Archive for February, 2010

Trade Entry Tactics 101

By Jimmy Cox

Every investor needs a trade entry system. The first fundamental step of trading is to choose the market in which you want to trade. But, within each market, there is a plethora of trading opportunities to chose from - I call this the universe of securities. So how do you choose from this vast universe? Simple. Predefine your trade entry rules.

Trade entry rules are a stringent set of conditions that you develop, document and then apply, to decide when you are going to enter a trade. It doesn”t matter what securities you”re trading, you just need a consistent method of trading entry.

Like sifting through a bucket of sand trying to find pieces of gold, the same approach is used to reduce your universe of securities to a shortlist of those that meet your criteria.

Developing your trade entry rules

As in all aspects of trading, there are many theories on buy-on-sell price points. I believe the best way to approach trade entries should be simple, direct and leave nothing to human judgement. This is contrary to the philosophy of many traders who buy stocks based on media reports, ”expert” opinion, rumours and/or gut feel. The good news is that by acting contrarily, you will do what most traders never do… make a profit.

Reinventing the wheel

You shouldn”t copycat someone else’’s system, but that’’s not to say you can”t take elements of a proven trading plan and stitch them together into something that will suit you and your personality.

The example of Richard Dennis and his Turtles illustrates proves an excellent illustration of the importance of following a trading plan. Dennis’’s proteges were successful because they were under his direction at all times. Every trade was heavily scrutinised and made according to his strict rules. The students had to follow these rules or be dropped from the project. The fear of loss forced the traders to follow the system no matter what. In the real world, most people would not have the discipline to do this. And nor should they; it wasn”t designed for them.

Furthermore, the Turtles were trading with someone else’’s money. When it’’s your own money on the table, you need to be completely comfortable with the decisions you make, and you can”t do that unless your system suits your personality.

Dennis’’s students went on to become successful traders in their own right because they learnt discipline from their mentor, not because they continued to trade his system out of the box. They adapted it to suit themselves. And that’’s what you should do.

Think of it this way: how many people do you know who have stayed in a job or field of work just because it’’s what they”re used to? They may not love it, but they persist just the same. Maybe you”re one of those people. But, while these people might be able to do that job with their eyes closed, they will never excel at it if they”re not passionate about it. Their heart needs to be in it. Trading is the same. If you”re not 100% behind your trading system, chances are you won”t be able to stick to it, and if you can”t stick to your system, you will never reap the benefits you are hoping for.

Put trading entry rules in perspective

Most traders believe the key to success is being able to pick the bottom of the market. This is why 99% of traders spend most of their time fidgeting with the entry; they are looking for that elusive secret, that one setup that will ensure ongoing success. But let me tell you from experience - that setup rule doesn”t exist. And, in actual fact, it’’s not that important.

Spending countless hours optimising your trade entry rules, trying to find that ”perfect” indicator, can actually do more harm than good. Over optimisation based on historical data actually decreases the profitability of your trading system when trading in real-time. Typically, the more you optimise, the less robust your system tends to be.

About The Author

Want to learn more about Trading Systems? Visit www.ultimate-trading-systems.com today to find out what you”re missing!

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The Great Advantages Of Automatic Forex Trading

By Willie Greg

Today’’s modern world offers a lot of convenience for people. There have been great changes which brought about many inventions and critical lifestyle changes for most people around the globe.

Life was quite simpler before, many people engaged in trading were able to trade goods and/or services within a specific location. After a while, when it was already possible to travel on the seas, trading was done from different places. Today, almost everyone is engaged in a certain trade, for him or her to be able to live a normal life able to get all their needs.

These days, people who have no work, or does not earn any income whatsoever goes hungry. If you have no money, then you can”t buy food, shelter, clothes, and other necessities. We live in a modern world which requires people to be effective and hard working individuals.

Perhaps the most popular of all trades is the so-called forex trading. You probably have heard of it already. In this type of financial market, currencies are traded. Yes, currencies; and did you know that you can really earn a lot from this kind of trading?

Before the internet was even introduced into the global market, forex trading was only for big corporations, the rich ones or the elite. Most large organizations also take part in this trade. But now, things are different. Because of the help of the internet, people from around the globe can actually do forex trading, whether you”re rich or middle class.

If you have an internet connection at home, then you can do your trading there. If you want to be part of the online forex trading, it is best if you can secure an effective system which you can use in your trade. If you have a system, you can now generate signals.

