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Online Forex Currency Trading – How To Boost Confidence And

October 10th, 2010 No Comments

Online Forex Currency Trading – How To Boost Confidence And Discipline

The Challenge

Consistently profitable online currency trading requires both confidence and discipline to first achieve and then maintain a reasonable level of success. For virtually all traders, these two aspects of trading are responsible for their success or lack of it: having confidence as a trader, plus the discipline to stick to their orrex currency trading system.

Most traders that struggle with their discipline do so for a very simple reason and this is something that can be very easily addressed and rather quickly.

Ask any frustrated or struggling trader what their biggest problem is and it will boil down to a lack of confidence and / or discipline in one form or another. Traders who have both are the ones the that are doing fine and enjoying their trading.

Even the veteran traders will tell you that the primary reason for any rough spells they have occasionally experienced were from when they had a lapse or breakdown in their confidence or their discipline, but once they got it back all was well.

So how do you go about building these two emotional pillars for successful currency online trading? Or regaining them if they’ve waned?

The 80/20 Solution

One of the fastest and most effective ways to give yourself that boost is to intentionally create a disruption in the UNsuccessful pattern that has been established. Now this applies whether you’ve known success and temporarily lost it or if you haven’t found it yet.

The most powerful way to disrupt the pattern is through stepping back and making an assessment of your current day online trading. Now, this doesn’t have to be a lengthy or monumental task. There are two parts to this process and it generally follows the 80/20 rule with which you’re already familiar.

Good news for you is that the first part is the 20% of your effort that will yield 80% of the results. Even better is the fact that you can do this within the next hour or two and see results that fast. Here’s what you do:

Step 1. Effort = 20%, Yield = 80%

Step 1, part 1 is to take your recent trading results and run your metrics on your current trading. So which metrics are going to give you confidence and discipline-building information?

Your real winning percentage
Your actual profit-to-loss ratio
The true size of your average winner
The true size of your average losing trades
Your actual number of winning trades
Your actual number of losing trades
Your REAL ROI from your trading efforts in both time and $
Your projected annual income from your trading based on real numbers from your current trading

So how does this help with your confidence if the numbers dont look so great? Especially if you havent yet experienced a level of success that you desire?

Well, very specifically these numbers give you a very clear reference point to work with regarding the factors in your trading that make the bottom line what it is. Rather than going on hope and wishful thinking, you now know the particular aspects of your trading on which to focus your efforts a realize results. It brings a great deal of clarity to the exact direction for you to take.

Just this simple step alone with give you a substantial boost, and part 2 will really bring about a transformation.

Step 1 Part 2.

In this part, you simply backtest your system (whatever it is) very specifically according to the rules of the system using recent historical market data for the markets you trade.

You then run the metrics and compare the two. This information is incredibly powerful in two ways for building both your confidence and your discipline to stick with your system. Heres how this works for you.

By backtesting your system with historical data, this can give you a very clear measure of what your forex currency trading system is capable of delivering for you. If your current trading is not delivering the profits that you want, you need to knowif the problem is with the system or if it in your execution of the system.

If your current trading results are comparable to the backtesting results, then you know immediately that you need to take a closer look at the system youre using.

If your backtest results are good, but your current results with your system are not, then you know that you need to focus on your execution.

Most importantly, if your system doesnt backtest well, then you know straightaway that you need to consider changes to the system youre using, either a new system altogether or changes to the one youve got.

Directly for confidence and discipline, if your system tests well, then your confidence in it should go way up, along with your discipline to stick to it because you are providing PROOF to yourself of its capabilities and limitations and with real numbers.

Plus you can see its limitations and more easily get through short losing streaks and drawdowns while maintaining confidence in your system, thus making the discipline part of sticking with it much easier.

Step 2. The More Intensive Process

If you have gone through the process in Step 1 and find that your system is good but your execution is where you need to focus and you need assistance working through other possible emotional management issues, then you need to seek out resources specifically for finding the core issues to address. Go to Inside Out Trading for resources specifically created to help you with these.

In conclusion, confidence comes from thorough understanding and successful experience. Once you have a system in which you can have confidence, then the discipline to stick to it gets much much easier.

Analyzing your current trading then backtesting your system can provide a great deal of confidence and thus make sticking to your system considerably easier by knowing the particulars of how it makes your bottom line what it is and what your system is capable of delivering.

