May 17, 2011

Candlestick Patterns

Discover how to identify the right candlestick patterns for the right set-up or market condition. Candlestick Patterns work on Forex, Stocks and Options.
They must be combined with other forms of technical analysis to really be useful. For example, when you see one of these patterns on the daily chart, move down to the hourly chart. Does the hourly chart agree with your expectations on the daily chart? If so, then the odds of a reversal increase.
The following patterns are divided into two parts: Bullish patterns and bearish patterns. These are reversal patterns that show up after a pullback (bullish patterns) or a rally (bearish patterns).

The Different Types of Forex Charts

Line charts are some the least used charts in all of trading. Though line charts are incredibly simple to read and understand, often they do not show enough data to make intelligible decisions. Though the use of these charts is not at all recommended, I will explain what they are and how they work so you can make your own decision.

Bar charts and OHLC charts are one step up from line charts, in that they offer more data about the price changes that happen during the bar, not just one point in time. Bar charts and OHLC are excellent, but are still one step lower than candlestick charts, which show all relevant data in graphical form and can be read more quickly, but we’ll get to candlesticks in the next tutorial

Candlestick charts are the most popularly used charts of all forex charts. Candlesticks offer all the data of bar (OHLC) charts, all in an easy to read and graphical dataset. After learning the basics of candlestick charts, you’ll be able to decipher data faster and make decisions quicker, a valuable skill in the world of forex trading.

May 16, 2011

Stop Loss and Take Profit

Arguably, the stop loss and take profit orders are the two most important order types for foreign exchange traders. The two orders are essentially orders on top of another order. The stop loss allows you to determine at what price you want to cut your losing trades and the take profit allows you to enter what price you’d like to close a position for a profit.

Rollovers and Carry Interest

Believe it or not, you can actually make money when a currency pair goes neither up nor down in price. Yes, that is right, you can make money for just holding a position in forex!

Carry Trade Interest

when you buy or sell a currency pair, you’re essentially moving money from one currency denominated bank account to another. And the crazy thing about borrowing and lending money, is that you receive interest for it!

The Spread, A Forex Brokers Profit

In our example from the previous article, we actually alluded to a few things. The first, is that there were a few costs in our example trade of 1 lot of GBP/USD. The hidden cost is the “spread” or the commission the broker earns for completing our trade.

How Forex Spreads Work

Unlike stocks or other tradeable securities, there is no set commission rate. With stocks, you may be accustomed to paying $6.95 to complete an online trade. In forex, we don’t pay commissions, instead the cost to trade is built into the forex bid and ask prices.

Forex Market Trading Times

The foreign exchange market is the only market in the world that is open 24/7. Investors are able to place trades every single day of the week, however, most pairs will move very little on the weekends as very few investors stick around to trade.

When Various Markets Open

When one market closes, another one opens, allowing traders to trade the market 24/7. Below is a list of the various open and closing times for the Tokyo, London, and New York forex markets.

May 15, 2011

Glossary of FOREX terms

 From the NFA guide to Forex Trading "Trading in Off-Exchange Foreign Currency Market: What Investors Need to Know."
the most commonly used terminology in Forex Trading, financial and investment, explained in simple to understand English.

Reading Market Indicators: popular indicators, Part 2

If you frequent forex forums, this word will undoubtedly haunt you. Indicators. Everyone’s talking about them, but what are they? What do they mean? And more importantly, how can they help you make better decisions when you trade?

The dictionary defines indicators as “a pointing or directing device, as a pointer on the dial of an instrument to show pressure, temperature, speed, volume or the like”. In forex, an indicator is an equation that gathers past data in order to provide some sort of insight as to where the market may move.

I’m going to be going in alphabetical order listing all of the popular indicators, what they represent, and how traders use them to estimate future market movement.
MACD , Alligator Indicator , MFI , Momentum , Parabolic SAR , Pivot Points , Price Chanel , Price Oscillator , RSI Indicator , Stochastic Indicator , William’s Percentage Range Indicator , ZigZag

Reading Market Indicators: popular indicators, Part 1

If you frequent forex forums, this word will undoubtedly haunt you. Indicators. Everyone’s talking about them, but what are they? What do they mean? And more importantly, how can they help you make better decisions when you trade?

The dictionary defines indicators as “a pointing or directing device, as a pointer on the dial of an instrument to show pressure, temperature, speed, volume or the like”. In forex, an indicator is an equation that gathers past data in order to provide some sort of insight as to where the market may move.

