Day Trading Indicators and Indicator Trading

Did You Begin Day Trading As An Indicator Only Trader?

Did you start day trading after buying a book on technical analysis, and getting a charting program - probably a free one that you found online - in order to save money? While reading your book you learned about trading indicators which could 'predict' price movement, and what do you know, the 'best' indicators were actually included in your free charting program - let the games begin.

Now that you have all the day trading tools that are necessary, the book for education AND the free charting program with those 'best' day trading indicators, you now need a day trading plan so you can decide which ones of those 'magic' day trading indicators you are supposed to use. This really is a great book, besides telling you how to day trade using indicators to 'predict' price - it also said that you need a trading plan to day trade.

So what should this plan be? The book told you about trend following using an indicator called macd, and it also told you how it was possible to pick the top or bottoms using an indicator called stochastic; my guess is that you picked the stochastic indicator to start your day trading - this must be the 'best of the best' since this indicator was going to ensure you of entering your trades with the 'best' price. Amazing, simply amazing how easy this day trading stuff really is. In fact, why even bother taking the trades, each time your indicators give a signal - just call up your broker and tell him to stick $100 in your account.

My book was Technical Analysis of the Futures Markets. My charting program was TradeStation with an eSignal fm receiver; that was the one that if you hung the antennae wires just right, and you put enough foil on the tips, you might even get quotes. I had sold a business before I started trading so I did have some capital - isn't that how everyone gets into trading, you either sell a business or you lose your job? My indicator was the macd as I had decided that I was going to be a 'trend follower' instead of a 'top-bottom picker'. I also decided that I was going to be 'extra' clever, if one indicator was good than two indicators must be better, so I added a 20 period moving average. My first trade was a winner, then after many months of extensive therapy, I was finally able to forget the next twelve months - ahhh the memories 

Learning To Day Trading - The Learning Progression

Beginning to day trade, or learning to day trade, as an indicator trader is very typical. This is also logical when you consider - HOW are you supposed to initially learn how to trade? Trading indicators are available to anyone who has a charting program, and simply using line crosses, or histogram color changes, provide 'easy' signals to understand. If you will also take the time to learn the arithmetic behind your indicators, as well as learning what each indicator is specifically intended to do, not only is this a logical way to begin, it is also a good 'step' in your learning progression - understanding the WHAT you are doing, instead of attempting to create 'canned' indicator only trading systems, without any regard as to WHY you are trading this way.

This does become one of the 'sticking' points in your learning progression, as you come to find out that you are unable to profitably trade indicators as signals only - now what? Now what - you 'can't' develop your own indicators, so you start doing google searches for day trading indicators and start buying your 'collection' - they don't 'work' either. Now what - you buy a mechanical trading system - what does hypothetical results may not be indicative of real trading or future results mean? Now what - you start subscribing to signal services OR you start joining the 'latest and greatest' chat room - am I really the only person using the signals who isn't profitable?

Now what - you never learn how to trade.

I began trading as an indicator trader, and I did try to learn everything that I could about the various indicators, as well as trying to combine indicators that were consistent with how I wanted to trade - I just could never develop a mechanical day trading system from what was available to me. I read a couple more books that didn't really help me, so I then started looking for someone who could teach me. From what I now know about gurus -vs- teachers, I am very lucky that I got involved with a money manager-trader who taught me a tremendous amount, but I still couldn't get profitable, in part because there was also 'pressure' to learn how to trade using real money. As well, any discussions or thoughts about trading psychology and the issues involved, especially to beginning traders, was non-existent.

Now what - learning but losing - I stopped trading.
Learning to trading using real money, and 'scoffing' at trading psychology as simply individual weakness, really was something that I now regard as misinformation. I always mention this as I now feel that this cost me as much as a year of time, and was very close to costing me my trading future, as stopped trading was VERY close to quitting trading. How can't trading psychology be real to a beginner, when you consider that you are risking losing money at a very fast pace as a day trader, and when you further consider that you are also doing this when you really don't know what you are doing - this is NOT by definition being weak. And if trading psychology is real, how are you going to learn to make 'good' trading habits with real money while you are fighting the implications?

Now what - not trading and not ready [quite] to quit - still studying and searching.

Probably the single most important 'thing' that got me to a next step in learning how to trade, was the concept of a trading setup, and that a setup and a signal were not the same. This was extremely meaningful to me, as it also led to an understanding of how to better use trading indicators for the information that they can provide, but not to use them as trading signals - in essence I began learning about trading method where discretion could be consistently applied -vs- trading system that was mechanical and arithmetic rules.

Traders who are indicator only traders, are also what I refer to right side only traders, that is they are always looking at the right side of their charts for an indicator signal. BUT what about the left side of the chart, what about price and patterns, what about market conditions - WHAT about the relevant 'things' that are 'moving' price, instead of indicators only as an arithmetic derivative of price, and thus, one that is dependant on the time frame that you have chosen to trade from? These 'thoughts', along with the concept of trade setup, became instrumental in the development of a trading method, and how I came to turning my trading around.

When I think about the steps in my learning progression - I would list them as follows:

2/95 - 6/96
indicators only
teaching service that included signals
learning to trading with real money and trading psychology issues
stop trading

6/96 - 3/97
understanding of trading psychology issues
learning about trading setups concept
trading method -vs- trading system
trade setup - trade trigger are not the same
method development
understand the importance of the left side of the chart and what is happening 'across' the chart
related trading setups and how/when they triggered
indicators + pattern
indicators + pattern + price
indicators + pattern + price + market conditions

3/97 - 11/97
able to paper trade profitably
able to real money trade profitably
able to trade for a living

Indicator Only Day Trader - Setup Including Indicators Method Day Trader

I have attempted to discuss the way I started day trading, and the way I think many-most traders typically begin. Along with this, I have pointed various issues and problems that I had - those regarding how to learn to trade, and then progressing into a profitable trader. My experiences have been both personal, as well as those of many traders that I have worked with over the last 8-9 years through Tactical Trading - that a very large number of these problems are due to day trading only with indicators, the specific indicators used, along with trying to turn these indicators into a mechanical trading system. This is not to say that this can't be done - I simply couldn't do it. However, I would strongly suggest that anyone who is in the early stages of day trading, or struggling with their day trading, consider these things that have been discussed.

Recognise ‘The Force’ and Trade the Trend

You may have heard the saying ‘A Trend is your Friend until it Bends’. Technical Analysis helps us to identify a trend so we can jump on and ride it until it changes. Since the Forex market has very strong trends, technical analysis is a very effective technique.

Some traders still persist on trading against the trend, they argue with it even though price movements are obviously in a trend. Buying when the currency is in a basic downtrend or selling when it’s in an uptrend, instead of buying.

Our primary purpose is to identify the major trend, intermediate trend and the short term trends and place trades in that direction. We then hold position until our calculations suggest otherwise.

Here’s a quote from Jesse Livermore, a tenacious, flamboyant and profitable Forex trader,

"We know that prices move up and down. They always have and they always will. My theory is that behind these major movements is an irresistible force. That is all one needs to know. It is not well to be too curious about all the reasons behind price movements.
You risk the danger of clouding your mind with non-essentials. Just recognize that the movement is there and take advantage of it by steering your speculative ship along with the tide. Do not argue with the condition, and most of all, do not try to combat it."

There’s gold in these words. If the market action shows your analysis to be correct, the successful traders stay with the market and maximize profit according to his or her equity management rules.

If the market turns, the smart trader will get out and collect profits.

Watch the market and listen to what it tells you about upcoming trends and most importantly don’t ask for reasons for what it does, focus on the essentials.

There are often repeating patterns in price changes. Once established. They become the most probable way to predict price changes.

These can be categorized into two types of markets, trending and trend-less. Trending markets have up and down trends; these are typically less than 45° and are steady movers with occasional pauses or profit-taking periods.

Trend-less markets have very steep movement of more than 45° that most often can’t be sustained. Although price movements can shift a considerable number of pips in a short time period they often don’t produce much net profit.

Choppy markets often produce stop outs and the sideways market, with minimal price movements makes it very difficult to predict which way the price will move.

For these reasons, our objective is to get into a trending market and meet our trading objectives.

The underlying message here is, “Be a good friend to the trend”, a simple concept but powerful indeed.

Forex Mini Accounts, Powerful Leverage from the Start

Leverage is essentially the amount used in a trade compared with the security deposit needed by the broker, for that trade. Forex offers the most leverage of any form of investing, which for most brokers, is 100:1, so if you put in $1000, the broker will make that $100 000 when you are trading.

So by investing $1000, you are able to control $100 000 worth of currency on the market. This is what allows traders to pull in such impressive incomes and is also the downfall of less experienced traders if you don’t manage your equity properly and use stop losses. I’m going to introduce you to mini account trading where you can get started and lose a number of times without losing any hair in the process. Regular, full-sized accounts require $5000 to $10000 to really start implementing an effective equity management plan, that is, you can only lose a few times before you’re out of the game if you don’t have that much money and as we all know, by trading intelligently, you can maximize the odds in your favour.

For someone who likes to stay completely out of debt, Forex is the best investment option; you can only lose what’s in your trading account and nothing more. In fact, if your open positions are risking more than you have in your account to pay for them, your brokerage software will automatically close them until you can afford the ‘at risk’ amount. Futures markets are prone to sudden and dramatic moves against which you can’t protect yourself and you’re liable for any resulting deficit in your account. You can lose more than what you have in your account and potentially everything you own!

