You need not understand every nuance of each data release, but you should try to grasp key, large-scale relationships between reports and what they measure in the economy. For example, you should know which indicators measure the economy's growth gross domestic product, or GDP versus those that measure inflation PPI, CPI or employment strength non-farm payrolls. Not All Economic Indicators can Move Markets The market may pay attention to different indicators under different conditions.

That focus can change over time and from one currency to another. For example, if prices inflation are not a crucial issue for a given country, but its economic growth is problematic, traders may pay less attention to inflation data and focus on employment data or GDP reports.

Section 02 Key drivers of currency movements Economic indicators What you need to know about them Part 2 Watch for the Unexpected Often the data itself may not be as important as whether or not it falls within market expectations. If a given report differs widely and unexpectedly from what economists and market pundits were anticipating, market volatility and potential trading opportunities may result. At the same time, be careful of pulling the trigger too quickly when an indicator falls outside expectations.

Each new economic indicator release contains revisions to previously released data. Don't Get Caught Up in Details While your macroeconomics professor may appreciate all the nuances of an economic report, traders need to filter data to focus on the numbers that can inform their trading decisions.

For example, many new traders watch the headlines of the employment report, for example, assuming that new jobs are key to economic growth. That may be true generally, but in trading terms non-farm payroll is the figure traders watch most closely and therefore has the biggest impact on markets.

Similarly, PPI measures changes in producer prices generally - but traders tend to watch PPI excluding food and energy as a market driver. Food and energy data tend to be much too volatile and subject to revisions to provide an accurate reading on producer price changes. There are Two Sides to Every Trade Just remember that no trader's knowledge can be complete all the time.

You might have a great handle on economic data published in Europe - but there are times when data published in the U. or Australia might have a surprising impact on your currency market. Doing your homework before trading any currency can help you make better decisions.

unemployment rate is expected to increase. Imagine that last month the unemployment rate was at 8. With a consensus at 9. economy, and as a result, a weaker dollar.

They will go ahead and start selling off their dollars for other currencies before the actual number is released. What the heck! This is because the big players have already adjusted their positions way before the news report even came out and may now be taking profits after the run up to the news event. The market players thought the unemployment rate would rise to 9. Now that the report is released and it says something totally different from what they had anticipated, they are all trying to adjust their positions as fast as possible.

This would also happen if the actual report released an unemployment rate of The only difference would be that instead of the dollar rallying, it would drop like a rock! Since the market consensus was 9. looks a lot weaker now than when the forecasts were first released. Instability in the world likelihood of Clinton becoming the next market prods investors to pull out of their president, Lim Say Boon, chief investment financial positions, leading to currency officer at DBS Bank Ltd.

in Singapore, wrote depreciation. in a report. The Super Tuesday results are being seen as "an outcome for continuity over the disruption threatened by Trump and Sanders," he said. You must remember that investors hate uncertainty! Similar effects have occured with Clinton and Obama. For Trump the upward trend was also there due to his promise to lower taxes and increase government spending on infrastrucure. Section 02 Key drivers of currency movements Market psychology The golden rule of economic indicators The currency rates often start moving even before the actual data comes out due to forecasts and market sentiment!

Sentiment analysis is a kind of FX analysis that concentrates on indicating and consequently measuring the overall psychological and emotional state of all participants of the foreign exchange market. This kind of Forex analysis strives to quantify what percentage of FX market participants are bullish or bearish, in other words being optimistic or pessimistic. If the forecast promised a positive growth and the actual data comes out even better than forecasted, it amplifies the rise of the currency even more.

Overlap between two The Foreign Exchange market operates 24 hours a day, making it nearly impossible sessions for a single trader to track every market Generally, whenever there is an overlap in movement and respond immediately at the market e.

In period. For instance, every morning during order to devise an effective and London Open session. Euro pairs are active time-efficient investment strategy, it is and if you have a good strategy, you could important to understand how much get pips.

liquidity there is around the clock to maximize the number of trading opportunities during a trader's own 2. News Release market hours. Fundamentals drive the market. During News Release, volatility is experienced and Besides liquidity, a currency pair's trading some pairs could move over pips range is also heavily dependent on depending on the type of news.

For example geographical location and macroeconomic Non-Farm Payroll is the most volatile news factors. release and dollar based currency pairs could move hundreds of pips in seconds. Knowing what time of day a currency pair However, trading news is risky if you are not has the highest or narrowest trading knowledgeable about it.

volatility will undoubtedly help traders improve their investment utility due to better capital allocation. Central Bank Govenor's Speech High volatility offers lucrative profit Speeches from these guys could make pairs potentials to short-term traders.

Lower go hundred's of pips and even change volatility under 80 pips per day is better market sentiment with effects lasting into for risk-averse traders, because there are months.

However, its risky to trade these less iregular market movements caused by speeches except you are subscribed to some aggressive intraday speculation. Section 03 Forex timing What Are the Best Times to Trade Forex We strongly advice you to avoid all resources that traders can then purchase currencies from tell you Forex market is a fairy-tale place where different continents.

The timing in forex trading is is usually the most active as it involves many crucial! countries of the European Union. The US market comes next, so the time when the London session The Forex market is open 24 hours a day, but it is intersects with the US session usually provides the not active all this time! In Forex trading money is biggest returns. Expert traders consider 10 AM to made when the market is active when traders are be the best time as this is the period when the bidding on the prices so it is crucial for you to London market is preparing to close the trades learn about the most productive hours of the day and traders are getting ready to move to US and of the week for trading the forex!

This creates big swings in currency prices thus opening great opportunities for profit. There are three major trading sessions of the Forex market: London, US and Tokyo session. Fridays are busy as well, but only until PM and during the second half of the day the movements can be very unpredictable. While it is crucial to understand when is the best time to analyze the charts and make the bids, it is equally important to know when NOT to open positions.

A thin market also comes with higher commissions spreads for each trade due to the decreased liquidity. In simple words: if you want to sell a currency, it is harder to find potential buyers, so the broker or bank must increase the commission as it takes a risk of not finding a buyer so quickly.

A good example of chaotic trading is shortly before, during and shortly after important news events. In these times of uncertainty, the currency rates can swing wildly and unpredictably, thus messing up trading by creating execution lags, triggering stop-loss orders, etc. Usually, the higher the liquidity, the lower the volatility, and therefore the tighter the spread Spread is like a commission that you pay for the trade.

However, even major pairs can experience wider than normal spreads during volatile periods, such as interest rates announcements, GDP reports, unemployment figures, to name a few examples. There will also be wider spreads during off market hours, when there is only a fraction of the participants in the market, so the liquidity is lower. This can be seen when the markets open for the Asian session, at GMT Sunday, for example. This widening occurs typically around news announcements or off-market hours.

Most forex brokers allow you to trade all weekend, but spreads will be significantly wider during weekends when liquidity is almost non-existent.

Dealing desk or market making brokers are going to widen their spreads coming into economic announcements to offset the risk they take on by filling orders. Unfortunately, banks do the same thing, so an average forex broker could be better, but only marginally. What happens before or during important announcements. The volatility jumps before important anouncements and the drastic movements can hit the stop-losses, resulting in a lost trade and investment.

wild swings based on rumours etc. So I generally close the position or wait out the increased spread unless it is really pumping. This should not be a problem if you are trading the higher time frames as your stop will probably be quite large and so increasing it by 5 or 10 pips probably won't be too significant risk increase better yet - factor in the widened spread when you calculate your position size as you know that if the trade works out you will be holding for a few days or more, in which time there will be anouncements.

