Thursday, August 30, 2007

Successful FOREX Trading Is Based On 3 Character Traits - Do You Have Them?

There are three character traits you need to have, to become successful in FOREX trading and most people simply cant acquire them.

When you consider that everything about FOREX Trading can be learned, yet 90% of traders lose, you will realize just how important these traits are.

Lets start with a tale of a group of traders that had no experience and in just 14 days started trading careers that were to see them become some of the most successful traders of all time.

A lesson from the turtles

The turtles, was the nickname given to a group of traders who were taught by legendary trader Richard Dennis to trade in just 14 days.

His contention was that traders were made not born and set out to prove his point to stunning affect.

The key to their success was to instill in them 3 key character traits:

1.Accepting Responsibility

Dennis made them accept responsibility for their actions by giving them all the knowledge they needed - then all they had to do was learn it, understand why it would work and apply it in the market.

Of course most traders dont do this.

They think that by following news stories, chatting with their brokers or buying an e-book they can gain success but this is a recipe for failure.

Why?

Because if you dont accept responsility for your actions and understand why your trading plan will work, you will lack the next key character trait.

2.Confidence

If you follow someone else you wont have the confidence to trade a method through the bad times.

You must understand why your trading plan will work in the longer term to stay with it and this means understanding how it works and why it will be successful.

If you lack confidence, you will simply lack the next key character trait which is:

3.Discipline

You will hear this word a lot and you need it to succeed, its talked about a lot but most traders dont really understand what it is or how you acquire it...

Even if you have a sound trading method, you need discipline because it can and will lose as do all systems.

When losing streaks come you cant blame anyone it serves no purpose, you need to stick with your forex trading system and be confident that it will turn around.

Discipline flows from accepting there is no one to blame, that you alone are responsible and knowing your systems well enough, to understand that if you stick with it you will succeed.

It sounds simple...

However, today the bulk of traders (as we have said earlier) or want to rely on a so called expert to lead them to success or rely on seeking the opinions of others.

They dont really understand that:

They need to take responsibility and trade a method they know and understand and have total confident in to follow it with discipline.

Finally remember this

Richard Dennis taught the turtles however he did not tell them to follow him blindly He gave them the tools and THEY made them work.

They learned to trade and in 14 days were ready to take the test and they all passed - amassing countless millions of dollars quickly and many of them became legends.

Trading looks simple but few traders realize the 3 key character traits outlined above are needed to succeed and thats why 90% of traders lose all their equity in Forex Trading.

GRAB 2 X FREE TRADER PDF'S AND MUCH MORE!

On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader including features, downloads and some critical FREE Trader PDF's and more FREE Forex Education visit our website at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

Do You Need Forex Trading Signals?

All trading strategies boil down to knowing when to buy and when to sell. These points in time are known as entrance and exit points, respectively. Yes, it sounds simple buy low and sell high. But its not easy and when trading currency its even tougher than trading stocks, where company statistics can give you a good starting point.

Forex trading is different. Youre trying to predict how the currency market will change in a certain time frame and then take advantage of the gainers by buying them at their lowest points and selling them when theyve peaked. The question is, how does currency behave. What factors influence its gains or losses? And how do we measure those factors?

Professional traders study these very questions every day. They may be sitting in front of their monitors nearly every waking hour in order to pull together facts about how the various currencies are acting in relation to each other. They try to determine a relationship between daily events and forex prices. But most investors dont have this kind of time or dedication. How are they able to make good trades? Simple they buy the information rather than research it themselves.

Forex brokerage houses have come up a solution for the average or more casual investor. They distribute the results of all that professional research, combined and reported in what they call signals, to paying customers. Subscribers learn what factors are present in the market that could mean a change in currency values. This eliminates hours of daily research and allows the more casual investor to have a life outside of trading, yet still get some of the same information the professionals use.

Unfortunately, signals arent complimentary. Your broker probably offers signals for a fee. You need to determine your level of involvement in the forex market and whether or not its worth it to you to subscribe to a service like this. If you havent found your broker yet, this may be a good included service to search out and compare prices for.

Signals bring results.

