Forex market tips

The foreign exchange (currency or forex or FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions. The average daily trade in the global forex markets currently exceeds US$ 2–2.5 trillion. Retail traders (individuals) are a small fraction of this market and may only participate indirectly through brokers or banksThe foreign exchange (currency or forex or FX) market exists wherever one currency is traded for another. It is by far the largest financial market in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, multinational corporations, governments, and other financial markets and institutions. The average daily trade in the global forex markets currently exceeds US$ 2–2.5 trillion. Retail traders (individuals) are a small fraction of this market and may only participate indirectly through brokers or banks.

[edit] Market size and liquidity
The foreign exchange market is unique because of
its trading volume,
the extreme liquidity of the market,
the large number of, and variety of, traders in the market,
its geographical dispersion,
its long trading hours: 24 hours a day (except on weekends),
the variety of factors that affect exchange rates.

According to the BIS,[1] average daily turnover in traditional foreign exchange markets was estimated at $1,880 billion. Daily averages in April for different years, in billions of US dollars, are presented on the chart below:
This $1.88 trillion in global foreign exchange market "traditional" turnover was broken down as follows:
$621 billion in spot transactions
$208 billion in outright forwards
$944 billion in forex swaps
$107 billion estimated gaps in reporting
In addition to "traditional" turnover, $1.26 trillion was traded in derivatives.
Exchange-traded forex futures contracts were introduced in 1972 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are actively traded relative to most other futures contracts. Forex futures volume has grown rapidly in recent years, but only accounts for about 7% of the total foreign exchange market volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe (5/5/06, p. 20).
Average daily global turnover in traditional foreign exchange market transactions totaled $2.7 trillion in April 2006 according to IFSL estimates based on semi-annual London, New York, Tokyo and Singapore Foreign Exchange Committee data. Overall turnover, including non-traditional foreign exchange derivatives and products traded on exchanges, averaged around $2.9 trillion a day. This was more than ten times the size of the combined daily turnover on all the world’s equity markets. Foreign exchange trading increased by 38% between April 2005 and April 2006 and has more than doubled since 2001. This is largely due to the growing importance of foreign exchange as an asset class and an increase in fund management assets, particularly of hedge funds and pension funds. The diverse selection of execution venues such as internet trading platforms has also made it easier for retail traders to trade in the foreign exchange market. [2]
Because foreign exchange is an OTC market where brokers/dealers negotiate directly with one another, there is no central exchange or clearing house. The biggest geographic trading centre is the UK, primarily London, which according to IFSL estimates has increased its share of global turnover in traditional transactions from 31.3% in April 2004 to 32.4% in April 2006.
The ten most active traders account for almost 73% of trading volume, according to The Wall Street Journal Europe, (2/9/06 p. 20). These large international banks continually provide the market with both bid (buy) and ask (sell) prices. The bid/ask spread is the difference between the price at which a bank or market maker will sell ("ask", or "offer") and the price at which a market-maker will buy ("bid") from a wholesale customer. This spread is minimal for actively traded pairs of currencies, usually only 0–3 pips. For example, the bid/ask quote of EUR/USD might be 1.2200/1.2203. Minimum trading size for most deals is usually $100,000.
These spreads might not apply to retail customers at banks, which will routinely mark up the difference to say 1.2100 / 1.2300 for transfers, or say 1.2000 / 1.2400 for banknotes or travelers' checks. Spot prices at market makers vary, but on EUR/USD are usually no more than 3 pips wide (i.e. 0.0003). Competition has greatly increased with pip spreads shrinking on the major pairs to as little as 1 to 2 pips.

Optimize Your Forex Trading with the RSI

Among the different indicators in technical analysis, Relative Strength Index (RSI) is the easiest to interpret. Developed by J. Welles Wilder, the world first knew about this powerful analytical tool in 1978 through an article in commodities magazine (now Future Magazine). Then, RSI was introduced in Wilder’s book, New Concepts in Technical Analysis that was published in the same year. RSI is based on the statistical phenomena of “regression to the mean”. The basic application of these phenomena assumes that within a statistical sample, a random variable should have a value closer to its mean value. Applying this to the foreign exchange market will imply that the price of a currency pair shouldn’t rise or fall dramatically over a short period of time; and if this happens, the market is said to be in an overbought or oversold status.

Setting the Parameters of the RSI Although traders can customize the input periods of the RSI, 14 is the most frequent one. This is what Wilder has recommended in his book as a default period and this is what the majority of traders are using today.

Interpreting the numbers:
RSI is based on a scale of 100 points with a reading below 30 indicating an oversold status and a reading above 70 referring to an overbought status. Suggested Strategy:
1) Traders need to identify a range bound market (higher lows and lower highs).
2) When the RSI moves above 70, traders may place a short position after the RSI moves back below 70 or after formation of a bearish candlestick pattern.
3) When the RSI moves below 30, traders may place a long position after the RSI moves back above 30 or after the formation of a bullish candlestick pattern.

Forex Trading Success - Learn to Deal With Volatility or Lose Your Money

If you want to enjoy forex trading success then you need to know how to deal with volatility and that means knowing and understanding standard deviation, - if you don’t know what it is you should it’s a key part of forex education and vital to achieve Forex trading success.

