Online Forex Trading & Its Trend Patterns

Forex trading is a great option for those who want a great income from home or anywhere else. But in order to be a successful forex trader you need to learn the basics of the currency markets and familiarize yourself with the world of trading. One of the first things you will notice as you start analyzing forex charts is that the currency markets often display's some very familiar patterns of price movements. Once a clear pattern is established, it becomes the most probable course of future price action until the market
changes.

Considering this, it’s important that you identify and understand that there exist two types of markets; these are: trending and trend-less markets. Each market type has pretty clear and specific patterns which you will alsonotice over time.

Trending markets are characterized by steady and elongated price movements with less than a 45 degree angel with occasional pauses, profit taking, or resting periods.

But even in trending markets you can notice the existence of other two important patterns. These are:

- Uptrends - A pattern of higher highs and higher lows.

- Downtrends - A pattern of lower lows and lower highs.

In the case of Trend-less markets, the main characteristic is the erratic price movements which are often steep ( greater than 45 -degree angle ) and that cannot be sustained therefore they must reverse in a short period of time. Although the movements can move many points in a short period of time, they often result in very little net price movement over time.

In Trend-less markets you can also distinguish tow main patterns:

- Choppy - An erratic pattern of higher highs and lower lows.

- Sideways - A narrow pattern of lower highs and higher lows.

While markets with an up-trend and down-trend behavior can offer generally excellent trading results, choppy markets often create stop outs, while sideways markets produce for little in either direction making them hard to trade, hence making it hard to make any significative profit during these trend-less periods.

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FOREX Trading: Learn The Real Significance Of The Economic News

Although FOREX traders are generally aware of the importance of daily economic calendars, in order to be profitable, they must go further and understand the difference between surprise and expected.

In order to grasp these concepts, you have to know that this is a game between the financial authorities and the community of analysts, trying to predict the numbers.

While natural disasters, accidents and political moves cannot be expected and therefore they are always considered as surprise news, the economic calendar is well known by the investment community.

In a highly speculative investment environment like the FOREX market, the most important volatility creator is the economic calendar.

Indicators like GDP (Gross Domestic Product), CPI (Consumer Price Index), PPI (Producer Price Index), Unemployment Rate, Interest Rate, Retail Sales and trade Balance are widely followed and evaluated.

Prior to each report, estimates are published and traders try to position themselves according to what the numbers are expected to be.

These estimates will set the tone and drive the market prior to the publication of each report.

Here comes a rule you have to integrate into your trading, the market discounts every piece of information. Simply stated, the price is the result of all that is known and expected by the investment community.

Even if the report indicates a good economic result, if this has been anticipated through the estimates, the market will not move much, as it already discounted this information early in the process.

However, if the economic announcement does not come in line with the expectations, then we have the so-called surprise reports. The investment community quickly tries to digest and adapt to the new expectations and in doing so, it drives the market in the direction of the surprise news.

Professional FOREX operators avoid having opened positions prior to key economic reports. They prepare trading plans for both, the expected as well as the surprise scenarios and act upon what is published, consequently limiting their risk exposure.

Always remember, only surprise news will move the market. Even if the report shows a strong economic sector, if the actual numbers are in line with the analysts' expectations, the market has already absorbed and discounted the numbers, therefore it will not move much.

Bogdan Vasile

www.forex-arena.com

Mr. VASILE is the founder and President of VORTEX Capital Management, a seasoned FOREX trader, member of the Securities & Investment Institute in London and author of the revolutionary SyncronDec™ training program used in his professional FOREX course. He is also the owner of http://www.forex-arena.com, a professional website, dedicated to FOREX analysis and education.

Forex Trading Strategies: Intraday Trading The Forex Market - How and Why?

The Spot FX market or "forex" used to be limited to banks and long term investors, plus those who had masses of capital money. trading would take place via a guy shouting what what going on on the trading floors or a "voice broker" which has gradually been replaced by automated computerised systems.

It is now actually possible for the retail investor or "home office based trader" to trade real time with the banks through the environment of a broker using computerised trading platforms which may have live desk traders placing trades either in the brokers books (95% of traders lose money so it's in their interests not to trade for real), or for real - for the winners.

