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November 7, 2009

Swing Trading in Forex

Filed under: forex education — Tags: , , — admin @ 7:30 am

Building a Swing Trading System in 4 Simple Steps

If you do not know what swing trading in forex is, check out the background at currency swing trading and if you want to know why its one of the easiest forms of trading psychologically, check out our section swing trading for beginners

Here we are going to look at swing trading in forex from the standpoint of building a simple forex trading system, based on catching swing trades which is easy to understand, easy to apply and even better, can make big forex profits.
Here is your guide to a swing trading in forex with a system designed to make regular capital gains, whilst at the same time keeping losses to a minimum

Step 1 – Spot Support and Resistance

You need to use trend lines and spot areas of support or resistance to trade into.
Look for 3 tests or more – the more tests there are of course, the more valid and important the level will be.
Now you have spotted the opportunity, you need to time your trading signal and correct timing is crucial to success.

Step 2 – Trade with Price Momentum

Many traders simply like to go short into resistance or long into support, as it’s tested but this will never work.
If you do this, you are guessing or hoping the level will hold and the market will not reward you for this.
You don’t have the odds on your side and you will end up a loser.
With swing trading in forex (or any other method of trading for that matter) you need to trade the odds and get them in your favor and this means getting confirmation. You need to trade with confirmation of price momentum on your side BEFORE you execute your trading signal.
You therefore need to wait for a test of support or resistance.
Then Wait
Watch for the currency to turn away from support or resistance with accelerating price momentum and THEN execute trade.
You are trading with price momentum and the odds are in your favor.
Sure you won’t catch the turn exactly and you miss a bit of profit – but if you trade this way and grab 60 – 70% of the potential overall profit, you will make a lot of money and this is the aim of any forex trading system.

Which Indicators Are Best?

Try these:
The stochastic and the Relative Strength Index (RSI) as a good pair to start with.
We don’t have enough time to explain them in detail here – but these are superb momentum indicators.
There are many others – just pick and choose a few you like best but don’t use too many – up to 3 is fine.
When swing trading in forex, your system should be simple and robust – if you complicate it you will lose, as there will be too many elements to break.

Step 3 – Stop Reverse on Breakouts

For example, if you are trading into resistance that is at a market high, you may want to use a stop reverse upon a break.
Most major trends start from new market highs NOT market lows.
If prices break out go with the break.
The initial breakout of strong resistance, will see stops hit and new trend followers kick in and by taking the turn, you can go with this momentum.
Be careful – you should only do this into strong resistance that is considered valid by the market participants. This will ensure you don’t get caught trading false or weak breakout trades.

Step 4 Take Profits Too Soon

When swing trading in forex, your profits can disappear quickly, so you need to make sure that you get them in the bank, when the risk reward is in your favor – before recoil in price sets off a counter move.
Take your profits early and by this we mean.
BEFORE they test the next level of support and resistance.
Your aim is to “hit and run”, the closer the trade moves to a target the more chance you have of a reversal so get out early. You may miss some of the move – but as we said earlier (on getting into the trade) that doesn’t matter – your aim is 60 – 70% of the overall profit potential.
If you can do this regularly, you will make you a lot of money and ensure your forex trading strategy is successful over the long run.
Other points in relation to a successful swing trading method we covered earlier in  other sections – but their important so to repeat:
Only trade liquid, volatile major currencies and pick a broker that offers you tight 2 – 3 pip spreads, so they do not impact on your overall forex profits.

A Simple Way to Make Big Profits!

Swing trading in forex is simple to learn, easy to apply and requires far less discipline than longer term trend following. It’s also exciting, fun and ideal for either novice traders or seasoned market veterans – learn and enjoy forex swing trading today

Our Strategies

Filed under: forex learn — Tags: , — admin @ 7:07 am

Proven Strategies For Bigger Profit Potential

My Forex trading strategy is based upon 25 years of experience trading at the sharp end. I have made mistakes, lost money, learned some hard lessons and tried just about every system and indicator out there and this experience has helped me formulate the trading strategy I use today, with my team.

