Forex Fortunate 5%

May 21, 2010 · Posted in Currencies · Comments Off 

Forex Fortunate 5%

” Look at market fluctuations as your friend rather than your enemy; profit from folly rather than participate in it.”    Warren Buffett

Caveat Emptor

The financial markets industry attracts its share of dishonest and devious people, and the Forex sector has its quota of charlatans. Please be mindful of this when assessing brokers, signal services, and the various others who populate the Forex world.

Some people are easily misled, deceived and cheated, especially traders who are inexperienced, unrealistic, and lacking a suitable temperament. Forex blogs and reviewers report various signal scams, including falsification of performance results, sending different signals to the same client base, and various other tricks. We encourage you to beware, and undertake thorough research before signing with any Forex service providers.

Gambler or Trader?
Probably the most serious impediment to profitable Forex trading is an inappropriate attitude. Forex often appeals to inveterate gamblers who seldom resist the urge to place a bet in the forlorn hope of satisfying their “big win” craving. How do we recognise a penchant for gambling? Overtrading with excessive margin is probable a certain indicator.

One of the most astute traders we know was a chronic gambler and is now a wealthy Financier. He has related several times that what eventually made him a profitable Forex trader were the lessons learned to overcome his problem gambling. Those capable of being honest with themselves will recognise any signs of ludomania. If you have a gambling problem please seek professional help, and avoid Forex trading.

Some claim any financial instrument trading is a form of gambling since it involves taking a risk in hope of reward. What is the difference between gambling and professional trading? Professional traders have a highly developed sense of discernment. They employ prudent risk/reward assessment, usually erring on the side of caution, and identify multiple confirmation signals before entering the market; for them each trade is a probable profit making opportunity.

Odds For and Against
The Forex is arguably the most authentic zero sum game on earth. Why do the odds greatly favour those who divide so such of the Forex game spoils? Because they are playing against traders who are hugely disadvantaged by there own attitudes and behaviour. It is a matter of statistical probability. You have a much improved chance when the odds are in your favour, and that may simply mean not being one of the traders with the odds unquestionably against them.

Adept traders enter the market when they have determined the odds strongly favour them, and not merely marginally so. They put their money at risk only when they have a high probability of making a profit.

Losses are certain to occur. Professional traders minimise them by employing loss mitigating management methods and self-discipline.  Gamblers have insufficient control to do this, and are thus eating their own odds, actually betting to lose.

Telling Statistics

It is said 5% of Forex Traders take 95% of the profits. Another noteworthy statistic is the claim that approximately 90% of Self Directed Forex traders lose their opening account balance within 90 days. We hear remarks that such losses are a trader’s tuition fees. Doubtless it may help to teach some valuable lessons, unfortunately most repeat the errors, and their habitual losses predictably become the spoils divided by the fortunate 5%.

These numbers may be somewhat distorted and exaggerated, yet they convey telling facts. An extremely low percentage of Forex traders share an extremely high percentage of the profits, and the preponderance of new Forex trading accounts are soon lost.

The vast majority of Forex traders attempting are totally unqualified to accomplish their profit goals. Perhaps they have thoroughly researched the subject, done several courses, opened trial and active accounts, however, in most instances they remain ill equipped to meet the Forex challenge. They usually lack the capital necessary for a reasonable chance of success, are easily lured by brokers offering extremely high leverage, habitually trade with perilously high margin, and lack the requisite self-control. Accordingly, the odds are comprehensively against them.

The attitude of habitual Forex losers often has a common denominator. They take losses personally, believing the Forex should be subject to their trading decisions; they actually blame losses on the market. Professional traders see the market as their friend, the source of their livelihood.

The Fortunate 5%

The definitive Forex challenge is becoming one of the few taking most of the profits. We know and accept that losses and drawdowns are inevitable, even for the five percenters. The difference between them and those whose money they share is making considerably more profits than losses, and they achieve this by applying a superior Trader Intelligence.

The 5% are dedicated to taking profits.  An “if only” attitude does not prevail. There are no regrets or recriminations when a closed trade reverts in the direction they had traded. They understand that the market will constantly offer profit opportunity; it is not about one particular trade. These traders have an unshakeable conviction that their highly developed Trader IQs will consistently reveal profitable market entries and exits.

Trader IQ
Most Forex traders have above average intelligence; nonetheless, the statistical evidence suggests an alarmingly high percentage have below average Trader IQs. Joining the Fortunate 5% requires a high Trader IQ.

To begin, make a earnest effort to analyse your trading. Traders give myriad reasons why their losses are not their fault. The capacity to generate plausible excuses and believable justification is not indicative of a high Trader IQ. Intelligent practitioners of the Forex trading art accept responsibility, exercise discipline, learn and practice patience and detachment.

Intelligent Forex traders are willing and able to risk a reasonable capital sum, establish achievable profit goals, eliminate impulsive trades, and avoid excessive risk.

Unless you are able to make a genuine commitment to achieving these goals you are wasting your time and money. Irrespective of the professional Signal Service you use, or the trades you select, without a sufficiently high Trading IQ you are on a fools errand.

Glimpses of the Forex World

The Internet is replete with data for those seeking information on the technical and fundamental factors that impact the Forex, education and training, broker choices, and signal services. An good resource list for Forex service providers is available at http://www.forexontop.com.

Magnitude
On 17th of September 2008 CLS Bank settled 1,554,166 Forex payment instructions with a gross value of US$ 8.6 trillion. Huge numbers, though of course leveraged to varying degrees. Many quote $2 trillion as the nominal daily Forex volume, though it now seems to have surpassed $4 trillion.