Tags: Currency Trading System, Current, Day Trading, Discipline, Disruption, Forex Currency Trading, Forex Trading, Lack Of Confidence, Lost, Monumental Task, Online Forex, Online Trading, Pillars, Reason, Spells, Struggle, Success

Which Forex Trading System To Choose?

October 3rd, 2010 No Comments

What Are Forex Trading Systems?

A Forex trading system is a set of rules which are aimed to ensure that you are trading in a way that is free of bias and the influence of emotion. Most beginner traders will look to learn a forex trading system whereas more experienced traders will eventually move to build a trading system of their own.

A good Forex trading system should look to encompass and cover for all possible eventualities which the markets may through up. In that respect, they should comprise of rules which govern, amongst other things the following:

1. Which currency pairs to trade.

2. When exactly to enter and exit a trade.

3. Where to place Stop Losses and Take Profit rates.

Forex trading systems must always be tested against historical data (known as back-testing). Beginner traders, when looking to purchase a forex trading system, should always ensure that the system was properly backtested and that the results are genuine. There are certain software packages available now which back-test trading systems automatically.

Which Forex Trading System To Choose?

This will depend upon your trading style. Some traders are swing traders and will look to keep positions for days, weeks or even months. Others prefer a day trading style and will be in and out of a trade within the same day. A typical swing trading system will look to take larger moves ranging from 100-300 pips over a period of a few days or weeks. On the other hand, an intraday forex system looks for smaller opportunities ranging from 25-50 pips.

Forex scalping systems have become popular of late as well. Scalping is a trading style which looks to take profits on very small price changes, usually soon after a trade has been entered into and becomes profitable. It is a strategy that does not look to capture 50+ pip moves; rather it is more about watching the price and getting in and out of trades for quick 5 pip moves which little by little add up.

While this might sound risky, it can be quite a low risk strategy if performed correctly. As with all trading systems, the most important parameter which has to be addressed here is money management. Having a strict exit strategy and rules on how much of your equity to risk per trade must be clearly outlined.

Tags: Beginner Traders, Bias, Certain Software, Currency Pairs, Day Trading, Emotion, Experienced Traders, Few Days, Forex System, Forex Trading System, Losses, Pip, Pips, Price Changes, Profit Rates, Profits, Software Packages, Swing Traders, Swing Trading, Trades

What Is Forex Technical Trading?

September 20th, 2010 No Comments

Just as you would expect with anyone trading in equities, investors in the Forex market employ strategies to help them invest more successfully. All of these strategies ultimately boil down to one thing: trying to predict which way the currency exchange rates will fluctuate. Predict correctly, up or down, and make a profit while we all know what happens when we are incorrect.

When deciding whether or not to enter or exit a position in the Forex market, there are two basic types of analysis from which to choose: fundamental or technical. Investors who base decisions on fundamental analysis will look at interest rates and the overall economic performance of the nations in the currency pair when deciding when to sell and buy positions. Technical Forex investors will look to trade based on price performance and chart patternsso which is best?

Use of fundamental analysis such as the latest GDP figures may seem like a very logical approach when deciding when to buy or sell a position in the Forex market. After all, we all know that stock prices are affected by economic data so it would stand to reason that the same would hold true for the Forex. However, the Forex market has no central exchange with set hours so trading continues 24 hours per day except when shut down between Friday and Sunday and this makes a big difference between profitability and loss for small investors.

The small investor is a very, very, very small fish in a gigantic ocean full of larger investors. By the time economic data and current events filter down to the small investor, all of the big players have already moved their currency and taken advantage of the information. Day trading is a very dangerous game in the Forex because the market is so fluid and investors are highly leveraged so using fundamental analysis is a very dangerous strategy.

Technical Forex trading, however, involves the use of historical data to interpret present pricing trends and predict the future. The moving average (MA) is the most common technical statistic used by Forex investors. Presented in a graph or chart format, the moving average helps investors see the price movements of a currency pair for a given period of time. A 10-day MA, for instance, will show an investor the daily open, daily close, high, low, and overall direction of a currency pair for a 10-day period of time. It is called a moving average and favored by investors because it helps smooth out the noise of the price movements so an overall trend can be determined.

