Trading forex for a living from the comfort of your own home can be extremely profitable, but it can also drive you insane at times, so for today's post I thought I'd offer my 6 top tips for keeping yourself sane when trading.
1. Visit trading forums.
Trading from home is a lonely profession, and the frustrating thing is that you have no-one to share trading ideas with, so forums and trading rooms are great for this. Obviously you don't want to spend too much time doing this otherwise you might miss some great opportunities, but they're worth visiting during quiet periods, of which there are many during the day.
2. Check the day's economic calendar.
There's nothing more infuriating than taking the time to find a good position which goes nicely into profit, before suddenly turning into a losing position due to economic data releases or Ben Bernanke opening his big mouth, for example, which you'd completely forgotten about. So always check the scheduled announcements for the day before you do anything else, and make a note of them so you're never caught out. (The best site for this, in my opinion, is http://www.forexfactory.com).
3. Leave the house and speak to people.
Following on from the last point, the loneliness factor is a very real one and for that reason I always say that you should make a point of going out and mixing with people as much as possible when you're not trading. If you're not careful, after long periods of time it's very easy to go out less and less and find yourself becoming more and more introverted, so try not to fall into this trap.
4. Take plenty of exercise.
It's an old saying, “a healthy body is a healthy mind”, but it's completely true. Apart from the fact that you need to be completely switched on when making trading decisions, sitting down staring at a computer screen for hours on end is really not good for your eyes, your back or your health in general. Therefore you should take plenty of exercise during the day and in your spare time to keep yourself healthy.
5. Take regular breaks and reward yourself occasionally.
As well as exercising, it's also a good idea to take regular breaks during the day just to relax and chill out. Trading can really get the pulse racing at times, and can be very stressful, so take a break occasionally. Also if you've made a highly profitable trade and achieved your daily target, if you have one, why not reward yourself with a DVD or a shopping spree, for example.
6. Invest your profits into other areas.
Trading forex is great, but why spend all your time busting a gut trying to make more and more money. If you do become a successful trader, invest some of it into stocks and property and make your money work for you. This way you will take some of the pressure off of yourself and you can become a more relaxed trader knowing you have other sources of income.
Showing posts with label forex trading tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label forex trading tips. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
How To Use A Breakout System To Trade Forex?
Trading forex breakouts is one of the more basic trading strategies, but nevertheless it can deliver excellent profits. Just because a system is easy to follow does not mean it cannot produce consistent profits as breakout trading is a method used by some of the most successful forex traders around.
It's based around the whole premise that if a currency pair is trading in a very tight range for a sustained period of time, then eventually it will break out of that range and more often than not it will continue moving in the direction of the breakout.
This means that to make consistent profits you need to firstly identify instances where a currency pair is trading in a narrow range, and then place buy and sell orders at or slightly outside the current range to catch the breakout when it happens.
Furthermore if you want to look for the optimum set-up then you can use technical indicators to help you. My own method is to use a weekly 30 minute chart displaying 15, 50 and 100 period exponential moving averages.
When the price starts trading in a narrow range and all three of these EMA's have flattened out and also currently lie within this range, then this to me is the perfect breakout set-up. Why?
Well because with all three EMA's flat, something's got to give. It's like a volcano waiting to erupt. Once the breakout occurs, you could get a very big movement because the longer term EMA (100) can trend for a very long time so you could get a big points haul if this EMA follows the price and moves outside of the current trading range.
As regards targets and stop losses, I personally use the current trading range to determine where I place my stops so if I go long at the top of the range, then my stop loss will be at the bottom of the range. My target price is usually the same number of points away as the stop at the very least.
The best thing about this system is that it works pretty well across many different time frames, plus not only does it work well for trading forex markets but it's also an equally good system for trading other financial instruments as well.
For more information, view my profile here and over here.
It's based around the whole premise that if a currency pair is trading in a very tight range for a sustained period of time, then eventually it will break out of that range and more often than not it will continue moving in the direction of the breakout.
