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ISO 4217 in Forex Trading

Deborah — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:29:23 +0000

ISO 4217 is an international standard describing three letter codes to define the names of currencies established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The first two letters of the code are the two letters of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes (which are similar to those used for national top-level domains on the internet) and the third is usually the initial of the currency itself. So Japan’s currency code becomes JPY-JP for Japan and Y for yen. This eliminates the problem caused by the names dollar, franc and pound being used in dozens of different countries, all with wildly differing values.
The standard also defines the relationship between the major currency unit and any minor currency unit. Often, the minor currency unit has a value that is 1/100 of the major unit, but 1/10 or 1/1000 are also common. Some currencies do not have any minor currency unit at all. Mauritania does not use a decimal division of units, setting 1 ouguiya (UM) = 5 khoums, and Madagascar has 1 ariary = 5 iraimbilanja.
ISO 4217 includes codes for not only currencies, but also codes for precious metals (gold, silver, palladium and platinum; normally measured in troy ounces) and certain other entities used in international finance, e.g. Special Drawing Rights. There are also special codes allocated for testing purposes (XTS), and to indicate no currency transactions (XXX). These codes all begin with the letter “X”. ISO 3166 never assigns country codes beginning with “X”, so ISO 4217 can use “X” codes for non-country-specific currencies without risk of clashing with future country codes.
Supranational currencies, such as the East Caribbean dollar, the CFP franc, the CFA franc BEAC and the CFA franc BCEAO are normally also represented by codes beginning with an “X”. However, the Euro is represented by the code EUR; although EU is not an ISO 3166-1 country code, it was used anyway, and in order to do so EU was added to the ISO 3166-1 reserved codes list to represent the European Union. The predecessor to the Euro, the European Currency Unit, had the code XEU.
More detail about ISO 4217 can be found on wikipedia.org
The author blog: Online Forex Resource – http://forexbroker.blogspot.com

Trading Tips No 1: Learn How to Trade The Moment of Truth

Deborah — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:16:19 +0000

So you have learned how to trade the markets by mastering a few trading tools like Moving Averages, Channels, Stochastics, MACD, or RSI – that is a great accomplishment achieved by only a few. However, having the tools and rules to trade markets successfully, year in and year out, is only half of the challenge. The other half is far more daunting and achieved by even fewer investors – I am talking about good old-fashioned discipline. That is, discipline to follow your indicators and rules without fail – every trade entry and every trade exit. This is why it is critical that you learn how to trade. This is the ‘moment of truth’ in the life of every trader or investor.
Here is a test. Are you able to consistently pull the trigger on your sell signal when all the ‘experts’ are screaming, ‘buy’? Do you ever give your stop loss a little more room because you can’t stand to lose, not even one trade, only to have the market gap open the next day against you? Are you always available during the trading day to follow your trades? Do you let your emotions cloud your thinking and cause you to violate your own trading rules in the ‘heat of battle’? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, you are absolutely normal and that’s the reason why it’s so difficult to trade successfully even with a good methodology. If you fail to learn how to trade , you are your own worst enemy, when it comes to disciplined trading or investing.
Is there a remedy for this problem? Yes! The solution, when you are learning how to trade , is to find a good mechanical trading system that provides superior returns consistently over time and a broker to trade it, verbatim, on your behalf. You will have instantly solved the discipline problem and dramatically increase your potential for success.
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Online Futures Trading – Advantages and Disadvantages

