All Fundamentals Principals Of Forex Trading

All Fundamentals Principals Of Forex Trading

If you are already a trader or is hoping to become one, sure you have heard about forex trading methodologies used by the pros and the like. You will either go by the fundamental trading or by the technical trading which most of them follow. Fundamental analysis places emphasis on critically examining the intrinsic values of currencies and the reasons to their movements regardless of their directions.


The Basis of Fundamental Analysis
For doing fundamental analysis of a particular currency, one needs to get deeper insights beginning from that country's political history, economic policies and performances, inflation for evaluating that currency's potential. These points are some building blocks of an economy. You can obtain such reports over internet. Scrutinizing the reports must indicate whether a country is progressing or not as it implicates large reversals in forex values in case of economic deviations from the norm.


Key Elements in Fundamental Analysis
1. GDP: Gross Domestic Product or the overall earnings of countries. The single most decisive parameter to judge whether countries are progressing. Uncertainties in GDP and GDP growth figures cause fluctuations in currency valuations.
2. Industrial Production: Higher the industrial production the better; better still if a greater chuck of the produce is exported which adds to which adds to the country's forex buying power adds to the forex reserve. As the reserve grows the local currency trends upwards.
3. Consumer Price Index: Tells whether the country is gaining or loosing on the export front when this moves up and down respectively.
4. Inflation Rate: Higher the prevailing inflation rate lower is the currency's valuation in the forex market because of its weakened buying power. You can correlate the trends in both of these.


There are several other indicators of equal importance such as the forex reserve, human development index, infrastructural growth, foreign trade in general and balance of payment (BoP) etc which needs to be given due importance.


How to Use These Indicators?
Economic indicators are mirrors of a currency's trending directions as much as they are a country's prospects in general. Governmental policies, annual budgets and credit & other financial policies are formally announced at definite times by various agencies. An analyst must have a country's economic calendar by his side in order not to miss out.


One must contrast the opposite country's fundamental parameters too. But the golden line in fundamental analysis is never to rush but realize that the released figures are often revised later. Trend setting changes through policy changes are likely to last longer than those indicated by technical analysis.
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All About Spot Trading in Forex

All About Spot Trading in Forex

This trading is one of the two options and the one which offers traders the flexibility. There are two styles within the spot trading too. They are the traditional option and then the SPOT option which stands for Single Payment Option Trading.


 The traditional option let the buyer purchase a contract to buy the required number of lots at a time and price of mutual choice. This is slightly different from the stock market where the opted lots are always bought and sold on standard settlement cycles. This is follows the over-the-counter nature of trading of forex. When option expires and the set price is not attained, the buyer only pays the options seller the premium which equals the difference between the expiration and options price. If the price hits the set price, buyer gais the lots and can sell them off for profit in the cash market. The premiums payable to the options seller is a little higher here than that of the SPOT trading contract.


 Single Payment Option Trading- SPOT
 SPOT trading is pretty simple and straightforward. The seller offers a price scenario; say for example EURO/USD will cut through a particular price within a specified period and seeks price offers. If the price break comes through, the seller immediately gets cash deposited into his account.


 SPOT trading is especially attractive to traders because of the advantages inherent within it.
 1. You stand to get the cash if your call is right otherwise you loose only your premium.
 2. SPOT offers a number of different choices and not just one fixed to opt for unlike in traditional options trading.


 But Why Traders Prefer SPOT?
 Out of the appealing reasons some of them are listed out here.
 1. Your downslide is protected to the limit of your premium which is the paid up value of the lots.
 2. Payment needed to make is lighter than the cash market.
 3. The biggest advantage is the freedom to set the prie and expiration date.
 4. Traders can hedge the SPOTs against cash positions and minimize risk
 5. When you anticipate fundamental changes to a currency you need not put at stake your entire capital to enter into open positions.


 There are certain downsides for SPOT trading in forex too without which I suspect everyone would be trading SPOT market rather than cash market.
 1. Premium is a function of strike price and date so the risk /reward ratio is variable
 2. You can't change mind midway and trade the SPOT options unlike traditional options or cash market, so predicting exact price and date could be risky.


 When entering into positions keep in mind the time function as longer periods load higher premiums. 


