Forex trading resources including analysis and news

Foreign exchange traders or “Forex traders” as they are sometimes called may employ different market analyses in determining how to trade in the foreign market. Some traders will use a fundamental analysis, which evaluates the basic fundamentals in the currency market. Traders following a fundamental analysis market strategy will trade in the direction that the basic fundamentals of the currency market lead. A less common model is technical analysis.

These technical analysis traders tend to use indicators such as the Relative Strength Indicator (RSI), the MACD, as well as others used in this methodology. Even though I understand both analysis technique, I prefer foreign exchange hedging which I will further explain as it is related to the currency market.

For those who use to do business in the Forex market, the term “hedging” might not sound unfamiliar, but for those who do not, lets simplify by saying its a way of reducing risks in trading.

No matter what trading method you ultimately utilize, it is important for all Forex traders to be familiar with the various ways of hedging in the foreign exchange market.

There are a number of different ways to hedge, the specific details on these are beyond the scope of this article. However, a Forex trader must always consider that there is both an upside and a downside to failing to hedge their trades. Those who choose to hedge cut their risk and are insulated from loosing as much as other traders.

On the one hand, there are costs associated with such transactions that may compromise your final results. A good advice is trying to trade in a proper way, which allows you to pay only when the deal is done.

No matter what school of thought you are using related to the market, there is always great Forex trading software available.

So, I strongly recommend buying Forex trading software to make sure you have solid and robust information to help you decide your next steps. This will certainly improve your chances of doing good deals in the future.

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You should know the problem of slippage and how to avoid it if you want to successfully trade the news. Slippage occurs when the price you intend to enter or exit the market is different from your actual transacted price. Currency prices tend to move very fast during highly volatile market conditions. The risk of slippage is usually very high when trading the news.

Placing stop or market entry orders under such times do not guarantee anything. Slippage is the biggest problem when the market moves fast. These orders do get filled but mostly at different prices than you had intended.

Many market makers will wait till after the big move is over. Then they will fill your entry order. Sometimes, these entry orders may even get filled past your stop loss or profit target. This means that you would be left with immediate net loss.

Slippage is a trick that many forex brokers use in order to make profit by filling your position with a negative spread. Before filling your entry order with wide slippage, many brokers will fill your stop loss or take profit order. The wider the slippage, the fatter the profits the broker is going to make. Imagine the number of orders placed with each forex broker and the amount of profits the broker makes from one such single event.

Lets take an example. Suppose you have placed your long entry stop for EUR/USD at 1.2564. Your profit limit is 1.2594. The forex broker may first fill your take profit at 1.2594 and then fill your long entry stop at 1.2604 with a 40 pips slippage.

You were confident that you would make a winning trade. If the orders had been filled at the prices you wanted, your trade would have resulted in a profit. But now you have a net realized loss. If the trade goes against you, the forex broker may fill your stop loss order first and then fill your entry order with slippage after that so as to widen their profits. With slippage you cannot predict anything what the broker will do with you.

Suppose, you had placed your long entry stop at 1.2564. You place your stop loss at 1.2544. The broker could first fill your stop loss at 1.2544. Then fill your long entry stop at 1.2594 with a slippage of 30 pips. You now have a net loss of 50 pips due to slippage instead of planned 20 pips loss.

The more you stand to lose and the more the forex broker stands to make a profit, the larger the slippage you experience. You should know as an individual trader that during news when the market moves fast, your orders will be kept pending till you get stopped out or your profit limit is reached. Some forex brokers add slippage to any of your orders to increase their profits.

Many traders readily accept the risk of slippage as one of the realities of trading the news. However, they should know that slippage can eat up a huge chunk of profits and in the end affect their overall profit/loss. You can overcome the problem of slippage through the use of stop-limit entry order. More on it in the next article!

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There are easily 15-20 daily economic data releases relating to the major currencies USD, JPY, CHF, CAD, EUR, GBP, AUD and NZD. Trading news can be a very profitable strategy if you know when and how to enter the market. Forex market react the most to the release of the US economic news.

This is not surprising given that US is the largest economy of the world and is the worlds major trading partner. This is the main reason why the US economic news announcements have the greatest potential to influence other countries economies and their respective currencies. An initial part of the news straddling strategy is to pick out the various market moving announcements that can have a big impact on the forex market.

Inflation, consumer confidence, trade balance, unemployment figure, home sales, interest rate decisions, industrial production, retail sales, manufacturing and business sentiment figures are of significance to the currency market. If these economic data released relates to US or Euro zone, the higher the impact will be.

These news releases are usually made around 12:00 GMT or 13:00 GMT. It is morning in US and the European markets are still open at this time. You should note the dates on your trading calendar if you want to trade these economic news releases. You should also note the time of that economic data release other than the dates. Many economic reports are released once a month.

News straddling strategy is an intraday trading strategy. It maybe more advantageous to focus on the more volatile currency pairs! It tries to take advantage of the high amount of volatility that is usually generated with the news announcement.

Since the US economic news is the most market moving, the news straddling strategy should be applied on currency pairs that involve the USD. Some good candidates for this strategy are the currency pairs GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/JPY and USD/CHF.

Try to focus on the currency pairs involving the Euro zone currencies as the European markets are usually open at the time of US news release. However, the Asian markets where the JPY is mostly traded are closed by that time. Thus, the four major currency pairs ERU/USD, USD/CHF and GBP/USD tend to be better candidates than USD/JPY. Even among these four currency pairs, certain currency pairs among the majors respond better than others when it comes to trading major economic news release.

