Almost every forex broker offers a free practice account to new clients. This is used as a marketing gimmick by most of the brokers in order to entice new people to forex trading. All you need to do is to sign up with any good forex broker. The best way for new traders to get a handle on what currency trading is all about is to open a practice account.

Practice accounts give you the great chance to experience the forex market. You can see how the price changes at different times of the day. Practice accounts are funded with virtual money. So you are able to make trades with no real money at stake and gain experience in how margin trading works.

You can trade your practice account with real market conditions without any fear of losing money. How various currency pairs may differ from each other? How the forex market reacts to new information when major news and economic data is released.

You will also learn using different market orders on your practice account. Imagine using your real money trying to figure out how different market orders work. You will learn on your practice account how to manage an open position? This will improve your understanding of how margin trading and leverage works. You can also start analyzing charts and following technical indicators on your practice account. Without any fear of losing your money, you can experiment with different trading strategies and see how they work out in the real market conditions.

You can also test drive all the features and functionality of a brokers platform. However, one thing you will never be able to simulate on your practice account is the emotions involved in trading. Emotions will only come into play once you put your real money on the line. Controlling emotions is the thing to become a successful trader. Practice accounts are a great way to experience real forex markets.

You can use market orders like the limit orders or the one cancels the other orders. However, you can also trade the current price of the market using the click and deal feature of your brokers platform. There are many ways to pull the trigger in the forex market. Pulling the trigger means how to enter or exit a position.

Many traders like the idea of opening a position by trading at the market. Most prefer the certainty of knowing that they are in the market. They dont want to leave an order that may or may not get executed.

Most forex brokers provide live streaming prices that you can deal on with a simple click of your computer mouse. Just specify the amount that you want to trade. Click on the buy or sell button to execute the trade. The forex trading platform responds back within a second or two with a pop-up message either confirming or not confirming that the position was opened.

Attempts to trade at the market can sometimes fail in very fast moving markets. This happens when prices are adjusting quickly like after a data release or break of a key technical level or price point.

Rollovers are transactions in currency trading where an open position from one value date or settlement date is rolled over to the next value date or settlement date. Rollovers are unique to the currency markets. Rollovers represent the intersection of interest rate markets and forex markets.

Remember that what you are trading is in fact the good old cash. Dont forget currency is money after all. Rollover rates depend on the difference between the interest rates of the two currencies in the pair that you are trading.

It is like having a deposit in a bank account when you are long on a currency. Its like take a loan from the bank if you are short. You should expect an interest gain or an interest expense on holding a currency position over time just as you would expect to earn interest on a bank deposit and pay interest on a loan.

Think of the open currency position as one currency with the positive balance (the currency you are long) and one with negative balance (the currency you are short). The difference between the interest rates between the two currencies is called the interest rate differential.

The interest rates of two different countries apply because your accounts are in two different currencies. You should look for the base or benchmark lending rates in each country. You can find the interest rates of different countries from Wall Street Journal Online, Financial Times online or that matter any good financial website.

The larger the interest rate differential, the larger the impact from rollovers! The narrower the interest rate differential, the smaller the impact of the rollovers! Rollovers are usually carried out by your forex broker if you hold an open position past the settlement date.

Some online forex brokers apply the rollover rates by applying the rollover credit or debit directly to your margin balance. Other forex brokers apply the rollover rates by adjusting the average rate of your open position. Rollovers are applied to your open currency position by two offsetting trades that result in the same open position.

Rollovers are not applied if you dont carry a position over the change in the value date. Rollovers do not apply for day traders who usually close their positions at the end of each trading day. Rollovers are applied to open position after 5.00 PM EST change in value date. Rollovers only apply to your over night open position carried over to the next day.

Rollovers can earn you interest income if you are long the currency with the higher interest rate and short the currency with the lower interest rate. Rollovers will cost you money if you are short the currency with the higher interest rate and long the currency with the low interest rates.

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Trading is not investing. Trading is speculating. Trading can be challenging. Speculating is defined as taking business risk in the hope of profiting from market fluctuations. Successful speculating requires predicting outcomes and analyzing different market situations. It also requires putting your money on the side of the trade on which you think the market is going to go up or down.

Trading can also be the appreciation of the fact that if you apply the correct techniques for analyzing trades, managing your money and protecting your account, you can be wrong 70 percent of the time and still be a successful trader.

Opportunity keeps on shifting from one market to another. For example, forex and gold markets are really hot while stocks are down. Gold prices are going up. Those who entered the trend at the right time and ride the trend for maximum profits will make a lot of money in the gold markets. Right now countries, institutional investors, retail investors, in fact almost everyone is running and buying gold as a hedge against turmoil in the global markets.

Last year in 2008, oil prices had reached almost $140 per barrel in a matter of few months. Many hedge funds had made a lot of money by investing in crude oil futures in the year 2008. Then the bubble burst and oil prices came tumbling down to almost close to $35 per barrel. This situation may continue for some months or some years but suddenly you will find that crude oil futures have become a great investment opportunity again. Right now oil prices are down due to the reduced demand in the global markets.

Oil prices will again go up in a few years time as the global economy recovers and demand for oil increases. In trading it is the timing that is of essence. Timing for entering the market and the timing for exiting the market!

Investors and traders make the mistake of focusing only on one market. Many end up spending time on only one market. In reality all the markets are interlinked. Futures, options, forex, stocks, commodities, all markets are effected and in return effect other markets. If something happens in one market, you will find the repercussions in the other markets. Successful trading requires mastering a strategy that enables you to trade multiple markets and multiple time frames.

Many traders get stuck up with one market. They want to master that market. They trade only one instrument. They do testing and development. They put on a million indicators. Then they go and trade live that instrument. While they do everything they can while spending all kinds of time trying to figure out one market and one timeframe. But then what almost happens is that the market starts to go sideways. The opportunity shifts to another market.

You really have to have the ability to be able to adopt the market conditions and not waste your time to really master one market which is critical. There were so many stocks just a few years ago that were incredible to trade that either dont exist anymore or would not trade successfully today.

Many gurus will teach you that you really need to learn the ins and outs of one market. They will tell you to focus only on one market and then stick with it. But the problem with that philosophy is that opportunity keeps on shifting from one market to another. Mastering different markets is counterintuitive. Always remember a good trader always follows where the money goes. In other words, follow where the opportunity goes.

In forex trading, stop loss execution policy is somewhat different than in equity trading. If the broker bid price reaches your stop loss order rate, stop loss orders to sell are triggered. Suppose, your stop loss order to sell is 1.2540! The brokers lowest price quote is 1.2540/1.2543. Your stop loss order will be executed. Almost the same goes for buy orders.

There is a lot of volatility in the currency markets when some economic report is released. Most of the forex brokers will never guarantee stop losses around the release of economic reports. However, under normal trading conditions, some brokers will guarantee against slippage on your stop loss order. Definition of the normal trading conditions is again the discretion of the broker. The downside of this is that your stop loss order will be executed earlier and when placing them on your forex trading platform you will have to add in extra cushion.

One-Cancels-the-Other Orders: A one cancels the other order is a stop loss order paired with a take profit order. A one cancels the other order is usually abbreviated as OCO order. Your position stays open until one of the order levels is reached by the market and closes your position. When one order level is reached and triggered, the other order is automatically cancelled. An OCO order is the ultimate insurance policy for any open position!

OCO orders are highly recommended for every open position. Lets make it clear with an example. Suppose you are short USD/JPY at 120.00. You think that if it goes up beyond 120.00, its going to keep going higher. Thats where you decide to put your stop loss buying order.

At the same time, you believe that USD/JPY has downside potential to 118.50. So you set your take profit buying order at 118.50. You now have two orders bracketing the market. Your risk is clearly defined. As long as the market trades between 120.00 and 118.50, your position remains open. If 118.50 is reached first, your take profit order is triggered and you buy back at a profit. However, if 120.00 is hit first, your position is stopped out at a loss.

Contingent Orders: Contingent orders are also referred to as if/then orders. If/then orders require the If order to be done first. Only then the second part of the order becomes active. So they are sometimes also called If done/then orders. A contingent order is an order where you combine several types of orders to create a complete currency trading strategy.

The key feature of most forex broker order policies is that your order is only filled based on the price spread of the trading platform. That means that your limit order is only executed if the trading platform offer rate reaches your buy rate. Similarly, a limit order is only executed if the trading platform bid price reaches your sell rate.

Suppose you have a buy order to sell GBP/USD at 1.2655. Your brokers spread on GBP/USD pair is 4 pips. If the trading platform price is 1.2655/1.2659, your buy order will be filled. If the lowest price is 1.2652/1.2656, the limit order will not be filled as the brokers lowest rate of 1.2655 does not match your buy rate of 1.2656. Almost the same thing happens with limit orders to sell.

Stop Loss Orders: If the market moves against your position, stop loss orders are used to limit losses. If you dont use stop loss orders, you are leaving yourself at the mercy of the markets. A dangerous proposition! Stop loss orders are critical to your trading survival. The traditional stop loss order does just that. It stops losses by closing out an open position that is losing money.

Your stop loss order would be to buy but at a higher price than the current market price if you are short. Your stop loss order would be to sell but at a lower price than the current market price if you are long. Stop loss orders are on the other side of the take profit orders but in the same direction.

Trailing Stop Loss Orders: A trailing stop loss order is a stop loss order that you set at a fixed number of pips from your entry rate. As the market price moves, the trailing stop order adjusts the order rate but only in the direction of your trade.

Suppose you are long on EUR/CHF at 1.2654. You set the trailing stop loss order at 30 pips. The stop will initially become active at (1.2654-30=) 1.2624. The trailing stop loss order continues to adjust itself higher as the market moves higher. The stop adjusts itself and will become active at 1.244 if the EUR/USD rate goes up to 1.2674.

When the market puts in the top, your trailing stop will be 30 pips below the top. If the market ever goes down by 30 pips, the trailing stop loss order will be triggered and your open position closed. So in our example, you are long at 1.2654. You set the trailing stop loss at 30 pips and it became active at 1.2624.

Suppose the market never ticks up and instead the market goes straight down. You will be stopped out at 1.2624. Instead suppose the market first rises to 1.2664. Then the market declines 40 pips. Your trailing stop loss order will first rise to (1.2664-30=) 1.2634. It is at 1.2634 that you would be stopped out now.

Did you hear the saying while trading: Cut your losses and let your winners run? A trailing stop loss order allows you to do exactly that. You wait for the market to stage for a reversal in case of a possible winning trade. Instead of you picking the right level to exit on your own, the trailing stop loss order takes you out of your trade.

So the key to successful trading is to cut losing positions quickly and let winning positions run. This function is nicely performed by the trailing stop loss order. Use of stop loss orders is critical in money and risk management. Never ever, trade without the stop loss orders!

Just to remind you that forex markets are open 24 hours a day, five days a week. A market move is just likely to happen while you are asleep or in the shower as while you are sitting in front of your computer screen. Currency traders use market orders to catch market movements when they are not in front of their screens.

Market orders are very critical to your trading success. Think of the different types of market orders as trades waiting to happen. If you enter an order and the subsequent price action triggers its execution, you are in the market so be as careful as possible while playing with the market orders. Trading can be very difficult without these market orders.

Professional currency traders routinely use market orders to capture sharp short term price fluctuations, limit risk in volatile or uncertain markets, implement a trade strategy from entry to exit and preserve trading capital from unwanted loss. Market orders are essential for maintaining trading discipline.

Currency markets can be notoriously volatile and difficult to predict. There can be sudden price swings. Using market orders can help you capitalize on short term price movements while limiting the impact of any adverse price movements.

You probably dont have a well thought out trading plan if you dont use market orders. It will also give you the peace of mind in trading. There is no guarantee that the use of market orders will limit your losses and protect your profits in all market conditions. However, a disciplined use of market orders will help you quantify the risk that you are taking.

Multiple types of market orders are available in forex markets to forex traders. However, you should know that not all market orders are available at all online forex brokers. So when you open an account with a forex broker, you should add the market orders to the list of questions you need to ask the broker.

Take Profit Orders: When you have an open position in the market, use the take profit order to lock in profits. There is an old market saying, You cant go broke taking profits. Suppose you are short GBP/USD at 1.2354. Your take profit order will be to buy back the position and be place somewhere below 1.2334. Making you a profit of 20 pips! If you are long EUR/USD at 1.2845, your take profit order will be to sell the position somewhere higher close to 1.2875.

Limit Orders: Dont forget the saying, Buy low and sell high. A limit order is any market order that triggers a trade at more favorable levels than the current market price. The limit order must be placed somewhere above the current market price if the limit order is to sell. The limit order must be entered somewhere below the current market price if the order is to sell.

Cross currency pairs are as important as the major currency pairs that involve USD on either side of the transaction. The most active traded crosses focus on the three non USD currencies namely EUR, GBP and JPY. These crosses are known as the euro crosses, sterling crosses and the yen crosses. The most actively traded cross currency pairs are: EUR/GBP, EUR/JPY, GBP/JPY, AUD/JPY, EUR/CHF, and NZD/JPY. Sometimes you will find more action in the cross currency pairs. Crosses enable currency traders to directly target trades to specific individual currencies to take advantage of news or events.

You may notice that the currencies are combined in a seemingly strange way when you look up at the currency pairs. For instance, if sterling-yen (GBP/JPY) is a yen cross, why it is not being also referred to as yen-sterling (JPY/GBP)? The answer is that those quoting conventions were evolved over the years. These conventions have been designed to reflect traditionally strong currencies versus traditionally weak currencies with the strong currency coming first.

