new-to-forex

If you are new to the foreign exchange market then we strongly recommend that you take the time to read our introduction to forex and our article on the unique interbank structure of FX.

This page has been designed to help you navigate through the barrage of multi-million dollar marketing that is designed to make forex seem extremely attractive to you. In our opinion, a large amount of this marketing makes fx trading sound easy (which it is not) and thrilling (which encourages you to involve your emotions, much like gambling). While it is well within the rights of the retail forex industry to attract customers we believe that this type of marketing is less than truthful and contributes heavily to the large percentage of traders who fail (ultimately lose more money than they earn). Below you will find examples of the kind of statements you might read throughout the web and our translation of them. We aim to tell you what the retail forex marketers do not.

Rockwell Day Trading Coach

Forex is the largest market in the world, with an average daily volume of roughly $2 trillion

So What?
True, the forex market does boast the largest average daily volume of the worlds financial markets but what does this actually mean for you? There are no official volume figures because forex does not operate from one central exchange but you will hear figures ranging from 2-3 trillion US Dollars depending on your source. The important thing is not to take this as a sign that there is a larger amount of money available for the taking than in other markets. The amount of money you are able to make depends on your ratio of winning trades to losing ones and your risk-reward parameters, not the amount of business done in the market

Liquidity
The true benefit of high daily volume is liquidity. The forex market is liquid 24/5 which should provide trading opportunities for speculators in all world time zones. However it should be noted that this added liquidity does not completely eradicate slippage, especially immediately before and after economic data releases..

Market Dominated by Investment Banks
Furthermore extremely large investment banks and multinational corporations generate the vast majority of this daily volume. A large proportion of their business does not have anything to do with technical or fundamental analysis and is conducted to meet general business needs. This means that there is a strong argument against the reliability of short-term technical levels because general business is conducted when needed, not when a chart level suggests it would be a good idea.

No Allowance for Risk
Retail brokers are quick to advertise the massive leverage they offer. It is typically 100:1 (for every $100 dollars of currency you buy/ sell you need just $1 in margin) and can be as high as 500:1. However, what this statement does not acknowledge is the need to cover your risk. If you open a $100 000 position (the size of one standard lot) with a stop loss of 20pips it will cost you $1 000 in margin. However you will need an additional $200 (20 pips multiplied by $10 a pip incurred when trading 1 standard lot) to cover your stop loss and prevent your position from being liquidated early which takes the total to $1 200. This is an additional 20% requirement on top of the original statement. Of course if your stop loss is larger, or smaller, than the one used in this example this figure will change. However the point is that much more than $1 000 will be required in real terms to trade $100 000, especially if you want to make more than one trade!

You can command a $100 000 position with just $1 000 down

What About Spread?
As a side note it should be mentioned that almost every broker would liquidate (close) any open positions should your account show a debit balance. So, if you have $1 000 in your account and you open a trade for 1 lot your balance will read $0. You haven’t lost the money, it is being used as margin for the trade but it does not count towards the balance of your account. So if the trade moves 1 pip against you your balance will show $-10 and the trade will be closed. In actual fact $1 000 would not even allow you to open a $100 000 trade because of the spread. If you go long with a spread of 3 pips you are automatically down $30 because the offer is 3 pips higher than the price that you can close out (the bid). Therefore $1 030 would be the absolute minimum needed to open the trade.

Beware of Some Reported Percentage Gains
Certain services will often use the figures we have mentioned to over inflate their profit performance without any allowance for the size of their account. For example, making 30 pips profit ($300) on a 1 lot trade is not a true 30% gain. The size of the gain is dependant on the size of your account.

As you can see from our performance table, we average over 400 pips per month

When is a pip not a pip?
When it is half a pip. It seems that most signal/ system services are over generous with the truth when reporting their performance. To illustrate this fact we will use an example.