Economic News Straddling strategy is only employed upon the release of significant scheduled news. Moderate to very high price volatility can be expected during the time of the news release. We can expect to profit from the resulting sharp market moves.

For this strategy, you should mostly concentrate on the EUR/USD pair based on its superior liquidity compared to the other major currency pairs. This strategy requires very nimble and fast entry and exit because currency prices usually respond very quickly in a knee jerk reaction to a move in one direction and may correct themselves very quickly.

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As one who has made a living online for several years, I am often asked “What is the best way to make money online?” Friends, family, and business associates often ask this, and the answers are many. I have made money online a number of ways over the years, and I will share them with you now. I would say no certain one is the best, but each has pluses and minuses that will make them more or less attractive to each individual. The list and some information follows, and they are in no particular order. 1. Ebay

Ebay can be a great way to make money online, as I am sure you have heard. Ebay is particularly attractive if you are able to manufacture something of value well, and for a low cost. Whether it is jewelry, furniture, car kits, pet items, just about anything, if you can make it and do so cheaply, you have a great potential business on your hands. The other possibility is to find access to a desirable product that you can acquire cheaper than most people can. (due to insider info, relationships, geographical or tax advantages, etc.)

Once you have figured out your product or products, spend some time researching similar auctions on Ebay’s current and past listings. First, decide if you can compete in the market. Do you have a price, quality, brand or other advantage that will allow you to outsell your competition? Is there high demand and low supply? If the answers are yes, proceed to see what listings are selling for the highest prices, and pay very close attention to their wording, pictures, layout, pricing structure, everything. Learn from people who are making it happen already, instead of wasting time and money learning from your own mistakes.

2. Online Services/Freelancing

If you possess training or talents for in-demand services that do not require your physical presence, you can have a profitable online income. People are always looking for web designers, content writers, article writers, editors, blog and forum posters, talents, and more online. This type of work is especially attractive if you live in a part of the world where the cost of living is low. It is essential in virtually all of these to have strong English language skills.

Great places to find this work include craigslist.org’s talent and creative sections (under services), ifreelance.com, and for the more web savvy – the Digital Point forums. Identify your talent, search for people who need your services, and start doing business.

3. Forex Trading

This is definitely one that is gaining popularity. Forex trading is much like the stock market, but instead of trading companies, you are trading the currencies of different countries. Forex brokers allow you to trade 24 hours a day online, and give great leverage, allowing you to and sell hundreds of thousands of dollars worth the currencies for just a few hundred dollars. With news, trading systems, or instincts, you make your trades, and can make quite a great deal of money.

To read more on Forex trading, visit www.forex-info.com to read articles, study systems, find a recommended broker, and discuss Forex trading on the forums there. Use the beginner tools there, find a strategy you like, and open an account with a broker. Deposit some funds, start trading, and hopefully become a successful trader as many others have, or possibly even strike it rich!

4. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing involves developing or buying websites, using social media (twitter, facebook, etc.), and other web marketing tools to promote other people’s products and services. Essentially, you want to create compelling or unique content and messages and use them to drive business to your affiliates. They in turn pay you for each customer you send to them.

Some great resources for finding products and services to promote include clickbank, google adsense, amazon.com, commission junction, and several others. Find a product or service that you either know well, are excited about, or know people who need them and start your business.

There are a great number of ways to make money online, but for me, these are by far some of the best and the most profitable. They can be done with little or no investment, you can start making money today, and are all legitimate and legal ways to make great money online. No matter how you decide to make money online, it will take some work or investment, and require you to believe in what you are doing.

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The gold standard refers to the use of gold as the “insurance” to back what a country’s paper currency was actually worth – if there was no physical asset to support the value of the paper, well, the dollar bill in your wallet was worth just that – paper. The gold standard has been in use in one form or another since the earliest days of coinage when rulers minted coins and the value of a coin was the intrinsic value of the gold or other precious metal contained within it. Stamping the head and name of the king or emperor whose treasury issued the coinage was not just a political statement as to who was boss, but also a symbol of quality control – you have one of my coins, I am saying it has this much gold included in it!

Pirates operating in the Caribbean raided Spanish treasure ships taking gold cargo back to the Old World – the problem was that their ill-gotten gains were too large a denomination to spend, especially when it came time to settling their bar tabs. As the gold was in a form which meant uniform purity and weight, the pirates and landlords of the inns they frequented would break the large standard gold coins up in to eight pieces – this is the origin of the pirate phrase, “Pieces of Eight”.

In the middle of the Second World War, the Allies and most everyone else who was not on the German/Japanese side, met and thrashed out the Bretton Woods Agreement which laid out the financial foundations for the world for after the hostilities. Underpinning every country’s currency was a tie to a “gold standard” – and within the range that was established a country could only issue so much currency in relation to its gold reserves. This arrangement continued until 1971 when gold lost its luster and Black Gold – oil – replaced it as the effective asset backing many of the world’s currencies including the US Dollar.

The need for gold to support the “real” value of the paper currency issued meant that country’s had to accumulate and maintain bullion reserves of gold. You may remember the James Bond film, Goldfinger and an audacious plot to raid Fort Knox in Kentucky. Though it was a fictional film, Fort Knox is certainly not and along with the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, the US maintains enormous gold reserves required to support the US dollar – but it is not only the US that stores gold at these locations, friendly countries with close trading ties also maintain their gold reserves at these locations to, and while the gold standard does not apply as it once did, these reserves of gold bullion still play an enormous part in the global economy and how nations do business with each other.

The last country to be tied to the gold standard was Switzerland who dropped the standard in 1999, but after the recent economic upheaval and the almost total, global banking collapse, there are renewed calls for the gold standard to be re-introduced once again.

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