I’m going to be going in alphabetical order listing all of the popular indicators, what they represent, and how traders use them to estimate future market movement.
Acceleration Deceleration Oscillator (AC) , Accumulation/Distribution Line  , Alpha-Beta Trend , Aroon Indicators  , ADX Indicator , ATR , Awesome Oscillator , Bollinger ,CCI ,Fractal Indicator , Ichimoku Cloud ,MA

Chart Patterns

In the Forex market, price has a tendency to repeat past patterns. Think of price like an animal. Animals have habits that they exhibit. For example, a man may have the habit of bending down and picking up coins. Will he pick up the coins every time? Maybe, and maybe not. But what if this man makes a notable motion before he picks up his dropped coin. Perhaps every time he wipes his nose after dropping a coin, he will bend down and pick it up. In this case, the act of him wiping his nose will be the pattern that leads to him doing an expectable "trend".

May 14, 2011

Economic Indicators

What are Economic Indicators?

Economic indicators are snippets of financial and economic data published regularly by governmental agencies and the private sector. These statistics help market observers monitor the economy's pulse - so it's no surprise that they're religiously followed by almost everyone in the financial markets.
With so many people poised to react to the same information, economic indicators have tremendous potential to generate volume and to move prices. It might seem like you need an advanced economics degree to parse all this data accurately - but in fact traders need only keep a few simple guidelines in mind to making trading decisions based on this data.

Introduction to Fundamental Analysis

What is Fundamental Analysis?

Fundamental analysis studies the core underlying elements that influence the economy of a particular entity, like a stock or currency. It attempts to predict price action and trends by analyzing economic indicators, government policy, societal and other factors within a business cycle framework.
If you think of the markets as a big clock, fundamentals are the gears and springs that move the hands around the face. Anyone can tell you what time it is now, but the fundamentalist knows about the inner workings that move the clock's hands towards times (or prices) in the future.

Using Indicators to Identify Trends

Using Indicators to Identify Trends

You've probably heard the expression "the trend is your friend" - but what does it mean? If your trend takes a sudden counter-move and your trailing stop activates at a loss, it's natural to ask yourself: how can you be sure the next trend will be more friendly?

Confirm the trend is real

Using technical indicators in combination can help ensure a potential trend has staying power - a good habit for all kinds of technical trading, but especially in forex. Currencies tend to move in trends naturally due to long-term macroeconomic factors and short-term international capital flows. All of this makes it that much harder to see a trade-able trend that will last.

Short-Term Currency Trends

Cashing in on Short-Term Currency Trends

Most of the time, markets don't show a clear trend - they bounce back and forth between support and resistance levels. This sideways movement is called a trading range. Below is a strategy that can help you identify entry points on short-term trends, while protecting your profits with trailing stops.

Trade Set-up

The strategy uses two charts with different time periods (10-minute and hourly), along with two technical indicators: a 200-bar moving average and a 14-bar slow stochastic study.

Using Technical Indicators

Price charts help traders identify trade-able market trends - while technical indicators help them judge a trend's strength and sustainability.
If an indicator suggests a reversal, confirm the shift before you act. That might mean waiting for another period to confirm the same indicator's signal, or checking out another indicator. Patience will help you read the signals accurately and respond accordingly.

What is Technical Analysis?

Technical analysis attempts to forecast future price movements by examining past market data.
Most traders use technical analysis to get a "big picture" on an investment's price history. Even fundamental traders will glance at a chart to see if they're buying at a fair price, selling at a cyclical top or entering a choppy, sideways market.

Calculating Profit and Loss

For ease of use, most online trading platforms automatically calculate the P&L of a traders' open positions. However, it is useful to understand how this calculation is formulated:

To illustrate an FX trade, consider the following two examples.

Let's say that the current bid/ask for EUR/USD is 1.4616/19, meaning you can buy 1 euro for 1.4619 or sell 1 euro for 1.4616.
Suppose you decide that the Euro is undervalued against the US dollar. To execute this strategy, you would buy Euros (simultaneously selling dollars), and then wait for the exchange rate to rise.
So you make the trade: to buy 100,000 Euros you pay 146,190 dollars (100,000 x 1.4619). Remember, at 2% margin (50:1 leverage), your initial margin deposit would be approximately $2,923 for this trade.
As you expected, Euro strengthens to 1.4623/26. Now, to realize your profits, you sell 100,000 Euros at the current rate of 1.4623, and receive $146,230
You bought 100k Euros at 1.4619, paying $146,190. Then you sold 100k Euros at 1.4623, receiving $146,230. That's a difference of 4 pips, or in dollar terms ($146,190 - 146,230 = $40).
Total profit = US $40.
Now in the example, let's say that we once again buy EUR/USD when trading at 1.4616/19. You buy 100,000 Euros you pay 146,190 dollars (100,000 x 1.4619).
However, Euro weakens to 1.4611/14. Now, to minimize your loses to sell 100,000 Euros at 1.4611 and receive $146,110.
You bought 100k Euros at 1.4619, paying $146,190. You sold 100k Euros at 1.4611, receiving $146,110. That's a difference of 8 pips, or in dollar terms ($146,190 - $146,110 = $80)
Total loss = US $80.

