Sunday, May 9, 2010

3 Simple Steps to Catching Big Profits

If you want to catch the big profits in forex trading you need to trend follow forex trends which are longer term. Here we are going to give you a 3 step simple method which if you use it correctly, will help you catch every major forex trend and lead you to long term currency trading success.
Most novice traders don't bother trying to trend following forex longer term - instead they try forex scalping or day trading. These methods focus the trader on small moves and they hope to catch small profits however as most short term moves are random, this leads to equity wipe out.
The other choices are swing trading and long term forex trend following and this article is all about the latter method. If you look at any forex chart, you will see long term trends that last for months or years. These moves can and do yield big profits - here we will outline a simple method to catch them.
Breakouts
By far the best way of catching the big moves is to use a forex trading strategy based around breakouts. A breakout is simply a move on a forex chart where a new high or low is made and resistance or support is broken.
It's a fact that most major moves start from new highs or lows.
While it might appear that you are not buying or selling at the best level, you are in terms of the odds of the trend continuing. Most forex traders make the mistake of waiting for the breakout to come back and get in at a better price but these traders never get on board. The reason for this is if a breakout occurs, then you have a new strong trend and a pullback is not very likely to occur.
Most traders don't buy or sell breakouts and that's exactly why it's such a powerful method.
The only point to keep in mind is a support or resistance which is broken, should be valid and that means at least 3 points in at least 2 different times frames. The more tests and the wider the spacing between the tests the more valid the level is.
Confirmation
Of course not every breakout continues and some reverse, these are false and can cause losses. You therefore need to confirm each move. All you need to do to achieve this is to put a few momentum indicators in your forex trading system to confirm your trading signal.
These indicators give you an idea of the strength and velocity of price and there are many to choose from. We don't have time to discuss them here (simply look up our other articles) but two of the best are - the stochastic and Relative Strength Index RSI
Stops and Targets
Stop levels are easy with breakouts - Simply behind the breakout point.
If you have a big trend then you need to be careful you can milk it, so don't move your stop to soon and keep it outside of normal volatility. If it is a big move, trailing stops should be held a long way back and the 40 day moving average is a good level to use.
You have to keep in mind that when the trend does eventually turn you are going to give some profit back. You don't know when the trend is going to end, so don't predict.
It's ok to give a big back, as that's the nature of trading forex. Keep in mind if you got 50% of every major trend you would be very rich. When you are long term trend following you have accept giving a bit back and taking dips in open equity as the trend develops - this is noise and does not affect the long term trend.

 

Successful Forex Trading System

Forex trading system is the subsystem of the forex trading plan which governs when and at which price you open and close your trades. A trading system works on the signals given by technical analysis and/or fundamental analysis. The signals are taken to see if the trader should buy or sell a specific currency pair or must close the open position(s). Any currency trading system prevents information overload by filtering out the universe of technical and/or fundamental signals in such a way that only the most reliable (successful in the past) signals or signal combinations are acted upon.
There are two kinds of trading systems - the discretionary and the mechanical. Discretionary trading systems expect the trader to use his or her own judgement to ascertain the importance of each of the technical or fundamental signals (whose number is potentially infinite) that he or she gets. Mechanical trading systems operate on a fixed number of technical or fundamental signals without the participation of the trader. Discretionary trading systems require the perpetual application of creativity (flexibility of approach) from the trader in the understanding of the changing market conditions. Mechanical trading systems require the creativity from the trader only in the forex system development phase.
Discretionary forex trading systems are best employed by professional forex traders with a lot of experience (internalized practical market knowledge) against which they can determine the validity of any signal that they receive. These traders usually remember a large number of various signal patterns from the past (just like the master chessmen) that they can compare to the current market conditions, to make their analysis more objective. In essence, they use themselves (i.e. their brain) as their trading system - often very successfully - because human mind has the best pattern recognition power on the planet.
Starting currency traders are advised to begin by following professionally created mechanical forex trading systems. Most of these systems are sold-out in the form of the forex signals that are usually developed by experienced traders who have found a way to systemize their knowledge of the markets into a working strategy. At the same time, the beginning traders can work on building their own knowledge base of the forex market through the quality forex books, educational courses, bank reports and newswires on this subject -so that they can too, with time, create mechanical trading systems from their own insights and intuitions (using the forex charting packages which allow to do this).
Beginning without a proven mechanical forex trading system (that has positive mathematical expectation) drastically dilutes the chances of maintaining the capital. This is because any intuition or a hunch that the traders experience as a result of some newly gained knowledge of the forex market is likely to be overridden by one of the two emotional derivatives of their life-long programming towards the money - the greed and the fear. In other words, without exact adherence to an existing mechanical trading system the beginning trader will eventually succumb to his or her emotions. As a matter of fact, the only way the traders can acquire discipline in the early phases of their trading careers is by tight following the signals generated by a proven mechanical forex trading system.

