September 23rd, 2009
In Forex trading we talk a lot about letting emotions cloud your judgement. It’s all too easy, especially for new traders, to let feelings get in the way of a successful trading plan.
Often traders feel like the market is going against them on every trade. As if there is some force behind the market that reverses price action once you take a trade.
A great thing about the Forex market is that it has such great liquidity, meaning that price action cannot be control by a small number of traders, allowing much more trading to be carried out based purely on technical analysis, as opposed to shares where it’s largely based on news, or fundamental analysis.
But while it is important to suppress those emotions that lead to bad trading decisions, system chasing and consistent losses not consistent profits, it is also true that sometimes you need to trust your instinct.
 Trust your instinct. Pic: Joe Nangle Many new Forex traders don’t know where to start when they look at a price chart. Once this hurdle has been overcome through taking one of the many Forex trading courses out there, a certain ’sixth sense’ will develop about the markets. You’ll start to develop a ‘feeling’ about where price action is likely to go, or whether particular levels of support or resistance are likely to hold.
This is an important aspect of trading and is built up based on your experiences of watching price action. You will find that you will learn to spot, more quickly, previous levels of support and resistance and will make decisions about taking trades that you previously wouldn’t have been aware of.
It’s only with practice that this ‘higher level’ of understanding of price action on the currency pairings comes about and it’s useful if you’re able to get a better understanding by trading alongside others using the same or similar trading styles.
Tags: emotion, Forex, instinct, learning forex, price action
Posted in Psychology | No Comments »
September 20th, 2009
If you missed the webinar recording yesterday, don’t worry! The recording is now available to view online.
You can view the free Forex webinar at the LiveConnect web site.
Tags: Forex, webinar
Posted in LiveConnect | No Comments »
September 18th, 2009
In case you missed it, we will be conducting a free informational webinar on Saturday, Sep. 19 at 11AM EST. This webinar is designed to demonstrate how the Forexmentor LiveConnect/Coach’s Corner community can offer much needed support to Forex traders of all levels. If you are still trading alone and feel you need support, you simply need to attend this webinar.
Last week I interviewed an LC member, Darren Davidse, and this interview should give you a bit of an idea as to the kinds of changes that many people are seeing by staying focused on a solid trading plan, which is what we try to help people do with the LC/CC services. Listen to the short interview online now.
As mentioned, we’ll also be joined by a special guest, Rob Pampling in the webinar, who will give you specific information about the performance of a fund that he is involved with that trades using the basic trading methodology that is shown in the LiveConnect service.
We’ll also be providing you an update of a real account that is run by one of the LiveConnect’s moderators – Chris Mathis, who watches for nothing but MACD divergence trades for the LC members.
Complete details and free webinar registration information can be found on the LiveConnect web site.
There will be a Q&A session following the webinar.
Thanks to all of you, and we hope to see you at our free webinar this Saturday, September 19th at 11 AM Eastern Time.
Vic Noble, Jarratt Davis
Forexmentor.com
Tags: Forex, learning, LiveConnect, training, webinar
Posted in LiveConnect | No Comments »
September 17th, 2009
Trading the Forex markets is something that has to be learned and 95% of those who go through that learning process actually fail. But it’s not their intelligence that’s letting them down, it’s their emotions. Emotion is the fork in the road and choosing left or right will make or break your chances of becoming a profitable trader.
 Pic: Alosh Bennett This simple fact – that 95% of traders fail – has lasted well over the years, despite even more sophisticated tools emerging. There are countless Forex bots around that claim to win every time, numerous systems that guarantee profits. Yet still most traders take the wrong turn and lose it all.
To a certain extent Forex is simply logical. You can apply technical analysis approaches and come up with a straight forward, logical answer to the common question, “when should I buy or sell?” There are those that don’t use a logical approach to trading and lose but far more traders let their feelings influence their trades. It’s human nature.
All Forex traders will always face losses, whatever system, bot or ’secret’ they use. It’s easy to say you’re going to be disciplined about trades, too, but when it comes to crunch time there’s money on the line and no-one likes loosing money. You have to be strong mentally to succeed as a trader.
So how do you get to that point? How do you make yourself disciplined as a trader?
The answer is that you need to learn good risk management and you need to practice consistency. Don’t even think about trading with real money until you have spent a good two months using the same system consistently, without fail. It’s not so much that you need to test the system out, but that you need to prove to yourself that using the same system consistently will bring you the success you desire.
Of course I’m going to tell you that it’s this type of approach that is taught in LiveConnect, but that’s how Jarratt taught me and it worked! If you’re not convinced, check out the webinar this Saturday!
Tags: consistency, discipline, Forex, Jarratt Davis, LiveConnect, logic
Posted in Psychology | No Comments »
August 28th, 2009
If you missed yesterday’s news post, my apologies. A technical glitch meant it never went up. However, it’s back today and there’s plenty to look out for. Don’t forget if you follow me on Twitter you’ll get alerts before each news announcement too. Starting today, they’ll be 15 minutes before the announcement rather than 30 minutes.
Revised GDP
Time: 8:30am GMT
Currency: GBP
Impact: High
Source: National Statistics
Description: This is the change in the inflation-adjusted value of all the goods and services produced by Britain’s economy.
Tags: Forex, Forex trading, FX, FX trading, GBP, GDP, National Statistics, Revised GDP
Posted in Economic News | No Comments »
August 12th, 2009
While I was crawling around the BabyPips forum yesterday I noticed two seperate threads both asking the same question, “what do I do now?”
