Hallrich International

01/08/2014

1. Don't Fall for Sure Fire Systems
If it looks to good to be true it probably is so – avoid all the cheap FOREX robots which offer you huge gains with no efforts and the gurus, who claim they know the secret of currency trading success are not telling the truth. Instead, get yourself a decent FX trading education and learn the basics.

2. Don't Over Leverage Your Account
You can get 200:1 leverage with many brokers but if you leverage to much you will lose. For novice traders, 10:1 is plenty of leverage to use. If you use sensible leverage you can still target triple digit gains and keep risk at manageable levels.

3. Don't Day Trade or Scalp
If you engage in trading short term moves you will lose money and you can read more about it in our section currency day trading. In conclusion though, all volatility in short term time frames is random therefore, you can't get the odds on your side and that means you will lose.

4. Focus on the Longer Term Trends
If you focus on the longer term trends which last for weeks months or years, you will make a lot less effort and make a lot more money. If you lack the discipline to hold long term trends, you can always try swing trading which tries to catch moves which last between a few days and a week.

5. Don't Predict Follow Price Action
There are many theories that tell you that you can predict the future and three of the most popular are - Elliot Wave Theory, Gann trading Methods and Fibonacci trading strategies but none of them are scientific. Follow any theory which claims it can predict the future and the predictions will be as accurate as your horoscope.

6. Keep Your System Simple
Simple currency trading systems work best and always have. The reason why they are more likely to be more profitable is simple – there more robust, with fewer elements to break than complex ones.

7. Understand the Impact of Volatility
Currencies are volatile and the daily volatility can be quite large yet, traders continue to make the mistake of trying to trade with 10 or 20 pip stops. If you do this you will lose, as you stop is within random volatility. You need to take a risk to make a reward so get used to using 50 – 100 pip stops.

8. Understand the Percentage of Winning Trades Doesn't Matter
Forget people who say you can trade with 90% accuracy – you can't. The best traders in the world probably make money on 30 – 50% of their trades but the reason why they make so much money is - there winners are far bigger than their losers which means sound money management is the key to success.

9. Trade with Discipline and Courage
Leading on from the point above, you need to cut your losses and run your profits to make money long term trading FX markets. If you do this, you can make a lot of money. You are going to lose the majority of the time but that doesn't matter, if your winners are bigger than your losers.

10. Understand Success is Down to You
If you want to win at currency trading, you are responsible for your destiny and no one else not your broker, the system you bought or the news story you follow is responsible – you are. Your destiny is in your hands, so if you don't like taking responsibility for your actions FOREX trading is not for you. On the other hand, if you like a challenge -welcome to the world's biggest and most lucrative business opportunity.

01/08/2014

As financial markets continue to broaden and deepen, the behavior of asset prices will play an important role in the formulation of monetary policy going forward, perhaps a more important role than in the past.
-Timothy Geithner-

01/08/2014

Five stages of learning to trade

#1 Unconscious incompetence
This is the first stage that a trader goes through and they do not know that they have a lack of knowledge. In this stage, beginner traders will take their first few steps by downloading a platform, opening an account and begin to place trades.

However, they are influenced by emotion – usually lured by the thought of making a great deal of money in a short period of time.

Either one of two things are likely to happen for traders in this stage:

The trades turns against the trader immediately. Without experience, they only watch while the losing trades reduce their trading capital. They may even close their trades and open positions in the opposite direction, to try and get on the "right side of the market", only to have those turn on them as well. They simply lack the experience to deal with the market environment.
The trades initially go well, but motivated by a false sense of security, new traders take large risks without a basic knowledge of risk management and they wipe out all previous profits and more.
Eventually, the trader may move to the next stage or they may stop trading altogether.

#2 Conscious incompetence
Traders in the conscious incompetence stage believe that the more trading knowledge they have, the better they will be able to trade.

#3 An awakening moment
Traders in the awakening moment will realise that successful trading comes down to the psychology of the trader and their approach to the markets.

A basic understanding that you will never be able to predict what will happen in the markets, starts to form. You begin to realise that making money is based on a series of trades that incorporate winners and losers, and that it takes discipline to stick to a system, cut losses short and let profits run.

A trader in this stage will begin to enter and exit the markets whenever their system tells them to, without judgement and despite the emotion they are feeling.

#4 Conscious competence
During the conscious competence stage, it still takes effort to be disciplined, however losing trades will be easier to deal with because the trader understands it is part of their system.

#5 Unconscious competence
A trader is said to have reached the stage of unconscious competence once they have traded with so much practice that they are able to trade in an almost automatic mindset.

A disciplined approach requires very little effort and has become second nature.

31/07/2014

What is Currency Trading Signals?
A currency trading signal is simply an alert to place an order in the market. Either a trader decides to trade based upon the rules of their trading strategy or a software program generates the trading signal and an order is generated and the trader has a live trade in the market

31/07/2014

When an investor focuses on short-term investments, he or she is observing the variability of the portfolio, not the returns - in short, being fooled by randomness. -Nassim Nicholas Taleb-

31/07/2014

The Bitcoin Foundation’s executive director, Jon Matonis, travels the world to promote the virtual currency as a replacement for traditional money. Some of his members want him to focus on a less lofty goal: helping them make lots of old-fashioned cash.

30/07/2014

Stock price movements actually begin to reflect new developments before it is generally recognized that they have taken place.
-Arthur Zeikel-

30/07/2014

Gold futures declined as U.S. and European equities advanced, curbing demand for the precious metal as an alternative asset.

Gold held above $1,300 an ounce before the U.S. Federal Reserve begins a two-day policy meeting today amid escalating tension in Ukraine and Gaza.

25/07/2014

Gold headed for its second straight weekly decline as the outlook for improving economic growth curbed demand for the precious metal as a haven.

Bullion for immediate delivery fell 0.2 percent to $1,291.64 an ounce by 1:24 p.m. in Singapore, according to Bloomberg generic pricing. Prices tumbled to $1,287.80 yesterday, the lowest since June 19, and are poised to drop 1.5 percent this week. Gold for December delivery traded at $1,293.30 an ounce on the Comex from $1,292.70 yesterday, also set for a second weekly loss.

Gold headed for its second straight weekly decline as the outlook for improving economic growth curbed demand for the precious metal as a haven.

25/07/2014

Financial peace isn't the acquisition of stuff. It's learning to live on less than you make, so you can give money back and have money to invest. You can't win until you do this.
- Dave Ramsey-

25/07/2014

How to become a good trader?

#1: Traders are not born with the ability to read charts or keep their emotions at bay. These are skills that you can learn yourself, through study, discipline and practice.

#2: Demo accounts allow you to test out strategies and different trading methods in real market conditions, but without risking real money. You will only really learn how to control your emotions though when your own money is at risk.

#3: Don't expect to master a trading strategy in one go – work on different elements in bite-sized chunks until you understand them and can fit them together like pieces of a jigsaw.

#4: Remembering why you are trading will help keep any losses in perspective. It will also give you the focus to get back into markets after you have suffered a disappointment.

#5: Get your mind into a logical state by writing down your trades beforehand. Writing down your entry, stop loss and profit targets helps to get your mind into a logical state.

#6: Write a trading plan that defines your trading strategy, the principles it rests on and your targets. Being business-like will help you approach your trading in a detached manner and identify any potential pitfalls.

24/07/2014

You get recessions, you have stock market declines. If you don't understand that's going to happen, then you're not ready, you won't do well in the markets. - Peter Lynch-