Opening A Forex Brokerage Account

Trading forex is similar to the equity market because individuals interested in trading need to open up a trading account. Like the equity market, each forex account and the services it provides differ, so it is important that you find the right one. Below we will talk about some of the factors that should be considered when selecting a forex account.

Leverage
Leverage is basically the ability to control large amounts of capital, using very little of your own capital; the higher the leverage, the higher the level of risk. The amount of leverage on an account differs depending on the account itself, but most use a factor of at least 50:1, with some being as high as 250:1. A leverage factor of 50:1 means that for every dollar you have in your account you control up to $50. For example, if a trader has $1,000 in his or her account, the broker will lend that person $50,000 to trade in the market. This leverage also makes your margin, or the amount you have to have in the account to trade a certain amount, very low. In equities, margin is usually at least 50%, while the leverage of 50:1 is equivalent to 2%.

Leverage is seen as a major benefit of forex trading, as it allows you to make large gains with a small investment. However, leverage can also be an extreme negative if a trade moves against you because your losses also are amplified by the leverage. With this kind of leverage, there is the real possibility that you can lose more than you invested - although most firms have protective stops preventing an account from going negative. For this reason, it is vital that you remember this when opening an account and that when you determine your desired leverage you understand the risks involved.

Commissions and Fees
Another major benefit of forex accounts is that trading within them is done on a commission-free basis. This is unlike equity accounts, in which you pay the broker a fee for each trade. The reason for this is that you are dealing directly with market makers and do not have to go through other parties like brokers.

This may sound too good to be true, but rest assured that market makers are still making money each time you trade. Remember the bid and ask from the previous section? Each time a trade is made, it is the market makers that capture the spread between these two. Therefore, if the bid/ask for a foreign currency is 1.5200/50, the market maker captures the difference (50 basis points).

If you are planning on opening a forex account, it is important to know that each firm has different spreads on foreign currency pairs traded through them. While they will often differ by only a few pips (0.0001), this can be meaningful if you trade a lot over time. So when opening an account make sure to find out the pip spread that it has on foreign currency pairs you are looking to trade.

How to Trade Forex

Now that you know some important factors to be aware of when opening a forex account, we will take a look at what exactly you can trade within that account. The two main ways to trade in the foreign currency market is the simple buying and selling of currency pairs, where you go long one currency and short another. The second way is through the purchasing of derivatives that track the movements of a specific currency pair. Both of these techniques are highly similar to techniques in the equities market.The most common way is to simply buy and sell currency pairs, much in the same way most individuals buy and sell stocks. In this case, you are hoping the value of the pair itself changes in a favorable manner. If you go long a currency pair, you are hoping that the value of the pair increases. For example, let's say that you took a long position in the USD/CAD pair - you will make money if the value of this pair goes up, and lose money if it falls. This pair rises when the U.S. dollar increases in value against the Canadian dollar, so it is a bet on the U.S. dollar.

The other option is to use derivative products, such as options and futures, to profit from changes in the value of currencies. If you buy an option on a currency pair, you are gaining the right to purchase a currency pair at a set rate before a set point in time. A futures contract, on the other hand, creates the obligation to buy the currency at a set point in time. Both of these trading techniques are usually only used by more advanced traders, but it is important to at least be familiar with them. (For more on this, try Getting Started in Forex Options and our tutorials, Option Spread Strategies and Options Basics Tutorial.)

Types of Orders
A trader looking to open a new position will likely use either a market order or a limit order. The incorporation of these order types remains the same as when they are used in the equity markets. A market order gives a forex trader the ability to obtain the currency at whatever exchange rate it is currently trading at in the market, while a limit order allows the trader to specify a certain entry price. (For a brief refresher of these orders, see The Basics of Order Entry.)

Forex traders who already hold an open position may want to consider using a take-profit order to lock in a profit. Say, for example, that a trader is confident that the GBP/USD rate will reach 1.7800, but is not as sure that the rate could climb any higher. A trader could use a take-profit order, which would automatically close his or her position when the rate reaches 1.7800, locking in their profits.

Forex and Go (Part 2)

Like with the other two PDFT strategies we saw earlier (Forex Cash Cow and Forex Runner) I will teach you step by step how to identify and place a high probability Forex Flip & Go trade. And again, as with all my strategies , Forex Flip & Go is 100% mechanical! You will not use any type of judgment or discretion in your trading. You will only learn to follow simple rules: if A = B do C!

