Investing + Trading

The Simplified Currency Conquistador Strategy

Illustration: Money

The Currency Conquistador is a forex strategy that was originally conceived by Bruce Babcock in 1991. Bruce is considered to be a pioneer of futures trading. Bruce traded with this Currency Conquistador strategy for a few years then released the Currency Conquistador II Strategy.

Nelson Freeburg also published an enhancement of Currency Conquistador Strategy in 1994 that was more simplified than the original Babcock version and worked for many futures contract as well. Let’s discuss this simplified Currency Conquistador Strategy. First, you need to check these conditions everyday:

ADX Trade Entry and Exit Filter That Will Improve The Performance Of Your Trend Trading System Drastically

Illustration: Analyze

Average Directional Index (ADX) was developed by J. Welles Wilder. ADX was constructed to measure the strength of the trend no matter if it was an uptrend or a downtrend. The idea behind the development of ADX indicator was not to identify a trend but to measure how strong a trend is when it is in place.

ADX is an oscillator that fluctuates between 0 and 100 values. However readings above 60 are rare. Readings below 20 indicate that the trend is weak and a reading above 40 indicates that the trend is strong. The trend can be up or down. ADX does not tell the direction of the trend. It only gives its strength. Direction of the trend can be easily found by just eyeballing the charts or drawing a simple trendline on the chart.

What Makes a Successful Forex Trader?

Illustration: Currency

There are many components that make up a successful Forex trader. Though certain individuals may showcase a particular talent for currency trading, anybody can become a successful Forex trader if they work hard and let reason guide all their transactions. There is much to gain from the high liquidity of the Forex market, but traders who behave irresponsibly will almost certainly suffer losses.

Trade Forex as a Business

Illustration: Forex Chart

So you want to earn lots of money and become amazingly wealthy. You have heard the rumours about Forex trading $3 trillion DAILY, and you figure you want a piece of that, just a little bit as you are not greedy…

So you now go out and buy the latest crazes of an EA, one copies the trades of a real life trader, and the other is the best EA on the market that shows that the creator (who used to work as a bin man, and now codes EA’s and buys the latest sports cars etc) turned a measly $100 to earning $56,637 per month stress free…

Make Money by Following Experienced Forex Traders

The Forex Trading Market is a big one. Over 2,5 TRILLION dollars fluctuate this market every day. This is a nice way to get a small piece of a big pie and become very rich in an enormously fast way. That is why so many young traders decide to dive into this market and invest their life savings without digging a lot deeper into the success secrets. This can be very dangerous for any investor. So there are a couple of ways how to insure earnings when you are using Forex Trading system.

Forex Trading During Interest Rate Changes

Illustration: Euro

Forex trading is more affected by interest rate changes made by any of the world’s eight central banks than any other influence. These banks include:

The Fed (U.S. Federal Reserve System)
ECB (European Central Bank)
BoE (Bank of England)
BoJ (Bank of Japan)
SNB (Swiss National Bank)
BoC (Bank of Canada)
RBA (Reserve Bank of Australia)
RBNZ (Reserve Bank of New Zealand)

Why PIPS are Almost Irrelevant for Measuring Forex Trading Performance?

Illustration: Analyze

When forex traders or companies want to tell other traders or people who might be interested in their trading about their performance they will often show them the number of pips made in a trade or in a given amount of time. Which is not bad at all but not enough information to say if a trader is consistently profitable. A pip in the forex world is commonly known as a point a currency pair moves either up or down. For example if the EURUSD jumps from 1.3800 to 1.3801 it has moved exactly up by one pip. What most traders or signal services do not publish is how much money value each pip has so there can never be made a real conclusion about how much money a trader has won or lost in a trade or during a time period with pips as the only performance information.

Top 4 Issues Facing the Currency Trader

Illustration: Euro

From my experience, the key to longevity as a Forex trader is to understandthe challenges that abound in the unpredictable world of currency trading.

By knowing your market and having a deep appreciation of the main variables at play, an experienced trader can equip him or herself with the necessary arsenal of tools to ensure consistent results over a profitable trading career.

