Guide to Forex Trading

Simple guide to Forex Trading:

1. Set a Stop Loss: Before entering any trade, decide beforehand the amount you are willing to lose and stick to it. Set a stop loss on the trade before you enter. Do not fluctuate your stop loss if you are in a losing trade. During times of extreme volatility it can be difficult or impossible to execute orders. Stop orders become market orders when executed, so the order may not be filled at the desired price. As a result, the initial risk can be estimated, but not guaranteed.

2. Let your profits run:

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 Do not be emotional about a trade – you will lose some and win some. Know the reason why you entered a trade and stick to those reasons. The less emotional you are the more successful you will be. Stick to your game plan – move your stop loss as the market moves in your favor and let your profits run. During times of extreme volatility it can be difficult or impossible to execute orders.

3. Don't be influenced: You have your own game plan stick to it. If you are influenced by others you will constantly be changing your mind. Learn to insulate external sources once you have made up your mind. You will always find someone who will give you a logical reason to do the opposite.

4. Keep your position sizes within your limitations: Successful traders know that in order to profit you trade for the long term. Trading is a game of probabilities, and over the long run as long as you stick and implement sound strategies and stay consistent – success is much more likely to come. To be a successful trader you should never take a position that puts substantial capital in jeopardy. In actuality you will rarely find successful traders who risk more than 10% of their account in any trade. You might want to start small and increase your trade sizes as your confidence grows.

5. Know your risk vs. reward ratio: The minimum ratio you should be using is 2:1, so if you are successful on 50% of your trades you are doing well. For instance, if you are long GBP/USD and you want to earn 30 pips you should not risk more than 15 pips. You should never risk 30 pips in order to make 10 pips. If you do, you’ll make a lot more successful deals then unsuccessful ones, but the poor ones will ruin any of your chances for profit. Your risk vs. reward analysis is extremely important to trading successfully.

6. Have adequate capital: You should never trade with money that you cannot afford to lose. Always make sure that you have enough credit. For example, you should can ask yourself the following question: “if I were to lose 50% of my opening balance in 6 months will I still be able to afford to trade?” Only if the answer is yes should you start trading, click to open trading account. One of the keys to successful trading is mental independence, which means your trading freedom must not be influenced by your fear of losing.

7. Trending or Neutral: Learn to analyze the forex market – is it a trending market or a neutral market? In a trending market, follow the trend. In a neutral market, buy on lows and sell on highs. As long as you use stop-losses you are controlling your risk.

8. Don’t fight the trend: Don’t try to buy on dips and sell on highs in a trending market. The old saying "the trend is your friend" is a good one. Why fight it – go with it!

9. Averaging – don’t do it: One of the most common mistakes traders make is the continuing adding of a losing position. Averaging will be the death of short-term trades. For short-term trades, preserving capital is the most important thing, and putting too much capital at risk will jeopardize success. In short-term trading, if a strategy is right the market should move in the correct direction within a relatively short period of time. However if it's wrong, the short-term traders should realize that they traded incorrectly, and they should take the loss and move on. There is not much room for pride in short-term trading. You should never add to a losing position.

10. Chasing a bad idea: This happens all the time. You see a potential trade and then decide to wait till the next day to see if it sets up. By the time you see that it did exactly what you thought, it may be too late. Review your reasoning for the trade, make sure your initial reason is still there and if not, forget about the trade. There will always be trading opportunities, so be patient and strike.

11. Understand the way the market thinks: You should understand that all the information (except for newly released information which the market adjusts to within a short moment) is already built into the price of the cross. You should know what indicators are coming, particularly the majors, and you should know what is already anticipated by the market. There are many publications of market anticipation for major indicators.

12. Trading - a game of probabilities: You will not be correct 100% of the time – it’s a fact. Good, experienced traders all know this. It’s a numbers game, and you’ll make some and lose some. The idea is simply to win more than you lose, not to catch all the fish in the pond. Understand that trading is a game of probabilities, and if you do the right thing, in the long run you will come out ahead. Learn from mistakes. When you start forex trading, you may well lose more than you make. Think about what you did wrong and try not to be emotional about the trades. If you stick to your game plan and learn, hopefully your profits will out weight your losses.

13. Know why you are in the trade: Keep a trading log, and write down why you entered a trade. Don’t be impulsive. Have a plan. This way you will learn which strategies work for you in the long run and which don’t. If trading before or after releases works for you, look for them and trade those.

14. If the logic goes you go: If the reason you entered the trade disappears then so does your reason to remain in the trade. If you think you’re at a low and it breaks through, get out. Then reevaluate and decide once more.

15. Have a maximum run: If you have 4 or 5 bad trades in a row, take a break. Something isn’t working. Go away and regroup. Don’t be afraid to take a break.

16. Study: Learn new ideas, keep up to date, and don’t trade other people’s ideas. You should always know why you are in the trade.