A Simple Way to Build Wealth

It’s simple to understand, takes under 30 minutes a day, needs no intra day monitoring and can be used for: Trend following, catching big trend reversals or used for swing trading.

Confidence & Discipline

Any trader can understand it, apply it and make big profits from it.
To follow any Forex trading system with discipline you need to have confidence in it and this means knowing why the method works and will continue to work.
This method will give you confidence, as when you see how it works you will realize – it can NEVER go out of date and will continue to be effective.

Personalize It

You can customize it to your own trading personality and make it high or low risk depending on your trading personality.

Trading the Odds

Our Forex trading strategies use standard indicators but generates a “trading edge” by the way we combine them TOGETHER – to generate trades with the best risk to reward and the best odds of success.

See How They Work RISK FREE!

If you want to know more about our strategies and news of a trade that’s shaping up RIGHT NOW and could make in excess of $10,000!

Forex Trend Following

Filed under: forex analysis — Tags: — admin @ 7:04 am

Big Profits are Made Trend Following the Currencies

How To Get Your Share!

If you are a Forex Trader than you need to liquidate losing trades quickly and run profitable trades to pile up big long term profits. Many traders don’t know how to do this and this section will give you some basics to follow and advantages and disadvantages of various methods.
Forex trend following can be done in various different ways and here we will examine the merits of each and how they can bring you currency trading success.

Day Trading

More novice traders try to catch trends in daily time frames than any other method however, this method of trend following is doomed to failure.
Fact: The data within a day is totally unreliable and support and resistance levels are meaningless. Volatility can and does, take prices anywhere and all daily movements are random.
You can’t get the odds in your favour and you can’t win – PERIOD
There are countless millions of traders, trading trillions of dollars daily and it’s laughable to think that you can trade in such a short term time frame and win.
So why do so many traders try it?
Well, it’s a good story and many vendors appeal to the greed and naivety of investors and try and sell them forex trading systems or courses, but they don’t trade them! They make money from selling their product – they win by selling their product and the trader loses in the market.
Don’t fall for the myth of Forex day trading!
Advantages: None!
Keep in mind: You are guaranteed to lose, as you can never get the odds in your favour.

Swing Trading

Swing trading is perhaps the easiest way for novice forex traders to learn a Forex trading system. The aim is to catch reactions in major trends which normally last a few days to a week.
Swing trading has the advantage of there are plenty of trades to go for and you know if you are right or wrong quickly. Forex swing trading is easy psychologically, as you have obvious stop levels, small loses and profits are generally banked quickly.
The key to successful swing trading is to spot valid areas of support and resistance and then use momentum indicators, to execute trading signals in line with shifts in price momentum. For example, traders would wait for a test of support and for price momentum to turn up away from support and then trade to the long side.
The key with swing trading is always to CONFIRM With momentum indicators – before executing a trading signal.
EVER simply hope a level will hold or try and predict as you will lose.
Advantages: Easy to learn, its fun, there are lots of trades, it can be very profitable and it’s easy psychologically.
Keep In Mind: Make sure you don’t just guess or hope with swing trading and you use momentum indicators to confirm your trading signals.

Long Term Trend Following

The most lucrative form of trading and also the toughest way to trade.
If you look at Forex trends you will very often see trends that last for months or even years yet, very few traders have the mental discipline to hold these trends and milk them for all they’re worth.
Forex trend following requires patience, to wait for and enter these trends when the risk/ reward is at its best and then have the mental discipline to follow them.
Why is it so hard to do?
Because most traders are not mentally prepared to accept big gains.
The above may sound odd – as surely all forex want big gains?
The answer is yes they do, but accepting them is another matter.
The problem is – if money is important to you (as it is to most traders) then counter trend moves, which eat into your open equity, can tempt you to bank a profit early.
Most traders get excited when they get a profit and the bigger it gets the more tempted they are to take it, before it gets away. As volatility eats into open equity the temptation becomes too great for most traders and they bank early.
They end up taking an average profit or mediocre one, when they could have had a huge one.
If you are long term trend following you need the courage of your conviction and tremendous mental discipline to ignore counter trend swings and keep your eyes on the bigger prize.
Forex trend following is tough mentally but the rewards are immense, if it is done correctly and you have the right mindset.
Advantages: You can make huge profits!
Keep in mind: You need to be patient when timing entry levels and you also need to be able to psychologically handle short term severe dips in open equity. You need to keep your eyes focused on the end prize – not the short term swings against you. It’s not easy to do but very lucrative.

