This might be useful to know. Have you ever looked at the EUR/USD with the chart for USD/CHF underneath?

Have you noticed that sometimes when the EUR is strenghtening against the USD then the USD is weakening against the CHF? Sometimes it’s uncanny how these two currency pairs move in the opposite direction, naturally when the USD gains or losses against the Euro zone.

Did you know that there is a website which can give you the exact correlation between these pairs and other commonly traded currencies?

It’s called Mataf.net – here’s the link to the page you need: www.mataf.net/en/tools/correlation

If the currency pair correlates to anyother pair the reading will be 80% or greater. So you need to look for a reading of more than 80% and as close to 100% as you can get. If you enter a position on a currency pair, then you could wait for a similar setup on its correlating pair to trade in the same direction.

If the reading is -80% then the currency pair will be trading in the opposite direction to your compared currency.

Hope that helps. Let me know how you get on!

To Your Success!

Annabel

Does Fundamental analysis play a part in your trading system?

So, all of the developed countries (apart from the UK) are out of recession and recently the US has seen some very positive economic results. But how does that affect Forex trading strategies…in other words does a Forex trader really take  much notice?

Seeing as at a guess most Forex traders are concerned with price action and thats pretty much it, should we even bother about Fundamentals?

I used to trade UK FTSE 100 stocks and was always surprised to find that when a company released good profits and growth, why this news didn’t go hand-in-hand with an upwards rally (err…thats probably one of the reasons for moving over to trade the Forex – a market which does move!!).

It’s good to have an understanding of how the Forex market works. How the stability of a country’s economy, it’s attraction to outside investment and its growth will make a difference to the strength or weakness of a currency’s perceived value.

Afterall something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it and I don’t think the Forex market is any different.

OK then…maybe at the end of the day price is all that matters. The Fundamentals will be absorbed into price action anyway with buying and selling sentiment  displayed on candlestick charts for all to see. Apart from the important employment and interest rate figures should Fundamentals take a back seat within Forex trading strategies?

How much notice to you take of the Fundamentals surrounding the Forex market? Do you factor economic results into your Forex trading stratgies?

Let me know what you think…

Good trading. To Your Success!

Best wishes

Annabel

Having the right mindset for trading the Forex market – trading psychology if you like, is essential to success. This sometimes over-looked area of Forex trading is detailed below in a video interview from the recent Virtual Money Show event. In case you missed it here it is again – some great advice.

Does learning and following Forex trading charts really help?

Well I got thinking how I learnt to trade and progress my now successful Forex trading career and found this video for you. It really gives you a good solid strategy and some good advice aswell.

Personally I have always had a fascination of how the Stock Market and Forex Market work which keeps my intrigue everyday! Look for the candlestick chart patterns to present themselves to you rather than forcing a trade due to frustration. The Forex trading video below shows a good strategy based on a longer time frame than I trade but it will give you some basics to look out for.

Candlestick chart patterns present a visual representation of the general sentiment of the market. I have written a whole chapter in my Forex trading book Trade Forex From Home about candlestick charts and the most important ones to watch for. You can find it here under Forex Training

Hope you found the video of use in developing your Forex trading profits. Take a look at the strategy and paper trade/use a demo account first to get used to identifying the setup before trading with your live account.

To Your Success

Annabel

Here are some tips if you are looking to make your Forex trading more profitable on a consistent basis.

• Recommended: keep your Forex trading strategy as simple as possible!

You have heard of the KISS strategy right? Keep It Simple and Straight-forward, well this definitely applies to Forex trading.

Forex trading requires good, fast decision making by acting upon your trading strategy. This is so much harder to do if you have many indicators, Moving Averages, oscillators etc to check. To make fast decisions you need to have a clear head to think. By limiting the amount of information you have to process before placing a trade will make this a whole lot easier!

• Are you keeping a note book or journal of all your trades?

If you write everything down, you will be able to analysis your Forex trading plan. Sometimes you will need to go back to the note book and fine tune your strategy to weed out the indicators, Moving Average settings which may not be working for you.

The only way to be consistent is to trade in the same way, at the same time of day over a period of time. Make sure you find out when to expect the results of Fundamental and economic announcements. This will mean you do not get whipsawed out of the market and your trades lost due to bad timing.

Great! So we have a good Forex trading strategy with minimal techniques to help identify the trade, now what?

• Well, another point about Forex trading consistency is keeping your emotions in check.

If you trade differently every time you open a position then you will be inconsistent with your winning trades. Build confidence in your trading plan. The best way to do this is over time through paper trading first, followed by using a demo account from a reputable Forex broker. Once you have your strategy nailed down, this will give you the confidence to trade with a minimum lot size while you gain experience with the risk factor of trading a live account.

Something which works for me is to think of each trade in pip or point value. So, instead of thinking of how much money you will gain or lose, look at it in a different way. How many pips will you gain or risk with your stop loss.

Consequently, money is taken out of the equation together with the associated emotions.

So, in order to be a consistently profitable Forex trader you need to have a simple yet effective strategy with every trade recorded in your Forex trading note book. Make sure you know when to look out for economic and fundamental results which may move the market in an unexpected way.

You have done a great job to get this far…so have confidence in your strategy!

