The Uses in Forex Trading of Moving Averages and MACD


Adrian Pablo

Moving Averages: If you consider the "trend-is-your-friend" statement of technical analysis as a true sentence, the moving averages will be very helpful. Moving averages tell the average price in a given point of time over a defined period of time. They are called moving because they reflect the latest average, while adhering to the same time measure.

A weakness of moving averages is that they lag the market, so they do not necessarily signal a change in trends. To address this issue, using a shorter period, such as 5 or 10 day moving average, would be more reflective of the recent price action than the 40 or 150-day moving averages.

Alternatively, moving averages may be used by combining two averages of distinct time- frames. Whether using 5 and 20-day MA, or 40 and 150-day MA, buy signals are usually detected when the shorter-term average crosses above the longer-term average, i.e. price will likely go up. Conversely, sell signals are suggested when the shorter average falls below the longer one, i.e. price will likely go down.

There are three kind of mathematically distinct moving averages: Simple MA; Linearly Weighted MA; and Exponentially Smoothed. The latter choice is the preferred one because it assigns greater weight for the most recent data, and considers data in the entire life of the instrument making of it a more accurate indicator.

MACD: Moving Average Convergence Divergence: MACD is a more detailed method of using moving averages to find trading signals from price charts. Developed by Gerald Appel, the MACD plots the difference between a 26-day exponential moving average and a 12-day exponential moving average. A 9- day moving average is generally used as a trigger line, meaning when the MACD crosses below this trigger it is a bearish signal and when it crosses above it, it's a bullish signal, with the corresponding implications for the currency's price in each particular situation.

As with other studies, traders will look to MACD studies to provide early signals or divergences between market prices and a technical indicator. If the MACD turns positive and makes higher lows while prices are still tanking, this could be a strong buy signal. Conversely, if the MACD makes lower highs while prices are making new highs, this could be a strong bearish divergence and a sell signal.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex traderand freelance writer.

>> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Forex Trading And The Characteristics Of Bar And Candlestick Charts.


Adrian Pablo

There is a very important factor that you should consider with great care if you are willing to become a successful and profitable Forex trader. This always important tool; in other words knowledge, that should be always present in your trader's portfolio, is the ability to read the charts.

There are two charts that are the most common types of price charts used in Forex trading, these are the Bar Chart and the Candlestick chart.

Here are the main characteristics of each of them:

Bars Charts - Price bars are a linear representation of a period of time, and this period will depend on the intervals of time you are interested on viewing and analyzing in the chart. This enables the viewer to see a graphic representation summarizing the activity of a specific time frame. For example they can be one minute or five-minute time intervals depending on the system you are using. Each bar has similar characteristics no matter the time interval and tells the viewer several important pieces of information about how a particular currency pair is behaving. First, the highest point of the bar represents the highest price that was achieved during that time period. The lowest point of the bar represents the lowest price during the same period. Regular bars display a small dot on the left side of the bar which represents the opening price of the period and the small dot on the right side represents the closing price of the period.

Candlesticks - Japanese Candlesticks, or simply Candlesticks as they are most widely known now, are used to represent the same information as Price bars. But they differ in how the gap between the open and close form are represented. These two prices form a body of a box which is displayed with a color inside. A red color means that the close was lower than the open, and the blue color represents that the close was higher than the open. If the box has a line going up from the box it represents the high and is called the wick. If the box has a line going down from the box, it represents the low and is called the tail of the candle. Many interpretations can be made from these "candlesticks" and many books have been written on the art of interpreting these bars. Many experienced traders highly recommend this kind of chart over the bar charts for the great amount of information they give with a single view.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading, visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Three Important Forex Concepts For New Traders.


Adrian Pablo

As you enter the world of Forex you will find yourself learning and using many new concepts that you may not have used or heard before.

Three of this important concepts that you must understand are what "Pips" are, What "Volume" is and what you do when "Buying" and "Selling Short". They may look more like four concepts but Buying and Selling are like the two faces on the same coin so we can consider them as a single concept.

Lets first introduce what Pips are. Maybe you have heard or read already how many pips a day you can make using some trading system. In short, currency pairs prices will go out to 4 significant digits. For example; if one currency pair is trading for 1.3451 then an increase to 1.3452 would be a "one-pip" increase in the price of this particular currency. This is an increase of one hundredth of a percent of the value of the currency pair you are trading. And depending the type of account you have, regular or mini, each pip will have a value of $10 or $1. So if you make 10 pips a day with a regular account you would have made $100 and with a mini-account $10.

Now we can talk about the Volume; trading Volume is a quantity that tells traders how much money is being traded at one particular moment. And the forex market is known by its high volume of trading during most of the time markets are open. Some times there can be spikes in the volume during some type of news breaks and during the time New York stock exchange is open. The volume of transactions in Forex, even in a slow day, will always be much higher than the volume traded in other large exchanges at their full capacity.

Now maybe the most obvious of the concepts. Buying refers to the acquisition of a particular currency pair to open a trade. Selling short refers to the selling of a particular currency to open a trade. When you Buy, you are expecting the price of the currency pair to increase with time, i.e., you buy cheap to sell high. In the case of Selling short, it looks a bit more complicated. Here the way to make money is to initially sell a currency pair that you think will lose value in a given period of time and then, once it happened, you will buy it back at the new price but now you can sell it at the previous greater price the currency had when you opened the trade, so you earn the difference in prices. I know it seems kind of tricky, but once you are in front of your trading station it will look much simpler.

Understand well these three concepts and you will start with solid steps you trading career.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Forex And The Anatomy Of An Elliot Wave


Adrian Pablo

As you enter the world of Forex you will immediately feel the basic need all Forex traders have: A method or technique to forecast the market behavior with the highest possible accuracy.

There are a number of methods and techniques that traders have researched through the years with this goal in mind. These techniques are based on different indicators and approaches to trading, and each one has had its own successes and positive outcomes when applied to specific market conditions, but there is no doubt that among the most successful of these techniques you will find Elliot Waves as one of the best concepts and methods you can learn.

Ralph Nelson Elliot observed that the markets have strong trends that seem to follow a repetitive pattern in all the different time frames you can trade and after analyzing a great number of charts he discovered in the late 1920's that the markets move in a repetitive manner far away from a totally chaotic behavior.

He divided market movements into trends, corrections and sideways movements. With these distinctions being made he then assigned a wave terminology to these periodic movements; he called the trend movement an Impulsive Wave and a correction a Corrective Wave.

In order to have the formation of an impulsive wave we need five constituent waves "inside" this wave. This will be three waves in the direction of the trend and two corrections against the trend.

But considering the fractal nature of the waves found by Elliot, then each of the smaller impulsive waves will have itself other five waves "inside".

In the case of the corrective waves they will be formed by other three smaller waves. Two in the direction of the correction and one in the direction of the trend.

Considering the repetitive nature of Elliot Waves you can make a pretty accurate forecast of what the markets will do next, with the huge advantage this represents in your daily encounters with the currency markets.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

How Many Forex Order Types There Are and How to Use Them In Your Favor.


Adrian Pablo

Once you have decided to enter the Forex trading world, one of the first things you will have to do is downloading the trading station provided by your chosen forex broker for free. When you open your trading station software, you will find there are two main ways to enter a market or, said in another way, there are two ways to place an initial order to buy or sell any currency pair.

"Market order"; this is an order to buy or sell a currency pair at the market price the instant that the order is received and processed (within seconds of hitting the "OK" button on your screen). When a market order is placed, you are simply saying "I'll buy or sell the currency pair at whatever price it is at when my order gets processed."

"Entry order"; this is an order to buy or sell a currency pair when it reaches a certain price target. This can be any price in theory. You could set an entry order for the low price of a time period, or the high price of a time period. As an example, one usual recommendation is that you must always set an entry order to be the same price as the 'open price" of the time period. When you place an "entry order" to buy, for example, you are simply saying "I want to buy this currency pair at a certain price, if it never reaches that price, I don't want to purchase the pair."

After your "entry order" is placed, you can set a stop and/or limit order if you desire, and for your own security. Stop and Limit orders are two different ways to exit a trade, automatically (i.e., without closing out your position via the click of your mouse - manually), after the trade is entered.

A "stop order" (something I will always recommend you) is used to stop losses. A "limit order" (recommended if you can't monitor your open trade) is used to redeem profits. Where these orders are placed, in relation to your open trade, depends on the direction of the entry order.

Remember; a "stop order" is always placed below the current market value of that currency pair when you are in a long (buy) trade. And a "limit order" is always placed above the current market value of that currency pair when you are in a long (buy) trade.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer

>> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Example of a Profitable Transaction in FOREX.


Adrian Pablo

As it was mentioned earlier, there are TWO timeless rules of Investing in FOREX:

RULE #1) ~ Cut your losers; let your winners ride.

YOU WILL HAVE LOSING TRADES.

We do. Every FOREX trader does. The key to being a
consistent, predictable, reliable trader is to, at the end
of the day, add up more wins than losses. And, when you KNOW
(based off your trading rules), without a doubt, that YES,
indeed you are, in a losing trade, don't keep losing money
(lowering your stop loss) just to *prove you are right* or
your rules are wrong (however you want to look at it).

Let's face it - you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk
purse. You can't change the spots of a leopard and you can't
turn chicken poop into chicken salad. The best trades are
usually "right" immediately (the techniques, rules, methods
and strategies we teach at RapidForex.com will be your best
indicator for just what a "right" trade really is).

Remember, people have been trading the markets for a hundred
and sixty years. The smart traders know there's going to be
another trade. Cut your loses short and compound those
winning positions.

RULE #2) ~ Thou Shall Not Trade the FOREX Without the
Placing of a Stop Loss Order.

When you place a STOP order, right along with your ENTRY
order, via your online trade station, you've just
automatically prevented a potential loss from "running" too
far.

Before initiating any trade, if you haven't already figured
out at what point you would be wrong and would want to cut
your loses or, at the very least, reevaluate your position
from the sidelines, then you shouldn't be putting on the
trade in the first place.

Show us a FOREX trader who doesn't use stop loss orders and
we'll show you someone who loses a lot of money.

To make a profit, in the FOREX, a trader (possibly YOU
soon?) can enter the market as a *buy position* (known as
going "long") or a *sell position* (known as going "short").

For discussion, let's assume you've been studying the EURO.

Your trading methods, rules, strategies, etc., tell you that
prices will rise during a particular timeframe. So you buy
the EUR/USD pair (or, technically, you will simultaneously
buy euros, the base currency, and sell dollars).

You open up your handy trading station software (provided to
you for free by the online broker), which resides on your
desktop, and you see that the EUR/USD pair is trading at:

<< EUR/USD: 1.3242/45 >>

REMEMBER: the quote to the left of the / (1.3242) refers to
the bid or "sell" price (what you obtain in USD when you
sell EUR). The quote to the right of the / (1.3245) is used
to obtain the ask or "buy" price (what you have to pay in
USD if you buy EUR).