Understanding Forex Quotes

Reading a foreign exchange quote is simple if you remember two things:

  1. The first currency listed is the base currency
  2. The value of the base currency is always 1.

As the centerpiece of the forex market, the US dollar is usually considered the base currency for quotes. When the base currency is USD, think of the quote as telling you what a US dollar is worth in that other currency.
When USD is the base currency and the quote goes up, that means USD has strengthened in value and the other currency has weakened. Rising quotes mean a US dollar can now buy more of the other currency than before.

Majors not based on the US dollar

The three exceptions to this rule are the British pound (GBP), the Australian dollar (AUD) and the Euro (EUR). For these pairs, where USD is not the base currency, a rising quote means the US dollar is weakening and buys less of the other currency than before.
In other words, if a currency quote goes higher, the base currency is getting stronger. A lower quote means the base currency is weakening.

Cross currencies

Currency pairs that don't involve USD at all are called cross currencies, but the premise is the same.

Bids, asks and the spread

Just like other markets, forex quotes consist of two sides, the bid and the ask :
The BID is the price at which you can SELL base currency.
The ASK is the price at which you can BUY base currency.

What's a pip?

Forex prices are often so liquid, they're quoted in tiny increments called pips, or "percentage in point". A pip refers to the fourth decimal point out, or 1/100th of 1%.

For Japanese yen , pips refer to the second decimal point. This is the only exception among the major currencies.

Currency Pairs

Every currency pair has qualities unique to it. Find out what those qualities are.

Much has been written about the suitability of technical analysis for trading in the currency markets. While this is undoubtedly true, it can leave traders, particularly those new to the currency markets, with the impression that all technical tools are equally applicable to all major currency pairs. Perhaps most dangerous from the standpoint of profitability, it can also seduce traders into searching for the proverbial silver bullet: that magic technical tool or study that works for all currency pairs, all the time. However, anyone who has traded forex for any length of time will recognize that, for example, dollar/Yen (USD/JPY) and dollar/Swiss (USD/CHF) trade in distinctly different fashions.

May 13, 2011

How to Win in Trading Business in the Forex?!

The Whole Point Of Trading

Why do we trade? Money. Let's keep that is the front of our minds. Traders get carried away with all the fun fancy stuff they can do. They get carried away with the thrill. They get carried away with the analysis, but trading is all about making more money.

Your Focus

That's the whole point of this website. It's to show you how to win more. Why did you start trading in the first place (or if you're not trading yet, why did you originally think about it)? It was the financial reward. Okay, so together let's take a journey down the path of becoming better traders.

Really quickly, I just want to give you an overview of the three most important things that are forgotten by many traders (dooming them to become losing traders).

- How to use technology to make your trading easier and more efficient

- Learn how to confidently spot the highest probability trades

- Learn the Secrets of disciplined trading the key to being successful

- Find out how to develop, test, and build a trading plan that fits your personality

- Explore technical analysis and discover how to use charts with greater accuracy

- Find out how back testing, optimization, and evaluation can help you improve

The book is packed with of examples, downloadable code, and worksheets and everything in the book is simply designed to help you set up and run a trading business, make it successful and keep it that way.

We all know that trading can be learned by anyone but 95% of traders lose. In most instances it’s because they don’t have a plan and the discipline to follow it and that where this book can help and for under $50.00 it could be the best money you ever spent.

Acquire best price from forex

The forex market is presently the largest and the most lucrative market in the world. The market allows the trading of currencies between different countries. Big corporations, financial organizations, speculators and individuals are the key players in the market. Every day volumes comprises of commercial and government currency conversion along with the trading and speculation.

Foreign exchange trading provides wonderful investment opportunities for all kinds of investors. The main benefits of trading in the future exchange market is that it allows for 24/7 trading, higher liquidity, low trading costs, availability of margin trade opportunities and the convenience to start and end trading at any point of time.
Forex is usually traded on spot, which means that trades are finalised at spot rate and completed within 2 business days. Although, rollovers may occur sometimes where positions remains open and rolls over to the next day and is settled at next day’s price quote. The price quotes for two currencies are identified as the asking or offer price. The offer price is reflected on your right and the offer is on the left.

