Thread: Forex Trading: Good Opportunity Or Scam?

Until recently, the forex market or foregn currency exchange market wasn't for the average trader or individual speculator. With the large minimum transaction sizes and often-stringent financial requirements, banks, hedge funds, major currency dealers and the occasional high net-worth individual speculator were the principal participants. These large traders were able to take advantage of the many benefits offered by the forex market vs. other markets, including the fantastic liquidity and strong trending nature of the world's primary currency exchange rates.

Fortunately, thanks to new legislation written in the late 1990’s, forex brokerages have opened up to the general public and offer trading opportunities for anyone who has an interest in trading currencies for profit. In fact, many brokers allow traders to open and trade currency with as little as $250 dollars in an account.

Regrettably, all of these new currency trading opportunities have created a lot of hype around the forex. Some of this hype includes magic trading formulas, “easy” indicators and expert trend predictors. There are now countless currency brokerages enticing potential traders to open accounts and start trading today. Many people have started to get the feeling that trading currency is more of a scam then anything else. We strongly disagree with this notion and are certain that the forex market has much to offer investors. However, before your take you paycheck and head down to the nearest brokerage to open your forex account, may we make some important suggestions before you enter the currency market?

First, there are thousands of websites with information, terminology, trading strategies and more. We recommend researching several of them as you begin to explore the basics of what the forex is. Brokers often will offer information about the forex, but realize that they are also trying to get you to open an account. Aside from brokerage sites, there are several informational sites and a few forex education companies on the market that offer good information without the pressure of signing up for a “live” trading account.

Second, read some books. Most of the professional forex traders operate using a combination of Japanese candlestick charts and other complex indicators to determine the direction of a particular currency pair. Find books about technical analysis trading, candlestick charts and other methodological indicators. Remember that when you are buying currency it is like buying a stock in a nation or country. Learn about different countries economic announcements, interest reports, and job indicators. These are highly relevant factors that help indicate a currencies direction.

At this point, it may be time for you to open a demo account with the broker of your choice. This will help you get familiar with trading platforms and basic charts. Practice making some “demo trades”. Even after doing some basic homework you will find that you fell like you areflying by the seat of your pants” during your trades. At this humbling point in your new forex trading career you realize its time to take a forex training course.

There are many forex training courses on the market today. They come in many forms including seminars, home study courses, interactive online courses, and class room education. Fxcenter.com, one such forex training course has found that the best education courses use all of these methods in their training regime. They feel that a program should include a minimum of 20 hours of home study to teach the basic principles of forex trading. Next a student would need to observe the market in action, without necessarily making trades. To do this, an interactive online class is necessary to help you tie in all the information and begin to apply it to live market conditions. Onsite classes then further reiterate the fundamentals of trading forex and help the student discover a trading strategy that fits his or her personality, financial status and risk tolerance. Finally, working with a highly skilled forex mentor, again during live market sessions, is critical to help the student understand the psychological part of trading. These mentors would also help students create an advanced trading system and analyze the market minute by minute.

Most successful traders have spent years developing good trading habits and learning the hard way how to take advantage of currency volatility. We strongly recommend you follow these steps as you begin to investigate investment opportunities in the forex market.

Foreign exchange is the largest financial market and everyday new investors plan to jump in when they learn of the benefits, that is, high returns on investment which is as high as 20% per month a month. However, inexperience and over enthusiasm can only do bad and bring in losses so, you’ll need an experienced forex broker to help you put your money in the right place at the right time.

A forex broker with a cool head, preferably with a long list of satisfied clients and experience is the right guy. Once you’ve found the right forex broker, all that’s to be done is, keep a regular check on your investments and it is advised to do it independently to avoid scams, because one can never know. So, how to find the right forex broker, is that the question? Well, good news, this article was written just for you.

In a market where cash flows faster than the F1 circuit, scams should come as no surprise even with reputed names and it’s your responsibility to be aware of where the money is and keep a check on the movement and earnings. Different people prefer different levels of risk and depending on that factor you might like to check how different forex broker work and then select the one from them.

Even before you start the search, remember to strike down brokers promising windfalls, they are scams without doubt and same for brokers who are promising huge profits or no risk. Trading always involves some form of risk because of the nature of the market which you must be prepared to incur.

