5 Simple Steps to Turn You Into an Elite Forex Trader

by seorex

These 5 simple steps will help turn you into a confident, disciplined Forex trader. By using the steps outlined below you can be in the top 10% of all Forex traders. That would be the few that actually make money.

There are going to be two things you notice about these steps:.

They are obvious.
They are simple.

All aspects of Forex trading should fall into those two categories. In fact, one of the biggest mistakes I see Forex traders make is trying to learn and use too much.

However, that is for a different discussion. Back to the 5 simple steps.

Step 1 - Get Yourself Ready To Trade

In my experience with hundreds of traders I have been amazed with how few of them know how to get their game faces on.

They forget trading is a job. The greatest one in the world, but a job nonetheless. It 's difficult for them to be self motivated. Like the majority of the world they need someone over their shoulder telling them what to do.

So, find anything in or around you that can be used to prepare to trade.

Take a shower
Drink coffee
Stretch
Read a book
Do Yoga
Anything to clear your mind

Once your mind is clear, move on to Step 2.

Step 2 - Look over your last few trades

Your trading success, just like the Forex itself, will have momentum and patterns. As you gain experience you will learn to see YOUR patterns. You might catch yourself making the same mistakes time and time again.

As you will learn later, you should be keeping a journal of all your trades. I don't mean the records that come with your trading software. Your journal should be as specific as it can be.

Why did I enter a trade? Why did I exit a trade? Was I near support? Was I near resistance?

Just to mention a few of the questions that your journal should answer for every trade. Take note of any repeated mistakes you have made over the last few trades.

Once you have recognized any trading trends, move on to Step 3.

Step 3 - Fundamental and Technical Analysis

Fundamental analysis refers to anything other then price action. In our case it means news.

Technical analysis refers to anything that is related to price action. Price itself, formulas, patterns, etc....

There is a reason why I mention both of those in one step. I wouldn't waste an entire step on fundamental analysis. It doesn't take me 3 minutes. I look to see what piece(s) of news are being released today in order to determine what kind of volatility to expect in the upcoming session.

This helps me when determining which support and resistance levels I expect to come into play.

As far as technical analysis goes. I don't care what tools, indicators, charts you look at. However, be consistent. Don't use MACD and CCI one night, and RSI and Stochastics another. Don't keep changing the length of your moving averages, or switch from simple to weighted to exponential.

The fact is, find what makes the most sense to you. I think it 's great to understand what these indicators mean, but there is no need to over analyze.

I would like to add one thought here...use Fibonacci Lines.

Once you have finished your analysis, both fundamental and technical, move on to Step 4.

Step 4 - Money Management (Determine your trade size)

You should have a very well defined money management system. For example, never risk more then 4% / 5% / 10% of your account on one trade. Increase your trade size by one mini for every $400 / $800 / $1,200 in profit.

It has always astonished me how randomly some traders make these decisions. They change their approach day after day. This is a sure fire path to failure.

Determine what makes the most sense to you and stick with it.

Again, I'd like to add in a thought here. You shouldn't be trading a live account until you can consistently make money in a demo account. At least 2 straight weeks of profit, and not because you made $10,000 one day while losing money in 9 out of 10 days.
So, assuming you are trading a live account, adjust your position size to meet your predetermined formula.

Once you have determined your trade size, move on to Step 5

Step 5 - Make the Trade!!!

You have done all your homework. You have used all your skills and knowledge. The only thing left is to make the trade.

By now, you know exactly what you expect to happen with the currency pair you are watching. You just have to stay patient until your opportunity arises.

However, once it does, pounce on it like a lion on its prey. Do not hesitate when you see exactly what you expected to see.

Be sure, of course, to place a stop order either with your entry order or immediately after. Also, if you have one, be sure to place your profit target.

Once you enter or exit your trade, start writing. Record your trade in a journal, with all reasons for entry and exit. Be as specific as possible. You will be amazed how much valuable information you will gather over time.

