Financial Freedom Tips

Archive for the ‘Forex’ Category

If you have been trading the currency market for a while, you’ll know that there is money to be made trading forex news. However, trading the news in forex does involve some risks and there are 5 major traps you must avoid before you can to trade the forex news successfully. We’ll discuss these 5 traps and provide some forex tips and forex trading strategies to use to counter these traps.

Trap #1: Strong Market Reaction.

Economic news releases and reports are forex indicators for future long-term movements for a currency pair. But for short-term trading, the actual results and the forecasted expectations may create big move opportunities.

Thus, when actual results came out the same as what the market expected, then there is high possibility that the market will not have a strong reaction. It is the big gap difference between the actual release and the market expectations that causes the market to have a breakout or big movement.

Trap #2: Generally Short-Lived.

Most of the time, breakout opportunities from the news release are not a long term trend as the movement may only last for few minutes to few hours. But still, it has to depend on the significance of the economic news release and the difference between the actual results and the forecasted expectations.

Most traders are either using forex scalping or day trading when they trade on news releases. One of the forex tips is to try not to trade during the release as the trade can turn against you in a short moment even after you caught a big initial move.

Trap #3: Quiet Market before a Big Movement.

The market may often poise for a huge movement when it is very quiet before some economic announcements or news releases. This is because the market is waiting for those before deciding on which direction it is going.

Traders are waiting for a right opportunity to jump into the market after the news reports are being released. Thus, you should not react to any forex trading signals 2 to 3 hours before the news are released as the signals may be false and misleading.

Trap #4: High Spread during News Releases.

During news releases, a trading broker may guarantee that your trade will be executed, but none of them will guarantee a normal spread for you. Forex brokers will widen the spread due to the lack of trading volume during the release. EUR/USD is one of the currency pairs with tight spread, but I have seen it turning it into a 10 pips spread from a normally 2 pips during a news release.

Trap #5: High slippage.

You might experience slippage when there is a big move during news releases. It means that your trade order will get filled at a different price instead of the price that you wanted. For example, you might have set a limit order at 1. 3000.

But when the news release, the price shoot up 50 pips to 1. 3050. So a slippage may occur and you will get your order filled at maybe 1. 3020 instead of 1. 3000. This is quite risky as the market may go against your trading plan.

The above forex trading guide will be very useful if you are using a forex day trading strategy to trade news. But in any case, I will not recommend news trading as it is very risky with the above considerations.

Do you keep a diary at home, so that you will be able to remember what you have done in the past when you read it? It goes the same for a forex trading diary. If you have realized, the diary could well be a forex trading tutorial to you, as it allows you to spot mistakes and repeat what you have successfully done.

It is always good to keep a trading diary no matter you are a newbie or experienced trader. For me, I have a blog not only to help me keep track of all my trades, but I can also review the forex trading system that I used for certain trades, and see which systems suits me the most. Then after some time, I found out the forex trading signals that were generated by some of my forex indicators were very useful and I’ll always look out for those trade setups.

All traders will make mistakes in trading, so if you don’t take down the mistakes, you would probably repeat it again. For example, if you are chasing after the price, you can write down: ‘I’m too eager to trade on this date at this time, therefore I chased after the price, and my trade got triggered by the stop loss’. You can take down the forex trading strategies that you have taken to win a trade, so what you have to do is to repeat it. Have a section on forex trading tips, so you can refer to it every time you trade, and this will help you to follow the rules of the trading system. Sounds like a forex trading guide isn’t it?

You can probably take a screenshot of the chart when you opened and closed a position, take notes on your state of mind during that time and write in your trading diary why you had opened and closed your position. This can be very valuable to you in the future. It helps you grow as a trader and make better trades next time. Even if you are using an automated forex trading system, you can write down the mistakes made by the system and you can improve it next time. For me, I’m trading manually, so I will take down some of the forex trading techniques which I can keep on using and repeating it for success.

I have been trading for years and I realized that the best forex trading system is not just having a successful system, but also consists of a trading diary to keep track of my trading success. If you want to know more on how to trade forex successfully, you can find the right education by getting forex tips, forex day trading signals and strategy from my FREE forex ebook.

If you are involved in currency trading, you are well aware of the fact that there are a lot of forex trading strategies for both long term and short term. Each and every day you seem to read more and more about how you need to be in it for the long haul in order to build your wealth. Now we are going to take a look at the opposite side of the coin and see if short term trading or forex scalping really does work. Here are some lessons learnt and forex tips.