Mini Account Benefits

For someone wanting to maximize profits and a few thousand to spend, a mini account may sound retarding (maybe that’s just me) but it actually offers more benefits than a regular account if you don’t have a lazy $5000 US to spend. The major benefit is that you win US $1 per pip instead of 8 or 10, and a $50 account will move about $10 000 at a time instead of a $1000 moving $100 000. Your leverage is 200:1 with a mini account and you still get all of the benefits of the latest trading software, charts, resources and tools without the pressure to make a win on every trade. Just remember by using an equity management plan, even if you lose 7 times in a row, you can still come out on top by minimizing loss and maximizing profit. Good traders know that the odds are stacked in their favour.

An account size of $2000 will get you well on your way with a mini account, considering you generally want to risk no more than 5% maximum on any given trade. Preferred ratio is 2% of your margin account.

You also can trade more than 1 lot at a time, to increase your returns as you grow in confidence. So as your account grow, so does your trading capacity and hence 2% of your account may be much more than the risk involved in a trade. There’s no maximum trade volume on the mini accounts.

Trading a mini account keeps you in the game without focusing too much on profit and loss. Trader may resist on closing out an unsuccessful trade in the hope that it will turn around or lock in profits too early rather than allowing profits to increase. With a mini account you can develop discipline needed to be successful and the confidence without anxiety or distractions associated with large profit and loss swings.

FOREX! Find Out If It’s the Right Market For You!

Being successful! Does that have anything to do with choosing a market to trade? I would maintain that it does. One of the ”Secrets To Success” is to choose something that fits…You. After all, if one of your goals is to achieve a certain income level or net worth figure there are a multitude of ways that someone has been successful with, but probably only a few, that might be “right” for you. This applies just as much to the financial markets as it does elsewhere.

If you’re reading this article, probably one of your endeavors is or will be some type of activity in the financial markets. Now which of the markets are “right” for you, meaning the best fit for your circumstances and your goals? Addressing this question will be far more profitable then trading the first market you happen to come into contact with. I’ll help in this process by discussing some of the relevant features of the Forex or cash Foreign Exchange market.

One of the first Forex concepts to note is that the currency you are trading is a representation of a nation’s economy. Why is this important? Because it’s notable that national economies don’t perceptibly change in a day or even a month. Contrast this with individual stocks, commodities or futures that are easily affected by daily news or even weather events. Thus the price moves of the major currencies take place against a broader backdrop than the before mentioned markets. This is expressed in the tendency of currencies to show strongly trending behavior in contrast to staying in tight trading ranges. Many will realize that tight trading ranges are some of the most difficult trading conditions while the “trend is your friend” because it is easier to profitably trade by hitching a ride. Trending markets also lend themselves to rules based technical trading systems. Do you prefer to have your trading choices laid out in advance, or do you “shoot from the hip”?

Are you planning to trade as a business or significant avocation? Do you plan to be active on a full or part time basis? If part time, are you otherwise occupied during regular business or market hours? Did you know that Forex trades 24 hours a day, six days a week? This makes sense if you realize that the Forex markets are serving the needs of nations and traders in every time zone. To facilitate this, most trading is done with online trading platforms that are considered to make an Over The Counter (OTC) market. Do your plans call for flexible or outside of regular hours scheduling?
How much capital would you like to allocate to your chosen trading activity? Someone whose trading is part time and viewed as a hobby may have a different amount of trading capital available than someone whose plan is to structure their trading as a business activity. Regarding capital requirements, the Forex market can accommodate almost any trading plan. This is possible because there are two trading unit sizes available. The full size lot is 100,000 currency units and may be controlled by a 1% or 1,000 unit margin. There is also a “mini” size lot of 10,000 currency units that may be controlled by a .5% or 50 unit margin. Dollar based traders can put the dollar sign ahead of the above figures for illustration. To translate this to trading account requirements; a “mini” account can be started for as little as $300.00 US.

The above discussion of just a few facets of the Forex market is hoped to stimulate thoughtful consideration of the best trading situation for…You, and will continue as a series of articles to consider relevant features of the Forex markets.

To Be Continued…

Day Trading Forex

This is a fascination. Here is a wide open field that almost anyone can take advantage of. It use to be only for the mega rich people, the big corporations and banks. They are trading foreign currency's..

Can you imagine this is a 1.2 trillion dollar a day being traded. Thats 1.2 TRILLION a day.
Now with the Internet you you too can trade the foreign currency's. You can set up a account with as little as $300.00 up to whatever. Regular accounts usually start with $3000.00. You are able to leverage you funds 100 to 1. SO you will be controlling 10,000.00 or one lot in currency's for $1,000.00 and for every pip on movement you can make $100.00. With the mini account you will control 1 tenth of a lot. $1000.00 for $100.00 and your pip is worth $1.00. Just so you will understand a pip is what an increment movement in a currency is.

You buy it if you think it will go up and sell it if you think it will go lower. Of course there are charts and all kinds of ways to tell what is going to happen. It just takes learning the in's and out's, ups and downs.

There are a lot of different currency's but here are the main ones that are traded.
USA/YEN USA / Japanese GBP/USA British Pound
USA/EURO USA/ Euro is European USA/CHF Swiss Franc
USA/CAD USA/ Canadian EURO/YEN

There are no commissions and no fees only narrow Dealer spreads. These spread vary depending on the trades. Major pairs are 3 to 5 pips. You will learn more about all of this when you start out. The wisest thing to do is to start out with a demo account or what we call a paper account where you do everything as if it was real money but it is only on paper. So you get to learn the in's and out's and learn to read the charts and how to understand the fundamentals. These are the world events that effect the currency's.

There are many different strategies. Each have their strength's and weaknesses. They each deal with different ways at looking at the charts and their movements. Want some ideas? There are Scalping
trades, surfing charts, sailing and many more. It fun and exciting, and sometimes a drag. Sometimes you will win 100 to 500 pips. Then there are times you will lose pips too. YOU will never win all the time. But thats where there account management comes in. You learn to control your risk taking.
Usually the biggest sin or failure comes when you let your emotions become involved. EVEN the big shots sometimes let their emotions get involved. Most the time it doesn't work and will cost you.

So with good account management understanding the various charts you can take $300.00 and turn it into $6000.00 in 6 months or less.

Buying And Selling In The Forex Market

Today I would like to talk with you about a few very important rules of investing in the Forex market. If you follow these rules, you will most surely come out on the winning side in the long run.

Rule number 1 is never risk more money than you can afford to lose. No trader is perfect, you are going to have losing trades. There is no system you can learn that wins all the time. So expect to lose some money.

Rule number 2 is to cut your loses short and let your winners compound to greater gains. The secret to not losing your shirt is to use stop loss orders consistently and not let your emotions rule your trading. It's better to lose a little and get out of a trade than to hope that things will turn around and suffer a devastating loss. If you are using the proper techniques and strategies on how to trade, you can usually tell right away if your trade is going in the right direction. If it's not, get out of the trade. There are always more opportunities to get into the market and try again. So be a smart trader, not an emotional one.

Rule number 3 and probably the most important rule in trading Forex is to always use stop loss orders. Before you even consider starting any trade, you should have a good idea in your mind of the point at which you think a trade might be going in the wrong direction and set your stop loss order there, along with your entry order. This way you automatically prevent a potential loss from going too far. Stop loss orders are free. They don't cost you anything and they may save more than your piece of mind.

Rule number 4 is to know what your exit point will be before you get into a trade. There are many good reasons for this. It's easy to get sidetracked when you are doing live trading and get caught up in all the excitement. Chances of making bad decisions go up dramatically if you do not have a predetermined exit point.

Rule number 5 is to know when to quit. Don't become a gambler with your money. If you start having a streak of bad luck, get out of live trading and go practice with a demo account until you gain back your confidence.

Better Understand Technical Analysis and Some Indicators

We’re focusing on technical analysis in this article with a description of some of the important indicators.

We could say, all wealthy traders use technical analysis but not all technical analysis traders are wealthy although T.A. is the most precise way of trading the Forex market. It’s also useful note that fundamentals play their part in indicating whether a price will move up or down. It gives you the edge over other traders.

Technical Analysis is so powerful because of a few reasons

1) it represents numbers. All information and its impact on the market and traders is represented in a currency’s price.
2) It helps to predict trends and the foreign exchange market is very ‘trendy’.
3) Certain chart patterns are consistent, reliable and repeat themselves. T.A. helps us to see them.

Here’s one way of putting technical analsysis into perspective (wish I had a dollar each time I said ‘technical analysis’). We all know that prices move in trends. Research has shown that those that trade ‘with the trend’ greatly improve their chances of making a profitable trade.

Trends help you become aware of the overall market direction and often rescue us from less then profitable entry points. I attended a 2 day course costing me over $2500 AUD and the biggest thing I learned from it was the need for discipline and emotional control. The content was so basic that within the next 3 or 4 articles, I would have covered all of it. So learning the ‘tools of the trade’ the technical indicators and their applications will help you to diagnose what the market is doing but even then you need to expect ups and down and trade with emotional control.

Stay with the trend, follow the price.

