Forex Trading Edge — New MetaTrader 4 Broker

Recently I’ve been contacted by the manager of Forex Trading Edge. It’s quite a new Forex broker that started to operate near the end of 2007. Forex Trading Edge is the introducing broker for Forex.com broker. Usually I don’t like to list the introducing brokers as the separate entities, but this one got my attention, because it offers a MetaTrader 4 platform, something that Forex.com is missing. Besides MT4, it also offers original trading platform of Forex.com and the NinjaTrader platform. Payments methods are limited — only wire transfer, checks and credit cards — no e-currencies. Another disadvantage that Forex Trading Edge has is that it’s not accepting citizens of the United Kingdom. But for other Forex traders that wanted to join Forex.com, but prefer MetaTrader 4 over other platforms, this is definitely a good choice.

Happy Trading in 2008!

Soon the New 2008 Year will come and I just want to wish you a happy Forex/CFD/Stocks trading in the next year. Earn more than you've got in 2007, learn new strategies and open new opportunities on the Forex market! Never stop at what you've already mastered and you will find your own financial freedom!

NY Empire State Manufacturing Index

Dollar continued to strengthen against major currency pairs (except the Swiss franc) even after the very pessimistic release of the December NY Empire State Manufacturing Index report, which fell down by 17 points to 10.3. Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that the new orders and shipments declined significantly in December according to their survey.

Among the good news was the Treasury International Capital report for October - net foreign purchases of the long-term securities was at the pretty high number (compared to $15.4B revised for September) - $114 billion, showing some elevated confidence in the U.S. economy.

Forex Trader's Cheat Sheet

I've added a new Forex e-book to my site - The Forex Trader's Cheat Sheet. It's not just a book, but a real cheat sheet which can be used every time you consider opening a new position on Forex market. It has several pages of explanations on how to apply its statistical data and a printable version of cheat sheet for 5 currency pairs: GBP/USD, GBP/JPY, EUR/USD, USD/CHF and USD/JPY. As the authors say - it doesn't tell you HOW to trade, it tells you WHEN to do it. But it also has recommendations on position target sizing. Forex Trader's Cheat Sheet is based on the statistical data for H4 timeframe - you can consult it to determine if the trend which you are seeing now is going to last or is it at its end.

I've checked the performance of this cheat sheet combined with a simple moving averages cross system and it was quite good. I used GBP/USD on H4 timeframe on the last two months period. Near 80% of all generated trades were profitable with an average profit/loss rate of more than 2.5. Use it wisely :-).

Dollar Suffers From Lower Industrial Production

EUR/USD stopped its fall today and jumped back up to 1.4670 levels on Forex after today's Federal Reserve release on industrial production. In this October industrial production fell by 0.5% after 0.2% growth in September and median expectation at 0.1% for this month. That means that FOMC will probably need to adjust U.S. interest rates once again to stimulate economy growth.

With the decrease of industrial production, economy of the Unites States showed a decrease in industrial capacity utilization (which, of course, could be a cause for production drop). It fell from September's 82.2% to 81.7%, while an insignificant difference was expected (82.0%).

While Henry Paulson of U.S. Treasury spoke that Government will conduct a "strong dollar" policy. Its hardly can be done with such economical indicators reports. "Currency will represent the U.S. economical growth" - that was the main idea of Paulson's speech. But if economy is taking damage? Dollar will continue its demise.

Net foreign purchases of the long-term U.S. securities in September were at $55.4 billion. This is better than the August's negative -$33.6 billion, but worse than expected number ($66.0 billion) and average 2006 monthly net foreign purchases ($97.2 billion).

Currency Trader — Free Forex Magazine

Currency Trader is one of my favorite monthly read. It is published every month by http://www.currencytradermag.com/ website and contains many articles by professional authors. Articles vary from covering recent news topics to technical analysis matters, to fundamental macroeconomic factors. From every issue I learn a lot of important information on global economics and some interesting connections between various financial markets and Forex. For those who don't have economic education this magazine is a good way to get some, at least to improve trading experience. The best thing about Currency Trader is that it is completely free - you can subscribe for it here: http://www.currencytradermag.com/subscribe_acrobat.htm. The worst thing — it has a lot of advertising. There is so much of it that content is almost lost in ads.

For some reason guys from Active Trader Magazine Group, which publishes Currency Trader Magazine, doesn't want it to be freely downloaded from anywhere. So, I had to remove it all from my site. If you still want to read this magazine, you can subscribe to the new issues for free, or you can always find past issues somewhere else (P2P networks, for example).

Dollar Takes More Beating

Today U.S. dollar continued its way down the Forex market to historical bottoms of its rate against Euro currency. With EUR/USD hitting its new historical maximum at 1.4309, there is a little doubt now that dollar will stop euro reaching and breaking 1.4500 level. This is mainly caused by bad U.S. data coming out last weeks, which might mean another Fed rate cut by the end of the month.

