Saturday, December 10, 2011

Forex Strategy -How Successful The MACD Indicator


Regardless of your Forex strategy, have you ever entered trades and shortly afterwards wished you hadn't? The information that follows will hopefully cut down greatly on the number of trades that cause you anxiety!

The MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) indicator can add a degree of certainty to your Forex strategy.

As with any indicator, it is too risky to enter trades on this signal alone. However, as we will see, used with caution on higher time frames, it can help confirm you are going in the right direction and that your trade is higher probability.

Taking MACD Apart

Let's take MACD apart and describe it's component parts.

The default MACD on most charting packages sets 2 EMA's (Exponential Moving Averages) at 26 and 12 days.

This is represented by a colored line (color varies according to charting package) which crosses a different colored 9 EMA often termed the trigger line.

When MACD (the 12/26 EMA) crosses above the trigger line (9 EMA) upward momentum is indicated and vice versa.

A center line, or zero line, often called the water line is also shown in the MACD indicator. When MACD is above the water line an upward trend is indicated, when it is below the water line, a downward trend is indicated.

MACD also includes a histogram, small vertical lines that appear above or below the zero line, not unlike mountains and valleys in appearance.

MACD is a lagging indicator which follows price action.

The histogram is an indicator of MACD. So watching the histogram can give you an early indication of where MACD is going. The height of the histogram can be a good momentum indicator.

Using MACD As A Safety Indicator

How can you use MACD to your advantage?

If you want to be very cautious in your Forex strategy, going only for high probability trades, then pay attention to MACD on the 4 hour and 1 hour charts.

Some traders will only enter a trade when the 4 hour and 1 hour MACD's are going in the same direction. This will mean a lot less trades but the ones you do take are likely to be profitable. (Agreement of the two MACD's is used in conjunction with other indicators, not by itself.)

MACD on the 1 hour chart is particularly powerful. If you want to stay out of trouble and avoid trades you might later regret, NEVER trade against the direction of the 1 hour MACD. To do otherwise is not necessarily foolhardy if you know what you are doing.

But for the newer, less experienced trader, only trading long when MACD has crossed up, or short when MACD has crossed down on the hourly chart when your other favorite indicators line up, will make for a higher success rate with your Forex strategy. It will also save you much anxiety and heartache!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

How to Find a Good MetaTrader EA


One of the biggest problems with finding a good MetaTrader Expert Advisor is simply how many there are out there. There are literally hundreds upon hundreds scattered across the internet, either for free on forums and specialized sharing websites, or for sale on individual websites. Now you may intuitively think that you shouldn't even consider the ones that are for sale because there are so many out there that you can get for free! But that is not the case at all. First off you must realize that 99% of the bots you can get for free are going to severely damage your account. At least they won't make you any money. The main reason for this is probably that 99% of mechanical trading systems don't work and the Expert Advisors that are based on them won't work either! Another BIG reason is that most of the bots that are shared for free are created by amateurs that don't really know correct programming let alone how to trade profitably. Often these will be "experimental projects" that may show extraordinary results in back testing and then extraordinarily bad results in live trading. (And why would anyone give away a truly great creation? Reality is that it's probably never going to happen). There are just so many aspects that need to be considered when creating automated algorithmic trading systems, that you can't expect someone without extensive knowledge of the subject matter to be able to do it successfully. There are so many pitfalls for trading system developers to fall into that it's virtually guaranteed that someone without the knowledge and experience will fall into one of those. I'm not going to talk about what these pitfalls are here as that would take too long, but this brings us to the next point I want to make.

I 100% recommend that you buy your Expert Advisor/s. What I've discussed so far should make it clear that it's virtually impossible to find a good enough bot just scouring the internet. But buying one is also easier said than done. Here we actually encounter another big obstacle to finding profitable bots; SCAMMERS. Yes, the rumors are true, the Forex world is filled with shameless scammers praying on innocent people that don't know how to sort the good from the bad. The world of Expert Advisors in no exception. This is very saddening for those of us who "are in the know" and are able to make a living trading Forex. It's saddening when someone asks you what you do for a living and the response you get is something like; "isn't Forex some kind of a scam?". Of course not! But when you type Forex related terms into the search engines scams are often what you'll find. I estimate that about 60% of the bots for sale on the internet are direct scams; they don't work or aren't safe and the vendor knows it and yet claims otherwise. (Don't be fooled by the "incredible returns" the vendor boasts of. All of them do!). I estimate that about 35% are just poor creations by aspiring traders that may not intend to "trick" people, but just don't know and can't do any better. So that leaves about 5% that can actually make you money over an extended period of time. But out of those 5% I would personally probably only use about 1%. Those are the "moneybots". They have been created by a proficient programmer and are based on a solid, robust trading system. So far I have only been able to find a handful that have met my requirements, but they are also fantastic investments! I have been able to find a couple of truly ingenius ones, that have made me substantial amounts of money and as of the writing of this article, I'm currently using with great success.