A forex trading strategy must usually comprise of two main components - technical analysis and fundamental analysis. The technical side is looking at the charts and using mathematics to reflect the movement of the market and the fundamental side requires knowing about important market-influencing economic news and announcements.

So let's talk about fundamental analysis in your forex trading strategy. Every day, figures are released which are designed to reflect certain economic circumstances of a country. Some of these announcements for example "Non-Farm Payrolls" will almost certainly have an unpredictable affect on the market depending on previous data and implications of the figures released. A hard, fast rule for beginners trading (and veterans) is to stay out of the market during important announcements. You can find out where to get these by taking one of our courses.

Technical analysis will involve the use of indicators on charts to bring out areas of support and resistance areas where the price may either "get stuck" or "stop and reverse" in the opposite direction. One of the most popular (and accurate) methods of calculating support and resistance levels is the use of "Fibonacci". The sequence of numbers discovered by Fibonacci 750 years ago is a proportion found in nature (for example pineapply rind or sunflower seeds) and is commonly learned in high school math. Did you ever get a question "What is the next number in this sequence....1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,X?" That is the fibonacci sequence.

When we put the fibonacci numbers against each other we get a percentage ratio which can be plotted on out chart (you don't need to be a math whiz - most forex charting software does this for you). This will bring out key areas of potential support and resistance for each move on your charts. Using Fibonacci in combination with indicators showing momentum or strength of the current market can give you a strategy to be profitable on a consistent basis because a mathematical rule in forex is "what has happened before will happen again - history repeats itself".

Profit is made in forex trading much like in traditional business - in fact call to mind a haberdashery! You make a profit by buying at a lower price and selling at a higher price. The difference in forex is that it is also just as common sometimes to be able to sell at a higher price and then buy at a lower price. The profit can be made in both direction.

The process is simple. A trade is placed (either a buy or sell or the base currency) which automatically (sells or buys) the opposite currency in the pair. The price will change live every fraction of a second and for example if you bought the GBP/USD you have bought the pound and sold the US dollar. You want the value of the pound to rise and then you will sell your pounds (in other words "close your position") and make a profit on the difference in value. This can be done in seconds, minutes or hours.
The broker takes his cut and you're left with a little less than the actual "distance" the price has moved.

Due to brokers allowing you a leverage of up to 200:1 on your capital, you can control a lot more money than you actually have. Since you are buying one currency and selling the other, not all of your capital is at stake really. Only the proportion which will be lost or gained considering the change in value of the currency pair you are trading together.

For example, you have a forex trading strategy that tells you to buy the Euro against the dollar. The exchange rate is 1.2866 which means 1 EUR = 1.2866 USD

EUR/USD 1.2866

Due to your broker having a "spread" you are offered to buy at 1.2868 or to sell at 1.2864 (in other words the price must change by 2 [analagous] pips or points (significant figures or 4th decimal place) in order to break even. This is usually equivalent to paying a commission and you will not pay a commission depending on your broker.

Your forex trading strategy or system is accurate and you have timed the trade well and continue to watch the exchange rate rise 22 points over the next 15-20 minutes.

You see that the price is now 1.2888 and close your position.

You have made 20 points profit. This was a successful trade.

What do the 20 points mean though in terms of your portfolio?

Good question. With a 100:1 leverage, you have required at least $1000 to place your money in your account will have risen by $200 bcause each "pip or point" has been worth $10 to you. (I have deducted a 2 pip brokers spread or $20).

So, with a capital of about $2000 (you need a $1000 deposit to trade and some surplus equity in case the price goes in the opposite direction to what you wanted at first) you can traded 1 lot at 100:1 for each pip to be worth $10 profit. Since the market moves rapidly - sometimes 30 pips or more in a few minutes during very volatile times, you can make money fast placing accurate trades. The risk associated is that you can also lose money fast. We therefore need risk management plan to complete our forx trading strategy. This at it's most basic level means placing a "stop loss" to have your trade closed automatically if you misplace a trade. You can also have a "take profit" level or a "trailing stop" which you can move to break even or more as your trade becomes more profitable. That way, you have a guaranteed profit even if you "let the trade run".