Using these 5 steps you should be able to make drastic strides in your Forex trading. If, however, you are not comfortable with any part of your trading it is imperative that you consider a Forex trading course.

Remember, you are only as good as your knowledge and your knowledge is only as good as your education.

About the Author
Eddie is the Head Instructor at Foreign
Exchange University. Learn about their elite Forex
Trading Course
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10 Tips for Preparing for a Profitable Trading Day

by Tradingadvice

Every great athlete, musician and professional where the stakes are high, knows that warm up and preparation can make a big difference to performance. Here are 10 tips -trading advice for preparing for your best trading day.

Mental Prep

1. Harness the power of intention

As you become more and more focused as a trader and as you learn to clear your emotions the power of your intention will become stronger and stronger. Begin the day by setting the intention that you will be successful, that you will be profitable, and that you will be safe. If possible visualize it, or feel that it will happen.

If any feelings or thoughts come up contrary to that intention (e.g. I lost yesterday perhaps I'll lose today) go straight to the next point and clear that thought/feeling.

2. Clear limiting thoughts and emotions

Did anything happen yesterday or on previous trading days that is bothering you? Anything happening in your personal life that may be affecting your state of mind? Any recurring thoughts or feelings that come up during the trading day?

Read my blog post about emotional clearing - learn Core Transformation and clear that crapola out. And for any of you hardcore guys out there that are thinking this might be a bit touchy feely, I suggest you look at this in purely financial terms. Learning these techniques will help you get the success you want. And nobody needs to know!

3. Brain power

Make sure that you have exercised and eaten properly so that your mind is clear and fresh. Have the right snacks at hand so that you can keep your blood sugar balanced, so that you mind stays fresh and optimally focused.

Timing

4. Know when you are going to trade

You may say "How do I know when I am going to trade ahead of time?". In response I'd say, "if your trading system doesn't tell you when you are going to be trading ahead of time, then you are missing out on a huge advantage". As you'll see from the various blog posts I've written on cycle trading, I am convinced that time is as important a factor in determining entries as price. This is why I use a combination of cycles and harmonics in addition to regular technical analysis to determine entries.

Adopting this trading methodology was the single biggest contributing factor for me in becoming a consistently profitable trader, because I can calmly prepare for the times that I am going to trade and I can relax my focus during the times when I know I should be on the sidelines.

Practical Details

5. Are there any economic numbers being released today?

Know exactly what time they are and watch out if you are trading around these times as there may be some dramatic fluctuations in price movement. Unless your strategy specifically includes trading these numbers, many traders prefer to sit on the sidelines until the numbers shake themselves out.

6. Any significant business or world news today that may affect the markets?

Days when companies release earnings or when there are other significant events, make the market jumpy. You need to be forewarned so that you can decide either to sit out, or to be extra vigilant.

7. What happened in the markets overnight?

Same idea as point 4.

Discipline

8. Review your discipline committments

If you are someone that has problem over-trading or pulling the trigger, or if you have challenges following your system, make a list of discipline committments. List out those things that you commit to in terms trading discipline. e.g. I will only take trades on signals that my system gives me. Go through them before the trading day begins and refresh your resolution.

I had a lot of trouble with over trading in the early days. As I got absorbed in the market action it was like becoming hypnotized, my discipline went out the window. I actually had to set an alarm clock to go off and every 30 mins I would re-read my discipline committments to force myself to snap out of it, and refocus on following my trading rules.

9. Review you trades from yesterday and your trading journal

Reviewing you trades from yesterday is a great way to refine your skills and learn more about your strengths and weaknesses. If you had a day where you were able to execute your trades flawlessly based on your system (whether or not they ended up being profitable) you can consolidate the confidence that brings. If you had a day that left an emotional mark because of losses or mistakes you can go back to point 2 and clear them.

If you found that you were unable to execute your trades effectively its another opportunity to revisit your trading rules, your discipline committments, and refresh your intention that today you will trade your system.

Opening

10. Give thanks

Give thanks to your self, and to whatever power of the universe that you respect for the opportunity to trade - which is nothing more than an opportunity to master yourself.