The first currency in the currency pair is known as the base currency. For example in USD/EUR, USD is the base currency. It is the base currency that you are buying or selling when you buy or sell a currency pair. The second currency in the pair is known as the counter currency. In the above currency pair, Euro is the counter or secondary currency. So if you buy 100,000 EUR/JPY. You have just bought 100,000 Euros and sold the equivalent amount in Japanese Yen.

So you can say currency trading involves simultaneously buying and selling. This is the most important difference between currency trading and stock trading. In currency trading, going long means having bought a currency pair! When you are long, you are looking for the prices to go higher. It will make you a good profit if you sell at a higher price from that where you bought. You will make a loss if you are long and the price goes down.

Going short in currency trading means selling a currency pair! It means that you have sold the currency pair, meaning you have sold the base currency and bought the counter currency. In currency trading going short is as common as going long.

Selling high and buying low is the standard currency trading strategy. Having no position in the market is known as being square or flat. If you have an open position and you want to close it, its called squaring up. If you are short, you need to buy to square up. If you are long, you need to sell to go flat.

When you open an online currency trading account, you will need to pony up cash as collateral to support the margin requirements established by your broker. A clear understanding of how P&L works is especially critical to online margin trading. Profit and Loss is how traders measure success and failure.

Profit and Loss (P&L) calculations are pretty straight forward. P&L calculations are based on position size and the number of pips you make or lose. Most of the currency pairs are quoted up to four decimal places except those involving JPY. Currency pairs involving JPY on one side are only quoted up to 2 decimal places. A pip is the smallest increment of price fluctuation in currency pairs. Suppose CHF/USD quote is 1.2233. It has gone up by 20 pips if the price moves from 1.2233 to 1.2253. Pip is the increase or decrease in the fourth decimal digit. Pips are also referred to as points. It is an abbreviation of Percentage in Points.

Currency trading is the name of the game right now. Currency trading is being called the Recession Proof Business of the 21st Century. The currency market is the crossroads for international capital, the intersection through which the global commercial and investment flows have to move. We like to think of the currency market as the, Big Kahuna of the financial markets. Currency Market is the most traded financial markets in the world.

Currency market is open around the clock six days a week, enabling currency traders to act on news and events as they happen. More than anything else, the currency market is the traders market. Its a market where a billion dollar of trades can be executed in a matter of seconds. Huge currency transactions may not even move the prices noticeably.

By far the vast majority of currency trading volume is based on speculation. While commercial and financial transactions in the currency markets represent huge nominal sums, they still pale in comparison to the amount spend on speculation.

The depth and breadth of the speculative market means that the liquidity of the overall currency market is unparalleled among global financial markets. Estimates are that upwards of 90% of the daily trading volume is derived from speculation. It means that commercial or investment based currency trades account for less than 10% of the daily global volume.

Currency trading has its own set of trading lingo just like any financial market. If you are new to currency trading, the mechanics and terminology may take some getting used to. The biggest mental hurdle facing newcomers to currency trading especially those traders coming from other markets are getting there head around the idea that each currency trade consists of a simultaneous sale and purchase.

For example, in the stock market, you own only 100 shares and want to see the price go up if you purchase 100 shares of Google (GOOG). You simply sell your 100 shares when you want to exit. But in currencies, the purchase of one currency involves the simultaneous sale of another currency.

This is the exchange in the foreign exchange. So currencies come in pairs. To make matters easier, currency markets refer to trading currencies by pairs. All most all currency pairs have nicknames or abbreviations. The major currency pairs all involve the US Dollar on one side of the deal.

The most frequently traded currency pairs in the currency market are: USD/JPY, GBP/USD, USD/CHF, EUR/USD, USD/CAD, UAD/USD, and NZD/USD. Rest of the currency pairs dont have the volume that these pairs have. The designation of each currency is expressed using ISO codes for each currency.

A cross currency pair or a cross is any currency pair that does not include the US Dollar. Cross pairs serve as the alternative to always trading the US Dollar. Although the vast majority of currency trading takes place in the dollar pairs but still there are some important crosses that get traded frequently. Cross rates are derived from the respective USD pairs but are quoted independently.

Hanging Man & the Hammer: It is considered a hanging man if it appears at the top of the uptrend! You are looking at a hammer if you see this pattern at the bottom of a downtrend. The hammer or the hanging man is identified by the small candle that appears at the very top of the pattern and there is usually a pretty long wick at the bottom.

You wouldnt trade on it if the opening price on the next trading day is higher than the hammers close if a hammer appears in a downtrend. Similarly, you wouldnt trade on it unless it is confirmed the next day with an opening price lower than the previous close, if you think you have a hanging man appearing in an uptrend.

Double stick patterns depend on two days. The first day is called the set up day. The second day is called the signal day. If you put in the time and effort to monitor them, these patterns can be very powerful and profitable. Compared to single stick patterns, double stick patterns are difficult to come by and rarely appear.

Engulfing Pattern: Engulfing candlestick pattern can be bullish or bearish! The name comes from the fact that the signal day engulfs the pattern day. Both the wick and the body of the second day completely cover the same ground as the first day. The first double candlestick pattern is the bullish engulfing pattern. The setup day candle should be bearish. The signal day candle should be bullish bigger than the last day bearish candle. Likewise the bearish engulfing pattern signals the end of an uptrend.

Harami: A Harami is a two day candlestick pattern with the candle of the setup day longer than the candle of the signal day. Harami pattern can also be bullish or bearish. The first day is very bearish and occurring in a downtrend in case of a bullish Harami. However, on the second day bulls take over. This signals reversals of a downtrend that culminated in a downtrend. Likewise, a bearish Harami signals end of an uptrend.

Harami Cross: Harami Cross is a special variant of the Harami. It involves a Doji pattern and should always be considered an indicator of the potential reversal. A Harami Cross can also be bullish or bearish. Bullish Harami Cross appears during a downtrend. Its setup date is a black long candle. Its signal day is a Doji. Similarly, a bearish Harami is considered to indicate end of an uptrend.

Bullish Inverted Hammer: This pattern occurs in a downtrend. The first day is a bearish candle. The signal day is an inverted hammer. The bullish inverted hammer is a fairly rare pattern.

Doji Star: A Doji Star can be bullish or bearish. The bullish doji star is very similar to a bullish inverted hammer. It occurs in a downtrend and signals that the bulls have had enough. A bullish doji pattern is a two day pattern with the doji appearing on the signal day during a downtrend. Likewise, a bearish doji star indicates end of an uptrend.

Meeting Line: This pattern is another signal that a trend reversal is about to take place. In case of a bullish meeting line, the setup day is a long black candle and the signal day is a long white candle.

Bullish Piercing Line: The bullish piercing line consists of a long black candle on the setup day followed by a long white candle on the signal day. The open of the signal day should be lower than the low of the setup day.

The Bearish Gravestone Doji: Dojis appear very rarely in the candlestick patterns. A Doji is created when the opening and closing prices of the day are the same. It is very rare for the opening and closing prices for the day to exactly equal each other. However, the Gravestone Doji is formed when the opening and closing prices of the day are equal to the low of the day, the most bearish of Doji.

Not all single stick patterns are straightforward. These were some single stick patters that were most basic and easy to identify. Some extremely useful single stick patterns rely heavily on their location on a chart.

If you can spot them in the right market environment, a variety of single stick patterns can provide some terrific trading opportunities. Make yourself familiar with these candlestick patterns. Learn how to identify them. Trading based on them is another way that you can add a versatile weapon to your trading arsenal.

We have talked about Dojis. Dojis are often associated with the reversal of the trend. Dojis can serve as outstanding reversal indicators. It could very well indicate that the trend maybe changing to a downtrend soon if a Doji appears in an uptrend, especially if it is a Gravestone Doji. Similarly for a downtrend!

The Long Legged Doji: A long legged Doji like the name long legged implies features a small stick. It has very long wicks or legs whatever you call them on either side. The small candle on a long legged Doji is normally located very close to the center of the candlestick.

A long legged Doji is considered a reversal signal when appearing in an uptrend or a downtrend. This Doji indicates that there was a lot of uncertainty in the market after a period of directional certainty. This change of conviction often results in the change of trend.

The Spinning Top: A spinning top is formed when a candlestick has a small body. It has wicks stick out on both ends. The body of the candlestick should appear to the center of the range of the days price action. The wicks should also be as wide as the candle section of the candlestick.

The spinning top is another candlestick pattern that depends on the market context. The spinning top also reveals a tight battle between the bulls and the bears like a Doji. An explosive move in one direction is possible when this happens. Eventually one side have to give in whenever, there is a close battle between the bulls and the bears.

Dojis appear very rarely. However, the spinning tops make frequent appearances. Like Dojis, the spinning tops are nice indicators that the trend is about to end and reverse itself.

Belt Holds: There are two types of belt holds: bullish belt hold and bearish belt hold pattern. Bullish belt hold candlestick pattern features an opening price equal to the lowest price of the day and a closing price near the highest price of the day which leaves a small wick near the top of the candle.

Belt holds also depend on market context and are excellent trend reversal signals. Bearish belt holds patterns on the other hand opens on their highs and close near their lows, thus leaving a small wick near the bottom of the candle.

Unless you understand Candlestick charting, you cant trade and invest effectively in securities or currencies. It is essential that you understand Candlestick charting. Many options exist for the charting of currencies and securities now with the advancement of technology. There are several types of charts easily available on the charting software. The four main charting methods are: 1) Candlestick charts, 2) Line Charts, 3) Point and Figure Charts and 4) Bar Charts.

For a number of reasons, the three charting methods pale in comparison with the candlestick charting. Candlestick charting has unique and inherent advantages over the other charts. You can understand whats going on with the price of a currency pair with a simple glance on the candlestick charts. One of the best features of candlestick charting is its visual appeal and readability.

You can get a sense of how the price is trending with the candlestick charts. You can easily spot the opening and closing price of a currency pair on a candlestick charts. You can also tell whether the buyers or sellers have dominated a given day. These price levels can be an important area of support and resistance for a given day.

Why should traders choose candlestick charts over other types of charts when analyzing price action of currency markets? Candlestick charts feature specific patterns that you can identify and use to decide when its best time to buy, sell or wait on a trade.

Currency traders or for that matter other traders too, need easy to read charts that allow them to make quick decisions and efficiently analyze price patterns in the markets. Candlestick charting offers those benefits and many more. The need for a consistent and dynamic charting method is more important than ever. Trading is becoming more and more complex. The following four pieces of information are combined to make a candlestick:

Price on the Open: The price at which a particular currency pair opens on a given period is the first piece of information used to create a candlestick.

High Price: The top of the candlesticks wick corresponds to the highest price reached during that given period.

Low Price: The bottom of the candlesticks wick corresponds to the lowest price that a currency pair reaches during a period.

Price on the Close: At the end of the given period, the closing price of the currency pair is the last piece of information used to create a candlestick.

You can gain far more insight into a periods trading by looking at the candlestick than you can by looking at another type of charting tool. Candlesticks that represent bullish price action appear white on the chart. Candlesticks that represent bearish price action appear black.

You can tell right away that the up day has a white candle and the down day has a black candle. That simple difference alone clearly reveals the nature of price action that took place during that period.

Candlestick charts quickly clue you on the type of buying and selling thats been going on during a given period and where it may occur again.

Candlestick patterns can reveal a lot about the underlying market sentiments. Using one of these candlestick patterns without knowing about the previous trends wouldnt be very useful. Based only on the market activity of the previous few days, most candlestick patterns are valid. For instance, some of the candlestick patterns indicate a change in trend.

Usually the context in which you find the candlestick pattern tells you a great deal about what you should do based on that candlestick pattern. Lets consider simple candlestick patterns first.

The Bullish White Marubozu: A long white candle represents the day when bulls control the market. The bulls push prices higher from the opening to the closing. The longest white candle is the most bullish of the candlestick patterns. Chances are with the long white candle closing near the high, the bulls will be back for more buying the following day.

This means that buying has been taking place all the day. The low price on the candlestick is a good support level with the long white candle. One common feature of the long white candle is an opening price near the low of the day and a closing price near the high of the day.

The Bullish Dragonfly Doji: A day must begin and end with the same price for a Doji to be created. A Doji just looks like a cross. So essentially there is no stick in the candlestick. A Doji is formed when the opening and the closing prices are the same.

Doji patterns are usually associated with a market turn. Doji depicts a day where the battle between the bulls and the bears has been fairly equal. A Doji may not look very exciting to you. But dont be fooled.

For those hoping that prices go higher, the price action depicted by the Dragonfly Doji bodes very well. A Dragonfly Doji is unique in that three of the four candlestick patterns- the open, high and the close are all equal. The low of the Dragonfly Doji day is considered a near term support level. You can make smart trades based on the Dragonfly Dojis.

The Bearish Long Black Candle: A long black candle means that sellers take over at the beginning of the day. Continuous selling throughout the day pushes prices lower and lower until the end of the day. The long black candle is as bearish as it gets. The long black candle is the direct counterpart of the long white candle discussed earlier.

Price sensitivity is very low for these sellers. These sellers are selling just to get out of their trades. Seeing this type of enthusiastic selling must give you the confidence after the appearance of the long black candle that the bears will be in control for a few more days. The long black candlestick pattern is a good bearish signal. You can capitalize on this fact.

