Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Another article on forex rates

Your FOREX trading potential can be predicted by looking at your daily emotional behavior

As hundreds and thousands of articles have been written on the subject of trading the markets, and with the emergence of new financial instruments every day, I feel compelled to put together a dissertation on the most important element of trading, the emotional effect.

Before detailing the key elements, I will offer to you the thoughts of two prominent individuals. They do not need any introduction, as their work is known and appreciated all over the world. I am sure you will love their insight into the human psyche.

"When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic but creatures of emotion". Dale Carnegie (1888-1955)

"Let's not forget that the little emotions are the great captains of our lives and we obey them without realizing it". Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)

In a world apparently dominated by logic, it is very interesting to find such "heretic" ideas. There is nothing more debilitating than the thought of us acting not on our heavily trained conscious, but rather on the unknown subconscious impulses.

I would like to add just one more fact to my presentation, in order for you to fully grasp the importance of this new approach to trading and in general to any business activity.

The Institute for Health and Human Potential, with offices in U.S.A., Canada and Australia is a research and learning organization that uses Emotional Intelligence to leverage performance and leadership. Fortune 500 companies, the world's top business schools, professional athletes and Olympic medallists seek their expertise.

According to their studies, "Research tracking over 160 high performing individuals in a variety of industries and job levels revealed that emotional quotient was two times more important in contributing to excellence than intellect and expertise alone"

Shocking? Not at all. It is our way to act on impulse, without questioning the triggers. .

It is well known already that the two emotions dominating trading are GREED and FEAR. What is less grasped is the extent to which these emotions influence our decisions.

While amateur traders are greedy when they lose and fearful when they win, professional operators have an exactly opposite attitude, being fearful when losing and greedy when winning.

While simple psychological training could help you discipline your impulse reactions, it is the experience you get "in the ring" that makes you understand how to play with these primal emotions.

We all hate to lose, not necessarily money. The sentiment is very powerful. ALL professional operators are well versed in dealing with it day in and day out.
Although they have been through tense moments due to financial losses, they have learned the most important rule in trading the markets: losses are the COST OF DOING BUSINESS.
They have a high emotional management procedure and are trained to implement it no matter how hard their "ego" may suffer.

This is easier said than done, as emotions kick in and all theory crash and burn together with any trading plan.

Here you have some easy steps to help you start taming your emotional horses.

- What you see is NOT what you get, as opposed to what you have been taught all your life. The way you act is just a consequence of years and years of education and interaction with others and not your genuine attitude. You are the product of an outside education, not necessarily positive.

- In the long run, your FOREX business is just PART of your whole life, together with your family, friends, hobbies, long-term projects and various other activities. I personally use a very powerful "mantra" when in pain following a loss. LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY!

- Never lose sight of the general picture. That is your primary goal. For a professional FOREX operator, the primary goal is the PROTECTION of his or her trading capital. Keep a trading journal and learn from your mistakes.

- If you want to get a pretty accurate picture of your trading prospects, take a look at your daily emotional decisions. Most of the time, you will repeat all emotional behavior in your professional life.

If you take your time to sit back and observe your daily routines, the picture will emerge with greater clarity, helping you foresee hurdles along your trading career. Do you have a swinging mood? Do you change your mind very often? Are you capable of keeping a commitment? Do you lose your temper easily? Are you on the "half-full glass" or "half-empty glass" side of life?

These traits will not change just because you start trading. That is why you have to be very careful with your expectations. Base them both on your assets as well as liabilities, in order to obtain an accurate picture.

That is just the beginning, but a very resourceful one on a journey few of us have started yet.

I have seen traders taking NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) lessons, practicing the Tai-Chi art or simply meditating. They try to get in touch with unseen forces at work deep inside, vectors of influence that rule our inner world.

The way to succeed in life has infinite variations but one common start, superbly crystallized in the following aphorism, inscribed in golden letters at the entrance to the Temple Of Apollo at Delphi and attributed to Socrates, among several other ancient Greek philosophers: NOSCE TE IPSUM,(Know yourself).

