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The Right Kind of Fear Can Create Success

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Your probability of trading success is directly proportional to your belief in your abilities. The greatest reason traders fail is fear. Fear can arise from your lack of belief in your abilities.

Wisdom is the correct use of knowledge. The correct use of knowledge is gained by experience. It can come from taking appropriate trading actions based on the technical market conditions at a given place in time.

There are probably more causes of fear than I can possibly put here, but one way that fear can come into the picture is from being a liar. You’re going to need to think hard about this one, because if you have it, you’d better confront it and overcome it before you lose all of your money.

Being a liar may get your through a lot bad situations, but there are few who make the connection between being a liar and the ultimate consequences of lying. The better liar you are, the worse the consequences will be when they finally catch up with you. There are no doubt thousands of wannabe traders who bomb out of the markets without ever realizing just why it happened to them.

You see when you are a liar, when it comes time to believe in yourself, or in your abilities to trade correctly, or when you need to have faith in what you are doing, you cannot do it?

Why? Because a liar knows he is a liar. The bigger the liar you are, the greater the fall you will take when you are in a situation where it is imperative that you believe in yourself and in what you are doing. A liar cannot truly believe in him/herself.

So, being a liar ultimately brings on fear. The fear derives from a feeling of insecurity – you cannot believe a liar and you know you are one.

Fear may immobilize your trade decision making process or cause emotional reactions which result in incorrectly analyzing price action.

How can you possibly leave your comfort zone and venture into the wilderness of trading, when you are not able to have faith in yourself? Fear is a natural experience, but there is good fear and bad. The fear a person has before a performance is natural and good. It brings up the production of adrenaline and spurs one on to a greater performance. Taking decisive trading actions lessens the effect of good fear and diminishes the inwardly directed anger of guilt caused by trading indecision. But for the person with bad fear, the following acronym applies. The bad fear acronym is False Expectations Appearing Real, whereby the trader experiences the pain of loss without the actual occurrence of loss. There is a certain amount of fear every time a trader experiences a new trading opportunity. The key to understanding fear and achieving trading success is this: fear is part of the same energy force that can create success. The opposite of fear is confidence, or the belief in one's abilities to act correctly based on technical market conditions without regard to outcome. But if you are unable to believe in yourself, fear for you will produce the wrong kinds of reaction.

The ability to take decisive action diminishes the paralysis of fear and builds the trader's self-confidence, making it easier to repeat trading actions. The second reason that only emotionally healthy individuals can assume risks is because they possess the ability to take decisive action despite experiencing fear and doubt amidst negative circumstances. The winner intellectually or rationally acts; the loser emotionally or irrationally reacts, or can not take action at all. Fear cripples the decision-making process creating confusion and indecision. Fear is a normal experience, but if one correctly analyzes the market it should not cause paralysis.

Joe Ross has been trading for more than 47 years, and is a well known Master Trader. He has survived all the up and downs of the markets because of his adaptable trading style, using a low-risk approach that produces consistent profits.

Joe is the creator of the Ross hook, and has set new standards for low-risk trading with his concept of "The Law of Charts™." Joe was a private trader for most of his life. In the mid 80's he shift his focus and decided to share his knowledge. After his recovery, he founded Trading Educators in 1988 to teach aspiring traders how to make profits using his trading approach. He has written 12 major books on trading. All of them have become classics and have been translated into many different languages.

Is Trading Futures Gambling?

“Hey Joe! I want to learn how to trade, but I’m having a conflict. Is trading futures gambling?”

Trading futures is gambling only when you trade them without full knowledge of what you are doing. There is a good measure of self-knowledge required to choose the proper course to follow if you want to become a trader. It has even been postulated that many small traders in the futures markets, without knowing it, secretly want to lose. They jump in with high hopes—but feeling vaguely guilty. Guilty over 'gambling' with the family's money, guilty over trying to get 'something for nothing,' or guilty over plunging in without really having done much research or analysis. Then they punish themselves, for these or other sins, by selling out, demoralized, at a loss.

A trader is gambling when he/she trades from ignorance. The gambler makes his trading decisions on gut feelings, hopes, dreams of getting rich quick, tips from the broker, “inside information” from friends, and from the improper understanding and use of indicators, oscillators, moving averages, and mechanical trading systems. In general, he is looking for a way to shortcut having to truly learn what is going on. Unfortunately, most people who attempt to trade fall into this category.

