And the development of sophisticated online foreign exchange trading platforms in recent years has attracted many traders to the market — traders who seek an income in addition to their day job or those who wish to trade a new market besides stocks and futures. Who this book is for This book is primarily for those who are new to the world of currency trading and are curious about how they can make money from the forex market. Existing traders who are trading on demo or live accounts should also find some useful advice in this book.

Some knowledge of candlestick charting is assumed as I will be using candlesticks to display the high, low, opening and closing prices in the charts throughout the book.

All you need to start is a computer with fast and stable internet access and a relatively small account with a broker. About this book This book describes seven fundamental and technical trading strategies for trading the foreign exchange markets. The purpose of this book is to show you how you can trade forex with these winning strategies.

I will share with you some new ideas, interesting concepts, and the nuts and bolts of how you can implement each strategy more effectively. This book is quite different from traditional technical analysis books because, while those books may document the reliability of certain technical patterns, I will explain in this book why certain technical patterns do not work as well in the forex market and therefore need adapting. For example, I have increasingly noticed that in recent times the first attempt of a price breakout more often than not results in a failure.

The strategies that I am going to share with you are suitable for trading the forex market in any time frame — ranging from minutes to weeks. Throughout the book I also explain certain aspects of the forex market so that you can gain an insight into how the market behaves.

Flexibility is required for the trader to adapt his or her strategies to different market conditions, as well as for the trader to customise trading strategies to suit his or her own trading style and personality. Therefore, feel free to tweak or modify any of the parameters of these strategies to suit your own preferences.

The 7 strategies in this book must be applied with discipline and a huge dose of common sense. Their rules and guidelines are not set in stone. What I provide is a guide to implementing these strategies so that you can tilt the odds of success to your side. How this book is structured The book contains the following chapters. Getting Started Find out why the forex market is constantly growing, and why an increasing number of people are turning to trade this particular asset class in their quest to accumulate wealth.

For those who are new to trading, take a look at the differences between investing and trading, and the various choices of trading time frames. Spot Forex Market Structure The forex market has long been the exclusive playground of the big players, namely banks, institutional investors and hedge funds.

But the playground is no longer restricted to just them; individuals can also participate in this speculative game. It is essential to know where you, the trader, stand in the overall big picture.

How To Overcome The Odds Of Trading Forex How are you going to tackle the odds that are stacked against you from the start in the forex trading business? In this chapter, I will highlight the three Ms that have brought me success in this field: Mind, Money and Method.

Many traders, especially the inexperienced ones, are too fixated on finding the perfect trade setup, the perfect trading system or the strategy that never fails, thus neglecting the other more important aspects that are crucial to good trading performance. Find out what defines the current market sentiment, and how you can incorporate market sentiment analysis into your trading.

Strategy 2 — Trend Riding There is so much more to riding trends than simply closing your eyes and buying at any point during an uptrend or short-selling at any point during a downtrend. This chapter shows you how you can jump on a trend when the trend is the most robust, rather than when it is about to end. This way you can ride a trend with a higher chance of success. Strategy 3 — Breakout Fading Many false breakouts occur in forex price charts, and the occurrence of these fakeouts provides the perfect opportunity for fading breakouts, that is, trading against those breakouts.

In this chapter, I explain why most breakouts fail, and how you can identify high-probability fading opportunities. Strategy 4 — Breakout Trading When currency prices break out of certain price levels, a large sustained move in the direction of the breakout may occur, giving rise to a situation whereby big profits could potentially be captured in the least amount of time.

The main problem with trading breakouts is that many of these breakout attempts fail. In this chapter I walk you through several guidelines of how you can better identify potential breakout opportunities for this strategy.

This particular strategy, however, requires that the forex market registers a period of relative calm and low volatility before the strategy is to be implemented. Strategy 6 — Carry Trade This is a fundamental trading strategy that is highly favoured by institutional investors. In this chapter, I explain how a carry trade works, and highlight some points which you should keep in mind when adopting this strategy in the forex market.

Strategy 7 — News Straddling The forex market is extremely sensitive to economic and geopolitical news from around the world, especially those which relate to the industrialised countries. Find out how you can trade news releases with a higher probability of success. Risk disclosure Trading forex involves substantial risk, and there is always the potential for loss. Your trading results may vary. No representation is made that any information in this book will guarantee profits or prevent losses from trading forex.

You should be aware that no trading strategy can guarantee profits. Further information For more information about my trading strategies, the proprietary PowerFX Course and other forex market information, please visit the following website where I also host a daily forex blog — www. This book, however, shall focus on the trading of spot forex. The most significant difference between spot forex and futures is that spot forex contracts are traded over-the-counter at no central location, while forex futures are traded on an exchange.

This gives rise to another unique aspect of spot forex — the hour non-stop action; this is one major reason why I enjoy trading spot forex. With round-the-clock trading a person in any time-zone can trade spot forex at any time — whether during the day or night. The best career decision I have made was to trade forex full-time. Forex trading has brought me both financial and emotional satisfaction, even though my initial learning journey was long and arduous.

When I started in forex, I could only find one book on forex trading. Forex was not as popular as stocks or options trading, so there were very few articles in magazines that focused on this field. I spent the first one and a half years learning how to trade forex and honing my skills on a demo account, before progressing to a real account, when I became consistently profitable.

Only trade with money you can afford to lose. If you lose a large amount, you may never want to trade again. Whereas if you lose virtual money in a demo account, or a small amount in a mini account, it may be easier to pick yourself back up after losses — both emotionally and financially.

The ISO code list defines different currencies, and is the standard used in the banking industry and in businesses all around the world. See below for some of the more common currency codes. Table 1. This act of simultaneous buying and selling is the most important aspect of forex: a currency is always traded against another currency.

The first currency in the pair is known as the base currency, and the second currency is the counter or terms currency. There is usually no maximum trading size, but some brokers require that you request for a quote over the telephone for trading sizes bigger than 10,, base currency units.

