Technical Indicator

4 Types Of Technical Indicator You Need When Trading Forex

If you have any experience in using any kind of charting packages to assist you with your forex trading, you will know that there are endless different technical indicators you can use. In this article I'm going to be asking what are all these indicators and which ones do you really need?

As you can guess from the title of this article, there are essentially four different types of technical indicator and they are as follows:

1.Trend indicators.

MACD, Parabolic SAR and the various moving averages are a few examples of trend indicators and they can all be used to identify a trend. It's widely argued that you should only trade with the trend so all of these indicators will help you to take the decision out of your hands, and therefore dictate which way you should be trading. Your only decision now is at what level to enter the trade.

2.Momentum indicators.

These types of indicators are essentially oscillating indicators and are most useful for determining overbought and oversold positions and can be very useful in signalling the start of a new trend. Examples include RSI, Stochastics and CCI.

3.Volume indicators.

As the name suggests, these types of indicators show the volume of trades behind a particualr price movement which can be extremely beneficial because a price movement backed up by high volume is a much stronger signal than a price movement based on low volume. Examples here include Chaikin Money Flow, Force Index, Money Flow Index and Ease Of Movement.

4.Volatility indicators.

Volatility indicators generally use ranges to show the behaviour of the price and the volume behind any movements. This is useful because any dramatic change in behaviour can provide a good entry signal. Common examples include Bollinger Bands, Average True Range and Envelopes.

So there you have the four different types of technical indicators available to you. Which ones you use is entirely up to you, but it's generally advised that you have at least one type of each in order to provide additional confirmation for entering a trade.

Trading forex using technical analysis is all about probabilities in that when you enter a long position, for example, you want all of your chosen signals to be signalling an upwards movement, therefore indicating a high probability of an upwards movement taking place.

If you use a strict stop loss policy and use these different types of indicators to confirm positions, then over time this high probability trading method should provide you with more winners than losers in the long run.

About the Author

 Author: James-Woolley

FOREX Trading Strategies

The world of trading and investment can be as frustrating as it can be rewarding! And Forex (Foreign Exchange) is no exception - often described as risky, profitable and complicated.

Forex is the largest trading market in the world.

Forex is the worldwide market for buying and selling currencies. These markets were developed to cater for the supply and demand of different currencies by governments, companies and individuals - for international trade and assisting importers and exporters.

Therefore those who trade in this market include consumers, businesses, investors, speculators and the banking industry.

Different countries use different currencies - which vary in their values against each other. Forex trading involves the buying and selling of two currencies - trading pairs - you are selling one and buying another eg you may use the US dollar to purchase British pounds - if the supply of the pound lessens - it will cost more dollars to buy pounds - the Forex trader hopes to sell their pounds at a higher price than the purchase price.

A speculator in Forex is someone who accepts the possibility of adverse exchange-rate movements in the hope of making a profit from favourable movements in currency.

As a speculator you should always start trading with a small amount and have a trading system - which tells you when to get in and out of the market. It is a favourite option for currency traders as you can trade the Forex market 24 hours per day and the transaction costs are minimal.

This market - because of its sheer size - is hard to be manipulated - which stocks can be - it is more likely to be influenced by global news or events. Hence, the opportunity for 'insider trading' is eliminated.

However - beware -Forex brokers estimate that 90% of traders lose their money; 5% break even and only 5% achieve profitable results!

About the Author

Gay Redmile

Forex Trading Machines

Forex trading presents a real opportunity to achieve huge financial profits. All that you need is to tread in the market sensibly and use the tools available. Forex trading machine is one such tool. They are automated trading platforms through which you can trade into the market without having in-depth knowledge on forex.

Day by day, forex trading is becoming the most popular alternative career for people from every walk of life. Forex trading machines or the automated trading platforms are making life easier for them. To them it is the dream machine to trade forex that helps them to take each and every decision for their trading.

For veteran traders, forex trading machines are a place for experimenting different trading strategies. According to seasoned forex traders price driven forex trading or PDFT is one such strategy that works like a forex trading machine, churning out profits from every trade.

PDFT is a method free of technical indicators or any other trading tool. Therefore, according to experienced traders, this system works like a forex trading machine which is perfectly mechanical. Anyone will be able to trade following simple instructions given by the automated system.