Make sure to check the spread of the forex broker as that’s where they earn their money, read their terms of service carefully and check the services offered. There might be a lot of services being offered upfront at no cost but you might be billed for them later on, so make sure to sign up only for the services that are required.

A forex broker is a long term partner for financial success so, make sure to research their background well. All that’s to be done is put in a little effort by checking the credibility of the forex broker or company upfront for peace of mind in long term.

Between 5 p.m. EST Sunday and 4 p.m. EST Friday, there are millions of Forex traders around the world trying to make a profit by predicting the future movement of currency exchange rates. With nearly 1.8 trillion dollars changing hands each and every day, the Forex is the largest and most fluid market in the world. Traded 24-hours a day and with investors having instant access to price changes via an Internet station, it is literally possible to watch one’s fortunes ebb and flow—one pip at a time!

A pip is equal to the smallest price increment that any currency can make. For the U.S. dollar and most major currencies, that amounts to 0.0001 (0.01 for the Japanese Yen). While it seems near impossible to make any money when dealing with such small numbers, the standard transaction unit on the Forex is $100,000 and is called a lot. Thus, the movement of just a few pips in either direction can turn into big profits or big losses—real fast!

In truth, playing the Forex is much safer than heading into a casino because the odds are not automatically stacked against you—but you can still lose your shirt if you over trade. Just like professional gamblers will tell you that playing against the casinos is a losing proposition—professional and successful Forex traders know that trading too often is simply stacking the odds against them.

For whatever reason, most of us are simply not going to risk $100,000 of our own money on something as volatile as the Forex. This is why the margin is such an important factor when thinking about buying and selling positions. Typically, an investor would need to put up $1,000 of their own money to buy a lot, or 1/100 of the total. Leveraging a position may be a practical necessity but it also means that the average investor is more at risk when it comes to price fluctuations. The more leveraged the position, the greater it will be affected by pip movements—up or down.

Making a profit in the Forex market boils down to knowing when to enter and exit a position—period. Investors place stops on orders to help limit losses and they need to rely on those stops to prevent them from losing too much—or bailing too soon! Investors who track the market every minute of the day and constantly monitor their positions are not only more likely to go crazy—they are also more likely to bail when the price starts to dip. So long as you have stops in place and are sticking with your investing strategy—be patient! At most, check the market at the close of each day and just hold to your strategy until the charts indicate otherwise.

It is difficult—almost impossible—not to worry about your investments so the natural impulse is to monitor them closely. However, the time to do your homework and put in the time is before acquiring a position—not after. Backtesting will help you find the best currency pairs for your investment tastes. Once you have the stops in place, check the charts and market once a day and let the investment ride. Losses are part of the game and your stops should protect you from losing more than you are comfortable with. Forex can make you a lot of money with moderate risk but it will become like a casino and the odds will turn against you if you play too often!

The first step in technical analysis is to learn to read the charts. Here are a few basic lessons to guide your early attempts.

When first analyzing a currency pair, look for the prevailing trend. Start with the long-term charts (monthly, weekly, and daily), going back for several years. Because these charts contain a greater amount of data, they provide a clearer picture of just what the currency pair is doing than the short-term charts (hour, half-hour, 15-minutes, or 5-minutes). The extra data also makes what the indicators are telling you more reliable.

Identifying the trend is simple: just look at the chart and decide if the graph is going more up than down, or more down than up. Trends can be steep or shallow, years long or weeks short. Practice identifying them, and finding the points where they change direction. The longest-term trend is the strongest, which is another reason for looking at those charts first.

Even if you’re scalping or day trading and don’t intend to hold a position longer than an hour, you’ll do better by trading in the same direction as the prevailing trend. So take the time to identify it on at least the daily charts before you begin. There’s an old trader’s saying: “The trend is your friend.” It’s not a lie.

Once you’ve identified the trend in the long-term charts, compare that with what you see in the short-term charts. You’ll find that there can be any number of intermediate-term and short-term trends within the path set by the prevailing trend. The graph will waver up and down but overall it will follow the path set by the longest-term trend.