Pips What are pips? The term pip stands for percentage in point. It represents the smallest incremental move an exchange rate can make. For example, 1 pip is 0. Here is another example. So to convert the pip value from Euros to US dollars, you multiply EUR7. As you can see, the ask is always higher than the bid, and the difference which is called the spread is where the market maker makes its money from.

Understanding rollover Forex transactions in the spot market are always due for settlement two business days later. So if a trader sells a certain quantity of a currency on, say, Monday, he or she is obligated to deliver that quantity of the currency on Wednesday. This is because you are likely to be trading on a leveraged trading account, which means you can get a loan from your forex broker for the amount that you are trading.

So to avoid taking actual delivery of the currency that you have bought or sold, most forex brokers will automatically roll over your positions to the next business day by closing your position and opening an identical one with a delivery date within the next two days.

Rollover is usually done on a daily basis at pm New York time, and only affects those who hold their positions overnight. So if you have bought long a particular currency, and that currency has a higher overnight interest rate than the counter currency, you will gain the difference. If you have sold short the currency with a higher overnight interest rate, then you will be charged the difference. The broker also keeps a percentage of this rollover for itself, which is why the amount you receive will always be less than what you must pay for a given currency pair.

Most brokers also have a slightly strange way of dealing with the weekend rollover. Rather than charging you the 2 non-trading days of Saturday and Sunday on the night of Friday, they usually charge it on a Wednesday. This can be somewhat confusing for new traders who wonder why their rollover is so much higher on a Wednesday than on other days of the week. What sort of leverage can I get? Leverage involves borrowing a certain amount of the money needed to invest in something.

In the case of forex, that money is usually borrowed from a broker. Forex trading does offer high leverage in the sense that for an initial margin requirement, you can build up and control a huge trading position. Margin is the minimum required balance to place a trade. Many retail forex brokers offer a sizeable amount of leverage to their customers. Some offer 50 times leverage, while an increasing number of them even allow up to times leverage for standard-sized or mini-sized accounts.

It is very important to know that leverage magnifies both your profits and losses. The good thing is that you, the customer, are often given the flexibility to select your leverage amount. Trading Slippage Slippage occurs when your order gets executed at a price different from what you were expecting or hoping.

This can easily occur in fast-moving markets, usually during or after some news release, for any non-limit orders. The table below shows the relative liquidity of some important currency pairs. While some pairs can easily move at least pips in a day, other pairs only manage to move less than 70 pips a day.

The figure over the page shows the average daily volatility in some important currency pairs. In this case volatility is measured in terms of pips moved in a day. This is not the conventional way of measuring volatility, which is usually done by measuring the percentage move of a pair in a given time frame.

However, since most traders look at the pip move, I am showing volatility in terms of what is most easily measured by traders. The more a currency pair moves in a day, the greater the chance that profits can be made within a day. The broad spectrum of volatility ensures that there is something to suit everyone, ranging from the aggressive to the conservative trader.

The currency pair that you choose to concentrate your trading on will depend on how aggressive or conservative you are. Not all brokers will accept the same range of order types, but I list below the most common types of orders that most brokers should accept. Market Order An order to buy or sell at the current market price.

Limit Order An order to buy or sell at a specified price or better. Stop-Loss Order An order to close a position if the market price hits a certain level. Note however, that this type of order means that after the stop price is hit the order becomes a market order and you may suffer slippage. You use this type of entry order if you feel that the currency pair will reverse direction from that price. Stop-Entry Order An order to buy above the market or sell below the market at a specified price.

You use this type of entry order if you feel that the currency pair will continue in the same direction. Just like with a stop order, you may suffer slippage when using this type of order. Stop-Limit Order An order to buy above the market or sell below the market at a specified price only. When your price is hit your order becomes a limit order which prevents slippage.

One Cancels Other OCO A set of orders whereby when one order is filled, the other order is cancelled. This is commonly used to set both a profit-taking limit order and a stop-loss order as soon as an entry order is filled. There are two types of forex brokers: market makers and ECNs. But in practice things are not so clear-cut — there are market makers out there who falsely market themselves as not having dealing desks, while there are also some brokers who claim to be true ECNs when they are not.

The choice of broker must be an individual decision, because everyone has different needs and preferences. Both new and existing traders should carefully examine the practices and policy contracts of brokers, and be up-to-date with new information on brokers. Below are some points that you might want to consider when selecting a broker. You can use it as a rough guide to narrow down some candidates that match your own needs.

Can you trade from the charts? This will be useful when scalping. This will be especially crucial if you are scalping.

If so, check if it has a mobile or web- based version that you can use for trading. Or, if it is an ECN, how easy is it to fill big orders? Do they support Stop, Limit, Stop-Limit, One- Triggers-Other OTO and One-Cancels-Other OCO orders? Depending on the policy, it is possible to end up with closing prices that are worse than expected. Are you willing to accept that? If spreads are variable, how wide do they get during important news releases?

The lower the margin required, the greater the amount of leverage. Once you have narrowed the broker list down to a few candidates, be sure to read the terms and conditions of the respective contracts, and understand what you are in for before you sign anything. Later on when you have graduated to an intermediate or advanced phase in trading forex, you may then choose to spread your money among a few brokers so as to reduce exposure to a single broker.

If you approach trading as a means of getting your dose of adrenaline, do yourself a favour by staying away from it — you will do less harm to your pockets by going to the latest Louis Vuitton sale or by bidding on that vintage car on eBay for the adrenaline shot. Serious money demands serious work. Both serious and casual traders, of course, dream of making it big in the forex market, but it is not the goal that counts, it is the preparation and dedication that is important.

Forex trading should be considered and treated as a serious business, just like other types of businesses. Approaching trading from the perspective of a shrewd business person can greatly tilt your chances of success to your side.

Jolted from sleep, I drag my feet — with eyes half-open — into my trading room. The time is am and the FOMC minutes have just been released. I click on the headline which summarises what the minutes say. This statement is very similar to the previous one; hence there is not much reaction in the forex market. Morning Too soon, morning comes. I quickly scroll through the news headlines that are displayed in the news feeds, and select those which relate directly to forex.

