Sunday, April 4, 2010

Decision Making Process

To reduce risk when you are doing online forex trading, it is always best to do forex review system trading. When you do trading online, you never do it haphazardly. Instead a lot of planning goes into the decisions that you make one what and when to trade forex online. Being a foreign exchange trader means a lot of profits, but it also means a lot of losses for those who do not read the signals correctly. This is why forex review system trading is one of the safest ways by which you can approach your forex trading business wisely and profitably.

With forex review system trading, you minimize your risk of losing money by doing the proper research to support the different online trading decisions that you make with your forex accounts. One way of doing this is to read the trends in the economy and market as it is depicted in the news. By finding out what the situation is in a country, you will be able to learn whether your money is worth investing in their currency to make a hefty profit. With this method you would need a good knowledge about how things like the peace and order situation can affect a country's economy and, in turn, the value of their currency.

Second, you can follow a set forex review system that will allow you to get information that is fit to guide you in your next forex trading move. This forex review system will get you information about the market trends at very specific times and currency values during the day. With this kind of information, you can make prudent and appropriate management decisions that will help you boost your profits and learn more about the nuances of how a currency increases and decrease in value.

Third, another way of doing forex review system trading manually is to do research on other websites of other traders. These other forex traders have the savvy and experience that is needed to make huge profits. It is great to sign up to a forum of online brokers and traders who will always have great advice for you when taking about the foreign exchange market. You can also check the different reviews and blogs maintained by these traders that will give great advice as they document their thoughts daily.

By doing forex review system trading, you can be sure that your approach is prudent, safe, and will get you expected profits because of your steady pace and well-founded decision-making process. Forex review system trading methods are established so that forex traders like you can follow specific guidelines that will guide you in making the right online forex investment decisions to properly come up with actions to garner the best profit possible.

Investing Easier

Getting into forex trading is usually quite a challenge in the beginning, but with the right forex secret trading advice, you will be able to get the profits that you want in no time. The foreign exchange market is a relatively volatile one so you always have to be ready with what it has to offer before making a trade. This means getting the right information and signals so that you can analyze this information and make better decision. Here are some great pieces of forex secret trading advice from seasoned forex traders that may just help you once you decide to get into foreign exchange market trading:

Learn, Learn, Learn!

To be able to be the best that you can be in forex trading, you really have to get down to it and learn the ropes! It takes a lot of hard work to be able to read up on forex trading and learning the nuances of the business. Learning the ropes simply take discipline to do online research on the topic, reading books about it, joining forex trading forums so that you can ask other forex traders about their businesses, and basically finally doing it and learning the nuances of the trade through hard experience.

Forex Robots

Forex robots may just be the easiest way to get into the forex trade quickly and easily. The problem with this method is that you have a piece of software doing all the trading for you and you hardly even has to think. Remember to learn the market first before even trying out a forex robot. Even if it does everything for you, you will have to learn the mechanisms behind why it makes certain trading decisions with certain trading signals. Availing of forex trading software may require you to always keep yourself educated by making use of the customer service available so that you can have your questions answered when needed.

Be Prudent

Don't go into the forex trading business with too much confidence. In fact, plan your strategy so that you can learn the ropes and invest a relatively conservative amount of money first before diving in deep and making big investments. Remember that you are still a beginner, so it is best to follow this piece of forex secret trading advice so that you don't lose all your money at once and regret your forex trading experience for the rest of your life.

Simplicity Is Best

As you learn more about foreign exchange trading, you may want to keep your strategy simple first as you begin to learn the nuances in forex trade. Keep it simple while you learn the terms and the different information that you receive to boost your trading actions. It is best to take it slow, make conservative investment, and learn the trade as fully as you can with this forex secret trading advice before jumping into it fully.

