Some investors love the stock market. They live and breathe equities: the excitement, the passion, the devastation of loss, the victory. Some like the options and futures markets, feeling it takes more skill than equities. And, there are some that prefer the global aspects of the FOREX.

But no matter what you prefer, you come across again and again the problem of whether you should trade with the trend, or trade for range. The impact of which method is chosen affects your chance of success, and, the reason we’re all here, your wallet (or purse as the case may be).

But those dealing in the FOREX have a unique advantage in that the market responds well to both styles of trading. So, what exactly is trading trend and range? Let’s take a look.

Following the crowd

Put simply, a trend is the direction a market, or the price of a single asset, takes. Trends vary from short, to long, to longer and to even longer or shorter.

There are trend identifiers that can tell you which way the wind is blowing. The simplest, and probably the best, method is to look at the higher lows in an uptrend and the lower highs when the market or asset is in a downtrend. There are other methods of course. For example, some investors like to define a trend as “a deviation from a range as indicated by the Bollinger Band.” What’s a Bollinger Band, you ask? It’s a band plotted two standard deviations away from a simple moving average.

But in the end, it doesn’t matter how you define it or look at it because the goal is the same: to make money by buying in on a trend early and holding on until the trend gives out and starts slowing. Most traders use tight stop trade orders (an order to buy or sell a security when its price surpasses a certain point), to limit their risk.

This method of trend trading can have huge payoffs. Leverage in the FOREX, because of its size and 24 hour trading, is typically 100:1, meaning that you only need to put down $1 of margin to get $100 worth of currency control. Given that the stock market is 2:1 and the futures market which is usually 25:1, you can see why you can make a huge amount of money with trend trading in the FOREX.

The Long Term

But trend trading isn’t for everybody. It takes discipline, with many traders meeting 20 or even 30 stop calls before they can catch a trend. If you get emotional about it and try to fight the market, you could lose your shirt.

That’s where range trading comes in. The range trader doesn’t care about direction. He trades knowing that no matter where the currency goes, it will come back to where it started. Range trading is based on the theory that prices will trade at the same levels many times, and the range trader will be there to gather up those profits from the oscillations in price.

But range trading isn’t free and clear either. A range trader will have to have a lot of money they are willing to risk to put the practice into play successfully. But, with more money (in the case of the FOREX, more leverage), there’s more chance of the trader’s enemy (i.e. emotion) coming into play. Positions can go against you many times in a row before you get a profit, and many traders just don’t have the stomach to watch their hard earned cash dwindling while they hang on to the idea of profits in the future. Also, if you’re not careful, with more than a few losses in a row you could trigger a margin call before you’ve had a chance for the currency to produce profits for you.

But, don’t despair. Many FOREX dealers have come up with a solution: they allow you to trade in mini-lots. By trading in mini-lots you can withstand many more drawdowns before triggering a stop order. This allows you to withstand more losses in a row before a margin call is issued.

One or the Other

Regardless of which method the trader chooses, the FOREX market is ready and able for both. As long as the trader remains disciplined and realizes that there will be some losses no matter what they do, they will improve their chances of fattening their bank accounts.

Kevin Davis has been investing online for 10 years and just recently started looking into expanding his investments into the FOREX market. To learn more about Kevin, visit his blog at http://www.KevinHDavis.com