The magic of success is within our grasp. We just need to find the wand!

Bogdan VASILE

Professional FOREX trader and owner of FOREX educational website Forex-Arena.com
www.forex-arena.com,
headoffice@forex-arena.com

About the Author

Mr. VASILE is the founder and President of VORTEX Capital Management, a seasoned FOREX trader, member of the Securities & Investment Institute in London and author of the revolutionary SyncronDec? program used in his professional FOREX course. He has a Professional Certification in Financial Regulation with the above Institute as well as extensive experience in the field of Investment Management.

Types Of Orders In Forex Trading

The forex market provides different kinds of orders for trading. The following are some major types of orders that can be found on forex trading stations.

Market orders - A buy or sell order in which the forex firm is to execute the order at the best available current price. It is also called at the market.

Entry orders - A request from a client to a forex firm to buy or sell a specified amount of a particular currency pair at a specific price. The order will be filled once the requested price is hit.

Stop Loss orders - An order placed to close a position when it reaches a specified price. It is designed to limit a trader's loss on a position. If the position is opened with buying a currency pair, the stop loss order would be a request to sell the position when the price fall to the specified level. And vice versa. Traders are strongly recommended to use stop loss orders to limit their losses. It is also important to use stop loss orders when investors may enter a situation where they are unable to monitor their portfolio for an extended period.

Take Profit Orders - An order placed to close a position when it reaches a predetermined profit exit price. It is designed to lock in a position's profit. Once the price surpasses the predefined profit-taking price, the take profit order becomes market order and closes the position.

Good Until Cancelled (GTC) - In online forex trading, most of the orders are GTC, meaning an order will be valid until it is cancelled, regardless of the trading session. The trader must specify that they wish a GTC order to be cancelled before it expires. Generally, the entry orders, stop loss orders and take profit orders in online forex trading are all GTC orders.

The above are the basic orders types available in most of them trading systems. Some trading systems may offer more sophisticated orders. Traders should be familiar with the different orders and make the most of them during trading.

About the Author:

Action Forex provides forex analysis reports, live pivot points on majors and crosses, etc are provided with collection of carefully selected educational articles and free trading ebooks downloads.

trading forex Trends

How The Matrix Will Boost Your Forex Profits?

Perhaps you remember one of the most impactful movies of our time, the Matrix?
Morpheus believed totally in Neo to the point where he almost sacrificed his life to save him. Yet Neo did not believe in himself at the beginning, he was most uncertain about whether he was the One or not. So when he went to see the Oracle, she told him that being the One is like being in love, nobody tells you that you are in love, you just know it. The Oracle pointed to a sign hanging on the door: "Know Thyself"...

Still Neo didn't believe in himself but when agent Smith captured Morpheus and a member of his crew suggested to pull the plug so the agents of the Matrix won't get access to Zion, something in Neo changed and he began to believe...

A little further down the path of the One, Neo "accomplished miracles" because he learned how to believe in himself fully and completely. And remember Neo had a mentor who believed in him beyond any doubt and who taught him how to use his mind to defeat the Matrix and its dangerous agents. Neo's mentor, Morpheus, showed him the path and helped him empower his mind, yet Neo walked the path to his own success after he started believing in himself and mastered his own mind.

Perhaps you were wondering, yes and what has this to do with trading the Forex market?

"Know Thyself"

Forex trading or any trading for that matter is a mind game in the first place. Some people spend a lot of time and efforts perfecting certain trading skills and knowledge like reading the charts and data, entry and exit skills but any normally intelligent person can learn these skills, they are the easiest part of the trading game. They are no doubt necessary tools to your Forex success but they don't make the biggest difference between a really successful Forex trader and the one who is not successful. So what does make the difference?

Let's ask the question: what is your goal in trading the Forex? It is to make money. Period!
Surely while you're making the money and great profits you can have fun too and you should but what you need are specific mental attitudes and strengths, that is if you want to be a successful Forex trader. These mental states are an asset that will help you in many other situations and contexts of your life.

