Monday, June 29, 2009
Forex Swing Trading with Elliott Wave
Forex Trading, The Best Chance Of Trading Success
Definition-In a foreign exchange market different currencies are traded on an electronic platform which has no fixed location, but allows you to buy and sell these currencies on a 24 hour basis, from Monday to Friday throughout the year. This is what is generally referred to as forex trading. The Internet has made forex trading very simple and people from all over the world can trade in currencies. This has made forex trading very widespread and popular.Who is a forex trader?The amount of currencies that are exchanged every day is about two billion dollars, and almost everyone with an inclination to trade has got into it. The individual private traders trading in the forex trading market are linked up to forex brokers who in turn are linked up to MNC's and big banks from all over the world. If you want to become a forex trader and indulge in forex trading you would have to look for an authorized forex broker. These brokers are generally authorized by statutory bodies in their country of origin and are subject to the laws in that particular country.Traditional money exchangeThere has always been a traditional method of buying and selling currencies. These are still now available in some exotic Eastern and Middle Eastern markets where the money changer is the part of the activity in that market. Forex trading is just a new spin to this traditional activity and not limited to the small markets. Money changers mainly exchanged currencies which allowed local customers to exchange the currencies they had for the local currency in use in that particular market to enable them to make purchases. Forex trading has taken this to a much higher level and it allows banks and other institutions to exchange currencies depending on the requirement of each of these from various big companies and even governments.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
FOREX: Exiting positions at a right time
The presented article covers one of the most important (in author's opinion) aspects of trading in general and Forex trading in particular — managing of orders and positions. This includes choosing entry points, making decisions about exit points, stop-loss and take-profit of the trader. I hope this article will help new traders, who just began to work with Forex, and also to experienced traders who trade regularly and regularly make or loose their money to the market.
When I started to trade Forex and made my first big losses and profits I began to notice when very important thing about the whole trading process. While the right time to enter a position was rarely a problem for myself (nearly 80% of all my open positions had gone into the "green" profit zone), the problem was hidden in the determining the right exit point for that position. Not only was it important to cut my risk on the potential losses with stop-loss orders, but to limit my greediness and take profit when I can take it and make it as high as I can. There are many known guidelines and ways to enter a right position at a right time — like major economic news releases, global world events, technical indicators combinations, etc. But while the entering into a position is optional and trade can decide to miss as many good/bad entry point moments as they wish, this is untrue if we talk about exiting a position. Margin trading makes it impossible to wait too long with an open position. More than that, every open position in a certain way limits trader's ability to trade.
Choosing the good exit points for positions could be an easy task if only the Forex market wasn't so chaotic and volatile. In my opinion (backed by my trading experience) exit orders for every position should be toggled constantly with time and as the new market data (technical and fundamental) appear.
Let's say, you took a short position on EUR/USD at 1.2563, at the time you are taking this position the support/resistance level is 1.2500/1.2620. You set your stop-loss order to 1.2625 and your take-profit order to 1.2505. So now, this position can be considered as an intraday or 2-3 days term position. This means that you must close it before it's "term" is over, or it will become a very unpredictable position (because market will differ greatly from what it was at the time you have entered this position). After the position is taken and initial exit orders are set, you need to follow the market events and technical indicators to adjust your exit orders. The most important rule is to tighten the loss/profit limit as time goes by. Usually if I take a middle term position (2-4 days) I try to lower the stop and target order by 10-25 pips every day. I also monitor global events, trying to lower my stop-losses when very important news can hurt my position. If the profit is already quite high, I try to move my stop-loss the entry point, making a sure-win position. The main idea here is to find an equilibrium point between greed and caution. But as your position gets older the profit should be more limited and losses cut. Also, trader should always remember that if the market began to act unexpectedly, they need to be even more cautious with exit order, even if the position is still showing profits.
Forex Software Packages
If you plan to start trading FOREX online you will of course be using a software system. This system will make it easy for you to get information quickly about market prices and make trades. There are two types of FOREX software available, client based and web based.
As the FOREX market is a fast moving market and you will need up to the minute information to make informed transactions, it is up to you to see you have a high speed internet connection. Dial up internet access will absolutely not work for this. Another consideration could be the location of the servers used by your broker. If your broker's servers are located quite a distance from you, say in another country, this could potentially slow down your transmissions. If you plan to trade online you will need a modern computer and high speed internet connection.
The next consideration would be which type of software, client based or web based? Web based software is housed on your brokers website. You will not have to install any software on your own computer. A web based software program will allow you to log in from any computer that has an internet connection. A client based software program, or one that you download into your own computer will limit you to transactions only on the computer it is downloaded on. Web based software programs are preferred by most brokers who think they are more safe and reliable. Web based software tends to be less vulnerable to attack from viruses and hackers during transmissions than client based software.
Any FOREX software should offer you real-time quotes and offer means to quickly enter and exit the market. These are minimal requirements of any trading software. Upgraded software packages are usually offered at an extra monthly fee by brokers.