However, true trading is actually speculation (managed risk). The speculator is willing to accept the risk of price fluctuation in return for the greater leverage that comes with that risk in the hopes of earning a greater profit. The true speculator makes his trading decisions based on knowledge gathered from Information about the behavior of the underlying, seasonality, historical and current trends, chart analysis, fundamentals, the market dynamics, and knowledge of those who trade it.

Joe Ross has been trading for more than 47 years, and is a well known Master Trader. He has survived all the up and downs of the markets because of his adaptable trading style, using a low-risk approach that produces consistent profits.

Joe is the creator of the Ross hook, and has set new standards for low-risk trading with his concept of "The Law of Charts™." Joe was a private trader for most of his life. In the mid 80's he shift his focus and decided to share his knowledge. After his recovery, he founded Trading Educators in 1988 to teach aspiring traders how to make profits using his trading approach. He has written 12 major books on trading. All of them have become classics and have been translated into many different languages.

Joe holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles. He did his Masters work in Computer Sciences at the George Washington University extension in Norfolk, VA. Joe still tutors, teaches, writes, and trades regularly. Joe is still an active and integral part of Trading Educators.

Pros and Cons of Fundamental Analysis

There are two groups of traders: fundamentalists and technicians. Fundamentalists are traders who use fundamental analysis to predict price action, and technicians are traders who use technical analysis to predict price action. Of course a lot of traders use both types of analysis.

Let’s talk today about fundamental analysis, which is based on economic factors.

Fundamentalists assume that the supply and demand for currencies is a result of economic processes that can be observed. So, they observe economic, social, and political forces that drive supply and demand. They believe that by observing all kinds of indicators they can predict price actions.

Because currency prices are a reflection of the balance between supply and demand for currencies, by analyzing different data, such as interest rates, balance of trade, foreign investment, GDP and many others, traders can predict price actions. The problem is that there is huge amount of data to analyze. Fundamentalists can study any criteria except price action. Different fundamental analysts look at different economic indicators, but the most important are economic growth rates, inflation, unemployment and interest rates. Especially data that is related to interest rates and international trade is analyzed very closely.

Fundamentalists know when different economic indicators will be released. They usually have calendars where they note the date and time when different important statistics will be made public.

By learning and observing different fundamentals of the markets we can increase our knowledge and understanding of the global market. By doing fundamental analysis we can predict economic conditions very well. We can also have a clear picture of general health of the economy. We will know what is going on. Those are the reasons why we should not completely ignore fundamental analysis.

But there are some problems with fundamental analysis. Fundamental analysis usually does not give us specific entry and exit points, so the trades can be pretty risky. It is very difficult to find a method of translating all of the different information into specific entry and exit points for a particular trading strategy. There is so much information that it is easy to be confused.

That is why many traders use some fundamental analysis to understand unexpected movements of the prices and to know the forces which move them, but they use technical analysis to decide when to enter and exit the trades.

An Introduction to Currency Correlation

Friday, December 29, 2006

Global currencies don’t ride the trends in isolation. The apparent technical movement between two currencies in a pair may cause an effect in the behaviour of each separate currency. A third currency will also have some bearing on the rise or fall of a seemingly unrelated pair, in the view of an intermediate or beginning trader. Even seasoned trend cowboys may miss the odd significant event that results in a trade loss.

Technical analysis often comprises the bulk of the independent speculator’s trade decisions, but some attention to fundamental news must be included for a complete overview of what is happening in the market at that particular moment. Neither weather, beetles, drought, hostile takeovers nor indicted CEO’s have much real bearing on currency values, but the timing of the release of economic reports should determine if a trade is viable or not.

A rising tide raises all ships, but the trading ocean is made of waves, with deep troughs and high crests. A rising ship may have a tether to another that is dropping down the other side of the swell. As one currency in a trade pair rises, it may pull another currency up with it, or just the opposite. A drop in the Euro may allow an increase in the value of the GBP, which will certainly have an influence on the USD/GBP spread.

So when considering the merits of a good trade, also take into account the activity of each currency’s most closely related cousin. When trading the Canadian dollar, you must certainly consider the relative movement, or lack thereof, in the US dollar. Canada’s largest trading partner is the US, so fluctuations in the US economy may or may not have an effect on the Loonie, depending on the gravity of the news.

The UK maintained their own currency, the British Pound, but the economic business of Europe can still influence the directional trend of the Pound Sterling. The French Franc will also be swayed by the enterprise of the communal Euro. As you analyze your charts, take care to make a quick examination of any volatile activity in any similar currency.