Automatic trading signals will help you a lot in spotting opportunities in the forex market. These opportunities may just be the ones that you”ve been waiting for to hit it big in the market.

You can also get trading signals from the daily newspaper, radio, television, and online forums. But there are times when these signals are somewhat biased. There is therefore a need for unbiased automatic trading signals.

To be able to get automatic trading signals, the first thing that you should accomplish is choosing the best and the right system. There are many systems available on the net. In case you don”t know yet, a system is a method, software, or course that is designed especially by forex trading experts.

These systems are not offered free, however, you can avail of trial versions available on the internet. Before purchasing any system, make sure that you have chosen the best one. It is wise to stick with systems that have been in existence for a couple of years and have established a reputable name in the business. This way, you can stay away from individuals who just want to fool you into buying a system that does not really work.

With a little research, and participation in discussions online, you may be able to get a good idea on which system will work best for you.

Once you”ve chosen the system, you need to subscribe for automatic trading alerts. After you”ve made a subscription, you can now receive live alerts which you can use in your currency trading.

These automatic trading signals provide alerts about entry and/or exit points for the different major currencies (in pair) for example the US dollar and Japanese Yen or the Euro and US dollars.

These alerts are all provided in real time, making possible for you to tap into your forex trading all day long, and all throughout the week.

Each time an opportunity turns up; you will receive an instant automatic trading signal. You can receive the signals through your email. But if you are a busy person, who needs to go out more often and carries a cellular phone with you, you can receive the alert on your phone, and most providers makes no extra charges. Usually, most providers offer added features on their automatic trading signals, like the one mentioned about receiving alerts on your cell phones, to stay competitive in the market.

Automatic trading alerts can really help you a lot in making decisions pertaining to forex trading.

About The Author

Willie Greg is the author of Internet online business blog, http://www.willienet.com.
For worldwide corporate events listing visits: http://www.eventogo.com and http://www.mytradefairs.com.

A Summary Of Forex Signals For Positive Forex Trading

By Eddie Lamb

There are loads of distinctive Forex signals that are employed to help make positive decisions when trading. If you are just entering the currency trading market you are likely to find that this marketplace is unpredictable and moves exceptionally quickly. Trades are completed seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day. Without a tactic and plan, can make it tricky to see gains constantly.

Enthusiastic Forex traders are making trades all through the day and usually late into the night. The marketplace is moving so fast that if you control pairs that are in another time zone, you may well be functioning during hours at the time everybody you know is fast asleep. Using Forex signals you are likely to be able to collect information that will present you with critical information on exits and entries when you are trading. Many Forex signals are also twenty-four hour information providers and ought to be tracked to remain on top of the trading market.

For the most part traders use some blend of signals and pointers to build up their particular plan for trading. When an individual is initially starting, they regularly notice it helpful to employ a signal service provider. This provider carries out the legwork for you and alerts you when an entry or exit ought to be made.

If you are using an online brokerage, you are most likely working on a desktop that has a candlestick in the upper left-hand corner of the trading desk. The candlestick signal gives key data that helps you forecast price movement, way in/way out points, trend reversals and more. You will want to take time to study how the candlestick signal can be used to its fullest to help you formulate successful trades.

The verification signal just substantiates the direction of the deal. The goal of this signal is to lower the exposure you stand on a particular deal. Confirmation signals are recognized with technical indicators, news events, and candlesticks.

A doji is a candlestick indicator that notifies you about a potential reversal in the direction of a price. Ideally the doji will have an identical close/open price with elongated wicks on either extremity.

You are likely to realize that there are 100′’s of signal service providers. Some of these providers are extremely good quality while others do not actually know Forex and will not be useful. You will want to test the supplier prudently before committing your capital to an association with them. The reliable service providers offer a number of benefits. They are working twenty-four hours a day and sending you warnings set by your parameters. many practiced traders continue to use signal service providers as a component of their total approach for trading.

When you are deciding on the signal service supplier to use, you are likely to want to consider your wants. If you want to use the service source to confirm your trading decisions, you may not want all of the bells and whistles that a number of of the services offer. The signal service providers are specially valuable when you are trading several pairs. A few of the providers focus in only a specific number of pairs while others provide warnings for all of the pairs.

While using signals or any stratagem, system, or procedure, you will want to have assets in pairs that offer lesser risk and average risk. In this sense when a deal goes south, you are likely to not lose your entire portfolio.

