Electronic Forex Meter

IT company for a sustainable and secure world, announced today the completion, as scheduled, of the "Amrelva" project installation phase, signed with Sweden's Vattenfall company to supply and manage the automatic remote electric meter reading system. During this phase, Telvent acted as main meter supplier by providing 600,000 of the 850,000 total meters, and allowed Vattenfall to bill all of its clients through remote reading of electric consumption.
On June 27th, coinciding with the installation of the last meter, Helene Bistrom, Vice Head of Business Group Nordic of Vattenfall, executed the symbolic connection of the last meter in the Skarholmen neighborhood in the Swedish city of Uppsala. During the ceremony, Ms. Bistrom stressed the importance of this project for Vattenfall as it supports the development of a secure grid as well as additional services for its end clients.
A total of 583,000 households are set to use the automatic remote reading systems started up by Telvent; users are now able to control electric consumption costs at any time from their homes. This real-time technology also enables a reduction in billing errors, and contributes to increase
Ignacio Gonzalez-Dominguez, Executive Vice President of Telvent's Energy division, pointed out the significance of this project for Telvent, as it has "enabled us to deliver a basic utility management tool through Telvent's Smart Grid Solution Suite." This solution helps utilities, like Vattenfall, to transform their power grid by making electrical distribution more efficient, economical and secure, in addition to, in this particular case, permitting theto comply with Swedish legislation requirements aimed at reducing energy consumption through performance and demand response.
The operational and maintenance phase, also managed by Telvent since 2006, is to be completed by 2011, with a six-year extension option. The services provided to the Swedish electrical utility to date further reinforce and consolidate the strong alliance established by both companies, and ultimately contribute to optimizing the quality of service offered by Vattenfall to its customers.

Electronic Trading Systems

New Electronic Trading Systems in Foreign Exchange Markets

I. Introduction
II. The Structure of Foreign
Exchange Markets
A. Information and Agents
B. Institutions
C. Interbank Trading Options
D. Transparency
III. Direct Trading and Voice Brokers
A. Dealer Behavior
IV. Electronic Brokers
A. Transparency
B. Liquidity
C. Transaction Costs
469
New Economy Handbook
Copyright 2003, Elsevier Science . All rights reserved.
D. The Future of Direct Trading
and Voice Brokers
E. Policy Implications
V. Internet Trading
A. The Emergence of Nonbank
Customer Trading
B. Internet Trading with Banks
C. Possible Scenarios
VI. Summary
A. Web Sites on Trading and
Networks
References and Further Reading

Bid–ask spread Difference between the best buy price (ask) and best sell
price (bid).The initiator of a trade buys at the ask and sells at the lower
bid price. The spread is a measure of transaction costs. The buy price is
also called the “offer.”
Broker Brokers match dealers in the interbank market without being
a party to the transactions themselves and without taking positions
(cf. dealer).
Call market A market where all traders trade at the same time when
called upon.
Counterparty credit risk The risk that the market participant on the other
side of a transaction will default. Due to the large trade sizes in foreign
exchange markets, credit risk is an important issue.
Dealer A person employed by a bank whose primary business is entering
into transactions on both sides of wholesale financial markets and
seeking profits by taking risks in these markets (cf. broker).
Dealer market Market where orders for execution pass to an intermediary
(dealer) for execution.
Interbank market The market where dealers trade exclusively with each
other, either bilaterally or through brokers.
Limit order Order to buy a specified quantity up to a maximum price or
sell subject to a minimum price (cf. market order).
Liquidity Characteristic of a market where transactions do not excessively
move prices. It is also easy to have a trade effected quickly
without a long search for counterparties (“immediacy”). Liquid markets
usually have low bid–ask spreads, high volume, and (relatively) low
volatility.
Market maker Dealer ready to quote buy and sell prices upon request.
The market maker provides immediacy (liquidity services) to the market
and receives compensation through the spread.There is no formal obligation
to quote tight spreads; rather, market making is governed by
reciprocity.
Market order Order to buy (or sell) a specified quantity at the best prevailing
price (cf. limit order).
Order-driven market Market where prices are determined by an order
execution algorithm from participants sending firm buy and sell orders,
which are incorporated into the limit order book (cf. quote-driven or
dealer market).
Order flow Signed flow of transactions. The transaction is given a
positive (negative) sign if the initiator of the transactions is buying
(selling).
Price discovery Determination of prices in a market. Incorporation of
information into prices.
470 Rime
Quote-driven market Refers to a market where market makers post bid
and ask quotes upon bilateral request. In the interbank market, these
prices are on a take-it-or-leave-it basis (cf. order-driven market).
Transparency Ability of market participants to observe trade information
in a timely fashion.

