Developing Your Own Forex Trading System

By Bart Icles

A forex trading system is one of the things that you must give much consideration if you intend to enter the volatile but rewarding world of currency exchange. There are various kinds of forex trading systems available, all of which are designed according to the different needs of forex traders. Some are patterned from the typical requirements of an everyday trader, while some involve complex calculations that can help traders call positions at almost precise timings.

If you have invested time, money, and effort on your forex education and training, then you must have an idea of the significance of the learning stage in the forex market. You must also understand that apart from general information about the market, you must also keep yourself abreast of updates in the specific type of trading that you are interested in. However, a lot of currency traders overlook the importance of being informed. Many novice traders, and even seasoned traders, do not take the time to educate themselves before they jump into currency trading.

Part of your learning process is familiarizing yourself with different kinds of forex trading systems. Most of these systems are available online but you also have the option to create your own system. In developing your own trading system, you must understand that you should base your system on the principle that you will make a trade when you believe that the odds are in your favor. This signals the time when almost all fundamental and technical indicators point in certain directions that confirm one another.

Using fundamental and technical indicators, as well as chart patterns will help you determine a starting point for you to come up with trading strategies that have big chances of working. In making your own trading system, you will also be making use of trend lines, double tops, bottoms, Fibonacci levels, pivot points, and candle stick patterns.

Creating your own forex trading system will require you to be familiar with certain mathematical principles. Developing your own system is quite a challenging task. You will need to take some time off to think about all the hard work and effort that you will need to put in in developing your own trading system. You should understand that there is more to trading systems than just a bunch of indicators and confirming steps that need to be taken. There are still variables that you will need to consider and understand. - 23217

About the Author:

forex trading are powerful when coupled with a desire to learn and a drive to become a great trader. Learning forex takes dedication and a good teacher. But once you learn how to trade and do so successfully your life will change and you have options and financial resources you never had before.

Save Money by Investing Online

By Robert Griffin

A growing number of consumers are turning to the Internet to invest their money online. The benefits are many: Online investing is quick and easy. Consumers can do it from their own homes. And the commissions that online brokerage houses charge are relatively minor.

The Internet is now home to several online stockbrokers. It's easy to set up an account with online brokerage houses such as Etrade, Scotttrade and Zecco. And once you have an account, you can immediately begin selecting stocks that interest you.

The problem is that investing your money online can be risky. Playing the stock market is always risky, of course. There is never any guarantee that your stocks will rise in value. You could lose your investment.

Of course, if you invest wisely, you can also see that money grow, sometimes dramatically. In this regard, there is little difference between online investing and offline.

If you're still nervous, talk to your family members, friends and co-workers who have invested money online. Find out the online broker houses that they have worked with. Where they happy with the service these brokerage houses provided? Did the brokerage houses charge commissions that were appropriate? And, most importantly of all, how did their investments perform?

That's why it's important to only do business with online brokerages that have earned a reputation for engaging in honest and ethical business practices. Read the financial press. Visit Web sites devoted to consumer interests. And when you do, read up on the online brokerage houses. It's not difficult to find reputable Web sites and magazines that provide annual rankings of the top online brokers.

Once you select a group of online brokerage houses that can be trusted, look into the commissions each one charges. You want to work with an online broker that doesn't charge exorbitant fees for transactions. Remember, these fees can significantly eat into your profits.

The popularity of online investing only figures to grow. After all, online brokerage houses give consumers the chance to invest their money online easily, with little fuss.

Finally, it's important to realize that investing money online isn't for everyone. Not everyone is comfortable working with brokers they'll never see. Online investing is easy and quick. But you should only consider it if you're comfortable with doing business over the Internet. - 23217

About the Author:

Spare Dollars is a save money blog which contains information on how to save money, how to make money and investing money. For more information on these topics, including how to invest money online, visit us today at SpareDollars.com.

