Forex Trading Signals - General Criteria To Assess Usefulness Of Forex Trading Signals

Depending on the type of forex trader you are, forex trading signals can form a part of your trading arsenal.

Forex Trading Signals Defined

Forex trading signals comprise forex information on buy and sell orders or entry and exit signals sent by forex brokers or forex analysts to their subscribers either for a fee or for free.

Time Validity Of Trading Signals

Obviously, forex signals are basically forex trading opinions and are not embedded in stone. At best, they are educated opinions formed after analysis by brokers or analysts who study price trends, make economic assessments and form their opinions on the state of the currencies that their trading clients hold, or are transacting. Such signals are valid for certain periods of times and often carry short term specific value and are worthless with the passage of time.

Assessing The Forex Trading Signals

If you are a forex trader who would like to benefit from trading signals issued by any forex broker or analyst, it is important to assess the methodology the forex broker uses to issue these signals. More importantly, how reliable are their signals? Does the broker or analyst has a good record of being accurate in his signals? How detail are those signals issued? Are they issued with clear cut trading recommendations or are they couched in uncertain terms? Are the signals just a representation of pivot prices or price projections without giving basis or the explanatory notes on how to derive and use them?

Big Brokers versus Small Advisory Trading Signals

This aspect of checking the background of brokers and analysts issuing these trading signals is an important activity because of the speculative nature of forex trading. As forex trading is a large market, as in any other financial trading market, and owing to the speculative nature of the market, you must subscribe only to signals that are proven to be reliable. The larger brokerage firms are able to afford more analysts or cover more ground before they release their trading signals in comparison to an individual analyst operating from a small advisory company.

Forex Trading Signals As A Timing Device

There are trading signals that are issued based on methods that are novel and developing in contrast to those that are known for their performance. For example, pivot trading signals is a common trading signal system that is followed by many forex brokers and you can get these pivot trading signals as timing signals.

Dissemination of Trading Signals

With the advent of high technology and fast communication via the internet, trading signals can be routed to your email box as an email, or they can be delivered via sms ( short messaging system) or by fax. All this helps in ensuring you get the signals in a timely manner.

Recommended Use Of Trading Signals

Is it good to use these signals outright?

Generally, unless the issuer of the signals has a proven track record, it may be easier for your peace of mind to use these trading signals as a basis to research further. You may want to check these signals in your favorite charting program or to run further technical or fundamental analysis on any aspect of the trading signals that you receive to test their reliability.

The next time you receive any invitation to subscribe for what is claimed to be an "accurate, reliable and timely" trading signal service for forex trading, remember to check and assess their claims, or even rank them.

Considering the fact that you will soon be very familiar with certain currency-pairs that you are trading frequently, you may not be interested in accepting the broker's trading signals outright. Where you have an accurate trading system that is capable of identifying and generating accurate and timely signals, you can be in control of all your trades, and especially the entry and exit trading signals.

Forex Trading Strategy - 3 Major Ways To Improve Your Trading Skills In Forex Trading

If you are trading forex as a beginner, or if you have been trading for some period of time but have not been a consistent profitable trader, then it may be necessary for you to take a pause in trading and to reconsider and review your forex trading strategy with the primary objective to improve your trading skills. Here are three factors you need to look into.

Develop and "over-study" your trading system

Your trading strategy should involve the use of a defined trading system. The first step in a practical trading strategy is to develop or adopt a proven trading system that will incorporate generating signals for entry and exit positions with the relevant risk management controls such as initial stop loss, trailing stop losses , risk-reward ratio requirement. There are many trading systems but generally they can be classified into systems that are capable of, from a functional purpose, trading the bottoms and the tops, trading at the outbreaks, and trading the pullbacks. But among all these trading systems, I would like to single out time-price trading or price action analysis which can be very powerful effective trading systems that you can use. Once you have developed or adopt these trading systems, over-study them. In other words, you must keep on studying how to use these trading systems and use the trading systems in a disciplined way. This is important because any deviation from following the trading signals from the system is going to work against you. The sure way to ruin is to over-ride well planned and well thought out trading action from a proven trading system.

