What Is Forex Trading ?

Part 1: What Is Forex Trading ? – A Definition & Introduction

By Nial Fuller   Posted in FREE ‘Beginners’ Forex Trading Introduction Course  

An Introduction to Forex Trading:
Hey traders,
This free Forex mini-course is designed to teach you the basics of the Forex market and Forex trading in a non-boring way. I know you can find this information elsewhere on the web, but let’s face it; most of it is scattered and pretty dry to read. I will try to make this tutorial as fun as possible so that you can learn about Forex trading and have a good time doing it.
Upon completion of this course you will have a solid understanding of the Forex market and Forex trading, and you will then be ready to progress to learning real-world Forex trading strategies.
What is the Forex market?
• What is Forex? – The basics…
Basically, the Forex market is where banks, businesses, governments, investors and traders come to exchange and speculate on currencies. The Forex market is also referred to as the ‘Fx market’, ‘Currency market’, ‘Foreign exchange currency market’ or ‘Foreign currency market’, and it is the largest and most liquid market in the world with an average daily turnover of $3.98 trillion.
The Fx market is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week with the most important world trading centers being located in London, New York, Tokyo, Zurich, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, and Sydney.
It should be noted that there is no central marketplace for the Forex market; trading is instead said to be conducted ‘over the counter’; it’s not like stocks where there is a central marketplace with all orders processed like the NYSE. Forex is a product quoted by all the major banks, and not all banks will have the exact same price. Now, the broker platforms take all theses feeds from the different banks and the quotes we see from our broker are an approximate average of them. It’s the broker who is effectively transacting the trade and taking the other side of it…they ‘make the market’ for you. When you buy a currency pair…your broker is selling it to you, not ‘another trader’.
• A brief history of the Forex market
Ok, I admit, this part is going to be a little bit boring, but it’s important to have some basic background knowledge of the history of the Forex market so that you know a little bit about why it exists and how it got here. So here is the history of the Forex market in a nutshell:
In 1876, something called the gold exchange standard was implemented. Basically it said that all paper currency had to be backed by solid gold; the idea here was to stabilize world currencies by pegging them to the price of gold. It was a good idea in theory, but in reality it created boom-bust patterns which ultimately led to the demise of the gold standard.
The gold standard was dropped around the beginning of World War 2 as major European countries did not have enough gold to support all the currency they were printing to pay for large military projects. Although the gold standard was ultimately dropped, the precious metal never lost its spot as the ultimate form of monetary value.
The world then decided to have fixed exchange rates that resulted in the U.S. dollar being the primary reserve currency and that it would be the only currency backed by gold, this is known as the ‘Bretton Woods System’ and it happened in 1944 (I know you super excited to know that). In 1971 the U.S. declared that it would no longer exchange gold for U.S. dollars that were held in foreign reserves, this marked the end of the Bretton Woods System.
It was this break down of the Bretton Woods System that ultimately led to the mostly global acceptance of floating foreign exchange rates in 1976. This was effectively the “birth” of the current foreign currency exchange market, although it did not become widely electronically traded until about the mid 1990s.
(OK! Now let’s move on to some more entertaining topics!)…
What is Forex Trading?
Forex trading as it relates to retail traders (like you and I) is the speculation on the price of one currency against another. For example, if you think the euro is going to rise against the U.S. dollar, you can buy the EURUSD currency pair low and then (hopefully) sell it at a higher price to make a profit. Of course, if you buy the euro against the dollar (EURUSD), and the U.S. dollar strengthens, you will then be in a losing position. So, it’s important to be aware of the risk involved in trading Forex, and not only the reward.
• Why is the Forex market so popular?
Being a Forex trader offers the most amazing potential lifestyle of any profession in the world. It’s not easy to get there, but if you are determined and disciplined, you can make it happen. Here’s a quick list of skills you will need to reach your goals in the Forex market:
Ability - to take a loss without becoming emotional
Confidence - to believe in yourself and your trading strategy, and to have no fear
Dedication – to becoming the best Forex trader you can be
Discipline - to remain calm and unemotional in a realm of constant temptation (the market)
Flexibility - to trade changing market conditions successfully
Focus – to stay concentrated on your trading plan and to not stray off course
Logic – to look at the market from an objective and straight forward perspective
Organization – to forge and reinforce positive trading habits
Patience – to wait for only the highest-probability trading strategies according to your plan
Realism – to not think you are going to get rich quick and understand the reality of the market and trading
