Thursday, August 30, 2007

Forex For Geeks

There are a number of reasons why people who are computer literate are more likely to invest in the forex market than others. Of course, that doesn't mean that fx financial products are not offered to a plethora of clients, and many who do not even have computers will invest in FX. However, the foreign exchange markets provide opportunities not available in other markets. For example:

Investment size is irrelevant - You can invest $500 or $500 million in currency trading. Of course, the size of your account may determine the psychology of your trading strategy, but there is no reason to treat small accounts different than large accounts.

Open Source Community - Forex is more open than other markets, utilizing the fix protocal for example, or the Meta Trader platform, traders can develop their strategy without spending any money, which can be saved for their trading account. There are many open source communities of other traders and systems developers that share code, ideas, tools, and much more, through online portals like Money Tec and Strategy Builder FX.

Automated Trading - Anyone in computers at least appreciates automation. So many tasks in today's world are automated we take them for granted. Your investment accounts should also be automated. Why rely on human traders that can be

Online Business - The entire business process from account opening to trade and withdrawal, is totally online. Of course brokers and businesses have physical offices in major trading areas like New York and Chicago, but that is not a requirement. You have no real advantage being across the street from the CBOT or NYSE because there isn't any FX exchange. Also it would be quite silly to strategically place your offices near your counterparties, which are large banks - because they are spread out all over the world. And even considering that point, those banks probably don't even house their servers in their main offices they are probably remote. As the FX market itself is decentralized from a trading point of view, it is technically as well, allowing participants of any sort to be anywhere, that has a stable internet connection.

Develop your own automated system - You can start from scratch, making your own FX Strategy, and test it before using live money. Or, build on the ideas of others, tweaking settings and rules to suit your needs. It can be fun, too!

Custom tailored trading - There are very few limitations to how you can run your strategy. This makes it possible to create complex money management and trading strategies. Also, fx is traded in pairs, such as EUR/USD and EUR/CHF making calculations more dynamic (whereas most other instruments are traded against local dollars. For example if you purchase shares in Microsoft MSFT, you pay in USD.)

Ultimate software business - Think about this: Most software companies write software and then sell it. They are relying on marketing efforts more than the quality of their software, to bring in results to the bottom line. If you develop a forex trading strategy or standalone software, you are actually writing software that makes money! What better bang-for-the-buck can you have than writing a money making software?

The human element - Many people think that robotics and automation is somehow inhuman, whereas the reality is quite the opposite. Remember also, that it is humans who will be writing the software. Humans will be maintaining the servers, and many other tasks associated with automatic trading. It is not a printing press by any means, and does not absolve human traders from doing their work. More than anything, robotic trading takes out the tedious process of picking perfect entry and exit points, streamlines backtesting and analysis, and simplifies the process of portfolio building. It frees up traders time to work with clients, and don't forget it takes a lot of work to make a strategy that consistently profits.

Room for more - We saw the .com bombs of the late 90's, the day trading fad that fizzled out around 2001, and other tech start up failures. We have seen the success of Amazon and Yahoo, which really are not all that revolutionary. Although it is convenient to shop at Amazon, didn't we have mail order catalogs in the 80's? We have not seen much development in the investment and trading industry, which could be a very profitable business to be in. Of course, it's impossible to convince any industrialist of the potential for profit, but many programmers have taken up forex strategy development as a part time hobby and have made many strategies that are successful. There is room for more participants in the fx market, and they do not compete. If someone makes a strategy that is better than mine, I am a likely investor in that strategy. There isn't the kind of competiiton that exists in traditional I.T. business.

A little background

Foreign Exchange trading is the trading of foreign currency from one to another, for example exchanging Euros into New Zealand Dollars. The exchange rates float, and you can exchange at one rate, wait for a change, sell at another, and have a profit or loss. This is organized by large banks, and a growing number of retail and individual traders. At the center of retail fx business are brokers who offer access to the interbank market through a number of methods and software platforms.

The forex market is decentralized, in that you have each counterparty clearing it's own trade rathar than an exchange who counterparties clear through. Brokerage firms, such as FXCM, Velocity4x, GFT, Gain Capital, and others, offer retail access to the forex markets. You can open an account with CMS Forex for as little as $200 USD! An account is either self-directed, where you do the trading, or managed, where you sign a Limited Power of Attorney to authorize another individual or company to manage your account. In a managed account situation, the trader can charge you a commission of varying structure but the account remains in your name so he cannot withdraw the funds.

To read more about fx or the forex markets, please visit EES website: ees.net.nz

More about the forex market.

