Why do hundreds of thousands online traders and investors trade the forex market every day, and how do they make money doing it?

This two-part report clearly and simply details essential tips on how to avoid typical pitfalls and start making more money in your forex trading.

1. Trade pairs, not currencies - Like any relationship, you have to know both sides. Success or failure in forex trading depends upon being right about both currencies and how they impact one another, not just one.

2. Knowledge is Power - When starting out trading forex online, it is essential that you understand the basics of this market if you want to make the most of your investments.
   Hot Tip! Historical trends can be used to predict current price movements. Data on the FOREX market has been collected for the last 100 years, over that time certain patterns have become emergent.

   The main forex influencer is global news and events. For example, say an ECB statement is released on European interest rates which typically will cause a flurry of activity. Most newcomers react violently to news like this and close their positions and subsequently miss out on some of the best trading opportunities by waiting until the market calms down. The potential in the forex market is in the volatility, not in its tranquility.

3. Unambitious trading - Many new traders will place very tight orders in order to take very small profits. This is not a sustainable approach because although you may be profitable in the short run (if you are lucky), you risk losing in the longer term as you have to recover the difference between the bid and the ask price before you can make any profit and this is much more difficult when you make small trades than when you make larger ones.
   Hot Tip! Realise that the times shown on the bottom of forex charts are set to the particular time zone that the forex provider’s charts are set to, be it GMT, New York time, or other time zones.

4. Over-cautious trading - Like the trader who tries to take small incremental profits all the time, the trader who places tight stop losses with a retail forex broker is doomed. As we stated above, you have to give your position a fair chance to demonstrate its ability to produce. If you don’t place reasonable stop losses that allow your trade to do so, you will always end up undercutting yourself and losing a small piece of your deposit with every trade.
   Hot Tip! The FOREX market is always a good market. FOREX trading involves selling or buying one currency against another.
5. Independence - If you are new to forex, you will either decide to trade your own money or to have a broker trade it for you. So far, so good. But your risk of losing increases exponentially if you either of these two things:
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   Interfere with what your broker is doing on your behalf (as his strategy might require a long gestation period);

   Seek advice from too many sources - multiple input will only result in multiple losses. Take a position, ride with it and then analyse the outcome - by yourself, for yourself.

6. Tiny margins - Margin trading is one of the biggest advantages in trading forex as it allows you to trade amounts far larger than the total of your deposits. However, it can also be dangerous to novice traders as it can appeal to the greed factor that destroys many forex traders. The best guideline is to increase your leverage in line with your experience and success.

7. No strategy - The aim of making money is not a trading strategy. A strategy is your map for how you plan to make money. Your strategy details the approach you are going to take, which currencies you are going to trade and how you will manage your risk. Without a strategy, you may become one of the 90% of new traders that lose their money.
   Hot Tip! Margin requirements are significantly lower in forex trading than equity trading. While the exact amount of margin allowed is determined by each broker, the restrictions are usually much less stringent when trading forex.
8. Trading Off-Peak Hours - Professional FX traders, option traders, and hedge funds posses a huge advantage over small retail traders during off-peak hours (between 2200 CET and 1000 CET) as they can hedge their positions and move them around when there is far small trade volume is going through (meaning their risk is smaller). The best advice for trading during off peak hours is simple - don’t.

9. The only way is up/down - When the market is on its way up, the market is on its way up. When the market is going down, the market is going down. That’s it. There are many systems which analyse past trends, but none that can accurately predict the future. But if you acknowledge to yourself that all that is happening at any time is that the market is simply moving, you’ll be amazed at how hard it is to blame anyone else.

10. Trade on the news - Most of the really big market moves occur around news time. Trading volume is high and the moves are significant; this means there is no better time to trade than when news is released. This is when the big players adjust their positions and prices change resulting in a serious currency flow.
    Hot Tip! 24 HRS: From Sunday evening to Friday Afternoon EST the Forex market never sleeps. This is very desirable for those who want to trade on a part-time basis, because you can choose when you want to trade–morning, noon or night.
11. Exiting Trades - If you place a trade and it’s not working out for you, get out. Don’t compound your mistake by staying in and hoping for a reversal. If you’re in a winning trade, don’t talk yourself out of the position because you’re bored or want to relieve stress; stress is a natural part of trading; get used to it.

12. Don’t trade too short-term - If you are aiming to make less than 20 points profit, don’t undertake the trade. The spread you are trading on will make the odds against you far too high.

