Friday, October 10, 2008

FOREX VIDEO REVIEW: London Session September 23rd, 2008

After an incredible day yesterday things were sort of calm pre-London in a nice 60-70 pip range on the USD majors. We zeroed in on the Eur/Usd, and put a trap/trade plan together. In this video I recap in detail how we were able to take advantage of several low risk/high reward trade setups, the first of which presented itself right as the London Market was opening. If that entry was missed, a quick 1m swing entry presented itself shortly thereafter using a Fibonacci study on the 1m chart. At the same time Oil was breaking a small 5m channel to the downside/bouncing off 4h resistance. This drop was agreeing/helping the USD gain strength, or Eur/Usd falling. We then 'Fibbed' entries all night long on the Eur/Usd for pips, pips, and more pips. Fun stuff, another day at FXB.

FXBootcamp London Currency Coach-
Christian Stephens


After an incredible day yesterday things were sort of calm pre-London in a nice 60-70 pip range on the USD majors. We zeroed in on the Eur/Usd, and put a trap/trade plan together. In this video I recap in detail how we were able to take advantage of several low risk/high reward trade setups, the first of which presented itself right as the London Market was opening. If that entry was missed, a quick 1m swing entry presented itself shortly thereafter using a Fibonacci study on the 1m chart. At the same time Oil was breaking a small 5m channel to the downside/bouncing off 4h resistance. This drop was agreeing/helping the USD gain strength, or Eur/Usd falling. We then 'Fibbed' entries all night long on the Eur/Usd for pips, pips, and more pips. Fun stuff, another day at FXB.

FXBootcamp London Currency Coach-
Christian Stephens




After an incredible day yesterday things were sort of calm pre-London in a nice 60-70 pip range on the USD majors. We zeroed in on the Eur/Usd, and put a trap/trade plan together. In this video I recap in detail how we were able to take advantage of several low risk/high reward trade setups, the first of which presented itself right as the London Market was opening. If that entry was missed, a quick 1m swing entry presented itself shortly thereafter using a Fibonacci study on the 1m chart. At the same time Oil was breaking a small 5m channel to the downside/bouncing off 4h resistance. This drop was agreeing/helping the USD gain strength, or Eur/Usd falling. We then 'Fibbed' entries all night long on the Eur/Usd for pips, pips, and more pips. Fun stuff, another day at FXB.

FXBootcamp London Currency Coach-
Christian Stephens



Thursday, September 18, 2008

Forex Trading Signals Forecast US Dollar/Japanese Yen Declines


By David Rodriguez, Quantitative Analyst strategist@dailyfx.com
Our Forex Trading Signals forecast that the Japanese Yen will continue to appreciate against the US dollar, as our “Breakout” forex trading strategy has sold the USDJPY. This trade is overall consistent with the recent trend in the US Dollar/Japanese Yen pair, as the JPY has appreciated sharply against major counterparts on clear financial market distress. Indeed, we see that US Treasury Bill Yields hit their lowest level in over 50 years—emphasizing the level of risk aversion in global trading markets.


Japanese Yen Forex Trading Signal



USDJPY_2008-09-17

Our technical forecasts for the Japanese Yen shows expectations of further Yen strength, and we likewise see that forex positioning signals likely USDJPY losses. Our discretionary bias lines up with our system trading signals forecast, and the only remaining question is whether the USDJPY is ripe for a very-short-term decline.
Keep track of this USDJPY signal and others on our Forex Buy/Sell Signals on DailyFX+ and be sure to monitor any updates, as our automated forex signals can and do change on a daily and intraday basis.
For more information and guides on using our DailyFX Buy/Sell Signals, see our Weekly Forex Trading Strategy Outlook report.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

FOREX-Dollar steady, incentives low before U.S. holiday

TOKYO, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The dollar held firm against a basket of currencies on Friday, consolidating gains made the previous day on data showing the U.S. economy grew at a faster pace than initially thought during the second quarter.

The U.S. currency held firm on Friday as a wait-and-see mood prevailed in a thin market ahead of the U.S. Labor Day holiday on Monday.

The dollar index was little changed at 77.120. The greenback slipped 0.1 percent against the yen to 109.35 yen .

U.S. gross domestic product grew at a 3.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter compared with the initial estimate of 1.9 percent, the government said on Thursday.

The dollar inched up against the euro and yen on Thursday as the upbeat GDP figures lifted some of the gloom over the U.S. economy.

