FOREX TRADING 102: Essential Forex Trading Strategies June 16, 2010 No Comments

forex trading strategies 102 FOREX TRADING 102: Essential Forex Trading StrategiesForex trading is one of the best methods that you can use to make a lot of money and if you are a potential investment player who want to make it big in the business and financial world, foreign exchange is definitely a GO. Forex is larger than the stock market and unlike the stock, this financial trading runs 24 hours every single day.

Below are few strategies that you can use to start your investment journey:

Strategy One: Always Know Your Market before Entering Into It

This is the most basic but important step that every player has to do before proceeding into the market. The only way to get the most out of your investment (maximize profits and minimize losses) is to familiarize yourself with the market and how the whole money system works. Sun Tzu’s advice never errs.

In foreign exchange market, the players are always commercial banks, central banks, investment firms that involved in foreign trade, investment funds, brokers firms and other private individual with large capital. Everyone can enter into this market freely and they also can exit whenever they want. It’s quite risky if you do not know what you are doing.  Transactions are done in a jiffy; there are no membership fees and there is always the allure and promise of big profit.

Trading in the forex market is always done in pairs and the most commonly traded currencies are none other than the US Dollar, Japanese Yen, Euro, British Pound Sterling, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar and the Swiss Franc. The most commonly traded currency pairs are the US Dollar vs Japanese Yen, the Euro vs US Dollar, the Swiss Franc and the US Dollar. The activities in the market consist of computed entries made on the value of one currency against another and this changes from moment to moment.

There is always a trend to sport and this is part of the technique that you can use. Everything is absolute speculative and virtually done; there is no actual physical product or thing that are being traded. To make it clear, you can buy US Dollar with Pounds, hoping that the US Dollar value will increase in the near future, which can just be a few minutes later. Once its value rises and it hits your target, you can then sell the Euro again and pocketing a profit.

Strategy Two:  Learn the Trading Language

There are four main concepts that you should absolutely need to know before entering the currency market:

Pips: The increase of one hundredth (0.01) of a percent of the value of the currency pair you are trading. Usually each pip has a value of $10 or $1 depending on the currency that you are trading.

Volume: The quantity or amount of money being traded at one particular time in the currency market.

Buying: The acquisition of a particular currency; a trader gets hold of a currency with the hopes that the price or value of the currency will increase before letting it go.

Selling: An action of putting or letting go a currency into the market for grabs. This action is motivated by the potential or possibility of a decrease in its value. This action is either to minimize the risk of losing or when the trader has reached his trading goal and it’s time to go.

Like the stock market, forex also involve two trading techniques: the fundamental analysis and the technical analysis. Technical analysis is usually used by small and medium players, which their aim is to profiting from the market as fast as possible. The primary point or factor of analysis in this technique revolves on the price.

Fundamental analysis, on the other hand, is mostly used by bigger companies and players with large capital. This technique requires the investors to look at the other factors which are affecting the value of a particular currency.  These factors mainly revolve on the situation of the country such as political stability, inflation rate, economy, tax policies, government policies and etc. All these factors will have an impact toward the currency value.

Read more about this topic here: Technical and Fundamental Analysis

Strategy Three:  Have a Sound Trading Strategy that Works

Your trading strategy depends on what kind of trader you are. So the first thing you need to do is to identify what kind of currency trader you are. A good trading strategy should never put you in the risk of looses (or minimize your losses in case if it happens).  Plan ahead of the size of your transactions and do not trade beyond your mean cause that’s would be a financial suicidal.

Besides, it is also better to conduct many different trades compare to only one huge transaction. Through this, it will not only develop your trading discipline but also minimize any possible loss since only a small fraction of the capital is affected.  A professional trader always knows how to manage his money properly. Money and financial management is actually part of the game, it does not only concern about your wealth being.

Strategy Four: Practice

Practice makes perfect or if not, near perfect. You can start with paper trading to horn your skill and see how the market works. In the meantime you can also get yourself familiar with the tools and software used in the trade. One of the great way to do this is by using simulated forex trading software or commonly known as forex robot software.

Strategy Five: Choosing the Right Forex Dealer

Before getting your forex dealer, always do your due diligence. Make sure that they are regulated by the law and do not always falls into hard to believe promises or scams. Go through their investment offers before getting started.

Currency trading may look simple and manageable but don’t fall to it. Acquiring the skills needs time and you need to practice it before they become part of you. The emotional stress particular when you are dumping real money into it will always affect your decision, sometimes to the worst. The demands and challenges of being a good forex trader require more than just the knowledge of the market.  You have to have a strong mind to play it strategically, in short, a game plan to succeed.