Savvy – to take advantage of your trading edge when it arises and be aware of what is happening in the market at all times
Self-control – to not over-trade and over-leverage your trading account
As traders, we can take advantage of the high leverage and volatility of the Forex market by learning and mastering and effective Forex trading strategy, building an effective trading plan around that strategy, and following it with ice-cold discipline. Money management is key here; leverage is a double-edged sword and can make you a lot of money fast or lose you a lot of money fast. The key to money management in Forex trading is to always know the exact dollar amount you have at risk before entering a trade and be TOTALLY OK with losing that amount of money, because any one trade could be a loser. More on money management later in the course.
• Who trades Forex and why?
Banks – The interbank market allows for both the majority of commercial Forex transactions and large amounts of speculative trading each day. Some large banks will trade billions of dollars, daily. Sometimes this trading is done on behalf of customers, however much is done by proprietary traders who are trading for the bank’s own account.
Companies – Companies need to use the foreign exchange market to pay for goods and services from foreign countries and also to sell goods or services in foreign countries. An important part of the daily Forex market activity comes from companies looking to exchange currency in order to transact in other countries.
Governments / Central banks – A country’s central bank can play an important role in the foreign exchange markets. They can cause an increase or decrease in the value of their nation’s currency by trying to control money supply, inflation, and (or) interest rates. They can use their substantial foreign exchange reserves to try and stabilize the market.
Hedge funds - Somewhere around 70 to 90% of all foreign exchange transactions are speculative in nature. This means, the person or institutions that bought or sold the currency has no plan of actually taking delivery of the currency; instead, the transaction was executed with sole intention of speculating on the price movement of that particular currency. Retail speculators (you and I) are small cheese compared to the big hedge funds that control and speculate with billions of dollars of equity each day in the currency markets.
Individuals – If you have ever traveled to a different country and exchanged your money into a different currency at the airport or bank, you have already participated in the foreign currency exchange market.
Investors – Investment firms who manage large portfolios for their clients use the Fx market to facilitate transactions in foreign securities. For example, an investment manager controlling an international equity portfolio needs to use the Forex market to purchase and sell several currency pairs in order to pay for foreign securities they want to purchase.
Retail Forex traders – Finally, we come to retail Forex traders (you and I). The retail Forex trading industry is growing everyday with the advent of Forex trading platforms and their ease of accessibility on the internet. Retail Forex traders access the market indirectly either through a broker or a bank. There are two main types of retail Forex brokers that provide us with the ability to speculate on the currency market: brokers and dealers. Brokers work as an agent for the trader by trying to find the best price in the market and executing on behalf of the customer. For this, they charge a commission on top of the price obtained in the market. Dealers are also called market makers because they ‘make the market’ for the trader and act as the counter-party to their transactions, they quote a price they are willing to deal at and are compensated through the spread, which is the difference between the buy and sell price (more on this later).
Advantages of Trading the Forex Market:
• Forex is the largest market in the world, with daily volumes exceeding $3 trillion per day. This means dense liquidity which makes it easy to get in and out of positions.
• Trade whenever you want: There is no opening bell in the Forex market. You can enter or exit a trade whenever you want from Sunday around 5pm EST to Friday around 4pm EST.
• Ease of access: You can fund your trading account with as little as $250 at many retail brokers and begin trading the same day in some cases. Straight through order execution allows you to trade at the click of a mouse.
• Fewer currency pairs to focus on, instead of getting lost trying to analyze thousands of stocks
• Freedom to trade anywhere in the world with the only requirements being a laptop and internet connection.
• Commission-free trading with many retail market-makers and overall lower transaction costs than stocks and commodities.
• Volatility allows traders to profit in any market condition and provides for high-probability weekly trading opportunities. Also, there is no structural market bias like the long bias of the stock market, so traders have equal opportunity to profit in rising or falling markets.
While the forex market is clearly a great market to trade, I would note to all beginners that trading carries both the potential for reward and risk. Many people come into the markets thinking only about the reward and ignoring the risks involved, this is the fastest way to lose all of your trading account money. If you want to get started trading the Fx market on the right track, it’s critical that you are aware of and accept the fact that you could lose on any given trade you take.

Choose Best Forex Trading Signals

How to Choose Best Forex Trading Signals?