How to Approach the Foreign Exchange Market

By Damian Papworth

There is a lot of mystique about foreign exchange trading. And probably rightly so too, it is after all one of the riskiest financial markets you can trade. In this article, we will take you through the reasons this market is so risky and hopefully to some extent, take the mystery out of the market.

Firstly, what is the Foreign Exchange market anyway? What are we trading? Its simple really, we are trading money from different countries. We buy money (which is called currency) in one country by selling currency from a different country. Its an extremely important market for the proper functioning of the global economy. You may not be aware of this, but as a consumer, you have almost definitely participated in this market either directly or indirectly, and probably do so every day.

Maybe it was in the course of a vacation out of the country, or on a business trip, that you had to use local money for transactions. Whether you were operating with traveler's cheques, hard cash or on credit, during the course of any transaction there was an exchange that took place. Right away you will realize that the FX Market has been a part of your life.

There is also the indirect method of trading in foreign currencies. If you are a lover of foreign cars or merchandise, they were originally sold to importers in that country's currency. Selling goods in a foreign country means the purchase in the country of origin (the purchaser having to exchange currency), with calculations made as to what that means locally, then determining the resale price in the country where it will be sold. At any point of the transaction, the FX Market was involved and so were you, indirectly. Exchanges like this one fuel the market, making purchasers, exporters and importers all players. It is an indirect form of participation, but without the exchange of currencies you would never see imported products.

Why do the value of particular currencies change? The basic reason why the price of a currency changes is simple, its supply and demand. When there are more people who want to buy a specific currency than there are people who want to sell it, the price goes up. (Ie. those who want to buy, will offer a higher price to attract more sellers into the market.) Conversely, When there are more people who want to sell a specific currency than there are people who want to buy it, the price goes down. (Ie. those who want to sell will offer a lower price to attract more buyers into the market.) Thats the simple answer.

One of the most difficult concepts to grasp is why certain currencies are so volatile. At times, even the experts are left scratching their heads as well, watching the waves of supply and demand with baffled looks on their faces. To succeed in the FX Markets, traders need to keep many different factors in mind and invest with experience, but answers aren't as simple as "yes" or "no" in this game. Formulas are just as scarce, so the more insight a trader has and the more research they've done, the better their chances.

Currency prices are a measure of a countries "economic value" as compared against another countries "economic value". If you think about the myriad of factors which impact people's perceptions of the economy of the country you live in, you can start to understand why predicting FX price movements is difficult.

Remember that the economy of a country only makes up half of the total equation. It must be weighed against the economy of another country to decide its value in the world at large. Having a great understanding of one economy only works when you have an equal understanding of the second country's economy.

Beyond these concerns, you'll have to gauge the economy and currency of the two countries in the scheme of the world economy. To determine if one country's currency will become more valuable over time, you need a lot of information and considerable foresight, as this is a complex equation.

Once you've completed your research and are ready to make some exchanges, you're also subject to the whims of the world itself. With a consumer crisis or confidence slipping due to the bad performance of central banks, you may see a currency shift you never expected. Fundamental traders who are weighing all the factors mix with the traders called technical traders, who mainly crunch numbers.

Some investors will buy currencies with long-range goals in mind. With a big investment in currencies, they use it to support other ventures, which also has an effect on the currency's value.

Strategies for trading on the Foreign Exchange Market may not involve the expectation of dips in prices. Whether a currency is dropping or rising in value, the investor will see small gains.

Getting a handle on the FX Markets is never a simple matter, and hopefully this explanation has helped. - 23217

About the Author:

If you are tired of your mutual fund investment, Damian Papworth recommends FOREX trading. The excitement and potential rewards are hard to beat.

Dow Futures (Part II)

By Ahmad Hassam

Stock-index futures are by far the largest category of futures contracts traded as a percentage of the total number of futures contracts traded. Stock index futures like the Dow Futures are traded for speculation as well as hedging purposes. The dominance of index futures clearly speaks of the major role that stock-index futures play in risk management for the entire stock market.

