How To Read a Forex Chart Properly

Start learning the basics right here!

To get started with trading on foreign exchange market, you'll need to understand the most basic type of tool there is in forex trading, a forex chart. A forex chart is a graph of a currency pair's performance (i.e. EUR/USD) over a certain period of time. The ability to read forex charts effectively is essential to any forex trader's success.

For every chart you see, each one will be showing the trends for a different currency pair: EUR/USD, USD/GBP, and so on. These currency pair symbols represent the different currencies compared against each other, and it is these comparisons that essentially make the forex market world go round. So, if you don't understand how to read the chart of a currency pair, you may be out of luck. Not to worry though, here's a short and sweet guide on how to fix that little problem of yours.

This is as basic as it gets. Along the right side of a graph are incremental amounts which help indicate what price whichever currency pair you're looking at, at any given time may be. In the actual chart you can see where the specific pair held at what value at any given time. And lastly, the bottom of the chart contains the timeline, which can be anything between 15 minutes, an hour, a day, you name it.

For us visual learners in the world, and if you don't know what kind of learner you are, you're most likely visual, these forex charts are very useful for forex trading. Once you have the basics of reading a forex chart down, you can start to get a feel of whether a currency pair is getting strong or weaker. Over time, you will begin to learn how to utilize the timeframe feature more effectively. For now, stick to the 15-minute or 1 hour timeframes, unless you're looking at a long-term trading method in which you count on holding on to your trades for prolonged periods of time.

Most trading software that online forex brokers provide you with will supply forex charts via the interface, in which case you won't have to research on external web pages. Serious traders have all of their tools all in one place so to be more inclined to have a ready finger when they're poised to make a quick profit. When looking for a broker, make sure they provide live charts with their software. However, in this day in age, a brokerage wouldn't live for too long without this feature, so it in all likelihood shouldn't be something you have to worry about.

Obviously, keeping track of charts that you've made investments with is a must, but you'll want to keep an eye on charts for other currency pairs, as well. If you fail to do this, you may miss out on significant forex trades that could net you quite a profit. The good news is that most new forex trading software allows you to view multiple charts in one window.

Now that you know your way in and out of a forex chart, go take your slice of the pie in the forex market. Lucrative gains are made on the forex market daily. It's your turn!

Jimmy Thakkar is an article writer, website designer, software developer and a search engine optimization expert. He also runs a Forex blog at forexhowto.net that teaches you more about forex and forex trading methods. Providing quality reviews, articles and writings on forex online.

Forex Online Trading? How To Test a Forex Trading Strategy

There has been a rise in trading Forex online the last couple of years. The traders have access to a lot of trading tools like the Bollinger Bands, the Stochastic Oscillator, Parabolic SAR, Linear regression, Williams %R etc.

But which provides the best results? Which gain most profit? Do the tools gain different profits in different market situations? Etc.

My focus in this article is to describe how to test these tools as a Forex trading strategy and how the test results can be written in a table.

A test is several trades with the same indicator. A test could be 20 trades with two indicators as it is unusually just to use one indicator. A test could also be 20 trades with three indicators.

The advantage testing and note the test results in a table are that it provides an overview of which of the indicators that fit the trader and which one gain the most profit. The goal of the test is to improve skills and profit margin.

An example of a test could be 20 trades with the Bollinger bands as the primary indicator and the Stochastic Oscillator as the secondary indicator. If a third indicator is needed it could be the Alligator as a secondary indicator.

Each time a trade is made the trader makes notes in a table. The table consists of five columns with the following headlines

Date

Currency pair

Strategy

+ Pips

- Pips

Notes

In the example the notes in the table could look like this.

Date

22 of august 2012

Currency pair

EURUSD

Strategy

Primary

The Bollinger bands

Secondary

The Stochastic Oscillator

The Alligator

+ PIPS

20

- PIPS

N/A

Notes

The trade was stopped as the price line is outside the upper standard deviation and the candle stick was red.

The tests tell the trader how he has done in the past and with which trading tools. In the column Notes he could have noted how he felt during the trade. An example could be if he felt stressed or relax. If the 20 trades showed that he was relaxed it could look like he had found a trading tool that fits him.

As mentioned the goal of the test is to improve the skills and profit margin. But it is still important to keep in mind that a past performance of any trading system or methodology is not necessarily indicative of future results.

Visit my Forex website and pick the trading area Forex. Download the simple and user-friendly trading platform for free and start testing the Bollinger Bands and the Stochastic trading strategy. It only takes a few minutes to download. The indicators are at the f (x) button above the currency pair graph.

The trading platform offers a free bonus for registering. Providing quality reviews, articles and writings on forex online.

Why Forex Traders Often Switch To Third Party Signal Providers

New people enter the forex trading industry every single day, often as individual traders who attempt to generate profits all by themselves. The trouble is that even highly experienced traders often find it difficult to turn a profit, so the novice trader has very little chance of making money in the long run.