Sam Beatson (http://www.fasttrackforex.com/fx) is known as "The Master Forex Trainer" and runs an excellent coaching program with the best education in forex online where you receive many online training and setup vids and even get one-to-one email support and analysis of your trades to help you...guaranteed! Check out http://www.fasttrackforex.com/special/index2.html for details. His basic course is at http://www.fasttrackforex.com/course.

Forex Trading: The Best Risk Management Strategy For Individual Traders

trading the forex market is considered one of the riskiest forms of investment. As volatility is the name of the game, and because margins are huge (up to 200x), the only way to protect your trading capital is to employ a coherent Risk Management strategy.

While the trading desks of hedge funds and investment banks have to take into account several portfolio optimization procedures, as an individual operator, trading just one currency pair is often the best approach.

Thanks to strong correlation between different currency pairs, be it positive or negative, it only makes sense to focus both attention and resources on just one pair. Among other important advantages, the trader can become familiar with certain habits of a currency pair, as daily range, best time of day to trade it, or main actors.

As the primary objective of a professional forex operator is the protection of his or her trading capital, and not the profit, each trading decision must be accompanied by a comprehensive plan to protect this capital.

You have to deal with this term, protection, from a trader’s perspective, as opposed to the general understanding. In trading terms, by protecting your capital means offering you as many chances as possible to stay in the game, to live to fight another day, without being forced to close down the business. This means that you are going to lose money, as cost of business, but you have to do it in a way to continue it as long as possible.

The following example is eloquent.

We will consider an initial trading capital of 10,000 USD. As each trade has an intrinsic risk, we will use two levels here, the first at 50% and the second at 1% out of the total trading capital of 10,000 USD. This means that in the first case the operator risks to lose 5,000 USD, while in the second case, his or her risk is limited to 100 USD.

Simply put, you will never lose more than a certain percentage of your trading capital in just one trade. Be aware that even if you trade heavily margined, the percentage must refer to your trading capital and not to the position. If you open a 100,000 USD (10x) with a 10,000 USD capital, then the percentage must be applied to your 10,000 USD.

By using obvious extremes, it is quite easy to comprehend the advantages of a percentage risk management. If you lose half of the capital in just one trade and you keep this way of trading, just one more mistake will put you out of business.

On the other hand, a 1% loss is by no means dangerous for your trading capital. In addition, this gives you time to err, time to learn from your mistakes while you progress on your way of becoming proficient in this business.

The percentage varies from trader to trader, according to their “risk tolerance”. Some trade with 2%, others prefer a more aggressive 5%, but the overwhelming majority NEVER risks more than 10% in just one trade.

Along with a trading plan with specific entry and exit levels, both for profit as well as loss and maximum time in a trade, this percentage rule is a powerful tool for protecting your trading capital.

Bogdan VASILE

Professional FOREX trader and owner of FOREX education website Forex-Arena.com

www.forex-arena.com

headoffice@forex-arena.com

Mr. VASILE is the founder and President of VORTEX Capital Management, a seasoned FOREX trader, member of the Securities & Investment Institute in London and author of the revolutionary SyncronDec™ training program used in his professional FOREX course. He is also the owner of http://www.forex-arena.com, a professional website, dedicated to FOREX analysis and education.

Forex: Why Psychiatrists Make Better Traders Than Expert Economists

It should be noted that millionaire traders, Elder, Williams and some others are in fact professional psychiatrists. And it is not accidental that not the economists are the leaders and most successful traders, but professional psychiatrists and psychotherapists. Think about it. You will become a successful trader when you understand why it happens with forex. You will understand what your forex mistakes are, and why you are making them. And when you correct these mistakes you will become a trader who has no psychological barriers and obstacles on his way to better earnings in the forex market.

So, why do the psychiatrists make better traders than economists who, as one would think, have the forex market at their finger tips?

