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Forex Trading Guides

Guide To 160+ Forex Fundamental Indicators

As we all know, there are three primary techniques to trade the Forex market. They are Technical Analysis, Fundamental Analysis, and Sentimental Analysis. Technical Analysis is one of the most prominent ways of trading the market, which involves using Technical Indicators, Price Action Techniques, etc. However, Fundamental analysis is one of the most underrated techniques to gauge the currency price movement.

Therefore, at Forex Academy, we have put forward a series of Fundamental Indicators that we believe strongly impact the Forex price charts. We have clearly explained the importance of each of these indicators and pictographically showed the relative impact of the indicator’s news release on the Forex currency pairs.

This guide will help you navigate through these indicators in the easiest way possible. The order of these indicators implies their relative importance. As the list goes down, the importance of the indicators deteriorates.

Interest Rate

Inflation Rate

Government Debt to GDP Ratio

Current Account to GDP Ratio

Balance Of Trade

Unemployment Rate

Labor Force Participation Rate

Core Inflation

Cash Reserve Ratio

Productivity

Foreign Exchange Reserves

Non-Farm Payroll

Consumer Price Index

Producer Price Index

Corporate Tax

Building Permits

Income Tax

Consumer Confidence

Capital Flows

Crude Oil Production

Consumer Credit

Gold Reserves

Consumer Spending

Tourism Revenues

Personal Spending

Personal Saving

Initial Jobless Claims

Terrorism Index

Gasoline Prices

Government Debt

Credit Rating’

Core Consumer Price

New Orders

Mining Production

Car Registrations

Manufacturing Production

Manufacturing PMI

Leading Economic Index

Households Debt to GDP

Imports

Housing Index

Housing Starts

Government Budget

Disposable Personal Income

Cement Production

Car Production

Capacity Utilization

Bank Lending Rate

Home Ownership Rate

Government Spending

Foreign Direct Investment

Fiscal Expenditure

Government Revenue

Exports

Employed Persons

Construction Output

Wage Growth

Private Sector Credit

Steel Production

Services PMI

Terms Of Trade

Ease of Doing Business

Corruption Index

Electricity Production

Composite PMI

Industrial Production Index

Factory Orders

Corporate Profits

Internet Speed

ZEW Economic Sentiment Index

Changes in Inventories

GDP Constant Prices

Retail Sales MoM

Gross National Product

GDP From Agriculture

Gross Fixed Capital Formation

GDP From Manufacturing

GDP From Public Administration

GDP Per Capita PPP

GDP Per Capita

GDP Growth Rate

Long Term Unemployment Rate

Labour Costs

Full-Time Employment

Minimum Wages

Employment Change

Central Bank Balance Sheet

Youth Unemployment Rate

Harmonized Consumer Prices

Export Prices

Imports by Category

Import Prices

Imports by Country

Exports by Category

GDP From Utilities

GDP From Transport

GDP from Services

GDP from Mining

GDP from Construction

Business Confidence

Sales Tax Rate

Social Security Rate

Job Vacancies

Corruption Rank

Interbank Rate

Small Business Sentiment

Bankruptcies’

Deposit Interest Rate

Employment Rate

Food Inflation

Households Debt to Income

Lending Rate

Industrial Production MoM

Inflation Rate MoM

Producer Prices Change

GDP Annual Growth Rate 

Loan Growth

Loans to Private Sector

Retail Sales YoY

Wages

GDP Deflator

Total Vehicle Sales

IP Addresses

Asylum Applications

Government Budget Value

Social Security Rate For Employees

Social Security Rate For Companies

Employment Trends Index

Commitments of Traders

Reserve Assets

Money Supply

New Home Sales

Public Sector Net Borrowing

Cryptocurrency Negotiation

Existing-Home Sales

Durable Goods Orders

Pending Home Sales

Job Cuts

Home Loans

Sentix Investor Confidence

Gross Domestic Product Estimate

Foreign Securities Purchases

Mortgage Market Index

US Crude Oil Inventories

Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index

Machinery Orders

Long Government Bond Auction 

US Redbook

German Ifo Business Climate Index

US 10-Year TIPS Auction

US Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count

Jobs to Applications Ratio

Commodity Prices

Business Investment

Wholesale Trade Sales

Retail Sales Monitor

Economy Watchers Current Index

US TIC Net Long-Term Transactions

This list is all you need, to master the fundamental indicators and how they affect the Forex price movements. If you have any questions, please let us know in the comments below. Cheers!

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Crypto Daily Topic Forex Daily Topic Position-sizing Guide

Forex Academy’s Guide to Position Size

After completing our series on position size, we would like to summarize what we have learned and make conclusions.

Starting this video series, we have understood that position size is the most crucial factor in trading. On Position Size: The most crucial factor in trading, we learned that deciding the position’s size is not intuitive. In an experiment made by Ralf Vince using forty PHDs with a system with 60 percent winners, only two ended up making money. Thus, if even PHDs couldn’t making money on a profitable strategy, Why do you think you’re going to do it right? You need to follow a set of rules not to fool yourself.

The Golden rules of trading

The trading environment seems simple, but it’s tough. You have total freedom to choose entries, exits, and the size of your trade. Some brokers even offer you up to 500x leverage. But you’re not free from yourself and your psychological weakness, Therefore, you need to set up a set of rules to stop the market to play with you. In “The golden rules of Forex trading” III, and III, we propose specific rules it is advisable to follow to succeed in trading. These include never open a position without knowing your dollar risk, defining your profits in terms of reward/risk factors, and limit your losses to less than 1R, a risk unit. We also advise to keep a record of trades and identify your strategy’s basic stats: Average profit, the standard deviation of the profits, and drawdown.

The dark side of the trade

In our video, The Dark Side of Trade, we explain the relation between position size, results, and drawdown, showing that position size plays a vital role in both aspects. In the video, We show that while results grow geometrically ( 100x), drawdown increase arithmetically, 10X. But the lesson here is that the size of the position must be chosen with the drawdown in mind. That is, we should choose a position size so that the max drawdown could be limited to a desirable size. 

The Gamblers Fallacy 

on Position Size – The Gamblers Fallacy, we explain why it is wise to consider position sizing independently of the previous results. We explain that a new trading result does not usually depend on prior results; thus, modulating the trade size, such as do Martingale systems, is not only useless but dangerous because winning or losing streak ends are unpredictable.

The Advantage!

Even when most retail traders don’t realize it, the “how much” question is the advantage or critical factor to achieve your trading goals because the size of the position defines both the trading results and the risk, or max drawdown, in your trading portfolio. We mention in Position Sizing III- The Advantage that in 1991 the Financial Analyst Journal published a study on the performance of 82 portfolio managers over a 10-year period. The conclusion was that 90% of their portfolio differences were due to “asset allocation,” a nice word for “investment size.”

In this article, we also presented the simplified MCP model to compute the right lots to trade as:

M = C/P, where M is the number of lots, C is the (Cash at) Risk, and P is the Pip distance from entry to stop-loss. The cash will depend on the percent you’re willing to risk and the cash available in your trading account. 

Equity Calculation Models

In our next video of this series, Position Size IV – Equity Calculation Models, We explain several models to calculate several simultaneous positions: 

  • The Core Supply Model, in which you determine the nest trade’s size using the remaining cash as the basis for computing C.  
  • The Balanced Total Supply Model, in which C is determined by the remaining cash plus all the profits secured by a stop-loss.
  • The Total Supply Model, in which the available cash is computed by adding all open position’s gains and losses plus the remaining cash.
  • The Boosted Supply Model uses two pockets: the Conservative Money Pocket and the Boosted Monet Pocket. 

The Percent Risk Model

The Percent Risk Mode is the basic position sizing model, barring the constant size model. on Position Sizing Part 5, we analyze how various equity curves arise when using different percent risk sizes and how drawdown changes with risk. Finally, we presented an example using 2.5 percent risk for an average max drawdown of 21 percent.