Here Comes the Maths
Suppose I am trading in a chat room and I receive live calls from the service provider. Now he/ she has taught me to scale my exits when I am in profit. So I trade 2 lots and exit 1 lot at the first profit target and 1 lot at the second. The first call of the day comes out to short EUR USD at 1.3500 with target 1 at 1.3490 and target 2 at 1.3480, both including spread. This trade goes well and I exit 1 lot at 1.3490 and my second lot at 1.2480 as planned. For reporting purposes this trade is listed as a 30 pip profit
(3500 - 3490 = 10 pips) + (3500 - 3480 = 20 pips).

The second trade of the day comes out after a market retrace and we are again advised to short EUR USD at 1.3500. The same targets are used as the first call and I think the trade looks good so I short 2 more lots at 3500. However, this time the trade moves against us and we are instructed to exit our trade at 1.3520, including spread. This equates to a loss of 20 pips (3520 - 3500 = 20). No further trades are made and the end of day performance is noted down as + 10 pips (our 1st trade of +30 minus our 2nd trade of -20). The problem here is that my account does not reflect a profit of 10 pips, in reality it reflects a losing day. But how can this be? It can be explained as follows:

My first trade was entered at 1.3500 on 2 lots or $200 000. It was closed out 50% at 1.3490 and 50% at 1.3480. 1.3500 - 1.3490 = 0.0010* 100 000 (1 lot, half of my position) = $100. 1.3500 - 1.3480 = 0.0020* 100 000 (the 2nd half of my position) = $200. Total profit $300.

My second trade was entered at 1.3500 on 2 lots. It was closed out, 100% at 1.3520. 1.3520 - 1.3500 = 0.0020* 200 000 = $400. If we subtract my winnings from my loss I am left $100 dollars out of pocket. This example assumes the best-case scenario and does not account for the slippage that can occur that can occur when opening and closing trades. In almost every case published results will not account for slippage making them even more inaccurate.