The economists are confused by:

- the fact that exchange rates are not always related directly to the economic circumstances in the countries. Well, do you know any economist who would be bidding for low fx rates when the economic situation is getting better and better? Or the one who admits that technical analysis of currency pairs is more important for forex trading than the fundamental one? Any economist is confident that this can never happen because he knows all the economic dogmas. But it happens in the forex. After all, how can a trader lose with the currencies moving up and down by the economic rules? The currency will surely react to the economic changes in the country, but who knows when and how? Here is a tip: there is the Elliott fifth way to teach a lesson to the ones who believe that fundamental knowledge is enough (before the trend turns, the currency spurts absurdly by the old trend), to confuse and draw the newbies into the game, while the experts wait for the trend to turn back.

- the lack of psychological knowledge that helps to understand the behavior of the crowd. And that is self-evident.

Are there any methods to overcome this fear?

It seems that every forex book, every article offers efficient solutions for psychological difficulties experienced by the traders.

IN FACT NEITHER OF THESE BOOKS CONTAINS METHODS TO OVERCOME THE FEAR EXPERIENCED BY A forex TRADER!

But what do these books offer instead?

Almost every book of this kind consists of two unequal parts:

- the bigger part of the book narrates about traders’ problem that interfere with their forex work and make it unsuccessful (nervousness, doubts, worries, fear, sleep deprivation, etc.). As if the traders do not know their own problems.

- the considerably lesser part contains conclusions and recommendations to the traders who are to solve their problems and overcome their fears to become successful.

The conclusions are disappointing:

Many psychiatrists realize that the new field opens before their eyes – now they may treat traders whose number amounts to millions all over the world and is growing with every day. And since most traders have a dream to become as successful as George Soros and other famous traders, this new field promises to be rather lucrative.

One thing is bad though: the overwhelming majority of these new-sprung trader brain specialists do not even know what the forex is all about.

For more information and articles, please, visit our site at Forex Trading Guide and blog Forex Trading Blog

Forex - Choosing the Right Broker

There are a mind boggling number of Forex brokers available to choose from. Choosing the right broker is the most important decision you can make for your Forex venture. Here is a checklist of what you need to be looking for.

1. Regulation. Just because a broker is available does not mean they are regulated. You may want to check first what country your broker is registered in. Some countries have lax laws regarding Forex brokers. In the US, brokers are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission or the National Futures Association. If a broker is regulated, then they must regularly submit financial reports to these organizations. If these reports are not submitted, then they can be fined, or shut down. Any person can view these financial reports (similar to publicly traded companies). This regulation also give the investors avenues to pursue if there are any issues with the broker.

2. Company customer service. Check and see if there are any complaints about the Forex broker with the Better Business Bureau. If there were complaints, see how the company resolved these complaints. Call or email the broker with any questions. You should not feel uncomfortable doing this, as they will be holding your money. The broker should be courteous and respond quickly to any and all questions. Does this particular broker have a lot of discrepancies between the price the trade was requested at and the actual value? This is called 'slippage' and can lead to the loss of funds if it is rampant. Some brokers will compensate you for the slippage, others do not.

3. Trading options. Not all Forex brokers offer the same types of platforms, spreads or leverage. You need to decide which options are the most important to you. Some things to think about regarding options are: Commissions - does the broker take a commission and a spread? Make sure the spread is small enough to compensate for the commission. Spread - what spread is offered? Does the spread vary depending on the time of day, or is it always constant? Margin - is there a maximum amount of leverage allowed by the broker? Scalping - what is the broker's policy on scalping? Some brokers will put your account on manual execution if you scalp. This means that all your transactions have to go through a live person to be executed, which will slow down your trades and possibly keep you from getting some trades. Platform - what type of platform does the broker offer. Is it easy to use and understand? Does the platform perform quickly enough to execute trades instantly?

4. Demo account. Does the broker offer a demo account to practice with? And does the demo platform perform exactly like the live version? A demo account is a great way to test the platforms and see if you like the features the platform offers before actually sending them any funds.

Running a checklist on all the brokers you want to check out should narrow down your options and help you choose the best broker for you!

