Factors That Move the Forex Markets in the Short Term

By Hass67

Fundamental traders depend on fundamental analysis in trading forex. Technical traders depend on technical analysis in trading forex. But the importance of economic data cannot be underestimated in shaping trading strategies.

Over 90 percent of currency transactions are done against USD. USD is either the base currency or the counter currency in most of the currency trades.

Choosing the right currency pair to trade is very important for you. USD is the most important currency and most probably you will be also trading USD most of the time. You should know that the release of certain economic data has significant and lasting impact on USD.

You should know as a forex trader that currency markets reaction to the release of different economic data with time also changes. Some years back, US GDP figures used to be important for US Dollar but dont have much impact in recent years.

EUR/USD is the most liquid pair in the forex market and is heavily traded. The release of Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) data on the first Friday of each month has become important in recent years. These figures makes EUR/USD and other pairs involving US Dollar highly volatile for some time until the markets digest the importance of these figures.

Similarly, a few years back the release of US housing sales number every month was not important for the currency markets. But it has become very significant for USD in the recent years. Currency markets used to give more importance to US Trade Balance in the past but they dont react to these figures much now.

If you are a range trader who likes to scalp for a few pips every trade, you should avoid trading on the day NFP data is released. Release of NFP figures makes the markets jittery and highly volatile.

However, if you use breakout trading as your trading strategy, understanding which economic data is expected to be released on a particular day can help you in your trading. You should plan your trading strategy in accordance with the significance of the economic data to be released.

In short, knowing what economic indicators move the forex markets most is very important for you as a trader. It is important for you to understand which data the market deems important at any point in time.

Knowledge of which economic data causes knee jerk reaction in the currency markets and which economic data usually has lasting reaction in the currency markets is also important for your trading success. - 23222

About the Author:

Mr. Ahmad Hassam has done Masters from Harvard University. He is interested in day trading; stocks and forex. Read about Trend Forex System. Best Forex Signal Service. Learn Forex Trading.

Learn More About Day Trading Strategies

By Suzanne

The term Day Trader refers to a person who buys and sells stocks (or any market) in the same day, investing huge amounts of money to cash in on small fluctuations in the prices of stocks and indexes that are highly liquid and volatile. Certain stocks are suitable for Day Traders, liquidity and volatility are the two most essential aspects that are looked at by Day Traders.

The essential elements of successful Day Traders are, Excellent trading psychology and mental state management, Proven money management systems, Proper tools and training, Profitable trading system. There is a certain amount of risk involved in every trade. The risk increases for those without sufficient knowledge and training.

Day Trading used to be practiced generally by financial firms, investment bankers and speculators. However, with new leaps in technology and the introduction of electronic trading and margin trading, it has become more popular with casual at home traders.

There are many styles within Day Trading. Many focus on short term trading, as in they close all their transactions before the close of the day to avoid all unmanageable risks. Others focus on price momentum. While yet some others lay emphasis on technical patterns. Day Traders often borrow certain amounts of money to trade. This is called Margin Trading.

Some of the strategies followed in Day Trading are discussed here:

* Trend Following - This basically follows the principle that prices of stocks once rising will always be rising, and vice versa.

* Contrarian Investing - This follows the principle that prices that have been soaring will reverse and prices that have been falling will go up.

* Range Trading - This is based on keeping record of stocks and seeing the range in which they fluctuate. Thus stocks are brought when they are at a low and sold off when they reach their peak.

* Scalping - This is a trading style where traders buy stocks that are on the rise and sell them off in minutes or seconds to get the profit instantly. This basically exploits the market when the market is volatile.

* Rebate Trading - This technique involves trading low priced stocks in huge amounts which helps them trade more shares and have more liquidity. This uses ECN as the primary source of profit.

* News Playing - This is the most important aspect which Day Traders exploit. Often there are rumors in the market of stocks going up or falling and these have to be understood by the Day Traders and stocks are bought or sold off in accordance to maximize their profit.

