Why is it that very few traders succeed in the Forex trading environment while the grand majority of traders fail to achieve success? Although there is no hard answer to this question, there are a few things that will put you one step ahead and will definitely put the odds in your favor.
The main purpose of this article is to guide you through some important aspects of Forex trading. But in a different way, instead of telling you what to do or the best way to do it, it will tell you what to avoid. Sometimes it is better to identify the main drawbacks on a discipline and then isolate them so we have the best results at a certain level of development.
The search for the Holy Grail
Many traders spend years and years trying to find the Holy Grail of trading. That magic indicator or set of indicators, only known by a few traders, that will make them rich in a short period of time.
Fact: Well, there is no magic indicator, nor a set of indicators that will make anyone rich in a short period of time. The main reason of this is because market changes, every single moment is unique. Every Forex trading system will fail from time to time. Our work here is to find a Forex trading system that fits our personality as traders, otherwise the trader will find it hard to follow it.
Looking for Easy Money
Unfortunately most traders are attracted to the Forex market for this reason. Mainly because of the publicity showing or rather trying to show how easy is to trade and make money in the Forex market.
Fact: Yes, it is very easy to trade, anyone can do it. It is as hard as one click. But the second part of it isn’t that easy. Making money or achieving consistent profitable results is hard. It requires lots of education, patience, discipline, commitment, and this list could go to infinite. In a few words, it is possible to have consistent profitable results, but definitely it is not easy.
Looking for Excitement
Some other traders are attracted to the Forex market or any other financial market because they think it is exciting to be a trader.
Fact: Yes, it is very exciting to trade the Forex market. But if this is the main reason you are still trading the Forex market, sooner or later you will discover the most expensive adventure you have ever known. Do some thinking on it.
Not Using Money Management.
Most traders forget about this important aspect of trading. They think they shouldn’t be using money management until they achieve consistent profitable results. They totally forget about the risk side of trading.
Fact: Money management allows your profits to increase geometrically, but also limits your risk on every single trade. Money management tells you how much to risk on each trade. Using money management is a must if you want to achieve your trading goals. By using money management you make sure you are going to be able to trade tomorrow, the next week, month and the following years.
Not Being Psychology Tuned
This is one of the most underestimated subjects when it comes to trading. One of the main principles of financial markets is that the price of each instrument is based on the perception of each individual participant “the crowd.” In other words the price of each instrument is determined by the fear, greed, ego and hope of all traders.
Fact: Being aware of all psychological issues that affect the decisions made by traders will definitely put the odds in your favor.
Lack of Education
Education is the base of knowledge on every discipline. As lawyers and doctors require several years of college until they get their degree, Forex traders also require long years of study. It is better to have someone experienced to guide you through your trading, since some information could take you in the wrong path.
Fact: The market teaches us invaluable lessons on every single trade made. The process of education for a Forex trader could take for ever. That’s right, we never stop learning. We should be humble about the markets and our knowledge; otherwise the market will prove us wrong.
These are some of the most important barriers every trader faces when trying to trade successfully.
Trading successfully the Forex markets is no easy task, it requires a lot of hard work to do it right, but with the right education, you will put yourself closer to your trading goals.
The Forex Market—What, When and Why?
Forex, FX and the Forex market are some common abbreviations for the Foreign Exchange market. Actually it is the largest financial market in the world, where money is sold and bought freely. In its present condition the Forex market was launched in the seventies, when free exchange rates were introduced, and only the participants of the market determine the price of one currency against the other proceeding from demand and supply. As far as the freedom from any external control and free competition are concerned, the Forex market is a perfect market.
With a daily turnover of over trillions of dollars, the Foreign Exchange market conducts more than three times the aggregate amount volume of the United States Equity and Treasury markets combined. The Forex market is an over-the-counter market where buyers and sellers conduct foreign exchange business using different means of communication.
Unlike other financial markets, the Forex market has no physical location or central exchange. Since the Forex market lacks a physical exchange, the market trades continuously on a 24-hour basis, moving from one time zone to the next, across each of the world’s major financial centers every day. Trillions of dollars of foreign exchange activity takes place every day. From 1997 to the end of 2000, daily forex trading volume surged approximately from US$5 billion to US$1.5 trillion and more (according to various recent studies it has touched $1.7 trillion per day and dwarfs all other markets for trading in size and volume). It is really difficult, if not impossible; to determine an absolutely exact number because trading is not centralized on an exchange. But one thing is for sure that the Forex market continues to grow at a phenomenal rate.
Before the advent of Internet and ecommerce, only big corporations, multinational banks and wealthy individuals could trade currencies in the Forex market through the use of the proprietary trading systems of banks. These systems required as much as US$1 million to open an account. Thanks to advancements in online technology, today investors with only a few thousand dollars can have access to the Forex market 24 hours a day and around 5 ½ days of a week.