The Kelly Criterion

Our next station is  The Kelly Criterion. The linked article explains how the Kelly Criterion is used to find the optimal bet amount to achieve maximal growth, based on the winner’s percentage and the Reward/risk ratio. The Kelly criterion was meant for constant reward bets, and as such, it cannot be used in trading, but it tells us the limit above which the size of the position increases the risk while decreases the profits. We should be aware of that limit considering that most retail Forex traders trade beyond it and blow out their accounts miserably.

Optimal fixed fraction trading

Optimal fixed fraction trading, Optimal f for short, is the adaptation of the Kelly criterion to the financial markets. The optimal f methodology was developed by Ralf Vince. In Position Size VII: Optimal Fixed Fraction Trading, we explain the method and give the Python code to find the Optimal fraction of a stream of trading results. The key idea behind the code is that the optimal fraction is the one that generates the maximal growth factor on a set of trades. That is, Opt F delivers the maximal geometric mean of the trading results.

Optimal f properties

But nothing in life seems easy. Optimal f has dark corners that we should be aware of. In Position size VIII – Optimal F Revisited, we analyze the properties of this positioning methodology. We understood that, due to the trading results’ random nature, we should find a safer way to find the optimal fraction to trade. This article presented a safer way to compute it using Monte Carlo resampling and take the minimum value as optimal f. This way, the risk of ruin is minimized while preserving the strong growth factor Opt f provides.

Market’s money

Traders define their recent trading gains as “market’s money. A clever way to profit from the usual winning streaks is to use the market’s money to increase the position size in a planned manner. In Position Sizing IX: Improving the Percent Risk Model-Playing with market’s money,

we present the N-Step Up position sizing strategy, an innovative algorithm that adds the gains obtained in previous trades to boost the profits. This way, it could increase the profitability by 10X with a max drawdown increase of roughly 2.8X, from 8.02% to 22.5%. This article analyzes four models: one, two, and three steps with 100% reinvestment and three steps with 50% reinvestment.

Scaling in and out

Our next section, Position sizing X: Scaling-in and scaling-out techniques, is dedicated to scaling in and out methods. Scaling in and out are techniques to increase the position size while maintaining the risk at bay. They work best with trending markets, for instance, the current crypto and gold markets. The main idea is to use the market’s money to add to our current position while trailing our stops. 

System Quality and Max Position Size

System quality has a profound influence over the risk, and, hence, over the maximum position size, a trader can take. In Position Sizing XI- System Quality and Max Position Size Part I and part II, we presented a study on how the trading strategy’s quality influences the maximum position size a trader should take. To accomplish this, we created nine systems with the same percentage of winners, 50 percent. We used Van K Tharp SQN formula to compute their quality and adjusted the reward to risk on each system to create nine variations with SQN from 1 to 5 in 0.5 steps. 

Then, since traders have different risk limits, we defined as ruin, a max drawdown below ten preset levels from 5 to 50 in 5-step.   

 Our procedure was to create a Monte Carlo resampling of the synthetic results, which simulated 10 thousand years of trading history on each system.  

Since a trading strategy or system is a mix between the trading logic and the trader’s discipline and experience, we can estimate that the overall outcome results from the interaction of the logic and the treader. Thus, we can accurately associate a lower SQN with lowing experienced traders and higher SQN to more professional traders. The study’s concussions suggest a limit of 0.5 percent risk on newbies, whereas more experienced traders could boost their trading risk to an overall 4.5%.

Two-tier Optimal f Positioning

After this journey, we have understood that Using Ralf Vince’s optimal f position sizing method means maximally growing a portfolio. Still, the risk of a 95% drawdown makes it unbearable for any human being. Only non-sentient robots can withstand such heavy drops. In Position sizing XII- Two-tier Optimal f, we analyzed the growth speed of a 1% risk size, and we compare it with the Optimal f. We were interested in the average time to reach a 10X final capital. We saw that on a system with 65.5% winners and a profit factor of 2 ( average Reward/risk ratio of 1.1), using 1 percent risk, it would take650 days ( about two years) on average, whereas, using optimal f sizes, this growth was reached in 42 days, less than one-tenth of the time!.

The two-tier Optimal f positioning method uses the boosted supply model, and is a compromise between maximal growth and risk. The main objectives were to preserve the initial capital while maintaining the Optimal f method’s growth characteristics as much as possible.

The two-tier optimal f creates two pockets in the trading account. 

  1. The first pocket, representing 25% of the total trading capital, will be employed for the optimal f method. The rest, 75%, will use the conservative model of the 1 percent model.
  2. After a determined goal ( 2X, 5X, 10X, 20X), the account is rebalanced and re-split to begin a new cycle.

In Position sizing XII- Two-tier Optimal f part II, we presented the Python code to accurately test the approach using Monte Carlo resampling, creating 10,000 years of trading history.

 The results obtained proved that this methodology preserved the initial capital. This feat is quite significant because it shows the trader will dispose of unlimited trials without blowing out his account. Since the odds of ending in the lowest possible scenario are very low, there is almost the certainty of extremely fast growths.

Finally, we also analyzed other mixes in the two-tier model, using Optf / 10, Optf/5, and Optf/2 instead of 1%, with goals of 10X growth to rebalance. These showed extraordinary results as well while preserving the initial capital. B.

Drawdowns

The trader should also consider the drawdowns involved before deciding which strategy best fit his tastes because, while this methodology lowers it, in some cases, it goes, on average, beyond 60%. We have found that the best balance between growth and risk was the combination of 75% Optf/10 and 25% Optf, which gave an average final capital of $21.775 million with an average drawdown of 37%.

To profit from this methodology, the trader must ensure the long-term profitability of his system. Secondly, he must perform a Monte Carlo analysis to find the lowest optimal f value. Finally, he should create an adequate spreadsheet to follow the plan.

Final words

After reading all this, we hope you know the importance of position sizing for your success goals as a trader.

One caveat: We have left some topics out, such as martingale methods, which many traders use and are the main cause of account blown out. Please adhere to the philosophy that position sizing should be thought of as a tool to reach your goals and handle your risk and drawdowns. As shown in The Dark Side of the trade, position sizing should be separated from the previous trades’ results.

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Forex Course Guides Forex Daily Topic

The right ways to Stop-loss Setting

We, at Forex.Academy, try to help novice, and not so novice, traders the best ways to trade in this Forex jungle.  Many novice traders put their focus on entries, thinking that to be profitable, you need to be right. Right?

– Wrong!  in his book “Trade your way to your financial freedom,” Van K. Tharp proposed a random entry system as an example to show that trade management is more important than entries. The stop-loss setting is a key part of trade management, so let’s have a look at how to optimize them.

Stop-loss placement is the part of the system that decides when the current trade setting is no longer valid, and the best curse is to cut losses. Of course, there are lots of ways to do that, and we at forex.academy have published several articles regarding stop-loss definition. This is a kind of entry point for you to have it easy.

Usually, new technical traders trust stops placed below easily seen supports or above resistance levels. If all participants see them, why would this be a good method? Surely not. Therefore, we suggested a better solution: ATR-Based stops.

An improved method for the ATR Stops is the Kase-Dev Stops. Kese stated that a trade is a bet on a continuation of a trend. The ideal trend is a straight line, but the market has noise. The aim of a well-placed stop-loss order is to set it away from the noise of the market.

Shyam, while writing the Forex course, teaches his learners that Fibonacci levels are not only meant for entries but serve quite well to define Fibonacci-based stop-loss levels.

Arthur Simmons, another of our excellent writers, explains how you can set stop-loss orders using point and figure charts.

Finally, if you are statistically oriented, you may be interested in the Maximum Adverse Excursion (MAE) stops. The concept of Maximum Adverse Execution was introduced by John Sweeney. The idea is simple: If your entry system has merit, successful trades behave differently than losing trades. The MAE level defines the point beyond which it is likely the current trade would belong to the losers set, and thus, it is the optimal level to place the stop-loss.

I hope this gives you nice ideas for your stop-loss orders and helps you avoid being a victim of the market makers and institutional hawks.

Good trading!