It is estimated that around 90% of Day Traders fail or lose their capital and it is a hard discipline. However, with the advent of newer technologies and statistics it has become somewhat stable. For a good Day Trader the most important aspects are good training, a proven system, and managing emotions. - 23222

About the Author:

If you wish to know more about day trading stock tips and free day trading resources then you are invited to visit http://www.UMTTrading.com. UMTTrading.com is a universal place to get information on different kinds of trading strategies. This site provides detailed information on swing trading, day trading systems, forex systems and much more. . .

Tips For Building a Profitable Forex Trading System

By Mark Thomas

At present, if you want to be involved in the world of business today, you should be able to rely on yourself and yourself alone. Yes, you will need the help of other people but you should make sure that you only depend on yourself. This way, you will be able to acquire more profits. If you want to become a successful trader, you must learn how to build your own profitable forex trading system. This is not only applicable for novices but also for those who are already in the business for quite some time.

A forex system will be very efficient if you are able to make the system simple. Do not go for those that are complex with lots of rules. This is because you are the only one who will need to keep up with the rules by yourself. Instead of utilizing such system, go for the ones that are truly simple because these have been confirmed that they are very effective and there is lesser chance that you will come across those times when you will fail.

Your system should be able to produce more profits and help you cut losses. You are involved in business so your main goal is to make money and not lose them. Your profitable forex trading system should be in a longer term so that you will be able to know which of the big trends can help you maximize your cash flow and reduce the risks of shortfall in profits. Another reason why you have to create a long term system is because it is not recommended for traders to go for small profits such as day trading. This is because you will never be able to cover the losses that are inevitable once you have entered the tough world of trading. You should only concentrate on the long term ones since they will help you yield more production not just in a matter of months but in years.

You need a forceful and strong managing system and you should be able to notice the chances whenever they emerge in front of you. What you should do here is to search for the weekly trends and when you have done so, carry on with the daily charts and finally to the time entries. For the flourishing traders, the most excellent way for them when they are trading currencies is by means of the breakout method, which happens in all the forex markets globally. You also need forex tools so that it can assist you schedule your entry and ultimately take profits. There are a lot of programs that are obtainable for download nowadays and a number of them have filter indicators.

Deciding that you want to use the breakout method, expect one of the possible things that can happen. First, one is that everything is in your favor, meaning that you are successful in your venture while the other is that the trend is against your market. If it happens that it is false, you must have the ability to manage money. You can do this by exiting the market and then use the day session monetary stop. - 23222

About the Author:

Mark Thomas, have developed a unique software tool called Trade On Track, which helps the Traders to Trade with Confidence , Security and Accuracy. To know more about Trade and useful tips on Trading, just log on to http://www.tradeontrack.com

Option Trading: How To Achieve Superior Returns As A Trader

By Dr. Asoka Selvarajah

What is option trading?

You want to enter the stock market but would like to limit the investment that you would have to make. Then you need to try option trading. It could give you a much bigger bang for your buck. Option trading commits you to paying a premium in return for a right to buy or sell a specified amount of shares within a specified time period.

In option trading with stock for example, an option gives you the right to purchase or sell a fixed number of shares, determined by the option contract specification, within a specified time period and at a specified price. Hence, as an option buyer, you either execute that trade within the specified time period or forfeit the premium you paid, or else you sell the option itself for either a profit or loss depending on what has happened in the intervening period. Option trading expirations for a given option series are generally spaced one month apart, and the termination date is generally the third Saturday of the month or any other day decided by the Stock Exchanges. Once that date has expired, all rights of the trader cease and he cannot use the option to buy or sell that particular underlying stock.

Concepts

Stock trading and option trading are quite dissimilar. Understand the ideas and the terms behind option trading if you choose that as the way to trade in the stock market. The words used are quite specific and may sound like Greek and Latin to the newcomer. As on option trader, you would have the right to buy or sell a particular stock in the volume agreed on at a fixed price, as long as you execute the trade within the time that has been specified.

