by: Steve Pickering
A lot of interest has been generated recently in FOREX trading, hailed by some as the great new investment opportunity. There are even companies running TV infomercials, offering sure fire systems that will bring massive profits in an easy fashion.
So what is forex? Is it something new? The exchange of currencies is said by some to be the world's second oldest profession and as long as there have been two sovereign states that have issued their own currencies, there has been foreign exchange as a facilitator for trade.
Forex, as foreign exchange has been abbreviated to, has been conducted for centuries and has become a global market with a daily turnover according to a recent Bank for International Settlements survey of $1.9 trillion (billion, billion) per day. Essentially it is a global market place with no physical exchange building where all claims on foreign currencies are settled - between governments, corporations, investors and speculators among others. Banks have traditionally been the middlemen who provide the liquidity to this gigantic market, which incidentally is traded on an almost continuous 24-hour basis.
Then came the Internet and suddenly it became possible for everyone to get a piece of the speculative action. Brokers sprouted up with their electronic trading platforms and high 'leverage'. Essentially the brokers lend clients funds to speculate with, 100:1 or in some cases up to 400:1 ratio, or leverage. This means that $10,000 can 'control' up to $4,000,000 in the market. This is far higher than is possible in the stock market.
Many people have been attracted to the possibilities of earning fast profits from forex. There are often sharp movements that can turn your $10,000 to $20,000 in a matter of minutes. You can also get wiped out, but the lure of a fast buck has turned would-be speculators into out-and-out gamblers.
The Internet has also made it possible for the individual to obtain so-called 'charts', that allow them to do 'technical analysis' on their own PCs. The theory is that price movement patterns repeat themselves, so if you have a system of analysis, you can predict a future move in the market.
This may well be the case, but it does not address the problems of the psychology of trading - the fear and greed that drives many to irrational behaviour. People are often taken in by the seller of a system, often paying $5,000 for a piece of software that shows a green light to buy and a red light to sell. However, they don't tell you how to manage your money.
So speculators lose. It has been estimated that 90% of new investors in forex lose their capital in the first year - an appalling figure. What can one do to avoid being a victim? Well, forex is a business like any other business and planning is required. It is also a profession and as such, adequate training is necessary so that you understand fully what forex trading is all about.
Many are prepared to invest thousands in forex trading without really knowing what it is all about. Just think if franchises were offered in a major hamburger chain without the franchisees having a clue how to run a restaurant or even make the burgers. The failure rate would also probably be 90%!
As with all investing, it is all a matter of risk and reward. Investing in Government securities is considered low risk, therefore they carry the lowest return. Increase the risk (the probability of loss on the investment), the higher an investor is rewarded in terms of return. An individual trading forex decides his own level of risk, which should dictate the level of reward. However, in the hands of an inexperienced trader, the two factors are impossible to reconcile, meaning in stark terms that traders cannot control the risk or the reward levels.
People attracted to forex trading often have an unrealistic expectation of what can be earned. To start with an investment of $5,000 and expect to be making $100,000 a year after the first year is unrealistic. It is not impossible; then again, neither is winning the lottery.
If the parameters for trading are laid down and adhered to combined with knowledge of forex trading, success is possible. It does not take much in the way of 'enhanced' returns to be able to double an investment. 26% per annum is required to double your investment within 3 years.
Who is going to teach you? There are some very good courses available, but these will only give you the theory, in itself very important. The ideal way is to have a mentor, or guide to show you the way.
Getting mentored is a wise move because it makes it possible to draw on the experience of a veteran expert and avoid making the common mistakes that cause the unwary to suffer catastrophic losses. After a while under guidance, a forex trader will gain the experience
The bottom line is that forex is not in itself a scam. There are for sure scam artists who prey on individuals' greed as there are in any other business. If it is approached in a sensible and realistic manner and the trader is prepared to work hard, forex can provide a good living both financially and materially.