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Forex Trading Guides

Forex Technical Swing Trading Guide A Beginner’s Journey in 30 Elements

Every trader starting the currency trading journey strives to equip himself/herself with the best set of information on the market. While the aspirations to be a better trader and thus obtain a higher income, are common among novice forex traders, finding relevant educational material may be a challenging task. Despite the rising number of individuals interested in the spot forex market and the increasing internet use among people of all ages, the advice available on YouTube, Twitter, or any other media outlet may not serve a trader as well as it should. Nonetheless, beginners should still not lose hope because they can find some extremely original prop traders online whose profound insight into the currency market could shape these individuals’ entire outlook on trading.

Although these figures are not always the most popular ones out there, their innovative and practical approach can reduce the overall time you dedicate to trading and offer you efficient trading methods you can start using today. In order to reflect on some unique trading advice, after doing quite a bit of research ourselves, we have collected some of the most sought after pieces of information and grouped them under individual topics for you to feel safe at this critical stage of your path to becoming a better trader of currencies.

Educational Material

At the onset of the forex market as we know it, the quantity and the variety of available materials on how to trade were quite scarce. Besides the few resources, some traders discovered how the lack of a fresh perspective truly affected their trading. They would constantly feel that they were not learning anything new and that they were stagnating as a result. Whichever source they turned to, they would always see the same recommendations coming from traders who spent decades behind the desk. Some of the traders finally decided to put an end to their suffering after realizing how each piece of advice they applied never truly worked out for them no matter how collectively praised they were at the time. They eventually set off a new path – the path of rediscovery. They tried different methods and discovered a whole new world of possibilities which completely contradicted everything they had learned until that point. While this process did take some time, it was worthwhile.

Some of them now talk about having been hired by prop firms that were looking for their level of expertise and others are keen on sharing their knowledge and experience with large masses. Interestingly enough, the one thing that stands out in all their stories is the belief that forex education never improved, even after all this time. What beginners often have to deal with is the constant reiteration of the same concepts that inevitably lead to failure, and professional traders frequently highlight how alternatives exist. While researching, you should seek material that aims to make your trading easier and give you back your time, without having to conform to the opinion of the majority.

Reasons To Start Trading

Different people can have diverse reasons why they would like to enter the spot forex market. Some felt stressed working long hours, whereas others moved from another market to this one. A portion of traders feel that their base market cannot offer them the same quality of trading at all times, such as the example of the penny stock market summer standstill, and others simply desire to expand to another market despite having been happy all along, e.g. stock trader looking to learn about trading currencies. With such a diversity of motives and backgrounds, the focus should increasingly be directed at exploring the market and finding additional reasons to keep a positive outlook.

Ways for Traders to Stay Motivated

Whichever reason you have for starting to trade currencies, you should be aware of the fact that motivation is key. The essence of such transition, whether you are shifting from a typical day job or coming from another market, lies in a strong desire to dedicate your time to learning and developing as well as the readiness to constantly invest in your knowledge and skills. 

Personalized Systems for Trading

Professional traders always highlight the importance of developing a personalized system, which basically consists of a set of rules, indicators, and money management skills traders should put together to follow and apply consistently. Such a system should tell you when to enter or exit a trade as well as incorporate mindset skills and abilities. By devising your own system, you will feel that you no longer need to put so much effort into trading as you did before because you will always know exactly what you need to do, thus eliminating the tendency to guess. Experts in this field have also shared how smaller time frames make it difficult for traders to put a system together, unlike using the daily chart which has remained their favorite after a series of testing. By regularly implementing a system you have created, you will make your trading experience increasingly easier, secure, and profitable.  

Time Frames

Among various sources you can come by, you will find how a vast number of committed professionals in the spot forex market rely on the daily chart. Despite the existence of different time frames, using the daily chart to trade currencies has several benefits, among which is the ability to trade as little as 10 to 15 minutes a day.

Duration of Trades

Beginners are eager to find exact numbers and precise information, but sometimes the key to being successful is not the precision but letting go. By listening to forex experts, you will discover how some trades can take even months as opposed to some much shorter ones. Sometimes, the duration of a trade may be affected by what is happening at the market at the time as well, but some average time with regard to how long a trade should last simply does not exist. All trades will always run for as long as they need to is the message professionals in this field commonly tend to share.

Risk vs. Reward

Every trader should consider the risk-reward ratio before entering a trade and the ATR indicator has been massively praised for its application and effectiveness in this regard. Despite every pair having different volatility, we can still make adjustments and protect the trades we are in. Professional traders strongly advise the beginners in this market, as well as others, to take half the profit off at a certain point along with the trade because it will both secure the trade and protect your finances. 

Exiting a Trade

The ATR indicator should be combined with an exit indicator so that traders would know what the best time to get out of a losing trade is, thus preventing the price from hitting the stop loss at, for example, 1.5 ATR (14). You will also find how stop loss is generally used as the last resort because the price rarely gets hit there under the condition that you are using a proper system. By having these figures, you can have a sense of what trading sensitivity to aim for.

Experts’ Typical Trading Day

Proper Forex trading allows you to have plenty of free time which gives you space to do other work-related projects, do sports during the day, or spend time with family. If you take time to learn a way in which you can trade up to half an hour a day, you will both have opportunities to obtain a profit and dedicate time to other activates that bring you pleasure.

End of the Learning Process

You may find how there are generally two types of traders – the ones who reached a certain level of success and feel like they do not need to invest any more in learning and the opposite type of trades who still feel the urge to learn and grow regardless of their expertise. Some of the most experienced individuals in this market would always advise you to never stop exploring new options just because you feel happy with what you have achieved until that point. Keep finding different indicators and settings which you will then measure against what you are already using. Remember how trading more frequently will not bring you more knowledge, or money for that matter, because every technical tool has proved to work better on the daily chart than anything else according to experts. Most importantly, do not settle for indicators or advice which would generate results that are not as good as the ones you have already produced yourself before.

Forex vs. Crypto 

Many traders wonder about potential correlations between the two markets despite their fundamental differences. The first time people heard about the new and emerging market, everyone was drawn to give it a try. The initial craze over the crypto market was recognized by some professional traders as something they have already experienced with the penny stock market. The crypto market gathered enthusiasts with and without any previous experience, but the mania over how quickly the market was growing prevented them from preserving their investments properly, and so many people crashed along with the market. The story of crypto should truly serve as an excellent case study because very few people knew how to manage a trade or how to invest and almost everyone wanted to hold instead of sell. The same can be seen in some other markets today, such as gold and metals, but some traders still choose to go all in without adopting some intelligent strategies which can safeguard them against any unpredictable situations. Nowadays, many crypto-turn-forex traders have chosen to change markets due to the stability that the forex market provides.

The Future

Many traders attempt to forecast how the market is going to develop, however making such predictions is impossible. With bitcoin, for example, everyone keeps saying how it is the best or the safe-haven currency, yet when the market appeared to be crashing, this currency kept going down, so we can never know for sure. The crypto market appears to be stable now, but as with anything else, change is the only constant.

Actions that Make a Difference

Among all actions you can take, you should nurture a sense of curiosity as one of the most praised virtues traders should possess. With a plethora of educational materials, blogs, and videos traders can look up at any point, it has become extremely crucial that they always invest in learning more. This ability will prevent you from staying in a bubble, forced on by a vast majority of popular traders, which lets you believe that you can only choose between approximately a dozen options for your trading and that research is pointless. Luckily, there is always another way you can approach trading and, should you ever feel that what you are reading or watching does not really settle well with you, you can awaken curiosity within to help you keep searching for what you will eventually find relevant. Some professional traders of today criticize the lack of innovation and creativity which has remained present despite some obvious developments with regard to the market and indicators. What these successful traders did was invest in learning so as to be able to put together a unique system which now brings them a massive income. While time was a problem before because there were so few educational materials, now you can quickly learn from these individuals who are willing to share what they have learned.

Testing Indicators

The typical test professional traders carry out is backtesting, which consists of putting an indicator on any currency pair based on their own risk-reward ratio and assessing whether the signals it gives make them participate in a winning or a losing trade. The goal here is to obtain a rough percentage and understand how the indicator in question functions, so that you can stop testing it any further in case it underperforms. Whenever experts discover an indicator that successfully operates, they will add other indicators that are designed to eliminate the losses of the initial indicator. If the winning percentage has increased, such an indicator will be used in real-time because it will provide a clear picture one cannot get purely from backtesting, which excludes a number of factors traders normally face in real trading. Once you complete this process yourself and feel happy with the results, you can confidently continue using the indicator in your future trades.

