Trading Currency Blog

terraseeds asked:

This is a basic educational clip on how to read the base and second currency. Knowing how to read currency pairs is a must for forex trading.
TerraSeeds Market Technician provides real time hands on training on forex system trading. It has developed the Fx TflowTM Trading System for Currency Trading. For more information, please go to www.terraseeds.com

SENECA

Mark Mc Donnell asked:


This article is Part 4 of a series of 9 articles dedicated to help anyone to trade the foreign exchange.

Multiple time frame analysis (MTFA) is the inspection of trend indicators, starting with the largest trends and timeframes, and working backwards down through successively smaller timeframes to see how the smaller timeframes and trends feed the larger ones. When the smaller timeframes are in agreement with the larger trends you can enter a spot forex trade. If no trend exists the smaller timeframes and trends will, at some point, build a larger trends.

MTFA has been around for nearly 25 years. The MTFA method is applicable to stock and commodities trading, equity options and currency options. The method is applicable to any currency pair. We are respectful of the strong technical work of Kathy Lien and Brian Shannon outlining MTFA and their technical papers are available on the Forexearlywarning website.

MTFA works, it is that simple. Pips can be made and the method is effective, especially when larger timeframes and trends are traded for larger pip totals. Money management ratios also improve when you are entering a larger trend.

By applying MTFA to multiple forex pairs your odds increase again, this is because you can choose to trade the best and largest trend available in the spot forex and ride the trends longer.

In order to conduct and accomplish a multiple timeframe analysis on the spot forex you need the proper platform and a set of trend analysis tools and indicators to facilitate the process. Some tools are very expensive some are free. You must be able to analyze 10 to 20 timeframes per pair prior to conduct a complete MTFA on a currency pair. You also must analyze the top 15-20 traded currency pairs to seek out the best opportunity.

The first step when conducting a MTFA on a currency pair is to inspect the largest 3 or 4 trends. See what pairs have established larger trends, whether the trending pairs are at the beginning, middle or deep into the trend, which pairs are not trending (oscillating) and which pairs could be developing a brand new trend. If there is a pair that interests you check the next support and resistance area and set a price alarm. When the price alarm hits check the smaller timeframes to see if they are in agreement with the larger trends, and if so enter the trade.

You can use off the shelf trend indicators to conduct multiple timeframe analysis. Simple indicators like exponential moving averages are fine. Just apply them across multiple timeframes.

Is it possible to make multiple time frame analysis better?? I believe the answer is yes. Incorporating parallel and inverse analysis into the analysis as well as support and resistance to set price alarms for notification of momentum or possible entry point can all help.

Scalpers may find the method to be to their liking because you will never trade against the larger trends and potentially hang onto trades much longer. One of the biggest reasons people scalp is that they have no idea which direction the trend is on the pair they want to trade. Or they only look at one timeframe. Traders scalp the foreign exchange but statistics show that people who hang on longer and ride longer trends make the most pips.

Why do traders not use multiple timeframe analysis? Mostly because analyzing alot of pairs and timeframes takes time and people basically are lazy. Most scalpers only look at one timeframe and could possibly be trading against a larger trend, or a scalper may be at the beginning of a very large move and exit way too early. If you are near the end of a trend you may also enter a trade after a long move and be entering near the end of the trend. This is bad money management under any scenario. Scalpers need MTFA but people who would like to stay in their trades longer would, by nature require knowledge of MTFA.

MTFA analysis of the spot forex is here to stay. Traders worldwide are accepting and learning to understand the method. MTFA is a rigorous method or analyzing the forex. But it is not difficult to learn. When combined with parallel and inverse analysis is quite powerful. It can be applies to any pair using free tools available on the internet from many spot forex brokers.



SHARRAR

Daniel Church asked:


Forex market trading is trading currencies worldwide. Just about every country in the world are involved in the forex trading markets, where money is bought and sold, based on the value of that currency at the particular time. As some currencies are not so strong, it is not going to be traded heavily, as the currency is stronger and worth more, more investors and traders are going flock to invest in that market at that particular time.

Forex trading takes place twenty four hours every day, where about two trillion dollars exchange hands every day. That amount of money eclipses other investment markets such as the stock markets and the futures markets. For example, the US stock market trades about 200 billion dollars everyday, while the commodities markets trade over 400 billion dollars each day. These figures give a good picture of how large and liquid the forex market is.

The currencies that are traded on the forex markets are from countries all over the world, though most of the investors’ trade on a few major currencies such as the US Dollar, Euro, the British Pound, the Japanese Yen, the Swiss Franc, as well as the Australian and Canadian Dollars. Every currency has it own three-letter symbol that will represent the particular currency that is being traded. For example, the Japanese Yen will be shown as JPY, the United States Dollar will be shown as USD, the Euro is EUR, and the British Pound will be displayed as GBP, while the Swiss France will show as CHF. You can trade among many currency pairs in one day, or you can just trade only one currency pair. The advantage of trading forex is there is not that much currency pairs to keep track of. Compare it to the stock market where there are thousands of different companies that offer their stocks in the market. Trying to research even a small number of all the companies listed will take a very long time.

Getting started in forex trading is not hard. In fact, setting up a forex trading account costs less than setting up say, a stock trading account. Many forex market makers allow individuals to create a trading account for only $300. The reason this is possible is because forex trading involves a lot of leverage, more leverage than other investment markets. The leverage can start at 100:1 and can get as high as 400:1. This means you can control a large amount of currency with a smaller capital outlay. For example, in a 100:1 leverage, you can trade $10,000 amount of currency using only $100. Though it needs to be reminded that though the use of leverage can generate high returns, it also means that it can cause spectacular losses. What’s more important that minimum account size, however, is to get educated in forex trading, such as learning technical trading tactics and keeping track of forex news.

Another advantage in trading forex, and a very important one at that, is the absence of brokerage fees. Over time, this will save you a lot of money, especially having in mind that forex trades are executed regularly. All said, forex trading provides a proven method of making huge profits, as long as you keep an eye on the pitfalls and get yourself educated.



BERNARD