The Top 5 Forex Trading Web Communities

Traders speculate on international currency values before exchanging currencies on the Forex market – the world’s foreign currency exchange.
Traders use Forex web communities to share useful tools and insights before trading.
Read on for more on currency trading and the top 5 Forex web communities.

What is Forex?
Forex is the world’s foreign exchange market. Open 24/7, Forex is also the world’s most traded market.
Who trades on Forex?
Banks, businesses and individuals each trade and exchange currency on the Forex market after speculating on international currency values.
What are Forex trading web communities?
Forex trading web communities are online resources utilised by many currency traders.
Forex web communities are typically used by traders to share useful tools, news and insights. Many web communities provide a source of breaking currency market news, or areas in which traders can engage with one another and share the benefit of their experience trading currency on the Forex market.
Why use a Forex trading web community?
• Many Forex trading web communities feature breaking currency news and RSS feeds, meaning members can speculate and profit from using the latest market information
• Some Forex trading web communities feature informative webinars, blog posts, tutorials and support forums, which can help new traders get a handle on Forex trading
• Some Forex trading web communities also have helpful calendars detailing events and workshops which might be of interest to traders
• Traders of all experiences can communicate using Forex trading web communities to share information and best practices
The top 5 Forex web trading communities:
1. Forex Magnates
2. FX Street
3. Forex Factory
4. Forex Pros
5. Mataf.net
A closer look at the top 5 Forex web trading communities:
1. Forex Magnates
The Forex Magnates web trading community appeals mostly to experienced online traders. The community features news, RSS feeds, Twitter updates and free webinars targeted to trades, brokers and software developers.
2. FX Street
The FX Street web trading community features news, webinars, broker-specific items, advice on currency market trends, platform comparison services and more. FX Street, however, is not impartial and is linked to the Forex platform GFT.
3. Forex Factory
The Forex Factory web trading community is aimed towards traders of all experience, with forums, market insights, news and an industry events calendar.
4. Forex Pros
The Forex Pros web community features charts, technical advice, news, tools and forums. Over 8,000 traders contribute to Forex Pros’ forums and users can initiate private messaging when discussing Forex, stocks and spread betting with other traders.
5. Mataf.net
The Mataf Forex web community caters to traders of all experience levels, and features news, market analysis, shared tools, forums and a currency convertor.
Using a Forex trading web community:
While Forex trading web communities can be viewed as a valuable currency trading resource, traders are advised to use trading web communities alongside accredited Forex trading platforms and services, which provide market analysis, charting and industry news

Who Wants a Simple Forex Strategy?

This is a guest post by Mark Richard
So you just want a simple Forex strategy to trade? Okay, let’s see what we can do…
Firstly, you want to get the probabilities in your favour; this means making sure you’re trading WITH the trend. Yes, I know, you’ve heard it before – but it’s true; trading with the trend will increase the probabilities for you.
The first thing we do is place two moving averages on the chart. The first moving average is a 50 Period Exponential Moving Average of the Highs; and the second is the same, a 50 EMA, but this time of the Lows.
You should have something that looks like this:


Now, we add another Moving Average, this time it’s a 15 EMA of the Close:

Now, there is an indicator for Metatrader4™ to download with this article (you should find it at the end) called ‘QFF-MACDv1.ex4’. Leave the default setting on this indicator. Once you drag it on your chart should look like this:

The first rule is:
We only BUY when the 15-EMA is ABOVE the 50-EMAs.
We only SELL when the 15-EMA is BELOW the 50-EMAs.
This chart should help give you a better idea:

The second rule is:
We only BUY when the MACD bars are green.
We only SELL when the MACD bars are red.
Here’s a chart of how this rule works:

Combining the first and second rules we are almost there with our strategy:

Although very simple, the core of the moving averages is just to keep you on the right side of the market; In other words, the side that is with the trend.
The specific entry:
(for a BUY) – If any part of a candle is BELOW the 15-EMA and that candle CLOSES ABOVE the 15-EMA… we BUY when the HIGH of that candle is broken by a few pips.
(for a SELL) – If any part of a candle is ABOVE the 15-EMA and that candle CLOSES BELOW the 15-EMA… we SELL when the LOW of that candle is broken by a few pips.
Here’s a trade to show a typical setup:

Now, this is just an article, I don’t really have time go into every detail; I just wanted to give you an idea of a way get probabilities on our side with a solid strategy.
I’m not going to go into exits for this strategy. I recommend you take a look back through your charts with this strategy – I’m sure you’ll like what you see.
One last thing – yes, it can be traded on any timeframe.
Download the ‘QFF-MACDv1.ex4′ indicator.
Mark Richard is the developer of the Quick Fix Forex™ system. Quick Fix Forex™ is based on the same logic and principles as the above strategy but is a lot more detailed and powerful. Learn more about Quick Fix Forex™ here.

