LIVE FOREX SPREADS

Assume The Worst - Money Management:

Many traders only think of the prots they can make from a trade, but never consider the worst eventuality. They are blinded by greed. The fact is that all the

top traders tend to know their downside as soon as they enter a trade, and decide whether the risk of the trade is worth taking. Money management is essential for trading success, and by always assuming the worst, you can decide if the risk reward of the trade is right for you. As a broker once said to me about trading, “Always assume the worst and you wont be disappointed. Things can only get better.”

No system makes money all of the time and no top trader does either, so it is important in these losing periods to have strict money management criteria in place to help you preserve your equity as best you can. Money management is, perhaps, more important than your trading method itself. You may have a successful system, but if it loses all your money quickly and recovers when you have lost your stake, it is of little use. You need to reserve your equity so you can stay in the game longer term. Always decide if you can take the prospect of the worst eventuality in relation to your trading capital.

BEST FOREX TRADING HOURS

Forex Market Hours and The 3 Major Trading Sessions:

The Foreign exchange is a 24 hours market; it opens on Sunday night (5 PM EST) and closes on Friday afternoon (4PM EST) - open 5 and a half days a week.

However, even though the Foreign exchange market is open 24 hours a day, as a trader you need to realize that certain times of day are more suitable for trading than others in order to devise an effective and time-efficient Currency trading strategy.

To maximize the number of trading opportunities during these Forex Trading sessions, it is important to be aware of the times when the market is busiest. This is the time that most currency transaction activity occurs.

Even though there is no official open and close time during the week, it can be broken up into 3 major trading sessions - Tokyo, London and New York sessions.

However, although it seems not to be very important at the beginning, the right time to trade is one of the most crucial points required to be a successful Forex trader.

The best time to trade is when the market is most active and therefore has the biggest volume of trades. A more active market creates a good chance to trade and make some profit while a calm and slow market is literally a waste of time.

Not all the times are suitable for trading Forex, that's because the volatility changes too much during the 24 hours. Below is a table outlining the schedule of Forex Market Hours. The time used is GMT 0

Forex trading sessions :

1. Asian Session Hours( Tokyo ): 00:00 - 9:00 GMT
2. European Session Hours ( London ): 7:00 - 17:00 GMT
3. U.S. Session Hours( New York ): 13:00 - 22:00 GMT

WHAT ARE THE MAIN FUNCTIONS OF THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET

FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET:

The Foreign exchange market is the place where one currency is bought or sold for another currency.

WHAT IS FOREX BROKER

Forex broker:

A foreign exchange broker is a financial intermediary that facilitates currency trading in the foreign exchange (forex) market for retail traders and institutional clients. They act as a bridge between individual traders and the larger forex market, giving them access to a variety of currency pairs and enabling them to execute trades.

The major functions of a forex broker include:

Providing Trading Platforms: Forex brokers provide online trading platforms that allow traders to access the Forex market, view real-time price quotes, analyze charts, and execute buy or sell orders.

Currency Pairs Offered: Forex brokers offer a wide range of currency pairs for trading, including major pairs (for example, EUR/USD, GBP/USD), minor pairs and exotic pairs. These pairs represent the exchange rates between two different currencies.

Every successful Forex trader knows that choosing a Forex broker is not only important, but a crucial part of your success. As forex trading became more popular, many Forex Brokers were revealed for the methods they use to "protect" their profits. By reading and sharing your experiences, you'll help the community to identify which are the good/bad brokers.

Consumer sentiment ''forex''

The pattern in consumer attitudes and spending is often the foremost influence on various markets. For stocks, strong economic growth translates to healthy corporate profits and higher stock prices. For bonds, the focus is whether economic growth goes overboard and leads to inflation. Ideally, the economy walks that fine line between strong growth and excessive (inflationary) growth.

Consumer spending accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, so the markets are always dying to know what consumers are up to and how they might behave in the near future. The more confident consumers are about the economy and their own personal finances, the more likely they are to spend. With this in mind, it's easy to see how this index of consumer attitudes gives insight to the direction of the economy. Just note that changes in consumer confidence and retail sales don't move in tandem month by month.