Having been in the market for quite some time now, I am here to tell you that it is always possible to make nice profits on short term currency trades or forex scalping, but it is more difficult and risky especially if you are very new to forex trading or if you do not have the correct discipline to trade the forex financial market.

The problem you are going to be faced with when looking to make a short term profit is that the forex trading signals you are analyzing is less unreliable. One method many people like to use for forex scalping is by looking at the 1 and 5 minute charts thinking that they are spotting something, but it is more than likely just floating at random. This is definitely not the preferred forex trading strategy to use if you are looking for long term success and be a profitable currency trader.

Another challenge you are going to meet when developing forex trading strategies is that when you take a hit on your stop margin, you will eventually take one and you will eat up all the small profits that you made over the course of a day or week. One thing you are guaranteed to do is to add to your stress level, and not in a good way. You are going to be placing yourself in a position that you are under the gun the entire time, not paying attention for one minute could result in a huge hit to your bankroll.

Personally, I use 15 minutes chart and above to look for forex trading signals. But if you are inexperience in forex trading, it is not advisable to look at charts below 1 hour. There are just too many whipsaws that you may not be able to handle.

You need to understand that one good long term trade is just as effective as a group of good short term trades. A longer term trade using hourly or daily charts will allow you to see the trend better, and is a lot less stressful and more reliable.

Unlike forex scalping, you also do not need to be stalking your computer all day as you can place your stop order. You can let the trend develop while you go about your business. You will find yourself sleeping better and enjoying much more by following this philosophy.

If you are looking for a forex trading system that can make you consistent profits, you may want to get the free forex ebook that I have created for the good of all forex traders. Inside this forex trading guide, you will find tips, strategies, techniques and forex system reviews that will definitely aid in your path to successful trading.

There are two ways a Forex trader thinks, which one are you?

Whatever type of trader you choose to be, your trading mindset theory will dramatically affect the potential income you would make. Not only in the Forex Markets, but in the totality of life your gonna live. This article has tips to be positive to produce more results.

The mind has much much more effect on the reality we are experiencing right now as much as we realize, people who take the initiative to take control can experience the positive effect of the outcome, as for the more ‘general’ masses that just let the ‘river of life’ determine the kind of live that they will have.

Results( income or quality of life) is directly proportional on the effort and thinking we put to it. As we all know that anything requiring little to no effort produces limited results, and anything that will require the mind to work as it should produces lasting and more consistent results.

Trading the financial markets, whether be it forex investing or the other markets, has many unspoken results to prove that this is true. The most common that are noticed are two, which do you think mindset successful traders have?

The Dependent Trader

Sadly, this type of mindset produces no results. This type of mindset involves wanting forex made easy, making it rich quick, and never wants to put any effort into the process of thinking and doing things that will lead to results that is wanted.

Most of this mindset are the ‘band wagon’ type, trade based not on learning, but on the forex tips that is ever present on all those ‘money-making’ trading programs, listen to all those financial gurus with expecting of a great return which in the end results to the opposite of it.

In more simple terms, they are like lottery players, they know the chances of winning are slim, like 1: 100,000 , yet when they know that there is a big pot of gold over that rainbow, they wager their money still and “hope for the best”. In the end all the negative thoughts are present if (and most probably) they don’t get what they want.

The result? Giving up. No wonder most people are scared in the money making in Forex, they expect big returns for such little effort. There is nothing wrong with the system, it has results, but people fail. Why? because of their mindset. Fear will take us nowhere.

If you possess this kind of mindset, there is always a way to have mindset change which will produce a lot greater results.

On the other side of the coin,there is the Independent Mindset.

The Independent Trader

This trader has the mindset set on success, nothing more. The control over their financial future is theirs. Traders like this have learned (or are learning) to control the financial markets, by the methods that doesn’t rely on others for advices and is not much of a fan of the ‘buzz’.

If you have this success skill, then you must know that only you can achieve the success you want by maximizing the market and making it work for your favor. Learning from others is different from mimicking others, and constant adapting from mistakes, thus reaching new heights.

Most Traders, beginner and experienced, has a little bit of the dependent mindset at one point or another. The thing the separates the successful ones from the not is that people on the track to become Independent Traders seek a mentor or lean with a reliable education source, but as the learning and knowledge grows, they begin to be independent and apply the learning on their own. Dependent Traders fail.