13. Don’t be smart - The most successful traders I know keep their trading simple. They don’t analyse all day or research historical trends and track web logs and their results are excellent.

14. Tops and Bottoms - There are no real “bargains” in trading foreign exchange. Trade in the direction the price is going in and you’re results will be almost guaranteed to improve.
    Hot Tip! LEVERAGE: In Forex trading, a small margin deposit can control a much larger total contract value. Leverage gives the trader the ability to make extraordinary profits and at the same time keep risk capital to a minimum.
15. Ignoring the technicals- Understanding whether the market is over-extended long or short is a key indicator of price action. Spikes occur in the market when it is moving all one way.

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16. Emotional Trading - Without that all-important strategy, you’re trades essentially are thoughts only and thoughts are emotions and a very poor foundation for trading. When most of us are upset and emotional, we don’t tend to make the wisest decisions. Don’t let your emotions sway you.
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17. Confidence - Confidence comes from successful trading. If you lose money early in your trading career it’s very difficult to regain it; the trick is not to go off half-cocked; learn the business before you trade. Remember, knowledge is power.

The second and final part of this report clearly and simply details more essential tips on how to avoid the pitfalls and start making more money in your forex trading.

1. Take it like a man - If you decide to ride a loss, you are simply displaying stupidity and cowardice. It takes guts to accept your loss and wait for tomorrow to try again. Sticking to a bad position ruins lots of traders - permanently. Try to remember that the market often behaves illogically, so don’t get commit to any one trade; it’s just a trade. One good trade will not make you a trading success; it’s ongoing regular performance over months and years that makes a good trader.
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2. Focus - Fantasising about possible profits and then “spending” them before you have realised them is no good. Focus on your current position(s) and place reasonable stop losses at the time you do the trade. Then sit back and enjoy the ride - you have no real control from now on, the market will do what it wants to do.
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3. Don’t trust demos - Demo trading often causes new traders to learn bad habits. These bad habits, which can be very dangerous in the long run, come about because you are playing with virtual money. Once you know how your broker’s system works, start trading small amounts and only take the risk you can afford to win or lose.
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4. Stick to the strategy - When you make money on a well thought-out strategic trade, don’t go and lose half of it next time on a fancy; stick to your strategy and invest profits on the next trade that matches your long-term goals.

5. Trade today - Most successful day traders are highly focused on what’s happening in the short-term, not what may happen over the next month. If you’re trading with 40 to 60-point stops focus on what’s happening today as the market will probably move too quickly to consider the long-term future. However, the long-term trends are not unimportant; they will not always help you though if you’re trading intraday.
   Hot Tip! Currency prices on the FOREX market follow trends. Predictable consequences have been linked with many recognized market patterns.

6. The clues are in the details - The bottom line on your account balance doesn’t tell the whole story. Consider individual trade details; analyse your losses and the telling losing streaks. Generally, traders that make money without suffering significant daily losses have the best chance of sustaining positive performance in the long term.
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7. Simulated Results - Be very careful and wary about infamous “black box” systems. These so-called trading signal systems do not often explain exactly how the trade signals they generate are produced. Typically, these systems only show their track record of extraordinary results - historical results. Successfully predicting future trade scenarios is altogether more complex. The high-speed algorithmic capabilities of these systems provide significant retrospective trading systems, not ones which will help you trade effectively in the future.

8. Get to know one cross at a time - Each currency pair is unique, and has a unique way of moving in the marketplace. The forces which cause the pair to move up and down are individual to each cross, so study them and learn from your experience and apply your learning to one cross at a time.
Hot Tip! The FOREX market is so large and has so many participants that no single trader, even a central bank, can control the market price for an extended period of time.
9. Risk Reward - If you put a 20 point stop and a 50 point profit your chances of winning are probably about 1-3 against you. In fact, given the spread you’re trading on, it’s more likely to be 1-4. Play the odds the market gives you.
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10. Trading for Wrong Reasons - Don’t trade if you are bored, unsure or reacting on a whim. The reason that you are bored in the first place is probably because there is no trade to make in the first place. If you are unsure, it’s probably because you can’t see the trade to make, so don’t make one.
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11. Zen Trading- Even when you have taken a position in the markets, you should try and think as you would if you hadn’t taken one. This level of detachment is essential if you want to retain your clarity of mind and avoid succumbing to emotional impulses and therefore increasing the likelihood of incurring losses. To achieve this, you need to cultivate a calm and relaxed outlook. Trade in brief periods of no more than a few hours at a time and accept that once the trade has been made, it’s out of your hands.
    Hot Tip! Use a Registered Forex Broker.