As my Forex mentor told me, the major three mental and emotional frames of mind that characterize the majority of successful FOREX traders are:

1.Discipline & Passion
2.Confidence & Courage
3.Patience & Smart Persistence

We'll touch upon all three briefly to make it as clear as crystal to you so you succeed in the Forex market.

Like trading a Pair of Currencies these mental and emotional mindsets go hand in hand.

Discipline & Passion

Discipline, say the most successful Forex traders, is really important! It helps you be more effective in planning your trades and in sticking to the good plans you established before entering the trade. Always have an action plan for stop and limit levels for the trade before you enter it, your analysis should cover up the expected upside and downside.

Passion means commitment and love for what you do. It is your passion for something that keeps you going, improving, constantly learning (willing to buy excellent Forex courses from experienced and successful traders, remember Morpheus mentoring Neo) and persist beyond the ups and downs of the business. You need to know why you are trading the Forex because it is an awesome opportunity that you have to take, so develop a passion for it. Simply do what it takes to be successful, learn from the best.

A word of Caution: Never mistake your "Forex passion" for emotion that you might feel while trading the Forex, when trying to enter a trade without using clear and sound entry/exit indicators and rules.
Have fun, learn, and stay tuned for future developments and grow as a person in strength and character in "your Forex business" while remaining emotionally detached when you get in and out of a trade. If you do, you are bound to incredible success in the Forex trading business.

Confidence & Courage

Successful Forex traders believe in themselves and their abilities to learn and grow, to acquire more competence learning from a mentor.
There is no reality only perception, the Matrix can trick you but you can have your own special Matrix inside your mind that empowers you with an unwavering belief in yourself!

Have the confidence and courage to stick to your plan and stay with your rules even if others are doing the opposite. Keep your vision (end result) that you can make it in the Forex market in your mind until you are successful in it.

If you experience a situation where you know exactly how a currency pair will go and have a sound trading plan, go for it! Sometimes people fail to follow their own good plans because all sorts of emotions get in their way, emotions like greed and fear. Stay calm and act with confidence and courage otherwise your planning, analyzing and information gathering will be totally useless to you.

You become more competent when you educate yourself about the markets and learn from successful traders. Self develop: "Know Thyself", get into the habit of monitoring your emotions and questioning your limiting beliefs so that your mind works for you and not against you. Don't take things too personally, if you make a mistake then consider it to be valuable feedback so you become more successful, never a failure!

Patience & Smart Persistence

An Indian wisdom says: "Life is always right!" we say: "the market knows much better than you do!"

Learn to listen and read the signs the Forex market is giving you. Learn how to wait, observe and only enter a trade when it is the right time to do so, before you can reap the profits.

It can be hard to wait before your Forex trading screen and not jump into action but The successful FOREX trader will enter a trade according to the direction of the prevailing trend or will wait until a new trend shows up and establishes itself. The waiting ranges from a few hours to days or even weeks before a winning trend appears.

even if you day trade and are not a long-term or position trader, you still are well advised to keep impatience from ruining your profit chances.
Also be patient means you stick with winning trades. But be most impatient with losing trades.

Practice "Know Thyself" and continue learning your Forex trading from the best and we are sure you will be a successful Forex trader. You will be on the path of Neo, the One himself!

Karima Begag

P.S. Karima Begag is an Internet Entrepreneur with special interest and "passion" for Forex Trading and Knows it is a Life Time Opportunity to generate income for anyone who is willing to give it a chance. For outstanding Free Forex Information go here: http://www.forexprofitsecrets.com

This is only one of the many profit making lessons and winning tips taught at Forex Profit Secrets. To get instant access to a Free gem of Forex Freedom Course click here now: http://www.forexprofitsecrets.com

About the Author

None

The Though Side Of Forex Trading

You are sitting in front of your PC. Your heart is racing, sweat is starting to pearl on your forehead and adrenalin is pulsating through your veins at the speed of white light. You have live trade on the very popular Forex Market and your emotions are going mad.

