With a few buttons and presses in the settings, you can edit a moving average to fit the chart. So strip it all back. What you are looking for is, areas of consolidation - these areas are indecision zones where buyers and sellers are actively seeking value. These levels create the foundation of the value area range. This can then be used alongside liquidity pockets and used to enter or exit trades.

Ok so how are they identified? Well, first of all you have consolidations; these tightening ranges of price will highlight the auction has began, we now have both buyers and sellers active. As you can see in this chart above; we have two large areas to the upside of untapped liquidity Zoom in and you will see heavier zones whereby volume was heavy, but price hardly moved - this is a hint towards liquidity sitting there.

If you apply a simple tool like "Fixed range volume" you will see the profiles are concentrated around these levels; hence acting like a magnet to price. This was clear as early as August, we would tag the old liquidity levels and plummet back below 40k very quickly.

The levels are useful, especially when combing with other techniques such as Elliott, but when you apply Fib's and can spot key extension levels; it's a lot more likely to be pulled towards such levels if there is a consolidation cluster. This is merely "Dumb Money" value areas being bought and sold. Optimal for institutional players, or as Richard Wyckoff called them "Composite Man". There are several strategies and methods to use this knowledge, some of which I will post in later posts.

But I would advise you go away and try and spot some of these levels on other charts. Disclaimer This idea does not constitute as financial advice. You can use the information from this post to make your own trading plan for the instrument discussed. Trading carries a risk; a high percentage of retail traders lose money. Please keep this in mind when entering any trade. Stay safe. Calculating Buyer vs Seller Ratios This is a tutorial on a process I newly created last week.

It is experimental, I have just started incorporating it in my trading and have been in the process of applying it to historical data to review efficacy, and so far it has been incredibly positive. I use the fundamental elements of RSI to create a new way of providing context to volume data to help us gauge future direction of stock movement.

This was inspired by the OBV based indicators, using RSI as my foundational guide to creating something that was useable in a trading context. But caution is needed, as with all technical based indicators, this process is not predictive in nature and its reactive. It tells you what has happened at a particular point in time and doesn't necessarily tell you what will happen tomorrow. No indicator can do this, even my awesome math ones ;.

But this does help you incorporate volume in a meaningful way into your technical analysis. by Steversteves. Paradox Psychology: The Composite Man attracts the public to buy or sell a coin in which he has already accumulated. Composite man may display huge volume or to drive the market up to a selling price or scare it down to a buying level. How intelligent are you? by BTC-XLM. Smart Money Manipulation 🥊 Alkaline is back baby!

I have taken a month away from trading to study the new forms of market manipulation and have been pleasantly surprised by what I have found. Here is my discovery: 1 The market is currently focusing on taking liquidity from breakeven positions over fixed stop losses.

This is because emotional traders put their stops to BE quickly to avoid pain, especially during indecisive markets. Scale into your positions, trust me when I say this will reduce your emotions and give you a more relaxed trading style.

If the majority of traders lose money, and the majority of traders now use smart money concepts, do the maths. It feels good to be back after a long month of studying, I have lots of new things to teach and share. I will be taking on new students shortly, have a great weekend everyone 👋.

by AlkalineFX. Learn How to Trade Fibonacci Levels Full Guide 📚 In this short video, I will teach you to apply Fibonacci retracement tool. We will discuss the common levels to apply. I will show you real market examples and we will discuss important theory.

Please, support my work with like, thank you! by VasilyTrader. What to do on the weekends? When I first started trading back in I used to hate weekends and love Mondays.

In that I found great sense of pride that unlike other people I liked Mondays instead of hating them. Every time markets closed on Sunday I would constantly wish for weekends to pass asap and start trading the next week. It was needed for that period in time. Fast forward 8 years later, and I actually learned to find a remarkable balance by enjoying the Friday evening with my family and friends, having a rather relaxing day on Saturday, and some needed off-market hours on Sunday.

Here are some tips on how to reframe that view to get better balance on life outside trading, and trading outside life. After end of trading session on Friday whatever your hours are close your computer and walk away no matter the current weekly or daily PnL.

