Think Easy Money

Yeah right. That’s advice to doom you at the currency exchange game.

When it comes to forex trading, that’s a trading strategy that is bound to lose you money – unless your gut is highly trained and impervious to emotion. The trick to making money in the currency exchange market is to avoid making emotional decisions and follow a carefully thought out strategy that takes the current market and history into account.

Forex trading is a highly volatile market. Emotions tend to run high – and low – and either of those extremes can influence your trading decisions, unless you have a strategy planned in advance, and stick to it, no matter what you THINK you’re seeing at the moment. The keys to success in Forex are system, analysis and perseverance. Note that emotion is not one of them. Going with your gut is a losing proposition in forex trading.

Letting your emotions rule your decisions can hurt your trading in several different ways. It’s the reason that most experienced traders tell novice traders that they need to develop a system – and stick to it no matter what. The system tells you when to buy, what to buy, when to trade and what to trade for. By sticking to your system even when you want to fly in the face of accumulated data, you’ll maximize your profits.

A system based on technical analysis of historical market trends is one of the most potent tools that you can utilize if you’re just getting started in forex trading – and many traders with years of experience continue to use their system to keep the profits rolling in. In fact, many will tell you that when their ‘gut instinct’ and their system collide, the system is almost always right.

The third key is perseverance. Analysis of trends in the market will show you that the market moves in dips and spurts within overall patterns that are predictable. No trend moves smoothly in an up or down line – there are inevitable periods of time when values suddenly spiral up or down based on some outside factor. These are the times when emotion can hurt your portfolio. When a currency that you’re holding takes a sudden dip south, it’s tempting to succumb to panic trading, cut your losses and run even if your system tells you to hold on. On the other hand, it’s easy to catch the rising excitement as a trade starts increasing in value and scramble to buy more of the same. These are exactly the times to rely most heavily on your trading system. It will tell you exactly when to trade for maximum profit.

Using a mechanical system takes the emotion out of your trading, eliminating one of the key factors that people fail. Your system doesn’t get stubborn about proving a theory. It isn’t swayed by bad news, or elated by good news. It doesn’t hold onto a bad trade hoping against hope that if it just holds on long enough, the trend will turn around and become a moneymaker.

To be effective, your system – whether you develop your own or adopt one created by someone else – should identify the entry point of your trade, the exit point of your trade, mitigating factors, and an exit strategy. In laymen’s terms that means:

- Under what conditions should I acquire a currency? For instance, you may have a buy order for when a particular currency drops more than 5 pips because your analysis tells you that that’s likely to be as low as it goes.

- Under what conditions should I trade that currency for another – and which one? There are two reasons to exit – to maximize your profit, or minimize your loss. That means you have a set stop-loss order and a set take-profit order at which point to cash out your trade.

- What factors will I allow to change that decision? If you’re not careful, this is where emotion will sour deals for you. While the money market moves in predictable patterns, there are always individual variations of a trend within those patterns. If you’ve taken those variations into account, it will be far easier to decide when a factor really does make a difference, and when it’s just wishful thinking.

- How will I trade out of a currency? Your exit strategy may be as simple as ‘a stop-loss order when my loss hits 5% or a take-profit order when I’ll make 40% profit’.

By employing a system to tell you when to get in, out or stick, you’ll minimize the impact of your emotions on your trading and maximize your profit.

So you want to learn about the Forex market, and trading internationally but you are risking your personal wealth if you jump in before knowing all about how trading takes place. Online, you will find many games and simulations while learning the methods involved in forex market trading. The forex markets include countries from around the world, where all countries involved are using different currencies, and when faced against each other are worth more or less than the original valued currencies that are being traded. The forex markets are used to build wealth in, for governments, banks, and brokers, and for many countries.

To get started in learning about forex trading, you will need to locate the forex trading software, education-learning system you want to use. As you find the games, as they are called, you will enter information about yourself, about what you are interested in learning and then you will download software to your computer. In following the ‘game’, you will learn how to make and lose money in the forex market. This type of game is going to make you more aware of what happens daily, how the markets open and close, and how different the various countries currencies really are.

