Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Expert Advisors - For and Against Automating Your Forex Trading System

An expert advisor is a piece of software which works as a plug-in for your trading platform. The purpose of an expert advisor is to automate your own (or someone else's) trading system.

An expert advisor works by monitoring any market for you 24 hours a day, looking to place trades for you once it sees that certain parameters (based on your own, or someone else trading strategy) have been met.

To build your own expert advisor, you need to have a working knowledge of the MetaQuotes Language 4 (MQL4) which is the built-in language for programming trading strategies. There are companies which will (for a fee) automate your trading strategy and build an expert advisor for you based on your own settings. There are also companies which will sell you their own expert advisors.

Most forex expert advisors are developed for the Metatrader trading platform. Developed by Russian programmers, Metatrader had become the standard trading platform for many professional traders and forex brokers.

Once you have built your own expert advisor (usually a file ending in .EX4) or purchased someone elses, the process of setting it up with Metatrader 4 is quite simple. It is just a matter of opening and installing the file into your MT4 platform.

ADVANTAGES OF EXPERT ADVISORS:

The main advantages of trading with an expert advisor are:

1. The expert advisor has a plan. It sticks to this plan and the settings you have developed into it no matter how uncertain the market looks or how you may feel about the market at a particular point of time.

2. The expert advisor is consistent. It can eliminate the negative human aspects of trading which include fear, greed and inconsistency in trading.

3. The expert advisor frees you up from physically having to watch and analyse the charts to find a signal to enter/exit trades. It does this automatically for you so you don't have to sit in front of your computer all day.

4. Freeing you up from watching charts for entry and exit signals also has the added benefit of giving you more time to spend on actually developing your trading strategies, doing back tests and more and more tests.

5. Finally, the expert advisor (or forex robot) can monitor many markets at once, giving you access to many more trading opportunities than you can physically find and analyse by yourself.

DISADVANTAGES OF EXPERT ADVISORS:

1. The robot (expert advisor) does not and will never have the feel for the human and the soft non-programmable issues. The trader must always look at the bigger picture, the fundamentals as well as the hundreds of other important issues which affect the ebb and flow of the forex market.

2. Many traders also choose to use expert advisors for the wrong reason. They believe that simply by trading with a robot they will automatically have better results or be better traders. Essentially, all an expert advisor will help you with is with trading consistency. It will just free up your time to focus on developing and testing your trading strategies instead of physically having to look for and execute trading opportunities.

by Giselle Sanchez - Learn more about building your own expert advisor, how to set up an expert advisor with Metatrader 4 and choose from over 40 of the best forex expert advisors.

How to Delegate When There is No One to Delegate To

Money is tight and youre desperate for an extra pair of hands, but you dont have a budget. This is also known as, I have no one to delegate to, so now what? Dont despair, there are several no cost ways to increase your productivity and find ways to delegate. Even if you do have a budget, these tips will enhance your budget and help you get more out of your delegating dollar.

Here are 8 ways to get low cost and free services.

Tip #1: Tune up your computer
Is your computer in need of a tune up? Are you constantly crashing? Are you rebooting? Its not only frustrating, but it kills an enormous about of time. Not to mention the information you lose. If your computer crashes and you reboot each time, how long does it take for your computer to reboot? I can guarantee if there is something wrong with your computer that is causing it to crash, then it doesnt reboot quickly. How frustrating is that for you and how much time is that wasting? Get it fixed. Buy something new, but dont avoid the problem. Time is money and thats money you could be spending bringing in some help to do something else. If you have a problem, talk to your computers manufacturer. Some computer companies like Compaq will even send you a loaner computer if you need to send yours away to be fixed. This is specifically for purchases on business computers, so if you bought your laptop at Costco, you might not have this service. Its worth a phone call to find out. To quote my Grandpa Lenny, If you dont ask, you dont get.

Ready to throw in the towel and buy something new, check out www.techbargains.com.

Tip #2: Trade Services
Is there something specific that you need? Maybe there is a special skill you need like copywriting, bookkeeping, internet help, etc. Find an expert who is in a similar business position and see if you can trade services.

