If you are just starting to look into forex trading strategies as a way to generate extra income, make certain you start on the right path. Although the rewards can be massive, Forex is fraught with risk and the possibility of losing your initial investment. To start your journey on the right foot, here are three tips to help you get started.
Tip #1: Read Up
Before you decide to take another step into the world of forex and trading strategies, get your hands on a few top books on the topic at your library or over at Amazon. Become familiar with the terminology used and the basics of fx trading. Visit currency exchange websites and see if you can understand everything you are reading. If not, refer back to your books until you have a good grasp of the language used and the basics of trading.
Tip #2: Develop Your Strategy Using Forex Trading Signal Software
Invest in one or two of the popular software programs that help you with your trading strategy, such as Forex Killer. Do not use these programs to trade with real money on a live account yet. Instead, use the programs to get a deeper feel for the market, and to create a trading strategy for yourself ahead of time, before you begin risking money. Keep in mind, the cost for these types of programs are very small compared to the much larger investment you’ll have to make once you are trading for real. Make certain you use these to develop your profitable strategy now.
Tip #3: Practice Trading On A Demo Account
Now you are ready to start getting some hands-on experience trading - still without risking any money. Most forex trading companies will provide you with a demo account of their trading platform. That way you can practice trading in a virtual environment without any risk of losing money. Stick with trading on a demo account until you completely understand what you are doing and your strategy is proving profitable for you. There is no reason to risk any actual money until you’ve proved yourself successful on a demo account.
Bonus Tip: Once you are trading on the demo accounts or on live accounts, you’ll want to stay on top of the market by interacting with others active in the field. A free forex forum and chat room is a good place to go: http://www.freeforexforums.com
Forex Robots or otherwise known as forex autopilots claim to be fully integrated automated systems that enable any day trader to make profitable trades, but is this really true? In order to answer this question we need to look at how these programs work.
Forex robots work the currency exchange markets around the clock 24/7. Something that people obviously cannot do which is their main appeal to traders. The idea is to simply set up your margins and let the algorithms built into the program work their magic. These algorithms contain the technical and fundamental analysis that is extremely important to making successful forex trades. But it isn’t enough to simply set up a forex trading robot and hope and pray you’re going to make money, let’s be honest it goes beyond that. But some forex robots are better then others. Some have built in indicators depending on your margins and analysis. These indicators can analyze the trends behind the trades within fractions of a second with complete precision but this still doesn’t guarantee success. You still need to set up your trading strategy. Yes you can just as easily lose money using forex robots as you can make money with them but once you initialize the system with a strategy you are comfortable with the forex robot will now excel whereas the human trader can still falter. This is because the system is tuned to your strategy and the emotional factor behind the trade is eliminated.
It’s easy even for experienced day traders to make mistakes even once they set up a strategy because human emotion can so often play an impact. But with forex autopilots they simply work within the boundaries you set and since these trading systems are designed around actual performance and not just simulated data, they can work within a liquid and volatile market like the forex currency exchange with amazing results.
To learn more about forex robots the author David Pentoch has written a full review of the more popular forex autopilots available and the strengths and weaknesses behind each. To read the full reviews behind each of these trading programs you can go to http://www.mybrokerforextrading.com
Not all forex trading robots are created equal and each are set up and designed to run against different models. Some models have proven to not be as profitable as others. To see which forex trading robot fits your trading strategies go to http://www.mybrokerforextrading.com
I wanted to take the time to share with you some of the forex trading tips that I use with my personal trades. This is the biggest market in the world with several trillion dollars traded in a period of 24hrs. This means there is huge rooms for profit.
- Cripple Emotional Thinking: This is the last place you want to be emotional. When you do this business with emotion, you’re basically at a casino rolling the dice. Basically, all you’re doing is gambling. You have to have one consistent rule; when it comes to my money, I’m going to put logical thought into where I move it. It’s as simple as that. You want to make trades based on logical and factual signs. You don’t want to make the move because you have a “gut feeling”. If you feel yourself having “gut” feelings, a “need” to make a trade, a euphoric feeling, you need to take a break. Walk away because you’re leaving yourself open to losing your money.
- A Simple Routine: When you first start out at this, everything will be chaotic. Eventually, you’ll make it to a point where you “get it”. This is when the routines develop. Anyone that is trying to make an income, is doing a routine. You’re going to need to do the same similar tasks you did every other day to make profits. The problem is that people make it complicated. Complication makes it hard to follow and you’re more likely to make mistakes. If you keep it simple, it is much easier to get working.
If you’re interested in learning how to profit in currency trading industry, you should take a look at the Forex Factor X. It is an excellent system for doing well with trades.
The Mutual Fund industry has been a marketing juggernaut since the mid-1980’s. Billions of dollars have been deposited into mutual funds, but that decision by many investors may have cost them more than they realized. There are many reasons why mutual funds are not everything they market themselves to be.
- Underperformance.
From 1992 through 2002, growth-orientated mutual funds averaged 8.5% returns compared to an average annual return of 9.68% for the S&P 500 Index. Certainly, in any given year, some mutual funds outperform the market; however, the vast majority do not. Further, the average mutual fund investor will frequently sell an underperforming fund in an attempt to find that elusive ‘best performing’ fund which only incurs redemption fees, sales charges, and taxes which, in turn, drags their returns even lower.
- Transparency.
Currently, mutual funds only report their holdings on annual, semi-annual, or quarterly basis. By the time, the fund owner is in possession of those reports, the fund’s holdings have likely changed dramatically. Further, it is a common practice for funds to ‘window dress’ their holding just prior to the release of a report.