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Trading Double Tops And Double Bottoms Valuable Information For You

Trading Double Tops And Double Bottoms Valuable Information For You

Traders need to look out for indicators that make patterns that trigger long or short positions by following the trend reversal signals they give. Patterns like double tops and double bottoms are significantly important for a forex trader as it is for an equity trader.


What Are Double Tops and Double Bottoms
Double tops signal out a long drawn bearish trend. Double tops form usually close to the 52 week high with an intervening trough. Both the tops are roughly equal in price with the first having formed after long advance trending of currency pairs. Patient observation is critical here to pick the accurate tops without getting misled by fake tops. The declining trend after the second top finds a support near the intervening trough level which if broken is the signal for entering short positions or closing long. The target is equal to the difference to the difference between the tops and the intervening bottom. When perfectly formed, the double tops appear like the letter 'M'.


There are two things of importance when judging the double tops.
1. The first top should have formed after sufficiently long advance trending and the gap in between the tops must take at least a few weeks to a couple of months.
2. The second top must be within 3% of the first and breaking the support line is marked with high volumes under selling pressure.


Double bottoms are different from double tops in only one way that the pattern is exactly reverse of double tops. When accurately formed, the double bottoms formation appears like the letter 'W'. The trend following the second bottom is associated with increased buying pressure as reflected by the volumes chart. Volume further picks up once the resistance is broken effectively.


Entering in till the support or resistance is broken could be mistakes as has proved. Patience is the key in trading double tops and double bottoms. The exact entry levels are when the support/resistance is broken. Any anticipatory entry prior to this is a strategy that runs a high risk and the trader finds himself in an excruciating task of deciding where to get out.


For speculative traders, it is wise to put a 'stop-loss' just at the bottom or top respectively for double tops or bottoms, whichever the case may be. The amount of stop depends on the trader's personality and isn't a statistical function.


There are criticisms on trading double tops and double bottoms that they appear perfect only retrospectively and implementing them in real time is impractical. Even exiting the market early is unwise for the markets are not that simplistic.
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Do You Know How to Identify Trending in Forex Trading?

Do You Know How to Identify Trending in Forex Trading?

Currencies tend to trend more and fluctuate less violently unlike stocks which behave pretty much the different way. The reason for this is not hard to understand. Currencies trend depending on the countries' foreign and economic policies which are macro economic in nature and the currency pairs take fairly long enough time to react to any change in policies. Where as stock movements are more or less determined by microeconomic factors and market sentiments.

Euro/US Dollar: On Par at the Beginning
When Euro was brought into force its exchange rate was set officially at 1 USD a Euro. At that time there existed hardly any difference between the economies of US and the European Union. US had a GDP of $11.0 billion and European Union was pretty up close there at $10.5 billion. While US economy was growing at a good rate of above 3% per annum Europe was a bit sluggish and recorded slightly over 1.5%.

Gradual Shift In Favor Of Euro
But this was not coming in the way of Euro's gradual march ahead of US Dollar. Look at other key economic factors for yourself. US had a deficit budget and the balance of trade was negatively skewed against US while the European Union had some of the seriously good parameters in exact contrast to that of the US's. The trade balance sheets looked healthy and strong standing on the near equal GDP.

During this period India, China, Russia and Brazil were making big strides in economic growth and Europe was gaining position in their trade partnerships shifting the forex currency in Euro's favor. At a time when their reserves were growing by leaps and bounds, US Dollar was sliding continuously which contributed to the conversion of their reserves into Euro, but partially.

How Does The Market React To This?
Euro/USD is by far the biggest forex pair which accounts for $1 trillion every trading day. With so many changes in the world economic scenario and the notional trades in between the two currencies still commanding 1/3rd of the currency market, the US dollar trended constantly over the years.

The firm trend may not be apparent in short term price charts but a relatively long period chart such as 2-3 years would clarify Euro's constant gain against USD. Till recently cross currency payments were, say for Japanese payments to Germany, first by converting Yen into USD and then USD into Euro. Now such a necessity doesn't arise for payments.

All these things mean that the trends are going to continue for long unless there is a strong reason.
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Your Best Technical Analysis in Forex Trading

Your Best Technical Analysis in Forex Trading

This is one method for analyzing the prices of the two. The other method is the fundamental analysis. Thesetwo approaches differ hugely in their approaches and scopes. Technical analysis basically deals with the previous price and volume changes and uses a set of statistical calculations to project the possible price trends.