About the author:
Steve Pickering is founder and owner of Forex Trader Mentor and has been engaged in the forex markets since 1971.
www.forextradermentor.com
Circulated by Article Emporium
read more ......
by: Chris Rohrer
The foreign exchange market, also knows as FOREX, originated in 1973 has become the largest e-currency trade market in the world today. FOREX trading occurs 24 hours a day, 5 days a week. The FOREX market offers a unique trading opportunity to those seeking a substantial profit in a market that trades over 1.2 trillion dollars each day.
FOREX market is primarily traded between central banks, commercial banks, non-banking International Corporation, hedge funds, private investors and speculators. Previously small investors were unable to trade in the FOREX market due to the large deposit required. However until recent years, with the continuing growth of the internet and competition, Forex trading has made it so small investors can now open a FOREX trading account with as little as $250.
There are a few factors as to why FOREX investing is starting to attract more small investors. For one, FOREX can be traded 24 hours a day 5 days a week. Previously trades were placed by phone, the internet has made it possible for traders to monitor their FOREX trading accounts from home and execute trades in real time with the click of a mouse button.
In order to start trading in the FOREX market, one must first open an account with a broker. It is recommended to obtain a list of brokers and do some research before deciding on which broker to deal with. Each broker offers different policies and different spreads on each currency that is traded.
Before trading in FOREX, one must first understand the risk and reward behind
margin trading in FOREX. A margined account can be leveraged, which means trading in FOREX can be done with solely cash or a combination of cash and collateral such as a security deposit. The main risk involved in margin trading is that margin trading tends to inflate loss. In addition the rate of loss and leverage makes FOREX a high risk investment. However, regardless of the downside in margin trading, FOREX is still very profitable as huge gains can be made.
There are plenty of resources on the internet that will discuss trading strategies, emotions and what it takes to become a successful trader. Most of these web sites are going to tell you that emotions play the largest roll in your success as a trader.
About the author:
To learn more about the Forex Trading program visit Forex Investing
Circulated by Article Emporium
read more ......
by: Matt Sherborne
When I first came across the e-currency trading business on the advice of a friend, I didn't take the opportunity very seriously. It appeared to be just another "hyped up money making scheme." From what my friend was telling me it seemed too good to be true. However, being naturally curious and with a deep desire to profit from the internet, I decided to do some research on my own.
The very first thing I did was run a search on e-currency scams. I was led to several online forums and was surprised to see that no one had lost money. I didn't detect any disgruntled e-currency traders, unlike some of the other investing opportunities such as forex, options, or commodity trading.
I thought like most over-blown hyped up opportunities, I would eventually come upon some site or forum of unhappy customers. This didn't happen; in fact, the only gripe I saw was about the lack of information regarding the system. Most of the people were talking about the best way to make even more money trading e-currency. I was puzzled, I expected to see something bad, or worse. What I found was a lot of excited people saying how much money they are making.
This opportunity seemed like it had the credibility I needed to make the jump. Lucky for me, my friend was already very successful trading e-currency. I was able to ask every question about the business that came to mind. Thanks to his generosity, I was soon on my way to trading e-currency and immediately began to see why he and others were so excited.
After several months of trading e-currency, my initial investment had multiplied one hundred fold. This was too incredible to contain. I told everyone I knew how much money I was making. Pretty soon, I was swamped with questions from friends and family wanting private coaching through each step of the learning process.
That's when it hit me. The issue with trading e-currency is not if you can make money, but how to effectively learn the exact steps necessary to profit in the shortest amount of time.
Not everyone is as fortunate as I am, having a friend already successfully trading e-currency. After countless hours of research and through my own trial and error, I have discovered a formula to effectively and efficiently trade e-currency. With this system, you will master the e-currency trading business.
Where will you be this time next year? Will your lifestyle have changed for the better or worse? You can begin today on your financial path to freedom.
About the author:
Matt Sherborne is the author of "Get Rich Trading E-Currency"and"Email Auto-Pilots."Visit his website at: www.DXinGold.com
Circulated by Article Emporium
read more ......
by: dawn van zant
Nov. 30th, 2004
InvestorIdeas.com presents “The Insiders Corner", from Michael Brush.