I. INTRODUCTION
The 1990s gave us what might prove to be the two biggest changes in
foreign exchange market structure since World War II: electronic brokers
were introduced into the interbank market in 1992, and in the late 1990s
the Internet became available as a trading channel for customers.What are
the consequences for the market of these innovations? Is there any reason
to believe that these technological developments have influenced the
market in any significant way? Do not dealers in the foreign exchange
market still fulfill their function as liquidity providers and aggregate information
in their price setting? And, do not basic macroeconomic variables
still drive exchange rates, irrespective of trading technology?
In an ideal world with perfect information, these changes to the institutions
of trading probably would not matter that much at the macroeconomic
level. In such a world, exchange rates would be determined by
expectations regarding macroeconomic fundamentals like inflation, productivity
growth, and interest rates. Exchange rates will be efficient asset
prices when all market participants observe these fundamentals and agree
on how they influence exchange rates. Furthermore, provision of liquidity
would be much less risky than in a situation with imperfect information.
However, as empirical evidence has shown all too clearly, models of an ideal
world with perfect information do not hold, at least not for horizons shorter
than a year or so.
The microstructure approach to foreign exchange has made some
promising steps toward solving some of these puzzles (see Lyons, 2001a).
This approach differs from the traditional macroeconomic approach by
allowing for imperfect information and heterogeneous agents and, thereby,
leaving a role for trading institutions as such. In such a world, technological
changes such as the introduction of electronic brokers and Internet
trading may be significant because they change the structure of the market.
A different market structure changes the game played between the
market participants. This may influence information aggregation capabilities
and incentives for liquidity provision and, thereby, different aspects of
market quality like efficiency (price discovery), liquidity, and transac-tion costs. We are interested in understanding market structure because
a well-functioning foreign exchange market is important for the macroeconomy.
This chapter considers the impact of technological advances on
the foreign exchange market by focusing on these properties of market
quality.
The new economy and foreign exchange markets is a vast subject. We
limit ourselves to the two major innovations in trading technology because
trading institutions are an important part of a financial market’s structure.
Furthermore, several studies show that trading is important for the
determination of exchange rates. There is particular focus on a property
of market structure called transparency, i.e., how much of the trading
process market participants can observe. Because trading is an important
determinant of exchange rates, observation of the trading process is
important to enable dealers to set the “correct” exchange rates. On a more
general level, transparency relates to how efficiently dealers can aggregate
information.
There are of course many other uses of information and communication
technology (ICT) that have obviously influenced the markets that we do
not address here. These include information providers such as Reuters
and Bloomberg, computers’ calculation capabilities and the importance
for option trading, and of course network technologies and computers in
general. Two other technological innovations deserving special attention
that we do not consider are the newly started settlement service
(Continuous Linked Settlement), which went live on September
9, 2002, and the netting technology FXNet. The former links all participating
countries’ payment systems for real-time settlement. With such a
system in place in 1974, the famous Bankhaus Herstatt default would
never had happened. FXNet is a technology for netting out gross liabilities.
Both are very important for the handling of counterparty credit
risk.
Sections II and III provide the background for the introduction of electronic
brokers and Internet trading. A brief description and history are
given of the structure of the market prior to these innovations, followed by
some considerations that dealers take into account in their trading. The
trading institutions of the 1980s are referenced to clarify the differences.
Section IV discusses electronic brokers, whereas Section V discusses Internet
trading. Section VI provides a summary.

Forex Electronic Mini Library

All you need to become a forex pro is sound education which can only be accessed through result-oriented information.

