What is Option Strangle

Option Strangle is a strategy where the investor holds a position in both a call and put with different strike prices but the same maturity and underlying asset. Option Strangle is profitable if there are large movements in the price of the underlying asset. If you think that there will be a large price movement in the future but unsure of which way that price movement will be Option Strangle is a good strategy. Option Strangle is similar in purpose to the options Straddle. Both are betting on volatility of the underlying stock to generate income.

Option Strangle requires substantial volatility of the stock either upward or downward. If the stock goes up, the call option increases in value and if it goes down, the put increases in value. Option Strangle like straddle also involves buying both a call and a put option. However, while the straddle uses the same strike price for the call and the put, Option Strangle uses different strikes. The maximum risk for Option Strangle is limited to the premium of the call and put together.

Creating an Option Strangle is not as complicated as it sounds in fact the beauty of Option Strangle is that usually, you only have to hold it for a few days for it to work. You just have to find a stock that has an upcoming event that you feel will move the stock significantly. Then buy an out of the money call on the underlying stock that has 6-8 weeks left until expiration and an out of the money put on the underlying stock that has  also 6-8 weeks left until expiration. Hold the trade until after the announcement never more than a few days after the announcement as the fastest that the options begin to lose their time value is 4-5 weeks before expiration. Lastly, in creating Option Strangle make sure that the options that are purchasing are not extremely overpriced because if they are it will be difficult to make money on the trade.

One of the major advantages of Option Strangle is that investors can profit if the stock moves in either direction. The potential profits on the upside are also unlimited with Option Strangle as the profits on the downside are considerable and with Option Strangle no stock is actually owned, both the call and the put are uncovered positions. However, with Option Strangle, if the stock expires between the two option strike prices, the maximum loss will be incurred by an investor. Another disadvantage with Option Strangle is when the stock rises above the call strike price but is below the upper break even point one will still incur a loss. Likewise, if the stock falls below the put strike price but remains above the lower break even point one will incur a loss as well.

3 Valuable Tips For Forex Day Trading

Choosing the Forex day trading option is a good one for those of you who wish to make a quick profit on the commodities market. Higher risks mean a higher payout – and the Forex day trade is relatively riskier than some safer traditional markets. But with the right tips, you might be able to circumvent the obstacle course around trading and make some money at the same time. Take advantage of the amount of flexibility that you are given with the Forex day trade, especially due to its over the counter nature. There are no true rigid guidelines to the trade; it really depends on the market and the region in which you are trading with.
This is very much unlike the organised trade which many traditional commodities suffer from, both from having a single fixed physical location and the fact that there are international guidelines and rules that all investors have to follow. There is no ‘barter’ or market ‘leverage’ that can be used to increase the dynamism of market trading. Because of the lack of physical spaces and that traders can come into contact with each other through various online and telecommunication facilities, there are plenty of combinations for you to choose from when it comes to trading options like currency pairing. This means you have a 24 hour landscape in front of you with various trading options and trading rules – choose the one which is most comfortable with you and the one that has met your projected calculations and risk assessments.
The Forex day trade, because of its temporal nature, has more risks than more traditional commodities like stocks and bonds, but this is where your experience will come in. Make sure you have learnt everything you can about the Forex day trade and have the necessary tools at hand to give you every calculative edge in the market. Once you have a deadly combination of being well informed about currency movements as well as a matured perspective on market psychology, then you will be rewarded with large profits. This way you can identify the most profitable currency combinations that you need to put your money in. Take the time to do your research and never make the mistake to rush into investment decisions. Many people who go in with no clear strategy and a lot of hope end up crashing out of the market very soon. Watch the conditions of the market and do a lot of news reading.
Remember, the Forex day trade is especially affected by economic and political factors all over the world. Once event in the corner of the world could cause the inflations and the currency strengthening necessary for dollars to fall or rise – which means you need to know all this before it happens. With these tips and more, I hope you will have a better idea on how to squeeze some juice from the Forex day trading market. Find out as much as you can and learn even more – you will not regret it; in Forex, knowledge is power.