Tip #3: Who Do You Know that Will Work For Free?
Do you have friends and family that could help you out? Would your spouse, partner, parents, kids, and/or friends be willing to give you an hour, two or more to help you out? Think back to the days when you had to move. All of your friends gathered around to help you pack and lug boxes, all for the price of a couple of pizzas. Just replace the packing and heavy lifting with business items and tasks.

Tip #4: Ask for Volunteers
In addition to friends and family, if you have an event coming up or a big project that you need help with, go to your mailing list and see if someone would volunteer. I get requests all the time to volunteer at seminars, trade shows and other events. People love to help out. You can return the volunteer favor for them down the line.

Here are a few other things you could offer:
Email your mailing list about their services.
Send some referral business without taking a referral fee.
Give them a free ticket or a copy of the items they are working on for you.

Tip #5: Buddy Up
You know what they say, two heads are better than one. Find a friend or colleague who also needs some help and create a buddy schedule. She works with you for a few hours a week; you work with her for a few hours a week. This is different from trading in that you are creating a long term relationship and regular schedule as opposed to a one-off project.

Tip #6: Use Delivery Services
Its a web world that we live in. Many business related companies are online and will ship to you. Instead of having to run to: Office supply stores like Office Depot or Staples; To a warehouse store like Costco or Sams Club; or To a printer like FedEx Kinkos, place your order online and have it shipped to you. Many places wont even charge you a shipping fee if you spend their minimum amount. How much time in running around would that save? And you can do it on your own schedule.

Tip #7: Use Personal Services
Again, time is money. If you are spending an entire day running to the cleaners, the market, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, etc., then you are using time that could be spent cultivating new clients, creating new programs, going to networking meetings, etc. Look into using services such as a house keeper, fluff and fold for your laundry or calling in a meal delivery service. Yes, this will cost a few dollars. Although, if you use that saved time to make follow-up calls that result in a new client, wouldnt it be worth it? Im not saying go out and live beyond your means with all kinds of fancy services. This only works if you take that saved time to perform revenue earning tasks, so be sure to use your time wisely.

Tip #8: Get an Intern
Get yourself a free intern. There is an entire group of people out there who are looking to get their feet wet in order to find out what its like to do what you do. Write up a quick ad about what you are looking for, what your company is all about and why it would be a great experience for someone to work side-by- side with you for a couple hours a week. This has to be a win/win for both you and the intern, so spend some time thinking about what this person could learn from you. There is a site called www.monstertrak.com. This is a site where open positions are advertised to college students. There is an entire section just for interns. Rates to post ads are very reasonable. Check it out.

Exerted from Easy Delegation for Entrepreneurs, You Have the Power Are You Using It? Want your own copy of this step-by-step guide to building and managing a team? Visit www.processprodigy.com/sponsorship.

C 2005 Beth Schneider. Want to reprint this article, feel free as long as you include the following: Beth Schneider, Chief Infopreneur of Process Prodigy, is a business process consultant who helps solo-entrepreneurs, small business owners and network marketers who want to systemize their business to increase profits, increase productivity and grow their business without having to give up the family oriented, flexible, balanced lifestyle they desire. Beth works one-on-one with her clients, offers home study courses, and teleclass boot camps. For more information visit www.processprodigy.com and sign up for your FR*EE 5-Step Process Starter Kit and FR*EE Process Tips.

Beth Schneider, Chief Infopreneur, uses her natural ability to create systems and motivate people, providing streamlined, effective and consistent processes and procedures.

The 4 Worst Things You Can Do As An Investor

Number one: don't stop reading. Too many investors see these common failures and simply brush past them, thinking "How could I possibly fall into the category of the average investor? I'm smarter than all of this; I can't be subject to these kinds of mistakes..."

...WRONG

More investments go sour from these different 'mistakes' than any other obstacle you'll face in your investing career. So please, do yourself a favor and keep reading. And keep an open mind too.

Number two is fear. There are two ends to the spectrum here so you have to find a middle ground. The most common is being afraid of cutting your losses. Don't stay in simply hoping it will get better, or you'll dig yourself a much deeper hole. What's worse is being afraid to make any mistakes at all. This has kept many of us from jumping into a sound investment. Just keep in mind that you won't be able to win if you're not even playing the game.

