Welcome to our look back at the previous month and a look ahead to what we might expect to see throughout March and beyond.

Last month we stated that the main drivers of the economy were COVID-19 Lockdowns, COVID-19 Stimulus Packages, COVID-19 Vaccines, the new US Government, US/China Trade Relations, and Brexit.

The main market drivers were pretty much the same as January’s, with a shift toward COVID vaccine programs, which are working better in some economies than others.  This has seen notable gains in instruments like WTI, Brent Crude and GBP.

Also, traders and analysts have noticed a certain “predictability” to the markets, probably based on the new US government, which took over 21 January, and the removal of several psychological disorders, and at least one Twitter account, that had plagued the global economy for the last 4 years.

Last month we wrote about global trade issues with China which will be an ongoing issue.  We hear rumblings from all major economies on this topic, including the demanding of accountability for the global pandemic and human rights abuses.  To be honest, these issues with China will probably not be resolved until the planet gets the pandemic under control.  However, any news on this will have a major impact on Commodities, Currencies and Equities.

Forex traders should keep an eye out for quite a few things if they want to limit the risks associated with active trading. We’ve all seen it; many traders will follow fads instead of paying attention to the proper management of their money, and as a result, they will lose money unnecessarily.

Technical analysis is the study of actual movements in the price of a financial product.  However, in my opinion, technical analysis is less about trading and more about the study of mass psychology. We study the way people react in certain situations in the market, which is quite prevalent when identifying and trading using chart patterns.

Margin and margin requirements are something that no forex trader can afford to ignore. Margin has often been labeled a “good faith deposit” to open a position.

Margin is usually presented as a percentage amount of the full position, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, and so on. You can calculate the maximum leverage you can use with your trading account based on the margin required by your broker.

There is a saying that goes, “Blink and you may miss it”. Well, with Forex trading, there is maybe no truer saying. In an industry that transacts more than five trillion dollars a day and with more and more being driven by algorithmic (“algo”) traders, it is becoming increasingly harder for the individual trader to keep up. One of the solutions for forex traders is the VPS, or virtual private server. In this post, we will look at three reasons why serious traders should use a VPS.

“Forex VPS” is a term that is currently doing the rounds within the world of investing, but what does it actually mean? If you’re not sure, don’t worry—not only is this tool easy to understand and implement, but it offers a lot of benefits to your overall forex trading strategy.

VPS stands for “virtual private server,” with the term actually having established links within the realm of web hosting. Forex VPS is a slight twist on the normal use of this technology: through the use of a virtual private server, you can tweak your trading activity and increase your reliance on automated expert advisors (EAs) or signal services.

Those who are just starting out in the world of forex trading are likely to face a wealth of options on the trading platform front. ZuluTrade, NinjaTrader, and Trading Station—among others—all have plenty to offer, but there is one trading platform that appears to be head and shoulders above the rest. MetaTrader 4 (MT4) is used by all leading forex trading experts and is truly award-winning in stature. Considering its comprehensive nature and growing reputation, the following looks at why MT4 is the perfect trading platform for almost every forex trader.

Timing is everything in forex trading. Enter a position too late, and you might miss out on the price movement you were hoping to use to generate a profit from your trade. 

The same is true when exiting a trade: If you exit too early, you might miss out on additional price action that would have fattened your profits. But if you hold on to a position too long, your profit margin could come crashing down as the price movement reverses and puts you at risk of taking a loss.

Experienced traders understand the importance of exiting as close to the peak of their potential profit as possible. Forex exit indicators can offer the foresight and information you need to identify the right exit opportunity and take a profit from your trading action. If you’re unfamiliar with these indicators, it’s worth educating yourself on your options so you can experiment with different strategies and identify the indicators that work best for you. 

Here are some popular forex exit indicators to consider using in your own exit strategy.

The parabolic stop and reverse (parabolic SAR) indicator was developed to help traders locate buy and sell signals for current trends and determine when to enter and exit trades based on an asset’s momentum. It was created by J. Welles Wilder Jr., a prolific mechanical-engineer-turned-analyst who pioneered a variety of the technical analysis tools that financial traders still rely on today. His other feats include the relative strength index (RSI), average directional index (ADX), and average true range (ATR).

Odds are that you’ve heard of the Elliott Wave Theory, which is often discussed in the same breath as Fibonacci patterns. The Elliott Wave Theory was developed back in the 1920s by American accountant and author Ralph Nelson Elliott—hence the name. He believed that stock markets traded in cycles that were repetitive. This was a revolutionary way of thinking at the time because, among 1920s traders, the stock market was considered to be chaotic. Since then, the Elliott Wave Theory has gained traction as a market analysis method within the world of forex.

Here we’ll take a look at the history of the Elliott Wave Theory, along with how you can apply it to forex trading in an attempt to predict market swings.