Money In The Trade

The biggest market open 24 hours a day that is open to the public is the foreign exchange market. Open to so-called day traders, the forex market has a daily turnover of almost 4 trillion dollars. While it is true that it is possible to make a decent living by trading in the foreign exchange market, the sheer amount of technical knowhow that one should possess is the determining factor whether one succeeds or fails in this kind of living.

The entry of forex software system trading makes it possible for the average Joe to trade in forex markets. The software's algorithms incorporate expert knowledge which means that the technical aspects of trading are built into it. The only requirement is to be always on internet connection, preferably a fast one e.g. DSL or broadband. Forex software systems need to initialized once and after this has been done, the computer makes the buy and sell decisions for you.

Forex software systems trading make use of the internet to monitor, in near real time, how the world's foreign exchange market behaves. When there are changes in values between two currency pairs (the dominant one being the dollar and the euro) the software takes note of this and depending on how it was initialized, buys or sells currency on your behalf. Since there are market fluctuations all day, the novice trader, especially those relying on their wits alone, become greatly influenced by emotions. Fear and greed are very powerful and they cloud decision making especially in those times where real cold technical analysis is needed. Forex software systems trading is of course free from debilitating emotions and make their buy and sell decisions solely on what incoming data is telling them.

With forex software systems trading, it becomes possible to make forex trading a second job, a supplemental source of income. There is no need to quit an office job just because forex trading demands close monitoring of trends. The software tirelessly monitor data feeds for trends and make use of the information to trade.

Perhaps you must have heard of talk saying that in these uncertain economic times, the best strategy is a conservative approach in finances. That talk is wrong. With uncertainty comes volatility in the exchange market. The value of one-currency changes and the difference in value can be significant. Changes like this should be taken advantage of. With forex software systems, the task of buying and selling, when the opportune time comes, becomes very simple.

While the profit margins for any trade is small, as long as money is being made during each buy and sell, forex trading becomes a real money making opportunity for everyone. If you want to try it out, you can always download trial editions of the software and see for yourself how easy forex software systems trading really are.

Forex Automated Trading

With so many Forex automated trading expert advisors on the market today showing outrageous and profitable trading results, you may be tempted to purchase one of these automated Forex trading systems to see for yourself. It is extremely hard to resist the temptation when you come across Forex automated trading results showing a 500% gain within two weeks. How can you say no to automated Forex trading software that claims 99% wining trades? There are also Forex managed account services claiming 25 consecutive profitable months without a single losing month. Then there are marketing statements claiming financial independence without having to know a thing about the Forex market. Lastly, there is the coup de grace of offering a full money back guarantee.

Let's examine each of these marketing promises to understand them for what they are. In order for an automated Forex system to obtain a 500% gain within two weeks, it must take extreme risks to compound its trading account. Compounding the trading lot size will compound the potential winnings, but it will also compound losses. It is unlikely that this automated Forex trading software will continue to replicate its winning results week after week without any losses. If this Forex automated trading system really works, then the inventor should be richer than Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. The last time I checked, Bill Gates is still the richest man in the world.

It is human nature to want to be right all the time. Unfortunately, this is a bad trait in Forex trading. In order to have 99% wining trades, this automated Forex system is trading with a very large stop loss or no stop loss altogether. By trading without a stop loss, the unrealized losses in the account are open floating losses. This Forex automated trading software will not close the trade until it is profitable; hence, it will continue to hold the losing trade until the account gets margined out. You can have 99 wining trades, but with this technique, one losing trade could wipe out your entire trading account. Trading without stop loss is like playing Russian roulette with your money.

Often, I come across Forex managed account services using automated Forex trading systems without a single losing month. This is too good to be true, as even Warren Buffett cannot make this claim about himself, so you should stay away. Alternatively, you can make the cheques out to Bernard Madoff and get in early on the Ponzi scheme.

There are no shortcuts in life. Any automated Forex trading software or products claiming to provide financial independence without you needing to know a thing is likely to be a Forex software scam. Trading involves both risk and reward. You must read and understand as much as possible before using any automated Forex trading systems.