Brokers
Impulsive, self-destructive traders fuel the profits of online Forex brokers. Those of us who have witnessed the introduction and proliferation of retail Forex trading have seen numerous churn and burn shops come and go, and some remain and continue to grow. Those interested in pertinent facts may want to review the Refco story – http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0732847120080807Most

Forex brokers receive good and bad reviews. A broker may score high ratings on some sites, and far lower on another. There are sites where no broker rates over 50%, supposed review web sites that are owned by brokers, and the inevitable fake reviews generated by self-interested parties. Sound confusing, that is exactly what the retail brokerage market has become, and the Caveat Emptor warning must be heeded.

Conflicting reviews and scams apart, the real issue is how to make a relatively informed choice when choosing a Forex broker. A good place to start is your Internet search engine. Incidentally, there are sites purporting to answer this question that describe the exact features of particular firms, and conveniently provide links to them.

The fact is, we cannot know how a broker will deal with us until we have opened an active account. Many make the error of thinking brokers with the highest Internet profile will provide the best service and attention. Substantial advertising budgets are not necessarily indicative of a brokers ethics or efficiency. Even big brand associations can lead the unwary astray.

Market Maker brokers may trade against your position. Stop hunting price spikes, persistent data glitches, unfilled orders/slippage, and suddenly widening spreads during high liquidity sessions, are a few of the practices used by such predators. Brokers who claim to have no intervening trading desks may also engage in sharp practices in the dedicated pursuit of your money.

First and foremost make a concerted effort to verify the broker is legitimately connected to the Forex, and is reputable. Treat reviews with a degree of circumspection: some use reviews to denigrate each other. You can usually spot a real review.

As a general rule we prefer ECN brokers, though we stress there are ethical alternatives.

Trading Platforms
Most Forex platforms will successfully process your order with a varying degrees of sophistication. At any given time a few become popular and tend to be dominant. Where possible familiarise yourself with the broker’s trading platform, with the explicit understanding that trial trading is not a facsimile of the real thing. It is merely an opportunity to understand the particular Order Management System’s processes and protocols.

The goal of trial account platform practice is becoming comfortable and confident when executing your orders, before risking your funds with live platform trades. Trades are often incorrectly entered because of careless keystrokes, and lack of attention to basic trade execution procedures. Always check your trade before you place it – instrument, amount, and order.

Charts
The chart is an essential trading aid. It displays the market’s past, present, and possibly hints at its future.

Technical Tools
Studies that once cost large sums are now freely available on the charts provided by most brokers. Each of these trading tools may be useful, however, in most instances covering a chart with a maze of overlays and studies serves no useful purpose. Again, it is a matter of research and personal preference.

Quotes
When you execute a Forex trade you are effectively buying the base currency, the first one in the cross, and selling the quoted currency, the second in the cross. The currency pair or cross is the instrument you are trading. When you buy the instrument you pay the ask price: when you sell you pay the bid price.

You do not have to delve too deeply to read stories of chart quotes and executed prices differing, especially in volatile markets. Stories are far from rare of the same trade being stopped out or not filled by one broker, yet not closed or filled by another. The issue of slippage is a matter between you and your broker.

A stock exchange quote emanates from a specific central source; the Forex is not a centralised market. A Forex dealer’s charts reflect a variety of price sources, and sometimes motivations. Accordingly, prices may vary, sometime quite significantly, because your broker’s third party charts display indicative price, not necessarily the broker’s executable price.

So-called live streaming Forex prices, provided by firms like Reuters, play a critical role in the Forex price discovery process. In a way these streaming prices are an aggregated indication of current Forex quotes. At source prices are often manually entered and thus subject to human error, and at several points of distribution they may be manipulated.

Indicative prices signify or imply current Forex quotes and past fluctuations. Virtually all reputable charts will reflect the same trends and be quite closely aligned, nonetheless, they indicate a past bid/ask price, not necessarily a broker’s execution price, though they can be identical, or nearly so.

The more sources used the greater the accuracy of the price – EUR:USD and USD:JPY crosses are widely traded and reported, and tend to be closely aligned across charts. Similarly, quotes tend to be more accurate during the relevant sessions, e.g. the EUR, GBP and CHF during the London session, the JPY, AUD and NZD during the Asia/Pacific session.

The Spread
An obvious conclusion is that the lower the spread the lower the cost to trade. There are brokers who offer raw spreads and charge a fee, so it is not necessarily that simple.

Some brokers offer fluctuating spreads, others fixed. Both appeal to traders for different reasons. The former because it may be a more transparent picture of current market liquidity and volatility, the latter because traders know what the spread will be, supposedly irrespective of liquidity and volatility.

Money Management

A sensible money management plan is essential for disciplined trading. Effective money management is the basis of Forex survival and profitability. Traders who do not take this requirement seriously probably have low Trader IQs and are merely gambling.

Objectively review the discretionary components of your Money Management plan.
• How much capital can you risk, and by risk we mean afford to lose?
• What margin percentage of your usable account balance do you risk on each trade?
• What leverage ratio do you apply to the margin?
• How much profit do you expect to make?
• Calculate your profit goal, as an annualised return on your account balance – is it realistic?

Only about 2% of Forex traders achieve an annual return exceeding 100%, an extraordinary result by any rational expectations.

Capital
The funds you use to trade Forex are at considerable risk. The extent of your risk depends on your choices; i.e., the broker you choose and the trades you make. Only risk money you can afford to lose when trading Forex.

That said, not having sufficient capital is a significant reason for such high self directed trader attrition rates. An under capitalised account dramatically reduces the probability of success, making it extremely difficult to implement prudent money management.

This is an approximate guide for the recommended capital to open various Forex accounts.
• Standard Account              $50,000 to $100,000+
• Mini Account                       $5,000 to $20,000+
• Micro Account                     $1,000 to $5,000

Be patient. Rather than rushing to open an undercapitalised account wait and accumulate the maximum possible capital you can risk.

Equity
Adding the used margin to the available, or useable, margin determines account equity. When there are no open positions the Account Balance, Equity and Available Margin are the same.

