Thursday, January 8, 2009

Forex broker


A Forex broker is a broker dealing in foreign exchange, just like real estate broker who deals in real estate and properties. Simply, a Forex broker is an advisor who advises you about the forex market. However, the Forex market is not the perfect place to play with as a novice and beginner as there are many criticalities involved along with much risk bearing capacities. Novices can very quickly get their fingers badly burnt. But inexperience is not the only reason to consider using a Forex broker to trade in the high-risk international currencies market.

So, the Forex broker is an advisor who advises you about the forex market and allows you to work for 24 hours a day with major currencies like EUR, JPY, GBP, CHF etc against the US dollar on the spot, i.e. according to the current prices on the forex international exchange market. But the level of profits depends only on your abilities as well as your timely

An Important Tool to Your Success

The Foreign Exchange, simply referred to as Forex, is a market in which the value of one currency is traded for the value of the other, both of which are speculated as they remain floating, not fixed. Naturally, as an investor in the largest market in the world, you want to earn money. While losses and profits in Forex can interchangeably vary and are unpredictable, you can improve your chances of earning if you learn how to properly manage orders and positions, one of the most important aspects of trading not just in Forex but in general. By managing orders and positions, you can spot Forex trade signal alerts and decide with great care what to do, as opposed to being caught off guard.

The list of things you need to focus on include choosing entry points and making strong decisions regarding exit points, a trader's stop-loss and take-profit strategy. If you're a new trader, then this article will give you the advantage you need over those who have been in the game for a while now. If you consider yourself an expert trader, then this article can serve as a wake up and better your chances at taking home the lion's share in profits. You may not know it yet, but Forex trade signal alerts are important tools to your success as a currency trader.

The Weekly Chart


I am amazed that most traders never bother looking at weekly charts but if you want to separate out “the wood from the trees” the weekly chart gives you a much clearer perspective.

The big trends are clearly visible on the weekly chart and if you are long term trend follower, start with this chart first and you will have a clearer view of support and resistance levels and entry points.

Cut Your Trading Frequency

This Forex tip addresses a major problem that most novice traders have – they trade too much.

They think they have to be in the market all the time and chase profits but the fact is, if you cut your trading frequency, you stand a better chance of success. Keep in mind; you only get paid for being right in forex trading - NOT for your effort and how often you trade!

By cutting your trading back, you can concentrate only on the high reward, high odds trades which give the best potential profits.I know traders who only trade a few times a year yet - they make between 120 – 430%! Annually.

Their simply trading the cream of the trades and ignoring the low odds, high risk ones and there are plenty of those.

If you cut your trading, you will probably see your profits soar.

Bid/ask pip price on currency pairs

As we take the journey through the final part of this article, you can look back at the first part if you need any clarifications on what we have already learned.
minimum trading unit size
Reliability of the trading platform

EBook in teaching you the standard strategies to trade
Requoting policy

Search for the most competitive spreads as this will decrease your costs of trading FOREX. If you're trading heavily, it might cost you a lot of dollars for not receiving a great competitive spreads. Competitive spreads are about 3 to 5 pips and if you're receiving spreads of 8 pips or more, just snub this platform.

Transparency of the trading platform is also important to make really sure they never charge you more. Sometimes, they might make a muddle and charge you more and this might get you into extra unwanted cost. Choose a regulated forex broker cleverly before trading currencies. If likely, open a small account in 2 or 3 platforms before choosing which platform you want to use in long time. Analyze it for few days or weeks and see which gives you the best offer. Getting wrong online FOREX trading platform can cause you to spend both your time and money.

Elements of Forex Trading


There are many elements that a beginner in Forex trading ought to know.

These elements are the cornerstone of the Forex trading system that each trader should carefully assess before taking their first plunge. As we all know Forex trading is an exciting business that spans the whole globe. It will be very difficult to trade within the system if you don’t know how a system works. Now before you open a Forex trading account it is imperative that you know the three distinctive element of the market; these are the geographical, functional and participatory elements. The geographical elements deal with the playing field of the whole foreign exchange market.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Gold Bugs ' Thanks for Recent Rally '


The currency markets reaction to the Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate cuts has ignited a rally in gold, as investors weigh the benefits of owning the yellow metal versus U.S. Treasuries and the dollar.

As a result, gold has started to shine again as a stable source of value at a time when the dollar and other commodities – like oil and copper – have fallen hard. The spot price of gold has climbed above $870 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up about 20% from its October lows.

Gold has been on roller coaster ride in 2008, moving from its all time high of $1035 in March, to as low as $681 an ounce. Some of that decline occurred during the recent stock market plunge. Many investors were forced to liquidate profitable gold positions in order to raise money to cover their paper losses.

Its decline was then accelerated by the recent onslaught of financial bailouts, as many investors held a preference for liquidity and safety in the form of cash holdings guaranteed by the U.S. government. That was reflected in the skyrocketing prices of government bonds and investments in government-backed banks, which also lowered yields.

Margin Balance :

When you open an online currency trading account, you’ll need to pony up cash as collateral to support the margin requirements established by your broker. That initial margin deposit becomes your opening margin balance and is the basis on which all your subsequent trades are collateralized. Unlike futures markets or margin-based equity trading, online forex brokerages do not issue margin calls (requests for more collateral to support open positions).

Instead, they establish ratios of margin balances to open positions that must be maintained at all times. Here’s an example to help you understand how required margin ratios work. Say you have an account with a leverage ratio of 100:1 (so $1 of margin in your account can control a $100 position size), but your broker requires a 100% margin ratio, meaning you need to maintain 100% of the required margin at all times. The ratio varies with account size, but a 100% margin requirement is typical for small accounts. That means to have a position size of $10,000, you’d need $100 in your account, because $10,000 divided by the leverage ratio of 100 is $100. If your account’s margin balance falls below the required ratio, your broker probably has the right to close out your positions without any notice to you. If your broker liquidates your position, that usually means your losses are locked in and your margin balance just got smaller. Be sure you completely understand your broker’s margin requirements and liquidation policies.