Elite E Services is an electronic boutique brokerage offering investment accounts and technology solutions for fx traders. Some of our products:

elitefxsystems.com EliteFXSystems.com offers foreign exchange trading systems. Our systems involve automated signal trading using a variety of signal generation platforms.

currencytradingcharts.com A professional forex charting software with Signal plugins. For fx traders and systems developers, the Elite FX eGraph platform is perfect for those who want to develop their own signal system, for traders who want to plugin their own signal system (EES can code it for you), or for clients who want signals to be executed locally and see signals on the charts instead of the email option most providers offer.

eesfx.com EES FX is an elite fx traders portal, featuring: Trading Strategies, Trading eBooks and Tutorials, Alert files to plugin to your charts, MetaTrader Expert Advisors

Currency Trading Tutorials-How To Choose The Right One For You!

If you are searching for the perfect currency trading tutorial for you, then you are definitely looking to learn how to trade on the foreign exchange market. I know, just the thought of being able to trade on the forex market, might get you money hungry, after all the foreign exchange market is the world's largest financial sector, which on any day may involve transactions of up to $1.8 trillion or even more. Yes, you read right, that is per day, every single day.

What exactly is currency trading? In simple terms, currency trading can be described as the trading that involves the purchase and sale of large quantities of foreign currency to leverage the shifts in relative value between the different currencies into profit. With this in mind, it can be argued that currency trading provides more opportunities and returns, which are almost impossible in all other low leverage markets, like the stock markets.

Currency trading is more commonly referred to as foreign currency trading, in short Forex trading. With the emergence of many internet brokers, it has now become easier for ordinary people to trade in currency. The funny thing is, what seems like a new way of trading for you and me has been around for ages, banks, governments, and large corporations have been exploiting this market for decades and decades.

Although, currency trading is very attractive to many individuals because of the possibilities of high returns in a short period, there tends to be a lot of risk involved with this type of trading, so it is very important that you understand what you are doing before, jumping in head first. Your success therefore solely depends on the quality of your choice of currency trading tutorials. Be very careful and picky when choosing your learning materials.

Whatever you do, make sure you really know what you are doing before you invest any of your hard earned money. If you are not too sure, don't take any chances, get yourself a dummy currency trading account so you can practice, without risking losing your money.

When looking for a good currency trading tutorial, try to select one that exposes you practically to the actual currency trading environment, or at least something close or similar to it. At the same time your course should also teach you and help you develop your own forex trading theories and ideas.

You can get more information on forex trading and currency trading tutorials on my blog. You have quite a number of choices, my blog is updated regularly.

Managed Forex Account Verses Inline Trader Trading Pools

In the information that follows I will introduce you to a unique Managed Forex Trading Account alternative and some of the benefits you may realize by investigating it further. Unless you have been living under a rock over the past few years you have seen countless numbers of programs, seminars, courses, ebooks and television commercials touting the benefits of learning how to trade the Foreign Exchange Currency Market a.k.a "Forex". In the midst of the propaganda there seems to be a realistic ability for those who invest the time to learn sound strategies and techniques to generate consistent profits through this vehicle. Where a problem arises is through the abundance of ads, promotions and marketing messages that attempt to convince consumers that there is some secret Forex Trading Software or little known Forex Trading System that will make profiting rom the Forex Market a simple task.

The reality is that prior to April 26th 2007 the only viable option for "easy Forex Profits" was through a Managed Forex Trading account. This is where a person who has no interest in learning how to become a prolific trader simply deposits funds into a Forex Trading Account and signs a Limited Power Of Attorney giving the rights to make decisions on what trades will be placed on his account to a seasoned Forex Trader. The benefits of this type of arrangement seem very obvious, the investor can simply spend their time as they choose, the trader gets access to more funds to trade with and the trader receives a management fee of somewhere between 20-35% of the profits in most cases. Here are a few of the drawbacks.

A) The trader, although only being compensated when he makes a profit, does not lose anything when he loses the investors money on a trade or series of trades. He can actually "experiment" with new trading strategies etc. if he chose to with no repercussions because he is not using his own money to trade with!

B) Generally the minimum amount it costs to get involved with a Maged Forex Trading Account is $50,000.00. This alone prohibits access to this option from smaller investors.

C) You generally never know what your returns may be, you could make x amount of profit one month, lose money the next month or more and have great months sprinkled in.