Margin
Initial Margin is the amount put at risk to collateralise a trade and is expressed as a percentage of the trade’s total value. The initial, or used, margin is the security deducted from an account, and is often leveraged. Brokers usually aggregate initial margins to fund their own trading.

What remains is the available, or usable, margin. This fluctuates with a trade’s value. When the remaining margin falls below the broker’s acceptable margin requirements open positions are liquidated by a margin call.

Please carefully read broker’s margin policies, and ensure you fully understand the different margin terms, especially the margin call policies. Where a broker has a margin policy of 1% a leverage ratio of 100-1 is available, 2% equates to leverage of 50-1, 2.5% to 25-1, 5% to 20-1, and so on.

We recommend Self Directed Trader margin of 1% to 5%, subject to the leverage chosen, positions open, and market conditions.

Leverage
One compelling reason for the rapid expansion of online Forex trading is the high leverage offered by many brokers. The National Futures Association defines Leverage as: “The ability to control large dollar amounts of a commodity with a comparatively small amount of capital.”

Leverage is expressed as a ratio, e.g. 10-1, and is unquestionably an appealing notion. We open a $1,000 account with a Forex broker offering 100-1 leverage, and willing to instantly lend us $99,000. What a deal. Voila! We now have a $100,000 trading bank, and can make 100% return on our capital with only a $1,000 profit. Sounds easy enough. Consider this, we will lose 100% of our capital with a $1,000 loss, and that may only take a handful of pips if we are silly enough to trade with preposterous margins and leverage.

Trading in this manner dramatically increase the risk of loss, and is basically suicidal. Those using such strategies are known in some brokerage circles as wood ducks – easy prey.

Leverage is a useful tool for those who know how and when to use it. That means judiciously, after you begin to consistently take trading profits. Think of leverage as a scalpel, not a chain saw.

Most professional Forex traders use leverage between 2-1 and 5-1. Self Directed Traders may claim this is unrealistic for those with small accounts, and some may want to use leverage up to 20-1 in conjunction with a sensibly low margin. This is not totally unreasonable, however, we must also realise the smaller the capital the greater the need to protect it.

When you have become a profitable, confident trader you may chose to review your Money Management Plan.

Happy Trading
Forex Signs
©2009 http://www.forexsigns.net/

Forex Signs is a professional Forex Signal provider for serious Forex Traders.

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Forex MegaDroid – Multi-Market Condition Top Performer Autopilot Robot + Free Bonus worth more than usd100

May 2, 2010 · Posted in Currencies · Comments Off 

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Making A Living From Anywhere In The World Currency Trading

February 17, 2010 · Posted in Currencies · Comments Off 

Make money trading currencies on-line. Currencies are the most actively, heavily traded financial instruments in the world. The liquidity of the forex market directly translates into several critical benefits for traders that can gain an understanding. There are companies and trading schools that you can find on the Internet that will train you for a fee or others that you can sign up with and become a member and many will try and show you the ropes. Some companies offer free demo’s to help train you. Its like using play money until you get the hang of it. All anyone really needs is a computer. So you should be able to operate with a very low overhead. With excess to a phone line or an internet wireless computer card you should be all set. And you can start with very little cash. I know people who have started in this game with as little as $300.00. And I’m sure there is still others who have started with even less. The public has just in the last few years been able to participate in this trade. It wasn’t very long ago this turf was exclusively for governments and large international and prime bankers.

Forex trading generates around $1.9 trillion per day in volume, making it by far the world’s largest, most liquid market. Serious traders know that the futures and equities markets provide only limited liquidity when compared with the spot currency market.

In addition, though there are obviously many currencies around the globe, roughly 80% of all daily trading is concentrated in the major G-7 currencies. By contrast, the futures market is fragmented among hundreds of types of commodities listed at dozens of exchanges, and equities market volume is spread across some tens of thousands of listed stocks.

Order Execution

The deep liquidity of the forex market ensures that bid/ask spreads are typically very tight, and the market can absorb large trades quickly and easily. Learn More…
24-Hour Trading no matter where you are located
You get consistently tight bid/ask spreads, day or night, because the currency market offers around-the-clock liquidity. As a trader, this allows you to react to economic and political events immediately. Learn More…

Risk Management

The forex market’s size and nearly non-stop activity means that it tends to trade in a more orderly fashion than futures markets. Dangerous trading gaps and limit moves are all but eliminated. You’ll ordinarily be able to get in and out of positions with ease.

No Market Manipulation

Thin stock and futures markets can be pushed up or down by specialists, market makers, commercials, and locals. Given the sheer size and depth of the spot FX market, however, real buying/selling by banks and institutions is required to move prices. Any attempt to manipulate the forex market usually is futile.

Trade FX and Lower Your Transaction Costs

Every trader should know that transaction costs can reduce profits or exaggerate losses. Due to the decentralized, electronic nature of the FX market, transaction costs are far less than the costs associated with trading either stocks or futures.

No Exchange Fees

The absence of any centralized exchange, such as the NYSE or the CME, means that there are no exchange fees with FX. Whereas equity and futures markets take small pieces of each transaction, FX is an over-the-counter market, which means that participants deal directly with one another, typically via the Internet.

No Commissions

FX costs are further reduced by the efficiencies created by a purely electronic marketplace that allows clients to deal directly with other traders or a dealer, thereby eliminating middlemen, brokers, commissions, and ticket charges. There are no commissions charged when you trade FX.

High Transparency

Every financial market has a spread between the bid price and the offer price. In futures and option markets, current bids and offers often aren’t displayed, so the real cost of the trade is hidden. By contrast, in the FX market, you can always see current bids and offers, so you’ll always know the true cost of the trade.

Tight Bid/Ask Spreads

Because the FX market is global, continuous, and always liquid, traders benefit from tight, competitive pricing both day and night, making this an excellent market choice for aggressive short-term traders and longer-term position traders alike.