The market seems pretty boring at this time. The lull in market activity gives me some time to write a bit more of this book, and to work on some trading articles. To make sure the trade is still sound, I quickly check the news feeds to see if any news or rumours might have triggered this move. The market is moving up and closer to my position; it is now only one pip away. I make sure all my charts are up, and I prepare to monitor this trade.

It is now 12 pips away from my opening price, a bit too late for me to get in. And just as suddenly as the price has gone down, it is now moving up again and my order is now filled. The pair keeps moving up, 5 pips then I guess others must be going short too. After what seems like an eternity, but is probably no more than five minutes, my position is back at break-even, which means I have neither made nor lost money at this point.

This bounce trade seems to be taking a while, so I call my friend to let her know we will have to postpone our lunch meeting. Lunch will have to arrive in the form of junk food from my favorite food delivery outlet. Sometimes I watch my open trade like a hawk; other times, I simply continue with other activities.

I set some price alarms and get back to writing my book while waiting for my lunch. After all, it is usually better to do something else while waiting on the market. After lunch, the alarms ring. Looks like I am close to reaching my profit target. Institutional traders must be back from lunch and are taking profits on their long positions. End of the day With this trade out of the way, I look for upcoming trading opportunities. Trading blogs, especially those that have fresh and relevant material, can be a valuable source of useful and targeted information for busy traders who hold day jobs.

This blogging habit, which constitutes part of my market homework, has helped me in my own trading. I also take the time to interact with the online community of traders by participating in forums such as that as ForexVibes www.

This means that sometimes I will end past midnight, and other times I will be done well before lunch time. This is unlike, say, stocks or futures which traded through the exchanges such the London Stock Exchange or Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Trading of currencies is done OTC over-the-counter , in the sense that currency buyers and sellers from all over the world make a binding contract with each other after agreeing on a price — and this is not carried out through an exchange.

This aspect of spot forex trading is different from forex futures trading which is carried out through an exchange. Forex traders carry out their activities by dealing directly with one another or through brokers via telephone and internet connections.

In this centrally cleared system, the CME will act as the central counterparty and guarantee the performance of all contracts for both buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, FXMarketSpace is an institutional trading platform and is not open to retail market players.

According to the website www. Therefore, as a central exchange for forex retail players is still not a reality, I shall focus on the OTC structure of the forex market in this chapter.

Players of the forex market range from those who trade billions of dollars a day, to those who trade just tens of thousands of dollars. This club is known as the interbank market. Down the hierarchy are the smaller banks, big multinational companies, hedge funds and other institutional investors or speculators, and retail forex brokers. These large speculators may also conduct currency transactions directly in the interbank market, if they deal in large amounts and have credit standings with the large banks.

Next in line are the independent retail traders who lie at the bottom of the market structure. These individual traders mainly trade through forex brokers as they generally trade in much smaller lot sizes. Central banks of countries are also market players, although they are not always involved in the market. See Figure 2. Figure 2. Hedge funds and companies are not included in this illustration as the retail trader Small Small will usually not deal directly with Banks Banks any of them.

Without a central exchange, currency exchange rates are made, or set, by market makers — they make the bid and the ask prices based on the currency movements that they anticipate will take place.

The largest banks are the major market makers, and they handle very large forex transactions — often in the billions of dollars — on behalf of their clients, such as other institutions or companies, and also for themselves. Many banks have traders dedicated to trading speculatively for the bank. The resulting massive flows of money handled by these large banks are what primarily drive currency prices.

This big money-laden network forms the interbank market where large banks deal with one another, and is where most of the trading activity takes place. The transactions carried out by these major banks amount to the greatest bulk of the total daily forex volume. These big banks include Citigroup, Barclays Capital, UBS and Deutsche Bank.

Brokering platforms The banks deal with one another directly, or through electronic brokering platforms like the Electronic Brokering Services EBS or Reuters Dealing Matching.

These brokering systems get the best available exchange rates for the various currency pairs, and match buying and selling requests from bank dealers. Between these two competitors, they connect at least banks together. Smaller banks that trade smaller amounts also get access to these brokering platforms.

Large companies Companies and businesses are involved in the forex market because of their need to pay for products and services which are denominated in other currencies. Since these commercial entities deal in smaller quantities, compared to that of large banks, they usually trade through banks instead of directly accessing the interbank market themselves.

Large overall trade flows can have a significant impact on the forex market, as they play a role in the supply and demand of currencies. Sometimes companies may also be involved in currency speculation for the purpose of generating additional revenue. Central banks Central banks hold the key to controlling the supply and demand of national currencies; hence they play a very important role in the forex markets.

Examples of some prominent central banks include the US Federal Reserve Bank the Fed , the European Central Bank ECB , the Bank of England BOE and the Bank of Japan BOJ — with the Fed undoubtedly being the most influential among all the other central banks in the world. Issues that are of most concern to central banks are those relating to: inflation price stability , economic growth and the unemployment rate. One of the ways that central banks control these factors is through the setting and adjustment of interest rates, which will affect the valuation of many currencies.

Sometimes central banks intervene directly in the forex market when they are not satisfied with the current exchange rates of their currencies. That is, they may find that the current exchange rate is either too high or too low for the overall benefit of the economy.

The Bank of Japan is well-known for its intervention in the market. Hence, when the BOJ deems that the Yen is getting much stronger against, say, the US dollar or the Euro, it may step into the open market to deliberately depress its currency by selling Yen against US dollars and Euros. This act of central bank intervention may cause other institutional players to follow suit, and further drive the currency exchange rate towards the rate that is favoured by the intervening central bank.

Most of these institutional speculators have international portfolios that consist of both domestic and international assets like stock or bonds to diversify their holdings. They tend to be very aggressive participants of the spot forex market as they often facilitate currency transactions when purchasing or selling foreign assets. For example, an investment manager who is in charge of an international stock portfolio will be required to buy and sell foreign currencies so as to pay for any purchase of overseas stocks.