In contrast, UK data showed that British house prices posted their biggest annual fall for 17 years while retail sales saw the steepest drop since records began a quarter of a century ago.

The pound hit a two-year low of $1.8242 on the discouraging numbers before crawling back to $1.8290, unchanged from late U.S. trading.

'The UK and European economies are both lacklustre, but the British economy is looking relatively worse,' said a trader at a European bank.

'The ECB has scaled back easing expectations; as such, sterling still looks the most vulnerable,' the trader said.

The dollar has benefited since late July from growing signs that economic weakness has spread beyond the United States.

The euro retreated against the dollar on the upbeat U.S. GDP, but it remained off the six-month low hit this week after the European Central Bank doused expectations for a rate cut.

The euro was flat at $1.4707 . Against the yen, the single currency dipped 0.1 percent to 160.78

Forex Swing Trading – The Best Method for Novice Traders

Essentially you have 3 time frames you can target trends in and they are:

Forex day trading, swing trading and long term trend following and forex swing trading is the easiest for novice traders - so lets compare these 3 methods and see why.

1. Day Trading


More novice traders try this method than any other - but it doesn’t work at all!

All short term volatility is random, you can’t get the odds on your side and you can’t win – PERIOD.

For those of you who are still are thinking about it – try and find a track record that has made real profits (not simulated or hypothetical) and you won’t find one.

It’s a loser’s game, so don’t try it.


2. Forex Trend Following


This will give you the best profit potential if you can lock into the long term trends and hold them.

This looks a lot easier than it really is and requires tremendous discipline and discipline is a hard skill to learn.

1. You need to be patient.


You need to wait for the right opportunities and it requires discipline, to sit for weeks or months on end waiting for them.

Most traders want to be in trading and trend following simply only suits patient traders and most are not.

2. You need discipline to accept big gains!


This may sound easy as we all, want to make big gains but sitting on a big open gain while volatility eats into your upholstery dry cleaning is anything but and most novices snatch profits early – trend following is simply hard - sure you can learn it, but if you’re a novice trader swing trading is a great place to start here’s why:

3. Swing Trading


You can swing trade with just a few indicators and support and resistance and the advantages are:

1. It’s very simple to learn and apply. You can learn a swing trading system in a few days.

2. There are trades at least a few times a week, so for the trader who likes action they will see it quickly.

3. Trades are right or wrong quickly and the discipline and patience needed is less in this than in trend following.

Its very easy to do – you are trading for periods of 2 days to a week or so and its easy to master the mindset to do it to and while the profits maybe smaller per trade than trend following, you can make huge profits over time if you have a logical robust system.

A Basic Swing Trading System


A swing trading system is easy to build and a good one would be based upon trading into support and resistance.

You then use momentum oscillators to confirm the trade and price direction is with your trading signal and finally, always have a target no trailing stops – hit the trades, hit target and bank them.

Forex – Unify the U.S. and Canadian Currencies

1. Continental Partners: The USA and Canada share a continent as well as a coast-to-coast border, making them natural partners and facilitating easy trade.

2. Trading Partners: : The countries are, in fact, each other’s largest trading partners, while the USA is the world’s largest economy. Both are members of the powerful G8 financial organization.

3. Political Stability: : The two republics are both politically stable democracies.

4. Common Language: : There is no language barrier, as English is the primary language in both countries.

5. Synergistic Gifts: : Canada’s natural resources coupled with American technological leadership will help to ensure that the unified currency will remain the most powerful and valuable in the financial world.

6. Stimulation of Cross-border Spending: : Unification will stimulate rather than stymie cross-border shopping and travel from both sides. There will be no longer be interruptions of these traditions as presently is the case when one currency has increases significantly in value against the other.

7. Successful Model from EEU: : Unification seems to have worked pretty well for the European Economic Union with diverse languages and politics, it will most likely upholstery cleaning company for two similar countries. After all was said and done, the value of the euro appreciated tremendously against the U.S. dollar since 1999, the year of first issue. Admittedly, this qualifies as a “me to” reason, but not all things European are bad.

8. Globalization: : The world economy is becoming more global, and, therefore, unification of these particular currencies is a giant step in that direction, helping online commerce to grow also.

9. More Effective Collaboration: : Collaboration between the two countries on matters of trade and finances will arguably be all the more cooperative and sensitive to the needs of the respective continental partners.