Find the price of the currency pair. If EUR/USD is 1.4224 and moves to 1.4180 then 1.4090 then the market is in a down trend. Concern yourself only with what the market IS doing not what it might do. Listen to the markets and the indicators will backup what they are telling you.

Moving Averages.
Tell you the price at a given point of time over a defined period of intervals. They are called moving because they give you the latest price while calculating the average based on the selected time measure.

They lag the market so to give you an indication of a change in trend, use a shorter average such as a 5 or 10 day moving average. By combining a shorter term and longer term M.A. you can detect a buy signal when the shorter term crosses the longer term moving average in the upward direction. Or a sell signal if it crosses in a downward direction. For example, you could use a 5 day versus a 20 day moving average or a 40 day versus a 200 day moving average.
There are simple moving averages, linearly weighted which gives more importance to the recent prices or exponentially weighted. The latter is a favourite because it considers all prices in a time period but emphasizes the importance of the most recent price changes.

MACD
Based on moving averages, a MACD plots the difference between a 26 exponential moving average and a 12 day exponential moving average, with a 9 day used as a trigger line. If a MACD turns positive when the market is still plummeting it could be a strong buy signal. The converse also works.

Bollinger Bands (sounds like an elastic band)
Prices tend to stay between the upper and lower bands. They widen and become more narrow depending on the volatility of the market at the time. A sell signal would be when the moving average is above the Bollinger bands and vice versa for a buy signal. Some traders use it in conjunction with RSI, MACD, CCI and Rate of Change.

Fibonacci Retracement
Describe cycles found throughout nature and when applied to technical analysis can find shifts in the market trends. After a climb prices often retrace a large portion sometimes all of the original move. Support and resitance levels often occur near the Fibonacci retracement levels.

RSI
Relative Strength Index measures the market activity to see whether it’s overbought or oversold. This is a leading indicator so helps to indicate what the market is going to do (awesome!). Ahigher RSI number indicates overbought (so expect a bearish shift) and a lower number indicates oversold.

Successful traders will generally use 3 or 4 signals to provide a more conculsive signal before entering a trade.

Always remember, “If in doubt, stay out!” . Technical analysis doesn’t factor in political news, a country’s economic profile or fundamental supply and demand.

Technical Analysis helps us figure out how much money to risk on a trade. How and when to enter the market and how to exit the trade for profit or to minimize loss.

I sincerely hope you found this article useful.

Trading the FOREX Market offers you Huge Leverage on Your Time and Money

More and more people are beginning to hear about FOREX trading. FOREX stands for FOreign Currency EXchange Market. It was once available only to the large banks, multinational corporations, governments,and other financial markets and institutions; however it was de-regulated in 1997, and now anyone may participate.

Many with experience in stocks and/or commodities trading who have then discovered FOREX, prefer it for its many advantages over stock and commodity trading. Many who have never invested before are also now
successfully trading the FOREX market.

The FOREX market is open 24 hours a day, except weekends, so you can participate whenever you have time. Trading is now done online and transactions are almost instantaneous.

The FOREX market offers 100:1 leverage, so you can control large amounts of money on the market while using much less of your own money. You can start with a mini-account for as little as $300, and with a strategy, steadily build your account and confidence, until you can open a regular account. You can grow that $300 seed to substantially more money in 6 months with the right application of sound strategy. And, you can set the level of risk you're willing to accept; and you can do this with very minimal risk.

FOREX is the world's largest, most liquid trading market. It is the best trending market, moving in the same direction (up or down) over 78% of the time, and you can learn to profit on either trend. Technical analysis works very well in this market, and there are many tools that aid in this.

Because most FOREX trading is focused on 7 major currencies, you have much less to learn than when trading stocks or commodities. Of course you'll want to learn as much as you can about FOREX, but this can be done to your satisfaction much sooner than you might think. There are many training courses and also lots of free information available on this subject.

FOREX trading is fun and challenging, and FOREX is quickly becoming one of the investing world's hottest, most rewarding opportunities.

Learn more about FOREX, and take your wealth development into your own hands if you want to accumulate real wealth!

Internet Trading with FOREX

FOREX trading is a great hot technique of successfully trading in the foreign market and successfully flowing in avalanches of money. There are many programs and packages out there that don’t teach you beneficial techniques like precision and on top of that overcharge their packages for extraordinary prices. You shouldn’t have to deal with being robbed. Instead you should take advantage of the FOREX market and all it has to offer.

You shouldn’t have to watch other people lead successful luxurious lifestyles, and ask yourself why not me? The internet is a goldmine of opportunities and pure success. It’s powerful and nothing can stop it, so why not be part of this rapid money making machine. Investing your time and energy on the internet to successfully make some money is a wise choice; however it is even wiser to invest your time in the trading world with FOREX.

The FOREX program has a very high percentage of success due to the techniques and strategies used. This program teaches you how to know the precise time to enter a trade or when to not trade. It also teaches you when to exit a trade and be able to make huge profits. You don’t even have to make complicated calculations like most trading programs. With FOFEX all the calculations are done for you. The FOREX market is not only a day thing. This is open 24 hours a day. So basically you can make money while you’re on vacation, spending time with your family and friends, or even while you sleep. Location is also not an issue with the trading market, because since it’s online you can be located anywhere around the world.

One of the most attracting features of FOREX is it’s not time consuming. You can spend as little as ten minutes a day “working” on your trades and then you’re done. You don’t have to spend 8 hours a day worrying if you managed to make successful trades or worse if you made horrible trades. You can carry out the rest of your day peacefully and stress-free. Who wouldn’t like this lifestyle? I’m pretty sure you do.

This new lifestyle can allow you to lead the life you’ve always dreamed of having. You don’t have to hide in the shadows of wealthy individuals anymore. Instead you can take action and be part of this attracting group. FOREX has many attracting features that can change your life completely around. Once you see the techniques in action, you will be dumbfounded and ready to jump in all the action, more specifically all the money making fun. Take advantage of FOREX and all its amazing and beneficial techniques and strategies that it has to offer! Don’t get left behind!

FOREX: Foreign Currency Exchange Market at your fingertips

Dear Friend,


Have you ever heard of FOREX? FOREX stands for Foreign Currency Exchange Market. This is a fascinating new way of making money in the trading market. With FOREX you can learn powerful techniques that will let you turn $200 to $3,000. You will learn to focus on what trades are the good ones and the most profitable. FOREX is an amazing tool to learn to use. Not only will you profit big, you will also have more confidence when deciding what to trade or not to trade.
The beauty of FOREX is that it’s not only for expert traders, but also for beginners. As a beginner, FOREX teaches the basic terminology used, concepts, and knowledge that will allow you to join the FOREX trading market. FOREX literally points you in the right direction of where to start your trading. It’s as if you’re being held by your hand and being taken to where the money is. FOREX is great, because if you sign up you’ll receive a FREE ebook with training materials that will teach you everything about trading FOREX and how to get started. This is a great course that will really teach you step-by-step in how to make intelligent trades in the trading market. One of the best features about FOREX is it doesn’t cost thousands of dollars like most competitors and you’ll probably end up making much more money with FOREX than these competitors.
FOREX is also beneficial for expert traders. So for you experts out there, you’ll just fall in love with this from the start. You already know the basics and now you’ll become perfectionist in basically making money. Who wouldn’t love this talent? FOREX is a great tool that basically let’s you know when the major market moves will happen and in what direction. It’s as if you’re waiting for someone to give you the go ahead of trading and knowing that it will be profitable. This is just too good to be true. Well with FOREX it’s just that good! Learning these precision techniques will surely help you in achieving HUGE PROFITS.
There are always risks with trading. However, with FOREX the techniques that you will learn will teach you to trade with the smallest risk possible (between 10 to 20 pips). The purpose of FOREX is for you to be amazingly profitable. Like mentioned above, this is not only for experts but for beginners as well. This new powerful tool is feasible that even a child can learn. You’ll see dramatic changes in your income and feel more confident in knowing when and how to trade. You’ll enjoy this new way of living! Just think, you wake up start your day and do a little trade here and there and then that’s it! You basically did your work for the day and then you’re free to enjoy the rest of your carefree day. This type of lifestyle is waiting for you! Just remember FOREX is the place to be.

Best of Success!
Thanks,
Stephanie

Currency Trading or Dogs-of-the-Dow.

Have you ever heard of the Dogs-of-the-Dow system. It’s a well known system in the stock and trading business. There are several stock brokers who have earned a lot of money by working with this system. They are using at for several years now. They think it’s a safe way to let your money grow slowly but consistently.

If you know the Dogs-of-the-Dow system you know that the system makes yearly a better percentage then the index.

If you have started using the system several years ago and used it properly for those years you would have earned a nice percentage each year. Double figures are more then ones made. A high yield income of 17.7 % average annual return since 1973 has been made.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average overall return was 11.9 % during that same periode.
So you would have made almost 6 % more each year. Not bad at all.


If you never heard about it let me explain how that system works.
At some point in the year, mostly early January, you take a look at all the companies that gives you the highest dividend payment.

You make a basket (several companies added together) then you decide how much percentage you will spent on each company. Next you buy stocks of each company to a curtain amount of money you have available and wait until the year passes.
When the year has passed you make op the balance and see how much you have earned.

If you don’t want to trade frequently the Dogs-of-the-Dow system is a very relaxing and defensive and profitable way of money investment.