titleBollinger Bands Strategies/titlepThe Bollinger Band theory is designed to depict the volatility of a stock. It is quite simple, being composed of a simple moving average, and its upper and lower bands that are 2 standard deviations away. Standard deviations are a statistical tool used to contain the majority of movement or deviation around an average value. Bear in mind that when you use the Bollinger Band theory, it only works as a gauge or guide, and should be use with other indicators./ppNormally, we use the 20-Day simple moving average and its standard deviations to create Bollinger Bands. Strategies some investors use include shorter- or longer-term Bollinger Bands depending on their needs. Shorter-term Bollinger Bands strategies (less than 20-Days) are more sensitive to price fluctuations, while longer-term Bollinger Bands (more than 20-Days) are more conservative./ppSo how do we use the Bollinger Band theory?/ppThe Bollinger Band theory will not indicate exactly which point to buy or sell an option or stock. It is meant to be used as a guide (or band) with which to gauge a stocks volatility./ppWhen a stocks price is very volatile, the Bollinger Bands will be far apart. In technical indicator charts, this is depicted like a widening gap. On the other hand, when there is little price fluctuation, hence low volatility, the Bollinger Bands will be in a tight range. This is depicted as narrow lanes along the chart./ppAs for how we use the Bollinger Band theory, here are a couple of guidelines./ppHistory shows that a stock usually doesnt stay in a narrow trading range for long, as can be gauged using the Bollinger Bands. Strategies include relating the width with the length of the bands. The narrower the bands, the shorter the time it will last. Therefore, when a stock starts to trade within narrow Bollinger Bands, we know that there will be a substantial price fluctuation in the near future. However, we do not know which direction the stock will move, hence the need to use Bollinger Bands strategies together with other technical indicators./ppWhen the stock starts to become very volatile, it is depicted in the chart by the actual stock price hugging or staying very close to either the upper or lower Bollinger Bands, with the Bands widening substantially. The wider the Bands are, the more volatile the price is, and the more likely the price will fall back towards the moving average./ppWhen the actual stock price moves away from the Bands back towards the moving average, it can be taken as a signal that the price trend has slowed, and will move back towards the moving average. However, it is common for the price to bounce off the Bands a second time before a confirmed move towards the moving average./ppAs usual, and for the Bollinger Band theory in particular, it should be noted that individual indicators should not be used on their own, but rather with one or two additional indicators of different types, in order to confirm any signals and prevent false alarms./ppSteven is the webmaster of a target=_new href=http://www.option-trading-guide.comhttp://www.option-trading-guide.com/a If you would like to learn more about Option Trading or Technical Analysis, do visit for various strategies and resources to help your stock market investments./pbrbr

Recession word itself enough to create a panic in the stomach of the whole world. If someone gets up and checks the empirical meaning of recession in the good lexicon, he or she will feel something disgusting about it; fear factor will dance in front of him or her. It looks like coming to hell just after knocking the door of the zenith.

At this juncture world is confronting the same fearful word “Recession” in empirical way. The world had good news that U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has grown 3.3% annually in second quarter of year 2008 but it was just like an oasis and faded away when US government has given whopping jobless claims 444,000 on last Thursday. Rising inflation, housing slowdown, 16 year low housing prices, diminishing industrial growth, Federal Reserve policy on interest rate all are rubbing salt on the wounds. Now US government is pondering over the Fannie and Freddie financials and set to take over the housing mortgage giants.

It is not only United States of America but whole world starting from African countries to European countries, which covers Asia too. Markets from New Zealand to India suffered a sell-off Friday, September 5, 2008, with as many as five benchmark indices set 52-week lows, as investors dumped stocks on concerns about weakening growth prospects and uncertainty over the global economy.

Socio-political issues has created unusual troubles in South Africa, which is known as the most prosperous country in the African continent and precious metal mining hub across the globe, had reeled on august 6, 2008, when rand has fallen 1.90% against the USD due to trade union nationwide strike to protest against the food and electricity prices. State military of Nigeria said, “Blast was not an accident but deliberate sabotage by a group protesting the alleged nonpayment of fees by the energy company to the local population.” Nigeria social turmoil is on acme and any time untoward happening may occur that can fuel, for the time being subsidized, crude oil prices. Zimbabwe political instability continues to romp over the constructive activities in the region. The inflation in Zimbabwe jumped to over 11,250,000% in June. Rebels in Kenya are also contributing enough in poorly shaped African economic condition.

Now look at Asian economies, first comes China where everyone was thinking that after the Olympics china will resume the economic work on growth agenda and the demand for the commodities like copper, aluminum and steel will rise but it was a distant dream all base metals are setting new lows on commodity exchanges. China also eyeing on currency markets and all set to devalue the Yuan against its rival currencies in order to enhance the export growth which has become less lucrative for the exporters. World Bank has trimmed China’s growth rate to 9.60% from earlier 10.80% for the current fiscal. China needs to generate more than a million jobs every year and it is very difficult without double digit growth rate on the cards.