New feature follows Insider Trading of small and micro-cap stocks.
POINT ROBERTS, Wash., Delta B.C, Nov 30, 2004 - InvestorIdeas.com, a global investor news and research group of portals is pleased to announce it has added a new weekly feature for investors to track trends in insider trading among small and micro-cap stocks. InvestorIdeas.com proudly introduces “The Insiders Corner,” a weekly feature by well-known financial writer and author Michael Brush. Mr. Brush also writes a weekly market column for CNBC on MSN Money. Mr. Brush has covered business and investing for the New York Times, Money magazine and the Economist Group.
“The Insiders Corner” excerpt:
"Corporate insiders, as we all know, offer excellent signals about where the stocks of their companies might be headed - through the open market purchase and sale of that stock. After all, they have front row seats. The research services tracking insider activity, however, typically focus on big companies only. This is because these research services want to land big clients who can only buy big stocks.
That’s where our weekly “The Insiders Corner” column comes in. It offers analysis of significant insider purchases at small-cap and micro-cap stocks. That means anything under $1 billion in market cap. But generally the companies will be much smaller than that.
The insider signals at smaller companies like these can precede phenomenal gains in a stock, exactly because few investors are watching companies in this part of the market. These tiny companies, for example, typically don’t have any Wall Street analyst coverage. So in many cases, the insider signal is one of the only ways that we - as outsiders - can get the message that good things are about to happen."
http://www.investorideas.com/insiderscorner/ - Visit each week for new updates
Recent Exclusive Feature Articles by Michael Brush for InvestorIdeas.com:
Toying With Profits in the Toy Sector http://www.plushcollectible.com/Companies/WildHeart/News/Toy_Sector.asp
Put Some Defense in Your Portfolio with Homeland Defense Stocks
http://www.homelanddefensestocks.com/Companies/HomelandDefense/HDS/Defense.asp
Mr. Brush is the author of Lessons From the Front Line, a book offering insights on investing and the markets based on the experiences of professional money managers.
InvestorIdeas.com does not make stock recommendations, but offers a unique information portal to investors and industry to research specific industry sectors including homeland security, renewable energy, nanotechnology, RFID, wireless and other industry sectors representing long term growth.
InvestorIdeas.com is a top-ranked investor site on major search engines, and offers a series of industry-specific web portals used by industry leaders, institutions, government, media, brokerage firms, Fortune 500 companies, and investors to research public companies and the latest developments in various market segments.
For small start up companies, or large industry leaders, we have become a key destination. For small companies, we can help you get found by the industry and investors following your sector. For large companies, we become a valuable research tool about the industry.
ECON owns the following industry sector portals: BeverageStocks.com, BorderAndPortSecurity.com, China-AsiaStocks.com, FireSafetyResearch.com, FuelCellCarNews.com, Gold-MiningStocks.com, HomebuilderStocks.com, HomelandDefenseStocks.com, IndiaStockMarket.com, InvestingInWireless.com, LowCarbInvesting.com, NanotechnologyInvestment.com, NaturalGasStocks.com, RFIDInvesting.com, RenewableEnergyStocks.com, OnlineInvestorConference.com, Water-Stocks.com.
Hear founder Dawn Van Zant, from HomelandDefenseStocks.com every Friday at :08 and :38 after the hour for “The Business of Homeland Security” only on www.HomelandDefenseRadio.com
SOURCE: InvestorIdeas.com
Disclaimer: ECON Corporate Services Inc (ECON) is the owner of this domain.
ECON is a privately owned corporate communications company specializing in: media relations, investor relations, and research on public companies and industry sectors, for the investment community. Nothing on our sites should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any specific products or securities. All investments involve risk. Past performance does not guarantee future results, therefore investigate before you invest! Although we attempt to research thoroughly, we offer no guarantees as to the accuracy of any information presented. We encourage all investors to use our sites only as a resource to further their own research.