Technical trading involves entering or exiting a position based upon predetermined points by the investor. For instance, some investors may favor a 50-day moving average (the larger the sample, the smoother the lines and the easier it will be to see a pattern) and will only buy once the price moves above a certain point on the chart. Other variations on this statistic include:

Simple Moving Average (SMA)is based upon the closing price
Exponential Moving Average (EMA)assigns more weight to recent prices while lowering the importance of days further in the past

In the end, the technical Forex traders are trying to identify trends and then capitalize upon them. The goal is to find the currency pair with the greatest pip movement and lowest volatility. Technical analysis helps investors determine the emergence of new trends in currency pairs so that they can profit from them but no strategy will work with 100% accuracy because at the end of the daythe market is always right even when we believe our analysis is perfect!

Tags: Central Exchange, Currency Exchange Rates, Current Events, Dangerous Game, Day Trading, Economic Data, Economic Performance, Forex Market, Forex Trading, Fundamental Analysis, Gdp, Gdp Figures, Information Day, Logical Approach, Moving Average, Price Performance, Profitability, Small Fish, Small Investor, Stock Prices

One Good Way To Avoid Bad Days In Online Forex

September 18th, 2010 No Comments

One Good Way To Avoid Bad Days In Online Forex Currency Trading

In online Forex currency trading, even just one bad day can make the difference between a profitable month and a losing month.

Every day, you have to be at the top of your game because everything depends on you as the one in control of all you do. Even more important than the markets you trade or the Forex currency trading system you use, execution is the key determinant in whether or not you’ll make money.

If you’re feeling lousy, in a pessimistic mood, or just not up to par, this will likely affect your decisions, including whether you stick to your online forex trading system or if you deviate from it – and wind up making bad decisions that result in losses or money left on the table.

Here’s an example to illustrate.

A good friend of mine has been in trading for a number of years. He does very well and has his Forex currency trading fine-tuned to the point that he has that feel for the markets that only comes with long-term experience as a trader.

I don’t want to embarrass him with this, because he was rather down when he shared this with me, so I’ll refer to him as Kevin, but that’s not his real name.

Week before last, Kevin and I were talking on the phone and catching up since our last visit.

He told me how the day before, he might as well have have stayed home and stayed in bed. He’d been sneezing and coughing and generally feeling like lousy. The night before, he hadn’t slept well and so he was pretty tired too.

I asked him how the day had gone in his trading, and that was really the big issue. He said that he’d been rather pessimistic because he was tired and just feeling ragged.

Of course this affected everything, especially his decision-making regarding his trades.

Because he’s been in a mediocre mood, twice he got out of trades too early because he was just ’sure’ that they would stop short and turn against him, even though he picked them right and they ran.

Throughout the middle portion of the day, he missed out on four winners, because didn’t even bother to enter the trades. He felt that they’d just turn out to be losers like other times when the market turned on him right after getting in. His system had done its job of signaling him to get in and at the right time. Each time, he just was in too bad of a mood to accept he had a winner.

After the last one of those, he got mad and decided it was time for some payback, so he again ignored his system and hastily entered another trade, even though there was no entry signal. Another bad move – and quick loss of $400.

By the end of the day, he’d cut his profits short by $1,100 in profits by getting out too early, then missed out on another $1,800 by not entering the trades when he should have, and then just plain lost another $400 with a bad decision.

He really would have been better of home in bed.

Now the point here really isn’t to stay away from trading. You do it to make money and in order to profit you do have to show up.

Just like any other activity that really matters, you want preventive measures in place. You want to have problems averted, just plain not come up at all if possible.

You see, Kevin’s problem is that he neglects his health and general state. Not badly, though. Quite like many people.

His diet is marginal.

He stays up late and shorts himself sleep.

He never gets any exercise.

He doesn’t even take any vitamins to help make up for the rest.

Now, I love sweets and other marginally healthy foods too. I always have been a night person, NOT a morning person, and I certainly don’t exercise as much as I should for my age. I do however take my vitamins every day, along with additional antioxidants.

Whether your general health is just okay, or maybe you are physically stressed, the main thing is to stay ahead of the game, to do the right things BEFORE a problem arises.

The frequency that I get sick is pretty low, plus I do enjoy pretty reasonable health and good spirits the great majority of the time.

As a result of taking antioxidants, I rarely have bad days like Kevin did.

When it comes to health, the best defense is a good offense. Besides, powerful antioxidants help your body do what it is built to do: fight-off germs, heal and be healthy.

The main thing I like about taking my vitamins and the extra antioxidants is that I don’t have to make any major changes in my lifestyle to stay rather healthy and feeling good.

I don’t have to go to the gym.

I don’t have to try to become a morning person.

I can still eat what I like, knowing that I’m giving my body what it needs.

I feel good and function well when I need to be at my best.