Japan, The land of rising sun, is also undergoing through tremendous inflationary pressure which was previously known for deflation. Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda resigned after less than a year in office. His government failed to rein in inflation. The rise in inflation has been a trauma for a country that has spent the last decade grappling with deflation. Core consumer prices were up 2.4% in July 2008 from a year earlier, a panic bounce since 1997, and many Japanese have clamped down on spending. Japanese finance ministry has already given cowardice statement over the current year GDP growth rate. Experts say Japan has already slipped into recession and no one is predicting growth above 1% this year.

HengSeng, the Hong Kong stock index, has broken the 20,000 level. South Korea is under the scan of developed world where nuclear energy matters continues to harass the top officials of the nation. Korean Stock index is also not showing any glimpse of breaking upper records.

India’s economy grew at its lowest rate in the first quarter of financial year 2008-09 since last three years. The Reserve Bank of India is all set to rein into record high inflation by applying tight credit policy which remained above 12% level for the past few weeks. Annual growth slowed to 7.90 % in the first quarter of 2008-09 which ended on June 30, significantly lower than the 8.80 % rate reported for the January – March quarter.

Europe also nowhere different at present whole Europe is combating with rising inflation and fresh downward revisions in the growth rate. European inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in almost 16 years to a record high 4% earlier before arriving at 3.8%. Consumer business confidence index is also recorded significant decline and Economic confidence fell in August to 88.80. Brussels has revised the Euro zone growth rate downwards to1.80% from earlier November estimate 2.20%. Economic experts offering a faded hope and a few of them declared that next revision would be 1.30%.

Now the world is witnessing a global slowdown which can be said recession but optimistic experts say it is temporary and can be worked out with revamped financial policies. But at this juncture when the status quo is not allowing the central banks to act any way, one side inflation is rising which is not encouraging the central banks for rate cut and other side slowing economic growth is not supporting the rate hike. Hence forth in the last week Bank of England and European Central Bank kept their interest rates undisturbed, 5% and 4.25% respectively. United States Federal Reserve also kept its rate unchanged in last meeting.

Then utmost what can happen?

I think US credit market turmoil and high inflation is nowhere supportive in economic way for the world. Russia- Georgia tension, US-Iran-Israel issue and destructive happenings like terrorist attacks, natural calamities and political turmoil all over world is not foreboding good for the world.

The stock markets, commodity markets and financial instruments are heading towards south and not left even an iota of positive happening. Dow Jones, Nasdaq, FTSE, BSE, CAC, KOSPI, HengSeng, Nikkei, Shanghai all these stock exchanges shed their most of last year gains. Simultaneously commodity markets also near to nadir gold, the safe heaven commodity, has fallen more than $200 US after reaching $988US earlier this year. Silver is already near to set a new of the year. Likewise copper, platinum and aluminum are also fallen to lower extreme. Euro, USD, GBP, and Japanese Yen are behaving in the strange way and creating turmoil in the fundamentals of other financial instruments and markets. At present market elements are fighting for the worst rank. If the currency exchange rates changes more than 10% within a week,

The Raison d’être behind whole scenario of financial instability is that, fundamentals have not been respected during last year across the world. Investors have lost confidence over the period of wrong happenings that led to unsystematic investment in the financial markets. As far US, the world largest economy is concern until presidential election (new President) glimpse of hope is far away since it requires a major policy change. If same situation prevails shortly world may face biggest foul turnaround.

The whole world need to get together and must make necessary changes in the economical and political policies in order to overcome from this current imbroglio. The fundamentals of the market i.e. Demand and Supply has to be restored. People must realize the real money. G-7 meeting proposals have to be implemented in order to soothe the boiling intricacy of the world.

What can an investor do?

A good investor must workout different strategy for the investment. Meantime investors can stay away from the paper stocks and they can invest in the real asset value market viz. real estate, and commodities which runs on fundamentals rather than speculations. This is the best time to invest in housing because the prices are at possible lowest end. Markets with real assets value will perform better than paper assets in coming year.

Contact author at http://www.safetradeadvisors.com or safetradeadvisors@gmail.com

Pick Up Forex Trading Now!