12. Determination - Once you have decided to place a trade, stick to it and let it run its course. This means that if your stop loss is close to being triggered, let it trigger. If you move your stop midway through a trade’s life, you are more than likely to suffer worse moves against you. Your determination must be show itself when you acknowledge that you got it wrong, so get out.

13. Short-term Moving Average Crossovers - This is one of the most dangerous trade scenarios for non professional traders. When the short-term moving average crosses the longer-term moving average it only means that the average price in the short run is equal to the average price in the longer run. This is neither a bullish nor bearish indication, so don’t fall into the trap of believing it is one.
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14. Stochastic - Another dangerous scenario. When it first signals an exhausted condition that’s when the big spike in the “exhausted” currency cross tends to occur. My advice is to buy on the first sign of an overbought cross and then sell on the first sign of an oversold one. This approach means that you’ll be with the trend and have successfully identified a positive move that still has some way to go. So if percentage K and percentage D are both crossing 80, then buy! (This is the same on sell side, where you sell at 20).
    Hot Tip! A 24 hour market. You don’t have to worry about running out of time because the Forex is open 24 hours a day, nearly all week.

15. One cross is all that counts - EURUSD seems to be trading higher, so you buy GBPUSD because it appears not to have moved yet. This is dangerous. Focus on one cross at a time - if EURUSD looks good to you, then just buy EURUSD.

16. Wrong Broker - A lot of FOREX brokers are in business only to make money from yours. Read forums, blogs and chats around the net to get an unbiased opinion before you choose your broker.

17. Too bullish - Trading statistics show that 90% of most traders will fail at some point. Being too bullish about your trading aptitude can be fatal to your long-term success. You can always learn more about trading the markets, even if you are currently successful in your trades. Stay modest, and keep your eyes open for new ideas and bad habits you might be falling in to.
    Hot Tip! On most forex charts, it is the BID price rather than the ask price that’s displayed on the chart. Remember that a price is always quoted with a bid and an ask (or offer).

18. Interpret forex news yourself - Learn to read the source documents of forex news and events - don’t rely on the interpretations of news media or others.

John Gaines
online trading, currency trading, financial service

A veteran of online trading, John Gaines offers the financial services industry his perspectives and expertise on a variety of trading systems and financial instruments, including forex, CFDs, futures, options and stocks.

If you want to get into something that will totally confuse you and send you to the poor house at the same time then try getting into Forex trading which is the buying and selling of currency. An associate of mine has this horror story to share. For the sake of protecting his already fragile shattered ego because of this horrible experience we’ll call him Joe.

“Hi, my name is Joe. I wanted to get into Forex trading or the buying and selling of currency. For example, buying Japanese Yen at one price and selling it at another price to make a profit. Sounds simple, but trust me, it is far from it.

For starters, if you know nothing about forex trading, you at least want to get some kind of an education about it that won’t cost you anything. Therein lies the first problem. Try doing a search engine lookup on “what is forex trading” or “forex trading definition” and you’ll find a zillion links to all these places that will teach you about forex trading, for a fee. So in other words before I can even learn about forex trading I have to invest money just to find out what it is? If that doesn’t sound fishy to begin with.

Well, eventually I found enough of a definition of forex trading to know what it was and what it involved. The next problem was how to get into it. Do I go to an online broker? Which one? So I did another Internet search. Let me tell you, there are more places online that will be more than happy to take your business so you can’t possibly know which one to go to unless you know someone who knows someone.

Then, to compound the problem even more you run into these listings that talk about forex scams. Huh? I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised but how can you run a forex scam? Well, let me clear that one up right now. A bogus company acts as a broker for your money. You buy your currency at whatever price and then what happens is the company essentially runs off with your money and closes their site down, opening it up someplace else. You’re now out your investment. That’s only one of many ways that companies are scamming people getting into forex trading, but I’m sure you get the idea.

Once you find a legitimate company there are all the complex strategies you have to learn. There’s looking for exit and entrance signs. In other words certain indicators that supposedly tell you when to buy the currency and when to sell. This is, of course, all guess work as nobody can really predict what a currency is going to sell for at any given time. You know this is the case when you see web sites with the following advertisement, “Trade forex with up to 80% accurate forecasts.” In other words 20% of the time I’m going to lose money. This is what they admit to. You know it’s never that good.

