How could anyone imagine that retail trading Forex on a 10:1 leverage could ever be viable?

Keeping things simple, let’s say you have a $10k account and took a 1 lot trade ($100k) trade ( forget risk management for the moment), a couple of pips adverse movement and your’e on a margin call… mind numbing! If the trade went your way and you progressively locked in your profit, there is no way you could open even a mini lot to scale your trade!

Surely the CFTC has better things to regulate that this, or maybe they are too dim to realise that all this will do is send the industry offshore and depending on where retail brokers set up, the retail traders could be faced with even more risk due to a total lack of regulatory monitoring in some overseas arenas. Sure… countries like England, Switzerland and Australia, to name a few, are well regulated, but others are not so pretty.

So what to do? Try emailing David Stanwick at secretary@cftc.gov but remember any comments go public (including your personal info), so no rants, simply intelligent comments about the potential impact of this daft idea if it goes through.

This shift in money will have a significant effect and if you’re in it, there are big profits to be reaped.

How so? Well look at the math: Major stocks command big prices and significant rises in value rarely happen with any rapidity, yet a penny stock can have significant value movement because the price is so low.

Say you had $5k to invest; a financial market stock might set you back $50 per share, so you would buy 100 units/shares. Now for those shares to go to $60 or a 20% increase, might take months or more, yet for a share costing a 1 penny, a 20% movement will happen in days, maybe even hours depending on market sentiment.

Sometimes a penny share will go from 1 to 1.5 or even 2 pennies in a matter of a couple of days, which will provide you, the astute investor, significant profits.

But as with any trading, a little knowledge will have significant advantages. Understanding the signals that can forewarn of movement in the share price will make the difference between rapid profits and price stagnation, so if this market interests you, learning how to recognise these signals so you make your move at the right time, will give you a significant advantage.

The penny stock market is not one I would every consider as a long term investment market, I personally see it as a quick in.. quick out market, similar to Forex scalping yet over a slightly longer time period, plus it will pull even bigger profits when approached with understanding of the dynamics.

If you want to get a better understanding of this dynamic market and learn how to read the signals, entry and exit points, based on predictable market dynamics, get the package, you’ll learn all about it and be provided with emails of stock picks, their entry and exit points plus much more.

One of the biggest gripes I have about most software packages on the market today is that they bombard you with too much information. Who wouldn’t feel overwhelmed if they got a 300-page manual in their letterbox outlining the finer points of a particular trading algorithm?

Simplicity is bliss. And that’s exactly what Forex Tester 2 is – both blissful and simple, while still packing some grunt, it has certainly won me over. The software is easy to install and within the space of five minutes, I was able to download this program off the company’s website and begin using it. You can use the free trial version of the software and you don’t even have to register your email address.

This is a program aimed at beginner FX traders and it hits its mark wonderfully. Forex Tester 2 allows you to back test your Forex trading strategies using historical data and then, when the time comes to jump into the real market, you can do so with confidence.

The trial version is free and you can’t say that’s not a good deal. It is limited in its scope however, compared to the full-priced option, you can only back test using one month of historical data and you can’t save your testing results, projects or templates. But there’s enough here for you to work out if the program is for you, before you commit your hard-earned coin on it.

It’s the norm now in the trading software market to include a spate of technical indicators with any program and Forex Tester 2 is no different. By my count, there are well over 30 to choose from. What I particularly liked is the fact you can load up different indicators on different timeframes on any chart.

Also of great importance, especially when back testing, is to focus on your money management. The creators of Forex Tester 2 clearly know this and with each tick you move forward during testing, the software updates what your financial position would be at that point in time, which is extremely helpful.

Of course, don’t take my word for it. If you’re looking at getting into the Forex market and have a strategy or two up your sleeve, Forex Tester 2 may well be for you.

Aaron Lawton has been trading options part time on the US stock exchanges for a little over two years.

So often the newby trader will watch charts and arrive at the misguided impression that Foreign Currency Trading looks easy… Many have fallen foul of this trap, why..  I am not sure, but statistics cleary show that the path to currency riches is strewn with financial wrecks.

Is it that the currency of the modern generations is instant gratification? The value attained by knowledge development has been lost and this loss has led to a modern society that lacks the stamina for trial and learning. But without time dedicated to the learning processes, the price of ignorance has to be quantified. Foreign Currency trading is very good at placing a price on ignorance.

Those who make money in the currency markets have dedicated a considerable amount of time to learning their ‘craft’, and as with any skill, they constantly hone their expertise, challenging new boudaries in order to minimise the chances of failure.

