Institute of Knowledge

EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:52:00 +0000

A SHORT HISTORY

1833: Charles Babbage professor of mathematics at the Cambridge University with the assistance of Lady Augusta Ada Lovelace developed a machine that could store information, calculate numbers and solve algebraic expression.

1930: Howard Aikens and Grace Hooper developed an electrically operated machine which could calculate , store data, read characters and also special symbols. It was named
Harvard Mark 1

1945 : First electronic general purpose calculator ,ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator ) built in U.S ,weighs 33 tons consumes 150 kw and averages 5000 operations per ssecond

1947 : Transistor, essential storage device for computers invented by American engineers William Shockley, John Bardeen, and Walter Bartain .

1948 :First stored program computer, Manchester Mark 1 , built in UK. Using valves , it can perform about 500 operations per second and has the first RAM . It fills a room the size of a small office

1958:Integrated Circuit (microchip) produced by American engineer Jack Kilby. His circuit is made of a single piece of semiconductor

1965: First commercially successful microcomputer,
DEC PDP-8 is produced in US. It sits on a desktop.

1971: First microprocessor chip , the Intel 4004, produced in US. It performs 60000 operations per second.

1975: Microsoft founded by American businessmen Bill Gates and Paul Allen. They developed DOS which later becomes the dominant operating system for computers

1977: Mass produced personal computer, Commodore PET appears

1981: First portable computer, Osborne 1, produced. At the size and weight of a sewing machine, however, it is much less convenient than current portable computers.

1981: IBM launches IBM PC on the personal computer market. IBM makes the first massive sales in the personal computer market.

1984: Apple Macintosh computer becomes first successful personal computer with a mouse and easy to use Graphic User Interface (GUI).

1985: Microsoft launches Windows for PC . Windows is a GUI similar to Mac’s, making personal computer much easier to use.

1990 : IBM Pentium PC produced. It is designed using a system called VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration).

Resume

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:47:00 +0000

AHMAD
1. Career Objective
To pursue a career in an organization of repute having potential for creativity and innovation where merit is the base, a position where one faces a challenging working environment to bring out the best of one’s capabilities.
2. Work Experience
• Two year experience as an administrator officer in al Rehmat.
3. Academic Record

DEGREE INSTITUTION YEAR %age
B.B.A University of Peshawar 2007-2011 In progress
F.S.C B.I.S.E, Mardan 2005-2007 51
S.S.C B.I.S.E, Mardan 2003-2004 58

4. LANGUAGES
Other languages and skill level Read Write Speak Understand
English High Good Good Better
Urdu High High High High
Pashto High Good High High

5. COMPUTER SKILLS
□ MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
□ Windows XP, 2000 and win98.
□ Adobe Photoshop
□ Smash
□ Internet Browsing

6. HOBBIES:
□ Cricket, Traveling, poetry

7. PERSONAL DATA
Present Address
Cell No
Date of Birth
Place of Domicile
NIC. No.
Father’s Name
Marital Status
E-mail Street -----------------------------------
0334-8921321
08-02-1988
Mardan NWFP, Pakistan.
UnMarried
Ahmad_aeasthatic@yahoo.com

What is Ecommerce?

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:59:00 +0000

Ecommerce involves buying and selling of products or services through the Internet. Ecommerce is the best voted option for online selling considering the fact that it is a billion dollar industry with endless online store owners and online buyers. Various reasons can be attributed to it. People have easy access to the Internet. They can very conveniently do comparative study of products they intend to buy without going anywhere. Moreover when they buy online they get great bargains.

Ecommerce or online stores allow you to see something that is put up for sale even at the opposite end of the world. What makes Ecommerce a better sales option is that you don't need to step out of your home especially considering the busy lifestyle everyone has these days.

Ecommerce benefits the sellers too in a great way. The main benefit of having an ecommerce store for online selling is that amount of investment it takes is quite less as compared to a brick and mortar store. When you set up a shop, you need to invest in the interior design, rent, staff, electricity, water, and other things.

Again marketing your online store on the Internet is also cost-effective. Moreover there are many methods for marketing online, such as direct mails, online advertisements, social networking sites, banner advertisements, PPC marketing and more. In this process, it is possible to reach your consumers, update them about latest offers and increase profits considerably.

Ecommerce can be opted for any type of sales or business. It can be for the virtual or physical items. Ecommerce can be business to business (B2B) or business to consumer (B2C). In B2B, the exchange usually is of commodities between companies or business groups and in B2C, the business is dealt with individual customers.

The retailers who sell online are known as e-tailers. The sale can pertain to the day to day commodities, services, knowledge transfer, etc. One can shop almost everything available online with the advancement of Ecommerce. Emailing, instant messaging, online banking, online shopping, teleconferencing, and electronic tickets are all examples of the use of Ecommerce in our daily lives. However, there are some government regulations on the Ecommerce activities. In US, FTC regulates these activities. This body monitors the online advertising, commercial emails being sent, and the privacy of the consumer.

Setting up an Ecommerce Store is now very easy with software programs that come with ready to use Ecommerce store coding, designs and all functionalities. They are instant, very cost-effective and very convenient way to have your own web store.

Ecommerce Solutions, Including a Complete Shopping Cart

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:58:00 +0000

The changing market trends and ever increasing competition has taken the sales war on to the online arena. Ecommerce has registered its success thanks to the growing popularity of the internet and is definitely here to stay. More and more people are transacting online and taking advantage of the many e commerce platforms available today. Organizations want to have an e commerce platform in place to cash in on the phenomenon of e commerce. There are companies providing customized e commerce solutions such as shopping carts to fit in to the exact requirements of their clients.

Ecommerce solutions like shopping cart are very much in demand. 'Shopping Cart' is nothing but software designed to make up for a great online shopping experience. An online shopping cart lets an internet user get a real-world shopping experience like picking products and creating a shopping basket. The software then calculates the total order price and with the help of a payment gateway processes the order.

Fitting in an online Shopping cart can be a technical nightmare for website owners because of the many nitty-gritty's involved in this particular e commerce solution. However, the decision to go for a shopping cart can be quite lucrative in the long-run as it opens up a new channel from which an organization can expand its business operations apart from the traditional methods like selling through a physical store.

If the benefits are evident and are easily there for the taking it becomes that much necessary to take professional expertise and launch your very own shopping carts. Ecommerce solutions such as a payment integration gateway and a search engine friendly online shopping carts are best left to be handled by experts on this domain. Stop pondering over and reach out for your e commerce solution needs without further ado.

About the Author - Gaurav Kumar is internet marketing professional, Presently working with Ebizon NetInfo, one of the leading Web development company offering expert SEO Services, US web development services, Shopping cart and ecommerce solutions over the globe.

Five Rules of Pricing Your Digital Products

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Especially if you are a beginner marketer, the statistics show that you have the tendency to price your products out of the market.

Let's start with what you must cover if you sell a print book or you sell a digital product.

A print book at a retail store has to cover: the printing, editing, marketing, profits for the author and publisher, a percentage for store.

Digital product owners have far more freedom to determine a price point than a retail store. With digital products, you only need to pay a percentage for your affiliates and you get to keep the rest. There is no inventory, miscellaneous upfront cost for domain, graphics etc, and nothing to dispose of if you make no sales. You simply take down the sales page and go to the next product.

What you have to know is how much will people pay for the information?

For instance, how do you price your new product if you are a beginner marketer and don't yet have a large list and the people don't know you yet? That's the difficult part due to the long established form of the eBook. There is an eBook for every type of topic so the price point depends on what the market will pay and if the author is notoriety or not. A useful place to start is to do a little research on similar information products to see what they are charging.

Rule 1: Pricing for digital information products often end in a "7." Looks like, it attracts more buyers. Did you notice that a lot of products are: $27, $37, $47, $97?

