Tuesday, September 23, 2008

How FOREX Trading Strategies Can Help You To Plan and Profit

By Richard M. Davieess


Being a successful FOREX trader requires a trading strategy. There is not one known strategy that will work for all traders. Instead, each trader has to develop a unique approach to FOREX trading. Some will depend entirely on technical analysis and others like to use fundamental analysis. However, a lot of successful traders employ a combination of fundamental and technical analysis to obtain an overview of market conditions. Based on the market conditions, these traders can plot entry and exit points.

The main concept that technical analysis relies on is that the trends will dictate the potential future prices. It's often heard when discussing FOREX that 'the trend is your friend.' The basis of a good strategy for trading is formed by the patterns that have been identified regarding market movements and the fact that they have been studied over many years, along with a strong understanding of the trends.

There are several analytical tools around to help you understand market movements. The novice FOREX trader would be smart to study every one individually to gain a working understanding of the ideas and uses. Once any tool is understood, it should be used while studying the rest. The tools tend to reinforce each other.

Many FOREX trading strategies rely on the concepts of price support and resistance. The lowest price observed over time in a currency's price swings is called the 'support' level. When the price falls to that level it is usually expected to rise again. The 'resistance' level is the highest price observed to repeat over time and when a currency reaches that high it would be expected to fall. The upper 'resistance' level and the lower 'support' level are the limits of price movement for any given time period.

The direction that the price is heading is expected to stay the same once they break through support or resistance levels. An example of this would be that the price begins to rise above the earlier resistance level, that price will more than likely continue to rise, which people consider bullish.

Price charts must be analyzed in order to identify unbroken support and resistance levels. While charts can be analyzed in any time frame, analysis of longer time frames, i.e., weeks and months, can establish more important support and resistance levels. It's important to have accurate support and resistance level data in order to know when to enter and exit transactions.

FOREX trader use another common tool as part of their trading strategies: simple moving average (SMA). SMA shows the average price in a given period of time (ie the average for the month) over a length of time (ie in a year). This tends to give a clearer picture of price movements because it can eliminate the noise of short-term fluctuations. FOREX traders plot SMA to predict when prices will rise or fall. If prices are above SMA, they tend to keep rising; in contrast, if prices are below SMA, they tend to continue falling.

These two trading strategies can be used in combination or individually. To be successful, a FOREX trader should have a large portfolio of trading tools that allow him to examine the conditions of the market and to verify or disprove the findings of a given study. If several of these tools show that the market is moving in a certain direction, the trader can act more confidently than when using only a single indicator.

In a similar way, fundamental analysis can be used to either reinforce or cast doubt upon technical findings. The FOREX trader, ideally, will use several indicators when plotting a trading strategy.

The keys to a good trading strategy are: having clear guidelines about when to enter and exit a trade, having clear expectations about market movement, and having realistic understandings about how much potential loss you can absorb. By keeping those guidelines in mind, you can be a successful forex trader.

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