The second half of this is not fearing anything. Having that little voice of reason in your head can keep you from throwing away a lot of money. If this sounds like you, you're cure is risk management. Take the necessary precautions to set explicit limits as to when you get out of any investment, no matter the outcome. Follow the rules you set for yourself to keep your investing safe.

Next on the list: ignorance. I can't believe how eager people are to jump into the system and try to start making money without learning the game. You need to have a passion for learning everything in the market. By studying what you're up against and becoming knowledgeable about what you're doing specifically you'll have a far greater advantage than any other trader.

The big step: figure out what you do and don't know. It's harder than it sounds but by doing so you'll give yourself an honest approach to making yourself better.

Finally we come down to an investor's greatest enemy: greed. People are gullible...YOU are gullible. Too many people get sucked into the "miracle investment" that promises the amazing returns while hiding the major risks. Do your homework. If you take care of your professional ignorance above, greed should never get the best of you.

It's your money we're talking about here. You should be able to look at each investment objectively to ensure your financial safety. Armed with these easy techniques you'll be able to become a major player in the world of investing in no time.

Joe Harris provides all the proven stock market investing tools you need to succeed today, including investments in the gold market. For details visit his site:
Stock Investing

Forex Trading - Instantly Increase Your Profits With The 80 - 20 Rule

The 80 20 rule was not devised for Forex trading - however if you apply it in your trading, you'll instantly increase your profit potential. The rule is simple to understand and apply - and all Forex traders should use it.

So, what is the 80 20 rule, and why is it so powerful in terms of making Forex profits?

The Logic of the 80 20 Rule

In the nineteenth century, Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian philosopher, observed that a small section of the population held most of the money and power. He postulated that in most countries, 80% of the money and power was controlled by around 20% of the people. Therefore, 20% of the participants accounted for 80% of the results.

The 80 20 rule applies to many other areas of life - including Forex trading, and in simple terms, the key point to consider is this:

80% of your results will be generated by 20% of your efforts.

This also means that:

20% of your results will be generated by 80% of your efforts.

In Forex trading, its a fact that most traders make this critical error they trade too much - and try to force results by working too hard.

Heres what you need to do, to apply the 80 20 rule in Forex trading, and increase your results:

1. Cut out short term trading - like Forex day trading. In day trading, you trade frequently - but it simply doesnt work. This is because all short-term volatility is random - and you can never get the odds in your favor.

2. Only trade significant technical patterns - such as critical breaks of support and resistance, with your Forex trading system.

3. Risk more per trade on the good trades - up to 20% is OK. Remember, risk goes with reward - and you need to take meaningful calculated risks, when the odds are in your favor.

4. Dont diversify! Forex traders think this spreads risk, but all it does, is simply dilute profit.

In terms of your Forex trading strategy: Focusing on the above will make you more money but youll also reduce the effort you put in.

Shift your emphasis to long term trading - and only trade the best signals. By doing this, your workload - and the amount of time you need to spend on your Forex analysis will be reduced.

If you apply the 80 20 rule to your Forex trading in the above way, youll cut the effort you put in. Youll also increase the profits you make - and thats what all Forex traders want!

Cutting the Effort You Put In and Getting Bigger Rewards

Many people think that the more effort you put in, the better the results you obtain. This is true in many areas of life - but not Forex trading! Here you are paid for being right with your Forex trading signals - thats all.

Also, dont fall for the myth that the more you trade, the better your chance is of having Forex trading success. This is simply not true - because the big trades, with the best ratio of risk to reward dont come around that often.

Incorporate the 80 - 20 rule in your Forex trading strategy, and watch your profits soar.

Grab 5 FREE Trader PDF's and get the support you need to trade like a pro with our user-friendly multi-lingual learn forex trading Get up to date financial news, real-time market prices, tight pip spreads, built-in risk management system, and 24-hour professional support. Grab your FREE PDF's NOW:
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Forex Education Read This Before You Think Of Paying For It

There are plenty of people who will give you forex education at a price but you need to check a couple of essential facts to check the merit of their use to you in making profits.

Here are the two essential facts you need to check.

1. Is the vendor a trader or simply a writer?

If you are taking driving lessons you will at least want to know the person teaching you can drive and its the same if you are getting forex education.

Can the vendor trade and how successful are they?

Ask the question:

Do you trade and can I see your track record in real time of money you have made

You normally wont get one.