Currency Forext Trading Tips – Analyzing the market trends

Analysis and strategic developmentForex trading is often touted upon as one of the most complex forms of investment. According to a large number of people, investing one’s resources, time and energy in the trade markets is not a wise consideration, since all of the ventures which are even remotely related to technology are inaccessible and not within one’s reach. Moreover, foreign exchange trade markets primarily being an online facility adds to the fears of people. But such fears are absolutely futile and have been unnecessarily exaggerated. The techniques do not involve complex technologies. One just needs a bit of expertise and a logical and deducing mind to be successful in this supposedly scandalous domain.This field can be aptly termed as a ‘fast moving’ one because the players/investors need to be in constant touch with the latest available trading mechanisms. For this purpose, even some online tutorial forums have been launched to impart the right and precise knowledge to people interested. The benefits of such forums cannot be overlooked and some of the strategies taught over here can prove to be helpful for people in dire straits.Forex markets versus stock marketsOne of the essential elements of the forex markets is that survival over here is not in any manner affected by the whimsical and fanciful attitude of a bunch of people, better known as the stock brokers or agents. This behaviour is quite unlike the stock markets which are dependent on these agents. Rather, there are many other factors which would determine one’s success or failure in the forex markets. The power of strategizing rests in the investors’ hands, but the impact cannot be seen on the trading. It is the market fundamentals and other factors which actually make a difference.The forex markets are highly vulnerable and can act as a great profit making, or even a loss incurring source. The concept of ‘margin trading’ is the main reason for such enormous benefits/losses. Hence, any investor should start with a properly planned strategy to ensure success.Analytical tools- sourceIn the new technology driven era, there are a plethora of options available which are more than sufficient to quench anyone’s thirst over forex related issues. These sources contain the most trivial to the most critical information and can be referred to time and again. The primary source is the website from where all relevant content can be extracted. With such a huge amount of information available, care must be taken to selectively utilize the one which is required. The reason for this is, that there might be outdated information still floating over the net, say on the currency conversion rates which might prove detrimental for the investor’s finances, and hence success. The articles could be available on topics which discuss about the basics of forex trading, the strategies involved, players associated etc.The other sources of information could be e-books and the literature which is available in hard bound copies. Moreover, there are specialists who can give a lecture on the related topics. All these sources are basically secondary, with the self- acquired knowledge and expertise being at the numero uno position.