But here’s the worst part of forex trading and the thing that most people don’t realize. The percentage that your purchase goes up before you sell is so minuscule that the only way to make any decent amount of money is to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars. People who think they can invest $25 or even $250 are dreaming if they think they will make anything worth talking about. With that kind of investment we are talking about pennies in profit.

Bottom line. After everything I learned, which took me weeks of my time, I eventually ended up chucking the whole idea of forex trading. That’s my horror story. Weeks of my valuable time wasted on something that I had no business getting into in the first place, given the poor rate of return and the possibility of being scammed.

So unless you have a lot of money to burn my suggestion is to stay away from forex trading. I just wish I knew that before I ever started.”

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Forex Trading

In this Forex course we will review some steps you need to take care before you venture into your trading journey. Most traders venture into the Forex market with little or no experience in the Forex market. This results in painful experiences like loosing most of the risk capital, frustration because it seemed so easy to make money, etc.

The first thing you need to realize is that, it is not easy to make money. As every other endeavor in life, where important rewards are to come after mastering it, you need to work hard. You need to get very well educated and experienced before having the possibility to receive important rewards on it. The key on mastering the Forex market relies on commitment, patience and discipline.

Ok, you have decided you are going to trade the Forex market, you have seen several advertisings featuring how easy is to make money in the Forex market. You might think this is your opportunity to reach your financial freedom, right away, time is money, why waiting any longer if you have the opportunity to make money now. I know, I’ve been there, but you have a chance now, I didn’t, no body told me what I am going to tell you.

We, Forex traders, make transactions based on a set of rules. These sets of rules are what we call a Trading System. Our systems tell us the exact time where we need to get in the market and out the market in order to make a profit (i.e. buy low sell high.)

Creating a system is the first big step you need to take care first. Why is this so important? Because you need to build a system that suits your personality, otherwise you are going to find hard to follow it, thus hard to profit from. A system can be based on technical indicators or what we called a mechanical system or based on experience and intuition or what we call discretionary systems. I highly recommend using and trying first a mechanical system, because discretionary systems are dangerous during the early stages of a Forex trader (can lead to indiscipline.) With experience, on later stages, you will find out which signals work better and which ones to avoid.

The next step in this Forex course is to try your system on a demo account. Most Forex brokers offer a demo account, an account with virtual money. This is an excellent choice to test your trading system as there is no money at risk. In this step you will figure out if the strategy works for you. If you feel comfortable trading it, then it is most likely to produce good results. How much time should you stay in this step? It varies, but you shouldn’t go one step further until your system gets consistent profitable results over a period of time. It can take many months, but remember, you need to be patient.

You must be honest to yourself; you need to take every single signal generated by your system, not only the signals you thought were going to work, otherwise, you are going to have problems in the next two steps.

Ok, by know you had consistent profitable results on your demo account. You might think its time to go full. Nope, nope, nope. There is a big difference between trading a demo and a real account. The most important difference lies on emotions (fear, greed, anger, etc.) These are psychological barriers that affect every single decision made by traders regardless of what he/she is trading (stocks, bonds, Forex, futures, grains, etc.) These emotional factors, in my opinion, are the most determinant factor that separates profitable traders from the others.

The next step in this Forex course is specially designed to deal with emotions and to confirm the results obtained in the prior step (consistent results in a demo account.) At this step you need to trade in a real account with limited funds. Some brokers offer fractional lot trading. Meaning you are able to trade any desired amount (even cents.) The important thing here is that these emotions we’ve been talking about are present only when there is real money at risk. At this stage, you are going to see if you are really comfortable trading your system and if you are able to trade with such system, remember different systems produce different emotions. If you are able to produce similar results than those obtained in a demo account, then ready for the next step. If you didn’t, then you might need to create another system, there is chance your system never fit you. If you created consistent profitable results on this stage, you have a chance to produce similar results in the next one, on the other hand, if you didn’t produce good results in this stage, you will not be able to make on the next stage. Remember, you need to do things right, and be honest to yourself.

The last stage is trading in a real account with sufficient funds. If you are at this stage, and have passed successfully every prior stage, then you have a chance to make it, go ahead and try it, you need to be confident in yourself and in your system, your strategy have already produced consistent profitable results, there are reasons to believe you are going to make it. Very few traders fail at this stage (if passed successfully prior stages.)

Trading successfully is no easy task, it requires a lot of work, patience, discipline, and education. By completing the steps outlined in this Forex course, you have a chance to produce profitable results. I repeat it again, you need to be honest to yourself about the results obtained in every stage. Some times you might need expert guidance regarding your system development strategies.