You will open an online ‘account’ using the gaming system. You will then be able to read the news, find and compare markets, and you will be able to make ‘fake’ trades so you can watch your money build or be eaten away in losses. As you learn the system, using it a few times a week, you are going to be more prepared, more educated and you will be ready to use the forex trades to make money. Of course, you may still need the aid of broker or a company to make your transactions happen but you will better understand the process, what will happen, and what calls you may want to make when you read about the news, the markets, and the currencies in other countries.

The forex market is also referred to as the FX market. If you are interested in joining the millions who are making money in the forex markets, you want to ensure you are dealing with a reputable banker or company involved in forex trading. With the spur of interest in the forex markets, there are many types of companies that are popping out on the Internet appearing to be genuine forex trading companies but in reality, they are not. Forex trading can be completed through a broker, a company that deals in the funds, and from within your own country. For example, the US has many regulations and laws regarding forex trading and what companies are permitted to work with the public dealing with international trading and markets.

Forex market is among the most unpredictable and frequently changing market. Although, this kind of trade is high risk, there are still a lot of people who are venturing into this kind of investment. There are a lot of experts who give advice to every newcomer in Forex trading, it can be about using Forex robots, automated trading, or changing trading strategy. How can we separate the right from the myths?

Let’s start with Forex robots. What are the common myths about Forex robots and how can they be corrected?

* Clever and complicated Forex robots offer the best service

Unfortunately, this is not true. The most simple systems are the ones that may work best. The good thing about simple systems is that they use just simple algorithms and requires fewer elements.

Aside from that, vendors would claim that their programs were designed by brilliant people. Some would claim that their programs would be created by people in NASA or top programmers. What does these people know about trading, anyway?

* Trading can be improved by scientific and predictive systems

Yes, Forex trading and automated trading systems use mathematical calculations to understand and analyze trading signals and their trends. But, are the mathematical calculations some programs claim are really effective. Some vendors would claim that they use Fibonacci and it could relatively improve trading systems.

These formulas could help you analyze the market, but it could never be used to PREDICT the outcome of a trade. If you can, then there would be numerous people who have gone richer because they won in the Forex market.

* Forex robots can eliminate loss

There are Forex robots and automated system claiming to have zero losses. Again, if this would be true then a lot of users would already be walking millionaires. But that is not the case. There are about 95 percent of traders who lose their money everyday. So, the remaining 5%are just the successful ones, out of those small percentage, how many are using Forex robots? It is perfectly normal for everybody to encounter a losing period.

* You can leave your Forex robots to operate on their own

Forex robots claim that you can just turn on your computer and system and let it operate on its own. It can finish deals for you, without you even participating in the process. Any trading system has to be executed in a way where it can be monitored and still follow the trader’s trading strategy.

The reality is that you can let you equipment continue on trading, but it does not mean that the more trades that you have the more gains you will get. It still depends on how you would make your robot work for what you want and you strategy, not the other way around.

* Success in demo accounts is the same for actual trade

Not just because you have proven the effectiveness of the program in a demo account, it could show the same results in the real account. Everything could be risky. This is why it is important to check customer reactions and comments about the products. Most Forex robots website and forum would offer discussions about what are the common problems encountered in real accounts and hot it was resolved.

Before we answer that question, let us first determine how large Forex trading market is. From there, we will know the importance of automated systems for the Forex market.

It is true that the Forex market is the largest market around the world not just in terms of average daily turnover and average revenue per trader. It is also the largest market in terms of participants.

You name it, we’ve got it. Take a look at the following:

BANKS- they are not just for saving money and lending capital to entrepreneurs, but they are one of the major players in Forex market. Banks cater both to large quantity of speculative trading and daily commercial turnover. Well-established banks can trade billions of dollars worth of foreign currencies everyday. Some of the trades are undertaken on behalf of their clients, but most are through proprietary desks.

COMMERCIAL COMPANIES- these commercial companies trade small quantities of foreign currencies compared to larger banks and their trades produce small and short-term impact on the market rates. However, the trade flows from transactions made by commercial companies are essential factors with regards to the long-term direction of the exchange rate of a certain currency.