The average day trader and individual speculator cannot possibly keep up with all the economic news released each day and still have time to trade and eat lunch, and old news has already shown itself in the charts. One must pay attention to important published economic developments, and generally avoid trading on report days. But the trend will indicate market sentiment, and great profits can be made by keeping the major focus on technical analysis.

International bankers and currency houses have developed complex mathematical models to track currency correlation, but these are beyond the scope of this article. In summary, just check how related currencies are trending, when preparing a trade. Another quick analytical tool for the traders’ arsenal is always a good thing. May your winners run long.

Internet Trading with Forex

FOREX trading is a great hot technique of successfully trading in the foreign market and successfully flowing in avalanches of money. There are many programs and packages out there that don’t teach you beneficial techniques like precision and on top of that overcharge their packages for extraordinary prices. You shouldn’t have to deal with being robbed. Instead you should take advantage of the FOREX market and all it has to offer.

You shouldn’t have to watch other people lead successful luxurious lifestyles, and ask yourself why not me? The internet is a goldmine of opportunities and pure success. It’s powerful and nothing can stop it, so why not be part of this rapid money making machine. Investing your time and energy on the internet to successfully make some money is a wise choice; however it is even wiser to invest your time in the trading world with FOREX.

The FOREX program has a very high percentage of success due to the techniques and strategies used. This program teaches you how to know the precise time to enter a trade or when to not trade. It also teaches you when to exit a trade and be able to make huge profits. You don’t even have to make complicated calculations like most trading programs. With FOFEX all the calculations are done for you. The FOREX market is not only a day thing. This is open 24 hours a day. So basically you can make money while you’re on vacation, spending time with your family and friends, or even while you sleep. Location is also not an issue with the trading market, because since it’s online you can be located anywhere around the world.

One of the most attracting features of FOREX is it’s not time consuming. You can spend as little as ten minutes a day “working” on your trades and then you’re done. You don’t have to spend 8 hours a day worrying if you managed to make successful trades or worse if you made horrible trades. You can carry out the rest of your day peacefully and stress-free. Who wouldn’t like this lifestyle? I’m pretty sure you do.

This new lifestyle can allow you to lead the life you’ve always dreamed of having. You don’t have to hide in the shadows of wealthy individuals anymore. Instead you can take action and be part of this attracting group. FOREX has many attracting features that can change your life completely around. Once you see the techniques in action, you will be dumbfounded and ready to jump in all the action, more specifically all the money making fun. Take advantage of FOREX and all its amazing and beneficial techniques and strategies that it has to offer! Don’t get left behind!

How To Read Currency Quotes When Forex Trading

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Because of the immense volume of the Forex market, it is impossible for a single market’s force to noticeably control the market direction for any considerable length of time. At the end, market forces will prevail in the long run, making forex one of the most open and fair investment opportunities available.

Currency prices in the Forex markets are determined by a great number of factors influencing the value of the currency. Among the most important factors to consider are the economic and political conditions in the home country of the currencies you are willing to trade. Inflation, political stability, and interest rates are all highly considered for determining the price of any currency. Additionally, governments may try to establish some kind of control over the price of their currency by either intentionally flooding the market, to lower the price; or buying large quantities, to raise the price.

The first thing you should know for correctly reading currency quotes is that each world currency is given a three letter code which is used in forex quotes. The most common currencies for traders are: European euros (EUR), US dollars (USD), United Kingdom pounds (GBP), Australian dollars (AUD), Japanese yen (JPY), Swiss francs (CHF) and Canadian dollars (CAD).

Other important thing to learn is that the foreign exchange prices when trading forex are indicated by quotes in a fraction like mode, called currency pairs. The first currency is called the 'base' and the second is called the 'quote' currency. In the following example: USD/EUR = 0.8517

This currency pair is formed by US dollars and European euros. The base currency (USD) is always considered ‘1’ and the quote currency shows how much it costs to buy one unit of the base currency. In this example, 1 US dollar costs 0.8517 euros.

If the price of the quoted currency goes up it will indicate that the base currency is becoming stronger; one unit of the base currency will buy more of the quote currency. If the quote currency falls, however, that means that the base currency is becoming weaker.