First step of ''FOREX TRADING''

Open a free demo account with interactive investor or if you are confident, open a live account with minimum amount.

1.Currency pair

The nature of forex trading is to exchange the value of one currency for another. In other words, you will always buy one currency while selling another at the same time. Because of this, you will always trade a pair of currencies.

Most new traders start out by trading the most commonly offered pairs of major currencies, but you can trade any currency pair you want, as long as you have enough money in your account. For this walkthrough, we'll look at the EUR/USD,JPY/USD etc.

2. Read the quote

Dealers will often list a price with two different numbers. For example, when you look up the EUR/USD , you'll see the forex quote is listed as:

Base currency

Quote or terms currency

Price

Sell price

Buy price                                                           

Sell

Buy

EUR/USD

3. Analyse the market

 Analysis should be the foundation for your trading endeavors. Without these, you're operating largely on emotion.When you first start researching, you'll find a wide wealth of forex resources  which may seem overwhelming at first. But as you research a particular currency, you'll find valuable resources that stand out from the rest.

You should regularly look at current and historical charts, monitor the news for economic announcements, consult indicators and perform other analysis activities. 

4. Pick your position

Forex trading is a little different to other  traded stocks, bonds or other financial products. Because you are buying one currency while selling another at the same time, you can speculate on up AND down movement in the market.

With a buy position, you believe that the value of the base currency will rise compared to the quote currency. If you're buying the EUR/USD, you believe the price of the euro will strengthen against the dollar. In other words, you believe the euro is bullish (and that the US dollar is bearish).

Benefits of Online Investing''FOREX''

Online trading has caused a major paradigm shift in investing. At the turn of the millennium, there are over 6 million online investment accounts, up from 1.5 million . As a result, start-up firms now compete directly with financial institutions to serve investors in the new Economy, and the clear winner is the customer. The competition between the brick and mortar institutions and the Internet-based companies has dramatically lowered the costs of investing, and empowered the individual investor to take control of their own investment strategy.

online trading will revolutionize the currency markets by making it accessible to the small and medium sized investor. For the first time, these investors have the ability to execute transactions of between $100,000 and $10,000,000 at the same prices the Interbank market offers for deals well over $10,000,000. This benefits both those who wish to speculate on the direction of the currency markets for profit, as well as the money manager or corporate treasurer looking to hedge against unwanted exposure to future price fluctuations in the currency markets.

Forex Trading ''The Secret Of Market Success''

“For surely we are not … no simply contending in order that my view or that yours may prevail, but I presume that we ought both of us to be fighting for the truth.”

By..Socrates

The aim of any investor is to make money by correctly identifying and acting upon the truth. The truth, however, is elusive, as there is no scientific method to get us to the truth. The truth is difficult to see as it can be totally different to what your emotions and natural instincts are telling you. Furthermore, the fact that the majority of people agree or disagree with you has no relevance in the pursuit of the truth.

To succeed in trading you need to understand that there are no certainties, only probabilities, and to seek the truth you need to have a deep understanding of yourself and the market you operate in, and how you relate to it. You need to stand-alone and, from your perception of what is going on around you, decide what the truth is.
Trading is a reflection of life. This is why there are so many contradictory ideas and shades of grey instead of black and white answers. Just like life, trading is unpredictable; people who believe that there is a scientific law to investing that can predict commodity price movements are missing the point.

 It is effectively the ability to see an event before it is definitely known, that is the key. It is really the intuitive ability to see and then to act. Relying on both right and left hemispheres of the brain to process and analyse information, this is the key to identifying and acting upon the truth. Once you have brought your thoughts to bear on the facts of a situation, then you need to let go. This is the incubation stage where you are letting your thoughts go where they may, without the influence of anyone else. When you learn to think and act in this manner, you will be surprised how you see many situations the crowd will never see.

Forex Trader Becoming a Disciplined Investor

“A key to self management is the capacity for self-observation, it is not the same as over-criticism … it is rather a consistent monitoring of one’s performance from a perspective significantly detached to allow accurate evaluation.”

A. Garfield
It is clear that knowledge of oneself is just as important in trading as knowing facts, economic theories, news or trading methods. In the trading world, often emotion reigns supreme, facts are ignored and there is no wrong or right. The person who has control of himself due to his discipline and emotional self-control will ultimately emerge from the battlefield a winner.