If you are trading a live account, then you would have come a long way in developing your Forex trading strategy and you will be able to benefit from your hard work. Keeping your emotions in check will allow you a clear mind to take those trades and make your profit trading Forex.

To Your Success!

With best wishes

Annabel

Having an effective exit strategy is equally important as entering the trade so you can take full advantage of Forex trading and become a successful Forex trader.

The presenter uses a Moving Average cross-over and MACD indicator to confirm the trade, entry and this also should be used for an exit strategy for effective Forex trading.

Thanks for reading – To Your Success!

Best wishes

Annabel

To some Currency Day Trading can sound technical but honestly, the simpler you make your trading, the easier it will be AND the more profitable you will be!

The skill of successful currency day trading  is really in interpreting the charts – basically by trading what you see. These charts include bars, lines, point and figure, and Japanese candle sticks – the most favoured method.

Candlestick charts are visual representation of price movement and market sentiment…oh and they totally ROCK! They were first used in Osaka, Japan from 1700s when predicting the price for rice. The actual names of the candlesticks are taken from an era with strong army, battle and strategic influences.

Not too dissimilar to the thinking used for successful Forex trading today!

This chart type will be used in currency day trading as well as currency intra-day trading, scalping methods and other forms of trading.

We can clearly see price movement taking the various forms of candlestick  patterns evolving in front of us due to live data feed. With currency day trading, the goal is to use these charts together with other indicators to trade with minimum risk for consistent and profitable gains – easy to say but a little harder to do!

Consider adding the following to your currency charts when day trading. Its a fantastic strategy which really works too!

Channel or Trend Lines

Here’s something to make it a little easier. Price movement works in only three directions. Price will move up, down or sideways. When currency day trading you have to decide which of the three ways your chosen currency is moving.

You do this by drawing lines on your chart from the high points of each candlestick which has formed over your chosen time period. This will be either the close or the very tip of the shadow formation of the candlestick. Three or more touches in a straight line which can be horizontal (in a channel) or on an angle (a trend line) will indicate one of the three price movement directions.

Support and Resistance

Any currency day trading technical analyst must understand and implement this. Support and resistance are the levels of safety from previous levels (the security net areas spoken about earlier). Both can be defined as the areas where price will move to and then stall.

In a rising market price will rise to resistance levels, stall and a possible retracement will occur. In a falling market, prices gravitate to support levels where the possibility of a trend reversal is greater.

The most powerful trades are those where price has stalled at a support or resistance level and then ‘break out’ giving the trader a move of considerable pip value. With currency day trading, some chart set-ups used on their own can give false indications, which is why a trader should use other charting tools to identify this move better.

So what other tools do you need?

Well it’s helpful to have confirmation from other types of indicators but taking note the best strategies are the least complex.

Bollinger Bands and Relative Strength Index (RSI)

Both of these will be helpful to you and your trading strategy. Bollinger Bands are good for determining price volatility or relatively how much change has occurred in price movement. An indicator like the Relative Strength Indicator gives you exactly that – the relative strength of price movement.

When currency day trading, it’s good to note the set up you will want is to make sure these indicators show the values of the extreme levels of the scale. For a stronger indication the RSI should be either at the very top of the scale, or the bottom. If the RSI line is hovering somewhere in the middle, the strength of the indicator and therefore price movement is not great.

This method picks out the most telling indicators and chart movements. Keep your currency day trading as simple as you can – not forgetting the importance of a stop loss and money/trade management strategy. Plan your trades and then execute and trade your plan.

To discover more about Forex Training click on the link.

To Your Success!

Annabel

Related articles by Zemanta

• Daily Fx Tips Can You Create Own Trading System (slideshare.net)
• Day trading: spread betting sees 134pc surge (telegraph.co.uk)

Forex or currency day trading has only been accessible to trade for retail traders over the last few years.

Take advantage of currency day trading now – just imagine how developed this area will be in a few years time!

OK so let me explain…

The Forex market is in constant motion – apart from closing during the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Consequently there are many different strategies you can develop which can fit into your existing lifestyle. Currency day trading is one of those strategies. Typically a trader will open and close a trade or position during the course of the same day.

So you how can you profit from ‘reading’ a bunch of lines on a chart and day trading the currency market? To some this can sound technical but honestly, the simpler you make your trading, the easier it will be AND the more profitable you will be!

Some things to consider…

The trader observes the price and time movement on a chart. These include bars, lines, point and figure, and Japanese candle sticks – the most favoured method. Candlestick charts originated from Japan in the rice trade during the 1700s. The method is still used today, together with further influence from ancient Japanese ways and traditions.

The candlestick chart will be used in currency day trading as well as currency intra-day trading, scalping methods and other forms of trading. There’s not enough time to expand on the details of candelestick charts in this post but will be covered later as it is important to understand the formations of this type of chart.

We can clearly see the demand, supply, market sentimant, volatility and volumne of buying or selling evolving in front of us due to live data feed charts. To make the most of this information in order to help our currency day trading, we analyise this data in several ways (detailed below). The goal is to trade with minimum risk for consistent and profitable gains – easy to say but a little harder to do! Consider identifying Channels, Trend Lines, Support, Resistance, Bollinger Bands and RSI to your currency charts when day trading.

Check new posts for how to add these indicators to your charts and how to interpret price action according to your readings and analysis foe success at currency day trading.

To Your Success!