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In our last installment we discussed the super-important performance measure called maximum drawdown. Today I have another measure who?s importance may not be immediately obvious to you. That measure is the actual length of time over which the trading systems results were achieved. Some of you may identify this as the length of the trading system?s track record.

Why is this so important? The main reason that this is so important is that the shorter the track record of the trading system is the less significant the track record may be. A trading system with a short track record may be only cherry picking and displaying the best possible period of trading. Don?t be impressed by some wording like ?made 10% return this month??so what. In my personal best month of trading I made hundreds of times more than the above example of 10%…again, so what. In trading, as in life, there are many things that are a flash in the pan?trading systems, get-rich-quick traders, etc.

Fortunately, you and I realize that success in trading is a marathon and not a sprint as so many would love for it to be. Your trading system needs to be one that at least displays the ability to weather the long-term storm. As Read more…

You can develop into a better and more profitable trader by applying some of the more imperative forex currency trading rules consistently with an appropriate amount of discipline. There are few principles that can help to perk up your chances of success if they are understood, practiced, and implemented in your trading on a regular basis and these rules have been learned in the trenches, mostly through testing and scrutinizing the common mistakes nearly every trader makes when starting out in the forex currency trading business. The first step is to set up and apply specific goals and objectives.

The majority of forex traders who often find themselves on the losing end of a trade make the same common and recurring mistakes. Most forex traders don’t have a clear direction, never take the time to develop a sound business plan and lack a formal written strategy for putting a well thought out plan in place. In forex currency trading, the primary goal is clearly to make money, but it’s important to have goals that are not strictly money related as well. Your personal objectives and ambitions should be very specific and measurable to you, but they should include the characteristics that are needed for the trading.

Having a clear-cut idea of what you want to accomplish in your trading and the precise time frame you want to achieve it, make your efforts more focused. In order to establish a track record of winning trades, you need to develop discipline and a personal forex currency trading system that makes sense for you. The spread generally referred to as the bid/ask spread is what brokers charge instead commission fees. Forex brokers are typically Read more…

Forex currency trading is a zero sum game and those traders with a trading plan and the necessary discipline to stick to it will succeed over those that trade without one. STOP! If you want to be on the positive side of this game, start with your trading plan ? it is your most important weapon against your opponents. Here is an example of what a Forex Trading Plan should look like:

Goal

My goal is to make 20 ticks or $200 per day over the 20 day trading period.

Market

My target market is the EUR/USD spot market. Trading style is day trading with all trades taking place between 8:30 am and 11:00 am on class days. On certain occasions I will attempt to start trading at 7:20 am due to the fact that a majority of economic data is released at 7:30 am CST. All positions will be closed at the end of class.

Research and Fundamentals

Each day before trading I will fill out a trading plan for the day. I will also research fundamental data related to the markets before I start trading. This is to get a market feel such as overall macro trends, world events, upcoming economic data. I will also look into technical data over the past several days to figure out what technical movement has been present.

Charts

Candlestick charts are important for day-trading. I will use two charts; 5-min and 4 hr. I use the 4 hr charts to identify the major trends and the 5 minute chart to get minor trend timing.

Strategy

Before anything else I need to establish the minor trend. Although I will look at the 4 hr chart to get a broader view of the market, given the amount of time I have to trade, I feel it is more important to focus on the short term trend. If there is consolidation or any other non-committal movement on the minor trend, then I will stay out of trading until a trend presents itself. I will use western technical analysis (DailyFX resistance/support, Moving Averages) to get a general feel of which direction the market is going and eastern technical analysis to time my entry and exit points. Although technical analysis is the basis for my trading, if there is fundamental information that comes out that clearly swings the market against the trend I will go with Read more…

You can develop into a better and more profitable trader by applying some of the more important forex currency trading rules consistently with a suitable amount of discipline. The following are a few principles that can help improve your chances of success if they are understood, practiced, and implemented in your trading on a regular basis.

These rules have been learned in the trenches, mostly through testing and observing the common mistakes nearly every trader makes when starting out in the forex currency trading business.

Set Up and Implement Specific Goals/Objectives

Very few things are more important to your trading success than setting specific goals and objectives for what you are trying to achieve. The majority of forex traders who often find themselves on the losing end of a trade make the same common and recurring mistakes. Many of the missteps, by and large, are not directly related to the mechanics of trading.

As a matter of fact, most forex traders don’t have a clear direction, never take the time to develop a sound business plan and lack a formal written strategy for putting a well thought out plan in place.

In order for any business to be successful it must have measurable goals that are both realistic and attainable. In forex currency trading, the primary goal is obviously to make money, but it’s important to have goals that are not strictly money related as well.

Never lose sight of the fact that risk and reward are part-and-parcel to forex currency trading and high returns come with a price so don’t expect them without the willingness to plan for minor draw-downs in trading capital.

Your personal objectives and goals should be very specific to you, but they should also include Read more…

There are several things to consider before getting started in forex currency trading. Initially, you’ll need to selct a broker that is right for you in order to facilitate your trades.

Compare Brokers for Better Profitability

The spread generally referred to as the bid/ask spread is what brokers charge instead commission fees. While comparing brokers you?ll notice that spreads in forex currency trading fluctuate much like in the stock market. Make certain you?re receiving the lowest spread available because it means more profit in your pocket.

