Who is a Discretionary Trader?

Posted by Karielle Samstad | Currencies | Tuesday 27 January 2009 5:52 am
by Karielle Samstad

If you are new trading forex, there is a good possibility that you are a discretionary trader. But, what is that? Is it bad? Or good? Let’s say that it is the natural beginning of the successful trader.

A discretionary trader trusts his/her intuition, feelings, the latest news, the hottest tips, and so on. This type of trader makes buy and sell decisions on the fly, influenced only by what happens at the moment, without a strategy or a system to follow.

This trader loves the action and loves even more being part of it. He/she truly believes that his/her buy and sell decisions are wise and, if losses happen, just thinks that “they are part of the game”. This perspective will persist until the losses start making him/her feel uncomfortable, sometimes very uncomfortable

It is very difficult to make money consistently following the hottest tips or latest news and making trading decisions by impulse. This type of trader can make money, yes, sporadically, but not consistently. His/her losses will surpass the gains sooner than expected, and this is because the discretionary trader does not have a system, a strategy, the necessary discipline to follow it, and the emotional detachment to make successful trading decisions.

I mentioned above that discretionary trading is the natural beginning of a successful trader, and it is. The excitement of being part of the markets, feeling an advantage over the others thanks to the knowledge of the latest world event or an “insider’s secret”, playing with the pros with the possibility of making big profits, is only natural to the new trader and indeed necessary to the new trader. Why necessary? Because it is the only way to really learn that, even if all that excitement and way of making trading decisions is very alluring and full of “common sense”, it does not have a solid ground to make money. The trader must realize it on his/her own; otherwise he/she will continue being seduced by it until it finally hits him/her.

But, can a discretionary trader become a truly successful trader? Oh yes! Once this stage is over, the real profits start coming in. How long does it take to pass this stage? It depends on the amount of losses and how the trader feels about them.

A trader does not become successful overnight. It is a process that he/she must follow in order to learn how to trade the markets. A smart trader knows that this process is worth it because the rewards are big. Very big.

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Forex Report- The 30 Forex Rules

Posted by ForexRules | Currencies | Tuesday 27 January 2009 5:31 am
by ForexRules

So you have been thinking about Forex trading, well before you get started you need some rules and guidelines to help you become a successful trader. The other question you need to ask yourself is do you really want this? What are the reasons that you have decided to trade forex? If you write this down and continually look at these reasons, you will increase your chances of becoming a successful trader.

At the CFD FX REPORT we are big believers in these principles and we make sure that we are continually developing our members on getting better traders. If you are looking for a great Best Forex Brokerthat can help you implement these rules then please feel free to contact us

The 30 Rules to Follow to Forex Trading Success:

1. You should never over-trade- Don’t trade for trades sake, you will lose otherwise 2. Make sure that you never risk more than 10% of your trading capital in a single trade, protecting your capital is very important. There will be more trade opportunities 3. Ensure that you never trade without careful stops and use trailing stops 4. Don’t cancel a stop-loss after setting the trade- other than get out 5. Never average down on a suffering trade 6. When you get into a profit never let it run into a loss. 7. Never buy or sell just because the price is low or high, as what is high and low 8. Never try to think tops or bottoms- otherwise go to the casino and pick black or red 9. You should never limit a profiting trade, instead move your stops to guarantee a profit- ideal trading is as soon as you get into a good profit at aleast ensure a break even 10. You should never close a position toget out of the marketplace because you have lost patience or get in because you are anxious from waiting. 11. Please never hedge a losing position. 12. Never change your position or close a trade without a great reason. 13. Never follow a blind man’s advice, everyone has trading certainties. Use systematically approach 14. Make sure that you never enter a trade if you are unsure of the trend. Never buck a trend. Remember the rule TREND IS YOUR FRIEND 15. Try to avoid scalping for little profits and taking large losses if you scalp you need tight stops 16. Avoid trading after long periods of failure- take a break, re look at your goals. 17. If you have a great run don’t keep raising your trade size, otherwise you will blow yourself up. Remember great runs will come to an end, and sometimes great runs turn into bad runs. 18. Avoid getting in misguided or getting in right and out wrong, making a big mistake. 19. Always identify firm support/resistance levels. 20. Always lock in a profit at predetermined increments on profiting trades. 21. EVERY trade must have stop losses 22. Always distribute your risk equally among different markets. 23. Don’t be a one trick pony, make money from both sides of the marketplace 24. Always reduce trading after the first loss; never increase, it is ideal if you use equal trade sizes, do not double up and try and get your money back. 25. Always cut your losses short and let your profits run- remember learning to take a loss is the first step to trading success. 26. When in doubt, get out. Do not get in when in doubt- back yourself if it doesn’t feel right don’t do it. Follow your gut sometimes as most of the time it is right. 27. Only trade active markets- illiquid markets will leave you thirsty- remember small markets are easy to get in, but remember you always have to get out. This is why forex trading is so popular. 28. Only pyramid trades that have a firm trend and should be accomplished once the price has crossed support/resistance. 29. Profits from a successful trade should be saved for future trade security deposits or put somewhere else, spread the risk. 30. Make sure you follow your rules