The signal service providers provide loads of benefits to a dealer. They are wide awake when you are sound asleep and are able to send notifications when changes occur. This relieves you from the necessity to be following Forex signals without taking a breather. Additionally, using service providers as part of your overall decision-making procedure will assign you a further data network from which to draw.

About The Author

Interested in foreign currency trading? Learn how knowing the right forex signals can help make you a successful trader in the Forex market. Trade with confidence when you learn valuable tips from the professionals! Visit http://www.AutomaticForexTradingSignals.com

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5 Advantages of Forex Trading

By Bernice Eker

Forex represents the international market used by banks and brokerage firms to trade currency. In fact Forex comes from the two words… foreign exchange. This market is not centralized like other common markets and this way it leaves room for speculators.

Two individuals connected by nothing more but their wish to trade two different currencies is what Forex trading is all about. In fact anyone can do this as long as they posses the knowledge and information to allow them to make advantageous exchanges.

The currencies which are most commonly preferred for trading are the UK sterling, the US, Canadian and Australian dollar, the yen and the franc from Switzerland. The reason for which they are most traded is due to the high level of the economy in these countries. Most inventors, the biggest banks and most important transactions take place involving these very currencies.

Currency trading for foreign exchange has become so popular and is so attractive due to the ease of access online. Any person possessing a computer and an internet connection is able to trade and many of the online dealers offer free demo accounts. Forex is a form of investment and and it can be a very advantageous way of spending your resources in the quest for profit.

Here are the main 5 advantages of the Forex trading:

1. The Forex market is the most liquid market you will ever find. 1.5 trillion dollars get exchanged every day and this is a great feature. In terms of your interests it means that you can make exchanges any time you want. There will always be someone out there interested in buying or selling from you or to you.

2. Forex trading is not centralized. This means that there is no insider. No one decides what goes up and what goes down. It’’s simply the global economy which dictates these trends. Of course, from time to time there might be some person who finds out something huge, but usually this kind of events are quickly overcome due to the free flow of information, especially in the world of the internet.

3. You can trade 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, without any limitation. This is an enormous advantage as it gives the investor the freedom to schedule his trading in whatever way he chooses.

4. Forex always reflects the state of the global market. There are no unexpected fluctuations or ones that don”t represent and effect of some economic cause.

5. There are no commissions. As the market is free and non-centralized there is no one to gather any fee. The only fees you might pay are the percentages you give to your broker.

These are just some of the many advantages of Forex trading. It is a great form of investment and with minimum knowledge anyone can make some extra income.

About The Author

If you”d like to know more about a revolutionary new automated forex system that quickly siphons off up to $4,710 with one trade then you”ll be interested in The Forex Empire. You can find out more at my website http://www.jyaga.com/the-forex-empire.

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Forex Hidden Secret - Automated Forex Trading

By Bernice Eker

Understanding the forex market is not the easiest thing to do. After all it’’s high level economy, global investments and currency exchange and trading. Most of us can”t become experts over night. However, the market is huge and has great potential so why ignore it all together just because it’’s not that easy to learn?

The equilibrium between these two dilemmas can be found by using automated forex trading bots. The bots are pieces of software or scripts which trade for you without demanding any of your assistance. They have the entire formula and algorithm figured out.

How does automated forex trading work? There is a secret behind this automation process. The whole formula and the way these bots act are designed to have an average, or long term win. This means that sometimes it may lose a little, sometimes win a little but if you allow it to run for a while you will end up in profit.

A bot is usually described by its accuracy. The perfect theoretical bot would have 100% accuracy. This means it would win through all trades. However, such a bot doesn”t exist and will never exist. What is a reasonable accuracy then? About 90%. It is considered that the accuracy of the average trader is somewhere a bit over 60%. An expert will have about 85%. A great bot can work with an accuracy of 90%. There are however bots with accuracies which can reach and even go over 95%.

What you should know as a trader is that the big bucks can only be made if you interact and trade right next to your bot. Yes, it will keep it on plus, on profit and it all goes well without any action on your side. But if you want to make a difference and win serious money you will need to gradually learn the secrets and working of the forex trading. Just letting the bot doing all the work will keep you at a low level.

Try to balance your actions with the ones of the automated forex trading tool and as you learn more and more taking more and more control over the decision. When you have just began don”t interact too much, but rather watch, observe and understand. But when you think you have grasped the whole concept take action.

About The Author

The Forex Hidden Secret that everybody is looking for can be found at my website http://www.jyaga.com/forex-hidden-secret/. The World’’s Simplest 7 min daily trade that will make anyone rich!

