Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Forex Trading Course: The 5 Essentials

If you want to get involved in currency trading it is worth looking around to make sure that you find a top rated forex trading course. Of course you will want to start making money as soon as possible but forex trading is risky and if you do not get a good grounding you could easily be losing money instead.

It is not so simple to predict which way currency prices will go. There are many factors to take into account. On top of that, it is vital to open and close your trades at the right moment to get maximum profit from any price change. If you try to work all of this out for yourself it will take a lot of time. So why not give yourself a head start by taking a good forex trading course?

Your course should cover all of the basics so that you are well prepared to begin trading. Here is a short list of important points that you will need to understand. Make sure that your course covers all of these before you sign up.

1. Principles of currency trading

Any good currency trading course will explain the basic principles of the forex market including leverage and margins, pips, spread and other costs, and what to look for in a broker.

2. Technical analysis

Technical analysis includes interpreting charts and indicators to identify trends, swings, breakouts and other factors that could be signals for you to open or close a trade. Different systems rely on different indicators. In the beginning, you only need to master the indicators for your own chosen system. Trying to cover them all could be confusing. Later, you might want to refer to other indicators to tweak your system for better profitability, so it's good if you have access to a course that you can dip into again further down the line.

3. Fundamental analysis

Fundamental analysis relates to the economic news, announcements and other events which affect currency prices. In the end, it is each country's economic performance which causes the value of its currency to change. You do not necessarily need to be able to predict these events. In fact many traders stay out of the market completely around the time of a forex news announcement. But it is important to understand how the process works and keep an eye on the alerts for anything that might affect your trading.

4. Risk management

Risk management concentrates on minimizing your losses through the use of stops, and protecting your funds by limiting the position size. In general your risk on any one trade should never be more than 5% and many traders work on 2%, 1% or even less. Broadly speaking you should expect to reduce the risk for larger fund sizes, simply because it will be more important to protect a fund of several million dollars than one of only a few hundred dollars. But you are pretty sure to crash and burn if you exceed 5% so make that your limit. You may feel like taking a chance for quicker growth on a small fund but wiping out your funds is not a good way to go!

5. Mindset

We put this last because it is usually the last thing that beginning traders want to hear about, but it is possibly the most important of all. In the end, if you do not master the mindset of a successful trader you will not be able to profit from the forex market.

You must develop a cool headed approach and work on your discipline so that you can follow a trading system without letting fear, excitement or other emotions get in your way. You also need to understand how to handle losses on the psychological level. Risk management techniques can help but if you let your emotions get the better of you, it is easy to fall into a pattern that will guarantee more losses. A good forex trading course will include teaching and exercises to help you master the art of self discipline and keep your emotions off the trading floor.

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