Besides, I plan on being around for many years to come.

I want those years to be fun and enjoyable, not sitting around waiting to die. I’ve read in quite a number of places over the years that antioxidants fight what makes you age and makes your body robust against disease and degeneration.

A few of my favorites, in addition to my regular once-a-day vitamins, I take:

Extra Vitamin C, of course

Grape seed extract

Bilberry extract

Acai berry extract

I hadn’t heard of the last one until recently.

I’ve got this one neighbor who has alway been a bit of a hypochondriac. Not too long ago, I noticed that she didn’t have her usual list of complaints, plus she didn’t look as miserable as she used to either.

This was weird, and it got my attention.

She told me about this blend of berry juices that she’d run across, so I checked it out, and it was pretty pricey, but I did research the product to see what was in it that made it work so well.

According to the manufacturer, this juice blend has juices from 19 or 20 berries and other fruit, but the main benefits are from one primary berry in the blend: the Acai berry.

It’s reported to be an even more powerful antioxidant than grape seed, and has other health benefits as well, so I decided to give it a try.

Now the juice blend costs a hefty price, so the Acai berry extract in capsule form is much more cost-effective, plus has a long shelf-life and less risk of food allergy than the 20-berry juice blend.

It is always advisable to look at what a month’s supply is going to be, and there are alternatives that cost up to 89% less, plus have a higher concentration.

As a trader, this small investment in yourself a very good one. Vitamins and antioxidants are a whole lot cheaper than bad days in Forex currency trading.

Now, no matter how old you are, how well you eat or how much exercise you get, take good care of yourself.

Online Forex currency trading is challenging, and at times can be very stressful as you know. Make sure that you give yourself the advantage of good health so that you stay at the top of your game and make the most of it.

Your account balance will thank you for it!

Tags: Bad Day, Bad Decisions, Control, Currency Trading System, Day Trading, Determinant, Execution, Forex Currency Trading, Forex Currency Trading System, Game, Good Friend, Hadn, Losses, Money, Online Forex Trading, Online Forex Trading System, Online Trading, Par, Term Experience, Trades, Trading Currency

The Exciting World Of Forex Day Trading

August 21st, 2010 2 Comments

Forex trading is the largest known financial market. Day or night, it doesnt really matter; the trade goes on even as half of the world is asleep. It offers a lot of opportunities for many organizations and individuals to make profit. There are many day traders in the market, and if you think you can do it, why not join the day traders.

Once you decide to start to day trading, dont expect to learn everything about it in an instant. You will surely need to learn for some time, and you need to exert a lot of effort. Practice makes perfect, and forex trading requires a lot of it.

Before using real money, you can practice through simulated trading and do a paper trade. Here you can incorporate all your trading techniques and see if they actually work.

Dont be a scared to lose a certain amount of money, because any trade involves a lot of it. But it doesnt mean that you should not limit your losses, you can make use of stop orders. And most importantly, you should learn from your past losses.

A good trader by day should be disciplined. Make discipline a habit in order to make sound decisions, and act in accord with trading systems/strategies. This way, you can do your trade in a consistent and reliable manner. Certain situations require an individual to make decisions based on their pre-set criteria and parameters.

You should make it a point to habitually follow your trading system/plan; this way you can effectively evaluate the results of your plan. If your expectations are not met, perhaps its time that you make certain adjustments and fine tuning, so that your plan will still be of good use in the future.

Dont let your emotions rule you, especially when you’re making trading decisions. A day trader should always be disciplined, and once you attain your objective, leave the market first. Oftentimes people plunge in deeper because they are influenced by greed and fear.

There are also day traders who are quite reluctant to lose money. For instance your stock goes down, and you’re still hoping that after some time it will rise again. And to your surprise, the share price goes further down. If only you were not reluctant to lose money, you could have sold it the first time its price went down, and prevent further loss.

A day trader should leave no room for fear and greed to take over; otherwise, this will be the key to your losses.

If you’re serious with your day trading, you can also do it at home. You would need hardware and software requirements to put a sufficient platform at home for online trading.

For your hardware requirement, you would need a computer with a Windows XP operating system or the like. The monitor should not be less than nineteen inches.

You must have a fast internet connection because day traders need to make fast executions and confirmations of the trade. They also need to receive and deliver quotes, news, and other pertinent market data. A fast internet connection allows you to make your day trading in a timely fashion.