The name Forex, come from Foreign Exchange Market, which also referred as “Forex” or “FX” in short. Basically it involves a pair of currency. Meaning you buy a currency in exchange to another country currency.

For example if you visit Hong Kong from US. What would you do? Go to the money changer, use your US dollar to exchange for Hong Kong dollar right? By doing so you are actually selling your US dollar and buying Hong Kong dollar so that you can spend in Hong Kong. So if you return to US, you too will exchange your Hong Kong dollar to US dollar. Now you are buying back US dollar and selling your Hong Kong dollar. By now I hope you get the idea of basic currency trading.

So why trade Forex, you may ask? Well Forex is a 24 hours market and it is one of the largest markets in the world in term of daily volume. It trade volume range from 1 to 3 trillion USD every day. This is 6 to 8 times higher than the volume of the stock market in the world. It provides a lot of liquidity in the market. The large volume of participants also reduces opportunities for insider trading. To put thing to simple, there has NEVER been a case of complete currency collapse in a developed country.

For Forex trading is there is no restriction of short selling. Meaning you can buy (Long) or sell (Short). This mean you can easily trade in a rising or falling market.

Another great advantage of Forex Trading is leverage. Typically leverage increases your buying power. With this you are able to increase your total return on investment with less cash outlay. Of course increasing leverage increase risk too. However if you know how to manage your risk, this should not be a problem. Example if you have only $1000 dollar cash in a forex margin account, and a 200: 1 leverage, you can trade up to $200,000 in notional value.

Here is only some of the basic information on Forex Trading. To pick up forex trading, you may search more information in the internet or buy some books on Forex to read. Understand the basic foundation of Forex is a must!

Yeo Kian Poh

Pick up forex trading at http://pickupforextrading.com Eric Yeo is the creator of Pick Up Forex Trading

The forex or Foreign exchange market is the largest and most liquid financial market in the world. Its existence is due to the need for trade of one currency for another. The forex has a twenty-four trading day (except on weekends) and a large variety of traders to meet the supply and demand of the market. Many large banks, multinational companies, governments and other financial markets utilize the forex, due to its use of leverage and low margins. Although, fiscal and exchange rates can affect the foreign exchange, as other markets, the forex remains strong.

Currencies traded against one another and each pair of currencies constitutes an individual product. Every currency on the foreign exchange utilizes an ISO 4217 international three -letter code with which the price of the unit expressed. The pairs of currencies separated into two groupings: base and counter to determine the worth of currencies. The first currency in the pair called the base and considered the stronger currency. The second currency named the counter currency is the weakest of the pair. In the forex market, what affects one of the currencies affects the other in the pair. Also known as currency correlation, this is what keeps trading strong and the value of the currencies to change.

The foreign exchange market has longer hours for trade and only slows down for weekends. This allows active traders on the forex to choose the times they want to trade. Commodity trading is done at all times of the day and they extend hours for US trades. Transaction costs for trading on the Forex market is the different between the buy and sell price of each currency pair and there are no brokerage fees. There are transaction costs incurred with both the stock and commodity market.

With the large variety of traders, utilizing the forex completion is fierce and the traders have many obstacles to overcome to become successful in the foreign exchange. The traders need to be fluent on the market standards and up and downs. Know the art of buying and selling commodities on the exchange will make or break a forex broker. Anyone can open a Forex trading account for $300.00 and start trading, but be sure this is a well thought out decision. After all, the financial trading markets can be very tricky.

Many large financial institutions, multi-national companies and other exchanges utilize the many advantages of the Foreign exchange market. The use of leverage is dependent on your account size and some have been shut out of trading due to leverage. The commodities trades in the foreign exchange are the most affected by leverage and can be very risky.

The forex is a vital part of international trade and an integral part of US relations with other countries. The world would be in a state of confusion without the Foreign exchange.

For most players in the FOREX market, the use currency trading software is no longer a new concept.

In the past currency or foreign exchange (FOREX) traders relied on other people to help them out. Help was provided by those who provided signals. These signals are like warning signs for traders to decide whether it was time to sell or to buy. This was a great way to lessen the risk of a big loss and increase the likelihood of making a profit. Traders did not mind at all if they had to pay for the service because it was worth it.