If you can't be at your computer when the news anuncement hits, I would suggest leaving your stop wider for the periods that you can't manage the trade unless there are no announcements over that period.

If you are trading lower time frames however, your stops will inevitably be smaller and the increase in stop size may substantially increase your risk.

In this case, you may have to decide to close the position before the anouncment or close enough of the position so that the increased stop will equal the same loss as the originally intended loss. But make no mistake - you will have to widen your stop. The spread will get you. Even if the announcement is in your favour, price generally whips up and down at least a few pips before taking direction.

If your stop is anywhere near price just prior to news, chances are you will be taken out not matter what the result. Just be aware of the anouncement times and factor this in when deciding wether or not to take a trade. It may often seem that these indicators are contradictory. Analyses of longer time periods show tendencies, ignoring accidental changes, whereas daily, hourly ir minute graphs help in choosing the moment to open and close positions.

Example Multiple time frame analysis time X Let us look at a daily graph. What do most traders do when they see such a curve? Aug Sep Okt Nov Dec Conclusion For successful and precise market analysis, you must use at least time frames!

Section 04 Time frames Time frame choice of pros The shortest time frame that traders should start looking at when their trading day starts are daily charts, even if you are trading on a 5-minute time frame! The most common form of multiple time frame analysis is to use daily charts to identify the overall trend and then use the hourly charts to determine specific entry levels.

As a matter of principle, all good traders I know use 2—3 time frames 3 being the best spaced enough so that each timeframe above encompasses 4—8 bars from the lower time frame.

Even then, I prefer to switch to the other time frames to be really sure about what to do. It attempts to predict price action and trends by analyzing economic indicators, government policy, societal and other factors within a business cycle framework. If you think of the markets as a big clock, fundamentals are the gears and springs that move the hands around the face.

Anyone can tell you what time it is now, but the fundamentalist knows about the inner workings that move the clock's hands towards times or prices in the future. What is Technical Analysis Unlike fundamental analysis, technical analysis focuses on the study of price movements.

Technical analysts use historical currency data to forecast the direction of future prices. The underlying belief behind technical analysis is that all current market information is already reflected in the price of that currency; therefore, studying price action is all that is required to make informed trading decisions.

In a nutshell, technical analysis assumes that history will repeat itself. Beware of "Analysis Paralysis" Forecasting models are both art and science, with so many different approaches that traders can get overloaded. It can be tough to decide when you know enough to pull the trigger on a trade with confidence. Many traders switch to technical analysis at this point to test their hunches and see when price patterns suggest an entry.

Look for Fundamental Drivers First The fundamentals include everything that makes a country and its currency tick. From interest rates and central bank policy to natural disasters, the fundamentals are a dynamic mix of distinct plans, erratic behaviors and unforeseen events. No one will ever win the age-long battle between technical and fundamental analysis.

Prior to the mids, fundamental traders dominated the FX market. However, with the advent of new technologies, the influence of technical trading on the FX market has increased significantly.

Nowadays the best strategies tend to be the ones that combine both fundamental and technical analysis. Textbook perfect technical formations have failed too often because of major fundamental news and events like U. nonfarm payrolls.

Most individual traders will start trading with technical analysis because for some it is But trading on fundamentals alone can also easier to understand and does not require be risky. There will oftentimes be sharp hours of news and fact checking. gyrations in the price of currency on a day when there are no news or economic Technical analysts can also follow many reports. currencies and markets at one time, whereas fundamental analysts tend to focus on a few This suggests that the price action is driven pairs due to the overwhelming amount of by nothing more than flows, sentiment, and data in the market.

pattern formations. Nonetheless, technical analysis works well Therefore, it is very important for technical because the currency market tends to traders to be aware of the key economic data develop strong trends. Once technical or events that are scheduled for release, and, analysis is mastered, it can be applied with in turn, for fundamental traders to be aware equal ease to any time frame or currency of important technical levels that the general traded.

market may be focusing on. However, as we already noted - it is important to take both strategies into consideration, as fundamental analysis can trigger technical movements such as breakouts or reversal in trends. Technical analysis, on the other hand, can also explain moves that fundamentals cannot, especially in quiet markets, causing resistance in trends or unexplainable movements.

Wang, who started trading futures in , said he supplements his fundamental analysis of commodities supply and demand with simple forms of technical analysis. One of his favorite measures is the day moving average.

But he closed out the last of those positions on Wednesday, responding to local speculation that producers of coke and coking coal will be allowed to ramp up production. Dollar pair Single currency or Fiber - Euro Swissy - Swiss Franc Loonie - Canadian Dollar Aussie or Ozzie - Australian Dollar Kiwi - New Zealand Dollar Barnie - U. Natural resources often constitute the majority of the countries' exports, and the strength of the economy its currency can be highly dependent on the prices of these natural resources.

These correlations makes them easier to trade. currency, the U. That means gold prices tend to have an inverse relationship to the USD, offering several ways for currency traders to take advantage of that relationship.

For example, if gold breaks an important price level, you'd expect gold to move higher. With this in mind, you might sell dollars and buy Euros, for example, as a proxy for higher gold prices. These two major biggest oil consumer — the United States.

currencies tend to strengthen as gold prices Because the US is largely dependent on oil, rise. You might consider going long these the rise and fall of the commodity will have currencies when gold is increasing in value, an effect not only on the Canadian Dollar but or trade your GBP or JPY for these currencies also on the US Dollar — the higher the price of when gold is on the rise.

oil, the higher benefits Canada gets, and the more disadvantaged the US becomes. Monitoring exchange rates is essential to predicting earnings and corporate profitability. Throughout and , European manufacturers complained extensively about the rapid rise in the euro and the weakness in the U. The main reason for the dollar's selloff at the time was the country's rapidly growing trade and budget deficits.

This caused the EURUSD exchange rate to surge, which took a significant toll on the profitability of European corporations because a higher exchange rate makes the goods of European exporters more expensive to U. Unfortunately, inadequate hedging is still a reality in Europe, which makes monitoring the EURUSD exchange rate even more important in forecasting the earnings and profitability of European exporters.

than on foreign markets. But the loans, essentially a bet on the Aussie The price difference in Russia and abroad dollar remaining strong against the franc, made the re-export of cars from Russia went horribly wrong when the dollar lucrative. plunged in and , costing some borrowers their farms. Seizing on currency disparities, Russians made quick money by re-exporting the vehicles, which got so cheap in ruble terms that selling them back - sometimes to the same country that manufactured them in the first place - became a way to make a good profit.

accelerating pace. They are hoping to buy before the yuan weakens any further. Expectations are mounting for a higher Fed rate target, boosting the appeal of holding dollars. Section 07 How forex influences business Real-world stories to help you understand how forex market works How China became the biggest investor in the U. Chinese Yuan Renminbi RMB was pegged to the U. In the s, the RMB was devalued to promote growth in China's economy, and between and the People's Bank of China artificially maintained a USDRMB rate of 8.