Hedge funds, being largely unregulated, often practise very different styles of wealth generation from investment management companies; they tend to adopt more aggressive forms of trading with the aim of generating a high return on investment.

Sometimes, a portion of their assets under management may be allocated specifically for currency speculations, with the objective of maximising their overall profits. Large hedge funds and investment management companies are capable of moving the forex market in their transactions. Forex brokers The emergence of sophisticated online forex brokers made forex trading feasible for private individuals.

In the past, only wealthy individuals could speculate in the forex market, but now things are very different. Anyone can simply open a trading account with a retail forex broker and trade currencies online with little money upfront, as forex brokers tend to offer highly leveraged margin accounts for individuals.

There are basically two types of forex brokers: 1. market makers: who set the bid and the ask prices themselves, and 2. Electronic Communication Networks ECNs : consolidate various bid and ask prices from market makers and other participants connected to their platform, and display the best available prices. These are explained in some detail below. Market Makers Market-making is a lucrative business for banks and brokers, and forms the backbone of market liquidity.

By quoting the bid and the ask prices on the screens of electronic brokering platforms, or through telephone calls, they are essentially providing liquidity and inviting other qualified parties other banks, hedge funds, corporations or retail customers like individual traders to deal with them. In doing so, market makers must be prepared to buy or sell from other market participants. Some market makers may have established credit links with banks that trade on the interbank market, or they access electronic brokering platforms like EBS or Reuters for pricing.

the price at which the market maker will buy bid price , and the 2. price at which it will sell at ask price from a customer. During periods of high liquidity in which there is a great deal of trading activity, spreads of the actively traded currency pairs are usually kept quite narrow, between pips.

When the market is very quiet with little trading action going on for a particular currency pair, for example just prior to the New York close on Fridays or during news releases, dealing spreads tend to widen, sometimes by a huge margin, as a way for market makers to protect themselves when they feel that they may have to carry additional risks. Market makers usually operate a dealing desk, which refers to the market maker trading with the customer, and the presence of dealing desks means that the market maker may potentially trade against the customer.

They may move their currency quotes pips away from the interbank rates. Independent traders should always be sceptical of claims by some market makers when they say they do not operate a dealing desk.

Electronic Communication Networks ECNs ECNs are electronic trading platforms that match buy and sell orders automatically at the specified prices. Traders tend to be more aware of their existence in stocks or futures markets. An ECN broker gets its currency pricing from several liquidity providers such as banks, market makers or other traders who are connected to the system. When an order is placed, it is routed to the best available bid or ask price in its system.

Unlike the case of some market makers, spreads on ECNs are variable rather than fixed. Although ECN-type brokers typically charge a small commission, you can usually get tighter spreads on many currency pairs due to the large liquidity pool available. Risks of trade manipulation are also minimised when using genuine ECN brokers as compared to brokers that operate dealing desks.

This aspect of OTC shifts the odds of success against individual traders, especially if the forex broker acts as a market maker. Since traders have to deal directly with their brokers, the latter will usually hold the opposite side of the transactions.

Because of the inherent conflict of interest that exists, this arrangement does not sit well with many individual traders as they fear that the market maker will trade against them, and that is not an uncommon practice in the market making industry. No information on volume Since buy and sell transactions are not cleared by a central system, there is no way of knowing the total volume of trade.

Lack of volume data can pose a challenge to stocks or futures traders who have made the switch to currencies as they may have become used to checking volume. No singular exchange rate at any one time Exchange rates do differ from place to place, screen to screen, depending on which parties are offering what. Cash transactions take place between countless parties at any one time, and there is no exchange which records all these transactions. Some independent traders are not even aware of this peculiar aspect of OTC dealings.

Since there can be a few different prices for a currency pair at any one time, you may not be able to see what is the best available price if you trade through only one market maker. Generally, though, the rates provided by market makers to retail traders are quite close to the pricing quoted in the interbank market. No standard data Exchange rates differ from one market maker to another because there is no consensus specified by a centralised market.

Different market makers have different rates at the same time although usually not differing by more than a few pips. A trader would have to accept what is being quoted by his broker unless he compares prices with other brokers.

Price charts from different price feed vendors will also look slightly different as they each have their own data source. Although, in general, the currency prices are quite similar. The forex trading day Also, being a hour market, boundaries of a trading day are blurred. Traders from around the world are in various time zones. Traders from, say, Singapore would display a different timing from their US counterparts — who tend to display EST Eastern Standard Timing on their price charts.

While the trading arena has had a boost from the CME-Reuters joint venture of a central forex exchange, it remains to be seen if that can benefit independent traders. Trade manipulation by some market-making brokers is something that is difficult for traders to prove, and something that is easy for the culprits to dismiss.

However, despite the limitations that come with the OTC territory, spot forex trading can be extremely financially rewarding for those who are aware of the limitations and know how to deal with them.

And trading forex is not one of the easiest ways — despite what many new traders believe. Many traders fail, and they empty their trading accounts before they learn how to exploit the forex market to their advantage.

Although there are also traders who are successful in forex trading, their numbers are small compared to the majority of losers. Many times, traders are not aware that they have the power and might to shift the odds to their favour, that they can dramatically increase their chances of success if they want to.

The main reason why many traders get defeated by the market can be attributed to their lack of knowledge. In this 21st century, where the buzzword is knowledge, it is not just a matter of working hard, but also a matter of working smart.

Knowledge is the key that can open many doors — if you have an intimate knowledge of how something works, you can then come up with ways to exploit what you know to your advantage. This applies to forex trading as well. You need to know how to identify high probability trade setups and how to manage your money wisely.

For every transaction in the forex market, there are winners and losers. Your goal is to make more overall profits than losses over a period of time, and to emerge an overall winner. My approach to consistent trading success lies in three main pillars, or the 3Ms: Mind, Money and Method. It is often said that we are our own worst enemy. Human beings are emotional creatures, and most of our decisions are guided more by emotions than logical thinking.

