UNDERSTANDING FOREX TREND

Forex is a volatile market the entails risk as we as profits. For you to be able to minimize your risk and increase your profit you need a trend indicator on how to monitor the market trend.

Market trend is talking about the movement of the market in either up or down direction over a given period of time. Your ability to read the trend determined the level of your profit and loss.

Successful trading is not about knowing the almanac of trading. It is about following basic setups, taught in a clear and easy to understand way. Most people trade news which is based on economic calendar. But trend trading gives you edge to trade before the news comes out.

Importance of trend signal

1.     Identifies and trades the trend

2.     Simple and Clear trade setups

3.     Removes the emotions from your trading decisions

4.      Helps you identify and manage stops

5.     Software formats automatically in all time frames

6.     No need to add trend-lines or understand complex maths

7.     Suitable for trading shares, indices, foreign exchange and commodities

8.     Suitable for day traders and investors

9.     Suitable for all levels of experience

10.          Expert trader support

11.         Choice of platform – now including MetaTrader4

Forex Trading Strategies

Generally, a Forex trader should be able to trade on all assets but it is

Recommended for novice traders to start with the major currencies, especially those that are against the US Dollar. This is due to the fact that these currencies have more trading volume and are more liquid and hence, have more chances for profitability. The British pound, Euro, Japanese Yen and the Swiss Franc are good currencies to focus on as they are widely traded in the Forex Market. This will give the trader more room to maneuver in his trading strategy. The Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar and New Zealand Dollar have less market volatility, but nonetheless, there are opportunities to isolate trends within these classes of currencies.

More advanced traders can take advantage of other groups of currencies pairs such as Crosses which are currencies pairs that do not include the USD. Likewise traders can trade commodities and indices which have the tremendous potential for profitability. It is advisable to always consider a short term market position as

Range Trading Although it is difficult to pinpoint where exactly these levels are, traders are still able to utilize these concepts because they can trade within these ranges. When the pair is trading within the support level regions, traders tend to adopt a “Long” market position and while at the resistance region, they tend to adopt a “Short” market position.

Drawbacks of Range Trading One of the major drawbacks of Range Trading is that there is little chance for extraordinary profits within the ranges. The market generally spikes or crashes suddenly when it breaks the threshold of these levels, and when that happens, traders adopting Range Trading strategies will find themselves incurring huge losses when the prices jump or drop suddenly. Technical Factors Influencing Price Movements Another method of research Forex traders can use to formulate a trading strategy is through Technical Analysis. Although Technical Analysis can be mentally challenging at first, once one masters the techniques of Technical Analysis, it is easy to apply to trading strategies. It is also an extremely useful tool that makes up for the shortfalls of Fundamental Analysis. The main problem that traders face with Technical Analysis is that there are so many ways to analyze market information. Any misinterpretation will lead to the wrong conclusions and results. On the flip side, because the majority of market participants rely on Technical Analysis tools, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. With traders watching the same technical indicators, it is a foregone conclusion that the market will move in a direction that is indicated by technical indicators derived from Technical Analysis. Using Technical Analysis to Trade Major Currency Pairs The main objective behind Technical Analysis is to work with  charts to identify trends when they initially develop. This will permit the trader to capitalize on trends until they switch direction. The reason why Technical Analysis plays such an important part in the Forex market is because the Forex market is comprised mainly of trends. Due to the nature of the Forex market, traders are able to trade on the ups and downs of the market. It is in this situation where Technical Analysis is most Candlestick Charts These charts bear a resemblance to a bar chart, but they also show the prices of the Open and Close time frames, Highs and Lows. When compared to bar charts, they are easier to peruse as they are used to denote price movements. A blue color is used to show prices on the upswing while a red color is used to show the opposite direction of the prices. An example of a candlestick chart is depicted below: Reading Candlesticks A candlestick displays the high, low, open, and close for a security over a specified period of time. For example: In a 30 minute chart each candlestick represents 30 minutes. The open is the first rate that was received in the beginning of the 30 minutes and the close is the last rate. If the open rate is lower than the close rate it means the rate has increased during the candle and the candle will be blue, if the rate decreases the candle will be red. The upper wick shows the highest rate during the candlestick. The lower wick shows the lowest rate during the candlestick.