No Nonsense Strategies in Forex Trading
When considering forex trading as a profit making venture, it is important to work out winning strategies beforehand if at all possible. Making decisions regarding your forex trading and developing a strategy can be seen as your foundation. With your strategy you will optimize your risk with respect to the expected reward, or put the odds in your favor. Trading strategies should be disciplined and limit risk, while placing you at the most favorable advantage in the market. One strategy is the simple moving away average, which is based on a technical study over twelve periods, with each period fifteen minutes in length. This is a good example of a trading decision that is arrived at through strategy.
A simple algorithm is used in this strategy. When currency price crosses above the twelfth period, simply move away it is a signal to stop and reverse. In this way a long position will be liquidated and a short position will be established, both using market orders. This system will keep trades always in the market, with either a short position or a long position after the first signal.
Another strategy is of support and resistance levels. This is another technical analysis strategy and derives support and resistance. The idea is that the market tends to trade above support levels and trade below resistance levels. If either a support or a resistance level is broken, then the market will follow through is the direction given. These levels can be determined by analysis of the chart and assessment of where the chart has encountered unbroken support or resistance in times past.
Anther strategy that many see as exotic is called the balloon strategy. A balloon option is an option that balloons, or increases in size when triggers are reached. For example, if an investor believes that the dollar will gain strength against the Euro in the near future and is currently trading at 100, the investor will see 110 as being strong resistance, but the investor also believes it will be broken. So, rather than buying straight dollars at 100 for the next six months the investor will purchase at “at the money” balloon call with a 110 trigger and multiple of two. The investor will then own a 100 call in USD110mm. But if the dollar and Euro ever trade at or above 110, the 110 call will double to USD 20mm.
The double bottom is another strategy worth looking at. The double bottom is significant to the short term trader as double bottoms indicate a possible major change in sentiment and trend. The pattern is used on all times frames, and many powerful intra day and long term bull markets are conceived from this setup. Double bottoms reflect strong support levels. When prices fail to break support in the down trending markets on more than one occasion we see powerful changes of trend. These reversal signals are meaningful. The most common entry point where a trader will open on a double bottom trade is on a move through the high of the two troughs. This high will represent secondary resistance, and when penetrated confirms a price reversal. The stops are placed around the lows of he patters because a move below lows negates the pattern premise.
Another good potential strategy is the ichimoku chart. These charts are following indicators, which identify support and resistance levels and create trading signals in a way that is similar to moving averages. A big difference however between the two is that the Ichimoku chart lines shift forward in time, creating wider support and resistance zones and decreasing the risk of trading false breakouts. They are calculated using information on trend existence, direction, support and resistance.
The four main lines are:
- Turning Line = (Highest High + Lowest Low) / 2, for the past nine days
- Standard Line = (Highest High + Lowest Low) / 2, for the past twenty-six days
- Leading Span 1 = (Standard Line + Turning Line) / 2, plotted twenty-six days ahead of today
- Leading Span 2 = (Highest High + Lowest Low) / 2, for the past fifty days, plotted twenty-six days ahead of today’s date.
Whichever strategy you choose to use, devote as much study as possible to increase your chances of gain and profit.
Mistakes You Can Make in Forex
The average person has a very simple life, because of this they are blissfully unaware of exactly what the problems are that they can encounter. Knowing what the potential disasters are before you get started can help you to ensure you do not find yourself in the same situation. Remember, there is nothing wrong with learning from the mistakes of others and a bit of effort carefully placed into the proper research will allow you to reduce your expenses, save hassle and make money much faster.
The very first mistake that is made is not entering a stop loss order. This is a useful tool that will allow you to quickly and easily set a minimum to the currency that you hold. Once it drops to a certain level it would be arranged to automatically sell. The benefit of this is you do not even have to watch the market directly to have your currency sell at the level that you desire. This is quite useful in the event that you are not interested in taking a loss on your transactions. Because of the turbulence that the market gives, it is very dangerous to not have a stop loss order in at almost all times.
Allowing yourself to become wrapped up in emotion as well will cost you thousands of dollars in the Forex market. Knowing that you have some problems with emotion will allow you to learn how to distance yourself while still getting all of the benefits that you need. If you start to think that you are never going to have any problems with disasters striking you will quickly discover just how hard it can be to make things work out properly. Taking some time to practice separating yourself from the situation is extremely important.
Another critical mistake that is often made is trying to predict what the market is going to do. This can create some serious problems because it can often lead to overconfidence. You absolutely have to stick to just facts rather than trying to just guess or predict what the market will do. If you decide to try guessing you might luck out and make a correct guess or two, but the majority of the times you attempt at just guessing you are going to lose money. Avoid this situation if at all possible and instead focus on getting all of the information you can possibly gather together to avoid making an incorrect decision.
One of the other mistakes that is often made is treating investing as if it is a hobby. This creates a lot of problems for people when they are trying to work on straightening out details. Making money at Forex trading is possible, but only if you treat it like an actual business. In order to be truly successful you need a business mind set and you need to be thinking clearly when you are working on all of the transactions. If you have no clue what you are doing, you will quickly discover that the entire process is useless and provides you no major benefits. In order to really enjoy the process, you absolutely must take the time to determine your goals and a course of action. Diving right in and getting started working is not a safe idea, not is it a wise investment of your money.
The correct mind set is one of the biggest things that is required in order to be secure while engaging in transactions in Forex. Knowing what the major problems tend to be and working diligently to avoid them will help you to ensure you get on track properly and stay there. Taking control of your Forex experience really is possible but you absolutely must ensure you get started successfully. Starting out properly is much easier than trying to fix your mistakes after the fact. Success is possible, but avoiding these mistakes will help further ensure all of your success.