Rule 2: Another frequently used pricing structure is anything ending in ".95." This is a very old trick of presenting a price that sounds less than it actually is. If you spend $27.95 rather than $28.00, you create the illusion that something is left in your pocket. When it comes to digital products that a customer receives electronically, the price advertised is the price actually paid. The $17.95, $9.95, $7.95 prices are a good idea because the buyer is left with the feeling of still having those five cents left in his pocket. It's purely a psychological satisfaction on the part of the buyer and an old retailer trick.

Rule 3: The general wisdom is you must start with a medium price point. Do not undervalue your product by starting too low. Perception is everything and you do not want your product to appear less than worthwhile. A lot of experienced marketers will tell you to start with little higher than your competitors. This will leave room for a "discount" at the next lowest price. Again you live the impression that you create a bargain for your customers.

Rule 4: We call it "buy now" rule. How many times have you seen a commercial that flashes a $97 but "if you buy NOW, you can get it for just $27.95"? Or if you do affiliate marketing you announce in the top of sale page that you "just obtained a 10% discount for your list only". This gets the buyer into the frame of mind that they have won something. Usually the next step is pulling out the wallet. That product was never going to sell for the higher price in the first place but the discount gets buyers excited and in a buying mood.

Rule 5: Keep your buyer focus on your product and not the price. Price is only a small part of the whole process. What you want is the buyer to see the value of the product and what it can do for them rather than what it costs. This is the reason why we have long sale pages for digital products in which we put the emphases on the benefits the product offer, the testimonials, and at the end in one sentence we tell the price and immediately follow a call for action.

Summary: it is mandatory to start with research, but after you find out the market value of your digital product, you try to apply the 5 rules.

Better Ecommerce Web Development For Better Online Business

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:56:00 +0000

The latest survey that has been conducted shows that most of business happening in these recession riddled times is most of the times happening online. What it means is that people are not completely engrossed in the idea of starting and running an online business, which is basically because of insufficient funds. As people don't have enough money to start a brick and motor store, they go for online stores where they don't have to spend a lot of money.

You too want that share of the pie and wonder what you could do to help customers generate more sales for you. You don't want your customers to change their mind when they have laden their shopping carts but it's time for them to reach out for the finalization of the deal. You will always be able to get the best if your website is designed in the right way.

Beneath are the ecommerce web development tips and tricks that can turn a potential customer into a loyal customer for your ecommerce website.

* We all love paths that are organized and sequential and so do our customers. A seasoned ecommerce web designer will help you define the path that the customer needs to take to get to the check out. If we were to draw an analogy then it will be like a story board.

* Ensure that all the prominent buttons need not be searched for but are right out there sticking their necks out. The easier and delightful the process more is the customer going to be in a mind frame to buy it.

* Simplify the entire process. The less cumbersome it is and the sooner your customer gets to the right product the better it will be for your bank balance

* The more number of windows and clicks the customer encounters more are the chances of them losing interest. Remember that a customer can be quite fickle minded due to the huge amount of information and a surfeit of products out there.

* Provide your customers with little indicators that guide them towards the culmination of the deal. All of the things such as the web design, the logo, the products and the words must work in sync to finally leave your customer at the checkout gateway. Place the buy now button at the right hand corner, right size, color and contrast with the background of the website.

* Show your customer the price right away. This ensures that they are assured of transparency and they don't click to find that out somewhere else. Psychologically that is the very first thing that the customer looks for.

Make sure your website has all these features and you will be amazed to see an increase in the total sales. So, pay attention to these points and run your business in the best way possible.

Jelecos.com offers variety of ecommerce solutions along with quality ecommerce web development services. This ecommerce company has professional designers and developers who know how to produce something according to the needs of their customers. So, visit now to get a solution according to your needs.

Money Management Principles

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:20:00 +0000

Trade With Sufficient Captial
One of the worst blunders that forex traders can make is attempting to trade without sufficient capital.

The trader with limited capital not only will be a worried trader, always looking to minimize losses beyond the point of realistic trading, but he will also frequently be taken out of the trading game before he can realize any sense of success trading the method(s) or patterns.

Exercise Discipline
Discipline is probably one of the most overused words in forex trading education. However, despite the clich¨¦, discipline continues to be the most important behaviour one can master to become a profitable trader. Discipline is the ability to plan your work and work your plan.

It¡¯s the ability to give your trade the time to develop without hastily taking yourself out of the market simply because you are uncomfortable with risk. Discipline is also the ability to continue to trade the methods and patterns even after you¡¯ve suffered losses. Do your best to cultivate the degree of discipline required to be a world-class trader.

Employ Risk-to-Reward Ratios
The following shows you possible risk-to reward ratios, and the win ratios required to break even in a trading system.

Risk-to-Reward Ratio (in pips)and Win Ratio Required to Break Even(%)

40/20 (2 to 1) = 67%, 40/40 (1 to1) = 50%, 40/60 (1 to 1.5) = 40%,
40/80 (1 to 2) = 33.5%,
60/20 (3 to 1) = 75%,
60/60 (1 to 1) = 50%,
60 /90 (1 to 1.5) = 40%,
60/120 (1 to 2) = 33.5%

Important Note
Never risk more pips on a trade then you plan to make. It doesn¡¯t make sense to risk 100 pips in order to make only 10. Why? See below example.

Profit taking level (pips): 10
Stop used or pips at risk: 100

You win 10 times which makes 100 winning pips. You ONLY lose once and have to give back all profits!!!

This type of trading makes no sense and you will lose on the long term guaranteed!

Forex Money Management

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Forex money management is one of the most important things you can learn before you actually begin making live trades.

The money management principles discussed here will teach you how to avoid the costly mistakes many new traders make, often to the degree that they lose their entire investment on the first handful of trades.

Psychology is really the most important factor to money management in forex. You have to be able to separate yourself from any emotional attachment you may have to your money. This is not very easy to do, but it works and it can be done.

If you allow yourself to become emotional on a trade, you will not exit the trade properly, and this could mean holding on to a trade when you should have let it go, or letting go before the trade had a chance to turn profitable.

First and foremost, you should consider leverage and risk. It is advisable that you never risk more than two percent of your account balance on any trade. However, some go further and allow for as much as ten percent, but never more than that. This gives you the ability to withstand market fluctuations, and if the trade goes bad, you still have money to try again. You should never operate under the assumption that you will profit from every trade. You should also plan for losses. Therefore, most traders will tell you that the best thing to do is to keep your gains large and your losses small. Develop your trading strategy around this idea.

Keep track of your gains and losses. Keeping accurate and detailed records of your account activity will allow you to see whether or not the strategy is working, or if it needs to be re-built.

Never go blindly into trading without a way to keep track of results. You will lose all of your funds and never understand why it happened.

Finally, it is highly advisable that you first practice a strategy on a demo account. Nearly all brokers offer a virtual account whereupon you make trades in real-time, but with imaginary money, so nothing is risked. This is the best way to test a strategy before you put your real money on the line.

However, be careful, once again, of the psychology of trading. When you play with fake money, nothing is risked. When real money is on the line, you must not get emotional. If you do, you will find yourself with very different results, most likely losses, than you had with the demo account.

Stock Market Money Management Skills

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Let's start by saying: You can't be afraid to take a loss. The investors that are the most successful in the stock market are the people who are willing to lose money.

Having a strategy and/or a specific philosophy is an excellent starting point to investing but it won't mean a thing if you can't manage your money. As I have said a million times: without cash, you can't invest.

Most investors spend far too much time trying to figure out the exact pivot point or perfect entry strategy and too little time on money management. The most important aspect to investing is cutting your losses, 90% of the battle is won by protecting your capital, regardless of the strategy.

Most successful money managers only make money 50-55% of time. This means that successful individual investors are going to be wrong about half the time. Since this is the case, you better be ready to accept your losses and cut them while they are small. By cutting losses quickly and allowing your winners to ride the up-trend, you will consistently finish the year with black ink.

