Category Archives: Featured

Even the Best Forex Trading System Requires Basic Futures Trading Knowledge

There are many Forex trading systems out there. Many of them claim they are entirely mechanical and therefore require no Forex trading knowledge on the part of the trader. The advocates of these types of trading systems tell us we can all be successful and make a lot of money even if we are complete commodities trading idiots.

Is it a fact we can make a huge amount of money in the Forex market without knowing anything about it. In this article, we discuss things you should learn before trying to tackle the Forex.

It is true mechanical systems that simply supply computer generated buy and sell signals make it unnecessary for traders to be experts in trading currencies or other commodities.

However, having no knowledge leaves the trader vulnerable. You are not in a good position when anybody can easily pull the wool over your eyes. Here is a little background information that will give you some solid footing in the basics of Forex trading.

Basic knowledge every program trader should have an awareness of are these two things:

· Trading spreads
· Going short

Trading Spreads

All Forex contracts that are traded are spreads. Trading a spread entails buying one thing while at the same time selling, or going short, on another. In the commodities futures market, all contracts have expiring months.

So, a common trade which utilizes this fact is buying a near term contract and selling a contract that will not expire for several months.

For instance, buying August Live Hogs and selling next February Live Hogs. The hope here is the August Live Hogs’ price will rise more than February’s and if so, a profit will be made.

Whether both contracts rise or fall in price is immaterial as long as the August Live Hogs’ rises more, or falls less in price than the February contract.

Contract months are immaterial in Forex or any type of currency trading. Forex spreads consist of two currencies being traded at the same time. Buying a EUR/GBP spread means you are buying a Euro contract and at the time selling British Pound contract. If both the Euro and the Pound rise in price but the Euro rises more you will be in profit. If they both fall in price you will still be in profit as long as the Euro falls less.

Going Short

One of the most difficult concepts to grasp in future trading is “going short.” Going short simply means selling something you don’t own. How can you do this? By promising you will buy it at a later date. It is an easy concept to grasp when you think of buying something and selling it later. This is done all the time.

With a short position, you essentially do the same thing; you buy something and sell it. The only difference is the timeline. With a long position, you buy the commodity and sell it later; with a short position, you buy it later and sell it first.

When you short a commodity you are hoping it will fall in price because, if it does, you can buy it back at a lower price than you first sold it for.

Going short on a EUR/GBP spread means you want the Euro to go down in price in relationship to the British Pound. If they both go up in price or if they both go down in price it doesn’t matter, the only important thing is that the Euro falls in relationship to the Pound.

Beyond understanding what having a short position is and what spreads are, we should also understand the different types of orders we place to open and close trades. These order types include:

· Market orders
· Stop orders
· Limit orders
· Market if Touched (MIT) orders

This article contains some very basic knowledge and yes, you don’t need very much to let a computer program tell you what contracts to trade and when. Still, having no knowledge is not all it’s cracked up to be!

Do’s and Don’ts for Business Casual Dress in the Workplace

If your company has a casual dress code, getting dressed for work can be confusing.

How do you want to be perceived in the workplace? Chances are, whatever your job situation, you want to be perceived as a competent professional. Here are some do’s and don’ts for projecting a professional image on the job.

Do:

  1.  Recognizer that every organization has a dress code, even if it’s not written down. If you aren’t sure about your company’s dress code, look at the people above you. How does your manager dress? How do the VPs, or owners of the company dress? If you want to be promoted, dress the way they do.
  2.  Choose clothes that are flattering to your figure, and complement your coloring. Have clothes tailored to fit you -business casual clothes as well. You’ll be surprised at how polished you look.
  3.  Put some thought into your business casual wardrobe. Many people spend time coordinating their business suits, but consider their business casual wardrobe to be an afterthought. Wrong. You should spend as much time, or more, on your business casual wardrobe, so you look put-together and professional.
  4.  Build a basic business casual wardrobe, starting with a few pairs of pants/skirts in dark colors that go with everything. Then it’s easy to add color and pattern to personalize your look

Don’t:

  1.  Don’t believe that permanent press clothes do not need to be ironed. They still need to be pressed lightly.
  2.  Don’t wear rubber-soled shoes or athletic shoes to the office. This is sports wear, not business casual wear. Wear leather shoes, and make sure they are in good condition.
  3.  Don’t (women) consider a scrunchie to be an appropriate hair accessory for work.
  4.  Don’t (men) wear white or athletic socks with dress pants. Wear dress socks that match your pants.
  5.  Don’t forget to maintain hair coloring. Letting your hair grow to reveal dark or grey roots of one inch or more makes you look like you don’t care about your looks. Head to the hairdresser when your roots start to show.
  6.  Don’t arrive at work on business casual days without a way to upgrade your look. The simplest way is to have a jacket handy to put over a casual outfit. For men, keep an extra tie available. For women, a necklace or slightly higher heeled shoe can add polish and panache.
  7.  Don’t dress to match your colleagues. Put your outfit together based on what your managers wear.