All the strategies you will learn in Forex Trading Methods have incredible benefits that simply make them unique, the best of the best. Forex Flip & Go is no different: One of the only daytrading strategies that is capable of catching a large part of those 80-100 pip EUR/USD daily moves! Rules are 100% mechanical. You will not use any type of judgment or discretion, all your trades will be placed according to simple objective rules. This is a very important aspect of all my strategies and is one of the reasons why Forex Trading Machine traders are so successful. Large profit objectives and VERY small stop losses. This is key. As a daytrader you want to always limit your risk but at the same time you want to ride your winners and squeeze out the last available pip!

Forex Flip & Go allows you to do exactly that. In fact, in order to accomplish this objective I created a mechanism that I have not seen in any other forex daytrading strategy. You will be amazed how this small "trick" keeps you out of bad trades BEFORE you even know you are in a bad trade! Completely disclosed rules. Stop using those trading services or so called "black box" systems. Be in control of your trading. So simple to learn that a 15 year old can trade Forex Flip & Go! No indicators, no vague patterns, no pivots, nothing! Since this is a PDFT strategy you will only use the price of the currency to identify, enter and exit trades. No sitting in front of the computer all day long. Most days you will not trade more than 3 hours. Some days much less. Once 90% of traders realize the market started moving to a certain direction you will already be in the move and profiting from it. Profit objective is pre-set. This means you do not have to think and speculate where to place it. Once you enter the trade you will simply enter a "take profit" order and forget about it.

While most traders will struggle in choppy market days (and of course, lose money in the process!) Forex Flip & Go will keep you out. And much more...

Forex and Go (Part 1)

You already know that the forex market is a 24 hour market. But did you know that every currency pair has it's own special behavior (sort of "personality"!) throughout this 24 hour period? Well, professional traders sure know this and they exploit this characteristic of the forex market to pull in incredible profits day after day.

Now, with Forex Flip & Go (another of my PDFT day trading strategies), you can take advantage of a certain EXPLOSIVE characteristic of the EUR/USD pair (the most liquid of all currency pairs) which produces HIGH PROBABILITY/LOW RISK trades over and over again.

The EUR/USD's daily range is about 80-100 pips ($800-$1,000). As daytraders we want to catch a big portion of this daily move and we want to do it with as little risk as possible. Here is where this beautiful strategy comes to our help! The strength of the Forex Flip & Go strategy is that it catches a large part of these $1,000 swings right at the beginning of the move.Let's look at some examples so you can see exactly what I mean when I say that Forex Flip & Go catches large swings at the very beginning of the move and impressively limits risk:NOTE: Trade examples open in a new window.

Many of the best performing professional traders agree that the key to make serious money in daytrading is having small losses and large gains. That is exactly what Forex Flip & Go does, it identifies a large move at the beginning BUT if it is wrong it will get you out of the market with a minimal loss. I hope you had the chance to view the example charts I put above, they show exactly how Forex Flip & Go does an amazing job of exiting the market when it is wrong (with losses many times smaller than 10 pips!) and how it exploits large moves from beginning to end.If you are serious about being a successful forex daytrader and learning one of the best methods to consistently capture profitable trades then Forex Flip & Go is for you!

Forex Cash Cow Strategy

Forex Cash Cow strategy is truly amazing. I consider it by far my best PDFT swing trading strategy. This incredible system is 100% mechanical, this means it requires ABSOLUTELY NO discretion, interpretention, or judgment. You will simply learn to follow strict rules: if A = B then do C!Since it is a PDFT strategy you will not use ANY type of indicators, the only thing you will need to know is the price of the currency pair you are trading.It truly takes 1 minute per week to implement this strategy, making it perfect for people who do not have the necessary time to monitor the market. In fact, I constantly get emails from Forex Cash Cow traders who say they are making more money trading this system than at their current day jobs!Let's look at how easy it is to trade the Forex Cash Cow strategy:

STEP 1 : Every day after the end of the trading day the trader checks to see if condition one of the system has been met. No interpretation or judgment, it is either yes or no, black or white! This step takes exactly 10 seconds. If condition one has not been met, nothing happens. If met it means there could be an entry signal the next trading day (the trader already knows to what direction, long or short) and step 2 comes into play.

STEP 2 : The next day the trader simply enters three types of orders with his or her broker: a limit order for initiating the trade, a stop loss order to limit risk and a profit objective. All these three numbers are exact pre-set numbers that you will learn how to calculate in less then 10 seconds. Again, no interpretation or judgment, just follow exact rules.