Here are some methods that can help you with money management:

Set a predetermined stop loss (you must know where to cut the loss before it happens ¡°this will help control emotions when the time comes)." A 7-10% stop loss insurance policy is best. Tighten the stop loss range in down markets and loosen the range in strong bull markets.

Establish smaller positions if your account has had a recent losing streak (the losses may be telling you important information such as a critical turning point, it may be time to sell and get out).

If you think you are wrong or if the market is moving against you, cut your position in half ¡°this is the best insurance policy on Wall Street."

If you cut your position in half two times, you will be left with only 25% of the original position ¡°the remaining stock is no longer a big deal as your risk is very low."

If you sell out of a trade prematurely based on a minor correction, you can always reestablish the position again.

Initial position sizing plays a big part in money management ¡°don't take on too big of a position relative to your portfolio size. Novice investors should never use their entire account on one trade no matter how small the account

Know when you would like to get out of a position after a considerable profit has been made. Signs of topping could be a climax run, a spinning top or higher highs on lower volume.

Finally, cut any trade that doesn't act the way you originally analyzed it to act.

With these guidelines, you will be well on your way to solid money management skills that will help you profit in Wall Street year in and year out. Always remember, you are going to take-on losing trades at least half of the time. This is a tough concept to accept for most novice investors but it a fact. If you don't cut losses, you won't be investing for very long as you will run out of cash and the desire to continue to invest.

Forex Money Management by FX Master

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Money management is a critical point that shows difference between winners and losers. It was proved that if 100 traders start trading using a system with 60% winning odds, only 5 traders will be in profit at the end of the year. In spite of the 60% winning odds 95% of traders will lose because of their poor money management. Money management is the most significant part of any trading system. Most of traders don't understand how important it is.

It's important to understand the concept of money management and understand the difference between it and trading decisions. Money management represents the amount of money you are going to put on one trade and the risk your going to accept for this trade.

There are different money management strategies. They all aim at preserving your balance from high risk exposure.

First of all, you should understand the following term Core equity
Core equity = Starting balance - Amount in open positions.

If you have a balance of 10,000$ and you enter a trade with 1,000$ then your core equity is 9,000$. If you enter another 1,000$ trade,your core equity will be 8,000$

It's important to understand what's meant by core equity since your money management will depend on this equity.

We will explain here one model of money management that has proved high anual return and limited risk. The standard account that we will be discussing is 100,000$ account with 20:1 leverage . Anyway,you can adapt this strategy to fit smaller or bigger trading accounts.

Money management strategy

Your risk per a trade should never exceed 3% per trade. It's better to adjust your risk to 1% or 2%
We prefer a risk of 1% but if you are confident in your trading system then you can lever your risk up to 3%

1% risk of a 100,000$ account = 1,000$

You should adjust your stop loss so that you never lose more than 1,000$ per a single trade.

If you are a short term trader and you place your stop loss 50 pips below/above your entry point .
50 pips = 1,000$
1 pips = 20$

The size of your trade should be adjusted so that you risk 20$/pip. With 20:1 leverage,your trade size will be 200,000$

If the trade is stopped, you will lose 1,000$ which is 1% of your balance.

This trade will require 10,000$ = 10% of your balance.

If you are a long term trader and you place your stop loss 200 pips below/above your entry point.
200 pips = 1,000$
1 pip = 5$

The size of your trade should be adjusted so that you risk 5$/pip. With 20:1 leverage, your trade size will be 50,000$

If the trade is stopped, you will lose 1,000$ which is 1% of your balance.

This trade will require 2,500$ = 2.5% of your balance.

This's just an example. Your trading balance and leverage provided by your broker may differ from this formula. The most important is to stick to the 1% risk rule. Never risk too much in one trade. It's a fatal mistake when a trader lose 2 or 3 trades in a row, then he will be confident that his next trade will be winning and he may add more money to this trade. This's how you can blow up your account in a short time! A disciplined trader should never let his emotions and greed control his decisions.

Diversification

Trading one currnecy pair will generate few entry signals. It would be better to diversify your trades between several currencies. If you have 100,000$ balance and you have open position with 10,000$ then your core equity is 90,000$. If you want to enter a second position then you should calculate 1% risk of your core equity not of your starting balance!. Itmeans that the second trade risk should never be more than 900$. If you want to enter a 3rd position and your core equity is 80,000$ then the risk per 3rd trade should not exceed 800$

It's important that you diversify your prders between currencies that have low correlation.

For example, If you have long EUR/USD then you shouldn't long GBP/USD since they have high correlation. If you have long EUR/USD and GBP/USD positions and risking 3% per trade then your risk is 6% since the trades will tend to end in same direction.

If you want to trade both EUR/USD and GBP/USD and your standard position size from your money management is 10,000$ (1% risk rule) then you can trade 5,000$ EUR/USD and 5,000$ GBP/USD. In this way,you will be risking 0.5% on each position.

The Martingale and anti-martingale strategy

It's very important to understand these 2 strategies.

-Martingale rule = increasing your risk when losing !

This's a startegy adopted by gamblers which claims that you should increase the size of you trades when losing. It's applied in gambling in the following way Bet 10$,if you lose bet 20$,if you lose bet 40$,if you lose bet 80$,if you lose bet 160$..etc

This strategy assumes that after 4 or 5 losing trades,your chance to win is bigger so you should add more money to recover your loss! The truth is that the odds are same in spite of your previous loss! If you have 5 losses in a row ,still your odds for 6th bet 50:50! The same fatal mistake can be made by some novice traders. For example,if a trader started with a abalance of 10,000$ and after 4 losing trades (each is 1,000$) his balance is 6000$. The trader will think that he has higher chances of winning the 5th trade then he will increase ths size of his position 4 times to recover his loss. If he lose,his balance will be 2,000$!! He will never recover from 2,000$ to his startiing balance 10,000$. A disciplined trader should never use such gambling method unless he wants to lose his money in a short time.

-Anti-martingale rule = increase your risk when winning& decrease your risk when losing

It means that the trader should adjust the size of his positions according to his new gains or losses.
Example: Trader A starts with a balance of 10,000$. His standard trade size is 1,000$
After 6 months,his balance is 15,000$. He should adjust his trade size to 1,500$

Trader B starts with 10,000$.His standard trade size is 1,000$
After 6 months his balance is 8,000$. He should adjust his trade size to 800$

High return strategy

This strategy is for traders looking for higher return and still preserving their starting balance.

According to your money management rules,you should be risking 1% of you balance. If you start with 10,000$ and your trade size is 1,000$ (Risk 1%) After 1 year,your balance is 15,000$. Now you have your initial balance + 5,000$ profit. You can increase your potential profit by risking more from this profit while restricting your initial balance risk to 1%. For example,you can calcualte your trade in the following pattern:

1% risk 10,000$ (initial balance)+ 5% of 5,000$ (profit)

In this way,you will have more potential for higher returns and on the same time you are still risking 1% of your initial deposit.

Forex Money Management - The Foundation For Huge Gains and Forex Trading Success

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:18:00 +0000

Most traders use solid Forex trading systems but they fail to poor money management and really poor money management is the reason most traders lose lets take a look at in more detail...

If you watch any good football team it will have a strong defence it keeps the team in the game, until the offence gets an opportunity. If a team falls to far behind it doesn't matter how good the attack is, the team will lose and it's the same in Forex trading you need to defend what you have and keep your losses small until you get good high odds opportunities.

In Forex trading lose 50% of your account and you have to make a 100% to get back to profit and that's hard!

In Forex trading picking trend direction is easy but getting in at the best risk to reward is hard. So what tips can I give you?

The first is to cut leverage sure most brokers give you 200:1 but 10:1 is really plenty for most traders. Leverage up to far and you will have to have your stop to tight and will get taken out by the market noise so cut back leverage.

Next don't put stops to close!

This isn't being rash but you need to have stops outside of random volatility, so you don't get clipped out. Even more important is never jack your stop up to far to lock in profit - leave it back and accept short term dips in equity, to make a longer term gain.

