Friday, December 18, 2009

The Secrets Behind Automated Forex Trading Systems

By John Adams

Forex market is a continuous and simultaneous trading that occurs in the globally. It does not only happen in the United States and Europe, different country's currency and money worldwide is being brought and sold. In Forex trading, the investor profits from the movements of foreign currency. Now, if it is done in real time, it is said that the profits could increase. This is the intention of having an automated Forex trading technology.

Using this kind of automated Forex trading system would be ideal for traders who are really interested in trading but could not face it due to tome constraints and other restrictions. As automated trading progresses, it is obvious that manual and hands-on trading is being gradually removed in the process.

How does this system work? Automated Forex trading systems is also called an algorithmic trading. It uses computer programs and computer algorithms to make and enter orders based on different aspects like time and price. Algorithmic trading can also be called black-box trading or robo trading. Automated trading is now becoming popular not only in Forex trade. During 2006, one -third of the United States and European Union stock market were already using automated trading programs. In automated trading, everything happens very fast. Changes in the Forex market could happen in just a matter of milliseconds. So it is important to get and understand the trading signals quickly so that a trading opportunity will not be missed.

Demo accounts are important. Do not shove them aside. Remember to test the program first with a demo account before you use your real and actual account. Of course, testimonials and comments would say that the product is awesome and perfect, but do not rely on it too much. Try doing some research and information-gathering about your program. Internet connection could affect how your system works. If you are experiencing any problems with the bandwidth, it could affect on how the signals are being detected and interpreted. Support is essential. Make sure that there are online and even phone support offered to users and traders that would make sure that any issues about the program would be immediately addressed.

If you have seen a Forex robot in the market or in the internet that you are interested in buying, make sure that it is up to date. You do not want to have an outdated robot that could not provide accurate information. Clues if it's the most recent are in the version history and how often the websites get updated.

Achieving this far in Forex trading is not a sign that it is slowing down. Automated Forex trading is still finding means to improve its system and software. Continuous computer and technological development enables automated Forex trading system to have a wide array of features. Traders were able to trade with different currencies and different markets, regardless of time and location. For example, you can do some business with someone half-way across the globe even if it is 2 o'clock in the morning in their location. Another thing that is still undergoing some development to have suave operation, would be the settlement or the payment process. As long as computer and technology develops, automated Forex trading or any algorithmic trading system would continue to evolve and beat itself. - 23309

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What Renovations To Do Primarily When Rehabbing Investment Properties

By Gavin J. King

Taking the first step, they say, is always the heaviest. But once you get the hang of it, once the momentum is there, the remaining steps will be lighter and easier. This is not an uncommon problem among people who rehabilitate homes. Most of those who are inexperienced scratch their heads on what to do first. Developing a construction manifest will help you schedule your rehab stages in a logical and methodical plan. Just to help you get started on developing your own rehab manifest, here is a short list of places you may consider starting from.

Establishing a well planned series of repairs, with acceptable time goals will help you out. Always use a realistic deadline for specific items and projects to be completed. Will the repairs and improvement be completed in three weeks? A week? Once this time-line is understood, make an effort to finish the project before or on the deadline.

Now you can start the demo. During this phase you will be removing any undesirable components of the home. You take out anything that can hinder you and your team from properly rehabbing that house. This can be as simple as carpets and padding to removing lathe and plaster. You can consider changing out old windows for modern vinyl models. There are plenty of refurbish stores that will gladly resell your materials to people who may need them. The money can always go toward something in your own project. Putting down a new layer of paint is another thing you may want to consider.

Now, on to the bigger types of issues. Remember, rehabbing houses means you are operating with a tight budget. Keeping a list that tracks your most important repairs and accounts for them first will help you stay on budget. Always remember to pull building permits while fixing anything structural. After that you focus on the obvious cosmetic repairs. Anything to do with any substance or material that directly support the roof is considered a structural repair.

The HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) will be carried out next. Followed by any necessary electrical and plumbing changes you plan on implementing. Cosmetic repairs or beautifying improvements will follow. Cosmetic changes may include updating light fixtures, new mop boards and any repainting that needs to be done. - 23309

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How to do Stock Trend Analysis

By Brian Berry

I can recall pretty well what it was like trying to get started with Stock Trend Analysis. The learning curve was painful at times. It seems regardless of what I found out, I didn't understand quite enough to apply it. Over time with some real tenacity I became good at enough to begin netting some real money in the stock market.

My own challenge to gaining skill was there are so many well meaning people willing to extend advice and so many resources online for technical descriptions of assorted indicators, but nothing I picked up seemed to help me realize how all these indicator definitions and macroeconomic data fit together to build a whole understanding of technical trading. I I can save you some time and lots of frustration with this convenient little guide.

An overview of technical analysis.

I imagine if you are interested in technical analysis sufficiency to read this far, you are already familiar with how the stock market functions and how to purchase and trade stocks. I hope so because it is a requirement. Bear in mind this is an casual overview of the learning path many traders, myself included have taken to understand Technical Analysis.