The state of gratitude is a great inner state to approach the day. It buoys your optimism and invites to you the circumstances for success.

As the French say "Bon courage" - and have a safe and profitable day!

About the Author
Mo Christiensen is one of the editors of the successful tradingadviceblog.com. The site specializes in high quality trading advice and profitable trading systems for new and struggling traders. Read the article in context at http://tradingadviceblog.com/intro/10-tips-for-preparing-for-a-profitable-trading-day/
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The 7 Most Common Forex Trading Mistakes

by jtheiss

When trading currencies online, there seems to be no end to the mistakes a beginning forex trader can make. Beginning traders are always the most susceptible, but experienced traders can often revert back into bad practices as well. Here are some of the most common trading mistakes listed in no particular order, and how to avoid them.

Predicting instead of reacting. Otherwise known as overconfidence. This usually happens after a winning trade or two. The trader starts to think that if he can enter a trade sooner, he will get more pips. He begins to believe he can pick the top or bottom before the market reveals it to him. So instead of reacting to what the market is telling him, he starts to predict what the market will do. He enters a trade and the market continues its move, which is against him. Now, does he admit he was wrong and close his position, or does he add to it?

Adding to losing positions. Here is an extension of predicting instead of reacting. Look, you just entered a trade and the market is going against your position. The market is telling you, you are wrong. Now is the time to close your position, not add to it. If you add to your losing position, you are making at least two incorrect decisions. First, you are predicting the market will turn around. Second, you are hoping the market will prove you right because you are unable to admit you made a losing trade. Losing trades are a fact of life in the forex market. You weren't wrong, simply, your edge didn't play in your favor on this trade. Close your losing position and move onto the next trade.

Insufficient capitalization. Forex trading is already highly leveraged. Insufficient capitalization just magnifies the potential problems you can face. If you read about the famous and big name traders, they never use more than 1% - 2% of their trading capital on a position. Get out a calculator and let 's see... 1% of $10,000 is $100. So as a position trader who might have a stop-loss order of 100 pips, you can only trade one mini lot of one currency pair for each $10,000 in your trading account. That is, if you want to trade like the pros. Do you have $10,000 in your account? Why do forex dealers boldly advertise you can start trading with only $250 then? Because they are in business to make money, and if they can convince you to commit trading errors, they stand a much better chance that they will soon have your money.

Overtrading. A close cousin of insufficient capitalization. Knowing that very few currency traders trade with sufficient capital in the first place, they further compound the potential problems by trading too actively and in too many currency pairs. Spreading themselves too thin you might say. Potential problems include loosing focus and margin calls. Getting a margin call is a very irresponsible position for a forex trader to be in and is a direct result of overtrading, over leveraging, and insufficient capitalization. This is as close to the perfect recipe for failure as you can get.

Not using stop-loss orders. There are very few times when not using stop-loss orders is the correct action to take. Large traders with several hundred or more lots don't want to advertise where their stops are placed is one. The other might be scalpers whose stop is only 10-15 pips away. By the time they figure the math and enter it in the system, the price might already be there or even past it. And some forex dealing stations won't let you place stops closer than 15 pips anyway, especially in fast moving situations. Other than those times, you need to put stop-loss orders in on every position. It is in your own best interest to protect yourself. I know, some people whine that their stops are always being run by the dealer. A whole article could be written on stop-loss order management, if not a complete chapter in a book. Let 's just say for now, don't put them where everybody else does, and don't put them too close.

Trading as a hobby. Golf is a hobby and it costs you money to play. Horseback riding is a hobby and it costs you money as well. The point is hobbies cost money, business makes money. You need to treat your forex trading as a business if you ever hope to make money on a consistent basis. That means keeping records, keeping a trading journal, and have a written business plan. You wouldn't invest money into a start up business without first seeing a business plan, so why would you invest money into your own trading account without the same thoughtful consideration.