• August 2014
• Posted By Redzwang

If you have a strong will to trade in currency market, then firstly it is important to have vast knowledge? But, is it enough to have only knowledge? No, experience is the key to success in trading market. Beginners though lack in experience, but they can choose for best forex trading signals.

These signals will help you make right decision on entry as well as exit level of trade. You need to be focused on choosing right software system that helps to generate signals. Once you dedicate yourself into proper research and read out the reviews about software, it is possible to have a good signal. The signal providers adopt the responsibility to perform toughest job.

Tips to choose best signals
There are different ways through which you can find best forex trading signals. You should always choose for providers who give you the option of choosing free trial service or choose who offer you with low fee to try their service. The main advantage that can be obtained through trial service is that you can test the quality of signal.

It is not enough to make use of signals in market, but you should also test validity and reliability of signals through your analytical skills to market. You need to signal test through technical analysis depending on market situation which can validate the signal.

While buying services from provider, you should focus on which currency pairs are offered by provider. Always choose from signal provider that offers specialists in particular currency pairs. This will finally help to offer best signal for currency pair which will further increase chance of having profitable investment.

There are some of the forex signal companies who offer alert system for advanced traders while other services focus on intermediate traders. The best forex trading signals should be eligible of creating a platform through which you can get success in market. You still need to find answers to question “How can you find the Best Online Forex trading?”

Beginners Introduction To Price Action Trading

Beginners Introduction To Price Action Trading

By Redzwang

Price Action Trading Explained

• 1- The Definition Of Price Action
• 2- Trading with “Messy” Vs “Clean” Forex Charts
• 3- How to identify trending and consolidating markets
• 4- How to trade Forex with Price Action Trading Strategies
• 5- How to use chart confluence and Price Action Signals

What is Price Action ?

Basic Definition: Price Action Trading (P.A.T.) is the discipline of making all of your trading decisions from a stripped down or “naked” price chart. This means no lagging indicators outside of maybe a couple moving averages to help identify dynamic support and resistance areas and trend. All financial markets generate data about the movement of the price of a market over varying periods of time; this data is displayed on price charts. Price charts reflect the beliefs and actions of all participants (human or computer) trading a market during a specified period of time and these beliefs are portrayed on a market’s price chart in the form of “price action” (P.A.).
Whilst economic data and other global news events are the catalysts for price movement in a market, we don’t need to analyze them to trade the market successfully. The reason is pretty simple; all economic data and world news that causes price movement within a market is ultimately reflected via P.A. on a market’s price chart.
Since a market’s P.A. reflects all variables affecting that market for any given period of time, using lagging price indictors like stochastics, MACD, RSI, and others is just a flat waste of time. Price movement provides all the signals you will ever need to develop a profitable and high-probability trading system. These signals collectively are called price action trading strategies and they provide a way to make sense of a market’s price movement and help predict its future movement with a high enough degree of accuracy to give you a high-probability trading strategy.

“Clean” Charts vs. “Messy” Indicator-laden Charts

Next, to demonstrate the stark contrast between a pure P.A. chart and one with some of the most popular forex indicators on it, I have shown two charts in the examples below. The chart on the top has no indicators on it, there’s nothing but the raw P.A. of the market on that chart. The bottom chart has MACD, Stochastics, ADX and Bollinger Bands on it; four of the most widely used indicators AKA “secondary” analysis tools as they are sometimes called:
The image example below shows a clean price chart, with no mess, and no indicators, just pure price bars:

The image example below shows a messy price chart, with lots of clutter, indicators and mess:

It’s worth pointing out how in the indicator-laden chart you actually have to give up some room on the chart to have the indicators at the bottom, this forces you to make the P.A. part of the chart smaller, and it also draws your attention away from the natural P.A. and onto the indicators. So, not only do you have less screen area to view the P.A., but your focus is not totally on the price action of the market like it should be.
If you really look at both of those charts and think about which one is easier to analyze and trade from, the answer should be pretty clear. All of the indicators on the chart below, and indeed almost all indicators, are derived from the underlying P.A.. In other words, all traders do when they add indicators to their charts is produce more variables for themselves; they aren’t gaining any insight or predictive clues that aren’t already provided by the market’s raw price action.