If in a trade - manage it by moving stops appropriately and let it go. Take the evening off to do what we like. Dinner out, watching movies, going to bed earlier, whatever floats your boat. The key here is to disconnect from the market completely. Let the mind come to the non-trading mode. When we are trading we are operating with uncertainty, disconnecting from the market thus by definition means disconnecting from uncertainty.

Being out of uncertainty for a day or two creates a relaxed mind that will be ready to pounce in the coming weeks. It might be hard for people starting out, but the long-term benefits of actually unplugging on Friday evening is way underrated. On Saturday, if possible and you have no other obligations, treat yourself an extra hour of sleep.

Getting enough sleep is a risk-management strategy as lack of it creates a lopsided perception of risk in our minds. Thus, by definition, getting more sleep removes this lopsidedness.

On weekdays it's not often possible to sleep in, so getting just an extra bit of rest of Saturdays gives little bit of edge for the next week. Rest of the day is obviously unique to everyone of us, but the key in my opinion here is to keep being unplugged from the market. Not checking how the weekly candle closed, or how Friday NY closed - it doesn't matter on Saturday. Markets are closed they are not going anywhere. By rushing in we create hesitancy, and by creating hesitancy we practice opposite of patience.

Instead, by remaining unplugged we practice detachment, a much needed quality to trade effectively. On Sundays take a few hours or whatever time you need to do all the trading related work: Journaling review, self-review, price action closes, prepare for the coming week by placing drawings and so forth. It's very relaxing to do charting and trading related work when markets are closed.

There is no rush. It's poise and calm. Working once a week in that environment and actually preparing for Monday creates huge edge. On Monday, and that is optional but I kinda like to do it sometimes, although at current time I am stretching myself by not doing that, but I will come back to doing that in months, so, risk only half of what you usually risk. I like to call that a warm up day. After a period of more than 2 days of not being in the environment of uncertainty it's not necessary to just jump in with full risk.

Starting Monday with only half risk helps us to ease in into the week. In case of profits - we still make them, in case of losses - they are limited, thus after some rest we reduce its effect on us and we ensure that after warmup we can be ready to strike on Tuesday.

Tuesday-Friday - proceed as normal, rinse and repeat. For me, Mondays are least profitable day anyway. Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions, or share your routines and how you treat weekends?

On to the next one. Educational Post Hello Traders, Today am Updating an Educational Content. If you Follow This Strategy then you never lose your money. How to work SMC. How to Make a Trade with SMC. How to Beat Retailers. How to find Retailers Trades. you can check here. by Smarttrader what TRADER are you on weekend days?

Good Day Constant Reader I hope this day has received you well and in good health. It is Saturday once again. This is the time to reflect on what you learned, albeit via pain or pleasure. Take experience from the enduring of your development it will serve you well later on.

It feels different at various stages of your learning. Uncertainty will be a resurfacing concern as you discover your unique model but you can't rush it. The reason it takes more time to get it, is the individual that you are is very complex.

Trading aren't complex, the letting go of unrealistic growth rates early on is the major hurdle. The more time you give yourself to develop a confidence in yourself, not me, not what I can or can't do the better chance you stand.

The submitting to at least 18 months of structured learning and practice in a simulated environment is key. This can't be overstated. Far too often the ill-prepared Trader incorrectly assumes that trading concepts are flawed and they look past their own deficiencies. That is why 18 months is what I state is the lowest time horizon when endeavoring to learn my craft. You won't see the many opportunities your personality flaws yes your flaws will manifest and derail your development and delay your success.

Everyone is human and prone to do it wrong even me. However, this somehow gets overlooked by excited new Trader who want to imagine owning the world in a few weeks or months. This is neither practical or realistic. You need time to experience drawdown, periods of confusion, periods of no trading while markets are in transition states and risk is high.

No educators teach like this but me. I do not sugar-coat it and say you will understand this is 3 weeks or months because you won't. Like everything in this world, there are varying results and you get what you put into it. How many Tiger Woods are their in golf? Despite the legions of golf enthusiasts that play the game? Not every golfer will rise to Tiger's greatness but the wise understand they do not need to be like or equal to Tiger to succeed. Be content with enough and submit to an honest attempt in learning properly.

so many lazy people come and when they didn't fix their personal issues, they quit. This is sad, but they were warned and instructed before and along the way how to train, study and to expect delayed gratification. Everyone wants the six pack abs but nobody wants to exercise and remove the junk food to get them. Then the regime is slated as scam, fraud or not as described and they chase another fad diet program.

