Each month, investors and economic analysts cast an eye over a number of key reports. Since 1951, the Retail Sales Index (RSI) report has solidified its status as one of the most important of these, largely due to its overview of the value of merchandise sold within the retail trade sector. Calculated by reviewing a selection of companies engaged in the business of selling end products to consumers, the report has always been a true testament to how companies of all sizes—from Walmart down to small-town stores—are collectively impacting the U.S. economy.

To help you understand its consistent relevance, the following breaks down the RSI report, explaining why it’s important and how you should approach it from a forex trading perspective.

“He that can have patience can have what he will.” - Benjamin Franklin

I believe that one of the most underrated character attributes of a successful trader is patience. It doesn’t matter whether you are a short-term, medium-term or long-term trader, whether you only trade foreign exchange or other financial products, patience is still applicable in several different situations.Patience is important when considering how you manage your trade exits, whether it be at a loss or profit.  If you lack patience you may have difficulty seeing a trade through until it hits its take profit level, and in order to achieve consistent long-term trading success, it is important that you do allow trades to take their course.

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.

It is amazing how many people I speak to about trading and how often the conversation eventually makes its way to the topic of cutting losses and exiting trades.  It is almost as if people accept that most of your trading success boils down to this single clearly identifiable task.

Whilst trading routinely involves decision making, there are not too many more important decisions you have to make than when to exit trades.  It is one of those items that you probably wish you knew when you first started trading – as a beginner, it is incomprehensible that your trade exits are so important to making money. 

When you’re on the hunt for an online forex brokerage, you’ve got options. Online forex trading has seen a number of platforms rise to prominence by providing state-of-the-art capabilities that meet the needs of both new and experienced forex traders. Meanwhile, the market for electronic communication network (ECN) brokers continues to see new platforms attempt to break in among forex traders.

There are several specific traits that assist winning traders and that losing traders do not consider.

A common trait for many losing traders is the search for the Holy Grail or at the very least, the development of such a complex trading system, that even the trader who thought up the approach, will likely lose their place a few times should they describe it to you.

Traders often undertake a search for the perfect entry system, even if it is subconsciously. If the trader does not search for the perfect system, they may develop an overly complicated approach, with the belief that ‘more complicated must be better’.

One of the most common questions I receive at trading events relates to making that transition from being a part time trader to trading full time and deriving an income from their trading activities.  

I know many people think about this - how should one start out in forex trading while still holding down a full-time job?  Then, how should one transition from a full-time job to be a forex trader?

This is always a difficult situation to assess and of course, everyone’s situation is very different.  It is important that people don’t think they can quit their job on Friday with next to no trading experience and start trading successfully the following Monday.  This ambition is farcical.  

The reality is that developing the necessary skills and attributes to be a successful trader takes time – a lot of it.  We almost need to train ourselves to think very differently and counter intuitively. 

Investors of all stripes use hedging as a strategy to protect one position from adverse price movements. Typically, hedging involves the opening of a second position that is likely to have a negative correlation with the primary asset being held, meaning that if the primary asset’s price makes an adverse movement, the second position will experience a complementary and opposite movement that offsets those losses.

In forex trading, investors can use a second pair as a hedge for an existing position they’re reluctant to close out. Although hedging reduces risk at the expense of profits, it can be a valuable tool to protect profits and stave off losses in forex trading.

Unfortunately, many people who start trading find success difficult to achieve, especially early on.  Trading is a challenging endeavour that has torn people from across the world across generations, from every extreme of their emotions.  

It is our money that is directly involved in trading and therefore at risk, and the potential of making more money is our primary motivation for beginning this undertaking.  Ironically, it is the money that encourages the vast majority to attempt to trade yet it is the money that causes most people to fail.