A Test To Find The Best Moving Average Sell Strategy

In order to develop or refine our trading systems and algorithms, our traders often conduct experiments, tests, optimizations, and so on. One of our traders tested a variety of moving average-based sell strategies and we are now sharing some of those findings. Richard Donchian popularized the system in which a sale occurs if the 5-day moving average crosses below the 20-day moving average. R.C. Allen popularized the system in which a sale occurs if the 9-day moving average crosses below the 18-day moving average. Some traders feel they give up less of the gains they achieve if they use a shorter long moving average. These people prefer to sell if the 5-day moving average crosses below the 10-day moving average. Traders have used variations on these ideas (some touting the benefits of one variation and others touting the benefits of another). A friend told me about the crossover of the 7-day and 13-day exponential moving averages. Because that system was highly recommended, it was included in the tests for comparison purposes. The strategies covered in this particular series of tests were as follows and all involved simple moving averages except where otherwise noted. Sell if the stock’s 9-day average crosses below its 18-day average,Sell if the stock’s 10-day average crosses below its 18-day average,Sell if the stock’s 10-day average crosses below its 19-day average,Sell if the stock’s 9-day average crosses below its 19-day average,Sell if the stock’s 9-day average crosses below its 20-day average,Sell if the stock’s 10-day average crosses below its 20-day average,Sell if the stock’s 4-day average crosses below its 18-day average,Sell if the stock’s 5-day average crosses below its 18-day average,Sell if the stock’s 4-day average crosses below its 20-day average,Sell if the stock’s 5-day average crosses below its 20-day average,Sell if the stock’s 5-day average crosses below its 9-day average,Sell if the stock’s 4-day average crosses below its 9-day average,Sell if the stock’s 4-day average crosses below its 10-day average, Sell if the stock’s 5-day average crosses below its 10-day average, Sell if the stock’s 7-day average crosses below its 13-day average (exponential),Sell if the stock’s 7-day average crosses below its 14-day average (exponential).We wanted to avoid “curve-fitting.” That is, we wanted to test these strategies over a wide range of stocks representing a variety of industries and market sectors. Also, we wanted to test over a variety of market conditions. Therefore, we tested the strategies on each of about 3000 stocks over a period of about 9 years (or over the period during which the stock has traded if it has traded for less than 9 years), factoring in commissions but not “slippage.” Slippage results when the sell order is for $30 but the price at which the sale is executed is $29.99. In this case, the slippage would be one penny a share. The same “buy” strategy was consistently used for each test. The only variable was the rule for selling. For each strategy, we totaled the returns on all stocks. We performed a total of 47,312 tests. The idea behind this experiment was to find out which of these sell disciplines achieved the best results most of the time for most stocks. Remember that the profitability of a system that is applied to a single stock (even if this is repeated for 3000 stocks as in our test) does not paint the whole picture. Profitability per unit of time invested is a better way to compare systems. In designing this test, our stockdisciplines.com trader required that each system had to wait for a new buy signal in the particular stock being tested. In real life, a trader could jump to another stock immediately after a sale. Therefore the trader would have little or no “dead time” while waiting to make the next purchase. A system that is less profitable when trading a single stock but that exits a position earlier could therefore generate greater profits over a year by enabling a person to reinvest in a different security as soon as the first one is sold. On the other hand, it would be a poorer performer if it had to wait for the next buy signal on the same stock while another slower system was still holding and making money.The various sell systems were arranged in order of their profitability. We set up a table in which the left column was the short moving average and the middle column was the long moving average. The sell signals were generated when the short average crossed below the long average. The right column was the total profitability for all stocks tested. However, the key item of comparison was not the actual magnitude of gain for each sell system. This would vary considerably with different “buy” and “sell” system combinations. We were not testing for the profitability of any complete system, but for the relative merit of the various “sell” systems in isolation from their respective optimum “buy” disciplines. The main points can be briefly stated as follows. Any one of these systems may be the most profitable when trading a particular stock at a particular time. However, this experiment has shown to our satisfaction that selling when the 9-day moving average crossed below the 18-day moving average was generally not as profitable as selling when the 10-day moving average crossed below the 20-day moving average. Donchian’s 5-day moving average cross of the 20-day average was also generally more profitable than the 9-day average cross of the 18-day average. All tests were identical. The only variable was the combination of moving averages selected for the selling system. This study supports the notion that a triple moving average system based on the 5-, 10-, and 20-day moving averages is likely to be more profitable than the similar 4-, 9-, 18-day moving average combination. It has the additional advantage of enabling us to monitor the crossing of the 5-day moving average with the 20-day moving average. The latter is Donchian’s system, and it is a strong system in its own right. It also gives earlier signals than either the 9-18 or the 10-20 combinations, though the 10-20 combination tends to generate higher average returns. Therefore, including the 5-, 10-, and 20-day moving averages on our charts gives us an additional option. We can use the 5-, 10-, and 20-day triple moving average system or we can use Donchian’s 5-, 20-day dual moving average system. If the stock pattern does not look or “feel” right to us, the 5-day moving average cross will give us an earlier exit. Otherwise, we can wait for the 10-20 crossover. Either will likely give a more profitable signal than the 9-, 18-day combination. The decision of which to use can be based on separate considerations related to stock behavior.Copyright 2009, by Stock Disciplines, LLC. a.k.a. StockDisciplines.com

Should You Even Consider Forex Day Trading?