Most traders either use to much leverage or think by having stops close, they reduce their risk but they don't, all they do is increase the probability of being stopped out to 100%. Many traders calculate their risk reward as - their target minus their stop but this is just an opinion! It does not take into account the probability if the trade.

To Win You Need to Deal with Volatility

When I ask traders I teach, do they know anything about standard deviation of price?

They look at me with a blank look yet; this should be essential knowledge for any Forex trader's essential education - why?

Because it gives you the volatility of the market and allows you to place stops more effectively. If you don't know what it is, make it part of your essential Forex education and look up our other articles.

Here are some simple money management tips.

- Always assume the worst when you enter a trade and things can only get better, there is no sure fire winner!

- Never place stops inside random volatility

- Never leverage up to hilt, keep leverage low

- Never trail a stop to quickly give the market room to breathe

- Never trade in random time periods so no day trading or scalping!

- Be patient and wait for high odds trades

- Don't place mental stops, they affect discipline and you may let a loss run

- Risk reward is NOT Your target minus your stop! Don't fall into this common trap

- If in doubt get out - any doubts liquidate

In forex trading your only trading the odds, you need to preserve your equity above all else fall too far behind and you will never recover. Forex money management is the key to this and always keep in mind the old gamblers saying:

To bet and win you need to be at the table but you can't bet if you lose your chips!

Obvious really - but very true. The foundation of your success is sound Forex money management SO pay attention and make it part of your essential Forex education or lose.

How Forex Money Management Protects Currency Traders

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:18:00 +0000

If you consider Forex money management a boring distraction from the real fun of Forex trading, you've missed the whole point. Before you can make any real and consistent gains in the Forex, you must come to understand that money management is just as important as the trading part. One of the most essential ingredients of successful Forex trading is the unfailing use of money management techniques to minimize losses and protect your gains.

Before you even begin laying out money and making trades, you'll want to decide on a set of Forex money management guidelines. Placing bets without any kind of safety net is irresponsible toward yourself and your family.

Successful traders recommend that you start small and gain a gut-level grasp of the markets before moving on to bigger bets. Hoping for a big score right at the beginning is the mark of a casino gambler, not an investor.

The best advice:
Keep your risk, right from the beginning, at about one percent or less of your total equity on any one trade. Keeping your risk low, in the one percent range, protects you if disaster strikes and you have a string of losses. You could actually survive 20 consecutive bad trades and still have 80 percent of your equity remaining. Taking tiny little one percent baby steps may seem boring, but it certainly beats being wiped out by a run of adverse trades. It will ensure that you're still around to invest next week, next month and next year. It also helps you safely build confidence, judgment and experience.

Many new Forex traders ask how much they should put into their trading account. The surest and wisest advice is never, ever bet your rent or grocery money. In other words, only use money you can afford to lose. Yes, I know that in your special case there aren't going to be any losses, and you're in a big hurry to make it big. But long experience says it's not going to happen that way for you either. If you were to lose everything you invest, would you and your family still eat okay? Would you still be in your home, or would you have to move into your brother-in-law's basement? Just think about this, okay?

It's important for you to know about the four stops. These are standard (and very wise) ways to prevent losses from ravaging your finances as you begin trading the Forex markets. You or your broker can use one or more of these four stops to protect your money.

1. Equity Stop
This stop lets you decide beforehand how much you're prepared to risk on a single trade, and you won't risk anything beyond that percentage. A beginner may set the equity stop to one or two percent. Once you've gained considerable experience, you might eventually raise this to five percent, but never forget that at the 5% level, ten consecutive bad trades (not impossible) could wipe out half of your account.

Downside: This stop makes no allowance for positive fluctuations. The protection is strong, but if you never vary from it, you may miss out on some of the more profitable trades. When you're a newbie, the safety net it provides while you're learning is more important than any gains you might miss while you'e learning.

2. Chart Stop
The trading charts that technical analysis provides can be accurate indicators of market movements. Technically minded traders who live, eat and breathe mathematics and probabilities often love chart stops. But the smart ones don't get reckless. They also include equity stops in their calculations.

Downside: Generating charts and analyzing them can take significant time for newbies. This is time in which the market has moved on, leaving all that beautifully charted data a little (or a lot) outdated.

3. Volatility Stop
Related to the chart stop but more complex, this one assigns risk values according to volatility rather than price action. Until you're experienced in Forex trading, it's best to leave this difficult technique to your broker. It's based on subtle and sophisticated evaluations of high versus low volatility of currency pairs and assigns greater or lesser risk to each market situation.

Downside: Demands steady, unflinching nerves and a great deal of experience.

4. Margin Stop
With the Margin Stop you're deciding beforehand that you'll get out of any trade before you're out of money. If you have ,000 in your account, setting your margin to 0 means you'll trade with the top textarea,500 but if your losses ever reach that amount, you'll close your position and preserve that last 0.

Downside: It's hard to find a downside to the Margin Stop. You keep control of your account, even when using an account manager.

Forex money management is essential when trading in the currency markets. And these stops are important backup measures to be used in tandem with your own patience, caution and growing judgment to minimize losses while maximizing your gains.

What is the perfect % of total equity should I use per trade?

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:17:00 +0000

What is the perfect % of total equity should I use per trade?

A lot of traders have no clue how to use proper trading sizes per trade especially when they are trading live markets. That is the exact point of mistakes done by most of the traders. These cause them loosing money in Forex. We have to know proper money management & trading plans.

Every trading strategy must be taken into consideration of the maximum percentage of total trading capital that risk should be taken on any one single trade. They shouldn't risk too much money on any given any single trade which is very essential for a trader. The following rules are very important in order to survive financially in Forex trading. Your trading size should not be grater as 1/10th of your account size.

For instance, If your account size is 10.000 Dollar than your trading size can be 1 Lot, (or 10 Dollar per Pip)
On an 1000 Dollar account your trading size should not exceeded 0,1 Lot (or 1 dollar per Pip).
On an 100 Dollar account your trading size should not exceeded 0,01 Lot (or 0,1 dollar per Pip).

To keep these things into simplest form, I repeat:
1 Lot buying/selling are 100.000 Units of a currency. Pip value = 10 Dollar
0,1 Lot buying/selling are 10.000 Units of a currency. Pip value = 1 Dollar
0,01 Lot buying/selling are 1.000 Units of a currency. Pip value = 0.1 Dollar

With an account size of 100 dollar and you trade with pip value of 1 dollar, only 100 pips are needed and your account is empty. You lost all! As you can see to adjust the trading size to your account size is very essential.

But why they are doing this? Here is a psychological effect on trading. First they trade with lower as 1/1000 of account size. Than some losses occurred. Account size melt down to 70%. At this level people changed there risk and trade with 1/300 ( that mean trade size is 3 times now bigger as before) and they loss again. After account size is 50%, suddenly the risk grows exponential, and they trade with 1/100 or less from account size.

Let us see this as an example now with numbers. Suppose we have an account size of 1000 dollar. As I said above, we should not trade more than 1/1000 account size, that's 1 dollar /pip. (0,1 Lot). If we loose 300 dollar and have now an account size of 700 dollar. (70%). At this point we start to trade with 1/300 of account size.2,33 Dollar/pip (300 pip lost and we blow our account). We trade it & and make loss 200 dollar. Account size is now 500 dollar. Now we expanded the risk and trade with 1/100, that's 5 dollar/pip. Now we can't loss more as 100 pips, because at this level our account is going to be empty.

On a 50% account size the chances of losses are so strong for most traders and they will now attempts to recover the lost money with 1 or 2 trades. That's the reason why they blown up their accounts. I will not call this greediness, its only fear of loss. These traders can't accept losses anymore

psychologically. If they really want to survive, they must have to work on proper trading strategy and modify it again! If it's proved, than start trading with very small sizes and tries to win more trades. After winning a bunch of trades they would increase trading size easily.