The best marketing hook ever invented is the full money back guarantee. A guarantee to give you the option of testing the program completely risk free so that you can experience the effectiveness of the automated Forex system first hand. You should be aware that it is extremely difficult to get your money back regardless of what the vendors' guarantee says. Most of these guarantees are not protected or honored by companies like Visa, PayPal or MasterCard. Understand that there is always risk involved and use these five easy steps to detect Forex software scams.

Forex Trading

Students and acquaintances often ask me to teach them Forex trading techniques to profit in the Forex market. Is there such a Holy Grail that can provide guaranteed winning trades? I listen as an acquaintance continues to complain that he is losing too much money, that he is never on the right side of the market, that he keeps making the same mistake repeatedly, and why does he keep getting stopped out? After about 30 minutes of his ranting, I interject and tell him that maybe he should start learning about trading psychology. With a disappointed face, he looks at me dumbfounded.

Many Forex traders give up after one year while some traders continue to jump from system to system, looking for the ever-elusive Holy Grail. It seems that after learning a number of different trading techniques, traders tend to plateau, and are unable to improve, regardless of what they do. Somehow, there is always a new trading course offered by a most successful trading guru or an ultimate indicator claiming unparalleled results that is a must-have.

The Forex industry is so polluted with scammers and marketers that it is impossible to sort out who is telling the truth. It is extremely sad to see so many people losing money in this market; however, it is the greed that continues to recruit more neophytes. It is like a gambler looking for an easy way in life to make a lot of money in the shortest amount of time. There are traders claiming that they are not gamblers and have never stepped into a casino in their life. Welcome to the twenty first century, where gambling comes in many forms, and the casino comes to your house via Forex internet trading.

In order to gain an advantage in Forex trading, you have to realize that what you need are not the indicators or ground-breaking Forex trading techniques. The skills that you need to acquire are discipline, emotional control, patience, and the right mental attitude toward losing. It is about how you respond to pain and pleasure, greed and fear. The keys to being successful in Forex trading are all internal. It is not so much about finding the highest probability and lowest risk point of entering in the market. Regardless what you do, there is always a risk and a chance of losing. You must accept the consequences of losing or being stopped out in the market. Lacking emotional control will cause you to experience pain whenever your account goes negative and experience pleasure whenever the account goes positive. You have to realize that psychology contributes to 70 percent of your trading success. If you don't learn the proper trading psychology then you have diminished your chances of success.

Money management technique is twice as important as Forex trading techniques. If you rush to earn a lot of money in a short period of time, you will take larger risks and are more prone to wipe out your trading account. There are no shortcuts in building wealth, regardless of what industry you are in. Whether it be with manual Forex trading or Forex managed accounts, if someone claims to make consistent profit month after month, then it is likely to be a scam because there is no risk involved.

Sins in Forex Trading

It does not matter if you are a new trader or a veteran trader, most of us will commit one of the six deadly sins in Forex Trading. As a veteran trader, you will likely to commit only one or two, but for less informed traders, they are likely to commit more, if not all, of the sins listed below.

1. Reliance on the Experts. In 2007 to 2008, the housing market crumbled, the stock market tumbled, and many investors lost money. Many of Wall Street's top analysts had vouched for the toxic mortgage-related securities, and many investment banks went bankrupt because of this reliance on the Experts. The same principle can be applied to Forex trading. Forex reviews and forum postings can easily be manipulated; hence, you should be skeptical when coming across the latest "can't miss" software or trading courses that promise to double your trading profits in two weeks.

2. Setting the wrong goal and trading target. Everyone seems to focus on setting goals and achieving ten pips a day. This is a marketing ploy to sell more Forex trading courses, software, or the latest Forex techniques on DVDs. No one can consistently achieve ten pips a day. You can't take when the market is not providing you with trading opportunities. If you set an unattainable goal, you are setting yourself up for failure. Be realistic with yourself and set up monthly goals instead of daily or weekly trading goals.