Currencies tend to trend more and fluctuate less violently unlike stocks which behave pretty much the different way. The reason for this is not hard to understand. Currencies trend depending on the countries. foreign and economic policies which are macro economic in nature and the currency pairs take fairly long enough time to react to any change in policies. Where as stock movements are more or less determined by microeconomic factors and market sentiments.

Why Technical Analysis Is Critical For Forex Trading?

It is true that technical factors reflect changes to the fundamental parameters of a currency but but still technical approach to analyzing the movements of a forex currency grossly takes into consideration only the historic price and volume movements.

The following are the reasons for this intrinsic behavioral difference.

1. A trader may want to go short or long within the span of a day and cover up positions there by cashing in on the intraday fluctuations which are hardly affected by the economic and policy changes which are fundamental in nature.

2. Technical analysis stresses on the historical statistical data for projections which takes into consideration the short and medium term perspective which is a welcome factor for a trader who does not want to hold huge forex currency assets for longer periods.

3. Intra day fluctuations can be fairly well predicted and entry exit points, regardless of short or long positions, can be easily identified with technical analysis which is not the scope of fundamental analysis.

One question that arises in ones mind at this point is, if technical analysis steers out of fundamentals, then why is it so popular with so many traders? There are two strong arguments about its popularity.

1. Historical data are market's future indicators as they give insights into the short term behaviors of markets.

2. Although the market trends are clearly the reflection fundamental changes a currency is undergoing, they sure are the results of collective intelligence and reactions of the whole market to affecting incidences including rumors.

What Approach Must A Trader Take With Respect To Technical Analysis?

Unlike the fundamental analysis which places heavy weightage onto the intrinsic values of currencies, technical analysis doesn't do so. It is based on the price changes and volumes only and not why the prices have changed when they did. In short, it depends basically on the patterns of price behavior supported by some sophisticated mathematical paramenters.

Technical analysis of forex market has gained popularity with traders of late following the easy availability of sophisticated analytical softwares.

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Online Forex Trading Tutorial Instructions and Recommendations

Online Forex Trading Tutorial Instructions and Recommendations

There is an old adage connected to online forex and stock trading. It goes some what like this If you are inexperienced and have money and meet an experienced trader, but without money, you are likely to end up with experience and the experienced trader your money. There can be some semblance of truth in this but what this infers is trading without experience and strong fundamental knowledge of the market is an invitation to loss making.

Online Forex Trading Tutorial
There are several reputed online forex trading houses that cater to retail investors and traders. The same trading houses offer to train their prospective and existing clients on the nitty gritties of online forex trading most of the times free of cost.

What You Need To Learn About Online Forex Trading?
If you are a novice you need to start from the beginning. The macro economic factors that affect price volatility and the demand and supply of currencies that trigger the short term fluctuations which are your trading opportunities and most importantly the points of entry and exits form the basis of your learning.

Most of the online forex trading tutorials available require you to open a cost free demo/practice account so that you get exposure to either real time or simulated environment for better understanding.

Online Forex Trading Tutorial Curricula
You will see that, generally all the tutorials have more or less the same curricula. Basically speculations are made through a number of charts and indicators.
Chart Types:
1. Line chart
2. Bar chart
3. Candle stick chart

All these charts are price plots for selected periods. Then there are several indicators that help make decision. The important and most followed ones are

1. Average true range (ATR)
2. BOLLINGER BAND
3. Commodity Channel Index
4. Linear Regression
5. MACD
6. Momentum
7. Moving average
8. Parabolic time price
9. (ROC)Rate of Change
10. Relative Strength Index
11. Slow Stochastic
12. Standard Deviation
13. Stochastic

All charts and indicators are taught with sufficient demonstrations for self study. The tutorials deal with the patterns and formations made by charts/indicators and what they mean. While charts help you for short term speculative trading (technical analysis) they don't concentrate on the underlying reasons for price movements. This is the ground for fundamental analysis. The study of macroeconomic factors such as changes in government policies, wars etc that influence supply and demand, and as a consequence prices, constitute the fundamental analysis. These things are illustrated in contrast with demonstrative price movements.

Online forex trading tutorial helps gain a lot for everyone who takes it.
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