CENTRAL BANKS- central banks play an important function in the Forex market. They have the control over the supply of different currency, inflation, and interest rate. In addition, they have also official target rates for the currencies that they are handling. They are responsible for stabilizing the Forex market through the use of foreign exchange reserves. Their intervention in the market is enough to stabilize a certain currency.

INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT FIRMS- these firms commonly manage huge accounts on behalf of their clients such as endowments and pension funds. They are using the Forex market to facilitate transactions, specifically in foreign securities. For example, an investment manager bearing an international equity portfolio needs to purchase and sell several pairs of foreign currencies to pay for foreign securities purchases.

RETAIL FX BROKERS- they handle a fraction of the total volume of Forex market. A single retail Forex broker estimates retail volume of between 25 to 50 billion dollars each day, which is estimated to be at 2% of the total market volume.

SPECULATORS- these are individuals who purchase and sell foreign currencies and profit through fluctuations on its price as opposed to popular methods such as interest and dividends. They perform the important role of transferring the risk to individuals who do not wish to bear it.

In Forex market alone, there are already six major players partaking on the $1.8 trillion worth of daily turnover. With a large number of Forex players, there is really a need in switching from manual to automated Forex trading system.

Among the aforementioned major Forex players, the automated trading system is of great advantage to the speculators. Since they focus on the price fluctuations of various foreign currencies in order to profit, the real time data analysis will help them determine trades that will give advantage to them.

There are several automated Forex trading systems available in the market. There are also automated Forex systems that are offered for free or as part of their trading account acquired from their Forex brokers or agents. Such complimentary system packages are typically elementary trading system. Thus, if you are looking for more features, you can avail of it through additional payments.

There are two types of automated Forex trading system. These are discussed in the following:

Desktop-based system- all Forex-related data are stored on your desktop’s hard drive. This system is unpopular to Forex traders because all data are susceptible to computer virus contamination and other security problems. Worse, when the computer malfunctions, all essential information might be lost and cannot be retrieved (unless you have some back-up files of your own). However, it is little expensive compared to the other types of automated trading system.

Web-based system- the security of your Forex account and other data are provided by your web-based provider. These are hosted on secured servers. It is also convenient in the sense that there will be no software required and it is universally compatible with your Internet browser.

You may also try different automated trading system demos first so that you will be able to determine the automated Forex trading system that suits your personal preference and needs.

Even if you are just a small-time Forex player, it will be to your advantage if you will use an automated Forex trading system for your future trades.

Mistakes Of The Beginning Trader

There are 2 common mistakes that many beginner traders make: trading without a strategy and letting emotions rule their decisions. After opening a FOREX account it may be tempting to dive right in and start trading. Watching the movements of EUR/USD for example, you may feel that you are letting an opportunity pass you by if you don’t enter the market immediately. You buy and watch the market move against you. You panic and sell, only to see the market recover.

This kind of undisciplined approach to FOREX is guaranteed to lose money. FOREX traders must have a rational trading strategy and not make trading decisions in the heat of the moment.

Understanding Market Movements

To make rational trading decisions, the FOREX trader must be well educated in market movements. He must be able to apply technical studies to charts and plot out entry and exit points. He must take advantage of the various types of orders to minimize his risk and maximize his profit.

The first step in becoming a successful FOREX trader is to understand the market and the forces behind it. Who trades FOREX and why? This will allow you to identify successful trading strategies and use them.

Accountability

There are 5 major groups of investors who participate in FOREX: governments, banks, corporations, investment funds, and traders. Each group has its own objectives, but 1 thing all groups except traders have in common is external control. Every organization has rules and guidelines for trading currencies and can be held accountable for their trading decisions. Individual traders, on the other hand, are accountable only to themselves.

Large organizations and educated traders approach the FOREX with strategies, and if you hope to succeed as a FOREX trader you must follow suit.