This means that to make consistent profits you need to firstly identify instances where a currency pair is trading in a narrow range, and then place buy and sell orders at or slightly outside the current range to catch the breakout when it happens.
Furthermore if you want to look for the optimum set-up then you can use technical indicators to help you. My own method is to use a weekly 30 minute chart displaying 15, 50 and 100 period exponential moving averages.
When the price starts trading in a narrow range and all three of these EMA's have flattened out and also currently lie within this range, then this to me is the perfect breakout set-up. Why?
Well because with all three EMA's flat, something's got to give. It's like a volcano waiting to erupt. Once the breakout occurs, you could get a very big movement because the longer term EMA (100) can trend for a very long time so you could get a big points haul if this EMA follows the price and moves outside of the current trading range.
As regards targets and stop losses, I personally use the current trading range to determine where I place my stops so if I go long at the top of the range, then my stop loss will be at the bottom of the range. My target price is usually the same number of points away as the stop at the very least.
The best thing about this system is that it works pretty well across many different time frames, plus not only does it work well for trading forex markets but it's also an equally good system for trading other financial instruments as well.
For more information, view my profile here and over here.
Trading Forex With The Best Currency Pairs?
When you first become interested in forex trading it can be difficult deciding which currency pairs you should be trading. Is it best to keep your eye on all of them or focus on just a few pairs?
Well there isn't really a right and wrong answer. A major factor is your own particular trading style. For example, if you have a very solid trading system based on technical analysis criteria, then you could watch all the currency pairs and wait for the right set-up to occur in any one of them in order to enter a trade.
Most pairs conform very well to technical analysis so this can be a very profitable method if you have a solid reliable trading system in place.
Another approach I would guess the majority of traders use, is to only focus on the major currency pairs – GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF.
These are the most actively traded currencies so it makes sense to only trade these as they conform extremely well to technical analysis. This is because charts are essentially displaying human behaviour and with so many people across the world all looking at the same charts, you can start to understand where people are likely to enter and exit positions.
The major advantage of this method is that these pairs generally have the tightest spreads which is important because over the longer term these wider spreads can really make a dent in your profits.
Another benefit of only watching these pairs is that by concentrating on a fewer number of pairs you can learn the personality of each one and learn how they move, making it easier to identify trends and take a position.
Finally, one other factor is your location and the time of the day when you are available to trade. For example, if you can trade the forex markets between 7.00 GMT and 17.00 GMT, then the GBP/USD or EUR/USD would be a good volatile pair to trade as this is when the London and European markets are open and at their most busiest.
So to sum up, there are not really any best currencies to trade, all can be very profitable. However you should take the tightness of the spreads into consideration and the behaviour of each currency pair, which is why I generally recommend trading just one or more of the four major currency pairs - GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF.
View my profile page 1 and profile page 2.
Well there isn't really a right and wrong answer. A major factor is your own particular trading style. For example, if you have a very solid trading system based on technical analysis criteria, then you could watch all the currency pairs and wait for the right set-up to occur in any one of them in order to enter a trade.
Most pairs conform very well to technical analysis so this can be a very profitable method if you have a solid reliable trading system in place.
Another approach I would guess the majority of traders use, is to only focus on the major currency pairs – GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF.
These are the most actively traded currencies so it makes sense to only trade these as they conform extremely well to technical analysis. This is because charts are essentially displaying human behaviour and with so many people across the world all looking at the same charts, you can start to understand where people are likely to enter and exit positions.
The major advantage of this method is that these pairs generally have the tightest spreads which is important because over the longer term these wider spreads can really make a dent in your profits.
Another benefit of only watching these pairs is that by concentrating on a fewer number of pairs you can learn the personality of each one and learn how they move, making it easier to identify trends and take a position.
Finally, one other factor is your location and the time of the day when you are available to trade. For example, if you can trade the forex markets between 7.00 GMT and 17.00 GMT, then the GBP/USD or EUR/USD would be a good volatile pair to trade as this is when the London and European markets are open and at their most busiest.