So, since you believe that the market price for the EUR/USD
pair will go higher, you will enter a *buy position* in the
market. For simplicities sake, let's say you bought one lot
at 1.3245. As long as you sell back the pair at a higher
price, then you make money.

But, no worries. This seemingly elaborate process is
handled, and even calculated for you, via the broker's
software mentioned above. The chart software and the quote
board are in agreement with all sides of the currencies.

To illustrate a typical FX SELL trade, consider this
scenario involving the USD/JPY currency pair:

REMEMBER ~ Selling ("going short") the currency pair implies
selling the first, base currency, and buying the second,
quote currency. You sell the currency pair if you believe
the base currency (USD) will go down relative to the quote
currency (JPY), or equivalently, that the quote currency
(JPY) will go up relative to the base currency (USD).

NOTE: while the Profit Calculations, on the Short-sell trade
scenario below, may seem somewhat complicated if you've
never been in the FOREX market before, trust us when we say,
"this process is nearly seamless through your broker trade
station (software). We're just showing you this thought-
process below so you can SEE how a PROFIT occurs even when
SELLING a currency pair.

The current bid/ask price for USD/JPY is 105.26/105.30,
meaning you can buy $1 US for 105.30 Japanese YEN or sell $1
US for 105.26 YEN.

Suppose you decide that the US Dollar (USD) is overvalued
against the YEN (JPY). To execute this strategy, you would
sell Dollars (simultaneously buying YEN), and then wait for
the exchange rate to rise.

So you make the trade: selling US $100,000 and purchasing
10,526,000 YEN. (Remember, at 1% margin, your initial margin deposit would be $1,000.)

As you expected, USD/JPY falls to 104.26/104.30, meaning you
can now buy $1 US for $104.30 Japanese YEN or sell $1 US for
104.26

Since you're short dollars (and are long YEN), you must now
buy dollars and sell back the YEN to realize any profit.

You buy US $100,000 at the current USD/JPY rate of 104.30,
and receive 10,430,000 YEN. Since you originally bought
(paid for) 10,526,000 YEN, your profit is 96,000 YEN.

To calculate your P&L in terms of US dollars, simply divide
96,000 by the current USD/JPY rate of 104.30.

Total profit = US $920.42


About the Author

Adrian Pablo, FOREX Trader and Freelance Writer.

 http://www.1-forex.com





#BREAK#

The meaning of FOREX Price Charts and How to Use Them


Adrian Pablo

There is one very important factor that you should consider with great care if you are willing to become a successful, profitable Forex trader. This ever important factor that must be always present in the trader’s portfolio, is the ability to read the charts.
The beauty of FOREX charts, as opposed to charts used for, say, daytrading stocks, is that they are pretty easy to interpret and use. They're a reflection of a slower-moving, stable economy (the one of a country) compared to the future and daily drama of company reports, Wall street analysts and shareholder demands.
And, unlike stocks, currency charts rarely spend much time in tight trading ranges and have the tendency to develop strong trends (even though the FX market
may be volatile, it's more predictable). And, rather than tens of thousands of stocks to analyze, you only have a few mayor currencies to trade.
The most common types of price bars, used in FOREX trading, are the Bar Chart and the Candlestick chart:
Bars Charts - Price bars are a linear representation (a line)of a period of time. This enables the viewer to see a graphic representation summarizing the activity of a specific time frame. For example they can be one minute or five-minute time
intervals depending on the system you are using. Each bar has similar characteristics and tells the viewer several important pieces of information. First, the highest point of the bar represents the highest price that was achieved during that time period. The lowest point of the bar represents the lowest price during the same period. Regular bars display a small dot on the left side of the bar which represents the opening price of the period and the small dot on the right side represents the closing price of the period.
Candlesticks - Japanese Candlesticks, or simply Candlesticks as they are now known, are used to represent the same information as Price bars. The only difference is that the difference between the open and close form the body of a box which is displayed with a color inside. A red color means that the close was lower than the open, and the blue color represents that the close was higher than the open. If the box has a line going up from the box it represents the high and is called the wick. If the box has a line going down from the box, it represents the low and is called the tail. Many interpretations can be made from these "candlesticks" and many books have been written on the art of interpreting these bars ( Visit: http:www.1-forex.com).
So, the main thing to keep in mind between the two types of price charts is this:
Candlestick charts are similar to bar charts in that the top tip of a vertical line represents the high and bottom tip represents the low. However, market activity between the
OPEN and the CLOSE is represented differently by the use of candlestick bodies.
Because of their colored bodies, candles provide greater visual detail in their chart patterns than bar charts. Which is why many experts recommend you become intimately familiar with Candlestick charts.


About the Author

Freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. You can learn more about Forex trading and its great advantages over other kind of business at this useful website: http:www.1-forex.com).

#BREAK#

The Forex Markets and Its Trend Patterns


Adrian Pablo

As you start analyzing forex charts you will realize that the market often display's some very familiar patterns of price movement. Once a pattern is established, it becomes the most probable course of future price action until the market changes.

There are two types of markets which will become very important for you to identify and understand; these are: trending and trend-less markets. Each market type has two specific patterns which you will also notice over time.

These market types and patterns are defined as follows:

Trending - Steady elongated price movements with less than a 45 degree angel with occasional pauses, profit taking, or resting periods.

In a Trending market, you have also other patterns:

- Uptrends - A pattern of higher highs and higher lows.

- Downtrends - A pattern of lower lows and lower highs.

Trend-less - Erratic price movements which are often steep ( greater than 45 -degree angle ) and cannot sustain and therefore must reverse. Although the movements can move many points in a short period of time, they often result in very little net price movement over time.

In a Trend-less market, you have these patterns:

- Choppy - An erratic pattern of higher highs and lower lows.

- Sideways - A narrow pattern of lower highs and higher lows.

While up-trend and down-trend days can offer excellent trading results, choppy markets often create stop outs, while sideways markets produce for little in either direction making them hard to trade and to make any profit during these periods.

Your trading objective is to get into a trending market and ride the trend until you make your target profit objective.

There are many Trend Trading Strategies that you can find in a number of sources listed in my website. You will learn how to identify and draw your own channel trendlines, support and resistance lines, triangle patterns, chart key top and bottom formations, etc.

Remember, knowledge in the Forex markets is power, and more than power; money.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

>> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

What's the Difference of Trading Mini Lots Vs. Full-sized Lots in Forex.


Adrian Pablo

In Forex trading there is something called, a Mini Account, and it uses a different leverage calculation than a regular (100k) account. This is, instead of trading full-size currency lots (100,000 units), you'll trade in lots that are just 1/10 the size (10,000 currency units), which in turn greatly reduces your risk. Pips in a Mini Account are worth, on average, $1 instead of the $8 to $10 value they have in a regular account. The Mini Forex account offers up to 200:1 leverage, this means that just a $50 margin deposit will allow you to trade lots worth roughly $10,000 , but the smaller lot sizes, with correspondingly smaller pip values, means that you'll be assuming less total risk. For example, while a 20-pip loss on a 100,000 USD/JPY position would be $200, the same loss on a 10,000 USD/JPY position in a Mini account would amount to $20.

Here you have an overview of leverage (Margin, Account Size) on each of the two accounts discussed above:

100K (Regular Full-sized Account) - Minimum required account deposit = $2,000 - Recommended required account deposit = $5,000 to $10,000 - Traded in 100,000-unit currency lots - Default Margin: set at 1% ($1,000 per lot) - Leverage = 100:1 or 50:1 (if margin is set at 2%)

Mini Account - Minimum required account deposit = $300 - Recommended required account deposit = $2,000 - Traded in 10,000-unit currency lots - Default Margin: set at 0.5% ($50 per mini-lot) - Leverage = 200:1

There is no downside to trading a mini account , you will be still enjoying all the benefits that full-size FX account holders enjoy; including, same state-of-the art trading software, charts, resources, and tools, etc. This mini accounts are ideal for a new Forex trader to develop a disciplined, rational forex trading strategy without excessively focusing on profits and losses.

Also there is no maximum trade volume when you use a mini account. Although the standard trade size is 10,000 units, you are not limited to trading one lot. For instance, you can trade 10,000 units, 50,000 units or 200,000 units. This means as you become more seasoned and build up confidence you can slowly increase the size of your positions to maximize profits. In fact the trade size of 10,000 units allows for more flexibility in terms of customizing the size of your trade. The ability to customize the size of the trade allows you to have a better risk management. With less capital at risk in a Mini FX account, it is easier for you to develop a disciplined trading methodology, as well as the confidence needed to be a successful currency trader, without the anxiety and distractions that come with large Profit and Lose swings.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

You can download a free Fibonacci trading report at his website:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Short Introduction to Elliot Waves as a Resource in Forex Trading.


Adrian Pablo

The Forex market has the largest volume of trades per day among all the capital markets you can trade. This characteristic together with it's high leverage and around the clock trading schedule makes Forex very attractive for traders around the world.

Once you enter the world of forex trading you will realize that this market has strong trends that seem to follow a repetitive pattern in all the different time frames you can use to analyze the market conditions.

Ralph Nelson Elliot also observed this and after analyzing a great number of charts he discovered in the late 1920's that the markets move in a repetitive manner that is far away from being a totally chaotic behavior. The markets move in cycles and they reflect the mass psychology of the active elements participating in them, with a characteristic ebb and flow that can be divided and analyzed as "waves" of this active elements psychology in their daily dealing with the markets.

But Elliot not only discovered the repetitive nature of the markets cycles but he also realized that this patterns had a fractal nature. This means that the patterns not only repeated with time but that in a given period of time the characteristic wave pattern would repeat at different scales (days, hours, minutes).

The Elliot wave pattern can be divided in five constitutive waves with the first of the waves called the impulsive wave. The fractal nature if this waves was evident to Elliot when he observed that in every impulsive wave, when observed at a smaller time scale he would find the characteristic five waves of the pattern he had found and if he now looked at the impulsive wave of the smaller impulsive waves in an even smaller scale he would find again five ways, etc.

Elliot waves are very important in Forex because he identified the specific patterns that you can observe when trading this market and considering the repetitive nature of this patterns you can make a pretty accurate forecast of what the markets will do next. Giving you a huge advantage in your daily encounters with the currency markets.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Comments on Forex and Trade Intervals.


Adrian Pablo

The Forex markets are open 24-hrs a day during most of the week, allowing forex traders a huge flexibility to enter their trades. And as long as the markets are open the prices will be constantly fluctuating as can be easily seen by looking at the forex charts. And it's thanks to this fluctuations that traders can have profitable trades the whole day.

The charting software interprets the constantly changing prices by dividing this data into various time intervals. For each of these intervals the chart will show you the open and close price, along with the high and low price during the interval. Most software packages will allow you to see this price data by clicking on the spot of the chart where you want to check these values.

One very interesting feature of these forex charts is that they will allow you to choose the time interval under which you will be trading. You may look at charts with time intervals going from ticks, 1 min, 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 30 min and 1 day.

What of these time intervals you use will depend mostly on the amount of time you want to spend monitoring your trade. For example if you want to monitor the trade for only a few hours you should use the 15 min charts. If you would like to enter a trade that will last for an entire day then you should better use the 30 min charts. And if you want to have a trade that stays open during days you should choose the 1 day charts.

