As a Forex trader you will always be attempting to make more profits than losses from the fluctuations of exchange rates between currencies in the forex market; in short, this is what is called forex trading. The good news is that nobody is going to ask you for a diploma, or somehow verify the amount of hours you’ve spent studying the foreign exchange market (FOREX). All you need is the proper training and the tools that will help you become a profitable trader. But this is not the only advantage you get when trading forex, compared to other ways of investment and speculation as stocks. You have a other great advantages that will make you decide for forex and forget about stocks and commodities.

1): There will Never be a Bear Market in FOREX.

You can have access to a mutually-inclusive (two-way) exchange of world currencies. In other words; currencies trade in “pairs”(for example, US dollar vs. yen or US dollar vs. Euro), one side of every currency pair is constantly moving (up or down) in relation to the other one. Thus, when you buy a particular currency, you are actually simultaneously selling the other currency in that particular pair. As the market moves, one of the currencies will increase in value while the other will decrease proportionally. It is up to you to choose the correct currency to be long or short. Since currency trading always involves buying one currency and selling another, it all means that you have equal potential for profits in both a rising or falling market.

2): Trade with High Leverage - up to 200:1 Leverage.

Every trader participating in the forex market is allowed to trade foreign currencies on a high leverage basis - up to 200 times your investment with some brokers. This is primarily attributed to the higher levels of liquidity within the currency markets. Standard 100,000-unit currency lots can be traded with as little as 1% margin, or $1,000, which is a pretty nice feature of forex. Mini Forex accounts are permitted to trade with just 0.5% margin — in other words, just $50 allows you to control a 10,000-unit currency position. Futures traders, who are asked for margin requirements generally equal to 5%-8% of the total contract value, will immediately appreciate that the FOREX market provides much greater leverage; and stock traders, who must post at least 50% margin, may think they are dreaming.

3): Most Price Movements Are Highly Predictable.

Many times currency prices in the forex market may be volatile, but they have the great advantage that generally repeat themselves in relatively predictable cycles, creating trends. The strong trends that foreign currencies develop are a significant advantage for traders who use the “technical” methods and strategies.

Unlike stocks that sometimes seem to simple lay down in narrow price alleys, currencies rarely spend much time in tight trading ranges and have the tendency to develop strong trends. It is known that over 80% of the trading volume in forex is speculative in nature and, as a result, the market frequently overshoots and then corrects itself. As a technically-trained trader, you can easily identify new trends and breakouts, which provide for multiple opportunities to enter and exit trading positions.

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

You can download a free Fibonacci trading report at his website:
http://www.1-forex.com

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Forex trading is one of those great money making opportunities everyone talks about these days. People from many walks of life, men and women, decide to join the forex trading world everyday looking for the great style of life a profitable forex trader can achieve.

Need to know some reasons why you should join the forex trading frenzy; here are two great reasons to join:

1): Commission-free Trading and Low Transaction Cost

When you trade FOREX you can do it totally commission-free by choosing the right broker. These brokers are great because they don’t charge commissions to trade or to maintain an account, and that goes for all clients trading the FOREX through them, they don’t care about your account balance or trading volume. Even Mini FX traders, who are just starting in this field, can buy and sell currencies online always commission-free.

And if you are worrying about trading fees you may have to pay your broker; good news, there are none of the usual fees to which futures and equity traders are accustomed to pay everytime; no exchange or clearing fees, no NFA or SEC fees. Because currencies trade over-the-counter (OTC), via a global electronic network in Forex, what you see is what you get, allowing you to make quick decisions on your trades without having to worry for fees that may affect your profit/loss balance.

As you may already know, in the equities markets, you must pay both a commission and an exchange fee. The over-the-counter structure of the forex market eliminates exchange and clearing fees, which is good because this in turn lowers transaction costs.

