Archive for 'currency trading'

Forex Advice

Forex Advice If you are new to forex and thinking of giving this “make loads of money working only 10 minutes a day” investment thing a try, then listen up.

Forex is NOT investing. It is gambling.

There are ways to win at it but it is risky and you can literally lose your shirt, your house, your wife & your dog in an amazingly short period of time, if you don’t know what you are doing.

Anyone tells you differently is trying to sell you something.

The forex market is not easy. It is inhabited by the largest financial institutions in the world & these sharks, who make up 98% 0f the forex market are looking for a constant supply of small fry (You & me) to feed upon. If you do not know what you are doing you will not last 5 minutes.

Fact: 95% of newbies will lose money currency trading.

To further complicate matters forex has a language all of its own. Fibonacci, emas, macd, divergence, head & shoulders patterns to name but a few.

The hardest thing that I found as a beginner was that there is so much information available, especially on-line, that it is very easy to rapidly become lost in the maze of complex terminology, systems, trading platforms etc. I know because I have been there. Suddenly you hear of another “must have” robot or system and off you go at a tangent. Another week wasted & another $100 down the drain.

If you follow my Free Course you will have enough basic knowledge to trade forex profitably:

http://www.forex-fxtrader.com/Free-forex-training.html

Best advice for a forex newbie ? Don’t do it !

95% of all Forex traders (probably 99% of newbies) lose money. I know I did. Take up knitting , anything but forex !

You still here ?

Good. You might just make it. If you are going to stop at the 1st sign of trouble then you will be one of the 95% who fail. It took me more than 3 years of trying & losing before I cracked the code of how to make money on forex.

The most important piece of forex advice

Okay, you are still thinking of giving this forex thing a try or at least looking into it. Then this next piece of advice IS serious.

Do not start with real money until you have at least a basic grasp of what forex is about.

All the major brokers have trading platforms that you can download for free* and they will give you a demo account where you can make trades in real time, BUT without risking a penny.

I know people who demo traded forex for over a year before they put real money on the table.

The problem is that most of us are in a rush and want to make loads of money quickly – I speak from experience, I went from a demo account to live within a few weeks. I also went from +$10k to – $10k within 18 months. I could afford it BUT eventually I had to stop, other wise I would have had been in trouble.

The most important thing in forex that I realised is that you can get rich, but a little more slowly.

* You can download a free copy of our recommended trading software platform (metatrader) here http://www.alpari.co.uk/ .

If you registered for the $million challenge you should have received a copy of my template to add to metatrader. If not, send me an email. Contact Us.
Put “metatrader template” & I will send you a copy of my basic chart set ups.

This means that you can download and simply attach to your trading platform. This will save you hours of work & also means that you see what I am seeing & the course will be easier to follow. I promise not to spam you.

Forex History

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There are numerous different terms for the forex market. Forex and fx are both short ways of saying ‘foreign exchange’. It may also be called the currency market, the foreign currency market, the currency trading market, etc. All of these terms refer to the same international market on which the currencies of the world are exchanged and traded.

Currencies are bought & sold just like any other commodity; coffee, steel, coal etc.

The value of a currency is, in a sense, the value of the nation whose currency it is. Just like companies on the stock market. If a nation is successful the value of its currency increases and if it is going though a crisis the value drops.

These fluctuations can be great and can happen very fast. The sums involved can be huge too. It is these daily fluctuations that we aim to take advantage of as a Forex trader.

History of The forex market.

Up until the 1970s, currencies had been stable relative to one another
since the second world war. What was called the ‘gold standard’ gave every currency a value in relation to the US dollar. This system was introduced in order to maintain a stable world economy.

However, in the early 70s the USA abandoned the gold standard and the
values of the different currencies began to change. Banks immediately began to exchange currencies for profit, buying low and selling high, instead of only making exchanges when they needed to transfer money from
one country to another. In effect, each currency became a tradeable commodity. This was the beginning of forex trading.

Where is the forex market based ?

The trading of currencies, the “forex market” is not housed in a physical building nor is it a specific business or entity. Rather it is a computerised network of traders, bankers & brokers situated all over the world.

London & New York are the main centres of business, but practically every country is involved. Therefore it is possible to trade virtually every currency from anywhere in the world.

Who can trade forex ?

The market is still dominated by Investment banks, Major corporations &
other large financial institutions who are responsible for 98% of the $2+ trillion a day that changes hands on the forex markets.

Until recently it was only possible to trade forex if you had a large pot of money (anything less than $500.000 and a broker really wasn’t interested).
However, it is now possible to trade as a private individual through a broker from as little as $250.

There are now a large number of people involved in forex trading through their home computers, although because they trade much smaller amounts than the institutions, they only account for around 2% of the total forex market.