Of course the lengths of the trades can vary, and the time interval you see is only a first approximation indicator of how long your trade will stay open.

One more issue with the length of the intervals is how much you will make, in average, per trade. The longer the interval the most profitable the trade will be compared with a short interval. But on the other hand shorter intervals allow for a greater number of trades that will compound and maybe surpass the profitability of the longer intervals.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

The Seven Most Traded Currencies in FOREX.


Adrian Pablo

Currencies are traded in dollar amounts called “lots”. One
lot is equal to $1,000, which controls $100,000 in currency.
This is what is known as the "margin". You can control $100,000
worth of currency for only 1,000 dollars. This is what is called “High Leverage”.

Currencies are always traded in pairs in the FOREX. The
pairs have a unique notation that expresses what currencies
are being traded. The symbol for a currency pair will always
be in the form ABC/DEF. ABC/DEF is not a real currency pair,
it is an example of a symbol for a currency pair. In this
example ABC is the symbol for one countries currency and DEF
is the symbol for another countries currency.

Here are some of the common symbols used in the Forex:

USD - The US Dollar
EUR - The currency of the European Union "EURO"
GBP - The British Pound
JPN - The Japanese Yen
CHF - The Swiss Franc
AUD - The Australian Dollar
CAD - The Canadian Dollar

There are symbols for other currencies as well, but these
are the most commonly traded ones.

A currency can never be traded by itself. So you can not
ever trade a EUR by itself. You always need to compare one
currency with another currency to make a trade possible.

Some of the common PAIRS are:

EUR/USD Euro / US Dollar
"Euro"

USD/JPY US Dollar / Japanese Yen
"Dollar Yen"

GBP/USD British Pound / US Dollar
"Cable"

USD/CAD US Dollar / Canadian Dollar
"Dollar Canada"

AUD/USD Australian Dollar/US Dollar
"Aussie Dollar"

USD/CHF US Dollar / Swiss Franc
"Swissy"

EUR/JPY Euro / Japanese Yen
"Euro Yen"

The listed currency pairs above look like a fraction. The
numerator (top of the fraction or "left" of the / however
you want to SEE it) is called the base currency. The
denominator (bottom of the fraction or "right" of the
/however you want to SEE it) is called the counter currency.
When you place an order to buy the EUR/USD, for instance,
you are actually buying the EUR and selling the USD. If you
were to sell the pair, you would be selling the EUR and
buying the USD. So if you buy or sell a currency PAIR, you
are buying/selling the base currency. You are always doing
the opposite of what you did with to base currency with the
counter currency.

If this seems confusing then you're in luck. You can always
get by with just thinking of the entire pair as one item.
Then you are just buying or selling that one item. Thinking
like this will still enable you to place trades. You only
need to be aware of the base/counter concept for Fundamental
Analysis issues.

So why is it important to know about the base/counter
currency? The base/counter currency concept illustrates
what is actually taking place in a Forex transaction. Some
of you reading this, know that short-selling was restricted
in the stock market *(Short-selling is where you sell a
stock/currency/option/commodity first and then try to buy it
back at a lower price later). But in the FOREX you are
always buying one currency (base) and selling another
(counter). If you sell the pair you are simply flipping
which one you buy and which one you sell. The transaction is
essentially the same. This allows you to short-sell with no
restrictions.

You want to be able to short-sell with no restrictions so
you can make money when the market drops as well as when it
rises. The problem with traditional stock market trading is
that the market has to go up for you to make money. With
FOREX trading you can make money in all directions.

http://www.1-forex.com

About the Author

FOREX Trader and Freelance writer.

http://www.1-forex.com


 




#BREAK#

Forex Trading Indicators And The Ever Changing Market Conditions.


Adrian Pablo

Once you enter the Forex trading world you will immediately notice the need of using technical analysis in order to find trends when looking at the forex charts and also the importance of being aware of when they first develop so you can ride the trend until it ends. The foreign exchange market is a very strong trending market, lots of ups and downs in short periods of time, and it's, therefore, a place where technical analysis can be very effective.

But you should always remember that the indicators are only giving you a high probability behavior the markets may show when you are trading, but will never tell you the behavior of the currency prices with total certainty.

If you want to become a profitable forex trader you will need to use as many technical indicators as you can, or create a personalized trading strategy based on a combination of these indicators, to recognize with the best accuracy possible the trend. In other words, a professional forex trader will try to identify the major trend, the intermediate trend, and the short-term trend and then construct his trades in that direction based on how long their rules allow him to hold a position.

The forex markets are always changing, that's why you should always have an open criterion when using your technical indicators. Markets will be changing and different combinations of indicators may be required with time in order to have the most accurate, highest probability, prediction of future currency price behaviors.

If the action of the market shows your judgment to be correct, then you must consider staying with the market' and look for the maximum profit on each trade, according to your risk-to-reward / equity management rules. If you happen to be in a bad day and the market goes against you, the smart trader will take profits and get out of that trade. In a narrow market, when prices are not going anywhere, but move within a narrow range, there is no sense in trying to anticipate when the next big movement is going to be.

So, you must always be alert and open to use as many and as different indicators in order to stay tuned with the market and become a profitable trader at the end of the day.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Some Reasons Why You Should Trade Forex and Two Important Forex Concepts You Must Know.


Adrian Pablo

These days everyone is talking about Forex trading and the great opportunity this activity represents for people willing to brake free from the corporate world and start working from home or any where else without losing their current lifestyle and even improving it.

Some of the great reasons why Forex trading is a great way of entering the capital markets is that is all commission-free and it has a low transaction cost. All the best forex brokers have these characteristics and even Mini FX traders (i.e., traders starting with accounts having a capital as low as $250), who are just starting in this field, can buy and sell currencies online always commission-free.

When trading the Forex markets you don't have to worry about fees you may have to pay to your broker; there are also none of the usual fees to which futures and equity traders are accustomed to pay always; no exchange or clearing fees, no NFA or SEC fees.

Over-the-counter currency trading involves a bid/ask spread and that's how the brokers make money. The good news is that the currency market is capable of offering you a round-the-clock liquidity and this way you will receive tight, competitive spreads both in intra-day and night trades.

Now, once you enter the world of forex trading you will need to learn about two very important concepts. These are; "Pips" and "Buying and Selling Short". Let's talk about "Pips" first. Currency pairs prices are considered always to go out to 4 significant digits. For example; if one currency pair is trading for 1.3451 then if the price increases to 1.3452, that would be a "one-pip" increase in the price of this particular currency pair. This is an increase of one hundredth of a percent of the value of the currency pair you are trading at the moment. And depending the type of account you are using, regular or mini, each pip will have a value of $10 or $1. So if you make 10 pips a day with a regular account you would have made $100 and with a mini-account $10.

The concept of "Buying" in Forex refers to the acquisition of a particular currency pair to open a trade and "Selling short" refers to the selling of a particular currency to open a trade, i.e, just the opposite. When you Buy, you are expecting the price of the currency pair to increase with time, i.e., you buy cheap to sell high; which is easy to understand. In the case of Selling short, it looks a bit more complicated. Here the way to make money is to initially sell a currency pair that you think will lose value in a given period of time and then, once it happened, you will buy it back at the new price but now you can sell it at the previous greater price the currency had when you opened the trade, so you earn the difference in prices. It may seem kind of tricky when you are starting, but once you are in front of your trading station it will look much simpler.





About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

=> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

What MACD & RSI Mean in Forex Trading?


Adrian Pablo

As a forex trader your main objective must be to become a profitable trader. In order to achieve this goal, it is vital that you learn how to use the widely known technical indicators. These are very useful parameters that will tell you with a high probability what the forex markets are more likely to do in their apparently disordered behavior as observed on the forex charts.

Among these indicators you will find the MACD and RSI; but what's the meaning of these letters?, you may be asking yourself. Well, here is the answer:

Moving Average Convergence Divergence: MACD is a more detailed method of using moving averages to find trading signals from price charts. Developed by Gerald Appel, the MACD plots the difference between a 26-day exponential moving average and a 12-day exponential moving average. A 9-day moving average is generally used as a trigger line, meaning when the MACD crosses below this trigger it is a bearish signal (time to sell) and when it crosses above it, it's a bullish signal (time to buy).

As with other studies, traders will look to MACD studies to provide early signals or divergences between market prices and a technical indicator. If the MACD turns positive and makes higher lows while prices are still tanking, this could be a strong_buy signal. Conversely, if the MACD makes lower highs while prices are making new highs, this could be a strong bearish divergence and a sell signal.

RSI stands for Relative Strength Index. The RSI measures the markets activity as to whether it is over bought or over sold. It gives a trader an indication as to which way the Market is moving. It is important to note, that this is a leading indicator and thus allows one to see what the market is about to do and then act accordingly. The higher the RSI number, the more over bought it is and conversely the lower the RSI number, the more over sold it is. It is a great leading indicator for the micro and macro reversals in the forex market. By using an RSI on the 1 minute chart set at a period of 18 and overlaid on the bottom of your charts tend to give the best entry signals. This can also be applied to the 5-minute chart as well. The two significant entry numbers are 25 and 75.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

>> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Two Great Forex Indicators: Bollinger Bands and Fibonacci Retracements.


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading is a fascinating way of earning a living online, and if you are seriously considering entering this fascinating world of forex trading you must consider, by all means, the learning and understanding of a number of indicators that will give you invaluable help on predicting with a high probability the directions the forex market may take as you carefully analyze the price charts for any currency you are trading at the moment. Two of these important indicators are: "Bollinger Bands" and "Fibonacci Retracements".

The basic interpretation of "Bollinger Bands" is that prices tend to stay within the space formed by the tracings of the upper and lower bands. The distinctive characteristic of "Bollinger Bands" is that the spacing between the bands varies based on the volatility of the prices. During periods of extreme currency price changes (i.e., high volatility), the bands widen to become more forgiving. During periods of low volatility, the bands narrow to contain currency prices. The bands are plotted two standard deviations above and below a simple moving average. They indicate a "sell" when prices are above the moving average (or close to the upper band) and a "buy" when prices are below it (or close to the lower band). The bands are used by some forex traders in conjunction with other analyses, including RSI, MACD, CCI, and Rate of Change.

"Fibonacci retracement levels" are a sequence of numbers discovered by the noted mathematician Leonardo da Pisa during the twelfth century. These numbers describe cycles found throughout nature and when applied to technical analysis can be used to find pullbacks in the currency market.

"Fibonacci retracement levels" are a quite effective way to see the future (at least in the forex markets), i.e., it involves anticipating changes in trends as prices near the lines created by the Fibonacci studies. After a significant price move (either up or down), prices will often retrace a significant portion (if not all) of the original move. As prices retrace, support and resistance levels often occur at or near the "Fibonacci Retracement levels" (See my articles on "Fibonacci trading" for more detail about this).