Transparency of fees and expenses is also a problem with mutual funds. While management fees and sales charges are widely accessible, other fees, such as 12b-1 and trading fees are often difficult to uncover. Most fund owners are not aware that each investment trade a mutual fund makes incurs a trading fee which is paid by the fund and further pulls downs the investors’ returns.
- Lack of Access to Your Money Manger.
Most mutual fund investors know their broker or financial planner and regularly speak with them. However, these professionals have no control or influence over the underlying securities held by a mutual fund. The fund manager is ultimately in control of the investment selection, and the average investor has no access to this individual.
- Over-Diversification.
Mutual funds are required by law to ‘diversify’ 75% of their assets. Diversification is defined as having no more than 5% of the portfolio in any single security and having no more than 10% of the outstanding shares of that security. Due to the size of some funds, many fund managers are forced to invest in more than 100 different stocks with the largest funds having positions in well over 175 stocks. Does that mean that the fund manager has 175 stocks that he thinks are ‘great buy opportunities’? Unlikely. The fund manager is often forced to buy lesser quality stocks in order to keep the fund ‘diversified’.
- Fund Overlap.
Many mutual fund investors will place assets in several different funds. Perhaps the investor has bought a growth fund, a balanced fund and a small-cap stock. The investor would be surprised to find that many stocks held by one fund are also held by the other funds. However, this is often the case. The investor may have attempted to diversify across several funds only to find that he owns the same stocks over and over.
- Cash Requirements.
The prospectus of a mutual fund will establish a minimum and maximum cash position the fund can take. The fund must adhere to this self-imposed requirement. This limits the fund managers investment options during market downturns. In longer ‘bear’ markets, most prudent investors would move their investments into greater cash positions.
At the height of the market in the year 2000, the average mutual fund had only 4% of their portfolio in cash. This figure exceeded 6% only once for any given month during the following two-year bear market. The S&P 500 lost nearly half its value, but fund managers were forced to either keep a position in a stock that was plummeting in value or sell that stock and buy another stock that would likely lose value as well.
To compound the problem, many of the stocks that were sold off by funds during the bear market, were sold at a net profit from their original purchase price even though they had declined in value that year. At the end of the year, investors had not only watched their portfolios decline in value rather dramatically, but they were also handed a capital gains tax liability. Speaking of taxes.
- Taxes.
With Mutual Funds, an investor exposes themselves to two different tax situations. The first is capital gains tax on the increase in price of the fund above the investors cost basis in the fund. If an investor purchases a fund at $10 per share and then later sells the fund at $11 per share, the investor will pay capitals gains taxes on $1 per share.
The second tax, often overlooked by investors, is the capital gains distributions that a mutual fund places upon its shareholders once a year. These distributions are not given to the shareholders that owned the fund at the time the capital gains was incurred, but rather to the shareholders at the time of distribution. When an investor purchases a fund, the investor is also assuming the tax liability for all capitals gains incurred since the last distribution.
For example, ABC Mutual Fund sells a holding on May 1st for a gain. Jane Investor purchases 100 shares of ABC Mutual Fund on July 1st. John Investor, who originally purchased 100 shares of ABC Mutual Fund on January 1st, sells all of his shares on August 1st. Guess who gets to pay for that capital gain incurred on May 1st? Jane does when the distributions of capital gains are made later in the year.
According to a release by the SEC in 2006, mutual fund investors lose 2.5% of their returns to taxes on embedded capital gains each year. While these taxes must be disclosed in a mutual fund’s prospectus, these taxes are often excluded from the returns the funds highlight in brochures and advertisements.
What alternatives do investors have to mutual funds?
For investors with over $100,000 of investable assets, separate accounts are an excellent alternative. These accounts are managed by professional money managers with whom the investor will often have direct access. In a separate account, the investor owns the underlying security; has greater control over when taxes are incurred; and has complete transparency of investments. Further, separate accounts have management fees that are often lower than mutual funds and have little to no expenses or additional fees which may affect portfolio performance.
Mutual funds are wildly popular and undoubtedly can make investors a profit. However, for the informed investor, separate accounts can achieve the diversification often sought in mutual funds while avoiding the inherent short-comings of mutual funds.
Bio: John O’Byrne, J.D. is the President and Chief Investment Officer of O’Byrne Williams Capital Group, Inc., an investment advisory firm specializing in global portfolio management. For more information, please visit http://www.obyrnewilliams.com
I’m going to share with you some of my forex currency trader tips. These should help transform your game from minor to maximized profits. We all have potential in this business, some more than others, but if I hope to help you use all your potential.
Why should I not be an emotional trader?
Well, I suppose in some cases emotions are good, like sports. But in this business emotions are an unprofitable ego hiding inside of you. They come out at the worst times and sabotage your efforts. Emotions are bad for trades because they reduce you from a business person to a petty gambler. You don’t make decisions on emotions, you make decisions on the cold hard facts.
You should be able to identify all emotional responses, but some are harder than others. Here are a few of the most common: The gut feeling is just a feeling to get into a trade. It’s not based off of anything, so therefore it should be avoided. Another is the stressed out/frustrated/flustered feeling. It isn’t a good state to trade in. Lastly, is the need feeling. This doesn’t seem emotional, but it is. You have this feeling that you need to make a trade. If you feel a “need” to make a trade, you should probably take a break.
What is the worst type of behavior?
I’d have to say the worst type of behavior is definitely the overcautious type. This type will do nothing for you. You will end up missing out on great opportunities because you hesitated. You wanted to check your work ten more times before you make a trade. It also leads to indecisiveness, especially after you buy. If a trade goes down slightly (down very little to make any difference) you’ll want to exit. You need to give a chance to your trades and let them play out.
I’m currently giving a 7 day free forex course. Newbies and experienced are all welcome. If you’re interested in participating, check out the Casual Forex Trader.
