In general, the answer is affirmative, and you can be encouraged to embark on trades in foreign exchange. The primary advantage of trading in foreign currency is that, though it is risky, the rate of money exchange is traded 24 hours a day. This is different from the standard Stock Exchanges which open and close across different time zones.
When you examine Forex Trading in today’s market, there are some factors you must take into consideration. These include your risk exposure and management, as well as your experience in trading versus being a new trader; and likewise your sense of willingness to proceed with Foreign exchange Trading with a learn-first-practice-second mindset.
Your capacity to deal with risk, particularly highly volatile foreign exchange, must be evaluated when thinking about forex trading in your risk portfolio. The profits may be rewarding in a foreign currency deal, but high profits also mean high risk of loss. Heavy losses, if you are not cautious. Approach the forex trading with a smart game plan.
If you are a veteran market trader, from the shares platform, then you may do well with currency estimation. When you engage in foreign currency speculation, make sure you educate yourself first. Before making a plunge like a tactless gambler, obtain information. Make sound choices to avert unneeded loss and increase the prospects of earning good profits.
Formulate a good exit plan. If you are well versed with the market behavior, you will recognize some trends triggered by various economic pressures. The currency rate will peak and trough and your goals are to come in on a trade when there is a trough, and exit at some point near the peak. Never wait for the rate to reach its maximum level, as this is when you could take a snag if your timing is just off-key. Remember for that!
After performing the fundamental analysis, the trader may be confident that the US Dollar is indicating overall weakness and the Euro is indicating overall strength for the coming six months.
What should be your next step as a position trader? The next step for the position trader would be to open a long position in EUR/USD pair keeping in view the overall strength of Euro and the weakness of US Dollar. This simultaneously provides the position trader with long Euro position and a short US Dollar position.
This combined trading position fulfills the fundamental outlook of the position trader on both the currencies. So the long term directional bias has been formed by the position trader on the basis of fundamental analysis.
So position trading depends on using fundamental analysis in identifying a profitable position in the currency market and then using technical analysis in setting up the actual trade. However, pinpointing the best time for the trade entry as well as setting risk managed control strategies is best accomplished by using technical analysis.
So the position trading uses fundamental analysis in pairing strength with weakness. Now this concept fits extremely well with the forex markets as all currencies are traded in pairs unlike the stock market or for that matter other financial markets.
Position trading with the strength/weakness model is the most logical fundamental method for approaching long term forex trading. Trading forex requires a directional commitment on two currencies for each trade, so position trading is ideal for forex trading.
You only invest in stocks that go up and down but two stocks can never be paired together in stock trading. You can buy different stocks to diversify your portfolio but can never pair two individual stocks the way you can pair two currencies in forex trading. Buying one currency because it looks like it will become stronger while simultaneously selling another currency because it looks like it will become weaker is a better way to trade as compared to stocks and other financial markets.
What should be your first step to identify a strong/weak pair? Your first step as a position trader should be analyze the Central Bank policy statements, economic growth factors of these countries, global economic news etc to identify the currency with the strongest positive future prospects and the currency with the strongest negative future prospects at a given point in time. You will have to do fundamental research and analysis on all major currency pairs as a position trader.
You will have to study all the major currencies like US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, Swiss Franc and the Japanese Yen. Suppose you identify GBP and USD as the strongest loser currencies by performing fundamental analysis while EUR and CHF as the strongest gainer currencies in the foreseeable future. Possible currency pairs for position trading could be long EUR/USD, long CHF/USD, short GBP/EUR and short GBP/CHF.
In currency markets, price action never moves in a straight line and is never ever linear. It is always up and down with minor trends superimposed on a major general trend. Swing traders usually ride the minor trends while position traders ride long term general trends. You can enter the trades with the help of technical analysis and hold them as long as they move in the correct direction disregarding minor corrective swings and market noise in position trading.
Position trading maybe the most difficult method of approaching forex trading for the beginners! It requires a great deal of patience and faith in ones own analysis to weather the inevitable swings against the trading position. But if done properly it can be one of the most effective methods of extracting long term profits from the forex markets.
When looking at forex strategies, a good one to adapt is one called money management. It may sound simple enough, but it isn’t. One of the most important strategies in forex is managing your money properly. Knowing the amount of your trading account to keep tied up in a trade is very important. It is never a good idea to put all of your money into one trade, this is a very high risk bad move. You may luck out and make a huge profit, but it won’t be long before you find yourself angry with an empty trading account or even worse, debt!
When it comes to money management for forex strategies, it is a good idea to get this mastered. Without proper management of your money, it can make the difference between successful and bad trades. Any given time you shouldn’t have any more than half of your trading account tied up into trades. Worse case scenario you will still have some lee way for the trades. Just remember that it is a good idea to keep to as many trades as you are comfortable with and can watch.
Learning a few forex strategies first, or even just starting off with money management is very important for any trader. Getting this mastered is not hard, once you do trading will be at a lowered risk level. Being in over your head, frustrated with too many trades is never a good position. This should not become a habit, once in this situation, it is never easy to recover.