In the currency markets, the commonly used sequence of ratios is 23.6 %, 38.2%, 50% and 61.8%. Fibonacci retracement levels can easily be displayed by connecting a trend line from a perceived high point to a perceived low point. By taking the difference between the high and low, the user can apply the % ratios to achieve the desired pullbacks.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

>> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Yes, You Can Start Trading Forex For Free!


Adrian Pablo

Yes, it's true, you can trade the forex markets for free and using the same state-of-the-art software packages that professional Forex traders, around the world, are currently using to make real-time, live currency trades.

And you can also experience the same dynamic market action and go through the same process of making decisions based on breaking news, reacting to charting patterns, and tracking ones performance the same way professional Forex traders do.

And all this can be done even if you don't put any real money into your account, you won't see any difference in how the market behaves and how you react to the market. In short, at some point, every new forex trader needs to start Demo-trading.

Once you start placing demo trades, you will learn a lot about how Forex transactions are placed. I can't emphasize you enough, that this is a very important step for you in order to be able to learn how to become a trader. A demo account allows one to become familiar with trading procedures, such as placing Market, Limit, Stop, OCO Orders without any risk. All dollar losses or gains on a demo account are imaginary but, as mentioned above, the trading experience you acquire is not.

You should notice that making big gains in a demo-account does not guarantee profits in live trading; however, those who are not successful trading on paper rarely are successful when money is on the line. So, yes, just playing around and getting familiar with a demo account can be a great learning experience; however, you will not learn how to become a trader this way. You need to have a trading strategy.

Once you sign up for a mini-demo account, you will need to try one of the trial charting packages from the broker you choose. Any demo software you choose will do because they all have the necessary indicator tools you need. Once you have downloaded the software you can then set up your demo account and start drawing trendlines, marking support & resistance levels, monitoring moving averages, etc. This is also a very good way to get used to how orders are placed. Once you have a real trading system, you will already know how to place orders properly.

And remember, everyone makes mistakes placing orders. So you need to experiment before in a demo account so you can make your mistakes without losing any real money.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

You can download a free Fibonacci trading report at his website:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Comments On Succeeding With FOREX


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading has changed dramatically in the last 10 years thanks to the technological advancements of the internet era. With real-time streaming technology and faster and more efficient computer systems, almost anything, from roses to FX trading, is available at the click of a button. It would be interesting to go over a few of the benefits of online FOREX trading.

If you are new to the world of technology, internet or online FOREX trading, it would be recommendable that you considered taking an online FOREX trading class. Many traders recommend to take the course by Peter Bain if you are a beginner and want to start with solid steps towards a profitable trading career, this is a very complete and understandable course. But, of course, there are a wide variety of options out there if you are looking for a quick and easy way to improve your trading skills.

Before you spend any money on an online FOREX trading program or subscription, ask about free trial offers or free reports. Many companies will allow potential customers to try out their software and tools before making an investment, and you won't even need your own money to start paper trading if you want to have some practice before real money is on the line. This is a quick and easy way to begin trading immediately. There will no doubt be a learning curve, all traders have passed through this that's why you want to make sure that you don't have a large investment waiting to be recovered while you are on that learning curve. If you have a friend or family member that is in the online Forex trading business, find out what program or system they use. They may be willing to walk you through a trade and give you their opinion on the program.

Always remember that practice makes the master. One of the best ways to get a feel for the market is to paper trade. No one wants to experiment with their own money; so many brokers have come up with an innovative way to take all the risk from trying out forex trading. It's called simulation trading or paper trading as mentioned above, and the premise is simple. The program is an exact copy of the broker or trading systems real-time trading program. The main difference is that they allow you to "play" the market just as you would if you were actually investing. You can do a simulation with a set amount of money, usually around $50,000 dollars. You can practice setting bid and ask prices, and using their various analysis tools, which are all free.

The benefits of such a system are two-fold. First, you get a feel for the trading software itself, so that you can determine if it is right for your needs and skill level. Second, you get to practice trading in the market, under real conditions. You can practice using the various tools and research available to you to make good trading decisions.

The amount of time needed to understand the system will vary depending on your level of experience and knowledge materials available. But the paper trading experience in Forex is always recommended, you will never regret you invested some time into this.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

You can download Peter Bain trading course at the website:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Trends and Profitable Trading In The Forex Markets.


Adrian Pablo

The basis behind using technical analysis is to find trends when looking at the forex charts and be aware of when they first develop so you can ride the trend until it ends. The foreign exchange market is a very strong trending market, lots of ups and downs in short periods of time, and is, therefore, a place where technical analysis can be very effective.

But even considering the great amount of indicators available, there are still many traders every week who still end up buying (being "long") while the currency pair is in a basic downtrend, or selling short when a market is in a uptrend. This is, they end doing things backwards.

If you want to become a profitable forex trader you will need to use as many technical indicators as you want, or create a personalized trading strategy based off a combination of indicators, to recognize the trend. In other words, professional Forex traders try to identify the major trend, the intermediate trend, and the short-term trend and then construct their trades in that direction, based on how long their rules allow them to hold a position.

If the action of the market shows your judgment to be correct, the successful trader 'stays with the market' and endeavors to make the maximum profit on each trade, according to his/her risk-to-reward / equity management rules. If and when the market goes against him/her, the smart trader will take profits and get out. In a narrow market, when prices are not going anywhere to speak of, but move within a narrow range, there is no sense in trying to anticipate when the next BIG movement is going to be - up or down.

In short, if you want to be in good profitable terms with the forex markets you must follow this words of wisdom: "Never argue with the market, or ask it for reasons or explanations".

About the author:

Adrian Pablo;Forex trader and freelance writer.

>> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Two Timeless Rules in FOREX Investing


Adrian Pablo

One important thing that every new trader must know before entering this highly profitable business is that life is not perfect, even in FOREX land, and you should always know one fact: YOU WILL HAVE LOSING TRADES.

Every FOREX trader does. The key to being a consistent, predictable, reliable trader is to, at the end of the day, add up more wins than losses. And, when you KNOW(based off your trading rules), without a doubt, that YES, indeed you are, in a losing trade, don't keep losing money (lowering your stop loss) just to *prove you are right* or
your rules are wrong (however you want to look at it).

Let's face it - you can't turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. You can't change the spots of a leopard and you can't turn chicken poop into chicken salad. The best trades are usually "right" immediately (the techniques, rules, methods and strategies you can learn in our resources list will be your best indicator for just what a "right" trade really is).

Remember, people have been trading the markets for a hundred and sixty years. The smart traders know there's going to be another trade. Cut your loses short and compound those winning positions.

RULE #2) ~ Thou Shall Not Trade the FOREX Without the Placing of a Stop Loss Order.

When you place a STOP order, right along with your ENTRY order, via your online trade station, you've just automatically prevented a potential loss from "running" too far.

Before initiating any trade, if you haven't already figured out at what point you would be wrong and would want to cut your loses or, at the very least, reevaluate your position from the sidelines, then you shouldn't be putting on the trade in the first place.

Show us a FOREX trader who doesn't use stop loss orders and we'll show you someone who loses a lot of money.


About the Author

FOREX Trader and Freelance writer.


http://www.1-forex.com





#BREAK#

How Is Forex Trading At Home Possible?


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading has entered the home and lives of many people, both men and women , from many walks of life. And this is a relatively new phenomenon. It was only about 10 years ago that Forex moved into our homes. And this was made possible only thanks to the invention and rapid spreading of the internet.

Before the internet era, forex trading was an activity reserved only to the big players, banks, brokerage firms, in short; only wealthy people. But the arrival of the internet and the trading platforms available for downloading to the computers of regular citizens have come to transform the face of forex in a few years.

This easy access to the forex markets and the ever increasing number of new forex traders has motivated the brokerage firms to improve their services and the accessibility of their platforms. Not only with better and more efficient software but also with new financial products as the Mini-account that allows people to trade with a minimum margin of only $100 or even less.

Once you download and install the trading platform from your chosen broker, you will notice the many features available to the trader. These trading platforms will show you the current prices of the most important currency pairs, also included with the platform will be charting software that will let you perform the technical analysis needed in order to find good trades. The charting tools coming in every software included with the trading platform are really handy, they usually have all the important indicators, RSI, Bollinger Bands, Fibonacci levels, etc. and they are just one click away from you to use. And of course, you can even draw on the chart. The software also includes applications for the entering and exiting of trades (stop, limit, etc), and all is managed in real time through your internet connection. Here I should mention that the higher speed the better. You don't want to lose information in the middle of a tight trade.

So, you can trade forex at home mainly thanks to the internet which allows you to have a real time, direct connection to the markets. This allows you to track the prices and its behavior in real time, and with all the tools available in your trading platform you should feel really lucky of living in the internet era, where almost everything is just a click away.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report onFiboncci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Forex Trading, What Hours Should I Be Ready For Trading?


Adrian Pablo

Once you have decided to enter the Forex trading world you will find that FX trading has many advantages over other capital markets. Including among others; very low margins, free trading platforms, high leverage and around-the-clock trading.

It is my main concern in this article to let you know what hours you should be ready and focus for start trading, so you can expect the highest profits in your trades, and not just consider that around-the-clock trading means you should randomly trade through out the day.

In short, it is important to know what the best hours to trade are because if you want to find an appreciable number of profitable trades you need to enter the forex market at the best period of time, i.e., when the activity, the volume of transactions, is the highest.

At any given time; somebody, somewhere in the world is buying and selling currencies. As one market closes, another market opens. Business hours overlap, and the exchange continues as day becomes night and night becomes day. Giving you 5.5 entire potential trading days.

Forex Trading begins in New Zealand at Sunday 5pm EST, and then is followed by Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America in this order and through out the day and through out the week until Friday 4pm EST when the American market closes.

Other important facts every Forex trader should know are: the US & UK markets account for more than 50% of the forex market transactions; Forex major markets are: London, New York and Tokyo. Nearly two-thirds of NY activity occurs in the morning hours while European markets are open. And maybe one of the most important characteristics; Forex Trading activity is heaviest when major markets overlap.

So, the answer to the question; "What hours should I be trading?" is dictated by this last characteristic, you should trade when the major markets overlap. Now, when do they overlap?.

Considering the different time zones of the world and open and close times for Australian, New Zealand, Japan, America and Europe markets. We can arrive to the conclusion that there are two major time gaps when two of the major markets overlap during trading hours.

These hours are between 2 am and 4 am EST (Asian/European) and between 8 am to 12 pm EST(European/N. American).

So if you want to catch the best trading opportunities of the day and you are in the American continent you must be ready to wake up early or go to sleep late some times. Of course things change around the world. What's the best region where to trade from if you can't wake up early?... Maybe the Ukraine.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

=> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

An Introduction to Forex and Elliot Wave Degrees


Adrian Pablo

As a Forex trader you will always be attempting to make more profits than losses from the fluctuations of exchange rates between currencies in the forex market; in short, this is what is called forex trading.

And if you want to become a profitable forex trader you will need a good technique to forecast the market behavior with time; i.e., how the currencies value will fluctuate in the next period of time you are interested on trading.