3. Not paying proper attention to drawdown. It does not matter if you are trading manually or with automated trading software, all traders and trading software will go through a period of drawdown or a losing streak. You must always take this possibility into account and not compound your trading lot. You may compounding your winnings, but this technique will also amplify your losses when a losing streak hits. Always have an exit strategy or enough cash to cushion any drawdown that may occur.

4. Forgetting to practice, practice, and practice. In order to master a new trading skill, you will need several months, or even years to refine your skills. Don't fool yourself and think that you have mastered the market after three months of demo trading. Many have gone down the same road and failed. You will not be the exception, so don't bet your entire savings on it.

5. Falling in love with a trade. Don't hold on to a losing trade that is going to wipe out your account, even the great Warren Buffett is wrong at times; hence, be willing to cut your losses and move on.

6. Not checking your emotion. There is no such thing as a guaranteed winning trade. You must learn to treat each trade, whether it be a losing trade, break-even, or winning trade, equivalent emotionally. It is possible to have 10 or more consecutive losing trades; hence, don't give up, just learn to move on. It is business as usual, and you should not let your previous losing trades affect your decision making process. One of the primary reasons why automated trading software works so well is because it is not emotionally affected by either winning or losing trades.

Forex Market

There are many reasons why investors are unaware of or uncomfortable with short selling. One major reason is because it is counter intuitive. It makes more sense and is more intuitive for people to buy something, hold on to it, and then sell it at a higher price. You buy a stock at $2, hold onto it for 6 months, and then sell it for $3. Let's take an example, you buy a house, you live in it, and then you sell it to buy another house. You can buy a house for investment, and you can rent it out to help pay for the mortgage. You don't live there, but you still own the house. In all of these examples, you buy something, you own it, and then you sell it.

In short selling, you are selling something that you don't own. It is counter intuitive because you can't go around your neighborhood and sell a house that you don't own. Hence, short selling does not make a lot of sense to people. Don't worry, the next example will ease you slowly into the concept.

It is midnight, you are out of milk, and your kid is crying. You run over to your neighbor's and ask to borrow a jug of milk. It happens that your neighbor just bought a jug of milk for $5, but he refuses to take your money. Instead, he tells you to buy him another jug of milk later, and you will be even. The next day, you go to the supermarket and the jug of milk is on sale for $3. You buy the jug of milk and return it to your neighbor and save yourself $2 in the process. Basically, you consumed the milk (an asset that isn't own by you), and then you delivered an identical milk back to your neighbor at a later time. This is the concept of short selling. A short sale is the sale of a security that isn't owned by the seller, but that is promised to be delivered.

Say you don't think that Nortel Networks' share price should be at $120 per share because the company is not profitable. You can borrow 10 shares from your stockbroker, and sell them for a gain of $1,200. When the stock price drops to $70, you buy back the 10 Nortel shares at $700, and return them to your broker. You borrowed 10 shares from your broker, and then you returned 10 shares, pocketing $500 in the process. If the price of the stock rises, though, you have to buy it back at a higher price, and you lose money.

In Forex trading, you can make money in both up and down markets if you are able to anticipate the up and down trends in the market. If you believe that the currency pair is going up, you buy at the low price and then sell at the high price. Alternatively, if you believe that the currency pair is going down, you sell at the high price and then buy at the low price to recover. In real time Forex trading, the rates of the currencies can change at any time. For instance, the quotes accessible for a specific currency pair can move upwards or fall down within a blink of an eye. This forces the investors to be extremely flexible and to go with the trend. Whereas, in the stock market a bull run can last as long as several years; hence, it is difficult to switch your thinking from a bull to a bear market.

Even though you have tools of short selling and long buying to in the foreign currency market, Forex trading is extremely difficult to master and more than 95% of traders lose their money. Understand that any method or software that boasts a 300% return on investment will also contain a minus 300% drawdown. Ask the right questions before purchasing or renting any currency trading software.