Never learning, never improving or even giving themselves the proper chance to develop. This is the revolving door of trading. The tune has not changed it is hard to overcome yourself. No matter what snake oil salesmen tell you, there is no short cut or alternative route to getting it.

No indicator, harmonic, retail - none of that removes the requirement to understanding the financial calendar year. How seasonal impacts affect these markets. How can a one week boot camp or three month program properly prepare you for that? In short it can't. Mental baggage is real and most of us bring lots of it to the trading business. Most can't admit their own flaws or shortcomings and they never make it. They spent thousands in different courses and waste a lot of time cheating themselves.

Let's be honest Folks Trading is easy. It is a question of three options. Trading profitably requires a model that comfortably defines what and when for you, not everyone who sees your model, just "You". this write up belongs to my mentor ICT hopefully you find it useful also. by BCDtrade. Pine scripts. Editors' picks Popular Recent More. by gorx1. by KioseffTrading. by fikira.

In the below sections of our forex trading PDF, we explain some of the considerations that you need to make. You should also look out for analysis tools available to you. In some cases, this might be embedded, while some offer tools such as technical analysis and fundamental analysis. This is because it will save you a lot of leg work having to move between different sites and sources of information.

Some of the fastest and easiest trading platforms are MetaTrader 5 MT5 and MetaTrader 4 MT4. Crucially, both MT4 and MT5 are fast and receptive trading platforms, both providing live market data and access to sophisticated charts. It is essential before you begin trading seriously that you fully trust the trading platform you intend on using. This is especially the case if you intend on using a scalping strategy, for example. However, if you like to trade, it is vital for your peace of mind and your finances that you are fully confident with the fast execution of data transfer.

This is also the case with the precision of quoted prices, and the speed of order processing. All of these things are going to help you to have a successful forex trading experience.

To enable you to make the most of new opportunities, the ideal forex broker will be available to you 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, in line with the forex market opening hours. To save you from having to request that your broker takes action for you, your forex broker should enable you to manage your account and your trades separately.

By doing this, you will be in a much better position to quickly react to any shifts in the market, and hopefully, make the most of potential opportunities. This will enable you to gain better control over any open positions as and when they arise.

It is important to ensure that your forex broker of choice is a reputable company, who will ensure that your personal information and trading funds are fully protected and backed up. Segregation is frequently used amongst forex brokers as a way to separate your funds from the funds of the company i. their daily costs, debts and running costs. So, no matter what happens to the forex broker, your money is safe and segregated.

If you find that a forex broker is unable to do this, we would suggest you find a better broker as it is standard practice these days. All of the brokers listed towards the end of this forex trading PDF are regulated by at least one reputable licensing body. In terms of getting set up as an online forex trader, the steps remain constant regardless of which broker you decide to join.

Below we list some of the steps that you will need to take. In order to open an account, you will need to enter some personal information.

Standard details requested by the broker will be things like your name, residential address, and contact details. Some brokers will also require your tax status and will ask you to provide more financial details such as employment status, net worth and any regular income.

In this instance, you will usually need to answer some multiple-choice questions based on your experience. This is usually a fairly simple process. Known as KYC in the industry Know Your Customer , this simply means that the forex broker is going to need you to prove who you are.

Some brokers will verify this using scanned copies of documentation. Now you need to select your payment method of choice usually from a drop-down list.

Bear in mind that how long this takes to go into your trading account will largely depend on the payment method — so always check this before parting with your cash. Some brokers even support e-wallets like PayPal and Skrill. After reading our forex trading PDF you should now be feeling confident enough to begin trading. However, we do recommend that you always try out a free forex trading demo first. This will allow you to test out your newly formed trading strategies before risking your own capital.

In the next section of our forex trading PDF, we explore some of the more important technical indicators and market insights used by seasoned traders. First invented by Richard Donchian, the donchian channels can be adapted as you like, in terms of parameters. Should you choose to view a day breakdown, for example, the indicator will be created by taking the lowest low, and the highest high of that period so in this example 30 periods.