Free Streaming Quotes

Because FX is a decentralized marketplace, real-time, streaming prices are absolutely free. Real-time, streaming futures data, in particular, has always been exorbitantly priced, and as more futures exchanges convert from membership organizations to for-profit public enterprises, it is reasonable to assume that such costs may increase. This trend is likely to make the FX market’s cost advantage even more pronounced.

24-Hour Currency Trading

Currency trading essentially follows the sun around the world, so you can buy and sell currencies 24 hours per day. If there’s a market-moving event, day or night, you can take advantage of it.

- Somewhere around the world, there’s always a major financial center open where banks, hedge funds, international corporations, and individual speculators are trading currencies. If you’re an event-driven trader, the 24-hour nature of the currency market allows you to react to virtually any important development, regardless of when it occurs.

- By contrast, the centralized exchanges in the stock and futures markets effectively close at the end of each business day, and after-hours market liquidity can be thin and occasionally treacherous.

- Nearly continuous trading and deep liquidity mean there are fewer dangerous gaps in the currency market, so you won’t have to endure the unfortunate surprise of a market that closes one day and reopens the next at a drastically different price.

- Stock and futures traders who carry positions overnight are exposed to the very real risk that positions may not be able to be immediately liquidated, should that become necessary or desirable. When trading resumes the following day, prices may have moved substantially from the previous afternoon’s close.

Major Financial Center Chicago Time GMT

Tokyo Open 6:00 PM 00:00

Tokyo Close 3:00 AM 09:00

London Open 2:00 AM 08:00

London Close 11:00 AM 17:00

New York Open 7:00 AM 13:00

New York Close 4:00 PM 22:00

Forex Market Overview

Many active traders have come to love forex because of its strong advantages and exciting opportunities. Not sure how the forex market works? Here’s a quick overview to help you get started.

Factors Effecting the Market

Currency prices are affected by a variety of economic and political conditions, such as interest rates, inflation, and political stability. Moreover, the central banks of various governments occasionally intervene in the forex market to influence the value of their currencies, either by flooding the market with their domestic currency in an attempt to lower the price, or conversely, by buying in order to raise the price. Any of these factors, as well as large market orders, can cause high volatility in currency prices. However, the size and depth of the forex market makes it practically impossible for any single market participant to “drive” the market in one direction for any length of time.

Economic Growth

Investors want to be sure that they are investing in a solid economy that is achieving steady growth. Currency traders looking to assess the economic growth of a country will look at unemployment, trade, and GDP data.

Interest Rates

Money tends to follow interest rates. If interest rates go up, money will flow into the country from all over the world as investors seek to capitalize on higher returns. To determine whether interest rates will rise or fall, investors pay attention to economic inflation indicators, as well as speeches by influential figures. Generally, the timing of interest rate moves is known in advance. They take place after regularly scheduled meetings by the Bank of England, The U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of Japan, and other central banks.

Political Stability

Election turmoil, changes of government, high unemployment and international conflict all make investors cautious to put their money in a given country. Investors will watch for major news that comes out of a country.

Forex is a Decentralized, OTC Market

The forex market, unlike other financial markets, has no physical location or central exchange. Rather, it’s an over-the-counter (OTC) or “Interbank” market, due to the fact that participants deal directly with one another via the telephone or an electronic network. The forex market is unique in that there’s live, active, continuous trading 24 hours per day for most of the week. Somewhere around the world, there’s always a major financial center open where banks, hedge funds, international corporations, and individual speculators are trading currencies. Essentially, foreign exchange trading follows the sun around the world, allowing traders to buy and sell currencies whenever it’s convenient, or whenever the need arises. The world’s currencies are on a floating exchange rate and are always traded in pairs, such as Euro/Dollar or Dollar/Yen. Forex transactions always involve the simultaneous purchase of one currency and sale of another – in other words, in every open position, an investor is long one currency and short the other.
FX traders express a market position in terms of the first currency in the pair. For example, a trader who has bought Dollars and sold Yen (USD/JPY) at 103.99 is considered to be “long” the USD/JPY (pronounced “Dollar/Yen”). Quoting convention is to display one unit of the first currency in the pair expressed in terms of the second currency in the pair. By way of example, if the USD/JPY pair is quoted as 1.6433, this means that $1 is the equivalent of 1.6433 Japanese Yen.

Regulation of the Forex Market

The Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 (CFMA) placed responsibility for overseeing and regulating the foreign exchange market with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Generally, if a brokerage company offers over-the-counter (OTC) foreign exchange trading to retail customers, it must be registered as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) is subject to strict capital requirements.

So good luck and have fun and hopefully make some money.

Author: Michael Webster
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty rates

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Currency Trading Guide – Get Started Today!

January 17, 2010 · Posted in Forex Exchange · Comments Off 

What is Currency Trading?

Currency trading is the buying and selling of currencies from around the world. It is the largest and most active trade happening, making trillions of dollars daily. Unlike other trade like stock exchange, currency trading has no specific time of trading. It happens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Currencies

In currency trading, there are currency pairs. A currency pair consists of two currencies, one of which is being bought and the other is the currency used to buy the other currency.

Take a look at this example: GBP/USD where GBP is the British Pound. The GBP is what we call the ‘base currency’ which has the initial value of 1. This is the currency being bought. Next is the USD or the US dollar. This is what we call the ‘quote-currency’ and has the value of how much one of the base currency is worth. For example: EUR/USD 1.2436, one Euro is worth 1.2436 US dollars. If you need 1000 Euro, you’d have to exchange it for 1243.6 US dollars. Other major currencies traded are Canadian dollar (CAD), Japanese Yen (JPY), Australian dollar (AUD, and the Swiss Franc (CHF).