Not having a trading plan. This is one of those catch-all mistakes. If you have a written trading plan, and follow it, you will already have identified and hopefully eliminated all of the above mistakes. If you don't have a written trading plan, you are almost assuredly making some, if not all of the above mistakes. Maybe not all at once, but even occasional mistakes add up quickly. Do yourself a favor and don't put on another trade until you think through and write down the response for all of the above mistakes and any others you can identify, as well as entry and exit rules. Then follow it.

These are just some of the many mistakes you can make as a forex trader. You need to take responsibility for yourself and your money and act in your own best interest. The currency markets are a zero sum game and the many players are out to make a profit. Don't let them profit with your money. Do your best to eliminate the above mistakes, and you will go a long way to ensuring you are the one who profits in the forex market.

About the Author
James is a successful online currency trader and also runs the popular website http://www.todayscurrencytrading.com.
Go there now and you can sign up for his FREE, "Currency Trade of the Week".
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6 Tips To Be A Successful Forex Trader

by kramnor

Forex trading is the simultaneous buying of one particular currency and the simultaneous selling of another particular currency. Forex trading is not an exact science, but it is a cost benefit analysis along with fundamental, economic and technical factors.

Failure can happen for a number of reasons, such as under capitalization, no trading strategy, no money management and a lack of discipline. The following tips are based on what most people face trading forex.

1. Stay out of the market for major news announcements. Currencies are representations of the strength of the economies. Fundamental news, whether economic or unsettling global events will have an affect on currency pairs. It is common for a major news announcement to drive the currency 200 pips. If it is the wrong direction, you can lose all your money depending on your margin leverage.

2. New traders should only trade pairs with smaller spreads, about 4 pips like EUR/USD. Some pairs can be greater than 10 pips. This means that the pair has to move in your favor by 10 pips to become even.

3. Use a practice account to get used to placing orders and for longer term trading practice, not for short term trading. Short term trading will not be the same as live trading because of the difference with fill prices. The actual entry price on live accounts will not be as good as the practice platforms in most cases. Some platforms are worse than others. Market makers have more of an affect on this than ECN brokers.

It is better to do live trading with a mini contract. It is real trading but with a small risk. Each pip move is only worth one dollar.

4. Look seriously into using algorithmic trading, also known as robot-trading, algo, black-box or automated trading. Today over 20% of all forex trading is being done by algorithmic trading. It is estimated that by 2010 the US and EU stocks markets will be trading 50% of automated trading.

Hedge funds, pension funds, and other large institutional traders use automated trading. For the small investor, there are some legitimate companies that offer a version of automated trading mostly known as robot trading.

5. This tip is important for traders using a smaller amount of capital. Make sure that your broker has the option to get you out of a trade if your capital funds get wiped out. If not, place your own stop loss where your capital reaches zero. Always keep a stop loss order slightly above that amount to get you out with a safety margin. It is good to place this stop with a little more room in case there is news that making the price volatile.

6. Forex trading is highly leveraged, since low margin deposits normally are required, an extremely high degree of leverage is obtainable in foreign exchange trading. You can get over 200:1 margin leverage but do not go over 100:1 margin. The higher margin will tempt you to enter larger trades and will ultimately use most of your margin on a trade. Once your capital goes down to zero, you are out of the trade with no more money left.

About the Author
We have objective reviews and opinions on forex trading strategies being sold.
Visit us for information on Forex Trading Strategies We Reviewed.
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Forex Day Trading Tips You Need to Know

by Kenny Yong

The popularity of forex currency trading system continues to grow as more and more people have realized the potential income that they can earn from forex trading.

With a massive daily profit of $1.5 trillion, forex trading has definitely surpassed the combined profits of bond market and global stock market. This is probably the main reason why many people were enticed to try forex trading.

Along with the massive growth of forex trading comes the forex day trading. As its name implies, forex day trading mainly refers to the actual selling and buying of various foreign exchange currencies all throughout the day. Its main purpose is to come up with no net variation in place at the last part of the day. In other words, for every forex currency bought, there should be one currency sold.