New Trends & Turning Points

It is the dream of most traders to be able to catch important market tops and bottoms.
Catching these turning points offers low risk and high rewards, as you are in at the stat of a new trend and these turning points normally see profits piled up quickly.
Catching turning points is satisfying, very profitable and its not has hard to do as many traders think.
If you use sentiment tools such as % bullish and Net Traders Positions, you will with a little practice, be able to spot these turning points forming. Then you can time entry with on your forex charts.
The key is to WAIT for clear confirmation of a trend change – before getting on board.
These moves don’t come around very often but if you look out for them, they will give you some great profits coupled with low risk.
Advantages: Great risk to reward, it’s a lot easier to do than many traders think and it gets you in at the start of big trends which, normally see big profits emerge quickly.
Keep in mind: You need to be careful in timing your entry and enter at the right time furthermore; these trades only come around a few times a year, so you have to be patient and wait for the right opportunities

Final words

You can make money with all the above methods of trend following (except day trading) and the method of Forex trend following you choose is down to personal preference.
You can focus on one of the above – or combine all of them together in your forex trading strategy and seek big profits in the worlds most lucrative and exciting investment market – Good luck!

How Prices Move

Filed under: forex education — Tags: — admin @ 4:38 am

The Equation For Forex Price Movement

Most novice traders fail to understand how and why prices really move.
Here we will give you an introduction to how and why prices move and how you can take advantage of these movements for profit. Let’s look at some key points in relation to how and why prices move.

Markets Do Not Move To a Scientific Formula

Firstly, let’s get rid of this myth.
Many traders believe this and numerous vendors on the net perpetrate the myth of markets moving to a scientific law which appeals to the greed and naivety of traders.
Common sense tells us that markets don’t move scientifically:
If markets moved scientifically, there’d be no market as we’d all know the price in advance!
A forex market by its nature, involves uncertainty – that’s what makes a market move – the fact that human nature is un-predictable.

Trading the Odds for Profit

While you are not trading certainties but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a lot of money, you can – by trading the odds.
With a sound trading method that runs profits and cuts losses quickly you can build significant long term wealth.
It is no coincidence that many of the world’s top traders started out as either blackjack or poker players. The reason for this is – any good card player knows he won’t win every hand but if they bet when the odds are in their favor and fold when there not, they will make a lot of money longer term.
Trading is simply an odds game.
If you know how to calculate the odds correctly, you can win and build significant long term wealth. Let’s look at how to get the odds in your favor.

Price Movement – The fundamentals

Many traders like to trade off news stories and watch the fundamentals, it’s popular but will trading news stories make traders money? Let’s find out.
A currency trader, who makes trades based upon fundamental analysis, will look at the supply and demand situation relevant to the particular currency studied, and try and predict the impact of such factors as:

  • The health of the economy
  • Economic policy
  • Interest rates
  • Balance of payments
  • Employment
  • Trade deficit
  • Political factors

And many more.

On the face of it fundamental analysis provides a logical and rational basis for investment decisions however there are problems in applying it and traders who try and trade off the news generally lose.
The main problems are:

1. Markets Discounts

We live in a world of instant communications where traders can and do get the news in a split second – the fundamentals are instantly discounted and the market is looking to the future.
By the time you have seen, studied and acted on the news – it’s already been discounted.

2. Investor Psychology

Another major problem is that the fundamentals are there for all to see but individual traders all reach different conclusions based upon what they have seen furthermore, humans are not logical beings!
Prices reflect the fundamentals but they also reflect the emotions of the participants and investor psychology is THE major influence on price.
The equation for market movement is simple:
Fundamentals (supply and demand facts) + Human Perception (investor psychology) = Market Price
To trade successfully you need to be able to see the influence of BOTH parts of the equation and this leads us onto our section – technical analysis

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