The Spread

In currency trading, a currency pair has a corresponding ‘bid’ and ‘ask’ price. The ‘bid’ price is how much the base currency is being sold by the currency broker while the ‘ask’ price is how much the currency is being bought by the trader. The bid price is usually lower than the ask price and this is where sales are made by the brokers. The difference between the ‘bid’ and ‘ask’ price is called the ‘spread’.

Changes in the Currency Values

Knowing how currency values changes is important in currency trading. In a nutshell, buy a currency when its value is low and sell it when its value is high. The changes in currency values depend on political and economic events. Foreigners going in a country triggers currency exchange as well as large purchases of commodity from one country to another. Also, we should not forget the influence of speculators in currency trading. They speculate on the increase or decrease of value of a currency therefore will make decisions in advance. It is important to be updated in these influences to the trade to be able to keep up with the fast-paced volatility of the currency trade.

Why Venture on the Currency Trade?

As mentioned, currency trading occurs 24 hours on a daily basis. Traders can decide when to trade their currencies. As changes could happen any time, the trader should always keep watch on the best time to trade. Currency trade does not need a big capital to start. Beginners can start with small amounts and eventually increase their trading resources. There is also no need to play on all currencies on the market. A novice can focus on two currencies at first while getting the hang of it and then expand later on for bigger profits.

Risks in Trading

Naturally, like all trading, there are risks. A trader should keep in mind that the risk in currency trade is high and wrong decisions could lead to losses. Playing safe is okay but the higher the risks, the higher the profit. Decisions are vital so it is best to ask advice from the expertise of brokers whenever necessary.

Author: Jeff C Daniels
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Pressure cooker

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Forex Options Market Overview

January 13, 2010 · Posted in Currencies · Comments Off 

The forex options market started as an over-the-counter (OTC) financial vehicle for large banks, financial institutions and large international corporations to hedge against foreign currency exposure. Like the forex spot market, the forex options market is considered an “interbank” market. However, with the plethora of real-time financial data and forex option trading software available to most investors through the internet, today’s forex option market now includes an increasingly large number of individuals and corporations who are speculating and/or hedging foreign currency exposure via telephone or online forex trading platforms.

Forex option trading has emerged as an alternative investment vehicle for many traders and investors. As an investment tool, forex option trading provides both large and small investors with greater flexibility when determining the appropriate forex trading and hedging strategies to implement.

Most forex options trading is conducted via telephone as there are only a few forex brokers offering online forex option trading platforms.

Forex Option Defined – A forex option is a financial currency contract giving the forex option buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a specific forex spot contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the forex option buyer pays to the forex option seller for the forex option contract rights is called the forex option “premium.”

The Forex Option Buyer – The buyer, or holder, of a foreign currency option has the choice to either sell the foreign currency option contract prior to expiration, or he or she can choose to hold the foreign currency options contract until expiration and exercise his or her right to take a position in the underlying spot foreign currency. The act of exercising the foreign currency option and taking the subsequent underlying position in the foreign currency spot market is known as “assignment” or being “assigned” a spot position.

The only initial financial obligation of the foreign currency option buyer is to pay the premium to the seller up front when the foreign currency option is initially purchased. Once the premium is paid, the foreign currency option holder has no other financial obligation (no margin is required) until the foreign currency option is either offset or expires.

On the expiration date, the call buyer can exercise his or her right to buy the underlying foreign currency spot position at the foreign currency option’s strike price, and a put holder can exercise his or her right to sell the underlying foreign currency spot position at the foreign currency option’s strike price. Most foreign currency options are not exercised by the buyer, but instead are offset in the market before expiration.

Foreign currency options expires worthless if, at the time the foreign currency option expires, the strike price is “out-of-the-money.” In simplest terms, a foreign currency option is “out-of-the-money” if the underlying foreign currency spot price is lower than a foreign currency call option’s strike price, or the underlying foreign currency spot price is higher than a put option’s strike price. Once a foreign currency option has expired worthless, the foreign currency option contract itself expires and neither the buyer nor the seller have any further obligation to the other party.

The Forex Option Seller – The foreign currency option seller may also be called the “writer” or “grantor” of a foreign currency option contract. The seller of a foreign currency option is contractually obligated to take the opposite underlying foreign currency spot position if the buyer exercises his right. In return for the premium paid by the buyer, the seller assumes the risk of taking a possible adverse position at a later point in time in the foreign currency spot market.

Initially, the foreign currency option seller collects the premium paid by the foreign currency option buyer (the buyer’s funds will immediately be transferred into the seller’s foreign currency trading account). The foreign currency option seller must have the funds in his or her account to cover the initial margin requirement. If the markets move in a favorable direction for the seller, the seller will not have to post any more funds for his foreign currency options other than the initial margin requirement. However, if the markets move in an unfavorable direction for the foreign currency options seller, the seller may have to post additional funds to his or her foreign currency trading account to keep the balance in the foreign currency trading account above the maintenance margin requirement.

Just like the buyer, the foreign currency option seller has the choice to either offset (buy back) the foreign currency option contract in the options market prior to expiration, or the seller can choose to hold the foreign currency option contract until expiration. If the foreign currency options seller holds the contract until expiration, one of two scenarios will occur: (1) the seller will take the opposite underlying foreign currency spot position if the buyer exercises the option or (2) the seller will simply let the foreign currency option expire worthless (keeping the entire premium) if the strike price is out-of-the-money.

Please note that “puts” and “calls” are separate foreign currency options contracts and are NOT the opposite side of the same transaction. For every put buyer there is a put seller, and for every call buyer there is a call seller. The foreign currency options buyer pays a premium to the foreign currency options seller in every option transaction.

Forex Call Option – A foreign exchange call option gives the foreign exchange options buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase a specific foreign exchange spot contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the foreign exchange option buyer pays to the foreign exchange option seller for the foreign exchange option contract rights is called the option “premium.”