When observing the moving average on a donchian channel you can look at averages stretching from 25 days to the last days. The direction which is permitted is determined by the direction of the short-term moving average. With this in mind, you should think about opening one of the following two positions:. You will need to sell your pair in order to exit your trade if you open a long position and visa-versa.

This is another commonly used forex indicator. The simple moving average aka SMA operates at a slower rate than the present market price known as a lagging indicator. Furthermore, it uses a lot of historical price data. In fact, more so than most other strategies. A good indication that the latest price is higher than the older price is when the long-term moving average is below the short-term moving average.

This could be considered a buy signal due to an upward trend in the market. In the opposite scenario when the long-term moving average is higher than the short-term moving average, this of course points towards a sell signal due to a downward trend. Moving averages are usually used as evidence of an overall trend, rather than purely forex trading signals. Of course, this is a great way to make your breakout signals much more productive. If you are alerted to a sell signal, this indicates that the short-term moving average is below that of the long-term moving average, so you might want to place a sell order.

However, if you are given a signal to buy, this usually means that the short-term moving average is higher than that of the long-term moving average. Using breaks as trading signals, the breakout is considered a long-term strategy.

The breakout itself occurs when the market goes further than these consolidation limits — whether that be lower or higher. As such, a breakout must take place whenever a new trend occurs.

By looking at breaks, you will have a good indication of whether or not a new trend has begun. In this case, you might want to use a stop-loss order to give you a better chance of avoiding a substantial loss. As glamorous as a career in forex trading might sound, there are a number of risks that you need to take into account. In the below sections of our forex trading PDF, we explore these possible risks in more detail.

The transaction risk is in relation to the exchange rate and any time zone differences. This means there is a chance that at some point between the beginning and end of a contract that the exchange rates could be subject to change. The risk of this happening elevates with the more time that passes between entering a contract and settling the same contract. This generally leads to investors withdrawing investments, and as a result, your return will be lower. The good news is that when a currency rate is on the rise, chances are that the respective currency will be stronger.

When this does happen, your returns could be higher. This is because seasoned investors like to gain exposure to stronger currencies. The higher your leverage is, the higher your losses or benefits will be. Of course, this means leverage can affect your trading in a positive or negative way — depending on which way it goes. The final part of our forex trading PDF is to explore which brokers are popular with both newbie and seasoned traders.

Each of the forex trading platforms listed below has been pre-vetted, meaning that you can be confident they tick most boxed. This means that each platform is regulated, offers heaps of forex pairs, has low commissions and fees, and supports several payment methods. AvaTrade is an established broker that offers thousands of financial instruments.

On top of stocks, indices, commodities, and cryptocurrencies all via CFDs , you can also trade heaps of forex pairs. There are no trading commissions to pay, and spreads are very competitive. You can either trade via the AvaTrade web-platform, or via popular third-party provider MT4.

The platform is heavily regulated, with several licenses under its belt. com is an FCA, CySEC, ASIC, and NBRB-regulated online broker that offers heaps of financial instruments. All in the form of CFDs - this covers stocks, indices and commodities. You will not pay a single penny in commission, and spreads are super-tight. Leverage facilities are also on offer - fully in-line with ESMA limits. Once again, this stands at on majors and on minors and exotics.

If you are based outside of Europe or you are deemed to be a professional client, you will get even higher limits. Getting money into Capital. Visit Capital. com You should consider whether you can afford to take the high risk of losing your money. Having made it this far through our forex trading PDF, you should by now have an understanding of how technical analysis works, and have a good grasp of the macroeconomic fundamentals which guide currency values.

Armed with all of the useful information included in this guide, you should be ready to get out there and start trading forex. Hopefully, making a profit and learning more along the way. If you are a trader with somewhat limited funds, you might find that swing trading suits you best. If you have a larger trading fund available to you, you might have a more profitable experience with fundamental based trading.

Either way, w e do recommend trying out a free demo account where possible before trading with your hard-earned money. As well as reading helpful guides like ours, actually learning by doing will also provide you with a better sense of how it all works and how you might like to trade yourself.

What does forex mean? Forex as a term refers to 'foreign exchange'. You will make money in two different scenarios.

You either buy a currency pair for less than you sell it for long order , and you sell a currency pair for less than you bought it for short order. The spread is the difference between the bid and ask price of a forex pair. This gap in pricing must be included in your profit and loss forecasts, and it is how the broker ensures that the platform always makes money.