As you examine the data of any trading software you may be using, you will notice that forex quotes are seen in a 'bid' and 'ask' prices format. What ‘Bid’ means is the price that buyers will pay for the base currency, while at the same time selling the quote currency, and ‘Ask’ is the price at which the sellers will sell the base currency, while at the same time buying the quote currency.

Finding a Forex Broker

Foreign exchange is the largest financial market and everyday new investors plan to jump in when they learn of the benefits, that is, high returns on investment which is as high as 20% per month a month. However, inexperience and over enthusiasm can only do bad and bring in losses so, you’ll need an experienced forex broker to help you put your money in the right place at the right time.

A forex broker with a cool head, preferably with a long list of satisfied clients and experience is the right guy. Once you’ve found the right forex broker, all that’s to be done is, keep a regular check on your investments and it is advised to do it independently to avoid scams, because one can never know. So, how to find the right forex broker, is that the question? Well, good news, this article was written just for you.

In a market where cash flows faster than the F1 circuit, scams should come as no surprise even with reputed names and it’s your responsibility to be aware of where the money is and keep a check on the movement and earnings. Different people prefer different levels of risk and depending on that factor you might like to check how different forex broker work and then select the one from them.

Even before you start the search, remember to strike down brokers promising windfalls, they are scams without doubt and same for brokers who are promising huge profits or no risk. Trading always involves some form of risk because of the nature of the market which you must be prepared to incur.

Make sure to check the spread of the forex broker as that’s where they earn their money, read their terms of service carefully and check the services offered. There might be a lot of services being offered upfront at no cost but you might be billed for them later on, so make sure to sign up only for the services that are required.

A forex broker is a long term partner for financial success so, make sure to research their background well. All that’s to be done is put in a little effort by checking the credibility of the forex broker or company upfront for peace of mind in long term.

What Is Forex

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Foreign Exchange trading (also called Forex, FX or currency trading) describes trading in the many currencies of the world. It is the largest market, which provides a large amount of liquidity to traders. Each day the markets trade over $1.5 trillion, if you compare the New York Stock Exchange which trades $27 billion a day you can begin to see how massive this market really is.

The spot Forex market trades are settled within two banking days. There is no central exchange like futures, and most of the trades are done electronically. The big boy’s in this game are the Banks, Hedge Funds and financial organisations.

However, with new rules and introduction of Trading Platforms across the internet almost anyone can now start trading Currencies.

Unlike any other type of trading currencies are traded in pairs. One currency is bought and the other sold. The Major pairs in The Forex Market are US Dollar (USD) Japenese Yen (JPY) Swiss Franc (CHF) Australian Dollar (AUD) Canadian Dollar (CAD) British Pound (GBP) and the Euro (EUR)

These Currencies can be traded in most order but the most popular pairs are the US Dollar Against the Japenese Yen Shown as USD/JPY, Euro against the US Dollar (EUR/USD), the British Pound against the US Dollar (GBP/USD), the British Pound against the Euro (GBP/EUR) and the US Dollar against the Swiss Franc (USD/CHF).

When quoting currency pairs, the first currency is known as the base currency and the second as the quote, if you think the US Dollar is going to be stronger than the Japenese Yen, you would buy the base (USD) Hoping that it would rise and sell the USD when you wanted to exit the trade. When you see a quote of USD/GBP1.75 means that for every 1 US Dollar, you get 1.75 British Pounds.

One great advantage of trading currencies is you can profit in up and down markets, it is just acceptable to trade to the down side (Short) as it is to the upside (Long).

As in All types of trading Buying and selling Currencies brings with it a degree of risk, don’t ever trade with money you cannot afford to lose. Never enter a market without a good trading plan.

Recognise 'The Force' and Trade the Trend

You may have heard the saying ‘A Trend is your Friend until it Bends’. Technical Analysis helps us to identify a trend so we can jump on and ride it until it changes. Since the Forex market has very strong trends, technical analysis is a very effective technique.

Some traders still persist on trading against the trend, they argue with it even though price movements are obviously in a trend. Buying when the currency is in a basic downtrend or selling when it’s in an uptrend, instead of buying.

Our primary purpose is to identify the major trend, intermediate trend and the short term trends and place trades in that direction. We then hold position until our calculations suggest otherwise.

Here’s a quote from Jesse Livermore, a tenacious, flamboyant and profitable Forex trader,

"We know that prices move up and down. They always have and they always will. My theory is that behind these major movements is an irresistible force. That is all one needs to know. It is not well to be too curious about all the reasons behind price movements. You risk the danger of clouding your mind with non-essentials. Just recognize that the movement is there and take advantage of it by steering your speculative ship along with the tide. Do not argue with the condition, and most of all, do not try to combat it."