At the time, it received significant criticism because keeping the peg meant that the Chinese government would artificially weaken its currency to make Chinese goods more competitive. To maintain the band, the Chinese government had to sell the yuan and buy U. dollars each time their currency appreciated above the band's upper limit. These dollars were then used to purchase U. Treasuries, and this practice turned China into the world's largest holder of U.

Risk management involves essentially knowing how much you are willing to risk and how much you are looking to gain.

Without a sense of risk management, most traders simply hold on to losing positions for an extremely long amount of time, but take profits on winning positions prematurely. There are a few key guidelines that every trader, regardless of their strategy or what they are trading, should keep in mind. Risk-reward ratio Stop-loss orders Traders should look to establish a risk-reward ratio for every trade they place.

Traders should also employ stop-loss orders In other words, they should have an idea of as a way of specifying the maximum loss how much they are willing to lose, and how they are willing to accept. By using stop-loss much they are looking to gain. Generally, the orders, traders can avoid the common risk-reward ratio should be at least , if not predicament of being in a scenario where more.

Having a solid risk-reward ratio can they have many winning trades but a single prevent traders from entering positions that loss large enough to eliminate any trace of ultimately are not worth the risk. profitability in the account. Trailing stops to lock in profits are particularly useful. A good habit of more Pros recommend successful traders is to employ the rule of moving your stop to break even as soon as risk-reward ratio, and your position has profited by the same amount that you initially risked through the not risking more than stop order.

single trade. not taking advantage of the full profit potential. Trends last longer than they might seem at first!

With the Stop-Loss Order, you in loss. Wait for a beneficial tendency and will be able to control the situation even if then make your move! the rates change unexpectedly. decisions, choose a platform that lets you follow leaders and copy their transactions. Those who have the time, make they are increased by the number of daily transactions, others choose traders following them. Use trends in your long-term strategies.

DOI: We hope you enjoy this McGraw-Hill eBook! Dedication I T IS WITH THE utmost respect and my sincere admiration that I dedicate this book to my wife Susan; who has helped me watch my thoughts as they became my words, helped me watch my words as they became my actions, helped me watch my actions as they became my habits, helped me watch my habits as they became my character, and most importantly helped me build my character, which ultimately protected our destiny.

She is my partner for life! I further dedicate it to our eight children and three grand children, who have been a miracle in my life and forced me to stay humble. Thank you for being the grinding stone in my life.

some days you really ground me down, but most days, you really polished me up allowing, me to shine. May you all enjoy each day of your life—I love you all!

Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click here for terms of use. After his speech, the leaders of NASA franti- cally called the White House declaring his proclamation to be impossible.

It is their talent and capability that allowed me the freedom to write this book. Her sheer genius never ceases to amaze me. Thank you for opening up your homes and your hearts to me and my family. It has been through your perception of the world, the mar- ket and your countless challenging questions that have allowed me to widen my perception of the world and the market.

In addition, I would like to thank all our staff and worldwide partners at MTI for their dedication, support and belief in our vision. You are not only great business partners, but have become some of my best friends. I want to give special thanks to the founding members of our MTI team: Jonathan Schneider, Pedro De Sousa, Jeff Todd, Mauricio Passaro, Rob Rawson, Frank Josenhans, Sam Sego, Rick Purifoy, Nickie Hube, Rachael Martinez, Ricard Mouton, Kevin McGowen, Dennis Du Plessis, Cassie Van Wyk and Hector Ruiz.

I am deeply grateful to Jeanne Glasser and all the staff at McGraw-Hill who have participated in bringing this book to market. Thank you for believing in me. I cannot finish my acknowledgements without recognizing my parents who constantly grounded me in an attempt to harness my adventurous spirit.

I give tribute to you all! For more information about this title, click here Contents Dedication v Acknowledgments vii Introduction xv 1 So You Want to Trade FOREX? Forex, or the foreign exchange market, offers incredible financial opportunity for those who are ready for the adventure, but it can be disastrous and financially devastating for those who are unprepared.

My focus as an author is to be a mentor to those readers eager to enter the world of Forex trading. Some of the material in this book took me years to discover, develop, and just plain figure out. I hope you will realize that this book, although written primarily for traders, is ultimately about self-improvement.

I have discovered that no one can become successful at trading, or for that matter at anything, without first establishing their personal constitution. It is this aspect of yourself that either destroys you or allows you to succeed in life, and that includes Forex.

To be successful in your financial journey, you will need to be prepared for what the market demands the most—change and discipline! If you can- not find the courage to change and then remain disciplined to that change, you will be unable to develop a trading strategy that aligns with your per- sonality and your perception of life.

If you can learn the when and the why, you will be able to make market movements work for you allowing you to capture the majority of potential profit from the move. When you do this, you have discovered your personal holy grail in trading! I believe this book can become your holy grail if you let it! Trading needs to be fun, emotionally exciting, personally and finan- cially fulfilling, and stress-free.

If you are going to be successful at trading, you will need to acquire a trading strategy that is easy to execute, easy to Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. You will also need to master your emotions. Success lies in mastering four skills, three of them technical. These technical skills include knowing: 1.

How to find market direction in any time frame, anytime, 24 hours a day. How to establish a successful entry strategy that works consistently. Every trader wants the market to move in his or her direction from entry. How to create two solid exit strategies: one to protect yourself financially should the market not go your way, and one to capture profit if it does.

The remaining skill is more difficult; it is learning how to overcome the battle that takes place in your mind. Believe it or not, our daily destructive habits hold us back from achieving what is rightfully ours in this life. Learning to become a successful currency trader is a dream highly sought after by countless people around the world. I am here to tell you that it is a worthy and attainable dream.

Dreams are attainable! However, there is a set of steps that needs to be mastered in order to make your dreams come true. This book will help you to learn these steps and to acquire the courage and commit- ment to take them. Always remember that man was not created to just get by—he was created to reach his highest potential! TWO WOLVES One evening, a very wise, old Indian chief was speaking with his grand-son about life, telling him about the internal battle that goes on inside all people.

These materials are created by professionals whose guidance 1 Copyright © by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. There are successful people who have either been taught by a mentor, acquired some special knowledge, or implemented disciplines that enabled them to achieve their financial goals. The saddest part about this process is that most people do not display the sufficient humility and open-mindedness to acquire all this information and mentorship at an early stage in their lives.

I am adamant about one thing: if you are on the hunt for success in any field or any walk of life and have not yet acquired it, then perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places. The reason is universal: successful people focus on feeding the good wolf. Individuals who manage their mediocrity or poverty in life are focused on feeding the wrong wolf—the evil wolf.

They carry around past emotional baggage and, in time, it becomes so heavy that all they can think about is survival. This mindset seriously affects their personality, performance, and ability to maintain emotional control, which is essential for success in life and success in trading. I have noticed a pattern among people around the world, regardless of country, race, or culture; they become what I call rainbow chasers.

Every few months they come up with a get-rich-quick plan, but these endeavors are doomed to fail, and then comes the inevitable blaming. Very seldom do those people accept responsibility for their outcome and look inside themselves to discover why they have failed.

They go from one business opportunity to another, never achieving their end result, and are clearly locked into self-destructive habits. They repeat their bad habits, continue to chase rainbows, and fail at just about everything they do. Life is not capricious; it will always provide the rich and poor alike with new opportunities.