STEP 3 : Wait for results!As traders say, a chart is worth 1000 words! Let's look at several examples of Forex Cash Cow trades. Simply click on the below chart images, chart will open in new window

Forex Trading Methods!

One of the true strength of Forex Cash Cow (and of the other 2 systems I teach in my course) is the fact that it is 100% mechanical. Traders who have been around for some time know the incredible benefits a mechanical system has over non-mechanical trading strategies.

Let's look at some of the amazing benefits of the Forex Cash Cow strategy: No interpretation or judgment required. Since this is a 100% mechanical trading strategy you will be trading completely stress free. This is key with ANY trading strategy. Human emotions is what ultimately breaks traders. With Forex Cash Cow you are guaranteed to not have this problem.Easy to follow rules. As simple as if A = B do C!Works the same for everyone who follow the exact rules (unlike non-mechanical trading methods that work for the very few, and most of the time not even that) Impressively easy to learn. Most Forex Cash Cow traders can put this amazing strategy to work the next day after learning it.

Know today if tomorrow there will be a trade. Yes! You will know a day ahead if a trade is going to be triggered or not.

No monitoring the market. Many people want to trade the forex market but simply don't have the necessary time. Now, with Forex Cash Cow you can trade even if you have a day job! It simply takes 1 minute per week to implement it.

The forex market is known for it's large price swings that when properly traded result in amazing profits. Forex Cash Cow not only trades these price swings with great success BUT it identifies only the best of the best swings, the top percent.No more buying "black box" systems or subscribing to signal providers. All the strategies rules are 100% disclosed and explained. You will have complete control over your trading.

A unique PDFT (Price Driven Forex Trading) strategy. No indicators, no vague chart patterns, no pivots, no support and resistance, no anything you have seen or read until now.And much more....!

Forex Runner

Learn how to day trade the forex market and consistently nail $200, $300 or $400 trades over and over again. Forex Runner is simply one of the best day trading systems I have ever traded. And, being one of my unique PDFT strategies, you will not use any tools or indicators to trade it, the ONLY thing you will need is the price of the currency pair.Forex Runner let's you trade 100% emotion-free since it is completely mechanical. It's rules are incredibly easy to understand, it will not take you more than one hour to learn how to trade it.
One of the amazing characteristics of Forex Runner is that it let's you trade when ever you have time. Since the forex market is a 24 hour market, you have the luxury to decide exactly when it is best for you to put Forex Runner to work.

If you have been around for some time in the trading business you know how hard it is to find a consistently profitable day trading strategy. Forex Runner was built to be consistent. Small stop losses, large profit objectives and a large percentage of winning trades makes Forex Runner one of the top performing forex trading systems.Here are some of the many benefits Forex Runner traders have:A revolutionary Price Driven Forex Trading (PDFT) strategy.

You will not use any type of indicators, identify any vague patterns, or use support or resistance levels etc. You will only use the price of the currency pair to identify, enter and profit from the trade.You will learn how to exploit the daily range of the major currency pairs.How to enter "hit and run" trades; i.e. Identify fast, enter fast and profit fast!Fully disclosed system: no need to buy, rent or subscribe to any service. You control your trading, you decide when to trade, you decide how much to trade.

So easy to learn that most of my traders (many who are completely new to forex trading) put Forex Runner to work only 1 day after learning it.

No stress, no emotions: Since Forex Runner is 100% mechanical you will only follow strict rules to identify, enter and exit trades. No interpretation or judgment what so ever (if you trade already, you most likely know the value of 100% mechanical trading)!Cheat most daytradres! While 90% of traders will identify trades only after the market started moving (and trust me, most enter as the move is ending!), you will have already identified and entered trades BEFORE the market started moving.

Be your own boss, chose when to trade. Since the forex market is active 24 hours a day, no matter what part of the world you live in you can put Forex Runner to work for you!Profit objective is pre-set. This means you do not have to think and speculate where to place it. Once you enter the trade you will simply enter a "take profit" order and forget about it.

Factors affecting Forex trade

The value of a country's currency is influenced by a number of factors: The economics of the country, its trade deficit, political and social environment.

If the current government's deficit increases, its currency's value will fall. As the government decreases its deficit, the currency can begin to recover value and the exchange rate will become more favorable. The same relationship holds true with a country's trade deficit. If the country imports more goods and services than it exports it will have a negative influence on the currency.

