0Posted by Michael Glass on October 14, 2012 at 10:08 pm
Learn how to Trade
with Market Profile
Market Profile is a technique that is used by future and forex traders to help technicians understand the internal structure of the markets. Market Profile was a intraday trading strategies devised by J. Peter Steidlmayer. It is a way to structure market activity by using time and price. The development of time and price opportunities is then distributed within a bell shape curved chart which can then be studied. There are 3 key components to Market Profile: Value Area, Point of Control and Value Area High and Low.
Value Area is a primary component derived from the Market Profile. Value Area is intended to show the range of prices that reflect the most interest on the part of buyers and sellers. The Value Area represents the range of prices that contain 70% of a day’s trading activity.
The price that recorded the most trading activity is the Point of Control. The prices that saw the most activity.
Market Profile is defined as the study of price and volume over a period of time. Market profile on a charts shows the price action volume horizontally (on the side of a chart), as opposed to vertically (on the bottom of the chart). This technical analysis strategy shows price development, how price is moving, and the amount of volume trading at a particular price in real-time.
0Posted by Michael Glass on September 30, 2012 at 1:34 pm
#1 Mistake All Day Traders
Make in the Stock Market
Have you ever been in a trade and been stopped out just to have the market reverse and go back in the original direction you thought. Have you ever been in a position you thought would take 1 day and instead sat in a pullback for 3-5 days before making a profit. I bet it’s because you made the #1 mistake all day traders make in the stock market.
The oldest mantra in the stock market is The Trend is Your Friend. Even before all of these fancy dancy technical indicators were creators, investors used to chart and draw their own price levels of support and resistance. Watch the video to learn how these two key factors can help you avoid making the #1 mistake all day traders make in the stock market.
0Posted by Michael Glass on September 15, 2012 at 10:39 am
How to Trade the
Opening Range Breakout
The Opening Range Breakout Strategy is a very popular concept that was first introduced by Toby Crabel in his book “Day trading with short term price patterns and opening range breakout” (Crabel). Many view the opening range as the discovery period for traders. The opening range can be defined in two ways. The first way to look at the opening range is by time. We look at a specified period of time from market open. The second way to look at the opening range is by price. We want to denote the high and low price levels of the opening range.
If price action is above the opening range, we want to have a bullish bias for our trades. If price action is below the opening range, we want to have a bearish bias for our trade. In other words, we use the Opening Range as a filter for the sentiment of the market. We only look for trading setups that work in conjunction with the relationship of price action to the opening range.
There are several factors that play into the success of trading the Opening Range Breakout Strategy
We want to see some momentum in the price action bias. We identify this by understanding the type of trading day is present: Trending, Trend Expansion or Consolidation
We want to see volume increase as price action breaks out of the opening range
0Posted by Michael Glass on September 1, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Understanding Forex
What are the Advantages
of Trading Forex?
The Foreign Exchange Market (Forex) is market where currencies are actively bought and sold by banks, funds and investors. The Forex Market facilitates the conversion of one currency for another. It is the relative value of the base currency vs the value of the quote currency.
Today we are going to discuss the advantages of Trading Forex
Forex market is open 24 hours – Most brokers actually close for 30 minutes to reset their backend systems.
High Volume provides Liquidity – Liquidity is important when it comes to entering and exiting your trades. Remember, there has to be someone else on the other side of your trades.
Leverage – In states, regulations states we can have up to 50:1 leverage. International, I’ve seen up to 1000:1 leverage.
Ability to Scale in and out of positions – When you trade a stock, you have to sell the whole share; however, with Forex, you can sell off portions at a time.
Profits from moves in any direction
Low Transaction Cost – Most brokers offer a no commission plan for clients.
Market Transparency – The market is 100% electronic. No market makers to manipulate the market.
0Posted by Michael Glass on August 11, 2012 at 10:43 am
Understanding Forex Series
What is a Standard Lot
The Foreign Exchange Market (Forex) is market where currencies are actively bought and sold by banks, funds and investors. The Forex Market facilitates the conversion of one currency for another. It is the relative value of the base currency vs the value of the quote currency.
Today we are going to talk about what is a standard lot. A Standard Lot is the standard unit size of a forex transaction. Typically, one standard lot is equal to 100,000 units of the base currency. In other words, 1 standard lot controls $100,000 of the base currency. Many brokers allow you to break your transaction into smaller sized lots. For example, you might consider a Mini Lot which represents $10,000 or even a Micro Lot which represents $1,000.
100 Micro Lots = 10 Mini Lots = 1 Standard Lot
The lot size you choose primarily deals with position sizing. It also is one major advantage of Forex. When you attend to example a stock position, you cannot sell 1/2 a share. The same can be said for a futures contract; however, you can sell 1/2 a position in forex. Which makes your position size decisions very important. Watch the video above fore more information about the importance of understanding what is a standard lot in Forex.