Now lets look at what happened on April 26th 2007 that changed the rules and now offers what I feel is a more viable option to a Managed Forex trading Account. On April 26th 2007 an innovative company launched it's brand and consumer awareness campaign worldwide! This pioneer is Inline Trader led by President and co-founder Kenneth Nielsen. The company's vision is, according to Nielsen, to become the largest Forex Education & Training Community in the world! Here is what makes them unique. A member has two options with Inline Trader the first is to learn the proven techniques and strategies as outlined in the Inline Trader Resource Guide to become a seasoned Forex Trader where you keep 100% of the profits you make from your own efforts. The second option is to benefit from the expertise of seasoned Forex Traders by simply depositing funds in one of three company trading pools. These trading pools are a viable alternative to Managed Forex Trading Accounts for the following reasons.

A) You can invest as little as $500 into a pool as opposed to the general minimum of $50k with a Managed Forex Trading Account.

B) There is NO management fee charged to your account by the traders so you keep 100 % of the profits they make you!

C) Unlike Managed Forex where your profits can fluctuate or actually be on existent since your account can be subject to losses with the Inline Trader Pools you get a fixed return on investment even if the traders happen to take a loss for that month! You will always know what to expect from your investments with the Inline Trader program.

D) And this is my favorite. If you choose to share Inline Trader with others you can actually receive a bonus commission a share in the profits made on behalf of those you refer every time they generate a profit from the trading pools forever!

I think the choice is clear. The Inline Trader Trading Pool is most certainly a viable alternative to a Managed Forex Trading Account. To find out more information about Inline Trader please visit

http://www.automaticforextrading.com

Owen Brown All rights reserved. You may freely distribute this article provided that the copyright and this resource box must be included.

Owen Brown is a Residual Income Specialist, leader of the fastest growing team of Inline Trader Members and the Managing Director of Elements To Wealth Dot Com He has trained a number of entrepreneurs on Forex Trading Strategies and is an avid researcher of Passive Residual Income Opportunities. Owen has the rare ability to present complex information at a level that is easy to understand.

Let's Get Started In Forex Trading

Without a doubt, Forex is gaining its popularity fast against other kind of trading. No limited market access, no liquidity issues-after market hours, zero commission fees, low capital requirements with high leverage rates, and no restrictions on short selling -- Forex can be very beneficial to a variety of people.

Before you get started, it is wise to plan well. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. A trading plan is especially crucial in Forex trading to stay 'in-control' against the emotional stress in speculative situation. Often, your emotions will blind and lead you to the negative sides: greed causes you to over-ride on a win while fear causes you to cut short in your profits. Hence, a well organized operation has to be predetermined and strictly followed.

If you are very new to Forex trading, we suggest steps as below:

1. Learn how to trade Forex.

Like any other trading business, if you are new to it, best advice you can get is to learn and practice more before you test your 'wings'. Seminars, eBooks, Internet, papers, video courses - all these are helpful to raise your confidence level before you trade with your real hard-earn dollars.

To have some feelings on the reality, beginner traders should start with demo account and paper trade Forex. Treat demo account's play money as real money and trade with cautions. Some traders never take their demo account money seriously. In return, they became ignorance in studying the numbers and do not take win/loss seriously. This may turn into a very bad habit which then caused bad effects on one's trading skills.

2. Selecting a Forex broker.

There are many Forex brokers to choose from, just as in any other market. When you are browsing for Forex, ask questions below:

Does the FX broker offer low spread value? Is the FX broker registered with related authorizations such as FCM? What kind of tools does the FX broker provides? What kind of margin options are there? Does the FX broker provides live customer supports? Does the FX broker offers demo account for beginner traders?

If you do not have sufficient capital, check whether the FX broker offers mini account that requires low startup funds.

Getting a good and reliable Forex brokers is very crucial. In fact they may be the one who affect your winning or losing. Besides being honest in every transaction with you, a good dealer should also provide professional advice, appropriate trading system, as well as related education. All these are useful in maintaining your risk which then secures your win in Forex trading.

3. Avoid Forex trader's common mistakes.

Avoid trading with your emotions, avoid over trading your account, avoid over-staying at your positions, avoid bad money management, avoid risking what you cannot afford in Forex trading, avoid a margin call ...Forex trading involved a lot of risks and there are lots of mistakes that small investors like you and me cannot afford to make.

One of the key mistakes among Forex traders is overleveraging.

Leverage is the key for profiting in Forex. Forex dealers often allow their clients to trade with high margin. Margin trading refers to the leverage amount given to the traders to make purchase in the FOREX market. Typical FOREX margins can go up to 100 to 1 or even 200 to 1 where traders are given the power to buy 100 to 200 times more than what they can afford. With high leverage rates in Forex market, traders often find themselves controlling a big sum of money with a little cash put on the table.

