Forex Charts - A Simple 3 Step Method for Huge Gains

Forex Charts - A Simple 3 Step Method for Huge Gains. On any Forex chart, you’ll see repetitive patterns that you could have traded for profit. This article is about spotting these repetitive patterns – and using technical analysis to create big consistent gains from them.

Use Forex charts and follow these 3 simple tips for success:

Step 1. Understand Support and Resistance

If you want to make money in "Forex trading", you need to understand support and resistance - and incorporate it into of your Forex trading strategy.

An important point to keep in mind is to only trade valid support and resistance - as market participants consider these important.

Firstly, forget about using support and resistance in short time frames – it doesn’t work. All volatility is random in short time frames - so if you’ve been thinking about day trading - forget it.

You need to look at your "Forex chart", and see support and resistance that’s held for weeks or months - and already been tested several times. As a general rule look for five tests or more.

You then need to decide whether support or resistance will hold, or break - and this is the difficult bit for any currency trader.

Step 2. Trade with Momentum

Most currency traders simply see prices approach support and resistance - and buy or sell - hoping the levels hold. Try this, and you’re sure to lose money. You’re guessing, and hoping - and the Forex markets will wipe out the equity of any trader that does this!

To be successful with your currency trading system, you need to calculate the odds of levels holding or breaking. This means looking closely at the momentum, and strength of price.

For example, if price momentum weakens into resistance, then you can sell. If however, price momentum accelerates into resistance, then you should hold back - and wait for the break to execute your "trading signal". This way you’re always trading with price momentum - and there are several indicators you can use.

Two of the best indicators are the stochastic and Relative Strength Index (RSI) – which we’ve already covered in previous articles.

If you use stochastic and Relative Strength Index in association with your "Forex charts", you’ll gain a huge advantage - by getting the odds in your favour.

Step 3. Cutting Losses and Running Profits

Cutting loses is actually the easy bit - you place your stop when executing your trading signal behind the breakout point - nice and simple.

The hard bit is running profits - most traders simply cannot accept big profits. This may sound odd, as all traders want to run profits. However, few traders can manage to run profits - due to human nature. Why? Because Forex traders are so obsessed with not losing money, they can’t make big gains.

A trader will see a profit on his Forex charts and get excited and nervous at the same time – excited they’ve made a profit - and nervous they might lose it!

The Bigger the profit becomes the more tempted they are to take it - so they move their stop up to close - and gets taken out by normal market volatility. The trader may also snatch the profit, when the temptation becomes too much. Do either of these and of you’ll never make big gains.

You need the courage to hold your stop back - and accept dips in your open equity, as part of Forex trading. Sure, it’s not nice losing a thousand or more per day in open profit - but you need to keep your eyes on the bigger prize!

Look at any "Forex chart", and you’ll see trends that can, and do, make Forex traders $10,000 to $50,000 – maybe even more. You just need the courage to hold on.

If you check your "Forex charts" for valid support and resistance, and trade with momentum on your side, and have the courage to run your profits – then you'll make huge currency trading profits.

by: Kelly Price

How To Read Forex Charts: 5 Things You Must Know

How To Read Forex Charts, 5 Things You Must Know. Learning the basic skills in forex, such as how to read "forex charts", is really important.

This is because once you have this vital skill under your belt, it will be a lot easier and quicker when the time comes for you to learn and practice an actual forex trading system.

By the time you finish this article, you'll learn how to read "forex charts", as well as know the pitfalls that can occur when reading them, especially if you haven't traded forex before.

Firstly, let's revise the basics of a forex trading as this relates directly to how to reade forex charts.

Each currency pair is always quoted in the same way. For example, the EURUSD currency pair is always as EURUSD, with the EUR being the base currency, and the USD being the terms currency, not the other way round with the USD first. Therefore if the chart of the EURUSD shows that the current price is fluctuating around 1.2155, this means that 1 EURO will buy around 1.2155 US dollars.

And your trade size (face value) is the amount of base currency that you're trading. In this example, if you want to buy 100 000 EURUSD, you're buying 100 000 EUROs.

Now let's have a look at the 5 important steps on how to read a "forex chart":

* 1. If you buy the currency pair, that is, you're long the position, realise that you're looking for the chart of that currency pair to go up, to make a profit on the trade. That is, you want the base currency to strengthen against the terms currency.

On the other hand if you sell the currency pair to short the position, then you're looking for the chart of that currency pair to go down, to make a profit. That is, you want the base currency to weaken against the terms currency.

Pretty simple so far.

* 2. Always check the time frame displayed. Many trading systems will use multiple time frames to determine the entry of a trade. For example, a system may use a 4 hour and a 30 minute chart to determine the overall trend of the currency pair by using indicators such as MACD, momentum, or support and resistance lines, and then a 5 minute chart to look for a rise from a temporary dip to determine the actual entry.

So ensure that the chart you're looking at has the correct time frame for your analysis. The best way to do this is to set up your charts with the correct time frames and indicators on them for the system you're trading, and to save and reuse this layout.

* 3. On most forex charts, it is the BID price rather than the ask price that's displayed on the chart. Remember that a price is always quoted with a bid and an ask (or offer). For example, the current price of EURUSD may be 1.2055 bid and 1.2058 ask (or offer). When you buy, you buy at the ask, which is the higher of the 2 prices in the spread, and when you sell, you sell at the bid, which is the lower of the two prices.

If you use the chart price to determine an entry or exit, realise that when you place an order to sell when the chart price is say 1.330, then this is the price that you'll sell at assuming no slippage.

If on the other hand, you place an order to buy when the chart price is the same price, then you'll actually buy at 1.3333. A forex system will often determine whether your orders will be placed simply according to the chart price or whether you need to add a buffer when buying or selling.

Also note that on many platforms, when you're placing stop orders (to buy if the price rises above a certain price, or sell when the price falls below a certain price) you can select either "stop if bid" or "stop if offered".

* 4. Realise that the times shown on the bottom of "forex charts" are set to the particular time zone that the forex provider's charts are set to, be it GMT, New York time, or other time zones.

It's handy to have a world clock available on your computer desktop in order to convert the different time zones. This is important when you're trading major economic announcements.

You'll need to convert the time of an announcement to your local time, and the chart time, so you'll know when the announcement is going to happen, and therefore when you need to trade.

* 5. Finally, check whether the times on your "forex charts" corresponds to when the candle opens or when the candle closes. Your charting software may be different to someone else's in this way.

The reason I mention this, is that if you need to trade major economic announcements, either by entering a trade based on the movements that happen after the announcement, or to exit a trade before the announcement in avoid getting stopped out during it, then you need to be precise (to the minute!) as these trades are performed according to what happens at the 1 minute immediately after the announcement, not the candle afterwards!

"So there you have it".

You now have the 5 essential keys to how to properly read "forex charts", which will help you to avoid the common mistakes which many forex beginners make when looking at charts, and which will speed up your progress when you're looking at forex charting packages, and forex trading systems that you want to trade!

Now that you know this, practice looking at forex charts with each of these 5 points in mind.

So get to it! by: Mark Hamburg