All posts by Michael Craist

Forex Trading Basics: How Do The Currency Exchange Market Work?

The foreign exchange market, Forex for short, is a fast-paced financial market that is open for 24 hours a day, five days a week except weekends. Compared with other markets, Forex trading transactions are largely done over the counter where brokers and dealers negotiate directly with one another.

In the past, only big banking institutions and companies can participate in the foreign exchange market. Nowadays however, anyone who has a computer and a stable Internet connection can speculate in the market. With wide global dispersion coupled with a non-stop operation except on weekends, the liquidity inherent to Forex trading is unsurpassed even by the stock market. And experts estimate that the spot foreign exchange market alone sees approximately 1.5 trillion dollars worth of trade.

There are three ways in which Forex trading is carried out: spot, forwards, and futures market. Nowadays, when people say Forex market, they are more often than not referring to spot market. Spot market at its most fundamental is buying and selling currencies according to existing prices. The exchange rates between two currencies are influenced by a host of factors, the economic performance and political situation of their country of origin being some of them.

Forwards and futures markets on the other hand do not trade actual currencies, but contracts. The difference between the two is that forward contracts are non-standard meaning the two parties determine the terms of the agreement between themselves. Futures contracts on the other hand, are standardized in terms of the size of the contract and maturity.

Currency traders work with 2 schools of thought to analyze the Forex market. First of which is Fundamental analysis which takes into account economic data and political events that come from the currency’s country of origin. In contrast, the main premise of technical analysis is that one can determine future price actions by reviewing past price actions and trading volumes. Those who adhere to the technical analysis school of thought rely heavily on price charts, and as such are often called chartists. One would probably ask which security analysis principle is better. Each principle has its own merits. Having said that, to be successful in Forex trading, it you need to be knowledgeable about the two principles. People who employ fundamental analysis concomitantly with technical analysis are able to review broad market themes and identify when to enter and exit a trade to take advantage of favorable price shifts and mitigate losses.

Forex trading is a financial market with global dispersion and unmatched liquidity. The great thing is you can participate in this market, provided you understand its inner workings. Follow this link to find Forex tutorials.

Strategies To Mitigate Risks Inherent To Forex Trading

There is no question that Forex trading is lucrative. However, one should always remember that it is never devoid of risk. Fortunately, you can employ a number of ways to offset or evade negative outcomes and ensure returns. One risk management strategy is to understand both fundamental and technical analysis. Fundamental analysis in Forex involves looking at a country’s overall state of economy, interest rates, production, and employment rating.

Technical analysis on the other hand gives forecast of price directions by taking into account past market data, specifically price and volume. By familiarizing yourself with these two security analysis disciplines, you will be able to measure risk, and therefore manage it.

Another strategy is the 2% rule, which means you should not trade more than 2% of your total trading capital. Putting a stop loss order at this amount means that you would have to make 50 failed trades before your total trading capital is wiped out. Looking at the price chart will help you identify the specific entry and exit trading points.

Most, if not all trading platforms nowadays allow you to make stop loss orders on the interface itself. This rule applies even if you feel very certain that the outcome is favorable. Stories of traders wiping out five years’ worth of earnings in a single trade are not at all uncommon. Keep in mind that a high degree of volatility is inherent to this financial market and price shifts can be in your favor now and against you in a few hours.

The 2% risk per trade principle while a proven method, is frequently disregarded because a number of investors become either overly enthusiastic with the thought of making a lot of money or too sentimental with failed trades. This brings us to one more pointer: trade logically, not impulsively. You should never go about Forex trading as if you are gambling. Chasing your losses by betting twice as much is often not the best strategy. These highlights further the necessity of adhering to the 2% rule.

The spot Forex market is highly leveraged. Using leverage means you can put use a $1,000 deposit and borrowing the rest from the broker to purchase a contract worth $100,000. Just remember that applying leverage on your trades can cut both ways, it can magnify earnings just as well as it does losses. So it is wise to only use leverage when the advantage is clearly on your side.

Although trading in the Forex market is profitable, it is not without risk. Follow this link to get some pointers on how to reduce negative outcomes in Forex trading.

Simplified Forex Trading Techniques For The Newbie Trader

Forex is a relatively new market in international trading. Prior to 1998, forex trading was not open to the public. Nowadays, more and more people are joining the forex market to venture out in money making. The business of trading money has little room for error therefore risk management techniques are essential. It’s like gambling, you can win big and lose big time as well. Risk management techniques should be utilized prior to and after positions are opened.

