FX trading |

How to use Bollinger Bands when trading the markets

EXPLOSIVE moves: everyone wants to be part of them, but how can we detect them before it’s too late? A basic indicator which is standard on most systems are Bollinger Bands. Loading this indicator for a FX pair like euro-dollar will show you the 20 day moving-average and the standard deviation of price over the same period. The standard deviation will be shown as two lines, one above and one below the current 20 day…

How to make the most of strong trends with breakouts

Posted on by The Editorial Team

WITH trends picking up steam over the last couple of months, we have seen the return of an old and familiar trading strategy: breakouts. The breakout was one of the first trading techniques I learned and it’s one of the easiest to understand. The idea is that the price trend of the asset we want to trade will remain in place. When the trend is bullish, we should buy when price breaks out above a…

How to make use of compounding in your FX trading

Posted on by The Editorial Team

ALBERT Einstein reportedly said that compound interest is “the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it… he who doesn’t… pays it.” There are examples of compounding in FX. One FXCM client, for instance, invested $14,000 over the last two years and made a $100,000 return. How? First, they held positions for 28 days on average. Second, the trader would only trade in line with strong trends. Finally, they would add to…

Managing risk and expectations: Average True Range

Posted on by The Editorial Team

TRADING always involves risks and rewards. Your position has a potential upside (it’s the reason you trade), yet to be able to take advantage of it, you need to accept some risk. One simple way to assess this is to use the Average True Range (ATR) indicator. The indicator gives you the average range over the time frame you are trading. Say that you hold a bearish euro-dollar view. What would be a good profit…

Why it’s crucial to know your trading environment

Posted on by The Editorial Team

MARKETS will usually experience three types of market condition: downtrend, uptrend or ranging. Knowing which trading environment you are in can save you money and time. This is because the technical analysis tools and systems investors use will act differently depending on the market environment. Working with breakouts, in strong trending markets a sloppy entry might work, as the trend will eventually lift price beyond your entry. Using the same technique in a flat market,…

How to choose the market that matches your convictions

Posted on by The Editorial Team

MOST people have a fairly good idea of what is driving the financial markets. But much of the time, only a few are any good at choosing the right market to express their views of what’s going on. A good example of this is the overly bearish view of the Eurozone throughout 2013 by professional forecasters. While many were anticipating euro weakness, it took until the first quarter of 2014 before we saw a major…

Real Forex Volume: The new kid on the trading block

Posted on by The Editorial Team

AT TIMES, trading is an information arms race, where the traders with the best knowledge and the discipline to stick to their ideas tend to do better than those who trade on a whim. With this in mind, traders may be interested to hear that FX brokers have started to share their trading volume in real time. Such information was previously only revealed on exchange-traded products, like shares. Using examples from the stock markets, traders…

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