Things You Never Knew About Forex Success

This is a guest post by Mark Richard, the creator of the simple, easy and powerful Quick Fix Forex™ system.
It’s funny how, in this crazy world of Forex; success seems so close… yet so far away. Do you get frustrated why you buy a Forex system – and it seems like a “re-hash” of something you’ve seen before?
Well, if I may ask you a question… What are you expecting in a “new” Forex system?
Are you expecting some revolutionary, latest-technology, never-before-seen system like you’ve never seen before?
If so, then you may have a long time to wait before you finally start getting success in Forex.

Here’s a shocking secret that no one tells you:

The principles, concepts and strategies that MAKE MONEY in Forex are almost all “dull”, “boring” and “old”.

It’s absolutely true! Why do you think you keep hearing about “trading with the trend”? Because it increases the probability of any trade you take working out.
Did the last system you checked out look like all it did was trade pullbacks in a trend? Well, you know, trading a pullback (as opposed to a breakout) increases the probabilities again. There’s a reason that the systems you’ve seen before trade pullbacks into trends – it’s because that’s what works!
But perhaps there is something else missing; if you’ve traded a system like this – but still don’t have the Forex trading success you desire. Okay, I can’t tell if the system you’re trading is solid or not (hopefully what I’ve written so far should help you figure out if it is or not), but there is a good chance that your lack of success stems from one or both of the following:
#1 – Not trading the system for long enough.
If you’re trading a system, and it does not go well in the first week, do you stop trading it? You have to give a system a chance. In trading, having a bad week (no matter how good the system), if to be expected!. Trade on demo for a while if you’re not totally comfortable with a system at the start.
#2 – Not Having Strict Rules
Even with a system that only trades pullbacks in a trend; you’ll still get more trade setups that you know what to do with. Every pullback is different; some are higher-probability than others. Taking every pullback is a route to the poor-house!
You need to make sure you’re filtering out the less good trade setups with a strict set of rules. Take a look back at your previous systems. Can you see if they have the attributes of a solid system? Perhaps that system you bought last year is actually a money-maker – just waiting for you to trade it!
Mark Richard is the creator of the simple, easy and powerful Quick Fix Forex™ system. Mark has used his years of experience in the Forex markets to develop a step-by-step system that anyone can trade. Check out Quick Fix Forex™ here.

The Simple 20/20 Channel Breakout System That Made Many Millionaires

This is a guest post by Ahmad Hassam

20/20 Channel Breakout Trading System is a simple system that was first suggested by Richard Donchian. Richard Donchian is considered to be a pioneer of technical analysis. He was the first person to talk about channel breakouts. He suggested a 4 week rule for trading channel breakouts. It was Richard Dennis who used this channel breakout trading system extensively and made a fortune in the commodities market.

Amazingly, Richard started with only $450 and in the next few years made a fortune of around $150 million trading mostly channel breakouts. Trading Channel Breakouts is a proven and tested trading strategy that has made many millionaires and should be the most important part of your trading toolkit. This system lets you catch the big moves in the market.
This 20/20 Channel Breakout System is the basic part of the Turtle Trading System that Richard Dennis gave to his Turtles. Many turtles also made millions trading with this simply 20/20 system. So, let’s go into the details of this 20/20 System.
20/20 means 20 day high and 20 day low. Richard Donchian had suggested the 4 week rule for trading channel breakouts. 4 weeks translate into 20 days. So, this is how this system works! Every day, find the 20 day high and the 20 day low on the currency pair that you want to trade. Place a buy order just above the 20 day high and a sell order just below the 20 day low. Check again the next day. If the entry orders have not been filled, again find the new 20 day high and the new 20 day low and replace the previous entry orders with new entry orders. Do it every day till the entry orders get filled.
Suppose, you find the buy order filled. The sell order on the other extreme of the 20 day channel will work as your stop loss. Add one more sell order at this level. The first sell order will take you out of the long trade when this price level is hit and the second entry order will make you go short at this price level. In case of a short entry, the buy order will become the stop loss and you will need to place another buy order. So, if you are short, the first order will take you out when that price level is hit and the second order will make you go long.
This is how classic channel breakout works, you go long and short.
This 20/20 Channel Breakout System still works but over the years some improvements have been made like instead of 20/20 some use the 55/22 Channel Breakout System in which you enter on the 55 day high and exit on the 20 day low. You can practice this 20/20 Channel Breakout Strategy on your demo account and see how it works.