Those companies that create the signals use technical and statistical analyses, combine them with trend indicators and deliver the results frequently to assure that you get accurate and real time information. The forex market is fast-paced and volatile, so it is up to you to use the signals to set up and execute trades.

Of course, theres no guarantee. Signals are a useful TOOL, no more. They give an indication of how the market is performing and how it may be trending. But they can and will, be wrong. The goal should be to have enough winners to pay for the losers and have profit left over. Never expect to have no losers, because you will. You cant let this discourage you, but instead learn from it. Find the signal you missed or the time limit you failed to recognize. Next time youre in a similar situation, chances are youll do better.

Remember, if forex trading signals were perfect indicators, no one would ever fail in the foreign exchange market. Use the tools, but dont be completely dependent upon them.

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Forex Trading

Forex Trading Tips

Forex trading has the highest volatility of any investment market in todays global marketplace. Forex has a volatility of 500. Liquid stocks volatility is from 60 to 100. Smart investors are currently jumping into the forex market at record numbers.

With access to a computer, an investor can go online anywhere in the world 24 hours a day, except for the weekends. A Forex investor is in control of his account. With the right strategy and attention to world events, a Forex investor can reap substantial profits with his investment.

Although an investor can enter the Forex market with very little capital outlay, he should keep in mind that, with the volatility of the currency market and the economic and political turmoil around the world, Forex trading is not risk free.

A Forex investor must be able to analyze the news, not just listen to it, and after analyzing the news, an investor should use proven strategies when buying or selling. An investor should never make and investment decision based on fear or greed. He should consult reputable charts and graphs and known and proven market indicators before making a decision. A Forex investor should familiarize himself with the big players and political figures that influence the market. Learn personalities and listen to fellow Forex investors. Because Forex traders all trade in currencies, there is no threat of insider trading. Every Forex investor is an insider. With the right strategy and insight into what moves the market, a Forex trader can be very successful.

Milos Pesic is an expert in the field of Forex Trading and runs a highly popular and comprehensive Forex Trading web site. For more articles and resources on Forex related topics, online forex trading, trading tips, forex software and much more visit his site at:

=>http://forex.need-to-know.net/

An Introduction To Breakout Trading

Breakouts are one of the easiest technical patterns to spot. They occur in all instruments and in all time frames, so it doesn't matter if you're swing trading a currency, or day trading a futures contract, breakouts are a pattern you can trade.

What Is A Breakout?

Before we look at trading breakouts in more detail, we should first answer the question, what is a breakout? To understand breakouts, first it's necessary to understand support and resistance - the basis of all technical analysis.

Put simply, support is the point at which enough buyers come into a market to arrest a drop in price. Conversely, resistance is the point at which enough sellers enter a market that the price stops rising.

If buyers enter a market at a certain price, stopping the fall, and the price rises then subsequently falls, the price will once again reach the point of previous support. At this moment, the support is said to be being 'tested'. If the buyers re-enter the market at (or close to) the same price as before, thus pushing the price back up again, we can say that support has held. The support price point now has more strength than before, because it has been tested twice.

If the price bounces from the support point repeatedly, that support becomes stronger and stronger. In a sort of 'self fulfilling prophecy', new buyers will often come into the market near previous support in the hope that the price will once again bounce and rise, thus making the support hold again.

Eventually however, the support will fail and the price will drop through. This is a breakout - so-called because the price has broken out of the range in which it was trapped, between support and resistance.

When a breakout occurs, it will often do so with such force that the price will carry on dropping (or rising, it the breakout was to the upside - that is a break of resistance). To understand why, consider all those buyers who were buying at the support line. Eventually there are not enough of them left to prop up the price, and so it falls below support (in other words, it breaks out). Some buyers who had bought at that price point will immediately cut their losses and sell. This pushes the price down further. As the price drops, more and more buyers who had purchased at support will hit their stops, triggering yet more selling.

This vicious circle of selling causes 'momentum' and the price spirals downwards.

After all, if we sold when the price broke-out to the downside, or bought when it broke-out to the upside, we could just sit back and enjoy the ride, right? Well, not quite...

