Which currency for newbie??

HI Folks,

Ive been daytrading for the past 2 years, not made any decent money but then ive not really lost much either!!
Im thinking about having a go at forex, but before i dive in id like to ask you guys a few questions -

1 - Which,if any is the best currency to trade for a beginner?
2 - Can anyone recommend any brokers - i currently use capital spreads?
3 - any indicators work better than others or is it just the same as stocks?

Cheers,

jamesinleeds said:

HI Folks,

Ive been daytrading for the past 2 years, not made any decent money but then ive not really lost much either!!
Im thinking about having a go at forex, but before i dive in id like to ask you guys a few questions -

1 - Which,if any is the best currency to trade for a beginner?
2 - Can anyone recommend any brokers - i currently use capital spreads?
3 - any indicators work better than others or is it just the same as stocks?

Cheers,

Click to expand...

1- I think that EURUSD is the best all-around currency to trade, so you should probably cut your teeth on it. Then again, NZDUSD is less volatile and a little easier to track, so my advice is either of those two, choice is yours. Just a note, you'll pay higher spreads with NZDUSD.

2- I use FXCM, no probs yet, I think a good all-around broker for beginners. As you know more of what you want, you can shop for other brokers later on.

3- I'll let someone with a little more experience answer this one.....

Cheers Brabed
ill take a look and study the charts for a while.
james

Yen pairs are behaving nicely at the moment...

Have a look at USD/JPY ?

I prefer EURUSD as its the "biggest" currency pair with nice tradeable moves, and it suits from a European timezone.
Also, cable (GBPUSD) also tends to behave nicely, with similar tradeability to EURUSD.

excuse my ignorance but what do you mean by cable?
thanks

james

GBP/USD cross rate.

Hale a look at the live cable trading thread....

http://www.trade2win.com/boards/showthread.php?t=17183

many thanks, will do

BroadSword said:

Yen pairs are behaving nicely at the moment...

Have a look at USD/JPY ?

Click to expand...

Let me guess you went long I made the mistake of going short yester day at 116.28 no trying to fiqur out how to break even lol any tips

Thanks/... Clueless

U win some, and u lose some. Thats the way it is....

go.for.it said:

U win some, and u lose some. Thats the way it is....

Click to expand...

go.for.it
But hopefully it's more and larger of the former and less and smaller of the latter !

That's the key !

Charlton

Charlton said:

go.for.it
But hopefully it's more and larger of the former and less and smaller of the latter !

That's the key !

Charlton

Click to expand...

I agree! In this kind of field, traders really want to be a winners and not just a losers.. But in order to be profitable in the long run, better to look what we lose to avoid much loss and not think so much of what we will win..

From a personal view point to anyone starting out trading fx it would have to be Cable.
And only trade cable for a few months/years...

You only need one market to make a living.

My reasons for cable over anything else?

Although the eur/usd is the most heavily traded of the currencies and the spread is on average 2 pips with a decent (sic) broker.

It is also has more volatility, so it is not a smooth instrument and the new trader is prone to getting whipped. Also the daily average trading range of the eur/usd is nowhere near that of cable.

Cable on the other hand, although it has a 3 pip spread, trades much more smoothly than eur and has a very good daily average tradable range, quite often over 120, with 90 easily being the norm. A 90 pip tradable range on the eur is a rare thing. Note I said tradable range. If the high/low of the day is 150... You will not get that. Anything over 30 is good.
Set a low target of between 10/30 pips per day and stick to it. 3 losing trades in any single day... Pack up and go down the pub.

Keep tight stops. No more that 10 to start any trade. I more often that not keep it even tighter than that. Once a trade is in profit, then adjust your stops accordingly.

I think the people at fxcm and the like sugest using a 40 pip stop! Some say 20 pip!
Taking the 20 pip stop for a moment. Do that 5 times in a row you are down 100 pips.
So using the 20 pip stop as an example. If you use a 5 pip stop you can be wrong 4 times to the 1 that a lot of people use.
All this is for short time frame trading. on the 60 min chart you will have to use bigger stops; but even so I still wouldn't give away anymore than 10 in any given trade.
Entry of course is paramount. People say that the entry is not important and that the exit is the most important part of a trade. Do you really want to be 40 pips down and looking for the exit?

Of the 4 majors this is how I would rate them for tradability.
1. Cable gbp/usd
2. Swissy usd/chf (has a high daily range and quite smooth).
3. Eur/usd
4. Usd/Jpy

Hi jamesinleeds

I would say EURUSD is a good starter. It does not move as quickly as GBPUSD, and the main trading hours suit a UK location (london + new york trading sessions).
The way in which EURUSD price moves, is pretty much the same as any other ccy pair IMO. Key psychology levels include 00/50's etc.
They're all pretty much similar IMO.