In the world of Forex trading, there are a special few (thousand) that have been playing with the day trade option for a long time. Their basic strategy is to minimise risk of the long view, liquidate resources and options before the market closes on the day and accumulate small increments in pips (percentage in points) over time to garner profits. While they might not make as much money as those who deal in larger amounts and take greater risks in the long view Forex trade, these men and women still do make a fair bit of money.
They are usually full time investors who work an average of 4 – 10 hours a day, and the day usually starts when the market opens at the place of their choice and ends somewhere towards the end of the day. By that time, they would be in a position to liquidate their margins and see how much they made or they lost. Day trading or Forex day trading is something of a niche trading option and if you are a beginner in the market, I would heartily suggest that you do not try your hand at it until you have been investing in the paper trade for at least a couple of years. No doubt; it is a viable way for you to make money but it is 10x harder and 10x more complicated.
Firstly, you cannot beat those who have been doing this for a long time because they know exactly what to do to capture even the smallest price movements and quickly change their position according to a market psychology they know inside out. You, on the other hand, do not have any experience with this and will most likely be left breathless and the speed of the market, where price movements and exchange rates can move at the speed of a few hours to even a few minutes! Furthermore, you need to be able to sit down in front of your computer, with charts in hand, strategies in place and all the technical and fundamental analysis you have done for the week.
That is a minimum of 4 hours a day, and most investors recommend that you put in at least 6 hours to make your day at the market viable (unless there is a massive movement which causes you to garner plenty of pips early in the morning). If you are considering the Forex market as a part time option, then I would suggest that this would not be the most viable option. You cannot waver; this is not a touch and go option, neither can you leave it to your broker, whose already diluted approach will make your profit potential decrease dramatically and anything you make will have to be dissected and distributed to them anyway. So what do you do? Don’t consider Forex day trading. You need mastery over market psychology and behaviour as well as know what to look out for in the market. Give it a few months or even 2 years of knowing the market as intimately as possible.

Trading Butterfly Option

In stock trading, traders avoid spreads of any kind because limiting losses can also limit gains. It is a must to trade in a realistic way. If you trade a three-fold gain, which is the strategy that requires only little up-front capital, you strictly limit losses by neutralizing declining time value while opening the possibility of five to ten fold gains. This is done by holding the position to expiration, wherein it is part of any options players. The Butterfly option involves all these qualities. The butterfly option spread is the result from combined debit spread and credit spread, stuck over three strike prices. The butterfly option is basically the option position that is comprised of two vertical spreads with common price.

The butterfly option involves an opening position wherein options (Calls and Puts) are bought or sold at three different strike prices. This option is has both limited losses and limited profits. There are two basic types of butterfly option. One is the long butterfly that can be created by either employing call options or all put options. Because of put-call parity, the long butterfly that is generated from call options will behave like a long butterfly that is created using put options. In short, it doesn’t really matter whether you employ calls or puts to build the long butterfly option.

The long butterfly option can also be generated by buying an in-the-memory (ITM) call option or selling two at-the-memory (ATM) call options and or buying another out-of-the-money (OTM) call option. This is actually a combination of two opposing vertical spread options thus the name butterfly spread. Combining the profit profiles from the butterfly option, the stock prices will fall which in turn can cause limited losses. Also, if the stock prices jumps too high, limited losses can also be faced. However, in case the stock prices stay intact at the ATM option strike price, a limited profit will suffice in the butterfly option.

With that being said, the butterfly option is a good option strategy for low volatility. This is for the fact that betting on stock price that is not moving much so as to collect maximum profits. This butterfly option is also a low risk strategy because losses are limited when the stock crashes or creeps unexpectedly. The bad thing about this is that this can yield limited profits. In the long butterfly option, the trader can also use all put options rather than all call options.