Money Management

Money management is an integral part of any trading strategy. Besides knowing which currencies to trade and how to recognize entry and exit signals, the successful trader has to manage his resources and integrate money management into his trading plan.

There are various strategies for money management. Many rely on the calculation of core equity — your starting balance minus the money used in open positions.

Core Equity And Limited Risk

When entering a position try to limit your risk to 1% to 3% of each trade. This means that if you are trading a standard FOREX lot of $100,000 you should limit your risk to $1,000 to $3,000. You do this with a stop loss order 100 pips (1 pip = $10) above or below your entry position.

As your core equity rises or falls, adjust the dollar amount of your risk. With a starting balance of $10,000 and 1 open position, your core equity is $9000. If you wish to add a second open position, your core equity would fall to $8000 and you should limit your risk to $900. Risk in a third position should be limited to $800.

Greater Profit, Greater Risk

You should also raise your risk level as your core equity rises. After $5,000 profit, your core equity is now $15,000. You could raise your risk to $1,500 per transaction. Alternatively, you could risk more from the profit than from the original starting balance. Some traders may risk up to 5% against their realized profits ($5,000 on a $100,000 lot) for greater profit potential.

These are the kinds of strategic tactics that allow a beginner to get a foothold on profitable trading in FOREX.

Who are they? The answer is always easy – Follow the Money. There is one player on currency market (and in every other market) who never loses his share in every single trade. Brokerage service on Forex trading is claimed to be commission free, right? But you always pay your minimum 3 to 10 pips fee on each trade. Where those 3 to 10 pips go? Make your best guess!

There is almost no chance for a person who has no idea for the forces driving the Info market to save himself from being robbed and abused by those well advertised money machines. You can see their banners on your e-mail provider. You can watch their infomercials on every TV channel.

Be aware about the presence of those Big Sharks and be sure that the information they will try to sell to you is always available for free online. Most of the time the quality and the real value of that free information is much better than the one you will be asked to pay for.

Here is the story of a good friend of mine. He was very excited about Forex when he first time heard about it. That happened to be on one of those popular free seminars, organized by one of the Big Sharks on that field. So he got the bite without paying attention for the hook in it. He went to the next level – two days training for $1,995, only.

He came back more excited. He opened Forex trading account on that seminar, using a special form provided by the Big Shark Company. They honestly declared that by doing that the broker agrees to pay them one pip from each trade made by the customer recruited by them.

My friend started real trading, constantly increasing the amount of his investment until he put all of his savings into that Forex trading account. Everything was fine until one beautiful day of October. On that day he got the news: his broker filed under chapter 11.

He was broke. I asked him how successful was his trading? His answer was that he actually lost 30% of his investment, from trading, only. He was able to realize know that the training was completely inefficient and not even close enough to start trading with real money.

Something big was missing here. He was missing the big picture in the entire game. His trading experience was very frustrating. After each trade he felt like just hit the wall with a car flying with 100 miles per hour.

A few days ago my friend called me on the phone. He was very enthusiastic about a new Forex training package, just delivered to him. I decided to check it by myself, too.

The package is very detailed. All the missing information about the big picture is there. More than 20 hours of free videos are revealing all you need to know about that business. Zooming towards Forex trading is very smooth and on the level every beginner and advanced trader will tremendously benefit of.

The one unbeatable and shocking advantage of this package is that it delivers information, priced from between $3,000 and $10,000, for free.

Finally we got something valuable about Forex trading, very professionally developed, for free.

Probably, that will put the Big Sharks business on hold for awhile, for the good sake to all of us.

So, be careful and keep an eye on the Internet unlimited free resources if you want to self yourself from the Forex scam.

Happy Forex trading!

And the advent of both electronic trading and the Internet have taken Forex education out of the hands of the financial movers and shakers, and made digital stock and currency trading as accessible to the masses as online banking. Anyone with a personal computer, Internet access, and the ability to read can get a sound Forex education.

A Look Back

A hundred years ago, even though the currency trading market was far from new, it was stable. Speculation in currencies was unheard of, and news traveled slowly. Deteriorating economic conditions in one part of the globe did not have nearly the same catastrophic effect on worldwide markets as they sometimes have today, and the relative value of international currencies simply did not fluctuate on a daily basis.