Forex rates helps in determining whether a country is flourishing or not. Foreign currency exchange markets can be difficult to understand if you are a novice to the entire concept. But if you search hard enough, you can find good information on the internet that can give you the explanation of this complex subject. Foreign exchange rates build up with the trade between two countries. If imports are cheaper, then their currency rates would be higher, but if the import cost is higher, then currency would be lower.

You can find a large amount of information on the internet to understand the concept of foreign exchange better. All you need to do is to look for a renowned and reputed service provider that offers best price quotes for your future trading and foreign exchange services.

The Spot Market; Step by step

1. Introduction

The spot market accounts for nearly a third of global foreign exchange turnover. It can be broadly divided into two tiers:
  • The interbank market where currency is bought and sold for delivery and settlement within two days, with the banks acting as " wholesalers" or "market makers".
  • The retail market made up of private traders, who deal over the telephone or the internet through intermediaries (brokers).
The forex market has no centralised exchanges. All trades are over-the-counter deals, agreed and settled by individual counterparties known to one another. The forex market is truly global and operates 24 hours a day, Monday to Friday. Daily trading commences in Wellington, New Zealand and follows the sun to (inter alia) Sydney, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bahrain, Frankfurt, Geneva, Zurich, Paris, London, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles before starting again.

A Brief Tutorial on FX Markets

Foreign exchange rates

A foreign exchange rate is the parity between two currencies i.e. the amount of one currency needed to sell (or buy) in order to buy (or sell) one unit of the other currency.
 There are two ways to express such a rate. The most common (or international way) quotes the amount of any currency that corresponds to one U.S.Dollar. So when we see USD/DEM at 1.5000 this means that one dollar can be exchanged for 1.5 Dmarks. Among the major currencies it is only British sterling which is quoted the other way i.e. GBP/USD at 1.5500 means that one pound is exchanged for 1.55 dollars. The American way of quoting rates uses the opposite direction, that is it expresses the dollar amount that can be exchanged for one unit of foreign currency.
 So when we see for example the Dmark at 0.6625 this means that one mark can be exchanged for 0.6625 dollars (or the same at 66 1/4 cents). The term "cross rate" is usually used to express the parity between two nondollar currencies like DEM/SFR.

Foreign Currency Dealing For Private Investors

1. Introduction

The foreign exchange market owes its existence to the 1971 abandonment of the Bretton Woods accord and the subsequent unwinding of the regime of universal fixed exchange rates.

According to the 2001 triennial survey by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), global foreign exchange turnover amounts to more than $1,200bn per day, over 50% of which is transacted on the London market alone. Global turnover, however, is markedly down on the 1978 BIS survey figure of $1,490bn. The BIS attributes this to the launch of the euro, banking mergers, the growth of electronic broking at the expense of voice and telephone dealing (leading to fewer transactions) and non-banking consolidations that have reduced the need for foreign exchange.

History of the Forex Market courtesy

The Foreign Exchange market, also referred to as the "Forex" or "FX" market is the largest financial market in the world, with a daily average turnover of well over US$1 trillion -- 30 times larger than the combined volume of all U.S. equity markets.

"Foreign Exchange" is the simultaneous buying of one currency and selling of another. Currencies are traded in pairs, for example Euro/US Dollar (EUR/USD) or US Dollar/Japanese Yen (USD/JPY).
There are two reasons to buy and sell currencies. About 5% of daily turnover is from companies and governments that buy or sell products and services in a foreign country or must convert profits made in foreign currencies into their domestic currency. The other 95% is trading for profit, or speculation.

History of Foreign Exchange

The foreign exchange market (fx or forex) as we know it today originated in 1973. However, money has been around in one form or another since the time of Pharaohs.
The Babylonians are credited with the first use of paper bills and receipts, but Middle Eastern moneychangers were the first currency traders who exchanged coins from one culture to another.

During the middle ages, the need for another form of currency besides coins emerged as the method of choice. These paper bills represented transferable third-party payments of funds, making foreign currency exchange trading much easier for merchants and traders and causing these regional economies to flourish.

Getting Started in Currency Trading - A Primer for the New Trader

Getting started as a currency trader is easy. But doing it correctly can make a big difference to you chances of success. In Forex the statistics are probably as bleak as in futures where nearly 90% of new traders fail; some very quickly.

I have traded futures, stocks and (since 1997) Forex. I made many mistakes early on; most traders do. But I was fortunate to have an experienced trader as a mentor. Had I followed all of his advice I'm sure I could have made my early trading life easier. But the markets are exciting and we tend to be caught up in that excitement.