So how do you find the "moneybots"? First of, don't try to just manually look through the search engine search results because it will be virtually impossible for you to find what you are looking for. Fortunately there are a couple of websites that conduct forward tests of commercial Expert Advisors, and there you can often find actual proof of ones that work. But be careful, many of these websites aren't honest reviewers and many may even be owned by the creators themsleves. But this is still your best option, if you don't know someone who has used a certain EA and can attest to its' virtue.

To make your life a little easier I'm sharing the Expert Advisors that I'm currently using on Income Forex website. I'm not affiliated with any of these, but they are the best I've found so far. Feel free to check them out!

Simple Scalping Strategy



In this article, you will discover a simple scalping strategy that enables you to take small profits out of the Forex market. We will discuss the setup, entry, stop loss and exit stadium. This strategy applies to the major currency pairs EUR/USD, GPB/USD, USD/JPY and EUR/JPY. It works with the daily, hourly and 5 minute candle charts.

Preparation: draw support and resistance lines

First of all, you will make sure that your charts are ready to use for technical analysis. This means that you remove the support and resistance lines of the previous day, so that you have a clear workspace to work on.

Then you make sure, that the last 50 candlesticks are visible on your chart, and you look for the last and second last significant height. Draw horizontal support lines on these points. You can choose any color you want, but make sure that the colors are the same each day. Afterwards, you do the same for the resistance lines. You search for the last and second last significant low, and you draw horizontal resistance lines.

Do the same for each chart and each time frame.

Step 1: Check the setup condition

The setup conditions are as follows:

  • The trends of the 3 timeframes must be the same.
  • The market has to be trending. Whipsaw patterns are difficult to trade for inexperienced traders.
  • On the 5 minutes chart, there has to be enough room to place a trade. This means that the entry point should be at least 20 pips away from the resistance line for a long position, or the support line for a short position.

When these three conditions are met, you can consider placing a trade. Please remember always that this not necessarily means that you will trade.

Step 2: Enter at the right moment.

When a second consecutive bar confirms the trend an it reaches the height of that bar, you can enter the trade on the condition that there is still room for at least 15 pips.

Fifteen pips are based on a target of a ten pips profit, and it takes a spread of 5 pips into account. This is the average spread that applies on a micro or mini account.

Step 3: Place the stop loss

The strategy advises a stop loss of 30 pips below the entry point. If it seems that you can get more than 10 pips out of the trade, you can trail the stop los to break even, to make a 20 or 30 pips profit. This only applies when there is enough room in a trending market.

Step 4: Exit the trade

You have two possibilities. Or you can exit the trade manually, or you can place an exit order. When you close manually, you have the freedom to get more out one trade, but you have to watch it all the time.

An automatic exit order should be placed 15 pips above the entry point for a long position, and 15 pips below the entry point for a short position.

A piece of advice

Since everybody has his own trading style and habits, I strongly recommend you to test drive this strategy on a demo account, so that you fully understand it, before you put money at risk. Secondly, it enables you to customize and fine tune the strategy to your own convenience.

Please note that this strategy is one of the possible approaches to Forex and that we decline any responsibly for your personal trading success or failure. Forex involves the risk of losing money and is not suitable for everybody.

"Go with the trend" and may trading success be with you!



Earn Tax Free Income From Home Trading Forex


Forex markets offer excellent scope for earning tax free income from home. Through Forex trading activities it is possible to earn at least 50% returns on the earned profit. In case of an experienced professional, it is possible to save up to 75% on the profit amount. All of this is possible because Forex markets are open throughout the day and night. Thus, it is possible to perform trading activities on a 24-hour basis. However, if you are keen to hit the jackpot when the volume of trading is high then it is important to trade during the two most important time zones. Forex trading takes place in large volumes during Asia Pacific time zone or European-USA time zone.