False Breakouts (Fakeouts)

Not all breakouts follow through. Sometimes the price will dip below support (or pop through resistance) only to turn around and go back within the previous trading range. This is more prone to happening with certain instruments where market makers or big players can control price to a certain degree.

For example, let's imagine a market maker wanting to buy a large quantity of stock. Naturally, he wants to get it at the best price he can. The stock is currently trading within a range. The market maker already has a chunk of stock, and he sells this off, his relatively large selling forcing the price through the support level. As the price of the stock drops, a number of short-sellers enter the market, selling on the breakout expecting momentum to carry the price further down. The market maker starts buying up all this stock that the shorts are selling, getting it for a bargain price. As the sellers run dry, the price is forced back up, and as it does so, the short sellers stops start getting hit and they are forced to cover their positions by buying back stock. All this buying activity pushes the price even higher!

When a breakout is manipulated in this way, it is usually referred to as a 'fakeout'.

Safe Breakout Trading

So if a trader can't be sure if a breakout is going to follow through or not, should they even attempt to trade them? How can we take advantage of this seemingly simple, but deceptively devious, trading pattern?

One way is to carefully choose the instrument we trade. Forex for example, is less prone to fakeouts because the market is so huge that it is almost impossible for any individual or institution to manipulate false breakouts.

Another way is to use advanced trading tools like Level 2, which gives complete market transparency and therefore lets the trader see what's really driving price.

But perhaps the most effective way is simply to become a student of 'momentum', or tape reading. If you can learn to read the tape (the Time & Sales screen, which reports trades in real time), you can quickly learn to spot true momentum and real breakouts.

Conclusion

Breakout trading is a relatively high probability low risk way to trade. As with any trading pattern, breakouts will work some of the time, and will fail other times. With practice, and by learning to read momentum, a skilled trader can quickly learn to spot the best breakout opportunities.

Harvey Walsh is a full time day trader and part time trading coach. He has helped students from around the world to break free from the day job and start a successful and profitable career, day trading from their own homes. You can find out more about Harvey, and learn some of his most profitable trading strategies, at his website http://www.daytradingfreedom.com

Aintree Day Two Preview

A little short on time today, so I'll keep this brief (I can hear your collective sigh of relief from here!)...

Yesterday - Mighty Man won the first as expected, but I didn't back it. I lost money on State Of Play, as Exotic Dancer proved himself a very very good horse in the Betfair Bowl.

Katchit won as he pleased, and I did back him but only for small money. By the way, did I mention I love this horse?

Just one point of order here: what the Dickens are the BBC doing employing the abject buffoon who is Jim McGrath to do the commentary?! Not only did he call the foot perfect Katchit as making a bad blunder (then followed it up by saying he jumped the next much better) when it was blatantly apparent to anyone with even one partially functioning eyeball that it was Punjabi who made the 'horlicks'; he also couldn't track a faller down for over a fence and, when he did, it was clearly a guess as he said Locksmith fell, then called him as the leader in the final quarter mile.

Finally, and this must surely have not been lost on the powers that be, in their first rehearsal for the Grand National, they were using four commentators (as they will be on Saturday). McGrath came a distant fourth - tailed off - to this listener's ear anyway, when pitched alongside the estimable race reading talents of Tony O'Hehir, my mate Ian 'Barty' Bartlett and another chap whose name escapes me, but who is a fine up and comer who often calls at Wolverhampton.

McGrath is an ignoramus. I never want to hear of a horse 'careering away' again in my life! (but I suspect I will have heard it twice more before the second race is over...)

Onwards, dear reader... I got the Hunter Chase wrong, and am still waiting to see where mine finish. Scots Grey looked beaten and rallied very well: a real treat if you backed it because you must have thought you'd lost your money, only to see him come back with admirable resolve.

The money for Bambi De L'Orme in the antipenultimate (that's third last to you and me) was well placed, and he won nicely. None of my cash was on him.

Had a decent bet on Wins Now in the sixth race and reckon he would have won but for a terrible mistake at the last hurdle. McCoy is not really a man for the Festival meetings it seems. At least not when I back him... TTS had the winner in Tidal Bay, and of course my bet on the Bay was left second at Cheltenham. Bugger.