If you want to make a higher profit, trading is a better and faster way. Foreign currency trading in particular. Foreign currency trading requires little more than just knowing the currency course rate.
You have to understand some basics techniques of how the market trades those currencies.


With the right knowledge and techniques you can easily turn $ 50 into $ 1000.
Trading then isn’t just making money it’s also fun.
The fun is that it can be done 24 hours a day. When one market closes the other opens up. So you go from New York to Amsterdam to Tokyo to Sydney and back to New York.

Become a Better Trader

It is a well documented fact that within the “business” of trading the financial markets, as much as 90 % of the participants lose and continue to lose money. So if 90 % are losing, that therefore means that 10% are gaining each and every time.

In order to improve my own trading record, I deliberately set out to try and discover what it was I had to do to become one of the 10% (The Winners) who are consistently making money from the unfortunate remaining 90% (The Losers) who don’t.

My research and investigations was to speak to as many successful traders as I could, to read as many articles, publications and books which have been written by successful traders. It wasn’t until I started my research, that I quickly realised just how much has been and no doubt will continue to be written about trading and the psychology of trading. What is even more astounding is the amount that has been written by so called “gurus” who actually haven’t made any significant amounts of money from a business that they are supposed to be experts in. I will tell you about some of my findings relating to these authors in future articles.

It is my intention to publish my findings in a series of articles over the next 3 months and I hope you can learn and improve your own trading from implementing the information which I release.

I personally trade the FOREX market now but I have tried trading stocks, futures, commodities and options. I will be covering the reasons for concentrating on FOREX in a later article but in the meantime let me tell you about one of my many discoveries.

Every one of the successful traders I interviewed, stressed the importance of keeping a journal of their trades. They would record the date, time, what they traded, buy or sell, price, indicators used including levels and/or figures, trends (long, medium and short) and an overall description of why they took the trade. It was also imperative that the journal entry included notes about the trade after the event. If it made money what was the criteria, and if it was a losing trade, why had it turned out to be like this and any contributing factors.

Now comes the interesting part. Everyone of them stated that they regularly reviewed their journal (some weekly and some monthly) but everyone quite categorically looked back over past trades. No doubt learning from their mistakes and to improve and repeat on their successful trades.

Trading is very disciplined with definite rules for entering and exiting trades. These rules must be adhered to at all times and one of the rules is entering all details about the trade in the journal, making no exceptions.

I hope you will all learn something from this and if you aren’t already maintaining a record of your trades, then please start doing so from now on. Also regularly go back over your records on a regular basis. You will see a marked improvement in your performance.

The Benefits of FX Trading

Many people are looking at getting into day trading, and start with studying the Stock Market, and the different stock exchanges. What many don’t realize is that there are different markets and financial instruments that one can profit from. One market that has recently become available to the public to trade is the Foreign Currency Exchange, the FOREX.

The foreign exchange market is the largest financial market in the world. It trades upwards of 2.5 trillion dollars per day, which is approximately 1000 times the volume of the New York Stock Exchange. Quite easily, the foreign exchange market dwarfs the stock market of any country.

So, where is the foreign currency market? Well, unlike the stock exchanges of the world. The foreign currency market is a virtual market that is connected by the internet, phones, and fax.

The advantage of having a worldwide currency market is that it is open 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. Living in the USA, one could trade 24 hours per day Sunday 5pm to Friday 4pm EST. One can only trade stocks during normal market hours, so for those that have jobs during the day, the FOREX market is much more accessible as trading can be done at night or early in the morning before going to work.

Other benefits of the foreign currency exchange include:

1. High Leverage: Currency brokers usually give their traders 100:1 leverage, meaning that if there is $1000.00 in ones account, they will let one control $100,000.00, which allows currency traders to reap large gains from relatively small price movements in the market.

2. High Liquidity: Because the currency market is the largest market in the world with huge daily volumes, one is always able to get in and out of trades as liquidity is never an issue.

3. Stops are always honored: Except in extremely volatile markets, which is rare, limits and stops are always honored. Because of the market’s liquidity and 24 hour continuous trading periods, dangerous trading gaps are eliminated altogether. Orders are executed very quickly, without slippage. In the stock market, it is much more frequent that stops get skipped over as stock prices plummet, but in the FOREX, one can be much more confident that the stops are honored.

4. Entry orders are instant: There is no lag time in placing an order. Orders are processed instantly at the current market price, or the price at which you set the order to enter the market in the future.

5. No Commissions: There are no commissions in currency trading, the broker just takes a small difference between the bid price and the ask price as its fee for the transaction.

As currency markets are some of the most volatile markets, many fundamental variables such as weather, and war affect the price of the currency, however, since there is no one apparent reason much of the time for price movement, the fundamentals get discounted and one can use an almost purely technical approach to trading. This is why the FOREX is considered one of the most predictable trending markets that follows technical analysis methods more than any other market.

As one can see, there are many great benefits to using the FOREX as a highly profitable financial instrument. One can trade from home in their spare time, but first it is important to get a solid education in learning specific FX trading methods. Before trading in a live account, it is important to first get educated using books, or online courses. There are many courses online selling for upwards of $3000.00, but it is not necessary to spend that kind of money to get a good education. Usually the expensive courses come with DVD’s and other expensive items that raise the price. Much of the time one can find a course for under $500 that teaches the exact same content for much less money.

Wishing You Success in Trading!

David Molina

If the banks do it - Why don't you?

All major banks including central and government throughout the world make a “shed” load of money from the currency or foreign exchange market (FOREX).

In the year 2004 the Bank of America made over $750 million.

Until de-regulation in 1997, this money generator was only available to the large financial institutions, but now with as little as $300 any individual can open an account and trade FOREX.

Trading currencies is relatively unknown which is surprising because it is the largest market in the world (trillions of dollars are traded each and every day). It is the best trending market as it keeps moving in the same direction (this can be UP or DOWN) over 78% of the time. As there is no central exchange and because it is a world market FOREX can be traded 24 hours a day so it need not get in the way of your other business interests or social life.

Foreign currency trading is such a lucrative and easy to understand market that many who used to trade stocks, bonds, commodities and futures have switched to trading nothing but FOREX. Even Bill Gates and the world renowned trader Warren Buffet now trade currencies as part of their overall strategies. If they are doing it shouldn’t we follow them, after all isn’t it true that to become wealthy or successful you have to do what wealthy and successful people do.

You can make this market as exciting or as dull as you want, just turn the knob and you can have the adrenalin rush of jumping in and out of the market literally within seconds (commonly known as SCALPING, but we’re not playing cowboys and indians) or the more sedately approach of making your trade and then sitting back (this is known as INVESTING). Somewhere in between there is DAY and SWING Trading. It is entirely up to you which way you to trade or if you really want to go for it DO THEM ALL.

A word of caution, trading currencies may or may not be right for you but the good thing about this market is you can try it out. That’s right, you can open a demo or virtual account and do everything that you can do on a real account. But the really good bit is, it won’t cost you a dime.

Like everything else in life, from learning to crawl, to walking, to riding a bike, to swimming, to driving, and so on, you need to know what you are doing. Build your knowledge, study and practice, practice, practice.

Finally, once you know what you are doing and have proper money management skills, there is absolutely nothing to stop you becoming EXCEPTIONALLY WEALTHY as a result of trading foreign currencies.

I traded stocks when I first started but there were so many factors that you had to account for and so much to learn about each individual share and it’s company that it was a daunting and time consuming task. It was a very easy switch to trade currency.

FOREX: The Other Investment Vehicle

An investment, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is “the commitment of funds with a view to minimizing risk and safeguarding capital while earning a return”. Generally speaking, investments are made for the “long haul”, with the belief that the value of the investment vehicle of choice will increase in value. When you say investment to most people in the United States, the first “vehicle” of choice in their minds is the Stock Market, with Mutual Funds in second place, followed more recently by property in third place, and Bonds in a distant fourth. Commodities and currency trading are rarely considered investments because of the speculative nature of those markets. Speculation, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is the “assumption of unusual business risk in hopes of obtaining commensurate gain”.

A quick review of the definitions of “investment” and “speculation” immediately highlights the “inherent amount of risk” as the major difference between both practices. If you were to survey all those people who “invested” their life savings in the Stock Market and Mutual Funds just prior to the market crash of September 2000, do you think that they would agree that the Stock Market and Mutual Funds still fit the definition of a safe investment? Bonds in reality are extremely low risk trading vehicles and are therefore considered “investments”. While bonds were also affected in the market correction, they are still primarily an institutional trading vehicle and did not affect individual investors as broadly. While the ownership of private property seems to have escaped the dark shadow of a high risk investment, recent market forces and speculation in private property have eroded the quality of this investment. As of today, the housing boom in the United States has apparently run its’ course due to rising interest rates and increased inventory of discounted properties due to default and foreclosure. Many of the “paper millionaires” which this market has created will soon feel the pinch of paying off properties mortgaged much higher than their present values. And to all those owners of property which has long been paid for, you are in possession of a wasting asset against the forces of inflation and the intentional devaluation of the dollar.

It would seem that the “safest” investments would be in the purchase of hard assets. Gold immediately comes to mind, but its’ greatest value is as a universal currency standard. A man with a silo filled with corn will not starve in the near future. A home will keep a family safe from the elements no matter what it is worth. The only problem is that these assets will only earn you money when they are sold, assuming that their value has increased. These investments are not typically made for the purpose of earning a suitable return on one’s capital. Speculation, on the other hand, is synonymous with large and fast gains on your capital with the higher risk of loss.

