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Forex Broker: Choosing The Right Forex Broker

Sometimes it's hard to make a decision on which Forex broker to open our trading account, there are just too many of them. Most of them have different features, capabilities, weaknesses and advantages, for this reason I have created a checklist that can help you decide the broker to use in your Forex adventure.

1. Is it regulated?

The first question you have to ask yourself is: is the broker I want to use Regulated ? There must be no doubt about this first point. All regulated brokers must submit financial reports to regulatory authorities, and when they fail to do it, authorities have the right to fine them or terminate their membership. This enforces Forex brokers to keep transparent financial reports.

The brokers must be regulated by their local regulatory authorities, for instance, for brokers based in the US , they must be regulated by the NFA (National Futures Association) and CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission), Swiss based brokers must be regulated by the FDF (Swiss Federal Department of Finance) and so on.

Also when a Forex broker is regulated allows investors to dispute any resolution, increasing the investor protection.

2. Trading Conditions

This point refers to the features of the trading platform and the trading conditions with the chosen broker. Amongst the most important factors are:

Spread - Obviously the smaller the spread on currency pairs the better the conditions are for investors and traders.

Platform execution - Trading execution refers to how fast and consistent are the execution of trades. Some brokers guarantee fast and transparent executions during normal market conditions.

Fractional trading � Some brokers allow investors and traders to trade on a fractional basis, instead of trading full lots �100,000 units� or �300,000 units�, they allow you to trade �163,345 units� or �325,911 units�. This is very helpful for trades risking certain percentage of their balance on each trade.

Safety of funds � We need to make sure our trading funds are kept in a segregated account or at least insured.

Trading platform � Easy to use and understand platform, is it reliable during fast moving markets? And what extra features it offers such as: one click buying/selling, trading directly from a chart, supports mobile devices, trailing stops, etc.)

Minimum investment � What is the minimum amount of money required to open a trading account? This aspect is very useful because before trading your full account, you need to test the waters and see how well you perform with an account with limited funds (after trading a demo account).

Margin (leverage) � What kind of leverage can be used with the chosen broker? Just to make sure our leverage requirements by our Forex strategy and methodology (leverage above 100:1 is not advisable).

Commissions � Some brokers charge commission, it is ok if they do if the spread is smaller than other brokers.

3. Diligence

Hopefully you have eliminated most brokers at this point. You should have 3 or 4 finalists. In this step do your diligences on forums, ask other traders about their experiences using their brokers, and so forth.

Some forums where you can ask for broker information are: ForexFactory, MoneyTec, ForexNews.

If brokers are registered by their local regulatory authorities, you can visit the regulator website and you will find plenty of information about Forex brokers. Some of them publish resolutions regarding Forex brokers.

Amongst the aspects you should ask and get informed are:

Customer service � This aspect is the most important of them all, are they rude to customers? Are they willingly to help customers? These are the questions you should ask in forums and fellow traders.

Slippage � Slippage is the difference between the price where the trade was executed and actual value of it. Do they honor stop loss and take profit levels? Do they guarantee it? If any one had any discrepancies, did their broker revert the result?

Manual execution � Some brokers don't like scalpers, if they catch someone doing it, they will put this trader into manual execution, so a dealer (human) must accept all transactions made by this trader. Do they do this?

Re-quotes � a re-quote happens when you click the buy/sell button and the platform doesn't accept our price, so it will give us another quote for that particular trade.

4. Testing

In this phase we should test our Forex broker, first on a demo account to see how it works, also test your system to see how it performs. If you are satisfied with the results, then try the same platform with limited funds to see how it performs on real trades. If you are satisfied again then open your full trading account with the chosen broker.

I hope this checklist help you all traders to take the right decision when choosing brokers.

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A pip is the smallest unit of price for any currency. Most currency pairs consist of five digits and most pairs have the decimal point immediately after the first digit, EUR/USD 1.2855. In this case a single pip equals the smallest change in the fourth decimal place example EUR/USD 1.2856 - 1.2855 equals to 0.0001 pip.

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One method used in forecasting foreign currency exchange is called technical analysis. This method uses predictions by looking at trends in charts and graphs from past Forex market happenings. This system is based on solid events that have actually taken place in the Forex in the past. Many experience Forex traders and brokers rely on this system because it follows actual trends and can be quite reliable.

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Currency prices are affected by a variety of economic and political conditions. The beginner trading forex currency should take note to probably the most important influences to the currency prices are interest rates, international trade, inflation, and political stability. Governments participate in the foreign exchange market to influence the value of their currencies. The governments flood the market with their domestic currency in an attempt to lower the currency price or conversely, buying in order to raise the price. This is generally known as central bank intervention. The beginner trading forex currency should be aware that large market orders can cause high volatility in currency prices. Due to the size and volume of the forex market its impossible for any entity to drive the market for any length of time.