In order to see the profit or the deficit, one must look into the discrepancy between the current values of the currency being sold to the purchase amount. The main incentive of this method of trading is to lessen the burden of maintaining a position during the night.

Normally, the “open price” may have considerably altered from the earlier day’s final currency value. Hence, forex trading that involves traders who are dependent on the currency’s performance during the day is known as forex day trading.

In essence, forex day trading is not as dangerous as the other types of forex trading activities. But then again, the usual employment of margin purchases such as utilizing funds on loan increases the deficits and profits. So to speak, the potential shortfall and returns may happen in very little time.

For this reason, experts say that it is normal to expect that nearly 90% of forex day traders will lose profit. Hence, it would be more enjoyable on the part of forex day traders to gamble their money that is not important to them.

The main point here is that even if forex day trading aims to provide you with the right amount of money that you need to gain, it should still be separated from the psychosomatic point of examination and trading activities.

To know more about forex day trading, here are some tips that you need to know, or you can read about forex futures trading.

1. You should know that forex day trading is course oriented

This means that forex day trading is focused more on the development. Forex day traders are expected to identify what comprises the “winning trade.” By the time you have already identified the outline, you will have more confidence in taking the trade.

This means that you will easily make good decisions without feeling regretful. In addition, at the end of each transaction, you will be able to feel good about your decision.

2. You are bound to lose before you can gain something

Forex experts say that every successful forex traders has definitely lost some hefty amount of money before they were able to achieve something. In fact, they say that this is the primary factor needed in order to gain success in forex day trading.

However, it does not necessarily mean that because you are bound to lose money at one point or another, you should expect loses all throughout. It is still important to remember that as a forex day trader, you must do everything just to win the game.

This can be done by speculating positively at all cost, taking risks without uncertainties. Of course, losing is part of the game. But remember that losing is not a major issue in one’s success.

Fail if you must; that is, if you will think that losing is inevitable. Yet, one should also keep in mind that these loses are relatively small and will only take few minutes of your time to make those errors.

And lastly, it is important that you know what you are doing. Do your homework and find out more about forex day trading. In this way, you will learn the basic safety measures of forex day trading. You will also learn the important steps you have to make if ever the unforeseen circumstances take place.

So the next time you want to start a career in forex day trading, it is important that you start on the insides first. Know what the client wants. From there you can already make a fresh start in trading.

For more information and tips about [http://www.forextradingspot.net]forex trading. Visit us at [http://www.forextradingspot.net]http://www.ForexTradingSpot.net.

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Currency Trading Strategy Ideas

by Tyler Ziggler

These are my currency trading strategy ideas that I have developed from people constantly asking me the same questions over and over again. These should help you develop the proper behavior to make profitable trades over the long term.

How should I look at currency?

You need to look at currencies as pairs and not just single entities. You have to take into consideration that money is fiat. What that means is that it's just paper. An apple is worth what it is because it has value. Paper money is just worth what paper is. The other value comes from economic stability, populations belief in the government, etc. Since all these points don't actually make value, and essentially is all the same thing (paper), currency needs to be compared against one another. When you compare them, you're going to get the proper value.

How do I find the bargains in forex trading?

There is no such thing as bargains in this game. What you need to start looking at is how much you can sell a currency for in the future. That's the most important point. You don't make any money from buying currency, you make it all from selling. You need to get out of this "consumer" trap where you think cheaper is better. Selling price is the better. Buying an expensive currency that you can sell for 10% more in the future, is better than buying a cheap currency that you might be able to sell for 5% more.

How do I get over the stress of trading?

Being a confident trader is probably one of the most important characteristics to have. I understand though that becoming confident requires positive experience at doing it. The best thing you can do is take advantage of your demo account, which allows you to make real live simulated trades. You can do this until you're confident enough to use your real money.

This is the best currency trading information you need to incorporate into your head today. I'm currently giving a 7 day [http://www.casualforex.com]free forex training course. Newbies and experienced are all welcome. If you're interested in participating, check out the [http://www.casualforex.com]Casual Forex Trader.

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