However, coming to terms with our strengths, weaknesses and personal traits is not easy. It is not easy to analyse yourself objectively because you will naturally have a subjective perspective.

When trying to understand yourself, you must be willing to be totally honest with yourself. This can be difficult and painful. The person must have the ability to accept the results of looking within. Most people, however, find it difficult to admit they made a mistake. Ask a room full of people how many of them are happy admitting their mistakes and you will see few, if any, hands go up. Admitting mistakes, however, is a positive not negative attribute in trading, as it is in life. The world is full of people who want to be right, but the reality is everyone cannot be right all of the time.

“Learning is after all not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we have changed because of it, and what we take away from it that we never had before to apply to other situations’ losing in a curious way is winning.”

Richard Bach
All of us have physical and mental disabilities, which prevent us from achieving all our goals and desires. No one is perfect. It is possible, however, to isolate and work on weaknesses. This is similar to reviewing and working on your trading method. You must understand the strengths and weaknesses of the system and try to improve it, but realise perfection is impossible. Remember, in the final analysis you have inherent weaknesses and may not have all the required attributes for trading, but neither does anyone else. The more traits you possess, the greater your advantage, but the more you work at obtaining these traits, the better your chances for success.

Forex Trading ''Self control & Discipline''

SELF CONTROL & DISCIPLINE
“To the destructive element submit yourself.”
J. Conrad
Successful trading is 80% psychological and 20% methodical. As I have already said,self-knowledge is the key to market success. A trading method by itself, no matter how well thought out, cannot be successful if it is not applied in the correct manner. It is in the application of a trading method that many traders end up losing. Consider the analogy of a high performance-racing car. No matter how aerodynamic or technically advanced, it needs to be driven. An advanced piece of engineering such as racing car needs to be driven by a person who can drive it with care. Just as a disciplined driver is needed to race a car, a disciplined trader is needed to apply a trading method. All traders have heard the word “discipline”, but few really understand what it is and why it is so important to develop it.

EMOTIONS AT WORK
“When dealing with people, let us remember that we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bursting with prejudices and motivated by price and vanity.”
Dale Carnegie
Intelligence, knowledge and talent have to be applied. Any person who is successful knows that application requires discipline, self-control and confidence in one’s abilities. Bjorn Borg was a great tennis player, he had talent. However, what always gave him the edge when playing was his mental control, which earned him the nickname “Iceman”. He combined talent and discipline to achieve his success and you must do the same.
We are all put in situations where, after they have occurred, we look back and feel that if only our emotional control had been better. You are going for a job interview and role-play Th a friend beforehand. You come over as assertive and confident. In the interview itself, however, the confidence goes. You practise a best man’s speech, it flows well and sounds great; however, on the day, delivery suffers as you feel nervous and shy.
All the above we can associate with. The fact of the matter is, when the pressure is on, our actions are influenced by our emotions. The more important the scenarios, the greater the influence will be.
Trading is no different. As soon as money is committed, logic can go out of the window and basic emotions take over. Consider the difference between paper trading and trading real time. Whilst paper trading, you earn very good profits, you are confident and optimistic. You see a very lucrative business opportunity, so you now decide to open an account and trade for real.
On studying of charts you see an opportunity, a perfect double bottom and prices low in historical terms, now is the time to buy. You ring your broker to place the trade; however, the overwhelming confidence of paper trading has now deserted you. Perhaps you had better double-check the formation. After much deliberation you decide to phone the broker and the trade enters the market. For the next two days prices rise dramatically, your profits grow; you feel great, what an easy way to make a living. The next day prices drop and your profits are cut in half. You feel uncertain; perhaps you should take the profit now before it gets away. You decide to wait. The next day prices fall further and close below your mental stop loss. Your system is telling you that you should be cut. However, you only have a small loss and it should turn around and you will soon be back in profit. The next day, to your horror, prices have collapsed and the majority of your equity is now lost. Your reaction is now one of anger, why didn't you bank the profit when you had it! The market’s move is totally illogical, you feel anger,pain and frustration, you are now totally disillusioned and fed up, and all you want to do is exit the trade.