At best you will get a hypothetical one and there done with hindsight knowing the closing price so you wont see one that losses!

Of course, you may also get some testimonials of lucky trades. Dont accept them get at least a 2 year real time track record to show the merits of the advice.

2. When getting education make sure you get money back guarantee

Assuming you can find someone that has a track record then also check that you get a money back guarantee so that you can test the material.

I see a lot of e-books and education sold where really all the information is freely available on the net.

A lot of the forex education sold on the net is from traders who are simply writers and they rely on the copy to appeal to the greed of the buyer.

There is a lot of good forex education out there, but the vast majority is not worth the money so make sure that you do the above two checks and hopefully you will get some good education

Always remember this

At the end of the day the forex education you can get on the net that is free can help you become a professional trader.

In further articles in this series we will look at all the best free sources that can help you become a confident disciplined and successful trader.

MORE FREE BETTER TRADING INFO

On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader and to learn the basics of succesful forex trading methods visit our website at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

Forex Trading - Earn Bigger Profits Now By Applying the 80-20 Rule

The 80:20 rules applies in many spheres of life and if you know what it is and apply it in forex trading you will increase your profits dramatically. So lets take a look at what it is and specifically how to apply it to forex trading.

In the late nineteenth century an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto observed that, in his native country of Italy, a small group of people held nearly all the power, influence, and wealth.

Came to the conclusion that in most countries, about 80% of the wealth and power was controlled by about 20% of the population and he referred to this as:

Predictable imbalance, which became known as the 80:20 rule.

He concluded that in relation to an individuals effort:

20% of your effort or energy output will produce 80% of your income furthermore, 20% of your time will produce 80% of your work out put or income.

Does this apply to forex trading?

Yes it does and the lesson you can learn from the 80:20 rule is to work smart not hard. Concentrate your effort on the trades that have the best risk reward.

Cut The Number Of Trades You Do

Its a fact that most traders trade too much and execute trading signals to often, as they want to force the market to give profits, but of course profits cannot be forced.

The way to apply the 80:20 rule to currency trading is drop your frequency of trading. If you look at forex charts you will see that there are very few big trends each year but when they do occur they produce huge profits.

How do you spot them?

Here is a checklist

1. Look for valid resistance levels, that if broken are considered significant by the market.

2. Learn how to use a breakout methodology and go with breaks of these support and resistance levels.

3. To increase the odds even further make sure that you use momentum indicators to confirm that price momentum is supporting a break.

4. As you are trading less you can afford to risk more on these trades and increase profitability.

5. Dont trail stops to close and have a profit target that relates to the size of the break.

The above method will ensure you are trading a lot less and it could be as much as 80%, but your profitability will be increased.

Its a fact that most of the big profits are generated from trades that break from new market highs - NOT market lows.

So if you have been buying dips its time to re think your forex trading strategy.

Trading Less for More Profits

If you like excitement and the thrill of trading this strategy is not for you. The above strategy is all about making money and trading the trades with the best risk to reward which can yield triple digit annual gains.

If you have been trading and making marginal profits, apply the 80:20 rule to your trading, cut the frequency of trades and increase the profits!

GRAB 3 X FREE TRADER & FREE TRADER PROFITS NEWSLETTER

On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader including features, downloads and some critical FREE Trader PDF's and more FREE Forex Education visit our website at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

FOREX Education - The Best Way To Become a Profitable Trader

If you want to make money at FOREX trading you need FOREX education.

Most traders think they can buy an e-book from a vendor and make money, but the fact is there is better FOREX education you can get and a lot of it for free!

Lets take a look at the best FOREX education.

First things first

Forget all the gurus and mentors offering you unlimited riches if you buy their e-books.

Most of this material is either free on the net or is based on suspect logic, which means it doesnt work.

If you buy advice make sure the vendor has real time track record of success.

That gets rid of 99% of systems and courses!

Keep in mind most of these vendors make money from selling systems not trading them.

FREE Essential material

If you are trading FOREX you should trade a technical method and everything you need to know is available about technical analysis free on the net.

You need to know about indicators so pick some you like to confirm chart moves. If you are looking we suggest these ones as essential:

The stochastic, RSI, moving averages and Bollinger Bands.