The site is compensated by its "Featured Companies,” as outlined in our on-line disclaimer at www.InvestorIdeas.com/About/Disclaimer.asp
For more information contact:
Dawn Van Zant 800-665-0411
Email: dvanzant@investorideas.com
Trevor Ruehs truehs@investorideas.com
Brian Noer bnoer@investorideas.com
About the author:
Mr. Brush is the author of Lessons From the Front Line, a book offering insights on investing and the markets based on the experiences of professional money managers.
Circulated by Article Emporium
read more ......
by: Mark Crisp
The following are a list of nine things you want to avoid at all costs. Anyone of them can literally destroy your financial dreams and goals!
1. Trading with money you can't afford to lose.
One of the greatest obstacles to successful trading is using money that you really can’t afford to lose. Examples of this would be money that is supposed to be used to pay the mortgage, bills or your child’s college tuition. This is sometimes referred to as “trading with scared money” and there is a very good reason for that. Ultimately what happens is that when someone knows in the back of their mind that they are risking the rent money, they trade out of fear and emotion versus logic and no emotion. If you are in this situation I highly recommend that you stop trading until you earn enough to put into an account that you truly can afford to lose without causing major financial setbacks. You can start with as little as $2000 and trade stocks under $30.
2. The need to be "certain".
We all have the need to make sure that the trade we want to make is going to be a good one. Therefore we look for signs that will give us a confirmation to enter. This can come in several forms, for example… Tuning into CNBC or the Wall Street Journal to give us news that our stock is on the move or waiting for a couple of extra days to make sure that the stock is really flying and just not on a false breakout. Other traders will get opinions from friends, family or broker. Others will wait for ten technical indicators to line up and give the “green light”.
All of these are okay to a point, however the big mistake to avoid is taking so much time that you let the trade take off without you. Interestingly, what ends up happening as a result of waiting too long is that you actually increase your risk. This is because as a stock moves higher and higher there are fewer buyers left in the market and it can come tumbling down until more buyers step in. It is like a game of musical chairs; eventually someone gets caught without a chair.
Traders who wait and wait and wait to make extra sure are usually the ones buying the top tick just before the stocks sells off. They then beat themselves up thinking they picked the wrong stock. Odds are it had nothing to do with their selection, just bad timing.
The thing to keep in mind is that there can be no absolute certainty in any given trade. All we ever can do is take a very educated risk along with a leap of faith!
3. Spending profits before you make them.
Nothing is more exciting then getting into a trade that blasts off and puts you into a highly profitable situation. This can cause major problems however, because this type of trade puts you in a highly euphoric state and leads to daydreaming about the huge profits still to come. You say “Wow I’m already up 15% in two days; I’ll be up 50% in a week and probably double my money in no time!” Then the next thing that happens is you are deciding on the great new car you are going to buy or perhaps telling your boss that he can stick it… Well you get the idea!
The real problem occurs as you get caught up in the daydream and expectations. This causes you to not be prepared to get out as the market sells off and eats up your profits because you have convinced yourself of the eventual outcome and will deny the reality of the situation.
The simple remedy for this is to know where and how you will take profits once you enter the trade. Also, realize that the market will only go up as long as it wants and not how high you think it should go.
4. Forming an opinion.
I’m here to tell you that the market does not give a damn about you or your opinions. Even if they are based on painstaking research or from a “Wall Street Guru”, it doesn’t matter!
5. Three 4-letter words that will kill you! HOPE---WISH---PRAY
If you ever find yourself doing one or more of the above while in a trade then you are in big trouble! As I have already said, the market doesn’t give a damn. All the hoping, wishing and praying in the world is not going to turn a losing trade into a winning one.
When you are wrong just use a simple 4-letter word to correct the situation-SELL!
6. Not sticking to your plan
A big source of trouble arises when a trader starts to deviate from their strategy. Maybe for a week they will trade according to one set of rules and the next use something entirely different.