One of the best techniques you can use to forecast the Forex markets is by using the Elliot Wave Theory.

Ralph Nelson Elliot also observed that the market has strong trends that seem to follow a repetitive pattern in all the different time frames; and after analyzing a great number of charts he discovered in the late 1920's that the markets move in a repetitive manner that is far away from being a totally chaotic behavior.

And this was not all Elliot discovered; he also realized that this patterns had a fractal nature. This means that the patterns not only repeated with time but that in a given period of time the characteristic wave pattern would repeat at different scales (days, hours, minutes).

This is the most basic concept in Elliot's theory; i.e., the largest wave structures are composed of smaller sub waves, and these in turn are composed of even smaller sub waves, and in principle this goes on to infinity.

Elliot gave a name to these wave structures calling them "wave degrees", depending on the time frame you are looking at. The range of these degrees goes from centuries to hours.

Elliot distinguished Nine Wave Degrees in his studies, they are known as:

- Grand Supercycle - Supercycle - Cycle - Primary - Intermediate - Minor - Minute - Minuette - Sub Minute

In principle these degrees can go to infinity and they clearly show you can choose the time frame you like better, according to your trading objectives, and the patterns you will see will be the same in any of these time frames.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Proper Behavior of a Forex Trader.


Adrian Pablo

The world of Forex trading is a great open land of opportunities where great profits can be achieved. But in order to obtain these great profits you must have a proper understanding of how the forex markets work and behave.

The Forex market is a market of trends, as you can see in any forex chart where the oscillation of prices during specific periods of times is more than evident. And this specific behavior of the market is what brings us to one of the most important rules of the forex trader behavior:

You must always trade with the trend and never go against the evident movements of the market. This an important rule many traders forget on the assumption that they can somehow cheat the market. But this is not possible, you will always have to check your indicators and if the market trend is going in the direction suggested by the indicators you must stick with that.

You must always cut losses. Yes, every trader has losing trades and you must learn how to deal with that fact of the forex world. In short don't let losing trades ride too far and on the contrary, you should let the winning ones ride as long as possible in order to always have a positive balance at the end of the day. The best technique you can use in order to fulfill this proper winning vs. losing trades positive balance is the use of Stop Orders. Every trader should trade using stops if he wants to maintain the proper balance in his trades for the day. A Stop Order lets you manage and decide how much money you want to risk losing if the trade you are in results in a bad trade. So, if you combine this "security" stop with a correct technical analysis of your indicators you will always be on the winning side, even if you have a few losing trades.

In short, the proper behavior of a forex trader can be resumed in two main attitudes: Always follow the trends of the markets and decide accordingly (sell or buy) and always maintain a positive balance of your trades using stop orders in order to cut losses at its maximum.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

How Much Margin You Need In Forex Trading?


Adrian Pablo

Trading Forex has many advantages which are greatly appreciated by the Forex traders that have already mastered the markets and have improved their incomes and style of life. One of these great advantages of the Forex markets is the low margins needed in order to be able to place a trade. Something that is also very important for the new and inexperienced traders starting their careers.

This "Margin" is the amount of money you need "to pay" the broker before you enter a trade, and the total amount of it will depend on the size of the trade you are willing to manage. The amount of the margin is calculated as a fixed percentage of this trade amount.

The good news for the Forex traders is that this percentage is usually only 1% of the trade amount and with mini-accounts it can be as low as 0.5% of the total trade. In other words this is what's called Leverage; and in leverage terms this margin percentages are also viewed as a market having a 100:1 and up to 200:1 leverage. Which is a more than great leverage.

In other words, your broker will make you a loan, a pretty big loan, that you will use to trade and be able to obtain great profits without risking huge amounts of money. It can be seen as this: if you want to trade $100,000 USD, you will only need $1000 USD in order to control this amount of money and the broker will lend you the extra $90,000 USD. This is the power of leverage.

But trading Forex wouldn't be so great if this huge leverage could turn against you. As it usually happens if you want to trade Futures. When trading forex you can not have a debit balance, your broker will close your account as soon as your margin money runs out. You won't have loans to repay. Giving you the peace of mind that in a bad trading day, you can at most lose all of your margin but you will never be left with a debit balance to your broker.

So, if you want to enter the great world of forex trading the margin you will need will be around $1000 USD or some more depending on how many trades you will enter. And you can even enter a trade with only $100 USD if you are starting your trading career with a single mini account.

As you can see, there are great reasons to consider trading the forex markets.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

The Margin Advantages of Trading FOREX.


Adrian Pablo

There is one aspect that is considered as one of the best advantages
of FOREX Trading. This is related to the amount of money you need to place a trade, this is known as "margin", and in short, this is all that can be lost in a the case you had a bad trade.

I state it like this because, even though I know with
proper self-taught education you're NOT going to lose as
much as you win anyway, I want you to know that despite the
super-high leverage associated with FOREX trading (200:1 is
possible; meaning that if you put up $1 the trading vendor will
allow you to trade like you really have $200), it's still
arguably less risky than futures (commodities) trading. And, forget stocks, you'll never get this type of LEVERAGE
in the equities market.

Futures markets are often prone to sudden and dramatic
moves, against which you can not protect yourself, even by
trading with protective stops. Your position may be
liquidated at a loss, and you’ll be liable for any resulting
deficit in the account. But because of the FX markets deep
liquidity and 24-hour, continuous trading, dangerous trading
gaps and limit moves are eliminated. Orders are executed
quickly, without slippage or partial fills. And finally,
there are no margin calls -- for your protection, ALL our
recommended brokers will automatically close out some or
all of your open positions if your account equity falls
below the level required to hold the positions. Think of
this as a final, automatic stop, always working on your
behalf to prevent a debit balance. In fact, if you pick from
our list of recommended brokers, we guarantee that you will
never lose more than you have in your FOREX account.

http://www.1-forex.com

About the Author

FOREX Trader and Freelance writer.

http://www.1-forex.com


 




#BREAK#

Advantages of Trading FOREX over Stocks and Commodities.


Adrian Pablo

There are many advantages to Trading FOREX as your main income generator. Let’s start by something that may be worrying you already.
“Do I need a Diploma or some kind of Certification to trade FOREX?” The answer is this:
When attempting to make more profit than losses on the
fluctuation of exchange rates between major currencies
(i.e., Trading the FOREX), nobody is going to ask you for a
diploma, a formal license or verify the amount of hours
you've spent studying the Foreign exchange market and
banking industry.
All you need is the proper training, you can get very valuable sources for this training at http://www.1-forex.com.
But this is not the only advantage you get when trading FOREX, compared to other ways of investment and speculation; i.e. Stocks and Commodities. You have a whole bunch of advantages over these other options that will be enumerated in the following paragraphs.

The Main Benefits of Trading the FX Spot Market:

1): FOREX is the largest financial market in the world.

With a daily trading volume of over $1.5 trillion, the spot
FOREX market can absorb trading sizes that dwarf the
capacity of any other market. In fact, when compared with
the $50 billion daily market for equities or the $30 billion
futures market, it becomes quickly apparent this gives you,
and millions of other FOREX traders, almost infinite trading
liquidity and flexibility.

2): FOREX is a TRUE 24-hour market.

The FOREX Market never sleeps. Trading positions can be
entered and exited at any moment - around the globe, around
the clock, six days a week. There is no waiting for an
opening bell as in the case of trading stocks. It is a 24-
hour, continuous electronic (ONLINE) currency exchange that
never closes. This is very desirable for you if you want to
trade on a part-time basis, because you can choose when you
want to trade: morning, noon or night.

3): There is never a Bear Market in FOREX.

You can have access to a seamless, mutually-inclusive (two-
way) exchange of currencies. Meaning, because currencies
trade in "pairs" (for example, US dollar vs. yen or US
dollar vs. Swiss franc), one side of every currency pair
(for example, USD/JPY - JPY = YEN) is constantly moving in
relation to the other. Thus, when you buy a particular
currency, you are actually simultaneously selling the other
currency in that particular pair. As the market moves, one
of the currencies will increase in value versus the other.
Of course, it is up to you to choose the correct currency to
be long or short. Since currency trading always involves
buying one currency and selling another, there is no
structural bias to the market. This means you have equal
potential to profit in both a rising or falling market.

4): High Leverage - up to 200:1 Leverage.

You are permitted to trade foreign currencies on a highly
leveraged basis - up to 200 times your investment with some
brokers. This is primarily attributed to the higher levels
of liquidity within the currency markets. Standard 100,000-
unit currency lots can be traded with as little as 1%
margin, or $1,000. Mini FX accounts are permitted to trade
with just 0.5% margin -- in other words, just $50 allows you
to control a 10,000-unit currency position. Futures traders,
who are accustomed to margin requirements generally equal to
5%-8% of the contract value, will immediately recognize that
the FOREX market provides much greater leverage, and for
stock traders, who must post at least 50% margin, there’s no
comparison. If you’re looking for an efficient use of
trading capital, this is it!

5): Price Movements Are Highly Predictable.

Although currency prices in the FX market may be volatile,
they generally repeat themselves in relatively predictable
cycles, creating trends. The strong trends that foreign
currencies develop are a significant advantage for traders
who use the "technical" methods and strategies taught at the sources found in http://www.1-forex.com

Unlike stocks, currencies rarely spend much time in tight
trading ranges and have the tendency to develop strong
trends. Over 80% of volume is speculative in nature and, as
a result, the market frequently overshoots and then corrects
itself. As a technically-trained trader, you can easily
identify new trends and breakouts, which provide for
multiple opportunities to enter and exit positions.

6:) Commission-free Trading and Low Transaction Cost

When you trade FOREX, through one of our recommended brokers
(this info is in our private resources section), you'll do
it totally commission-free! These brokers don't charge
commissions to trade or to maintain an account, and that
goes for all clients trading the FOREX through them,
regardless of your account balance or trading volume. Even
Mini FX traders can buy and sell currencies online,
commission-free.

What about trading fees? There are none of the usual fees to
which futures and equity traders are accustomed -- no
exchange or clearing fees, no N_F_A or S_E_C fees. Because
currencies trade over-the-counter (OTC), via a global
electronic network -- in FOREX, what you see is what you
get, allowing you to make quick decisions on your trades
without having to worry or account for fees that may affect
your profit/loss or slippage.

In the equities markets, you must pay both a commission and
exchange fees. The over-the-counter structure of the FX
market eliminates exchange and clearing fees, which in turn
lowers transaction costs.

So, if FOREX broker don't charge commissions, how do they
make money? Like all traded financial products, over-the-
counter currency trading involves a bid/ask spread, which
represents the prices at which your counterparty is willing
to trade. Because the currency market offers round-the-clock
liquidity, you receive tight, competitive spreads both
intra-day and night. Stock traders can be more vulnerable to
liquidity risk and typically receive wider trading spreads,
especially during after-hours trading.

7): Instantaneous Order Execution and Market Transparency.

Market transparency is highly desired in any trading
environment. The greater the market transparency, the more
efficient the market becomes. Unlike other markets where
transparency is compromised (like in the Enron scandal),
FOREX markets are highly transparent (i.e., analyzing
countries, and having access to real-time research / news,
is easier than companies).