You may be asking yourself that if Forex brokers don’t charge commissions, then how do they manage to make any money? Like all traded financial products, over-the-counter currency trading involves a bid/ask spread, which represents the prices at which you’re the other party is willing to trade. Thanks to the fact that the currency market is capable of offering you a round-the-clock liquidity; you will receive tight, competitive spreads both in intra-day and night trades.

2): Instantaneous Order Execution and Market Transparency.

A characteristic such as market transparency is highly desired when participating in any trading environment. The greater the market transparency, the more efficient the market becomes. Unlike other markets where transparency is compromised, FOREX markets are highly transparent.

Because of this transparency, as a forex trader, you will be able to exercise risk management strategies in accordance with your level of learning and experience. More information at http://www.1-forex.com

It is widely known that the forex market offers the highest level of market transparency out of all the financial markets available for speculation. Because of this, order execution and fill confirmation usually occur in just 1-2 seconds.

In the forex world, order execution is all-electronic and because you’ll be trading via an Internet-based platform, instantaneous execution is routine. There are no exchanges, no traditional open outcry pits, no floor brokers, and consequently, no delays.

So here you have two great advantages the forex market will give you if you decide to become a forex trader.

Adrian Pablo; Forex trader and freelance writer.

You can download a free Fibonacci trading report at his website:
http://www.1-forex.com

The software trading system behind Feeder Fund was developed by their senior trader over a 12 year period of testing and trading. He has worked on the development of the precursor UNIX system back in the University Of Berkeley, CA, so he knows a thing or two about computers and programming. One of the most important aspects of the trading system was the provision of accurate price data and when this became readily available in 2000, the final development produced some amazing results.

After more testing, the system went onto live trading in May 2002 and basically hasn’t looked back, OR DOWN, since then. With our experience at Feeder Fund, we have never seen a system able to create such high and consistent results. To our minds, this is as close to the holy grail of trading as you can get.

Their senior trader initially traded for himself and a number of close friends, but he joined forces with Simon, a marketer, and Feeder Fund was launched in November 2004. Since that time, the group has had many multi-million dollar offers to buy the system, but the senior trader’s desire has been, and still is, to help the small guy get his children through school, rather than see the extraordinary benefits go to making the Wall Street financiers even richer.

We have full ID of the principals and have checked out the personal and business backgrounds. The senior trader has had a stable and successful business career and is well known and respected in his field. We have spoken to the principal brokers and viewed limited but verified reports showing multi-million dollar margin accounts and significant profits. Our view is that Feeder Fund represents a negligible fraud risk.
The minimum to invest through a Feeder Fund pooled account is US $50.
For more information or any questions, go to http://www.secureforex.com. Click on the Contact page and e-mail us.

How difficult is it to make money trading the Forex market? How much time does it take to actually be able to make a living trading the Forex market? These and other important aspects of trading are to be discussed in this article.

Trading the Forex market has many benefits over other financial markets, among the most important are: superior liquidity, 24hrs market, better execution, and others. Traders and investor see the Forex market as a new speculation or diversifying opportunity because of these benefits. Does this mean that it is easy to make money trading the Forex Market? Not at all.

Forex brokers agree that 90% of traders end up losing money, 5% of traders end up at break even and only 5% of them achieve consistent profitable results. With these statistics shown, I don’t consider trading to be an easy task. But, is it harder to master any other endeavor? I don’t think so, consider musicians, writers, or even other businesses, the success rates are about the same, there are a whole bunch of them who never got to the top.

Now that we know it is not easy to achieve consistent profitable results, a must question would be, Why is it that some traders succeed while others fail to trade successfully in the Forex market? There is no hard answer to this question, or a recipe to follow to achieve consistent profitable results. What we do know is that traders that reach the top think different. That’s right, they don’t follow the crowd, they are an independent part of the crowd.

A few things that separate the top traders from the rest are:

Education: They are very well educated in the matter; they have chosen to learn every single and important aspect of trading. The best traders know that every trade is a learning experience. They approach the Forex market with humility, otherwise the market will prove them wrong.