Our mind is capable of playing tricks on us; we can get seduced into unfavourable situations by our emotions. Emotions can work for us or against us. Sometimes they can save us from landing in a pile of sticky mess, but sometimes they can land us in it. We can also turn the tables around by playing tricks on our mind, making it believe whatever we want it to believe. Do you have the mental strength? Whether you are new to trading currencies or a forex trader who has some experience, here are some questions to ask yourself: Do you really have a strong desire to succeed in forex trading?

Sure, every one wants to succeed in something, but do you have the desire to want to succeed in forex trading?

First of all, this field is not for every one, for you must have the passion for it. If you just want to try your luck, or dabble, in trading, you will just end up among the majority who lose their money. You must have the deep desire to want to accomplish your goals, because without this desire, your thoughts will not materialise into action, and it is action that could transform your goals to reality.

To be a successful trader, you must be highly self-motivated, have a concrete plan of action, and not be afraid of failure. Are you prepared to devote a lot of time and effort into picking up trading skills and knowledge? To be really good at anything, you need skills and knowledge in that field. A huge amount of time, effort and money is required for a trader to attain consistent success in forex trading.

Despite the availability of forex trading-related resources on the internet, and in the bookstores, traders can find it quite daunting to learn about trading on their own as they do not know what there is to be known. I recommend that you check out those which are offered by skilled and practising instructors. Note: Be wary of signing up for courses or seminars that are full of hype, for they can be very misleading.

Avoid those that give you the impression that you can attain consistent profits after two days of intensive learning, or those that require you to purchase expensive software. While there are some shortcuts to gaining knowledge via courses or seminars, there is no substitute for honing your trading skills in the market.

Are you willing to accept losses as part of trading? Every one makes mistakes, and mistakes are inevitable. Got a trading loss? Then whip out your trading log to record what your mistakes are and what you have learnt from that losing trade.

Always have something positive to take away from your losses, and treat it as a learning experience. Know that there will be other trades coming your way. Are you willing to take sole responsibility for your trading decisions? You read some market analysis, and then trade according to what the analyst is saying. That trade turns out to be a loser, and you turn around to blame it on that market report. It is dangerous to blame losses on other people, the forex market, or the stars, for you are the only person responsible for pulling the trigger.

And if you blame others you will never be able to find out how you can improve. Fear and greed Fear and greed are the two dominant emotions that affect not just the state of our mind, but also the currency market.

In fact, the fluctuations of these two emotions are the main drivers of the currency market. There are, of course, other emotions that exist in the market such as disappointment, regret and so on, but fear and greed are the principal forces that tilt the scales of supply and demand of currencies.

When traders feel overly optimistic about a country or its currency, they become consumed by the great hope that the currency would appreciate in value against another currency. They are then guided by this hope and greed to buy the currency pair now so that they could hopefully sell it at a higher price in the future. Greed then grows into euphoria, as traders continue to buy and buy, thus taking currency prices to newer highs. When people are buying a currency with great hope, they are also selling the other currency in the pair with great fear.

On the other hand, when currency prices go down, fear and greed are also the main drivers of the move. All in all, fear and greed are behind the steering wheel of the currency market. So, while you must learn to recognise these emotions in the market, the problem comes when you allow them to distort your logic when it comes to making trading decisions, as most of these decisions will turn out bad, and are likely to cause you to regret your actions later.

Since there is no way of banishing these emotions for good, the best thing to do is to control these emotions, instead of letting them control the way you think and act. Face and control your fears Since greed can be categorised as a kind of fear, which is the fear of missing out, I will discuss the primary types of fears relating to trading, and how they can be overcome. The first step to preventing fears from ruining your trading performance is to recognise the various forms of fear that is connected to trading.

And once you recognise the type of fear you are experiencing, the easier it is for you to handle that emotional obstacle so that you can trade better. That is the key to emotion-free trading. It is not about pretending that those fears do not exist, but how you handle them that matters. Here are some common trading-related fears. Fear of missing out Why do so many people rush to departmental store sales, or rushed to buy technology stocks during the dot-com boom?

Any kind of buying mania stems from a very strong emotion that is commonly invoked in people, and that is the fear of missing out. In trading, this fear manifests itself especially during a sharp rally or decline of a currency pair. Your heart begins to pound really fast, and you have a million thoughts zipping through your brain, with most of the thoughts urging you to buy now, now, now.

I am losing out! Traders suffering from this type of fear are usually the ones who get onto a trend too late. Be disciplined and hold off that mouse whenever you sense that this type of fear is creeping up on you. Think instead of all those traders who are pouring dumb money into the market, and be glad that you know better than them not to join in the craze. Fear of losses Trading is a game — there will be winners, and there will be losers.

Sometimes you win some, sometimes you lose some. Losses are bound to happen, no matter how accurate a trading system may be.

The fear of losing is most prominent in new traders as they do not yet have adequate trading skills and knowledge to help assess and evaluate trading opportunities with a high level of confidence. This can lead to trading paralysis, whereby traders become afraid of pulling the trigger when it comes to entering or exiting trades as they fear losing money or a big portion of their trading capital.

However, if you have a reasonable stop-loss order in place, that is in accordance to your money management rules, you should have no reason of being fearful of damaging the trading account based on just one trade.

That is what stop-loss orders are for — to guard against huge losses. When you do encounter hesitancy in pulling the trigger, evaluate if you have valid reasons for doing so or if you are simply held back by fear.

Traders just have to get used to the reality that losses are inevitable. The trick is to ensure that your losses are kept small so that you do not harm both your trading account and your state of mind. A trader does not have to be right.

It does not matter at all whether he or she is right or wrong; what counts is whether he or she is profitable in the long run.

Traders should not be hung up on the outcome of single trades, or even a few trades, as trading performance has to be assessed over a period of time. What matters is that you end up profitable over a period of time.