Because of this transparency, as an FX trader, you will be
able to exercise risk management strategies in accordance to
the fundamental and technical indicators we teach at
RapidForex.com

The FX market offers the highest level of market
transparency out of all the financial markets. Because of
this, order execution and fill confirmation usually occur in
just 1-2 seconds. Markets that do not offer executable
prices and force traders to absorb slippage obviously
compromise the trader's profit potential considerably.

In the forex world, order execution is all-electronic and
because you'll be trading via an Internet-based platform,
instantaneous execution is routine. There are no exchanges,
no traditional open-outcry pits, no floor brokers, and
consequently, no delays.

http://www.1-forex.com

About the Author

FOREX Trader and Freelance writer.

http://www.1-forex.com


 




#BREAK#

Moving Averages Basics And How They Help FOREX Traders.


Adrian Pablo

With Forex trading becoming a more extended and desired occupation for lots of people around the world, living with the desire of working at home and still having the ability to gain a full time income, the need for accurate trading systems and techniques has become a major necessity for all these new Forex Traders

.

Among one of the important concepts a new forex trader should know is what a Moving Average means, how it's calculated and what its use as a trading indicator is.

Moving Average is defined as a technical indicator that shows the average value of a particular currency pair over a previously determined amount of time. This means, for example, that prices are averaged over 20 or 50 days, or 10 and 50 min depending on the time frame you are using at the moment of your trading activity.

As an averaged quantity, MA's can bee seen as a smoothed representation of the current market activity and an indicator of the major trend influencing the market behavior.

This smoothing effect of the Moving Average is very helpful when the trader is looking for getting rid of the "noise" in the price fluctuations of the currency pair he is trading at the moment and a more precise emphasis in the trend direction is required.

The basic mechanics of how Moving Averages can tell you where the forex market is moving (up or down), at the moment of your analysis is by considering two different time frame Moving Averages and plotting them on the forex chart. It is very important that one of these MA is over a shorter time period than the other one; let's say one will be over a 15 days period and the other over a 50 days period. Most trading station software available by a number of brokers will let you do this plotting and much more.

Once you have plotted the two Moving Averages, you will notice points of crossover where the shorter time period MA will cross above the longer time period MA indicating an upward trend in the market, or if the crossing is below the longer period MA that will be an indication of a down trend in the forex market.

So from this simple concept you can commence to understand the basics of confirming trends when checking your forex charts during your trading hours.



About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

=> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Forex and Some Important Facts about Bollinger Bands.


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading is nowadays one of the most looked after occupation for many persons of all ages around the world. This is due to its great advantages over other capital markets and its high profitability potential; among these advantages you will find that is extremely easy to access a trading platform from the best forex broker firms thanks to the internet; and also you will notice that Forex has a high liquidity along with a high leverage.

But having a good broker firm and great trading platform is only one part of what you need in order to make your forex trading career a winning and profitable one. You need to have the right knowledge and techniques in order to forecast with the best accuracy what the market will do next. One of the techniques used to predict the Forex market behavior is that based on Bollinger Bands.

These Bollinger Bands are what is called a technical trading tool and they are widely used in the capital markets (including Forex) and were created by John Bollinger in the early 1980s. These bands technique was formulated based on the need for adaptive trading bands and the discovery that the volatility of the markets was a dynamic phenomena, not a static one as was widely believed at the time.

Bollinger Bands consist of a chart of three curves drawn in relation to currency pairs prices. The band situated in the middle is a measure of the intermediate-term trend and is usually a simple moving average, that serves as the base for the upper and lower bands. The interval between the upper, lower and the middle bands is determined by the volatility of the market, typically the standard deviation of the same data that were used for the moving average. The default parameter is 20 periods and two standard deviations above and below the middle band; of course this may be adjusted to suit your needs.

In short, the purpose of Bollinger Bands is to provide a relative definition of high and low price. By definition prices are considered high when touching the upper band and low when they touch the lower band. This relative definition can be used by the Forex trader to compare price actions and as a very useful indicator when the purpose of the trader is to arrive at rigorous buy and sell decisions.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

=> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

How Bollinger Bands Can Tell You What The FOREX Market Will Do Next.


Adrian Pablo

In Forex trading as in all other speculative activities in the capital markets there is a major problem that all, new and experienced traders, will face every time they open their forex trading stations. This is, how to predict the behavior of the Forex market over time in order to make the highest amount of profits and with the less risk possible.

Among the techniques used in forecasting the behavior of the Forex market, Bollinger Bands are one of the most widely used and studied.

The first thing you should notice about Bollinger Bands is that they consist of a set of three curves drawn in a forex chart in relation to the currency prices.

The central band is usually a simple moving average, and serves as the reference base for the upper and lower bands. These two bands are separated by two standard deviations of the central band, and the average is taken over 20 periods of the time frame you are using, when using the standard parameters of Bollinger Bands.

Our main issue here is how Bollinger Bands will help you in identifying and predicting what the markets are doing and will do next. There is a basic analysis that you can perform in order to have an idea of what comes ahead with the behavior of the markets based on Bollinger Bands.

As it was mentioned above, Bollinger Bands are three bands based on moving averages and that are closely related to the volatility of the market, making the channel between the upper and lower bands wider or narrower depending on how high or low the volatility of the markets is.

Now for the forecast. Experienced FOREX Traders know that when the prices start touching the upper Bollinger Band in a repetitive pattern, that means that prices are very likely to go down, so they sell. And on the contrary situation, when the prices continually touch the lower band that's an indication that prices will likely go up and it's time to buy the particular currency you maybe trading.

Of course there is more detail on the analysis of Bollinger Bands but all of it is based on this observation about the prices touching one of this bands. And as with all the forex indicators, they are not perfect, but that doesn't mean they can't be very good.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Comments on Forex Trading Account Sizes, Lots and Margin Calls.


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading is one of the best business opportunities you can think of joining these days. No other market in the world allows the "Leverage" that the profitable world of currency-trading does. Leverage is all about margin trading. In the Forex market, it is essentially the ratio of the amount used in a trade to the required security deposit needed, by the particular broker you chose to use, for that trade.

Normally, for most brokerages, a margin deposit of just $1,000 allows you to control a $100,000 position in the Forex market. That's 100:1 leverage, or 1%. Or, said in a different way, a "regular full-sized account", sometimes referred to as a 100k account, allows you to trade with lot sizes equal to $100,000. Each lot is worth $100,000 in currency. So It would only require $1,000 to trade one lot.

This great feature in Forex trading is what makes this market the hottest market to trade in right now. The Forex broker has given you a loan of $99,000 dollars secured only by your $1,000! This is a huge loan and, as you may know by now, this is what allows traders to make extraordinary incomes in this market. And, as you also are probably used to hearing , "leverage is a two-edged sword" , it is what can cause you to lose a lot of money if you trade without rules or Stop-loss orders.

But just as an example, let's say you were a person that likes to trade with reckless abandon, i.e., with no strategy, no common sense, no money- management principles, etc. That's never recommended for anyone, but being a Forex trader has such great advantages, that even someone with a trading mind like the one described before, will never lose more than what he has placed into a trade.

Unlike Futures (Commodity Trading), the market that most people associate with High leverage, you can never have a debit balance when trading Forex.

So, despite the greater leverage associated with FX trading, it is still arguably less risky than futures trading. Futures markets are often prone to sudden and dramatic moves, against which you can't protect yourself, even by trading with protective stops. Your position may be liquidated at a loss, and you'll be liable for any resulting deficit in the account. But because of the Forex markets great liquidity and 24-hour, continuous trading, dangerous trading gaps and limit moves are very unprobable. Orders are executed quickly, without slippage or partial fills, which is just great.

And as it was not enough, there are no margin calls, for your protection, the forex broker's trading platform will automatically close out some or all of your open positions if your account equity, meaning the total floating value of the account, falls below the level required to hold the positions. Think of this as a final, automatic stop, always working on your behalf to prevent a debit balance.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

You can download a free Fibonacci trading report at his website:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Forex Trading And The Obsession To Win.


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading is one of the great money making opportunities available these days. People from many walks of life, men and women, decide to join the forex trading world everyday looking for the great style of life a profitable forex trader can achieve.

But Forex trading is also a war where you can lose your money and confidence if you are not wise enough in your battles against the market, a wise, often formidable and even brutal enemy.

There is an old saying by the Chinese military genius, Sun Tzu that says, "the obsession for victory is a state of mind that benefits the enemy". And these wise words apply without any doubt to the world of forex trading. In the war with the markets nothing is more damaging to a trader than "the obsession with victory".

There are many new traders that think they must never close a trade until it will turn into a profitable one; or think their predictions based on a particular indicator and technical analysis will always be right and the forex market will start behaving in the way they had predicted in any moment, no matter if the charts clearly indicate that it's not doing it and the margin of the account is getting depleted.

This is, in no way, a wise forex trading strategy; it is not a wise war strategy. With that behavior you will only be giving free money to the markets, i.e., you will be defeated by your own obsession with being profitable even if everything is going against you indicating you must close the trade or tighten your stops.

So, never fall for obsession when trading the forex markets; nothing good can result from this behavior. You must always place your stops according to your tolerance level and be wise with your indicators. Remember they can fail you. They mostly tell probabilities and when dealing with probabilities there is always room for strange behaviors that won't agree with what you were expecting.

My recommendation; be wise, use your criteria and never ever obsess with a trade.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

What Is A Mini Forex Account?


Adrian Pablo

Nowadays many people around the world is looking for entering the world of Forex trading due to its very high profitability potential and many other advantages the Forex market has over other capital markets.

But one of the main worries of the new trader is if he will need lots of money in order to be able to access this market and start placing trades.

The reality is that practically anyone can enter the forex markets and place trades. You don't need to be super-rich or the owner of a big corporation. You just need a few dollars and the right strategy to start profiting from Forex trading.

In the Forex world there is something called a Mini Account, and it uses a different leverage calculation than a regular (100k) account. This means that instead of trading full-size currency lots (100,000 units), you'll trade in lots that are just 1/10 the size (10,000 currency units), which in turn greatly reduces the amount of money you risk in each trade you enter. Pips in a Mini Account are worth, on average, $1 instead of the $8 to $10 value they have in a regular account. The Mini Forex Account offers up to a huge 200:1 leverage, this means that just a $50 margin deposit will allow you to trade lots worth roughly $10,000 , but the smaller lot sizes, with correspondingly smaller pip values, means that you'll be profiting less from a successful trade and also losing less if the trade goes bad . For example, while a 20-pip loss on a 100,000 USD/JPY position would be $200, the same loss on a 10,000 USD/JPY position in a Mini account would amount to only $20.

The following are the characteristics of a Forex Mini Account.