What can you do?

Here are steps you can take to improve the forex trading mindset you have.

1. Find 2-3 credible education sources. You can find one forex course here in the end of this article. Your goal is to identify one that you can understand and trust. Get all the knowledge that you can get out from these sources. When you learn to trade forex properly, then you will find your self applying the concepts on your own.

2. Learn and test multiple methods of trading. Success is not possible without some basis in trading methodologies, specifically using technical or fundamental factors.

3. Based on what you have learned, make a trading plan. The best forex strategies is that best suits you. If you have a job or want to enjoy most of your time for other things other than Forex, end-of-day trading is for you. The learning you have from steps 1 and 2 must be aligned with end-of-day trading.

Tips in this article will require time and money as the investment. It should be considered education cost — such as in college. It is far better to invest money on yourself that to easily lose money on the market. If you are still looking for an easy way, then you must be that dependent trader.

There is an easy way to do things, and there is a BETTER way in doing things. Success=BETTER is proven formula to be working.

Do you have a good money management rule in your forex trading? Many traders think that money management in forex trading is just by putting a stop loss and a target profit, that’s all. This is far from true because that is only part of a forex trading system. Let’s look at some forex tips on how you can triple your forex trading profits.

1. Always prepare for the worst, think how to protect your trade first!

Almost all the traders will think how much money or profits they are going to make when they trade. This is a wrong mindset. If you are a beginner in forex trading, then you should assume the worst first and not thinking about profits in the first place. You should be very eager to protect your trade from losses by shifting it to break even after your trade has around more than 40 pips in profits. The trade is also considered won even it has broke even.

2. Don’t take high leverage for granted.

Many forex brokers offer a high leverage of 100:1 to 400:1. True it is very tempting, but you should not use very high leverage for a beginning and for a small forex account, it is not advisable to use more than 50:1 or 100:1, so as to prevent your account from going bust. Traders thought they can win big using high leverage, but what if they loose? Their trading capital goes into the drain too.

3. Not risking more than 1% to 5% of your trading account.

This is a very important money management rule. How much do you risk for every trade? Forex trading is all about high probability and calculated risk. If you think you can’t take risk at all, then you shouldn’t be learning to trade forex at all. For a small $1000 account, it may seems by risking 1%, the gains are very small too, but that’s the right way to build your capital. For me, I’m a conservative trader and I risk only 2% of my trading account per trade.

Trade the forex market or currency market can be a highly profitable experience. Learning to trade forex right is the first step to gain possible riches on what could be an enriching journey. To do that, you’ll need to know these 2 factors of how a forex trading system can bring success to you and how it should be done.

1. Network With Forex Traders – Although forex trading may seems like a one man show, but in truth, you may need some reliable forex friends or partners to talk about the market conditions. It will be good that if you and your partners share the same forex trading system and talk about the same forex strategy.

This means that everyone is using the same system and can remind each other of their trades. Imagine if you are trading using the system yourself and no one is using it. You met with difficulties, unable to understand why does it happen this way, losses pile up and then eventually you give up on yourself. But if you have partners who can trade together using same set of forex trading strategies, then you can encourage each other in times of difficulty and help each other out.

Therefore, it will be good that among all of you who are using the same forex trading system, one or 2 of you are really good in it and when some weak or inexperienced traders encounter problems, you can solve it easily.

2. Creating Your Own Forex Trading System – For newbies in forex trading, it’s understandable and acceptable that most of them are always looking around for forex tips, new methods, new trading systems or strategies to help them to profit in the forex market.

We do not try to penalize them because they are new and do not really know how the market actually works. That is why I setup a blog on forex trading, giving people the right education so that they can trade correctly and profitably.

If you have been trader for months or years, but still cannot make a consistent income from the market, you really have to reevaluate on your actions. Is it you are trading the wrong way, too impatient or what?

What I suggest to many traders is that once you can profit using the forex trading system that you got it from somewhere, but still not really that comfortable with the trading timeframe or style, then it’s time you consider creating your own system by modifying others’ systems.

In other words, try to integrate your knowledge with the current resources to make the system suit your lifestyle. This is important because the trading system follows you the rest of your trading career and you want it to be at your finger tips.

It may seem like it’s a mountain to climb when you just started trading, but when confidence starts kicking in, patience and emotions starts to be in control and some experience has built in you, then you may be soon over the steep learning curve and begin a new life of trading.