If you want to detect a trend reversal breakout, you can identify it through the MACD divergence signals. When you spot a potential breakout scenario on a currency pair chart, you should look at how the MACD histogram is performing.

If the currency pair has been making new highs, is the MACD histogram also forming higher peaks? If it is so, you can safely assume that the uptrend is likely to continue and any breakout to the downside will be short lived and probably false.

However, suppose the MACD histogram shows a bearish divergence. This is a strong signal that a downside breakout is more likely to be sustained than false. The reverse holds true for a bullish MACD divergence. In case of a bullish MACD divergence, the chances are high for an upside breakout.

However, MACD divergence signal seldom occurs. But you should immediately take note when it makes an appearance. It is a strong signal for a trend reversal. Another momentum indicator that can help you anticipate when the prices are at the verge of breaking out is the RSI. You can use both for confirming a trend reversal.

The RSI measures the relative changes between the higher and lower closing prices over a period of time. RSI stands for the Relative Strength Index (RSI). A reading of 70 and above indicates that the currency pair is overbought. A reading of 30 or lower indicates that the currency pair is oversold.

However, an uptrend could register a prolonged period of overbought conditions whereas a downtrend could register a prolonged period of oversold conditions. The most useful way of applying RSI is through its divergence signals.

Bullish divergence occurs when a currency pair declines to a new low. But the RSI makes a higher low like that in MACD. A bearish divergence appears when the currency pair rallies to a new high. But RSI makes a lower high instead.

Remember that it is very difficult to predict with 100% accuracy the success of a breakout. Using momentum indicators like MACD and RSI can sometimes provide clues to internal trend weaknesses since momentum proceeds price change for the breakout trading strategy.

Before implementing the breakout trading strategy, detail technical analysis of the current and past price action must be carried out in order to tilt the odds of success in your favor. Trading breakout can be a very profitable strategy if it is applied sensibly after thorough analysis.

Price breakouts may be triggered by sudden forex related news or comments or unexpected geopolitical events. Breakouts frequently occur along trendlines. A trendline breakout could signal a reversal or continuation of trend. In case of a trend continuation, this break may indicate a temporary interruption in the prevailing trend or signal that the trend will continue but at a slower pace.

Trading channel breakout is a very profitable strategy among the currency traders. A channel basically consists of two parallel trendlines which can be drawn to encapsulate the price action.

When prices move out of a price range, then back into the price range and then breaks out of the level again, stopping both breakout traders and faders at least once, whipsaw takes place. When there is a lack of momentum or the breakout is small and weak, a whipsaw breakout usually occurs.

Reasonably placed stops can help preserve your capital when the price breakout does not go your way. Some times the price action is so choppy that it is better to stay out of the market. Breakouts all carry some risk of failure.

Successful trading of a reversal breakout obviously means massive profits in the shortest possible time. However, things are not that simple as they seem on the surface. How do you know if a breakout is going to reverse the current trend?

There are some chart patterns that can help in identifying a likely breakout. You should look out for these reversal chart patterns that tend to serve as harbingers of a trend change. There is a high chance that a reversal may be in the works if you spot these chart formations in daily or weekly charts. Examples of such patterns include head & shoulder, double top, triple top, double bottom, triple bottom etc.

In addition to looking for these chart patterns, you can also make use of the momentum indicators to tell you if a trend is nearing its end. Momentum indicators also known as oscillators are leading indicators. They help in identifying a trend reversal before time.

MACD comprises of 3 Exponential Moving Averages (EMA). The MACD line is the difference between the 12 period Exponential Moving Average and 26 periods Exponential Moving Average. Usually a signal line consisting of 9 periods Exponential Moving Average is plotted together with the MACD line. Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) is one of the simplest, yet most dependable indicators for a trader.

A better visualization of the MACD is in the form of a histogram. A bullish signal is given when MACD line crosses above its signal line. A bearish signal occurs when the MACD line crosses below its signal line.

The MACD histogram tracks the speed of the price action. For example, if the price move accelerates with an upside breakout to a higher level as more and more buyers enter the rally, the histogram should become bigger.

As the speed of the price movement accelerates in a quick rally, each line becoming longer than the previous line. On the other hand, each line will become shorter than the previous line. When the price movement decelerates, the histogram will contract.

When the currency pair rallies to a new high but the MACD histogram declines then a bearish divergence is formed. You can detect trend reversal breakout with the help of a MACD divergence signals. Read the next part of this article for more.

When the currency price moves beyond the period of consolidation or range trading, a breakout typically occurs. Massive profits are what breakout trading can provide you. Who doesnt want to reap massive profits from a big price move in a short time?

There are times when trading the breakout can be very profitable even though breakouts are known to be technically unstable. A breakout occurs when the price moves above or below a support or resistance level whether temporarily or permanently.

You will have to take into account many market factors including both the technical and the fundamental analysis in order to trade breakouts with a higher probability of success.

Both stocks and futures are traded on a centralized exchange. At the end of the day the traders can find out the volume of each security that had been traded during the day. The volume information is easily available for stocks and futures. Information about volume is critical to trading the breakout.

However, volume data is not available for currency markets due to its Over the Counter nature. This data cannot be collected due to the decentralized nature of the currency markets. Volume reveals where the market is positioned or positioning. Lack of forex volume data is a huge disadvantage to forex traders.

Volume is a very important criterion for any breakout trading strategy as successful breakouts are generally accompanied by a rise in volume. When the price attempts a breakout of a significant support or resistance level, it signals a change in the underlying supply and demand conditions possibly triggered by a change in market sentiments caused by some new markets fundamentals.

Price breakouts can be of two types: 1) Continuation Breakouts and 2) Reversal Breakouts. Successful breakouts must be accompanied with a strong surge of momentum in the direction of the breakout in order to be sustainable. Poor momentum will generally lead to the fizzling out of the breakout and continuation of the existing trend.

Continuation Breakout: In a continuation breakout, currency prices break out of an established price level to again resume the underlying trend. The breakout occurs after a period of consolidation in which the buyers and sellers of the currency pair try to regroup and think about the next price move. The price action climbs higher in continuation of an uptrend or falls further lower in a downtrend.

Reversal Breakout: A breakout my lead to a trend reversal and the beginning of a new trend in the opposite direction! Reversal breakout means a new trend in the opposite direction caused by new market fundamentals.

The prices may break the support or resistance but then retreat back into the previous price zone. A false breakout can always occur. There are many times when the price action does not move in a straightforward direction in the markets.

If they have placed their stops just above or below the resistance or support levels, stopping out most of the breakout traders! The worst kind of a breakout is the whipsaw type.

There are some technical formations where the false breakouts are more likely to occur in the currency price charts. You should be able to identify likely false breakouts in order to employ the breakout fading strategy. You need to apply a lot of common sense in identifying a false breakout.

Head and Shoulders Pattern: This chart pattern is the hardest for new traders to identify. The head and shoulder pattern consists of three points of rallies. The middle rally is the highest with the left and right being smaller. The pattern resembles the head and shoulder pattern of a human. Dont confuse it with a shampoo. A neckline can be drawn connecting the lows of the left and right shoulders.

The head and shoulder pattern is usually found in the middle or end of an uptrend. An inverted head and shoulder pattern can also be found in the middle or end of a downtrend. If the head and shoulder pattern is found at the end of an uptrend, it signals a bearish reversal or a consolidation period before the uptrend is continued.

If they are buying up the rallies from the support level, many traders who have identified the head and shoulder pattern as a possible breakout signal place their stop loss orders below the neckline. Head and shoulder patterns are notorious for precipitating a false breakout.

Similarly, if they are shorting the decline from the resistance level, traders place their stop loss orders above the neckline of the inverted head and shoulder pattern. Traders can also place numerous entry stop orders below the neckline or above the inverse neckline in anticipation of a breakout besides the stop loss orders.

Most of the time, false breakouts are triggered by the market makers to shake out the positions of small traders. The prices will usually rebound and there maybe explosive price movements off the neckline in the pre breakout zone.

You may choose to place a stop loss slightly below the high of the second shoulder or slightly above the low of the second shoulder. You may fade the breakout with a limit of market entry order a few pips above the neckline or a few pips below the inverse neckline. It is always best to assume that the first break of a head and shoulder pattern will tend to be false.

Double Top and Double Bottom: A double top formation consists of two rally peaks separated by a valley. The two peaks need not be of the same height. A double bottom is simply an inverted image of a double top. The problem with this chart pattern is also this that it is used by novice traders as a signal for possible breakout.

Using this chart pattern as an indication for a likely breakout makes these traders easy bait for the big players. Fading breakout is more effective in range bound markets. The breakout fading strategy usually does not work well when the market is in a strong trending phase.

However, every false breakout may not be the result of the tricks big players use. Market running out of steam to reach higher highs and lower lows in a sustained price break may also give you a false breakout.

When there are not enough buyers in the market to sustain an upward price move or not enough sellers in the market to sustain a downward price move, the breakout may not be sustainable and may fade out soon. Individual traders have higher chances of success if they also fade the breakout since the big players like to fade breakouts.

Fading breakouts is counterintuitive. It is not something instinctive. Everyone wants big easy profits. Profits potential in price breakout is far higher than in a failed breakout. The question is how to identify a false breakout.

You should look for opportunities on a minimum time frame of hourly or more. False breakouts can occur anywhere on the price charts at the levels of support and resistance.

You need to know how to draw trendlines. Trendlines are drawn by joining at least two extreme points of highs or lows over a long period of time. They can be horizontal or sloping. The price will bounce off the trendline in a false breakout and the probability of a false breakout is higher if the trendline is at an angle or a gradient.

The chances of this fading breakout are more if the moving average lies slightly above the descending trendline or slightly below the ascending trendline. Usually the third or sometimes even fourth extreme point of contact on a gently sloping trendline presents a good fading opportunity.

The chances of a false breakout or a trendline bounce will be much higher if the prices are approaching the trendline slowly and gently. The speed of price movement before the approach to the trendline should be considered. It is very important in identifying a fading breakout.

The fast and high amplitude approach will most likely result in a successful price breakout of the trendline on the other hand. There will be a sustained follow through in prices due to the high momentum. In such a case, dont trade it as a likely false breakout.

You will want to know how to trade a fading breakout? You should place a limit or market entry order a few pips below a down trendline or above an up trendline. You can stagger your entry orders by placing another order a few pips away from the breakout if you are an aggressive trader.

Now there are a few chart patterns that are ideal for identifying the false breakouts. You should read the next part of this article for more on those chart patterns. About placing staggered entry orders for fading breakouts, you should do it with a proper money management plan. Stops should be placed at least 20-30 pips beyond the support or resistance, away from the price zone. This will make your average cost of entry more favorable for either your long position or your short position.

There must be a seller for each buyer and a buyer for each seller. If there is so much market demand to buy above a resistance level or sell below the support, the broker acting as the market maker has to absorb all these orders. However, you must know that the market maker is not a fool.

Most of the retail traders being new or inexperienced individual investor like to trade the breakouts! The new traders learn technical analysis. They tend to most eagerly follow trade recommendations based on certain chart patterns recommended in the technical analysis courses.

Most of the successful traders are contrarian in their trading approach. The seasoned traders do exactly the opposite of what the crowd is expected to do. They prefer to fade breakouts.

For every loser, there is a winner. Trading is a zero sum game. Most of the breakouts fail because the institutional or the seasoned traders take advantage of the crowd psychology of the retail or inexperienced traders and win at their expense.

Understand the tricks that can be played by the forex dealers and seasoned traders. Market makers, mostly the forex dealers and brokers can fade breakouts. Their game plan is simple. They will make money from the majority of the crowd. The crowd thinks that prices will rally happily after an upside breakout. Similarly, the crowd thinks that it will decline dangerously after a downside breakout.

Market makers have to take the opposite side of your trade whether you like it or not. They are the pricing counterparties to the retail traders like you and me. Suppose most of the retail traders have placed their stop entry order at a certain price above the resistance level.

Market makers reach into their pockets and spend some of their money to bid up the price to that level where most of the stop entry levels have been placed. Now they can sell to most of the traders who are desperate to buy thus making some decent profits from this trick.

By selling to the retail crowd, market makers get the chance to close their long positions. Now they begin to overwhelm the buying crowd by going short. This pushes the prices down, below the breakout level. Many stop loss orders have been placed by the retail traders who wanted to trade the upside breakout at this price level.

Market makers have the information of their customers orders from their order book. Thus a potential conflict of interest exists. By buying from the retail traders who are selling to close their losing breakout trades, market makers happily offload their short positions now. Retail traders must know how to protect themselves.

Retail crowd thinks that the false breakout is due to the sudden turning of the market. These false breakouts are most likely the direct result of the games market makers play. Market makers often go on the stop hunting spree. False breakouts maybe the consequence of that!

Suppose you believe that the currency prices will not be able to follow through action in the direction of the breakout. Fading breakouts refers to trading against breakouts. When we believe that breakouts from support and resistance levels to be false and unsustainable we fade breakouts.

False breakouts are also known as fakeouts. False breakouts are a bane for breakout traders but boon for breakout faders. Fading breakouts tends to be more effective as a short term strategy. It is not meant to be a long term strategy.

Support level attracts the buyers enthusiasm for higher bids. It prevents the price from falling further. The resistance level attracts the sellers enthusiasm for shorting and it prevents the price action from advancing higher. Support and resistance are seen as the price floor and the price ceiling respectively.