There are some reasons why some traders are hesitant to pay for providers of signals. Some currency traders simply do not wish to become dependent on signals. If they always had to rely on signals, they would not gain the skills to analyze trends and make decisions on their own.

Some traders also realise that it is not easy to look for signal companies that are quite good and reliable. With the vast number of companies offering their services, it can be a chore to sift the ones with a good track record from the ones that are no better than guessers. If you do not get a good signal provider, you could end up spending more than you bargained for. A worse situation would be spending a total of more than your actual profits can support.

One good option that you can take aside from paying a signal provider would be to get software for currency trading. This can give you the opportunity to get the signals you need while you try to learn the ropes of currency trading. With good software, you get accuracy and reliability.

There are many software products out there for FOREX trading. You can save yourself a lot of trouble, effort and money by trying out two software products that are highly regarded and positively reviewed by real traders. FOREX Killer and Prophet1 Expert Advisor are two of the best software products around that can generate signals. They can work well for you regardless of what type of trader you are.

FOREX Killer provides signals for both short term and long term trading at great convenience. It can perform computations on the Windows operating system after acquiring broker data in csv format. Once it has the necessary information, it can analyze present prices based on the currency pair, time restrictions and loss and profit level specifications that you enter. With all the correct data in place, you can receive signals that can help you decide to buy or sell based on your trading style and preferences. You can use FOREX Killer for currencies, gold and stocks.

An alternative to FOREX Killer is Prophet1 Expert Advisor. Most successful trader users have applied this software for day trading but it has also been known to perform well under other time conditions. Use this software if you are comfortable with using MACD’s and moving averages as signal indicators. This software has the reputation of functioning so well even at default that it has a success rate of 90%.

Despite the advantages currency trading software can provide, you should not rely too heavily on them. If you truly want to be successful in the FOREX market, you should at least learn some techniques to analyze signals and trends yourself.

Whether or not you would like to have a currency trading software to help you in money exchange, you may like to read more about FOREX from our site. In case you are thinking about undertaking some online forex course, you can also check out our video section or simply do your own course search from our site.

The recent turmoil in the worlds equities markets has made it harder and harder to successfully make money from trading equity stocks. The after effects of the credit crisis are having a much longer and more sustained affect on global stock markets than first feared.

Why equities are a bad choice

Virtually all listed companies fund their activities through a combination of both equity (issuing shares to investors) and debt. The debt component of a companies funding can be both short term (such as an overdraft facility) or longer term in the form of a term loan or through the issue of bonds.

The recent credit crisis has occurred because banks have become much less willing to lend money to each other and other large corporate for fear that the counter party will have losses related to the housing crisis in the form of mortgage backed securities. In short they are scared and wary of counter parties losing money through sub prime investments and defaulting on their repayments.

The above factor has had the effect of making borrowing more expensive. If companies have to pay more to borrow their profits will be reduced. As a result of this stock markets have been performing badly.

A lot of investors have been moving their money instead into commodity related investments such as oil, gas and energy. This makes sense for a couple of reasons. Firstly such commodities tend to have a scarcity factor. In other words the supply of oil is limited by the amount that there is in the ground.

In addition to limited supply the demand for these commodity products has been increasing dramatically as emerging nations and economies such as India and China grow rapidly and consume them at a much higher rate. The net effect of these factors has been rising commodity prices.

With neither demand looking likely to fall or supply increasing, investing in commodities is looking like a smart bet, especially at a time of such high volatility in the equities markets.

To learn all you need to know about trading commodities or investing in oil please visit one of the links above.

The Internet has brought a lot of changes in the way that we live our lives and our conduct our personal business. We can shop, date, and bank online. You can do just about anything online.

We can even trade stocks, forex, bonds, futures to name a few online. Traders love having the convenience of being able to look at their accounts whenever they see fit, and brokers also like having the choice to take orders over the net as opposed to the phone.

