5 Advantages of Forex Trading With a Respectable Broker

Trading has significantly evolved in recent years to make it more accessible to anyone that wishes to get involved. One type of trading that is often underrated is Forex. Here are a few of the main benefits of Forex trading:

Accessibility

Forex trading is relatively easy to get into. A great benefit is the ability to start trading with a minimal amount of capital. For the first-time traders that are just starting out, it is possible to start trading the different currencies with a bank in the region of $100-$150. This is significantly lower than other activities such as stocks which often need a bank of at least $10,000 to get started.

Liquidity

Forex is based on trading currencies, which makes it a very liquid market. The market is open on a 24/5 basis because there is a non-stop demand for money. The long trading hours give the option to set your trading activities to fit within your normal day-to-day schedule. The fast-paced nature of the Forex market means it is possible to complete a trade at any time in normal market conditions.

Trading tools

There are plenty of brokers in the market that offer an all-in-one trading platform that provides everything needed to get started. They use the very latest technology and software for the user-friendly and easy to understand trading environment. There are many third-party supplies that develop extra features and extensions. In addition to the PC based trading platform, the latest software tools are also made for iOS and Android devices for the complete on-the-go trading experience.

Demo accounts

Most brokers give clients access to an unrestricted demo account to fully test the services offered and perform practice trades before using real money. This gives the option to trade currencies in a real market environment without the risk of losing money from your bank. The demo accounts with no restrictions on time limit are preferred because they make it possible to continue practice trading until fully ready.

Educational resources

A further feature of using a reliable broker is the ability to get access to a wide range of educational tools and resources. This can include helpful guides, webinars and videos that give instruction on the best practices for trading.

Are there risks involved?

Forex is a major financial market, which can experience a certain degree of volatility. In many situations high volatility can be beneficial for the trader, but there is the risk of substantial losses if this is combined with high leverage.

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Buying Into Bitcoins

With the 21st century demand for quick and big profits, one of the most controversial new investment vehicles has been Bitcoins, the virtual currency. It's gained controversy partly because of its volatility, partly through the instability of Bitcoin exchanges and partly because their in-traceability meant they were a favored payment method for criminals.

Things are changing and after a particularly volatile spell in which one of the main exchanges, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy, the currency seems to have settled into a more stable pattern allowing investors to be able to take a measured view of whether to risk their money in a currency that technically doesn't exist.

Volatility

Although Bitcoins are becoming increasingly popular, the market is still quite small, meaning that good and bad news can have a disproportionate effect on the price. The long term outlook for Bitcoins is potentially good, meaning that the upside on price is stronger than the potential for a decline over the long term. Most brokers recommend that you consider Bitcoin a medium to long term investment because of its volatility. Think of it in terms of real estate. No one buys and sells houses many times a day and there can be significant drops in property prices but the long term trend for property prices is usually up. The same can be said for Bitcoins. Whilst there is a significant daily trade in the currency, many Bitcoins are held as investments as analysts believe that it's likely the price of Bitcoins will rise long term because they are becoming more widely accepted.

Influencers

As with all financial instruments, prices are influenced by supply and demand. Bitcoins are no different but what has caused big fluctuations in price has been the unusual nature of the news that influenced the supply and demand:

• The bankruptcy of MtGox, one of the biggest Bitcoin exchanges

• The closing down of Silk Road which allegedly accepted Bitcoins for drug trading

• The disclosure by the US government that, despite the negative uses of Bitcoins, they believed that the currency had a future

• The media has also stirred up interest by reporting on milestones in the currency's rise and fall, trumpeting the rise to over $1000 and its subsequent plummet on bad publicity.

Generally the advice on investing in Bitcoins is to sit and watch the market for a couple of weeks to get an idea of how the currency trades, its volatility and trends. It's difficult to find rumor that hasn't instantly affected the value, so many suggest investing a small amount and simply watching for opportunities, a little like setting take profit levels with shares and Forex, you can do the same on Bitcoins; it's just a bit longer process and a little less automated.

Just like with any investment, the value can fall, and events like the collapse of MtGox and the closing down of Silk Road, negatively affected Bitcoins; not just because demand was reduced but also because Bitcoins were falsely linked with the companies by urban myth. The market seems to be becoming more regular, but not necessarily regulated, as more exchanges come online. Some of the exchanges will go the same way as MtGox but others will consolidate and become stronger and more reliable. No doubt official regulation will be applied to Bitcoins in due course at which time the volatility is likely to reduce.