Extra Trading Tools:

If you are short term and trade goes bad, cut it, don’t become a long term trader, other than you buying and hoping, not even buying and holding. Have a trading strategy before entering the market. Know before the trade is executed where you will take profits/loss.

Understand why a win/loss occurred and how you could of made the trade better. Consistency is the key to trading success, without it you have nothing. Your assessment is the only care, do not let outside factors affect the way you trade. Not everyone can be a trader, deem yourself worthy if given this opportunity. Most importantly have fun and stick to your rules and hopefully by following these rules they will increase your chances to becoming a successful Best Forex Broker

I hope this helps you achieve your goals. Happy Trading

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Plan the Trade and Trade the Plan Forex Trading

Posted by ForexForexForex | Stock market | Tuesday 27 January 2009 5:00 am
by ForexForexForex

Despite all that you have read and all of those promises to make you a multi millionaire there is no system that will make you an instant millionaire in forex trading. You can increase your chances of success by implementing a great forex trading plan and to protect you from going broke.

When you start to dig deep into the Forex Market there are three simple time frames in which you can trade Forex.

- Short Term – Medium Term – Long Term

All of these strategies have their own advantages and disadvantages when it comes to Forex Trading. No one strategy is better than the other and it comes down to your personal opinion and what sort of risk taker that you are.

1. Short Term Trader. The short term Forex trader is known as the scalper or day trader and they are going to be trading very quick trades often buying and selling currencies back and forth many times throughout the day. Leveraging is required here to both make a profit and also protect your investment. Protecting your investment is done through stop loss and money management.

2. Medium Term Trader. The medium term forex trader will hold the currency from one day to one week. The big advantage of the medium term trader is that profit can be made on the least amount of capital invested. This is looking at more established trend lines and trading with wider stops.

3. Long Term Trader The Long Term forex trader or investor can hold the currencies from weeks to months and even years if they can see a direction for that currency. Leveraging is also required here as well as short term trading to both make a profit and also protect your investment

Where traders make the biggest mistake is start out as a short term trader, the trade will go against them and they then decide to hold on to this currency trade until it turns around so they are forced to become a medium term traders. What will normally happen is they will end up with a lot of bad trades and ultimately end up broke. So whatever your strategy is trade it and stick to it. So never start out a short term trader and end up a long term investor.

Tools of the Trade:

When trading on the Forex Markets most traders use Technical Analysis for finding trades. There are a number of technical analysis strategies that you can to help you become a profitable trader. Technical analysis can be used to monitor many indicators as well as the all important price activity. When you get to know more about your personal needs in Forex market, you can get programs that will bring together large amounts of the data that you want included in your analysis. You will be able to customise and organise your plans for your personal investment strategy.

The other advantage of being a long term trader is you isolate yourself from the huge swings as the markets are open for so long.

Every single Forex Trader should use the golden rule of using stop losses, as they will help you to protect your capital.

The take profit order is the same as stop/loss but will stop the order when it has reached the level that you have set to reap the benefits.

It is a dilemma because you do not want to curb your profits by putting a take profit on your order but unless you watch your account all day, the currency may drop like a stone and you may lose it all. It’s better to take little and often. You can never go broke from taking a profit.

Time to Trade, the advantage of the modern age is the internet, mobile phones where you can trade from anywhere in world. You can set up accounts with a broker, even use a demo account until you feel comfortable. When selecting a Forex Broker remember finding a great Forex Broker is an important as selecting a winning trade. If you are uncertain who is a great Forex Broker, visit the CFD FX REPORT as they have recently researched all the brokers to find who they believe to be the best Forex Broker in the market. They are some excellent education lessons to be learnt from them as well.

So if you wish to learn more on Forex Trading feel free to visit us to gain more knowledge on the Forex Trading.

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