It is perfectly logical for the crowd to think that if the support level is penetrated, then the price action should move downward. The crowd is more likely to sell than to buy when the price action breaks the support level from above. The idea of trading breakouts appeals to many independent traders especially those new to currency trading. The crowd likes to trade the breakout.

The opposite is true of a price break above the resistance level and the crowd usually concludes that if the resistance is broken, then the prices are more likely to advance higher in the rally. Hence, the crowd is more likely to buy than to sell when the price action breaks the resistance level from below.

Now you can understand why there tends to be large number of entry stop orders placed just above a resistance level and also placed below a support level. You will also find clusters of stop loss orders placed by traders who have brought near the support level or have sold near the resistance level.

So when the price action breaks out above the resistance level, short positions will be stopped out. Similarly, long positions will be stopped out when the currency prices crosses below the support level.

Why most breakouts fail? One of the most important reasons why most breakouts fail is due to the fact that smart traders need to take the money from the novice and inexperience traders. The majority will cash out of the trading game broke. Always remember, it does not always pay to have the same mentality as the crowd.

Smart money belongs to the big players who have a couple of tricks to sabotage the crowd. The crowd holds the dumb money with the weak hands. Money has to be made from the majority. Not from the minority who got it right and know how to play the games.

The most money is made when the crowd turns out to be wrong. When the crowd scrambles to get out of their losing positions, it causes vertical rallies or declines. Read Part II for more.

Day traders often rake up major commissions charges if they are trading stocks which makes it that much more difficult to beat the overall market. In case of currency trading, the cost of trading is hidden in the bid/ask spreads offered by the broker. So the more you day trade, the higher your trading cost will become. In the end, if you are unable to breakeven, you cannot survive long in day trading.

Swing trading also entails facing stiff trading costs in the shape of spread in case of currencies or commissions if you are trading stocks. But these trading costs are nothing as severe as in day trading. Because price action spans several days to several weeks, market fundamentals can come into play to a larger degree as compared to day trading.

The holding period is longer in swing trading than in day trading. Swing trading can also generate higher potential profits on single trades. Day to day currency movements are due less to market fundamentals and more to short term supply and demand of currencies or shares.

Day trading demands lots of attention and time commitment from you. There is a misconception that day trading can be taken as a hobby. It is stressful and a winning position can turn into a losing one within seconds. If you want to permanently take on day trading, you have to have strong nerves.

Swing trading with an eye on earning additional income or improving the returns on your portfolio is less stressful than swing trading for a living. Currency markets are open 24/5. You can trade anytime of the day. You can enter or exit a position even late hours. Swing trading currency markets can be very profitable. Now the good thing about swing trading is that you can take it full time or part time.

Part time swing trading means doing analysis when you get home from work and then implementing trades the following day! Even though you may not be able to watch the market all day, you can enter stop loss orders to protect your capital. If you eventually want full time swing trading, you should first go though this phase first.

Swing trading part time is suitable for you if you have a full time job but can devote a few hours a week to analyzing markets and securities or currencies. You should have a passion for financial markets and short term trading. If you are achieving subpar results in your current investment portfolios from your financial advisors or third party then you can take up part time swing trading.

Again swing trading is not for fun. Part time swing trading is for you if you are not a gambler. Swing trading is for you if you dont take undue risks like doubling down your positions after a losing trade. You should also have the discipline to consistently place stop loss orders.

By swing trading instead of day trading, you are able to commit less capital to the markets to reach extraordinary gains. At the end of the day, when it comes down to is the fact that you need to determine your trading style before you become serious in trading.

Determining your trading style is very important right from the beginning. Not knowing what type of a trader you are can make or break your trading career. Take the analogy of a cricket team. There are 11 players in each team in the match. All players are talented and super fit. Everyone can throw and catch the ball. However some are more skilled at balling. Others are more skilled at batting. If the baller is going to do the job of the batter, not many runs will be made and the match will be lost.

In general there are three type of trading styles: Position trading, swing trading and day trading. Investing in the currency markets or stock markets is also the same. It depends on your personality makeup what type of trading is best suited to you. You need to know what type of trading style is for you.

In currency trading, position trading means you are in a trade for many months trying to capitalize on a major long term move in the market. Position Trading is generally the buy and hold strategy of investing in stocks over a long haul. Usually positions traders are in a trade for a large long term move like when you carry trade AUD/JPY. Options traders can also be position traders through covered calls and other strategies.

Swing trading is possibly the most dynamic of the three types of trading as the swing trader is able to switch up holding times quickly as the market demands. Swing Trading means taking short term positions in anticipation of quick market movements over a series of days or weeks. Swing traders take advantage of technical and fundamental analysis.

Day trading is not easy and it is certainly not a hobby. Sometimes when the positions warrants holding for a longer period, day trading can become swing trading! In Day Trading, you attempt to capitalize on intraday movements with the markets often trading on momentum and news. Day traders are also known as Kings of Stress.

You should note that if you dont have time to watch your trades every moment, you should not think of day trading. Day trading is the riskiest of the three trading styles. Day trading is ideal for those who are able to handle erratic market movements while actually also having time to monitor the positions throughout the day.

Swing Trading Is a Better Alternative to Day Trading Many people are attracted to the glamour and excitement of day trading. Day trading hardly ever ends up well especially if the trader has no previous professional trading experience. Only 10% of the day traders succeed. Most day trader usually blow up their accounts and fade away.

Swing trading can be on the other hand a much more effective trading style especially if you are a newer trader. By holding positions overnight and even for a few weeks, you can expose less money for larger moves. If you are a new trader, think about it for a moment.

You should focus on the non-commercial participants rather than on the commercial participants when you look at the COT report. You would ask the reason for ignoring the commercial category. Commercial participants are mostly trading forex futures for hedging purposes. They keep on rolling on their positions from month to month for hedging even though they maybe taking losses. This way they are hedging the foreign exchange risk for their business transactions.

However, large speculators like the hedge funds and the banks trade the forex futures contract for speculation and capital gains only. Most will immediately close their losing position instead of rolling it over to the next month. Large speculators do not have any intention of taking delivery of the currency in cash like the commercial participants.

There is a close correlation between the forex futures market and the spot forex market. By gauging market sentiment in the forex futures market, you can also gauge the market sentiment in the spot forex market.

Near the maturity of the forex futures contract, the spot forex and the currency future prices converge. Prices become equal on maturity. Currency futures are basically spot prices adjusted for the forwards based on the interest rate differentials to arrive at the future delivery price.

Forex futures are traded on a Centralized Exchange Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). CME functions as a clearing house between the counter parties. The main difference between the spot forex market and the forex futures market is that the spot forex market is not a centralized market. It is an Over the Counter (OTC) market. So no volume and net position data is available for the spot forex market.

You should become familiar with the differences in price quotation system used in both the markets. When either the spot or the future price of the currency rises, the other also tends to rise and when either falls, the other also tend to falls. For example, if GBP futures price goes up spot price of GBP/USD goes up too. The spot and futures prices of a currency tend to move in tandem.

Calculate the net position of the non-commercial contract by subtracting the long position total from the short position total. Usually when a particular currency is trending up against the US Dollar, the non-commercials tend to register a net long position as the large speculators would like to continue riding the trend.

The opposite is also true when a particular currency is trending down against the US Dollar. When the market is trending down against USD, the non-commercials will have a net short position. By comparing the latest net positioning with that of the past few weeks or months, you can tell if the latest net positioning is skewing towards an extreme reading.

You can detect turning points in the spot forex market with the COT reports by keeping an eye on the net directional positioning and net contract volume in the non-commercial category. When the majority of the market is positioned incorrectly, dramatic price moves like the major turning points tend to occur.

You can use your COT report analysis to optimize your trading strategies. Entry and exit cannot be timed solely based on COT report but it can generate warning signals of a possible turn ahead in the spot forex market. What deters many traders from using the COT report is its raw organization of data. COT report is a treasure trove.

The mood of the currency market depends on what the majority of the traders are thinking about the present market situation. How do you measure the currency market sentiment? You can get an idea of the overall market sentiment by reading reports written by analyst and financial journalist in the news wires. You can also join online trading forums to see what other traders are thinking about the current market situation to form your opinion on the market sentiment.

You may think that the other traders are in a buying or selling mood. But that may not be what is really happening in reality. This way of getting the feel of the market sentiment is not very accurate.

How do you gauge the market sentiment effectively then? You can accurately gauge the market sentiment by reading the Commitment of Traders (COT) report. What is COT? The COT report provides the detailed positioning information about the futures market.

COT report is one of the most underrated reports. Many forex traders dont know about it. Forex traders can use COT report to gauge the market sentiment. You can assess the COT report on the CFTC website for free. The COT report is compiled and released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the United States on a weekly basis every Friday at 15:30 EST.

Basically two types of COT reports are made available. The one is the futures only COT Report and the second is the futures and options combined COT Report. A look at the futures only COT report will give you the glimpse of what has happened in the futures currency market and its implications for the spot forex market.

Savvy currency traders spend their weekends going through the COT report. The data used in the COT report is three days old. No doubt there is a time lag between the reporting of data and the release of the report. But still you can use this report to gauge the market sentiment. The information in the COT report can be nonetheless useful to you. It hardly takes fifteen minutes to make a judgment.

There are three categories in the COT report. The three categories are: 1) Commercial, 2) Non-commercial and 3) Non-reportable. The COT report tells you the long and short positions undertaken by participants from each category.

Commercial: The commercial category consists of those currency futures market participants who use the futures contract for hedging purposes. These commercial participants are mostly exporters and importers in the market. They are hedging against the currency fluctuations for the next few months. Lets take an example, suppose Japanese company Toyota expects to receive $500 million worth of sales from the US market in the next quarter.

Toyota Company will short $500 millions in JPY currency futures for the next few months to hedge against the USD decline. Similarly suppose the US pharmaceutical company is looking to exports $50 million worth of drugs to the Japanese market in the next quarter. It will long $50 million JPY currency futures till the next quarter when the revenue is in fact realized.

Non-commercial: The non-commercial category consists of large speculators. Hedge funds, banks, institutional investors and so on are included in this category. These are the major players who speculate in currency futures for quick capital gains.

Non-reportable: This category comprises small speculators like you and me. They are also known as the retails traders or individual traders.

Economic growth of countries can also have a big impact on the overall currency market sentiment besides the interest rates. When the economy overheats, inflationary pressures increase forcing the Central Banks to increase the interest rates in order to cool the economy. US economy is the key factor in determining the global currency market sentiment. United States is the largest economy in the world. US economic news can and does affect the major currency pairs like EUR/USD, GBP/USD, CHF/USD and JPY/USD.

A strong economic expansion coupled with a healthy labor market tends to boost consumer spending in the country. Good economic growth means low unemployment. Low unemployment means jobs for the people. It helps in selling the stuff produced by the local companies and businesses.

A country with a strong economy is in a better position to attract foreign investors. Investments pouring into the country increase the demand for that currency. This increased demand causes that currency to strengthen against other currencies.

Some of the most important indicators of a country economic growth are: 1) Gross Domestic Product, 2) The unemployment rate and 3) The trade balance. Lets discuss these three economic indicators.

GDP: GDP measures the total good and services that are produced in a particular country in a one year. Actually we will be usually talking about the GDP growth rate whether the economy is expanding or contracting. A healthy GDP growth rate figure usually adds a bullish sentiment to the currency of that country especially if it exceeds the market expectations. Always remember the markets react violently to surprises.

Unemployment Rate: A low unemployment rate is considered to be a positive for the countrys economy and its currency. A low unemployment rate means almost all the consumers have jobs and they are willing to spend more. The more the consumer spends, the more the companies and businesses in the country sell. This generates more output and further expands the economy. The unemployment rate data reports the state of the labor market in the country. The opposite is true for a high unemployment rate. High unemployment means the economy is in recession and many people are without jobs just like the present. Under such conditions, consumer spending decreases. Companies and businesses start laying off more workers and in extreme case go bankrupt when they cant sell their stuff in the markets.

Trade Balance: Current account balance is very important for measuring the health of a particular economy. If a country exports more than it imports, the trade balance is in surplus. If the imports are more than the exports, the country will end up with a trade deficit. Trade Balance is the net exports in short. This is another widely watched economic indicator in fundamental analysis. Current account deficit must be balanced by the capital account surplus otherwise a balance of payment problem will ensue. Trade deficits are not good.

For example, suppose US import more from Europe. USD will have to be sold in order to buy Euros to pay for those imports. This will result in the depreciation of USD relative to the Euro and other currencies. The opposite is true in case of a trade surplus. USD will strengthen relative to Euro if US exports more to Europe as compared to its imports.

Geopolitical risk is also very important. It refers to the risk of a countrys foreign or domestic policy affecting domestic social and political stability in another country or the region. Geopolitical risk can cause the currency of a country to move up or down relative to other currencies in short as well as long term.

You will want to know the factors that influence market sentiment. Trends in interest rates are one of the most significant factors influencing market sentiment. Interest rates play a major role affecting the supply and demand of currencies in the global financial markets.

Interest rates in each country are decided by the respective central banks. Every currency in the world has an interest rate attached to it. FED determines the interest rates in US. Reserve Bank of New Zealand determines the interest rates in New Zealand. Similarly the Bank of Japan determines the interest rates in Japan.

Some governments want more foreign investment. Those currencies will have a higher interest rate. Investors are always looking for a better interest rate yield on fixed income securities. These currencies will attract the most attention from the savvy international investors. Global movement of money also depends on the economic and geopolitical risks between countries.