Next, find the support and resistance levels, which are the “floor” and “ceiling” points on the graph, respectively. These are key points on the chart where the price repeatedly refuses to break through, or just peeks through then gives up the fight. The price will go just so high or so low, but no further; it reaches that point then changes direction. The more times that happens, the stronger the support and resistance are.

Draw a straight line, either in your mind or on the chart, passing through most of the support points. Then draw another passing through most of the resistance points. This gives you a picture of the path the currency pair’s trend is following, called a price channel, and it’s a simple but powerful tool to help determine how that path will continue.

When support and resistance are strong, the graph of the currency pair seems to bounce along sideways between those two lines like a pinball. When this happens, the currency pair is said to be range-bound. As this happens 80% of the time, many people simply trade within channels, although this technique doesn’t deliver any jackpot profits.

These lines don’t have to be level. Sometimes the currency pair is trending up or down, but still moving within that channel. However it’s slanted, you can still trade within that range.

When a currency pair breaks out of a price channel, sometimes it falls back into the channel, and sometimes it gains momentum and keeps moving. This last is called a momentum market, and it’s the other way to trade the range: set an entry order for the price to break out, either above or below the channel, then sit back and let it ride.

Congratulations—you now understand the most important elements of basic technical analysis!

The Foreign Currency Exchange (Forex) Market enables investors to make trades between major world currencies in order to make a profit. The Forex is the epitome of all traded markets since it is the least complicated and allows for trading 24 hours a day five days a week. It is hard to beat this combination when the goal is to develop a good system, stick to it and make a profit. The simplicity of the Forex Market as compared to the thousands of possible investments in other markets, combined with a person’s ability to trade nonstop almost every day of the week, makes the Forex an ever increasing and desirable trading partner.

Pharaohs to the Middle Ages:

Foreign Exchange Markets have been alive and well since the Middle Ages. And even long before that, various currencies changed hands between regions and countries since money first originated during the time of the Pharaohs. It appears the Babylonians were the first to use paper bills and receipts which facilitated the exchange of currencies between third parties.

U.S. Centennial to World War I:

Between 1876 and World War I, Foreign Exchange Markets were very stable. This stability was created because everyone was on the Gold Exchange Standard. Currencies were now supported by gold prices! Unfortunately, the gold standard had one major problem. When countries would become prosperous, thus allowing their imports to increase, their gold reserves would run down. These were the same gold reserves used to support the country’s currency. One thing led to another and before long the country would go through a recession. Then its products would look attractive to other countries and the gold would start coming back in to fill the coffers. There was just too much boom and bust under the gold exchange standard. Something had to change.

Great Depression to Early 70’s:

Shortly after World War I, in the 1930’s, Foreign Exchange Markets became overly speculative, increasing volatility tenfold. Things were out of control and something had to eventually change. From the early 30’s till the early 70’s the Forex Market went through many changes, which can still be seen today. In fact it wasn’t until 1973 that the modern Forex Market as we know it today started.

In 1944, after World War II was over, the major governments across the world came together in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to agree on a way to move forward with Foreign Currency Exchange so each country’s economy could maintain and renew itself in an orderly fashion on a regular basis. The Bretton Woods Accord was established to mesh currencies and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to stabilize the world’s economies. The accord fixed the major world currencies against the Dollar at a rate of USD 35 for each ounce of gold. The accord was also established to keep the world currencies from fleeing across countries and to decrease the speculative end of the market.

Up until World War II, the Great British Pound (GBP) was the currency by which most all other currencies were measured. When the British fell victim to German Nazi counterfeiting during WW II, thus devaluing the Great British Pound, the U.S. Dollar became the standard by which other currencies were valued. In fact, the destruction to Europe during World War II allowed the U.S Dollar, which had become a failed currency during The Great Depression, to rise from the ashes and become the dominant world currency.

The Bretton Woods Accord didn’t last a long time, but it lasted until 1971, long enough to accomplish its mission, which was to re-establish monetary consistency and stability to post war Europe and Japan.