Deborah — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 02:56:39 +0000

What Is Online Futures Trading?
A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell a commodity at a date in the future. Everything about a futures contract is standardized except its price. All of the terms under which the commodity or financial instrument is to be transferred are established before active trading begins, so neither side is hampered by ambiguity. The price for a futures contract is determined in the trading pit or on the electronic trading system of a futures exchange.
The internet now allows access to those electronic trading systems from anywhere in the world. This increases liquidity in those markets and makes them even more attractive to traders.
Trading on all futures exchanges takes place against a backdrop of statutory regulation and rules as laid down by each exchange and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Regardless of whether your trading is executed within the trading pit or electronically, it is subject to the same rules, regulations and safeguards.
Advantages of online futures trading
Leverage. Futures operate on margin, meaning that to take a position only a fraction of the total value needs to be available in cash in the trading account.
Commission Costs. Electronically traded futures contracts require no human intervention to match buys and sells unlike a traditional futures pit. This means that commission costs can be cut dramatically, leading to significant savings for the frequent trader.
Liquidity. The involvement of speculators means that futures contracts are reasonably liquid. However, how liquid depends on the actual contract being traded. Electronically traded contracts, such as the e-mini’s tend to be the most liquid whereas the pit traded commodities like corn, orange juice etc are not so readily available to the retail trader and are more expensive to trade in terms of commission and spread.
Ability to go short. Futures contracts can be sold as easily as they are bought enabling a trader to profit from falling markets as well as rising ones. There is no ‘uptick rule’ for example like there is with stocks.
No ‘Time Decay’. Options suffer from time decay because the closer they come to expiry the less time there is for the option to come into the money. Futures contracts do not suffer from this as they are not anticipating a particular strike price at expiry.
Automated trading. Electronic futures brokers offer the facility to programmers to interface directly with their trading software. This means that custom written trading software can automatically trade a strategy without any human intervention at all. A system can make buy/sell signals which are automatically routed to the exchange along with any stops and targets.
Almost instant fills. With electronically traded futures there is no need to call up a broker and wait for a fill from the trading floor. Orders are instantly placed on the electronic order book and filled as soon as a match is found – for liquid contracts such as the emini S&P500 this will be within a second.
Level playing field. With traditional pit traded futures the professional in the pit has a major advantage over the retail trader in terms of speed of execution and costs. Electronic futures trading offers all participants exactly the same advantages.
Disadvantages of online futures trading
Leverage. Can be a disadvantage if it encourages trading with too high a risk for a particular strategy. A carefully devised money management plan is essential.
Overtrading. The instant nature of electronic futures trading coupled with low commission costs and tight spreads can encourage a trader to take additional trades to those determined by their trading plan.
Online futures trading offers significant benefits to the retail trader. However, a carefully developed trading plan must be formulated before attempting to enter this extremely competitive business.
Tim Wreford operates Online Futures Trading, a website that provides information and resources for traders. Tim also provides an article detailing the development of a day trading system, the results of which are updated daily on the site.

Commodity Trading – Advantages and Disadvantages

Deborah — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 06:31:56 +0000

What Is Commodity Trading?
Commodity futures markets allow commercial producers and commercial consumers to offset the risk of adverse future price movements in the commodities that they are selling or buying.
In order to work a futures contract must be standardised. They must have a standard size and grade, expire on a certain date and have a preset tick size. For example, corn futures trading at the Chicago Board of Trade are for 5000 bushels with a minimum tick size of 1/4cent/bushel ($12.50/contract).
A farmer may have a field of corn and in order to hedge against the possibility of corn prices dropping before the harvest he might sell corn futures. He has locked in the current price, if corn prices fall he makes a profit from the futures contracts to offset the loss on the actual corn. On the other hand, a consumer such as Kellogg may buy corn futures in order to protect against a rise in the cost of corn.
In order to facilitate a liquid market so that producers and consumers can freely buy and sell contracts , exchanges encourage speculators. The speculators objective is to make a profit from taking on the risk of price fluctuation that the commercial users do not want. The rewards for speculators can be very large precisely because there is a substantial risk of loss.
Advantages of commodity trading
Leverage. Commodity futures operate on margin, meaning that to take a position only a fraction of the total value needs to be available in cash in the trading account.
Commission Costs. It is a lot cheaper to buy/sell one futures contract than to buy/sell the underlying instrument. For example, one full size S&P500 contract is currently worth in excess off $250,000 and could be bought/sold for as little as $20. The expense of buying/selling $250,000 could be $2,500+.
Liquidity. The involvement of speculators means that futures contracts are reasonably liquid. However, how liquid depends on the actual contract being traded. Electronically traded contracts, such as the e-mini’s tend to be the most liquid whereas the pit traded commodities like corn, orange juice etc are not so readily available to the retail trader and are more expensive to trade in terms of commission and spread.
Ability to go short. Futures contracts can be sold as easily as they are bought enabling a speculator to profit from falling markets as well as rising ones. There is no ‘uptick rule’ for example like there is with stocks.
No ‘Time Decay’. Options suffer from time decay because the closer they come to expiry the less time there is for the option to come into the money. Commodity futures do not suffer from this as they are not anticipating a particular strike price at expiry.
Disadvantages of commodity trading
Leverage. Can be a double edged sword. Low margin requirements can encourage poor money management, leading to excessive risk taking. Not only are profits enhanced but so are losses!
Speed of trading. Traditionally commodities are pit traded and in order to trade a speculator would need to contact a broker by telephone to place the order who then transmits that order to the pit to be executed. Once the trade is filled the pit trader informs the broker who then then informs his client. This can take some take and the risk of slippage occurring can be high. Online futures trading can help to reduce this time by providing the client with a direct link to an electronic exchange.
You might find a truck of corn on your doorstep! Actually, most futures contracts are not deliverable and are cash settled at expiry. However some, like corn, are deliverable although you will get plenty of warning and opportunity to close out a position before the truck turns up.
Tim Wreford operates Online Futures Trading, a website that provides information and resources for traders. Tim also provides an article detailing the development of a day trading system, the results of which are updated daily on the site.