Why "Follow-Through" Is Imperative For Your Market Position

If you have made a price change one day and you get success out of it then you should continue your endeavors in the same route in coming days and this trading movement is called the "Follow Through".
But this kind of breakthrough is not that much simple. Market does not accept big changes frequently. It goes back over those trends present previously in the trade and at the end of the day when all is going to end, forex prices repeat the same trend seen some days before.
Nobody is a faultless and ideal merchant. All the brokers and traders constantly discover a lot about the trading and aim not to repeat their past mistakes and blunders. I can give you many instances about my learning and it all happens when you don't show patience and consistency. When you don't wait and take a great step thinking it would be a huge success, but it is not all what we think.
I was planning about the corn market and had a keen eye on it for a long time. I was waiting and hanging around for the market to show a big change in a persistent downside trend of the prices and counteract it. One day there appeared a little upside move in the corn price but was not near to counteract it. I was out of my workplace for coming days and was unable to meet my broker or the info about the rates. I made a call to my dealer and ordered corn for a buy-stop at a price which was much higher than the downside trend. It did so because I thought if it worked, it would be a very tough change in the price to counteract the constant downside trend and it will indicate an uphill breakthrough in the every day price bar map. That day I had some jinx and blip in my mind which was disapproving my decision and asking me to take time and "follow through" the price tendency to make the price break sure. Next morning the corn's price inclination was high enough to strike my end and made me "in" the market. But it was not for a long time. Corn rates again overturned and threw my corn prices out soon.

Contrarian Trading with Price Action

Forex markets are inherently contrarian. This means that they are regressive and have a natural tendency to pull back to the mean price. This is a big reason why so many beginning traders lose all their trading money and give up. The fact is that most of the time when it feels safe to enter the market it is probably not. When a move in the market is greatly extended in one direction and looks like it will keep going this is usually the exact time it is about to fall back and correct itself. This extension also happens to be the time most beginning traders tend to enter the market. It often takes months or years of losing money before traders learn that they have to wait patiently for the market to contract before entering, and many traders give up before they finally realize this truth.

Price action analysis is the best technique for learning to profit from the forex market. There are usually tell-tale signs a market is ready to correct or the trend is ready to resume that are readily apparent through the analysis of price action. All you really need to know are a few simple patterns and basic chart support, resistance, and trend lines and you have enough information to put together a profitable trading method. Some people try to program indicators and even develop new ones because they mistakenly believe if they put more math and study into their trading technique they will be further ahead of other traders. This simply is false. While you do need some sort of education in technical analysis and price action, it doesn’t need to be complicated or involve programing expert advisors and other fancy non-sense.
Once you develop a keen eye for price action setups you will be able to tell if it’s unsafe to enter a trend or that the trend is ready to resume. It’s all right there on the chart, you just need to be shown the way by someone who has walked in your shoes and made it down the path to trading success. Price action can be a great aid to developing your discipline in the market and shaping a relevant market perspective. If you are just starting out and this is one of the first trading articles you have read than I strongly urge you to check out an education in price action. Go to YouTube and type in “forex price action” or “forex price action strategies” and see if you like what you find; there are many good free sources of price action information on YouTube. Price action analysis has been the key to my success in the markets and I hope it will be the key to yours.

AUTO FOREX TRADING SYSTEM

If you wish to make most of the forex trading opportunities, then auto forex system trading is something which could really assist you in this concern. Just select the best trading system and earn lots of money.
When it comes to earn lots of money with forex trading in an easiest manner, it is highly recommended to go for auto forex system trading. Now, you must be wondering why it is so. Well, before taking into the account of these systems, it is essential for you to consider their worth first. Basically, forex trade market works for twenty four hours a day. It means that opportunities of earning money can come at anytime. But, is it possible for you to monitor all these trade activities for the whole day? Well, the answer will definitely be no! Now, here comes the requirement of these auto forex system trading.
In addition, these systems do not require you to sit in front of them to monitor their activities. They work for you throughout the whole day and as soon as any earning opportunity arrives, you are sure to grab that instantly. Although these systems are quite trendiest these days, but it doesn't mean that you should trust them blindly. As forex trading is a risky game and even a single mistake of yours could put you into halt. That's why it would be a prudent decision to go for a demo session of these systems.
In addition, make sure the system that you are going to deal with is tested under the practical conditions of forex market. You can also search over the Internet to find out the most appropriate auto forex system trading software for you. It doesn't matter which software you are using in the forex trading, the only thing which matters is your strategy to make the most out of it. Therefore, select the software that works according to your strategies.