Therefore, as an individual trader it is possible to select the time zone as convenient to you. This is the main reason that Forex trading can be thought of as a second income opportunity. As an individual looking to make money in the Forex markets there exists the necessary flexibility to work during any time of the day as suitable for you without compromising on your actual work. It is possible to earn tax free income from home by performing trading activities during the overlapping hours of these two major time zones. This is possible due to the fact that currency pairs are active during these two major time zones. As such, the overlapping period sees a bit of fluctuations not seen during normal hours, which makes it an ideal time for implementation of Forex trading strategies.

Significant volatility can be observed in the Forex market only when certain news related to economic or political scenario across the world changes. For an individual looking to earn tax-free income, it is possible to start trading using a mini account. In case of mini accounts, the total amount of profit made does not come under the tax payable category. This means that Forex trading can be easily used as another tax free income source. Wealth creation can be achieved through a mini account as well. Forex trading allows wealth creation in easy steps particularly for individuals who learn about tips & tricks related to Forex markets. This can be achieved with a simple internet connection from any convenient location of your choice.

It hardly matters if the transactions are made outside your country. However, it is important that your country have the necessary international banking facilities. In most cases, individuals starting out with Forex trading activities do not fall under the taxable category. It is very easy to learn Forex trading. With some amount of dedication and persistence there is a possibility of regular Forex activities from your side. Therefore, by using your skills it will be easily possible to earn tax free income from home through Forex trading activities. Through trading activities, you can get the necessary financial freedom in the future. The scope for wealth creation is simply enormous and the best thing is that it does not fall under the taxable income category.



Sunday, February 20, 2011

Forex Robots - The Future Of Trading

With falling shares and low returns on investments, it's becoming increasingly difficult to find a safe place to make small investments. Many people have taken this opportunity to make enquires about the Forex market. The Forex market is the most liquid market in the world and trades 24 hours a day and 7 days a week turning over a massive $3 dollars a day.


Now the one problem many first timers found was that over time and in the long run approximately 90% of traders lose money in Forex. The reason for this extremely high number is due to the time and energy manually trading forex takes. There is a huge learning curve that needs to be climbed before a trader can take to the market, not to mention a through examination of psychology and mindset. A lifetimes task in itself.


Fortunately new technology in the form of Forex Robots have come to the rescue. Forex Robots have been around for a relatively short while with new and more advanced models coming out onto the market all the time. They have become so popular that now approximately 25% of all Forex trades are now done by forex robots. The main attraction of a Forex robot is that it allows traders to leave their Expert Advisors to run on autopilot so saving valuable time in not having to sit in front of a screen all day. The other big benefit is that Robots don't have emotions and therefore don't make the fear or greed based errors that human traders do.


As with all technology the older Forex Robots were very inconsistent. They would do very well for a while and then would go into periods of losing money. If Forex Robots are so clever why does this happen? The answer is really simple. The older Forex robot models had set coding which only allowed them to understand a limited range of market movement. With new advances in technology forex robots are now programmed with their own intelligence allowing them to adjust to changes in the market.


Let's explain in a little more detail. There are a variety of price patterns that can occur for a currency pair. Due to global macro economic variables a currency pair might show trending pattern where one side of a currency pair gains significant strength vs. it's opposite e.g. the Yen strengthening against the British pound for a long period from July 2008 to January 2009. This is a trending market and a Forex Robot designed for a trending GBPJPY would have shown exceptional profits during this period. However the run did not last. It never does. The GBPJPY pair came into balance at the end of January 2009 when the currency moves into a more sideways pattern. This is known as a ranging market. The trending Forex Robots that did so well for 6 month earlier would have started to lose money. It would expect the trend to continue and would make false trades. The longer the market traded sideways the more money would be lost.


This is where the new adaptive Forex Robots take over. Forex Megadroid is the first of these robots recently launched onto the market. The developers of Forex Megadroid have coded this forex robot to react to changes within the market. Allowing the forex traders who use them to profit for longer. Developers are also constantly updating the forex robot for changes as they happen within the market the beauty of that is all updates are passed on free to the consumer. The program has a 96% accuracy rating.


Why should you pick Forex Megadroid above other Robots?


