Forex Mentors

The concept of automated Forex trading system is mind-catching.

Before the automation of the Forex market, exchange-traded futures market was the first to switch on automation. Then, the traders on the Interbank spot FX market decided to catch up with the latest trend and moved too to the new system.

Automated Forex trading system enables traders to execute their trade on spot Forex market automatically and anytime of the day, based on existing technical indicators and custom trading rules. There are various features included in the automated trading system, such as:

• Automatic trailing stops especially if the trader is losing in a particular trade position;

• Account equity management;

• Stop and/or limit orders;

• Discretionary market orders; and

• Various technical analysis indicators within your discretion for enabling trend-following systems.

Automated Forex trading systems supports most of the following indicators (the technical support will depend on the technology used as well as the available features of the system):

• WMA (weighted moving average);

• EMA (exponential moving average);

• SMA (simple moving average);

• VMA (variable moving average);

• TMA (triangular moving average);

• TSMA (time series moving average);

• WATR (wilder’s average true range);

• VHF (vertical horizontal filter);

• Standard deviation;

• Trailing stops;

• Mass index;

• Fixed limits and stops, and others.

The success of the automation process to the Forex market is attributed to several factors, such as the following:

• Its ability to perform or execute trades in real time. Because of the automation, a trader can close trades within a few milliseconds. It is impossible in manual systems, as previous trades are normally closed after several hours. In addition, there are also instances wherein a trader incurs several losses in a row that prevents him from making any fresh transactions. Thus, with automated Forex trading system, this problem could be avoided.

• Its ability to greater diversification. With automated trading system now in place, a trader can trade in various local as well as international markets within varying time zones. In other words, you can place trade or close deals with different traders from various markets around the world even at the middle of the night.

• Its ability to analyze short-term data. This feature is not available in manual trading system. Thus, traders using automated system have the bigger advantage since they can predict market trends in less than an hour.

If you will consolidate the features as well as the benefits of automated Forex trading system, it will give you a solid conclusion: with the Forex market on automation, you will be able to place more trades on a single day, thus increasing the average volume trades daily.

To further clarify the conclusion. Let us take the following scenario: If you are trading using the manual system, you will notice that it takes time before a trader confirms if he will accept your deal or not. He will look on the market condition first as well as the exchange rate of the currencies that you are trading with. Thus, if it takes time before a transaction will be finalized; there would be fewer trade volumes.

Now, if you are using the automated Forex trading system, the evaluation of exchange rates and market conditions could be done within a few minutes, since Forex data are now updated in real time. Probably after less than an hour, you will be able to take your position whether you will push through the deal or not.

If a Forex transaction per trader is averaging within an hour, a single trader can place as much as 8 trades within the regular trading hours (if he is following the day trading schedule) and additional trades beyond the regular trading hours. There are thousands of traders in just a single market who can place such average number of trade per day. Combining it with the number of Forex markets around the world, the figure is just huge enough.

In addition, the technology is changing continuously, thus there is a tendency that the average number of trades per day will increase, thus a possibility of increased trade volumes on daily basis. With faster trade execution, that is a certain possibility.

Be thankful, the Forex market is now at the helm of automation. Transactions are now faster, and earning money through Forex trading is now easier.

Here are some tips to help you start trading Forex profitably:

There’s so much information about Forex trading online that it’s understandable for the novice trader to feel overwhelmed. Here are some guidelines on how to get started in the Forex market.

First of all, study. Read everything you can find on the basics of the Forex market, starting with these articles and continuing with whatever else you can find. With all the free information about the Forex market currently available online, you shouldn’t have to purchase anything at this stage.

When the data makes sense to you, choose a broker. This decision should be based on your trading needs. If money is going to be tight, find a broker that offers a micro account, so you don’t blow your entire trading budget in the first week.

Also, make certain there are no hidden fees. If you’re trading on a small account, it would be inconvenient, to say the least, if your entire monthly profit was eaten up by a maintenance charge.