5 Trading Myths Busted

In recent years, as Forex has become more popular, a mythology has sprung up around the foreign exchange markets, mostly propagated by people who don’t really understand what they’re talking about ­ or worse, do understand what they’re talking about and deliberately mislead people. Here are a few of the popular myths busted.

A Successful Strategy is a Complicated One
Whilst it’s true that forex markets are complicated and at any one moment thousands of variables are in play, you don’t have to have a complicated strategy to succeed. Many successful traders use simple, old strategies and make consistent profits…the key is not so much the strategy, but being disciplined and having good money management.
To Make Money with Forex You Have to Predict the Future
This is an overly scientific approach to the markets, there is no way of telling what is going to happen next, so don’t get hung up about predicting the future. The key is to work out a strategy and stick to it, every strategy will give you incorrect signals, the difference between a good strategy and a bad one is simply that a good one will give you a lower percentage of incorrect signals.
If You Can Make Money on the Stock Market You Can in Forex
Whilst the graphs sometimes look the same, and you can often use similar analytical tools, it does not follow that if you are good with stocks you’ll be good with Forex trading. The key to both types of trading is knowing your markets, and quite simply, whilst knowledge in stocks might give you a broad background, it doesn’t teach you to deal with 24 hour stock patterns.
I Can Make Profit Whenever I Want Because Forex is 24 hours a Day
Whilst the markets are open all the time, experienced traders will tell you that you’re only likely to make a profit in certain, broad, windows. Whilst you might know a lot about how the markets react during western trading hours, there’s an entirely different set of factors at play when the eastern markets are in full swing, so it’s best to restrict yourself to smaller windows and learn how these react in certain situations.
I Need A Lot of Money to Trade Forex
Forex trading is almost always leveraged in some fashion, so you can trade with very small amounts of capital and get good returns. Of course, this means you can make significant losses without a lot of exposure, but that’s the risk you take when getting involved in forex trading. A large amount of capital is not required.
There are hundreds of other myths around Forex and the more you trade Forex, the more you’ll encounter them. Remember that the most important parts of Forex trading are: money management, discipline, and keeping a cool head. Everything else is superfluous.

What Makes a Successful Forex Trader?

This is a guest post by Harry Brown

There are many components that make up a successful Forex trader. Though certain individuals may showcase a particular talent for currency trading, anybody can become a successful Forex trader if they work hard and let reason guide all their transactions. There is much to gain from the high liquidity of the Forex market, but traders who behave irresponsibly will almost certainly suffer losses.

To begin, it is essential for Forex traders to set barriers for themselves prior to entering the market. If you wish to gain success from the Forex market, it is important to have an understanding of your risk profile and to know exactly how much capital you are willing to leverage. Consistency is a common trait of successful Forex traders who showcase incredible self-discipline and firmly stick to the parameters they set for themselves. For example, many Forex traders don’t allow themselves to risk more than 1 or 2 per cent of their capital on a single transaction. Traders create such barriers to protect themselves so that, no matter how bad a trade may go, they can survive to trade another day.
In addition, successful Forex traders make reason-based transactions rather than letting their emotions control their behaviour. Even when an opportunity looks particularly lucrative, traders must logically analyse whether or not they can afford the risk involved in such a transaction. It is very rare that a successful trader makes a transaction based on a gut reaction. You can also apply this logical approach after the trade has been made. If a trade does not go in the direction you predicted, it is important not to negate responsibility for those losses, but to use them as a learning experience. The most successful traders own up to their failings and don’t make rash decisions based on anger or stress.
Finally, successful Forex traders engage in close-up market analysis but keep an eye on the bigger picture, taking note of everything from small chart patterns to larger economic trends. To be a successful trader it takes a keen awareness of specific markets as well as an understanding of the wider economy. Staying informed and up-to-date on global news and finance trends is essential. Successful traders make good use of resources, such as economic calendars, books about Forex trading and money management spreadsheets.
Thus, anybody with a strong work ethic and a logical attitude can find success in the forex market. Successful traders are consistent, reasonable and never stop striving to be better.

