Forex Focus: Allied Currencies by Alexander Sabodin When trading, who or what can be your ally? Working in the financial markets as a trader can be fascinating, considering it gives you the opportunity to earn money and do so independently. You can trade from anywhere in the world with the help of a computer and the Internet. But any medal has its reverse. Such types of jobs come with their fair share of risks. First of all, there is the danger of losing money. Second, the responsibility of making the buying and selling decisions is entirely on your shoulders; you cant depend on anybody else. You are essentially on the battlefield alone and fighting your enemies alone. In any battle, you should have allies that help you make the right decisions and keep you away from making the wrong ones, or at least you hope that is the case. When trading, who or what can be your ally? Believe it or not, a tradable that is correlated with another in terms of price movement can be. ALLY CURRENCIES In the foreign exchange market, the USD/CHF currency pair is an ally to the EUR/USD pair. The economics of Switzerland are closely connected with the economics of the countries of the European zone, which is not surprising given that Switzerland is located in the central part of Europe. In addition, if you look at the charts of these currencies with respect to the US dollar, they look like mirror-image twins. Our tactics are relatively simple. If these two currency pairs move synchronously and give confirming signals, we consider it a strong signal and open a position. If we get a signal from one currency pair and the second pair doesnt provide a corresponding signal, we stay out of the market until we get a confirmation. Thats all there is to this system. HEAD & SHOULDERS Lets consider two neckline breakthrough signals on the EUR/ USD (Figure 1A) and USD/CHF (Figure 1B). The first breakthrough is fake; it is marked by the number 1. In a situation like this you could give into

(more…)

Crowds move markets and at major market turning points, the crowds are almost always wrong. When crowd sentiment is overwhelmingly positive or overwhelmingly negative a it’s a signal that the trend is exhausted and the market is ready to move powerfully in the opposite direction. Sentiment has long been a tool used by equity, futures, and options traders.
“In Sentiment in the Forex Market,” FXCM analyst Jaime Saettele applies sentiment analysis to the currency market, using both traditional and new sentiment indicators, including: Commitment of Traders reports; time cycles; pivot points; oscillators; and Fibonacci time and price ratios. He also explains how to interpret news coverage of the markets to get a sense of when participants have become overly bullish or bearish. Saettele points out that several famous traders such as George Soros and Robert Prechter made huge profits by identifying shifts in crowd sentiment at major market turning points. Many individual traders lose money in the currency market, Saettele asserts, because they are too short-term oriented and trade impulsively. He believes retail traders would be much more successful if they adopted a longer-term, contrarian approach, utilizing sentiment indicators to position themselves at the beginning points of major trends.

(more…)

Stocks & Commodities V. 23:11 (32): Forex Focus by Kathy Lien Access to foreign exchange trading has opened up exciting trading options for the retail trader. You can now trade alongside corporations and institutions in a highly liquid market that is global, traded around the clock, and highly leveraged. Before jumping into this market, however, we must understand the factors that affect the forex market. With that in mind, STOCKS & COMMODITIES has introduced Forex Focus to better prepare the retail trader to participate in the currency market. Ever thought of currencies as an alternative or supplement for oil? Maybe now you will. Oil prices have been skyrocketing over the past year, with prices of light crude increasing 60% since January. Some traders think oil prices will continue to rally to $80 or even $100 a barrel, while others think that it is meeting resistance and, as a result, could turn lower from here on. Typically, traditional oil traders prefer to trade oil futures directly to express their views of where oil may be headed next, but many traders have been turning to the foreign exchange market as a supplemental or even alternative way to express those views. If you think oil prices are headed higher, the primary advantage of trading currencies instead of oil futures is the ability to earn interest. Not only could you capitalize on oil appreciation but you could also earn interest income.

(more…)

A new forex trading system proven to measurably increase returns-without increased risk

Selective Forex Trading takes readers inside the S/90 Crossover, an independently verified technical indicator that has provided traders with hundreds of consecutive trades without a single loser The S/90 shows traders precisely when to enter and exit a position, for the greatest profit potential every time. Beyond providing hands-on insights into using the S/90 Crossover to control trading risk and eliminate large losses, it features specific exercises for creating and maintaining mental discipline and coaching traders on how and when to retreat, regroup, and re-energize.

Don Snellgrove (Jacksonville, FL) has been trading forex for nearly 10 years, and has trained thousands of individuals to trade the forex market. Snellgrove is the President and CEO of Concorde Forex Group (www.cfgtrading.com).

(more…)