The Forex Today

But with the introduction of the Euro, and its relationship to the US dollar, the Forex market saw explosive growth. As more and more people turned to currency trading as a part of their investment portfolios, Forex education became more and more essential.

Anyone who decides to begin trading currency without spending some time on Forex education is almost guaranteed a quick and bloody exit. There are so many aspects of Forex trading which should be at least understood, if not mastered, before an investor begins trading that those who fail to study them will soon be lunch for those who know what they are doing.

Learning to read currency charts and technical analysis, at the very least, will provide minimal Forex education, but very minimal. Getting into Forex trading without Forex education is akin to deciding to take a raft trip down the Amazon without a map of South America, and a compass. It’s a jungle out there.

Leverage

Both the enormous size and liquidity of the Forex market have attracted millions of players who think they can bet the trends, which are usually pronounced. Another almost irresistible enticement which the Forex trading offers is its huge leverage ratios; Forex brokers will allow their clients to be leveraged by as much a 100:1.

And with that enormous leverage ratio, or course, comes enormous risk. For those who have not taken the time to work on their Forex education and understand what risk management is all about, being so highly leveraged will find them on a roller coaster of profits and losses. By treating themselves to some Forex education, they would realize that even the best, most seasoned Forex traders take it on the chin from time to time. For more info see http://www.e-forextradingsystem.com/Articles/Forex_Online_Trading.php on Forex Online Trading.

The most important lesson in Forex education? Never play the Forex market with money that is not risk capital. That way, if you lose, you’ll live to fight another day.

The environment of foreign exchange is the market where currencies are purchased and sold against one another. Individuals may somehow refer to this market under different names, including foreign exchange market, FOREX market, fx market, or the currency market.

As an investor, you will discover how energy packed a FOREX market is. Individuals from all walks of life are making the whole market offer major turnovers.

The primary dealing centers at the time of writing are: London with about 30% of the market, New York with 20%, Tokyo with 12 percent, Zurich, Frankfurt, Hong Kong as well as Singapore with about 7 percent each, followed by Paris as well as Sydney with 3% each.

The “Produce”

You might get the hint that it is complicated to do foreign exchange business. That idea is wrong, only that you simply need to manage with the various market ups and downs. In foreign exchange, you don’t have to have any product or service to market. After all, it’s the currencies that are bartered. So if you possess Canadian dollars, you trade it in FOREX market to convert it to Austrian or U.S. dollars. Because currencies change from time to time, universal currency converters found online will come in handy.

Do You Profit from FOREX?

Where could you perhaps earn profits in a common business? Only with markup, right? Similar logic goes to foreign exchange. If you indeed want to earn in foreign exchange, then you must be aware of the currency fluctuations–that is where earning most of the time sets in. This is a risk, yet the potential of what you reap as always been huge, even attaining a ratio of 1:200.

Things to Consider in FOREX

What’s nice about foreign exchange is you don’t often, if not never, attain less than what you actually put in. Commonly, you gain substantial amount of income. Nevertheless, as a wise investor, you must only invest what you consider extra since the market itself is vulnerable to fluctuations. The FOREX currency trading system can give you a better picture of the whole trading process.

How Do I Begin Trading?

There are a few individuals you can rely on just in case you are still learning the ropes of foreign exchange trading. First, there will always be a professional FOREX broker who can do the trading for you. A regulated FOREX broker can just conduct business on your behalf. Learning FOREX glossary definitions can also assist you a lot. You can even participate in a FOREX Trading lesson so you can learn from the veterans.

If you think like you can already take on the challenge of foreign exchange, then by all means, simply do what you have to do. A credit card is used to create your first foreign exchange transaction.

How Do I Monitor My FOREX Currency Trading?

A foreign exchange software is great in monitoring foreign exchange currency. Most of these FOREX prediction software can help you lessen losses and increase income. You can monitor your foreign exchange trading online, from anywhere, anytime. You have full control to monitor status, confirm scenarios, modify some rules in the trade, or close it. It is further important to stay abreast with most recent daily FOREX market news so you are aware of what is happening at all times.