It could be the development of a new indicator or the testing of strategies that allow earlier market entry or later exit, the specifics do not matter. But there is one common denominator with all these exercises, capital is never risked until the system is proven. How is the system proven, by testing, testing on current and historical data, then testing in real time. Then only when the strategy is thoroughly proven is capital risked.

For many retail traders, the small, at home investor, wishing to learn Foreign Currency trading, the most common testing platform is historical data on a demo account. What many are not aware of is that demo account data has a reputation for inaccuracies, it is also limited in duration. Years of data is not available to demo accounts, to put it simply it would take too much space on the brokers servers. Also the servers often used for demo accounts are also the ones used for testing by the brokers, the trading servers are kept clean.

If you are starting out, the ability to test your strategies is paramount and being able to test on years of accurate data is by far the preferred option. Why risk your hard earned capital trading systems that can wipe you out in the blink of an eye? That is not why you decided to start this journey… your goal was to become a trader, or more importantly.. a profitable trader. So invest in your mind first, then the profits will come from knowledge and understanding.

So if demo account testing has severe limitations, what other options are available?

A comprehensive testing system has been developed which offers many years of historical data, allowing you to test not only your own strategies but also third party systems. It allows you to discover both your abilities and your failings and then develop the discipline required to temper over exuberance and risk taking, both of which will cost you dearly. Using Forex Tester, you will discover yourself becoming engrossed in your trading, feeling all the emotions and anxieties of monitoring chart movements… trades going wrong… the excitement of profits… the trepidation of entry and exit. All become real, the big difference is you have no capital at risk, but you are developing the knowledge essential for risking your capital in the real markets.

Used to it’s fullest capabilities, this software will provide you with some of the best practical trade training around, it is not designed to teach you the technicalities, but will allow you to test until you are sure your strategies will work, not once, but time and time again. So check it out:

I just got an email from Steve, one of the founders of FapTurbo, warning me of a blatant scam being perpetrated on unwitting robot users and maybe unsuspecting FapTurbo buyers. It orginates from Russia and presents as though it is FapTurbo’s latest version. We also received the ‘pitch’ from the scammer on our second email account and quickly realised something was far from correct, since it presented as an upgrade but with a sales letter. Upgrades don’t need sales letters…

Here is the eamil from Steve:

“…..It has come to our attention that some russian scammer is spamming our clients with his offer of a so called “fapturbo51″. 

His spam messages begin with a “Fapturbo Sucks” message.

 Here is official statement: Fapturbo51 is a SCAM. Beware!

 Here are the facts:

 1. Fapturbo51 is not a new version. It is a hacked version of the original Fapturbo49. There is nothing new inside.

 2. There is no “secret russian formula”. The Fapturbo51 code is exactly the same as the original one. We already verified that.

 3. Fapturbo51 is showing exactly the same accounts as on the official site.

 4. The scammer only changed TakeProfit and StopLoss values, there are no secret settings inside his copy.

 5. The “51″ manual is a badly “OCR”ed copy of the genuine FapTurbo.

 We know a lot of people are curious beyond what is healthy  so if you just want this scam then you can download their cracked holy grail style version here for free without the need to support the scammer:

(As registered owners of FapTurbo, we were then provided with with the link to download the scam upgrade FOC, effectively undermining the Russian’s income strategy)

We already started the legal actions agains the scammer and would like to warn you that the only legal fapturbo site is www.Fapturbo.com Don’t become a victim of phising sites and illegal clones. If you buy from a scammer you will never get any updates or support.

Help us fight the pirates

Please help us protect Fapturbo from pirates. After all you are a genuine purchaser and should be as angry as we are about such illecit activities. Please Report all pirate and fraud issues you found on forums, blogs, websites, torrents.

If someone is selling Fapturbo without beeing a LEGAL affiliate with a legal clickbank link or offers you cracked/decompiled version that means he is a scammer and should be reported to our anti-fraud department….”

We use FapTurbo and have done since it’s inception, we know what is capable of, even some of the pitfalls that we found when we first started trading it, details of these can be seen on our FapTurbo Review. We are also official affiliates so you can purchase FapTurbo through our links, knowing you are getting  the genuine article.

We support Steve, Mike & Uli and the FapTurbo Robot they built and keep developing, so feel this post is important in getting the info out to members of the public that are not aware of the situation and could fall foul of these scammers.

An often asked question is “Can you learn Forex trading Free?” so let’s see if we can provide a definitive answer.

