Answer: It is an inaccurate understanding of Forex trading and the Forex market.

One day a certain speaker asked his audience this question: “would you like to get rich quick?”. The hearts of the people in the audience leaped with excitement as they immediately thought of all the things they could do with their new-found wealth. The speaker hooked their interest and proceeded to fan the flame of their excitement by asking, “What if I told you I knew the secret to Forex trading?”. As the presentation progressed, the speaker presented his Forex trading stats of the past three months. Amazed that his account grew 120% in the last three months, the audience was ready to purchase the speaker’s serve. Like sheep going to the slaughter, they forked over substantial amounts of money and were soon disappointed.

The secret of Forex is simply this: “There is not a secret to Forex”. Lured in by the false hope of getting rich quick, many Forex traders get poor quick. Whether it is from purchasing multiple Forex services, or trading themselves, numerous people find themselves broke as joke because of a faulty understanding of Forex Trading.

Is getting rich quick in Forex possible? Absolutely, and so is getting poor quick. If you happen to double your account in a month, chances are, you will try to do it again and end up losing more than you initially profited.

As the world’s largest market, the Forex market holds the most potential, but if we approach it with a “gambling”, “lottery”, or “get rich quick” mindset, chances are, we may be part of the 95% of Forex losers.

With 2013 right around the corner, let’s make a New Year’s resolution together to NOT approach Forex trading like the lottery.

We are going to take a look at three essential aspects of Forex trading. If we have the accurate understanding of Forex trading, we are positioning ourselves for long-term success. The first understanding we need in regards to Forex trading is “security”.

Security

Before you invest, it is critical to have your financial house in order. Your Forex trading should not consist of using your last $1,000 to create some much needed cash. This is a recipe to disaster. Investing should always be done with money that you can afford to lose. Why? Because it is possible to lose it! Investing always consists of risk.

Here is the truth: when you trade with money that you cannot afford to lose, the emotional pressure becomes so heavy that you could easily lose everything in result of unreasonable decisions.

Please do not put you and your family’s financial security in jeopardy by risking money that you can not afford to lose.

If you are not in a position to trade, then do not trade. Without the foundation of financial security, your “wealth house” will crumble when the storms come.

If you practice this principle, you will not go into depression when you lose money. By the way, it is very likely you will lose money before you gain any. Becoming a profitable trader is a process.

Sight

How you think about something is how you will treat it.

How you see things, is how you’ll value things, and how you value things, will determine how you treat things.

If we would like to make money with Forex trading, let’s have the correct perception of what it is. Forex trading is a stream of income. It is not a hobby. It is not a sophisticated gambling method. It is not “the stream of income”, but rather “a stream of income”.

This is a crucial understanding to possess because if we do not see Forex trading as a stream of income, or a business, we will not treat it as one. We will easily be moved by our emotions and make decisions that could be regretted in the future. If we see it as something very valuable, we will treat it with care, and handle it seriously and professionally.

Submission

We need a plan. Winston Churchill said it best, “He who fails to plan is planning to fail”.

Once we develop a plan, we can then submit to it. “Submission” simply means to come under a mission. “Sub” “mission”, when we have a mission (or plan) we can then submit to it with discipline and consistency.

First, we need a plan. There are many resources on finding Forex strategies and developing Forex trading plans, but for times sake, let’s be very elementary.

Get a plan, try it on a demo account, after a certain time period of success, trade it live. If you later find that your plan is becoming ineffective, adjust your plan, and trade it on demo again until it is suitable for a live account.

Never feel obligated to risk your money, but if you are entering a trade, let it be in the parameters of your Forex trading plan.

As many of you know, the market is dangerous. Jumping in without a plan would be like jumping in the middle of the ocean without knowing how to swim.

Some traders may say “I want to turn this $10,000 into $100,000 in the next 10 years.” If you ask them “how?” they may give you a blank stare.

Truth is, a goal without a plan is a fantasy. To be a real trader, we need to face reality, and really stick to a plan.

Discipline and consistency are key. By the way, if you are not consistent in your budget, you will probably not be consistent with your trading plan. If you don’t have a budget… please do not trade.

On the other hand, flexibility is also essential. If a plan has stopped working, maybe it needs adjustment. Cease live trading for a time period as you develop and test your critiqued strategy and then get back at it.