In my mind, there are 4 key aspects to this:

Cross Currency Forex Technical Analysis

Trading Strategy

The major Forex pairs often move in harmony with each other as we all know. GBP/USD may be moving higher while USD/CHF moves lower. This is obviously related to the dollar as the common denominator in this particular scenario. Currency correlations can be very useful when conducting our analysis.

A Brief Guide to Avoid Common Forex Mistakes

Trading Strategy

When getting involved in foreign exchange (forex) trading, it is important to watch out for common mistakes that even experienced investors find themselves making. Given that forex trading is one of the most unpredictable, volatile activities currently out there for investors, it can be troublesome finding a sure-fire strategy without incurring painful losses. In order to minimize your losses while still maintaining an acceptable level of earnings, consider the following guide to help you achieve success in forex trading.

Forex Signals Trading – Turn $250 into $1 Million in 12-24 Months (Part II)

Trading Strategy

Please read the first part in order to understand this part of the article. Let’s suppose, that the forex signals are consistently profitable each and every month making you 1000 pips per month. Let’s do the maths and see if we double the number of lots every month, how much your account can grow.

Forex Signals Trading – Turn $250 into $1 Million in 12-24 Months (Part I)

Trading Strategy

Many new traders waste their money on buying expensive forex software while searching for a Holy Grail that can make them rich. But most get disappointed when the forex software does not work. In this article we will discuss a simple strategy that if properly implemented can turn $250 into $1M in 12-24 months. This strategy does not involve becoming a master of forex trading. But you need to have a some manual forex trading experience plus understand how the forex market works.

Binary Options Signals – Turn $300 into $50K in 5 Months Trading Not More Than 10 Minutes Daily

Illustration: Currency

Binary options are a new way to trade the market volatility. You simply have to bet whether the market price will be above or below a certain strike rate in order to make returns like 181% per hour. Once you enter the trade, you don’t need to monitor it. It is set and forget. Either it will end up in the money or it will end up out of money. No need to worry about the stop loss or the take profit like in forex trading. Your risk is already calculated once you enter the trade and is equal to your investment.

Forex Currency Pairs for the Novice Trader

Illustration: Currency

When looking to get involved in forex trading, there are several basic concepts that you must first understand. The most fundamental aspect of forex trading is that of currency pairs. Every trade involves an exchange between two currencies, with the most popular ones in the forex trading markets currently being: the Euro (EUR), the US dollar (USD), the Australian dollar (AUD), the Japanese yen (JPY), the Swiss franc (CHF), the Canadian dollar (CAD), and the British pound (GBP).

Traders Really Do Need to Let the Winners Run

Trading Strategy

Foreign exchange currencies often present big trend opportunities when the fundamentals line up. Many of those trends may last for years, however, many inexperienced traders come up with a fundamental oversight when attempting to transform those trends into a financial gain.

How to Choose a Reliable and Profitable Forex Signal Provider

If you are new to the forex world, are not profitable yet or don’t have the time to trade full time a forex signal provider can be a stress free way to generate profits from the forex market. Most people interested in Forex do not like the idea sitting 24/5 in front of their computer glued on the charts and analyzing data. Handling this kind of work to someone else and just check the account for profit and losses from time to time is possible by using a forex signal provider. Choosing a reliable and profitable provider can be quite tough and a lot of things have to be taken into account when searching for a trustable partner helping you with your financial gains.

5 Trading Myths Busted

In recent years, as Forex has become more popular, a mythology has sprung up around the foreign exchange markets, mostly propagated by people who don’t really understand what they’re talking about or worse, do understand what they’re talking about and deliberately mislead people. Here are a few of the popular myths busted.

The Top 5 Forex Trading Web Communities

Illustration: Currency

Traders speculate on international currency values before exchanging currencies on the Forex market – the world’s foreign currency exchange.

Traders use Forex web communities to share useful tools and insights before trading.

Read on for more on currency trading and the top 5 Forex web communities.

Do You Have a Day-Job and Don’t Have Time to Trade?