Once you place less emphasis on being correct on a current trade, your fear of making wrong decisions should abate, thus enabling you to make better trading decisions without feeling burdened by the overwhelming pressure to be correct in that trade. Remember that there will be times of losses and times of profits, which is why it is so important to enter only trades that have a high probability of success.

Focus on the big picture Do not get caught up in feeling invincible or pessimistic after a win or a loss. As trading is a very highly charged and emotional activity, it is very easy for traders to oscillate between emotional highs and lows.

The outcome of just one trade should not affect your overall performance, unless you have violated proper risk management guidelines by betting the farm on a single trade or by over-leveraging. A trade is just one of many trades.

When you are wrong on one trade or several trades, try not to beat yourself up or feel regret. Instead, analyze to see where and how you could have done better in those trades or what mistakes you may have made, and record what you have learnt from them. If there was really nothing that could have been preventable, just accept that the market is unpredictable.

The outcome of one or a few winning or losing trades should not be magnified. Other trades will surely come. I strongly believe that once a trader has honed his or her trading skills, the ultimate factor that will affect his or her overall profitability is money management skills.

Money management is all about managing the possible risks, and it is the defining factor that separates winners and losers in forex trading. Novice traders think of how much they can harvest from the market; experienced traders think of how much they can lose to the market. Many traders are so eager to trade to make big money that they completely overlook money management. Poor money management also explains why so many traders get wiped out by the market.

Money management is about fully optimising your trading capital. It allows you to be proactive in managing risks, and to cope with trading losses — which are part and parcel of the game.

It is an essential tool to ensure that you will have more than enough to last another day in the trading game. No matter how good a trading system may be, there will be times when you will experience a series of losses. Success comes to those who have set down rules for money management, and have the discipline to follow them through their trading.

Preserve your capital The shining light that attracts all traders to the forex market is the prospect of being able to grow their money by tapping into the online trading platform as their own in-house money tree. In almost any field, it is true that most people are drawn to short-term benefits, but are myopic when it comes to long-term planning. Trading is no exception. When risk capital is put aside for trading, you are hoping that this amount of money could be transformed into a much bigger amount; otherwise, what would be the point of risking it?

But if this capital runs out, what can you bank on to make your desired profits? After all, money begets money. To drive home the importance of capital preservation, I will discuss the concept of drawdown, and how that is relevant to money management. In other words, it is the amount of money that you lose — it is usually expressed as a percentage of your total trading equity at any given time.

Drawdown is not an indication of your overall trading performance, as it is calculated when you have a losing trade against your new equity high or your original equity, depending on which is higher. Recovering from drawdown As drawdown gets bigger and bigger, it becomes increasingly difficult to recover the equity. Many people are not aware that in order to recoup the percentage of equity that they lose, they will need to gain a bigger percentage just to break even.

The answer is no. It will require an Let me show you with numbers. OK, that is not scary yet, but if you start losing more and more of your capital bigger and bigger drawdowns , the faster you will go down the rabbit hole. While many traders hope for that One Big Win that will magically transform them into millionaires overnight, they are more likely to be confronted with the One Big Loss that will threaten their survival in the forex market if they do not exercise careful money management.

If a trader has a big loss, he or she will have to spend more time to get back to where he or she was before, instead of using the time to make profits. Traders who burn out quickly in the market are those who do not show respect for risk. On the other hand, traders who have flourished are those who fully understand the importance of stringent money management and incorporate that into their trading approach.

There is no way around to recouping slowly, unless you want to drive yourself to total destruction by risking more and more of your equity to try to make back your losses. Holding on to a losing trade for too long is the biggest cause of a big drawdown.

Be well-capitalised Most new traders run out of money even before they see any profits in their trading account. Indeed, those who are new to trading most likely do not have a good understanding of the risks and dangers that are lurking in the market, and few even know what drawdown means or have even heard of this word.

Many of them do know that trading can be very risky if they do not know what they are doing or how things work in the currency market and, to them, one of the obvious but incorrect ways to limit this risk is by allocating just a small amount of money to their trading account.

There are also many new traders who begin their trading business with little initial capital as they simply do not have enough money. Whatever their reasons may be, being under-capitalised will be more than just a mistake; it is often the prelude to trading failure. Forex traders who want to set themselves up for success must be well-capitalised. Never mind that some retail brokers are offering a minimum account deposit of just a few hundred dollars — a paltry amount that almost every one can afford.

Sufficient initial capital must be available to cushion the impact of a string of consecutive losses, so that you do not wipe out your trading account. A series of losses is really not that uncommon in trading, and all traders must be financially prepared for it. Those with insufficient trading capital tend to set really tight stops, which will naturally then lead to a higher probability of being stopped out.

They also tend to have a good chunk of their account eaten away by unreasonably large losses in relation to their trading account, if they do not set tight stops. So it seems that whichever way they turn, they are setting themselves up for failure, unless they are willing to trade smaller lot sizes. Looking outside of trading, many other businesses fail because the owners often do not have enough capital to tide them over the initial starting phase.

For example, a new restaurant owner must set aside enough money to pay the rent of the restaurant for at least a few months to a few years, assuming that the restaurant would not make any net profits in that period of time.

If the owner only has enough to pay for two months rent from his or her own pocket, and the restaurant is still not making enough to cover the rent and other expenses in the third month, how do you think the business is going to sustain itself?

The entire business could fail, not because of the business model, but because of the lack of sufficient capital to keep the business running while the customer base builds up.

Trading, as I have mentioned before, must be treated just like any other business, not a frivolous casual pursuit. The point is this: by starting off sufficiently capitalised, you are more likely to adhere to your money management rules and, by doing so, you are really giving yourself a good fighting chance in the market.

Losses are really just part of the trading game. If trading losses are kept manageable and reasonable, they should not dent your trading account too much, provided that you are well-capitalised. Knowing when to get out of a losing position in the currency market is a very important tool of risk management.