This type of education will expose you to how to build your working and profitable strategy for trading forex. It will also open your eyes to the long kept secrets of millionaire forex traders. It will expose the forex professionals and tell you how they make more money trading forex, how they minimize their losses, and manage risks associated with forex. The sound education I am about to uncover for you through my new and super resource center will teach you in simple and straight forward manner how to reduce your margin calls, make more profits and also turn you to a forex star. In fact, the forex education will provide everything you need to know about forex trading in order to truly succeed in the forex market even if you are a zombie.

Discover the best kept secrets of how professional forex traders rake in millions from forex trading from this new and first ever Forex Electronic Mini Library

My discovery so far is that for you to acquire this type of education, you will have to pay through your nose. This type of education is equally extremely expensive and quiet out of reach of many of us. Imagine you having to pay $500 just because you want to learn forex. Funny enough, you will still want to know more about other aspects of forex this training package may not cover. At times you may even fall a victim of dubious and crooked robot marketers who deceive you into buying robot that doesn't work at outrageous price. Money! Money! You will continue to spend. Even though, you may still end up not getting the right stuff.

Are you ready to put an end to this expensive adventure, and get the right material at the price not up to what you pay for a night sleep in a popular five star hotel? Then ....

You shall find the following materials and more in the Forex Electronic Mini-Library:

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Ø A Collection of current and workable powerful trading software, signal generating software, current expert advisors and workable forex trading System.

Being Prepared

BEING PREPARED

With a trading system you are prepared for every situation you may face in your trading. This ensures you’ll be consistent in your trading no matter what happens. To make sure you cover everything, your system should have:

• Rules for entering, adding to, and getting out of your positions.

• An action plan in case your trading computer, internet connection, broker, power, telephone etc. break down, or fails to be of any real use.

• What you will do if you are unable to trade.

• What you will do if you lose a certain percentage of your account

• What you will do if all the markets are closed and you can’t get out of your current positions.

Unless you have answers for all these scenarios, you stand a good chance of loosing money. With the answers, and discipline you’ll be able to tell if you trading system needs to be tweaked, or if it’s just the markets.

Trading Tool

TRADING TOOL

Whether you choose to use fundamental analysis, or technical analysis, you will need a way to access and interpret information about the market. The Internet is filled with websites that offer you unique insight into the FOREX market, and it’s often difficult to know which ones to consider. Here is a roundup of some the more useful tools available. Of course, these offerings are always changing, so nothing is guaranteed until you try a program and find that it gives you the information you require.

The first program we’ll consider is the Advanz Auto4X Trading Platform. This is an automatic execution tool that will help you keep track of multiple trades, and automates your trading processes by taking Trade Station strategy signals, incorporating your trading strategy, and sending the results to Capital’s trading platform. Advanz Auto4X can handle a variety of trading strategies on various time frames. It can also handle any of the FOREX crosses that are made available for trading.

However, the majority of tools available to the individual trader are analytical tools, not automatic execution tools. Here are a selection of some that I have found useful.

Margin Wisely

MARGIN WISELY

Any broker you consider will likely have a minimum account size, also known as account margin or initial margin available to traders. Once you have deposited your money into the account you will be able to begin trading. The broker will also stipulate how much equity they require per position, or lot, traded. Always make sure that you know how your margin account is going to work.

Read the margin agreement between you and your clearing firm carefully. Remember, a margin account is basically a loan. The margin agreement will describe how the interest on that loan is calculated, how you are responsible for repaying the loan, and how the securities you purchase serve as collateral for the loan. Carefully review the agreement to determine what notice, if any, your firm must give you before selling your securities to collect the money you have borrowed. Talk to your account representative if you have any questions.

Trading currencies on margin greatly increases your buying power. If you have $5,000 cash in a margin account that allows 100:1 leverage, you could purchase up to $500,000 worth of currency – because you only have to post 1% of the purchase price as collateral. This is particularly useful in the FOREX market, where traders work with small price changes to realize profits. But the FOREX market is a volatile market, and positions can quickly move against a trader. This is when the high margin rates can create spectacular losses.