When looking for more forex strategies, you could always talk to people in the same industry, make some online or offline friends that are common traders. Doing this can be a little secret to success, you never know what a long time experienced trader will show you. They could give you some amazing tips that could have taken years to figure out through trial and error. Test out your newly acquired strategy, and see if it works for you. What may work for one trader, may not always work for the other. Stick to the strategies that work for you.
In a matter of time, your forex strategies will be a tested proven result that you are certain with. Once you build a good handful of good strategic angles down, you will soon find trades to become easier and your profits will start to soar. Another way to get yourself soaring sooner than ever is adding this ultimate strategic approach that could double your profits! There happens to be an ultimate strategic approach to forex that few people know about.
Lets first define what Technical Analysis is. Technical Analysis is the study of historical and ongoing price data through charts, price patterns and chart indicators. Charts display price in time intervals using bars and candlesticks.
Technical Analysis is based on a number of assumptions. The most important is that all available information is immediately impounded into the market prices of the currencies. The second assumption made is that prices always move in trends or patterns. The third assumption that is made is that history repeats itself. This means you can predict the future price action by studying the past prices.
Historical studies have shown that once a trend is in motion, it is most likely to continue rather than reverse it. Only a bigger force in the opposite direction can reverse a trend once set in motion. The more one studies chart patterns, the clearer it becomes that reading and interpreting chart patterns are more an art form than a skill in technical analysis.
Two charts are important in technical analysis. Bar charts and Candlesticks charts. Bar charts display price data in vertical lines that represents price action during a given time period. The tip at the bottom of a bar chart is the low for the period. The tip at the top is the high for the period. The open and close are represented by small horizontal dashes called tics. The tic to the left of the vertical line is the open. The tic to the right of the line is the close.
Candlestick charts are similar to bar charts in many ways but different in other ways. Candlestick charts were developed by Japanese rice traders. They are used extensively in technical analysis. Like the bar charts, the top of the vertical line represent the high. The bottom of the vertical line represents the low. However, the price action between the open and the close is represented differently by the use of candlestick bodies. A shaded body represents a lower closing price below a higher opening price. A hollow body represents a higher closing price above a lower opening price.
The price action that takes place above and below the body is referred to as tails or wicks. As a forex day trader, you may use any one of the 3, 5, 10, 15, 30, 60 and 180 minutes charts for technical analysis. As a swing and position trader, you may use a daily, weekly or a monthly chart. These charts all use the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or the Eastern Standard Time (EST) depending on the software that your broker platform uses. But you can always adjust these times according to your local time.
While doing technical analysis, you need to understand markets patterns? You need to understand what are Uptrends? You should also know what downtrends are and what are sideway trends? Forex markets expand and retrace constantly. Currency prices may continue to expand for sometimes either upward or downward. It is the nature of the currency markets to surge then pause and retrace.
Trends in currency markets make a series of peaks and troughs as they move. An uptrend consists of a series of ascending peaks and troughs. Each peak higher than the last peak! Each trough lower than the last trough! A downtrend consists of a series of descending peaks and troughs. A sidways trend consists of a series of horizontal peaks and troughs. All peaks and all troughs almost on the same level indicate a sideways market.
Based only on the market activity of the previous few days, most candlestick patterns are valid. Using one of these without knowing about the previous trends wouldnt be very useful. For instance, some of the candlestick patterns indicate a change in trend.
When you spot and identify a particular candlestick pattern you should take it as a signal that something is going to happen to the market in the near future. What you should do based on that candlestick pattern depends on the context. Usually the context in which you find the candlestick pattern tells you a great deal about them. Lets consider simple candlestick patterns first.
The Bullish White Marubozu: The longest white candle is the most bullish of the candlestick patterns. It represents the day when bulls control the market and push prices higher from the opening to the closing. With the long white candle closing near the high, chances are the bulls will be back for more buying the following day.
One common feature of the long white candle is an open near the low of the day and a close near the high of the day. This means that buying has been taking place all the day. With the long white candle, the low price on the candlestick is a good support level.
The Bullish Dragonfly Doji: A Doji is formed when the opening and the closing prices are the same. So essentially there is no stick in the candlestick. For a Doji to be created, a day must begin and end with the same price.
Doji patterns are usually associated with a market turn. Doji depicts a day where the battle between the bulls and the bears has been fairly equal. A Doji may not look very exciting to you. But dont be fooled.
A Dragonfly Doji is unique in that three of the four candlestick patterns- the open, high and the close are all equal. The price action depicted by the Dragonfly Doji bodes very well for those hoping that prices go higher. The low of the Dragonfly Doji day is considered a near term support level. You can make smart trades based on the Dragonfly Dojis.
The Bearish Long Black Candle: A long black candle means that sellers take over at the beginning of the day. Continuous selling throughout the day pushes prices lower and lower until the end of the day. The long black candle is as bearish as it gets. The long black candle is the direct counterpart of the long white candle discussed earlier.
Price sensitivity is very low for these sellers and they are selling just to get out of their trades regardless of the prices. The long black candlestick pattern is a good bearish signal. You can capitalize on this fact. Seeing this type of enthusiastic selling must give you the confidence after the appearance of the long black candle that the bears will be in control for a few more days.