Having been through the educational material on the site these new traders didn’t actually know where to start. They knew how to buy and sell and which pairs they could buy and sell but they didn’t have the why and when to make a trade. They can see the road, they know where their destination is but don’t have any way to get there.
 Pic: tj scenes It reminded me of when I first started trading. Having learned all about the Forex markets and familiarised myself with Metatrader4 I didn’t actually know when or why I should make a trade.
The answer is simple: you need a method, a mode of transport to reach your goal.
Fortunately for me I had Jarratt Davis at my side teaching me his high reward, low risk style of trading. It’s not a system in itself but a set of principles which help you to build your own system of trading that you’re comfortable with and will help you on your way to consistent profits.
This was the vehicle I took control of and started down the Forex road to riches. It might not be the method you choose, but it’s certainly a good start.
Tags: Babypips, Forex, Jarratt Davis, learn forex, LiveConnect, Metatrader
Posted in Beginners | No Comments »
August 4th, 2009
Yes, Forex has traffic jams… or do you think I’m crazy? Bear with me…
 Pic: Walid Hassanein We’ve all been there, driving down the highway when all of a sudden traffic flow takes a hit. Then it’s stop-go-stop-go for ages. We didn’t expect it and it takes us by surprise, ruining our journey and making us late.
So what does that have to do with Forex?
We’ve all been there, trading away when all of a sudden market flow takes a hit. Then it’s up-down-up-down for ages. We didn’t expect it and it takes us by surprise, ruining our trade and loosing us money.
Now do you see it? Good. So what can you do about it?
Well, there are ways to deal with traffic on the road – you can get traffic reports on the radio and those GPS systems that talk to other cars and check the traffic flow ahead.
In Forex it’s actually much easier. We have a good idea when traffic will hit because we know what causes it – economic news. There are tons of web sites that provide Forex calendars telling you when the news will come out and the expected level of impact it will have on market flow.
So next time you get ready to trade, check the news first. As chance would have it, from tomorrow I will be posting a summary of the days medium on high impact news announcements right here. The post will go up an hour before the London session each day and will focus on those news announcements due in the London session. Subscribe to the blog to make sure you don’t miss them!
I’ll also send a tweet out 3o minutes before each news announcement to remind you, so follow me on Twitter to get the benefit.
Tags: Forex, News
Posted in Announcements, Economic News | No Comments »
August 3rd, 2009
According to some brokers, 93% of all new traders wipe out their accounts in their first few weeks of trading.
Why is this though?
There can be a number of reasons but a common one is a much too high risk/reward ratio.
Firstly, on a trade level, new traders will often set their stop loss and take profit at similar levels. For example, the stop loss and take profit levels are both 50 pips away from the entry point. This means that the risk is quite large. Risking a lot can reap bigger rewards but it only takes a few trades going the wrong way to create huge draw downs on an account.
The second reason is that often traders will risk a substantial amount of their balance by taking many trades at a time. It’s not necessarily a bad thing to take lots of trades at once, but only if the overall risk is still manageable. If all the trades loose it’s easy to get rid of an entire balance in just a few trading sessions.
Jarratt’s risk management video takes you through how he manages risk. He explains how best to calculate your stop losses and how best to manage your trades to keep your overall losses at an absolute minimum. These lessons are re-inforced every day in the chat room and the trade examples.
So if you have wiped out your balance before, you might want to try out LiveConnect and the accompanying Coach’s Corner.
Tags: coach's corner, Forex, Jarratt Davis, LiveConnect, Risk, Risk Management, stop loss, take profit
Posted in Risk Management | No Comments »
July 31st, 2009
Forex trading can be quite a lonely experience. It’s sometimes hard to know when to take a trade and without anyone to ask it’s easy to lose confidence.
 Pic: Robert Thomson That’s why making it down the road to Forex success requires two things;
- your route,
- and passengers.
First, you need to work out the route you’re going to take – this is your strategy. Any strategy needs to be guided by some basic principles and rules, too. Your forex journey is going to be a lot smoother if you can follow some basic rules.
For example, going too fast is dangerous and could cause you to have an accident. Then you might be left without a vehicle to continue your journey. You will have wiped out your balance and have to start again. Going too fast is risky, you need to keep your risk small. So you should set yourself a limit that you don’t go over – no more than 5 trades at a time, for example.
Another good rule is to stick to a certain trading session. Depending on the time zone you live in, or the hours you have available to trade this might be;
- the London session (8am-5pm GMT),
- the New York session (1pm-10pm GMT),
- or the Tokyo session (12am-9am GMT).
The second thing you need (and I do believe you can’t do without this) is passengers. People to go on the journey with. These people should be ones who know the rules and the route you’re going down and can help you stay on that route and within the rules that you’ve set.
You can also learn from your passengers – they might have a suggestion or two to help you along on your journey. That kind of support is invaluable for keeping your mind on track. It stops you from wondering off the road down dark lanes you’re not sure of in search of a possible shortcut.
That’s why Forexmentor launched LiveConnect. Jarratt’s videos help you to figure out your own trading style based on some solid principles that have made him a successful professional trader. Forex Mentor’s Jarratt has made the journey and now you can get on the road with LiveConnect at your side. Make your way into the chat room and you’ll find yourself on a coach full of other traders including Forexmentor’s Vic Noble and Jarratt Davis all taking the same steps, reinforcing each other and you.
Sign up now or explore the benefits.
Tags: Forex, London Session, New York Session, Principles, Psychology, Risk, Risk Management, Rules, Tokyo Session
Posted in Psychology | No Comments »
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