Understand the nature of trading

In forex trading, like in any other business, there are losses and gains. Being consistently profitable does not mean there are no losses. There are times when your trades may not pan out, but once they hit your stop losses, take the trading signals and cut your losses. Understanding this is important because it keeps you level-headed so that you are able to handle losses and continue to take the trades as they come. In trading, the pressure may gets heated up especially when you are faced with a series of losing trades. But if you keep to your trading strategy, those losses will be small. When the signal works, and moves into a sustained trend, it is very usual to make a lot more profits that will cover the series of small losses which you may have sustained in following strictly to your trading system.

Have an Overall Wealth Creation Plan

Your forex trading activities should only form part of an overall wealth creation plan. In your forex trading strategy, you may use part of your trading profits to add on to your capital monthly, and also withdraw some profits for savings or as an income to "pay yourself to trade". In other words, you pay yourself as a forex trader with your profits, creating an income source as an incentive for performance. As part of your wealth creation plan, you may like to pay yourself up to 20% of the profits montly as your income or allowance. At the same time, allocate 10% fo the profits into a miscellaneous account that will pay for trading related literature, courses, seminars or software that will add on new skills to help you to trade better. The balance of 70% of the profits can be ploughed back into your trading account as additional capital.

Having a forex trading strategy allows you to have an overall perspective of whatever you are doing as a forex trader. The forex trading strategy acts as a simple guide that will allow you to grow as a trader and yet maintain a way to tap the profits from your trading in a sensible way as you develop your career as a professional trader.

Forex Trading Software - 3 Most Important Criteria In Selecting The Best Forex Trading Software

Forex trading has developed to the extent that a forex trading software is an indispensible tool to the forex trader. The forex trader will need a forex trading software almost daily in accessing market information in real time. This information stream should be received without unnecessary delays, so that he is provided with non-stop and instantaneous information to help him conduct his trades.

So what are the criteria to follow in choosing a forex trading software?

There are three main criteria you will look out for in selecting a forex trading software, namely:

1. Type of forex trading software

2. Reliability

3. Specific personal needs

Let use look into the details of each criteria.

Type of Forex Trading Software

When looking at forex trading software, you can select between web based trading software and server based trading software.

For server based trading software, data servers are used to store website content and transactions of the users and traders. The main consideration for server based software is that of data transmission delays with currency trading software because of the Internet connection speed and the physical distance between the main server and the machine of the trader. At the same time, you need a physically well equipped computer to act as a data server. This means a one-off installation cost if you are not doing it yourself and also maintenance and upgrading costs.

In contrast, web based forex trading software, does not involve any installation in a specific server but resides on the broker's website. As a trader you merely need to log in to the website and use it. That is why the web based trading software is more popular.

Reliability

The second criteria is that of reliability.

When you select a forex trading software, pay attention to the reliability of the trading software. Reliability refers to the performance of the system to provide you instant access to the forex trading market, to check prices and movement. Check in the forums and trading chat rooms or perform due diligence on claims of the broker providing the trading software. If there are frequent complaints of trading downtime, stay away from these trading software. Another aspect of reliability is that of data delivery. Is there any undue time delays for the dissemination of both data prices and also results of fulfilment orders? Again, check this out by talking with other traders.

Specific Personal Needs

You should also assess the forex trading software based on specific personal needs.

Most forex trading software allow you to have a charting interface and to maintain trade records. However, if there are specific trading methods or strategies that involve that ability to manipulate or input specific trading indicators that is part of your trading style, then you will need to see whether the trading software can allow you to do that. For example, trading methods that uses a system of moving averages can easily be set up in most of the forex trading software available. However, if you require specific moving average indicators such as triangular moving averages or some new variations, then it is important for you to check whether such indicators are available in your forex trading software. Most forex trading software would not incorporate artificial intelligence projections, and if you are into such trading strategies, then you may need specific adds-on that must be compatible with your software.