Yes, margin trading might sounds attractive as 1,000 cash in a 200 to 1 margin rates account will have the power of purchasing currency worth $200,000. It magnifies the ROI of the trades with less money outlay on the table. But, as most experts say, leverage is a two way street. The brokers want you to use high leverage because that means more spread income because your position size determines the amount of spread income; the bigger the position the more spread income the broker earns. Not to forget the market does not always go in the direction you want, leveraging can magnifies your ROI in your Forex trade but it as well can turn your losses big.

With the explanation given to the general issues of Forex trading, I hope that you get what you want to read about Forex trading. The return of FOREX trading can be very lucrative but the risk lie beneath is equally great. Invest smartly, and I wish you all the best in the trading world.

Teddy, experienced writter and webmaster. Check out his new work and get basic Forex education at http://www.golearnforex.net

Use of Stop and Reverse (SAR) in the Forex Markets

Stops and reverses are important. Think of it like this. Why do you use stops? Because your prediction or analysis of the markets suggest that the stop area is the price in the markets from where the market can turn. If this is not the reason than why does one use stops? With this analysis of the forex markets or any other form of markets rises another question. Should we use reverses. The only question you will ask at this point is what if the second stop is hit and the result is two trades in a loss? I have often been asked this question and my answer is that if you are too scared to take the losses in trading than you should not trade. Taking profits and not the losses is like breathing in and not breathing out. The whole process of respiration has to be completed. Think of the reverse as a new trade.

The important thing I want to emphasis on again is money management. Two trades with low risk will not hurt you as much as one big loss. Keep the losses small and risk only 1-2% of your account in any given trade. The strategies I give my clients are low risk opportunities so that they can keep their losses low. So reverse your direction with the stop only where it is advised and keep the risk to absolute low. There is no such thing as no risk in the markets. We always look at the risk and reward ratio and positive expectancy.

Adnan Kaleemi is a Registered Commodity Trading Advisor and has been advising Forex traders all over the world in more than 60 countries for the last five years. He is currently registered with the commodity and futures trading commission in the US. He reaches global forex traders providing forex stop and reverse strategies and forecasts in the major currency pairs EURUSD,GBPUSD,USDJPY and USDCHF along with money management techniques. At http://www.forexforecasting.com you will find informative articles, newsletters and other tools which will help transform your Forex Trading.

Trading Small Stocks - Things to Consider

Historically smaller stocks outperform larger stocks. However, at the same time many more smaller stocks have fallen by the wayside than the larger more established stocks. As a reference point, a small stock is considered any stock with a market cap under 1 billion while a larger stock is a stock with a market cap over 5 billion. A company's market cap is (current stock price x current shares outstanding).

Investing in small cap stocks is a way to increase your investment return, but you should keep a few important factors in mind. One of the most important things to consider is liquidity. Many small companies do not trade very many shares each day. The drawback of this is that the stock will likely be very volatile and have a large bid-ask spread (the difference between what you can buy the stock for and what you can sell the stock for). Even if the stock is a great company it may be difficult to buy and sell shares without moving the stock price up or down against you. My rule of thumb is to look for stocks that are averaging at least 100,000 shares being traded each day.

Another factor to consider when buying a small stock is the risk of dilution. Dilution is when a company issues more shares to obtain cash for growth and operations. If done properly, issuing new shares can help a company's growth and profitability. However, if shares are issued unnecessarily or too quickly it can literally cut profits in half. Let me give you an example: A company has 20 million shares outstanding and it is earning 20 million dollars a year. The earnings per share of this company is $1.00 per share ($20,000,000 / 20,000,000 shares). Ok, but the company is planning a big expansion and it now needs to issue 20 million more shares. The earnings per share is now $.50 per share ($20,000,000 / 40,000,000 shares). After issuing the new shares, the company has to double its profits just to get back to $1.00 per share earnings.

The third thing to watch for when trading small stocks is inside ownership. Inside owners are people that work for the company that also own stock in the company. If key people that work at a company do not have a lot of shares in the company, find out why. When a company's key employees have a significant amount of shares in the company they are likely confident in the future growth of the company. In addition, it is in their best interests to help the company succeed. Keep an eye out for any insiders that sell a large portion of their shares. This can often be a very negative sign.

Finally, when investing in small companies make sure they are reporting financial statements in a timely matter, if they are reporting them at all. Don't rely solely on news releases to find out about a company. If financial statements are not available it is easier for people to create news to manipulate a stock's price. This is especially true of very low priced stocks as it is much easier to accumulate a lot of shares. Personally, I will not invest in a company that does not provide access to financial statements. While there may be other factors to consider, following these 4 suggestions when buying small cap stocks will greatly increase your chances of success.

Learn more about investing at http://www.1stock1.com, a free investment website. Alan Reisch has a degree in finance and has spent many years working with investments, both personally and profesionally.