 

Best Currency Pairs to Trade

With 196 countries in the whole world, there is a handful of currency pairs to trade. The question is, which currency pair are worth trading and why? What do most traders trade? Which currency factors influence the trading success?

Major Currencies

The most advisable currencies for beginners in forex trading are:

· Euro (EUR)

· US Dollar (USD)

· British Pound (GBP)

· Japanese Yen (JPY)

· Canadian Dollar (CAD)

· Swiss Franc (CHF)

· Australian Dollar (AUD)

Favorite Pairs

The basic rule of forex success is “the more you know about the currency you trade, the better”. The most information and resources, including daily expert analytical data and advices, are available for the following major currency pairs:

· EUR/USD

This is the most popular pair among traders. It has the lowest spread among most brokers. The pair follows the basic technical analysis and usually isn’t too volatile, meaning that there is less risks and closer stops. Besides, there are tones of information on the net for this pair, which makes decision making much easier.

· GBP/USD

This is one of the favorite pairs, because of the possible large jumps and profitable pips. Keep in mind that, whenever the profit opportunity is higher, the risk is higher too. This pair belongs to rather volatile group.

Despite the volatile warning, traders love this pair, since there is plenty of market research and analysis available, which protects from making stupid trading mistakes!

· USD/JPY

Here is another lovely currency pair. It is offered with low spreads and follows smoother trends, compared to other pairs. Trading usd/jpy promises a cheerful ride with lots of profitable opportunities.

Why Are They the Easiest to Trade?

Because the mentioned currency pairs are favored among traders, the volume of trades creates the needed liquidity necessary to make daily profits.

Also, the major currency pairs have tight spreads, compared to other available choices. The exception for this phenomena is GBP/USD pair, due to its’ volatility.

EUR, GBP and JPY are traded against US dollar, meaning that the most active and, therefore, profitable hours are during the New York trading session.

Lots of online resources – expert analysis, seminars, webinars, blogs, forums, ebooks etc. – are available on a daily basis. You don’t have to break your head looking for information or advices.

Most forex brokers offer, for example, daily analysis which can be found either on the broker’s site, or receive it via email. That is sure helpful during the decision making!

Which Currency Pairs are Better Avoided?

My advice, stay away from all the exotic currencies for which there is almost no information on the net. In order to trade such uncommon pairs, forex trader requires extra knowledge and some kind of access to details and analysis needed for trading.

Also, it is a good idea to keep away from currency pairs with high spreads. Please note that spreads may vary from one broker to another, so don’t “disqualify” a selected currency before first checking spreads with couple of brokers.

The acceptable spread is 2-3 pips. When things get above 6 pips, currencies become volatile, meaning that an inexperienced trader may find it extremely difficult to trade.

Best Currency Pairs For Forex Trading

There are two things you need to consider when you are looking for the best currency pairs for Forex traders to use. The first thing is activity and the second is systems.

1. Most Active Currency Pairs

When you are starting Forex trading you will often be advised to start out with the most traded currencies. The reason for this is that high liquidity means that your stops will more often be met without slippage.

Another reason is that costs tend to be low. A lot of people in the market creates a tighter spread, and there is also strong competition between brokers, so that means more competitive rates.

Surprisingly the floor with most activity is not in New York, but in London. Despite the fact that the US dollar is the most heavily traded currency, London beats New York for the actual large amount of trading.

This would lead you to believe that the British pound and the US dollar would be the most active set of currency traded, but they are not. Actually the Euro is more traded than the British pound. So the EUR/USD is the most heavily traded pair, even on the London trading floor.

In fact the Japanese yen also beats the pound. Globally the three most traded pairs are EUR/USD first, USD/JPY second and GBP/USD third.

2. Currency Pairs And Forex Trading Systems

The activity of the currency pairs will be the deciding factor if all other things are equal. Even though some systems may require other criteria.

If you tend to prefer automated systems, you will probably find that your software is set to work with a small number of pairs and the most active will not necessarily be the best choice. For example, you may know that the best selling Forex robot FAP Turbo is set to trade EUR/GBP and EUR/CHF.

The more active pair here is EUR/GBP, but most users have found that they get better results with EUR/CHF. In fact, many FAP Turbo users are now only trading EUR/CHF with this robot.

The truth is, that if you already have a profitable system that is designed for a certain currency pair, you should stick with it. You should not just assume that your system will work equally well with other currencies, although you can always test new pairs and theories.