Some stuffs to be remembered essentially:

To recover a lost from 50% we need to double our account size. Clear? If we start with 3000 dollar account size and we lost 50% (1500 dollar) Our account size is now 1500 dollar. We need the same amount of money which we lost. So we must earn 1500 dollar from trading to reach our trading account size from 3000 dollar. Can I able to make you a clear picture what do I mean? If we don't loose 50% of the account and start with 3K and double our account so we had 6K, but with the same amount of work!

Lines of trends, support and resistance

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:45:00 +0000

The trendline. A trendline is a main initial element for the price chart analysis. While the market moves in any direction not along a straight line but along a zigzag, the mutual placement of upper and bottom points of those zigzags permits to plot a line connecting the significant highs (peaks) or the significant lows (troughs) of an appropriate zigzag using technical tools of the computer program.

To draw a trendline only two points are necessary and the third one is the contact point confirmation. On a bullish trend chart it should be drawn using troughs, on a bearish using peaks. The trendline and a line which is about parallel to it and drawn on the opposite side (through peaks on a bullish trend and through troughs on a bearish) form the trade channel. Both lines are then channel's borders.

Lines of support and resistance. The upper and the bottom borders of trade channels are called accordingly support and resistance lines. The peaks represent the price levels at which the selling pressure exceeds the buying pressure. They are known as resistance levels. The troughs, on the other hand, represent the levels at which the selling pressure succumbs to the buying pressure. They are called support levels. In an uptrend, the consecutive support and resistance levels must exceed each other respectively. The reverse is true in a downtrend. Although minor exceptions are acceptable, these failures should be considered as warning signals for trend changing.

The significance of trends is a function of time and volume. The longer the prices bounce off the support and resistance levels, the more significant the trend becomes. Trading volume is also very important, especially at the critical support and resistance levels. When the currency bounces off these levels under heavy volume, the significance of the trend increases.

The importance of support and resistance levels goes beyond their original functions. If these levels are convincingly penetrated, they tend to turn into just the opposite. A firm support level, once it is penetrated on heavy volume, will likely turn into a strong resistance level. Conversely, a strong resistance turns into a firm support after being penetrated. In general, to evaluate the reliability (that is the possibility of a break) of the trade channel borders taking a decision to close or to save an existing position one should govern himself with following rules:

1. A channel is the more reliable the longer it exists. Hence, the solidity of very old channels (e.g. existing more than 1 year) decreased sharply.
2. A channel is the more reliable the more is his width.
3. The resistance may be broken if it is bounced on the background of a growing volume.
4. A steep channel is less reliable in compare to a gentle one.
5. The support may be broken independent on the volume.

Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) Momentum Indicator

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:44:00 +0000

The MACD is a great trending indicator that can be used for many daytrading strategies. A bullish market is indicated by the faster-moving average crossing the slower-moving average on the way up. A bearish market is indicated by the faster-moving average crossing the slower-moving average on the way down. On top of that, the MACD has different periods for the fast- and slow-moving averages. The typical default MACD periods are 8, 17, 9 or 12, 26, 9.

The MACD is based on three moving averages, however, they essentially show up as being only two lines. The 8 period and the 17 period moving averages are combined to form the faster-moving average line. The 9 period exponential moving average forms the slower-moving average. In your daytrading strategy, the MACD moving average lines can be read for three pieces of information to give you the buy and sell signals you need for successful trades.

The first type of buy and sell signal you get from the MACD is called a breakout. This breakout is signified by the faster-moving average crossing the slower-moving average. If you were to examine a MACD chart, you would see a few places where this is happening. Like we talked about earlier, when the faster-moving average line crosses the slower-moving average line on the way up, you’ve got a bullish signal. Conversely, when the faster-moving average line crosses the slower-moving average line on the way down, you’ve got a bearish signal. That’s a breakout. There are some traders who will enter or exit a trade based when the line crosses, however, keep in mind that by doing so, you could limit potential profits and take on additional losses.

The second type of buy and sell signal we can get from the MACD is to test for support and resistance. When you’re day trading stocks, you might be told to trade on the cross, but here is something you can add to your strategy instead of just blindly trading at the cross. What you can do is check to see if the indicator lines are moving in the same direction and test the indicator line as being a support or resistance line after the cross.

The last type of buy and sell signal we can get from the MACD is divergence information. When the fast- and the slow-moving average lines move away from each other, the mound on the chart expands. As these lines draw near to each other, the mound shrinks. That is called divergence. Divergence is an important day trading tip that can strengthen your position on a trade if read correctly.

Using the MACD is a good way for experienced day traders to get an idea of when to buy and sell based on averages that give you a logical reason to buy or sell at a particular time.

Simple Successful FOREX Technical Analysis Basics

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:44:00 +0000

What are the most simple things you studied or knew in technical analysis that you can use in FOREX trading?, of course most will answer this without even thinking about it, trend lines, resistance and support points and moving averages. The more professional traders will think more about it and would answer Yes, trend lines, resistance and support points and moving averages but who can use them alone successfully in trading FOREX?". Here it is my turn to answer, trend lines, resistance and support points and moving averages are the best simplest ways to achieve success trading FOREX and keep in the positive area always. Just to make it simple we need first to state the definition of these tools and later to know how to use and apply them to our chart in order to succeed and build a real FOREX fortune. 1. Trend Line : Trend line is the line that we can draw between two or more price tops or bottoms on a chart whatever was the type of the chart linear, bars or candlesticks", this line itself which could be an uptrend line which is being drawn between bottoms in a bullish market and it becomes a good support if the price goes south again or a downtrend line which is being drawn between price tops on the chart when market is down and it considered as a resistance when the price turns to up direction. Note: The line which touches more tops or bottoms is more stronger and the signal produced by it is more reliable. 2. Trend Channel : A trend channel is the space between two lines, the trend line and a parallel line to it which is always drawn on the opposite side of the trend line so it is drawn between tops in an up trend direction or through bottoms in a bearish price movement. The trend channel requires some conditions to give an accurate signal, the most important are: to be a wide channel, more wider more reliable and to last more longer. 3. Moving Average : Moving average is a mathematical average of set of prices we can say that a simple moving average (SMA) with value of 5 and applied to close is the sum of close prices for 5 moving bars on the chart divided to 5 (eg. the average of Friday is the sum of the previous 5 days week" on a daily chart divided to 5, while Thursday's average is the sum of the 5 days before divided to 5 and so, the moving average is the line which passes through these averages points", the most important condition for its reliability is its value, more greater value more reliable moving average. Note: I suggest using more than one moving average, 2 or 3 are acceptable. 4. Support And Resistance Points : Support points are the price points were tested more than two times when price was going south and it could not pass it, support points are completely the opposite. These points are being used to measure the probability of price turning at mean points, these points can be decided by using pivot points, fibonacci rates....etc." Note : The more times price touches a point and turn its direction the more stronger it is. How can we apply this to chart and get money, I'll summarize this in the following chart image, it explains itself, it's a chart for GBP/JPY, signal return was 1000+ pips in 2 days: Three moving averages were going south, trend line was broken price in green circle" a good support point 23.6% fibonacci was nearly broken", strong signal, yes? For the chart please visit MoneyTec The best resource for FOREX trading is MoneyTec, - Active Traders Community Forum, Chat. MoneyTec is an online trading community that promotes mature, intelligent & respectful discussion in a positive & safe environment for everyone.

Forex Charts - Make Bigger Profits by Following These Key Points

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:42:00 +0000

Forex charts are a great, time efficient and proven way to make bigger profits but most traders don't use them correctly and here we will give you some key points to help you make bigger profits...

Let's look at some key points for more profitable technical analysis with forex charts.

If you look at any forex chart you will see big trends that can last for many months and trend following these can be very profitable and if you want to make money out of them you must understand this key fact:

Most big trends start and continue from breakouts to new highs and lows on the chart and you must go with these breaks - most traders don't. They want to wait for the pullback and of course it never comes and they are left behind. While it appears like you have missed the first part of the move, the odds of continuation are high so go with them.