Use Qualified and Reputable Firms

Forex brokers are typically associated with large banks due to the large amount of capital that is required to operate in the forex market. Make certain the forex brokers you?re considering are registered with the Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) as well as regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as a registered National Futures Association (NFA) member.

Evaluate Research Support Services

Forex brokers offer various trading platforms for traders like brokers in other markets do. These trading platforms provide real-time charts, technical analysis tools, real-time news and support for various trading systems.

Prior to committing to any one broker use free trials and practice accounts to compare trading platforms and services.

Keep Your Leverage Options Open

Leverage is a ratio of total capital available to actual capital which is the amount of money a broker will lend you for trading. Take for example the ratio of 10:1, this means that your broker will lend you $10 for every $1 of actual trading capital.

Select a Trading Account That Fits Your Budget

Forex trading brokers offer several accounts. The smallest account you can open is the mini account that only requires as little as $300. The standard forex currency trading requires a minimum of $2,000 initial capital to start and gives you an option to trade with a variety of leverages.

A premium account can require $5,000 ? $10,000 to get started. It offers the same leverage options as the standard as well as additional tools and services. At the end of the day, select the broker that has the right leverage, tools, and services that meet your budget needs as well as your investment goals.

Basic Forex Trading Strategy

Forex trading strategy begins with fundamental and technical analysis. Here?s why each analysis is important for creating a solid forex trading strategy:

Fundamental Analysis

Attempting to value company stock is sometimes difficult. But valuing a country?s currency Read more…

Do you ever feel like you know just enough about Forex to be dangerous? Let’s see if we can fill in some of the gaps with the latest info from Forex experts.

The Foreign Exchange Market ? better known as FOREX – is a world wide market for buying and selling currencies. The Foreign Exchange Market was established in 1971 with the abolishment of fixed currency exchanges. Businesses use the market to buy and sell products in other countries, but most of the activity on the FOREX is from currency traders who use it to generate profits from small movements in the market.

There was a time when forex trading was limited to banks and large financial institutions. The most important is trading in multiple currencies in multiple markets. Online trading has made the market fully transparent. The trading is instantaneous. This makes online trading both exciting and dangerous. The traders don?t have sufficient time to reflect. The best is through full-time educational programs that teach the working of forex markets. This involves working with a forex brokerage or with a forex trading firm.

The forex market is the largest market in the world where trade is conducted round the clock in real time. The entire trade is seamless, and works across time zones and across countries.

The most important forex markets are London, New York and Tokyo, and the most traded currencies are the US Dollar, European Euro, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc and British Pound. These currencies are traded in pairs. A few traders rely on their instinct and experience while making these trades. The forex market is by Read more…

Forex signal trading has emerged as an important support service for forex traders. This service is run either by forex brokers or by independent analysts who monitor and analyze the forex market. These analysts identify forex trends using several indicators. Based on this analysis, they suggest profitable entry and exit points to forex traders for a fee.

Most analysts offer signals for only the most popular currency pairs, such as EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD and USD/CHF. However, there are some specialty services also that offer signals for the lesser-traded pairs.

The charges for these services vary from analyst to analyst, and depend upon the range of services bought by the trader. For instance, a basic subscription service offers email alerts of entry/exit opportunities to traders while a more comprehensive service provides this information through SMS, cell phone or pager alerts also.

Some signal trading services also provide live charts for the traders to make their judgment. Irrespective of the level of service, a trader should be prepared to pay a minimum subscription fee of $100 a month.

However, the success of a forex signal service should not be measured in isolation or over a relatively short period of time. The traders should use these signal services only as an extra indicator, as one more tool in their trading toolbox. A good way to judge the analytical skills of signal trading service is to ask for historical data. This can expose the claims of trading signal service.

The biggest benefit of signal trading services is that they save the traders Read more…

Forex is short for Foreign Exchange, where money from one country is exchanged for that of another or the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another.

When one deals in forex trading the profit or loss, he incurs is the increased or decreased value of an investment caused solely by currency movements. For example, if an investor thought that the US dollar was weak, he might purchase German Mark. The investor’s, the real profit or loss could then be in how the Mark moves against the US$.

Being the largest financial market in the world, the Forex market has a volume of more than $1.5 trillion daily. Also the Forex market, unlike other financial markets, has no permanent location, no central exchange and just happens ?Over the Counter.? It operates through an electronic network of large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments and other financial markets and institutions. Retail traders are individuals who are a small part of this market. They participate indirectly through brokers or banks.

The foreign exchange market is unique because of its trading volume, the extreme liquidity, the large number and variety of traders in the market, its geographical dispersion, its long trading hours i.e. 24 hours a day and a host of factors that affect exchange rates etc.

Currencies are traded against one another. Each pair of currencies are traditionally noted as XXX/YYY, where YYY is the ISO 4217 international three-letter code of the currency into which the price of one unit of XXX currency is expressed. For example, EUR/USD is the price of the euro expressed in US dollars, as in 1 euro = 1.2045 dollar.

73 % of the forex trading is done by 10 Read more…