Killer Forex Strategy: Three Ways to Become a Forex Trading Machine
By: Maverick Investor | Posted: 11th February 2008
There are a small number of 'amateur' foreign exchange traders who keep a very low profile, but live a fantastic lifestyle. They travel the world as they wish, taking holiday after holiday, spending time with their loved ones, and funding it all from a continuous succession of profitable forex trades.
Sadly, for most people, it's really not that easy.
Here's a frightening fact: nearly 50% of foreign exchange traders lose money to the point where they have to stop trading altogether, and go and do something less risky instead.
If you're trading currencies right now, or you're thinking about starting, then you have a 1-in-2 chance of losing your trading pot.
They're not very good odds, are they?
I've been trading currencies for over twenty years, on and off, and mostly without great success. When I heard that nearly half of all traders lose their money in the forex markets, I seriously considered giving up myself!
The one thing that kept me going through the dark days was knowing that the foreign exchange trading software, now available to the individual trader for a modest investment, or even for no investment at all, are all much better than the software that professional City forex firms were paying many thousands a year for only a decade ago.
I reckoned that the quality of the trading software tools available to us would continue to go up over time, and prices would continue to come down. And one day, we'd have access to some of the best foreign exchange software at silly prices!
I believe that day has now dawned.
As individual foreign currency traders, we now have three options open to us that enable us to "play with the big boys" - and play to win.
Option 1 - Pay For Trade Signals
There are plenty of companies and 'expert' individuals out there who will deliver trade signals to you by phone, SMS or email. I've used a couple of them myself, and they can be pretty good.
Just so we're all clear, trade signals basically come from the market. They are either fundamental (good farm payroll numbers, an interest rate change and so on) or they are technical, from patterns forming on the charts, or a combination of the two.
There are literally hundreds of different signals to choose from, and a service should pass on to you only those they think have the highest probability of creating a profit. By the time you get a trade signal, though, it will simply tell you the currency pair, whether it's a Buy or a Sell, and some idea of stop-loss and profit-take levels.
The problem in this system lies in the information being delivered at the right time, and you being on hand to act upon it. The other problem is cost - some of the better ones will charge you several hundred dollars a month for their service. Of course, this adds to the pressure on your trading account, as you have to make the cost of the FX signal service back before you start to make any money for yourself.
Option 2 - A Managed Forex Account
Here, you hand over your trading capital to a professional forex trading company who will trade for you in the markets.
There are several advantages to this route...
* You are hiring a team of full-time professionals to trade on your behalf
* No matter how good your trading software might be, theirs will be even better!
* You need spend no time at all staring at screens and analysing charts
* If you find a good team, it can work out very profitable for you.
However, there are fees to be taken into consideration. Generally, you will be charged a yearly management fee of between 1% and 3% of your trading capital, and a performance fee (usually charged quarterly) of between 10% and 35% of any profit made.
(If the performance fee seems high to you, think of it this way. Your team of foreign currency traders are trading currencies for a living, and you are benefiting from their expertise. Plus, if they charge you 25% of profits, you're still getting 75% of a sum that would not otherwise have been made. And, last but not least, a performance fee will motivate the team to do well for you - and that's what you want!)
The downside, for me at least, is the lack of control. I get a real buzz from trading, and I don't want to lose that by handing over my trading capital to a professional team.
You'll also need at least $10,000, probably nearer $50,000, in order to get started with a managed account.
Option 3 - Generate Your Own Trade Signals
Years ago, this meant pouring over yesterday's paper charts (for which you had to pay a small fortune to get!) with pencil, ruler, and a stack of charts going back several months.
Nowadays, all that can be done with a good paid charting service such as eSignal, or even for free with BigCharts.
However, it still takes time, and you still need to know what you're looking for, and it takes further time to build up a skill and an affinity with charts before you start making consistent, profitable trades. (And that's if you're in the lucky 50% of traders!)
Recently, a new solution came onto the market that takes away the potentially expensive learning curve, and all this time-consuming analysis, and basically does it all for you.
This is the option I like! Here's how it works.
Step 1 - you simply download a piece of stand-alone software. This is what will generate the trade signals for you.
Step 2 - you feed it the latest data from the market you want to trade. All you need to do is take data from your online trading platform (and it doesn't matter which one you use) and feed it into the software.
Step 3 - if it brings back a trade signal, you trade it (or 'paper trade' it if you want to test it first)
Step 4 - your profit-taking limit is hit, and you bank the profits!
Does this sound a bit too good to be true? Well, let me give you a bit of background.
First off, the guy behind this incredible trade signal generator is a very successful trader in his own right, who used to work for a major international bank, and who now makes thousands of dollars a day using this self-same software. A behavioural psychologist and a mathematics professor helped him in developing this trading tool.
Second, last year he took $100,000 and turned it into $641,147 in just two months, using his forex trade signal generator! Don't see this as typical, of course, but it serves as a fine demonstration of what is possible using these trading signals.
Happily, you don't need $100,000 to get started! You can open a forex trading account with as little as $500 but, realistically, you'd want to start with between $2,000 and $5,000 of trading capital.
You also don't need experience. The software is easy to use for anyone from a complete novice to a seasoned trader. It comes with full support, an accompanying manual, plus a lifetime of free upgrades, as and when they happen.
So there you have it - three ways to significantly increase your profits from forex trading. The quality of paid-for signals varies enormously, depending on the skills and abilities of the person or group supplying them. If you get a good management team in place, they should be looking to deliver around 5% per MONTH on your money (though you must understand the accompanying risks, too).
Using the software in Option 3 - well, you've seen the results the creator had over a 2-month period. No one can guarantee you'll see the same, of course, but it is an extremely fine track record! If you were able to get results that are even half as good, wouldn't you be delighted?
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Owning one of the best forex trading software on the market allows you to place trades with confidence, and profit regularly and consistently. Check it out today!
About the Author
Occupation: Maverick Investor
Rob Best is a writer, researcher and Maverick Investor in the areas of real estate and stocks. He lives in Northumberland, in the UK, with his wife their and Little Boy.
http://www.maverick-investor.com
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Tags: big boys, spending time, twenty years, currencies, foreign currency, forex markets, option 1, succession, currency traders, foreign exchange trading, holiday spending, low profile, dark days, foreign exchange traders