Always be patient when using forex charts. You don't get rewarded for your efforts or how many times you trade but being right with your trading signal. I know traders who trade just a few times a month yet make triple digit gains - so wait for the right opportunities.

When you have a trend you want to hit always check price momentum is on your side and make sure that you use momentum indicators that show price acceleration in the direction you wish to trade. Two great ones, you can learn, in about 30 minutes are - the stochastic and RSI. These two combined will increase your odds of success by getting the odds more on your side.

Never believe anyone who tells you there is a mathematical formula for market movement - there isn't. If of course there was, we would all know the price in advance and there would be no market. So forget trying to predict and only trade the reality of price.

Its probabilities that you need to understand and like a successful poker player, you won't win every hand - but if you keep trading the odds, you will win long term. When using forex charts, the simpler your forex trading method the better, as simple systems tend to be very robust and have fewer elements to break, than complicated ones.

I have used a simple breakout method which uses trend lines, RSI and the stochastic and made money with it for over 20 years sure, it's simple but it works. Forex charts give you the reality of price before your eyes and you can spot areas of over valuation and under valuation. Humans create trends and they also (due to their emotions) push trends to far up or down in either direction.

You can of course ride trends - but you will also see big price spikes and history tells you they don't last long and taking trades contrary to the majority can be very profitable. Charting is an art not a science and you need to practice your art. The successful captain of a ship uses charts to navigate safely, but he also knows that use them wrongly and he will drown and it's a very similar situation in forex.

The Good News

You can learn forex charting in around 2 weeks and soon be piling up big profits in around 30 minutes a day spotting and hitting high odds trades and enjoying great profits. The good news is forex trading and using technical analysis is a learned skill and one you can master with a little practice.

Forex Trading System - A Key To Successful Forex Trading And Trading For A Living

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:28:00 +0000

Losing money in forex?

Every one has his days when no matter how well he has planned out his trades, he may find some of his trades not performing to what is planned. It is only natural for one to feel upset, but for the follower of a forex trading system, making money or losing money from that trade is not the paramount objective.

Why is this so?

For the trader who employs a forex trading system, he can still face the losing trade with a smile, because he has had followed through the trading signals in a disciplined way, and it is only when a trader follows a system, he can be sure of keeping his losses small and to live to trade again another day.

By using a forex trading system, the trader can have a cool head, and can face his trades rather unemotionally. He can execute his trades following pre-determined price levels of initial stop loss, trailing loss and computed and projected price profit.

He knows his tolerable level of loss, his threshold of pain - and of course, his risk to reward ratio even before he trades.

Now when a trader has a trading system and follows through the trading plan, making profits is a natural result when he makes a correct trade. But when his trade is wrong, his forex trading system will very quickly show him that the direction of his trade is wrong, so that he is out of the game fairly quickly.

I am often flabbergasted at some very broad claims of some traders who condemn day trading systems and relegate them to the garbage bin. When you look at forex trading systems, review them quickly by peer recommendation whenever possible. By peer recommendation, I mean you can ask existing traders their experience on the trading system, and how they are doing with it. Posting to the numerous reliable trading forums will allow you to receive some independent reviews fairly quickly. At the same time, my personal experience, and that of many other professional traders is that day trading can be profitable, though it is never easy to day trade. Otherwise, how is it that so many day traders are able to earn their income day trading the short swings of the market daily for a living? So it is important for you to have a broad view of forex trading systems if you are contemplating of learning or purchasing any trading system that relates to day trading.

If you ever wish to trade successfully, whether you day trade or swing trade, it is important that you have a trading system that will allow you to approach trading in a disciplined manner. It is only when you are a disciplined trader that you can see consistent large gains and small losses.

The opportunities of trading the Forex hedged grid system

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:27:00 +0000

I have seen the hedged grid system been used successfully (and highly unsuccessfully) over the last few years. Unfortunately the failures tend to discourage traders from taking advantage of this great system. I have found that the failures are mainly due to ignorance, impatience and greed (common reasons for trading failure).

In a nutshell the grid system uses the following methodology. You start by buying and selling a currency. When the price moves a predetermined distance (grid leg) you cash in the positive leg, leave the negative leg and buy and sell again. Sooner or later the system goes positive and you would then cash in when it is positive.

This is a brief summary of the content of our free hedged grid trading course available on expert-4x.com. Please refer to this course for more details of how money is made. The attraction is that the system is reasonably mechanical, can be programmed and does not take much supervision as exclusively entry orders are used.

Money is made when the price retraces 100%, 50%, 33% at various levels. This starts looking like a strategy that supports the Fibonacci concept. The grid system is also based on the nature of the market to trade sideways 80% of the time and to trend 20% of the time.

The dangers are that what if the price does not retrace and continues to trend. The Grid system can not make money in a trending market – full stop. One has to realize that. You therefore need Strategies to minimize damage during these periods:-

Firstly I have found that the biggest mistake made by traders is that they select a very small grid leg sizes e.g. 20 to 30 pips. This is a recipe for disaster. The trick is to use big leg sizes between 150 and 300 pips. What this does is that it sometimes turns a trending phase into movement in a sideways market. I would typically use 300 pips for the GBPJPY and 150 pips for the EURUSD for instance.

Secondly there is no rule that says that the legs have to be the same size. So I change my leg sizes in trending markets to be even bigger. If I started with 150 for the 1st leg I would go to 200 for the 2nd leg and 250 for the 3rd leg etc. This makes sure that I am carrying less loss making transactions in a trend.

Thirdly – sometimes it is wise to increase the number of lots with the trend compared to the numbers against the trend in a good trend. However be aware of having the same number of sell and buy transactions. All you will have done was lock in your current status in a 100% hedge.

Fourthly – This is the biggest change and most important one that I personally have made in my grid trading strategy. Always cash in all your transactions when your system is positive and when the price reaches the end of one of your grid legs. By cashing in you are reducing the risk of carrying negative lots in a trending market. This also gives you an opportunity to re-assess the market conditions.

Fifthly:- Cash in a start again is always an option. One of my strategies is to cash in all my open positions when the 3rd leg of my grid is reached and start again. Experience has taught me that this is a short term pain that goes away very quickly and is soon forgotten.

People that have traded the grid system will immediately see how the above approaches will reduce the risks of exponential losses building up in a strongly trending market. Please feel free to contact Mary McArthur at marymcarthur@expert4x.com for clarification on any items discussed above. She has numerous examples of successful applications of grid trading

This article is part of a series and many more will follow on Grid trading, money management and Forex Trading Strategies.

forex signal provider? which one?

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:27:00 +0000

So you decided to make full time leaving from foreign exchange market? Or you are going to supplement your income from here? You have set up yourself with proper broker available. I believe you spent hundred of hours in front of PC trying to put together all maths and physics involving currency market. Now you watching business news in the morning paper and following CNBC channel to be on the top with latest information from exchange market. You trading your demo account trying to figure out how to make it all work? So? Does it? No?

Face the fact that in currency market all is possible and there is no golden rule to follow. There are so many aspects to consider that you will need at least another head to set this puzzle together.

But do not worry there is a hope that can make it work.

Signal solutions for forex trading. People who traded forex for a long time and developed their own systems to enter and exit with profit strategies. They will share this knowledge with you for varieties of prices from usd49 to usd499 a month for those precious information. Problem is which one will suit you best. Are they scams? How do I know?

For medium advanced forex trader is almost impossible to choose proper forex signal system, which is not a scam, or at least not profitable. There is bulk of forex signals providers out there. They all offer their signal solution to trade currency with success.

Advice is that you will have to establish what type of trader are you? Do you want to trade quickly or maybe over the days or weeks? What losses can you manage and how much money you want to invest.

As long as you know al that it is a time to pick up signal trade provider.