This depends on the type of forex pair you are trading. The pip refers to the movement of one decimal place in a pair. This depends on several factors, such as your location, the currency pair, and the broker itself. In most cases, traders from the UK and Europe are capped to leverage of on major pairs and on minor and exotic pairs.

Slippage means that your forex order is executed at a slightly different price to what you had asked for.

Forex FX is a portmanteau of foreign currency and exchange. Foreign exchange is the process of changing one currency into another for a variety of reasons, usually for commerce, trading, or tourism.

Trading currencies can be risky and complex. Because there are such large trade flows within the system, it is difficult for rogue traders to influence the price of a currency. This system helps create transparency in the market for investors with access to interbank dealing. Retail investors should spend time learning about the forex market and then researching which forex broker to sign up with, and find out whether it is regulated in the United States or the United Kingdom U.

and U. dealers have more oversight or in a country with more lax rules and oversight. It is also a good idea to find out what kind of account protections are available in case of a market crisis, or if a dealer becomes insolvent. Read on to learn about the forex markets, what it's used for, and how you can get started trading.

The foreign exchange market is where currencies are traded. Currencies are important because they allow us to purchase goods and services locally and across borders.

International currencies need to be exchanged to conduct foreign trade and business. If you are living in the United States and want to buy cheese from France, then either you or the company from which you buy the cheese has to pay the French for the cheese in euros EUR.

This means that the U. importer would have to exchange the equivalent value of U. dollars USD for euros. The same goes for traveling. The tourist has to exchange the euros for the local currency, in this case the Egyptian pound, at the current exchange rate. One unique aspect of this international market is that there is no central marketplace for foreign exchange.

Rather, currency trading is conducted electronically over the counter OTC , which means that all transactions occur via computer networks among traders around the world, rather than on one centralized exchange. The market is open 24 hours a day, five and a half days a week, and currencies are traded worldwide in the major financial centers of Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, New York, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, and Zurich—across almost every time zone. This means that when the U.

trading day ends, the forex market begins anew in Tokyo and Hong Kong. As such, the forex market can be extremely active anytime, with price quotes changing constantly. These terms are synonymous and all refer to the forex market. In its most basic sense, the forex market has been around for centuries. People have always exchanged or bartered goods and currencies to purchase goods and services. However, the forex market, as we understand it today, is a relatively modern invention.

After the Bretton Woods accord began to collapse in , more currencies were allowed to float freely against one another. The values of individual currencies vary based on demand and circulation and are monitored by foreign exchange trading services.

Commercial and investment banks conduct most of the trading in forex markets on behalf of their clients, but there are also speculative opportunities for trading one currency against another for professional and individual investors.

There are two distinct features of currencies as an asset class :. An investor can profit from the difference between two interest rates in two different economies by buying the currency with the higher interest rate and shorting the currency with the lower interest rate. Prior to the financial crisis, it was very common to short the Japanese yen JPY and buy British pounds GBP because the interest rate differential was very large.

This strategy is sometimes referred to as a carry trade. Currency trading was very difficult for individual investors prior to the Internet. Most currency traders were large multinational corporations , hedge funds , or high-net-worth individuals HNWIs because forex trading required a lot of capital. With help from the Internet, a retail market aimed at individual traders has emerged, providing easy access to the foreign exchange markets through either the banks themselves or brokers making a secondary market.

Most online brokers or dealers offer very high leverage to individual traders who can control a large trade with a small account balance. The FX market is where currencies are traded. It is the only truly continuous and nonstop trading market in the world. In the past, the forex market was dominated by institutional firms and large banks, which acted on behalf of clients. But it has become more retail-oriented in recent years, and traders and investors of many holding sizes have begun participating in it.

An interesting aspect of world forex markets is that there are no physical buildings that function as trading venues for the markets. Instead, it is a series of connections made through trading terminals and computer networks. Participants in this market are institutions, investment banks, commercial banks, and retail investors.

The foreign exchange market is considered more opaque than other financial markets. Currencies are traded in OTC markets, where disclosures are not mandatory. Large liquidity pools from institutional firms are a prevalent feature of the market.