April 20, 2011

OPEN A LIVE FX-ACCOUNT WITH VARENGOLD BANK FX NOW! GET A BRAND-NEW IPAD 2*!

Take your chance and secure yourself a brand-new iPad2*!


Open a live and secure FX-Account with our Partner Varengold Bank FX. The first 300 account openings get a new iPad2* for a minimum lot size.


Investment: minimum EUR or USD 2,500 by May, 31th 2011


Click here to open a live ZuluTrade Account now with Varengold Bank FX!
 
With the minimum investment of EUR or USD 2,500 and more than 199 trade lots within three months from account release, you will receive a new iPad2* directly supplied to your home.

opening your ZuluTrade account with FXCM Russia!

ZuluTrade is proud to announce its partnership with FXCM Russia! FXCM Russia offers instant access to financial instruments around the world!

Reasons to open a ZuluTrade account with FXCM Russia:

 Competitive Spreads
 No Dealing Desk
 NFA Regulated Broker
 News Trading
 Scalping





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March 25, 2011

New version of popular ZuluTrade iphone app!


Access and edit your ZuluTrade account from any location using the ZuluTrade iphone app!

What's new on the ZuluTrade iphone app:

 Summary of positions per Currency
 Provider's comments and ratings. Users can read or post comments and ratings
 Added sound notifications for positions on open and close events
 Added a scroll bar on Signal Provider's Profile, so all stats can be seen
 Fix of occasional crashes when the user was logged in
 Improved performance
 Minor UI improvements


March 5, 2011

PIRANHA, ZuluTrade Signal Provider Review

Welcome back to the ZuluFX.

This strategies are a blend of technical analysis and some indicators. The system is taking advantage of a set of MA (Moving Average) to produce its signals. It is designed for the M5 & M15 Timeframe, and can be used on 6 currency pair.
We will provide you with signals for the following pairs: AUDUSD, EURUSD, EURGBP, EURCHF, EURJPY and USDCAD.
Stop Loss range between 30 to 50 pips and fixed. Take Profit range between 35 to 60 pips and fixed.
Our system uses the Hidden Trailing Stop to protect your profits.
In cases of loss in trading, recovery system will be activate; And will increases the number of trading. For synchronization with the Zulu money management; recovery system, Instead of increasing the volume of trade; will increase Total Trading.
Usually in the same time we have 1-3 open positions, maximum 5 trades. If the recovery system is activated; Trading is the maximum level, will be increase to 10 numbers.



PIRANHA, ZuluTrade Signal Provider Review

February 23, 2011

opening your ZuluTrade account with Varengold!

ZuluTrade is proud to introduce a new broker for your wider choice. From now on you can enjoy ZuluTrade's unique features by opening your ZuluTrade account with Varengold!  Varengold offers instant access to financial instruments around the world.

Varengold Bank FX is a german licensed and regulated Investment Bank, founded in 1995 by Steffen Fix and Yasin Qureshi. Varengold Bank FX is the only German financial institution with an exclusive focus on brokerage in Forex and CFDs and Asset Management with alternatives investments.
  • STP Trading, no dealing desk, Multi Liquidity Provider
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  • New state of art trade server, excellent and speedy execution
  • MT4 platform, open to hedge, scalp and using any EAs (market execution)
  • Attractive spreads, no requotes
  • Trading FX (38 currencies) and CFDs
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Reasons to open a ZuluTrade account with Varengold:
  • Highly competitive spreads
  • Up to 200:1 leverage
  • 38 currency pairs
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To open a live account with Varengold Click Here and select Varengold as your broker.

February 2, 2011

Autotrading with ZuluTrade: Now Available on Your iPhone!

We have great news for those of you with an Apple mobile device! We're pleased to announce the latest innovation from the team at ZuluTrade: the Alpari zTrader app, developed exclusively for Alpari clients with an iPhone, iPod Touch or an iPad. While other mobile trading applications allow users to only make trades manually, the zTrader app sets itself apart by giving users access to automatic trading.

With the Alpari zTrader app, you can:
) Gain access to the interbank currency market from anywhere with a wireless signal
) Choose from hundreds of autotrading Signal Providers
) Get a complete trading history of any Signal Provider and learn about their performance and strategy
) Make trades manually with only one click
) Have complete control over your trading account and react to market changes any time of the day

The Alpari zTrader application is free to download and available to anyone with a ZuluTrade account (demo or live) with Alpari.

Begin experiencing the benefits of autotrading today. Open an account, download the application and start making a profit, wherever you may be.