When you are new to investing it is an advantage to have the ability to speak with a broker. You are able to ask questions face to face and have any fears taken care off. Online stock trading can be very risky when you don’t have the correct information. If this is the case, make sure that you learn as much as you can about trading stocks before you start trading online.

Most brokerage houses now offer online trading to their clientele. Because doing business can cut down operating costs a great thing about trading online is that fees and commissions can be much lower. Online trading is great but like anything there are some disadvantages.

When it comes to choosing an online broker or brokerage firm go with years of establishment as well as feedback from other clients. You won’t find one that has been in business online for many years of course because online trading is just in its infancy, but you can find a company that has been in business that long and now offers online trading.

Working on the internet means relying on a machine and like all other machines break downs can happen. In trading if this is at the most inopportune time it could cause losses for you. You won’t always have the ability to get online to make a trade. You need to be sure that you can call and speak with a broker if this is the case using the online broker. This is truth for both advanced traders or beginners.

Online trading is a fantastic opportunity, convenient and can be highly profitable but it isn’t for everyone. Think carefully before you trade online and make sure that you really know what you are doing. Do your research and homework and you will do very well.

For a FREE indeth Forex Trading E-Course visit Learning Forex Traiding Course. This trading course covers the important basics every trader must know before starting to trade, to get it for free Click Here!

Wadzanai Wendy Nenzou is an internet entrepreneur who is interested in the forex market, stockmarket, anything to do with investment. She has a Bachelor of Commerce and a Masters Of Accounting. She enjoys sharing her knowledge with other marketers and people at large. To learn more from her visit learning-forex-traiding.com

The Plain Facts About Stock Trading

Want to hear a scary statistic? Well, here it is – whether you want to hear or not: “At least 70% of traders lose money” in the stock market. This is according to a report from the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA). The report goes on to add that “70% of public traders will not only lose, but will almost certainly lose everything they invest.”

Yikes! Everything? How can that be? Especially with all the charting tools, the stock trading simulators, the books, courses, coaching, and seminars from stock-trading gurus that are available today.

One more little statistic from that report: In all, only “11.5% [of traders] might profitably trade” the markets.

And yet you constantly read about people raking in bushels of cash by day trading – most especially penny stocks. It doesn’t seem to add up.

The Difference Between Winners and Losers?

The difference between the 70% of losers and the 11.5% of winners is – what do you think? The best strategies? Guess again. It is, hands down, a good foundational education about trading and about the markets.

Case in point. A number of years ago a man named Ralph Vince (an expert on the mathematics of trading) conducted an experiment. He chose forty highly educated people – all with doctorate degrees — and gave each of them $1,000 in play money. He then invited them to participate in 100 rounds of a computerized stock trading game. They were even supplied with 100 trades that had a 60% winning percentage.

At the end of the experiment only two of these highly educated individuals – armed with winning strategies – made a profit. Thirty-eight failed! Why?

Specifically because winning strategies do not a trader make!

The criteria that will turn you into a successful trader is time, knowledge, experience and proper guidance. In a word, find some good day trading courses and see which one fits your needs.

Two Ways to Learn

As with most any endeavor there are basically two ways to learn. The first is, obviously, through reading and studying (seminars, online courses, books, videos, etc.). We might call this the formal training.

The second is by experience. The hands-on sensation of the actual day-by-day buying and selling which trigger your roller coaster highs and lows of wildly gyrating emotions. Most day-trading courses included both.

The formal training allows you to learn from the mistakes of others. From their teaching you can learn to avoid the worst of the pitfalls involved in day trading.

Hands-on training helps you get the feel of entering and exiting a trade. The feel of watching that chart move once you’ve pulled the trigger on a trade. The act of exiting at just the right moment to make the profit!

Can you imagine learning to drive a car from reading a book? Or learning to swim from reading a book? So much of it has to do with getting the “feel” of what you’re doing. Trading penny stocks is the same way.

Hands-on training will also help you to know yourself. (It is highly recommended that you begin by paper trading or other means of simulated trading.) What are your basic emotions with regard to money? To investing? To winning? To losing? You had better know ahead of time. Believe it or not, your own basic emotions will play a big part in your success or subsequent failure in day trading penny stocks.

Watch Those Emotions!