Apply these general criteria to assess and select the forex trading software of your choice, and you will find the trading software to be a most valuable tool to assist you in earning consistent profits. In many cases, sophistication is not necessary the preferred choice, as long as the major 3 practical considerations or criteria mentioned above are met.

Practise Forex Trading Online - How To Identify and Rectify Flaws In Forex Trading

I am hardly surprised when friends and clients tell me that they are not consistent in their winning trades in trading forex. Many times, friends relate their stories of making a giant win in the markets at one time, and then will continue to tell a sad story of losing it all in the next few trades. Worst, some have even lost their capital. It is when they are at the verge of abandoning the entire idea of making a career of being a professional trader and when their financial losses are really hurting them, that they seek for help.

I have identified 5 of the most common flaws of forex traders, and have helped many of them to rectify their trading problems. Let me share them with you.

1. The Most Common Flaw

I have often been presented with rather sophisticated trading systems by traders who come to seek help. Most of them have been attracted by the promise of multi indicators and sophistication in the use of these trading systems. Many of them appear to be a rehash of the principle of confluence. What this simply means is that if a multitude of technical indicators show the same signal to buy, sell or hold, then the pure sense of synergy occurring suggests that the signal generated is correct. This sounds good in theory, but in practise, not all the indicators agree at the same time.

For example, a trading system might have a moving average indicator with a positive crossover occuring when its Relative Strength Index or RSI is at the lower boundary or is oversold at the 30% band. These two indicators occurring together at the same time is a good enough indication that the correct signal is to buy. But what happens in real life is that the deriving the decision is not that simple.

Why is that so?

Many of these "confluence" systems throw in other indicators that depict the price movement and do not add any value in helping you to trade. As a result, you get a pot-purri of technical indicators comprising oversold and overbought indicators such as stochastics, stochastics-RSI, momentum indicators, bollinger band breakouts and candlestick chart pattern recognition, and even artificial intelligence systems such as neural networks.

The end result is that many of these losing traders are unable to make a decision as to the true direction of the market and either get into the market too late or too early or just remained paralysed from making a decision at all. It is therefore no wonder that they are losing money by the buckets.

So the most common flaw among forex traders is the use of an unsuitable trading system which does not serve its purpose as a tool to help them trade profitably but rather confusing and complicating forex trading until they become perpetual losers.

2. The Most Dangerous Flaw

An other flaw that I would classify as the most dangerous flaw of them all is that of greed and fear.

This is an emotional issue interwoven into the entire process of trading.

Giving friends and clients a listening ear, I have often heard how a profitable trade can lead to euphoria, and exuberance, and greed comes in and over-ride all aspects of risk management. The trader who is profitable at that stage will over-ride all his stop loss positions when prices fall back, believing without substance that the price will continue to go up many pips for a longer period of time. Risk-reward ratios are thrown to the wind. These traders see their winning trades ride up into huge profits, only to see them correct, pullback and crash down to earth. Worst, they are then paralysed by greed which tells them to wait a little longer for prices to recover, which they normally don't, but continue to pullback and consolidate and they have to take a loss at the worst possible time.

The trader is then struck by fear as he realises his position. When the next buying signal comes, he is paralysed by fear and unable to open any position. That is why when you override the emotional side of trading, the psychology of trading and the discipline of trading, you commit the most dangerous flaw in forex trading, with financial ruin facing the door.

3. The Flaw of The "Unconcerned Man"

The third important flaw I often encounter in my business of coaching and consulting with traders is what I call the flaw of the "Unconcerned Man." I know the term of being called unconcerned, or even lazy is anathema to many traders, but the truth is that many traders enter into trading without a driving need to become successful and profitable. They are into trading just because they have heard it is easy game - that making a killing from the markets is easy. They do not treat trading as a business that involves skill, preparation, trade management and re-investment. To them, it is a trading game of fun, where they can afford to lose. They become unconcerned about their trades which are still in an open position. They start off with the wrong footing or with the wrong purpose, and do not have that burning desire to be successful.

