Sunday, December 14, 2008

Choosing A Forex Trading System

Forex market or Foreign Currency Exchange market is one of the biggest trading market in the world with over USD 1.3 Trillion traded in a day. It is drawing attention ever since it is open to Online trading. Forex trading can be very profitable if you take your time to do a proper research, understanding various options and choose a system that works for you. The most used Forex trading system may not be the most suitable for your needs.

There are many different kinds of Forex Trading Systems and you need to know a few facts as mentioned below, before choosing and funding a system.

1. Testimonials: Is there anyone out there who is trying to sell a system and show you testimonials from the people who actually didn't like the system? Highly unlikely. You should do proper research before indulging into a system that is completely new to you.

2. Impression: Do not be over impressed from high percentage of winning forex trades because a 90-95% winning trades with with average value $10 gets you $900. If you have 10% losing trade and unfortunately average losing trade is $200, then your account is reduced by $2000. This is an explanation that people often tend to ignore while doing Forex Trading or any trading in general.

3. Profit: Do you want to work with a Forex Trading system that breaks even? Why? If you keep the money in your home, you will still break even, then why take all the hassles of setting up an Forex Trading account and do all the work. Really speaking, you should always do some research on how profitable a particular trading system is?

4. Drawdown: The maximum drawdown of trading system is defined as the greatest peak-to-valley drawdown in a trading system's equity. Maximum drawdown gives us a measure of the survivability of the trading system.

5. Time to profit: The actual time it takes to achieve the results with a particular trading system. You should plan to have a long and profitable relationship with your trading system.

Try to use a trading system that let you open a Demo account so that you can practice and learn about Forex Trading without risking any money.
Article source http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/jaju-girish/10864.htm

Saturday, December 13, 2008

What Is A Mini Forex Account?

Nowadays many people around the world is looking for entering the world of Forex trading due to its very high profitability potential and many other advantages the Forex market has over other capital markets.

But one of the main worries of the new trader is if he will need lots of money in order to be able to access this market and start placing trades.

The reality is that practically anyone can enter the forex markets and place trades. You don't need to be super-rich or the owner of a big corporation. You just need a few dollars and the right strategy to start profiting from Forex trading.

In the Forex world there is something called a Mini Account, and it uses a different leverage calculation than a regular (100k) account. This means that instead of trading full-size currency lots (100,000 units), you'll trade in lots that are just 1/10 the size (10,000 currency units), which in turn greatly reduces the amount of money you risk in each trade you enter. Pips in a Mini Account are worth, on average, $1 instead of the $8 to $10 value they have in a regular account. The Mini Forex account offers up to a huge 200:1 leverage, this means that just a $50 margin deposit will allow you to trade lots worth roughly $10,000 , but the smaller lot sizes, with correspondingly smaller pip values, means that you'll be profiting less from a successful trade and also losing less if the trade goes bad . For example, while a 20-pip loss on a 100,000 USD/JPY position would be $200, the same loss on a 10,000 USD/JPY position in a Mini account would amount to only $20.

The following are the characteristics of a Forex Mini Account.
Minimum required account deposit = $300
Recommended required account deposit = $2,000
Traded in 10,000-unit currency lots
Default Margin: set at 0.5% ($50 per mini-lot)
Leverage up to = 200:1

Contrary to what you may be tempted to think, there is no downside to trading a Forex mini account, you will be enjoying all the benefits that full-size FX account holders enjoy; including, same state-of-the art trading software from your broker, charts, resources, and tools. This mini accounts are ideal for a new Forex trader to develop a disciplined, rational forex trading strategy and technique without excessively focusing on the fear naturally arising from thinking too much about profits and losses.

