Articles

Have you ever just jumped into a trade without understanding the trading environment, meaning whether the market was trending, range bound or close to a major turning point (higher time frame supply or demand) only to have the trade stop out? Of course you have…we’ve all experienced that disappointment in our journey of discovery through this world of market speculation. To prevent this from happening too often, traders must develop a systematic approach that takes into account the environmental condition on every trade. The objective is to guide a trader into a better decision making process. Trading Risk, Reward and Probability The three main factors one must focus on as a trader are risk, reward and probability. In my experience as...

Every foreign exchange trader will use Fibonacci retracements at some point in their trading career. Some will use it just some of the time, while others will apply it regularly. But no matter how often you use this tool, what's most important is you use it correctly every time. Improperly applying technical analysis methods will lead to disastrous results, such as bad entry points and mounting losses on currency positions. Here we'll examine how not to apply Fibonacci retracements to the foreign exchange markets. Get to know these common mistakes and chances are you'll be able to avoid making them and suffering the consequences in your trading. Don't Mix Reference Points When fitting Fibonacci retracements to price action, it's...

Hello traders! This week, my Lesson will show how to use multiple time frames to trade the Forex market. In the grand scheme of this core strategy, we recommend using three time frames to help make your investing and trading decisions, whether you are trading stocks, Forex, Options or futures. The first time frame, or largest time frame, is to determine where we are in the ‘big picture’, essentially showing us where the biggest institutions are trading. The next time frame down shows us the direction/trend between these institutional levels. And the third or smallest time frame show us smaller supply and demand zones so we can join the trend in between those the larger time frame levels. Pretty easy, huh? Let’s get into a bit more...

The Ichimoku Kinko Hyo or equilibrium chart isolates higher probability trades in the forex market. It is new to the mainstream, but has been rising incrementally in popularity among novice and experienced traders. More known for its applications in the futures and equities forums, the Ichimoku displays a clearer picture because it shows more data points, which provide a more reliable price action. The application offers multiple tests and combines three indicators into one chart, allowing the trader to make the most informed decision. Learn how the Ichimoku works and how to add it to your own trading routine. Getting to Know Ichimoku Before a trader can trade effectively on the chart, a basic understanding of the components that make...

Given my background as a scalper in the equities market for eight years I am often asked if those same techniques are applicable to the FX market. First, it is important to define how one defines scalping. First, recalling my days as a floor/screen based trader of equities in the 90s the definition was a technique whereby a trader could profit from very short-term moves in the marketplace by using a combination of 1 & 5-minute charts as well as a keen sense of tape reading. When I made the transition to the FX markets exclusively back in 2001-02 I was keenly aware that this type of hyper strategy had 2 shortcomings: It was not scalable A scalping technique may not be conducive to the FX markets While point 2 may be open to...

I'd like to walk you through a trade that was placed in October, using a technique that might seem a little unusual - the use of intra-market relationships and correlations to create trading opportunities in the Forex market. Sound complicated? It's really not, so please sit back and enjoy as we explore the use of the stock market as a leading indicator to trade Forex. On Monday, October 13, 2008, the Dow Jones Industrial Average skyrocketed to its biggest point gain ever, a whopping 936 point move. The 11.1% gain was the biggest in percentage terms since 1933, and the fifth largest percentage gain in the history of the index. Similar moves were also seen on the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ, as the markets celebrated the end of capitalism as...

Over the past weeks, I have focused my weekly articles on strategies. I have tried to share with you the various strategies I see traders using and finding success with. Today, we will end the strategy series with far and away the most popular entry strategy, the "breakout". The Forex markets are markets that move. In a market that has significant and consistent movement, using breakouts is very appropriate. As with any strategy, there is a right way to understand and use it and a wrong way. In this piece, I will discuss the two most popular breakout entries; Support and Resistance Breakouts and Trend Line Breakouts. Support and Resistance Breakouts Once in a while I hear someone say that breakout trading worked best in the late 90's...