Retail Traders Desiring Income 

Retail traders working a day job will naturally be searching for the opportunity to start earning an income from trading in a manner that supports their everyday responsibilities. As they may not have a large quantity of time at their disposal, they are strongly advised to begin trading the daily chart. What is more, they should be wary of trading the 15-minute or the 5-minute charts because of the dangers of instant gratification and other hidden downsides. With the daily chart, however, they will not only have a much higher rate of success, but they will also be able to leave enough room for testing different tools and settings, watching educational videos, and developing their own system. The daily chart simply fits everyone’s lifestyle because it only requires up to 30 minutes a day of traders’ time.

Technical vs. Fundamental Divide 

Some of the professional (technical) traders whose intelligence has been recognized by followers state that fundamentals should only hold about 1%, while the remainder belongs to the technical side. What they seem to stress is the fact that the fundamentally important aspects only boil down to the avoidance of news events that can somehow hinder the trade they are in. At the time of Brexit, for example, a vast number of news events kept coming out and the market’s reaction followed immediately, which is why this was a reason strong enough not to trade GBP at the time. From the fundamental standpoint, you should always ensure that whatever is out of your control is safely eliminated or mitigated so that it cannot affect your bottom line. The higher the number of such factors that you can eliminate, the better your system can do what it was designed for. If your system has been tested properly, you know that you can expect to get some extremely positive results.

Trading during 2019 Flash Crash

Despite the fact that the flash crash of 2019 was an important event that impacted many traders, not everyone was actually in trades that were affected. It is extremely important to remember that these sudden events always pinpoint the majority of people found on one side, be it long or short. What you should always bear in mind is that being the part of the majority is not the way to approach trading if you wish to nurture a long-term, sustainable vision. Interestingly enough, a number of traders who learned how not to depend on these mass movements stated to have earned a large profit right at the time of the 2019 flash crash.

Price Chart and Big Banks

Some of the first pieces of advice professional traders like to share include the knowledge of who moves prices up and down. Understanding how it is the big banks who direct prices whenever they react to what retail traders do is considered to be the fundamental knowledge. It is of utmost importance that beginners learn how to avoid the areas in the chart where the majority trades and the first step you can take is to stop using the tools that can put me in such situations. This is extremely important because indicators such as support/resistance lines, RSI, etc. will always give you a signal that everyone else can see, and while you may not know if it is going to be long or short, you do know that it will cause a large number of people to make a move. Whenever retail traders make a big move, so do the big banks and this is an excellent example of the factor you cannot control and should, thus, eliminate.

Another important piece of advice regarding price charts includes money management skills because their importance is believed to surpass that of having the best trade entries. This skill is more often than not one of the deciding factors that differentiate between extremely successful traders and those who keep losing. It is also a skill that almost no retail traders possess, which is why the majority of them fail so fast and so frequently. If you develop a system that you can consistently rely upon without having to think about it will be your main advantage, placing you right at the top. The third piece of advice regarding this particular topic revolves around the notion of trading psychology, which all traders should strive to adopt in order to learn how not to stop themselves from being successful in trading in the spot forex market. 

How to Double-check Information

When traders look for the proof that some information is correct, there are always several steps to think of: they can talk to professional traders across the globe and discover evidence in their own research. The practical application and testing of any piece of information are of vital importance.

Client Sentiment

Client sentiment is responsible for the change in a price’s direction because the moment retail traders synchronously move across the chart, the banks will always redirect the price of the currency pairs the majority is trading at that moment. The rule typically involves the most traded currency pairs, i.e. EUR/USD, GBP/USD, USD/CAD, AUD/USD, excluding cross pairs where banks show little interest, which is an excellent opportunity to trade without falling under the big banks’ radar. An excellent example of this exception is AUD/NZD which immediately avoids the difficulty inherent in trading USD that typically draws most of the big banks’ attention. Moreover, as both of these two currencies are risk on and interest rates are high, there is no risk on/risk off discrepancy involved and they also need not worry about the stock market getting in their way.

Negative News Events

By trading the daily chart, you can trade only the last 20 minutes before the close of the daily candle. This way, should any negative news come out, there is a large chunk of the 24-hour period that traders can sit out, awaiting the news to correct itself. Even if such news comes out on the currency pair that you are trading at the moment, the technical aspect of trading can support and balance out any upcoming news events.

Time to Become an Expert 

Some professional forex traders state that they needed approximately four years to reach the expert level of trading. Most of them started off during the times when educational materials were either hard to find or they were quite similar in terms of content, which is why it took them more time to put together a stable system. 

Hours of Backtesting

At the beginning of their forex trading careers, experts state how they would finish their day jobs and spend a few hours each night backtesting and finding indicators they would later use as part of their algorithm, which was fully formed after approximately three or four years.

Special Trading Techniques

One of the most constructive pieces of advice you will rarely discover by looking at popular videos and posts is to eliminate the mental game from your trading. Just by developing a system, you can prevent yourself from having to worry about this aspect of trading.

Favorite Entry Setup

Professional traders always rely on their algorithms to tell them what to do next. However, some of them find cross pairs particularly interesting because they often evade news that could hinder the trade.

Active Trades’ Strategies

With regard to strategies to manage or exit an active trade, professional traders always take the profit off first and, then, they move their stop loss to their break-even point. Such an approach ensures that, regardless of the circumstances, they are still in a winning trade. They typically put in a trailing stop at a specific point and they also use an exit indicator which is an extremely useful tool. Exit indicators are designed to help traders leave a trade at the right time and, especially, before the price hits their trailing stop, helping them preserve quite a few pips on the way.

Great Trading Books

While there are a plethora of books on trading and becoming a successful trader, you will find how expert traders will mostly focus on mindset books, highlighting the need to adopt the right attitudes and perspectives. What they often point out is that it is crucial that novice traders learn about trading psychology if this is the type of career they want to do for the rest of their lives. Books on discipline have also been found very useful because they help you rest and refocus on what is truly important.

Retail Traders’ Main Task

Retail traders have been made to believe that there is only one approach that works, which blurred their vision and made them extremely short-sighted. One thing each retail trader should spend the next month mastering is discovering a myriad of other opportunities that can bring you much more success down the line. Retail traders owe themselves the chance to truly look at other options and then decide whether it is the road they would like to take. If you happen to be feeling tired from what you have been doing so far, you should know that there is a vast number of options, tools, and advice you have yet to discover.

Preferred Broker and Trading Platform

Oanda is one of the preferred platforms which professionals use for trading, whereas Interactive Brokers appear to be criticized because traders are required to confirm their decisions several times before they are acknowledged. In the United States, for example, there are only about four or five brokers that are available for use. Sometimes, traders cannot choose the broker they will be using because the company that hires them will request them to rely on their specific selection. 

General Advice for Every Trader

All traders should always keep in mind that there are always other methods of trading that they can explore. Everyone should aim to learn different tools and strategies well before setting sail and understand that there are options available should they ever feel blocked. 

As traders may at times feel as if it is their fault why their trading never seems to be as profitable as it is the case with other traders they follow on social media, they should be mindful of the fact that sometimes it is the lack of knowledge on better tools that prevents them from advancing. Relying on outdated tools and methods created more than 20 years ago for the purpose of trading in the stock market, for example, will naturally fail to bring you the results you are aspiring to obtain. The mechanics of the spot forex market are unique and should be, therefore, addressed as such. 

The 30 topics we have covered today should serve as a brief introduction to trading currencies as well as a reminder that you should not blame yourself if your approach to trading is not working as you initially planned. Keep exploring other options and expand your knowledge on forex as much as possible. In addition, run tests to assess the tools you would like to use in the future, work on devising your own system, and discover ways to grow a trading mindset and money management skills until you perfect a unique approach to trading in the spot forex market. Lastly, accept the fact that following the majority of traders without any attempt at being unique will inevitably coincide with the big banks’ decision to move the price far from where you would like it to go.

