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.

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.

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.

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.

When it comes to trading, it is widely accepted that there are two main approaches to your analysis of potential trades.  They are fundamental analysis and technical analysis.

Technical analysis is widely used by private traders and is becoming more and more popular.  It involves the study of a financial product’s actual price, to form an opinion on the likely future direction in which the price will move.

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. 

Two of the main reasons why forex traders lose money are stop-losses that aren’t used properly and unnecessarily large trading positions that are held far too long. Improperly used stop-losses are especially troublesome for novice traders, who don’t have the ability to plan long-term strategies around them.

If you’re looking to become a better, more knowledgeable trader, then read on to learn about the risk management strategies every forex trader should know.

As forex traders seek out stable investments that can hedge against inflation, market instability, and other geopolitical factors affecting currency prices, gold has grown in popularity over the past few years. Traders can use gold as a way to hedge against other investments, or as a safe haven that provides consistency over time and is more resistant to dramatic swings in valuation than many other currencies are.

If you’re serious about forex trading, you need to understand how charts and chart analysis tools can help you identify trades that maximize your potential earnings while minimizing risk. 

Within the forex market, there are traders known as position traders (sometimes referred to as “buy and hold” traders), who take positions for the long term. They base this on long-term charts and macroeconomics, and they operate in pretty much every market there is—including the hyperactive forex market. 

Considering how the popularity of position trading is growing, it’s worth putting this market approach under the microscope. Here’s a look at the details behind position trading, along with how common traders use positions.