Trading Systems

Michael Jordan was one of the best basketball players in the world. So what do Michael Jordan and automated Forex trading have in common? It is known in sports terminology as a cold streak or slump. Michael Jordan has missed more than 9000 shots in his career. He and his team have lost almost 300 games, and he failed to make the final game winning shot more than 25 times in his career. Does this make him a poor basketball player because he has failed over and over again during his career?

An athlete will go through a losing streak, and every trader will go through a similar losing streak, a period of consecutive losses with no profitable trades. In trading, this term is defined as drawdown, and it can be defined as a percentage or a number. Regardless of whether you are trading manually or using any automated Forex trading systems, you will experience a period of consecutive losses. It does not matter if you are Michael Jordan of the basketball world or the Warren Buffett of the investment world, everyone will face losses during their career or investment period. Losses are inevitable, and as investors/traders, we cannot avoid them. Trading involves both risk and reward; hence, it is impossible to obtain any type of reward without involving some risk.

An automated Forex trading system cannot avoid a losing streak; however, it is with proper money management that it can minimize the losses during the cold streak. For example, if an automated Forex trading system has a maximum drawdown of $3,000 using a 0.1 standard trading lot, it is not advisable to start trading with this system using $5,000 as starting capital. If you are unlucky and a drawdown immediately starts right after you have turned on your automated Forex trading system, you will see your trading account going from $5,000, to $4,000, to $3,000, to $2,500 and then to $2,000. In this example, you just experienced a losing streak of $3,000, or a 60% drawdown.

Before using any particular trading systems, you want to know what is the largest loss you can face when an automated Forex trading system starts incurring losses due to changes in the volatile Forex market. You must understand that this is a temporary worsening condition of a trading system. This period is the trading risk, and it will pass. With this risky period, a good trading system will recover and provide you with ample rewards (a.k.a. profits). Depending on your level of risk tolerance, a 60% drawdown is quite extreme in one's trading account. If you know that the drawdown is $3,000, you may want to start trading with $10,000 instead of $5,000. During a losing streak of $3,000, you will only experience a drawdown of 30%, which is a lot more tolerable.

Be a good investor scout and always prepare for the largest losing streak during your investment period. A drawdown period can be as long as three months; hence, don't jump from one system to another system looking for the Holy Grail. If you have found a profitable trading system, stick with it during its three months drawdown period and you will be handsomely rewarded for your patience. Alternatively, follow a profitable automated Forex trading system and wait until it starts losing and then jump in. Just like Michael Jordan of basketball, after missing three baskets, he will likely score on the fourth basket, so don't give up on him too early.

Effective Criteria

If you are trading forex, you will definitely be interested in a solution to help you do all the manual work of trading so that the trading activities can be carried out when you sleep, work or any other activities you are doing. Of course there are different forex auto trade software available that can assist you greatly in the forex trading.

In this modern world, forex traders are finding that these forex trading software which uses trading platforms of industry standard are becoming very useful in the forex trade. With these software, all traders, whether beginners or experienced, are able to maximize their revenues and profit. However, due to the abundance of such software available in the market, consumers are getting confused and wonder which one can provide the best results. To help you out, here are the criteria that you need to look at before choosing one.

Firstly, the forex auto trade software must have a demo account for consumers so that they can get hands on with the software in order to get familiar on how the market works. This will allow them to practice forex trading without actual money involved. With the experience gained and when anyone is ready for the real trade, they can gradually enter the market with the real money. This will ensure gaining maximum profit and losing minimum if things turn bad.

Secondly, features must be available with the software for one to make any necessary parameters adjustments. This will ensure that the forex software will work according to one's trading style for optimal performance and profits.