Short butterfly option on the other hand is the exact opposite of the long butterfly. In this option, if the stock price falls, the trader receives maximum limited profits. Also, when the stock price is high, the trader receives limited profit. But here, the stock price doesn’t change much so the trader is faced with a loss, though this loss is limited as well. Short butterfly option is basically a strategy that is high in volatility but neutral in direction. A warning in both short and long butterfly option is that, they involve buying and selling options at three strike prices. This means that the investor needs to pay three commissions to open the position and another three commissions to close it. These extra commissions need to be considered when determining whether the butterfly will be profitable for any circumstance.

FX Trading – Is it All a Scam?

Why wouldn’t you ask this question? With so much literature all over the internet and on the offline world urging you to put your money in the currency trade, you are caught asking yourself if this a scam to just let you part with your money and just contribute to the coffers of brokers and their accompanying firms. You are right to have such a suspicion, which means you are thinking about your actions. Thinking is prudent and prudency is the tool of the smart investor in any situation. FX trading; is it all a scam is a question answered best in the terms of investment and the market characteristics of currency exchange.
Yes, you can make money on the FX market and it is all down to the fact that you are dealing with a commodity that is sustainable and will allow you to make a profit on both ends of the market. Whether the market is in a downturn or it is looking up – money can still be made both ways; it is just a question of prudency and putting your cash in the right place and the right time. The one aspect about FX trading that deludes itself from the whole scam line of thinking is the liquidity of the market and how easily you can pull out and turn your investments into cold hard cash whenever you want. This ease of translating your investment portfolio into money makes FX an attractive location for you to invest in. That is a fact that no one can change about the market and brokers are right in touting this aspect of the currency trade market.
24 hour access to the FX trade market is also another feature that is not a pack of lies. The market starts at one point of the world and ends at another – going full circle like a rotation which means that is really 24 hours accessible. This means you can track numbers and figures from whenever and wherever you are in the world. This also means that the market and all its fluctuations are easily viable even at unearthly hours of the night. This is the charm of the market – its ability to give you total control of your investment options and allows you to tweak and ensure that your decisions and strategies stay on the right path. With an online interface access, you can do this with a laptop in hand and the phone to your broker on the other.
The only gamble that I think you will be taking is when you choose your brokerage firm and the person you will be entrusting your money with. Take a good hard look at their programs and ensure that there are no loop holes. 100% transparency and accountability is the name of the game here and you should have no ‘red tape’ when you do want to liquidate your investments and move elsewhere. Research is important here if you want to avoid a scam.

Forex Market Trading Tips

Aiming for exponential return of investments, forex market is becoming the popular venture nowadays. It is where the foreign exchange or forex trading is held. Traders earn through the buying and selling process of the different international currencies.
There are many essential forex market trading tips to consider. Understanding this information will also help you eliminate the typical pitfalls as you start your venture in this type of business segment.
Forex is trade in pairs. Each currency which is paired off to the other shares a proportional relationship. It is therefore valuable to the impact of one currency to the other or vice versa. You should have the right hunch for the condition of both currencies.
The one of the external factors that has a great impact in the price trend of forex is the current global and event news. Like for example, CNN has reported the potential interest rate in US. This will result to outbreak and panic to the traders. The traders’ instant reaction is to close their positions and wait until the situation is better. Hence, the traders lose sight of the trading opportunities. It is therefore important to know the fundamentals of forex trading.
Another essential forex market trading tips is to have a clear understanding of the boundary between you and your broker. If you are new in this type of business and you entrusted your trading decisions and transactions to a broker, it is worth to have less interventions with your broker. Remember that it requires strategy to increase your investments and you have to respect your broker’s technique unless you are equipped enough to do the trading by yourself. Also, it is discouraged to ask opinions from multiple sources. Numerous advices will only confuse you which will likely lead to potential loss of money.
The tiny margin factor is oftentimes taken for granted. Although it is considered as one of the best advantages of forex trading as it allows you to trade certain amounts that are in fact high than your actual deposits. This is best recommended only for season traders but still the best rule win through – gradually increase your leverage according to your experience and success.
One of the forex market trading tips is not to trade during off hours which is from 2200 CET to 1000 CET. What usually happens during off peak hours, the professional forex traders, option traders and hedge funds tends to move around while there is minimal risk. Unless you are certain, then don’t do it.
The forex market trading tips will not be perfect without the impact of current global news and events. When the news is released, you can expect a high volume of trade and substantial moves in their positions. This development will lead to price changes in the currency flow.
Learning and understanding the various forex market trading tips will help you maximize your investment in forex market. Though these tips cannot guarantee your success, it will lessen you chances of losing some money.