Trading Strategy

There is a good chance that YOU currently have a job, right? Let me ask you a question: “Why are you not making money in trading yet?” I mean, before you’re reading this then – you can’t be where you want to be in your trading.

Most traders stick to intraday trading for two reasons:

The Simple 20/20 Channel Breakout System That Made Many Millionaires

Trading Strategy

20/20 Channel Breakout Trading System is a simple system that was first suggested by Richard Donchian. Richard Donchian is considered to be a pioneer of technical analysis. He was the first person to talk about channel breakouts. He suggested a 4 week rule for trading channel breakouts. It was Richard Dennis who used this channel breakout trading system extensively and made a fortune in the commodities market.

US Butterfly Effect and Greek Default

News

Some may consider Greece to be both literally and economically distanced from the United States. Ironically, comparisons between the US ‘Lehman brothers’ and the Greek default are being uttered across the European financial landscape and media network. This cross country comparison serves as a powerful and equally haunting reminder of the connectivity between global markets and individual economies. The global financial beast is one and the same. Greek wings are flapping within the European ecosystem pushing Europe to the verge of a financial epidemic. An epidemic Jeremy Cook, Chief Economist at World First believes could make “the (financial) falls of three years ago look like a picnic.”

Things You Never Knew About Forex Success

Illustration: Currency

It’s funny how, in this crazy world of Forex; success seems so close… yet so far away. Do you get frustrated why you buy a Forex system – and it seems like a “re-hash” of something you’ve seen before?

Well, if I may ask you a question… What are you expecting in a “new” Forex system?

Are you expecting some revolutionary, latest-technology, never-before-seen system like you’ve never seen before?

If so, then you may have a long time to wait before you finally start getting success in Forex.

Who Wants a Simple Forex Strategy?

So you just want a simple Forex strategy to trade? Okay, let’s see what we can do…

Firstly, you want to get the probabilities in your favour; this means making sure you’re trading WITH the trend. Yes, I know, you’ve heard it before – but it’s true; trading with the trend will increase the probabilities for you.

The first thing we do is place two moving averages on the chart. The first moving average is a 50 Period Exponential Moving Average of the Highs; and the second is the same, a 50 EMA, but this time of the Lows.

You should have something that looks like this:

The Ultimate Low-Risk Entry in 3 Simple Steps (FREE Download)

Trading Strategy

I’m going to show you the lowest-risk, most reliable trading entry signal there is. It requires no fancy software or cutting-edge, “latest and greatest” system. In fact, it’s something you may have even heard of before, but ignored it as you were perhaps persuaded by some “fancy” new system.

Anyway, let’s get to it…

How the Dollar Index Works

Trading Strategy

When trading in the foreign exchange market, the value of the dollar has an impact on much of what goes on. The value of the dollar is influenced by many factors such as the gross domestic product, interest rates and other economic data. To determine the value of the dollar in relation to the other major currencies of the world, analysts and investors use a tool known as the U.S. Dollar Index. The dollar index is a numerical comparison to a basket of six of the major currencies that are represented in the world markets.

How to Use Carry Trade in Forex

Trading Strategy

The carry trade is a special kind of position (long term) trade in Forex. The idea is to locate a currency pair with a high differential in interest rate which preferably is trending in the appropriate direction, and purchase the currency with the high interest rate and sell the currency with the low interest rate. You want the currency you’re purchasing to be trending bullish. Then you wait, and accumulate profits, and eventually, you get out. And that’s about it.

The Greatest Forex Secret Never Told… and Exactly How to Trade It (FREE Download)

Currency

I’m going to share a little Forex “secret” with you right now that I’m certain you’ve never thought about.

Why am I so confident that you’ve never thought about it?… simply because it’s too obvious!

Give me another 60 seconds and I’ll explain…

A Very Simple Breakout Strategy for Beginners

Trading Strategy

This is a very simple breakout strategy. This simple breakout strategy uses only a line chart and RSI indicator. Line charts are the most simplest of charts. So, when you trade using this simple breakout strategy, you don’t need to get confused with candlestick patterns.

