Merlocke

Hi All,

I've just been introduced to the Foreign Exchange market and am having a blast thus far. Are there any experienced/successful people out there willing to share a tip or two to a novice?

I just started training - and trading - and am up $600 in a single day. The thing is though - I'm willing to put the time and effort to get good at this, so anyone with anything to share - I'm open for.

Thanks in Advance!

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-=[ Merlocke ]=-

gar1976

I've never been a fan of future/echange markets, so good luck.

Merlocke

Still going strong - 1000 up and counting.
Already made up for initial investment.

Still nobody else out there doing this? - Way better than stocks for me so far. (faster)

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Skeletongod

Hey Merlocke. I'm looking for some extra income on the side. With this upcomming semester, my work hours will be cut short, as will my income, so i need to do some serious planning on how to make some extra cash. Can you PM me and help me out with the details of FOREX?

Thanks

Phory

What is your brokerage and how big is your stake?

I know really big speculators like Soros, Buffet, and the big hedge funds trade in the forex markets because they get the best bid-ask spread of any market, and it is the only market big enough to handle the amount of money those types of people want to trade. The problem is that individual investors don't get to trade with the same counter-parties as those types of big traders do. There are a lot of unscrupulous brokers so small-time traders are very likely to get ripped off with a too-large bid-ask spread., so it is crucial to have a good brokerage I think. I don't trade forex because I'm too worried that my ignorance of these markets will allow me to get ripped off. ..let alone my ignorance of what even makes a currency go up or down. But, it does seem like a shame. From what little I follow of these markets, it seems like currencies trade in really persitant trands. I think a long-term technical trend following strategy might work well in these markets.

Merlocke

There are multiple brokerages out there - and I'm currently using the one referred to me by the forex training company I've decided to go with. There's a 5 pip bid ask spread for this company - which is in the mid ranges of the ones I've seen. Ranges go anywhere between as low as 3 pips to as high as 8. However the companies with 3 pips have crap for charting - and it's more difficult to see the trends.

As far as technical trends go - I've been pretty successful using momentum trading. Same day - within a few hours type. My avg take in is about 300/day. So that amounts to about an extra 6k a month - which isn't too shabby. I'm no pro either though, so the long term technical analysis will take time to get accustomed to. Swing trading (long term) is still a more difficult concept IMHO.

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jimk

i work in the u.s. equity futures pits in chicago, and we do a lot of spreading. it involves looking for correlation between two or more products, deciding when there is a divergence in the correlation, then buying the cheap one & selling the expensive one. when they converge, you unwind your positition and go to the bank.

it's a good way to trade futures and reduce your directional risk.

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raw power is a guaranteed o.d.

raw power is a laughin' at you & me

-iggy

financemaps

hey jimk.... your job sounds interesting. would you ever consider publishing some articles about what you do and how you do it on the web?

I got all psyched after reading soros' alchemy of finance. I tried writing a couple computer programs based on the model he introduces in chapter 2 (reflexivity in the currency market) but kept getting caught up in all those circular relationships. instead I opted to build a website which tried to visualise realtime global market trends through open source mapping technology - www.financemaps.com. after actually trading fx a little bit, I realised my maps weren't realtime enough...

so with some help from my friends working here in the financial industry in london - we've been trying to rework the site as a non-profit investment portal aiming to educate students and new investors about global financial markets and trading strategies. (the updated site hasn't been launched yet)

We are looking for authors who wish to publish their work on the web. Specifically content related to macroeconomic factors which drive global markets and influence the major currencies, or more advanced trading strategies like the one you described.

If anyone is interested in participating or has an idea for an article - please contact me at william@financemaps.com.

Thanks and happy investing kids!

Merlocke

One of the more popular strategies with the newbies in FX market is just simply hedging trades. Go both directions at the same time - when there's a clear trend - use your stop loss to bail out of the losing direction and take the windfall of the winner and ride.

So far, so good. This is a great system to trade because you don't have to know nearly as much - or do quite as much research into it to be somewhat successful. I'm not stating I'm a pro at it yet, but I mean - it's good money for a novice like myself in this industry.

I'm making more money helping people devise tax strategies in Canada, but in the meantime - this looks like a more solid long term skill.

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Merlocke

Anyone else out there interested in the Forex Market?

Check it out - they gave me a website
http://eflormata.fxtrainer.biz

lol - yeah I know it's just a lame ass subdomain with a few little tweaks. But damn it - it's my site - haha.

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Merlocke

Hi folks,

I'm doing pretty well now and still trying to grow a community of others interested in Foreign Exchange. So I'd like to offer up a little incentive to help get more "community traders" into the loop. I currently converse with about 6 other traders on a regular basis - but I'd like to get up around the 20 people range to get other points of view.

The course I took cost me $2000 USD for both the beginner and the advanced section. To date I've only completed the beginner side, and want to get more trades under my belt before moving to advanced.