In option trading there is no binding that you have to honor the commitments made, but the premium that you pay to retain these rights to exercise your option could be forfeited. The payment of the premium enables you to lock in the price of the stock for the time period agreed to, and if you find that during this time the value of the stock has appreciated, you are free to make the balance payment and take delivery of the stocks. Conversely if the value goes down and you feel that it is not worthwhile buying the agreed stocks you could cancel the option and forget about the premium payment that you made. This could be construed as a loss, but would be much less than the loss you would have made if you had purchased the agreed stock at the start of the period at the price that was prevailing at the time.

Should the stock price fall or merely remain below the exercise price, the call option buyer cannot exercise the option at all, but can either sell the option and thereby exit the position at a loss or breakeven. Alternatively, he can hold onto it with the expectation that the market value of the option will rise, dependent upon factors such as the underlying stock price, volatility, time to expiry and more.

Usually, the options of leverage can control a bulk amount of the original stock for relatively small capital expenditure compared with buying or selling the underlying tool. This makes options more attractive because there exists higher profits on investment than just trading the original instrument. There are also far more trading opportunities with lower risks that can be known only when you know what you are doing?

Terms in usage

Option trading for stocks is generally in blocks of 100 shares

Call option: The option giving the right to buy the underlying instrument at the strike price.

Put option: The option giving the right to sell the underlying instrument at the strike price

The price set in the option trading contract at which the underlying may be bought or sold is called the "strike price".

In the money: When the strike price is below the existing price of the stock and you exercise a call option, and when the strike price is above the existing price of the stock and you exercise a put option.

Similarly, if while option trading, you own calls and the strike price is higher than the current market price, your call options are said to be "out of the money". With put options, you are "out of the money" if your strike price is lower than the current price. - 23222

About the Author:

Which Of These 7 Deadly Mistakes of Online Trading Are You Making Right Now? Get Dr. Asoka Selvarajah's critical Free Report, The 7 Deadly Mistakes Of Online Trading and surge your trading profits, starting today. Visit His Online Trading Site OnlineTradingRebel.Com Right Now!

Option Trading and the Global Macro Trader

By Bruce Soros

One of the best things about being a global macro trader is that of being able to profit when things go crazy. Put another way global macro traders live for events that are covered in risk. If there is no risk then there is likely no reward. Of course blindly taking risks is a road to guaranteed ruin.

One of the first and most important risk management tools available to the macro trader is the practice of positions sizing. Position sizing is when you determine an optimal amount to risk on a trade. Obviously several factors can go into your position sizing algorithm. You can look at the probability of the trade working out. You can look at the over all risk versus reward ratio. And you can look at how much of your portfolio you want to risk. Obviously there are hundreds of potential variables that you can input into your position sizing model.

Now that you have the right position size you can start to figure out how to best maximize your trade results. Some securities can give you a greater bang for the buck while lowering your over all risk profile. Others of course make your position far riskier then you first thought it was.

One of the easiest ways to cut off tail risk is by building your position using options. When you are a net buyer of volatility, which is to say that you are long options whether they be calls or puts, you are only risking the amount that you have put into the trade. For instance if the option position costs you one thousand dollars then you can not lose more then that.

Options are great to cut of the tail risk because your downside is totally limited while your upside is unlimited or limited depending upon what your trade is doing. Essentially they have a very asymmetric payoff skew and this can help your trading results.

As with any trading strategy however there is still some risks that you must be aware of. Two of the most common are one that you may be overpaying for the options. Just like when you buy a stock you don't want to pay too much.

The second major risk is that options expire and therefore you need to fully understand your time horizon before getting into a trade. If your plan is to hold the position for years and years then options may not be the best way to go. If on the other hand you are looking at holding the position anywhere from a few days to a year or so then options are definitely worth looking at.

So when trading make sure to evaluate all of your options and you will have much smoother returns with a lot less downside volatility. After all are you trading to have fun or to make money? - 23222

About the Author:

If you need actionable trading ideas then check out The Macro Trader It is a weekly global macro investing advisory publication with frequent intra-week updates for time-critical analysis and actionable trading ideas.