Please note that “puts” and “calls” are separate foreign exchange options contracts and are NOT the opposite side of the same transaction. For every foreign exchange put buyer there is a foreign exchange put seller, and for every foreign exchange call buyer there is a foreign exchange call seller. The foreign exchange options buyer pays a premium to the foreign exchange options seller in every option transaction.

The Forex Put Option – A foreign exchange put option gives the foreign exchange options buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell a specific foreign exchange spot contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the foreign exchange option buyer pays to the foreign exchange option seller for the foreign exchange option contract rights is called the option “premium.”

Please note that “puts” and “calls” are separate foreign exchange options contracts and are NOT the opposite side of the same transaction. For every foreign exchange put buyer there is a foreign exchange put seller, and for every foreign exchange call buyer there is a foreign exchange call seller. The foreign exchange options buyer pays a premium to the foreign exchange options seller in every option transaction.

Plain Vanilla Forex Options – Plain vanilla options generally refer to standard put and call option contracts traded through an exchange (however, in the case of forex option trading, plain vanilla options would refer to the standard, generic forex option contracts that are traded through an over-the-counter (OTC) forex options dealer or clearinghouse). In simplest terms, vanilla forex options would be defined as the buying or selling of a standard forex call option contract or a forex put option contract.

Exotic Forex Options – To understand what makes an exotic forex option “exotic,” you must first understand what makes a forex option “non-vanilla.” Plain vanilla forex options have a definitive expiration structure, payout structure and payout amount. Exotic forex option contracts may have a change in one or all of the above features of a vanilla forex option. It is important to note that exotic options, since they are often tailored to a specific’s investor’s needs by an exotic forex options broker, are generally not very liquid, if at all.

Intrinsic & Extrinsic Value – The price of an FX option is calculated into two separate parts, the intrinsic value and the extrinsic (time) value.

The intrinsic value of an FX option is defined as the difference between the strike price and the underlying FX spot contract rate (American Style Options) or the FX forward rate (European Style Options). The intrinsic value represents the actual value of the FX option if exercised. Please note that the intrinsic value must be zero (0) or above – if an FX option has no intrinsic value, then the FX option is simply referred to as having no (or zero) intrinsic value (the intrinsic value is never represented as a negative number). An FX option with no intrinsic value is considered “out-of-the-money,” an FX option having intrinsic value is considered “in-the-money,” and an FX option with a strike price at, or very close to, the underlying FX spot rate is considered “at-the-money.”

The extrinsic value of an FX option is commonly referred to as the “time” value and is defined as the value of an FX option beyond the intrinsic value. A number of factors contribute to the calculation of the extrinsic value including, but not limited to, the volatility of the two spot currencies involved, the time left until expiration, the riskless interest rate of both currencies, the spot price of both currencies and the strike price of the FX option. It is important to note that the extrinsic value of FX options erodes as its expiration nears. An FX option with 60 days left to expiration will be worth more than the same FX option that has only 30 days left to expiration. Because there is more time for the underlying FX spot price to possibly move in a favorable direction, FX options sellers demand (and FX options buyers are willing to pay) a larger premium for the extra amount of time.

Volatility – Volatility is considered the most important factor when pricing forex options and it measures movements in the price of the underlying. High volatility increases the probability that the forex option could expire in-the-money and increases the risk to the forex option seller who, in turn, can demand a larger premium. An increase in volatility causes an increase in the price of both call and put options.

Delta – The delta of a forex option is defined as the change in price of a forex option relative to a change in the underlying forex spot rate. A change in a forex option’s delta can be influenced by a change in the underlying forex spot rate, a change in volatility, a change in the riskless interest rate of the underlying spot currencies or simply by the passage of time (nearing of the expiration date).

The delta must always be calculated in a range of zero to one (0-1.0). Generally, the delta of a deep out-of-the-money forex option will be closer to zero, the delta of an at-the-money forex option will be near .5 (the probability of exercise is near 50%) and the delta of deep in-the-money forex options will be closer to 1.0. In simplest terms, the closer a forex option’s strike price is relative to the underlying spot forex rate, the higher the delta because it is more sensitive to a change in the underlying rate.

Author: John Nobile
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

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FOREX, A Trending Market

January 11, 2010 · Posted in Currency Trading · Comments Off 

The Forex market is widely known by its high liquidity and high volume of transactions occurring during most of its long trading week. These characteristics highly contribute to make the Forex market a very trendy market with few trend-less periods during the whole trading period.

But what does this mean to the Forex trader? Mainly this trendy characteristic of the currency markets means that there will be plenty of opportunities for the trader to find profitable trades during the day.

As you start analyzing forex charts you will realize that the market often display’s some very familiar patterns of price movement, this is; trends; and you will notice that once a pattern is established, it becomes the most probable course of future price action until the market changes. Giving you a good forecast of what comes next with the currency prices.

There are two types of markets which will become very important for you to identify and understand; these are: trending and, the less frequent, trend-less markets. Each market type has two specific patterns which you will also notice over time.

A Trending market is defined as a steady, elongated price movements with less than a 45 degree angle with occasional pauses, profit taking, or resting periods.

In a Trending market, you will notice two main and quite evident patterns:

Uptrends – A pattern of higher highs and higher lows.

Downtrends – A pattern of lower lows and lower highs.

There is also the less frequent kind of market, this is a Trend-less market  with erratic price movements  which are often steep (greater than 45 -degree angle) and cannot sustain and therefore must reverse. Although the movements can move many points in a short period of time, they are constantly and rapidly oscillating with the consequence that they often result in very little net price movement over time.

In a Trend-less market,  you will find these main patterns:

Choppy – An erratic pattern of higher highs and lower lows.

Sideways – A narrow pattern of lower highs and higher lows.