So to sum up, there are not really any best currencies to trade, all can be very profitable. However you should take the tightness of the spreads into consideration and the behaviour of each currency pair, which is why I generally recommend trading just one or more of the four major currency pairs - GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF.
View my profile page 1 and profile page 2.
Can You Be Successful With Forex With One Technical Indicator?
My conclusion was that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make consistent profits, but then I remembered back to when I first started trading forex a few years ago, and realizing that back then I pretty much only used one indicator - the Exponential Moving Average / EMA (15), and did make consistent profits.
Technically speaking I didn't use only one indicator as I also displayed the EMA (25) and EMA (50) on the same chart to help me decide on exit strategies, and nowadays I use a lot more indicators to confirm my positions, but nevertheless I still think this basic approach of using an EMA (15) on a 30-minute chart could still generate regular profits.
The trick is to look for currencies that have been trending strongly in one direction for a few days with a rising or falling EMA (15), and wait until this EMA changes direction and signals a reversal.
Furthermore when this EMA does change direction you ideally want to enter into a position when the price is close to or touching this EMA for maximum value. Place stops about 20 or 25 points below this EMA in the rare instances where you get a false reversal, but in most cases the reversal will happen and you can potentially make 30-200 pips depending on the strength and momentum of the reversal.
Also, you ideally want to trade in the direction of the long-term trend, so let's take a real-life example – the GBP/USD.
The long-term yearly trend has been upwards so we ideally want to find positions where the EMA (15) has been heading downwards for a few days and watch for a change in direction, so we're trading in the direction of the long-term trend.
If you look at a 30 minute chart of this pair for this month (October), you can see three obvious instances of this happening.
The first instance was between 3/10 and 4/10 when the price fell from 2.0440 to 2.0280 before bouncing back and heading upwards again. The EMA (15) started heading upwards as well between 2.0310 and 2.0320 and there were plenty of opportunities to trade close to this EMA to get maximum value (sometimes the price blasts through the EMA without retracing, making it hard to get any value from the trade).
As you can see, this upwards trend continued until the price reached a peak of 2.4030 so you could potentially have made a profit of 100+ pips, but even if you'd held out until the EMA (15) started heading downwards which was confirmed around about the 2.3080 mark on 5/10, you could still have netted about 70 pips profit.
Similar set-ups occurred on 9/10 when there was another 100+ point reversal, and on 12/10 when there was a slightly smaller move, so as you can see there are always good opportunities to trade this one indicator alone and make pretty good profits.
Therefore to answer my original question yes I believe you can make regular profits trading just one indicator, because I myself have done so in the past, but it makes far more sense to use additional indicators as well to confirm your positions, and to find additional positions to take.
For more forex tips and strategies, including full details of my main 4 hour trading strategy, simply sign up to my newsletter by filling in the short form above.
View my profile page one and profile page two.
Technically speaking I didn't use only one indicator as I also displayed the EMA (25) and EMA (50) on the same chart to help me decide on exit strategies, and nowadays I use a lot more indicators to confirm my positions, but nevertheless I still think this basic approach of using an EMA (15) on a 30-minute chart could still generate regular profits.
The trick is to look for currencies that have been trending strongly in one direction for a few days with a rising or falling EMA (15), and wait until this EMA changes direction and signals a reversal.
Furthermore when this EMA does change direction you ideally want to enter into a position when the price is close to or touching this EMA for maximum value. Place stops about 20 or 25 points below this EMA in the rare instances where you get a false reversal, but in most cases the reversal will happen and you can potentially make 30-200 pips depending on the strength and momentum of the reversal.
Also, you ideally want to trade in the direction of the long-term trend, so let's take a real-life example – the GBP/USD.
The long-term yearly trend has been upwards so we ideally want to find positions where the EMA (15) has been heading downwards for a few days and watch for a change in direction, so we're trading in the direction of the long-term trend.
If you look at a 30 minute chart of this pair for this month (October), you can see three obvious instances of this happening.
The first instance was between 3/10 and 4/10 when the price fell from 2.0440 to 2.0280 before bouncing back and heading upwards again. The EMA (15) started heading upwards as well between 2.0310 and 2.0320 and there were plenty of opportunities to trade close to this EMA to get maximum value (sometimes the price blasts through the EMA without retracing, making it hard to get any value from the trade).