Execution services are available online, and it comes in two types: the internet-based discount brokers and the online systems or the EDAT. The first type varies on how customer orders are executed, reviewed, and confirmed. This causes delay in completing a trade. On the other hand, the EDAT enables the trader to contact specialists directly. This results to a much quicker execution and confirmation of the orders.

Software platforms that are especially designed for day traders are often used by the more serious ones because real time data are usually provided like stock ticker and quotes, market indices and averages, charting, market stories, and price alerts. However, you would need to make monthly payments because this type of software usually charges fees.

Becoming a day trader is easy, but only if you are quite serious with this kind of endeavors. Like any type of trade, it requires dedication, time and effort. If you are able to put all of these things together, then you will reap profits that you’ve never imagined.

Remember that trading Forex is risky and you can lose as well as gain money. Good Forex software will help you.

Tags: Amount Of Money, Day Trader, Day Traders, Day Trading, Discipline, Emotions, Forex Trading, Greed And Fear, Habit, Half Of The World, Incorporate, Losses, Lot, Objective, Parameters, Real Money, Set Criteria, Simulated Trading, Sound Decisions, Trading Forex

Start Part Time Forex Trading

August 2nd, 2010 No Comments

Forex trading is one of the most viable options for someone whos looking at bigger possibilities, bigger profit and greater ease in trading and business. Because of its high liquidity and speedy transactions, forex trading is becoming a popular game among players in the field of business and marketing. While its traditionally for companies and corporations with big capital and experience in the field, it has also proven itself to be a good venture for a neophyte though what one calls a Mini Forex account or mini forex trading.

Mini Forex Basics

Mini Forex trading is good for people who have just started in the forex market and with not enough funds to open a regular account. It requires a smaller capital compared to regular forex accounts, a minimum of $300. With mini forex trading, you can control a $10,000 currency position.

The key here is leverage. Because of leverage, a trader can trade in a commodity more than the money available in his account. Say with a $250 deposit, one could trade a maximum of 5 mini lots. This kind of leverage is greater than stocks or day trading. Of course, it is recommended to start with a manageable leverage that allows greater flexibility in transactions.

What are the perks of mini forex trading? With just a small stake involved, you get to enjoy free trading platform and benefits that regular forex traders get to enjoy. These would include state-of-the art trading software, charts and resources. With a leverage of 200:1, the trader can trade in a commodity regardless of the amount of money available to him.

Mini forex trading also allows for lesser losses as the contract size is only 1/10th the size of a standard forex account. There is also greater flexibility with regards to customizing trades and minimizing risks. Ideal for those with smaller capital, the trader has a chance of investing in more areas of the market with lesser risk as there is lesser capital to be lost. He need not be hesitant with his transactions as there is lesser capital involved.

With the same freedom enjoyed by regular forex traders, a mini forex trader can trade as many lots as he likes. Although the standard trade size is 10,000 units, you are free to trade as much as 50,000 units or more. In this way, the trader also builds up his confidence in his trading skills at the same time slowly increase his profit and trading position in the market. He gets to manage his money before going for the higher stakes in regular forex trading.

The trader likewise gets to develop a sound trading strategy without getting too emotionally involved in possible losses and profit. For practice, a newbie in forex trading can practice through paper trading. But in the real market, he can start small with mini forex trading. There is lesser capital involved and the practice builds up the traders trading gameplan for future explorations in regular, higher stakes forex trading.

An Example

On a regular account, a 25-pip stop loss is equal to a loss of $250. Since a mini forex account is just 1/10th of the standard forex account, this is amounting to $25 only. If you trade in units of 10,000, the trader is given more flexibility in terms of customizing his trades and lessening the risks of loss.

They say that business is for the risk-taker. But if youre just starting out, its wise to be cautious and think about your moves. In the world of foreign trading, mini forex accounts provide the wisest and best option especially for a neophyte. It requires lesser capital, lesser emotional investment, and slowly builds up your skills and confidence as a trader. In a way, its a way to prepare the trader for the higher stakes in the more advanced world of foreign trading.

Remember using good Forex software will help you save time.

Tags: Amount Of Money, Commodity, Contract Size, Currency Position, Day Trading, Flexibility, Forex Accounts, Forex Market, Forex Traders, Leverage, Liquidity, Mini Forex Trading, Part Time, Possibilities, Software Charts, Stake, State Of The Art, Trading Platform, Trading Software, Viable Options

Online Forex Currency Trading – How To Boost Confidence And

July 22nd, 2010 1 Comment