When you’ve found the perfect brokerage, open a demo account with them. This gives you access to their live feed, with up-to-the-second price quotes and charts and your choice of indicators, and his economic calendar and knowledge base.

Of course, with all this fresh information, you’ll want to read it, too. While you’re studying, get to know the brokerage’s online trading platform. You should be able to open the chart of the currency pair that interests you, add and remove indicators, change the time frame of the chart and the parameters of the indicators, and use the graphic interface to draw trend lines. You should also be able to open market and entry orders, add and change stops and limits, manage a trailing stop, and close a trade quickly should the market be moving against you.

Then paper trade using the technique of your choice. Pick one currency pair for in-depth study; many people choose the EUR/USD or GBP/USD, because their volatility creates a lot of trading opportunities. But be aware that the best trading opportunities will be during the hours that market is open; for the European markets, that’s five to seven hours before the United States, depending upon your time zone. Getting up at three in the morning to watch charts can get old fast, especially with a job or family. If that’s the case, consider working with the USD/JPY, the Japanese yen, as Tokyo’s trading hours begin during our evening.

Watch the chart of your selected currency pair for the parameters that signal a trade using your technique. Remember to start with the long-term charts before moving to the short-term. When it seems right to you, enter the trade.

Realize up front that paper trading doesn’t involve that “Yikes!” feeling you get when real money is involved. In that sense, it’s not realistic, but it will teach you the mechanics of working in the Forex market.

Don’t quit paper trading until you reach the number of pips you’ve set as your goal more often than not. This is a very important step; if you quit paper trading too soon, you won’t know enough to trade successfully in the “real world” of the Forex market.

When you do deposit funds into your brokerage account and begin trading with real money, start small to give yourself a chance to adjust to that added stress. Don’t increase the stakes by adding additional lots or by stepping up to a larger account until you’ve learned to adjust for your emotions and again become an efficient trader.

When you feel comfortable with these simpler techniques, go on to study Fibonacci retracements, Bollinger bands, candlestick chart patterns, and the Elliott wave theory.

Congratulations! You’re there!

Many people who want to trade on the Forex market are nervous to try because they don’t fully understand pips but realise that making a mistake in their calculations could cost a considerable amount of money.

Trading on the Forex market is similar to buying stocks and shares except that instead of paying a broker’s commission there is a difference in the selling and buying price of currency and this spread, measured in pips, must be taken into account when calculating profit or loss.

A pip is the smallest unit of price when trading a currency. Most currencies, apart from the Japanese yen, are trading to 4 decimal points, 0.0001. Although this may seem a small amount, with a standard lot of 100.000 units of the base currency, a market movement of several pips up or down can equal significant profit or loss. The Japanese yen is traded to 2 decimal points.

Although a wide fluctuation in the price of a currency can result in huge losses or gains, and is a tremendous gamble for the small investor, many Forex brokers offer mini Forex accounts where it is possible to start trading currencies with a few hundred dollars.

When you buy a currency you are also be selling another. You are betting that the currency you are buying will increase in value, but the currency must first increase by the spread difference just to break even, therefore it is important to get the lowest spread you can find, while always dealing with a reputable broker. The more active the two currencies you are dealing in, the smaller the spread between the buying and selling price is likely to be, it can be as low as 2-3 pips. The spread difference is something you need to clarify with the broker that you are dealing with to make sure that the spread on offer does not fluctuate according to market circumstances.

Many Forex brokers offer dummy trading platforms to allow you to practise trading. No one should consider trading on the Forex market unless they have spent several months practising and even then they should never invest more than they can afford to lose. A dummy trading platform and the real market are two very different experiences. Trading on the Forex market is a high risk investment and more people lose money than make a profit. For every currency trade someone has to be a loser and the small investor is competing against the big institutions.

This article is for information only. Forex trading is a high risk investment and the author accepts no liability for any action taken.