Trading Timeframes

Deborah — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:07:34 +0000

Long Term
Long term traders will work from end of day data and look to hold trades for a few weeks up to many months. Usually trend trading.
Advantages
No need to watch the markets intraday.
Fewer transactions means lower commission costs.
Cost of equipment and data is minimal.
Disadvantages
Large equity swings on single positions with large stops.
Usually only 1 or 2 exceptional trades a year so patience is essential.
Bigger capitalization required to ride longer term swings.
Frequent losing months.
Short Term
Working from intraday data and looking to hold for a day up to a week. Usually swing trading.
Advantages
More opportunities for trades.
Less chance of losing months.
Less reliance on one or two trades a year to make money.
Disadvantages
Transaction costs will be higher.
Intraday data adds to costs.
Overnight risk becomes a factor.
Day Trading
Working from intraday data the day trader will attempt to take small profits from intraday swings. All positions will be exited at the market close.
Advantages
Many trading opportunities in a day.
Much lower chance of losing months.
No overnight risk.
Reduced margin requirements due to no overnight risk.
Disadvantages
Transaction costs will be high.
Psychologically more difficult due to frequency of trading.
Profits are limited by needing to exit at the end of the day.
Data costs are high as real time data is essential.
Tim Wreford runs Online Futures Trading, a website that provides information and resources for traders. Tim also provides a free day trading system, the results of which are updated daily on the site.

How To Control Fear And Greed In Trading

Deborah — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 16:15:35 +0000

There is an old saying that the market is driven by fear and greed. Anyone that has placed more than a couple of trades will surely have experienced these two emotions.
All traders experience emotion. The distinction between a successful trader and an unsuccessful trader comes down to how they deal with that emotion. Let’s look at how these emotions affect a successful trader and an unsuccessful trader in various scenarios:
1. The trader’s three previous trades have been losers. The unsuccessful trader will consider this before placing his next trade and be fearful that this trade will also end up a loser. This might result in a delay in placing the trade whilst waiting for the price to confirm that they were right – thus missing a perfectly good entry. They might suddenly discover that some other factor, previously unconsidered, is a reason not to enter the trade at all. Basically they will be fearful of another loss.
The successful trader will have tested their strategy extensively and will be aware that a series of losing trades is very probable. They will also measure their success on whether they place the trade according to their system rather than whether it is purely a winner or a loser. They trust their system and place the trade when the set-up occurs. The fear is removed from the trade because they know that several losers in a row is to be expected.
2. Once a trade is entered it immediately moves against the trader. The unsuccessful trader will fear that they have made a mistake. They fear making another loss so they wait and hope that the market moves back in their favour. The fear of taking another loss now controls their trading decisions, they might move their stop further out so the market doesn’t take them out for a loss. They might ignore the trade, hoping that it will get back to at least breakeven – the daytrade becomes a position trade of a few days and then it becomes a long term ‘buy and hold’ strategy.
The successful trader, of course, will know from extensive testing of his system that such trades happen and that the trade might come round or it might hit the stop. His stop is in place and it will remain in place – the system dictates where the stop is, not the trader’s fears.
3. Once a trade is entered it immediately moves strongly in the traders favour. The unsuccessful trader will suddenly see a villa in the sun or a new sports car flashing before his eyes. This trade is going to the moon so he removes his price target and decides to let it go. Greed has now completely taken over his trading decisions and the previous plan (if any) is ignored. Of course, markets rarely move in one direction for long and when the market turns the greed turns to fear as the dream slips away and the trader tries to hold on until the price gets back to where it was. The daytrade becomes a position trade…
The successful trader has set a target, either a certain price or a timed exit and will stick to it. If the trade only takes 5 minutes then that’s just great, there’s plenty that won’t.
Fear and greed are human emotions – we can’t do anything about that. But, when it comes to trading we need a way to control those emotions. Here’s a few tips:
1. Know your system. If you have confidence in your system this helps to override those feelings of fear and greed. Confidence can only come from designing and extensively testing your own ideas. You can never be fully confident when you rely on someone else’s tips or signals.
2. Automate your system. Computers do not suffer from fear and greed, they won’t hold onto a loser praying for a miracle or screaming at the screen that the market is wrong – they’ll just cut it if that is what the system says to do.
3. Money management. Quite simply, no matter how good your system you must only risk a sensible amount – and always money you can afford to lose.
Tim Wreford runs Online Futures Trading, a website that provides information and resources for traders. Tim also provides a free day trading system, the results of which are updated daily on the site.