Business Cycles Affect Currency Market Cycles

Early in life we discover the meaning of past, present and future in linear terms, and we structure our life around those words, but most of the events we experience in daily life occur in cycles. There are several obvious examples. The four seasons, weather patterns, and business transactions, affect our present linear life just like the past and the future are always experienced in the present.
A business is defined as the growth and contraction of our economic life. Various business cycles determine global economic trends, and in order to successfully understand and participate in any kind of monetary trading system it’s important to identify a certain business cycle, and the trends it creates. The business cycle is a vital factor in the growth or the shrinkage of the money supply; the more currency in a given market, the less value it has, so the forex market, and the cycles within it, always responds in some way to a business cycle. A Business cycle can define consumer demands, unemployment, the availability of credit, industrial production, and these issue impact international capital, so it either fortifies or depreciates a country’s currency.
When a nation is going through a business cycle boom international capital flow increases; traders are always looking for better returns on their investments through international loans or foreign direct investments. An increase in capital flow will cause a country’s currency to appreciate, but if a country is going through the bust cycle of the business cycle, capital investments will disappear and currency values depreciate. The business cycle continues in one direction or another until it’s saturated through market developments or government action.
Understanding how the business cycle works gives currency traders the opportunity to short the currencies of nations that are in the bust phase of the business cycle, and long the currencies of nations entering the boom phrase. The key to turning these trades into profits is identifying market cycles with some help from forex analysis tools and forex chart, and then using a forex strategy that flows with them.
There are Three Major Currency Market Cycles
It doesn’t matter what financial market you’re investing in; financial markets only move in three cycles. The major market cycles are: Trending, Consolidation and Breakout.
The trending cycle is when a currency’s value consistently moves in the same direction; either up or down. A forex trend is defined as progressively higher highs and higher lows. Since currency values usually don’t move in a straight line up or down, it can be hard to identify a trend without some kind of help.
A consolidation cycle is also known as Non Trending; it looks like a horizontal line of bars on a forex chart. When the value is stuck between two horizontal supports and resistance levels can’t break these supports for at least seven bars, the consolidation cycle is in motion.
Moving averages or other technical indicators will help determine if the market is trending or consolidating. The moving average line will almost be horizontal in a consolidating market.
The breakout market cycle occurs when the currency has been in the consolidation market for at least seven bars, and then the price breaks out of this ranging market and creates a new high or low. Most forex traders only have a forex strategy for one or two market cycles. The most popular strategies are for breakout and trend cycles.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Failsafe Checklist

Many a Forex trader will relate to this experience:

  • Price has been in a consolidation channel for one or two hours.
  • You place an entry order to get taken in at the top or bottom of the channel.
  • Within a few minutes your trade is in and within a few minutes more you are looking at a loss of -10 pips, then -15 pips, and then your stop gets taken out.
  • Price hardly moved for hours but as soon as you got into a trade you were taken out within minutes for a loss leaving you bewildered and muttering, "What happened?"

In the early stages of gaining trading experience, it is good for the novice Forex trader to go by a checklist every time before entering a trade until certain habits become ingrained.

For a very cautious approach to trading the newer Forex trader can use this Failsafe Checklist to determine whether the potential trade setup is likely to be high probability or low probability.

Avoid Going Long If:

  • There is negative divergence on MACD on the 4 hour, 1 hour, or 15 minute chart.
  • MACD on the 4 hour or 1 hour chart is pointing down.
  • Price is well above the Central Pivot Point for the day in a Sell Area.
  • Price is below the 200 EMA (Exponential Moving Average) on the 4 hour and 1 hour chart but above the 200 EMA on the 15 minute chart. (With this setup on the 3 times frames price is bucking the overall trend and can turn against you at any time.)
  • Price is above a Fibonacci 50, 62, or 79 retracement (calculated from the last high and low)
  • Your stop is not below multiple layers of support such as a significant previous high or low, pivot point, or Fibonacci level.


Avoid Going Short If:

  • There is positive divergence on MACD on the 4 hour, 1 hour, or 15 minute chart.
  • MACD on the 4 hour or 1 hour chart is pointing up.
  • Price is well below the Central Pivot Point for the day in a Buy Area.
  • Price is above the 200 EMA on the 4 hour and 1 hour chart but below the 200 EMA on the 15 minute chart.
  • Price is below a Fibonacci 50, 62, or 79 retracement (calculated from the last high and low)
  • Your stop is not above multiple layers of resistance such as a significant previous high or low, pivot point, or Fibonacci level.

Implementing this Failsafe Checklist strategy may reduce the number of trades the Forex trader participates in. However, here an important lesson is learned - patience! Waiting for a high probability setup can make many demands on a Forex trader's mental resources and emotional strength.