5 Negative Habits That Could Be Affecting Your Trading

Currency

Successful traders constantly strive to improve themselves and will do whatever is required to extract more money from the markets.

Controlling our mindset is crucial if we are to grow as effective traders. This article looks at 5 negative habits that could be affecting your bottom line and gives suggestions on how to counteract them.

How to Beat Forex When You Have a Day Job – Part 4/4

Trading Strategy

This is the final part of my FREE Forex strategy for traders with day jobs. If you haven’t read the previous parts yet, you can find them here: part 1, part 2, part 3.

How to Exit Your Trade

This following exit strategy, although extremely simple, is very effective. It will get you out of a bad trade quickly – also keep you in a good trade when you get on a big move.

How to Beat Forex When You Have a Day Job – Part 3/4

Trading Strategy

Welcome to Part 3 of this tried-and-tested FREE Forex strategy. If you’ve managed to missed the first two parts I highly recommend you check them out; you can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

We’re going to go through a specific example trade. This will give you an idea of how simple and easy this strategy really is. It will also give you an idea of how profitable it is as well!

How to Beat Forex When You Have a Day Job – Part 2/4

Trading Strategy

Welcome to Part 2 of my FREE 4-part series on how to easily trade Forex when you have a day job. If you haven’t read the first part, you can find it here.

In this article I am going to reveal the rules we will use to enter a trade. Let’s get to it…

How to Beat Forex When You Have a Day Job – Part 1/4

Trading Strategy

Welcome to the first in a series of four articles that reveal a FREE killer Forex strategy for those who don’t have time to trade through the day.

Most new traders, like YOU, hold down steady day jobs; and most trading strategies out there are targeted at those learning intraday trading. But intraday trading is just not possible for most new traders.

Perhaps you’ve tried Forex “Robots” or “Systems” in the past but were not happy with your results; today is going to be the day that changes your Forex trading forever. Not more systems, robots or signals.

I am going to show you exactly how to trade successfully, profitably and easily for YOURSELF.

Why an Economic Downturn is the Best Time to Trade Currencies

Trading Strategy

It’s true that the stock market on average tends to return meagre profits during economic slow times, but for the clever investor, an economic downturn can sometimes signal a good opportunity to trade in foreign currencies, on what is commonly know as the Forex market.

CFD Trading and the FX Market

Trading Strategy

Markets can often be a perplexing arena, with both positive and negative market movements. CFD trading can be used as a financial vessel to trade on these directional trades, enabling traders to react to not only positive market change but also dropping stock value.

The principles of CFD trading are derived from a contract for difference. The notion of a contract inevitably incorporates a two way relationship. The idea of 2 is at the heart of financial trading with a buyer and a seller forming the foundations to multiple trading relationships. At the core of CFD trading resides the concept of underlying value, not necessarily the stock you own but instead the movements of a particularly stock.

5 Characteristics Of Successful Traders

Trading Strategy

Based on my experience, trading the financial markets, I have identified five characteristics that differentiate professional traders from new traders. Generally speaking, professional traders typically do the following:

S&P Slashes US Economic Outlook

News

S&P has cut the US outlook from stable to negative. So can Republicans and Democrats put aside their differences to tame the supermassive deficit before the US implodes?

In the last 24 hours the ticking clock Republicans and Democrats have been operating under regarding the US deficit struck an intimidating bong. Ratings service Standard & Poor’s has slashed the US economic outlook from stable to negative – reflecting behemoth debt the US acquired in 2009 and the miniscule odds of its being paid back before 2014.

Japanese Machine Orders and Binary Options Strategy

News

Machinery orders offer a valuable insight into a country’s spending. Historical technical patterns resulting from the release of Japanese Machine orders, if high normally results in a bullish attitude towards the yen but with the shock of recent events re-writing past predictions, the outcome of the latest Japanese Machinery orders inevitably attracted market attention.

Is Forex Trading for You?

