How (Not) to Lose Money With FX Currency Trading

Forex or FX currency trading is a risky business. Many people go into it with high hopes of getting rich and quickly find that it is easier to lose money in the foreign exchange markets than to make it. Even if you are ideally financed and have the best system, robot or plan, you may discover the sad fact that the one thing holding many traders back from success is themselves.

So in this article we look at some of the major pitfalls of forex trading and how to avoid them.

1. System hopping

One surefire way to lose money with forex trading is trying a system for a few days and giving up on it because it made a loss or two. Before you even start using a system you should be as sure as a person can be that it is going to be profitable. You have to accept losses and stick with it.

Remember that if you bail out every time that you are losing, you never give your systems a chance to put you back into profit. You will lose your shirt for sure if you hop from one system to another without giving anything a chance to work.
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5 Golden Rules on How to Make Money on the Forex Market

Just as there are rules and guidelines for forex trading strategies when you are learning how to make money on the forex market, there are also tricks for dealing with personal factors and habits that undermine our success. Here are 5 golden rules for handling ourselves so that we can move smoothly from hesitant beginner to successful forex trader.

1. Keep Cool

Successful traders do not let their trading depend on their emotions or their emotions depend on their trading. They do not risk more because they are feeling lucky, they do not hesitate when the signs are right, or pull out of a trade too soon out of fear. Equally, they are unlikely to celebrate a gain, nor will they sulk, shout or kick the dog when they lose.

A person who is ruled by their emotions will not make it as a forex market trader. Self discipline can be learned but make sure that you have fully mastered your emotions on a demo account before you think of going live. If you are still taking unplanned risks you are not ready for real trading.

2. Think For Yourself

Different traders have different techniques. This means it there is limited value in getting advice from anybody else. In fact, unless you know that the person follows your system and techniques, their advice is probably worthless to you.
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FX Charts: How to Use the MACD Indicator

The MACD or Moving Average Convergence Divergence indicator is one of the most popular tools on FX charts. It can be used either as an indicator in itself, or as a check when you are mainly relying on other tools.

The MACD chart measures faster and slower moving averages and whether they are getting closer together (converging) or farther apart (diverging).

When they are converging you will see the two lines on the chart approaching each other and the bars on the histogram at the bottom of the chart become smaller. This usually indicates that the current trend is coming to an end or has ended.

Of course the faster line reacts to a change in price movements more quickly than the slower line. So when a new trend forms, the faster line will get closer and finally cross the slower line. If it then separates or diverges from the slower line, this is often an indicator that a new trend has formed.
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Stochastic Indicator: What is It and How do I Use It?

The stochastic indicator is an oscillator that enables you to see at a glance the momentum of the market. Momentum is the pressure or weight behind the current trend. It is based on the idea that while prices are rising, the closing price will tend to be higher than it would be if the market was stable. Equally, when prices are falling, the closing price will tend to be low. From this assumption the oscillator measures when a trend is considered to have reached its limit and is about to turn.

The actual calculations are complex but fortunately you do not need to do them because most trading software will do this automatically for you. This means that you should be able to access the indicator plotted on a chart in your forex brokerage account.

The stochastic indicator will give you two lines that usually run fairly close together:
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Foreign Exchange Basics: How to Handle Forex News

If you want to make money from the forex market then you will need to know foreign exchange basics. You may have a good mathematical understanding of trends and charts but it is also important to understand the foundation on which the currency trading markets are based. If you do not, you could enter a trade at exactly the wrong time.

The forex market is heavily influenced by national and international news and current affairs. This especially relates to financial news but other major events can have an effect too. These may be expected or unexpected.

For example a disaster such as a major earthquake or terrorist attack is usually unpredictable but could affect currency values. There is not much you can do about this except always to be sure to use stop losses.
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Finding The Best FX Trading Platform

Finding the best FX trading platform can be a challenge for both brokers and traders. Brokers will want software that is reliable, adaptable to their needs and easy for their clients to use. Traders are also looking for ease of use with good technical information.

Forex Platforms For Brokers

Many forex brokers, especially the larger organizations, will have a trading platform custom built for them. This is big business and a brokerage company will usually sneak a look at all of the platforms that competitors are using and then try to build something better. The cost of this is sure to be high. It can take a long time too. Software development, like construction, is something that always seems to take longer than expected.

Smaller brokers cannot usually afford to have all of the software designed for them from scratch. Instead, they may buy an FX trading platform that they can use out of the box. However, experienced traders will recognize this and may avoid such brokers. It is hard for traders to have confidence in a company that does not appear to be investing any resources in its trading software.
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