Forex alerts are a handy way of staying on top of the market

Because currency exchange covers the entire world and all 24 time zones, forex is a 24-hour-a-day market. This is good in that it results in billions upon billions of dollars of transactions per day. But it also means that forex traders have a constant influx of information to keep track of, unlike the stock market, where once trading closes at 5 p.m., that’s it. So how do forex traders stay on top of things? Most of them use forex alerts of some kind.

Forex alerts are available from many online forex brokers and other companies. A forex alert is simply a message sent to the user informing him of the latest developments in the forex market, often recommending action of some kind. These alerts can be sent via e-mail or cell phone text message.

The idea behind them is that no one can follow all the markets all the time. Even if you limit yourself to just the “majors” -- U.S., Eurozone, Great Britain, Australia, Japan and Switzerland -- that’s still 15 currency pairs to keep an eye on. What’s more, sometimes things are steady for long periods of time, while other periods are marked by great activity.

The sites that offer forex alerts go about it in one of two ways. Some simply send out alerts every 24 hours, offering the latest info on the forex market. Others send alerts only when something crucial happens. These systems use formulas of their own to determine what constitutes “something crucial,” and they may charge a lot more for their more specific alerts. And of course it’s still up to the individual trader to act on or disregard the information send to him in the alerts.

Some brokers include forex alerts as part of their service, while others charge for them. Some are part of a wider alert program that also handles your stocks and bonds. You can tailor the type of alerts you get based on whether you’re a conservative or aggressive trader, and how actively you plan to trade.

Serious traders who use forex alerts swear by them. No system is perfect, of course, and a smart trader will always do a little browsing on his own to make sure his latest alert didn’t miss anything. But alerts are an invaluable way for busy investors to go about their daily lives without having to constantly watch the forex rates.

Do you really need a trading strategy?

Hi, it's been awhile since my last post. It has been a busy couple of months catching up on other areas of life, you know what I mean :) but that doesn't I complete go flat out of the trading business.

Well, back to our topic of discussion today....

Do you need a strategy or strategies trading forex? Well, the answer is both yes and no. That's my answer anyway. "Yes", if you are adept with the strategies and all and
"no", if you're not naturally a technical person and do not have a lifetime to spend on polishing up those skills. So, for me the obvious answer is really "no".

If I were to apply strategies to my trading, it would be too much trouble for too little profit unless I'm trading in the lots per trade, which I'm not (not yet, anyway). Even then, I'd rather have my forex robot take my place and let it trade on autopilot or take the buying or selling cues from the signals I receive.

In any case, when you enter a trade there are only about two possibilities - its either a gain or a loss, so you've got a 50 - 50 chance. Now, just by looking at the day's price in your Metatrader4 platform before entering trade, you can increase that chance to 60 - 40 or even more in your favour. The trick of the trade is in exiting when it's still in the money and holding your position when it's not. Do that a few times every hour or so and you're on your way to making a 2 - 5% return everyday very possible.

Try this, it works most of the time.

Forex ForREAL

Automated Forex Robot doubles your money in months! See proof!

Dear Forex Trader Aspirant,

Are you fed up with the get-rich-quick scene. Of everyone promising heaven and end up delivering hell?

Worthless e-book junk and easy-sounding but hard-to-pull-off so-called guru techniques that NEVER work for the average guy?

Time wasters, high priced junk products, affiliate stuff.. you name it i`ve tried it.. CRAP, nothing more.

How about something TRULY revolutionary? Something that has never been featured on the world wide web ever before?

UNDENIABLE PROOF OF FULLY AUTOMATED INCOME THAT EVERYONE CAN PUT HIS OR HER HANDS ON!

This Automated Forex Robot features something that has never been done before. I assure you.. I'm still in a state of trance as we speak.. and a little shocked.

3 I.T. experts united and created a forex robot that:

- grows small forex accounts into tens of thousands of dollars within a couple of months

- has never lost the deposit since 1999

- works fully automated while you sleep!

IMPORTANT: These are not paper results or demo..

simply scroll down to end of page for a showcase of how the robot rades and multiplies real money in real time!

or click here to find out for yourself!
See for yourself undeniable proof of those bold claims.


BE QUICK AND TAKE ACTION NOW!!

As the word spreads already thousands of users are multiplying their cash.. the price of this super automated money making tool is increasing as we speak.., they already increased it (no stupid marketing fluff!)

and what's even worse.., they are about to CLOSE THE DOORS! You owe it to yourself to at least check out what this killer robot is capable off!

Have a look before they pull the curtain.. you have nothing to lose but everything to gain.

Forex ForREAL

Self-traded vs Managed vs Automated Trading

If you have been "around" over the last couple of years you will know that there's been a frenzy over "investment" schemes and scams alike!