Raul Lopez is a full time Forex trader, his trades are based on a price behavior approach. Raul is also founder of http://www.straightforex.com a high quality Forex training and Forex trading course provider.

Before venturing into your trading journey there are some things you need to be aware of, otherwise you could succeed on your trading adventure, and we don’t want that to happen, do we? This Forex training guide will help you track the most costly mistakes Forex traders do.

First of all, make sure you don’t have a trading system. Having a trading system might increase the odds of your success. If you have a system, you will have an objective way to get in and out the market. When traders create their trading systems they think objectively since there is no position to be taken at the moment. If there is no position to be taken, there is also no money at risk, if there is no money at risk, we do think objectively and are open to every possibility, thus we are able to find low risk trading opportunities. So make sure you don’t have a system and trade based on a randomly approach.

If you have already created your system, then don’t follow it, be undisciplined. If you follow your system, there is a possibility that you can profit from the Forex market based on the trading opportunities you have found. If you want to fail on your trading, be sure to be undisciplined.

Don’t get educated. Most successful traders are very well educated in the market they trade (stocks, Forex, futures, etc.) If you get educated, you might acquire the knowledge and experience you require to master the Forex market. Don’t read about the Forex market, don’t enroll into Forex training programs and don’t even look at historical charts.

Don’t use any money management technique. The purpose of money management is to avoid the risk of ruin, but at the same time it helps you boost your profits, allowing them to grow geometrically. For instance, by using no money management techniques, there is a possibility that in loosing 10 trades in a row you could empty your trading account. On the other hand, by applying simple money management techniques you can avoid it. So make sure, if you want to fail, don’t even consider money management.

Forget about psychological issues. You need to get every trade to win. Successful traders know that they don’t need to win every trade in order to profit from the market. This is one characteristic that is hard to understand and really apply. Why? Because we are taught, since kids, that any number below 70% is a bad number. In the Forex trading environment, this is not true.

Don’t even consider using a Risk-reward (RR) ratio greater than 1-1. If you use a RR ratio of 1-2 (willing to make twice the amount risked in one trade) then you only need a system that is right around 50% to make money. If you use a RR ratio of 1-3 (willing to make three times the amount risked in one trade) then you will need a system that is right around 40% of the time to make money. So make sure to use a RR ratio below 1-1.

By applying every point outlined in this Forex training guide, you will almost assure your failure in your Forex trading journey. Do the opposite, and you will have the possibility to achieve what every trader is looking for: consistent profitable results.

Raul Lopez is a full time Forex trader and founder of http://www.straightforex.com a high quality Forex training and Forex course provider.

Forex trading has been growing rapidly among day traders since the 1990s, as day traders have seen the advantages that trading currencies can have over trading stocks. However, since there are fewer currencies for beginners to purchase over the large number of stocks available, forex trading can be much more difficult for a newcomer to learn and master. Still, there are some basic principles that someone new to forex trading should learn, and these concepts may even be helpful to the experienced trader.

The first principle of forex trading is to understand that trading is an investment, not an income. If you are looking to constantly boom in forex trading, then you may need to do a reassessment. forex trading, like other forms of trading, allows you to make a good return on your initial capital annually. However, during that year you need to expect some ups and downs in your forex trading. You could even have several months where you have consecutive losses. It is probably in your best interest to have another source of income while you do forex trading.

Another area where beginners sometimes find themselves frustrated is that they try to predict the forex trading markets. Thousands of traders have influence over the forex trading markets, along with politics and economic events, so there is no way to predict which way the market will move. There are some types of analysis that may provide an educated guess into market flow when doing forex trading, but they are not always reliable. Do not be discouraged, though, by the fact that you may lose on more trades that you gain on, as using sound money management can help you be successful with forex trading.

Making money from forex trading means that you need to make enough to cover your losses and gain profit to increase capital. When forex trading, you will need to allow your money-making trades ride while knowing when to cut your losses as soon as possible. forex trading means learning some finesse, as there can be a fine line where you will want to wait a little for the market to turn in your favor on your losing trades and also making sure you do not take your profit to soon on your better trades.

One way to handle your forex trading is to use a tested system and a money management strategy. There is no room for emotion when forex trading, so you will need to use a business-like approach that has been tested on market data. Using a tested approach will save you a lot of stress when forex trading. Also, using a sound money management strategy will allow you to use your capital in the best way when forex trading so that you can maximize profit and avoid major losses.

Read the rest of the article here: Forex Trading.

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