The additional risk introduced into traditional investments by current market forces has made the FOREX Currency Exchange an attractive option to investors by blurring the lines between investment and speculation. The FOREX is the most liquid of all the exchanges, trading in excess of 1.5 trillion dollars daily, 24 hours per day. Trading practices include everything from intra-day to trend following. Paper trading is highly recommended to sharpen your skill, and an account balance of as little as $300.00 will get you started.

Joseph Napolitano

Electronic Currency Exchange: Trading Digots for a profitable living

First of all, if you're just finding out about electronic currency exchange trading, then probably you're still asking "what in the world does this electronic currency business is", and most importantly, "how do I make money from it?"

Well, you are reading this at the right time, because electronic currency exchange is a business that is expanding and offering new ways to profit from it. This means that in the next months learning how to trade digots will prove to be more profitable than it is today.

But what does "digot" mean?

Digot is the value of a given currency when using the electronic currency exchange system. So if your account is in dollars, then a digot will stand for a dollar. If you are reading this, it means you are interested in making more money, and I must congratulate you, because electronic currency exchange is a fantastic vehicle to make money without much work required. This is why some people call this opportunity the anti-business.

If you like the old saying "the less you work, the more you make" then you will love the electronic currency exchange business. Let me explain how it works:

You get started with whatever amount of money seems reasonable to you. I got started with $200, but I've heard of people getting started trading digots with amounts ranging from $50 to $10,000 so it's entirely up to you and what you can afford. Keep in mind that the more you start with, the faster you will see profits, so it may be worth not buying that new PC to put in as much as you can from the start.

After you have the electronic currencies set up, every 24 hour period you will generate from 2 to 4 percent of your investment.

What makes this system so profitable, is that you have the option of reinvesting your profits, so that you gain interest of what you gained interests the day before AKA "Compounded interest" over your digots. It's very easy to see how your money can have the snowball effect and turn into a truly automatic cash machine.

When I was looking to get started, I started with an online course, so I had no learning curve. This is the path I recommend, but if you are short of money, you can also exchange your time and efforts and research online for how to trade ecurrencies.

The Iraqi Dinar In A Nutshell

The Iraqi dinar (pronounced: di-'när) is the legal currency of Iraq.

Old Iraqi dinar

The Iraqi dinar was introduced into circulation in 1931 and was at par with the Pound sterling. The Iraqi dinar replaced the Indian rupee that was the official currency at the time of the British occupation in World War I. After the 1958 coup d'etat, the Iraqi dinar was dissociated from the Pound sterling, but continued to have a very high value.

After the Gulf War in 1991 and due to the economic blockade and unrestricted printing of banknotes by the government, the dinar devalued fast, and in late 1995, $1 equaled 3000 dinars.

Banknotes issued between 1990 and October 2003, along with a 25-dinar note issued in 1986, bear an idealized engraving of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Following the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq's currency was printed using poor grade wood pulp paper (rather than cotton or linen) and inferior quality lithography.

Counterfeited banknotes often appeared to be of better quality than real notes. Despite the collapse in the value of the Iraqi dinar, the highest denomination printed until 2002 was 250 dinars.

Currency printed before the Gulf War was often called the Swiss dinar. It got its name from the Swiss printing technology that produced banknotes of a considerably higher quality than those later produced under the economic sanctions that were imposed after the first Gulf War. After a changeover period, the Iraqi government disendorsed this currency. However, this old currency still circulated in the Kurdish regions of Iraq until it was replaced with the new dinar after the second Gulf War.

New Iraqi dinar

Between October 15, 2003 and January 15, 2004, the Coalition Provisional Authority issued the new Iraqi dinar to "create a single unified currency that is used throughout all of Iraq.

The Hampshire-based Company "De La Rue" printed the New Iraqi dinars, also known as the "Post - Saddam" dinars, in England, in six denominations: 50, 250, 1000, 5000, 10,000 and 25,000 Dinars.

In November of 2004 the new 500-dinar note was issued by the Central Bank of Iraq to facilitate market transactions. The banknotes are beautiful and of "Swiss" quality with many security features rendering them very hard to counterfeit, features include, watermarks, metallic inks, security thread, ultraviolet images and raised lettering.

Value of the new dinar

Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the Middle East and the largest reserves of natural gas. The new Iraq will be able to take full advantage of exporting these resources with sanctions no longer in place.

As Iraq is welcomed back into the International Community the value of the New Iraqi Dinar should rise. How high? That is what you speculate on when buying Iraqi Dinars! (And nobody dares to predict!)

The Evolution Of The Giant Turtle

You know, it’s true what they say. “The more things change, the more they stay the same!” It has been just about three years now, since January of 2003, that I wrote my now classic “I Was Wrong” article, admitting that trend following was not dead after all. And in the past couple of years, we have seen some good trending markets and some nice returns, with the Turtle computer model being up between 50% and 100% for 2003 and 2004 respectively. And while the current final yearly results are not quite in yet, although 2005 got off to a pretty rough start, it looks like a late rally in many of the markets is going to wind up giving us another profitable year.

But the truth of the matter is, if you look very closely, as I have, at both the Turtle system in particular as well as other trend following systems in general, there are some things that have changed slightly. An examination of ‘rolling’ five or ten year periods will show some smaller deteriorating statistics since the ‘formal’ origination of the trading method back in the early 1980’s. The total returns are slightly lower, the drawdowns are a little deeper, and the recovery periods are a little longer.

There are several reasons for this, most of which can be summed up under the wide umbrella of natural progression. On the one hand, we have the good old fashioned Darwinistic “survival of the fittest model”.

Hey, trading is basically still one big zero sum game, where somebody has to win, and somebody else has to lose. The winners are the smarter combatants, the losers will tap out and fall by the wayside (or even become ‘brokers’). As with any competition, this means that eventually, you will have the winners competing against other winners, thus raising the bar for the entire level of competition, and making the whole damn game harder to begin with. At least that is the philosophical argument for what happens.

The technical argument is a lot more cut and dried, but it is basically the same story. In the ‘old’ days, whoever was the first and quickest to figure things out while they were still changing had a huge edge. But then along came that crutch to human thought, the computer. By the early 1990’s everybody had one sitting on his desk, and the playing field had been greatly leveled. Information still flowed, but now it flowed faster, and everyone became more quickly aware of it. Which meant that all the traders on the outside were now able to more quickly adjust their positions and come back into line with whatever sudden new information had become available.

I have spoken at great lengths before about how and why trend following works, and the fundamental reasons that trends come about in the first place. Simply put, when something happens to either the supply or demand of a commodity (or stock), the equilibrium fair market value shifts, and the price moves to a new level. In the old days, sometimes it took a while for the market mechanism to find this new level, but nowadays, thanks to more powerful computer speed and efficiency, everything is all happening a lot faster.

The end result as far as we are concerned is two fold. First of all, the trends that do occur are more explosive coming out of the box, which means the trader has to be both quicker and more nimble, both jumping on board, and holding on. Secondly, and more importantly, is the fact that these trends don’t run as far, or last as long, as they used to, before all the players have had a chance to adjust their positions, and the market (any market) comes back into balance.

To put it in Turtle terms, a good freeze or heat wave or embargo used to cause a market like Coffee or Soybeans or Crude Oil to run for months, and give us maybe a 40 N move before it was over. I remember a hot dry Summer in 1988 when Beans ran 40 N. I also remember that Crude Oil during the first Gulf War in 1991 ran for just about a 40 N profit as well. Hell, there was even a nice 40 N run in the Stock Indexes during the dot.com bubble of the mid 1990’s. But in the past five years or so, I am hard pressed to think of any market that has had such a big super trend.

Back in the 1980’s, these were the kinds of moves we got excited about, and we got one or two of them almost every year. 20 N moves were fairly common place, and 10 N was nothing that much to get excited about. But since the turn of the century, I think 20-25 N moves are about the largest I can recall seeing. I think Feeder Cattle last year at 23 N was the largest trend of the year, and a further problem is that not too many people even follow that (relatively) small market.

But remember, we still need these few big home run trades every year to pay for all the small losses and whipsaws and slippage and other costs of doing trading on a daily basis. The basic problem during the ‘difficult’ periods is not that we don’t get any trends, but that the trends we do get are not big enough or long enough to pay for all the other stuff. We are still trading in a distribution that has more losing trades than winning ones, so at least some of the few winners we do hit still have to be large enough to cover all the losses.

The question we face as continually evolving traders becomes, what, if anything, are we supposed to do about this kind of stuff. In the past, I have been a large advocate of the school of thought that says, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Sure, the Turtles, or any other trend followers, were not getting the easy triple digit returns from two decades ago. But hey, we were still doing better than anybody else around, and I for one did not see a lot of reason to complain, or even get upset about it.

But my thinking has changed in the past couple of years. I’m no longer holding out for the 40 N outliers, because they just don’t come around that often any more. I have not gotten to the point where if I see a trend approaching 20 N profit, I start putting one foot out the door, and looking around for warning signs to get me to duck out quickly. Those warning signs will come in the form of some other types of indicators I have learned to pay attention to. But keep in mind that all of this is still just a math and probability decision, not one of fear or emotion or just ‘wanting’ to take a profit.