Present Day:

Our present day Forex Market, as we know it, began in 1973 when currencies were allowed to become part of a free-floating system since none of the agreements or accords were then in force. In 1978, the free-floating arrangement was officially required of all major currencies. All major currencies move independently of one another in today’s world. They are no longer tied to a particular accord. This can lead to increased speculation with central banks occasionally intervening to get currencies back to desired levels. Basically it is supply and demand for currencies that is the driving force today in the Forex Market.

If you are considering becoming involved in the first market ever established for profiting from currency fluctuations, you may want to consider the Forex Market. It is tried and true and was the first. It is also less complicated and has more liquidity than any other market. This is important when you are trying to develop a trading strategy for maximizing your profits.

In the world's Major Economic Marketplace where exchanges achieve up to trillions of dollars each day, many people would really want to take part in this Marketplace. Aside from being the Major Financial Marketplace in the world, Forex is also the most liquid Marketplace in the world where trades are completed 24 hours a day.

A lot of Traders have turn out to be extremely wealthy Trading in the Forex Marketplace. And, many people who trade in the Forex Marketplace on a dai...


Keywords:
Forex Trading Online, Forex Beginners, Forex Trading Lessons, forex trading systems


Article Body:
In the world's Major Economic Marketplace where exchanges achieve up to trillions of dollars each day, many people would really want to take part in this Marketplace. Aside from being the Major Financial Marketplace in the world, Forex is also the most liquid Marketplace in the world where trades are completed 24 hours a day.

A lot of Traders have turn out to be extremely wealthy Trading in the Forex Marketplace. And, many people who trade in the Forex Marketplace on a daily basis have found a great way to replace their day jobs. Some even became millionaires almost overnight by just Trading in this Economic Marketplace.

Trading in the Forex Market can be very attractive. However, you should also know that there have been people who suffered extreme financial losses in the Forex Market. It is true that the Forex Marketplace offers a very good money-making opportunity to a lot of people, but it also has its risks.

It is a fact that people who didn't have the right knowledge and skills Trading in the Forex Marketplace suffered huge financial losses and some even went into debt. So, before you enter the Forex Marketplace, it is essential that you should have the necessary knowledge and skills as a Forex trader in order to minimize the risk of losing money and maximize the potential of making money.

Many people who were doing well in the Forex Market have went through a Learn Forex to get the knowledge and skills needed to successfully trade in this very liquid and very large economic Marketplace.

In a Forex Trading Education, you will learn about when it is the right time to buy or sell, chart the movements, spot Marketplace trends and also know how to use the different Trading platforms available in the Forex Marketplace.

You will also be familiarized with the terminologies used in the Forex Marketplace. Even the basic knowledge about Trading in the Forex Marketplace can be a great help with your money-making venture in the world's largest Marketplace.

There are different Forex Trading lessons offered, all you need to do is select one that suits your requirements as a trader. Even crash courses where all the basic things about Forex will be taught to you in a short period of time, full time online courses, where you will learn all about Forex through the internet and there are also full time real life classroom courses where you can learn the ropes about Forex in a real classroom with a live professor.

You can also become an apprentice. On the other hand, in order to become skilled at a lot about Forex as an apprentice, you need to make sure that you have a seasoned Forex trader who can share a lot of things to you about the Forex Market.

Here are some of the crucial things you should look for in a Forex Trading lessons in order for you to get the sufficient knowledge about Forex Trading:

• Forex Margins
• Forex Leveraging
• Types of Forex Orders
• Major currencies

A high-quality Forex Trading lessons will also clarify a lot about the primary and technical analysis of charts. As a trader, knowing how to analyze a chart is an essential skill that you should have. So, when you are looking for a Forex Trading lessons, you should look for a lessons that offers essential and technical analysis instruction.

Stress plays a vital part in Forex Traders. Knowing how to deal with stress is also a skill that you should develop. A good Forex Trading Education should teach you how to deal with stress and trade successfully and efficiently.

As much as possible, you should look for a Forex Education that offer real Trading systems where students can trade real currency on the Forex Market or at least trade on dummy accounts in a simulated Forex Marketplace. This hands-on knowledge will greatly benefit you. In addition, the best way to learn about anything is by actually experiencing it. Live Trading and simulations should be offered in a Forex Trading course.

Forex trading online can get you where you want to go quicker and more profitably than any other form of trading. Check it out and see what Forex trading online can do for you!