- Minimum required account deposit = $300 - Recommended required account deposit = $2,000 - Traded in 10,000-unit currency lots - Default Margin: set at 0.5% ($50 per mini-lot) - Leverage up to = 200:1

Contrary to what you may be tempted to think, there is no downside to trading a Forex mini account, you will be enjoying all the benefits that full-size FX account holders enjoy; including, same state-of-the art trading software from your broker, charts, resources, and tools. This mini accounts are ideal for a new Forex trader to develop a disciplined, rational forex trading strategy and technique without excessively focusing on the fear naturally arising from thinking too much about profits and losses.

One more great new for the starting forex trader is that there is no maximum trade volume when you use a mini account. Although the standard trade size is 10,000 units, you are not limited to trading one lot. For instance, you can trade 10,000 units or even 200,000 units. Allowing that, as you become more seasoned and build up your confidence you can slowly increase the size of your positions to maximize profits. This ability to customize the size of the trade will allow you to have a better risk management of your money.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

=> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Three Reasons Why Forex Trading Is Great.


Adrian Pablo

As a Forex trader you will always be attempting to make more profits than losses from the fluctuations of exchange rates between currencies in the forex market; in short, this is what is called forex trading. The good news is that nobody is going to ask you for a diploma, or somehow verify the amount of hours you've spent studying the foreign exchange market (FOREX). All you need is the proper training and the tools that will help you become a profitable trader. But this is not the only advantage you get when trading forex, compared to other ways of investment and speculation as stocks. You have a other great advantages that will make you decide for forex and forget about stocks and commodities. 1): There will Never be a Bear Market in FOREX.

You can have access to a mutually-inclusive (two-way) exchange of world currencies. In other words; currencies trade in "pairs"(for example, US dollar vs. yen or US dollar vs. Euro), one side of every currency pair is constantly moving (up or down) in relation to the other one. Thus, when you buy a particular currency, you are actually simultaneously selling the other currency in that particular pair. As the market moves, one of the currencies will increase in value while the other will decrease proportionally. It is up to you to choose the correct currency to be long or short. Since currency trading always involves buying one currency and selling another, it all means that you have equal potential for profits in both a rising or falling market.

2): Trade with High Leverage - up to 200:1 Leverage.

Every trader participating in the forex market is allowed to trade foreign currencies on a high leverage basis - up to 200 times your investment with some brokers. This is primarily attributed to the higher levels of liquidity within the currency markets. Standard 100,000-unit currency lots can be traded with as little as 1% margin, or $1,000, which is a pretty nice feature of forex. Mini Forex accounts are permitted to trade with just 0.5% margin -- in other words, just $50 allows you to control a 10,000-unit currency position. Futures traders, who are asked for margin requirements generally equal to 5%-8% of the total contract value, will immediately appreciate that the FOREX market provides much greater leverage; and stock traders, who must post at least 50% margin, may think they are dreaming.

3): Most Price Movements Are Highly Predictable.

Many times currency prices in the forex market may be volatile, but they have the great advantage that generally repeat themselves in relatively predictable cycles, creating trends. The strong trends that foreign currencies develop are a significant advantage for traders who use the "technical" methods and strategies.

Unlike stocks that sometimes seem to simple lay down in narrow price alleys, currencies rarely spend much time in tight trading ranges and have the tendency to develop strong trends. It is known that over 80% of the trading volume in forex is speculative in nature and, as a result, the market frequently overshoots and then corrects itself. As a technically-trained trader, you can easily identify new trends and breakouts, which provide for multiple opportunities to enter and exit trading positions.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report onFibonacci Tradingand learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

What's the .382 Fibonacci Ratio in Forex Trading?


Adrian Pablo

It was mentioned in a past article that Fibonacci forex trading is the basis of many forex trading systems used around the world by profitable forex traders. These systems are all based on the famous Fibonacci ratios (.236, .50, .382, .618, etc.) and each of them can specialize in a particular ratio along with other minor indicators in order to make the pinpointing of the entry and exit levels as accurate and profitable as possible.

One of the widely used Fibonacci ratios is the 0.382 ratio. As it can be easily seen on any forex chart, currency prices are continually changing and they follow an oscillatory pattern with peaks and valleys. The limit of the peak is usually called a resistance level while the valley is usually called a support.

In order to find the 0.382 ratio level what you do is, first; measure the size of the drop or rise over your time of interest. Once you have that value you multiply this by 0.382. Now depending on what you are looking at, a rise or a drop on the price of the particular "currency pair" you are trading, you will add the last value you calculated to the total drop or subtract the value from the total rise.

These operations will give you the 0.382 Fibonacci ratio level, either for a rise or a drop on the chart you are analyzing. Once you have the value you can then start planning the strategy you will follow in order to make a high probability profit from this valuable information. For the 0.382 ratio level calculated for a recent rise in the "currency pair" exchange price, your calculated level will be a highly probable support and for the case of a level calculated for a recent drop of the prices your level will be a highly probable resistance.

Knowing this ahead of the market and having the proper secondary indicators, will give you a huge advantage over most forex traders, and that's something any trader would like they could count on. That's why Fibonacci trading is so widely accepted over the world, and of course, why it's so profitable and successful.

Free chapters of a forex day trading system can be downloaded at http://www.1-forex.com in case you are interested in learning more about Fibonacci forex trading.
About the Author

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

>> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Introduction to Bollinger Bands; A Great Help In FOREX Trading.


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading has become one of the most looked after occupation for many persons around the world. This is due to its great advantages over other capital markets and its high potential profitability; among these advantages we can find its extremely easy accessibility thanks to the internet and its high liquidity and high leverage.

But in Forex as in all other speculative activities in the capital markets there is a major problem new and experienced traders will face every time they open their forex trading stations. This is how to predict the behavior of the Forex market over time in order to make the highest amount of profits and with the less risk possible.

One of the techniques used to predict the Forex market behavior is that based on Bollinger Bands.

These Bollinger Bands are what is called a technical trading tool used in the capital markets (including Forex) created by John Bollinger in the early 1980s. These technique was formulated based on the need for adaptive trading bands and the discovery that the volatility of the markets was a dynamic phenomena, not a static one as was widely believed at the time.

The first thing you should notice about Bollinger Bands is that they consist of a set of three curves drawn in a forex chart in relation to the currency prices. The middle band in the forex chart represents the intermediate-term trend, and it is usually a simple moving average, that serves as the reference base for the upper and lower bands. The interval separating the upper and lower bands from the middle band is calculated by using the volatility of the market; typically the standard deviation of the same data that were used for the average.

The default parameters used with these analysis technique is 20 periods for the average and two standard deviations for the gap between the bands. These parameters may be adjusted to suit your particular trading purposes.

In a future article I will talk about how these bands will give you a very good prediction on what the market will do next, based on the parameters and statistics built in the Bollinger Bands.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Fear And The Profitable Forex Trader.


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading is one of the most looked for occupations for many people these days. Around the world people is getting tired of fixed working hours and tight cubicles that limit their aspirations of a more relaxed and satisfying working life.

In order to start Forex trading the new trader doesn't need a fortune or good Wall Street contacts that will let him become part of the chosen ones. The only thing the new forex trader needs is some starting capital (as low as $100, but an amount around $5000 would be more recommendable) and the free forex trading platform that will be provided by the Forex broker.

But one thing is to start Forex trading and other very different is becoming a profitable Forex trader. In order to become a profitable trader the new trader will immediately discover the imperative need of having an accurate knowledge of the markets and a good understanding of the forex technical indicators. Concepts as Moving Averages, Fibonacci levels, Bollinger Bands, etc; are the basic knowledge every trader must have.

This basic knowledge is indeed essential but once in front of the trading station, with real money on the line and with an open trade subject to the currency markets oscillations; things will start to get tricky even if the basic technical concepts of forex trading have been understood by the beginning and sometimes also by the experienced trader.

Knowledge will start to fade in front of one of the most basic instincts we humans beings have. Fear will ask for an entrance to the traders mind and if let in by the inexperienced trader, it will turn the making of critical decisions difficult and many bad trading moves may follow.

It is very natural to be afraid and let fear invade us if we are not really sure of what we are doing or we can not afford to lose even a cent in a bad trade; or seen in a different approach, the trader is so anxious and perfectionist that he won't let him lose anything and will take it very seriously if he loses a trade.

Fear is one of the worst enemies of the Forex trader. In order to become a profitable trader it is essential that the person involved in trading understands that he must leave fear aside and stick to the trading plan he has constructed and arranged before, always understanding that losing trades happen to everyone and they are always part of a profitable trading career. A forex trader must learn how to profitable use his stops without heavily compromising the capital in his trading account, i.e., he must play safe but realizing that a calculated risk must be undertaken in order to maximize profits.

In short, fear is a natural emotion we all humans have given the right environment is present; therefore it is the trader's obligation not to arrange a "fear environment" around him and be psychologically prepared for the ups and downs of the trade. No one is prefect and that's an even deeper truth in forex trading.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a Forex freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit:

=> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

A Short Introduction To FOREX.


Adrian Pablo

FOREX is the world’s largest and most liquid trading market. Many consider FOREX as the best home business you can ever venture in. Even though regular people have had the opportunity to take part in trading foreign currencies for profit (in the same way banks and large corporations do) since 1998, it is just now becoming the cool, hip, new "thing" to talk about at parties, business events, and other social gatherings.
Even though it has been somewhat of a loosely guarded secret, every day more and more investors are turning to the all-electronic world of FOREX trading for income and profit because of its numerous benefits & advantages over traditional trading vehicles, like stocks, bonds and commodities.
But, still, whenever something seems new or is just becoming a part of social conversation, news articles, and water cooler gossip, misconceptions have to be overcome, the mind
has to be open and the slate has to be clear for starting out fresh with the CORRECT information.
So, in this article, it is my attempt to give you some solid, but not over-detailed, information on just what the heck "FX" (FOREX) means, what it is, and why it exists.
As a successful trader said, Trading FOREX is like picking money up off the floor. Not trading FOREX is like leaving it there for someone else to pick up." Others in the industry
have also said, Trading FOREX is like having an ATM machine on your own computer.
Here's an explanation (one I feel you'll appreciate) of what FOREX is and how a bunch of traders, profit from it:
The Foreign Exchange Market, also referred to the "FOREX" or "FX" market, is the spot (cash) market for currency.
But, don't mistake FX as trading the futures market, where you buy a contract to purchase a particular currency at a future price in time.
What FX traders do is much less risky than trading currencies on the futures market, much more profitable, and a lot easier, than trading stocks.
So, you're probably wondering where it's at ... or ... how to access the FX market?
The answer is: FX Trading is not bound to any one trading floor and is not centralized on an exchange, as with the stock and futures markets. The FX market is considered an Over-the-Counter (OTC) or 'Interbank' market, due to the fact that the entire market is run electronically, within a network of banks, continuously over a 24-hour period.
Yes, if that's the first time you've heard about an all-electronic market, I know this may sound somewhat intriguing to you.
Here's what you are actually trading when you participate in the Foreign Exchange (FOREX) market:
Essentially, like the large banks who use the FX market to protect themselves from the fluctuating exchange rate of different currencies, as an investor, what a FX trader is doing is
simultaneously exchanging one countries currency for another. So, in actuality, they're electronically trading a currency-pair and the price that is quoted to us is the exchange rate
between the two currencies.
In other words, simply the quoted price is how many of the one currency is worth 1 of the other currency.