 

Categories
Forex MT4 Platform

The Forex Markets & The Covid Effect!

Markets, the Covid effect


This is a 5-day chart of the Great British pound US Dollar pair, where we can see a rise of price from 1.2790 to a high of 1.3170 before the pair fell back at the end of trading on the 31ST July. Much of the move higher has been due to an overall decrease in the performance of the United States dollar and where extreme volatility crept into the market on Wednesday 29th August, when the federal reserve held are interest rates on hold but where the FOMC comments at the press conference were extremely rubbish regarding the outlook for the American economy as the continuation of the covered virus escalates within the United States.
The volatility continued on Thursday, when unemployment data in the form of continuing jobless claims in the United States showed an increase, and more importantly, the annualised second-quarter gross domestic product figure was released for the US at – 32.9%, the biggest such drop in history. The US dollar was heavily battered as a result, giving an uplift to the pound, Euro, AUD, NZD, and others.


Incredibly, this is a Dow Jones industrial average daily chart, which shows that while the Dow took a dip down to just above 26,000 on the last day of trading for July, it subsequently rallied to 26,482 at the close. Naturally, analysts, market commentators’ and traders alike are bewildered by the fact that the United States posted its biggest loss in gross domestic product in such a short time frame in history, and yet the Dow Jones remained unscathed.

So, what can we expect in the ensuing weeks? With regard to the Dow Jones, it’s pretty much being driven by technical analysis and where the big numbers such as 26,000 seem to be holding as support and where the recent attempt to breach 27,000 failed and can therefore for the assumed to be a resistance level. Larger sized institutions are looking at the long term rather than the short term. They believe that a v-shaped recovery is possible and that when suitable medical solutions are found to minimise the impact of Covid on individuals to perhaps where it can be managed to almost like cold virus, or flu symptoms levels, the American economy can return to normal very quickly. However, pessimism is more and more creeping into the markets as top analysts scratch their heads and talk up the possibility of another crash in US equities. However with regard to the United States dollar, we should expect a toing and froing effect, with more volatility, and where bad news will affect the US dollar performance during certain times of the days and weeks and whereby bad news regarding the UK and Europe, such as what we are seeing at the moment regarding further lockdown measures being implemented by the British government as cases of Covid escalate, and whereby further outbreaks in covid are being seen across Europe can be considered to be bad for both the UK and the Eurozone economies, in which case you might expect a reversal in the euro and the British pound such as we saw on the last day of trading for July when these major currency pairs reversed from sharp rallies.

Sentiment is playing a large role in the majors, with USDJPY bouncing off of multi-month lows, as seen on this monthly chart, as investors buy yen as a safe haven currency.


Similarly, for the USDCHF pair, which has been sold heavily to a low at the end of July, as seen on this monthly chart, to 0.9100, again a multi-month low as investors buy the Swiss franc for its safe-haven status.

 

Categories
Forex MT4 Platform

MetaTrader 4 vs MetaTrader 5: An In-Depth Comparison

If you’re a forex trader, chances are that you’ve already heard about MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5). These are the two most popular trading platforms on the market and are among the most common platforms offered by online brokers, especially with MT4. Do know that there are other trading platforms out there, but today we will focus on these two major options. Here’s what the platforms have in common:

-Both MT4 and MT5 can be accessed for free through your forex broker. Other platforms might ask for a lifetime licensing fee, which could force you to pay around $499 out of pocket.

-Both platforms were created by the Russian development company MetaQuotes Software Corporation, which is a leader in the financial market.

-Each platform offers a user-friendly interface that is easily navigable. Video tutorials for both platforms can be found online.

-Both platforms are compatible with Windows, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android devices.

MetaTrader 4 (MT4)

MT4 was created in 2005 and specifically built for forex traders. Compared to MT5, the older version might seem simpler, but it is probably the best option for anyone that simply wants to trade forex and it is a simpler choice for beginners. Here are some of its (best) features:

  • 9 timeframes
  • Four types of pending orders: buy stop, buy limit, sell limit, sell stop
  • Allows hedging
  • 30 built-in indicators
  • 3 order execution types
  • 31 graphical objects
  • Single-threaded strategy tester
  • Easy to use
  • Very Accessible (supports PC, Mac, Browser, iPhone/iPad, and Android devices)

MetaTrader 5 (MT5)

Five years after MT4 was created, MT5 was released. Contrary to popular belief, MT5 is not a newer upgraded version of MT4, instead, it was created to provide traders access to stocks, CFDs, and futures because MT4 was designed for trading forex. The programming language for MT5 is more complex and allows traders to perform more actions while offering more timeframes, pending order types, built-in tools, and so on. Here are some of MT5’s most notable features:

  • 21 timeframes
  • Six types of pending orders
  • Allows hedging and netting
  • 38 technical indicators
  • Economic calendar
  • 4 order execution types
  • Supports several transaction types
  • 44 graphical objects
  • Multi-threaded strategy tester
  • Fund transfer between accounts
  • Embedded MQL5 community chat
  • Very Accessible (supports PC, Mac, Browser, iPhone/iPad, and Android devices)

In addition to offering 2 more pending orders, order execution types, and other options, MT5 also comes with more built-in convenience options, including the ability to transfer funds between accounts through the platform and the embedded community char feature. These things aren’t necessary, but they do make trading more convenient.

The Bottom Line

Comparing MT4 and MT5 is a little more complex than comparing apples and oranges. Both platforms are user-friendly and designed for simple navigation, however, MT4 is more simplistic, making it a better option for beginners or those that don’t need MT5’s features. MT4 was created for forex trading, while MT5 was created to offer access to stocks, CFDs, and futures. MT5 also offers 12 more timeframes, 2 more pending order types, netting, one extra order execution type, more graphical objects, and a multi-threaded strategy tester. Still, many traders prefer MT4 because they may not need these extra features. In the end, it comes down to personal preference. Some traders are dead set on one platform or the other, while others are happy with either. If you’re unsure, consider testing out a demo account on both MT4 and MT5 to see which platform is best suited for your needs.

Categories
Elliott Wave Guide Forex Elliott Wave

Advanced Level Elliott Wave Analysis Guide

We have ended the section that covers the Advanced Level of the Elliott Wave Analysis based on the work developed by Glenn Neely, “Mastering Elliott Wave.” These concepts are described and includes the following aspects:

  • Complex Corrective Waves. This section, subdivided into two parts, describes the two basic groups of complex corrections.
    • Part 1. Explains the fundamental concept of a complex corrective structure, which splits into standard and non-standard complex correction.
    • Part 2. Describes the concept of wave x and expands its conditions with its combinations.
  • Complexity in Wave Analysis. This article discusses how complexity increases as impulsive or corrective movements end. 
  • Alternation and Extensions. The first part of this section reviews the alternation principle and its different configurations. The second part covers the extensions and their conditions.
  • Counting. This educational article subdivided into three parts expose how to count waves.
    • Part 1. The first summarizes the aspects covered, then it shows the importance of wave identification and ends expanding the concept of the degree in wave analysis.
    • Part 2. The second part covers the use of retracements to define the possible type of sequence in progress. It also describes the different sequences of the patterns defined by R.N. Elliott as the first and the recount.
    • Part 3. In this part, we apply the counting process in the NZDUSD and EURGBP crosses.
  • Additional Rules. In this supplementary article, we cover a set of rules defined by Glenn Neely, as points of tangency in guidelines and the rule of time.
  • Additional Observations. This article develops the observations described by Neely, concerning the potential next movement considering the type of Elliott wave pattern in progress.
  • Advanced Applications in Wave Analysis. In this four-part series, we expand the observations described by Neely about each wave’s characteristics according to the type of Elliott wave formation in the course.
    • Part 1. The first part covers the motive waves subdivided into trending and terminal impulsive waves.
    • Part 2. This part exposes the variations of the flat and zigzag patterns.
    • Part 3. In this part, we present the characteristics of the contracting triangle pattern, particularly in its restrictive subgroup.
    • Part 4. This educational article that ends our cycle dedicated to the Elliott wave analysis covers the characteristics of the non-restrictive contracting triangles and presents the expanding restrictive and non-restrictive triangle pattern.