There’s gold in these words. If the market action shows your analysis to be correct, the successful traders stay with the market and maximize profit according to his or her equity management rules.

If the market turns, the smart trader will get out and collect profits.

Watch the market and listen to what it tells you about upcoming trends and most importantly don’t ask for reasons for what it does, focus on the essentials.

There are often repeating patterns in price changes. Once established. They become the most probable way to predict price changes.

These can be categorized into two types of markets, trending and trend-less. Trending markets have up and down trends; these are typically less than 45° and are steady movers with occasional pauses or profit-taking periods.

Trend-less markets have very steep movement of more than 45° that most often can’t be sustained. Although price movements can shift a considerable number of pips in a short time period they often don’t produce much net profit.

Choppy markets often produce stop outs and the sideways market, with minimal price movements makes it very difficult to predict which way the price will move.

For these reasons, our objective is to get into a trending market and meet our trading objectives.

The underlying message here is, “Be a good friend to the trend”, a simple concept but powerful indeed.

Forex Mini Accounts, Powerful Leverage from the Start

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Leverage is essentially the amount used in a trade compared with the security deposit needed by the broker, for that trade. Forex offers the most leverage of any form of investing, which for most brokers, is 100:1, so if you put in $1000, the broker will make that $100 000 when you are trading.

So by investing $1000, you are able to control $100 000 worth of currency on the market. This is what allows traders to pull in such impressive incomes and is also the downfall of less experienced traders if you don’t manage your equity properly and use stop losses. I’m going to introduce you to mini account trading where you can get started and lose a number of times without losing any hair in the process. Regular, full-sized accounts require $5000 to $10000 to really start implementing an effective equity management plan, that is, you can only lose a few times before you’re out of the game if you don’t have that much money and as we all know, by trading intelligently, you can maximize the odds in your favour.

For someone who likes to stay completely out of debt, Forex is the best investment option; you can only lose what’s in your trading account and nothing more. In fact, if your open positions are risking more than you have in your account to pay for them, your brokerage software will automatically close them until you can afford the ‘at risk’ amount. Futures markets are prone to sudden and dramatic moves against which you can’t protect yourself and you’re liable for any resulting deficit in your account. You can lose more than what you have in your account and potentially everything you own!

Mini Account Benefits

For someone wanting to maximize profits and a few thousand to spend, a mini account may sound retarding (maybe that’s just me) but it actually offers more benefits than a regular account if you don’t have a lazy $5000 US to spend. The major benefit is that you win US $1 per pip instead of 8 or 10, and a $50 account will move about $10 000 at a time instead of a $1000 moving $100 000. Your leverage is 200:1 with a mini account and you still get all of the benefits of the latest trading software, charts, resources and tools without the pressure to make a win on every trade. Just remember by using an equity management plan, even if you lose 7 times in a row, you can still come out on top by minimizing loss and maximizing profit. Good traders know that the odds are stacked in their favour.

An account size of $2000 will get you well on your way with a mini account, considering you generally want to risk no more than 5% maximum on any given trade. Preferred ratio is 2% of your margin account.

You also can trade more than 1 lot at a time, to increase your returns as you grow in confidence. So as your account grow, so does your trading capacity and hence 2% of your account may be much more than the risk involved in a trade. There’s no maximum trade volume on the mini accounts.

Trading a mini account keeps you in the game without focusing too much on profit and loss. Trader may resist on closing out an unsuccessful trade in the hope that it will turn around or lock in profits too early rather than allowing profits to increase. With a mini account you can develop discipline needed to be successful and the confidence without anxiety or distractions associated with large profit and loss swings.

Buying And Selling In The Forex Market

Today I would like to talk with you about a few very important rules of investing in the Forex market. If you follow these rules, you will most surely come out on the winning side in the long run.

Rule number 1 is never risk more money than you can afford to lose. No trader is perfect, you are going to have losing trades. There is no system you can learn that wins all the time. So expect to lose some money.

Rule number 2 is to cut your loses short and let your winners compound to greater gains. The secret to not losing your shirt is to use stop loss orders consistently and not let your emotions rule your trading. It's better to lose a little and get out of a trade than to hope that things will turn around and suffer a devastating loss. If you are using the proper techniques and strategies on how to trade, you can usually tell right away if your trade is going in the right direction. If it's not, get out of the trade. There are always more opportunities to get into the market and try again. So be a smart trader, not an emotional one.