Can Forex Trading Ever Be Stress-Free?

As rewarding and as profitable as forex trading may be, there’s no denying that trading forex for a living can be extremely stressful. It can really get your heart racing at times, particularly if it’s your own money at stake, but nevertheless there are ways in which you can reduce your stress levels, as I’m about to discuss.
One way of doing so is to devise a form of trading which is automated to an extent and eliminates the need for you to make trading decisions yourself. A classic example would be a breakout system where your main job is to identify tight trading ranges. Then you just need to wait until the price moves outside of this range and trade in this direction, hoping it’s the start of a solid breakout and the price will subsequently move away from this range.
Breakout systems are very popular amongst forex traders and are definitely one way which you can trade without too much stress.
Another way of reducing your stress levels when trading forex markets is to stop scalping and placing very short-term trades as this form of trading is arguably the most stressful. Yes you can make big profits within just a few minutes but you can just as easily lose a lot of money as well, particularly when you get spikes in price which immediately takes out your stop loss. So scalping is definitely not for the faint-hearted.
Instead you should focus on longer term trading where you can take your time making trading decisions and have plenty of time to watch the markets and move your stop losses and limit prices as required.
Long term trading also enables you to test the idea of trading for a living whilst still keeping your present job. There’s nothing more stressful than trading knowing that your entire income depends on you making consistent profits, so by taking a longer term view you can trade knowing you have your main job, and therefore another regular income coming in, which reduces stress levels dramatically.
The final method you can use to eliminate stress (which is obviously not for everyone due to the high cost involved) is to devise your own trading robot which places trades for you, depending on certain criteria being met. This is very complex and definitely beyond most people but is one other option you could consider.
Anyway the main point to remember is that although forex trading can be a highly stressful profession, there are ways in which you can make regular profits without consistently being on the edge all the time, and at risk of having a heart attack.

