Training: What a Good Forex Training Program Should Include
Should new Forex traders take Forex trading courses or join a Forex training program? Definitely yes; by now you have probably heard that only 5% of traders achieve consistent profitable results when trading the Forex market. The main reason for this is the lack of education. Don't get me wrong here, taking a Forex training program or a Forex trading course won't guarantee profitable results, nothing can, but choosing the right Forex training program or Forex trading course will definitely put the odds in your favor.Before spending any amount of money on any Forex trading course or Forex training program there are some important aspects you need to take in consideration. There are many training programs available, but not every one of them suits the needs of every trader.The first thing you should be looking in a Forex training program is the content of the material. Unfortunately, most courses or training programs focus or spend most of the time on basic concepts. Though these basic concepts are important, spending most of the course on them won't help the trader to make consistent results.The following subjects are what I consider the most important aspects of trading and every training program or trading course should address:Forex trading basics.Review basic concepts such as: margin, type of orders, a little background, bid/ask, rollover, etc. You need to make sure you understand every single concept to perfection.Main drawbacks of Forex traders.Being aware of the common mistakes made by Forex traders and knowing how to handle them will prevent new traders from making those mistakes.Technical and fundamental analysis.These are the two main approaches adopted by Forex traders. Knowing how to properly apply each concept will definitely put the odds in your favor.The three pillars of Forex trading. I consider that these three subjects have the most impact on every trader trading account.Forex trading system development.Having the right system is a must if you want to have consistent profitable results. Having a system that doesn't fit you will cause a series of problems that will make your trading account vanish away (second guessing the system, not following your system, etc.)Money management.This is considered by many successful traders to be the most important single aspect of trading. Money management helps to increase your profits geometrically and at the same time limit your losses (i.e. a good risk reward ratio of about 2:1 will make you money in a Forex trading system that is right only 38% of the time.)Trading psychology.Being aware and knowing hot to handle the psychological barriers that affect every trader decision will put the odds in your favor.Other important aspects every training program should include are:Developing habits for success (such as discipline patience, taking responsibility of every action, commitment, etc.,) understanding and taking our trading as a business, risk and trade management.Another important aspect you should take into consideration when choosing a Forex training program is the mechanics of it, getting to know how the training program works.A good Forex course will have the following:A live conference room, to apply everything learned under live market conditions.One-on-one coaching, every trader has different needs and requires special attention. For instance a trader wanting to improve the system and requires individual feedback from the instructor about it.Online trading course, a course that could be accessible through internet. A plus is a course where you are able to access the course at the convenient time for you, so you don't have to change your lifestyle.A forum, where members can talk just about everything related to the Forex market and the Forex training program.Trading the Forex market is no easy task. It requires a lot of hard work. Making the right decision will definitely put the odds in your favor. Take your time when doing your diligence because it is a big and important step in a trader's trading career.


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 ConditionsThis 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. DiligenceHopefully 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. TestingIn 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.

Why trade Forex?
24 hour tradingOne of the major advantages of trading forex is the opportunity to trade 24 hours a day from Sunday evening (20:00 GMT) to Friday evening (22:00 GMT). This gives you a unique opportunity to react instantly to breaking news that is affecting the markets.Superior liquidityThe forex market is so liquid that there are always buyers and sellers to trade with. The liquidity of this market, especially that of the major currencies, helps ensure price stability and narrow spreads. The liquidity comes mainly from banks that provide liquidity to investors, companies, institutions and other currency market players.No commissionsThe fact that forex is often traded without commissions makes it very attractive as an investment opportunity for investors who want to deal on a frequent basis. Trading the “majors” is also cheaper than trading other cross because of the high level of liquidity. For more information on the trading conditions of Saxo Bank, go to the Account Summary on your SaxoTrader and open the section entitled "Trading Conditions" found in the top right-hand corner of the Account Summary.100:1 LeverageLeverage (gearing) enables you to hold a position worth up to 100 times more than your margin deposit. For example, a USD 10,000 deposit can command positions of up to USD 1,000,000 through leverage. You can leverage the first USD 25,000 of your investment up to 100 times and additional collateral up to 50 times.Profit potential in falling marketsSince the market is constantly moving, there are always trading opportunities, whether a currency is strengthening or weakening in relation to another currency. When you trade currencies, they literally work against each other. If the EURUSD declines, for example, it is because the U.S. dollar gets stronger against the Euro and vice versa. So, if you think the EURUSD will decline (that is, that the Euro will weaken versus the dollar), you would sell EUR now and then later you buy Euro back at a lower price and take your profits. The opposite trading scenario would occur if the EURUSD appreciates.