Stock index futures like the Dow futures are a better option than trading individual stocks. There are other advantages of trading stock index futures like the Dow Futures. Some of these advantages are gains in the futures markets are taxed at a lower rate than the stock market capital gains.

However, future traders don't have the same amount of time to make decisions as someone who is only trading stocks. Globex is a 24 hour electronic trading system for a wide variety of futures contract. If something happens on the stock market overnight when it is closed and you want to hedge your risk, you can trade Dow Futures or the S&P 500 Futures on Globex. Many futures brokerages offer lower commission rates as compared to stocks.

When you trade stock index futures like the Dow Futures, you are betting on the direction of the contract value, in this case DJIA and not on the individual stocks that make up the index.

In a sense by focusing on the value and the general trend of the stocks as a group, you are blocking out a good deal of the noise that is often associated with the daily gyrations in the prices of the individual stocks.

Stock indexes are basically moved by any information that relates to the sector represented by these indexes. Stock index futures like the Dow Futures are guaranteed to move in response to the release of periodical economic indicators. You can simply speculate with the futures contract like the Dow Futures just by using technical and fundamental analysis. You can setup positions with both futures and options as you wait for the news to hit the wire.

Stock indexes move when economic news of fundamental nature is released. For the past many years, the monthly NFP employment report which is issued the first Friday of every month at 8:30 AM EST has been an excellent mover for stock index futures like the Dow Futures.

You just need to find one or two stock index futures with which you're comfortable -the ones that enable you to implement your strategies. You don't need to trade every major index futures contract in the world to be successful. Just focus on one stock index futures contract and become its specialist or expert. You can become a successful futures trader in sometime with this approach.

The more you know about a particular type of a contract, the better off you are. So the best way to trade futures contracts is to become a specialist in one type of the contract like the Dow Futures or the S&P 500 Futures or NASDAQ-100 Futures.

Figure out how many days the Dow Futures contract tends to spend rising or falling along a Bollinger Band. You can get an idea when the Dow Futures contract is likely to turn around. This way you can become a Dow Futures swing trader. Every time profiting from a turn in the DJIA! So by becoming a specialist in trading Dow Futures you can make a lot of profit daily from the daily movements in DJIA. - 23217

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading stocks and currencies. Trade Dow Futures. Learn Swing Trading!

It Takes Time To Learn The Stock Market

By Sharon Demeter

Some people who are new to stock investing might feel intimidated when they go online to try to figure things out. Yet, with all the turmoil in the markets and so many people losing money, people who might never have gotten interested in the stock market want to take a look at it. With the Dow being the lowest it has been in over ten years, these people are probably thinking that now might be a good time to get on board. They should know though, that just because the market is low doesn't mean it can't go lower.

You don't have to feel like it too intimidating to get into the stock market. If you want to know how to buy stocks, you should know that you could open an account and start buying online without ever talking to any human person. So, if you feel intimidated by all the market jargon and are hesitant to get involved, you should know that it is quite easy.

Opening a stock account online is not much different than opening up any other type of account online. You will need to get a user name and password, and then enter your name, address, and social security number. The social security number is required because law requires that your transactions be sent to the IRS. After you send in your money, you eill be able to start buying stock with the click of your mouse.

If you want to learn about buying stocks before you try the real thing, one of the best ways is to join a fantasy online stock trading game. There are several of these games online where you can trade stocks that you buy with virtual fake money. These games will teach you how to buy and sell stocks and how to manage a portfolio. Nothing is ever like the real thing but this is a great way to learn about stocks and how to research them. These games are free unless you want some of the upgrades that you have to pay for.

It is important to remember for beginners that they can lose money in the stock market. Once your first stock is purchased, it can go down just like we have seen in the last year and a half. That is perhaps why it is scary because you know that your money is in play and you can lose if your stock goes down. However, it should be noted that the stock market has been a historically good place to invest and beginners should remember that. - 23217

About the Author:

Are you interested in learning how to buy stock for beginners? Please visit my site Stock Market For Beginners.