Technical Analysis - Fundamental Topics. What is Technical Analysis? For the unaware, there are two leading sorts of Stock Analysis.

Technical and Fundamental Analysis Although the two are not contradictory, traders tend to favor one over the other. Fundamental Analysis looks at a company s assets, debt, earnings and cash flow. It gives the analyst a clear characterization of a company's health. When an analysis of one company is equated to its equals (groups of companies in the same business) it presents hints about possible failings and strengths of the company. Its also usable in assessing a company's overall prospects for growth.

Technical Analysis looks to take advantage of the mass knowledge of open market participants (other traders) who are by-and-large Fundamental Analysts. Technical Analysis is at its heart an analysis of supply and demand. So, lets discover precisely how Technical Analysts use the market as their guide on trading markets.

A Simplistic Technical Analysis Example: Price Speaks Volumes Initially, recognize that Price and Volume are both technical indicators. Price being of course the cardinal indicator over any other. Each time a stock price moves up it bespeaks a vote of confidence by all participants. Sellers stood firm for a higher price than the prevailing rate and buyers stepped in and purchased at that price anyway. Sellers holding firm for more money while buyers step in to pay the difference between the market and asking price demonstrates market optimism.

Volume is the amount of shares traded over time. Technical traders look at price and volume together to estimate how optimistic or bearish buyers and sellers are and possibly are becoming. An increase in volume across a given time-frame indicates increasing involvement and hence conviction that prices will go on to travel in the ongoing direction. Whereas, when volume starts to decline it is an indicator that market participants are losing their strong belief that prices will remain in their current direction.

When volume is increasing along with prices, players anticipate prices to continue to go up. Technical traders speculate that prices will increase as long as volume is stronger than average. If prices continue to mount while at the same time volume begins to flatten out, the participants are voting with fewer shares. This circumstance is a variety of technical breakdown.

Typical Volume Based Price Breakdown. One more phenomenon to think about is that once price direction varies, volume may begin to increase, once again supporting the conviction of market players of the new price direction. When an indicator such as volume starts to jibe with the price direction, this is known as a kind of price confirmation.

Technical Analysis Indicators Aside from the simple indicators of price and volume, there are countless indicators and more are produced every day. An indicator can frequently be something as casual as a moving average or far more complex. As you've learned already, indicators are an pivotal part of understanding and anticipating market activity. All technical analysis indicators fit two clear families.

It is important to observe that market circumstances dictate which form you will use, but never ignore price. Indicators are forecasters, but price speaks volumes, only prices are reality.

Leading indicators are applied in sideways markets. Leading indicators react before price does. Most leading indicators seek to register shifts in the strength or force of price movement, or momentum. Leading indicators are useful to help traders anticipate price moves because they can express the strength or weakness of prices at their current level. Leading indicators do not do well as buy/sell indicators in steadily trending markets (up or down) because they indicate changes in momentum. They do well in biased markets and give traders accurate signals about when to buy or sell.

Some usable leading indicators include Momentum, Stochastic and the Relative Strength Indicator (RSI). The RSI (leading indicator flags the overbought condition).

Lagging Indicators / Trend Following Indicators Use in trending markets (moving up / moving down).

Lagging indicators follow price movements. A moving average is a simplified kind of lagging indicator. Lagging indicators are frequently employed when the markets are in a very solid trend. They quickly show traders the average direction of a stock price. They can send misleading signals in markets that are trading at parity / propelling sideways. Their foremost use is in trending markets because they can distinctly show traders when to enter and how long to remain.

The most popular lagging Indicators include Moving Average, Exponential Moving Average and Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) The moving average is a Trend Following Indicator.

Technical Analysis Understanding time frames. In Technical Analysis, indicators are meaningless without understanding them in the setting of time. Indicators, leading and lagging both use time and price as the very basis of any formula. It may help to think of time frames as magnification of detail. If you view a one year weekly chart and zoom into a one year daily chart, you are immediately aware that you can see price action in deeper detail. Also traveling from a one year daily chart to a three month daily chart gives even greater detail of the price activity.

More about time frames in technical analysis: Watching multiple time frames exposes greater detail.

What kind of trader are you? Do you buy into a trade and then watch impatiently at every tick in the stock price? Or are you more of a set it and forget it kind of trader who monitors the price every few days or weeks? Maybe your style is somewhere in between? Why is this critical and what does it have to do with time-frames? read on.

The Day Trader Day Traders speedily buy and sell stocks multiple times a day to attempt to seal in quick profits. The Day Trader examines chart patterns and indicators which may span only a few hours or even a few minutes. Day trading is a speculative job where great amounts are realized or lost in mere seconds. Day Traders pay precise attention to tick-by-tick price information as it comes out on their screen in real time.

Under FINRA and NYSE rules, a trader once flagged and classified as a pattern day trader, must keep up a $25,000 account balance must obtain a margin account. For more info on day trading refer to the FINRA Notice to Members and the NYSE Information Memo.