 

Categories
Elliott Wave Guide Forex Elliott Wave

Intermediate Level Elliott Wave Analysis Guide

We have finished the section that covers the Intermediate Level of the Elliott Wave Analysis based on the work of Glenn Neely. These concepts are described and include the following aspects.

1.- Introduction to Intermediate Wave Analysis. In this section, we present the concept of grouping waves and how to apply them in the real market.
2.- Motive Waves Analysis. This section, divided into three parts covers the following aspects:
– The first part presents the extension concept and its application in the real market.
– The second part extends the concepts of Alternation, Equality, and Superposition, and we identified how the price action follows these rules.
– The third part presents the canalization process.
3.- Corrective Waves Analysis. This part unfolded in five parts, includes the following concepts:
– The first part reviews the rules of construction of corrective formations and the flat pattern, including its variations.
– The second part presents how to analyze the zigzag pattern and its variations.
– The third part exposes the characteristics and rules of the triangle pattern.
– The fourth part discusses the contracting triangle, including its variations, rules, and target zones.
– The fifth part dedicated to expanding triangles presents its variations and rules.
4.- Validation Rules. This two-part section exposes the next principles:
– In the first part, we learn how to validate impulsive waves.
– The second part shows how to validate corrective waves.
5.- Simplification of Wave Analysis. This last section illustrates how the compaction process can help the wave analyst to ease its analysis.

Categories
Forex Course Guides

Forex Course 3.0 – Complete Guide

Hello everyone,

Firstly, we want to thank you guys for following us throughout the course so well. We feel privileged that we are helping you guys in becoming better traders. Especially in Course 3.0, we have discussed some of the most crucial aspects of technical trading, which are essential for every aspiring technical trader to know. We have seen the quiz results for all the course articles that you guys have taken, and that gave us a gist of how well you’ll be following the topics discussed.

However, for the people who want to revisit a few topics, we would like to make their lives easier. So we are putting up a list of topics that we have discussed in this course. Also, this article will act as a quick revision guide for all the basics involved in Technical Analysis.

In this course, we have started by discussing the concept of Candlesticks and its fundamentals. Then we learned how to trade various candlestick patterns along with their importance. Introduction to Fibonacci trading has been done, and we also have paired the Fib levels with various indicators to generate accurate trading signals. We extended that discussion to Moving Averages and its types. Finally, we have learned the principles of indicator-based trading, where at least 10 of the most popular indicators have been discussed.

Below are the corresponding links for each of the topics that we have discussed in this course.

Candlestick Charts

Concept of CandlesticksIntroduction | Anatomy | Fundamentals

Trading Candlestick PatternsSingle Continuous | Single Reversal | Dual Continuous                                                   Dual Reversal | Triple Continuous | Triple Reversal

Deeper InsightCandlestick Patterns Cheat Sheet | Candlestick + S&R

Fibonacci Trading

Introduction | Entry Using Fib Levels | Challenges of using Fib levels | Fib + S&R Candlestick Patterns + Fib Levels | Fib + Trendlines | Fib for TP & Fib for SL | Summary

Moving Averages

Introduction | SMA | EMA | SMA vs. EMA | MAs to identify the trend | MA Crossover Strategy | MA + S&R | Summary 

Indicator-Based Trading

Introduction | Pros & Cons | Bollinger Bands | RSI | MACD | Donchain Channel | RVI | TSI | Stochastic | Ichimoku Cloud | Parabolic SAR | ADX | ATR 

With this, we have ended our Course 3.0, and soon we will be starting our Course 4.0, where we will be discussing some of the advanced topics in Technical Trading. So stay tuned and watch this space for more interesting and informative content. Cheers!

Categories
Elliott Wave Guide

Guide to Preliminary Elliott Wave Analysis

We have completed the section that covers the preliminary concepts of the Elliott Wave Analysis described by Glenn Neely. These concepts are explained and include the following aspects.

  1. Introduction to wave analysis. In this section, we introduce the concept of Wave Theory, the benefit of its study, and its pros and cons.
  2. Basic concepts of wave analysis. This section presents the key concepts to understand the wave analysis process.
  3. How to start a wave analysis. In this four-part section, we unfold the essential steps to understand the nature of price movements.
    1. Waves identification.
    2. The concept of directional and non-directional movement.
    3. How to identify the end of a movement.
    4. Waves observation and identification.
  4. How to use retracements to analyze waves. This section, divided into five parts, exposes the use of Fibonacci retracement to discover what kind of Elliott wave movement is in progress.
    1. First Rule. This section presents what occurs when the second wave (W2) retraces less than 38.2% of the first wave (W1).
    2. Second Rule. This section exposes the scenarios when W2 retraces between 38.2% and 61.8% of W1.
    3. Third Rule. This article unveils what kind of pattern is in progress when W2 retraces 61.8% of W1.
    4. Fourth Rule. This article unveils the potential kind of Elliott wave patterns when W2 retraces between 61.8% and 100% of W1.
    5. Rules Fifth to Seventh. In this article, we present what occurs when W2 exceeds over 100% of W1.
Categories
Chart Patterns Forex Trading Guides

Chart Patterns: Start Here

Chart Patterns: Start Here

Something that I stress repeatedly throughout our series on chart patterns is the difference between traditional markets like the stock market and the forex market. I’m sure a good number of readers have spent time reading books on technical analysis and have recorded and have seen various statistics regarding the performance of the various chart patterns that exist. There’s a big problem that exists in the realm of technical analysis and its use in forex markets, and that is related to nearly 100% of all technical analysis trading material focused on the stock market. Why is this a problem? Several reasons.

  1. Statistical performance values for chart patterns based on the pattern’s performance in the stock market is overwhelmingly long-biased: the stock market has been in a bull market for over a decade.
  2. Forex markets do not ‘trend’ in the traditional sense of financial analysis, they range.

In a nutshell, just because a particular pattern in the stock market may not perform that well in the forex market, it does not mean that its performance isn’t positive in forex. I’ve learned that most underperforming chart patterns in the stock market perform very well in forex markets. As always, make sure you do your own due diligence and research – investigate each pattern for yourself and see how they play out in your own trading.

To begin learning about Chart Patterns, follow this series of education articles.

Chart Patterns: Pullbacks and Throwbacks

Chart Patterns: Symmetrical Triangles

Chart Patterns: Ascending Triangles

Chart Patterns: Descending Triangles

Chart Patterns: Head-And-Shoulder Patterns

Chart Patterns: Broadening Patterns

 

Sources:

Kirkpatrick, C. D., & Dahlquist, J. R. (2016). Technical analysis: the complete resource for financial market technicians. Upper Saddle River: Financial Times/Prentice Hall.

Bulkowski, T. N. (2013). Visual guide to chart patterns. New York, NY: Bloomberg Press.

Bulkowski, T. N. (2008). Encyclopedia of candlestick charts. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley & Sons.

Bulkowski, T. N. (2002). Trading classic chart patterns. New York: Wiley.

 

Categories
Forex Course Guides

Forex Course 2.0 – Complete Guide

Hello there,

We hope you guys are following the course well. We have done with Course 2.0, and we quickly want to sum up the concepts we have discussed in this course. Also, this article will act as a guide for you in finding any particular articles or for a quick overall revision. Basically, this is a quick navigation guide of Forex Course 2.0.

We have started this course by understanding one of the most important parts of the Forex Industry – Brokers. We also learned the different types of brokers, tips to pick the right broker, and whom to stay away from. We have also understood the different types of analysis that are used by retail traders like us to forecast the price of a currency in the Forex Market. Below is the link for each of the lessons we have published.