As you can see, this upwards trend continued until the price reached a peak of 2.4030 so you could potentially have made a profit of 100+ pips, but even if you'd held out until the EMA (15) started heading downwards which was confirmed around about the 2.3080 mark on 5/10, you could still have netted about 70 pips profit.
Similar set-ups occurred on 9/10 when there was another 100+ point reversal, and on 12/10 when there was a slightly smaller move, so as you can see there are always good opportunities to trade this one indicator alone and make pretty good profits.
Therefore to answer my original question yes I believe you can make regular profits trading just one indicator, because I myself have done so in the past, but it makes far more sense to use additional indicators as well to confirm your positions, and to find additional positions to take.
For more forex tips and strategies, including full details of my main 4 hour trading strategy, simply sign up to my newsletter by filling in the short form above.
View my profile page one and profile page two.
Learn To Make Money Successfully With Good Forex Trading
Forex trading is trading the currency of a nation for the currency of a different country at their current exchange rate. Futures trading, which is based on a currency's coming value is different all together but many people get the two confused. You could also see Forex referred to as FX, foreign exchange, or even 4X when you perform a search on the internet. All Forex trading is conducted through brokers or market makers so it is valuable to do your research previous to funding a margin account which is required for trading.
If you are interested in trading on the Forex, it is valuable that you do your research. Read what others are saying and if they have made or lost money trading on the Forex. Learn the language of trading on the Forex. You need to know the language that is used so that you won't be puzzled by the information that you read. Traders try to capture points or pips. A pip is a point in the currency trading community. Forex trading is also called Spot trading or trading on the Spot market.
Don't invest further than you can afford to risk! Funding your margin account should only be done with funds that, if lost, will not significantly effect your financial well being. Trading on the Forex involves a particular amount of risk as does investing in the stock market. Don't invest your life savings on the Forex, especially if you are a beginner to currency trading. A good rule for beginners is to only invest an amount that you can afford to and therefore build upon that as you make thriving trades. You should not invest money that you must have to live on in either the stock market or Forex.
You finance your trading with your margin account which guarantees other traders that you can pay them if you lose on the Forex. A margin account is a bond account, a place to deposit your money and an account to withdraw money from when necessary. Forex trading is performed in lots and you use your margin account to buy the right to trade lots of currency on the foreign exchange. These lots of currency are equal to differing amounts of USD which depends on their trading value versus the dollar. You purchase the right to trade lots of currency with the funds held in your margin account.
Choose your trading firm sensibly when you decide to invest in currency trading on the Foreign Exchange Market. Current Federal regulations don't allow Forex trading firms to guarantee the performance of any Forex currency trading system. Look for a reputable Forex trader that has the credentials to back up their claims of performance. A qualified Forex trader is educated and disciplined to follow their method of trading using good judgment to lessen the risk of currency trading. Don't let greed get in the way of skilled sense when considering an investment in Forex although there is money to be made trading currency.
If you are interested in trading on the Forex, it is valuable that you do your research. Read what others are saying and if they have made or lost money trading on the Forex. Learn the language of trading on the Forex. You need to know the language that is used so that you won't be puzzled by the information that you read. Traders try to capture points or pips. A pip is a point in the currency trading community. Forex trading is also called Spot trading or trading on the Spot market.
Don't invest further than you can afford to risk! Funding your margin account should only be done with funds that, if lost, will not significantly effect your financial well being. Trading on the Forex involves a particular amount of risk as does investing in the stock market. Don't invest your life savings on the Forex, especially if you are a beginner to currency trading. A good rule for beginners is to only invest an amount that you can afford to and therefore build upon that as you make thriving trades. You should not invest money that you must have to live on in either the stock market or Forex.