What causes fluctuations in the interest rates? In simple terms, inflation! The value of money decreases when there is an upward revision of prices of most goods and services in the country.

Central banks are responsible for ensuring the price stability in the domestic economies. Central banks control inflationary pressures by increasing the interest rates. Monetary policy is an important tool for the central banks.

If the inflationary pressures are increasing in the economy, FED would raise the Federal Fund Rate. This is the rate the banks charge each other for overnight loans. When overnight rates are changed, retail banks will adjust their prime banking rates accordingly affecting businesses and individuals.

The most important way in which interest rates can affect the currencies is through the widespread practice of carry trade. A carry trade involves shorting of a low interest rate currency to go long on a higher interest rate currency in order to gain the difference between the two interest rates. This difference is known as the Interest Rate Differential.

So you can see currencies with higher interest rates are highly sought after by investors looking for a higher return on their investments. The carry trader is paid the interest rate on the currency on which he/she is long. He/she must pay the interest rate on the shorted currency.

Investors tend to shift their assets to higher interest rate currency from lower interest rate currency. They have to buy that currency for that transfer of funds and assets. This increased demand for the currency pushes the currency price relative to other currencies. As a general rule, rising interest rates tend to strengthen a currency relative to other currencies.

In 2005, Japan was offering almost zero interest rates on Japanese Yen deposits. The interest rates had been made almost zero to fight a decade long deflationary cycle and kick start the economy again. There was a lot of interest in Japanese investors to invest in New Zealand dominated assets. NZD was paying a higher interest rate as compared to the near zero interest rate being offered on JPY.

So in general rising interest rates should boost the market sentiment for that particular currency relative to other currencies. The opposite is also true and interest rates cut would result in bearish sentiments regarding the currency of that country relative to other currencies.

Do you see the market as a big mechanical matrix which is devoid of emotions? How do you view the forex market is very important. Most traders have a love hate relationship with the market thinking that the market is either against them or for them.

At a particular moment in time, the market is emanating the emotions of currency speculators sitting on their trading desks or on their computers around the world. The truth is that forex market is just the compressed display of these emotions.

You should think of a market as a big living organism. Think that this organism is made up of millions of cells. Each cell is doing its own functions. Each cell also interacts with other cells of the body keeping the living organism alive and kicking around the clock.

A forex market comprises millions of participants acting out their perceptions and emotions. Knowing what the market thinks and how it thinks is crucial to trading success.

You need to know what the other participants are thinking. Ultimately, you as the trader are dealing with other traders out there whether they are big institutional players or an independent trader.

Market sentiment is the most important factor that drives the markets especially the currency markets and other financial markets. What is the market sentiment? Market sentiment is simply what the majority of the market participants are perceived to be thinking or feeling about the market at anyone time.

Traders tend to act based on what they feel and think of certain currencies regarding their strengths or weaknesses relative to other currencies. Market sentiment sums up to the overall dominating emotions of the market participants. It explains the current actions of the market as well as the future course of action.

Market sentiment is primarily based on the participating traders emotions. These emotions are one of the greatest factors in the determination of the currency exchange rate. One thing you should know is that market sentiment is not logical.

It is like a fickle lover. The incoming new information can upset the existing emotion. Markets are capable of changing its mind based on new information. Market sentiment can be bearish, bullish or just plain confused.

If the majority of the market participants want to buy that currency, the market sentiment is bullish. If the majority wants to sell the currency, the market sentiment is deemed to be bearish. When most market participants are unsure of what to do at a particular moment, the sentiments end up being mixed up.

Suppose you can understand what the other traders are thinking and why the market is doing what it is doing. You will be in a better position to plan the entry and exit for your trade. Understanding the current market sentiment is important for you. You can exploit it with an appropriate strategy that can help maximize your trading profits. In Part II of this article we will discuss what factors influence the market sentiment in the short term as well as the long term.

Modified capitalization weighting involves adjustments to the capitalizations of the various component issues of the Nasdaq-100 index. The NDX contract at the CBOE is based on Nasdaq-100 as is the MNX. The Nasdaq-100 is a modified capitalization weighted index.

Frank Russell Company is one of the leading global investment consultants. It is also involved in performance measurement, analysis and investment management. Russell 2000 is the well known benchmark for small capitalization sector. Several Russell Indexes have become benchmarks for specific areas of investment management.

Russell 3000 Index as the name implies includes 3000 issues. These 3000 companies represent 98% of the investable US equities. The index is adjusted for certain factors such as cross holdings and the number of pairs in hands.

Russell 3000 is further split into subsets like Russell 1000 Index. It covers the top 1000 about 92% of the value of the entire 3,000 stock index. The Russell 2000 Index is the smallest 2000 companies in the Russell 3000 Index.

Dow Jones is the publisher of the Wall Street journal. The Wall Street Journal is probably one of the most perfect business franchises from the business point of view. The net worth of most of its readers is in seven figures. Wall Street Journal is a franchise that is very hard to duplicate.

DJIA became an important business barometer over the years. Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) comprising 12 smokestack companies made its debut in the year 1896 and it grew to encompass 30 large industrial companies.

The DJIA is still one of the worlds best known stock measures. The average is maintained by the editors of the Wall Street Journal. It consists of 30 largest and most liquid blue chip stocks in the US.

The DJIA unlike the S&P 500, Russell 3000 Indexes or the Nasdaq-100 is a price weighted average. The highest price issues hold the most influence over the average. Recently Microsoft (MSFT) and Intel were added to the DJIA.

A 1 percent move in a $90 Microsoft stock would have a greater impact than a 1 percent move in a $30 Intel stock. ETFs exit on many Dow Indexes like the DJIA, the Dow Jones Total Market Index, the Dow Jones Global Titan Index and various sector indexes.

Wilshire serves over 400 organizations in over 20 countries representing over $2 trillion in assets. Wilshire flagship index is the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index.

Over the years, it has increased to 6500 issues representing the increase in the number of companies in the US. It represents the broadest index for the US equity markets.

The Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) database contains nearly 25,000 securities. This database covers equities in 50 countries and one of the advantages of MCSI and its foreign indexes is consistency. MSCI calculates nearly 3,000 indexes daily and services a client base of over 1,200 worldwide.

There are 100s of ETFs and HOLDRS covering key industry benchmarks such as the various Standard & Poor Indexes, Russell Indexes or the Dow Jones Averages. There are ETFs that cover the other less well known narrow based sectors.

For example SPY tracks the Standard & Poors 500 Composite Index and is the largest of the ETFs. You should know the major indexes that are either key benchmarks or have ETFs tied to them.

Standard & Poor: Standard & Poor (S&P) is the financial services segment of the McGraw Hill companies. It has been providing independent and objective financial information, analysis and research for nearly 140 years.

It is also the provider of equity indexes. Investors around the globe use S&P Indexes for investment performance measurement. These indexes are also used as the basis for wide variety of financial instruments such as Index Funds, Futures, Options and ETFs.

S&P 500 Composite is one of the most popular indexes in the global financial markets. It is also used as a key benchmark for money manager performance. Hundreds of companies around the world have licenses with the Standards & Poors for their index products. The influence and name recognition of S&P 500 is unparalleled.

The S&P 500 is a capitalization weighted index that tracks the performance of 500 large capitalization issues. S&P 500 represents more than 75% of the capitalization of the entire US Stock Market. Each year thousands of money managers have the single minded goal of outperforming the S&P 500.

The stocks in the S&P 500 are determined by a nine member committee in accordance with the general guidelines. 30 years back most of the stocks in S&P 500 were from the Industrial Sector. Over the years, the complexion of S&P 500 has changed. By 1970s, six of the top companies were from the Oil Sector. In 2000s, technology composed about one third of the capitalization of the index.

The other Standard & Poors indexes are the S&P Midcap 400 Index and it is based on 400 chosen domestic stocks. It is also capitalization based and measures the performance of the midsize companies of the US economy.

S&P SmallCap 600 is also capitalization weighted index and is of interest to institutional and retail investors. The S&P SmallCap 600 Index consists of 600 smallcap domestic stocks and these stocks are chosen for market size and liquidity. There are also sub-indexes based on these S&P Indexes.

NASDAQ: You will often hear the Nasdaq market being up or down on a given day in the media. NASDAQ Composite Index contains more than 4500+ companies representing a market capitalization of trillions of dollars.

There is another Nasdaq Index called the Nasdaq-100. NASDAQ-100 is composed of the top 100 nonfinancial companies in the Nasdaq Stock Market like Microsoft etc. It is a modified capitalization weighted index. The QQQ is based on the Nasdaq-100 Index.

You should understand how to select stop orders to limit your potential losses and how to let profits ride. Managing risk and using systems that helps evaluate price changes is critical for a trader if he/she is to maintain a degree of profitability over time.

Managing risk should be your number one job and capturing as much profit as possible from winning trades should be your utmost goal. The descriptions of the types of stops and the pros and cons of each should help you make the right decisions for the different market conditions.

You should know the various types of stop loss orders. You should also know where and when to place these stops. Predetermined stop loss orders help you conquer your emotions. Stops should be part of the trading system and included in your trading rules.

Stop orders can be placed close to the entry level when volatility is low. However, when the volatility is high, stop orders should be placed further from the entry level. Set a stop objective. Weigh the risk/reward ratio before entering each trade.

Initially you will form an opinion based on your gut feelings that is substantiated by a trade signal. When entering a trade make sure you know where and why to put the stop order.

However, you will undoubtedly get caught in the news driven price shock events. It makes the markets highly unpredictable in the short run. These news releases create price spikes that may make an adverse move against your position.

Stop orders can also be placed to enter positions. Stop orders that you place online if the market trades at a certain price, then the order is triggered and become a market order to be filled in by the next best price available. Stop orders are placed to protect against losses.

Sell stops are placed below the current market price. Buy stops are placed above the current market price. Protective stops are used to offset a position and to protect against losses and against accrued profits.

You can set a daily dollar amount on the loss limit. Suppose you want to risk only $250 per $100,000 standard lot position. Stops can be placed on a dollar amount per position. Your stop loss should be placed 25 pips from your entry point.

Traders use 2-5% of the overall account size as their stop loss. Suppose your trading account size is $10,000. You can also use a certain percent of your overall account size as your stop loss. This comes out to be $200-$500.

Many traders tend to turn winners into losers as they get in the let it ride mindset. The trailing stop reduces the chance to let trades ride. Swing traders can use the automatic trailing stop. This makes the decision making process fully automated.

Every trading strategy needs to take into account the upcoming news and data releases before the position is opened. You should know the schedule of all data releases and news events most likely to occur during the anticipated time horizon of your trading strategy.

You should have a good understanding of what the market is expecting in terms of event outcomes to anticipate how the market is most likely to react. One important thing that you should not lose sight of is that forex markets are highly integrated with the other financial markets.

You must know how gold prices are going to affect USD. There is a negative correlation between the gold prices and USD. Gold prices are on the rise. Gold has always been considered to be the ultimate hedge against the financial turmoil. You need to develop the habit of looking at whats going on in other markets. You should try to anticipate the fall out of other markets on the forex market. Forex markets function alongside other major financial markets like stocks, futures, commodities (particularly gold and oil), bonds, options etc. There are important psychological relationships between these markets and the currency market.

Look back over the whole process to understand what you did right and what you did wrong. How did you identify the trade opportunity? Was it based on technical analysis, fundamental analysis or a combination of the two? Evaluate your trading results after each trade, regardless of the outcome.

For example, if your winning trades are more as a technical trader, you should probably devote more energy to that approach. Looking at your trade this way will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses as a fundamental trader or a technical trader.

You should also ask yourself was the position size sufficient to match the risk and reward scenario or was it too large or too small. Could you have entered at a better level? What tools you might have used to improve your entry timing? Were you patient enough in your trade or did you rush to make hasty decisions?

Were you effectively able to monitor your trade after it was open and active? If so how? If not, why not? The answers to these questions will reveal a lot about how much time and dedication you are able to devote to your trading.

Evaluating your trading results on a regular basis is an essential step in improving your trading performance. Forex trading is all about getting out of it what you put into it. This will help you in maximizing your trading strengths, minimizing your trading weaknesses and refining your trading style. Ask yourself these questions. Their answers will reveal the role emotions play in trading. Controlling your emotions in trading is crucial to your long term success.

There are two approaches to learning currency trading. Practice the demo account a little and straight away jump into live action. Learn as you go. In other words, you can learn all these things on your real account by trading live. But you will have to go through the roller coaster of trying to control your emotions while blowing your account repeatedly. In my opinion, the best way to learn and experience all these things is on your demo account. Whatever trading plan you make or whatever trading strategy you like, first test it on your demo account. I keep on repeating myself. Only trade live, when you double your demo account three times in a row.

Give yourself at least three months to learn currency trading on your demo account. During those three months set the target of doubling your demo account three times in a row. It will give you the level of confidence and belief in you to make it big in the forex market. You cannot double your demo account three times in a row without going through all the above that I have pointed out.

Looking for a new place to put your money? Have you gotten board with the typical exchanges and their banker’s hours? When you are looking for a new way to make your riches, you may want to consider the business of trading foreign currencies. Currency is traded on the Forex, or the foreign exchange market. It is completely different from every other trading market in the world.