If the market moves against you, the positions that you have in your account could be partially or completely liquidated if the available margin in your account falls below your maintenance level. Always remember that your broker may not berequired to make a margin call, and even if your agreement states that they do, they may not wait for you to respond to the call. Because of this, you should monitor your margin balance on a regular basis and utilize stop-loss orders on every open position to limit risk. With care, margin can be a powerful and lucrative tool. Used wisely, as part of a carefully thought out approach to trading, it makes the FOREX market work for small traders.

Forex Scalping

Forex Scalping

It’s a traders dream, getting in and out of the market each day and earning a few hundred dollars here and there which over time to make huge long term profits.

It’s the aim of an increasing number of traders, but you need to be aware of one important fact.

Day trading does not work and intra day trading in forex markets means the only person who gets scalped is the person trying it – normally of their entire trading account quickly.

So why doesn’t forex day trading and scalping work?

The answer is obvious if you think about it, so here it is:
Each day trillions of dollars are traded by millions of traders who fall into four main groups:
1. Hedgers
Who are not looking to profit from currency fluctuations but simply looking to hedge their portfolios.

2. Central Banks

Big players, who intervene occasionally to stabilize currency, markets should they believe it necessary.

3. Large traders

Well capitalized individuals and professional money managers.

4. Small speculators

Everyone else.
They all think differently and they all have different objectives and different methods and to say you predict what these vast diverse groups or traders will do in under a day or less is laughable.

But people buy into the myth and they lose all the time.

So why do people attempt it?

Well many are attracted by marketing copy that promise riches with low risk, but of course the people who tell them this and sell them the secrets, don’t trade themselves they make their money selling courses.

Other traders think it is a low risk way to trade but if you cannot predict where short term volatility will take prices you will lose – you can’t get the odds in your favour and may as well flip a coin.

So forex scalping does not work and by its nature will never work as volatility can and does take prices anywhere in a day.

Ever seen anyone who sells a course or claims to have made money forex scalping with the proof?

By this I mean a real time track record ( not a meaningless hypothetical track record done in hindsight) no neither have I.

Forex scalping is not a guaranteed way to win, it’s a guaranteed way to lose in forex trading and lose quickly.

Forget the hype of forex scalping and see the reality for what it is, a great way to lose.

If you want to trade currency markets get the odds in your favour by trading in periods where the data can actually help you put the odds in your favour.

Currency Symbol / Currency Pair

Currency Symbol / Currency Pair

EUR/USD = Euro / US Dollar

GBP/USD = Pounds Sterling/ US Dollar

USD/JPY = US Dollar / Japanese Yen

USD/CHF = US Dollar / Swiss Franc

USD/CAD = US Dollar / Canadian Dollar

AUD/USD = Australian Dollar / US Dollar

NZD/USD = New Zealand Dollar / US Dollar

Etc.

In excess of 85 percent of all daily transactions involve trading of the major currencies - Australian Dollar, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, and the U.S. Dollar.

Currencies are traded in pairs, meaning that you are really trading one currency for another. A simple way to understand this is to consider what you do when you go on foreign vacations. If you are an USA, and you plan to travel to another country, say Canada, then you might take say $10,000 USD to the bank to change it for Canadian dollars. Let’s say the exchange rate is 1.4000, then for your $10,000 USD they would give you $14,000 CAD. Now let’s say you didn’t spend the money and upon coming home you decide to change it back to USD currency. Now let’s say the exchange rate is 1.3700 (a change of 300 pips that could happen in a week), so your $14,000 CAD would convert back to $10,218.97 US. Therefore you just made $218.97, a 2.19% increase in funds.

Reading a FOREX quote may seem a bit confusing at first. However, it's really quite simple, when you see Forex quotes you will actually see two numbers. The first number is called the bid and the second number is called the offer/ask. If we use the USD/JPY as example 115.37/115.40 the first number 115.37 is the bid price and is the price traders are prepared to buy USD against the JPY. The second number 115.40 is the offer price and is the price traders are prepared to sell the USD against the JPY.

Here in USD/JPY the currency listed first (USD) is the base currency and & the value of the base currency is always 1. A quote of USD/JPY 115 means that one U.S. dollar is equal to 115 Japanese yen. When this currency quote goes up, it means the dollar has appreciated in value and the other currency has weakened. If the USD/JPY quote increases from 115 to 117, it indicate dollar is stronger because it will now buy more yen than before.