10. Facilitate NAFTA: : The unification will also better facilitate the effectiveness of existing economic legislation and treaties, including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Of course, to get any such measure passed will require the approval of two countries via their authorized legislative and regulatory bodies. Additionally, such a massive measure could take years to implement. After many official studies, including the impact on the environment—as in saving trees and lower carbon emissions—perhaps our respective governments professional upholstery cleaning see light in this proposal. Hopefully, the prevailing Canadian attitude will not be, why didn’t the Americans propose that when the currencies were not at parity? Still, it is better late than never.

Forex Trading Myths - Why Trying to Predict Prices Is Impossible

The reason predicting forex markets doesn't work is that if you predict you are simply hoping and guessing and that is not a way to make money in any venture especially forex trading.

Scientific Theories


One of the reasons most traders think predicting is a the way to make money is that they fall for two myths

The first is - human nature is constant and repeats therefore markets must reflect this. Human nature is constant and does repeat itself but humans are emotional and don't conform to a scientific equation.

There are numerous systems sold by the devotees of Gann, Elliot and Fibonacci that tell you that markets do move to scientific theories but if they did we would all know the price in advance and there would be no market.

If a theory is scientific by its very definition it should work all the time - Period.

The second is rooted in the logic of "buy low sell high" traders for example, will watch prices dip to support and simply predict the level will hold and buy. They want to buy just above support as that's what they believe is correct.

Well the answer is it's great in theory but never works in practice because you are simply hoping or guessing the levels holds and that means losses.

The correct way to trade is to trade the reality of price change and NOT predict.

For example - if you see prices dip to support don't just jump in WAIT For confirmation that prices have turned away from support and this means using momentum indicators. Sure you miss the turn but as you can't predict that anyway it doesn't matter.

If you were to get 60 - 70% of the major trends you would still make a lot of money.

So if you dot know about momentum indicators - its time to learn and you should start with these:

Relative Strength Index RSI Average Directional Movement (ADX) and the stochastic - there are others but these are great ones to start with.

In forex trading you are dealing with odds not certainties and therefore prediction is futile and leads to losses. Acting on confirmation means you trade with the odds.

While you can confirm support and resistance with momentum - the best way to catch the big profitable trends is to buy breakouts of new highs.
It's a fact that most big moves start from new market highs - Not market lows.

Breakout trading is highly profitable as most traders refuse to buy them and wait for a pullback so they can "buy low" of course, prices don't pullback and the trader misses the move.

By not predicting and trading on the reality of a breakout when it occurs you can catch some of the biggest and most profitable moves. "Buy high sell higher" on confirmation is much more profitable than "buy low sell high" on prediction!

Forex For The New Investor

When you are in the Forex trading market you will find it operates 24 hours a day giving you access to trades when ever you want. This differs drastically from the stock exchange, because there are no worries about the market closing when you still feel like trading. 24 hour access is provided by online forex websites so that you can keep track of the market when ever you feel like it. This speeds up the learning curve to understand this market.

Assistance is provided by the forex sites in the form of tools that guide you through the mechanics and the thought process of performing a trade. Being able to practice your trading without risking your own money is a feature of the sites that you should take advantage of.

When you think of it, the forex firms are training you to become skilled at trading for free by providing guidance, demos and news at no additonal cost. How much does it cost to get started trading forex? It only takes about $300 to open an account with a broker and to start investing.

Because of the power of the forex websites you don't need to become an economist or market analyst to become a successful investor. Most of the time, you will gain access to forex trading by using a forex broker.

Similar to stock brokers, forex brokers are there to help. They can consult with you and provide market information and trading strategies. The type of advice provided includes research methods and technical analysis data. Naturally, because furniture steam cleaning market has apparently been providing a great return on investment, large financial institutions have been proactively monopolizing the market.

Great results are still available for the small time individual investor, because of easy access to the web. The online Forex trading firms, as mentioned earlier, have been giving out free website tools for you to familiarize and navigate the whole concept of the market.

When you choose your broker, the determining factor should be your level of experience in the forex market. Many forex internet sites provide a bevy of tools for the beginning trader including detailed research, online trading simulators, and expert technical advice. You will find that some sites offer access to experienced professional carpet steam cleaning traders that make themselves available for questions and advice to forex traders at various skill levels. All of these tools are available to beginners to try out.

Probably the biggest challenge facing those who want to learn how to trade forex is deciding who to listen to. Most forex sites offer their own tips and ideas. memory loss sort through them, you will find totally different forex trading strategies. As you keep learning, always make sure that you try out new strategies in a simulated setting before investing real money.