At some point you are going to have to inject capital into a trading account, so reality dictates that in one sense Learning Forex Trading Free is not possible, because without a Broker account, you will not be able to get a Demo account to practice on. But, apart from this small catch, you can learn Forex trading free. There is absolutely no need to invest money, in high priced, over hyped courses. Keep your money in your trading account, don’t waste it on overpriced education programs. 95% of them are NOT worth what they ask you to pay!!

Let’s look at what you do need to learn Forex trading free, so you don’t deplete your trading account on overpriced BS! An absolute necessity is the trading platform.

All Forex Brokers use a Trading Platform, the software that allows you to transact a trade and to monitor the market. This is usually provided free and will come with a wide selection of indicators you can apply to the charts plus a variety of other useful tools. A commonly used platform is MetaTrader4, and yes it’s Free!

There are a variety of other platforms available and most are provided free of charge.

Next on your education shopping list are the Forex basics. All of this can also be found free, Baby Pips is a brilliant starting point, but there is plenty more on the net. Yes it’s spread around a bit and might take you a bit of time to consolidate the information that is available into some sort of comprehendible state, but it’s out there and won’t cost you anything.

If you are really diligent, you may even find some quality technical trading courses that are free or virtually so. I know of a very good one put out by a Scottish trader with years of experience that sells for $1! Once you have your head around the basics, you can build on this via an inexpensive monthly subscription as your skills progress, your choice. The $1 course is damn good and can make you a lot of money when you start trading, but as with any course, you have to be comfortable with the strategies taught. This is the very reason why you should not invest in the unknown! Free or a $1, doesn’t hurt at all, $2000 does!!

Certainly there is a wealth of information out there that will only cost you time, nothing else.

Next; set up a Free Demo account with your Broker, and start test your trading knowledge and skills before you go live. Demo accounts often have time restrictions though, so once you get to this stage, it is worth thinking about investing a small amount in software like Forex Tester, which will allow you to test your skills time and time again over many years of data. Forex Tester does offer a free trial, but for the price it is worth buying, because you will end up using it time and time again as you develop and test your trading strategies. This will be the difference between a profitable career in trading and a short trip to oblivion. One foolish losing trade will pay for Forex Tester!

The next item you might consider is Free Forex Trading Robots. There is an extensive list of them that are available free, but be careful, many simply don’t work and will wipe out your account. Unfortunately this also applied to many you pay big bucks for as well, in fact there are very few that work and even those that do have their off days! If you do decide to try some Free Forex trading robots, run and test them on Forex Tester FIRST…. DON’T test them on your Broker account!!!

Beyond this you enter the realm of the silver tongued salesman. You will encounter high priced courses that you subscribe to, they lock you in and you become dependent. With many of these you are not in total control, and you will never really know what or who is trading them or generating the signals. You may even log in one morning and nobody is there, neither is you account!

So a word of warning: NEVER hand over your account and its trading to someone else unless they are highly reputable, NEVER EVER!

Learning to Trade Forex, is like going to University, it takes time and practice before you are confident in your ability to trade live. It can be studied Free, but a better end result is achieved with a Small investment in high quality courses and testing software. They will pay for themselves very quickly, some courses will even allow you to learn some trading techniques free of charge, then if you like what you try, you can invest in the course with confidence.

So if you would like to try a Free Forex Trading Strategy, click this link: Free Strategy. It is a very effective Forex trading strategy that you can try on either a Demo account or Forex Tester first and once comfortable try it on your live account and you will make money. It is presented over 5 videos so is easy to understand, but practice it first. If you like it you can follow on with the full course, which is not expensive, but is of exceptionally high quality and I am happy to recommend it. It has been the basis of a lot of our personal education and yes, we do receive a commission but we only recommend products that we have confidence in.

Forex Tester also offers a Free Trial, it doesn’t have full functionality, but will still give you a good feel of the full system. Click here to get Forex Tester Free Trial.

Every element of Forex trading takes practice, a experienced trader NEVER trades a new or unproven strategy without extensively testing it, so why should you?

Everyone has a highly individualistic aversion to risk, no two people are the same, so in many situations there can be no hard and fast rule. One only has to look at sport; skydiving’s a good example. Many are happy to jump from a plane, but base jumping.. no way. It all rests with personal risk assessment. 

Foreign currency risk management is different, there are intangibles and the lure of big money, and this can easily manipulate your personal judgment. Depending on what market you are entering you need to establish your risk tolerance before you commence trading. Any good stock broker or financial planner knows this, and in their marketplace they should make a significant effort to help you determine where your risk tolerance sits. So that you do not push or exceed your tolerance to risk. 