Currency

Forex or foreign exchange is a way you can invest your money. It works by taking advantage of the daily fluctuations between different currencies. When the forex market changes, the movement in points translates to dollars that you either make or lose, depending on your position.

You may be interested in investing in the forex market. However, it is not for everyone. It may look simple enough, but there are actually a number of social, political and economic factors at play that affect the value of a currency in a given day.

Why the Amount of Pips Made in a Day May Not Matter At All

The internet is saturated with cheap marketing and advertising ploys aimed at reeling in new forex traders. Most of them promise huge returns with the promise of thousands of pips per month. Many of the marketing schemes on the net boast things like, “Learn how to make 100 pips a day!” or “Our trading strategy yielded 2,000 pips last month!”

First of all, there are all sorts of ways these numbers are fabricated, but the reality is that pips don’t really matter. In this article, we are going to discuss why, and then we are going to discuss what really matters.

Basic Forex Strategies

Trading Strategy

The multi-billion-dollar per day Foreign Exchange Currency Market (Forex) is appealing to the individual investor because it is one of the most liquid investments available. In a way, it is a very simple, straightforward type of investing. Prices can either go up, down or sideways.

That is not to say that you can simply open a Forex trading account with a broker and start placing trades, unless your goal as a Forex trader is to become what’s known as, in Forex jargon, a “donor.”

How to Trade Out of a Bad Losing Position in Forex Back into Profit (Part II)

Trading Strategy

Please read the first part of How To Trade Out Of A Bad Losing Position Back Into Profit to understand this second part. The EURUSD pair starts to fall. You are happy, you plan to add the third lot at 1.3000. If the pair reaches this level, it means that the momentum is there for it to fall more. The pair falls, never reaches this level rebounds and makes a new high at 1.3420.

How to Trade Out of a Bad Losing Position in Forex Back into Profit (Part I)

Trading Strategy

You need to learn how to effectively trade out of a losing position into profit as a trader. If you apply proper money management, this situation might not arise. But suppose, you made an error of judgment and all of a sudden find yourself in a runaway trade that has the potential of blowing your account.

This situation can easily arise when you are using a mental stop instead of a real stop loss. This is what many pro traders do. They instead of using a real stop use a mental stop that they use to get out of the market. But pro traders also do another thing. Instead of getting out of the market, they prefer to slowly trade their way out of a losing trade.

Trading The Friday To Sunday Extension

Trading Strategy

As a forex trader, you can exploit the Friday to Sunday Price extension to make 10-30 low risk pips during the weekend while the markets are closed. This trading strategy works very well when there is high volatility on Friday like that what happens on the release of NFP Report.

The Anatomy of a Good Forex Trade

Candlestick Chart

If like so many people you have become dis-illusioned with the financial system and you feel like you need to take charge of your own investments then forex trading might well be a good option for you.

If you are new to forex though, it can all seem very daunting. Figuring out where to start your education is key. So in this post I wanted to lay down the basic structure of a good trade, so that you have at least some idea what you need to learn.

Is it Wise to Invest Online?

Forex Software

The great thing about the internet is that you can turn on your computer in the US and hop online to buy something in Africa. All this is done within just a few moments, and once you have made your secure payment (in dollars or otherwise) you can go ahead and sit back to wait for your purchase to arrive.

It’s all rather easy and definitely better than heading along to your local shopping mall to jostle shoulder to shoulder with everyone else there.

But when we think about going online we tend to think in terms of buying items online. Where do we stand when it comes to online investments?

How Forex Brokers Can Use Social Media to Obtain New Clients

In recent years, the Forex industry has managed to gain additional exposure by way of social media. Some Forex brokers are attracting new clients by using social media to share knowledge and important information. They’re using social media to make important connections with FX traders and prospective traders.

For example, Deutsche Bank’s online retail foreign exchange trading platform, dbFX, uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Linkedln to connect with FX traders and attract new visitors to its website.

Top 4 Reasons Forex Traders Fail

Trading Strategy

Most forex traders fail. While we don’t have completely accurate statistics to back up this statement, it is estimated that 90% – 95% of forex traders lose more money than they make.