Forex is such an opportunity. This book will help you understand how to trade in Forex, or the foreign exchange market, and reap the financial outcome you desire. Please embrace this inform- ation with excitement, because you will be given the exact education and trading tools used by some of the best money managers in the world.

Whether you succeed or fail is solely determined by what is in your head and your heart. CHAPTER 1 SO YOU WANT TO TRADE FOREX? Believe it or not, this is how history repeats itself in their lives. If this describes you, then this book can really help you make a change in your life. Not only does it teach the technical side of trading, but also it will force you to address some of those unproductive bad habits.

When trading Forex, your daily actions will be based on a clear productive mindset of: Reappointment versus disappointment Resilience versus resentment Better versus bitter A winner not a whiner A star not a scar A victor not a victim A conquerer not a crumbler The reality in life is that the choice is yours.

Your success will be determined by how confident you feel, what you think, and how you respond when bad things do happen. In any financial or business endeavor, success starts in your head, is fueled by your heart, and the results are driven by your actions.

These will determine your Forex experience. In this book, you will learn certain disciplines and habits that will help you become a better trader. There are three questions you have to ask yourself before you trade: 1. Do I want to make a lot of money? Do I want to make an average income? Do I just want to get by and break even? You need to understand these things about yourself because the market tends to be self-fulfilling.

Remember, you will always find what you are looking for, whether it be good or bad. Nothing in life is perfect, and if you set yourself up with an unrealistic expectation that things should be perfect, you put yourself in a position to focus only on negative events.

If you bring this perspective to the trading table, it will have a similarly destructive effect. Uncover who you are and what you are looking for before you trade so that you can lay the proper foundation on which to build your trading career. Your moral constitution, work ethic, and personal beliefs will mirror your trading habits. If you are a rule breaker, then there is no point in trying to learn a new successful skill that requires rules to be followed.

If it is in your character to break rules, then learning a new successful skill that can change your financial future is useless.

You will simply break the rules and self-destruct. I know a person who is habitually late to work. As a result of his tardiness, he is repeatedly terminated. Yet he refuses to change his behavior. He is more willing to go through the trouble of searching for a new job than he is to change a simple, yet critical, destruc- tive personal habit. What I find with most unsuccessful people is that they fail to see the importance of following rules that will lead to their success, such as showing up on time.

People underestimate how important preparation is for success. However, the reason they get locked into poverty and mediocrity—only getting by—is that they show up to the battlefield totally unprepared and unprotected. Their focus quickly turns from the cause they were fighting for to survival and self-preservation. To survive the coming learning curve and successfully transition to a productive career trading on Forex, you will need to properly arm yourself.

Creating your personal constitution is like acquiring the best helmet possi- ble to protect your most important asset—your mind. Your mind is the epicenter of your body and the control tower of your destiny. You first need to identify, and perhaps define, who you truly are. The following exercise will help you discover your personal constitution.

Once you have completed this exercise, you will be able to see what you need to change in your personal life to become a successful trader. This exercise is what I call a litmus test. Are you more honest than dishonest? Do you always tell the truth? or do you exaggerate and make up stuff along the way? As a child, I acquired the habit of exaggerating from my dad.

He would exaggerate about nearly everything he did, saw, and experienced. When I began dating my wife, she challenged me about my exaggerations the same way I did my dad. When you exaggerate, you are outright lying. That is not a good habit! It builds relationships and earns security, trust, and respect from those with whom you associate. It helps others know who you truly are. It also prevents future trading missteps. You will lie to yourself about how well you follow the rules when in reality you are trading on emotion and hunches.

And if you lie about your level of success, that bad habit will curse you when everyone wants to see proof of your trading prowess. Be honest in everything you do! Are you a promise keeper or a promise breaker?

Integrity is all about making sure your word equals your deed. If your word does not equal your deed, then you are a promise breaker.

No one likes a promise breaker. You will not be able to attract the right people in your life unless you become a promise keeper. When you make commitments to yourself and others, you need to keep them. You will make promises to yourself and then break them. Believe me when I say that if you promise never to trade without a protective stop-loss order, which is an order that protects you from losing all your money in a single trade, and then break that promise, your career as a trader will quickly be over.

Avoid this fate—be a promise keeper. Are you a rule maker or a rule breaker? Freedom is something of a paradox because in order to be free, you must abide by a plethora of rules. Just look at all the rules when driving your car. But the more you obey the rules, the safer you are when driving.

Breaking the rules, however, will endanger your life and may cost you your freedom. Our lives are filled with rules.

Then we learn rules about school, about dating, about working, about marriage, parenting, and so on. The rules in our life protect us and help us get where we are going faster and safer. Breaking those rules creates risks, problems, and, eventually, setbacks. These setbacks can take you completely off track and dramatically delay you from achieving your goal in a timely manner.

Learning to trade, and being successful at it, requires that you follow certain rules. Ignoring the rules will cause you trouble when you are trading. You will be driven by your emotions and will be caught up in chasing the market, changing your mind, and breaking every rule in the book in the spirit of trying to save yourself.

Are you a good or bad listener? Being a good listener has its rewards. The greatest reward comes to those who develop the art of hearing what is not said. I used to be a bad listener, constantly interrupting people when they were talking and completing their sentences for them. I assumed I already knew what they were going to say and where they were going with the conversation. And yet I was almost always wrong. To overcome this habit, I had to learn to keep my mouth shut until the person speaking to me finished what they were saying.

Imagine the impact of such an interruption on a trade in process. Learning to be a successful trader requires good listening skills. Because history repeats itself, where the market has been begins to predict where it is going. If you interrupt its story and try to second guess what it is going to say, you will set yourself up to make a poor decision. Although trading charts are unable to express themselves verbally, they do communicate to traders who are good listeners.

Do you think before you speak or speak before you think? Have you ever wished you could take back something you just said?

Your words are like the sound of the bell—they resonate! People who speak before they think are often branded as ignorant and annoying; few are respected. On the other hand, we respect and look up to people who think before they speak; we value their conversation and opinions because they are carefully considered.

Which do you do? Are you habitually putting your foot in your mouth? Or do you respond with educated answers and arguments? As a trader, you must engage in a conversation with the market and your response can either be ignorant or intelligent. If you are disciplined enough to think before you speak, you will probably find success in trading. However, if you insist on speaking before you think, the market will allow you to prove your ignorance.

Do you think before you act or act before you think? The conscious and subconscious parts of your mind are your greatest assets and your greatest liabilities. The conscious mind dissects, considers, and categorizes everything you see and hear.

If action is needed, the conscious mind thinks through how it will execute the action. If action is taken, the subconscious mind records the thought with the action and matches the two for future reference. In the future, all we have to do is think that thought, and the subconscious mind stands by to automatically execute the exact action that matched the thought.

That is how a habit is formed. Think about it once, do it once, and you have started a habit. Think about it three times, do it three times, and you now have established an automatic habit—good or bad.

That is both good news and bad news. If you are involved in any unproductive actions that have turned into bad habits, you are unconsciously incompetent. That is when your mind is working on destructive autopilot and you need to regain control.

You need to become conscious again in order to recognize your bad habits and admit they are not benefiting you.

When you recognize your bad habits, you are able to learn a new skill or a new habit to replace the unproductive one. Learning a new, productive skill or habit is the first step to managing your success.