Stop-loss orders allow traders to set an exit point for a losing trade, and are the best weapon against emotional trading. While I recommend that traders place a stop-loss order at the time of placing their entry order, mental stops may also be used — but preferably by traders who are more disciplined.

From experience, it is much wiser to have a wider but reasonable stop than to have an unreasonably tight stop. Generally, a stop-loss order should not be shifted in the losing direction while a position is opened. A good trader should know beforehand when to cut his or her losses, and also when to get out of the market with profits. It is indeed the elusive factor that courts the relentless determination of its seekers. Want to know where it lies? It only exists in the creative part of the mind — together with fairies and gnomes.

There is no perfect formula or strategy that can achieve that unrealistic goal because people who are involved in the financial markets evolve with changing market circumstances, even though certain old habits die hard. Despite the non- existence of the magic formula, there are certainly high probability ways of trading the forex market.

While the bulk of this book is focused on the Method part, you need to combine Method with both Money and Mind in order to attain success in the trading business. The old question: technicals or fundamentals? There are generally three broad categories of forex traders pertaining to what they base their trading decisions on: 1. the technical trader, 2. the fundamental trader, 3. the trader who combines both technicals and fundamentals. Each type of trader has a distinctively different way of interpreting the currency market based on his or her own opinions.

Technical trading A technical trader believes that historical data has a big role in the forecasting of future price action, and is thus devoted to currency price chart analysis, making use of various charting tools such as support and resistance levels, trendlines and a myriad of chart indicators to understand past price behaviour so as to predict what the market will do next. Most forex traders employ some kind of technical analysis to help them make trading decisions.

Technical traders assume that everything that is to be known about the market has already been factored into the current price. Fundamental traders believe that the exchange rate of currencies are largely driven by economic and geopolitical conditions, aside from central bank interventions, and will keep track of economic data such as trade balances, inflation, Gross Domestic Product GDP , unemployment rates, interest rates and so on.

They are also concerned about what policymakers have to say regarding the monetary policy of the country, and will keep on top of these when speeches are scheduled. Combing technicals and fundamentals Since there are advantages of analyzing the forex market from these two different fields, it would be too restrictive to just side with one area and ignore the other.

The most effective traders tend to make trading decisions based on a combination of both technical and fundamental factors in order to get a feel of the overall market sentiment, and then decide to either trade that sentiment or to trade against it taking a contrarian approach.

The strategies taught in this book must always be combined with the prevailing market sentiment, which is influenced mainly by fundamentals. Some strategies may work well for some traders, but may not have the same results for others over a period of time. This may seem puzzling for some people who are wondering that if something works for someone, then it should work for other people as well. In trading, there are so many other factors specific to each trader that can influence the overall trading performance — his or her emotions, psychology, trading time frame, money management rules, lifestyle, trading capital and so on.

The strategies included in this book are open to customisation according to your own personal preference. Many traders do not give themselves the fighting chance and time to stay in the game as they are prone to getting wiped out very quickly. The Ten Rules For Forex Trading I list here ten rules that I think are important for trading forex. Dos 1. When trying out a new trading strategy, always test it in a demo account, or with a small amount of money, before you commit more money to it.

Always keep a record of each of your trades, with details of: why you got in, how you got out and why it turned out the way it did.

Have a personalised trading plan and update it as you learn from the market. If you are unsure of a trade, stay out. It is better to miss an opportunity than to have a loss. When trading, keep up-to-date with both the fundamentals and technicals affecting the market. A trader in the dark is a trader in the red.

It will affect you emotionally, and you will most likely lose it to irrational trading. Always know why you are getting into a trade, and how you are going to get out of it. Just be concerned about being profitable. Chances are that your account will be decimated before you can recoup your losses and go into profit.

Vent your frustrations elsewhere after a loss. Do you see it as a big mechanical matrix which is devoid of emotions? Or do you think of it in mathematical and probability terms? Perhaps, you may even view it as just a vast network of computers which are designed to cheat the trader sitting in front of his or her computer and trading electronically.

Download 7 Winning Strategies For Trading Forex full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online free 7 Winning Strategies For Trading Forex ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device.

Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available! Frequently, they will complain that a strategy doesn't work. Few people understand that successful trading of the FOREX market entails the application of the right strategy for the right market condition. Grace Cheng highlights seven trading strategies, each of which is to be applied in a unique way and is designed for differing market conditions. She shows how traders can use the various market conditions to their advantage by tailoring the strategy to suit each one.

This revealing book also sheds light on how the FOREX market works, how you can incorporate sentiment analysis into your trading, and how trading in the direction of institutional activity can give you a competitive edge in the trading arena. This invaluable book is ideal for new and current traders wanting to improve their trading performance. Filled with practical advice, this book is a must-read for traders who want to know exactly how they can make money in the FOREX market.

A practical guide to the straightforward and winning strategies of successful traders Trading is best kept simple and focused - that is the way to win. The most successful traders will tell you that they use only a small number of strategies, applying them time after time. A common mistake of losing traders, however, is to overly complicate what they do, using many different strategies at one time, or leading a never-ending search for new strategies.

In 7 Simple Strategies of Highly Effective Traders, Alpesh Patel and Paresh Kiri provide a practical guide to seven technical analysis trading approaches that are simple, effective and easy to put into practice.

These are the kind of strategies professional traders use to manage their trading. Throughout, readers will benefit from the trading insight and expert chart commentary of two vastly experienced traders. Included are strategies for breakout with volume, event trading, mean reversion, moving averages, short-term day trading, and more. The strategies can be used on a wide range of instruments, from equities to forex, bonds and commodities. Most of the approaches can also be used equally on UK, US or international markets.

Don't waste money cycling through strategies, pursuing the Holy Grail - follow the winning approach of the pros and keep things simple.

Many individuals enter financial markets with the objective of earning a profit from capitalizing on price fluctuations. However, many of these new traders lose their money in attempting to do so. The reason for this is often because these new traders lack any fundamental understanding of financial markets, they cannot interpret any data, and they have no strategy for trading.