	The Forex Autopilot Written by Marcus Leary is by far the best and most profitable forex trading system we've ever seen. Period! This strategy was created for the Metatrader (MT4) trading platform and is called an Expert Advisor, or EA for short. An EA is an automated program, also known as a trading robot, that places trades for you. You simply copy the Forex Autopilot EA file into the indicators directory of your Metatrader installation on your computer, start up Metatrader, drag and drop the indicator into your chart and that's it. The robot is ready to trade. I've been using this program on my Interbank FX MT4 trading platform and it has performed brilliantly! The forex trading strategy this EA employs is proprietary so Marcus does not share how this indicator does what it does, but as long as it keeps making insane profits, thats fine with me. This program comes with very quick and easy-to-follow videos for installing the Metatader trading platform on your computer (which is free by the way), creating a new chart and adding his robot indicator to the chart. Everything you need to know is laid out in a simple and professional manner. You also get phone and email support so if you ever need help, its just a phone call or email away. Read More ...>>
	Forex Avenger is an incredible forex signal software program. The software generates Buy and Sell signals based on the High, Low and close prices from the previous weeks trading. It works with all currency pairs, but we've found much better success using this software for the GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/CHF, USD/JPY and AUD/USD currency pairs. I use this software every week, It's very simple to use as well. you simply wait for the forex market to close on Friiday night, and anytime after that and before market open on Sunday evening EST, you generate your trading signals for the upcoming week. Here is a picture of what the software looks like when generating potential trades for the week. Forex Avenger is alsoo a great system and excellent trading idea. Support is one quick email away and he ALWAYS gets back to his users. Good Support is hard to find these days and Elliott goes out of his way to help hist users and answer all their questions. I know this software very well too, so I'm also just an email way. Read More ...>>
	The Forex-Killer Written by Andy Kirchberger, is not just an ebook but a software program. The software generates Buy, Sell or No Trade signals based on the close price for the last 10 candles for the charts you're using to trade from. It works with all currency pairs and chart times, but we've found much better success using this software with the 15 minute and 1 hours charts for the GBP/USD, EUR/USD, USD/CHF, USD/JPY and GBP/JPY currency pairs. I also use this software every day and when the trading signals genrated by the software agree with my other forex trading indicators, I feel so much more confident putting on a trade. One of the most difficult things when technical trading in forex is knowing when to enter a trade and what take profit and stop loss targets to set. This software tells you all these numbers in advance so you know exactly where to set your numbers for each and every trade. Read More ...>>
	The Forex Funnel was made for people who want to trade the forex market but have 9 to 5 jobs and don't have the time to sit, analyze and trade the market all during the day. This program allows you to do quick analysis on the weekends after the market closed on Friday, get the numbers you need and get ready to place your trades on Sunday night when the forex market opens again. This is a 100% price dirven system so there's no indicators to learn, charts to read, etc. This is one of the simplest forex trading systems available today and just came on the market. If you don't like reading indicators, following charts and sitting for hours at your computer waiting for trade setups, this could be exactly the type of forex trading system you have been looking for . Read More ...>>
	The Forex Tracer is known for teaching three very easy to use forex trading strategies that are based on price action alone. One is called the Cash Cow which is a longer term trading strategy, another is called the the last one is called the Flip & Go Strategy. The Forex and the Flip & Go Strategy are day trading strategies and are perfect for trading the GBP/USD and EUR/USD currency pairs. Since I'm more of a day trader than longer term or position trader, I like his forex trading strategy best. These trades are very simple to spot and they happen very often so you'll always find trades to get into on a daily basis. I also found that the Forex Runner works best if traded using the GBP/USD currency pair and during the London into New York trading sessions. I've found the best trade setups happen between 1:30am and 10am EST. Read More ...>>
	The Forex Wealth Systems Written by Adrian Wallner is one of the best resources for learning profitable day trading strategies. Adrian has 3 proven day trading forex strategies and one forex swing trading strategy. Day trading is great for people who want to open and close trades within the same day where swing trades are longer term trades that may last a day or two or more. Most traders, myself included, prefer day trading because the forex market was made for it. Also having your trades closed each day limits your risk substantially. These 4 forex trading strategies are very easy to follow, have easy identifiable entry and exit points and come with detailed charts so you know exactly when to take your trades. Read More ...>>
	The Blade Forex Strategies Written by Dean Saunders, teach 3 very easy to use forex trading strategies. One is called the M5 Scalping System and its used for quick scalps. The 2nd strategy is called the 4H Breakout System and by its name, you use the 4-hour charts for finding setups. The last strategy is called the Divergence System and this is more or less your typical MACD divergence with a couple extra filters. I personally don’t have the patience for day trading but I know a lot of traders that love to scalp the market and do very well at it. I like the 4H Breakout System best because its easy to use, I dont have to baby sit my charts and trades and its still a short-term trading strategy so most trades last only a day or two. This is a great e-book with some excellent forex trading setups. Read More ...>>

I'd recommend learning both types of trading approaches: technical and fundamental. That said, technical analysis is probably the most commonly-used technique.  Technical analysis focuses on currency price movements in the market youre trading; it ignores fundamental factors, or news happenings.

You'll need to learn from proven forex trading strategies and currency trading systems to become a good trader, but perhaps most important is to choose a system that is easy to understand and easy to use.  Otherwise, you might lose patience, and money, before the forex trading system has a chance to prove itself.

My Strategy is Ease of Use and Value for Your Investment

If you're a new user of a forex trading system or a professional in search of good strategies, youre sure to gain insights from our product reviews. After assessing many different currency trading resources and forex ebooks, weve concluded that these resources are an excellent value considering the quality of the information, the service they provide and the all-important criterion: ease of use so you can get up to speed fast.

Results with These Forex Trading Strategies Have Been Astonishing!

Over the years I've reviewed many forex e-books, courses and software applications over the years and the resources we list on our site are by far the easiest, least expensive, easy-to-follow and highly profitable trading strategies we've ever used.  You simply take the Entry and Exit points, plug them into your forex trading platform and let the forex market do the rest.

Each of the Forex Tradinig Strategies mentioned above are highly cost-effective for learning currency trading they are incredible values.  If you want to get up to speed fast without spending a fortune, we recommend starting with these programs. They will not only teach you how the market works and how to trade, but give you winning forex trading strategies you can use for many years taking profits on a consistent basis.