MACD

SIMPLE APPLICATION OF MACD

Moving Average Convergence/Divergence or MACD in short is one the most classic technical indicators that is still being popularly used in analyzing forex trading. It is called the lagging indicator because it always move behind the real chart movement.

How to use MACD?

In simple application MACD is very easy to use as it is only constructed with two moving average lines. The two lines is usually colored in blue and red where blue is upward direction signal and red is the opposite. When the red line moving up parallel with the blue line this signal upward direction or the opposite downward when the blue line moving down parallel with the red line. Every movement has an end and reversal which signal by the interception of the two line.

Advantage of MACD

Since the MACD is one of the most used indicators we can make assumption that most traders will have similar intention when make decision for example they will make buy or sell on the interception point. In complex application MACD is more than just that we need to include the element of emotion in our decision.

Disadvantage of MACD

Since it is a lagging indicators it takes quite sometimes to wait which can be very frustrating. Furthermore in most occasion the market always moving ahead of MACD and by that time you will miss the big hit and waste your time waiting. Many traders use multiple indicators to reduce the flaw gap of a single indicators.
  

Slow Stochastic

SIMPLE APPLICATION OF SLOW STOCHASTIC
The slow stochastic is constructed with two lines moving average just like MACD. Likewise the application is also exactly the same as MACD that is when both line is moving upwards meaning the market is going up or vice versa. The interception point of slow stochastic signal a reversal of direction just like MACD.

Despite of the exact application of the two, slow stochastic has a major advantage over MACD. It's speed of movement faster than MACD and it moves closely following the real live chart movement. Therefore it is heavily used by daily traders to take advantage of the short-term volatility movement of the chart. See the chart below as MACD moving downwards once but stochastic has already take two cycle to downwards direction. This major advantage making slow stochastic as the most popular indicator of all.

Slow stochastic is almost universal usage, and every traders who have known about its application will use it. The most effective application of this indicator is by combining with other indicators and also the in depth understanding of multiple time frame

Chart Types

There are three different forms of common chart used to display the currency market movement which include the line chart, bar chart, and the famous candlestick chart. Despite of the same usages traders are very particular in selecting their chart to use in trading due to certain used.

The Line Chart

The line chart simply reflects the market in its general movement as shown below. It is rather more general compare to bar chart and candlestick chart. Therefore traders have less preference in using it for their trading.

 


The Bar Chart

The bar chart is actually the simplify version of the candlestick chart. Instead of using colored body as In the candlestick chart line the bar line is used to represent high, low, open, and close of the market movement.

The Candlestick Chart

Sometimes it is called Japanese candlestick chart, the most popular chart used by the Japanese traders. In its early days this type of chart was not very popular to the western traders until it is popularized by a book author named “Steve Nison”. Today the candlestick chart is used worldwide by any traders, and in fact it is one of the most powerful tools to aid traders in their technical analysis. In the later stage i will discuss about this powerful charting techniques used by traders to aid them in their trading activities.

 

Time Frame

WHAT IS TIME FRAME?
The measurement of time in analysis. Can be in periods of minutes and hours or daily, weekly, monthly and yearly either way Time Frame must be specified. It can also be more generally referred to as Short, Medium or Long Term. In forex trading software platform you will find that the charts are divided in several set of time frames i.e. 5, 15, 30 minutes, 1 & 4 hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly. By dividing the chart it provide the flexibility of analysis for traders either they want short, medium, or long-term.

Don't be confused even though there are divided this way actually the chart is inter-connected with each other. The lower time frames i.e. 5 minutes is actually the zoomed-in version of the major time frames. And Monthly time frame is simply the general display of all the time frames. Using candlestick chart we can simply explain by taking 1 candle equal to 1 month of movement that is consist of 4 candlesticks of weekly time frame as 1 month is equivalent to 4 weeks

 Why important to understand time frame?

Perhaps one of the the ultimate achievement of every technical trader is being able to master the all time frames available. This is very important in order to success especially if you are short-term daily traders. You will be able to see the details and the bigger picture of the market directions. For example if you are 15 minutes trader you will have to look for 4 hourly or daily time frames to look for the overall positions and directions of the market. This will gives you the overall picture where will the big movements will be heading to after all small fluctuations are done.