When you learn a new skill, you usually have to think through each step of the action. Thinking through that action and success- fully executing it is called conscious competence.

When you are disciplined enough to consciously repeat it when the situation requires, your subconscious mind automatically replaces the previously recorded action associated with the thought and forms a new habit. The subconscious mind does not think, it just recalls and executes the actions that matched the thought. The more you repeat the action—good or bad—the more that habit becomes uncon- sciously automatic. If you are locked into executing bad habits, you are unconsciously incompetent.

If you are locked into executing good habits, you are called unconsciously competent. The road to success involves the recognition of unconscious incompetence, then passing through to conscious incompetence, working your way to conscious competence, and eventually arriving at unconscious com- petence.

In achieving this you have purged yourself of your bad habits and have replaced them with productive, automatic, good habits that allow you to perform successful actions without thinking about them. It is like learning to drive a car. That process took about 15 minutes because you had to consciously think through everything you did.

You were consciously competent. Now, if you began to drive and received speeding tickets and got into accidents, you became unconsciously incompetent. It was when you consciously commit- ted yourself to stop speeding and to look in every direction to avoid accidents that you became a consciously competent driver. You have now become unconsciously competent in your successful driving habits.

You probably take about three seconds to pull out of the driveway, probably driving part of the way with your knee as you juggle a cup of coffee in one hand and a cell phone in the other, focusing on the conversation rather than each individual skill needed to drive the car. Can you see how powerful your mind is and how critically important it is to properly think through everything before you act?

When it is time to trade, you must think before you act. If you act before you think and make mistakes, your subconscious mind will take over and record all your ignorant actions and subconsciously create bad trading habits. That is how you start to lose money or just get by in trading. Successful traders think before they act to execute successful trading habits. Failure is like cancer. If you have to remove the cancer, much of the time it is too late. You treat cancer by preventing it and you treat success by creating good habits from the beginning.

This way you are preventing failure. As you learn to trade, you will need to get in the habit of thinking through all the details potentially involved with that trade. You will need to have checklists that cover all the details. You will need to get in the habit of creating a trading plan and maintaining the discipline of trading your plan.

That habit forces you to think before you act, avoiding impulsive, emotional actions that generate unsuccessful trades. The market has no remorse for ignorance and impulsive action. The ignorant will suffer. Think before you act. Do you manage your emotions or do your emotions manage you? Most financially successful people are very unemotional when it comes to business decisions.

Believe it or not, successful business is nothing more than making and executing unemotional decisions that make economic sense. It is no different than unemotionally figuring out a mathematical equation. Two plus two will always equal four, regardless of how desperately you wanted it to be five—it will always equal four. For example, holding onto unproductive employees because you like them, does not make economic sense and is a bad business decision rooted in emotion.

When it comes to business, you need to make all your decisions unemotionally. Your decision process needs to be educated, logical, and unemotional. Any financial decision made in the heat of negative emotion will hurt you much more than it will ever help you.

When it is time to trade, the more you rely on your emotions to make your decisions, the more money you will lose. The more you rely on your education and logic, the more money you will make. Thinking through problems unemotionally allows you to stay focused on achieving long-term happiness and success. Bad things happen to all of us, and many times we have no control over them.

The reality is that we have no control over the cards we are dealt, we only have control over what we do with those cards. What we do have control over is how we handle the situation—emotionally or unemotionally. Successful traders manage their emotions; unsuc- cessful traders let their emotions manage them. Are you responsive or reactive? Unsuccessful people usually do. Successful and positive-thinking people are able to process properly the negative things that happen to them, put them into perspective, and move on.

If your emotions control you, you are going to be more reactive than responsive and you will probably go through life with unhappiness, poverty, and mediocrity. As a rule, just about everything negative that happens to us is either self-inflicted or the result of not paying attention to red flags, warnings signs, or details. Accepting responsibility for our own actions is such a painful event that we find it easier to react and blame someone else rather than analyzing what really happened and responding by creating a sys- tem to avoid that situation again.

If you bring your reactive bad habits to the trading table, the mar- ket will know exactly which emotional buttons to push. When it does, you will run like a scared rabbit being pursued by a pack of hungry wolves.

Running scared is not conducive to calming down and thinking through your next move. Reacting versus calmly thinking through the situation and responding eliminates your ability to see clearly what happened. Reactive trading will cause you to lose all your money, whereas responsive trading will allow you to think through your next move and take advantage of the next opportunity that knocks.

Is your ego more constructive or destructive? Are you more humble or more arrogant? Do you make your decisions based on your pride and ego or based on logic regardless of the consequences to your ego? Do not go looking for storms as you sail your boat, they will naturally find you!

A constructive ego keeps you focused on all the details necessary to avoid any and all storms as you sail through life. A person with a constructive ego believes their mind is like a parachute; it only works when it is open. A person with a destructive ego thinks he or she already knows everything. Unfortunately, when it comes to trading, the market will teach that destructive ego the true definition of humility.

When conflict shows its face to a con- structive ego, the constructive ego, through humility, will in the end fight to be happy rather than right. Are you more positive about life or more negative? How you answer this question will greatly determine your overall happiness in life. Is your glass always half empty or half full? There is a law that is every bit as much valid as the law of gravity: it is called the law of attraction. The law of attraction stipulates that whatever we think about, those thoughts will radiate out of our being and create circum- stances and events and attract people that align with our thoughts.

When we think positive thoughts, that positive mindset will radiate out of us, creating positive circumstances and positive events in our life and, as a result, will attract positive people into our lives.

The flip side of this law is also true. When we think negative thoughts, that negative mindset will create negative circumstances and nega- tive events in our lives, attracting negative people into our lives. The power of this law plays an incredible part in determining your success or failure in life.

Optimists, on the other hand, create positive out- comes via the law of attraction. The simple shifting of your mindset from negative to positive changes your entire world. Negative people are constantly shifting blame and frustrated about how unfair life is; they walk around with a victim mentality.

Positive people accept responsibility for their circumstances and place themselves in a position to figure out how to avoid negative situations in the future. If you want to become a successful trader, you will have to purge your negative attitude and adopt a positive mindset and attitude. Negativity when trading only creates more negative circumstances, more negative events and financial losses.

Do you fear your mistakes or do you embrace them and learn from them? All people make mistakes, but only wise people learn from them. The only true mistake is the one from which we learn nothing. Mistakes show us what needs improvement. Without mistakes, how would we know what we need to work on?

Avoiding situations in which you might make a mistake could be the biggest mistake of all. When you have the courage to go out on a limb and make a decision, right or wrong, you risk making a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. Strong people make as many mistakes as weak people—the difference is that strong people admit their mistakes, laugh at them, learn from them, and become stronger.

When you make mistakes, problems usually surface, which creates fear and anxiety. Pessimists live a life fearful of making any mistake because that mistake will create a problem, and just about all problems, in their opinion, have no solution. Optimists can make just as many mistakes as, if not more than, pessimists. However, when a problem arises for an optimist, they aggressively work on it, believing it can be resolved, and the second they see the solution, the fear and anxiety dissipates.