Example:

EUR/USD last trade 1.2850 - One Euro is worth $1.2850 US dollars.The first currency (in this example, the EURO) is referred to as the base currency and the second (/USD) as the counter or quote currency.

The FOREX has a DAILY trading volume of around $1.5 trillion dollars - 30 times larger than the combined volume of all U.S. equity markets. This means that 1,498,574 skilled traders could each take 1 million dollars out of the FOREX market every day and the FOREX would still have more money left than the New York Stock exchange every day!
The FOREX plays a vital role in the world economy and there will always be a tremendous need for the FOREX. International trade increases as technology and communication increases. As long as there is international trade, there will be a FOREX market. The FX market has to exist so a country like Japan can sell products in the United States and be able to receive Japanese Yen in exchange for US Dollar.
There's plenty of money to be made using FOREX for plenty of traders that use the right trading techniques / tactics that will allow them to profit immensely. And, with only 5% of the daily turnover of volume coming from banks, government and large corporations who need to hedge,
the other 95% is for speculation and profit.
http://ovfbooks.forextech.hop.clickbank.net

About the Author

FOREX Trader and Freelance writer.

http://www.1-forex.com


 




#BREAK#

Two Great Advantages of Forex Trading


Adrian Pablo

There are a number of advantages Forex traders find once they start trading for real the Forex markets. On of the main advantages when deciding to trade for a living is that there is no need to have a license or certification. Everything you need to know is basically how to sell high and buy low. That's all you need, and of course a solid understanding of how the markets behave and the kind of indicators that can help you in your daily battle with the forex market.

But this is not the only advantage you get when trading Forex, compared to other ways of investment and speculation (Stocks and Commodities). You have a whole bunch of advantages over these other options; two of them are these:



1): The FOREX market is the largest financial market in the world.

It is known that this market has an approximate daily trading volume of over $1.5 trillion, the spot Forex market can, amazingly, absorb trading sizes that dwarf the capacity of any other market. In fact, when compared with the approximate $50 billion daily market for equities or the $30 billion futures market, it becomes crystal clear that this market gives you, and millions of other FOREX traders around the world an almost infinite trading liquidity and flexibility.

2): FOREX is a TRUE 24-hour currency market.

The FOREX Markets never sleep and never stop having transactions being performed every hour, every minute. Trading positions can be entered and exited at any moment, around the world, around the clock, six days a week. There is no waiting for an opening bell as in the case of trading stocks in Wall Street. It is a 24-hour, continuous electronic currency exchange that never closes (all this thanks to the internet). This characteristic of the FX market should make it very desirable for you if you want to trade on a part-time basis, because you can choose when you want to trade: morning, noon or night. More information about this can be found in other of my articles.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

What Are The Best Hours For Forex Trading?


Adrian Pablo

Forex is a highly dynamic market with lots of price oscillations in a single minute, this characteristic of the Forex market allows traders to enter the market many times a day and pull some profit from these number of trades. If you want to find an appreciable number of profitable trades you need to enter the forex market at the best period of time, i.e., when the activity, the volume of transactions, is the highest.

The main timing characteristics of the Forex market are the following:

* Forex is 24 hour market - It starts from Sunday 5pm EST through Friday 4pm EST. Rollover at 5pm EST * Forex Trading begins in New Zealand, followed by Australia, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and America * The US & UK account for more than 50% of the market transactions * Forex Major markets: London, New York, Tokyo * Nearly two-thirds of NY activity occurs in the morning hours while European markets are open. * Forex Trading activity is heaviest when major markets overlap.

From this timing facts, it is quite visible that at any given time, somebody somewhere in the world is buying and selling currencies. As one market closes, another market opens. Business hours overlap, and the exchange continues as day becomes night and night becomes day. The great liquidity of Forex, combined with a market that's traded 5.5 days a week around the world, offers you an exceptional independence and choices to trade Forex when you want to and not when the market wants you to do it. Trades always develop with relatively the same frequency, regardless of time. As long as the Forex market is open, there is about the same probability that you will find a trade, whenever your look for it.

During each trading day, the total Forex "volume" is determined by the number of markets that are open and the times each of these markets overlap one another.

Forex market volume of transactions remains high during the whole day, but peaks highest when the Asian market(including Australia & New Zealand), the European market and the U.S. market are open simultaneously. And these are the trading hours you must target in order to find the highest possible amount of profitable trades.

This is the breakdown of OPEN Market Times for your reference:

* New York Market trade times: 8am-4pm EST * London Market trade times: 2am-12Noon EST * Great Britain Market trade times: 3am-11am EST * Tokyo Market trade times: 8pm-4am EST * Australia Market trade times: 7pm-3am EST

If you pay attention to the last schedule you will notice that there are two times when two of the major markets overlap during trading hours; between 2am and 4am EST (Asian/European) and between 8am to 12pm EST(European/N. American).

So here you have it, if you want to find a great number of profitable trades, focus on the hours when the markets tend to make their biggest moves, i.e., during these big markets overlaps, which therefore, are usually the Best Times to Trade.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo; Forex Trader and freelance writer.

You can download a free Fibonacci trading report at his website:

http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Two Reasons Why Many People Participate In Forex Trading.


Adrian Pablo

Forex trading is one of those great money making opportunities everyone talks about these days. People from many walks of life, men and women, decide to join the forex trading world everyday looking for the great style of life a profitable forex trader can achieve.

Need to know some reason why you should join the forex trading frenzy; here are two great reasons to join:

1): Commission-free Trading and Low Transaction Cost

When you trade FOREX you can do it totally commission-free by choosing the right broker. These brokers are great because they don't charge commissions to trade or to maintain an account, and that goes for all clients trading the FOREX through them, they don't care about your account balance or trading volume. Even Mini FX traders, who are just starting in this field, can buy and sell currencies online always commission-free.

And if you are worrying about trading fees you may have to pay your broker; good news, there are none of the usual fees to which futures and equity traders are accustomed to pay everytime; no exchange or clearing fees, no NFA or SEC fees. Because currencies trade over-the-counter (OTC), via a global electronic network in Forex, what you see is what you get, allowing you to make quick decisions on your trades without having to worry for fees that may affect your profit/loss balance.

As you may already know, in the equities markets, you must pay both a commission and an exchange fee. The over-the-counter structure of the forex market eliminates exchange and clearing fees, which is good because this in turn lowers transaction costs.

You may be asking yourself that if Forex brokers don't charge commissions, then how do they manage to make any money? Like all traded financial products, over-the-counter currency trading involves a bid/ask spread, which represents the prices at which you're the other party is willing to trade. Thanks to the fact that the currency market is capable of offering you a round-the-clock liquidity; you will receive tight, competitive spreads both in intra-day and night trades.

2): Instantaneous Order Execution and Market Transparency.

A characteristic such as market transparency is highly desired when participating in any trading environment. The greater the market transparency, the more efficient the market becomes. Unlike other markets where transparency is compromised, FOREX markets are highly transparent.

Because of this transparency, as a forex trader, you will be able to exercise risk management strategies in accordance with your level of learning and experience.

It is widely known that the forex market offers the highest level of market transparency out of all the financial markets available for speculation. Because of this, order execution and fill confirmation usually occur in just 1-2 seconds.

In the forex world, order execution is all-electronic and because you'll be trading via an Internet-based platform, instantaneous execution is routine. There are no exchanges, no traditional open outcry pits, no floor brokers, and consequently, no delays.

So here you have two great advantages the forex market will give you if you decide to become a forex trader.

About the author:

Adrian Pablo is a freelance writer with articles published in a number of places. Get a free report on Fibonacci Trading and learn more about the world of trading , visit the website: http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

What's Fibonacci Forex Trading?


Adrian Pablo

Fibonacci forex trading is the basis of many forex trading systems used by a great number of professional forex brokers around the globe, and many billions of dollars are profitable traded every year based on these trading techniques.

Fibonacci was an Italian mathematician and he is best remembered by his world famous Fibonacci sequence, the definition of this sequence is that it's formed by a series of numbers where each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers; 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 ...But in the case of currency trading what is more important for the forex trader is the Fibonacci ratios derived from this sequence of numbers, i.e. .236, .50, .382, .618, etc.

These ratios are mathematical proportions prevalent in many places and structures in nature, as well as in many man made creations.

Forex trading can greatly benefit form this mathematical proportions due to the fact that the oscillations observed in forex charts, where prices are visibly changing in an oscillatory pattern, follow Fibonacci ratios very closely as indicators of resistance and support levels; maybe not to the last cent, but so close as to be really amazing.

Fibonacci price points, or levels, for any forex currency pair can be calculated in advance so that the trader will know when to enter or exit the market if the prediction given by the Fibonacci forex day trading system he uses fulfills its predictions.

Many people tries to make this analysis overly complicated scaring away many new forex traders that are just beginning to understand how the forex market works and how to make a profit in it. But this is not how it has to be. I can't say it's a simple concept but it is quite understandable for any trader once he or she has grasped the basics and has had some practice trading using Fibonacci levels along with other secondary indicators that will help to improve the accuracy of the entry and exit point for every particular trade.

Free chapters of a forex day trading system can be downloaded at http://www.1-forex.com in case you are interested in learning more about Fibonacci forex trading.
About the Author

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

>> http://www.1-forex.com

#BREAK#

Forex: Why Psychiatrists Make Better Traders Than Expert Economists?


Alexander Brin

It should be noted that millionaire traders, Elder, Williams and some others are in fact professional psychiatrists. And it is not accidental that not the economists are the leaders and most successful traders, but professional psychiatrists and psychotherapists. Think about it. You will become a successful trader when you understand why it happens with Forex. You will understand what your Forex mistakes are, and why you are making them. And when you correct these mistakes you will become a trader who has no psychological barriers and obstacles on his way to better earnings in the Forex market.

So, why do the psychiatrists make better traders than economists who, as one would think, have the Forex market at their finger tips?

The economists are confused by:

- the fact that exchange rates are not always related directly to the economic circumstances in the countries. Well, do you know any economist who would be bidding for low fx rates when the economic situation is getting better and better? Or the one who admits that technical analysis of currency pairs is more important for Forex trading than the fundamental one? Any economist is confident that this can never happen because he knows all the economic dogmas. But it happens in the Forex. After all, how can a trader lose with the currencies moving up and down by the economic rules? The currency will surely react to the economic changes in the country, but who knows when and how? Here is a tip: there is the Elliott fifth way to teach a lesson to the ones who believe that fundamental knowledge is enough (before the trend turns, the currency spurts absurdly by the old trend), to confuse and draw the newbies into the game, while the experts wait for the trend to turn back.

- the lack of psychological knowledge that helps to understand the behavior of the crowd. And that is self-evident.

Are there any methods to overcome this fear?

It seems that every Forex book, every article offers efficient solutions for psychological difficulties experienced by the traders.

IN FACT NEITHER OF THESE BOOKS CONTAINS