Trading in markets is really about deploying strategies and managing risks. Indeed, successful traders are those who have strategies which they have proved to be consistent in granting them more financial gains than financial losses. The purpose of this book is to help a potentially uninformed retail trader or inquisitive reader understand more about financial markets, and assist them in gaining the technical skills required to profit from trading. The book provides detailed descriptions, including more than mathematical formulas, for more than trading strategies across a host of asset classes and trading styles.

These include stocks, options, fixed income, futures, ETFs, indexes, commodities, foreign exchange, convertibles, structured assets, volatility, real estate, distressed assets, cash, cryptocurrencies, weather, energy, inflation, global macro, infrastructure, and tax arbitrage.

Some strategies are based on machine learning algorithms such as artificial neural networks, Bayes, and k-nearest neighbors. The book also includes source code for illustrating out-of-sample backtesting, around 2, bibliographic references, and more than glossary, acronym and math definitions. The presentation is intended to be descriptive and pedagogical and of particular interest to finance practitioners, traders, researchers, academics, and business school and finance program students.

Praise for FOREX CONQUERED "In this amazing book, John covers it all. From trading systemsto money management to emotions, he explains easily how to pullmoney consistently from the most complicated financial market inthe world. John packs more new, innovative information into thisbook than I have ever seen in a trading book before.

With today's markets becoming increasingly challenging,John has cut right into the essentials and brought forward themuch-needed tools of forex trading. This clear and well-organizedpublication is a major step forward in helping traders gain anedge.

I would highly recommend Forex Conquered as a valuablehandbook for both aspiring and experienced traders alike. There is no fluffhere, just the wisdom of a trading veteran that I have alwaysrespected-and followed. John Person provides aprofessional view of forex trading that readers will be able to useas a guide for strategies and tactics that work.

The scope of thebook covers more than forex and includes salient aspects of futuresand option trading. It should be read and then re-read! A comprehensive guide to Forex trading for individualinvestors Countless money-making opportunities abound in the ForeignExchange Forex market every day, but how does an amateur investortake advantage of these opportunities to earn high returns?

Thisbook by CNBC-featured Forex Expert Mario Singh provides acomprehensive solution to this question. Play the forex markets to win with this invaluable guide to strategy and analysis Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market gives forex traders the strategies and skills they need to approach this highly competitive arena on an equal footing with major institutions. Now in it's third edition, this invaluable guide provides the latest statistics, data, and analysis of recent events, giving you the most up-to-date picture of the state of the fast-moving foreign exchange markets.

You'll learn how the interbank currency markets work, and how to borrow strategy from the biggest players to profit from trends. Clear and comprehensive, this book describes the technical and fundamental strategies that allow individual traders to compete with bank traders, and gives you comprehensive explanations of strategies involving intermarket relationships, interest rate differentials, option volatilities, news events, and more.

The companion website gives you access to video seminars on how to be a better trader, providing another leg up in this competitive market. The multi-billion-dollar foreign exchange market is the most actively traded market in the world. With online trading platforms now offering retail traders direct access to the interbank foreign exchange market, there's never been a better time for individuals to learn the ropes of this somewhat secretive area.

This book is your complete guide to forex trading, equipping you to play with the big guys and win—on your own terms. Understand how the foreign currency markets work, and the forces that move them Analyze the market to profit from short-term swings using time-tested strategies Learn a variety of technical trades for navigating overbought or oversold markets Examine the unique characteristics of various currency pairs Many of the world's most successful traders have made the bulk of their winnings in the currency market, and now it's your turn.

Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market is the must-have guide for all foreign exchange traders.

The purpose of this book is to show you how to make money trading Forex. Thousands of people, all over the world, are trading Forex and making tons of money. Why not you? All you need to start trading Forex is a computer and an Internet connection. You can do it from the comfort of your home, in your spare time without leaving your day job.

And you don't need a large sum of money to start, you can trade initially with a minimal sum, or better off, you can start practicing with a demo account without the need to deposit any money.

Forex Trading is very simple and straightforward, we only deal with a pair of currencies, and it has quite a high profit potential. Forex allows even beginners the opportunity to succeed with financial trading. Actually people that have minimum financial track record can easily make money by learning how to trade currencies online.

This book features the in and outs of currency trading as well as strategies needed to achieve success in the trading. Table of Contents 1. Making Money in Forex Trading 2.

What is Forex Trading 3. How to Control Losses with "Stop Loss" 4. How to Use Forex for Hedging 5. Advantages of Forex Over Other Investment Assets 6. The Basic Forex Trading Strategy 7. Forex Trading Risk Management 8. What You Need to Succeed in Forex 9. Technical Analysis As a Tool for Forex Trading Success Developing a Forex Strategy and Entry and Exit Signals A Few Trading Tips for Dessert Tags: Forex trading strategies, Forex scalping, Forex trading secrets, Forex trading manual, currency trading for dummies, Forex trading for beginners, day trading the currency market, Forex trading system, Forex for dummies, foreign currency trading.

Skip to content. Download 7 Winning Strategies For Trading Forex Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. Author : Alpesh B. Patel,Paresh H. Download 7 Simple Strategies of Highly Effective Traders Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. A Practical Introduction to Day Trading. Download A Practical Introduction to Day Trading Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. RETRACTED BOOK Trading Strategies.

Download RETRACTED BOOK Trading Strategies Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. Forex Conquered. Author : John L. Download Forex Conquered Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. Download 17 Proven Currency Trading Strategies Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle.

Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market. Download Day Trading and Swing Trading the Currency Market Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle. Forex for Beginners. Download Forex for Beginners Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle.

Some strategies may work well for some traders, but may not have the same results for others over a period of time. day trading 3. There are generally three broad categories of forex traders pertaining to what they base their trading decisions on: 1. They also do not hold their positions overnight because of the added risk of not knowing if prices would change dramatically while they sleep. The breakthrough came when I incorporated fundamental and sentiment analysis into my predominantly technical-based analysis. She shows how traders can use the various market conditions to their advantage by tailoring the strategy to suit each one.

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