Trade Forex as a Business

So you want to earn lots of money and become amazingly wealthy. You have heard the rumours about Forex trading $3 trillion DAILY, and you figure you want a piece of that, just a little bit as you are not greedy…
So you now go out and buy the latest crazes of an EA, one copies the trades of a real life trader, and the other is the best EA on the market that shows that the creator (who used to work as a bin man, and now codes EA’s and buys the latest sports cars etc) turned a measly $100 to earning $56,637 per month stress free…

So you sit back and watch that investment of yours turn into zero over the course of a matter of days….
You wonder what could have gone wrong? Surely it could not have been your fault… after all, you were not making the trades… it must have been the software… of course it was!
Except what really went wrong, is that you fell for (yet another) marketing ploy.
Forex is a highly complex beast that requires attention, knowledge, experience, emotional control, money and more than anything business acumen.
This may sound strange, because all you are doing is pressing a button to buy or sell… it must be easy to make money?
Look at the flip side. Doctors spend about 10 years learning their trade, and in this time they are spending money on their training. It is not until they qualify that they start earning this money back, and the promise of earning back much more than their investment. Saying that, they still have to work exceptionally hard at it, pulling 24 hour shifts, working 7 days on the trot, working over bank holidays, national holidays, Christmas, New Year… Why would you think that they would do that if Forex was so easy? Surely these highly intelligent people would be far better plying their knowledge on the markets?
The reason is, is that not everyone is cut out for forex trading, and secondly, not everyone has the business mind to become successful… although his can be learned over a period of time.
So how do you make Forex trading a business? How do you treat it like one?
First and foremost, experience is key. Now I would not expect anyone to trade for 10 years before having their first try in a live trading account, but at the very least you should know how Forex works – this is your basic business analysis and market research. The factors that go into a trade, position sizing, money management – these should all be learned and then applied to your strategy.
Once you fully understand this, it is now time to implement your strategy. This could be someone else’s that you are using exactly, one that you have found somewhere else but have adapted to your own style, or one you have come up with yourself. Regardless of where you got your strategy from, you need to test it.
When you test it, it is not a case of testing it for a couple of trades and then diving in to the markets. You need to test for months before you apply it to the market. This could be a demo account or a micro account if you can afford to throw a couple of thousand dollars away. You have to assume that you will lose any money you invest if you are testing a system – you expect the worst and hope for the best. This is purely to see if the system works mechanicly (as in determining your rules). This should be done on the higher time frames – 1 day, 4 hour etc. The reason being is because the higher the time frame, the stronger the move.
You do this for 3 months continually. If you are successful, you can look to trade the smaller timeframes, to test where the system works best.
If you are not profitable, you start again for the 3 months and refine the system.
Rinse and repeat
The reason for this is that you are getting experience, you are doing your market research, you are learning the drivers of your system. On top of this, you are also minimising your losses (having a demo account- you have zero losses) and maximising your learning curve.
Once you are profitable 3 months in a row and you are happy that you have a system that works, you can go to a live trading account, but you need to start small. Micro accounts are for this very purpose. Again you need to be profitable 3 months in a row before you invest more, and move up to a mini account or standard account.
If you change any part of the system, you need to go back to the demo stage.
It may seem overkill, but I can guarantee that any successful business does not take unwarranted risk. Any strategy needs to be thoroughly tested – think of manufacturing here, stress tests are done to ensure the product is robust enough to succeed!
Would you rather spend 10 years perfecting and refining a system that can earn you millions (yes it is possible) or spend 5 minutes blowing your account through lack of knowledge?
Great traders are made over the course of years. No trader has ever made it by pure luck. They know their market inside out, and they adhere to strategies that are proven.
I keep a blog of the strategy I am implementing -www.100percentforex.blogspot.com, and over the course of 2 months I have refined my strategy and have not lost any money due to it being on a demo account. I am still going to demo for another 2 months because I want to succeed.
If you want to invest in Forex, invest in an education first, it will pay dividends at the end.
Have goals in mind, keep journals of all your trades so that you can analyse them. Know when to enter a trade and more important exit a trade. Know your risk, your position size, know the news coming out. The more you know the more you are likely to succeed. Don’t believe the hype surrounding the next big marketing release, they are destined to fail and make you poorer.
Most of all, enjoy your trading! We want to be traders so that we can work for ourselves – why take all the risk if you are not going to enjoy it?
Happy trading!