Protective stop loss is an important risk control technique to prevent your capital from extra losses. Stop loss works like a limiter, telling you up to how big a loss you can take and when you need to pull the plug. Stop losses draws a defining line that allows you to risk a tolerable account portion per open position. This simply means how much you can play to lose until you start earning money.

There are certain thresholds to losing and this is something every trader has to understand. Like in gambling, you should know when to stop. This margin of tolerance serves as a buffer for you to wait till the market becomes favorable and the losses turn into gains.

There are several risk management techniques in Forex trading. Like a serious trader, you should have a logical betting strategy. You can use the Martingale and anti-Martingale technique. Martingale is doubling your bet every time you lose, so as to cover your previous bets once you win. Anti-martingale is the complete opposite and less risky, wherein you bet half of your previous bet everytime you lose.In risk management, you should know the odds. There are technical analysis methods for you to check the odds. Learn how to stack the odds in your favor.

You should be aware of how much your trading capital is. Be honest enough to admit what your bad gambling habits are. You have to be patient enough and avoid making rash and impulsive decisions.Finally, determine market liquidity for your trade. In the Forex markets, liquidity is almost exclusive to major currencies.

Grab the opportunity to earn a big deal in Forex trading. Learn the secrets of the trade. Click this link to instantly learn the secrets of Forex trading.

Learn How Forex Market Moves

A forex, or foreign exchange market, is always volatile. But then, currency trading is a very good way to earn money. Owing to the large operation time involved, forex trading generates about $2 trillion in a day. Forex traders deal directly with each other, even with the large financial institutions involved.

Forex traders base their trading styles on either fundamental or technical analysis. These analyses are the same except in how the information gained from them is employed. All forex traders have the option to merge these concepts, but most of them use just one.

Forex traders who can be classified as fundamental traders employ information like data on global and national economies, political situations and even weather conditions. They also make use of knowledge in issues present in companies. These forex traders believe future market prices can be concluded based on the market’s response to these events.

When financial turmoil, political instabilities and natural disasters occur, fundamental forex traders will find think that market prices will go down. Conversely, positive occurrences will mean stock price hikes for forex traders. Fundamentals mostly do not come as individual traders in forex markets.

Almost everyone of them are groups, or institutional organizations. Fundamental forex traders often come with large support teams and since the advent of automatic processing of information, traditional manual analysis is slowly abandoned.

On the other hand, technical forex traders are classified as such because they use the market and trading information they have gathered together with mathematical indicators. Technical information, like past prices and trading amounts, are used in graphs and are always updated in instantaneously. Technical forex people think the only data needed are the price movements because they hold the entire market information. Many technical forex traders are individuals, owing to the fact that technical analysis can be easily automated since it is mathematical.

Technical forex people base their trading moves solely on computed trading signals. Emotions play no role in their judgment. However, the risks are there still because no math model at hand is perfect.

This article is intended to give the reader an idea on forex trading and the fundamental and technical analyses involved. For a more detailed information, you can go here: forex

Steps In Using A Charting Software

A forex charting software is a computer-based tool used to help forex traders with forex trading analysis by charting the price of various currency pairs along with various indicators.These software packages are used by many traders to help them know the direction of a currency pair.

By knowing the indicators and directions of a currency pair, forex traders can make far better decisions.Charts are useful in interpreting the forex market because it has lines and numerical data.Graphs and charts are good ways to represent analytical facts.Visual charts tell the trader when the market is trending to draw him to enter into a trade.Charts also provide the trader stop levels to give him the direction of the trend and when it is going to end.

A good trader can determine they key points and integrate them to make trend lines.These trend lines are often called support and resistance lines which are important levels for forex traders.Charting softwares are also important because it gets rid of baseless calculations in almost all forex trading transactions.

You can try questioning a trader and you will know that they are using more software other than forex charting software.Some softwares can’t absolutely display the analytical data which the trader really needs.And having several softwares will help him accurately determine trading indicators.Sometimes, a trader needs a confirmation and using 2 or more charts will give him the signs as to the start and end of the trend.If all charts manifest that trading can begin then the trader can have a more certain decision.

nonetheless, a smart trader does not depend heavily on charts.He can also look for a borker to aid him in the trade.Brokers do not only do the trading for you but also equip you with the necessary data that you need.Because he is expected to be learned with the indicators and trends, he is also expected to teach you when to start or stop trading. If he is concerned enough about your investment, he will also restrain you from trading more than 50 percent of your account whenever you cannot resist the urge to gamble.

New in forex trading?Make use of charting tools to provide you with data so you can come up with smart decisions.Click here for more information on forex.