While up-trend and down-trend periods will offer excellent trading results most of the time, choppy markets often create stop outs, this is they activate your stops by constantly overshooting your projected resistance level but without never really crossing too far from this level; while sideways markets produce for little in either direction making them hard to trade and to make any profit during these periods.

As always in Forex, your main trading objective is to get into profitable trades most of the time and a trending market is the perfect situation to find this profitable trades by riding the trends until you make your target profit objective of the day.

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/currency-trading-articles/forex-a-trending-market-1702372.html

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How to Enter and Scale Out of an ES Emini Trade

December 29, 2009 · Posted in Currency Trading · Comments Off 

My observation is that most day traders buy and sell with market orders.  This strategy tells your broker or platform to buy when you execute an order as soon as you hit the enter button on your computer and buy immediately at whatever price the market is trading.   I want to qualify this before getting too far down the road, I trade in a scalping style and run reasonably tight stops and try to let my winners run.  Of course, who does not try to let their winners run?  Many people, believe it or not, especially if they are to heavy on the number of contracts they are trading relative to their futures account balance, trade not to lose, as oppose to maximizing their profit potential.  They are fearful, and trade defensively.  It’s not unusual to see a fearful trader trade the ES contract and bail at one point, even though the market is signaling there is good potential for the trade to continue in the direction of the trade.  They just want out before something bad happens.  Needless to say, trading in a fearful condition is not an enjoyable experience and makes for a long day.

Let’s take a moment and talk a little about a strategy for entering trades.  We will assume you have identified a potential trade to the short side and are ready to take that trade.  Instead of putting a straight market order in place and buy at whatever the market is trading at when your order is filled, why not set your short entry several ticks above the current market price and let the market come to you?  Granted, you run the risk of missing out on the trade if the price dive bombs straight down, but that is a rare occurrence.  Even in a trending market, the price tends to bounce around and you are likely to get filled at your buy order above the market price.  You just saved yourself a half point.  You can look at your Average True Range Indicator to see how the range of the market has been and base your entry, to a certain degree, in a manner within the range.  In dead flat markets, though, this may not be such a good strategy.  Then again, I am not very excited about trading flat and choppy markets anyway.

Now let’s talk a bit about scaling out of a trade.  If you have read any of my articles you know that I usually have a specific profit target in mind and a specific stop loss point.  In this example I am going to trade 3 contracts and my profit target 15 ticks on the ES Emini contract.  On a trade like this one I will generally scale out of the trade.  A good trading platform will allow you to set specific strategies for selling at different prices.  I use Ninja trader, and I can preset my exit strategy as follows:  I am going to sell 2 of the contracts at 10 ticks profit and 1 contract at the 15 tick profit target I had in mind.  You can use any variation of selling strategies you feel comfortable with and most good trading platforms allow up to 3, sometimes 4, separate levels to scale out of your trade.  You can preset these strategies and name them in a manner which will allow you to choose which one you are going to use simply by clicking on the strategy you will employ.  For example, this strategy on my platform I named 3x10x15.  It’s my own nomenclature, but I know this means 3 contract with exits at 10 and 15 ticks.  I generally exit a larger portion of my contract on the first exit to lock in a nice profit and let the last contract run.  I can even move the stop on the single contract if I see a market start a sharp move in the direction I am trading.  

One of the maxims I live by is to never let a winning trade become a losing trade, and scaling out of a contract is an excellent way to assure you lock in a nice profit while allowing yourself the latitude to let a contract run.  Needless to say. there are an endless number of potential scaled exits you may employ.  In my trading, and I cannot fully explain why, I tend to trade an odd number of contracts and lock in the majority of my contracts at the first exit point, then manage the remainder of the contracts as the trade develops.

Entering a trade in the proper fashion and scaling out of the trade is an idea you may wish to employ in your trading, especially if you are trading out of fear.  (on the other hand, if you are trading overly fearful, it might be wise to take a break from trading and regroup)

On single contract trades I generally just bracket trade, as no scaling is possible with a single contract.  Try buying at the price you want with the method above and scaling out of a trade and see if it doesn’t prove to be a profitable strategy for you to employ.  It does give you a bit more control of the trade, and incrementally lowers the risk in the trade.

I endorse a state of the art trading program for beginners at Trading Concepts, Inc It’s an awesome product that will have you well on your way to success. Plus, it has a money back guarantee…you have nothing to lose and thousands to gain.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/how-to-enter-and-scale-out-of-an-es-emini-trade-1641066.html

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ES Emini Day Trading: Exponential Moving Averages vs Simple Moving Averages

December 18, 2009 · Posted in Currency Trading · Comments Off 

Moving averages are an integral part of most day traders indicator arsenal, and getting two traders to agree on which indicator is the best, or which configuration yields superior results is an argument that will rage on forever.  There is simply no agreement as to exactly what works best-and that is as it should be, because no two traders trade with same mind set and personality.

In the world of moving averages there are two contenders for consideration.  The diminutive simple moving average (SMA) and the more complicated exponential moving average (EMA).  Because the EMA has a more sophisticated method of calculation, many consider it to be the superior of the two averages, but that would be jumping to unfounded conclusions.

The SMA is a basic arithmetic mean: you add together the closing prices from the last 10 periods then divide the product by 10.  As I said, the result is a simple arithmetic mean.  Pretty simple?  Too simple for some people, especially those who tend to associate complexity with efficiency.

Complexity does sometimes yield superior results, but that is not always the case.

EMA’s are really not that much more difficult to calculate.  The formula is simply 2 (n+1), and the result is added to the prior days exponential calculation.  With some simple deduction you will see that an EMA emphasizes the most recent days prices, or weights the most recent days prices more than prices early in the exponential sequence.  Since any moving average uses historical data, or data that has already occurred to calculate the average, any moving average can be considered a lagging indicator.   It should be obvious, then, that the purpose of the EMA is to “speed” up the lag factor that is inherent in all moving averages.

