This is a guest post by Oracle Trader

Following these tips in demo mode will mean you are learning something handy and passing the time without being almost convinced to leap into a real trade when the conditions are not right. Something like that may have some bizarre effects and it’s better to leave the market alone for a couple of hours. Are they converging? This can mean a breakout is coming. You can place orders outside of the range of the lines, a buy order in case the price breaks much above the lines, and a sell order in case in breaks below. Check 1 other indicator before acting. On the other hand, if the support and resistance lines are approximately parallel? If so , you can expect the market to turn when it reaches them. This can be a first signal for a short day trade.

Consider whether there are any other related currency pairs and if this is so take a look at what is happening with their prices. Do they support your proposed trade? For instance, there’s often an inverse link between EUR/USD and USD/CHF, so that when one is falling the other will rise. EUR/GBP and GBP/CHF have an inverse relation too.

It is vital to exit as fast as your profit target or stop loss fires. So do not become distracted, but watch the market conscientiously. Foreign exchange currency trade strategies in a troubled market are always going to involve short term trading.

July 27th, 2010

What Are Pips?

No Comments, Forex, by Escon deOjo.

Original post by Surefire Trading Challenge

Some brokers are now beginning to quote the other major currencies to 5 decimal places. Rationally this should mean that one pip would be 0.00001 currency units, but the potential there for confusion is huge, if a pip would be worth 10 times as much with some brokers than with others.

Most traders record their profit and loss in foreign exchange trading pips as well as in cash. This enables easy comparison of one trade with another so that you can evaluate a system.

July 26th, 2010

Drawdown and Handling Losses

No Comments, Forex, by Escon deOjo.

Guest article by Xtreme Pip Poacher

If you’re losing with forex, you probably need a foreign exchange trading course that may turn those losses into profits. Of course this is the aim of any currency trading course, but only in the sense of the bottom line. No-one can have profitable trades one hundred pc of the time. Even the most perfect trader who never makes a single dumb mistake will have times where the market just doesn’t follow his plan. So a specific amount of losses must be accepted. It isn’t a matter of getting rid of the losses, but of reducing them so that they come out to less than the profits.

To do that, it’s very important to learn how to lose successfully : in other words, to deal with the inevitable losses in the only way. The best way is just to record the loss on the spreadsheet where you record all your trades, together with the trigger, the stop loss that you set, and what occurred. Then push on. But aside from that there’s no point in getting wired about a loss. It has occurred and that’s it.

Quicker said than done, I know. But you can scale back your anxiety about losses by knowing your system very thoroughly. All systems go thru bad instances when they just seem to lose and lose, even when you are doing everything by the book. From those back test results you should be able to ready a calculation of the drawdown of your system. This is the most that you would expect to lose in a bad run.

So go looking for the worst run of losses in the back testing results. Before the bad run, shall we say that the highest point the account balance would have reached was 1000 points. At the worst point in the bad run it was down to 650. Then it slowly began to recover, and made it back up to one thousand. The drawdown here is the difference between 1000 and 650, i.e.

Always keep in mind that some unexpected event like a natural disaster, war or sudden death of a political leader could throw the entire market into misunderstanding. If you are risking too much on each trade then at some time or another your funds will be wiped out. All systems have their highs and lows and if your risk is too high, your account balance won’t be able to recover from the downs.

On the other hand, if your leverage is too low, you will not make much money even from a profitable system. And if your stop loss is too near to your entry point, it’s going to be caused too shortly. So risk must be optimized for your system. It is dependent on drawdown and average profit or loss per trade, but a good rough rule is to chance between 1 percent and 5% of your funds on each trade. Generally, the more cash a trader has in their account, the more careful they’re with it. Some traders consider that having a set risk per trade is too rigid and the risk should rely on the strength of a signal. What you want to avoid is varying the danger depending on intuition, or depending on the result that you had from the last trade.

July 23rd, 2010

Best Currency Trading Systems for Profit

No Comments, Forex, by Escon deOjo.

By Supreme Complexity

If we take a scalping system that makes a median of 20 pips on a rewarding trade and loses a standard 30 pips on a losing trade, with 80% of its trades being moneymaking and only twenty percent losses, this is the edge for this system:

Edge = (80% x 20 pips) – (20% x 30 pips) = 10 pips

That’d be a profitable system and a really good one to use if you were interested in changing into a scalper. Nevertheless you may find a totally different type of system that had results that were just as good. For instance, you may come across a system that worked the opposite way, with a lot of little losses, say 60 percent losses of 10 pips each time, and then some larger gains, making say 40 pips average profit on successful trades. For this system,

Edge = (40% x 40) – (60% x 10) = 10 pips

So these 2 totally different systems have precisely the same results, and the choice on which was the best foreign exchange trading system for you would be wholly dependent on your trading style. A good way to check this out is usually to operate both systems in a demo account, say for one month each. At the end of the month you could analyze the theoretical results from a back test over the month to see how your own results varied from the back tests. This could be a helpful comparison when picking the best foreign exchange trading system from a bunch of systems that are lucrative in theory.