Fear is that emotional state of anxiety due to a real or an imagined presence of danger. Fear can impair judgment and cause a trader to recoil from making a trading decision, or to delay a trading decision response.

On the other hand, a self confident person, one with a positive attitude, has a more positive expectation. That person is more likely to take action in spite of a sense of fear. Consider this: winners manage their fear; losers are controlled by their fear.

However, even the most fearful person can overcome that fear with the proper education and training. Using day-trading courses can help to develop self discipline. Self discipline will evolve into self confidence. Once you fully believe in your own abilities (to successfully trade and profit from penny stocks), you will be able to assess and accept risk, and then take decisive action.

If the fear seems overpowering, it is vital that that fear be analyzed. Where does it stem from? From childhood? How can it be faced and worked through? The answer most usually comes through more and more education – both formal and hands-on.

Day Trader’s Traits

Successful day traders must think outside the box. They have to think quickly and wisely. When stocks are fluxuating at split second intervals, making a wrong decision, or ignoring a trade could result in the lost of a great deal of money. Does that describe you?

From the outside looking in, it may appear that day trading penny stocks is akin to gambling. And of course, some traders would prove that assumption to be correct. But they are not the ones who are consistently in the profits.

Day Trading as a Business

Rather than gambling, day trading penny stocks should be thought of as a business. You are both the employee and the boss in this business. You will need another employee – your broker. There will be competitors – the other traders out there, and of course the stock market itself. Just as with any business, there is buying and selling going on. The difference with day trading penny stocks is that this business is extremely fast-paced. (Roller coaster, remember?)

Another part of your day-trading training is to take a realistic look at your day trading business and make plans that will carry you through the long haul. What are your goals and aspirations? The first of course is to make money. But, just as important, is to make money consistently. How is that going to happen?

Working Capital

Understand that your working capital is vital for your business’s survival. Capital preservation is more important than capital growth. Reinvesting profits back into your business should be high on your priority list. What percentage of your total portfolio will be given over to penny stock day trading? Part of it? Half of it? All of it? Make that decision before you plunk down your hard-earned cash.

Can YOU Profit With Penny Stocks?

So can you profit with penny stocks? Absolutely, you can. I encourage you to learn all you can about day trading. Look for good day-trading training courses. Day trading penny stocks can be exciting and rewarding. And with regard to those statistics cited in our intro – they’re really not that scary – as long as you are in that 11.5%. And you can be. Keep your feet firmly planted in good basic foundation of education, and don’t allow yourself to be swept along by hype and high-pressure come-on’s.

Do that and you too can enjoy the cash rewards from successfully day trading penny stocks.

Three of the better day-trading training programs out there are outlined here.

http://www.squidoo.com/daytradingcourses

There are plenty of freebies offered to get you started. There are simulators, coaching programs, webinars, mentoring. You name it, it’s included! And you’ll see there is something here that fits your wallet precisely. If you think education is expensive – try ignorance!! http://www.squidoo.com/daytradingcourses

For those unfamiliar with the term, FOREX (FOReign EXchange market), refers to an international exchange market where currencies are bought and sold. The Foreign Exchange Market that we see today began in the 1970′s, when free exchange rates and floating currencies were introduced. In such an environment only participants in the market determine the price of one currency against another, based upon supply and demand for that currency.

FOREX is a somewhat unique market for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is one of the few markets in which it can be said with very few qualifications that it is free of external controls and that it cannot be manipulated. It is also the largest liquid financial market, with trade reaching between 1 and 1.5 trillion US dollars a day. With this much money moving this fast, it is clear why a single investor would find it near impossible to significantly affect the price of a major currency. Furthermore, the liquidity of the market means that unlike some rarely traded stock, traders are able to open and close positions within a few seconds as there are always willing buyers and sellers.

Another somewhat unique characteristic of the FOREX money market is the variance of its participants. Investors find a number of reasons for entering the market, some as longer term hedge investors, while others utilize massive credit lines to seek large short term gains. Interestingly, unlike blue-chip stocks, which are usually most attractive only to the long term investor, the combination of rather constant but small daily fluctuations in currency prices, create an environment which attracts investors with a broad range of strategies.