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Forex Trading

Common Mistakes In Forex Trading

When you view the statistics of successful forex trading, it can be pretty depressing. Stats show that only 95% of forex traders are making any money. With so many trading forex, why is this? Here is a look at common mistakes newer (and some seasoned) forex traders make that cause them to lose money.

1. Get Rich Quick mentality. You have probably seen the late night infomercials about how easy and profitable it is to trade forex. Well, it is easy to actually trade, but difficult to trade well. Opening an funding an account can take as little as 24 hours and you can be up and trading. People will open up a broker account, fund it and start trading without knowing what they are doing. A good course of study on the currency pairs and how they tend to work with each other is a must before you start any live trading. You must be educated in forex to trade profitably. You can't just go on gut feeling. forex trading should be done for the long haul. You are going to have those months where you are not in the positive, but a good trader will have more positive months than negative ones

2. trading for the wrong reasons. Yes, there is a high associated with making a huge profit from one trade. However, do not treat forex trading like a day at the race track. You should not trade for the excitement of trading. Not to mention that there is a lot of time to be spent just waiting for the correct trade to come along. Also, don't start forex trading because you think it only requires a few minutes a day to make money. Even if you are scalping the market (making small quick trades), it takes time for those trades to develop and some days are just bad days to be sitting there waiting.

3. Not using a stop loss. This is where emotion comes into play. You should have a clear exit strategy when you enter a trade. Decide how many pips you are looking for and what your loss limit will be. If it is 50 pips, set your stop loss so that you are automatically triggered out of the trade when that many pips are lost. It is too easy for a novice trader to say "Well, it has to start coming back soon, I'll just wait a few more pips" and then end up getting a margin call because they are now down 250 pips waiting for the trade to turn around. Be disciplined and set those stop loss targets. There are always going to be new trades happening.

4. Jumping from strategy to strategy. Strategies take time to develop and time to personalize to your own trading style. That is why a demo account is important to practice. Once you have learned your strategy and how to adapt it to changing conditions - stick with it! New traders will sometimes bounce from one person's strategy to another, without giving any of them a chance to develop. One bad trade does not a bad strategy make.

5. Emotional involvement in your trades. Turning off your emotions is a critical tool in trading forex successfully. Not just the down emotions, but the up emotions as well. Have a strategy to get in and out of trades. Resist the impulse to trade, feeling like you are on a wave of good luck. And conversely - don't keep trading if you are down out of desperation.

Following these tips will help you be part of the 5% of successful traders out there, rather than the majority that do not succeed.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Forex Trading

Top 10 Ways to Max Out on adCenter

Now that you plan to use Microsoft®’s new advertising platform, adcenter, there are ways to maximize your investment. With pay-per-click, or ppc, advertising, taking shortcuts is easy and tempting, but also costly. Cover these 10 bases, and you will get the most from your adcenter spend.

1. Set a sustainable budget. Effective ppc takes time. Decide how much you can afford over a 12-month period, and stick with it. Start small and ramp up expenditures as you refine your campaign and achieve results.

2. Define your objectives. Some companies find ppc mysterious and think throwing money at it is a good way to test the waters. But there is no mystery to adcenter. Its back end is loaded with robust reporting and analysis tools. To use them, you must first calculate your desired click-through rate, conversion rate and return-on-investment metrics.

3. Profile your customer. A standout feature of adcenter is its ability to target customers by geography, gender and time of day or week. However, these capabilities are useful only if you define the who, where and when of your ideal audience. The clearer your target, the higher your conversions.

4. Select keywords carefully. adcenter offers a sophisticated keyword-selection tool called adLabs. Take advantage of it not only to find the right keywords, but also the best ways to combine them, and the best times to use them.

5. Do the splits. “Split testing” is a solid ppc technique of changing one or two variables (such as a keyword or time of day) in a campaign to see which works better. With adcenter’s ability to target and report, there is no excuse not to do it.

6. Use a landing page. After people click on your ppc ad, where they go next is crucial. Best is to create a specific landing page that fulfills the expectation of the ad and clearly explains the next action.

7. Track results. adcenter updates campaign statistics daily, and even hourly, in some cases. Without monitoring progress, companies tend to overspend, under spend or miss obvious ways to improve results.