A survey found that the motives of large financial institutions played the most important role in determining currency prices. Forex is traded primarily via three venues: spot markets, forwards markets, and futures markets. When people refer to the forex market, they are thus usually referring to the spot market. The forwards and futures markets tend to be more popular with companies or financial firms that need to hedge their foreign exchange risks out to a specific date in the future.

Forex trading in the spot market has always been the largest because it trades in the biggest underlying real asset for the forwards and futures markets. Previously, volumes in the forwards and futures markets surpassed those of the spot markets. However, the trading volumes for forex spot markets received a boost with the advent of electronic trading and the proliferation of forex brokers.

The spot market is where currencies are bought and sold based on their trading price. That price is determined by supply and demand and is calculated based on several factors, including current interest rates, economic performance, sentiment toward ongoing political situations both locally and internationally , and the perception of the future performance of one currency against another.

A finalized deal is known as a spot deal. It is a bilateral transaction in which one party delivers an agreed-upon currency amount to the counterparty and receives a specified amount of another currency at the agreed-upon exchange rate value. After a position is closed, the settlement is in cash. Although the spot market is commonly known as one that deals with transactions in the present rather than in the future , these trades actually take two days for settlement.

A forward contract is a private agreement between two parties to buy a currency at a future date and at a predetermined price in the OTC markets. A futures contract is a standardized agreement between two parties to take delivery of a currency at a future date and at a predetermined price. Futures trade on exchanges and not OTC. In the forwards market, contracts are bought and sold OTC between two parties, who determine the terms of the agreement between themselves.

In the futures market, futures contracts are bought and sold based upon a standard size and settlement date on public commodities markets, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange CME. In the United States, the National Futures Association NFA regulates the futures market. Futures contracts have specific details, including the number of units being traded, delivery and settlement dates, and minimum price increments that cannot be customized.

The exchange acts as a counterparty to the trader, providing clearance and settlement services. Both types of contracts are binding and are typically settled for cash at the exchange in question upon expiry, although contracts can also be bought and sold before they expire. The currency forwards and futures markets can offer protection against risk when trading currencies. Usually, big international corporations use these markets to hedge against future exchange rate fluctuations, but speculators take part in these markets as well.

In addition to forwards and futures, options contracts are also traded on certain currency pairs. Forex options give holders the right, but not the obligation, to enter into a forex trade at a future date and for a pre-set exchange rate, before the option expires.

Unlike the spot market, the forwards, futures, and options markets do not trade actual currencies. Instead, they deal in contracts that represent claims to a certain currency type, a specific price per unit, and a future date for settlement. This is why they are known as derivatives markets. Companies doing business in foreign countries are at risk due to fluctuations in currency values when they buy or sell goods and services outside of their domestic market.

Foreign exchange markets provide a way to hedge currency risk by fixing a rate at which the transaction will be completed.

To accomplish this, a trader can buy or sell currencies in the forward or swap markets in advance, which locks in an exchange rate. For example, imagine that a company plans to sell U. Unfortunately, the U. dollar begins to rise in value vs. A stronger dollar resulted in a much smaller profit than expected. The blender company could have reduced this risk by short selling the euro and buying the U.

dollar when they were at parity. That way, if the U. dollar rose in value, then the profits from the trade would offset the reduced profit from the sale of blenders. If the U. dollar fell in value, then the more favorable exchange rate would increase the profit from the sale of blenders, which offsets the losses in the trade.

Hedging of this kind can be done in the currency futures market. The advantage for the trader is that futures contracts are standardized and cleared by a central authority. However, currency futures may be less liquid than the forwards markets, which are decentralized and exist within the interbank system throughout the world. Factors like interest rates , trade flows, tourism, economic strength, and geopolitical risk affect the supply and demand for currencies, creating daily volatility in the forex markets.

A forecast that one currency will weaken is essentially the same as assuming that the other currency in the pair will strengthen because currencies are traded as pairs. The trader believes higher U. If the investor had shorted the AUD and went long on the USD, then they would have profited from the change in value.

In the futures market, futures contracts are bought and sold based upon a standard size and settlement date on public commodities markets, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange CME. You can read more about automated forex trading here. LT2 Rating. Getting money into Capital. This will be held by the broker during an open forex trade. For this right, a premium is paid to the broker, which will vary depending on the number of contracts purchased.

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