Inflation lessens the ability of a unit of currency to buy less and less, so the currency loses value. If the inflation becomes rampant the currency is valued less because it's also viewed as unstable. As the rate of inflation begins to decline the currency begins to increase in value.

Politics and social changes can play havoc with the currency exchange rates. Changes in the regime that are viewed negatively can lower the value of the country's currency in the short term and continue into the long term. If the present government makes decisions that are looked at negatively it can decrease the currency value as well. The opposite can happen. Current government officials can make policy changes that are viewed positively by the rest of the world and that can increase the value of the currency.

For the United States, interest rates and the price of oil can have a major impact on the value of the US dollar.

Interest rates effect how much it's going to cost to borrow money and how much can be earned on investments. Historically if the US raises its interest rates it attracts foreign investors. Those investors have to sell their own currency in order to buy U.S. dollars to purchase treasury bonds. If the interest begins to drop, or the perception is that the rates won't rise any more, investors may purchase Euros as an alternative investment which lowers the value of the US dollar.

The United States is dependent on foreign oil production. Many US industries are dependent on oil and an increase in the price of oil means an increase in their expenses and a drop in profits. In a similar way, a country's dependency on oil influences how the country's currency is valued and will be impacted by changes in oil prices. The US's dependency on oil makes the dollar more sensitive to oil prices than countries who aren't so dependent. As the price of oil increases the value of the dollar drops.

World events and wise Forex trading

Forex trading has the great potential of becoming a profitable and fulfilling career that will let you have a lifestyle that few other lucrative activities in the world can offer to people from many roads in life and without asking any of those men and women for a diploma or some special certification.

But Forex trading is not easy; it may be simple to enter and place your first trade but becoming a profitable trader is a different thing. You will need to acquire the right knowledge and techniques in order to understand and know when to enter or leave a trade always fulfilling the main objective every trader must have; making money.

There are two kinds of analysis you can perform on the Forex markets. They are known as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. It is common that traders tend to divide themselves into "technical" and "fundamentalists". Each group devoting themselves to the main tools each kind of analysis gives them.

Technical forex traders base their trading on the analysis of the charts and the number of indicators derived from the plots of price oscillations and patterns. Meanwhile Fundamentalists traders base their trading mostly on the fundamental numbers and economical indicators of countries economies. Though, even if divided, both tendencies tend to complement each other to some degree.

In this article I will place myself on the "fundamentalists" side and focus on one of the situations every forex trader must be aware of and don't let the events involved affect his trading efforts.

This risky situation is that when unprecedented chaotic world events start to develop as the trading day goes on. The power of the media (tv, internet, printed) can magnify and sometimes it may even distort the events taking place and impacting the trading journey in a significant manner. The result of this magnification and rapid diffusion of the news about the series of unfavorable events taking place is an increased atmosphere of fear, confusion and uncertainty in the trading world. And fearful traders are not prone to make the best trading choices because they have given themselves to panic and emotional reactions instead of reasoned and intelligent decisions.

If you need to have more specific examples of these kind of events you can search a bit inside your memories and consider the impact of just a few types of unfavorable chaotic world events as the political upheavals or corporate scandals of companies as; Enron, WorldCom, or of people as the case of Martha Stewart trial, etc. There is also the example of the terrorist attacks on Sep 11 in New York, March 11 in Spain, etc. Also natural disasters: tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, freezes, droughts, hurricanes along with wars can cause great disruption in a trading journey.

In short, every forex trader should be totally sure that his method of trading has built-in safe guards (stops, limit orders) to prevent a major financial loss from his trading account in case any of the unfavorable events I mentioned above ever takes place. And being realistic, many of those events will surely happen in the future.

Online Forex Trading

Do you know what Forex trading is? Some people have heard of this type of trading, others have not. If you haven't, it might be something you are interested in trying. Forex trading stands for foreign exchange trading. What it consists of is the buying and selling of different currencies. This is done simultaneously, and there are people who make a lot of money with this kind of trading. This is apparent by the 1.9 million dollar turnover in this market that happens every day. Also a lot of it is done online. Online Forex trading is very popular.