Higher Time Frame Increase Chances of Success

Most traders do not want to get themselves involve in complicated situation especially the multiple time frames. Still they being able to have great success in trading by using only a single time frame. Yes this is possible!! By looking at the big picture of the market using the higher time frame such as daily, weekly, and monthly. This is the method used by the long-term traders who relied on trend to make decision which usually bring them healthy successful trading career.

Money Management

Forex Analyzing Losses
I was searching for a books on money management some days ago on Google and I found this e-book called "Money Management Report" written by Van Tharp. I read through some of the pages but unable to read them all because there quite a lot for me to read them all.
However I managed to find a piece of information from the book which I think is very important. It is outlined in a table how much percentage of losses you should afford to lose in a trade in order to be able recover them quickly.

As you can see the able Excel table which I have reconstructed based on the Van Tharp book. According to the table you should be losing more than 25% of your account in a single trade otherwise it takes so much pain to recover them back. As you can see on the table if losing 40 percent or more you will have to suffer more. Losing at 90% of the account is almost impossible to recover back as it takes around 900 percent gain in order to breakeven again. I have little idea how he calculates the percentage but this is already well presented information as a good guides.

Chat Patterns

How Double Top And Double Bottom Exist?

One of the most popular chart patterns that you probably encounter in your daily trading is the double top double bottom formation. You can find this pattern almost in all time frames view ranging from 5 minutes to monthly. Before we go through deeper analysis on this, let's take a look what exactly are they?

What is double top chart formation?

Double top formation is simply a of chart pattern which resemble the letter M shape see picture below.

How it is formed is due to the market power trying to test the previous resistance level if it can breaks it. As the market fail to break the resistance in the second movement resulting in complete reversal of the market to create the M shape patterns. Even though you may not find this patterns all the time, but it is a worthwhile knowledge where you can keep in mind for future reference.

What is double bottom chart formation?

Double bottom formation is a chart pattern that resemble the letter W shape see picture below.

Even though their opposite shape, the caused of formation of the double bottom is exactly the same as double top. Where the market fail to break second resistance and then make a complete reversal.

Forex Day Trading

Over the years there has been a lot of talk about day trading, swing trading, and position trading.
What is the difference?
Day trading is putting on a trade and only being in it for a few minutes to a few hours but all of your trades will be closed at the end of your trading day.
Swing trading is being in a trade from a few hours to a few days maybe even a week or two.
Position trading is putting on a trade and being in the trade for months to years.
Each of these styles requires a different set of skills.  For this article we will only talk about the forex day trading.
To be a day trader you need to be in front of your computer to manage the trades.  A day trader will make many trades in a day of trading but they do not have to think about the market overnight.   They only have to think about the market and their trades the next day when they open some new trades.
The day trader usually likes a lot of action; they make decisions quickly and have to get in and out quickly.  They usually have several losses and several profits each day.  The goal is to have more profits than losses.  It is possible for the day trader to have more losing trades than winning trades and still make money because they let their winning trades run and cut their losing trades off early.
Day traders need a trading strategy and a system.  They also need to have a set of signals that allow them to make quick decisions.  Not all indicators or time frames are good for day trading.
You would not want to look at the 1 hr time frame for day trading.  Many day traders like the one and five minute charts.  We find the one minute chart to be too fast for us.  For our day trading strategy we like to look for the trend on the 15 minute chart then look at the 5 minute chart to enter and exit the trade.  We only take trades in the direction of the trend on the 15 minute chart when we are day trading.
Day trading is not for everyone.  Try it and see if it is for you.  If you have the time and like the excitement then you might have found your trading niche.