Few things worth researching are: performance, service offered and rewievs of the signal. Search on forum for another users of the product you are interested in and ask for comment. Every profitable system should be up on collective2 with real track performance. Look for service offered. You will quickly find out that only few offer free trail-option to try signals before you pay. Demand performance evidence.

But while doing all that hard work choosing your automat forex signal system remember that you will have to totally follow it without exceptions to make most out of it. Any even small innovation may have dramatic results in your own gains.

Remember that your future profits will depend on your signal provider so calculate carefully and make smart decisions.for more go to http://www.rorexmoneysignal.com

Forex Trading Signal - A Free Simple to Understand Equation Which Makes Big Profits

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:26:00 +0000

Here we are going to look at a free Forex trading signal that makes big gains and has done for over 25 years and is used by some of the world's top traders in their Forex trading strategies. Let's take a look at it.

The signal doesn't even need trading software to generate it, you can actually do it in your head. The signal is credited to famous trader Richard Donchain who is considered the grandfather of modern trend following and he called it the four week Rule and this is the rule

1. When prices move to a new 4 month high buy a currency and hold it.

2. Wait for a new 4 week low to occur, liquidate the long and take a short position.

3. Always maintain a position long or short in the market and simply reverse on each new 4 week high or low.

The above rule could not be simpler but it works and if you test it, you will see how much money it makes and the reason it works is because it works on two pieces of logic which will never go out of date and there the following:

1. Markets trend up or down for sustained periods of time.

2. All major trends start and continue from major breakouts

This system over the long term, will catch a good chunk of profit from every major trend but despite the fact it works most traders won't use it for the following reasons:

1. They prefer the get rich quick route and buy a cheap automated software package with no independent verification of gains instead, the above Forex trading signal is proven and has a real track record over a quarter of a century.

2. It takes discipline to follow as its long term and traders have a problem with holding long term trends, they think trading frequently means more profits and its clear this is not true.

3. Most traders simply pass it buy because they think a signal so simple cant work but of course all the best systems are simple because they are so robust.

The 4 Week Rule, as stood the test of time and any trader can use it to seek Forex trading success. In the next article in this series we will look at how to add filters to the above trading signal to make it even more effective and also look at some of Richard Donchian's other Forex trading tools.

Trend Following System - Building a System For Triple Digit Annual Gains

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:25:00 +0000

Forex markets trend long term, they always have and they always will as long as we have a free market and the big trends which reflect the underlying economic cycle can last for many weeks, months or even years. If you learn to trend follow correctly you can make huge long term profits in around 30 minutes a day...

Many traders like to trade the market noise and trade short term but this is doomed to failure, as all short term volatility is random. If you trade the big trends you get better odds, more profits and spend less time on your trading. Lets look at trend following in more detail.

If you want to succeed at Forex trend following, you should keep the key points in mind below when formulating your Forex trading strategy.

Simple and Robust

The best trend following systems are simple and it's a fact that in Forex simple systems work better than complex ones, as they have fewer elements to break than complex ones. A graphic example of this is the free one we have on this site which has only one rule yet, test it and you will see how much money it makes. A Successful trend following system can be based on just looking at support and resistance and have a few indictors to confirm your view and that will work just fine.

Use Breakouts

All big trends start and continue from breakouts to new market highs or lows so if you are considering trend following, breakout methodology should be used in your Trading strategy. Breakouts are simple to understand and simply trade the reality of price change and trading breakouts is a highs odds way of trading Forex.

Trade Infrequently

I know traders that trade maybe once or twice a month and make triple digit gains and that's because they focus on the best high odds trades. You get nothing for effort in Forex trading, you're judged purely on results and if you are patient and wait for the best set ups you will increase your odds of success and reduce your work rate

Acceptance of Short Term Volatility

If you are tend following in Forex you are after trends that last for weeks, months or even years and you have to accept that you cannot predict tops or bottoms, you always have to give a bit back at the end of a trend and you also have to accept short term drawdown in equity against you as you follow the trend.

Long term trend following, requires patience and discipline but if you caught just 60% of every major trend, you would make a lot of money.

Forex Options Market Overview

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:44:00 +0000

The forex options market started as an over-the-counter (OTC) financial vehicle for large banks, financial institutions and large international corporations to hedge against foreign currency exposure. Like the forex spot market, the forex options market is considered an "interbank" market. However, with the plethora of real-time financial data and forex option trading software available to most investors through the internet, today's forex option market now includes an increasingly large number of individuals and corporations who are speculating and/or hedging foreign currency exposure via telephone or online forex trading platforms.

Forex option trading has emerged as an alternative investment vehicle for many traders and investors. As an investment tool, forex option trading provides both large and small investors with greater flexibility when determining the appropriate forex trading and hedging strategies to implement.

Most forex options trading is conducted via telephone as there are only a few forex brokers offering online forex option trading platforms.

Forex Option Defined - A forex option is a financial currency contract giving the forex option buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a specific forex spot contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the forex option buyer pays to the forex option seller for the forex option contract rights is called the forex option "premium."

The Forex Option Buyer - The buyer, or holder, of a foreign currency option has the choice to either sell the foreign currency option contract prior to expiration, or he or she can choose to hold the foreign currency options contract until expiration and exercise his or her right to take a position in the underlying spot foreign currency. The act of exercising the foreign currency option and taking the subsequent underlying position in the foreign currency spot market is known as "assignment" or being "assigned" a spot position.

The only initial financial obligation of the foreign currency option buyer is to pay the premium to the seller up front when the foreign currency option is initially purchased. Once the premium is paid, the foreign currency option holder has no other financial obligation (no margin is required) until the foreign currency option is either offset or expires.

On the expiration date, the call buyer can exercise his or her right to buy the underlying foreign currency spot position at the foreign currency option's strike price, and a put holder can exercise his or her right to sell the underlying foreign currency spot position at the foreign currency option's strike price. Most foreign currency options are not exercised by the buyer, but instead are offset in the market before expiration.

Foreign currency options expires worthless if, at the time the foreign currency option expires, the strike price is "out-of-the-money." In simplest terms, a foreign currency option is "out-of-the-money" if the underlying foreign currency spot price is lower than a foreign currency call option's strike price, or the underlying foreign currency spot price is higher than a put option's strike price. Once a foreign currency option has expired worthless, the foreign currency option contract itself expires and neither the buyer nor the seller have any further obligation to the other party.

The Forex Option Seller - The foreign currency option seller may also be called the "writer" or "grantor" of a foreign currency option contract. The seller of a foreign currency option is contractually obligated to take the opposite underlying foreign currency spot position if the buyer exercises his right. In return for the premium paid by the buyer, the seller assumes the risk of taking a possible adverse position at a later point in time in the foreign currency spot market.

Initially, the foreign currency option seller collects the premium paid by the foreign currency option buyer (the buyer's funds will immediately be transferred into the seller's foreign currency trading account). The foreign currency option seller must have the funds in his or her account to cover the initial margin requirement. If the markets move in a favorable direction for the seller, the seller will not have to post any more funds for his foreign currency options other than the initial margin requirement. However, if the markets move in an unfavorable direction for the foreign currency options seller, the seller may have to post additional funds to his or her foreign currency trading account to keep the balance in the foreign currency trading account above the maintenance margin requirement.

Just like the buyer, the foreign currency option seller has the choice to either offset (buy back) the foreign currency option contract in the options market prior to expiration, or the seller can choose to hold the foreign currency option contract until expiration. If the foreign currency options seller holds the contract until expiration, one of two scenarios will occur: (1) the seller will take the opposite underlying foreign currency spot position if the buyer exercises the option or (2) the seller will simply let the foreign currency option expire worthless (keeping the entire premium) if the strike price is out-of-the-money.

Please note that "puts" and "calls" are separate foreign currency options contracts and are NOT the opposite side of the same transaction. For every put buyer there is a put seller, and for every call buyer there is a call seller. The foreign currency options buyer pays a premium to the foreign currency options seller in every option transaction.

