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Forex Trading Tips
Simple Trading Mistakes
As most investors know, Forex trading in the most sound and powerful entity in trading markets in the world, but successful investors also know that navigating the gauntlet of information influencing the currency market can be daunting.
Forex traders analyze the news they dont just read it. They are aware that governments and corporations often issue press releases that are shrouded in double-speak. They say one thing about market trends in order to influence market trends sometimes in a whole different direction.
Successful Forex traders must be constantly aware of this fact and not be influenced by all of this to the extent that they make wrong decisions in regard to their portfolios. Never trade out of fear or greed. Let the market settle after traumatic world events. Be leery of market surges.
Traders in the Forex market should use a strategy that minimizes losses during times of decreased value of a particular currency. Set up a set of governing rules in regard to your account and stick to those rules no matter how tempting it is to drop them because of overpowering news stories.
Be rational and use the instincts you have honed in you continuing education of market trends and false surges.
A Forex trader, once he has set up a governing system in his decision-making, should always test this system and modify it as he expands his knowledge of the currency market.
See Also:
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Bad Forex Strategies
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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Getting Started in Forex Options
In foreign currency trading, options are a bit more complex and diverse than what you may have seen if you've dealt with equities options in the past. There are many more ways these options can be designed and executed, so your choices for options trading in Forex are greater. Here we will discuss the basics of what Forex options are and are not, and how you can use them to enhance your Forex trading.
The first type of option in forex is called a plain vanilla option. These are the very basic options consisting of either a call (the right to buy at a specified price) or a put (the right to sell at a specified price). There are set parameters on the strike price and the expiry of the options.
Traders can use these options either one at a time, or several at once to create a strategy that meets their needs. This type of option benefits from great liquidity in the currency markets. Depending on the broker used, plain vanilla options can either be traded by phone or online, or in some cases either way.
Be careful, though. These options will require a minimum account balance of at least a few thousand dollars, and possibly a minimum of as much as fifty thousand dollars just to get started.
Exotic options are a much more affordable way to enter the world of Forex options. These options are called exotic because they have varying rules that make them more detailed than vanilla options.
They can be such things as average price, no touch, one touch, double no touch, double one touch, and a variety of other formats. Some of the options styles available to you will depend on who your broker is.
Now, with exotic options, you can typically get started with as little as a hundred dollars, or perhaps even less. They are typically based, at least in part, on vanilla options so they are a great way to get your feet wet with options trading.
Risk is a unique quality of options. Whereas trading the currencies themselves can essentially put your entire account balance at risk, options risk only what you paid in the purchase price, and no more.
However, deep-out-of-the-money options rarely pay out, and so you are increasing your loss risk by increasing the potential payout.
Deep-out-of-the-money refers to extremely high percentage returns on the capital risked for the option purchase.
Related Topics: Forex Trading Losses,
Getting Started With Forex, The Leading Indicator for Forex
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