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Strategies for Successful Forex Trading
Strategies for Forex Trading
Although Forex trading is the oldest and safest in the world, an investor going into the currency market must educate himself on sound strategies in order to succeed in this volatile investment market.
Successful investors in currencies know that they should never buy or sell out of greed or fear. The successful Forex Investor educates himself early so that he takes a minimum of risks when trading.
Courses in Forex Trading are offered online at reputable sites. There are also sites online that help a beginning investor set up demo accounts that facilitate in familiarizing the investor in the multiple variables that affect Forex Trading.
Once an investor has learned to read the charts and graphs that pertain to the currency market, he should learn how to analyze information coming from newscasts and press releases from the corporate and governmental sector.
With Forex trading, there is no threat of insider trading because everyone in Forex is an insider buying and selling the same commodity. Successful Forex investors learn to listen to fellow traders.
Although Forex investment is the most lucrative in todays global market, an investor must be cautious and maximize his profits while minimizing his risks.
Its an old adage, but, in order to be successful in Forex, it is an adage that must be followed religiously. Successful Forex investors hone a strategy and only deviate from it when all rational indications suggest doing so, but deviation from a proven strategy is a rare exception.
See Also:
A Primer On The Forex Market
Factors That Affect Forex
The Best Momentum Indicator
When it comes to technical analysis of the price action on Forex charts, one of the most important indicators you can have in your arsenal is a good momentum indicator. In fact there are several indicators for momentum that you can use.
We'll look at all of them and why the Stochastic indicator is considered by many to be the best.
MACD, or Moving Average Convergence/Divergence, is a good indicator of price momentum. This indicator uses two moving averages and an activating period.
Usually, when you see a cross of the moving averages, a change in momentum, or trend, has, or is about to, occur. Sometimes, however, there is a cross and yet price action moves sideways instead of in the opposite direction of the previous trend.
RSI, or Relative Strength Indicator, is another good indicator of momentum. With the RSI, what you are looking for initially is a break across the 50% line. When the RSI crosses above 50, you are looking at an upward trend. The opposite is true when it crosses below 50.
Also, overbought and oversold readings tell of a probable trend reversal. However, this tends to be somewhat of a lagging indicator and can leave you with only half of the trend left to follow.
Stochastics are varied in their configuration. You can set them in many ways depending on the charting package you use. These indicators are considered one of the best momentum indicators because they get you the signal first. Whereas MACD and RSI tend to follow, Stochastics seem to be almost simultaneous with the trend change.
Strong trends usually follow the highest/lowest spike of the Stochastic in the opposite direction of the current price trend. The Stochastic tends to be more susceptible to "noise" from price action, however, so be aware of this.
These three indicators are all good methods for determining momentum of price action in Forex. However, while the Stochastic indicator is favored, one of the more common practices among traders is to use Stochastics, MACDs, and RSIs together and look for total confirmation of trends on all three.
It depends on your personal style as to how you use the indicators, but regardless, you'll probably at least want the Stochastic in your arsenal. |
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Intermediate Forex Trading
There are many different intervals in forex trading, including scalpers (very short term), day traders (short term), intermediate traders (days), and investors (week, months, even years). Intermediate trading is advantageous for several reasons, and this is why it is perhaps one of the more popular trading intervals used.
Intermediate trading allows you to look at the market and say "this is where I think prices will go over the next several days". This allows you the opportunity to enter a position that you can hold for long enough to get through all of the "market noise", price action that occurs but is not relevant to the trend you are pursuing.
You should be aware that in order to trade over the intermediate term, you must scale back your leverage a bit to avoid margin calls as the result of this noise.
Intermediate trading is based largely on technical analysis, to include the usage of indicators, trend lines, and support and resistance lines on charts. However, it is helpful to also include some fundamental analysis in your decision.
Rather than the fundamentals that would tell you where a currency will be next year, use fundamentals to help you gauge the current market sentiment on the currencies you are trading. This can help you to know whether there is a particular favorite in the market, or if sideways action will occur because of market indecision.
As with any trading time frame, you should always be looking at three intervals of charts. For intermediate trading, perhaps the best way to do this is with daily charts for the overall trend, two- three- or four-hour charts for your actual trading, and one-hour charts for details, especially on good entry and exit points.
What indicators you choose for each of these charts will be up to you. However, you should never operate off just one time frame because you will miss the bigger picture of where price is going, and you will miss the perfect entry and exit points provided by the smaller time frame.
No matter what, leave room for prices to move against you. Study the charts for indications of how prices swing to know how much room to leave yourself on the trade, and consider stop-loss orders to help you avoid further loss.
The one thing you should never do is put yourself in the position of a margin call.
Related Topics: Leverage in Forex,
Bad Forex Strategies, Getting Started With Forex
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