Start at the top and work your way down.
Monday, March 31st, 2008One of the important points we teach in the FXCM Power Courses is to trade in the direction of the trend on the daily chart. We recommend only trading the strongest trends as that is where you are likely to find the best trading opportunities. After having identified a strong trend on the daily chart, […]
Take a step back to see the big picture.
Monday, March 24th, 2008One issue I see with many new traders is that they use the shortest time frame charts to make their trading decisions. It is typical to see new traders use a 1-minute or 5-minute chart because they think that their risk is lower. Since they risk less on each trade, they must be better off. […]
How is your trading?
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008Quick….how many of your trades in the last 10 have been winners? What was your average gain and your average loss? How long does your typical trade last? Did you use the same approach on all of those 10 trades? These are some of the questions you need to able to answer in order to […]
Heads I win….and tails I win too.
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008Because I get to work with new traders in our FX Power Courses, I get a pretty good idea of why new traders lose money. One of the reasons is that these traders do not have an idea of what they want to achieve. Sure, everybody wants to make money, but we need to have […]
Get in while the getting is good.
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008In our FX Power Courses, we always ask new traders to tell us about any potential trades they see setting up in the market. An example would be when a currency pair, being in a strong uptrend, pulls back down to a good support level, offering a solid buying opportunity. But too often when this […]
Demo trading vs. live trading.
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008Many times new traders who have done well in a demo account open up a live account and things start to fall apart. Having real money on the line is very different emotionally than trading pretend money. When losing in a live account, every pip can result is feelings of frustration or pure […]
What is Slippage?
Thursday, February 14th, 2008You bought the EUR/USD at 1.4000 and the market is now trading at 1.4025. Since there is an economic release due out in 15 minutes, you move your protective stop up to 1.4000 to protect your winning trade from turning into a losing trade. The number is released and the market trades down through your […]
Predicting the news is one thing….predicting the market reaction is another.
Thursday, February 7th, 2008Today we got word that the European Central Bank kept their interest rates unchanged while the Bank of England lowered their interest rates. Since higher interest rates usually lead to a higher currency value while lower interest rates usually lead to a lower currency value, FX Power Course students have been asking us why the […]
Don’t increase your risk in the middle of a trade.
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008Too often some new traders think of a protective stop as an option or a moving target and pay the price for that thought. I often get emails from new traders who see the market move up close to their initial protective stop and threatened with a losing trade will email me to ask if […]
Keep your expectations realistic.
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008Many times I hear from new traders who state that their goal is to make a certain number of pips every day. While it is important to establish goals in any endeavor, any benchmarks should be geared around your improvement as a trader and not about what you expect the market to give you. […]
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