Thirdly, the forex auto trade software must have a mathematical modeling tool to ensure having a better market analysis. Whether the decision made to invest will be successful will depend on how good the software can analyze and make the decision based on mathematical figures, trends and market history. Therefore, it should not rely on emotions and hunches to make profit.

Fourthly, ensure that the software posses an integrated money management system for better sound decision making in the investment. This will help to ensure maximum profitability or minimum loss in the event of unfavorable market.

Last of all, ensure the forex auto trade software is compatible with Meta Trader 4. This is widely known and used as the trading platform for trading like futures, forex and CFD markets.

Earn inflation

Savers have been getting a raw deal in recent months, and rising inflation has dealt yet another blow - making it harder than ever to get a good return on your hard-earned cash.

Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), leapt up from 1.9 per cent in November to 2.9 per cent in December - the biggest monthly increase since records began.

And as inflation reduces the future buying power of your cash, high inflation rates create serious problems for savers.

In fact, a basic rate taxpayer will now need to earn 3.6 per cent or more before tax to maintain the "real" value of theirsavings pot; the figure is even greater for higher-rate taxpayers, who now have to earn a rate of at least 4.8 per cent.

Rising inflation

Spiralling inflation, coupled with low savings rates, means many accounts are now effectively worthless when tax on the interest they pay is deducted.

And, with interest rates held at 0.5 per cent yet again this month, the outlook shows little sign of improving.

If you stash your money away in an account paying a low rate of interest, your actual rate of return after inflation will be negative, so it's important to fight back to maximise the returns on your money - though be prepared - this is no easy feat in a rising inflationary environment.

Review your rate on your easy access account

First off, you need to check the rate you're earning on any easy access accounts you hold.

Currently, one of the top rates you can get on an easy access account is 3.15 per cent from the Coventry building society; a higher rate of 3.31 per cent is on offer from the Cheshire building society, but this is a 30-day notice account and also includes a 1 per cent bonus for 12 months. *

Nonetheless, given that so few instant-access accounts are paying anywhere near the rate required to get a real return, you may need to move the bulk of your money elsewhere.

Get into a fix

At present, some of the highest rates are on offer to those who are prepared to lock their money away for at least a year in a fixed-rate savings bond.

FirstSave, for example, is paying 3.65 per cent on its one-year bond, while ICICI Bank is paying 4.25 per cent on its two-year bond; elsewhere, the State Bank of India is paying a huge 5.25 per cent on its five-year bond.*

However, you need to think carefully before committing to a fixed-rate account longer than one or two years, as if interest rates go up quickly, these offers could soon become uncompetitive.

Consider an Isa

When it comes to saving, an individual saving account (ISA) should be your first port of call, as you can earn interest on your nest-egg tax-free.

However, only a handful of cash ISAs currently pay enough to beat inflation.

If you're looking for an easy-access ISA paying above 2.9 per cent - the rate needed for a return - you could squirrel your money away with Manchester building society paying 3.01 per cent or Newcastle building society paying 3 per cent. *

It's also worth bearing in mind that fixed-cash ISAs offer a hedge against inflation; Leeds building society, for example, is paying 4.6 per cent on its five-year fix. *

Check out a regular saver

While regular savings accounts - where you agree to pay in a set amount each month - offer some of the higher rates in the savings market, there are still only a few accounts on offer which beat inflation.

Stroud & Swindon building society, for example, is paying 4.5 per cent on its variable rate regular saver, while Buckinghamshire building society is paying 4.12 per cent.*

However, you must check the terms and conditions, as these accounts often come with restrictions; rates tend to be fixed only for one year during which you cannot access your funds without penalty, and you may be penalised if you fail to invest on a regular basis.

Keep a close eye

Savers may be able to take heart from forecasts that inflation will start to fall back later this year, but in the meantime, you cannot afford to sit back and relax.

Keep a close eye on what you're being offered and be proactive about shopping around to find a good deal to ensure you're getting good returns going forward; and never drop your guard, as high inflation is sure to return at some point.