When discussing market analysis, we generally consider the two contending schools of thought to be Fundamental Analysis and Technical Analysis. However, in the early 1970's, there emerged a third view known as the "Random Walk Theory", which was not so much an approach to market analysis as it was a critique of the other two methods. The Random Walk Theory is the popular name for a market model known in academic circles as Efficient Market Theory. This model of the market contends that prices are "efficient" in the sense that all known information and market expectations are immediately factored into the market through the movement of prices. But these price movements are caused by so many different factors that they become random in...

Do you need to catch the initial move to trade a breakout, or are there other ways of trading it? In this article we look at an alternative method using Fibonacci retracements. When markets move, particularly in Forex, they move fast. We all have witnessed breakouts and have had the occasion to lament a trade that got away. The beginning trader sees breakouts as a way of riding a strong wave of volatility and providing a quick profit. The problem with the strategy of playing a breakout is that breakouts are technically unstable. They present difficult questions to answer, such as: How long will it last? Especially when there is an absence of news, the question of what caused it is difficult to determine. The better way to trade a...

Pivot points can be a useful tool when trading the forex enabling the trader to see where the price is in relation to the previous market movements. It is useful to have a map and be able to see where the price is relative to previous market action. This way we can see how is the sentiment of traders and investors at any given moment, it also gives us a general idea of where the market is heading during the day. This information can help us decide which way to trade. Pivot points, a technique developed by floor traders, help us see where the price is relative to previous market action. As a definition, a pivot point is a turning point or condition. The same applies to the Forex market, the pivot point is a level in which the...

A detailed step by step guide of how to trade a falling wedge has been illustrated in a free video, to view it please click on the following link http://www.4x4u.net/review/51/51.html Key aspects of a falling wedge are summarised as follows; A Wedge formation is similar to a triangle in appearance in that they have converging trendlines. A falling wedge is generally a bullish chart pattern that begins wide at the top and contracts as the prices move lower. This pattern has a series of lower highs and lower lows. The following chart on EURGBP (Nov2006) illustrates a good example of a falling wedge, and this was covered live at one of my live Webinar enabling traders to pull the trigger, thus far it has been a very good profitable...

A look at the key features to be considered when day-trading forex. Until recent years, the opportunity to put on a trade was governed by the cycle of day and night. But a unique characteristic of Forex trading is its round the clock sequence of trading. Starting Sunday when the sun rises in Asia, until Friday late afternoon, when the New York markets close, Forex trading is available. So the question arises, what is a Day trade in Forex, if technically Forex is a continuous week of trading? To answer that question we do not need to delve into the nature of human circadian biorhythms. One has to be arbitrary. We can effectively define a Forex day trade as a trade that is completed during the waking hours of a trader. A day trade might...

The Ichimoku Kinkou-Hyo is a technical study that was developed by a Tokyo newspaper writer, Goichi Hosoda, before World War II as a self-standing forecasting method for all financial markets. The name is a bit of a mouth-full, so many traders only call it Ichimoku, but in loose translation the full name means "One-look at the equilibrium prices." The name originated with Hosoda's pen name "Ichimoku Sanjin," which means a glance of a mountain man. This technical study consists of gauging midpoints of historical highs and lows at different lengths of time and several time lengths matched those used in the MACD's moving averages. Ichimoku provides another method of analyzing trends and brings additional points to retracement/extension...

In this streaming video, Phil provides the outline of a trading strategy he uses regularly for trading the forex market. In this example, he demonstrates a simple break-out strategy on the Eur/JPY pair using 15 minute charts, but his interpretation of the charts, using price action and candlestick analysis, can be applied to many other price patterns across the currency pairs. He details his precise method for identifying and trading this set-up, including: when the set-up is most likely to appear why you should avoid taking the trade on the first break-out where to place a stop-loss and why you should resist the temptation to move this to break-even at the first opportunity how candlestick analysis can be used to support the...