If you are trying to develop a new system, and definitely if it involves scalping, you can usually get the most liquidity and trading opportunities together with the lowest costs by working with the most active Forex currency pairs.

Do you dream of making great money with Forex Trading? The way things are, especially in today’s market conditions, the Foreign Exchange market isn’t territory you want to try and navigate without the best information and tools at hand.

I have been involved in forex for over 6 years now. I have worked for brokers. I have traded personal funds and managed funds. I also work in the futures market (mostly trading the Emini and SPI) However. My passion is trading the foreign exchange market using automated robots.

Advance Day Trading Signals Software for NSE, MCX and FOREX

The “Advance Day trading Signal” Software is designed based on the time tested Technical analysis techniques that evaluate historical data of the underlying stocks, any indices or any symbol on which it is loaded.

It generates precise trading signals in advance before the start of trends and places stoploss line when the strength of the trends weakening. This unique feature of the system guide the traders to protect their profits at every crucial levels.

Functioning:

The software analyses each and every candle of the symbol in the given time frame and bunches the candles into three basic groups.

1) Bullish Group of Candles (Candle marked with Aqua Colour Arrow at the Price High of the candle)

2) Bearish Group of Candles (Candle marked with Magenta colour Arrow at the Price Low of the candle)

3) Floating Group of Candles. (Candle having no arrow either on top or bottom)

As the indicator start bunching the candles into groups, a line will gets drawn, if the candles falls into Bearish Group the colour of line will be Blue or Group of candles is Bullish then the colour of line will be Yellow.

Traders can take SHORT when Blue colour line appears or LONG when Yellow colour line appears..The floating Group of candles helps the traders to exit their current position.

These unique features of the “Day Trading Signal” software ensures Profits during Trending & Range bound Market conditions..

Trading Rules for ‘Advance Day Trading Signal” Software:

System consists of the followings;

1) Trend line indicator Blue/Yellow colours.

2) Trend arrows Aqua/Magenta Colours.

3) Stoploss Level line (dotted line Red colour).

Descriptions:

1) Trend line indicator Blue/Yellow colours: It indicates the future direction of the trend, when indicator line turns Yellow the future trend will be Bullish, whereas if indicator line turns Blue the future direction will be Bearish

2) Trend arrows Aqua/Magenta Colour: Every candle is examined and grouped under Bullish, Bearish, and Floating Group of Candles.

The Candles carrying Aqua colour arrows are of the Bullish group candles, and The Candles carrying Blue arrows are of Bearish group, whereas the candle with no arrows are treated as Floating group candle.

The purpose of these arrows is to indicate the strength of the underlying trend. As long as the strength of the trend is intact the arrows appears on the each candle and as the strength of the trend weakens significantly the arrows disappears from the candle alerting the traders that the underlying trend is over and the market is under direction less movement. Hence we group the candles with no arrows in Floating group.

3) The Stoploss Level Line (dotted line Red colour): When the market enters in the Direction less movement (Floating) the price will break Trend line indicator Blue/Yellow colours or keep floating around it.

During this condition Red Colour Dotted line appears as stoploss level to indicate how much floating is allowed for underlying trend. The underlying trend may bounce back from the stoploss line or break the stoploss line and direction reversal may take.

Trading Rules:

1) When the future trend is Bullish an Aqua colour arrow on the top of the candle and Yellow colour trend line below the candle appears, it is an entry point for the Buy (Long) position. Traders should initiate the Long trade immediately.—- BUY (LONG)

2) The Buy(LONG) position should be held till the price breaches the Yellow colour trend line and Stoploss line or the candle with no arrow is spotted. Half of the position held should be squared off at this level—-SQUARE OFF HALF OF BUY (LONG) POSITION.

3) The balance position should be held till the Yellow colour line turns into Blue colour or Magenta colour arrow is spotted at the lower end of the candle, this condition is trend reversal.SQUARE OFF BALANCE BUY (LONG) POSITION & INITIATE SELL (SHORT) POSITION.

4) Similarly hold the short (sell) position till price breaches the Blue colour trend line and Stoploss line or the candle with no arrow is spotted. Half of the position held should be squared off at this level SQUARE OFF HALF OF SELL (SHORT) POSITION.

5) The balance position should be held till the Blue line turns into Yellow or Aqua colour arrow is spotted at the top of the candle, this condition is again trend reversal. SQUARE OFF BALANCE SELL (SHORT) POSITION & INITIATE BUY (LONG) POSITION.

The back tested results are 90-95 percent profitable trades with large profits and 5-10 percent loss trades with marginal loses/cost-to-cost traders.