Online foreign currency trading is different, there is no middle-man, just you and the market. You are in total control of your risk tolerance by how you develop your foreign currency risk management strategy, your broker has no real involvement what so ever. 

Simply put, establishing your risk tolerance is a matter of knowing how much money you have to invest, what your

Forex Risk Management

investment and financial goals are and how much you are prepared to lose if things go wrong. A guiding rule for Foreign currency risk management is: “Never trade what you are not prepared to lose.” 

Think about this for a moment: If you plan to retire in ten years, and you don’t have enough money saved, you may have a high risk tolerance, but minimal money to lose. Yet, you need to do some aggressive, or risky investing to reach your financial goals. This has the potential to create a very dangerous situation because personal needs and your trading strategies conflict. 

If you are in young and just starting to invest for your retirement, your risk tolerance is low, plus you have time to recover any losses. 

Then there is your innate feeling towards risk, you maybe naturally cautious, so will only consider conservative investment strategies. 

Before you ever consider investing one single penny, it is worth taking a course in financial risk management. These are by necessity, an integral part of any good trading course and are mandatory elements in establishing trading strategies. 

Risk management is something you will see discussed extensively and with good reason. Refer back to the chart and you should understand why good risk management has to be indelibly printed into your psyche, if not you will lose and big time. It is probably the biggest single failing of new traders and why they don’t stay in the game for long. 

I have personally experienced losing serious money through bad risk management, so if I can in any way help you avoid going through the same heartache, I will and I will make no apologies for doing so.

Automated Forex System Trading

With the instability of many investments over the last 18 months, many people are turning to the Foreign Currency Market as an alternative, but why foreign currency investment instead of other securities?

The Online Forency Currency Trading or ‘Forex Trading’ possesses some unique characteristics:

1. Its trading volume is vast compared to other markets.
2. It possesses huge liquidity so buying and selling currency is never a problem.
3. The market operates 24 hrs a day for almost 6 days per week.
4. The Trading Floor is electronic, there is no ‘bricks and mortar’ exchange.
5. There are 4 major markets, Asia, Europe, London & New York, offering the potential of 4 opening movements every 24 hrs.
6. The market liquidity increases every year, irrespective of economic conditions.
7. Since the early 90s it has been open to Retail Investors

Many small investors, like to trade part time and still maintain a full time job. This can pose problems since they are restricted to when they can monitor the charts. Yes you can trade on a ‘Blackberry’, but you gotta be good to work off a screen that small! Anyway, this has caused an explosion in automated Forex systems for trading, often referred to as Forex Robots. Many of these Forex Robots had their origins in trading houses, where there was a requirement to trade small investor accounts. They were also developed to produce entry and exit signals for professional traders.

Tragically, many of the Robots that have been sold to ’Mom & Dad’ traders, have done little to improve their bottom line, in fact, many of the ones we have tested would have sent your account crashing to oblivion. They were bloody disasters! The sales claims were wonderful, but all based on historical charts (backtesting) never on real time trading accounts. Downloadable Historical charts are never 100% accurate, which also means claims are hard to verify, so true testing has to be done on a Demo account over the longest period possible to get any indication of real performance.

But there are a few which have produced very encouraging results, worthy of testing on a trading account.

We currently trade using 2 different EAs: Forex MegaDroid and FapTurbo.

Megadroid has consistently produced profitable trades and has been returning around 12% per month. This is on a restricted risk setting of 20%, which is tighter than the 30% recommended by the creators. We just don’t feel comfortable with a risk level as high as 30%. This still means we will grow our account significantly over a 12 month trading period and that’s got to be a good for anyone.

When we started trading with FapTurbo the results were dissappointment, though this was due more to our Broker than the software. At the time our broker was not an ECN broker, so spreads varied considerably and were often outside the FapTurbo trading parameters. When the spread is 2 – 3 FapTurbo trades profitably, but being a scalper, the trade profits are small and it needs to trade frequently to have a significant effect on any account.

After about 6 months of frustration our broker bacame an ECN facility and trading with FapTurbo improved, but was still not as good as it should have been. We then found the cause, and this is very relevant to anyone outside the US. Being Australian and using an Australian broker, we set up our account in Aus$, only natural, no problems with conversions etc if we wanted to withdraw some funds. BAD MOVE!!! This meant that FapTurbo had to re-calculate the currency and it ground to a halt. When we changed our account to US$ the trading frequency changed significantly, as did profits… they were up, big time!

