Learn More About Forex and Stock Market

Traders can get conflicting views of a currency pair by examining different  time frames . While the daily might be showing an up-trend, the hourly can be showing a down-trend. It can be really confusing for beginning traders, which time frame to build strategy on? Perhaps the best way to explain this variation is that the time periods these commonly used terms refer to tend to depend on the usual time a position is held given the type of trading strategy that a trader employs. Some of the most common incremental time frames used by technical analysts when reviewing exchange rate movements for Forex currency pairs include the following: The one minute time frame The five minute time frame The fifteen minute time frame The thirty minute The one hour time frame The four hour or 240 minute timeframe: The one day or daily time frame The one week time frame The one month time frame The one year time frame Forex Time Frames by Trading Strategy Although trading time fr...

With  forex trading , the thrill of the chase when executing a series of trades can be intoxicating. However, it is important not to lose your shirt in the process. Even the best traders can go on multi-trade losing streaks that can last for weeks, only to recover later. If the same trader is using too much of their  trading capital  with each trade, they can be wiped out. This is where good  risk management  policies come into play to ensure that they can stay in the (trading) game long enough for future trades to recover earlier trading losses. You can't be 100 percent safe when trading forex. However, you can take steps to lower your exposure to large losses. Careful planning, execution and monitoring of trades will help you keep losses to a minimum without sacrificing profit potential. In order to trade safely you should have a successful  trading strategy . Forex traders use technical and fundamental analysis  of the  currency markets ...

You may have noticed that the value of  currencies  goes up and down every day. What most people don't realize is that there is a  foreign exchange market  - or 'Forex' for short - where you can potentially profit from the movement of these currencies. As technologies have improved,  the forex market  has become more accessible resulting in an unprecedented growth in  online trading . One of the great things about  trading currencies  now is that you no longer have to be a big money manager to trade this market; traders and investors like you can trade this market. Advantages of Trading Forex 24 Hours Trading The single biggest advantage the forex market has over other markets is its 24-hour nature. A  trader  can put on or take off positions literally any time of day or night, regardless of their base of operations. Consider, for example, the working person with a 9 to 5 type of job. Most folks like that cannot be expecte...

What is Swing Trading? Swing trading are short term strategies to take advantage of price swings, either reversing back to the median or fading a rally. Swing trading attempts to capture gains in a stock (or any financial instrument) within an overnight hold to several weeks. Why Swing Trade? Swing trading involves holding a position either long or short at least overnight and or up to several weeks. The goal is to capture a larger price move than is possible on an intra-day basis. Swing trading assumes a larger price range and price move and therefore requires careful position sizing to minimize downside risk. Swing Trading is a strategy that focuses on taking smaller gains in short term trends and cutting losses quicker. The gains might be smaller, but done consistently over time they can compound into excellent annual returns. Swing Trading positions are usually held a few days to a couple of weeks, but can be held longer. Swing Trading Strat...

People always want to find the best type of trade to invest in. This particularly holds true for short-term and long-term trading. This decision, however, varies from person to person. Ideally, the trader must decide on a trading type that best suits his/her personality. Let’s us take a closer look at short and long-term trading to gain some insight. Short-term trading  When the duration between buying and selling ranges from a few days to a few weeks, it is considered as short-term trading. Pros of short-term trading Faster means of making money: The benefits of a trade can be realized in a short period through this method. You can earn profits within a day by investing in intraday trading. Short-term risk: If you discover that a wrong decision was taken on a trade, you can free up the capital invested and reinvest it in fresh stocks. This is because capital is at risk for a shorter period. Cons of short-term trading Volatile market: There are chances that you m...

Different market entry and exit orders are being required for different trading scenarios and Forex Trading. The following are some basic types of Forex Orders: Market Order   This is the simplest way to enter the market, whether you are going long or shorting. By taking a market order, a trader enters the market at the best possible price at that given time. The order is filled straight away. Buy Limit   This order anticipates a bounce in an upward direction from the current down-trend. Therefore, an entry point is created below the current market price. Once the entry price is reached the order is triggered to go long. The stop loss is below and the profit target is above the entry level. Sell Limit Opposite to the Buy Limit, this order type anticipates the market to bounce downwards from the current up-trend. An entry point is created above the current market price. Once that price level is reached, the order is triggered to go short. The stop loss is above ...