Conclusion

We have established that there are no physical barriers to trading forex (as long as you have access to a computer with broad band connection). However, although its easy to connect to the same systems & real-time data feeds that professional currency traders around the world are using, it is also extremely easy to lose a lot of money VERY quickly !

It is vital that you learn the basics of the forex market, before opening your wallet.

As Warren Buffet famously stated, ” Never invest in a business that you don’t understand”.

Where can you learn to trade forex for free ?

I have written a number of articles for beginners (parts of them should be interesting for intermediate traders too). This free advice will give you the basic idea of how to trade the forex markets. You may decide that its not for you. In which case, you have hopefully learned something new & it hasn’t cost you a penny.

If, having read my mini course you wish to take your interest further I will give free, HONEST advice of where to go next (there are lots of courses out there costing many $1000′s – I paid $3000+ 5 years ago).

The best that I have found recently cost $50 !! Check out my special discounted Forex mentoring service here;

Forex Courses you should avoid

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Forex Training courses I bought, over-paid for and you should avoid !

I read various forex e books and then invested heavily ($3000+) in a training course from a guy that was allegedly an ex bank trader.

The course was not bad and gave very detailed explanations of what the forex market is about ( Five years ago forex at home was a relatively new concept, so there wasn’t so much free info available as there is now).

However, value for money wise it is a joke.

The basic premise of the course though was to look for a “secret forex signal” that occurred every day, – in truth its just a candle pattern/break. They only look for 15 pips at a time/per day.

The course is periodically relaunched with varying titles, Andy X’s Forex Secret/Insider Signal- read my review here andy x insider forex signal to find out

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS).

Anyway back to my tale of woe. About a year later I joined Fx Bootcamp. Their selling point is that their sessions are live. They have coaches trading up to 16 hours a day LIVE. This seemed to be the solution.

By this time I was down a few $1000 but seemed to be getting the hang of forex. I was a member for a year (approx $2.500k cost), currency trading every day (sometimes up to 10 hours – what was I thinking), mainly 15 minute charts.

In fairness to fx bootcamp their tuition and analysis is excellent, but no-one in their right mind wants to spend that much time at a computer screen unless they are making a fortune.

I did alright for a while & at one point seemed to be getting the hang of it, but eventually had a bad run. I lost the plot, broke all the rules, overtraded, over leveraged etc etc.

I’m $15.000 Down. The turning point.

About 2.5 years into my forex (non) career I was approx 15k down. I KNEW there was money to be made, but I just wasn’t able to catch the bloody thing. I bought yet another e book the 5ema trading system.*

This was not a eureka moment & things did not improve over night. However, the best thing about this book was it was the 1st step for me away from 15 minute charts and got me into longer term, less volatile trading.

It also has a trading system that works, so you could be up and running with a demo account, within a few days.

* Since writing this article I have recently found a much better training course for beginners & intermediates & its cheaper. The 5ema system costs approx $99. For a better value at only $49.95 check out my review traders secret

My Forex Story

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My Forex Story

I semi retired from my day job (Managing Director of a Frozen Food company in the U.K) aged 42. Sold my shares, house, cars, the lot & emigrated with my wife & kids to the Canary Islands. We sold literally everything. Our luggage allowance was 1 suitcase each !

My very expensive introduction to forex

I spent over a year buying & trying out numerous “get rich quick” schemes. Arbitrage betting, online marketing to name but a few. I then stumbled upon adverts for forex trading from home.

I had never heard of forex or currency trading from home & presumed it was just another scam, but the more I read the more intrigued I became.

Over the years I have spent over $7000 on fx training courses, books, videos etc. I started trading currencies from home (badly) ! over 4 years ago. I made every forex trading mistake that is possible & invented a few more along the way.

Forex is NOT easy. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either a liar or more probably trying to sell you something.

“Make $1000′s a day working only 10 minutes from home. Guaranteed” – yeah right. You & I both know that its rubbish.

In the last 12 months I have managed to recoup my initial $20.000 losses and move into a healthy profit.I started posting advice on twitter in january of this year.

My real time advice so far has been 96% accurate in 2009/1200 pips profit in february & 900 in march alone !!

The aim of my main site is to teach you the basics of forex trading as well as some of the strategies that I use. You may decide forex is not for you. Great, it didnt cost you a penny !

If you intend to take forex further then you will need to spend some money to further your education, but not the $1000′s that I did.

The best training course/forex tuition that I bought? Cost $50 !!

It has the same amount of detailed information as the $3000 video course That I do NOT recommend. See my post on Forex training courses you should avoid. Forex courses that I bought, over paid for & you should avoid

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