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Archive for May, 2010

How To Read Candlestick Charts

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

The fantastic thing about candlesticks is that you can see the direction of price movements at a peek. In some cases naturally the open or close will be the high or the low. In that case you don’t have a wick in one or both directions. If there is no wick in either direction, this is called a Marubozu pattern.

In another case, the opening and closing costs may have been the same. Then there is not any candle body but only wicks stretching up and down from the horizontal line that marks the open and close. This is called a Doji pattern. If the body of the candle is long with short or non existent wicks, close to Marubozu, this indicates a reasonably steady movement, possibly part of a trend. The colour of the candle will tell you whether or not it is an upward or downward movement.

On the other hand if the wicks are long and the body is short or non existent, more like the Doji pattern, this could indicate a unsettled market with big fluctuations. Trend based trading will tend to be suspicious of Doji patterns, that might be a sign the market is becoming untrustworthy.

Of course one candlestick by itself isn’t enough to form the foundation of a trading decision. You will always look at a collection of candles. For example, you can draw trend lines along the highest highs and lowest lows on candlestick charts. When you know how to read candlestick charts you can base systems around these prospects.

Interbank Forex Trading Explained

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

If you are involved in fx trading, you are probably going to come across the term interbank foreign exchange trading from time to time. The meaning isn’t always very clear and you have got to know a little bit about the history of currency trading to appreciate it. When speculative forex trading began, after the relaxation of the gold standard which fixed relative currency values till the 1970s, it really only concerned banks and other large monetary institutions like fund managers. It was rare for non-public people to be concerned unless they had finance connections.

So initially the currency market was almost totally interbank, which means between banks. But then the Net started to take over from the phone as the primary trading medium, and at the same time it became more and more common for average voters to have a home computer and a broadband connection. All of a sudden there had been the capability for the average bloke to attach up to the currency market. Brokers responded to this by making software platforms which would allow folks to log in and manage their own account. This cut costs and made it productive for many brokers to take on clients who were not dealing in hundreds of thousands of greenbacks, but far littler amounts. So continuously it became easier for folk to trade from home. More and more of these retail traders have been coming online in the last couple of years, becoming concerned in the currency market to make money – or frequently unfortunately, to lose it. That is what can happen if a newb is not well enough prepared for the fast moving and risky environment of the fx trading market. You still may see the term ‘interbank’ employed in a way that includes the whole of the forex market and those who trade it in, but strictly it should not be used that way any more.

Forex Trading Books for Beginners

Monday, May 17th, 2010

Currency trading books are so numerous that it can be difficult for a newbie to understand what to pick. If you look online on the Amazon or Barnes and Noble sites you will find possibly masses of books on fx trading. Even small local bookstores carry a variety of titles. Added to that, there are ebooks: digital books you can often download straight away and either read on your PC and print out. So what should a noob be looking for when it comes to selecting currency exchange books?

The currency market has experienced gigantic growth since the year two thousand, especially when you consider the position of the private retail investor. Regulations are revised every few years too. Check that the book is up to date enough to be relevant, and if it refers to legislation, check that it’s valid for your state or country of residence. Foreign exchange trading books and ebooks are authored by all kinds of people that are trying to cash in on the currency trading boom.

Others might be pro writers who may write terribly slick currency trading books but without actually giving you a trading methodology that you can essentially use.

Why Can’t I Make Cash with Currency Exchange Trading?

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

There may be many reasons why an individual can’t earn money with currency trading. Using the word ‘can’t’ makes trading success sound impossible when it is probably not. Most of us, when we start out trying to earn money from currency trading, will obtain into one or more foreign exchange systems that are publicized as having certain results. The system might be in the shape of an electronic book or a collection of training videos where somebody explains to you what to do. It may be in a printed book. It may be an automatic system, also known as an expert advisor or foreign exchange robot. Or it may be something from a forum where some guy has posted that he makes x number of pips from this system and tells you how it operates. That is of course presuming you believe the individual is talking the truth . Commercial advertisers are risking getting into giant difficulty legally if they falsify results, while the guy on the forum isn’t risking anything, so that might or may not make a difference. There are still some factors that most of the people do not take into consideration, which can imply the average beginner is not necessarily going to see similar results.

Commodity Forex Trading

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

There are 3 states of importance in the foreign exchange market whose economy is closely tied up with commodities.

Any of these currencies would be acceptable for commodity forex trading systems. The USD/CAD pair is perhaps the most common. It would be crazy to be trading USD/CAD without taking any notice of oil costs. In the same way, traders involved with the Australian greenback must be privy to the possible impact of changes in the value of gold. The general commodity price index is the one to look at here.

Of course, even where there is a powerful economic link to a specific commodity, the effect on currency prices isn’t necessarily direct. Other factors also affect the foreign exchange market. Small changes in commodity prices are frequently ignored by the market. The effect is more noticeable when there’s a large go up or down or, indeed, a prophecy of a major shift in the cost of the commodity. This creates a perfect situation for a forex trader with an interest in the commodity market. By identifying a trend in the cost of oil, as an example, traders can regularly enter the USD/CAD market ahead of a reactive trend forming in the cost of the currency pair. This is where commodity forex trading can give traders a very valuable edge.