In conclusion, because of the abundance of lies, it is more important now than ever to know the truth about Forex trading. With financial security, a correct perception of the market, and submission to a Forex trading plan, you are setting yourself up for success! You can do it!

Forex Trading

The Idea
Simply put, Forex trading refers to the practice of trading world currencies against one another. Needless to say, world economic systems operate with independent currencies, and the performance of various markets raises and lowers the values of these currencies against each other. Therefore, there can be money to be made simply by way of exchanging currencies. The general concept is simple: if your currency is in the form of the euro, and you foresee that in the coming days or weeks the dollar will strengthen in relation to the euro, it may pay off to invest in the dollar. It can be a tricky market to read, but once you get the hang of it, it can be a fun and effective way to manage your finances.

The Risks
Forex trading can actually come with considerably lower risk than other forms of investment, for one main reason. That reason is that it is generally easier to read an overall economic market than an individual stock, industry or product, and the overall economic market has a more direct effect on currency value. However, there is still risk in Forex trading, and generally it lies in the fact that when you trade currencies you are reading multiple factors, rather than just one. Judging the weight of currency strengths against one another means constant attention to new cycles and economic trends for the nations or regions behind both currencies, and it can certainly be an exhaustive and fast-paced practice.

The Benefits
Aside from the obvious potential for financial gain from sound investments, perhaps the key benefit in Forex trading is that the market will never dry up. For the most part, any industry or product that you invest in has at least a minor potential to experience a dramatic downward shift – and while this can happen with entire economies, there will always be multiple currencies competing for supremacy. Because this is the very foundation of Forex trading, it means there will always be an active market for those who learn how to trade it effectively.

Gold Bullion Purchase

The Idea
Another form of investment that is more about financial management than long-term gains, gold bullion purchase is a very unique economic practice. Basically, here is how it works. There are websites, such as Bullionvault, that allow you to buy, store or sell gold at your own convenience with fair, reliable, and constantly updated prices. Why bother with this? Essentially, the majority of people who buy gold from Bullionvault do so to avoid potential depreciating value of their respective currency. For example, if your currency is the euro and you fear a drop in its value, you can purchase gold to preserve the value of your wealth. Gold prices do not jump sharply or suddenly, which means you will not experience significant gains, but they are also not prone to dramatic drops, which means your wealth should be protected while your currency remains unstable for a given amount of time.

The Risks
The risks of gold investment are tied directly to the intention behind your investment. Truth be told, gold – at least for the past decade or so – has been one of the most stable and low-risk investments available. That said, however, it is possible to invest in gold and end up with significant assets tied up for a long period of time without making a great deal of money. As mentioned, gold is most frequently used as an alternative to weakening or unstable currency, rather than a means for sharp gains, and this means that it can be frustrating for those who are hoping to earn significant financial returns. However, while there are no guarantees, gold remains a very low-risk source of investment in that it is highly unlikely for the price to drop suddenly or dramatically.

The Benefits
The benefits of gold also depend on the intent you have for your investment. As has already been discussed, the chief benefit is, in most cases, the stability that gold can offer when used as an alternative to unstable currency. Additionally, however, gold can also offer you an opportunity for modest growth over the long term. Worth noting is that the price of gold has risen consistently on an annual basis for the past decade without interruption. This means that while you will almost certainly not find yourself making enormous or quick gains, it is quite likely that your investment will be a bit more than stable. Depending of course on the specific market, your gold investment can certainly make you money over time, much like any other investment – the difference is that the gains are typically more modest, just as the risk is lower.

Ultimately, these two forms of alternative investments – gold purchase and Forex trading – are wonderful suggestions for people looking to expand their financial portfolios or alter their money management. There are of course different investment opportunities for different people, and the most important thing to determine is what your financial goals are. But if you are looking for ways to manage your existing finances to avoid loss and make gradual gains – rather than attempting to grow your bank account significantly over a short period of time – the investment strategies mentioned above may be worth looking into.

By: Richard Sobin.

You probably already know that domestic stock markets can play a large role in the value of a currency, but this method can be especially helpful when trading binary options. The market pull effect is a term used to describe the phenomenon when one financial instrument influences the price action of another. This can easily be seen in the relationship between the U.S. dollar and the price of gold. There is typically an inverse relationship between these two different assets; let’s examine why.