One more great new for the starting forex trader is that there is no maximum trade volume when you use a mini account. Although the standard trade size is 10,000 units, you are not limited to trading one lot. For instance, you can trade 10,000 units or even 200,000 units. Allowing that, as you become more seasoned and build up your confidence you can slowly increase the size of your positions to maximize profits. This ability to customize the size of the trade will allow you to have a better risk management of your money.
Article source http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/adrian-pablo/4951.htm

Friday, December 12, 2008

Maximize Your Chances of Success By Choosing the Right Forex Trading Account

If you trade on foreign exchange (or Forex) as a hobby part-time, you can open account in your name. If you intend to trade in Forex full-time, then you need to open a business account. You can use your own account as your business name. Opening a business account will make it easier when you deal with the IRS.When you do this, you'll also need to decide whether you want to open a standard account, which deals in standards of $100,000. Alternatively, you can open a mini account, which deals in mini lots of $10,000. If available, some brokers also have micro accounts the deal in micro lots of just $1000. Your aim should be to open the smallest account possible when you first begin to trade. If you want to trade with larger amounts, just trade with more than one lot at a time.

Before you begin, read and understand the fine print. You should also open what's called a Forex "spot" account. Don't open a forward or futures account. The goal is to be able to trade in real time.

You'll also need print and fill out paper forms, and then mail or fax them back to your broker before you can start trading. Once your application has been approved, your broker will contact you with instructions on how to set up your account. They will also explain how you can find your account. You also get your username and password so that you can log into your online account easily.

It is very important that you only trade with real money after you've practiced for at least two months with a demo account.

Maximize Your Chances of Success

To maximize your chances of success, be realistic. Yes, you have the potential to make large profits with Forex, but you're not going to get rich quick. In addition, you won't make a profit from every Forex trade you participate in. Even experienced Forex traders sometimes have losses because their predictions don't come true. What you want to aim for is to have more profitable trades than ones that lose you money.

Never trade with money you can't afford to lose. Have at least 10 times your margin in your account. If you lose the money in your Forex trading account, you should not be broke or without the ability to pay basic expenses. It's also unrealistic to expect to open an account with, say, $200 and be a millionaire by next week.

The reality is, only a very small number of Forex traders become successful. Why is this so? Because most traders fail to do the following:

1. They lack the discipline to demo trade it for long enough to learn what they're really doing.

2. They expect that they're going to profit from every trade they do.

3. They're reckless and trade with money they can't afford to lose.

4. They let emotions influence their trading strategy, instead of with careful research and thought.

5. They trade with margins that are too small and have too much leverage.

6. They don't take trading seriously and don't treat it as a business.

7. They take risks they shouldn't in order to try to make bigger profits.

8. They begin to trade with and lose real money before they have done enough demo trading to know what they're really doing.

9. They fail to become competent with just one currency pair before they begin to trade with multiple currency pairs.

It's very important that you become competent in demo trading before you risk even a penny of your own money. Just as you wouldn't expect to become an expert professional in medicine or law overnight, you should also not expect to become competent in Forex trading overnight.
Article source http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/ian-armstrong/51030.htm

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Why Trading Mini Accounts is the Fast Track to Failure

This is something I've been wanting to write and share about for a long time but it's only now that I've brought myself to share and I wonder why. Oh well ...A lot of newbie traders are told each day on the web via advertising that forex is the fastest track to wealth (and I'm not denying that to be true ... but that's only for the elite few). And the people that are responsible for getting this message out are the scammers and some of the forex brokers out there unfortunately. Here's the thing though, forex is extremely lucrative for these fx brokers.

Wanna know why?

Because ... they strive to get lots of new people hooked up and get started with forex trading via mini accounts. Mini fx accounts offer crazy leverage and allow one to get started with live forex trading for either $250 or $300 (which is a measly sum for most).

With such a low amount, it is much more easy for someone who wants to get started to actually get started doing so.

With mini accounts, each pip you make or lose results in a dollar gained or a dollar lost. Now think about for a sec, with just $250 or $300 in your mini account, just how many pips can you afford to lose before you wipe your account dry?

Yep, it's either 250 or 300 which isn't a lot actually when you think about it. If you lose 25 pips for each bad trade, it takes you just 10 trades to clean up your account. Bad odds for you, great profits for the broker.

Bottom line ... Mini account = Fast Track To Failure

Article source http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/kelvin-chan/56976.htm