Forex Call Option - A foreign exchange call option gives the foreign exchange options buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase a specific foreign exchange spot contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the foreign exchange option buyer pays to the foreign exchange option seller for the foreign exchange option contract rights is called the option "premium."

Please note that "puts" and "calls" are separate foreign exchange options contracts and are NOT the opposite side of the same transaction. For every foreign exchange put buyer there is a foreign exchange put seller, and for every foreign exchange call buyer there is a foreign exchange call seller. The foreign exchange options buyer pays a premium to the foreign exchange options seller in every option transaction.

The Forex Put Option - A foreign exchange put option gives the foreign exchange options buyer the right, but not the obligation, to sell a specific foreign exchange spot contract (the underlying) at a specific price (the strike price) on or before a specific date (the expiration date). The amount the foreign exchange option buyer pays to the foreign exchange option seller for the foreign exchange option contract rights is called the option "premium."

Please note that "puts" and "calls" are separate foreign exchange options contracts and are NOT the opposite side of the same transaction. For every foreign exchange put buyer there is a foreign exchange put seller, and for every foreign exchange call buyer there is a foreign exchange call seller. The foreign exchange options buyer pays a premium to the foreign exchange options seller in every option transaction.

Plain Vanilla Forex Options - Plain vanilla options generally refer to standard put and call option contracts traded through an exchange (however, in the case of forex option trading, plain vanilla options would refer to the standard, generic forex option contracts that are traded through an over-the-counter (OTC) forex options dealer or clearinghouse). In simplest terms, vanilla forex options would be defined as the buying or selling of a standard forex call option contract or a forex put option contract.

Exotic Forex Options - To understand what makes an exotic forex option "exotic," you must first understand what makes a forex option "non-vanilla." Plain vanilla forex options have a definitive expiration structure, payout structure and payout amount. Exotic forex option contracts may have a change in one or all of the above features of a vanilla forex option. It is important to note that exotic options, since they are often tailored to a specific's investor's needs by an exotic forex options broker, are generally not very liquid, if at all.

Intrinsic & Extrinsic Value - The price of an FX option is calculated into two separate parts, the intrinsic value and the extrinsic (time) value.

The intrinsic value of an FX option is defined as the difference between the strike price and the underlying FX spot contract rate (American Style Options) or the FX forward rate (European Style Options). The intrinsic value represents the actual value of the FX option if exercised. Please note that the intrinsic value must be zero (0) or above - if an FX option has no intrinsic value, then the FX option is simply referred to as having no (or zero) intrinsic value (the intrinsic value is never represented as a negative number). An FX option with no intrinsic value is considered "out-of-the-money," an FX option having intrinsic value is considered "in-the-money," and an FX option with a strike price at, or very close to, the underlying FX spot rate is considered "at-the-money."

The extrinsic value of an FX option is commonly referred to as the "time" value and is defined as the value of an FX option beyond the intrinsic value. A number of factors contribute to the calculation of the extrinsic value including, but not limited to, the volatility of the two spot currencies involved, the time left until expiration, the riskless interest rate of both currencies, the spot price of both currencies and the strike price of the FX option. It is important to note that the extrinsic value of FX options erodes as its expiration nears. An FX option with 60 days left to expiration will be worth more than the same FX option that has only 30 days left to expiration. Because there is more time for the underlying FX spot price to possibly move in a favorable direction, FX options sellers demand (and FX options buyers are willing to pay) a larger premium for the extra amount of time.

Volatility - Volatility is considered the most important factor when pricing forex options and it measures movements in the price of the underlying. High volatility increases the probability that the forex option could expire in-the-money and increases the risk to the forex option seller who, in turn, can demand a larger premium. An increase in volatility causes an increase in the price of both call and put options.

Delta - The delta of a forex option is defined as the change in price of a forex option relative to a change in the underlying forex spot rate. A change in a forex option's delta can be influenced by a change in the underlying forex spot rate, a change in volatility, a change in the riskless interest rate of the underlying spot currencies or simply by the passage of time (nearing of the expiration date).

The delta must always be calculated in a range of zero to one (0-1.0). Generally, the delta of a deep out-of-the-money forex option will be closer to zero, the delta of an at-the-money forex option will be near .5 (the probability of exercise is near 50%) and the delta of deep in-the-money forex options will be closer to 1.0. In simplest terms, the closer a forex option's strike price is relative to the underlying spot forex rate, the higher the delta because it is more sensitive to a change in the underlying rate.

Forex Options Tips - Tips to Increase Profits and Decrease Risk!

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:43:00 +0000

If you have never considered sing Forex Options then you should. They can simply overcome the major problem most Forex traders face - getting stopped out by short term volatility...

A Forex Option gives you unlimited profit potential and your risk is simply the price you paid for the option. This means, prices can go anywhere in the short term but so long as the option trades above the price you bought it at, in rising market or below in a falling market you make money.

How many times have you been stopped out by short term volatility, only see the price go right back the way you thought they would, make thousands of dollars and your not in the trade?

It happens to most traders!

Picking the direction of the long term trend is easy; balancing the risk reward in the short term is the hard part. You want to be in the trend - but you don't want to have to worry about short term risk. Staying power is the key advantage Forex options give you.

Options are a great tool to limit short term risk - but you need to use them correctly and here are two simple tips.

1. Always Buy at or in the Money Options.

Never buy way out of the money options, as these are long shot bets.

Sure the profit potential is bigger, if the strike price is hit but the key word here is "if"; out of the money options, are the equivalent of outsider bets and the outsider doesn't normally win!

2. Get Time on your Side

The closer the option is to expiry, the more time decay plays a role in option value. Never buy options with less than 3 months to expiry, so you have plenty of time on your side.

Options the Ultimate Risk Control Tool!

Forex options are a powerful tool any Forex trader should look at to deal with volatility and gain staying power. The problem most of the time is not deciding where a currency will go long term but where to place your stop and options take care of this problem, by giving you staying power.

If you don't know much about options, then make them part of your essential Forex education and add a valuable tool, to your armoury for bigger Forex profits.

Short Term Options Trading

noreply@blogger.com (Ahmad) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:42:00 +0000

There are many traders who still consider options and warrants to be long term trading markets, but options can even be traded short term. It is important to understand that trading options short terms is not dramatically different from trading any other market but there are a couple of options specifics that need to be taken into account. In short term trading, the aptitude to steer the short term market is a key component for continued success. As an equity trader one has to learn to trade with the short trend of the markets to reduce market risk.

An option trading is a strategy that does not depend on the market direction; in fact it does well in volatile markets. With options trading there are two methods through which you can enter a long trade and short terms trade. While a long fundamental trade can be entered either by buying a call or by selling a put, a short underlying trade can be entered either by buying a put or by selling a call.

In short term options trading calculating risk reward is yet another important point that trader need to well aware of. Calculating the risk reward can be defined as the amount trader would risk if he or she were wrong and the amount trader would make if he or she were right. If we don't figure out this number, the chances are more where we may find the stock that may go in favor but the option goes against.

If we compare long term and short term options trading, then both have their own advantages. However, buying short term options can be very beneficial as it gives more control. It very general that no one can exactly make prediction very clearly when it comes to stock trading. It's really hard to predict what will happen to a stock 3 months down the road. Though sometimes it is easier to predict which way the stock will be heading in just a few weeks as opposed to a few months. Thus, selling short term options allow capture more premiums over a longer time frame.

Apart from this, it even works well and provides an excellent way for novice traders to trade. This is because as the price movement is so fast and dynamic that when things happen, beginners may not know what to do and be able to do it quickly. Moreover, it is an enormously lively options trading method where options are bought and sold very quickly in order to gain profit from the least intraday price swing or change in volatility.

Today certainly short term option trading has gained its world-wide popularity. It has become extremely money-making method in the hands of options trading veterans and new comers in current extremely volatile market conditions.