Bitcoins represent an exciting and potentially lucrative medium to long term investment vehicle. Exciting because it hasn't yet been accepted into the mainstream of currencies or investment vehicles. One thing investors like about Bitcoins is their conviction to prospects as was in gold

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How Much Money Do You Really Need to Start E-Mini Trading?

To read some of the success stories I see being bandied about you should be able to start futures trading with $1,000 and have it transformed within a year to a sum topping six figures. I certainly am not saying that this feat is impossible, but I have never seen it done and have never met another trader who has seen it done. As a trader who is relatively new to the markets, the chances of taking a highly leveraged account that is undercapitalized and expecting anything short of a trading belly flop is delusional thinking.

I have written on this topic before and have since changed my mind on some of the ideas I previously presented. With added volatility, at least added volatility in a scalping sense, it has become difficult to trade with tight stops and widening stops ends up violating every money management rule that has ever been written. With a $3,000 account you could well end up risking 10% of your account on a spike or trading stops that exceed your trading plan's "at risk capital per trade" rules. I recommend risking 3% and no more than 5% on any single trade. In a highly random market it's hard to stay anywhere near those parameters with a small sized account. If you set your stops at the appropriate levels you have too much money at risk, and if you decide to go the "tight stop" route you can count on becoming the "stop-out king."

So, how much money is right to start trading?

I used to feel confident recommending $5000 to start an account and restrict your trading to the $5/tick e-mini contracts, specifically, the NQ and the YM. After some time has passed, I believe a more appropriate starting trading balance should be $10,000. The traders who seem to have the least worries about profit and loss tend to succeed at a higher rate than individuals in small account, and the added cushion in the trading account seems take the pressure off. Trading an undercapitalized account puts tremendous pressure on the trader to win. Pressure is something you don't need in trading.

Further, with a small account many novice traders aren't able to distinguish a day where profit may be hard to come by versus a day when the market is moving nicely and is reasonably predictable. A couple of poorly chosen trades in a tough market can quickly drain a small account and discourage a new trader.

In summary, you have the best chance of succeeding with an account of proper size which is, in my estimation, best pegged at $10,000. This is not to say that a trader with an account half that size can't trade effectively, but rather the added cushion tends to de-pressurize the early stages of trading long enough where some confidence can develop. Extremely small accounts are tough to trade successfully, and should be avoided. Just because the brokerage will let you open an account with $1000 doesn't mean you are on your way to a highly successful trading career, just the opposite, really.

Would you like to start earning 300% every week? So would I... yet you see this type of hype on many sites these days. I don't promise astronomical returns, but 25 years of Wall Street trading experience has helped churn out solid e-mini traders for 5 years. Come see me trade. Real trading doesn't lie.

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Bollinger Bands: Using Volatility As a Technical Indicator

Day traders use Bollinger Bands® as a technical indicator to display a chart reading of volatility by how tight they are around a financial instrument. The degree of tightening or widening them surrounding the price action of a financial instrument determines the level of volatility. Chart facing, a 21-day moving average (preferred period of time) is surrounded by an upper and lower Bollinger Band®. They are meant to serve as a technical indicator of overbought (wide bands) and oversold (tight bands) market conditions.

How Are Bollinger Bands® Read?

Looking at financial instrument charting software with 'tight' Bollinger Bands® applied to the price action, a significant move to the up or down side may occur soon. However, if a financial instrument chart has 'wide' bands applied to price action, this may signal a significant move is not likely to occur in the not too distant future. Tight and wide, they can also be used as a counter technical indicator of both potential low and high volatility in that present price action is used to predict a different, future market move.

With the above said, the best conditions for the indicator's use are periods of low volatility with scant price fluctuation. The more time passed in a low volatility environment, the more they will tighten around a financial instrument's price action. When tightening more than usual, the bands may be signaling an increase in future volatility.

How Can Bollinger Bands® Be Used?

When analyzing Bollinger Bands® with the intention of day trading online, do not rush to make a decision if price action breaches the top or bottom band, as this is not always an indication of an immediate market move. That said, though most price action movement occurs within the indicator, a breach of an outer band is a rare occurrence indeed, but cannot be relied on to be a guaranteed buy/sell signal. In addition, though widely used, Bollinger Bands® are actually meant to be used in tandem with two or more other technical indicators such as Relative Strength Index (RSI) and MACD.