If you ever wanted to feel like pregnant woman ( no offense intended) then this just the way to do it. A magnitude of pips and candles and fibs is glaring at you from the computer screen. Your money is gangling around in the air with your perspiration and the only thing that you can do is to have faith that you made the right move with you're trade.

This is all very scary and exhilarating at the same time. Some times trading the Forex Market should be compared to teasing a hungry lion with an open cage gate. Sometimes it is just downright tough. Why you ask? Because your emotions are out of control and that makes you scared money and scared money always lose. Why would you lose your money when you are scared because you will jump out with you winning trades with small gains and stay in with your loser hoping that the market will not hit you stop and take your money.

How can you prevent your emotions form ruining your trading career? First off never trade money you can not afford to lose, you can not use money that you saved up for your retirement or study money for college, or any money that if it is gone you are in deep... trouble. That will make your trading very difficult, now you need a plan of attack to trade the market if you do not have a plan do not live trade use a demo account to build your strategy. Demo trade until you make constant winning trades and see your demo account grow then you are starting to get your emotions under control. The most important rule of them all never trade with out a STOP other wise you're out of control. If your system tells you that you must take this lost never move your stop it will only worsen your losing trade.

What must I have in place before I start trading live? You must have a plan of attack and have the strength and discipline to stay with your Plan. If you lose, you have to go back and check if you followed you strategy if not to not trade again until you fix it. Every strategy will lose sometimes and you'll have to learn that losing it part of trading. Learn form every lost you take, by writing down the fault why you lost, so next you will not make the same mistake again.

Trading is like exercise, jogging you need to practice, to be come emotionally free to be in control when you are trading. When you have your emotions under control then you will succeed and make yourself a great big bundle of money.

Good luck on building your winning strategy!!!!

About the Author

Thank you for taking the time to read my article for tips and strategy's visit: http://www.Forexpippirate.com

Forex, A Week In Review - 3/20/06 To 3/24/06

We like to wrap up every week with a review of the previous week's trading. So, here goes.

Cable gave us a run for our money last week. We were able to end the week up anywhere from 100 to 200 Pips based on personal exit strategies, so we are not complaining, but the daily trading range has been very tight and very unpredictable making big profit targets was almost impossible.

It was important this week to work your trades, we were able to nail 3 out of 5 entries but if you were not watching and working an exit strategy, all but one trade could have gone against you.

If you were not using good trade management strategy you would not have closed the trade around 9:00 AM (before you were actually in the trade) and it would have gone against you for your stop loss. Remember, not taking a trade is a position, often time the best position.

For those of you watching our daily newsletters, we had another good week. We had three winning trades, although only one was for our full target, and more importantly no losing trades.

With that said we have nothing to complain about, going 3 for 3 with two days with no trades, remember taking no trade is as much a position as taking a trade.

And no losing days means we did not give back any of our gains and can add the full gain into our account for compounding. This is what the week looked like;

3/20/06

Short @ 1.7570, Stop @ 1.7615, Target @ 1.7520 & 1.7490

Did not fill either trade but had plenty of reason to get out of trade around 1.7530 on three separate occasions during the day, and there was no reason to not have protected your trade by at the very least moving your stop loss to break even. For 0 to 40, Pips on both trades.

3/21/06

Short @ 1.7540, Stop @ 1.7580, Target @ 1.7500 & 1.7440 - We filled the first trade for 40 and the second trade we closed at 1.7470 for 70 Pips.

3/22/06

Short @ 1.7490, Stop @ 1.7530, Target @ 1.7450 & 1.7410 - We filled both trades we an early exit at 1.7460 for 30 & 30 Pips.

3/23/06

Short @ 1.7460, Stop @ 1.7500, Target 1.7420 & 1.7380 - Missed entry by 11 Pips.

3/24/06

Short @ 1.7370, Stop @ 1.7420, Target @ 1.7310 & 1.7290 - Missed entry by 18 Pips. Closed both trades around 9:00 Am due to reversal indicator. Saved a 100 Pip loss.