This flying by the seat of the pants always ends up backfiring. This is because the trader can never be certain what is working and what is not.
You must never deviate from your methodology once you start. As long as it is a good one statistically there is absolutely no reason to change it. The way to make money from it is to trade it over and over again to exploit the edge it gives you.
One thing to also be aware of is that a trader is most vulnerable to switching approaches after a few loses. So, pay special attention at these times.
7. Not knowing how to get out of a losing trade.
It’s amazing how many people I have talked to who don’t have any clear escape plan for getting out of a bad trade. Once again they hope, pray wish and rationalize their position. As I keep saying the market does not care what you think. It does what it does and when you are wrong you are wrong!
The easiest way to keep a bad trade from going really bad is to determine before you get in, where you will get out. You can use a dollar amount or at some target point such as the low of the previous 15-minute bar.
***Make sure you don’t get the “stunned deer in the headlights syndrome”. This is where you see the stock fall to your stop loss point, but you are unable to take action. Maybe this is due to fear or disbelief that you are wrong, but unless you get out ASAP you could end up I major financial trouble!
8. Having an ego.
I have seen a number of individuals enter the trading game that were extremely successful in other business ventures. Because of this they had a fairly big ego and thought they couldn’t fail. Their egos became their downfall because they couldn’t except that they were wrong and refused to bail out of bad trades.
Once again, whoever or wherever you came from does not concern the markets. All the charm, powers of persuasion, number of diplomas on the wall or business savvy will not budge the market when you are wrong.
9. Falling in love with a stock or trade.
Let me give you an example of what I mean. Back in the spring of 1999 EFAX was a really hot stock. I waited to buy it on a dip and did so at $19/share. It started to move up strongly and life was great!
After a while though, it started to come back to my entry point and then below it. Here’s the problem. For some reason I really liked EFAX and sort of became attached to it. Ultimately I couldn’t let go of it even though I knew I should. I justified and rationalized why my dear friend should bounce back, but it never did. I finally had to break off my love affair when the stock hit $9. (Ouch!)
The moral of this story is never fall in love, let alone get married to any stock. It can cost you dearly!
About the author:
Mark Crisp
The Momentum Stock Trader
Circulated by Article Emporium
read more ......
by: Dan Brown
1. Trade links with other web sites. They should be
related to the subject of your web site. Instead of
trading links, you could also trade banner ads, half
page ads, classified ads, etc.
2. Start an e-zine for your web site. When people
read each issue they'll be reminded to revisit your
web site. They'll see your product ad more than
just once which will increase your orders.
3. Form an online community. It could be an online
message board, e-mail discussion list or chat room.
When people get involved in your community they
will regularly return to communicate with others.
4. Write articles and submit them to e-zines, web
sites and magazines that accept article submissions.
Include your business information and web address
at the end of the article.
5. Give away an electronic freebie with your ad on
it. Allow your visitors to also give the freebie away.
This'll increase your ad exposure and attract people
to your web site at the same time.
6. Combine your products or services into one big
package deal with other businesses offerings. You
could share a web site and advertise the package
deal; which means double the traffic.
7. Submit your freebie to the online directories that
list your particular item or service for free. If you're
offering a free e-zine, submit it to all the free e-zine
directories on the internet.
8. Participate on message boards. Post answers to
other people's questions, ask questions and post
appropriate information. Include your signature file
at the end of all your postings.
9. Exchange classified or sponsor ads with other
free e-zine publishers. If there is a huge subscriber
difference between e-zines, one can run more ads
to make up for it.
10. Post your ad on free advertising areas on the
internet. You can post it on free classified ad sites,
free for all links sites, newsgroups that allow ads,
free yellow page directories, etc.
About the author:
Author Dan Brown has been active in internet marketing for the past 4 years. Dan currently is working with the Zabang search engine introducing their new affiliate program which is due out Sept, 2008. http://www.zabangaffiliate.com/
Circulated by Article Emporium
read more ......