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.

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).

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.

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.

In forex trading, there’s ample logic behind the rhyme “the trend is your friend.” Trading in the direction of a strong trend both minimizes your risk and increases your potential profit.

As a trader, being able to identify overbought and oversold market conditions can help you determine when to enter and exit a trade, what position to take, and when a trend reversal may be imminent. This insight allows you to manage risk and make more informed trading decisions. 

The most popular indicators used to identify overbought and oversold conditions are the relative strength index (RSI) and the stochastic oscillator. Both tools are momentum indicators and are plotted on a separate graph adjacent to that of the price action. They are also banded oscillators and, as such, have a set graphic range between 0-100. Overbought and oversold readings bookend the upper and lower bands, or extremes, of this range.

The bottom line is that money management will make or break you as a trader. This is a widely accepted fact.  Proper money management rules have been proven over long periods of time and are not secrets to anyone. The rules of ‘keeping your trades small’ and ‘cutting losses’ for example, have worked for hundreds of years, yet many people ignore them. 

No matter what aims you may identify when first determining what you are setting out to achieve with your trading, all aims are secondary to your primary goal — preserving your trading capital. This is by far the most important aspect of successful trading. Simply stated, you need capital to trade.