Some of these schemes or scams appear in the guise of new multi-level companies selling sugar-coated gold-layered schemes and concepts that promise potentially astronomical returns with virtually no work done by the "investor" and even more out-of-this-world, never-before-seen income potentials. These scammers typically do not last more than a year and a half or just quite long enough for most investors to recover their investments for that is not their intention at all.

Others are disguised as Forex consultancy firms and introducing brokers offering forex account management services and charge a "commission" for every trade they execute on your behalf! Usually you will need to open a live trading account from USD10,000 upwards with a specific Forex dealer who in turns deduct the introducing broker's commission from your account with every trade! They usually promise a 20-50% monthly return on investment depending the size of your investment. The bigger the size of your trading account or investment naturally the bigger the size of your ROI, or so they promise. Of course, once your money is in your live account the profitability of your account depends on the outcome of each trade entered into while for the brokers who manage your account makes a commission on every trade entered into regardless.

Well, enough about scams and what not and managed accounts for now. Lets talk about the advantages and disadvantages of self-traded accounts versus automated trading accounts or trading with FX robots/expert advisors.

When you self-trade you have more control over the amount of investment and risk you would want to subject yourself to in each trade. The only problem is that depends a whole lot on your level of experience as well as your level of success thus far in trading. And even then, there is no guarantee that you would be able to do just that all of the time. The trick then is to be able to do it most of the time.

And perhaps the answer to that would be to engage a forex robot for automated trading. The risks are definitely very real, letting a robot manage your funds online while sleep, eat, work and go about your daily life. However, with calculated risks and informed choices, you can make the best of the right forex robots by putting to risk a limited amount of funds in your forex account and let the robots go to work. After, all depending on what your appetite level is, a limited amount of money is all you need to get started on a forex account at various levels - mini, micro and standard lots.

If you are willing to risk USD5000 for example, you may choose to have 5 different accounts of USD1000 each using different robots trading at mini lots. Everytime you se your money doubling, or tripling, make a withdrawal so that your initial capital is back in your pockets. This way you get to test the reliability of different robots and/or their settings, if any as well as limit your financial risks while opening a whole new world of possibilities in terms of your investment returns.

This is definitely a better route to take than going through the frustrations of playing on your own with limited resources experiencing an emotional rollercoaster everytime the market moves. Don't you agree?

Why Forex? Why not Stocks, Real Estate or just plain old any Business?

The largest traded market in the world is not the Dow Jones, Nikkei or the London Stock Exchange. It's in fact the Forex market and it's bigger than all of the world's stock markets combined, many times over. Over 2 trillion dollars, and that's USD2,000,000,000,000.00 just in case any of us are in doubt as to the magnitude of this market, change hands everyday in this largest, most liquid, crodd-border market! So make sure you get a piece of the pie, yeah?

Unparalelled Liquidity
Forex offers you unparalelled liquidity not available anywhere else in the world! It is estimated that more than $3.2 trillion worth of trades exchange hands everyday. It is the only true 24-hour round the clock market as it stays open anytime of the day or night or any time in between. Trades are conducted just about every minute of the day from early Mondays through late Fridays!

The stock market, by comparison, is only open 8:00am through 5:00pm every Monday through Friday and so do most businesses. Without a central market, real estate faces an additional challenge of meeting willing buyer and willing seller.

Uncomparable Leverage
The Forex market allows for uncomparable leverage ranging from a low of 100:1 or 1%to as high as 400:1 or just 0.25% thus enabling traders to effect trades worth upto $400,000 with a capital investment of just $1,000! So doubling your capital with a single trade is indeed very possible. (A word of warning! Higher leverage could also lead to higher risk if not well-managed)

In the stock market, you usually need to pay up your trades' worth within the next 3 + 3 days unless you are able to sell off your stocks or unless you are prepared to incur losses when prices head south. In Real Estate, at least, you'd be able to secure a deal with a downpayment of 10% or more PROVIDED you can get a bank to finance the rest of your purchase. In business, this get less rosy as your investments are not entirely capital where operational costs can eat into your investments sooner than you can carve out a profit!

Commission-free
In Forex, you can be assured to almost never be charged any commission or fee on trades you make. There are brokerages that charge a commission with every trade but that is far from being the norm. In any case, you can always choose to ignore them and stick with those that are commission-free. Your only cost is the paper-thin bid and ask spread.

You typically pay your stock brokers 2.5% for every trade you enter into or exit. Your Real Estate agent gets paid 2% for concluding a deal. If you have invested in trust funds then you would know that there is a roughly 5% spread which you incur when you enter into or exit a trade. By comparison, the Bid/Ask spread in Forex is often negligible as in the case of GBP/USD at 1.4424/1.4428 which is only 0.03% both ways.