In the last TTS had three non-qualifiers, due to the prices. Pity, because Two Miles West won at 25/1 and Gods Token was second at 33/1. The exacta paid a piffling 3170.20! (Place lay of the day Laouen beaten into 5th, so lay landed - just!)

To today, and hopefully none of you are triskaidekaphobic (afraid of the number 13 of course!)... No time for (further) verbiage, so my placepot / win selections are as follows:

Race 1: Ungaro and Dom D'Orgeval
Race 2: Massini's Maguire (a very tough horse to pass!)
Race 3: Well Chief (different class, barring jumping errors... no money down this time though!)
Race 4: Ground Ball, Umbrella Man, Risk Accessor, Hakim, and Le Volfoni
Race 5: Osana (tipped here as an Aintree horse before Cheltenham)
Race 6: Limerick Boy, Green Belt Flyer and Fundamentalist (place lay of the day: Copsale Lad.)
Race 7: One Gulp

Good luck if you're playing today...

Matt

Matt Bisogno is a lifelong horseracing and betting enthusiast, and has published a number of statistical analysis of trainer patterns for horse racing betting purposes.

Should You Trade The Forex Market Or The Futures Exchange?

Back in the nineteenth century farmers started selling contracts to deliver their produce at a fixed price at some specified future date in an effort to stabilize the supply and demand of agricultural products out of season. At this point the futures market was effectively born.

Today the futures market extends far beyond agricultural products and includes many different items from manufactured goods to currencies and treasury bonds, but the principal remains the same. One essential difference however lies in the fact that for many futures traders there is no intention to actually purchase the goods in question or to take delivery and it is the futures contract itself that is the trading instrument.

As an example of how futures trading works let's assume that a baker enters into a contract with a farmer to supply 100 tons of wheat at $50 a ton on a specified date. This contract need not necessarily require the baker to purchase the wheat specified in the contract but gives him the option to do so if he so chooses. Now, Futures accounts are settled at the end of each trading day and so, if after entering into the contract, the market price of wheat on a particular day is $40 a ton the farmer's trading account will be credited with $1000 ($50 - $40 X 100) and the baker's account will be credited with the same amount.

Final settlement of the account and delivery of the wheat will then take place on the agreed date and, for the sake of argument, we'll assume that the price of wheat is still $40 a ton at this point. The farmer will now have $1000 in his trading account and the baker will need to pay his account the $1000 that it is down. So how did both parties do?

The baker has lost $1000 on his futures contract but is able to buy wheat on the open market now at just $40 a ton rather than the $50 he anticipated and so his loss on the contracted is balanced by his ability to buy cheaply on the open market. In effect he has protected himself against having to pay more than $50 a ton but has in essence lost because the market price has fallen.

The farmer on the other hand has made $1000 on his futures contract but, because the market has fallen, he can now only sell his wheat for $40 a ton. Once again the difference between the two is balanced and, by entering into the contract he has effectively gained the $1000 he would otherwise have lost on the open market.

In many cases speculators will enter the market and will buy and sell futures contracts. For example, if they expect prices to rise they will purchase the contract from the buyer (known as buying long) and, if they expect the price to fall, they will purchase the contract from the seller (known as buying short).

The Forex, or foreign exchange, market is similar in many ways to the futures market but has several important advantages.

The Forex is the largest financial market in the world and is a giant when set alongside the futures market. This makes the Forex market very much more "liquid" and provided many more trading opportunities for both buyers and seller.

The Forex market is also open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, while most futures exchanges are open for only 7 hours a day on Monday to Friday.

Forex transactions are commission-free, while brokers will charge both commission and brokerage fees on futures contracts.

Forex transactions are executed almost immediately because of the high volume of trading and there is usually little difference between a quoted price and that actually paid on the transaction. In futures trading quoted prices will often reflect the last price paid on a similar trade and there can be a marked difference between the quoted price and the actual price paid.

Finally, the Forex market has a number of in-built safeguards which mean that trading on the Forex carries less risk than trading on the futures exchange.

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