* Designed by Forex Experts and properly tested over a long time period

* Superior profitability

* 60 day money back guarantee

For more information about forex and forex robots visit please Income Forex.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Historic Currency Exchange Rate


Historic Currency Exchange Rate: Nowadays systems like FAP Turbo can not only analyze market trends and patterns but also have the brainpower to adapt to heavy fluctuations in trades. Take the time to practice with your demo account. Dean Saunders 10 Minute Forex Wealth Builder is a very affordable eBook and video currency trading training course that is written for people who want to learn currency trading but who only have ten or fifteen minutes a day to spare for trading, and get more info about Historic Currency Exchange Rate below. If a firm price is quoted ahead of time for a contract using a foreign exchange rate that is deemed appropriate at the time the quote is given the foreign exchange rate quote may not necessarily be appropriate at the time of the actual agreement or performance of the contract.



A completely clueless person will obviously not know what he is doing with the FAPS. After all it's not called the LMT Forex Formula for no reason. On Friday I thought to check logged into my account and found that FAP Turbo had made me an extra $400 throughout the week on some EUR investing. Now this is what an individual would call passive income! Depending on where a person is in their investing career they may want more control or they may not want any responsibility at all. The robustness of its platform is also key to its ability to answer heavy data and information traffic. See more on Historic Currency Exchange Rate and Fap Turbo Forex .



But where do you learn who can you trust? I've found what I believe to be the best foreign exchange software available today and I'll tell you what it is! Before I do though I'd like to give you a brief overview of just how big the forex market is. 5 trillion dollars worth of trades are conducted everyday. See more on Historic Currency Exchange Rate. Another type of trading method being used and more popular among big businesses is the option trading method. Gold is an internationally recognized commodity which is why there are still holdings of gold. This action will increase the supply of his currency (thereby depreciating the value) in the currency exchange market and will decrease the supply of the currency (thereby appreciating the value of the currency) of the country where he is investing.
5% at the maximum. I figured this could be a fluke or beginners luck so I let it ride and reader let me tell you I was floored to find that by the next weekend I was up to $1400, also see more on Historic Currency Exchange Rate. I have been investing and trading in the markets for over ten years now and in another ten years I hope to learn all I have mentioned above.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Currency Options Trading Review - 2 Powerful Option Strategies

While many traders like to trade forex. Currency trading options if used correctly, can give you two great advantages that can lead you to long term trading success. Let's take a look at them...

Here we will look at how to buy options correctly and take advantage of limited risk and unlimited gains and how to sell options and get odds of 90% success in your favour!

1. Option Buying For Big Gains

The person who buys an option gains a huge advantage and that's staying power. You don't have to worry about price swing against you in the short term, so long as your option trades in the money at expiry you win.

You have unlimited profit potential and strictly limited risk which is the premium you have paid for the option.

Most traders constantly get stopped out by price swings against them in the short term and buying options allows them to ride out these swings. There are two golden rules you should keep in mind when buying options.

The first point is to buy at or in the money options only and to have plenty of time to expiry.

Of course what most traders do is go for cheaper options a long way from the price and don't buy far enough forward. In betting terms these are long shots and you will lose, as the odds are not in your favour at all. 90% of options expire worthless so you need to do what most option traders don't.

You need to buy time and that means close or in the money options and if you have a sound forex trading strategy and do this, you can make a lot of money with currency options trading.

2. Selling Options for Big Gains

Let me ask you a question - How would you like to trade with odds of 90% in your favour?

Of course you would and you can by selling options. The option buyer of course has unlimited gains and limited losses and 90% chance of failure. The seller on the other hand, has a 90% chance of success, unlimited risk and a limited gain.

The key here is you have huge odds on your side and while the gains may be limited they add up, unlimited risk simply requires a spread of options and good money management.

Option sellers do the reverse of what a buyer does - You sell options, with little time to expiry to get time decay on your side and you sell out of the money options as the odds are in your favour.

Option sellers requires a good account size and you should spread your risk but with 90% odds on your side that options expire worthless and using the above tips to make even more income from market, you can build long term gains with the odds firmly on your side.

Currency options review trader's suits all traders novices will love the comfort of limited risk and buying time and the well capitalized serious trader will love the great odds he gets selling options. Look at the above in greater depth and you will find options are a great tool to lead you to long term currency trading success.A good trading for you!