Low Risk, Low Entry Requirement

You can open a live trading account from as low as USD250 and get straight down into business. Now try to top that in any other business or investments! I know many of us have heard of people investing in foreclosures with no money down but even then you've got to be prepared to fork out a handsome sum in refurbishing the homes. Then, and only then, do you start to find your buyers. Of course, if you're looking to make big money a higher investment is not only necessary but prudent to protect your trades and plan your strategies.

Havng said this, Forex is not without risks and the higher leverage you put on your investment capital obviously the higher the risk you're exposing yourself to. However, your risk is limited by the amount of capital in your live trading account.

Makes Money both ways
In Forex it doesn't matter if a market is going up or goind down as you can opt for either a long or short position. So, you make money both ways.

When you buy a stock you better pray it heads north as any southward movement will translate into losses. Unless you short-sell a stock which, by the way, is illegal. And, I bet you've never heard of anyone who's made money when property prices goes down.

Ready Market
In Forex, you are essentially selling and buying currencies of nations at the same time. And because of this you can rest assured that you will always always have a willing buyer willing seller situation at prevailing market prices, especially if and when you are trading major currencies.

When you trade stocks of a company, it may not be so easy to find a willing buyer or seller at a price that both you and the other party are willing to trade. The same goes for real estate or any given business. Even finding buyers for products may prove quite a challenge during a down economy.

Forex forREAL

Getting Accustomed to the "Foreign" in Forex Trading

Below are some of the basic terms used in Forex trading that you will come across in your journey towards being a live trader.

Lets start with what you will encounter and need to know from the beginning of your journey and make more sense out of the terminologies instead of doing it alphabetically.

Currency symbols
USD - US Dollar
AUD - Australian Dollar
CAD - Canadian Dollar
EUR - Euro
GBP - British Pound
CHF - Swiss Franc
JPY - Japanese Yen
* Note - These are all Major Currencies, all other currencies not listed above are considered minor.

Currency Pair
Since in Forex Trading you are essentially buying one currency and selling another simultaneously any and every transaction involves 2 currencies.
And a Currency Pair refers to the two currencies that make up a foreign exchange price rate. For example USD/JPY, GBP/JPY, EUR/USD etc

Major Currency Pair
A pair involving major currencies that include the U.S. dollar eg. EUR/USD, USD/CHF, GBP/USD, USD/JPY etc.

Cross Currency Pair
A pair involving major currencies that does not include the U.S. dollar eg. EUR/JPY, GBP/CHF, GBP/JPY etc.

Base Currency
This refers to the first listed currency in a Currency Pair. The Base Currency is always quoted as 1 unit against the second currency.

Counter Currency
This refers to the second listed Currency in a Currency Pair. The Counter Currency is quoted at the price Rate in terms of 1 unit of the first listed currency or the Base Currency.

Rate
This shows the price of one currency in exchange for another. For instance, EUR/USD at 1.3535 shows that 1 Euro is now worth 1.3535 in terms of US Dollar and that is the Rate at which a transaction for this Currency Pair can be effected in Forex Trading.

Ask (Offer) Price
The Ask Price is the price at which the market is willing to sell a specific currency in exchange for another during a particular time fraction in a Forex transaction. Hence, you as a trader can BUY the Base Currency in exchange for the Counter Currency to enter trade at the price quoted.

Bid Price
The Bid Price is the price at which the market is willing to buy a specific currency in exchange for another during a particular time fraction in a Forex transaction. Hence, you as a trader can SELL the Base Currency in exchange for the Counter Currency to enter trade at the price quoted.

Spread
This refers to the difference between the bid and ask prices. Also refered to as the Bid/Ask Spread, this is essentially what Forex dealers make from each and every transaction. As a trader this is also your cost of trading as you enter into each transaction and a lower Spread will mean a potential profit that is that much higher.

Pip
A Pip or a Percentage In Point is the smallest unit of price movement for any currency pair. Price movements are calculated from the fourth decimal place onwards i.e. 0.0001 to determine the profits/gains or loss made. Hence all profits/gains and losses are made in number of Pips.

BUY or Long position
A position where gains will be made when market prices increase and losses suffered when market prices fall. The position is said to be Long when you BUY the Base Currency in the pair to enter trade.

SELL or Short Position
A position where gains will be made when market prices fall and losses suffered when market prices rise. the position is said to be Short when you SELL the Base Currency in the pair to enter trade.

Open Position
An active trade (either BUY or SELL to enter trade) which remains open where it has not been offset by a corresponding opposite deal (SELL and BUY to exit trade).

Closed Position
A trade position (either BUY or SELL to enter trade) that is closed where it has been offset by a corresponding and opposite deal (SELL and BUY to exit trade) that is equal in volume.

Lot
A unit to measure the amount of the deal. A Standard Lot typically means you're transacting 100,000 units of a Currency Pair. A Mini Lot means 10,000 units while a Micro Lot equals 1,000 units.

