FOREX TRADING

By D Bennett

A trading plan gives a day trader points of reference as market action unfolds quickly in real time. It enables them to always know what to do next, and how to do it. Specifically the plan should answer four key questions.

1. When should a trade by opened?

You must specify some trigger which will signal you to take a trade, for example: (i) Buy if price moves down to a key support level or penetrates a resistance level. (ii) Sell if a "fast" moving average crosses below a "slower" one. (iii) Buy if an expected news item meets some specific criterion. The trigger must be clear, unambiguous and easily determined in the heat of battle. When the trigger is detected, you act.

2. How large should the trade be?

A signal to buy or sell is not enough unless you also know what size investment to make. In futures trading, this means knowing how many contracts to buy or sell. There are various strategies you might choose. For example: (i) Always trade the same number of contracts. (ii) Identify where the initial stop loss order is placed, calculate the level of risk per contract, and divide this into the highest level of acceptable risk per trade to find the number of contracts to trade.

It is very easy to get this wrong and find yourself carrying too much risk, or missing opportunities by being in too small a position. Trading with the right position size is possible the factor which makes the greatest contribution to the ultimate success or failure of the trader.

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In day trading, the most important thing is risk management. Surprisingly, many people jump into day trading without giving much thought to risk management. Manage your risk first, rewards will come later.

Day trading requires long term commitment. You have to be persistent. You need to improve continuously. That’s why risk management is important. If you do not preserve your capital, you will not be able to survive long in this game and you will be unable to reap the real profits.

So how do you start with risk management in day trading? Treat day trading as a business. Make a good business plan with proper targets. Risk management should be an important part of this business plan. Now risk management may require a number of different control levels like managing your account balance.Making sure, it does not fall below a certain level. Than you need to learn how to manage losses in each trade. Your business plan should be long term. You should think about yourself as a long term player.

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The critical difference between who will win and who will lose in the business of Forex market trading is learning how to manage your money. For example, if 100 Forex traders begin trading by using a system with 60% of winning odds, only about 5 of those traders would see a profit by the end of the year. Despite those 60% winning odds, only 95% of those Forex traders will lose because of poor money management skills. When entering a trading system one must have great money management skills in order to succeed. Traders enter the Forex system to make a profit, after all, not to lose money.

The amount of money you will put on a trade and the risks you are willing to accept for that trade is money management. It is very important to understand the concept of managing money and to understand the difference between managing money and trading decisions, in order to diversify your Forex trading strategies. There are a number of different strategies that can be employed that will aspire to preserve your balance from any high-risk liabilities.

To begin with an understanding of the “core equity” is a necessity. Basically the core equity illustrates the starting balance of the account and what amounts are in the open positions. Your money management will greatly depend on this equity so it’s very important to understand the meaning of core equity. For instance, if you have an open account with a balance of $5,000 and you enter a trade with $1,000 your core equity will be $4,000. If you enter another trade for another $1,000 then your core equity would be $3,000.

From the outset, it’s best to diversify trades by using several different currencies. By only trading one currency pair, you will generate very few entry signals. For example, if you have an account balance of $100,000 and have an open position for $10,000 then that makes your core equity $90,000. If you choose to enter on a second position, then calculate the 1% risk from your core equity, but not your starting account balance. This would mean that the second trade would not exceed $900. Then if you decide to enter a third position, with a core equity of $80,000 then the risk from that trade should not surpass $800. The key is to diversify the lots between all currencies that have a low correlation.

For example, if you want to trade EUR/USD and GBP/USD with a $10,000 (1% risk) standard position size in money management, then it would be safe to trade $5,000 in each EUR/USD and GBP/USD. This way, you will only be risking 0.5% on each position.

When trying to diversify your Forex trading strategies, it’s very important to understand the strategies of the Martingale and the Anti-Martingale. The Martingale rule means: increasing your risks when you’re losing. Gamblers worldwide who claim that one should increase the size of a trade even when one is losing have adopted this strategy. Basically, gamblers use the rule in the following way: bet $20, if you lose bet $40, if you loose bet $80, if you lose bet $160, if you lose bet $320, etc.

The strategy is to assume that if you lose more than four times, then the chances to win become bigger and as you add more money, you will be able to recover from your loss. Although there are many people who choose to use this strategy, the truth is, the odds are still the same 50/50 regardless of the previous losses. Even if you lose five times in a row, the odds for your sixth bet, and even for those there after, are still 50/50. This is a common mistake made by those who are new to the trading business.

For instance, if a trader started with a $10,000 balance and lost four trades of $1,000 a piece for a total of $4,000 then the traders remaining balance would be $6,000. If the trader thinks there is a higher chance of winning the fifth trade and increases the size of the position four times, enough to recover from the loss, then if the fifth trade loses the trader will be down to $2,000. A loss like this can never be recovered back to the $10,000 starting balance. No experienced trader would use such a risky gambling tactic as the result is negative – losing all the money in a short period of time.

A new trading e-book has been uploaded to my site today. It’s Money Management and Risk Management by Ryan Jones. As the title of this book goes, it’s about money management — one of the most important parts of Forex trading (and not only Forex, but any other financial trading that involves risk and probability). The author wisely divides the money management into two kinds — the proper and improper money management. Where the first type refers to the one that always keeps in mind both the risk and reward parts of each trading action, while the improper tries to amplify the importance of only one of those to vital parts. Unfortunately, the majority of traders, especially newbie traders, that see the possibilities opened by the on-line Forex market and its huge leverage, fail to see the full picture and all the more so they can’t apply the proper money management to their trading strategy. But now you can download this book to learn more about the proper money management:

• Money Management and Risk Management

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I uploaded a new e-book about trading in the psychology section today. It’s The Disciplined Trader by Mark Douglas. The book is all about the process of developing the new winning attitudes in the financial market traders. The great deal of success in the market depends on a clearness of the trader’s mind and his ability to make rational thoughtful decisions. Unfortunately the market is quite a difficult entity, which can disturb emotions and dim minds. From the psychological point of view the market had better be accepted as the trader’s environment, but its actions towards the trader had better be treated with a great care. Discipline is a tool, which can help a trader see not his guilt, worthlessness or helplessness in the bad trade outcomes but rather see losses as the expenses. Meanwhile, the profits had bettern’t be treated as the rewards for trading itself but rather as a reward for the weighted decision made at a right moment of time. You can download this book for free:

• The Disciplined Trader

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