- Forex Basics
- Japanese Candlesticks
- What Are Japanese Candlesticks?
- Bodies, Wicks and Shadows
- The Doji Candlestick Pattern
- Candlestick Engulfing Pattern
- Hammers and Hanging Man
- Piercing Pattern and Dark Cloud
- Morning Star and Evening Star
- Harami Patterns
- Shooting Star and Inverted Hammer
- The Kicker Signal
- Three White Soldiers and Three Black Crows
- Three Inside Up and Three Inside Down
- Three Outside Up and Three Outside Down
- Concealing Baby Swallow
- Upside Gap Two Crows
- Advance Block
- Three Stars In The South
- Two Crows
- Unique Three River Bottom
- Moving Averages
- Elliott Wave Theory
- Oscillators/Indicators
Why Trade Foreign Currencies?
There are so many benefits and advantages to trading Forex, it is impossible to list them all. Here are just a few reasons:
- More Efficient
There are about 6 major trading pairs in the Forex market. Compare that to the 8000+ stocks to choose from, and you can see that it is MUCH easier to review charts and information from 6-20 currency pairs than 8000+ stocks. - No commissions
No clearing fees, no exchange fees, no government fees, no brokerage fees. Brokers are compensated for their services through something called “the spread”. - Low transaction costs
The “spread” is how the brokers make money, and is typically less than 0.1 percent of the trade, under normal market conditions. At larger dealers, the spread could be as low as .07 percent. Of course this depends on many things, including leverage. - Leverage
Much like with Futures, in Forex trading a small margin deposit can control a much larger total contract value. Leverage gives the trader the ability to make nice profits, and at the same time keep risk capital to a minimum. For example, some brokers offer 200 to 1 leverage, which means that a $5 dollar margin deposit would enable a trader to buy or sell $1,000 worth of currencies. Similarly, with $50 dollars, one could trade with $10,000 dollars and so on. But without proper risk management, this high degree of leverage can lead to large losses as well as gains. - High Liquidity
The Forex market volume is more than 3X that of the stocks and futures markets combined! This means that under normal market conditions you can instantaneously buy and sell at will. In a fast moving market, there might be a small drift in price known as “slippage”. But generally you are never "stuck" in a trade. Your contract will almost ALWAYS get closed out within a few seconds of your order. - No fixed lot size
Unlike a futures contract where there are specific lot sizes set by the exchange, with Forex you have the option of several different size contracts. This allows traders to participate even with accounts as small as a couple hundred bucks. However, having an account that small is probably a bad idea, which we talk about later. - A 24-hour market
For those traders that want to trade at odd times throughout the day, there is no waiting for the opening bell; from Sunday evening to Friday afternoon US Eastern Time, the Forex market never stops.