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The primary factors influencing exchange rates include the balance of payments, the state of the economy, implications drawn from chart analysis as well as political and psychological factors.

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Stocks and USD lower on concern about US Economic growth

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:48:58 GMT
As FED Chairman Ben Bernanke yesterday raised concern on US economic growth USD and stocks went lower.


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Forex Trading System Article Of The Month



Forex Trading System: Choosing between Mechanical and Discretionary Systems

There are basically two types of Forex trading systems, mechanical and discretionary systems. The trading signals that come out of mechanical systems are mainly based off technical analysis applied in a systematic way. On the other hand, discretionary systems use experience, intuition or judgment on entries and exits. But which one produces better results? Or more importantly, which one fits better your trading style? These are the answers we will try to answer on this article.

We will first analyze the pros and cons about each system approach.

Mechanical systems

Advantages

This kind of system can be automated and backtested efficiently.

It has very rigid rules. Either, there is a trade or there isn't.

Mechanical traders are less susceptible to emotions than discretionary traders.

Disadvantages

Most traders backtest Forex trading systems incorrectly. In order to produce accurate results you need tick data.

The Forex market is always changing. The Forex market (and all markets) has a random component. The market conditions may look similar, but they are never the same.

A system that worked successfully the past year doesn't necessary mean it will work this year.

Discretionary systems

Advantages

Discretionary systems are easily adaptable to new market conditions.

Trading decisions are based on experience. Traders learn to see which trading signals have higher probability of success.

Disadvantages

They cannot be backtested or automated, since there is always a thought decision to be made.

It takes time to develop the experience required to trade successfully and track trades in a discretionary way. At early stages this can be dangerous.

Now, which approach is better for Forex traders? The one that fits better your personality. For instance, if you are a trader that finds it hard to follow your trading signals, then you are better off using a mechanical system, where your judgment won't play an important role in your system. You only take the trades that your system signals.

If the psychological barriers that affect every trader (fear, greed, anger, etc.) puts you in unwanted scenarios, you are also better off trading mechanical systems, because you only need to follow what your system is telling you, go short, go long, close a trade. No other decision has to be made.

On the other hand, if you are a disciplined trader, then you are better off using a discretionary system, because discretionary systems adapt to the market conditions and you are able to change your trading conditions as the market changes. For instance, you have a target of 60 pips on a long trade. But the market suddenly starts trending up pretty strongly, then you could move your target to say 100 pips.

Does it mean that trading a discretionary system has no rules? This is absolutely incorrect. Trading discretionary systems means that once a trader finds his/her setup, the trader then decides what to do. But every trader still needs certain rules that need to be followed, such as the size of the position, conditions that have to be met before thinking to get in the market, and so on.

I am a discretionary trader. The main reason I chose a discretionary system is that my trades are based on price behavior, and as you already know, the price behaves similar to the past, but it is never identical, therefore the outcome of every trade is unknown. However, I do have rigid rules on my system, certain conditions have to be met before I even think in getting in a trade. This keeps me out of trouble, once my setup is present and in accordance with the rules I have set, then I closely watch the price behavior and finally decide whether it is a good opportunity or not.

Whether you choose to be a discretionary or a mechanical trader there are some important points you should take in consideration:

1. You need to make sure the Forex trading system you are using totally fits your personality. Otherwise you will find yourself outguessing your system.
2. You also need to have some rules and most importantly have the discipline to follow them.
3. Take your time to build the perfect system for you. It's not easy and requires time and hard work, but at the end, if done correctly, it will give you consistent profitable results.
4. Before going live, try it on a demo account or even on a small account (I will go for the second option, since psychological barriers will be present.

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AUD/JPY is one of the important pairs influencing AUD after Dollar, Euro and Pound. Usually falling AUD/JPY is good for Yen Bulls as well.
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For position traders, the basic bias of the market in his trading time frame, the liquidity situation of the market in that time frame, and the size of trading positions must be all taken into account when exercising stops, be it based on tech levels or a certain sum of money or a percentage of a total equity. It is a must but also it is form of art like trading itself. And every trader must develop his own unique style of using stops. But unfortunately, all this can be learned only by paying a certain amount of tuition fee to the market.

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Unquestionably, the foreign exchange or Forex market is the largest financial market in the world. This results in fair prices and narrow spreads. There are no restrictions to sell currencies short, unlike stocks, which have to be sold short on an up tick rule. This means that as a Forex trader you can make money just as easily in rising and falling markets. Stock liquidity is reduced after regular trading hours. Foreign exchange trading does not exhibit this problem because the currency market is open around the clock.

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