The most common currencies to trade are the Euro and the U.S. dollar, and the U.S. dollar and the Japanese Yen. However, nearly all of the Forex trading done involves the major currencies of the world. These include the Euro, Japanese Yen, U.S. dollar, Canadian dollar, British Pound, Australian dollar, and the Swiss franc. The Forex exchange is different from other exchanges, such as the New York Stock Exchange, in that it does not have a physical location or central exchange. The exchange day begins in Sydney, then moves to Tokyo, on to London, and finally ends in New York. Each country takes the responsibility of regulating the Forex exchange activities in their own country. So there is no overall regulatory agency. However, this does not seem to be a problem and most countries do very well at overseeing Forex exchange activities.

There are a lot of things that influence the Forex rate. For instance, economic things, like interest rates and inflation, and also political things, such as political unrest in other countries and major changes in government cause up and down changes in the Forex rate. However, these things tend to be short-term, and don't affect it for long.

Online Forex trading sites are easy to find by surfing the Internet. Most of them provide a wealth of information for the first time trader. You can find out about the history of Forex trading, how to co it, tips on being successful, etc. You can also start trading with as little as $250 in your account on some sites. For anyone who is interested in currency or trading, it is something you should check out.

As with any type of trading, there are no guarantees that you will make money or that you won't make money. It is a smart choice to learn as much as you can about online Forex trading before investing any money and doing any trading. It is a fact that informed investors do better than those who don't know much about what they are trading. So get the fact before you dive in. You might just make a little money in a very interesting currency exchange.

Advantages of the Forex Market

What are the advantages of the Forex Market over other types of investments?

When thinking about various investments, there is one investment vehicle that comes to mind. The Forex or Foreign Currency Market has many advantages over other types of investments. The Forex market is open 24 hrs a day, unlike the regular stock markets. Most investments require a substantial amount of capital before you can take advantage of an investment opportunity. To trade Forex, you only need a small amount of capital. Anyone can enter the market with as little as $300 USD to trade a "mini account", which allows you to trade lots of 10,000 units. One lot of 10,000 units of currency is equal to 1 contract. Each "pip" or move up or down in the currency pair is worth a $1 gain or loss, depending on which side of the market you are on. A standard account gives you control over 100,000 units of currency and a pip is worth $10.

The Forex market is also very liquid. When trading Forex you have full control of your capital.

Many other types of investments require holding your money up for long periods of time. This is a disadvantage because if you need to use the capital it can be difficult to access to it without taking a huge loss. Also, with a small amount of money, you can control

Forex traders can be profitable in bullish or bearish market conditions. Stock market traders need stock prices to rise in order to take a profit. Forex traders can make a profit during up trends and downtrends. Forex Trading can be risky, but with having the ability to have a good system to follow, good money management skills, and possessing self discipline, Forex trading can be a relatively low risk investment.

The Forex market can be traded anytime, anywhere. As long as you have access to a computer, you have the ability to trade the Forex market. An important thing to remember is before jumping into trading currencies, is it wise to practice with "paper money", or "fake money." Most brokers have demo accounts where you can download their trading station and practice real time with fake money. While this is no guarantee of your performance with real money, practicing can give you a huge advantage to become better prepared when you trade with your real, hard earned money. There are also many Forex courses on the internet, just be careful when choosing which ones to purchase.

Forex: Dealing with your losses

One of the most important rules of Forex trading is to keep your losses as small as you possibly can. With small Forex trading losses, you can stick it out longer than those times when the market moves against you, and be well positioned for when the trend turns around. The one proven method to keeping your losses small is to set your maximum loss before you even open a Forex trading position.

The maximum loss is the greatest amount of capital that you are comfortable losing on any one trade. With your maximum loss set as a small percentage of your Forex trading effort, a string of losses won't stop you from trading for any particular amount of time. Unlike the 95% of Forex traders out there who lose money because they haven't begun to use wise money management rules to their Forex trading system, you will be ok with this money management rule.

To use as an example, If I had a Forex trading float of $1000, and I began trading with $100 a trade, it would be reasonable for me to experience three losses in a row. This would reduce my Forex trading capital to $400. It would then be decided that they're going to bet $200 on the next trade because they think they have a higher chance of winning after having lost three times already.

If that trader did bet $100 dollars on the next trade because they thought they were going to win, their capital could be reduced to $250 dollars. The chances of making money now are practically nil because I would need to make 150% on the next trade just to break even. If the maximum loss had been determined, and stuck to, they would not be in this position.

In this case, the reason for failure was because the trader risked too much money, and didn't apply good money management to the play. Remember, the goal here is to keep our losses as small as possible while also making sure that we open a large enough position to capitalize on profits and minimize losses. With your money management rules in place, in your Forex trading system, you will always be able to do this.