The Active Trader - Momentum Trader Although there is no standard definition as with the Day Trader, the Active Trader looks for trends that span from a few months to as little as a few days. A typical trade for an Active Trader trader can be really brief, maybe a day or may last for many months as long as the on-going trend is intact.

Active Trader Strategy - The Swing Trader Although the strategy used by the swing trader is very similar to that of the Active Trader, the central deviation is that the swing trader looks to maximize profits by capitalizing of the natural downturns in an overall upward trending stock. The Swing Trader cycles in and out of the trade repeatedly until the general trend weakens before making a last exit. Swing traders must observe the price activity more often than the active momentum trader since the swing trade requires frequent attention. - 23309

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System Rules - ETF Trading System For Beginners

By Patrick Deaton

As you start looking at systems, strategies, and methods, you're going to look for the one that will best meet your needs. There are some traders that don't feel an ETF trading system is necessary, they begin trading without any real strategy or plan and shoot from the hip on most of their trades. So, you might wonder if you need a system at all.

Michael Eckhardt and Richard Dennis wanted to answer the question of whether a person could learn ETF trading, and succeed, using a simple system. Their experiment, in'83 proved that anyone can learn to trade successfully if they follow the rules of a system and act on them accordingly.

This experiment was very informative. The structure of an ETF trading system lies in the rules of the system. Step A moves to Step B, etc. Most systems are very simple and have the same rules for entry, what the trader needs to follow, and exit.

Trend following and vector rotation are also a big part of most ETF trading systems. When an effective system is used consistently it normally will show the expected gains. However, if a person is not inclined to follow the rules of the system the results will be variable and usually result in losses.

Since the study was done in '83, there have been many hybrids of the Turtle ETF trading system introduced. As with any system, this one also had some flaws that were discovered over time. However, the people using this system saw average annual returns of up to 80%. Those were the people that followed the rules of the system carefully. The people who didn't follow the rules of the system saw losses or no return.

The system that you select will give you a structured set of rules that, when combined with your strategy, will help you to gain entry when the trend is first starting and exit when the trend starts to move. An important part of a systems effectiveness is using it with the right ETFs.

The pairing of systems with strategies can provide the kind of results that a trader is looking for. Matching an effective ETF trading system with an effective strategy will require that a person do some research on the consistency of both system and strategy when paired with particular sectors.

Researching and understanding the system completely will also be very helpful. If you know the history of a system and what the consistent effectiveness of a system is, you can set realistic goals based on those facts. When a system is said to be extremely effective and turns out to have inconsistent effectiveness, you will know that this may not be the place to allocate most of your resources.

Traders and professional are an invaluable resource. Finding out what ETF trading system works well in a particular sector can save time and money. By discussing the different elements of a system it is possible to learn about, a prepare for, the flaws in that system. Finding the system that most closely matches your personal trading style will also help you to create a winning system and strategy when you begin trading. - 23309

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Understanding What Makes Up An ETF Trading System

By Patrick Deaton

Understanding what makes up an ETF trading system will be necessary for those who are considering participating in trading through an exchange traded fund. These funds can be a great way to invest in the markets and, if one has some smarts, some patience and even a bit of daring make a good income. Remember, though, this is just like any other investment in the markets and that it could be lost.

Think of exchange traded funds as being similar to mutual funds in how they are set up, but they're also similar to stocks in the way they are bought and sold and traded. The advantage to investing through an exchange traded fund is that the costs involved are generally low and they are very efficient from a tax perspective. It's easy to keep track of all your activity, in other words.

Most of the time, ETF's restrict membership in them, if one wants to call it that, to authorized participants. In this case, "authorized participants" generally means large institutional investors only. ETF's also require trading be done in what is known in the industry as "creation units." These are huge blocks of stocks. No small investor can come close to meeting those requirements.

These trading systems -- and there are numerous versions of them on the Internet -- have been set up as a way to allow small investors with a small amount of what the trading systems call "starting capital" (this is usually around several thousand dollars) to get involved in the daily trading activities (called a "trading day") of the ETF and the trading system.

Most exchange traded funds track one of the major indexes that allow investors to get a gauge on the market or markets that these investors are interested in participating in. For example, many ETF's track the Standard & Poor's 500, which is one of the major indexes that investors watch on a daily -- or even minute by minute -- basis.

ETF trading systems are set up with a number of rules that help investors participating in the trading system regulate their daily trading. There are a number of different ways in which ETF trading systems will set up their operations to allow investors to track markets and then make money on jumping in and out of the funds and the markets that are being tracked. Trend following is one way.

As far as one of the most common ways these ETF trading systems operate, it's a fair bet to say that following trends in the market is probably the most popular. Investors participating in the trading system can gauge market movements (called trends) and jump in and out, making their money on the margins or on movements. Usually, trading systems require investors to settle by the end of the day.

An ETF trading system can be a great way for people who don't have the time to spend all day buying, selling and trading assets. Usually, the starting capital requirements are very reasonable and there are a great many trading systems out there and tutorials for trading systems that can teach a person how to engage in ETF trading with little to no stress involved. - 23309

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