The question that unprofitable traders continue to ask is, “Why can’t I make money in the foreign exchange?” Sometimes it even seems like the whole world is against you – your broker, your government, and, many times, even yourself.

But fear not. There are some common reasons why traders tend to lose money in the forex, and with a bit of knowledge, experience, and discipline, most of the reasons can be overcome. Let’s take a look at 4 common reasons for trading failure now.

Turtle Trading Rules That Made $100 Million

Trading Strategy

Are great traders born or are they made? This is the most important question that comes to the mind of anyone thinking of taking trading as a profession. This exactly was the topic of discussion between Richard Dennis and William Eckhardt, two great traders. Richard said that good traders are made and not born while Bill thought that good traders were only born.

How to Use Forex Binary Options to Make $2000 Per Hour?

Forex Software

Forex Binary Options are a new phenomenon that most investors and traders are not familiar with. In the last few years, binary options has become quite popular amongst the day traders. Many day traders are switching to trading forex binary options.

Currency Correlations in Forex Trading

Trading Strategy

Everything in the currency market is interlinked to some extent. Most of the currency pairs show correlations. Knowing about these currency correlations is important for you in order for you to reduce risk and diversify your portfolio. This knowledge of currency correlations will help you diversify and double up your investment portfolio without having to invest in the same currency pair plus also reduce your exposure to the market.

Chinese Tiger Consumes Japanese Economic Status

News

China has consumed Japanese growth, stepping up to its rightful position on the throne of financial supremacy. Binary options can be used to trade on economic events and market direction. China’s increasing prevalence within the financial world, is elevating the impact of Chinese economic events.
Japan has surrendered the title of second biggest economy in the world to China.

Japanese success and forex allure to an extent became a self-fulfilling byproduct of its descent. The rising Yen, driven by investors seeking risk adverse FX pairs, fused with weakening consumer spending to contract Japanese fourth quarter economic results. The tiger’s prowl was in many ways already predetermined by the velocity of Chinese growth throughout 2010, tempering market surprise.

Bad Risk Management in Forex Trading

Trading Strategy

Bad risk management can create stress and ruin your forex trading career. You might have the best forex trading system in the world but it will fail if you don’t practice good risk management. Losses are inevitable with any forex system. But what if you have bad risk management? You will blow out your account soon and most probably don’t have enough money to make those profits that you had dreamed when you started trading forex.

Bad risk management is one of the main reason that fails the budding career of many new forex traders. Many people start trading forex dreaming of making a million in just a few months. They overtrade, take on too much risk and get blown out by the market.

Keep A Trading Journal

Trading Strategy

Why you need to keep a trading journal? Trading is all about being disciplined. Successful traders don’t have any holy grail of systems or indicators. What they have is a lot of common sense and discipline. The importance of keeping a trading journal cannot be overemphasized if you want to become a successful trader. This is how hedge fund managers train their new traders. No doubt, leading banks are able to train and breed successful and pro traders using this simple strategy of inculcating the habit of keeping a trading journal and being disciplined in trading.

Importance of Timeframe Coordination in Forex Trading

Trading Strategy

Using the higher timeframe to confirm a trading signal on a lower timeframe is a skill that can be highly rewarding for a trader. Many traders take a trade that is coordinated on the lower timeframe but not the higher timeframe which often gives them bad trades and a waste of time and energy.

Suppose, you find the trend on the intraday chart and the trend on the daily chart in the same direction, it is like having the wind at your back.If you can master the art of identifying currency pairs that have the intraday trends in the same direction as the daily and the weekly trends, you can reap immense rewards.

Breakout Trading Entry, Exit and Stop Loss Strategies

Trading Strategy

Breakout trading can be highly profitable. But the problem is most breakouts tend to fail often. A breakout fails when the price returns to a point before the breakout. Suppose the price breaks out above the resistance line but soon retraces back below the resistance line. This means the breakout was false. But in many cases, prices retraces itself slightly above or below an important breakout level before continuing in the direction of the breakout.

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