Archive for September 1st, 2009

How to Trade Forex? It’s a Piece of Cake!

How to trade Forex? Trading Forex is a piece of cake. It is really not as hard as it seems to be. Forex trades involve entering the trade at the right time, as well as exiting also at the right time. All you have to do is select a currency pair, select the desired amount of the base currency that you wish to trade and choose whether you would like to sell or to buy. Next you will have to wait for a profitable time to exit your transaction, and there you are. In order to learn how to trade Forex and to start consistently choosing the winning transactions, you will have to practice on a demo account for several months.

Trading with a Demo Account

The easiest way to learn how to trade Forex is using a demo account. Any mistake that you make while trading on a demo account will not incur any losses. For example, if you buy or sell the currency at the wrong time, if you click the “wrong button” while trading, and so forth. Give your demo trading enough time. Jumping into live trades before you do your homework will merely put you among the 90% of the day traders, who fail in Forex.

Understanding Currency Pairs

How to trade Forex with the best currency pair? Which currency pair to go with? It is better to first go with the most traded currency pair – USD/EUR: Trade with this currency pair, until you know it like the back of your hand. Do not start trading with other currency pairs until this one becomes your “friend”. All currency pairs are different; they are all tied to different countries and different reasons behind fluctuations, such as news, political situation and so on. Try to get a feel for one currency pair at a time, starting with the most traded one (USD/EUR).

Currency Quotes in Forex trades

Understanding currency quotes is extremely important in order to learn how to trade Forex. Understanding currency quotes is essential, because the trades are performed based on the quotes. Each quote has two sides. The bid price and the ask price. Bid price is the price at which you can sell the base currency at the same time buying the counter currency. Ask price, is the price at which you can buy the base currency at the same time selling the counter currency.

First currency in the quote is the base currency, and second currency is the counter currency (also called quote currency or terms currency). In the example of the USD/EUR currency pair, USD is the base currency and EUR is the counter currency. The value of the base currency is always 1. The value of the counter currency is calculated against the base currency, i.e., 1 USD = 0.7422 EUR. Prices in the terms of quotes are expressed through pips, which are usually the 4th decimal point. Once you understand the currency pairs, you will be well on your way in the process of learning how to trade Forex.

Margins and Leverage in Forex trades

In order to safeguard your capital, learn how to trade Forex without taking leverage from a broker. If you can put down a small amount of your own money (called margin), the dealer will provide you with more money (called leverage). Leverage will allow you to trade with more lots. Is margin trading good or bad? Same as bank loans and mortgages, margin trading may be both good and bad. While providing you with more opportunities, it will also tremendously increase the possibility of losses.

No matter what dealers may say, they often do not care much about the outcome of your trades. Dealers are similar to banks, which are willing to provide you with a loan, and they do not care much if you will lose your property for example. You will still have to pay back the loan, as well as the interest to the bank. You should try to never trade on a margin since the outcome may be frightening. You should consider trading on a margin only after you gain sufficient knowledge of how to trade Forex.

It’s very easy to learn how to trade Forex. However, how to trade Forex with a profit? Allow enough time to train on a demo account before proceeding to real-life trading.

About the author: Steve Maenshel can you help you navigate how to trade the forex markets. For more information, visit his forex resource center.

 

You Need A Forex Traders Mindset (Part II)

Greed is a form of fear which is the fear of missing out. So you need to control and face your fears in trading. The first step in overcoming fear is to recognize the various forms of fear connected with trading. The second step is knowing how to control those fears.

Why do so many people rush to the departmental store during the sales season? It is the fear of missing out. Any kind of buying mania stems from the fear of missing out. This form of fear is a kind of greed.

This fear manifests itself especially during a sharp rally or decline of a currency pair in forex trading. Suppose you are interested in choosing a good currency pair for trading. You see on your computer monitor that the EUR/USD pair is making new highs, as it keeps on going up and up.

Immediately buy, buy, and buy signals start ringing in your mind. Your heart starts pounding. You start feeling the acute pain of not being in the market when the EUR/USD pair continues to move higher and higher. Your mouth is watering with the thoughts of making potential huge profits.

You start thinking, Everyone is buying and I am not buying. I am losing out a highly profitable trade. This fear of losing out hypnotizes you into placing buy orders frantically. You have some doubts at the far back of your mind but you simply ignore them.

These types of trading decisions are very dangerous. When most of the buying has been done, it compels you to enter into a trend very late. Be disciplined! The mindset, How can I not be buying/selling when everyone else is buying/selling, is extremely dangerous. Be glad to think that most of the traders are pouring dumb money into buying a currency pair that is already overbought. Always remember, Buy low and sell high.

Trading is a game. There will be winners. There will be losers. Sometime you win and sometimes you will lose some of your trades. The fear of losing out is the most prominent among the new traders.

New traders dont yet have the adequate skills and knowledge to help assess and evaluate trading opportunities with a high level of confidence. This leads to trading paralysis. New traders become afraid of pulling the trigger when it comes to entering or exiting a trade as they fear losing money.

Now you should not be afraid of pulling the trigger and being fearful of damaging the account based on only one trade. How to overcome this type of trading paralysis? Decide before entering into a trade, how much you can afford to lose. Use a stop loss order that is in accordance with your money management rules.

It is very easy for traders to oscillate between emotional high and low. The outcome of just one trade should not affect your overall performance. Do not get caught up feeling invincible or pessimistic after a win or a loss. Try to develop your own winning forex trading system that can give more winner than losers in the long run.

Mr. Ahmad Hassam is a Harvard University Graduate. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Know These Forex Charts. Learn Forex Trading!

 

Trading Spot Forex – The Advantages

The simple name for trading spot forex is trading foreign exchange. As you may understand, the idea behind this type of investment is that you buy one currency when it is low and sell another when it is high. The balance is your profit.

Compared to many other investment options, spot forex trading is gaining its popularity. Many people, even those who are new to investing, find that forex trading is a better choice for them than playing in the stock market or futures market, and there are good reasons for that.

* Flexible Capital Requirement

Unlike many other forms of investment options, the threshold capital requirement for entry to the forex market is low and flexible. As such, it is a more affordable option for smaller investors.

There was a time when forex trading seemed to be dominated by large multinational banks and major financial institutions. In that climate, it is easy to see why smaller investors did not feel they could even begin to compete.

Over the years, however, things have changed a lot. Now, almost anyone with any amount of capital can enter the forex market. You simply play with whatever amount you feel comfortable.

* Easy Operation

Forex trading has been around for many many years already. Due to its historical evolution, the practice in the forex market is very much standardized by now. This, together the modern technologies available to investors today, has made the operation of forex trading very easy to learn and use. WIth an automated trading system, you can constantly monitor the market, make quick transactions and get complete stats any time you like. Whether you are eating, sleeping, or running errands, you can still be making money .

* An Ever-growing Market

The forex market is up and running 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. There is always something happening, and new money-making opportunities and systems never cease to turn up. In this exciting market, you can hardly stay inactive. You should keep in mind, though, focusing is just as important to your success as being responsive to new events.

* Lower Transaction Cost

We have already mentioned that it does not require a big sum to start with forex trading. Another advantage of spot forex is that the transaction fee tends to be lower compared to stock trading, and so are the charges by forex brokers.

As you can see, trading spot forex has many advantages, and these advantages have led to its increasing popularity. Regardless of how much you are willing to invest and regardless of whether you have any prior experience, you have a good chance of success in this huge market.

Click here for our review of a leading automatic forex trading software in the market, which will grant you an unfair advantage over your competitors. Also check out this related article about currency trading software program.