17. Have Fun: Enjoy what you do. Keep calm and stay as unemotional as possible – you will be more successful.

Source:http://www.avafx.com

Forex Technical Analysis

Forex Technical Analysis: 

Technical analysis is a method widely used in stock markets and other traditional markets. They use price history and a series of algorithms in their attempt to predict future prices. You can find on the market different methods and algorithms for predicting the market’s price, but in the end they will always base their methods on past price movements. Technical analysis, however, is a bit different.

The first method used by technical analysis is using the technical indicators. Usually a technical indicator is nothing more than a graphical representation display somewhere on the screen. Usually, the price is represented. The most notorious example is the MACD indicator.

Other methods can use measure resistance and support or trend lines. These methods are based on analyzing the chart and observing the recent history. The method is trying to find a pattern for price movements. Usually the price either follows a certain pattern or it oscillates between a minimum and a maximum. If the price follows a pattern, you can predict where it will go by using trend lines. If it bounces forth and back between a minimum and a maximum then using resistance and support lines you can predict when it will change its direction.

Technical analysis can be very helpful but its predictions are not flawless. Only you can decide if to trust a technical analysis and make a trade or wait for another opportunity. On the market you can find a wide variety of indicators and technical tools. Since most traders have access to them, the slightest difference in interpretation can make a huge difference on transactions. If some traders want similar price range and they all try to buy at that point then the price can bounce quite drastically in a short period of time.


Technical analysis is different from one trader to another. Each individual has its own desires, needs and interpretations. Every trader has its own goals too, so they have different ideas about how these goals can be reached and how to set up their indicators. All these differences make the individual’s trading system. Take any number of traders and you will see that, even if they use similar tools, the results will never be the same. The current market still works only due to all these differences.

For forex trading technical analysis is quite useful. It will only show a small part of the market but you can learn a lot about trading from it. Understanding technical data will help you read the charts better and you will develop certain skills and thus you will see faster when a price movements appears.

Technical Analysis

Technical analysis refers to the study of indicators and charts in order to determine the future price movement based on the past price variation. The technical analysis is quite different from fundamental analysis, since technical analysis uses mathematical techniques and charts to examine different aspects of price movement. Due to the development of Internet, all these indicators and charts are widely available to every user connected to the Internet, and not just for professional traders and brokers, like was in the past.

Charts will give you plenty of information about any price movement regarding a certain currency, if you know how to read them. Most traders consider that a chart tells the story of the currency it represents. Since there are more than 50 technical indicators you, as a trader, can get access to a huge amount of information about currency movement. From any historical analysis you can predict the future movement of that currency.

A good trader will certainly search a trend line. Trend lines always show the price movement of a certain currency (down or up). If you can find a trend, then you can determine quite accurate the price movement. A trend is always a good friend in this type of business, and all traders rely on them for future price predictions.

Technical indicators are used to study some particular aspects of a certain currency. These indicators are quite similar with the well known economic reports since they study the movement and health of a currency in comparison with economic reports that study the growth and health of a certain economy.

Source: http://www.tradingforex.net/lesson-6-forex-technical-analysis

What should you know about Forex Signals ?

Six steps to improve your currency trading: Second step

step 2: Learn to Manage Your Risk

In our experience, the most successful traders are not simply the ones who take the best positions. They are the ones that are smartest about risk management and disciplined in their strategy. They are never emotional about gains or losses. They set their profit target and loss limits for their positions, and use Limit Orders and Stop/Loss Orders to lock them in.

Limit Orders

A limit order instructs the system to automatically exit a position when your target profit has been achieved. This enables you to "lock in" your desired profit on a winning position.

Stop/Loss Orders

A stop/loss order instructs the system to automatically exit a position when your maximum loss limit has been hit. This enables you to cap your losses on a losing position.

Trading Discipline

Professional Traders use Limit Orders and Stop/Loss Orders as the cornerstone of a disciplined trading strategy. By setting both on all their positions, they have removed emotion from the equation and are letting the market work for them.

Amateurs, on the other hand, dont use Limit Orders and Stop/Loss Orders. They stay glued to their screens, trying to juggle all their positions in real time. They miss critical action points, and they let emotion rule their decisions.

Setting Limit and Stop/Loss Orders

As a general rule of thumb, you your Stop/Loss Orders should be set closer to the opening position price than your Limit Orders. If you do this, then you can be successful while being right less than 50% of the time.

For example, if you use a 100 pip Limit Order with a 30 pip Stop/Loss Order on all your positions, then you only to be right 1/3 of the time to make a profit.

Where you place your Limit and Stop/Loss Orders will depend on your risk tolerance. However, you need to be smart when setting them. If a Stop/Loss Order is too close to the opening position price, it can be triggered by normal market volatility. This means that a temporary dip can knock out a position before it has a chance to retrace. Similarly, if a Limit Order is set too far from the opening price, potential profit may never be realized.

Be aware that trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to invest in foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.

Source: http://www.xe.com/currencytrading/improve.php

What should you know about Forex Signals ?