First strike on dollar bulls was delivered today by the initial jobless claims report for the past week with 29k increase from the previous week - to 337k. Then the leading indicators by the Conference Board Inc. came out showing a 0.3% growth, which appeared as expected. But it is a very weak indicator that doesn't mean a lot to Forex traders usually.

Second strike was Philladelphia Fed Business Outlook Survey showed a very strong decrease in the diffusion index of current activity from 10.9 in September to 6.8 in October, whereas even pessimistic market analysts were expecting to see 7.0 value.

To sum it up - it is a bad time to be long on dollar, but good to be long on EUR/USD.

Success Story of a Part Time Forex Trader

A new Forex article was added to my collection today. Hearing another success story of the Forex trader might as old to some people, as motivating to others. I think this one will be at least useful to many Forex traders. Experienced and professional Forex traders can say that part time Forex trading can't be good and that it will always lack the "full market control and awareness". Yes, I'd agree with them to some extent, but still, part time trading remains the only option to many Forex beginners (and not only beginners, just not professionals). So, here it is:

How I became a successful part time trader - by Joe Chalhoub

EUR/USD Technical Analysis for the 7/16-7/20 Week

General trend: ranging or slightly bullish.

Floor Pivot Points:
3rd Sup	2nd Sup	1st Sup	Pivot	1st Res	2nd Res	3rd Res
1.3429	1.3512	1.3647	1.3730	1.3865	1.3948	1.4083

Woodie's Pivot Points:
2nd Sup	1st Sup	Pivot	1st Res	2nd Res
1.525	1.3673	1.3743	1.3891	1.3961

Camarilla Pivot Points:
4th Sup	3rd Sup	2nd Sup	1st Sup	1st Res	2nd Res	3rd Res	4th Res
1.3662	1.3722	1.3742	1.3762	1.3802	1.3822	1.3842	1.3902

Tom DeMark's Pivot Points:
Resistance:	1.3798
Support:	1.3580

Fibonacci Retracement Levels:
100.0%	1.3813
61.8%	1.3730
50.0%	1.3704
38.2%	1.3678
23.6%	1.3646
0.0%	1.3595

5 Things You Should Never Do In Forex

Revising my recent trades which were made during the last month I still find myself making the same mistakes I've been doing as a newbie trader. The amount of these mistakes lowered, but sometimes emotions overcome the mind and the strategy and as a result - pips are lost. Here is the list of most devastating and stupid things you can make in Forex trading:

1. Don't place stop-loss - sometimes I just forget to place, sometimes I hope for the price to eventually go in the right way and think that stop-loss will be an obstacle. This is wrong! Always place a stop loss - it's good to have it significantly lower than your targeted profit.
2. Trade in lots too big - even if you are100% sure that this position will be profitable, don't make it too large - 1%-5% is more than enough. Losing 20% of your deposit will require much more risk to recover.
3. Overtrade - everyone says that it is bad to overtrade, but for a trader it is always hard to stay away from market when there is "so many opportunities". Just try to set a limit of daily/weekly trades for yourself. Overtrading is a result of the mindless emotions, not your mind, so avoid it.
4. Closing the winning positions too early - it seems OK to get some guaranteed profit against risking to wait even more. But trading experience proves that early closing for winning positions and waiting for losing positions to go green - is completely wrong. Let your winning positions run and cut your losing ones early!
5. Following forecasts and signals - for some traders it's hard to avoid this, especially when there is some Forex guru they respect. Trading with your own strategy and full responsibility is the only way that can make you a professional and successful Forex trader.

I am quite sure that you've already read such advices a dozen of times, but they are always good to remember, so consider it just as a helpful memo.

EUR/USD Technical Analysis for the 7/9-7/13 Week

General trend: bearish.

Floor Pivot Points:
3rd Sup	2nd Sup	1st Sup	Pivot	1st Res	2nd Res	3rd Res
1.3419	1.3473	1.3550	1.3604	1.3681	1.3735	1.3812

Woodie's Pivot Points:
2nd Sup	1st Sup	Pivot	1st Res	2nd Res
1.3479	1.3561	1.3610	1.3692	1.3741

Camarilla Pivot Points:
4th Sup	3rd Sup	2nd Sup	1st Sup	1st Res	2nd Res	3rd Res	4th Res
1.3554	1.3590	1.3602	1.3614	1.3638	1.3650	1.3662	1.3698

Tom DeMark's Pivot Points:
Resistance:	1.3643
Support:	1.3512

Fibonacci Retracement Levels:
100.0%	1.3659
61.8%	1.3609
50.0%	1.3594
38.2%	1.3578
23.6%	1.3559
0.0%	1.3528

Employment Situation Data in U.S.