But this exceedingly powerful forex trading machine can be exploited to its fullest potential with little innovation and understanding. If you learn the tricks of the trade, you will be able to use the ‘machine' even better. You must try to learn the essential basics of the forex trade before you actually start the trading.

An e-book by Avi Frister titled "Forex Trading Machine" introduces the readers to the forex market without bothering them with technical and fundamental indicators. The book is easy to understand and use. "Forex Trading Machine" will not teach you pivots, chart patterns, MA's or other techniques that demands your experience or judgment.

Instead, it focuses on strict entry and exit rules on basis of price action that eliminates subjectivity from trading. The author claims that after going through the steps, you would be able to trade like a ‘robot' with guaranteed profits.

Introductory chapters of "Forex Trading Machine" informs the reader about basics of the forex including explanation of currency quotes, pips, margins, daily ranges, technical and fundamental analysis etc. The book also describes how one can develop a disciplined trading strategy, control over emotion like fear and greed, watch the market for assessing the trends etc.

The book "Forex Trading Machine" outlines specific strategies following which you can develop a disciplined trading practice. These strategies are supported with risk management measures, which prevent you from incurring losses.

The main Forex trading strategy described in the book is ‘Cash Cow' which is perfect for a person who does not have time to analyze the forex market and forex charts or to sit in front of the terminal throughout the trading hours. Advanced traders, who are capable of employing more than one strategies will be immensely helped with the book in understanding technical or fundamental indicators.

About the Author

Author: city_tiger

Forex Trading Made Easy!

How to trade with pivot point:

Pivot point in my own opinion represent the best and most reliable way to trade this market as it is only when price gets or come close to a pivot line that all professional traders in the world will be looking to take action. In my own opinion pivot point is the best trading style or strategy to trade the foreign exchange market profitably.

So the question of all questions is when to buy and when to sell. My answer is when you see price break through a pivot point going up for example only at that point should you wait for price to go back to the broken pivot point that was recently penetrated. Plus of course the secondary inputs of the other indicators to clarify and support your decision that you were right. Then if the other indicators confirm an upward continuation as in this example, then you will seek to enter as close to the pivot point that was penetrated as possible. Then take your profit by targeting the next pivot point in your calculated points, or you can move your stop loss to the next point to take more profit in the trade as it continues in your favor.

Foreign exchange trading can be very profitable and may mark the end of your 9 to 5 job with little time to spend in front of your computer. This is because if one is to consider the size of the market it will give a well trained and tutored trader the opportunity to make a huge profit, not to talk of the leverage the market gives you. Learn all you can and demo trade, before going live and you will surely quit your 9 to 5 job.

Happy trading!

Asset Classes for Global Macro Trading

Among the ten asset classes we have cash, equities, fixed income, commodities, currencies, real estate, private equity, venture capital, collectibles, and statistical arbitrage. Obviously not all of these are easily accessible by most retail investors but you can still get into five or more.

The first asset class is cash. Cash is the safe haven when we can't find any other good trading opportunities. For instance if stocks look like junk and bonds are no good you will likely have some money in cash as you wait for a good opportunity. So while its really a currency we look at cash as a separate asset class.

Stocks are next. Stocks represent ownership in a company. When we look at stocks we look at them across the globe. That means domestic, foreign, and even emerging market stocks are included. Obviously we look at them different depending upon where they are located but they are still ownership in companies and in this day and age are all part of the global economy.

Bonds also known as fixed income are simply loans to governments and corporations. In return for the loan you get interest payments. Most global macro traders look at US government, foreign government, and corporate bonds when looking for a fixed income trade. By looking at multiple sub classes we have more opportunities for great risk to reward trades.

Commodities are up next. Commodities include things like base metals, precious metals, agricultural products, livestock, and the energy complex like natural gas and crude oil. Macro investors are willing to invest in anything from gold to lumber to even livestock if they can find a good risk to reward opportunity.

Finally we get to currencies. This is actually the largest asset class out there and gives some of the best trading opportunities. If you have an opinion on any country you can buy or short the currency and try and make money.

The last few asset classes are a lot harder to get good exposure to unless you manage a lot of money. With the possible exception of real estate via REIT's the rest of the asset classes are relatively illiquid, so they require a longer time frame in which to invest. Private equity and venture capital can take years to sell and collectibles go through very long dry spells in which liquidity dries up. By looking at everything you not only get a lead up on many trade ideas via the cross research but you also find more pure trading opportunities.

By John Keynes