#samkelo

There are many benefits and advantages of trading Forex. Here are just a few reasons why so many people are choosing this market:No commissions

No clearing fees, no exchange fees, no government fees, no brokerage fees. Most retail brokers are compensated for their services through something called the “bid-ask spread“.

No middlemen

Spot currency trading eliminates the middlemen and allows you to trade directly with the market responsible for the pricing on a particular currency pair.

No fixed lot size

In the futures markets, lot or contract sizes are determined by the exchanges. A standard-size contract for silver futures is 5,000 ounces. In spot forex, you determine your own lot, or position size. This allows traders to participate with accounts as small as $25 (although we’ll explain later why a $25 account is a bad idea).

Low transaction costs

The retail transaction cost (the bid/ask spread) is typically less than 0.1% under normal market conditions. At larger dealers, the spread could be as low as 0.07%. Of course this depends on your leverage and all will be explained later.

A 24-hour market

There is no waiting for the opening bell. From the Monday morning opening in Australia to the afternoon close in New York, the Forex market never sleeps. This is awesome for those who want to trade on a part-time basis, because you can choose when you want to trade: morning, noon, night, during breakfast, or in your sleep.

No one can corner the market

The foreign exchange market is so huge and has so many participants that no single entity (not even a central bank or the mighty Chuck Norris himself) can control the market price for an extended period of time.

Leverage

In Forex trading, a small deposit can control a much larger total contract value. Leverage gives the trader the ability to make nice profits, and at the same time keep risk capital to a minimum.

For example, a Forex broker may offer 50-to-1 leverage, which means that a $50 dollar margin deposit would enable a trader to buy or sell $2,500 worth of currencies. Similarly, with $500 dollars, one could trade with $25,000 dollars and so on. While this is all gravy, let’s remember that leverage is a double-edged sword. Without proper risk management, this high degree of leverage can lead to large losses as well as gains.

High Liquidity.

Because the Forex market is so enormous, it is also extremely liquid. This is an advantage because it means that under normal market conditions, with a click of a mouse you can instantaneously buy and sell at will as there will usually be someone in the market willing to take the other side of your trade. You are never “stuck” in a trade. You can even set your online trading platform to automatically close your position once your desired profit level (a limit order) has been reached, and/or close a trade if a trade is going against you (a stop loss order).

Simple forex strategies like the “Hot Pips Forex Trading Strategy” allows you make consistent profits in the fx market. The strategy is suitable for newbies as well as even experienced forex traders will take a lesson for it.

Chart Setup

MetaTrader4 Indicators: HotPips.ex4 (default setting), EMA (10), EMA (25), EMA (50), EMA (200).

Preferred Time Frame(s): 5-Minutes, 15-Minutes, 30-Minutes, 1-Hour

Recommended Trading Sessions: London/U.S. Open

Currency Pairs: Majors (EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CAD, NZD/USD)

Strategy

Long Entry Rules:

This strategy triggers a buy entry when the following conditions are set:

Check for the bullish candle that opens and closes above the EMAs i.e. EMA (10), EMA (25), EMA (50) and EMA (200). Once this is in place, then move to ascertain that:

The red/blue histogram of the HotPips indicator must be above the zero level, coupled with a yellow arrow pointing upward, for such a signal to be confirmed as bullish.

These conditions set the pace for the bullish trend that was seen on Fig. 1.0 above.

Stop Loss for Long Entry: Buy entry stop loss should be placed 15-20 pips below the most recent support level.

Exit Strategy/Take Profit for Long Entry:

Take a bow from a trade or your positions in the market once these conditions set in:

Exit your position when a bearish candle opens and closes below EMA lines i.e. EMA (10), EMA (25), EMA (50) and EMA (200).

Watch out for the aqua colored downward pointing arrow to form on the HotPips indicator window, then exit your position(s).

One of the most famous and popular forex trading strategies is Fibonacci, named after the famous Italian mathematician. Considered as a medium-long term trading strategy, we use it to follow repeating support and resistance levels. History shows that the market moves in waves and Fibonacci takes advantage of this fact. Fibonacci ratios can help us identify potential resistance and support levels on the financial charts. The most common ratios are 61.8%, 50% and 31.8%.

You may have heard the adage, "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." This is particularly true in Forex speculation.

Successful traders start with a sound strategy and they stick to it at all times.

Choose the currency pairs that are right for you. Some currency pairs are volatile and move a lot intra-day. Some currency pairs are steady and make slow moves over longer time periods. Based on your risk parameters, decide which currency pairs are best suited to your trading strategy.

Decide how long you plan to stay in a position. Based on your currency pair selection, plan how long you want to hold your positions: minutes, hours, or days. Remember that depending on your account type, having open positions at 5:00pm Eastern Time may incur rollover charges.

FREE FOREX TRADING STRATEGIES - Producing By Samkelo Ndlovu

When it comes to selecting strategies to trade, you have the choice between buying one off-the-shelf or trawling the Internet for freebies. The trouble with free forex trading strategies is that they are usually worth about as much as you pay for them. They haven’t been tested, and there is little evidence of their reliability.The strategies covered here on the other hand, are ones that either I or successful traders I know have used in a consistently profitable fashion…

#1: The Bladerunner Trade

The Bladerunner is an exceptionally good EMA crossover strategy, suitable across all timeframes and currency pairs. It is a trending strategy that tries to pick breakouts from a continuation and trade the retests.

#2: Daily Fibonacci Pivot Trade

Fibonacci Pivot Trades combine Fibonacci retracements and extensions with daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly pivots. The emphasis in the discussion here is on using these combinations with daily pivots only, but the idea can easily be extended to longer timeframes incorporating any combination of pivots.

#3: Bolly Band Bounce Trade

The Bolly Band Bounce Trade is perfect in a ranging market. Many traders use it in combination with confirming signals, to great effect. If Bollinger Bands appeal to you, this one is well worth a look.

#4: Forex Dual Stochastic Trade

The Dual Stochastic Trade users two stochastics – one slow and one fast – in combination to pick areas where price is trending but overextended in a short term retracement, and about to snap back into a continuation of the trend.

#5: Forex Overlapping Fibonacci Trade

Overlapping Fibonacci trades are the favourites of some traders I have known. If used on their own, their reliability can be a little lower than some of the other strategies, but if you use them in conjunction with appropriate confirming signals, they can be extremely accurate.

#6: London Hammer Trade

The extra volatility you get when London opens presents some unique opportunities. The London Hammer Trade is my take on an attempt to capitalise on these opportunities. Especially effective during the London session, it can be used at any time when price is likely to be taking off strongly in one direction, and possibly reversing from an area of support/resistance just as strongly.

#7: The Bladerunner Reversal

As mentioned above, the Bladerunner is a trend following strategy. The Bladerunner reversal just as effectively picks entries from situations where the trend reverses and price begins to trade on the other side of the EMA’s.

#8: The Pop ‘n’ Stop Trade

If you’ve ever tried to chase price when it bounds away to the upside, only to suffer the inevitable loss when it just as quickly reverses, you will want the secret of the pop and stop trade in your trader’s arsenal. There is a simple trick to determining whether or not price will continue in the direction of the breakout, and you must know it in order to profit from these situations.

#9: The Drop ‘n’ Stop Trade

The flip side of the pop and stop, this strategy trades savage breakouts to the downside.

#10: Trading The Forex Fractal