The U.S. dollar is the world’s most widely traded currency. Gold is viewed as the single most valuable way to accommodate for a currency. For example, people are likely to stockpile gold in anticipation of the event that a currency begins to lose value. Therefore, if the dollar begins to lose its value, people rush to supplement their portfolios with the next best thing: gold. So if the price of the dollar begins to drop, the demand for gold typically goes up. An increase in demand coupled with a decrease in sellers’ supplies means an increase in price. So when the dollar goes down, gold goes up. This is a simplified explanation, but the basic premise is here.

What does this mean for your trading? You have probably already incorporated these facts into your Forex trading, but the same principles can also be applied to binary options trading, especially the longer term trades. For example, if you find a gold option that is set to expire four hours from now, if the dollar is consistently dropping in appropriate markets, purchasing a call binary option on gold will be a good idea here. Long term action in one market translates to long term action in another.

The same is not quite as true for short term trades. A 60 second binary option might seem like quick money, but it’s just not that easy. Short term trends in the dollar do not always make for short term trends in the price of gold. For these lightning quick type trades, the market pull effect is not as prevalent and needs to only be exercised in rare occasions. The benefit of 60 second binary options is that they mature quickly. The big downfall is that random chance plays a large role and is a lot harder to have a good correct trade rate.

The market pull effect is a good way to supplement your trading and it will likely create many more good trading opportunities for you. This is important since you want to focus on the quality of your trading much more than you do the quantity. Conducting a lot of trades in a short time might give you big profits, but it also increases your risk of big losses. A few good trades will be more profitable than many uncertain ones.

With binary options, the goal is not to be right by a lot, but just to be right. With the Euro’s actions, there was plenty of room for this to happen. If you were to open up call positions directly after the announcement took place, you would have been faced with a multitude of tools that would have allowed you to make money. For example, a 60 second option would have given you almost instantaneous profits as the price jumped up considerably in a very short period of time. Because the price only needs to rise higher than the opening price, you could have easily have made money with other types of call options as well. Five minute options and up all would have been profitable because when the price of the Euro increased, it stayed up.

There are some interesting things to be aware of when it comes to major influential announcements like this. Some binary options brokers allow you to open up positions with high payouts if you are trying to go beyond a certain, and sometimes seemingly impossible, price. For example, there is a type of high yield option that says if the price rises above a certain number you will have 300 percent of your initial investment returned to you, rather than the usual 175 percent. This is usually not a gamble worth taking because of the big failure rate, but in the wake of major announcements like the ECB’s, these types of options become more accessible. If you are astute enough to keep on top of the major announcements that will affect currency prices, finding these high yield payouts is an important way to multiply your earnings.

Again, these types of options should usually be avoided since they are extremely hard to make profitable. With a 300 percent payout (or more), people might flock to these, but they quickly learn that losing 100 percent many times in a row does not outweigh the relatively small amount of money that you can make by being correct every once in a while here. High yield options should be normally avoided, but taking advantage of them when you have consumer sentiment on your side can pay off in a big way.

Not all brokers offer these trades and those that do won’t always have them available for the assets you want to trade, so you do need to look out for these. But when you find them and use them correctly, they can help you in a big way.

The French election has also sparked some concern over the Euro. With incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy losing the first round of voting to the far left candidate Francois Hollande, there seems to be some concern over which direction the country is moving in. Sarkozy will still advance to the final round of voting, but he has another major foe running against him: the far right Marine Le Pen. This nationalist candidate has raised concerns over French and European solidarity, and could mark the beginning of even more intense struggles within the European government. Until this election is finalized, the Euro will probably hang in limbo in comparison to other major currencies.

The Japanese yen is also performing well, even with the given problems faced by the rest of Asia. In fact, this currency is performing better than any of the other major global currencies, including the U.S. dollar. The yen gained about 0.08 percent in early trading on Tuesday and it looks like it will continue to increase in price for the foreseeable future. The Japanese economy is by far the strongest in Europe as of right now, and its currency’s performance is a reflection of this fact.