The Forex market is a nonstop cash market where currencies of nations are traded, typically via brokers called forex brokers. Foreign currencies are constantly and simultaneously bought and sold across local and global markets while traders increase or decrease value of an investment upon currency movements. Foreign exchange market conditions can change at any time in response to real-time events so it is also considered to be a highly volatile and fragile market too. Conditions of the Forex market never remain the same they changes every second.
The foreign exchange market dwarfs the combined operations of the New York, London, and Tokyo futures and stock exchanges. According to its size and scope it is many times larger than all other markets. Stats shows that spot transactions and forward outright Forex trading take place in the inter-bank market. 51% of the market is in spot Forex transactions, followed by 32% in currency swap transactions. Forward outright Forex transactions represent another 5% of this daily turnover, with options on ‘interbank’ Forex transactions making up another 8%. Therefore the inter-bank market accounts for 96% of the global foreign exchange market, with the remaining 4% being divided among all the global futures exchanges.
For traders, Forex trading provides an alternative to stock market trading. While there are thousands of stocks to choose from, there are only a few major currencies to trade (the Dollar, Yen, British Pound, Swiss Franc, and the Euro are the most popular). Forex trading also provides a lot more leverage than stock trading, and the minimum investment to get started is a lot lower. Add to that the ability to choose flexible trading hours (forex trading goes on 24 hours a day) and you have the reason why so many stock traders have flocked to day trade currencies.
If you are a homeowner and thinking of taking financial assistance of some kind, then there are some things that you need to think about before taking out a loan. First and foremost, decide on the amount that you require and the loan type that you want to go in for.
Secondly, think- do you really want this loan? Can you afford the loan? Do not take more than what you can afford just because you are being offered a big loan amount. And this is even truer if you are going in for secured credit.
Secured loans are asset based loans so, in the event of failure of repayment, there is a possibility that you may lose your home. Although, this type of credit does come with a lot of flexibility and advantages, it does put your home at risk.
Some of the benefits of secured loans include repayment holidays, fixed, capped or variable interest plans, upto 125 per cent LTV, upto 25 years of repayment policy, refundable PPI (Payment Protection Insurance) and accelerated repayments without penalties.
However, notwithstanding all of these, a loan against collateral is still a dicey proposition. Homeowners are the preferred clients as far as lenders are concerned. This is certainly no surprise. Secured homeowner loans are no risk loans for lenders as they are evaluated against an asset and there is absolute surety of getting the money back in full.
Secured homeowner loans can provide the potential borrower up to £250,000, subject to the available equity. But, just because you are eligible to get such a big amount, it doesn’t mean that you take it on. Lenders may try to push you to take on a bigger amount than you might actually require, but, don’t give in. Remember the more money you borrow, the more interest you will have to pay.
The warnings flashing on all the flyers and the bottom of web sites advising the dangers of taking out unsolicited loans is not to be ignored, especially in the case of secured loans.
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The fact that 95% of the people loose money in forex trading is because they lack of trading discipline, money management, patience and most of all, they are too eager to trade (trigger happy).
Forex trading is about high probability trade setups, and to win in forex by trading many times a day is not easy at all. You are lowering the probability of winning a forex trade.
You can be those short-term traders and scalpers who make a few profits here and there but receive a lot of stress in return OR be a trader who takes in only one or 2 trades per week and able to satisfy your monthly needs.
Let me give you an example. Trader A needs to trade everyday to make 10 pips per day(out of 20 trading days) in order to achieve 200 pips per month. Trader B only needs to trade for 2 weeks which can make him 100 pips per week. Which will you choose? 80% chose the latter after I asked them this question.
A lot of people start forex trading with the first method because they want quick profits out from the market or lack of confidence that the trend will sustain. Every each and individual has their own preferences, I can't say which is wrong and which is right.
But if you are trading forex for already quite sometime, you should have realized that often a perfect trade setup is the one that you are looking for. You know that you can make an excellent living from forex trading if you are able to find just 1 of the ideal trade setups per week.
I personally use some forex technical indicators to detect the high probability trade setups and will make sure that those indicators are all in the same direction before I decide to trade. I do not like to trade for small profits because firstly, I have a high risk to reward ratio (profit target of at least 60 pips if my stop loss is 30 pips) to meet.
Secondly, I only go along with the real trend, and it's the real trend that brings me the big fish.
I understand that some people will disagree by saying that a forex trend does not occur everyday. That's the point I want to prove, there is no real trend everyday, that's why I only trade once or twice per week, or even per 2 weeks, but already it's enough for my income.
The main point I want to get across is that you only need a few of the high probability setups to make some excellent returns. If you are not sure what kinds of methods are able to do that, please download my FREE ebook which provides the information and forex trading system that you need to trade successfully.
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