If you are an equity investor what would you typically rely on? You would rely on a research report or on technical calls. Let us leave out technical calls for the time being as our focus is more on long term investments. Long term investing is based on a research technique called fundamental analysis. What fundamental analysis does is to project the cash flows of a business and then discounts these cash flows backwards to arrive at a valuation. The fundamental analyst not only looks at financials of a company but also at non-financial items like the company’s reputation, its brands, its management quality and the unique business advantages that it has created. As an investor, it is not just enough for you to get a fundamental report on whether the stock is undervalued or overvalued. You need to ask some probing questions because it is your money after all! What are the prospects of the company's line of business When you buy a company’s stock you buy for the future. That means...

Emotions should you watch for in yourself while trading: 1. Greed:   Traders are greedy when they don’t take profits because they think a trade is going to go forever in their favor. Another thing that greedy traders do is add to a position simply because the market has moved in their favor, you can add to your trades if you do so for logical price action-based reasons, but doing so only because the market has moved in your favor a little bit, is usually an action born out of greed. Obviously, risking too much on a trade from the very start is a greedy thing to do too. The point here is that you need to be very careful of greed, because it can sneak up on you and quickly destroy your trading account. 2. Fear:  Traders become fearful of entering the market usually when they are new to trading and have not yet mastered an effective trading strategy.Fear can also arise in a trader after they hit a series of losing trades or after suffering a loss larger than what th...

NO TRADING PLANS: A trading plan is a strict set of rules, half of which a trader draws from their trading strategy and the other one from their money management strategy. The plan may be then complemented by as many more points as the trader sees fit. WHAT IS TRADING PLAN: Specific market conditions for entering a trade; The amount of money to risk in a trade; Specific market conditions to get out if you are wrong (stop-loss); Specific market conditions to get out if you are right (take-profit); Approximate time for the market to reach your target; Note down and record everything! Write this list down as postulates and have it front of you before, after, and during your trading. RISKING TOO MUCH ON ONE TRADE: Never take too much risk in one trade. Forex brokers are allowed a lot of freedom in terms of leveraging their trading account, while beginner Traders lag behind in money management discipline. A combination of these two leads to high risk, hazard trading. Always...

Forex trading – or foreign exchange trading – is all about buying and selling currencies in pairs. For the buying and selling of currencies, you need to have information about how much the currencies in the pair are worth in terms of the other. This relationship is what defines a  currency pair . A currency pair quotes two currency abbreviations followed by the value of the base currency based on the currency counter. MAJOR BEST CURRENCY PAIR The US dollar is the preferred reference in most currency exchange transactions worldwide. It is the dominant reserve currency of the world. The following are not necessarily the best Forex pairs to trade, as they are the ones that have high liquidity and occupy the most foreign exchange transactions: EUR/USD (Euro – US dollar) USD/JPY (US dollar – Japanese yen) GBP/USD (British pound – US dollar) AUD/USD (Australian dollar – US dollar) USD/CHF (US dollar – Swiss franc) USD/CAD (US dollar – Canadian dollar) The valu...

What separates a long-term successful trader/investor from an unsuccessful one?  Here are 5 main differences between Successful and Unsuccessful Traders. Defined Strategies Unsuccessful Trader They have no defined trading strategy. They made a trading decision based on Gut-Feelings. Keep repeating the mistakes due to lack of discipline. Successful Trader They have an trading plan. They have well formulated trading strategy for every market condition. Each time analyse the Signal calls they have implemented. Focusing on the Money Unsuccessful Trader The unsuccessful trader focuses on the money, hoping he will make a certain amount on this or that trade so that he can make X amount of money, or buy his dream car. Successful Trader The successful trader knows that the market couldn’t care less about how much money he needs to make. He knows that focusing on the money may cause him to neglect his entry/exit rules so he focuses on the proce...