Each day on the Forex, trillions of dollars of currency is traded. The Forex does not have a physical location that can be visited. It runs virtually, over networks and servers, all day, every day. You’ll never be able to ring the bell on the Forex floor, but you’ll be able to complete trades almost nonstop.

The Forex is not about stocks and futures; it’s all about foreign currency exchange. Currency does not have a definitive value. It is all a matter of timing. The value of currency fluctuates drastically over the course of hours. On the Forex market, banks and other financial institutions trade foreign currency. Currency may fluctuate for a variety of reasons, one of which is the current political climate.

Currency does not have a fixed value. The value of each country’s currency changes rapidly and repeatedly throughout the course of the trading day and night. One the Forex, currency value can change for a plethora of reasons or no reason at all. Due to this uncertainty, all trades on the Forex are based predominantly on speculation.

There are several factors which play into currency fluctuations. The financial status of a country favors greatly into the determination of market value. Changes in gross domestic product and inflation cause swings in the value of each country’s currency.

Whenever there is a political issue within a country, the value of that currency will also greatly change. Whenever a country is at war or in the middle of a political uprising, expect to see a drastic change in the currency. For instance, whenever there is an election being held for a major political office in small countries, there may be a temporary cessation of that currency being traded. When the U. S. Holds Presidential elections, the U. S. Dollar fluctuates greatly in value, as well.

There are several major currency pairings that are most typically traded. These include the Euro and the US Dollar, the US Dollar and the Japanese Yen and the Great Britain Pound and the US Dollar. These trades that occur on the spot are usually settled within two business days of the trade. This helps make the Forex market one of the most liquid markets in the world.

Trading the Forex can be a very lucrative move in your investment strategies. It’s not for the faint of heart, though. Transactions occur rapidly and never stop. Without the use of a Forex bot, newcomers are strongly discouraged from making high dollar investments.

While the Forex continues to gain popularity, the governments, banks and largest corporations in the world are earning their rewards or settling their debts, every day. The Forex presents opportunities that no other market can with its virtually endless trading.

ETFs stand for Exchange Traded Funds. Ever thought of trading ETFs? ETFs represent an ownership stake in a basket of underlying securities or assets. This basket can represent a specific index like the S&P 500 or the Nasdaq 100. It can also be a sector like semiconductor, energy or travel. It could be a segment of market like the small cap or large growth stocks. There are even ETFs on foreign currencies like Euro, Yen, and USD.

It can also comprise of bonds, gold, silver or other commodities. The value of the ETF is determined by the underlying securities. So you may be thinking this sound like a mutual fund.

ETFs can be brought and sold throughout the trading day like ordinary stocks. ETFs are different from the Mutual Funds in a number of ways. The unit price of ETF changes instantaneously unlike the Mutual Funds that are priced at the end of the trading day.

ETFs can be shorted, traded with a margin account and many trade options. There is no minimum for ETF purchases. ETFs can be traded using the market, limit and stop loss orders. So ETFs offer the diversification advantages of mutual funds and the flexibility of stocks.

Suppose you have a bullish opinion on the oil sector. You will have to analyze dozens of companies in the oil sector and spend hours to select the one that you think is the strongest. One of the main advantages of ETFs is that they offer diversification.

ETFs provide you the benefit of diversification in the same way that mutual funds do to the small retail investors. Instead of investing in a few stocks you can now invest in a particular sector just like investing in a mutual fund. You could choose the Oil Sector ETF that would give you the advantage of mimicking some oil sector index.

The key advantage that ETFs hold over mutual funds is that they can be sold or bought at anytime of the trading day. ETF prices keep on changing in relation to the underlying assets. However, mutual funds are priced only once at the end of each trading day and their NAV does not change throughout the next trading day.

Another main advantage of ETFs over mutual funds is the fees charged by each. A mutual fund charges management fees and can also charge upfront, backend or other sales loads. Expense ratios for ETFs on average are not more than 0.4%. ETF expenses are low because they are passively managed and generally follow an established index.

Currency trading has become extremely popular among the institutional investors, big companies and hedge funds. Foreign currency trading is not just for gamblers or commodity traders.

Foreign currency has become a respected asset classification. It is so hot that now you can trade Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) on currencies. As with any other product there are advantages and disadvantages of trading ETFs so you need to do your due diligence before making any investment decision.

You should know and understand that certain reports affect the price behavior of forex markets whether you are a beginner or an advanced currency trader. Your number one priority should be to look for what the voting members of the central banks are looking at present. You should focus on what they are basing their decisions to adjust interest rates if you are a serious forex trader.

FOMC stands for the Federal Open Market Committee. Thats right, the releases of the FOMC meeting announcements are important as well as the minutes of their last meeting. The minutes are released within two weeks of the last FOMC meeting.

FOMC meets eight times a year to determine the near term direction of the monetary policy. FOMC consists of the seven governors of the Federal Reserve Board and five Federal Reserve Bank presidents.

Changes in the monetary policy are announced immediately after the FOMC meetings. Wall Street anxiously watches these meetings.

Feds Beige Book is important. You should watch the report and the speaking engagement of the voting members of the FOMC. The other important report that you should follow is the individual Fed District Business Survey. This gives you the clue as to what FEDs intentions are and what its concerns are.

The Beige Book is a combination of economic conditions from each of the 12 Federal Reserve regional districts. The book is named Beige book due to the color of its cover. This report is usually released two weeks before the monetary policy meetings of the FOMC.

If the Beige book portrays an overheating economy or inflationary pressures on the economy, FOMC may decide to increase the interest rate in order to cool down the economy and reduce the inflationary pressure. This report on the economic conditions is used in the FOMC meetings to set the interest rate policy. These meeting are roughly scheduled six weeks apart.

If the Beige book portrays economic difficulties and high unemployment when the economy is in recession just like now, FOMC may lower the interest rate in order to stimulate the economy just like what the FED is doing right now. The other economic report that has a huge impact on the currency markets is the unemployment figures in the form of NFP report. NFP stands for Non Farm Payroll.

When unemployment is high, the economy maybe weak and its currency may fall in value. The unemployment rate is a strong indicator of a countrys economic strength. Non farm payroll employment tallies the number of paid employees working part time and or full time in the national public and private sector.

There are two versions of the NFP report. One is a weekly report and is released every Thursday. The other is the monthly report that is more influential and is released on the first Friday of every month.

So watch out for a situation that reveals a major change in the interest rate policy, a surprise in the employment growth or a recession in the US economy, we should see the dollar move against other major currencies. This information can help you establish your dollar bias.

In one of my articles, I talked about the criteria for developing a good mechanical trading system. There are many factors to consider while testing and evaluating a mechanical trading system. The important question is how to develop a trading system, evaluate it and then apply it with real money.

We need to not only know that the trading system is profitable for each trading system that we test. But we should also know whether it is profitable with limited equity swings. We should know does the trading system have excessive drawdown periods?

Three of the most important elements of mechanical trading systems are: 1) Clear cut rules for entry and exit for each trade. 2) Rules for exiting at profit targets and 3) Rules for exiting at loss targets or how much loss is permissible.

Does the trading system experience periods of time that result in significant losses that give back those gains when a string of multiple winners and substantial profits accrue? Do losses exceed gains more than what is tolerable in the long run?

A money management tool used by system traders is the Kelly Formula or Ratio. John Kelly while working at AT&T Bell Labs had developed the formula in 1956. Most traders do not know when to correctly add on a trading position.

It soon became popular with the gamblers. Gamblers realized its potential as an optimal betting system in horse racing. This formula enabled gamblers to maximize the size of their bets on consecutive races.

It was used to determine how much to parlay winnings into the next bet. The system is used by many traders to determine how much money to place on the next trade.

Kelly Formula is K=W-[(1-W)/R] where K is the Kelly Ratio percent value. W is the winning probability and it is the probability that any given trade that you make will return a positive amount. R is the Win/Loss Ratio. It is the total positive trade amounts divided by the total negative trade amount.

Kelly Ratio tells you the percent of your total account you should ideally be willing to risk on each trade to maximize your total returns. Suppose K is 25% then you can risk 25% of your account on each trade.

To be on the safe side you should half the ratio. Many traders argue that the Kelly Formula gives too high a figure. Suppose K is 25%. You should half it to 12.5%. It means you should not risk more than 12.5% of your account on a single trade.

You can use it in deciding which trading system is better in the long run. Kelly Formula can help you in comparing two trading systems. You should look for a trading system that has the highest Kelly Ratio.

Back testing is used to evaluate the historical performance of a trading system. It shows the strength and weaknesses of each trading system in the long run. You can use the back testing results in the Kelly Formula.

So back testing combined with the Kelly Formula can help you achieve in most market conditions, the highest trading profits with the lowest risks by choosing a trading system that is the best.

Currency traders use different approaches in their trading. Majority of successful traders use self developed mechanical trading systems. There are always advantages and disadvantages of different trading systems. The majority of unsuccessful traders depend on discrete trading method.

Many traders develop their own trading systems. There are many actively developed trading systems also known as Expert Advisors or Robots for sale. Theses robots are basically computer programs that are based on some mechanical trading system. It can vary widely in prices. The prices can be from a few hundred dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars.

The significant advantage of these programs is that they generate signals that can be used by the trader for trading. Sometimes these computer programs are developed for a certain bank or a corporation.

The discrete trading method used by many traders is like an artist trying to adapt to different market conditions and using flexibility and tactics corresponding to the particular market condition.

In case of a discrete trading method, the traders mood and health can greatly affect the outcome of each trade. The main disadvantage of the discrete trading approach is due to the stress factor influencing the trader, the unstable trade results.

Using a mechanical trading system almost completely influences the stress factor and reduces the negative pressure on a trader which is obviously a big plus. However, it prevents the trader from quick adjustment of trade tactics under changing market conditions.

A mechanical trading system also doesnt allow the quick customization of the trading system in cases like the change of the account size. There are eight requirements that any ideal trading systems should fulfill. These conditions are:

1. A trading system should allow for the maximum adjustment to any traders psychological character and makeup.

2. The trading system should depend on trading methods that are universal. It should not depend on a particular market condition at any moment of time.

3. The trading system should be simple, logical and understandable comprising of ready to use elements and units.

4. The trading system should provide specific price signals for the trader to open and close positions at the levels chosen some time in advance.

5. It must allow some room for the traders creativity.

6. There should be some flexibility to modernize and adjust the trading system in accordance with the changing market conditions without violating its main principles and elements of the trading system.

7. The trading system should relieve the trader from emotions. It should remove psychological stress in trading and should be ruled based that do not depend on emotions.

8. It should be customizable so that different traders can use the same method with different account sizes and different risk/reward appetites.

No one trading system can fulfill all these requirements. Change of market conditions could lead to negative results from a previously effective trading system.

The only way of satisfying these conditions is through developing a diversified trading system. Trading systems based on these requirements could be complex and adjustable. It can consist of a set of systems that can be used as the basis for specific trade tactics at any given moment.

The currency markets often jump after the results of the fundamental economic announcement hits the news wires. It smashes through the nearest and weakest levels of support and resistance when it does.

When the markets become violent, the price level at some point has jumped too far and too fast and pulls back. It often takes three to five minutes for the price action to reach that level. This price level is very important and this is the end of the news spike in most of the cases when the price action reaches this point and begins to pull back.

Mark this level with a horizontal line on the chart. Just before the news came out, the markets began to wake up. Some traders are placing orders on hunches, rumors and guesses. Dont forget that they cant know the results of the news before it is released.

Sometimes, this last minute volatility is created by traders exiting a trade before the news came out. So the chances are the market may move in the wrong direction as the initial reaction.

Dont pull the trigger at this point and try to preserve your capital. The news is then released suddenly. The market moves dramatically. Dont trade just because you see the market moving in a particular direction 20 seconds before the news was announced. Thousands of market orders are placed by traders just before the release of the news. This causes a lot of volatility in the markets.

There are unique risks like slippage, gapping, spreads and such. Dont pull the trigger yet. However, we now have two pieces of vital information with us now. We know the results of the economic announcement. We now know whether it was good, bad or surprising for the markets.

We also now the direction in which the market is moving. Let the market move. Stay out. Discipline is important. Dont pull the trigger. It may feel like you are missing a great trading opportunity. You are only missing the risk.

After a few minutes volatility decreases and the price begins to pull back. You have a better market to trade now. Volatility is still high. But it is not wild, crazy or out of control. Slippage risk drops to zero and the danger of spreads widening is now drastically reduced. You should now plan your trade.

The price retracements during the initial moments when the news is released are often where the novices lose money. You have avoided it by waiting for the price to pull back. You now know the direction, support and resistance of the market. The best strategy is always to trade in the direction of the market.

You can also let the news come out, let the volatility identify the support and resistance, let the price pull back, let the price bounce again and cross the horizontal line that you had drawn. Thats too much waiting and requires good patience on your part.

Your main focus should be preservation of your capital. You should only trade if the chances of winning are high as it will keep you out of bad trades. Try to gauge the reaction of the markets. If the market reacts powerfully to the news only then trade, otherwise stay out of the trade.

There are a lot of news events in the forex world. These news releases often disrupt the short term forex markets. Quarterly reports carry more weight than the monthly and weekly news. There are many strategies for news trading.

The news may shock the currency markets for a while. Sometimes, the results of fundamental economic announcements are surprising. For example, the release of the NFP figures has been moving the EUR/USD currency pair on average 100 pips for the last two years. Just within two minutes of the release of the NFP figures on 8:30 AM EST Friday about half of these pips occur.