Rule number 3 and probably the most important rule in trading Forex is to always use stop loss orders. Before you even consider starting any trade, you should have a good idea in your mind of the point at which you think a trade might be going in the wrong direction and set your stop loss order there, along with your entry order. This way you automatically prevent a potential loss from going too far. Stop loss orders are free. They don't cost you anything and they may save more than your piece of mind.

Rule number 4 is to know what your exit point will be before you get into a trade. There are many good reasons for this. It's easy to get sidetracked when you are doing live trading and get caught up in all the excitement. Chances of making bad decisions go up dramatically if you do not have a predetermined exit point.

Rule number 5 is to know when to quit. Don't become a gambler with your money. If you start having a streak of bad luck, get out of live trading and go practice with a demo account until you gain back your confidence.

Impatience Will Kill the Golden Goose

Monday, December 25, 2006

It is relatively simple to create a profitable system for trading forex, stocks, or commodities on paper, but it is not easy to successfully implement the system once it is created. While the primary forces underlying market behavior are fear and greed, the primary cause of unprofitable trading is IMPATIENCE, which may very well be a subset of both fear and greed.

A profitable trading system requires three basic elements and three fundamental characteristics. The basic elements are a strategy for entering positions, a strategy for protecting positions from unacceptably large losses, and a strategy for exiting positions with a profit. The fundamental characteristics of a profitable trading system are that winning trades are on average larger than losing trades, that the number of winning trades is larger than the number of losing trades, and that the frequency of trading signals is high enough to keep the attention of the trader focused on trading. (Of course, there can be successful variations on these fundamentals: for example, a system that produces 95% winners could have the average win much smaller than the average loss and still be profitable).

Once a profitable trading system is created, the trader’s inability to follow the rules of the system is the primary cause of unprofitable trading, and IMPATIENCE is one of the driving forces behind a trader’s inability to follow the rules.

Impatience will manifest itself in all of the following ways:

• A trader will follow a new trading system to the letter and begin to get good results, but will see ways that each individual trade could have had a better outcome by bending the system rules just a little. So, instead of being satisfied with X amount of income from the system, the trader will decide to try to achieve 2X income by changing the system rules on the fly, which always results in errors in judgment caused by fear and greed (which the system was designed to eliminate by its carefully formulated rules).

• A trader will see an entry signal forming (almost, but not quite – it needs Y action to manifest on the next bar before the signal becomes valid) and decide to enter a position on the supposition that the signal will trigger soon, anyway. Of course, the system was designed with black and white entry triggers, and violating these entry rules results in the arrival of bad behavior ruled by fear and greed.

• A trader will wait for hours (or days or weeks, depending upon the system’s time frame) for a proper signal to form and become frustrated by the lack of action on a slack day (or week or month . . .) and begin to talk herself into believing that a given scenario represents a valid signal, even though all the proper elements are not quite there, and enter positions that are doomed to failure because the market is just not in the correct mode for the system during that time.

• A trader will hold a winning position too long because he expects one trade to make up for the previous losing trade (or trades) in one swift move that is outside the parameters of profitability expected by the system.

• A trader will take a profit too soon because the market is taking longer to reach the system’s profit objective than she is comfortable with.

• A trader will take a position much larger than the system’s risk parameters allow for because he wants to make a big profit quickly (often to try to make up for serious previous losses caused by violating other system rules), but then when the market goes against him he will panic and exit with a loss before the system loss point is hit because the pain of holding the over-sized position is too great to bear. Then, she will scream in frustration as she watches the market turn around and move back to profitability soon after she takes her premature loss.

These just begin to illustrate the danger posed by impatience if a trader cannot keep it under control. Meditation, frequent breaks from the market, a clearly defined trading system and a clear set of profitability goals (“Forex Freedom”, by Robert Borowski illustrates a step by step strategy for building capital in a rational manner without impatience) can all help to keep the trader relaxed and trading within the rules, resulting in profits instead of losses.

Currency Trading W-5, an Introduction to this Crazy World of Forex Trading or Foreign Currency

The foreign currency trading market is the trading of one currency against another. Most of the major pairs include the US dollar (USD). The main players are the British pound (GBP), the Euro (EUR), the Japanese Yen (JPY), the Swiss franc (CHF), plus the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars (AUD, NZD, and CAD).