The dollar is still strong, and it is a better alternative to the European currencies. Even minor currencies, such as the Swiss franc, are performing poorly against the dollar. The franc is doing better than others, as this price chart seems to be going through a period of consolidation. In other words, the USD/CHF price chart is moving sideways. The Swiss currency has a long history of being a safe haven, but for now, the yen seems to be the slightly better choice.

Other widely traded minor currencies, such as the Australian dollar, are also struggling in relations to the USD. In early Tuesday trading, the AUD lost about 0.29 percent of its value against the USD. This trend shows that there are larger doubts looming in regard to the worldwide economy. The dollar and the yen are profiting from these concerns, but this might spell major trouble at some future point.

The software works up to 87% accuracy and currently is effective on over 23 currency pairs. It’s not so much about the history of the software and what it’s proven, but is what it can do for you in the future. The setup is pretty clear and simple and allows you to trade on a daily intraday setup. What this means is, it allows you to trade in the morning when the markets open and not have to worry about making trades during the day. No, it’s not a set it and forget it system but it does allow you to trade based on predictive artificial intelligence that gives you the trade in the morning.

The goal of TradeVantage is to create wealth for your account. It uses artificial intelligence which is more like intelligent machines and computers to accomplish this.

Some things you want to know about Trade Vantage are:
It’s not an EA or trading robot
It’s not an indicator
It’s not a expert advisor for the Metatrader charting software
It’s not a marketing program created by marketers
It doesn’t confuse you when you want to work with it

When you open the software it connects to secure servers and downloads the latest market data which then provides the trade signals for the day. There’s no connection other than a Login you need for this Tradevantage software. You then use any trading platform you wish to make your trades.

Once you have the software open you will see five distinct trading signals.
1. No trade – which means you don’t have to open any trades or no trades are opened
2. Buy to open – you are currently not in the trade when the markets open and buy the currency pair
3. Sell to open – you are currently not a trade, and in this case the market opens sell the currency pair
4. Hold – you already have a position open on the currency pair and aren’t supposed to do anything but hold the trade
5. You have position open in your set to close

We can go on and on about all the different things Tradevantage does. We can also go over all this proof that it’s done in the past. It’s probably better to go check out the full-page about Trade Vantage and learn more about how you can get started with the software. At this point it doesn’t come cheap, but at least you have a potential software to make a lot of money for your account. (Read More…)

How will this affect the market? For starters, it’s a good thing that the stock market is closed for Good Friday because this would undoubtedly be detrimental to stock prices. March marked the 15th straight month that jobs were added to our economy, but the rate of growth is beginning to slow down, which is not good news for still choppy financial markets. This is especially true of the U.S. dollar. In light of a weak Euro, the dollar has been gaining value steadily, but today’s non-farm payroll report encouraged the Euro to rise by about a quarter of a percentage point. The dollar also fell against the British pound by about 0.35 percent.

The incoming non-farm payroll data was far less than was expected, especially after all of the encouraging news that our economy has recently received. Layoff reports say that this practice is down, and there are 21 percent more job openings than there was a year ago for a total of over 3.4 million. This payroll report trumps all of these pieces of news, though, thanks to its weighted importance upon U.S. financial markets. This report packs quite a bit of punch and the markets will surely respond in kind when they reopen next week. The biggest weakness in the U.S. economy is the retail sector, where 34,000 jobs were lost last month. And while average hourly wages increased, the amount of hours decreased even more, making the average weekly pay decrease overall. Other key areas, like manufacturing, business services, healthcare, and restaurants all saw an increase in the amount of jobs that they offer.

Federal treasuries rose in value, however, on this news. Bonds moved sharply up in price during the limited trading day, which is good news for long term investors.

This data will surely cause stocks to fall in value at the beginning of the week, but by the end of the week, other more prevalent factors will shape trading. The deficit and consumer sentiment will all be much more influential by the end of next week.

Traders around the globe are flocking to the dollar as the EU’s debt problems worsen and joblessness increases. Spain’s debt is only another mark against the Euro and will most likely not be the last. Europe’s Central Bank (ECB) held rates at 1.0 percent, thus sparking even more distrust in the Euro. While the steady interest rate was expected, it did only add to the feelings that Europe’s economy is in trouble.