0Posted by Michael Glass on July 25, 2012 at 12:42 pm
Understanding Forex Series
Interesting Facts About Forex
The Foreign Exchange Market (Forex) is the market where currencies are actively bought and sold by banks, funds and investors. The Forex Market facilitates the conversion of one currency for another. It is the relative value of the base currency vs the value of the quote currency.
To start our video series on Understanding Forex, we have compiled a list of Interesting Facts about Forex.
* Forex market is open 24 hours a day 5.5 days a week
* The forex market is the largest market in the world
* There is no floor in the forex market. Most trades are executed electronically
* There are no commission in Forex
* Leverage in forex starts @ 50:1
0Posted by Michael Glass on July 16, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Understanding Forex
What is a Pip
The Foreign Exchange Market (Forex) is market where currencies are actively bought and sold by banks, funds and investors. The Forex Market facilitates the conversion of one currency for another. It is the relative value of the base currency vs the value of the quote currency. The major currencies of the world are:
* US Dollar
* Austrailian Dollar
* British Pound
* Canadian Dollar
* Japanese Yen
* Swiss Franc
These are the most liquid currencies in the world. The US dollar is involed in 90% of Forex Transactions. Currencies fluctuate in fractions of a dollar called a Pip (Price Interest Point) A Pip is the last decimal of a quote
0Posted by Michael Glass on June 25, 2012 at 8:15 pm
What is a Forex
Currency Quote?
A Forex currency quote shares the relative value of a currency unit against the unit of another currency in the foreign exchange market. Being able to properly understand the pricing structure of a forex currency quote is critical to being a successful forex trader. The currency that is used as the reference is called the counter currency or quote currency and the currency that is quoted in relation is called the base currency or transaction currency. Currencies are traded electronically in fixed contract sizes called lots. The standard lot size is 100,000 units of the base currency. Many brokers also offer 10,000 unit (mini lot) trading accounts and a few even 1,000 unit (micro lot).
The most traded currency pairs in the world are called the Majors. They involve the currencies euro, US dollar, Japanese yen, pound sterling, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, and the Swiss franc. The most traded pairs of currencies in the world are called the Majors. They constitute the largest share of the foreign exchange market, about 85% and therefore they exhibit high market liquidity. The Majors are: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD, AUD/USD, USD/CHF and USD/CAD.
The primary source for research was found on WikiPedia – Click Here to read the article.
0Posted by Michael Glass on June 14, 2012 at 7:39 pm
The Advantages of
Forex Trading
Do you have a significant amount of money sitting in your bank account, and want to start investing, but don’t know much about the stock market? Why not consider going into Forex trading? The Forex market remains as one of the most popular investment options despite the number of trading markets out there, and here are some reasons why.
Low Investment Capital
This is among the main factors and advantages of Forex trading that continually draw in new investors. With Forex, you don’t need a lot of capital to get started on trading as compared to other investment markets. You can even put in an initial investment of as low as US$300, depending on the broker’s leverage offer. Low capital means low investment risk, so you can start trading and pull out if things don’t go well without losing your life savings.
Trading (Almost) Anytime and Anywhere
Forex is a round-the-clock market, so you can trade 24 hours a day if you wanted to – except for weekends, that is. The market opens at 3pm EST on Sunday and closes Friday 3pm EST. Apart from that, you can trade wherever and whenever is convenient for you, which is a very attractive option for those who work full-time jobs and can’t adjust or check their portfolio 24/7. You can even use Forex trading software that’ll handle your transactions even when you’re not physically available.
High Level of Liquidity
Forex is one of the most liquid financial markets, with trades averaging 3 to 4 trillion dollars every day. The size and volume of transactions also make the Forex market less susceptible to being cornered or manipulated by a single entity over extended periods of time.
Fewer Investment Options
It’s all too easy for neophyte investors to experience information overload when they look into trading in the stock market. With Forex, you can easily narrow down your investment choices to 20 or so currency pairs, and from there, narrow it down further to the 7 major currencies: US dollar, Euro, Canadian dollar, British Pounds, Australian dollar, Japanese Yen, and Swiss Franc.
Less Trading Costs
Another factor that makes Forex investment and trading advantageous is that you can conduct business without paying a broker’s commission for every trade he places. Unlike in other markets, Forex brokers just earn the difference between the “spread”.
All these things and more make Forex trading an attractive investment option. However, it is not without risks, as it is still an investment, after all. Make sure you exercise caution in your trades, and do your currency and market research before you open an account and get into the game.