Without getting into too much of the detail, let’s just say that at some point it can still be obvious that if you have a reasonable minimum probability of catching a big move, you should try to hold out for it. On the other hand, if the chances are lower of that big move occurring, then at some point it has to become better to take the smaller but surer profit. And while the odds are not always so quantifiable, and this is as much art as it is science, let’s just say I have been getting better at it with more experience over the years.

The bottom line is that where I used to hold out as long as possible, often times after the trend had reversed on me, now I am quicker to exit first and ask questions later. And to be sure, I have left some money on the table when the trend kept going and I had gotten out prematurely. But I have also saved a lot more by recognizing when the party was over and getting out before everybody else ran for the door. And the funny thing is that one of my brokers thinks I have become a better trader, because he has always been an advocate of locking up a profit and putting some money in your pocket. But that is not the reason I do what I do, my criteria are technical and unemotional in nature.

Of course, Richard Dennis was always an advocate of using personal discretion to override mechanical technical criteria, the trick has been getting good at knowing how and when to do this. And I think this is something that cannot be taught, even by me, but just comes with experience. I can now look at half a dozen different things, including stochastics, market profiles, sentiment indicators, and even news reports, and somehow assimilate that all in my mind and decide when it ‘feels right’ to make a discretionary move.

Last year at Thanksgiving, I exited some Currency trends right near the top of the market. And this year, I got out of the Energies right after Hurricane Katrina, two days off the top. As I have gotten better at this, I have also been able to strengthen the courage of my convictions to stick to my guns and not second guess myself. In the past, if I would get out of a trade too early and it kept on going, I would think I made a mistake and then try to jump back in, ostensibly at a worse price than when I got out. Now, once I’m out, I have the patience and discipline to stay out, and fight the temptation to jump back in and whip myself around.

It seems when I am wrong, I am wrong by a little, because even if the move keeps going, it doesn’t go too far before it eventually peters out and turns around. I got out of the Yen last week, and have left about 1 N on the table so far. And I just got out of some Gold the other night, and right now it is sharply higher again (also by about 1 N). But when I’m right, as in Unleaded Gas this past August, I was able to save myself close to 10 N before the market reversed enough for the computer model to finally give a liquidation signal. So that seems like a pretty fair tradeoff for me. And it is also the big reason that my personal trading account is outperforming the Turtle computer model so far in 2005.

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Poor Man's Access To Foreign Currency Trading

By far, the largest trading market in the world is the foreign currency market. Speculators make up only a small part of the spot (cash market) and forward (futures market) currency exchange transactions. So if you are considering speculating in this area, be aware that you are trying to out-guess the brightest minds & supercomputers at large banks and hedge funds; along with the political whims & expediency of government treasury departments.

The common portfolio use for holding foreign currencies is to hedge against the fall of your home currency. For most people, their salary and all their assets are based in their home currency – and if that falls in value, so does their entire net worth and future earnings. For Americans, as an example, there has been a growing trade deficit with China for many years. And if China were to allow their currency to fluctuate, the U.S. dollar would fall against the Chinese yuan in concert with this trade deficit.

You can also include currency trading as an additional way to diversify your portfolio. I have read many, many books to learn about currency trading, and even day-traded the Swiss-Franc for six months. If you want to learn how to speculate with trading currencies, you can either try some technical analysis services at the link below, or getting a Phd. in economics and finance, but I can’t guarantee that will increase your odds of success.

I made my only ‘very poor man’ currency trade prior to the establishment of the Euro currency in 2002. While driving in my car, I heard a speech over the radio by the German president that I felt was certain to cause a short-term fall in the German Mark. I drove to the nearest AAA Travel Office, and went to the ATM next door to withdraw $200 in cash to put in my pocket. Being a AAA member, I then exchanged the $200 for American Express Traveler’s Cheques that were denominated in German Marks. Four months later, the U.S. dollar had increased by 10% on the German Mark. So I took my German Mark cheques to exchange them back into dollars and cash out with a giant profit. To my disappointment, the fees for the buy & sell transactions added up to about 8%, leaving me with a giant $4 profit. So if you want to try the “Travelers Cheque” route, you’ll need a big trend to offset your transaction fees.

The next step up in initial cost is an ETF that is based on the Euro with the ticker symbol FXE. It is technically a trust, but it is traded exactly like a stock, and it fluctuates very close to the USD/Euro rate. When you think the dollar is going to fall against the Euro, just buy some of these shares to offset your currency risk, and you can start with one share for less than $200.

The next way to get access to foreign currencies is to get some FDIC insured certificates of deposit from Everbank.com. They offer CDs in over 10 different foreign currencies and a couple indices, and the minimum investment is only $10,000 for an interest earning account. So if you are tired of your bank’s low savings account rate, there are currencies that regularly offer a higher yield without undue currency exchange risk.

Risk a few small steps into foreign currency investments, and anything dollar-based will feel disappointingly tame. Plus, you’ll have bragging rights with your friends and dinner parties on your sophisticated investment portfolio.

My Most Recent Experiences About E Currency Exchange Trading

You keep hearing about this money generating model that takes no marketing or selling, merely 60 minutes a day (at the most) and no genius skill.

I have to see it to believe it!

At the least that was the 1st feeling for any person that knows the internet for some time.

Let's take a look at the Real Facts about E Currency Exchanging.

What if you were somehow able to render the flow of capital for "Internet Money" therefore it may be listed as a financial backing or "material currency"?

We can produce as much as 1.5% to 4% every 24 hours in interests for you investment for doing E Currency Trading. My interest went through the roof. We can produce coumponded interest for a first investment as small as fifty green ones.

Depending on your background, it may not be so easy to believe that People doing this system can take $100 and make them into $800 in less than 45 days. I'm twenty-one years old and it's not something I hear everyday. You're really putting your income to produce more money. As much as it took me to grasp it, it happens. And it guides no special skill. After all, your cash is the one doing all the hard work.

There is a hard part, on the other hand. It's a somewhat complex technique to get the whole picture of at first. In fact it can get exhausting whenever you don't know what the heck you're doing. Start an account here, an additional one there, buy some stuff here choose some stuff there. You can go insane tackling to figure it out by yourself.

I was privileged enough to learn it the mellow way. If any person points you stepwise, with a visual simulacrum of how he employs the model In microscopic detail, and then it becomes much easier

"do this, Start this account, then Create this additional account, put your cash here, transfer it here, and look at how it increases"

After anyone guides you by the hand like that and educates you, it just becomes very simple. What is required is that you watch the first video, then do what you just saw. Watch the next video, then follow the instructions. Watch the next one and... well you catch my drift.

One of the coolest things about E Currency Exchange is that you, me, and anyone else follows the same process to make money. We all take the same base steps, so it's something you can model. If you're headed at this direction, if you're looking into learning about E Currency Trading, I have to recommend you invest the fast lane and learn the business instead of tackling to figuring out through the hard path.

When you decide to do E-Currencies the easygoing way, the benefits are greater in a shorter period, without truly having a learning period because you are learning it straight from somebody that is already making income for themselves.

Remember the natural law that reminds us that the shortest way between two distances is a straight line.

Your FOREX Trading Philosophy

"Easy money" is the allure that captivates many beginning FOREX traders. FOREX websites offer "risk-free" trading, "high returns", "low investment." These claims have a grain of truth in them, but the reality of FOREX is a bit more complex.

Mistakes Of The Beginning Trader

There are 2 common mistakes that many beginner traders make: trading without a strategy and letting emotions rule their decisions. After opening a FOREX account it may be tempting to dive right in and start trading. Watching the movements of EUR/USD for example, you may feel that you are letting an opportunity pass you by if you don't enter the market immediately. You buy and watch the market move against you. You panic and sell, only to see the market recover.

This kind of undisciplined approach to FOREX is guaranteed to lose money. FOREX traders must have a rational trading strategy and not make trading decisions in the heat of the moment.

Understanding Market Movements

To make rational trading decisions, the FOREX trader must be well educated in market movements. He must be able to apply technical studies to charts and plot out entry and exit points. He must take advantage of the various types of orders to minimize his risk and maximize his profit.

The first step in becoming a successful FOREX trader is to understand the market and the forces behind it. Who trades FOREX and why? This will allow you to identify successful trading strategies and use them.

Accountability

There are 5 major groups of investors who participate in FOREX: governments, banks, corporations, investment funds, and traders. Each group has its own objectives, but 1 thing all groups except traders have in common is external control. Every organization has rules and guidelines for trading currencies and can be held accountable for their trading decisions. Individual traders, on the other hand, are accountable only to themselves.

Large organizations and educated traders approach the FOREX with strategies, and if you hope to succeed as a FOREX trader you must follow suit.

Money Management

Money management is an integral part of any trading strategy. Besides knowing which currencies to trade and how to recognize entry and exit signals, the successful trader has to manage his resources and integrate money management into his trading plan.

There are various strategies for money management. Many rely on the calculation of core equity -- your starting balance minus the money used in open positions.

Core Equity And Limited Risk

When entering a position try to limit your risk to 1% to 3% of each trade. This means that if you are trading a standard FOREX lot of $100,000 you should limit your risk to $1,000 to $3,000. You do this with a stop loss order 100 pips (1 pip = $10) above or below your entry position.