Examples of some of my favorite price action trading strategies:

Next, let’s take a look at some of the price action trading strategies that I teach. Note that I’ve included a “failed” trade setup because not every trade will be a winner; we aren’t here to show you “perfect” past trading results…we are here to teach you in an honest and realistic manner.
In the image example below, we are looking some of my favorite P.A. trading strategies:

How to determine a market’s trend

One of the most important aspects of learning to trade with P.A. is to first learn how to identify a trending market versus a consolidating market. Trading with the trend is highest-probability way to trade and it’s something you HAVE TO learn how to do if you want to stand a chance at making serious money as a trader.
The charts below shows how to use price dynamics to determine a markets trend. We consider a market to be in an uptrend if it is making Higher Highs and Higher Lows (HH, HL) and a downtrend is Lower Highs and Lower Lows (LH, LL).
In the image example below, we can see how higher highs and higher lows signal an up-trend in a market:

In the image example below, we can see how lower highs and lower lows signal a down-trend in a market:

Trending VS. Consolidating markets

As we discussed earlier, P.A.or “price action trading analysis” is the analysis of the price movement of a market over time. From our analysis of price movement we can determine a market’s underlying directional bias or “trend”, or if the market has no trend it is said to be “consolidating”…we can easily determine whether a market is trending or consolidating from simply analyzing its P.A.. We saw how to determine a market’s trend above, to determine if a market is consolidating we just look for an absence of the HH, HL or LH, LL patterns. In the chart below note how the “consolidating price action” is bouncing between a horizontal support and resistance level and is not making HH, HL or LH, LL but is instead going sideways…
The image example below shows a market moving from a consolidation phase to a trending phase:

How to Trade Forex with Price Action Trading Strategies

So how exactly do we trade Forex with price action? It really boils down to learning to trade P.A. setups or patterns from confluent levels in the market. Now, if that sounds new or confusing to you right now, sit tight and I will clarify it soon. First we need to cover a couple more things:
Due to the repetitive nature of market participants and the way they react to global economic variables, the P.A. of a market tends to repeat itself in various patterns. These patterns are also called price action trading strategies, and there are many different price action strategies traded many different ways. These reoccurring price patterns or price action setups reflect changes or continuation in market sentiment. In layman’s terms, that just means by learning to spot price action patterns you can get “clues” as to where the price of a market will go next.
The first thing you should to begin P.A. trading is to take off all the “crap” on your charts. Get rid of the indicators, expert advisors; take off EVERYTHING but the raw price bars of the chart. I prefer to use candlestick charts because I feel they convey the price data of the market more dynamically and “forcefully”, if you are still using classic bar charts and want more info on candlesticks then checkout this candlestick trading tutorial.
I like simple black and white charts the best, as you can see below. In metatrader4 you simply right click on the chart and adjust the “properties” of the chart to get it looking like mine below. If you want more info on how to setup your MT4 trading platform checkout this metatrader 4 tutorial.
After you’ve removed all the indicators and other unnecessary variables from your charts, you can begin drawing in the key chart levels and looking for price action setups to trade from.
The image example below shows examples of some of the trading strategies I teach in my forex trading course. Note the key support / resistance levels have been drawn in:

How to trade price action from confluent points in the market:

The next major step in trading Forex P.A. is to draw in the key chart levels and look for confluent levels to trade from. In the chart below we can see that a very obvious and confluent pin bar setup formed in the USDJPY that kicked off a huge uptrend higher. Note that the pin bar trade setup showed rejection of a key horizontal support level as well as the 50% retrace of the last major move, thus the pin bar had “confluence” with the surrounding market structure…
In the image example below, we can see a pin bar setup that formed at a confluent point in the market:

All economic variables create price movement which can be easily seen on a market’s price chart. Whether an economic variable is filtered down through a human trader or a computer trader, the movement that it creates in the market will be easily visible on a price chart. Therefore, instead of trying to analyze a million economic variables each day (this is impossible obviously, although many traders try), you can simply learn to trade price action, because this style of trading allows you to easily analyze and make use of all market variables by simply reading and trading from the P.A. trail they leave behind in a market.

In closing…

I hope today’s introduction to Price Action Forex Trading has been a helpful and enlightening lesson for you.  No matter what strategy or system you end up trading with, having a solid understanding of P.A. will only make you a better trader. If you’re like me, and you love simplicity and minimalism, you’ll want to become a “pure” P.A  trader and remove all unnecessary variables from your charts. If you’re interested in learning how I trade with simple price action strategies, checkout my Price Action Forex Trading Course for more info.
Good trading, Redzwang