July 22nd, 2010

Euro Currency Trading Fundamentals

No Comments, Forex, by Escon deOjo.

Originally written by FAM Drone

Euro currency trading against the dollar is the way that most foreign exchange traders start out, and yet in many cases they know virtually nothing about the EUR. The euro is a special (some might even say unusual) currency because it is not the historical currency of any nation. Instead, it was dreamed up by european bureaucrats after the formation of the European Economic Community (now the European Union). It’s the 2nd most heavily traded currency (after the USD), so it is a critical force in the forex market. Over time it has expanded to include nations in Eastern Europe and just as significantly, it has enlarged its temporary. Most important for Euro trading is the formation of the EU Monetary Union (EMU) and the introduction of the EUR, which happened in the years from 1999 to 2001.

July 13th, 2010

Best Forex Trading Systems for Money

1 Comment, Forex, by Escon deOjo.

If we take a scalping system that makes an average of twenty pips on a profitable trade and loses a standard 30 pips on a losing trade, with eighty percent of its trades being profitable and only twenty percent losses, this is the edge for this system:

Edge = (80% x 20 pips) – (20% x 30 pips) = 10 pips

That would be a profitable system and a really good one to use if you were interested in becoming a scalper. For instance, you could come across a system that worked the other way, with plenty of little losses, say 60% losses of ten pips every time, and then some bigger gains, making say 40 pips average profit on successful trades. For this system,

Edge = (40% x 40) – (60% x 10) = 10 pips

So these two totally different systems have the same results, and the decision on which was the best forex trading system for you’d be entirely dependent on your trading style. A good way to check this out would be to operate both systems in a demo account, say for one month each. At the end of the month you might investigate the theoretical results from a back test over the month to discover how your own results sundry from the back tests. This would give you an idea of how successful you’d be operating that system in reality. Comparing with back test results for a similar period would stop you from throwing out a system just because it happened to have a bad month. This could be a handy comparison when selecting the best forex trading system from numerous systems that are rewarding in theory..

Original post by Forex Bliss Formula

In this currency trading tutorial we will look at how to manage your money in order to have the highest chance of making profits, rather than losses. We all know that currency exchange or fx trading is risky, but there are numerous things that we will be able to do to cut back the hazards. Most new traders spend too much time trying to find the perfect system and not enough on other aspects of their trading. Having a system that ‘works’ isn’t a guarantee of a smooth ride to millionaire status, just as having an auto that works isn’t a warranty of a smooth ride to the next city. You also need to know how to drive it and which road to take. 2 different folk won’t drive that vehicle in the very same way and they may not have identical results. Then we have 2 noobs. Let’s forget about the driver’s licence for an instant. One beginner takes a course in driving before he ever gets within the auto. But the other newbie jumps straight in the automobile with no schooling, heads for the 1st road that he sees and ends up either in the wrong town or more likely, in the ditch. And remember, that was the same car. In the same way we are able to take the same foreign exchange system, give it to three different traders, and see 3 completely different results..

July 10th, 2010

Don’t Make These Large Mistakes

1 Comment, Forex, by Escon deOjo.

Article courtesy of Forex Ultimate System

The foreign exchange capital market is global and thus it’s the largest fiscal market in the world. Just like with other types of trading, folks go into it thinking they can become rich quick and that isn’t the case in the slightest. The reality is that traders either become rich slow or they lose their money. Dreaming

dreaming of wealth is the shortest way to destroy when you’re trading currency. If you are consistently hoping that the next trade will be a 500 pip triumph, you will easily be tempted to hold on until you suddenly find the market turning against you.

2. Regrets

Any time you catch yourself considering what might have been, stop that thought in its tracks. This goes right along with dreaming in that if you do not watch out, regret will grab your hand and lead you into ruin. And if you think that you cannot let go of thoughts, you might want to try a little meditation.

July 7th, 2010

Do Not Make These Large Mistakes

1 Comment, Forex, by Escon deOjo.

Source: Forex Sabotage

The foreign exchange capital market is worldwide and so it is the biggest financial market in the world. There’s a lot of cash to be manufactured by trading your investment funds on the foreign exchange or currency market but at the same time it is a highly risky way to cope with your funds. Just like with other types of trading, folk go into it thinking they’ll get rich quick and that isn’t the case in the slightest.

So how does one make sure that you are in the share of winners? You can give yourself an fantastic great start by making sure that you avoid all of these five big mistakes.

1. If you are continually wishing that the following trade will be a 500 pip triumph, you may easily be tempted to hold on until you suddenly find the market turning against you.

2. Regrets

Any time you catch yourself thinking about what should have been, stop that thought in its tracks. If a trade turns sour, just record it and let it go. And if you believe that you cannot let go of thoughts, you might want to try a little meditation.