Business and the Forex

Deborah — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:31:35 +0000

The business world is a complex web of supply and demand. Money and goods, physical or otherwise, pass through the global market every single day. To meet this exchange between one country and another, foreign exchange, or forex, was born. The term forex is used to refer to transactions involving the conversion of money of one country into that of another or to the international transfer of money and credit instruments.
Foreign exchange, or forex, is used because different nations have different monetary units, and the currency of one country cannot be used for making payments in another country. Because of trade, travel, and other transactions between individuals and business enterprises of different countries, it becomes necessary to convert money into the currency of other countries in order to pay for goods or services in those countries. The transfer of money values from one country to another and the determination of the price at which the currency of one country will be surrendered for that of another is one of the main functions of forex.
Forex is a commodity, and its price fluctuates in accordance with supply and demand; exchange rates are published daily in every major newspapers of the world. When the exchange rate is floating, free of government intervention, the rate of the forex, or the price of the currency of one country in terms of that of another, will depend on overall supply and demand and on the relative purchasing power of the two currencies. The forex value will depend on the competitive position of the two countries in world markets. If country has a certain commodity that another country is dependent on, its forex will be significantly higher than the latter. Gold, oil, and exports are just a few of these commodities influencing a country’s forex.
Forex is also dictated at times by speculation of dealers, brokers, or others. What they predict becomes a major influence on forex. However, the government has the power to prevent the forex from crashing. Its gold value and country’s wealth raises help the forex value. The aim of government’s control is to limit the demand for and to increase the supply of forex in order to maintain a stable exchange rate. Control usually provides for allocating forex only for approved imports and requires that all or part of the forex derived from exports or other sources be given to the central bank in exchange for local currency.
Forex is seen as the trading tool of different countries. To stabilize and increase the forex of one country will mean a lot of economic changes. The proper allocation of funds, the stock market condition and the nation’s marketable wealth will determine the future of its forex rate. Understanding the forex rate is relatively simple. Using one country’s forex, i.e. the dollar, we can determine the wealth standing of a country. Say the forex rate of a pound to the dollar is 80, while the dollar to the pound is 65. This means that the pound is more stable and richer that the dollar because of the 15 value difference.
The country’s stability and political scene can also influence it forex rate. Investors bring in a lot of money, which equates to additional wealth for the country. Once that country is not able to guarantee stability, political and economy-wise, these people can take their investments out and leave the forex rate crippled.
For more information please goto the forex resource guide.

The Margin Advantages of Trading FOREX.

Deborah — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 07:27:55 +0000

There is one aspect that is considered as one of the best advantages of FOREX Trading. This is related to the amount of money you need to place a trade, this is known as “margin”, and in short, this is all that can be lost in a the case you had a bad trade.
I state it like this because, even though I know withproper self-taught education you’re NOT going to lose asmuch as you win anyway, I want you to know that despite thesuper-high leverage associated with FOREX trading (200:1 ispossible; meaning that if you put up $1 the trading vendor willallow you to trade like you really have $200), it’s stillarguably less risky than futures (commodities) trading. And, forget stocks, you’ll never get this type of LEVERAGEin the equities market.
Futures markets are often prone to sudden and dramaticmoves, against which you can not protect yourself, even bytrading with protective stops. Your position may beliquidated at a loss, and you’ll be liable for any resultingdeficit in the account. But because of the FX markets deepliquidity and 24-hour, continuous trading, dangerous tradinggaps and limit moves are eliminated. Orders are executedquickly, without slippage or partial fills. And finally,there are no margin calls — for your protection, ALL ourrecommended brokers will automatically close out some orall of your open positions if your account equity fallsbelow the level required to hold the positions. Think ofthis as a final, automatic stop, always working on yourbehalf to prevent a debit balance. In fact, if you pick fromour list of recommended brokers, we guarantee that you willnever lose more than you have in your FOREX account.
http://www.1-forex.com
Omar Vargas; Forex trader and freelance writer. http://www.1-forex.com