Consider this worst case scenario. You are a news trader and immediately sell the EUR/USD currency pair within 2-5 seconds after the release of the NFP figures on Friday. However, the EUR/USD has already dropped 30 pips because of the pre news guessers who are anticipating a bad news and want to close their open positions.

Your forex broker gets thousands of EUR/USD sell orders just like yours almost at the same moment and it will take your broker a few seconds to execute all these orders. While you wait for your order to be executed, the EUR/USD price falls another 15 pips.

As no traders are placing the buy orders, the volatility is extreme to the downside. The broker widens the pips from 3 to 12. The moment your order hits the market, you are already at a 12 pips loss. You are also 45 pips away from where you thought the market would be.

All of a sudden, the EUR/USD pair starts to pull back. But you have already pulled your trigger and entered the EUR/USD sell order. Now you are at a loss of 55 pips and you exit your trade to cut your losses. You are angry and you want to blame the broker. But you cant blame the broker.

You had to sign an agreement when you opened your trading account. You should have read the agreement you made with the forex broker when opening the account. There will surely be a clause in it that says that the broker does not guarantee order execution at times of high volatility.

Do news traders always end up like this? Not always but they can and do end up behaving this way quite often depending on the importance or surprise results of the economic announcement.

So you need to develop a survival strategy that calls for the preservation of your capital at all cost while at the same time giving you maximum pips if you really want to trade the news. Do all that not to lose money.

Your priority is to reduce your risk by patiently waiting for conservative repeatable setups and not to make as much money as possible. News trading puts a traders patience to test and your objective should be to use the undue volatility to identify the important levels of support and resistance so that you can trade with high chances of winning.

Many currency traders find it hard to follow simple risk management rules. Many times, they will turn winning positions into losing ones. They will be surprised to find solid trading strategies result in losses instead of profit.

Regardless of how knowledgeable and intelligent a trader maybe about the markets, their own psychology and emotions will cause them to lose money. What can be the cause? Are the markets so enigmatic that only a few succeed in making profit?

Actually the likely cause is that there are common mistakes that many traders commit in their trading. The good thing is that the problem while it can be emotionally and psychologically challenging can be grasped and solved.

Most traders lose money because they fail to understand and apply risk management rules in their trading methods. Risk management means knowing how much you are willing to risk and how much you are looking to gain in a trade.

Many traders hold onto a losing position for a long time and take profit on a winning position far too early. Without understanding risk management, the net result is that traders end up with more winning positions than losing positions. But their account Profit and Loss (P/L) is negative. Keeping these simple risk management rules in mind while you trade can help you a lot.

As a trader you should establish a risk reward ratio for every trade that you place. In simple words, you should have an idea of how much you are willing to lose and how much you expect to gain in a trade. A general rule is that your risk/reward ratio should not be less than 1:2. Having a solid risk/reward ratio ensures that you dont enter into a trade that is not worth the risk.

Use stop loss order to cap the maximum loss that you are willing to accept. Using stop loss helps you avoid the worst case scenario where you have many winning trades but a single loss large enough to wipe out all your profits in the account. Using trailing stops can be good idea.

There are two ways to place the stop loss order. 1) Initially place the stop loss at a reasonable level. 2) Trail the stop meaning move it forward towards profitability as the trade progresses.

There are two recommended methods of placing the stop loss order; one method involves placing the stop loss order 10 pips below the two days low of the currency pair price. Lets use an example, suppose the EUR/USD pair recent low was 1.1300. The previous day low was 1.1200. Then place the stop loss at 1.1190 (10 pips below the two day low) if you want to enter a long position.

Another volatility based method is to use the Parabolic SAR indicator. It is found on most of the charting software. Parabolic SAR is a volatility based indicator that displays a small dot at the point on the chart where you should place the stop loss.

Only some years ago, most of the people had never heard of trading the foreign exchange markets. However, the recent stock market crash has made the word forex trading popular among the small investors. So much information is available online that you just have to type in the word forex training in a search engine. A mass of information will become available for free.

Most new traders begin learning on their own through a trial and error process of winning and losing. However, this is probably not the best approach to getting good forex training. These are seven forex training secrets that you should always keep in your mind when seeking good forex training:

1) Try to keep it simple. Develop a simple and practical approach to trading. Follow the rules of a simple trading approach.

2) You should accept responsibility for the personal decisions and actions in the market. No one, no system and no methodology is responsible for you interpretation of the markets.

3) Before moving into the world of live trading, make sure, you trade a demo account successfully. Consider first trading a mini account. It comes with a very small amount of margin to ease you into the world of live trading once you are ready to trade. Achieve success on a mini trading account. Only then you should consider moving to the standard account. Risk and profits are higher on a standard account.

4) Do your due diligence in choosing a right forex broker. Establish a live account with a forex broker known for integrity. You should avoid brokers that like to play games such as holding trades in slow and fast moving markets to gain advantage at your expense. Choice of the right forex broker will determine whether you succeed in trading or not. Always plan a trade with more than a scalpers mentality of making 1-5 pips per trade. This way a broker has ample time to cover a submitted trade or pass it onto a clearing house.

5) Even when you have experience of trading other markets, invest in personal education when trading forex. The forex is a totally different industry. It has much more volatility than other markets. Make sure the mentoring person is walking the talk when selecting a mentor to assist you in developing the skills necessary to survive trading the forex and make profit.

6) The greatest distance to overcome in each trade is between the ears. Attitude is everything in the markets. Learn self discipline as a forex trader. Only disciplined traders succeed in the long run.

7) Dont give up! It is necessary to just hang in there even if it takes times to trade the demo account and a mini account. Persevere in the markets. All too often, traders go live way too soon and lose their money because they have skipped the necessary steps.

Sports betting has been a big part of sports since the very beginning of sports themselves. Many people find it hard to overcome the attraction of placing bets on sports, others don’t even see the point in it!

In the U.S., the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 makes it illegal to operate a betting, gambling or wagering scheme in most of United States. The States that are exempt are; Delaware, Nevada, Montana and Oregon. Although these four states allow gambling, only Nevada and Delaware allow sport betting.

Some people fear that sports gambling threatens the integrity of sport, but many believe that sport betting generally increases people’s interest in sports.

Sports betting odds are either presented in fractional odds, decimal odds or moneyline odds. Fractional odds are favored by bookmakers in the United Kingdom, Australia and continental Europe, Decimal odds are favored in Canada and Moneyline odds are favored in the United States.

Some people make a decent living out of sports betting by utilizing information on the sports they are betting on.

Sport betting is usually done through a bookmaker. Legal sports bookmakers exist in many places, but in areas where sports betting is illegal, bettors usually make their sports wagers with either illicit bookmakers known as bookies. Another way to bet on sports is via the internet. Online bookmakers generally operate outside of the United States. Some online bookmakers do not accept wagers from the United States though, due to unresolved legal questions.

The bookmaker makes a living by charging a vigorish, or a commission. The bookmaker does this by making sure that the odds for both outcomes come slightly less to breaking even.

Other Sports Bets include:

1. Future wagers – Future wagers are long term bets, e.g. a bet that a certain Major League Baseball team will will the World Series.

2. Head to head – These bets are placed when competing for one or two sportsmen to out beat another.

3. Parlays – A parlay involves multiple bets, and if won, the bettor would win a much larger payout.

4. Proposition bets ” These are specific bets, like guessing the number of runs in a baseball game.

5. Teasers – A teaser allows the bettor to combine his bets on two or more different games.

Arbitrage betting. Arbitrage betting is a betting technique that can land some high payouts. It is most common on Internet gambling. Because of how lines move quickly during sporting events, this type of sport betting is possible. Theoretically, a small profit of 1-3% is possible when a person bets one way at a shop and the opposite way at a second shop.

This technique can be quite confusing, for more information on this, please check out the ‘Sports Betting’ link below.

Part of becoming a good investor in forex is learning to understand that the markets evolve and changes with time. As it does, your trading strategies should also evolve and adjust. You will need to make a little tweak here and a little tweak there sometimes in your trading strategies.

There will be periods of low returns or losses. But once you have made the changes and adjusted your trading strategies, you will start making profits again. Dont get stuck with only one currency pair and one trading strategy. Start looking at macroeconomic events and how different currency pairs react to them.

Oil drives the global economy. High oil prices put recessionary pressures on the global economy. Lets discuss a currency trading strategy that depends on following oil prices in the global markets. There are many sources of oil. Some countries export oil. Most of the countries in the world import oil. So oil prices tend to affect almost all the currencies. Some currency pairs react more strongly. Others less so when oil prices change. When oil prices rise, they continue to rise for several months. Fortunately for you, oil prices trend for extended periods.

Similarly when oil prices decline, they tend to continue declining for several months. Some of the currencies that react strongly to oil price changes are GBP and CAD. Lets focus on USD/CAD.

United States imports more oil from Canada that any other country. The value of CAD should increase with increase in oil prices in relationship to USD. With the increase in oil prices, this means that the pair USD/CAD should start trending downward. This is an example of a trend trading strategy.

If you watch CNBC daily, then you should watch for times when the oil prices are rising and the exchange rate USD/CAD is decreasing. Similarly, on CNBC watch for times when oil prices are declining and the exchange rate USD/CAD is increasing.

Use CCI (Commodity Channel Index) to trigger your trade. Watch for the 14 period CCI to cross above 100 and then cross back below 100. This tells you that the buyers have made a temporary upward push on the currency pair USD/CAD but was not able to turn the trend around.

Enter the trade and set a limit order of 300 pips and a stop loss order of 75 pips by going short on USD and long on CAD. This setup will give you a risk to reward ratio of 1:4. This risk to reward is very good and it allows you to be wrong a few times without ruining your chances of being profitable. 300 pips mean $3000 and usually such a trade will continue for 4-5 weeks.

You can also look to trade the USD/CAD pair in the opposite direction if the oil prices start to decline. However, prolonged downtrend in the oil prices is usually unlikely. This trading strategy just depends on knowing which way the oil prices are moving right now so that you can take advantage of it. Oil prices have again started to climb and reached above $68. You can take advantage of the rising oil prices by trading USD/CAD pair as described above.

You should give importance to application of proper money management rules in your trading as a forex trader. Many traders learn some trading strategies. They jump into live trading too soon. Most traders fail to understand the importance of money management in the beginning. When they lose a good portion of their account in just a few trades, they realize the importance of money management. You dont need to do start your trading career like this.

For you as a forex trader, the most important thing is to develop trading discipline in yourself. Discipline is the ability to plan your work and work your plan. You should give your trade the time to develop. You need not hastily take yourself out of the trade just because you are uncomfortable with the risk.

Even after you have suffered a loss, discipline is the ability to continue to trade your system. All successful traders are highly disciplined traders. When they dont achieve immediate success, many traders become disappointed too soon! The most important quality a trader can possess is persistence.

Those who quit too soon or apply their system haphazardly do not trade in the markets enough to allow their system to produce the wins they are looking for. To develop persistence, force yourself in the beginning to do everything to the rules of your trading system.

Learn to follow trading rules and a trading system consistently and persistently. The proper application of trading rules is important consistently and persistently for becoming a successful trader. Applying trading rules properly is also one of the most difficult to learn. The problem comes when you as a trader try to analyze the markets initially. Study of past trades is very simple and very easy. You have the power of hindsight with you. It is much easier to recognize direction, entry, exits in examples of past trades.

But when you trade live, it is always much more difficult recognizing opportunity in the now. You need to develop good trading rules and a good trading system. Let me tell you, following trading rules and a trading system is no easy task. It requires a lot of discipline on the part of the trader. You need to obey the trading rules even when the initial response or the opening trade does not work out as anticipated. Just remember, trading rules are not always perfect. Even good rules will fail you at times.

You need to learn to accept losses in your trading career. In the course of trading, losses are going to happen. Even very successful traders suffer occasional losses. No trading system is 100% precise and accurate. There will be losses even when your application of the trading system is consistent and flawless. You need to develop the ability to accept your losses. There is always the 10% unexpected factor in trading.

Losses can occur due to two reasons. The first major reason is when a trader fails to follow the tested rules and guidelines of a trading system due to lack of discipline. The second major reason is when the trading system fails due to the 10% unexpected changes in the market conditions.

Never ever trade without a stop loss! You should always, always use stop losses in your trading. The idea behind using the stop is to prevent a loss from running away too far and wiping out your capital. A stop is a market order placed a number of pips away from the entry price in the event that price action turns and moves dramatically opposite from the anticipated direction.

You need to develop trading discipline. If you come to a point in your market analysis in a trading session when you have no confidence on the accurate direction of the market forecast, choose not to trade. Always remember, a lost opportunity is better than lost capital.

Wait for the market conditions to become clearer. Increase the probability of success by trading when the trade setups are strong. This is far more important in forex trading than in stock trading. The forex markets move a lot.

You should understand that high leverage gives you the opportunity to make a lot more money much faster. But in case you go wrong, you can get your account wiped out. When you dont see an opportunity clearly, try to sit on the sidelines. Wait for the market conditions to become clearer. Learn to be a patient trader. Let the market come to you.

Leverage is a wonderful money making tool. It is the key to making money in the forex markets. No other market allows high leverage that this market allows. 100:1 leverage means that for a $1000 deposit, you can trade $100,000. This huge leverage allows you the opportunity to make the kind of returns that you want.