You finance your trading with your margin account which guarantees other traders that you can pay them if you lose on the Forex. A margin account is a bond account, a place to deposit your money and an account to withdraw money from when necessary. Forex trading is performed in lots and you use your margin account to buy the right to trade lots of currency on the foreign exchange. These lots of currency are equal to differing amounts of USD which depends on their trading value versus the dollar. You purchase the right to trade lots of currency with the funds held in your margin account.
Choose your trading firm sensibly when you decide to invest in currency trading on the Foreign Exchange Market. Current Federal regulations don't allow Forex trading firms to guarantee the performance of any Forex currency trading system. Look for a reputable Forex trader that has the credentials to back up their claims of performance. A qualified Forex trader is educated and disciplined to follow their method of trading using good judgment to lessen the risk of currency trading. Don't let greed get in the way of skilled sense when considering an investment in Forex although there is money to be made trading currency.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Is Forex An Easy Income Source?
Did you continually think about making money in Forex trading as a Business Opportunity? I did and I was let down in the beginning, however, after doing some home effort, I was utterly convinced with this bright idea. I consider my early losses in Forex nothing but a start up cost that's coupled with any venture you can imagine. Gone forever all my regrets.
One point that I like about the Fx trading business is that you can practice at no cost for as extensive as you want, and one extra thing is that you can accumulate as much information regarding as you can perhaps come to grips with before you leap into this undertaking. Understanding, training and some little start up money is all you need. If you do not hold the latter, or the essential funds to start an account then all you get to do is study to be advantageous in demo account and prove to a wealthy pal of yours to go in dual scheme with you, many are doing this.
You control the account for your wealthy acquaintance who's capital is collecting nil but dust someplace even in the bank account your friend's stash would hardly formulate him 5 per cent a year. if you grow to be a victorious Currency trading trader you can brew your buddy this form of profit every solo business day instead of an whole year after you sack yours. A Forex account director is entitled to more than 30 per cent of all proceeds on original invested funds.
You can be trained Forex trading by visiting unbiased assets that provide loads of information in relation to Currency trading all at no charge, you can get the ready demonstrated system or wait until you develop yours.
One such prepared systems that you can go ahead and grab it to relegate the time needed to grow to be a glorious international currency trader is the Forexbody system. This technique is so unproblematic that anyone without even the slightest idea about Fx trading can gather, first by visiting the helpful unprejudiced information and watching the free videos on the forexbody website.
Picture an account equity increased twice the original size in 7 minutes, yes real videos on Forexbody website illustrate just exactly this sort of drudgery, but on the other hand over, as student you get cautious guidance on the site and directions on trading the stress-free mode to achievement.
To be able to sustain never-ending returns you need to put into practice the low risk method, with this tactic a small account can be on track and full-grown over the time of 4 to 6 months to a acceptable mass where it can produce as much as $3000 in steady earnings, once more without enchanting lofty risks, while leaving room for extra increase for additional and unrestricted expansion in profits.
The Conclusion, If you ever thought about having your own business and working from the comfort of your own house, you got to give this a stab, It will not cost you any money to test all on implicit accounts that you can get free from hundreds of Forex brokers All over the world, but you have option to be your own boss in a short time and the attempt on achieving the American desire, stop commuting and throw that dress rules away.
One point that I like about the Fx trading business is that you can practice at no cost for as extensive as you want, and one extra thing is that you can accumulate as much information regarding as you can perhaps come to grips with before you leap into this undertaking. Understanding, training and some little start up money is all you need. If you do not hold the latter, or the essential funds to start an account then all you get to do is study to be advantageous in demo account and prove to a wealthy pal of yours to go in dual scheme with you, many are doing this.
You control the account for your wealthy acquaintance who's capital is collecting nil but dust someplace even in the bank account your friend's stash would hardly formulate him 5 per cent a year. if you grow to be a victorious Currency trading trader you can brew your buddy this form of profit every solo business day instead of an whole year after you sack yours. A Forex account director is entitled to more than 30 per cent of all proceeds on original invested funds.
You can be trained Forex trading by visiting unbiased assets that provide loads of information in relation to Currency trading all at no charge, you can get the ready demonstrated system or wait until you develop yours.