A Fools Game

Deborah — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:55:45 +0000

I received an email this week with a question (below) which caused me to think about the wisdom of pursuing trading as a career. Regardless of your trading time span, the skills and concerns of active short-term trading are relevant to all market particpipants.
Question: "There are a lot of people who say that day trading is for “fools” and that it is very difficult to make a living from Day Trading. What are your opinions?"
Trading is like most business: it requires commitment and perseverance. It is never easy to make money, but people who have mastered a skill make it appear easy. The really successful pit traders that I have known made trading look very easy, tantalisingly easy; but they all had many years of experience behind them. For every successful trader there has probably been a few hundred who have tried and failed.
I think people fail at any business if they approach it without an appreciation and understanding of what is required for success. The majority of traders fail because they have no such appreciation and they have unrealistic expectations of themselves. Any trader who starts with the expectation of becoming an instant success is setting himself up for failure. No one would decide to become a golf pro and assume that they could just pick up a bag of clubs and start winning tournaments. Yet novice traders do this all the time.
Just to start with the understanding that trading is a skill that is developed over time, through experience, puts a novice trader way ahead of the competition.
There are 2 core skills in trading, first the ability to anticipate the market (read the market) and second, having the discipline to execute your plan. To learn to read the market you may as well use a trading simulator and only start to trade when you have demonstrated to yourself that you can anticipate the market. Discipline, though, has to be developed and tested in the real world. Discipline is really the crux of the matter and it is here that most traders fall down. Their failure is mainly due to the fact that they are not really aware of its importance. Just starting out as a trader with the intention of developing your discipline puts you way ahead of the average trader. If you can trade with discipline (i.e. stick to your own rules and limits) you are 95% there!
So I would say that for the average aspiring trader, trading is a fool’s game; but for those of us who approach the business as a business, with a clear understanding of the unique challenges that trading offers, it is a rewarding and fulfilling career.
Malcolm Robinson
LIFFE Pit Trader & Electronic Trader
InstinctiveTrader.com

Money Management – The Holy Grail Of Trading

Deborah — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:26:54 +0000

Money management determines how much to risk on each individual trade. This is a vital element of any trading system – risk too much and the chances of going bust are too high, risk too little and the reward for trading is too low.
The main methods for calculating trade size are:
Fixed Fractional
The number of contracts to trade is determined by a fixed percentage of current equity. As only whole futures contracts can be trade this, effectively, means that the trader uses 1 contract per $x of equity. For example 1 contract per $10,000.
Fixed fractional, however, requires unequal achievement at different contract levels. For 1 contract every $10,000 to move from 1 contract to 2 requires a profit of $10,000 from 1 contract. To move from 10 contracts to 11 still requires $10,000 profit but from 10 contracts. So for smaller account sizes it will take a long time for the money management to actually kick in and for larger account sizes the number of contracts traded will jump wildly around.
Using fixed fractional the number of contracts traded would be calculated as equity/x, where x=dollars per contract ($10,000 in the above example).
Contracts – Equity Required $
1 – 10,000
2 – 20,000
3 – 30,000
4 – 40,000
5 – 50,000
6 – 60,000
Fixed Ratio
Fixed ratio adds a variable to the fixed fractional method.
Fixed ratio adds delta to the calculation. The delta is a factor which is required to move to the next contract level. The lower the delta the more aggressive the money management is.
The formula is:
equity required to trade previous contract size + (number of contracts x delta) = Next level.
Eg starting with a base of $10,000 for 1 contract and a delta of $5,000:
Contracts – Equity Required $
1 – 10,000
2 – 15,000
3 – 25,000
4 – 40,000
5 – 60,000
6 – 85,000
Comparing the above table to that for fixed fractional it can be seen that at the lower account levels less equity is required whereas as the account grows the number of contracts traded becomes less aggressive.
Tim Wreford runs Online Futures Trading, a website that provides information and resources for traders. Tim also provides a free day trading system, the results of which are updated daily on the site.