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What is Trading Expectancy and How it Works

By Jimmy Cox

The idea of trading expectancy can be the difference between winning and profiting. Master trading expectancy and you don”t even need to have more wins than losses to prosper. Let me explain. Despite the importance of risk management, I believe traders still under appreciate it. You see most people look at trading as a game of odds. You may be guilty of this too. True, it does contain odds, but odds alone do not tell the whole story.

When you look at trading systems, are you someone who only looks at the ratio of wins to losses? After all, it seems logical that a system that generates eight winning trades out of 10 is better than one that only has four out of 10… right? Not always.

Let’’s take Richard Dennis” Turtle trading system as an example. As I mentioned in chapter 4, this system won 40% of time and lost 60% - but it was still hugely successful. You see, it’’s not about how often you win, but also about how much you win. Winning and profiting are two completely different things.

Here’’s what I mean: If your system had an 80% chance of winning $100 and a 20% chance of losing $1,000, in the end you are bound to lose everything, despite the fact that you may experience many winning trades. Stringing together eight winning trades, valued at $100 each, followed by a couple of $1,000 losses will guarantee a trip to the poor house.

On the flip side, a couple of $1,000 wins is far better for your wallet than eight $100 losses, as demonstrated in the following scenario about system biases, commonly referred to as expectancy. Expectancy is just a fancy name for what I have just described.

Trade Expectancy is calculated as:

(% of wins x average win size) - (% of losses x average loss size)

So in our example we can see that:

(80% x $100) - (20% x $1000) or $80 - $200 = -$120

A trading system with these metrics has what is known as a negative expectancy. Compare that with our second example where the system has a positive expectancy and you could lose 80% of the time, yet still be profitable.

(20% x $1000) - (80% x $100) or $200 - $80 = +$120

Losing 80% of the time yet shows a profit of $120 per trade. Which situation would you rather find yourself in?

This is just one example, but learning to roll with the small losses as part of an overall strategy is something that would-be traders find difficult. And it’’s one reason why they are never truly successful. As mentioned previously, humans will instinctively take profits the moment they appear and ride losses until they are unbearable. Unfortunately, this is exactly what an 80:20 negative expectancy system looks like: taking lots of small wins, and losing all those profits - and more - to a few very large losses. Without clearly defined risk management rules you too will fall into this very large trap of trading.

And it’’s not only traders who apply these rules to their work - all the best professional poker players apply risk management rules to the way they play. I was once speaking to a player who told me that one of the risk management rules he applies is to never risk more than 2% of his entire gambling float in a single hand. In this way, he knows it is okay to lose a game here or there because it’’s only a small part of his overall purse. At the time I thought, ”Isn”t that interesting? That’’s one of the rules I follow when trading”.

If you get your risk management rules set up right then your trading expectancy will guarantee returns over the long run.

About The Author

Want to know more about Trading Systems? Visit www.ultimate-trading-systems.com to learn more.

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History of the Iraqi Dinar & the Dinar

By Robert Hoffman

The Iraqi dinar or Iraq dinar was introduced by the Coalition Provisional Authority or CPA from October 15, 2003 to January 15, 2004. The CPA was an interim government or acting government set up by the United States and selected Iraqi persons. The dinar replaced the old Saddam notes (that bared his face) to give the Iraqi people and their country hope in the future of their new Iraq. This created a single unified currency that is used throughout all of Iraq and will also make money more convenient to use in people’’s everyday lives.” Old banknotes were exchanged for new at a one-to-one rate, except for the Swiss dinars, which were exchanged at a rate of 150 new dinars for one Swiss dinar.

The Iraqi dinar comes in denominations of 50, 250, 500, 1000, 5000, 10000 and 25000.The dinar was printed by De La Rue an English company which is the world leader in anti-forgery techniques. De La Rue is the largest printer of currency in the world and trades publicly on the London Stock Exchange.

After the Gulf War in 1991, and due to the economic blockade, the previously used Swiss printing technology was no longer available. A new, inferior quality notes issue was produced. The previous issue became known as the Swiss dinar and continued to circulate in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Due to excessive government printing of the new notes issue, the dinar devalued quickly, and in late 1995, US$1 was valued at 3,000 dinars.

Following the deposition of Saddam Hussein in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi Governing Council and the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance began printing more Saddam dinar notes as a stopgap measure to maintain the money supply until new currency could be introduced.