When life hands you lemons, do you waste time sucking on them or do you learn to make lemonade? Making mistakes is part of being human. Mistakes can be resolved and corrected as long as you believe there is a solution. So when you make a mistake that creates a problem, you need to muster the courage to face the problem head-on until a solution is achieved. As you do this repeatedly, unemotionally, you will develop the skill of effective problem solving. Remember, failure is not the problem; the problem lies in the time we waste lamenting over the problem rather than focusing in on the solution to the prob- lem.

Failure is not falling down; failure is staying down. Learning from your mistakes is critical to your success. Choosing not to learn from your mistakes as you learn to trade will cause you to become a repeat offender. Your subconscious mind will take over and will form an unproductive bad habit, costing you money.

You must pay attention to your mistakes and embrace them with a posi- tive attitude. Do you focus on what you have or on what you have lost? As you go through life making mistakes, you will inevitably lose things along the way—money, close relationships, personal property, you name it. But how much time do you spend holding onto those mistakes?

How much time do you spend calculating your losses and wishing you had back everything you had lost? The longer you dwell on past failures and losses, the longer you will stay captive in your current state of failure. You must let go of your past failures and focus on where you are going. Have you ever wondered why the rearview mirror is 50 times smaller than the windshield? The windshield is so much larger to help us stay focused on where we are going versus where we have been.

Holding onto past wounds or losses will only stand in the way of achieving your rightful success as a trader. Every trader loses money and makes money as they trade, but successful traders will make more money than they lose. Successful traders spend no time worrying or thinking about their losses; they stay focused on the next opportunity that is knocking.

Holding onto past losses or failures creates a bitter mindset. If you come to the trading table with a bitter mindset or victim mentality, you will bring with you all your past emotional baggage that has stood in the way of you becoming successful at anything you attempted in the past. If you want to be successful at trading, you must focus on what you have gained versus what you have lost. Are you a goal setter or a goal quitter? When you set out to do something, do you persist until you succeed or do you get discour- aged and quit along the way?

One of the most important habits to develop is the habit of finishing what you started. My son recently graduated from high school. At his graduation ceremony, the princi- pal stood up and congratulated everyone for completing 12 years of education. He also pointed out that during the last year of school, 48 percent of the students in the graduating class had dropped out. They came so close, but they did not persist until the very end. Most people in life are rainbow chasers; they set new goals almost daily.

As a result, they never move forward in any one direction. Setting goals helps you create a road map in life, outlining where you are going. Without that road map you can easily get off track without even knowing it and not know how to get back on. If you do not create goals as you learn to trade, you will not have any recog- nizable milestones of achievement.

Any great achievement will be accompanied by setbacks, but beginning with a clear goal in mind will keep you on track to reach your goals even after you hit a detour. Traders who set goals and persist until they succeed reach their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

That does not mean you will make money percent of the time, rather, that you consistently make more money than you lose. Persisting to achieve your realistic goals is nothing more than discipline in action. They are what I call constitution-based versus feeling-based. Successful people have strong convictions. They are very clear about their personal constitution and their purpose in life. They have their priorities in check and have the right perspective and attitude when it comes to facing the internal battle between the two wolves that exists in all of us.

Your personal constitution will mirror your trading results. You have an obligation to your personal future, happiness, health, family, and income to establish a solid personal constitution. Developing a solid personal and trading constitution is the first step of your journey toward successful trading on Forex.

I started this book on trading by pointing out the importance of creating an emotional and psychological constitution before teaching you any technical skills. What good does it do to teach you technical skills if you do not have the courage to execute them? Why teach you trading rules if you are a rule breaker? There is no point to teaching you how to take advantage of new trading opportunities if you cannot let go of your past mistakes and failures.

Developing a solid personal and trading constitution will be the first step of your journey toward finding your rightful pot of gold in trading. I look forward to accompanying you on your journey to the end of your trading rainbow. Let our journey begin…. I was working out of our office in Sydney, preparing for a class, when I was e-mailed the list of attendees.

The registrar told me there were 26 Australians signed up for the class and one Scotsman, named Ian, who had a very strong Scottish accent. The next morning I started class the way I always do, asking everyone their names, their current occupations, why they want to learn trading on the Forex, and, more importantly, why they chose to get involved with my company, Market Traders Institute, versus another.

We started going around the room introducing ourselves and eventually came to Ian. Ian was an older fellow, perhaps in his late fifties, and in great physical shape. I just happened to be here in Australia for a bit when your advertisements caught my interest. I called your office and they told me all about you, so I came here because I was told you could teach me how to trade on the Forex and make money.

Is that true? Now pay attention to the question. Can you teach me how to trade on the Forex and make money? Do you know what that is? I will kill you. The best way to learn something and remember it is to teach it to some- one else, so after I teach a concept for about 45 minutes, I instruct the class to teach each other. I have the person on the right teach the concept to the person on their left, and after they are done I have the person on the left teach the concept to the person on their right.

Little did I realize this teaching technique would potentially save my life. When I divided the class into pairs that day, I believe God protected me by having an odd number of students. Looking back, I must say that was one of the most detailed, and perhaps one of the best, classes I have ever given. I am happy to report that both Ian and I are still alive. In fact, Ian is now an active client of ours and has taught me a lot in return. Two of the greatest things he taught me were how to perform under pressure and, more importantly, how to keep things simple with respect to teaching Forex trading.

For example, at one point, Ian could only recognize and understand uptrends. dollar; when three go up, the other three go down. They have to move in opposite directions to keep the world economy in balance. He keeps his trading simple. HISTORY OF THE FOREX MARKET: HOW IT ALL BEGAN BRETTON-WOODS ACCORD The modern Forex market was established around But the Bretton- Woods Accord of , which was established to stabilize the global econ- omy after World War II, is generally accepted as the original beginning of the foreign exchange market.

It created the concept of trading currencies against each other and the International Monetary Fund IMF. Currencies from around the world were fixed to the U. dollar, which in turn was fixed to gold prices in hopes of bringing stability to global Forex events. All currencies were allowed to fluctuate around that value but only within a narrow trading range. In , the accord finally failed, however, it did manage to stabi- lize major economies of the world, including those of America, Europe, and Asia.

dollar: the Smithsonian Agreement and the European Joint Float. dollar USD , which in turn is anchored to the price of gold as a benchmark also known as the gold standard to bring stability to a volatile global economic situation.

All other weaker economic currencies are then fixed against the USD and allowed to fluctuate, or float, no more than 1 percent on either side of the fixed rate. If the fixed rate moved more than 1 percent, the central bank of that country was required to intervene in the market until the exchange rate was brought back to within the 1 percent band.

The Smithsonian Agreement and the European Joint Float agreement were similar to the Bretton-Woods Accord but allowed a greater range of fluctuation in the currency values and widened the band in which curren- cies were allowed to trade. The Smithsonian Agreement was just a modification of the Bretton- Woods Accord, with allowances for greater fluctuation, whereas the European Agreement aimed to reduce the dependence of European currencies on the U.

The free-floating system managed to continue for several years after the mandate, yet many countries with weaker currency values incurred major economic devaluation against certain countries that had stronger currency values. EUROPEAN MONETARY SYSTEM European currencies were among those most affected by the strength of the U. dollar and the British pound GBP.

In July , the European Mon- etary System was created to counter its dependence on the USD. But by , it was clear that this European Monetary System had failed. Shortly thereafter, retail currency trading opportunities as we know them today started to be enjoyed by smaller investors willing to take similar risks as that of banks and large financial institutions.

