recoup the money you have just lost as fast as possible. This frequently means that you go right back into the market but, because you are in a losing frame of mind, your next trade often also results in a loss or a less than spectacular gain.

For many traders the answer to this problem is to follow a losing trade with a paper trade.

In this case you trade seriously and in exactly the same way that you would trade normally but run the trade on paper. You study the market indicators, open a trading position, put a stop loss order in place and then track the trade. As the trade progresses you move your stop loss order as the market moves and, finally, you close out your position when your market indicators tell you to do so.

This paper trade might result in a profit or a loss but, as the trade is only being made on paper, it doesn't matter one way or the other. The importance of this trade is that it allows you to clear your mind and to put your previous losing trade behind you. Even if this paper trade results in a loss the affect is positive because you are happy knowing that you have not actually lost any money.

Having run this paper trade you are now ready to leave the world of simulated Forex trading and return to live trading and can open a new trading position in a winning frame of mind.

Forex Traders Need To Be Objective

A difficult lesson for Forex traders to learn is that within the currency market almost anything can happen at any time. Because new traders spend a considerable amount of time learning the mechanics of the market and focusing their attention on finding a method for predicting movements in the market, it is only natural that they also come to believe that there are rules which govern the movement of the market. This is not the case and this catches many traders out.

Forex traders use a number of tools to judge when the time is right to open or to close a position, but the majority of traders will also have one particular tool which is their favorite and which they will rely on more than any other. So, once they have opened a position, they will watch their favorite indicator and base their trading decisions to a large extent on what this single indicator tells them.

This is fine until this indicator begins to tell them one thing while the other indicators are telling them something else. They are now in an open position and their favorite tool is telling them for example to hold that position while everything else is indicating that they should close their position and get out of the market. More often than not the trader will hold his ground and will end up in a losing trade.

The problem is quite simply that the trader has created an expectation in his own mind about the market and is not looking at the market objectively. He is using his favorite tool to reinforce this expectation rather than stepping back and looking at the wider picture. He is also probably being encouraged in this view by the thought that he must be right and by the profit in this trade which is being forecast by his favorite indicator. He is in effect seeing the money rather than the market.

The foreign currency market is, by its very nature, unpredictable and, were it not so, the market would soon collapse as we all made a profit on every trade we opened. Of course there are numerous tools to help us to predict the direction of the market and thankfully they do a pretty good job most of the time. Occasionally however even the best of tools in the hands of the best traders come up against an unexpected turn in the market.

Getting it wrong is a feature of Forex trading and traders need to learn to accept losses as an inevitable part of foreign currency trading. More importantly traders need to learn how to avoid getting into a position where they can be proved right or wrong. To do this you need to understand and accept that the market has a will of its own and have to remain objective and follow market movements, rather than try to get the market to go in the direction you want it to, if you are going to succeed.

# Trading A Market Which Is Always On The Move

The Forex market never stands still and even though it may move quite slowly at times it is nevertheless always on the move. It is of curse this movement which provides the opportunity to make money buying and selling global currencies, but it can also make it difficult to decide when to open a trade, close a trade or simply stay out of the market altogether.

Probably the greatest problem with the fast moving foreign currency market however is that it plays on our natural sense of greed and this can present traders with a very real danger.

We all like to make a profit, but what level of profit is acceptable? If you are in a trade which is showing a profit of $2,000 should you close your position and take your profit or hang on in there for $2,500? You are trading to make money and so, when the market is moving in your favor, it is only natural to want to ride the wave all the way to the beach. The difficulty however often lies in knowing when you have hit the beach and in not waiting for the undertow to start dragging you back out to sea again. Once the undertow catches you it can drag you back out to sea again very quickly.

Most Forex traders enter foreign currency trading with a clear picture in their mind's eye of just what they intend to do with all the money they are going to make and that is no bad thing. It is extremely important for you to have a goal, as well as a plan of action to allow you to reach that goal, and it certainly helps if you create a visual image in your mind of something concrete you are aiming for.

The problem however is that you could well find that you are tempted to try to reach your goal sooner than you had planned or that you create a bigger and better goal as you go along, allowing your natural tendency towards greed creep in and to start taking control of your trading.

Another commonly seen problem is that of failing to understand that it is not money which drives the market.

Think about this for a minute. It doesn't matter if you have $10,000 or $100,000 in your trading account because whatever sum you're looking at it is not going to make the slightest difference to the way in which the market moves. By the same token, it doesn't matter if you are looking at a $750 profit or a $750 loss in an open trading position because this again will not make any difference at all as far as the market rising or falling is concerned.

The fact that you are doing well in a trade and have made a profit of $750 does not mean that this profit will turn into $900 or $1,000 if you wait a bit longer. It is of course human nature to find yourself caught up in your 'winning streak' and to convince yourself that there is more profit to come.

It is also human nature to find that, having already lost $750 in an open trade, you will try to convince yourself that things will turn around if you keep your nerve and just hold on a little longer.

It is essential that you set a goal and have a plan to reach that goal but your trading decisions must be based on what is happening in the market and not on your goal.

Money should have no influence on whether or not you enter or exit a trade, or stay out of the market altogether, and these decisions should be based solely on what your analysis of the market tell you.