Brief History and Introduction to The Forex Brokers – Link

Types 0f Brokers in the Foreign Exchange Market – Link 

Two Types of ‘No Dealing Desk’ Brokers – Link

Understanding the Concept of Spreads in Forex – Link

Two Different Types Of Spreads In The Forex Market – Link

Picking A Genuine Forex Broker 101 – Link

How to stay away from the Forex Bucket Shops – Link

Steps Involved In Opening A Forex Trading Account – Link

Analyzing The Forex Market – Fundamental Analysis – Link

Analyzing the Forex Market – Technical Analysis – Link

Analyzing the Forex Market – Sentimental Analysis – Link

Which is the best way to analyze the market? – Link

So with that, we have ended our course 2.0. The upcoming course 3.0 is the most valuable course we will be providing at Forex Academy. The entire course is going to deal with the Technical Analysis right from the fundamentals. This course is designed by the top price action traders in the industry, and we are super excited to start rolling out this course for our readers. Are you excited too? Stay tuned!

We hope you find this comprehensive guide useful. Let us know if you have any questions regarding Course 2.0 in the comments below. Cheers!

Categories
Elliott Wave Guide Forex Elliott Wave

Advanced Elliott Wave Principle Concepts Guide

We have finished the section that covers advanced concepts of the Elliott Wave Principle. These concepts are unfolded, including the following aspects.

  1. Correlations, also known as Intermarket Analysis. In this section, we reveal how to use the relationship between markets.
  2. The use of technical indicators. This section divided two parts reveals two of the most popular oscillators used in the EW analysis.
    1. Awesome Oscillator (AO).
    2. Relative Strength Index (RSI).
  3. Corrective Patterns. Divided into three parts, expands the concepts discussed in the essential section.
    1. Flat Pattern.
    2. Corrective waves and the flag pattern.
    3. Analysis and trading with triangles.
  4. Markets and Speed. Every market vibes with speed. In this section unveiled into two parts shows how to analyze fast markets.
    1. Price and Speed relationship.
    2. How to Disclose the Speed.
  5. How to Create Spreads. In this section, we expose how we can create spreads to find strength and weakness between different markets.
  6. The Alternation Principle. This article shows how the market alternates across time.
  7. Forecasting with the Elliott Wave Principle. In this part, we present a way of how to realize a forecast and to set different scenarios using key concepts of the EW Principle.
  8. Examples. In this four-part section, we apply different concepts discussed in the real market to make forecasts.
    1. The USDJPY and its 3-years triangle.
    2. NZDUSD long term wave analysis.
    3. Dollar Index long term wave analysis.
    4. DAX and an Elliott Wave scenario planning.
Categories
Forex Course Forex Course Guides

Forex Course 1.0 – Complete Guide

Hello Readers!

If you have been following us lately, you must have known that providing quality trading education is the number one motto for us at Forex Academy. With this being our principal mission, we have rolled out an in-house course that covers every single thing about Forex Trading. We want to primarily thank you all for the amazing response we have got on the first part of that course. This will only motivate us to provide more quality content.

This piece of article will help you in finding any particular concepts or for a quick overall revision. Basically this is a quick navigation guide of Forex Course 1.0.

  1. Introduction To The Forex Market – Link
  2. Currency Pairs – Link
  3. Mechanism Of Buying And Selling – Link
  4. Liquidity of The Forex Market – Link
  5. Different Ways Of Trading – Link
  6. How Does Profit & Loss Take Place – Link
  7. Right Currency Pair To Buy & Sell – Link
  8. The Concept Of ‘Pip’ – Link
  9. Lots & Its Different Types – Link
  10. Various Order Types – Link
  11. First Step In Your Trading Journey – Link
  12. General Myths About Forex – Link
  13. Different Trading Sessions – Link
  14. Tokyo Session – Link
  15. London Session – Link
  16. New York Session – Link
  17. Best Time To Trade The Forex Market – Link
  18. Forex market’s hierarchy – Link
  19. Forex Market Movers – Link
  20. Perks Of Trading Forex – Link
  21. Stock Market & The Forex Market – Link
  22. Margin Trading Fundamentals – Link
  23. Balance & Rollover – Link
  24. Unrealized P/L and Realized P/L – Link
  25. Margin Requirement & Required Margin – Link
  26. Used Margin and Equity – Link
  27. Free Margin – Link
  28. Margin Level – Link
  29. Margin Call & Margin Call Level – Link
  30. Stop Out Level In Margin Trading – Link
  31. Refresher – Margin Trading – Link
  32. Leverage & Margin – Link

We hope you find this comprehensive guide useful. Let us know if you have any questions regarding Course 1.0 in the comments below. Cheers!

Categories
Forex Harmonic Forex Trading Guides

Harmonic Pattern Guide – Walkthrough

 Harmonic Pattern – Walkthrough

Bearish Butterfly Pattern against 180-degree Square of 9 angle.
Bearish Butterfly Pattern against 180-degree Square of 9 angle.

The chart above is the AUDJPY Forex pair on its 6-hour chart. If you are unable to identify this pattern without referencing notes or the prior articles, you are not ready to use this form of technical analysis. Regardless, the pattern above is a Bearish Butterfly Pattern.

Harmonic Patterns are by there very nature indicative of imminent price reversals. The PRZ (Potential Reversal Zone) is, in my opinion, the most critical level when determining whether to utilize a Harmonic Pattern in my trading. A Harmonic Pattern itself is not a sufficient enough form of analysis to decide whether or not to take a trade. Harmonic Patterns, in my opinion, should not be used as a primary form of analysis, but rather a complementary or confirmatory form of analysis. The chart above is an excellent example of this.

The horizontal levels on AUDJPY’s chart are derived from W.D. Gann’s Square of 9 – natural number values that represent angles. The methods and theories in Gann Analysis are an entirely different topic and require years of study and research – but for this article, one component of his work will help make my point. The red horizontal line at the top is a 180-degree Square of 9 angle. The 180-degree Square of 9 angle is already a strong and naturally powerful level of resistance. When I see price is near the 180-degree Square of 9 angle, I know one thing is for sure:

There is a high probability that the AUDJPY will have difficulty crossing this level and a high probability of price, at least initially, being rejected from moving higher.

So I would naturally look to be taking a short trade if the market shows rejection at that level. That is where the presence of a Harmonic Pattern is desirable. The Bearish Butterfly Pattern is one of the most reliable and most powerful reversal patterns in all Scott Carney’s work. I know that the Butterfly Pattern typically shows up at the end of a swing – not necessarily a trend, but the end of a swing. If I see a Bearish Butterfly Pattern, I know one thing is for sure:

The Bearish Butterfly Pattern is a reversal pattern. I also understand that the Bearish Butterfly Pattern appears at the top of a swing, indicating an extended and overdone market.

After seeing price approach, the naturally strong reversal level of the 180-degree Square of 9 angle, and then the completion of a Bearish Butterfly Pattern, I believe that there is a sufficient amount of analysis to risk taking a short trade. A short trade is further validated by the completion of a bearish engulfing candlestick, as well as some lengthily bearish divergence on the RSI.

 

Categories
Forex Harmonic Forex Trading Guides

Harmonic Patterns – Start Here

Harmonic Patterns – Start Here

Harmonic Patterns are an advanced form of analysis and require more than a basic understanding of the technical analysis of financial markets. For those of you who have familiarized yourself with the application of Fibonacci levels, Harmonic Pattern Analysis will, perhaps, be of use to you. The following is a list of the Harmonic Patterns available for learning here at Forex Academy. The suggested order of learning about these patterns is below.

Phase One – Basic Harmonic Patterns

AB = CD

The Gartley Pattern

Phase Two – Advanced Patterns

The Butterfly Pattern

The Bat Pattern

The Alternate Bat Pattern

The Crab Pattern

The Deep Crab Pattern

The Shark Pattern

The Cypher Pattern

The 5-0 Harmonic Pattern

Phase Three – Application

Harmonic Pattern Walkthrough

The article above provides an example of how to use Harmonic Patterns in your own analysis and trading.

 

 

Sources: Carney, S. M. (2010). Harmonic trading. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Financial Times/Prentice Hall Gartley, H. M. (2008). Profits in the stock market. Pomeroy, WA: Lambert-Gann Pesavento, L., & Jouflas, L. (2008). Trade what you see: how to profit from pattern recognition. Hoboken: Wiley

Categories
Forex Trading Guides

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo Guide – Start Here

Ichimoku Guide – Start Here

The Ichimoku Kinko Hyo system is a powerful, tested, and vetted trading system. This guide will lead you in the direction of the articles you should follow.