How FOREX Works

Transactions in foreign currencies are not centralized on an exchange, unlike say the NYSE, and thus take place all over the world via telecommunications. Trade is open 24 hours a day from Sunday afternoon until Friday afternoon (00:00 GMT on Monday to 10:00 pm GMT on Friday). In almost every time zone around the world, there are dealers who will quote all major currencies. After deciding what currency the investor would like to purchase, he or she does so via one of these dealers (some of which can be found online). It is quite common practice for investors to speculate on currency prices by getting a credit line (which are available to those with capital as small as $500), and vastly increase their potential gains and losses. This is called marginal trading.

Marginal Trading

Marginal trading is simply the term used for trading with borrowed capital. It is appealing because of the fact that in FOREX investments can be made without a real money supply. This allows investors to invest much more money with fewer money transfer costs, and open bigger positions with a much smaller amount of actual capital. Thus, one can conduct relatively large transactions, very quickly and cheaply, with a small amount of initial capital. Marginal trading in an exchange market is quantified in lots. The term “lot” refers to approximately $100,000, an amount which can be obtained by putting up as little as 0.5% or $500.

EXAMPLE: You believe that signals in the market are indicating that the British Pound will go up against the US Dollar. You open 1 lot for buying the Pound with a 1% margin at the price of 1.49889 and wait for the exchange rate to climb. At some point in the future, your predictions come true and you decide to sell. You close the position at 1.5050 and earn 61 pips or about $405. Thus, on an initial capital investment of $1,000, you have made over 40% in profits. (Just as an example of how exchange rates change in the course of a day, an average daily change of the Euro (in Dollars) is about 70 to 100 pips.)

When you decide to close a position, the deposit sum that you originally made is returned to you and a calculation of your profits or losses is done. This profit or loss is then credited to your account.

Investment Strategies: Technical Analysis and Fundamental Analysis

The two fundamental strategies in investing in FOREX are Technical Analysis or Fundamental Analysis. Most small and medium sized investors in financial markets use Technical Analysis. This technique stems from the assumption that all information about the market and a particular currency’s future fluctuations is found in the price chain. That is to say, that all factors which have an effect on the price have already been considered by the market and are thus reflected in the price. Essentially then, what this type of investor does is base his/her investments upon three fundamental suppositions. These are: that the movement of the market considers all factors, that the movement of prices is purposeful and directly tied to these events, and that history repeats itself. Someone utilizing technical analysis looks at the highest and lowest prices of a currency, the prices of opening and closing, and the volume of transactions. This investor does not try to outsmart the market, or even predict major long term trends, but simply looks at what has happened to that currency in the recent past, and predicts that the small fluctuations will generally continue just as they have before.

A Fundamental Analysis is one which analyzes the current situations in the country of the currency, including such things as its economy, its political situation, and other related rumors. By the numbers, a country’s economy depends on a number of quantifiable measurements such as its Central Bank’s interest rate, the national unemployment level, tax policy and the rate of inflation. An investor can also anticipate that less quantifiable occurrences, such as political unrest or transition will also have an effect on the market. Before basing all predictions on the factors alone, however, it is important to remember that investors must also keep in mind the expectations and anticipations of market participants. For just as in any stock market, the value of a currency is also based in large part on perceptions of and anticipations about that currency, not solely on its reality.

Make Money with Currency Trading on FOREX

FOREX investing is one of the most potentially rewarding types of investments available. While certainly the risk is great, the ability to conduct marginal trading on FOREX means that potential profits are enormous relative to initial capital investments. Another benefit of FOREX is that its size prevents almost all attempts by others to influence the market for their own gain. So that when investing in foreign currency markets one can feel quite confident that the investment he or she is making has the same opportunity for profit as other investors throughout the world. While investing in FOREX short term requires a certain degree of diligence, investors who utilize a technical analysis can feel relatively confident that their own ability to read the daily fluctuations of the currency market are sufficiently adequate to give them the knowledge necessary to make informed investments.

Rich McIver is a contributing writer for The Forex Blog: Currency Trading News ( http://www.forexblog.org ).