The Euro’s chart has a similar feel to it. It recently fell below a key support level and it has been extrapolated by some experts that if the Euro closes below this level, there will be deep concerns about the substantial losses that the Euro will be facing. As market movement progresses throughout the trading day, this looks like it will almost be a certainty.

The Euro’s woes have led to an increase in strength of both the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen. The dollar and the yen both face the smallest amount of hindrances of any of the world’s major currencies, thus making them a safe harbor for traders looking to go long. Of these two, the yen is the top performer as it made gains against even the U.S. dollar in recent trading, with the yen gaining about 0.8 percent for the day against the greenback.

If you look at the EUR/JPY pair, more concern is raised over the Euro’s health. The yen gained about 1.3 percent against the Euro, illuminating the Japanese economy as perhaps the best place for Forex traders to put their money. The growing yen comes after about three weeks of consolidation. Prior to this, the yen was in a definite uptrend. There is strong suspicion that this upward sloping trend is capable of resuming—especially against the Euro—as the EU’s economy worsens in comparison.

If one currency is looking the strongest, it is definitely the Japanese yen. Whether or not this trend is going to continue remains to be seen, but recent evidence indicates that the yen is going to pull away from the Euro and the pound sterling. The dollar will likely continue to increase against these two currencies as well, but its progress in comparison to the yen is still up in the air.

The British pound came under question today as well, as the UK released that it had its slowest manufacturing month since December. While the pound ultimately rose in price in relation to the dollar by about 0.09 percent, there is cause to worry that these two European currencies are going to lose a lot of steam. The dollar is, of course, the most logical alternative to these beleaguered currencies.

As the dollar seems to grow stronger, there are other signs besides worldwide currencies showing that indicate that this is the case. The Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P 500 all had stellar days as the economic outlook for the U.S. in 2012 begins to brighten. With the first quarter of the year over and officially productive, these stock market indices all went up in value. While the U.S. markets and the U.S. dollar don’t always move in lockstep, the economic data for the U.S. is starting to improve. Joblessness is down to about 8.3 percent, the lowest it has been in quite a while.

But in Europe, the jobless rate continues to go up. The rate is currently the highest it has been in the last 14 years at about 10.8 percent. This undoubtedly is going to play a big factor in the Euro’s value over the next several months. If European jobs and manufacturing are both down, things do not look good for the long term Euro holder. This is a large part of the reasoning behind the Euro’s recent collapse.

And while the Euro is still in a better spot than it was three months ago, it has been in a relative consolidation motion for the last two months, as the price oscillates up and down without really making up its mind which direction it wants to head. This is due in a large part to the Greek debt crisis, but it is also not resolving itself because of deeper running problems that flow throughout all of Europe. The consolidation will not last forever and when it ends, the Euro will most likely fall to a more appropriate level.

(Figure1) GBPUSD Bounce off of the Pivot Point

Our next trade setup occurred on March 21, 2012 (Figure2). This was a similar type of Binary trading setup as the image above. Notice the pretty steep decline and then we had one huge candle that gave it the extra momentum to the south side. We knew if the next candle hit we should take this call option. This bounce was another no pain bounce that gave us a 6-8 pip winner.

Some things to consider when it comes to trading this EURUSD chart are the fact that we dropped a good 20-30 pips in a short period of time. This gives you more leverage when seeking a bounce versus a follow through. A lot of times currency pairs will consolidate before moving the same direction again. This was a perfect example. It literally poked through the line and came back above within 2 minutes.

(Figure2) Call Option off the Pivot Point was Ideal

This last trade setup had an interesting move that caught our attention. This trade took a few extra minutes of watching, but once it occurred it was very favorable setup. With over a 50 pip move from it’s top we noticed it didn’t really consolidate. However we didn’t want to get in on a call option before it got to the pivot. There were a couple of put option opportunities available if you were looking for those. However, notice how it consolidated finally at around 13:26. We knew that once it broke to the pivot we could enter the call option. The long candle closed at 13:58, so this trade would be the 14:15 binary trade. You also had several candles to enter before it popped. Once it popped you were free and clear with a 10+ pip winner. This stuff happens all the time.

(Figure3) Play Pivot Points as Support while Binary Trading

The key to these setups is to be looking for them or have some kind of alert to tell you this is happening. This allows you to just take favorable opportunities.