Leverage
The ratio of the amount used in a transaction to the required security deposit. If the ratio is 400:1 it means you only need $1000 to enter a trade of worth up to $400,000 in value. The higher the ratio, the higher your leverage but also the risk!

Profit or Gain
Profits or Gains made through trading activities (BUY or SELL) which positions have been Closed following favourable Long or Short positions.

Loss
Losses suffered through trading activities (BUY or SELL) which positions have been Closed following unfavourable Long or Short positions.

Get friendly, even intimate, with above terms and you will surely find them handy in beginning your life as a Forex Trader! Good Luck!

ForexForREAL

Your Crucial 1st Steps in FOREX

As in starting any business, it is wise to learn the ropes before plunging in head first!

There are quite a number of avenues to this end, some reliable some not so reliable. Some can turn out to be expensive lessons in vain if you're not careful. Let's look at some of these avenues available one by one.

First, let's look at the set of tools we need to trade, our trading tools.

To start trading Forex, you will need a platform to trade with and trade in. Most brokerage houses offer a free trading platform with the opening of an account and more often than not the platform used is the MetaTrader 4. Some may have their own variation of the MetaTrader or even entirely different platforms altogether probably for differentiation purposes. However, you will never go wrong if you stick with MetaTrader. My experience with various different platforms tells me quite clearly which platform to place my trades with and in.

You can download the Metatrader 4 platform for free at www.metatrader4.com and start placing trades in demo mode with none of your hard-earned money. This way you gain invaluable experience without experiencing the pain of less than desirable trade results. Get it?

One more thing about platforms, the more you use any platform the more comfortable you'd be using it and the more adept you'd be in Forex Trading. And since MetaTrader is the most commonly adopted platform amongst brokerages, you'd be able to find one that offers the same platform should the need arise.

Having the tools is one thing and knowing how to use 'em is yet another but it is not the same as having the technical knowhow or expertise since this is going to be your field of business. After all, you would not want to invest in something you aren't 100% sure about, right? So, great, you've got the tools but how and where art thou gonna learn about the ins and outs of Forex Trading??

There are previews and seminars which you could attend usually free for the former but for the latter you'll have to be prepared for damages ranging from 5 to 6 grand! The previews are free, supposedly eye-opening talks about Forex, well at least for the uninformed, they are. They are also a vehicle to sell the hugely lucrative 5-star seminars.

Well before deciding to register for any of these life-changing money-magnet seminars, do all the homework you can and always, always ask for a program or course outline and Google them and do some research. Also try and get any assurance you can (guarantees would be ideal, but you don't see this word so often anymore these days do you?) on what you would be able to achieve at the end of the seminar or least of a long-term support programme way after the seminar. If there is no such assurance, it would very likely be a waste of your time and money! Mostly you'd end up with chunks and chunks of information usually already available on the web with a little effort and research. If you're lucky, you may get a list of strategies with which to ply your trade, so to say. In any case, a back-test on the strategies is essential to reveal their efficacies or the lack thereof. Otherwise, you'd be none the wiser.

And, if you do attend any such seminar all the homework you would've done will make you a more informed student and you'll be able to ask not only sensible questions but also questions that will make a difference in your understanding and grasp of what you'd be learning as well as in your investment in the seminar.

Ultimately, this will also have prepared you more sufficiently for your Forex business.

Next we shall look at Forex terms and jargons and what they mean to you as a trader.

Forex ForREAL

Forex As A Business, And It Really Is!

Do you know that Forex Trading, or trading in Foreign Exchange, is the most basic form of business there is in today's world?

It is so basic and simple that you do not need much to start your own Forex Trading business. For a start, let's look at what you do not need in your Forex business.

1. Employees. You sure do not need any employees unless you have so much fund to trade in that you require someone to monitor sections of the Forex market. Otherwise, you'd do quite well trading on your own.

2. Inventory. You might think that in any business you must trade in some kind of products or at least services. Well Good News! You do not need stocking up of inventory for you neither trade products nor services. In fact you are trading MONEY! Yes, you read me right there. You are buying one currency and selling another simultaneously! So, your capital is in fact your inventory.

3. Advertising and Promotion. Since you are not selling any products or services, you do not need to promote them. And since what you are selling and buying is the currency of a country you can be sure of a ready buyer and seller at any price. Of course, the obvious concern is to do that and at the same time generate some profits.

4. An Office. This is one business which you can operate quite comfortably in the coziness of your own bedroom :)

However, there are a few basic requirements before you can get your Forex Trading business up and running. First, you do need a reliable computer (a laptop is desirable for obvious mobility advantage) with even more reliable internet connection (you would want Broadband for peace of mind, after all it's money you're dealing in) and perhaps a cozy corner where you can function comfortably.

And that's it. It's all you need to start trading. See you guys in my next post.

Forex ForREAL