Forex trading system: Top traders have a Forex trading system. They have the discipline to follow it rigorously, because they know that only the trades that are signaled by their system have a greater rate of success.

Price behavior: They have incorporated price behavior into their trading systems. They know price action has the last word.

Money management: Avoiding the risk of ruin is a primary subject to the best traders. After all, you cannot succeed without funds in your trading account.

Trading psychology: They are aware of every psychological issue that affects the decisions made by traders. They have accepted the fact that every individual trade has two probable outcomes, not just the winning side.

These are, among others, the most important factors that influence the success rate of Forex traders.

We know now that it is not easy to make money trading the Forex market, but it is possible. We also discussed the most important factors that influence the rate of success of Forex traders. But, how much time does it take to have consistent profitable results? It is different from trader to trader. For some, it could take a life time, and still don’t get the desired results, for some others, a few years are enough to get consistent profitable results. The answer to this question may vary, but what I want to make clear here is that trading successfully is a process, it’s not something you can do in a short period of time.

Trading successfully is no easy task; it is a process and could take years to achieve the desired results. There are a few things though every trader should take in consideration that could accelerate the process: having a trading system, using money management, education, being aware of psychological issues, discipline to follow your trading system and your trading plan, and others.

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

When it comes to getting started in forex trading, there are quite a few things that you have to consider. The first thing to do is to find and choose the right broker to help you in making your trades. Here are some things that you need to look for in making your choice:

Low Spreads

The spread, which is calculated in pips, is the difference between the price at which a currency can be bought and the price at which it can be sold at any specific point in time. FOREX brokers don’t charge a commission, so this difference is how they are going to make money. When you’re comparing brokers, you’ll find that the difference in spreads in FOREX is as large as the difference in commissions in the stock arena. What this means is that lower spreads will save you money and therefore, look for a broker that offers low spreads.

Quality of the Institution

Unlike equity brokers, FOREX brokers are usually attached to large banks or lending institutions because of the large amounts of capital that are required. Also, FOREX brokers should be registered with the Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) as well as regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). You can find this and other financial information and statistics about a FOREX brokerage on the company’s website or the website of its parent company. You’ll want to make sure that your broker is backed by a reliable institution.

Extensive Tools and Research

FOREX brokers offer many different trading platforms for their clients just like brokers in other markets do. These different trading platforms often show realtime charts, technical analysis tools, real-time news and data, and even support for the various trading systems. Before you commit to any one broker, you’ll need to be sure to request free trials so that you can test their different trading platforms. Brokers usually provide technical as well as fundamental commentaries, economic calendars, and other research as a means of assisting you. Basically, you’ll want to find a broker who will give you everything that you need to succeed.

A Variety of Leverage Options

Leverage is a key necessity in FOREX trading because the price deviations (the sources of profit) are just set at mere fractions of a cent. Leverage, which is expressed as a ratio between total capitals that is available to actual capital, which is the amount of money a broker will lend you for trading. For example, when you have a ratio of 100:1, this means that your broker would lend you $100 for every $1 of actual capital. Many brokerage firms will offer you as much as 250:1.

Of course, you need to remember that lower leverage also means lower risk of a margin call, but it also means that you will get a lower bang for your buck (and vice-versa). Basically if you have limited capital, you need to make sure that your broker offers high leverage. If capital is not a problem, you can rest assured that any broker that has a wide variety of leverage options should suffice. A variety of options lets you vary the amount of risk you are willing to take. For example, less leverage (and therefore less risk) may be preferable if you are dealing with highly volatile (exotic) currency pairs.

These aren’t the only issues you should consider when choosing a broker. I’ll cover some other important factors in a future article.

Pete Cullen runs the website Forex Trading Basics. This article is excerpted from his Special Report called “Your Guide to Successful Forex Trading.” For more information, please visit http://www.Forex-Trading-Basics.com