4. The Flaw of the "Inadequate Man"

Now, some of them start off with the best of purposes. Some of these losing traders were all fired up from the start. They did put some effort to learn to trade. Many of them do go for free introductory courses to learn "here a little, there a little", picking out some trading tips from chat rooms or forums. But the measly tips they obtain from these sites are insufficient to see them through the practical difficulties of trading the markets. Their knowledge could not see them through their desires, their direction, and they failed to attract the wealth that was possible through their trades. Inadequacies become their most potent flaw.

5. The Dogmatic Man and His Fatal Flaw

Trading signals you obtain are not engraved in stone. Trading is dynamic, as prices move and are affected by circumstances. The inability to accept losses, and profits as they present themselves have led to many a ruin in forex traders. When a trader becomes dogmatic, and inflexible, sticking to his own personal perception of a trading signal, despite all the factors telling him that the trade has gone wrong, he is going to lose more. This is particularly so in forex trading. In stocks, the buy and hold policy is more relevant if the stocks are fundamentally sound, as they can be cyclical and can rebound in prices. But in forex where the leverage is very high, your capital can be wiped off if you do not react to your signals promptly, and stubbornly maintain an unchanging personal opinion of "correctness".

In trading, you can be wrong in the market and still emerge a winner if you take prompt action to correct your position, but the dogmatic man continues in defiance of the true factors affecting his trade, and then loses a big part of his capital. When he loses all his capital, he is unable to trade another day and that is the fatal flaw.

Understanding these flaws, we will continue to discuss effective ways of overcoming them in Part #2 of this Article series, so that you can become a profitable and successful forex trader quickly.

Best Forex Trading Tips

We cannot say that it is very easy to make money in forex trading, but it isn’t really difficult also. It is the smart work that matters than hard work in trading currency market. Following are the essential tips on how to avoid usual pitfalls and start making more money in forex trading.

Trade in pairs not in currency- Like any relationship; you need to know both the sides. Success or failure in forex currency trading relies upon being right about both foreign currencies and how they contact each other, not just one.

Understand the basics - When you start to trading currency online, it is indispensable that you understand the basics of this particular market if you desire to make the most of your investments. The chief forex influencer is worldwide news and other related events. Most newcomers respond aggressively to news like this and close their positions and next miss out on some of the most excellent trading chances by waiting until the market goes down. The latent in the forex market is in the instability, not when it is clam.

Self-government - If in case you are fresher to forex, you would either choose to trade your own money or to have a forex broker trading it for you. It is good but your risk of losing augments tremendously if you either of these two things: you also need to interfere with what your forex broker do on your behalf; seek counsel from too many other sources - many input would only result in multiple losses. Take a location, ride with it and then analyze the result - by yourself, for yourself.

Small margins – Small margin trading is one of the leading benefits in trading forex as it permits you to do trading in the amounts far bigger than the total of your deposits. However, it could as well be risky to beginner traders as it could demand to the voracity factor, which wipes out many forex traders. The best guideline is to boost your leverage in line with your skill and success.

Trade during Off-Peak Hours - Professional FX traders, option traders, and other hedge funds mobs a wide benefit over small retail traders in off-peak hours (usually between 2200 CET and 1000 CET) as they could hedge their place and move them around when there is far tiny trade volume is going through (that simply means that their risk is smaller).

Trade on the news - Most of the actually big trade market moves arise around news time. Trading volume is lofty and the moves are very important; this means there is no superior time to trade than when news is actually released. This is when the big players alter their places and prices alter resulting in a somber currency flow.

Confidence - Confidence comes from winning forex trading. If you lose money early in your trading career it's extremely hard to gain it back; the ploy is not to go off half-cocked; study the forex business before you start to trade. Keep in mind, knowledge is power.