There are always some exceptions. I know several traders in the UK who earn either a full-time or a part-time income from trading the currency markets. However as forex firms can themselves testify, the majority of traders end up losing money in the end.

It is for this very reason that more and more people are giving control of their money to other more experienced traders, in the hope that they will make a better fist of it than they can. This sounds like a risky strategy but right now in 2012 it can be a viable way to generate consistent returns if you know what you are doing.

Unless you have the privilege of knowing a profitable trader yourself, you can go down this path by making use of third party signal providers. These come in a few different forms.

There are the old fashioned providers who operate on a subscription basis. In other words you pay a monthly fee, and in return they will send you signals to open and close positions (hopefully for a profit) in real time. The drawback is that you still have to actually place the trades yourself, which can be quite an inconvenience if you are in full-time employment.

The other option is to hand over complete control to another trader (or group of traders) and let them enter and exit positions on your behalf based on their own signals. Many people are choosing this option right now because there are now some very good websites that have made all this possible.

They work by bringing together signal providers and signal subscribers, and both groups of people (along with the host website) have the potential to make some excellent returns.

It all depends on the ability of the signal providers of course, but if you manage to choose the right ones after doing lots of research, there is no reason why you cannot make long term profits from third party forex traders.

It is certainly a lot easier to do your research based on past results and pick out the genuinely profitable traders who generate solid returns without taking adverse risks, than it is to try and make money using your own strategies. Many people try doing this but ultimately fail, which is why third party signal providers are only going to become more and more popular in the coming years.

James Woolley is the owner of theforexarticles.com. Here you will find Marketclub reviews, as well as a full review of the Zulutrade signals website at theforexarticles.com/zulutrade-review/. Providing quality reviews, articles and writings on forex online.

Teach Me Forex, The Carry Trade

Forex is the foreign exchange market and measures the relationship between currencies. A currency can be viewed as economic indicator of a countries economic strength. The forex market reflects the relationship between countries.

Traders all over the world look at these relationships and place trades that hope to capture the price movements between currencies. These traders are either long or are shorting the market. This ability to trade both directions without penalty is attractive for many traders.

Currencies are traded as pairs and each part of the pair represents a country. The USD/CAD currency pair shows the relationship between the US economy and the Canadian economy.

All commodities are bought and sold in US dollars. Because of this relationship the US dollar is the worlds reserve currency. Non reserve currencies will usually move in the opposite direction to the dollar. This inverse relationship can be exploited by currency traders.

Say the dollar devalues through excess money printing. Wealth is transferred from cash to assets that will hold their value. This protects the owners wealth. As the dollar declines the prices of commodities rise in relation to the number of dollars now needed to buy them. This allows you to trade by shorting the US dollar and by keeping your money safe by buying commodities.

Another way forex traders make money is on the difference between interest rates. This is called the "Carry Trade" and involves borrowing money from low interest rate countries and investing this borrowed money in a country with a higher bond yield. The difference between the bond yields are the profits on the trade.

As a private trader you do not have access to credit this cheap. You have to be able to borrow at the Libor, the London Interbank Offered Rate which is currently at 1.07%. This is only accessible by large finance companies. Without this access to cheap money it is should be impossible for the private trader to take advantage of this trade..

The good news is a private trader has a few different ways to capture the difference between bond yields. First you can use an exchange traded fund (ETF). The ETF is a fund that has been divided into shares and these shares are traded on the on the open market.

If you buy an ETF you will be paid a dividend payment for holding the ETF. Which comes from the difference between the bond yields. A trader could also expect capital growth on the ETF as the currencies value changes in relation to each other.

As money moves from the country with the lower bond yield to the higher bond yield country. This starts to increase the value of the currency in the higher bond rate country. This causes a trend in the currency pair.

Another way to take advantage of the difference between bond yields is to use a forex broker. You look at the bond yield charts to see who is paying the highest and lowest interest rates. Choose a currency pair that mirrors the high/low interest rate.

You would buy the currency pair if the first currency in the pair has a higher bond rate, You would sell if the first currency in the pair is the lower interest rate. You would use the 10 year bond yield to work out bond yields.

Example

AUD/JPY
2.72%/0.875% (10 year bond yields)

In the above example you would buy the AUD/JPY because the AUD has the strongest bond yield. If the % rates were the other way around you would sell the trade instead.

By using a forex broker you can earn the difference between the yields. Every time you hold a trade past 12 midnight you are either paid or you have a payment deducted from your trading account. Whether you receive money or not depends on the yields for the currency pair you are trading.

With this carry trade set up you are aiming to be paid the interest every day and also capture capital growth by trading with the trend. Which is trading with the flow of money.

I hope you found this useful and let the forex profits flow.

Learn how to be one of the 10% who make money trading forex with our forex tutorial. Providing quality reviews, articles and writings on forex online.