But using high leverage also has the potential of making you lose some or all of your capital if you trade foolishly. Take the example of credit cards. The bank lets you borrow huge sums of money using your credit card on the promise that you will pay it back.

But in case you abuse your credit card. It can lead you into heavy debt. It can even result in bankruptcy. You should manage leverage in forex trading like you manage your credit card. You have $10,000. It does not mean that you should trade 10 lots and use all your $10,000 capital. Using all your capital in one trading session would be foolish on your part and highly risky.

A very conservative yet a very effective trading method would be to never use leverage of more than 20% on your capital. So you should only trade two lots with a $10,000 capital in your account. Using good money management rules and trading discipline, you can grow your account realistically in a short period of time.

Understand the power of compounding. The compounding factor applied to your capital can make it grow fast in a short period of time. Many people want to get rich quick and take unnecessary risks while trading. They think that a few big wins will make them rich. They dont focus on proper trading principles or rules. You need to develop trading discipline. Follow simple money management rules consistently and persistently.

Suppose you are trading a mini account. Start by trading one position of one tenth of a lot. You will not make much money in the beginning. The position size is only one tenth of a normal lot. But the percentage of returns will compound over time. Over time, you trade a much larger sum of money.

You should make realistic goals that can be achieved over time. Always trade with the money that you can afford to lose! Trading with money that you cannot afford to lose is foolish. Dont borrow money to trade. Dont use money that you would use to pay monthly utility bills. Dont use your life savings. You are not a gambler.

Many new traders think that a good entry into the markets is the key to success. Unfortunately, most are wrong. A risk to reward ratio compares the potential for reward with the potential for loss.

Risk is calculated by counting the pips between the forecasted entry price and the forecasted price at which you want to exit the market in case of a losing trade. A trader must view each trade as a business transaction.

Reward is measured by counting the pips between the forecasted entry price and the forecasted price at which you would want to exit the market in case of a winning trade. Reward is the expected number of pips that you want to make.

In order to manage risk properly, you need to look for high probability trades that have a risk to reward ratio of 1:2 or higher. However, this depends on the time frame that you want to trade. For example, suppose you are a day trader. You are looking for making only 30 pips in a trade. A stop loss of 15 pips is sufficient for the risk to reward ratio of 1:2.

However, if you are a swing trader or a position trader with a longer time frame, your profit potential will be more. If you choose 200 pips as your expected profit then you will need to set your stop loss at 100 pips.

The reason that you need to set a higher stop loss on a larger time frame is that small trends occur within the larger trend. Retracements on shorter time frame are much smaller. Retracement on the larger time frame is much bigger. Due to smaller trends in the larger trends, your trade is going to be recycled. In order to be not stopped out of the trade, you need to calculate your risk to reward ratio appropriately.

You must agree that next to maximizing profits, the second most important thing for you is minimizing losses. A trading system that wins 50% of the time can still be profitable. The unfortunate thing about most of the traders is that they want to make money but dont know how to protect what they currently have.

You have 50/50 chance of market going your way just like flipping a coin. In case, the trade does not develop in your favor, you should cut your losses by using stop losses. In short, you cut your losses and let your winners run. This simple 50/50 strategy earns a profit even when a novice trader might experience a loss.

Consider different risk to reward ratios and how much you need to win to break even. For 2:1 risk to reward ratio, you need 67% winners just to break even. For a 1:1 risk to reward ratio, it means just 50% winners to break even. 1:2 ratio means only 33.5% winners. Never ever trade when the risk to reward ratio is more than 1:2.

As a forex trader, you should learn technical analysis. You need to understand the various terms that are frequently used in Technical Analysis. Technical Analysis is the study of historical and ongoing price data through charts, price patterns and chart indicators. Charts display price moves in time intervals using bars and candlesticks.

Technical Analysis is based on a number of assumptions. The most important is that all available information is immediately impounded into the market prices of the currencies. The second assumption made is that prices always move in trends or patterns. The third assumption that is made is that history repeats itself. This means you can predict the future price action by studying the past prices.

Historical studies have shown that once a trend is in motion, it is most likely to continue rather than reverse it. Only a bigger force in the opposite direction can reverse a trend once set in motion. The more one studies chart patterns, the clearer it becomes that reading and interpreting chart patterns are more an art form than a skill in technical analysis.

Charts come in two types. Bar charts and Candlesticks charts. Bar charts display price data in vertical lines. These vertical lines represents price action during a given time period. The tip at the top is the high for the period. The tip at the bottom is the low for the period. The open and close are represented by small horizontal dashes called tics. The tic to the left of the line is the open. The tic to the right of the line is the close.

Candlestick charts are similar to bar charts. Like the bar charts, the top of the vertical line represent the high and the bottom of the vertical line represents the low. However, the price action between the open and the close is represented differently by the use of candlestick bodies. A shaded body represents a lower closing below a higher opening. A hollow body represents a higher closing above a lower opening.

The price action above and below the body is referred to as tails or wicks. A forex day trader may use any one of the 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 and 180 minutes charts. A swing and position trader may use a daily, weekly or a monthly chart while doing technical analysis. These charts all use the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or the Eastern Standard Time (EST) depending on the software that your broker platform uses. But you can always adjust these times according to your local time.

You need to understand what are markets patterns? What are Uptrends? What are downtrends? And what are sideway trends? Markets expand and retrace constantly. It is the nature of the market to surge and then pause and retrace. Market prices may continue to expand for sometimes either upward or downward.

Trends in currency markets make a series of peaks and troughs as they move. An uptrend consists of a series of ascending peaks and troughs. Each peak higher than the last peak! Each trough lower than the last trough! A downtrend consists of a series of descending peaks and troughs. A sidways trend consists of a series of horizontal peaks and troughs. All peaks and all troughs almost on the same level indicate a sideways market.

Moving averages (MAs) are a very popular tool used by most of the forex traders. They are a lagging indicator of the price action. Using moving averages short and long term trends are easier to identify.

MAs are calculated on the traders specifications. They can be formatted to different style of trading and time frames. For example, in case you want to use a 90 time frame moving average, the prices of the last 90 times frames is added together and divided by 90.

A moving average can be calculated based on the high, low, opening or closing price within a time frame. Since the closing price is the most important price, most traders prefer to use the closing price in calculating MAs. There are three types of moving averages. First one is the Simple MA. The second is Weighted MA. The third is the exponential MA.

The simple moving average is calculated by dividing the price in each time frame by the number of time frames. A weighted moving average gives more weight to the current prices as compared to the last few time frames. In an exponentially smoothed moving average, the chart is calculated gradually with less emphasis on the prices in the latter time frames.

What are Bollinger Bands? Bollinger bands are plotted at a standard deviation above and below a moving average. The base of a band is moving average and the bands width is determined by volatility. Since standard deviation is a measure of volatility, the bands are self adjusting. Widening during volatile markets and contracting during calmer periods. The bands bracket almost 90% of the market action.

They are curves drawn in and around the price structure that provide relative definitions of high and low. Knowing when the prices are high and low, the trader can make rational investment decisions by comparing price action with the action of indicators.

Bollinger bands can be applied to mutual funds, forex trading, futures, indices etc. As volatility lessens, sharp price action tends to occur as the bands tighten. A continuation of current trend is strongly expected when the price moves outside the bands.

Bottoms and tops made outside the bands followed by bottoms and tops made inside the bands call for the reversal of the trend. A move that originates at one band tends to go all the way to the other band.

The 10% price action outside the bands is most likely going to approximate areas where prices will return to within the bands. When the bands are flat and narrow, this indicates that price volatility is lower than in previous time periods.

When the bands begin to flare and widen, this indicates increased volatility and start of a new strong trend. Wide bands are usually taken as an indication of a very strong move.

Currency Options are used by companies as risk management tools. What are Options? Simply stated, it is a contract that gives the buyer the right but not the obligation to buy an underlying asset under specific conditions on payment of a premium.

The buyer may or may not exercise the right. However, if the buyer of an options contract exercises his/her right, the seller is obligated to perform.

In every foreign exchange transaction, one currency is purchased and another is sold. Consequently, every currency option is both a call and a put. A call conveys the right to buy the underlying currency. A put gives the buyer the right to sell.

Why options are important as a risk management tool. Suppose a Japanese company is going to make the payment for its import of raw materials in 3 months time in USD.

The Japanese company can stay unhedged and purchase US Dollar in prevailing spot rate in three months time. On the other hand, it can hedge by buying USD forwards or it can use an options strategy.

One of the strategies available to the Japanese company is to buy JPY put/USD call option. The effect of buying the JPY put option is to put a ceiling on the cost of imports in case JPY depreciates. The exporter limits the cost to a maximum while not limiting the minimum. Now lets discuss five exotic options that you can trade to make profits under different market conditions.

Digital options are simple and inexpensive. If you believe the EUR/USD rate is going to be above 1.0900 after two months, buy a digital option if you are not sure when this will happen. If after two months, the EUR.USD rate is indeed above 1.0900, you can earn your predetermined payoff. If not, your digital option will expire with a loss of a small premium.

One Touch Options are perfect for those currency traders who believe that there will be a retracement and the price of a given currency pair will test a support/resistance level with a false breakout. The one touch options will pay a profit if the market touches the predetermined barrier level.

A No Touch Option is a great way that you can use to profit from a trending market. The no touch option pays a profit if the market never touches the barrier level that you choose. All you need to do is to determine the desired payoff, the currency pair that you want to trade, the barrier price and the expiration date of the option.

A Double No Touch Option is perfect for you if you have the successful record of identifying and profiting from breakouts but always lose money when the market is ranging. On the other side, you can use a Double One Touch Option if you know how to pick the tops and bottoms in a ranging market but have always lost in a breakout market.

One of the most crucial yet overlooked elements of successful trading is maintaining a healthy psychological outlook. At the end of the day, traders who are unable to cope with the stress of the market fluctuations will not withstand the test of time. No matter how skilled they may be at the scientific elements of trading.

As a good trader, you need to be emotionally detached in making trading decisions. One of the attributes of good traders is that they accept losing. Your trading decisions must not depend on fear and greed. Make decisions based on an intellectual level. Traders who get emotionally involved in trading make hasty decisions resulting in substantial errors. They try to whimsically change their strategies after a few losses. In case of a few winning trades they become carefree.

A good trader needs to be emotionally balanced. In the midst of a losing streak, try to take a break before fear or greed starts to dominate your strategy. You cannot win every trade. You must be psychologically capable of coping with losses. Even successful traders go through stretches of losing trades.

If you are going through a bad stretch in your trading, take a few days off from watching the markets. Try to clear your mind. You should think of taking a break. It can breed greater losses and ruin your psychological confidence, if you keep on trading relentlessly during tough market conditions.

Make no mistake about it, no matter how much you study, practice and trade; there will be stretches of losing trades. The key is to make losing trades small enough in order to live to trade another day. By using good money management rules, you can overcome a lot of bad luck in your trading.

In order to master trading, you need to control your emotions. Many new methods have been introduced to traders but the one constant is the human emotional behavior. After all, markets are just the reflection of these emotions.

People afraid of losing their money start to sell in a panic. Fear of losing money makes the market prices to head lower. Greedy people buy trying to catch a free ride. Fear of losing a good opportunity makes the market prices to go up.

You need to learn technical analysis as a forex trader. Technical analysis will make you understand how to capture profits from movements in the price. You should understand how price action takes place. Develop a trading system that is ruled based. Dont make decisions based on emotions.

The best method to overcome emotions in trading is to depend on a forex trading system that is mechanical in nature. There are clear cut rules for entering and exiting a position. Use those rules consistently. There maybe a few losses but with a good forex trading system, you can be sure the number of winner will be greater.

Many individuals have seen their portfolios decline in recent years as a result of the financial problems that many of us are experiencing. That is one of the reasons why many of them have turned to the Forex market in order to build back their nest egg. This particular market offers us opportunities to do this because it is a zero-sum market in which everybody either wins or loses for one particular trade.

Is important for you to understand, however, that it is not possible for you to trade directly on the market without going through a qualified broker. These brokers act as a mediator, placing any trades that you make for you because they are able to access the market in this way.

It is also possible for you to trade on the Forex market 24 hours a day, five days out of the week. There is also some off-hours trading that is available depending on the Forex platform and broker that you decide to use. Not every area of the world is going to be open 24 hours a day but as one area of the Forex market opens, another is closing. This allows you access to a market somewhere in the world at any time of the day or night.

Getting used to the terminology that comes along with trading on the Forex market is also something that might take a little bit of getting used to. That is the reason that many individuals look for online tutorials in order to get comfortable with trading Forex. One term that you might not be familiar with is a pip. This is simply a way of breaking down a monetary value into its lowest tradable value, typically four decimal places.

You might also be interested in looking into some of the Forex platforms that are available on the Internet as well. Not only do these give you access to a qualified broker, they also give you access to a variety of tutorials and many times, advanced tools. Regardless of whether you’re just starting out or if you have been trading for quite some time, a forex platform can help you to do so successfully.

One final thing that you might be interested in looking at are the programs that are available to help you trade on the Forex market in a variety of different ways. Some of the more popular of these programs help to give you directions as far as the way that the market is going to move that particular day. Others either partially or fully automate the process of trading on the Forex market. Make sure that you review these programs carefully before using them as some of them are worthwhile using and others are better left alone.

That is why we recommend that you always look at a review website before deciding on which of these systems you are going to employ in your own trading practices. By doing so, you will be out on the make an informed decision on what it is that you should be using it and what it is that you shouldn’t.