Forex traders bring all kinds of strategies and trading timelines to the table when they analyze forex charts. Both chart patterns and forex indicators can be used to evaluate trade opportunities depending on both your personal trading preferences and the price activity taking place on the forex charts.

When it comes to identifying a price breakout, though, technical indicators can help you determine not only the start of a breakout event, but also the kind of momentum it might carry for traders who open a position at the start of this movement.

Before we discuss the top technical indicators for confirming forex breakouts, though, let’s make sure we understand how breakouts start.

Now that the dust has settled on the U.S. Presidential election and all of the fanfare and media coverage that comes with that, financial markets have focussed again on the coronavirus pandemic and vaccine hopes.  COVID-19 continues to makes it way through the United States and Europe, with cases in the former having now exceeded 13 million.  Numerous companies have reported test results from their COVID-19 vaccine testing and this has raised hopes that a vaccine is not far away and that the world can put 2020 well and truly behind it.  This has also raised risk appetite and increased bullishness in financial markets sending equity indices to record highs. 

When analyzing chart patterns to identify potential volatility with an asset’s price, an inside bar indicator is one of the stronger signals traders can spot. Inside bars on a candlestick chart represent the consolidation of price action where the bulls and bears are both struggling to move the price higher or lower from its current position.

If you’ve never traded the HK50, you might be missing out on a great opportunity to capitalize on economic growth in a promising foreign market.

Although the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is the third-largest stock exchange in Asia, and the sixth largest in the world, it often gets overshadowed by the Chinese and Japanese markets—not to mention the markets in New York and London. But seasoned investors are aware of the trading opportunities available in Hong Kong, especially with the HK50.

The Hang Seng Index, or HK50, tracks the 50 largest and most liquid companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE), offering a reliable reflection of the economic strength of Hong Kong as well as China.

Here’s an overview of the HK50, including a primer on how to approach trades in this market.

The journey of forex trading doesn’t always run smoothly, and even the most successful traders will experience some bumps in the road. This is especially true for traders who opt to head down the manual trading route, ignoring the automated processes that can aid their trading. Although automated trading does have its drawbacks, any trader can exhibit tighter control over their currency-trading portfolio through such means, particularly when they use expert advisors (EAs).

Considering the positive impact that an appropriately used EA can have on anyone’s trading efforts, the following takes an in-depth look at how to install and use an EA on MetaTrader 4.

If you’re involved in forex trading, you probably have at least some familiarity with the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms. These software solutions rank among the most popular trading platforms for a wide range of traders and advisors, thanks in large part to the value of their tools and resources when it comes to evaluating positions and taking action.

Although their names might suggest that MT5 is just an updated version of MT4, the reality is that these two solutions offer different functions and features that serve distinct trading audiences. Choosing whether to use MT4 versus MT5 can depend on your background and your trading goals, among other factors.

Here’s a look at how these platforms differ, and how to choose the right one for you.

The obvious way to monitor and review your trading performance is to check your account balance, however we can dig a little deeper than that and explore our performance further.

As part of your trading, it is important to monitor your open positions and overall performance, and an effective way of doing this is to maintain a trading diary. A trading diary should detail all your trading decisions, including reasons for initiating a trade, your emotions when opening the trade, notes concerning the short- and medium-term trends observed in the price and perhaps any news surrounding the trade period, as well as daily adjustments of exits. A trading diary provides you with a methodical way of maintaining a clear focus, and it can also assist you with learning from your mistakes.

Whilst the coronavirus pandemic has the major theme in the world and financial markets throughout 2020, scarily cases continue to grow, especially in major economic regions like the United States and Europe.  It has been another month and another increase in the number of coronavirus cases all around the world as this now passes 45 million with close to 1.2 million deaths, and this pandemic continues to dominate the economic landscape.  Earlier in the month, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva has said the economic recovery from the impact of the coronavirus impact will be a “difficult climb”, despite the impact not being as bad as the IMF originally thought.  She explained that “extraordinary policy measures” were to thank for the improved performance.   The IMF does not expect the global economy to return to its pre-COVID-19 levels “over the medium term.”   The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) Vice Chair Richard Clarida has said that whilst the U.S. economy has recovered well it may still be a year away from returning to pre-pandemic levels and it may take longer for the jobs market to recover.  “While recovery since the spring collapse in economic activity has been robust, let us not forget that the full economic recovery from the COVID-19 recession has a long way to go,” Clarida said during a presentation to the American Bankers Association Convention.

With high liquidity and low bid-ask spreads, USD/JPY is a popular currency pair for experienced traders as well as beginners. Since the financial crisis in 2008, Japan’s yen has demonstrated itself as a reliable reserve currency, becoming the world’s third-largest safe-haven currency in recent years. The USD/JPY pairing also plays an important role in trading activity throughout Asian markets, because JPY is often bought or sold as a substitute for more unpredictable currencies in the region.

Because JPY is the leading reserve currency in the Asian markets its high liquidity is a benefit to traders looking to capitalize on market movement in countries whose currencies would otherwise be tougher to trade—especially at a large volume. Even though the USD/JPY pairing offers greater stability and liquidity than other pairings, traders should still study the market factors that can affect its price movements.

Here’s some insight into the timing considerations and other market influences to watch when trading USD/JPY.

Price movements in the forex market may be hard to predict, but they aren’t entirely random, either. There is logic behind the way currency pairs rise or fall in value, and decades of forex trading have revealed that this logic can often be identified—and then predicted—through the use of technical indicators.

Technical indicators come in many shapes and sizes, and no specific indicator is viewed as a required tool for assessing potential forex trades. As traders gain experience and learn about the different technical indicators at their disposal, they end up developing a preference for specific indicators that align with their trading strategy and prove to be reliable over time.

These technical indicators can be broken down into three broad categories.