Currencies fluctuate because of economic and political reasons, even the interest rates of different countries. They can also be affected by supply and demand of the currency itself. Currencies function as commodities; they can be bought and sold. People do it on a small scale whenever they are planning for a trip to another country. Banks have been doing it for years as a means to make money on the differences between forex trading.

Recently the market has become available to the average trader, to trade on a level playing field with the banks and large traders. The Internet is largely responsible for access to such a lucrative market. The market has become virtually transparent. The fees for forex trading are basically non-existent and anyone can open a trading account with a few hundred dollars.

And there is money to be made. This is not easy money. There are skills to be learned. A bit of luck doesn’t hurt. You must also understand that you can lose as quickly as you win. This is risk investing and needs to be done with disposable funds. The hours can be long too! Especially if you don’t live in the main foreign currency trading time zone of your pairs. There are good, as in active, times to trade and slow periods. They are predictable. But the best times may be in the middle of the night where you live. It can really mess with normal schedules.

This currency trading takes place online. In the privacy of your home, in your boxers. No mad floor of the stock or commodities exchange. No suits. And virtually no middle men. Just you and the forex trading system. Win or lose. It’s just you.

The 7 Undeniable Rules of Forex Trading

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Before we go into 7 rules of Forex Trading, that have been approved by a number of full time and successful traders, I’d like to narrate this story.

There was a lion, a donkey and a fox all keen to go out rabbit hunting together. After a productive day of hunting, the three of them sit around the pile of rabbits and the lion asks the Donkey, “Mr Donkey, would you please divide the pile into equal shares for the 3 of us?”. The Donkey obliges and counts the rabbits into three equal piles for each of them. The Lion immediately roared and pounced him. He then piled all the rabbits on top of the donkey and asked the Fox “Mr Fox, would you please divide the rabbits up evenly between us?”. The Fox takes out 1 scrawny rabbit from the pile and puts it in a pile for himself then say “There you go, Mr Lion, that’s your pile” pointing to the large pile of rabbits. The lion says “Mr Fox, where did you learn to divide so equally?” and the fox says “The Donkey taught me.”

The moral of the story is to learn from others’ mistakes. Now we proceed to our 7 rules. These are for you benefit as mentioned earlier, from experienced, successful traders.

Rules #1

Never risk any more than you can afford to lose, you will lose money, all traders do, make sure you’re not sacrificing anything else important in the process

Rule #2

Never risk any more than 2% of your margin trading account on a simple trade. For mini account holders, 2% of $300 would be $6 so realistically you would need around $15 so you can make this 5%. As soon as your account size is big enough, make this 2%.

Rule #3

Always use a stop loss order. If you haven’t figured out where your stop loss order and limit order should be at the start of your trade then you shouldn’t be trading.

Forex Facts

There are many benefits and advantages for trading currencies on the Foreign Exchange, better known as Forex.

The Forex Exchange was established in 1971. This market grew at a steady rate throughout the 1970’s, but in the 1980’s Forex grew from trading $70 billion per day to over $1.5 trillion each day.

There are many huge players in Forex, but it is accessible to the individual trader. Each lot traded is worth approximately $100,000. By using leverage, an individual trader is only required to have a $1000 investment in the trade. This is a 100:1 leverage. No other market offers this amount of leverage.

Forex is also an extremely liquid market. Because it is so large, you can buy or sell in only seconds where your trade is only a mouse click away. You can also preset an automatic close for your position. This means you don’t have to sit and watch your position, just place the trade, set an exit point and go what you want.

Forex trades virtually 24 hours, 7 days a week. It only closes from Friday afternoon until Sunday evening. This makes it possible to set your own trading hours. If you trade part time and want to place your trade at 3am, log into your account and trade. If you are a full time trader, the same applies. No other market lets you pick the hours you trade.

There are no commissions charged on Forex, only a small transaction fee. This is not possible in any other market, as brokers charge a commission on each trade in all other markets.

Because currencies are traded in pairs, so you are buying one currency and selling the other. For example, if an investor believes the US dollar will gain against the euro, you would buy the US dollar and sell the euro. It’s just that simple.

The potential for profit is good as there is always movement between currencies. Even a small change can result in substantial profits because of the large amount of money involved in the transaction.

First and foremost, before just opening an account and blindly making some trades, you need proper training. Study the market, learn the terms used in trading, set up a demo account with a currency broker. Then, and only then, use real money to trade.