Phase One – Start Here

Ichimoku History

In this article, you will learn a short history of Japanese technical analysis. It is not necessary to read this article to understand the Ichimoku Kinko Hyo system, but I would suggest reading it.

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo System

Learn the Ichimoku Kinko System and its components. Learn how it works.

Phase Two – Beginners Strategies

Ichimoku Strategies

Ideal Ichimoku Strategy

Learn your first Ichimoku Strategy, the Ideal Ichimoku Strategy.

K-Cross Strategy

Learn the Kijun-Cross ‘Day Trading’ strategy.

Phase Three – Advanced Ichimoku Kinko Hyo Theory

The Two Clouds Discovery

Learn about Manesh Patel’s powerful discovery, an extremely useful addition to your Ichimoku trading strategies.

The Three Principles

Wave Principle

Price Principle

Time Principle

Learn about the three principles in Ichimoku Analysis. Ichimoku analysis has a Wave, Price, and Time principles.

 

Categories
Forex Trading Guides Ichimoku

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo Guide – A walk through a trade.

Ichimoku Kinko Hyo Guide – A walk through a trade.

I want to preface this guide with a screenshot of my account.

Trade History
Trade History

The screenshot is a series of some of the trades I’ve made in early April 2019. I do this because this guide on trading with Ichimoku will target the trade that is highlighted. Additionally, I think it is important that if I am showing you an example of a trade for a guide, I should show that I had skin in the game. There are a great many guides and strategies that authors, analysts, and traders suggest, but few will share if they took the trade. The highlighted trade for the EURGBP is the trade I will be using for this guide. It is a great example of the trading methodology I use with the Ichimoku System.

 

Multiple Timeframe Analysis – Daily, 4-Hour, and 1-Hour

The Ichimoku Kinko Hyo system is most effective when utilizing multiple timeframes. It is the only way that I use the Ichimoku system. In my trading, I use the Daily, 4-hour, and 1-hour time frames. Multiple timeframes are extremely useful in filtering your trade entries and ensuring higher probability trade setups. The process below will go through the process I used to take the trade.

Step One – Daily Chart Check: Price greater than Kijun-Sen, NOT inside the Cloud.

Step One - Check Daily Cloud
Step One – Check Daily Cloud

The very first thing I check is the daily chart. If the price is inside the Cloud on the daily chart, I skip the chart. It’s dead to me. If the price is not inside the Cloud, I then look for where the price is in relation to the Kijun-Sen. The daily chart determines my trading direction. If the price is above the Kijun-Sen, I only take long trades. If the price is below the Kijun-Sen, I only take short trades.

Step Two – 4-Hour Chart Check: Price above the Cloud, Chikou Span above candlesticks.

Step Two - Check 4-hour chart.
Step Two – Check the 4-hour chart.

If the daily chart determines the direction of my trading, the 4-hour provides the filter for the entry chart (the 1-hour chart). The only things I am concerned about with the 4-hour chart is that the Chikou Span is above the candlesticks, and that price is above the Cloud. Preferably, the Chikou Span would also be in ‘open space’ – but I don’t use it as a hard rule. I have not found the open space to be as important during the change of a trend or corrective move.

(a note about ‘Open Space’ – Open Space is a condition where the Chikou Span won’t intercept any candlesticks over the next five to ten trading periods. When the Chikou Span is in open space, this represents ease of movement in the direction of the trend with little in the form of resistance (or support) ahead.)

The EURGBP trade we are analyzing is a good example of why, at the current position, I don’t consider the open space as strict as I would on the hourly. I want to refer you back to the daily chart. If, on the daily chart, both price and the Kijun-Sen are below the daily cloud, but price moves above the Kijun-Sen – I don’t consider the open space variable as important on the 4-hour chart.

Step Three – 1-Hour Chart Check

Step Three - 1-hour Entry
Step Three – 1-hour Entry

The 1-Hour chart is my entry chart. As long as Step One and Step Two are true, the 1-hour chart is where the bread and butter of the trading occurs. My entry rules are this:

  1. Future Span A is greater than Future Span B.
  2. Chikou Span above the candlesticks and in ‘open space’ – for five periods.
  3. Tenkan-Sen is greater than Kijun-Sen
  4. Price is greater than the Tenkan-Sen and Kijun-Sen.

I generally look for a profit target of 20-40 pips, depending on the FX pair. For example, on the NZDUSD, I would look for 20 pips, and on the GBPNZD, I would look for 40 pips. But there are some hard technical reasons to leave a trade before that profit target is hit. The list below represents my exit rules on the 1-hour Chart – I exit the trade if any of these conditions occur.

  1. Exit if Chikou Span below candlesticks for more than three consecutive candlesticks.
  2. Exit if price enters the 1-hour Cloud.
  3. Exit if Tenkan-Sen below the Kijun-Sen for more than five candlesticks.

Step Four – Reentry Rules

Step Four - Reentry
Step Four – Reentry

Entry rules are fine, but the problem isn’t always finding the entry. One of the hardest problems is creating rules for re-entering a trade. Mine are as follows:

  1. Tenkan-Sen and Kijun-Sen must be above the Cloud.
  2. Chikou Span above the candlesticks.
  3. Price greater than Kijun-Sen and Tenkan-Sen.

A quick summary of steps taken

  1. Checked the daily chart, the price was above the daily Kijun-Sen. The trade direction is long/buy.
  2. Check the 4-hour chart, the price was above the Cloud, and the Chikou Span was above the candlesticks.
  3. All 1-hour rules confirmed an entry; profit taken at 40 pips.
  4. Re-entered trade on 1-hour chart, exited when price entered the 1-hour Cloud.

 

Sources: Péloille, Karen. (2017). Trading with Ichimoku: a practical guide to low-risk Ichimoku strategies. Petersfield, Hampshire: Harriman House Ltd.

Patel, M. (2010). Trading with Ichimoku clouds: the essential guide to Ichimoku Kinko Hyo technical analysis. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Linton, D. (2010). Cloud charts: trading success with the Ichimoku Technique. London: Updata.

Elliot, N. (2012). Ichimoku charts: an introduction to Ichimoku Kinko Clouds. Petersfield, Hampshire: Harriman House Ltd.

 

Categories
Elliott Wave Guide Forex Elliott Wave

Essential Elliott Wave Theory Guideline

Recently, we ended the series that presents the basic concepts of the Elliott Wave Theory. In this guideline, we disclose the contents developed.

  1. Fundamentals of Elliott Wave Theory. Divided into three parts, we introduce the basic concepts of the wave principle.
    1. Wave principle and the five-waves structure.
    2. Motive waves, corrective waves, and cycles.
    3. Degrees and labeling.
  2. Planning the First Wave Analysis. In this two-parts chapter, we explain the necessary steps to analyze using the Elliott wave principle.
    1. Setting charts and the identification process.
    2. Proportionality and the relationship between price and time.
  3. Impulsive Waves Construction. This section offers the key concepts to understand the nature of impulsive waves.
    1. Nature of impulsive waves and the alternation principle.
    2. The channeling process.
    3. Extensions.
    4. Leading and Ending Diagonal.
  4. Corrective Waves Construction. Elliott, in his Treatise, spent a large part of time describing corrective waves. In this section, we present different corrective formations.
    1. Nature of corrective waves and alternation.
    2. Zig-zag pattern.
    3. Flat pattern.
    4. Triangles.
    5. Complex corrective waves.
  5. Elliott Wave Theory and Fibonacci. In this one-part article unfolds the keys to use Fibonacci retracement and expansion tools.
  6. Trading the Elliott Wave Principle. We end the cycle of the Elliott wave theory with the five-part guidelines.
    1. Wave three structure trading setup.
    2. Wave five and ending diagonal trading setup.
    3. Zig-zag pattern trading setup.
    4. Flat pattern trading setup.
    5. Triangle formation trading setup.