Forex Training

Forex online trading is the fastest and simplest way to trade.  It is better than calling your broker and having to wait a few minutes to get your order placed.  First it takes time to dial the phone number, time to ring, time to place your request, and the time for the broker to get the order placed.  In the forex market, the market can move so fast that you could have missed thirty or even up to one hundred pips or more before your order could be filled.
When you trade online you have the opportunity to be in and out of the market in 5 to 10 minute trades.  It almost takes that long to place one order when you have to call your broker, let alone calling back and closing the order.  You also have the ability to trade twenty four hours a day when the market is open.  You can manage the trade by moving the stop loss to protect profits without calling your broker.  In the event your internet service is down you can call your broker and get the trade placed or closed, so you do have some protection from total loss.
Before you can trade online you should know how to trade.  There are some great courses out there.  Check out our free strategy at the top of your screen.  You can learn how to use indicators, control your emotions, control your greed, and manage trades for maximum profit.  You can learn how to control risk, add on to a positive position, and learn when to exit a negative or positive trade.  You can also find the most important thing about trading online and that is training from a coach. Forex online training can be the fastest and most reliable way to learn how to trade because you can view charts from your coach and he can see your charts.  You can receive trading material on line and look at it any place you have an internet connection.
Once you have learned how to trade, you of course want to make money.  The only way you will ever make money as a forex trader is to treat your trading as a business.  If you think you will have a nice little hobby then you will lose money and it will be a very expensive hobby.  You need to have a trading plan just like a business has a business plan.  The big advantage is you do not have to put a lot of money into many other things other than your computer and internet connection to start your trading business.  This business can be part time but you need to be serious about it to be successful.

Online Forex Trading

Forex online trading is the fastest and simplest way to trade.  It is better than calling your broker and having to wait a few minutes to get your order placed.  First it takes time to dial the phone number, time to ring, time to place your request, and the time for the broker to get the order placed.  In the forex market, the market can move so fast that you could have missed thirty or even up to one hundred pips or more before your order could be filled.
When you trade online you have the opportunity to be in and out of the market in 5 to 10 minute trades.  It almost takes that long to place one order when you have to call your broker, let alone calling back and closing the order.  You also have the ability to trade twenty four hours a day when the market is open.  You can manage the trade by moving the stop loss to protect profits without calling your broker.  In the event your internet service is down you can call your broker and get the trade placed or closed, so you do have some protection from total loss.
Before you can trade online you should know how to trade.  There are some great courses out there.  Check out our free strategy at the top of your screen.  You can learn how to use indicators, control your emotions, control your greed, and manage trades for maximum profit.  You can learn how to control risk, add on to a positive position, and learn when to exit a negative or positive trade.  You can also find the most important thing about trading online and that is training from a coach. Forex online training can be the fastest and most reliable way to learn how to trade because you can view charts from your coach and he can see your charts.  You can receive trading material on line and look at it any place you have an internet connection.
Once you have learned how to trade, you of course want to make money.  The only way you will ever make money as a forex trader is to treat your trading as a business.  If you think you will have a nice little hobby then you will lose money and it will be a very expensive hobby.  You need to have a trading plan just like a business has a business plan.  The big advantage is you do not have to put a lot of money into many other things other than your computer and internet connection to start your trading business.  This business can be part time but you need to be serious about it to be successful.

Automated Trading

What is automated trading?  Automated trading can also be known as expert advisors (EA’s), or Robots.  EA’s are most commonly thought of as a system that once turned on will open and close trades by itself and make a fortune in the currency market.  Ideally, the EA would work 24/7 and require little or no trading knowledge to run it.  The idea is exciting but the EA’s that do all of the work usually only work part of the time.  At least in all my years of Forex market experience, I have not seen or heard of an EA that works all the time if it is making all the trading decisions.
Allow me to explain: EA’s are written to work when the market is moving in a certain way.  When the market is moving the way the EA is written then it can make some money.  Here is the problem: The market does not always move in the same way!  When the market changes then the EA will start to lose on the trades and in many cases wipe out the trading account… Not such a good thought huh?
There are EA’s that are written for when the market is trending; others are written when the market is in a channel, and still others work on break out situations.  For them to work, a person would need to be awake all the time and turn the EA on or off depending on which way the market is moving.  If that is the case the trader would need to be a good trader to be able to determine what the market is going to do.  This defeats the purpose of a fully automated trading system.
Am I totally against using an EA? No. There are a few types of EA’s that work and by no means have I seen all the EA’s because there are thousands of them.  So which ones work? The EA’s I see that work or those that require you to be involved in the process.  For example, an EA that will find a closing point once you turn it on at the appropriate time.  This requires that you know how to trade and when to set the EA so you do not have to be in front of the computer to close the trade or set a take profit for your best guess as to where the best place is to close a trade.  The EA can be set to close the trade when the market indicates that it is changing directions.
Another example is an EA that will alert you when the market is setting up to make some kind of a move.  The trader will still have to make the decision to take the trade or not.  The main advantage of this type of EA is that a trader does not have to always be in front of the computer.  More currencies and time frames can be monitored at one time with less effort.
In summary the only EA’s I have seen that work are those where the trader has to be involved in part of the trading process.