8. Identify the weak links … Several things have to fall into place for maximum ppc efficiency. Analyze what is working— and what is not. Low click-throughs often indicate weak keyword choices. Low conversions might suggest a problem with the landing page.

9. … And make adjustments. ppc is all about continuous improvement. Keywords not working? More than likely, further research will uncover better ones. Interviewing a few customers might identify an easy fix to a flawed landing page.

10. Build relationships with adcenter support. Like any new software product, adcenter has its occasional glitches and inconveniences. Get to know the adcenter Client Center so you can keep your campaign rolling.

One reason ppc is so attractive is results can be predicted and then measured. Since adcenter brings a new level of analytics to the ppc arena, it has enormous potential for advertisers. Still, a tool is only as good as the person using it, so follow these tips and be the best you can be!

Aaron Wittersheim is president of Whoast Inc., a suburban Chicago search-marketing firm. For more information, visit http://www.whoast.com

Top Tips For Affiliates – If Only You Desire Success

I am sure that you are reading this stuff because you already know that some people are earning fat checks monthly from affiliate programmes and you probably want to duplicate their success story. However, your case has been different and opposite. affiliate programs have never put enough money in your bank account; rather, all your efforts are being wasted, or perhaps you are even losing money.
But what have you been doing wrong? How can you slide from your current position towards becoming a super affiliate? It is by learning some tricks and secrets being used by these super affiliates which you have been ignoring.

Let me give you some tips which will take you to the top. (You have a bunch on my website)

Tip One.
I will recommend that you pick the best of affiliate programs. This is very easy to do. Go to CLICKBANK and you have more than 10,000 affiliate programs that have been arranged in order of popularity for you. The work can not be easier. Other places to go include, Commission Junction, and Linkshare, among others.

Tip Two

You are in business to maximize profit, I guess. Then go for the highest commission-paying affiliate programmes. There are some companies paying as much as 75 % at CLICKBANK. For every $100 you sell, $75 goes to your pocket! I guess you will prefer this to companies paying 6%!

Tip Three
Ensure the relevance of your web content to the products you are promoting. If the theme of your website is on pets, avoid selling computer accessories on the same website. These are much unrelated items which will reduce your click through rate (CTR) and then your profitability.

Tip Four
Look for hot products that people are willing to buy. Your conversion ration will determine your success or failure. If you sell products that have poor demand, no matter how efficient you promote the products, it will result in a loss. Test the market and make sure the product you are promoting has high demand.

Tip Five
Get necessary software to enhance your profitability. One of these is good cloaking software that will save your affiliate link from being hijacked. Hijackers of affiliate links steal your commission. You must also get good tracking software to track your sales. In addition, you must choose affiliate programs that you know the company has a good tracking system. This is to ensure that all your sales are credited to your account.

Tip Six
Go for a company with good resources for advertising. These resources include the banners, text-links, and e-mail templates. Some companies also provide PPC ads templates. It is not rare today to find companies who will freely cloak your affiliate links for you.

Tip Seven
Be creative. Creativity is the use of sixth sense. Do what others are not doing in the right direction will skyrocket your affiliate commission. Write, buy or get good content for your buyers. With this, they will keep coming back to your website.

Tip Eight
Treat you customers as friends or relations. Develop personal and intimate relationship with your website visitors and those who buy from your website.

Tip Nine
When it is practicable, make use of back end sales strategy as well as multiple offers. This will be possible if you have on your website compatible products. For instance, “those who buy this soap also buy this cream” strategy may be employed if you sell friendly products.

Tip Ten
Know how to market your products or services very well and cheaply too. I have a very good tool for this on my website (how you can place millions of ads free). If you do this right, you make money. If you market wrongly, you will be out of business sooner than you envisaged!

For more tips and help, do not hesitate to visit my website.

About the Author
James Ojo, Bsc.,MBA. The Online Success Writer, is a business development consultant, author, and copywriter.
Complete information on James articles and other services offered is available from his web site.

http://www.hothomebizonline.com
http://business.hothomebizonline.co