Of the other Forex Robots we have investigated, most will cut your account to shreads. Some of the hyped ones are simply re-packaged free EAs, presented as the latest and greatest, but the only money they make is for their vendor. When you find they have problems, there is no support and the vendor has vanished with your money, so where Forex Robots are concerned, be very cautious. Don’t jump in on the latest and greatest, check it out very thouroughly first before hitting the buy button.

If you do buy a Forex Robot, have a look at Forex Tester, and consider running some tests over a much longer period, it could well save your trading account!

Within the Forex industry, there are many reports of strange and underhand Broking behaviours, funds and accounts that go missing, reversed and un-authorised trades and other Scams that leave you high and dry with a zero balance, or it could be a simple as barriers and problems withdrawing funds.

So how do you start assessing a Broker for Forex Trading?

Here is a list of items you should investigate that will give you an overview of how a Forex Trading Broker might rate. It is not the ‘be all and end all’ only a starting point, as you undertake your due diligence, it is highly likely you will add others:

1. Where are the Broker’s Registered Offices? As soon as I see places like Panama, the Seychelles or other off shore havens, the warning bells start ringing. I am not saying they might not be very professional, I just check much deeper.
2. Is the Forex Trading Broker regulated by an official Government Body?
3. Contact information. Are they available by phone, or only via email or web enquiry service? Forex is a 24hr market, they need to be available on the phone 24hrs per day.
4. Do they have a recognised trading platform or an ‘In House’ system? Some big Institutions like Dukascopy have their own platform, but many Brokers use main stream platforms like MetaTrader, Currenex or Integral. Many EAs or Forex Robots require MetaTrader4.
5. What spreads do they offer?
6. What is their Broking structure? Are they DD (Dealing Desk) Broker, a NDD (No Dealing Desk) Broker, a STP (Straight Through Processing) Broker or an ECN (Electronic Communication Network) Broker? For a detailed explanation of the differences and how it affects your trading: Read this Article.
7. Speed of Execution of Orders? This is directly related to their broking structure, so investigate (5) above.
8. Leverage offered? Most Forex Trading Brokers will offer 100:1 but some will go much higher for established clients. When you are new, start with 100:1 it is better for your risk management.
9. Do they have minimum account balances? Some Forex trading Brokers require a minimum of US$50k or more whereas others will offer accounts as low as US$1000
10. Do they have access to all major Financial Markets?
11. Do they offer Demo accounts, how many and how long can you demo trade on them?
12. Do they provide PDA feeds and software for mobile trading?

 This should get you started on compiling a Forex Trading Broker ‘short list’. Spend time on your due diligence, it’s your hard earned money and you need to be 110% happy with where you place it.

There is a vast variety of currency trading brokers and the new trader is often confused by the type of broker. There are two primary types: Dealing Desk (DD) and No Dealing Desk (NDD). You will then encounter NDD brokers which are either Straight Through Processing (STP) and or ECN.. Electronic Communications Network.

Let’s now put some clarity into this confusion:

The Dealing Desk Broker: A Forex DD Broker makes money on spreads and by taking the opposite position to their client. They are the ‘Market Makers’ because when you, the client, buys they sell and visa versa. They are literally making the market because they can manipulate the market, because you, the trader never see’s the true market quotes.

The No Dealing Desk Broker: The NDD Broker accesses direct to the interbank marketplace, all trades are virtually instantaneous with no re-quotes or delays in communication. This is particularly important if you trade during news periods. NDD Brokers usually charge commissions, though some can also derive income from spreads. A NDD broker will either be STP or ECN + STP

Straight Through Processing: This is where the NDD broker communicates directly with the liquidity providers, the banks that trade the Interbank marketplace. There are no intermediaries so everything is executed immediately. STP Brokers do have the ability to alter spreads, which gives them options as to how they make their money. They do not charge commissions.

Electronic Communications Network: These brokers allow traders to trade against one another within the ECN, these traders could be small retail traders up to Banks and Institutions. An ECN broker allows everyone to place and execute competing trades against each other within the ECN. For this reason, an ECN broker cannot make money on spreads but make their money on commission. An ECN broker wants you to make money, otherwise they don’t earn commissions.

So what type of Currency Trading Broker do you select? An ECN broker is the most transparent, dealing in the true market, everything is done automatically without anyone watching who is in the market since there is No Dealing Desk to monitor.

The Dealing Desk broker, has the ability to manipulate the market and one of the results is ‘slippage’ where the spread can change during the execution of an order. This can have a disastrous impact on your trading strategy, as it chucks your pre-determined setups out the window!