Forex Trading Platform

Some would say a platform is a platform is a platform. What is a trading platform? The trading platform should help you to analyze the market so you can determine places to enter and exit trades into the market.  Some trading platforms are divided into different modules.  Other platforms combine all the modules into one location. All platforms should contain some basic items. For example: an area for some charts, some tools to customize your charts, an area to place trades, an area to manage open trades, an area to review your closed trades, and an area to manage multiple accounts. 
If you stop to think about it, you would realize that if you don’t have a trading platform then it would be very difficult to trade online.  There was a time when you had to pay for the trading platform and the data feed.  This would run into hundreds of dollars a month.  That was just to get started.  You would have to pay that expense while you learned how to trade.  Then after many months of losing or just breaking even you finally would be able to start paying for the trading platform and data feed. 
Today you can still buy trading platforms and pay for data feeds but you do not have to.  Most foreign currency brokers offer free trading platforms and data feeds.
Many brokers have more than one trading platform.  This is because they added different trading platforms as the demands and needs of their clients changed.  There are multiple trading platforms because technology has improved and made it easier to offer more to the end user. 
Many traders take their forex trading platform for granted.  If it were not for the trading platform then most of the retail market traders could not trade the foreign currency market. 
We feel that the ability to use the trading platform with some skill greatly enhances a trader’s ability to be successful at trading.  We find that if a trader does not know how to use the platform then they are always frustrated in their trading.  They are worrying about what button to click on the platform to do what they need to do to trade well.  If they slow down and learn how to use the trading platform then they can concentrate on their trading strategy. 
Learn the trading platform first then learn a trading strategy second.  This sequence in the education process will greatly accelerate the learning process and shorten the time to become successful.
Another advantage of the forex trading platform is that you can use a demo account to learn how to trade and in most cases it is free.  There is no need to pay for these great tools. 

How To Choose a Forex Broker ?

How To Choose a Forex Broker 


When choosing a forex broker there are many factors to take into account.
Trust
Experience
References from past clients
Level of success
Amount of advice to be given
Convenience
Amount of margin offered
Speed

All of the above are of course important. In any financial transaction it is important to trust the broker you work with. This trust is garnered by the experience level the broker has. Of course there are some new brokers starting out who are quite trustworthy, but most people would rather work with an experienced broker. For that reason most new brokers attach themselves to a firm where they can be mentored and gain experience.

References from past clients are important. If your broker has helped someone else is successful in the past and that person is willing to speak up for him that says a lot. You can gage the level of success your broker has had by speaking with past clients and seeing how well they did working with this broker. Next, take a look at the amount of advice your broker is willing to give you. Of course, you make your own decisions and will never take another person’s word for everything, but it is good to have knowledge to work with, and advice from an experienced broker is key information to factor in. Convenience is also impotent. If you live in California then an Ohio broker might not be the best choice. But in the age of the internet that factor has become less relevant. With fax and email where you and your broker live has become less important.

The amount of margin offered is important. Margin is used to leverage your money. A broker who gives you a 50 to one margin is more valuable than one who gives you 20 to one. And of course speed. Is your broker quick? Does he return phone calls and emails promptly? If so, perhaps you can work with him.

Your broker will b a trusted advisor and someone that you may be working with for years to come so choose the relationship carefully. Ask friends and acquaintances who are active in forex trading what broker they use and how they met. It is quite possible that you can get a referral from a friend or acquaintance you trust and acquire a good forex broker that way.