Beginners Trading Guidelines

How difficult is it to make money trading the Forex market? How much time does it take to actually be able to make a living trading the Forex market? These and other important aspects of trading are to be discussed in this article.
Always Place Stop-Loss Orders
The most common and important risk management tool in forex trading is the Stop-Loss order.
A Stop-Loss order ensures a particular position is automatically liquidated at a predetermined price in order to limit potential losses should the market move against your position.
We recommend you always place a Stop-Loss order immediately after a new position is opened, as it can be very tempting to overrun losses on losing trades if a Stop-Loss order hasn’t been placed.
So often have I seen situations where a novice trader is 500 points out of the money when he only intended to make or lose 50! By not placing a Stop-Loss order the trader has lost much more than planned, and the Risk/Reward Ratio is exceedingly poor.
In order to avoid this scenario you must follow a simple rule – Always place Stop-Loss orders, liquidity of the Forex market ensures Stop-Loss orders can be easily executed.
Usually Place Take-Profit Orders
Aswell as placing Stop-Loss orders, we recommend in most cases to enter Take-Profit orders at the same time using the OCO order function that most trading systems now have. The reason for this is similar to that for placing Stop-Loss orders.
Whereas with losing positions it can be very tempting to overrun losses, with winning positions it can be just as tempting to lock in a profit too early. By placing limits you will eliminate the risk of not being patient enough and taking profit too early.
However, you may feel confident in your ability not to profit take too early, prefering to monitor the market and taking profit at an opportune moment. In this case placing only a Stop-Loss order is an option.
Positive Risk/Reward Ratio
You should always trade using a positive Risk/Reward Ratio. By a positive Risk/Reward ratio we mean “The amount you’re willing to make on a trade should be more than or equal to the amount you’re willing to lose”.
All successful traders trade using a positive Risk/Reward ratio. There is no sense in having five 30 pip winning trades, and then one 200 pip losing trade because at the end of the day you are 50 pips down!
Unfortunately, many novice and unsuccessful traders use a negative Risk/Reward ratio. When trading this way losing positions are always going to be greater than profitable ones, and it can be difficult to recoup the losses in the short term.
It is not uncommon for unsuccessful traders to increase trade size in order to recoup losses quickly, therefore greatly increasing trading risk relative to trading equity.
This is a recipe for disaster, you must trade with consistancy and control. The easiest way to manage your Risk/Reward is to use the Stop-Loss and Take-Profit orders mentioned above.
Overtrading
Some online forex brokers now offer 3 to 5 pip spreads in the liquid currencies such as EUR/USD and USD/JPY. These are very competitive prices which a few years ago were unthinkable. As recently as the mid 1990’s brokers were quoting 10 pip spreads in the major currencies plus a commission!
Thankfully due to the internet, the current boom in Forex trading and the competition between Forex brokers, those days are well and truly over.
The excellent value available from trading on tight spreads works very much to the traders advantage. However, you should avoid overtrading and entering trades for just a 5-10 pip profit or loss. Even trading this way on 3 pip spreads can adversely affect your profitability.
Below are examples of both a winning trade and losing trade when trading for a 10 pip profit or loss:
Winning Trade:
Buy EUR/USD at 1.2020 (price = 17/20)
Sell EUR/USD at 1.2030 (price = 30/33)
Market moves 13 pips before taking profit
Losing Trade:
Buy EUR/USD at 1.2020 (price = 17/20)
Sell EUR/USD at 1.2010 (price = 10/13)
Market moves 7 pips before taking loss
The above example highlights that the risk/reward of trading for a 10 pip profit or loss is poor.
For the same 10 pips P&L, the market must move 13 pips for your winning position, but only 7 pips for your losing position.
As a general rule of thumb, we recommend that your Take-Profit or Stop-Loss levels are at least 10 times the spread you have traded on. This strategy will help avoid overtrading and improve risk/reward.
Chasing the Market
If you are a day trader or short term trader, in general we recommend not to “chase the market”.
By this we mean you shouldn’t for example buy Euro after it has already risen 100 pips and is trading at the days highs. Or sell USD/JPY after it has come off 150 pips and is trading near the days lows. The rationale behind this is that in many cases the market will consolidate and there will be better opportunities to enter into a new position.
A common scenario when chasing the market is panic buying or selling when a novice trader reverses a position in the hope that they can quickly make back losses. Unfortunately what often happens is that they simply instead end up repeatedly buying the high, and selling the low. This situation must obviously be avoided.
Managing your Margin
We recommend you only risk a maximum of 10% of your total trading equity on a single trade.
10% may sound like too little risk considering many online forex brokers offer 1% margin or 100 times leverage. However, trading on high leverage can be very risky as you could lose everything in a single trade.
By risking only 10% of your equity on a single trade, you will still be able to make good profits from successful trades whilst avoiding the risk of being wiped out during a bad streak.
Even the most profitable traders can have losing streaks in which they could for example have 3 or 4 consecutive losing positions.
Finally
Successful forex trading is a long term investment which can produce excellent returns if traded with control, discipline, patience and consistency. Your target should be to make substancial profits over the course of anything over 3 months.
Wanting to double your money in a week is not the right mindset with which to start trading. The risks involved are way too high and belong in the casino!
In forex trading the old cliche definately rings true — knowledge equals power!