Then learn how breakout methodology works and base your system around this.

You can read about them on the net and look at them on free chart services such as futuresource.com

Its easy to build a system that works and we have shown you in other articles how to do this.

Great Value Material

If you are going to buy FOREX education make sure you buy from people who have made money and there are some great books available that cost very little in your local bookstore or online.

Here are some good ones to look at.

Victor Sperandeo Trader Vic

Simply our favourite book.

Easy to read and packed with insight on everything from money management to trading a system. A true trading legend.

Jacob Bernstein

One of the great writers in our view on the psychology of trading markets.

Really gets into the mindset of successful traders and his books are always a very good read.

Market Wizards & The New Market Wizards Jack Schwager

These books interviewed a wide range of traders who can be considered legends.

Although they all trade differently they all have certain things in common.

This is a very inspiring and is packed with great insight into what makes a great trader.

Buy these books!

There are other books of course, but we like these, as there not only packed with great trading knowledge, there also easy to understand and fun to read.

You will be able to pick up these books for under $100 or so and there far better value than 99% of e-books sold and will give you a far better FOREX education.

Keep it simple

So get your system together from free material and then refine it with the above great books and you will be all set to approach FOREX trading with confidence and get on the road to consistent profits.

FREE ESSENTIAL TRADER PDF'S AND MUCH MORE

On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader including features, downloads and some great FREE Trading PDF's visit our website at http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

Forex Market Heats Up For The Individual Trader

There has been a plethora of new financial instruments coming on stream for individuals in recent years. A few provide more leverage than just buying and selling stocks. Among the most rewarding markets opening up to traders is the FOREX (Foreign Exchange Market).

Why? Money or currency is the ultimate commodity. Every time a company or government buys or sells products and services in a foreign country, they are subject to a foreign currency trade, the exchanging of one currency for another. May individuals and organizations also trade currencies for speculative purposes. In contrast to the worlds stock markets, foreign exchange (Forex) is traded without the constraints of a central physical exchange.

Transactions are instead conducted via telephone or online networks. With this transaction structure in place, the Foreign Exchange market has become by far the largest marketplace in the world. With all these currency transactions going on daily, it is no wonder that the foreign currency exchange market (known as Forex or FX market) is the largest financial market in the world. It is much bigger than all the US Stock markets combined with a daily trading volume larger than that of all the worlds stock markets put together!

In addition, it is the least regulated market providing the greatest liquidity to investors. Trillions of dollars of foreign exchange activity takes place very day. From 1997 to 2000, daily Forex trading volume surged from US$5 billion to US$20Trlllion. The Forex market continues to grow at a phenomenal rate. This high volume is advantageous from trading standpoint because transactions can be executed quickly (with minimal slippage) and with low transaction costs. (Small bid/ask spread).

Before the Internet, only corporations and wealthy individuals could trade currencies in the Forex market through the use of proprietary trading systems of banks, often through private banking.

These systems required about $1Million to open an account. Thanks to the proliferation of the internet, today self directed investors with only a few thousand dollars and smaller financial firms can have access to the forex market 24 hours a day with the same liquidity as larger market participants.

For traders, Forex trading provides an alternative to the stock market trading. Whilst there are thousands of stocks to choose from, there are only a few major currencies to trade (Dollar, Yen, British Pound, Swiss franc and the Euro are the most popular). Forex trading also provides a lot more leverage than stock trading and the minimum investment to get started is a low lower. In addition, you have the ability to choose flexible trading hours (Forex trading goes on 24 hours a day!) and lower margin requirements.

As a result, foreign exchange trading has long been recognized as a staple and superior investment vehicle by central banks, major banks, multinational corporations (MNC), individual investors and speculators, institutional funds and hedge funds.

Trading or speculation makes up 95% of the daily volume. The other 5% of daily volume consists of governments and commercial companies converting one currency into another from buying and selling goods and services. The other 5% of daily volume consists of governments and commercial companies converting one currency into another from buying and selling goods and services.

More individual traders are jumping on this Forex Market bandwagon as it opens up opportunities to trade a global market on a flexible schedule and low barrier of entry.

Alvin has been an active investor in the equity , derivative and forex market. Get more articles and resources he has compiled at http://www.oneminuteforexinvestor.com