The Problem

Most forex Traders can spot long term trends but they cant profit from them because they get stopped out by volatile counter moves which clip their stop and give them a loss – then they see the currency go the way they thought and pile up huge gains.

If you want to win at forex trading then you need to deal with volatility. Let’s look at standard deviation and what is and how we can use it to help us deal with volatility.

Standard deviation is a statistical term that refers to and shows the volatility of price in any currency or financial instrument. Standard deviation measures how widely values are dispersed from the mean or average.

Dispersion is defined as the difference between the actual closing value price and the average value, or mean closing price.

The larger the difference between the closing prices from the average price, the higher the standard deviation and volatility will be. On the other hand, the closer the closing prices are to the average mean price, the lower the standard deviation, or volatility of the currency is.

Technical Calculation

Standard deviation the square root of the variance, and the average of the squared deviations from the mean.

High Standard Deviation is present when the price of the currency studied is changing volatile and has large daily ranges in reverse low Standard Deviation values take place in periods of consolidation i.e. when prices are more stable and range bound.

Keep This in Mind

Prices spike away from the average as the participants react to the emotions of greed and fear and then return to the average mean, when prices have moved to far to quickly.

A great tool for helping you understand standard deviation and picking areas to enter your trades with good risk / reward is the Bollinger Band.

Dealing With Volatility.

Key points to keep in mind are:

That strong trending moves will break back to the mid Bollinger band and this provides you with an area to target to get in on the trend. When the bands expand and volatility is high, prices will normally recoil back and you can take a contrary trade in the opposite direction, as prices return back to the mean.

Consider this equation:

Fundamentals (Long term average mean) + Investor perception (High volatility to Inner and outer bands) = price.

The price of anything tends to dip back to the mean or average - but investors will spike prices to far up or down along the way. This is a simplified version but its obvious how to trade this equation, as we have suggested above.

Always keep in mind that huge price spikes don’t last and the average in a strong trend is a value area.

Target these areas and use your technical tools on your forex charts to define entry.

Using Standard Deviation for Greater Profits

Standard deviation tells you how volatile prices are and a Bollinger band reflects this – it is not however on its own a signal to trade. By understanding volatility and how it occurs through standard deviation you will be able deal with volatility better and pick low risk / high reward exit and entry points.

If you don’t understand standard deviation and its impact day to day you won’t make money trading currencies so make it an essential part of your forex education. If you do it will help you on the road to currency trading success.

Forex Trading Education Works For Every Newcomer

Forex or foreign exchange is definitely the most vulnerable market for those who wish to earn little more than they invest. With large number of traders involved and almost 2 to 3 trillion dollars being traded each day, forex tends to magnetize every other person who wishes to trade and trade big. But, if you are someone new to the ecstasy of foreign exchange then a prior knowledge or a good forex trading education is a must to ensure that you do not regret your deals and trading.

Following are some of the things you will benefit from forex trading education as a newcomer or novice in trading:

• Basic knowledge of forex, it's benefits and role
• Technical terms involved in forex
• Introduction and implementation of various tools and software
• How to make strategies while trading in forex market
• Understanding of trading system i.e. when to enter a trade and when to stop the trading
• Execution of risk management tactics such as stop loss.

An education in forex trading is the best way to begin in forex, as forex is a market with unexpected fluctuations, sudden announcements and lots of risk. For someone who is new to trading, education acts as a guide to doubts like why forex is unpredictable and how to manage trading along with the instability factor.

Forex when taken carelessly can jeopardize the investment and effort put in by a novice, thus without the basic idea of risk involved and method to avoid or minimize them comes from a good forex trading education.

Apart from the basics and technical aspects of trading, forex trading education also teaches methods to build following skills:

• Patience
• Discipline
• Handling pressure
• Analyzing situation
• Trading on a well planned pace

Thus, Forex trading education makes sure that you, as a newcomer, understand forex well enough to trade. Forex is full of benefits but to make the most of it, a newcomer needs to have proper and complete understanding of it and that's where forex trading education helps or works for a new comer.

Forex Trading With The Kiss Strategy

Find the right strategy and you will never look back in the world of trading. A great forex trading strategy is what separates the wishful thinkers who dedicate themselves to losing money everyday while the professional and successful traders with the right strategy dedicate their time to making money every trading session.

Forex is not something you should enter without the proper education. The more information you have about what forex is about and how the currency markets behave the closer you will be to becoming a successful trader. And as you already know, that means more money in your pocket.

As you surely know, markets are open the whole day during six days of the week, with the desirable consequence of allowing traders a huge flexibility when it comes to knowing when to enter end exit a trade. Due to the constant buying and selling of currencies in the market, as long as they are kept open the prices will be constantly fluctuating and reacting to the world news and market conditions. All this activity can be easily seen by looking at a forex chart. And is thanks to this fluctuations that traders can have the potential of profitable trades the whole day. Here the secret is, again, to find a successful system with the right strategy.

For example, with the Forex KISS strategy you can easily duplicate your account capital in less than three months without having to worry about losing much money from your account if you apply the rules of the system as you are told to do. Understand how to implement the KISS and you will be kissing good bye to sad losing trading days.