The CPA issued the Iraqi dinar coins and notes, with the notes printed by De La Rue using modern anti-forgery techniques, to “create a single unified currency that is used throughout all of Iraq and will also make money more convenient to use in people’’s everyday lives.” Old banknotes were exchanged for new at a one-to-one rate, except for the Swiss dinars, which were exchanged at a rate of 150 new dinars for one Swiss dinar.

These new banknotes led to a new industry of selling the new Iraqi dinar to oversea investors who hoped to profit from Iraq’’s new currency when the economy improved. The provisional government of Iraq has made this legal, but the banknotes are exchanged at different rates by companies wanting to make profit.

Although the value of the dinar has appreciated following the introduction of the new banknotes from 4,000 dinars per U.S. dollar, at the time of their introduction, to a high of 980 dinars per dollar, it is now held at a “program” exchange rate, as specified by the International Monetary Fund, of 1170 dinars per US dollar at the Central Bank of Iraq. However, there is not yet a set international exchange rate and so international banks do not yet exchange Iraqi dinar. The exchange rate available on the streets of Iraq was around 1500 dinars per US dollar in April 2006.

About The Author

Robert Hoffman is the President of Southern Bike Night,LLC, Mortgage Company Rocks, Inc., Real Estate Company Rocks, Inc., and Dinar Inc.

To learn more about the Iraqi Dinar & the Dinar go to
http://www.dinarinc.com

To Sell or Not To Sell Your Gold

By Jack Landry

With the ever increasing stream of news reports and magazine articles telling us how the gold price is reaching new record levels virtually every day, it comes as no surprise that so many people around the world have decided to finally cash in their gold in exchange for some fast money. Many factors are believed to have contributed to the soaring gold prices, including the global economic crisis, falling interest rates and the rapid depreciation of the U.S. dollar.

The awareness about the fact that the gold production is declining has also contributed to the fact that a growing numbers of investors are looking into gold to improve profits. If you decided that you want to sell your gold for cash there are a number of different ways to do it.

If you want to sell a piece of jewelry that is in good condition or that has a historical value, your best option is usually to sell it to a consumer, collector or jewelry store rather than a cash for gold company as they look at the gold value rather than the aesthetic value of the jewelry. Almost all cash for gold companies have a business model that is built around melting the gold down and selling it and they therefore do not care about the history or aesthetic value of the item.

Low quality jewelry, scrap gold, broken and torn jewelry etc can however on the other side, be very suitable to be sold to a cash for gold company as it is an easy effortless way to raise money from your junk gold. Cash for gold companies can also be a very good option if you need money quickly and don”t have the luxury of time needed to find the right buyer.

It can be a good idea to shop around before you make a decision because there are a number of different cash for gold companies out there who all want to buy your gold. Some cash for gold companies require you to send you the gold to get a valuation while other companies will offer you a estimate over the phone before you send them the gold.

Always read the fine print before relinquishing any gold. What will happen if you find their offer to low?

Within how many days do you have to challenge the offer and demand your gold back? Which party is responsible for the gold, i.e. if it gets lost in the mail?

There is one more thing you should know before you sell your jewelry to a cash for gold company or anyone else for that matter and that is the difference between scrap metal value and fair market value. Scrap metal value or scrap gold value is the price you get for gold that is likely to be recycled, e.g. broken and dental jewelry.

When you sell your gold as scrap to cash for gold companies you usually receive a percentage of the daily spot value, the percentage usually range between 40-80%. The daily spot value of gold is the value of gold traded on the global gold market.

Gems and precious stones usually do not increase the value of scarp gold items unless they are really large or of very good quality but even than they normally do not increase value by more than 50%. Fair market value is the price you would pay for your jewelry in a store and is usually based on what similar jewelery is currently selling for.

The market value is affected by a number of different factors and not just the gold spot price that day. The market value is affected by a long row if different factors such as the presence of precious stones, how trendy it is at that time in what condition it is.

It goes without saying that the market value of a piece of jewelry often is significantly higher than the scrap value of the metal they are made from. However, if you have gold that holds no sentimental meaning for you, and is outdated so jewelers may not be interested, selling it for scrap is a great idea.

So although you might want market value of your jewelry, if it is broken, ugly or outdated, you may end up getting more by selling it to a scrap gold broker.

About The Author

Jack R. Landry has a PHD in financial services and has written hundreds of articles relating to consumer services and financial products. He recommends (http://www.ScrapGoldBrokers.com) if you want to sell your gold.

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