I'm willing to give folks who are interested a little bit of a hand - so if anyone elects to take the beginner course ($950 USD), AND wants to share their opinions with the rest of the team during trading hours via MSN - I'll throw $100 USD in to help you offset the costs of either the course - or to help you fund your own trading account. ...or just blow it on chicks and booze (but I don't suggest doing that ).

PM me if you want in. I'll keep my offer up on the table until the group gets large enough. Again I've got to stress that this is only for the serious trader. It is possible to lose money in the Currency Market, and it's no free ride - you do have to put time and effort into learning the market. Only invest what you are prepared to lose. I make a decent amount of money overall each day - but I do lose a little too.

eg: regular day. Make around 200-300 lose around 60-100.
Ends up with a slight profit - so it's no get rich quick scheme.
Again - don't forget - without proper knowledge you can just as easily lose this much as well.

The cool thing is I can do this from anywhere - so during slow times at work, I trade.
To me - the potential to make as much as I do in a whole day of work during my lunch hour is interesting enough.

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Merlocke

Oops - forgot to mention - if you're interested - let me know what COUNTRY you're from. Training isn't available everywhere as of yet, so I need to doublecheck every now and then.

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saru

merlocke,

congrats on your gains, but don't get too caught up in the spoils of early profits. the forex market is a zero sum game, after all (unlike the stock market).

what currency pairs are you trading?

saru

very nice site, financemaps! i've always thought that visualisations e.g. heatmaps and such are an excellent way of communicating financial information. i've never seen the technology applied to the forex market, so your concept really stands out. i think the key is high quality, high frequency market data, but i suppose finding a free /low-cost raw feed is pretty tough.

Merlocke

Just the classic beginner's ones.

GBP/USD
EUR/USD
USD/CHT

The relationship between the 3 makes it easier to read the overall trends.

Have you tried FX yourself? Why do you call it a zero sum game if there are people I know who have been doing this for a living for years that report decent growth? Do you mean that overall it's not good for the casual trader?

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Merlocke

Holy cow... there's a great technical trading methodology explained on a trader forum:
http://www.moneytec.com

I'm going to follow Bunny Girl's WMA strategy and keep everyone posted.

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saru

forex is a zero sum market, because for every winner, there is a loser...someone, somewhere is biting the bullet on your gain. for comparison, equity investing is a positive market, since there are more winners than losers i.e. companies have cash earning to distribute to investors.

but, by no means, am i saying its a difficult market for speculation. i love trading forex myself and have made some nice gains in past years. in fact, i think its a great market for individual traders like you and me for a couple of reasons: 1. its incredibly liquid and pretty immune to the actions of big players (at least for the major currencies) and 2. you can make consistent wins as an individual speculator, since many of the players are big corporates/banks just following currency hedging strategies.

i'm always looking for good forex websites. there are so few quality sources of information. have you come across anything worth bookmarking?

Merlocke

Here's my collection:
http://www.nqoos.com/JoeRossGimmeeBarSetup.htm
http://www.nqoos.com/Articles_and_Re...14_110_115.pdf
http://www.nqoos.com/joe_ross_.htm
http://www.netdania.com
www.incrediblecharts.com
www.fxengines.com
www.trading-naked.com/WhatsNew.htm
http://quote2.fxtrek.com/misc/fxcm2.asp
http://www.fxstreet.com/chat/transcr...hatsession.asp

What charting system do you use?
I use the ones from FXTrainer.

What systems are you following?
I'm really starting to like the bunny cross from the other forum.
She's a genius.

I like her style of using the 5, 20, 100 weighted moving averages

The link to the group I belong to again:
http://eflormata.fxtrainer.biz

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-=[ Merlocke ]=-

Merlocke

Care to share any of your own?

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saru

FXtrek is a good tip. I've been looking for a decent web-based charting system for a long time. Nakedtrading also caught my attention.

Here are few links of my own...

I trade on GFT http://www.gftforex.com/resources/commentary.asp
and use their Dealbook FX 2 platform for transactions and charting. The charting engine built into their application is actually pretty decent.

Some of my favorite sites are

Oanda, for their daily commentary and forecast: http://www.oanda.com/products/fxnews/html/fxnews.shtml

Forexnews, for their analysis and economic calendar:
http://www.forexnews.com/

Bloomberg, for general economic happenings and a back-up to Oanda:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/market...es_europe.html

and FXstreet, for analysts' viewpoints and recommendations:
http://www.fxstreet.com/nou/grups_co...framesboa2.asp

I trade heavily on fundamentals, with technical analysis only for opening and closing positions, so I guess my sources of information reflect this slant.

-saru

saru

and who is bunny cross?

Merlocke

Oops - sorry forgot to add that one

moneytec.com - look up the one from "Bunny Girl"
She's a great trader who is sharing her system.

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Merlocke

The place I learn from uses a modified advanced charting system based on the FXTrek charting. Only downside is that it costs 120/month. Worth it in my opinion though. Also using the GTS system from fxsol.com. I'm lovin' it.

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