As your core equity rises or falls, adjust the dollar amount of your risk. With a starting balance of $10,000 and 1 open position, your core equity is $9000. If you wish to add a second open position, your core equity would fall to $8000 and you should limit your risk to $900. Risk in a third position should be limited to $800.

Greater Profit, Greater Risk

You should also raise your risk level as your core equity rises. After $5,000 profit, your core equity is now $15,000. You could raise your risk to $1,500 per transaction. Alternatively, you could risk more from the profit than from the original starting balance. Some traders may risk up to 5% against their realized profits ($5,000 on a $100,000 lot) for greater profit potential.

These are the kinds of strategic tactics that allow a beginner to get a foothold on profitable trading in FOREX.

The History of Previous Currency Unions

I. The History of Monetary Unions

"Before long, all Europe, save England, will have one money". This was written by William Bagehot, the Editor of "The Economist", the renowned British magazine, 120 years ago when Britain, even then, was heatedly debating whether to adopt a single European Currency or not.

A century later, the euro is finally here (though without British participation). Having braved numerous doomsayers and Cassandras, the currency - though much depreciated against the dollar and reviled in certain quarters (especially in Britain) - is now in use in both the eurozone and in eastern and southeastern Europe (the Balkan). In most countries in transition, it has already replaced its much sought-after predecessor, the Deutschmark. The euro still feels like a novelty - but it is not. It was preceded by quite a few monetary unions in both Europe and outside it.

What lessons does history teach us? What pitfalls should we avoid and what features should we embrace?

People felt the need to create a uniform medium of exchange as early as in Ancient Greece and Medieval Europe. Those proto-unions did not have a central monetary authority or monetary policy, yet they functioned surprisingly well in the uncomplicated economies of the time.

The first truly modern example would be the monetary union of Colonial New England.

The four kinds of paper money printed by the New England colonies (Connecticut, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire and Rhode Island) were legal tender in all four until 1750. The governments of the colonies even accepted them for tax payments. Massachusetts - by far the dominant economy of the quartet - sustained this arrangement for almost a century. The other colonies became so envious that they began to print additional notes outside the union. Massachusetts - facing a threat of devaluation and inflation - redeemed for silver its share of the paper money in 1751. It then retired from the union, instituted its own, silver-standard (mono-metallic), currency and never looked back.

A far more important attempt was the Latin Monetary Union (LMU). It was dreamt up by the French, obsessed, as usual, by their declining geopolitical fortunes and monetary prowess. Belgium already adopted the French franc when it became independent in 1830. The LMU was a natural extension of this franc zone and, as the two teamed up with Switzerland in 1848, they encouraged others to join them. Italy followed suit in 1861. When Greece and Bulgaria acceded in 1867, the members established a currency union based on a bimetallic (silver and gold) standard.

The LMU was considered sufficiently serious to be able to flirt with Austria and Spain when its Foundation Treaty was officially signed in 1865 in Paris. This despite the fact that its French-inspired rules seemed often to sacrifice the economic to the politically expedient, or to the grandiose.

The LMU was an official subset of an unofficial "franc area" (monetary union based on the French franc). This is similar to the use of the US dollar or the euro in many countries today. At its peak, eighteen countries adopted the Gold franc as their legal tender (or peg). Four of them (the founding members of the LMU: France, Belgium, Italy and Switzerland) agreed on a gold to silver conversion rate and minted gold and silver coins which were legal tender in all of them. They voluntarily limited their money supply by adopting a rule which forbade them to print more than 6 franc coins per capita.

Europe (especially Germany and the United Kingdom) was gradually switching at the time to the gold standard. But the members of the Latin Monetary Union paid no attention to its emergence. They printed ever increasing quantities of gold and silver coins, which constituted legal tender across the Union. Smaller denomination (token) silver coins, minted in limited quantity, were legal tender only in the issuing country (because they had a lower silver content than the Union coins).

The LMU had no single currency (akin to the euro). The national currencies of its member countries were at parity with each other. The cost of conversion was limited to an exchange commission of 1.25%.

Government offices and municipalities were obliged to accept up to 100 Francs of non-convertible and low intrinsic value tokens per transaction. People lined to convert low metal content silver coins (100 Francs per transaction each time) to buy higher metal content ones.

With the exception of the above-mentioned per capita coinage restriction, the LMU had no uniform money supply policies or management. The amount of money in circulation was determined by the markets. The central banks of the member countries pledged to freely convert gold and silver to coins and, thus, were forced to maintain a fixed exchange rate between the two metals (15 to 1) ignoring fluctuating market prices.

Even at its apex, the LMU was unable to move the world prices of these metals. When silver became overvalued, it was exported (at times smuggled) within the Union, in violation of its rules. The Union had to suspend silver convertibility and thus accept a humiliating de facto gold standard. Silver coins and tokens remained legal tender, though. The unprecedented financing needs of the Union members - a result of the First World War - delivered the coup de grace. The LMU was officially dismantled in 1926 - but expired long before that.

The LMU had a common currency but this did not guarantee its survival. It lacked a common monetary policy monitored and enforced by a common Central Bank - and these deficiencies proved fatal.

In 1867, twenty countries debated the introduction of a global currency in the International Monetary Conference. They decided to adopt the gold standard (already used by Britain and the USA) following a period of transition. They came up with an ingenious scheme. They selected three "hard" currencies, with equal gold content so as to render them interchangeable, as their legal tender. Regrettably for students of the dismal science, the plan came to naught.

Another failed experiment was the Scandinavian Monetary Union (SMU), formed by Sweden (1873), Denmark (1873) and Norway (1875). It was a by-now familiar scheme. All three recognized each others' gold coinage as well as token coins as legal tender. The daring innovation was to accept the members' banknotes (1900) as well.

As Scandinavian schemes go, this one worked too perfectly. No one wanted to convert one currency to another. Between 1905 and 1924, no exchange rates among the three currencies were available. When Norway became independent, the irate Swedes dismantled the moribund Union in an act of monetary tit-for-tat.

The SMU had an unofficial central bank with pooled reserves. It extended credit lines to each of the three member countries. As long as gold supply was limited, the Scandinavian Kronor held its ground. Then governments started to finance their deficits by dumping gold during World War I (and thus erode their debts by fostering inflation through a string of inane devaluations). In an unparalleled act of arbitrage, central banks then turned around and used the depreciated currencies to scoop up gold at official (cheap) rates.

When Sweden refused to continue to sell its gold at the officially fixed price - the other members declared effective economic war. They forced Sweden to purchase enormous quantities of their token coins. The proceeds were used to buy the much stronger Swedish currency at an ever cheaper price (as the price of gold collapsed). Sweden found itself subsidizing an arbitrage against its own economy. It inevitably reacted by ending the import of other members' tokens. The Union thus ended. The price of gold was no longer fixed and token coins were no more convertible.

The East African Currency Area is a fairly recent debacle. An equivalent experiment, involving the CFA franc, is still going on in the Francophile part of Africa.

The parts of East Africa ruled by the British (Kenya, Uganda and Tanganyika and, in 1936, Zanzibar) adopted in 1922 a single common currency, the East African shilling. The newly independent countries of East Africa remained part of the Sterling Area (i.e., the local currencies were fully and freely convertible into British Pounds). Misplaced imperial pride coupled with outmoded strategic thinking led the British to infuse these emerging economies with inordinate amounts of money. Despite all this, the resulting monetary union was surprisingly resilient. It easily absorbed the new currencies of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in 1966, making them legal tender in all three and convertible to Pounds.

Ironically, it was the Pound which gave way. Its relentless depreciation in the late 60s and early 70s, led to the disintegration of the Sterling Area in 1972. The strict monetary discipline which characterized the union - evaporated. The currencies diverged - a result of a divergence of inflation targets and interest rates. The East African Currency Area was formally ended in 1977.

Not all monetary unions ended so tragically. Arguably, the most famous of the successful ones is the Zollverein (German Customs Union).

The nascent German Federation was composed, at the beginning of the 19th century, of 39 independent political units. They all busily minted coins (gold, silver) and had their own - distinct - standard weights and measures. The decisions of the much lauded Congress of Vienna (1815) did wonders for labour mobility in Europe but not so for trade. The baffling number of (mostly non-convertible) different currencies did not help.

The German principalities formed a customs union as early as 1818. The three regional groupings (the Northern, Central and Southern) were united in 1833. In 1828, Prussia harmonized its customs tariffs with the other members of the Federation, making it possible to pay duties in gold or silver. Some members hesitantly experimented with new fixed exchange rate convertible currencies. But, in practice, the union already had a single currency: the Vereinsmunze.

The Zollverein (Customs Union) was established in 1834 to facilitate trade by reducing its costs. This was done by compelling most of the members to choose between two monetary standards (the Thaler and the Gulden) in 1838. Much as the Bundesbank was to Europe in the second half of the twentieth century, the Prussian central bank became the effective Central Bank of the Federation from 1847 on. Prussia was by far the dominant member of the union, as it comprised 70% of the population and land mass of the future Germany.

The North German Thaler was fixed at 1.75 to the South German Gulden and, in 1856 (when Austria became informally associated with the Union), at 1.5 Austrian Florins. This last collaboration was to be a short lived affair, Prussia and Austria having declared war on each other in 1866.