The devaluation of currencies continued in the Asian currency markets, and confidence in trading the open Asian Forex markets began to fail.

However, countries with stable currencies, and the concept of trading currencies, remained unchanged. The establishment of the European Union in gave birth to the euro seven years later in The euro was the first single currency used as legal tender for the member states of the European Union and became the first currency to rival the historical leaders—the United States, Great Britain, and Japan—in the foreign exchange market by providing financial stability that Europe and the Forex market had long desired.

WHAT IS THE FOREX? Forex is an acronym for foreign exchange, a market where people exchange the currency of one country for the currency of another in order to do busi- ness internationally. Typical situations in which such currency exchange is necessary include payments of import and export purchases and the sale of goods or services between countries.

Forex is also called the cash market or spot interbank market. The spot market means trading on-the-spot, at what- ever the price is at that moment. Prior to , the Forex retail interbank market for small individual speculative investors or traders was not available. A speculative investor, or speculative trader, is one who looks to make a profit on price movement in the market and is not looking to hold onto any currency long-term.

Then in the late s, retail market maker brokers companies that facilitate the trades for speculative traders were allowed to break up the large interbank units and offered individual traders the opportunity to participate in the Forex market as we know it today. The term market refers to a place where buyers and sellers are brought together to execute trading transactions.

dollar is traded daily on the Forex. Forex trades nearly four times that volume daily, exceeding the daily combined activity of all the other financial markets. Forex has no physical location—transactions are placed via the Inter- net or telephone—but is composed of approximately 4, international world banks and retail brokers. Individual traders wanting to profit by speculating on price changes can only access this market through a Forex broker, such as I-TradeFX.

It is a good practice of a speculative trader to only deal with Forex brokers that are regulated by the governmental bodies in their respective countries.

TYPES OF TRADERS Trading currencies involves the fluctuation of one currency in relation to another. That is the main difference between trading currencies and stock trading—you always have to deal with two instruments, or currency pairs, whereas in stock trading you only deal with one instrument. The definition of a currency pair, or currency cross, is trading one currency for another currency, and you need a currency pair to execute a trade on the Forex. Speculative currency trading, just like speculative stock trading, involves exchanging one currency for another in anticipation of a price change in your favor.

There are two types of traders on the Forex: consumer traders and spec- ulative traders. A consumer trader wants long-term ownership and is not as concerned with daily price movements, whereas a speculative trader is only concerned with daily price movement, as that is where the profit potential is. Speculative traders are also called scalpers—they are trying to scalp a profit in a small price movement. Long-term position traders enter the mar- ket and stay in for a week, a month, or years.

Short-term, or day traders, will enter the market for 5 minutes, 30 minutes, or even 4 hours, and then exit, but they are usually in and out within a hour period. Although brokers will assure you that Forex trading is commission- free, it is important that you understand there still are costs involved. The spread is the difference between the buy price and the sell price of a specific currency. Envision attending an auction where there are several buyers for a partic- ular item.

As bidding gets closer to the asking price, the spread tightens up. There are spreads between all currency pairs that are traded, and they average 3 to 6 price interest points, or pips, on the major world currencies which are considered to be the U. dollar [USD], the British pound [GBP], the Japanese yen [JPY], the European euro [EUR], and the Swiss franc [CHF]. Currencies from small countries are called off-brand currencies and can have spreads as much as to 1, pips.

The broker retains the spread, which is the difference between the buy and the sell price. To break even, the market would need to move up 4 pips in your direction. To make a profit, the market would need to move more than 4 pips in your direction. HOW DO TRADERS GET PAID?

Price interest points, commonly known as pips, are usually expressed in decimals. Depending on the pair of currencies being traded, pips are usu- ally the last numbers of the decimal. Most traders on the Forex trade with what is called leverage. When a trader executes a trade on the Forex, the trader is buying or selling currency in units referred to as lots which is a set quantity of money. There are typically two types of lots that traders will trade. You will see that the currency moved in our favor to 1.

Trading can be a worthy full-time profession or a great way to earn sec- ondary income. Either way, you will need to learn the three basic skills of trading as you watch price movement against time. How to determine the current trend on any time frame 2. How to develop an entry strategy that works consistently 3. How to develop an exit strategy that works consistently Once you master these three skills, you will be in a position to take advantage of the significant profit potential in this market.

BULLS AND BEARS The purpose of a broker is to facilitate the trade. After you open a trading account, the broker gives a trader the right to execute transactions, which includes certain rights and privileges, including the right to be a bull or a bear.

The terms bull and bear were created by traders in the stock market in the early s to identify the direction someone was trading in the market. The term bull was derived from the way in which bulls attack or charge, moving upward. In contrast, bears move downward when they attack or charge.

Bulls, therefore, resemble a buying market, because they believe prices will continue to move upward, or rise, whereas bears resemble a selling market, because they believe prices are going move downward, or fall. Every trader has to make a decision to be either a bull or a bear before entering the market. Bulls enter the market buying first and exit selling second. Bears do the opposite: they enter selling first and exit buying second.

To make a profit in the market, you must always buy low and sell high. Both bulls and bears are trying to do that; bears just reverse the transactions see Figure Remember, there is a bid price and an ask price with a 3- to 6-pip spread on the major currencies the U.

dollar [USD], the Japanese yen [JPY], the British pound [GBP], the Swiss franc [CHF], the European euro [EUR], the Canadian dollar [CAD] and the Australian dollar [AUD]. Traders buy on the ask price and sell on the bid price. If you want to enter buying, you would pay the ask price of 1.

You can enter and exit the market using a limit order, which are orders placed ahead of time to enter the market buying below where current prices are or selling above where the current prices are. They are placed like a limit order at a predetermined price; however, they turn into market orders when the market reaches the predetermined price and may be subjected to slippage.

The rule is, when you place a buy order above the current market price it is called a stop order, and when you place a sell order below where the current price is it is also called a stop order.

Every trade should have an entry point, a predetermined exit point for profit, and a well-thought-out exit point for minimal loss should the market not go your way. The rule is, every buy order should have two sells: a sell limit order for profit and a sell stop order for loss protection. Conversely, every sell order should have two buy orders: a buy limit order for profit and a buy stop order for loss protection.

Some trading software programs allow the trader the ability to place an OCO one cancels the other order. This means the moment the market hits either the stop order or the sell order, it cancels the opposite order.

By trading with an OCO order, you are not left exposed with a working order after either your stop or limit has been filled and you have been taken out of the market. An OCO order offers you the opportunity to set a trade and forget about it. You can literally walk away from your computer and not be concerned with catastrophic results if you have properly quantified your potential losses before you placed the trade.

No one knows where the next pip will go, so the best you can do is plan your trade and trade your plan. One of the most important and productive habits you can adopt is properly educating yourself about the Forex before you begin trading. If you move forward without the proper education, be prepared to lose your money, much like in a casino. Just like the casino, the market will be there to take all your money.

I have learned that to achieve success in trading requires learning to understand the three critical facets of trading: 1. The technical education and trading knowledge 2. The fundamental understanding of what determines market movement 3. All successful traders learn that working through frustration is the path to success. Knowing what to do when you get frustrated is critical. Strong people make as many mistakes as weak people. The difference is that strong people admit their mistakes, laugh at them, and learn from them, and that is how they become strong.