It is important to note, before day trading based on a signal derived from Bollinger Bands® and two other indicators, backtesting historical market trends with all of these indicators is strongly suggested. Backtesting these indicators against the historical market trend you are focusing on will provide an idea of how your strategy would have performed in historical market conditions.

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One Daytrading System, Five Versions, Possible (Dramatic) Improvements

In today's article I would like to introduce an interesting thing on which I have spent quite some time. It's about a few simple comparisons which I believe will interest common day traders. I will indicate new possibilities on how to grasp day trading.

So, what is this about? As I have already mentioned several times in the last few months, Market Internals can be used to improve overall performance of your automated trading systems. But can it also be used by discretionary day traders?

Generally speaking, the impact of the application of Market Internals (MI) on day trading can be absolutely essential and it can really bring an "unfair" advantage against those who have never heard about MI before. One trading system can be developed into numerous versions by only integrating different possibilities of MI - and without even modifying the original system itself; without even touching it! As needed, we can, with the help of MI, improve practically anything in our system - from average profit per trade, to success rate percentage or drawdown and quality of equity.

Let's take a look at a simple trading system which I have traded discretionarily for years - the TNG method (Touch-And-Go). It is about a simple bounce from EMA 34. The system which I have used to test possibilities of MI for day traders is based on the TNG method and I have tested it in a completely automated way. This automated version of the system based on TNG allowed me to test possibilities of MI for day traders much faster, more accurately and in a simpler way. I was quite surprised how one system can bring an immense number of versions without the need to interfere with the system itself in any way!

So, as promised, let's have a look on a few demonstrations.

First of all, the basic version of the system provides a very decent equity (the TNG idea is still very powerful and universal), to my taste, with only one pattern it generates far too many trades which is taking its toll on an average profit per trade (in basic system 51 USD). A reasonable decrease of number of trades, decrease of drawdown to half (original variant of the system has a maximum DD 3500 USD), increase of average trade and possibly a slightly better equity - those would certainly be pleasant "bonuses". The good news is that all this is possible with the application of MI. What I wanted to demonstrate is the variability which the application of MI in a single system can bring - without touching the original system itself, without changing anything.

For example, one of my own MI techniques based on MI moving average managed to reduce radically the amount of trades, dramatically reduce drawdown, and adequately increase the amount of trades. And also considerably change the character of equity.

My next technique with the application of my personal MI Bollinger Band application, for change reduced the system by approximately 20% of the worse trades and contributed to an overall considerable improvement. The equity stayed the same, but it is slightly smoother, the parameters of the system improved, 20% of trades disappeared (among them some of the worst ones) - and all that without touching the original system whatsoever.

I have gained a similar reduction and similar improvement with another technique as well; a very simple one based on strong MI values.

What could be very interesting is the possible combination of both previous techniques - I believe that in such case all results would further improve.

The last demonstration comes from a different MI area, identification of optimal MI volatility and allowing the system to trade only such trades.

What could be very interesting here is to isolate the most optimal MI volatility and subsequently to apply one of the previous techniques (MI moving average or MI Bollinger) on it. All these are certainly impulses for further improvement. It is fascinating how one technique can dramatically and fundamentally influence a day trading system without the need to interfere with it.

And what is truly significant: A lot of the most important changes occurred on the level of statistics. I am not going to itemize all of them as there would really be many of them. Basically the most fundamental ones are:

- It was revealed that any parameter can be improved with one of the MI techniques; it was possible to decrease drawdown by half(!),

- What was particularly impressive - MI can be great in helping to manage the number of contracts: i.e. for example to add a contract in an especially strong situation, confirmed by Market Internals,

- MI can, in certain applications, truly help to exit the trade when the sentiment on the market dramatically changes, i.e. even before the basic stop-loss and in this way dramatically improves results,

- It is possible to dramatically increase a not very impressive avg. trade of the original system through a few MI techniques (the weakest link of the original variant of the system completely vanished).

Personally, I am continuously impressed by the possibilities of MI, especially when used in an innovative and creative way. I am surprised how few day traders are aware of this technique or how few actually use it.

MI are truly a unique technique which can have exceptional impact on your trading if used in a right innovative and creative way. Then MI are literally becoming an "unfair" advantage.

Happy Trading!

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