It is my main concern in this article to let you know what hours you should be ready and focus for start trading, so you can expect the highest profits in your trades, and not just consider that around-the-clock trading means you should randomly trade through out the day.

In short, it is important to know what the best hours to trade are because if you want to find an appreciable number of profitable trades you need to enter the forex market at the best period of time, i.e., when the activity, the volume of transactions, is the highest.

At any given time; somebody, somewhere in the world is buying and selling currencies. As one market closes, another market opens. Business hours overlap, and the exchange continues as day becomes night and night becomes day. Giving you 5.5 entire potential trading days.

Forex Trading begins in New Zealand at Sunday 5pm EST, and then is followed by Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America in this order and through out the day and through out the week until Friday 4pm EST when the American market closes.

Other important facts every Forex trader should know are: the US & UK markets account for more than 50% of the forex market transactions; Forex major markets are: London, New York and Tokyo. Nearly two-thirds of NY activity occurs in the morning hours while European markets are open. And maybe one of the most important characteristics; Forex Trading activity is heaviest when major markets overlap.

So, the answer to the question; “What hours should I be trading?” is dictated by this last characteristic, you should trade when the major markets overlap. Now, when do they overlap?.

Considering the different time zones of the world and open and close times for Australian, New Zealand, Japan, America and Europe markets. We can arrive to the conclusion that there are two major time gaps when two of the major markets overlap during trading hours.

These hours are between 2 am and 4 am EST (Asian/European) and between 8 am to 12 pm EST(European/N. American).

So if you want to catch the best trading opportunities of the day and you are in the American continent you must be ready to wake up early or go to sleep late some times. Of course things change around the world. What’s the best region where to trade from if you can’t wake up early?… Maybe the Ukraine.

The first thing is get ready for a life-changing adventure! Once you get a taste of making money by sitting in front of your computer monitor, there is no turning back.

Then after getting them all fired up (I am one of these people who get passionate about things I believe in – can’ help it), I get them into a free demo account as quickly as possible, usually within minutes.

Then, I show them how to use an online trading station (free computer software that allows you to use your demo account to interact with the largest money market in the world – with over $1.5 trillion exchanging hands per day – HUGE market!). The wonderful thing about these free demo accounts is that they are exactly the same as real trading – unlike learning how to invest in the stock market, for example, where you have to pretend that someone will sell to you and that someone will buy from you – and that is not real at all! The forex market is so liquid (instant buyers and sellers) that both the demo and real accounts behave exactly the same! What a great way to learn – when you switch to a real account, you can’t even tell.

Then, I get them to practice, using various proven techniques, with their demo account until they feel comfortable that they are consistently making profits. At first, like anything, you need to learn from experts. You need a mentor to teach you. You can’t just do what you ‘think’ will work – you must learn techniques that really work. Trading is both a science and an art, so practice is very valuable before you start to trade for real. I tell them to be patient, the thrills are coming soon!

Then the day arrives, they open a real account and start trading in a mini account (designed for beginners or those who want to do smaller, yet real, trades). Once they see real money being made, they can hardly wait to trade in a regular account – but again I tell them to practice because now the trades are real. Because they did their homework and practiced proven techniques with the demo accounts, the transition to a real account is easy – the hardest part is learning not to shake in your shoes as they enter into this exciting arena along side the wealthiest people in the world. Keeping calm takes awhile and then they come to the realization that they too are on their way to making more money than they ever imagined.

What amazed me when I first looked into forex trading was the amount of available riches to be made forex trading. Yet, at the same time, I quickly learned from real experts that most people who follow this advice lose all of their investment in the first few months! Wow! So, not wanting to make that huge mistake, I followed the advice I now give to my friends. Start with a demo, then a mini-account and finally move to a regular account all the while being mentored by someone who really knows how to make profits in the forex market.

By following this advice myself, I survived the first few months and now make wonderful profits! I love it!

Doug Gray