Do EMA’s really speed up the lag factor?

To a certain extent EMA make the lag factor in moving averages less distinct, but like all things, there is a cost.  EMA’s are notorious for causing a raft of early buy and sell signals,  as the last variables in the sequence overweight the average.  For that reason alone, I am not a huge fan EMA’s and prefer SMA’s.  Does that mean SMA’s are better than EMA’s? Not at all, all it means is that in my trading mentality I am far more comfortable with the results from an SMA than I am an EMA.

I always strike an 89 period SMA on my charts and watch the price action relative to the price action and the SMA.   If the price action in more than 3 or 4 points below the SMA(on the ES contract) I immediately decide that long trades are out of the question until the price action moves closer to the SMA, and visa versa on price action about the 89 period SMA.   I can also glean some nearly instant information regarding the trend of the market by looking at the slope of the 89 period SMA, and the sharper, or more pronounced the slope appears, the stronger the trend.

I also use a number of paired moving averages to back up some of my entry and exit points.  I generally use Fibonacci numbers starting with 5 and up to form my two moving average lines.  I find it best, on short term trading, to use to SMA’s that are within 15-20 points of each other.  I will leave to you to discover which set of moving averages intersect at point which best suit your trading style.

So we’ve talked a bit about moving averages today, and seen some applications for the SMA.  The EMA’s are also used by many traders and I would encourage you to explore the applications for this moving average.

I endorse a state of the art trading program for beginners at Trading Concepts, Inc It’s an awesome product that will have you well on your way to success. Plus, it has a money back guarantee…you have nothing to lose and thousands to gain.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/es-emini-day-trading-exponential-moving-averages-vs-simple-moving-averages-1596186.html

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Forex Charts – How and Why They Work

December 2, 2009 · Posted in Currencies · Comments Off 

Many forex traders think that you can never win with forex charts, because you need to know the supply and demand fundamentals. On the other hand, there are those forex chartists who believe the charts reflect human nature which is constant and prices can be predicted. Who is right?

The answer is forex charts work – but we must get rid of one misconception about them before we start and that’s there are a predictive tool – They are not!

Forex prices do not move to a scientific theory, because if they did, we would all know the price in advance and there would be no market!

Common sense really – but don’t think you can’t make money with forex charts and technical analysis you can, just understand this equation:

Supply and demand (fundamentals) + Investor psychology = Price

The above equation brings me on to my next point and it’s obvious from the above:

The fundamentals are un-important its how they are perceived that determines the course of events.

All forex technical analysis does is:

Make the assumption that the fundamentals are instantly discounted in the price and it’s investors who will decide which way prices will go.

It is the forex traders (all of them combined) who make the price and they all see the fundamentals and supply and demand facts – but they all draw different conclusions from what they see. This is why investor psychology is vital to where prices may go.

Humans determine the price of anything in a free market and its their perception of facts that is so important.

Investor Psychology

Forex charts allow you to see the fundamental picture and the how investors react to it, all in one method and that’s a huge advantage.

So forex technical analysis takes into account the supply and demand facts and how investors perceive them – it’s a short cut form of fundamental analysis and it lets you see graphically on a forex chart how investors have reacted.

Now we said that forex chart were not scientific – but you can trade the odds with them.

This is because human psychology is reflected in the charts and human nature never changes – so you will have patterns repeat and repeat overtime as does human nature, as it never changes.

Trade the Odds

With forex charts your aim is to look for these high odds chart patterns and trade them for profit.

You wont win every trade but if you win more than you lose and you run your profits and cut your losses, you can enjoy currency trading success.

Charting is an art not a science but an art.

If you get the right forex education and do your homework, you will have found a great way to achieve long term forex trading success.

When you have a forex trading strategy based upon forex charts, you are the equivalent of a captain of a ship at sea.

Your charts can help you earn a living in a hostile (but lucrative) environment, if you learn to use your charts correctly, or if you don’t, you will hit the rocks and drown. The choice is yours.

A Simple Powerful Route to Forex Profits

Forex charts are if learned correctly, are a simple time efficient way, of earning huge profits from the effort you put in – so try and base your forex trading system on them and you could soon be earning big consistent FX profits.

Author: Kelly Price
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Latest trends in mobile phone

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Spend Wisely to Save Money

November 28, 2009 · Posted in Currency Trading · Comments Off 

Have you ever noticed that the things you buy every week at the grocery and hardware stores go up a few cents between shopping trips? Not by much…just by a little each week but they continue to creep up and up.

All it takes for the price to jump up by a lot is a little hiccup in the world wide market, note the price of gasoline as it relates to world affairs.

There is a way that we can keep these price increases from impacting our personal finances so much and that is by buying in quantity and finding the best possible prices for the things we use and will continue to use everyday… things that will keep just as well on the shelves in our homes as it does on the shelves at the grocery store or hardware store.

For instance, dog food and cat food costs about 10% less when bought by the case than it does when bought at the single can price and if you wait for close out prices you save a lot more than that.

Set aside some space in your home and make a list of things that you use regularly which will not spoil. Any grain or grain products will need to be stored in airtight containers that rats can’t get into so keep that in mind.

Then set out to find the best prices you can get on quantity purchases of such things as bathroom items and dry and canned food.

You will be surprised at how much you can save by buying a twenty pound bag of rice as opposed to a one pound bag but don’t forget that it must be kept in a rat proof container.

You can buy some clothing items such as men’s socks and underwear because those styles don’t change, avoid buying children’s and women’s clothing, those styles change and sizes change too drastically.

Try to acquire and keep a two year supply of these items and you can save hundreds of dollars.

Would you like to know more?
Check out this site for more information about the above topic!

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/day-trading-articles/spend-wisely-to-save-money-1512667.html

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