One such prepared systems that you can go ahead and grab it to relegate the time needed to grow to be a glorious international currency trader is the Forexbody system. This technique is so unproblematic that anyone without even the slightest idea about Fx trading can gather, first by visiting the helpful unprejudiced information and watching the free videos on the forexbody website.
Picture an account equity increased twice the original size in 7 minutes, yes real videos on Forexbody website illustrate just exactly this sort of drudgery, but on the other hand over, as student you get cautious guidance on the site and directions on trading the stress-free mode to achievement.
To be able to sustain never-ending returns you need to put into practice the low risk method, with this tactic a small account can be on track and full-grown over the time of 4 to 6 months to a acceptable mass where it can produce as much as $3000 in steady earnings, once more without enchanting lofty risks, while leaving room for extra increase for additional and unrestricted expansion in profits.
The Conclusion, If you ever thought about having your own business and working from the comfort of your own house, you got to give this a stab, It will not cost you any money to test all on implicit accounts that you can get free from hundreds of Forex brokers All over the world, but you have option to be your own boss in a short time and the attempt on achieving the American desire, stop commuting and throw that dress rules away.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
4 Forex Trading Signals For Successful Trading
Below are some of the forex trading tips that may get you started in trading.
Moving Average Crossovers - This is one of the most common forex trading signals that the traders will use to detect the trend of the market. When the short-term moving average e.g. 6 EMA crosses up the longer-term moving average e.g. 23 EMA, it means that the average price in the short run is higher than that of the average price in the longer run, so we will be looking to buy t he currency pair. Vice versa for the scenario of selling the pair. This is a bullish and bearish situation of a trend.
Stochastic - Another common forex indicator. You should buy on the first sign when the stochastic cross up from the oversold, and then sell on the first sign when the stochastic cross down from the overbought. This forex strategy means that you'll be with the trend and have successfully identified a positive move that still has some way to go. Shorter term stochastic settings means that it is more sensitive and therefore results in more whipsaws.
One major pair is all that counts - EURUSD is one of the four major currency pairs and we should be looking to trade that if you are a beginner. If the pair is trading higher, you should not buy GBPUSD also because it appears not to have moved yet. Focus on one major pair at a time - if GBPUSD looks good to you, then just buy GBPUSD.
Use Fibonacci - Using the Fibonacci sequence involves a series of numbers. It progresses like this 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, and into infinity. There are numeral interrelationships within these numerals. For example, take any number; it is roughly 1.618 times the number before it. We use this kind of forex trading strategies as it is the fundamental strategy of profitable investing.
Moving Average Crossovers - This is one of the most common forex trading signals that the traders will use to detect the trend of the market. When the short-term moving average e.g. 6 EMA crosses up the longer-term moving average e.g. 23 EMA, it means that the average price in the short run is higher than that of the average price in the longer run, so we will be looking to buy t he currency pair. Vice versa for the scenario of selling the pair. This is a bullish and bearish situation of a trend.
Stochastic - Another common forex indicator. You should buy on the first sign when the stochastic cross up from the oversold, and then sell on the first sign when the stochastic cross down from the overbought. This forex strategy means that you'll be with the trend and have successfully identified a positive move that still has some way to go. Shorter term stochastic settings means that it is more sensitive and therefore results in more whipsaws.
One major pair is all that counts - EURUSD is one of the four major currency pairs and we should be looking to trade that if you are a beginner. If the pair is trading higher, you should not buy GBPUSD also because it appears not to have moved yet. Focus on one major pair at a time - if GBPUSD looks good to you, then just buy GBPUSD.
Use Fibonacci - Using the Fibonacci sequence involves a series of numbers. It progresses like this 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, and into infinity. There are numeral interrelationships within these numerals. For example, take any number; it is roughly 1.618 times the number before it. We use this kind of forex trading strategies as it is the fundamental strategy of profitable investing.
Video On Fibonacci Trading
Hi, today I posted a video on Fibonacci. Hope you can learn something from here. If you want the full forex education on Fibonacci, please visit this blog at Forex Trading Tips.
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