Mistakes are part of being human. We need to appreciate our mistakes for what they are. Before you begin trading, you need to create your own mission state- ment to help you focus on becoming an educated, financially successful, long-term Forex trader. I want you to think of your journey toward becom- ing a successful trader as a transformation of thought, a new process of knowledge build-up, followed by: 1.

Disciplined thought 2. Disciplined rules 3. Practice first on a demo account to become comfortable with the trading platform before trading with real money. LEVEL 2: THE COMPETENT TRADER You acquire conscious competence. You begin to trade with real money, work through your emotions, and learn to trade within the equity manage- ment rules to achieve a consistent financial return. LEVEL 3: THE EXPERT TRADER You acquire unconscious competence. You mechanically execute profitable trades with no emotion.

THE REALITY OF TRADING The reality of trading is that less than 10 percent of all traders who attempt to trade succeed in the market. More than 90 percent of all traders who attempt to become successful on the Forex fail. Our professional international team at Market Traders Institute adamantly believes in proper education first. Knowledge is the key that can make a big difference in the success of a trader, providing a necessary edge.

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Remember me on this computer. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. Need an account? Click here to sign up. Download Free PDF. eliza salihu. Abstract Forexhero. Continue Reading Download Free PDF.

You will not find long third upgraded edition. We received a lot of great watery essay type paragraphs here, just feedback about the first and second e-book actionable and easy-to-digest information.

thank you! For this new edition we have rewritten This e-book will help you learn Forex trading everything from the ground up. We are pretty skills in the fastest time possible! We made this ebook as the you have. Our program has shown interesting ultimate learning resource for ourselves and results: people with no previous financial hope you enjoy it too! market experience often delivered better performance than those with the experience! If someone teaches you something and it this fact is confirmed as well.

sounds really complex, they probably haven't taken the time to think through how to boil it down. Be careful with folks like that. There's a difference between being good at something and being good at teaching it. The currency pair price changes will generate your profits. It is better to invest in the currency of a country that is growing faster and fund it with a currency of a country that is growing slower. When does it work The market is open 24 hours, 5. Read on to uncover deeper secrets about forex timing.

Spread point The difference between the sell quote and the buy quote in pips. The smaller the spread, the more liquid the currency! Section 01 Introduction and key concepts 5 advantages of forex Make money even in times of crisis While the stock market and commercial bank deposits are in deep depression during the crisis, Forex profits, because any change in currency can be used to make profit. A falling market is as profitable for Forex trading as a developing one because unlike in stock trading you can short the falling assets.

Work while lying in a hammock All you need to start making money is a computer or a smart phone and an Internet connection. Your work space and goals are up to you! Easy rules Unlike the stock market with tens of thousands of different shares, Forex works with 8 basic currencies, which are the center of most trades. Moreover, there are significantly less factors that influence currency exchange rates than in the stock market. Section 01 Introduction and key concepts 3 main disadvantages of forex Most of other forex learning materials will tell you that forex offers an easy way to make money.

High risk to lose the whole position In stock trading, unlike forex, it is very unlikely that you will lose all the money when investing in the stock market. But the truth is, you struggle with finding enought time to do it all. Emmanuel Follow Follow their activities. This is also a good way to learn Forex strategies in a real-life trading environment.

I believe the investors. This was a great opportunity to make money shorting betting that it would decline the euro. This is useful because the larger trade.

Leverage is shown as a ratio, for movement in currency rates can be very small, example profits and losses alike. Leverage allows you to trade with more money Stock market Forex market Maximum leverage from to Varying lot sizes Term Lot In Forex, all transactions can be conducted via standard, mini, and micro lots. Each lot size accounts for a different measure of units of the base currency, which in turn presents a different pip value. Below is a simple chart to illustrate the differences in lot sizes, measured in units, volume for the major pairs where the base currency is USD.

Those traders who are looking to get started in the forex market should consider opening a mini account because of the smaller contract sizes. Term Spread The difference between the bid price and the ask price is called a spread. Although these movements may seem insignificant, even the smallest point change can result in thousands of dollars being made or lost due to leverage.

Again, this is one of the reasons that speculators are so attracted to the forex market; even the tiniest price movement can result in huge profit. While the high degree of leverage used in forex trading magnifies returns and risks, a few safety precautions used by professional traders may help mitigate these risks. Do you need more than strategy and only those with high risk , US dollars to open the trade?

With tolerance should consider using big leverage. If you are a relatively cautious Leverage investor or trader, use a lower level of leverage with perhaps or leverage. Maximum leverage limits vary in different This is the amount that will be used to cover your potential losses. In other words, the countries, varying from to margin is the actual amount that you are Use Stop Loss orders!

Stops can be used not risking to lose if the trade goes against you. just to ensure that losses are capped, but also to protect profits. Section 01 Introduction and key concepts Example: leverage in use Going short on euro Europe has been hit by a crisis, so you expect the euro to fall against the US dollar. nov 1. dec Case B: Leverage Case B: Leverage 1. You open a position of 1 lot, which 1. You were right.

Euro depreciates against 2. Euro depreciates against the dollar to 1. close your trade and take your profits. Result: The euro fell by pips 1. Your profit is x 1 - 1. Section 01 Introduction and key concepts How much should I invest? Traders should look to use an effective leverage of to1 or less. Research shows that the amount of capital in your trading account can affect your profitability.

With smaller investment you will not get enough profits as the average changes in the currency rates are small. If you haven't heard of these terms already, you undoubtedly will as you begin to invest. The terms bull market and bear market describe upward and downward market trends, respectively, and can be used to describe either the market as a whole or specific sectors and securities.

These images will help you memorize which is which. Doji - when the opening and closing price are equal. Long-Legged Doji - after small candlesticks, they indicate a potential trend change.

Normally only seen on thinly traded pairs. Your Capital may be at risk. That is, on the most fundamental level, a currency rallies because there is a demand for that currency. Regardless of whether the demand is for hedging, speculative, or conversion purposes, true movements are based on the need for the currency. Currency values decrease when there is excess supply. Supply and demand should be the real determinants for predicting future movements.

However, how to predict supply and demand is not as simple as many would think. Two of the primary factors affecting supply and demand of currencies are interest rates and the overall strength of the economy.

There are many factors that contribute to the net supply and demand for a currency and the strength of the economy. Read on to uncover the main drivers that influence the exchange rates. The number of economic announcements made each day from around the world can be intimidating, so we will focus just on the most important ones.

How are they divided The drivers are divided into three major groups: Geo-political, Economic and Market Psychology. Here they are: Kathy Lien Chief Currency Strategist at Forex Capital Markets LLC. Former Currency trader at JPMorgan Chase. TOP 9 Unemployment NFP or Non Farm 1 Payroll 6 Retail sales Will US employment continue to grow?

For example, if the U. trade the U. more dollars flow out of the U.

Today, futures trading is a multibillion dollar industry. html Consider the following: every transaction in the world settles in a currency. The Super Tuesday results are being seen as "an outcome for continuity over the disruption threatened by Trump and Sanders," he said. What is the pip in forex? As a trader, you will learn that, from time to time, the trading environ- ment will be ideal enough to use an autopilot system.

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