Bismarck (Prussia) united Germany (Bavarian objections notwithstanding) in 1871. He founded the Reichsbank in 1875 and charged it with issuing the crisp new Reichsmark. Bismarck forced the Germans to accept the new currency as the only legal tender throughout the first German Reich. Germany's new single currency was in effect a monetary union. It survived two World Wars, a devastating bout of inflation in 1923, and a monetary meltdown after the Second World War. The stolid and trustworthy Bundesbank succeeded the Reichsmark and the Union was finally vanquished only by the bureaucracy in Brussels and its euro.

This is the only case in history of a successful monetary union not preceded by a political one. But it is hardly representative. Prussia was the regional bully and never shied away from enforcing strict compliance on the other members of the Federation. It understood the paramount importance of a stable currency and sought to preserve it by introducing various consistent metallic standards. Politically motivated inflation and devaluation were ruled out, for the first time. Modern monetary management was born.

Another, perhaps equally successful, and still on-going union - is the CFA franc Zone.

The CFA (stands for French African Community in French) franc has been in use in the French colonies of West and Central Africa (and, curiously, in one formerly Spanish colony) since 1945. It is pegged to the French franc. The French Treasury explicitly guarantees its conversion to the French franc (65% of the reserves of the member states are kept in the safes of the French Central Bank). France often openly imposes monetary discipline (that it sometimes lacks at home!) directly and through its generous financial assistance. Foreign reserves must always equal 20% of short term deposits in commercial banks. All this made the CFA an attractive option in the colonies even after they attained independence.

The CFA franc zone is remarkably diverse ethnically, lingually, culturally, politically, and economically. The currency survived devaluations (as large as 100% vis a vis the French Franc), changes of regimes (from colonial to independent), the existence of two groups of members, each with its own central bank (the West African Economic and Monetary Union and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community), controls of trade and capital flows - not to mention a host of natural and man made catastrophes.

The euro has indirectly affected the CFA as well. "The Economist" reported recently a shortage of small denomination CFA franc notes. "Recently the printer (of CFA francs) has been too busy producing euros for the market back home" - complained the West African central bank in Dakar. But this is the minor problem. The CFA franc is at risk due to internal imbalances among the economies of the zone. Their growth rates differ markedly. There are mounting pressures by some members to devalue the common currency. Others sternly resist it.

"The Economist" reports that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) - eight CFA countries plus Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, the Gambia, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, and Liberia - is considering its own monetary union. Many of the prospective members of this union fancy the CFA franc even less than the EU fancies their capricious and graft-ridden economies. But an ECOWAS monetary union could constitute a serious - and more economically coherent - alternative to the CFA franc zone.

A neglected monetary union is the one between Belgium and Luxembourg. Both maintain their idiosyncratic currencies - but these are at parity and serve as legal tender in both countries since 1921. The monetary policy of both countries is dictated by the Belgian Central Bank and exchange regulations are overseen by a joint agency. The two were close to dismantling the union at least twice (in 1982 and 1993) - but relented.

II. The Lessons

Europe has had more than its share of botched and of successful currency unions. The Snake, the EMS, the ERM, on the one hand - and the British Pound, the Deutschmark, and the ECU, on the other.

The currency unions which made it have all survived because they relied on a single monetary authority for managing the currency.

Counter-intuitively, single currencies are often associated with complex political entities which occupy vast swathes of land and incorporate previously distinct -and often politically, socially, and economically disparate - units. The USA is a monetary union, as was the late USSR.

All single currencies encountered opposition on both ideological and pragmatic grounds when they were first introduced.

The American constitution, for instance, did not provide for a central bank. Many of the Founding Fathers (e.g., Madison and Jefferson) refused to countenance one. It took the nascent USA two decades to come up with a semblance of a central monetary institution in 1791. It was modeled after the successful Bank of England. When Madison became President, he purposefully let its concession expire in 1811. In the forthcoming half century, it revived (for instance, in 1816) and expired a few times.

The United States became a monetary union only following its traumatic Civil War. Similarly, Europe's monetary union is a belated outcome of two European civil wars (the two World Wars). America instituted bank regulation and supervision only in 1863 and, for the first time, banks were classified as either national or state-level.

This classification was necessary because by the end of the Civil War, notes - legal and illegal tender - were being issued by no less than 1562 private banks - up from only 25 in 1800. A similar process occurred in the principalities which were later to constitute Germany. In the decade between 1847 and 1857, twenty five private banks were established there for the express purpose of printing banknotes to circulate as legal tender. Seventy (!) different types of currency (mostly foreign) were being used in the Rhineland alone in 1816.

The Federal Reserve System was founded only following a tidal wave of banking crises in 1908. Not until 1960 did it gain a full monopoly of nation-wide money printing. The monetary union in the USA - the US dollar as a single legal tender printed exclusively by a central monetary authority - is, therefore, a fairly recent thing, not much older than the euro.

It is common to confuse the logistics of a monetary union with its underpinnings. European bigwigs gloated over the smooth introduction of the physical notes and coins of their new currency. But having a single currency with free and guaranteed convertibility is only the manifestation of a monetary union - not one of its economic pillars.

History teaches us that for a monetary union to succeed, the exchange rate of the single currency must be realistic (for instance, reflect the purchasing power parity) and, thus, not susceptible to speculative attacks. Additionally, the members of the union must adhere to one monetary policy.

Surprisingly, history demonstrates that a monetary union is not necessarily predicated on the existence of a single currency. A monetary union could incorporate "several currencies, fully and permanently convertible into one another at irrevocably fixed exchange rates". This would be like having a single currency with various denominations, each printed by another member of the Union.

What really matters are the economic inter-relationships and power plays among union members and between the union and other currency zones and currencies (as expressed through the exchange rate).

Usually the single currency of the Union is convertible at given (though floating) exchange rates subject to a uniform exchange rate policy. This applies to all the territory of the single currency. It is intended to prevent arbitrage (buying the single currency in one place and selling it in another). Rampant arbitrage - ask anyone in Asia - often leads to the need to impose exchange controls, thus eliminating convertibility and inducing panic.

Monetary unions in the past failed because they allowed variable exchange rates, (often depending on where - in which part of the monetary union - the conversion took place).

A uniform exchange rate policy is only one of the concessions members of a monetary union must make. Joining always means giving up independent monetary policy and, with it, a sizeable slice of national sovereignty. Members relegate the regulation of their money supply, inflation, interest rates, and foreign exchange rates to a central monetary authority (e.g., the European Central Bank in the eurozone).

The need for central monetary management arises because, in economic theory, a currency is never just a currency. It is thought of as a transmission mechanism of economic signals (information) and expectations (often through monetary policy and its outcomes).

It is often argued that a single fiscal policy is not only unnecessary, but potentially harmful. A monetary union means the surrender of sovereign monetary policy instruments. It may be advisable to let the members of the union apply fiscal policy instruments autonomously in order to counter the business cycle, or cope with asymmetric shocks, goes the argument. As long as there is no implicit or explicit guarantee of the whole union for the indebtedness of its members - profligate individual states are likely to be punished by the market, discriminately.

But, in a monetary union with mutual guarantees among the members (even if it is only implicit as is the case in the eurozone), fiscal profligacy, even of one or two large players, may force the central monetary authority to raise interest rates in order to pre-empt inflationary pressures.

Interest rates have to be raised because the effects of one member's fiscal decisions are communicated to other members through the common currency. The currency is the medium of exchange of information regarding the present and future health of the economies involved. Hence the notorious "EU Stability Pact", recently so flagrantly abandoned in the face of German budget deficits.

Monetary unions which did not follow the path of fiscal rectitude are no longer with us.

In an article I published in 1997 ("The History of Previous European Currency Unions"), I identified five paramount lessons from the short and brutish life of previous - now invariably defunct - monetary unions:

To prevail, a monetary union must be founded by one or two economically dominant countries ("economic locomotives"). Such driving forces must be geopolitically important, maintain political solidarity with other members, be willing to exercise their clout, and be economically involved in (or even dependent on) the economies of the other members.
Central institutions must be set up to monitor and enforce monetary, fiscal, and other economic policies, to coordinate activities of the member states, to implement political and technical decisions, to control the money aggregates and seigniorage (i.e., rents accruing due to money printing), to determine the legal tender and the rules governing the issuance of money.
It is better if a monetary union is preceded by a political one (consider the examples of the USA, the USSR, the UK, and Germany).
Wage and price flexibility are sine qua non. Their absence is a threat to the continued existence of any union. Unilateral transfers from rich areas to poor are a partial and short-lived remedy. Transfers also call for a clear and consistent fiscal policy regarding taxation and expenditures. Problems like unemployment and collapses in demand often plague rigid monetary unions. The works of Mundell and McKinnon (optimal currency areas) prove it decisively (and separately).
Clear convergence criteria and monetary convergence targets.
The current European Monetary Union is far from heeding the lessons of its ill fated predecessors. Europe's labour and capital markets, though recently marginally liberalized, are still more rigid than 150 years ago. The euro was not preceded by an "ever closer (political or constitutional) union". It relies too heavily on fiscal redistribution without the benefit of either a coherent monetary or a consistent fiscal area-wide policy. The euro is not built to cope either with asymmetrical economic shocks (affecting only some members, but not others), or with the vicissitudes of the business cycle.

This does not bode well. This union might well become yet another footnote in the annals of economic history.