Some important macroeconomic data was released in U.S. today - employment situation in June from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As it was expected by the financial analysts, the overall unemployment rate in June remained on 4.5% level - which is quite low and is a good indicator for the U.S. economy. Non-farm payrolls in June reached 132,000 which is 7,00 higher than the experts' estimations. May non-farm payrolls were also revised towards the better side - 190,000 from 157,000. Average hourly earnings came out at 0.3% level (as expected), but May data was revised from 0.3% to 0.4%. Overall, this is a good news for the U.S. economics and dollar as well. The Forex market isn't playing this data yet (or it won't) - EUR/USD returned to its 1.3600-1.3650 range, and no serious movement can be seen.

New Forex Book on Trading Psychology

Another free Forex e-book is now available for download from this site. It deals with trader's personality and emotions which are inevitable in such an activity as a financial trading of any kind. Various examples and stories are presented in this book to help a trader to better understand what he must to prevent losing money and gain them instead:

Your Personality and Successful Trading - by Windsor Advisory Services

Independence Day and Forex

Today EUR/USD was still as it was yesterday. As I said - this week will probably be flat until Friday at least (they tend to be quite unsettled, those Fridays). Independence Day in the United States of America is keeping the big U.S. Forex players out of the market, causing a lower volatility, especially on EUR/USD (while there some minor fluctuations on GBP/USD). It is quite clear that big holidays keep flat market even more flat, so I'd avoid expecting a high volatility Forex trading opportunities tomorrow. If you are for EUR/USD, just wait for 1.3600 or 1.3650 breakout and then jump in.

EUR/USD Slight Correction

Today EUR/USD retreated from its yesterday levels of 1.3630 down to 1.3600 level (with a failed try ground below 1.3600). Factory orders macroeconomic data for May came out better than expected but it still showed a decrease in this important indicator - manufacturers orders decreased by 0.5% (against 1.2% expected). But this data didn't affect Forex at all - the major bearish bars were seen four hours before it came out. It looks like EUR/USD will remain bound in 1.3600 - 1.3650 range for some time.

WebMoney Forex Brokers

A new addition to my Forex brokers section of the site - a list of WebMoney Forex brokers - those that offer WebMoney as the option to deposit or withdraw money to/from the trading accounts. Forex traders that prefer on-line payment systems, but don't want to deal with e-gold or other browser-security system might like WebMoney e-currency system for its hi-end security and good level of service. Here is the list of all brokers that accept WebMoney:

• LiteForex
• Marketiva
• FXEgypt
• FXcast
• Alpari
• Ava FX
• Real Trade
• IFC Markets

EUR/USD Hits Two Months High

Today Forex was a very unlucky place for U.S. dollar as the EUR/USD rallied to its two months high at 1.3630. Even good ISM index data (56% - a 1% rise - against 55% expected) couldn't help U.S. currency after last week losses. It is almost certain now that EUR/USD has broken the down-trend and is now heading north. Probable point of strong resistance can be seen at 1.3650 level, which if broken can mean a rally to 1.3800. While, stopping at 1.3650 will probably for a double-peak pattern with a new correction wave.

Carnival of Forex Trading - July 1, 2007

Welcome to the July 1, 2007 edition of Carnival of Forex trading.

Jimmy Atkinson presents How Does Terrorism Affect Your Trading? posted at Forex Blog.

George Courtney jr presents Go Global by Investing in Foreign Currencies posted at The Authentic Bartender Blog.

Mark25 presents Forex Exchange Rate - How Does It Get Calculated? posted at HotStrategies.com.

Ralph Morgan presents Enough Wealth: Adventures in Day Trading - 12 posted at Enough Wealth.

Bryan Moore presents How to Create Synthetic FOREX Currency Pairs posted at TheFinancialWhiz.Com, saying, "This article explains the principles behind creating synthetic Forex currency pairs. The problem a lot of traders run into is that they sometimes cannot directly trade a particular currency pair from their broker, this explains how you can dissect two currency pairs to create the one you need."

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Forex trading using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

IFC Markets Forex Broker

Oh, God! Fifth Forex broker with ‘Markets’ in its name! And it doesn’t offer any other market for trading except Forex. They got to love this word to insert it the broker’s title. IFC Markets is good Forex broker if you want to start with a little money (deposits from just $1) and want to deposit it via e-gold or WebMoney. They offer their own trading software which has some professional features (like multicharting) but has nod custom indicators or expert advisors. Their site is quite informative – Forex market news, IFC Markets broker news, financial calendar – all in nine different languages.

Choosing the Right Forex Broker by David Thorpe

Choosing a right Forex broker is not an easy task, I've trade a lot of before I found several brokers that I can rely on. If your broker isn't fast enough you can miss profitable opportunities, or even lose money due to slippage. David Thorpe's articles is dedicated to this topic - how to chose a Forex broker that will satisfy your trader's needs and won't be to abusive or costly in its services:
Choosing the Right Forex Broker - by David Thorpe