Forex Blog

In this article we will give beginner forex traders a list of important forex trading tips for getting started with trading the forex market. This list trading tips will help beginner traders avoid the normal pitfalls and problems that forex traders face when getting started.

The first trading tip for beginner forex traders is to choose your trading system wisely. Find a trading system that works, and is effective at producing pips. The information traders see on the internet and forex websites makes this difficult. It is easy for a beginner forex trader to get into a loop of chasing bad trading systems and the same old techincal indicators that are worthless time wasters. We advise avoiding technical indicators completely, and using the individual currency analysis techniques that we will present in this article.

Look for websites that have complete trading system and  complete documentation, and specific trade entry methods. If you would like an effective forex trading system that is based on individual currencies, check the Forexearlywarning trading system. We use proven methods like forex analysis with parallel and inverse pairs for market analysis and trade entries. Compare our trading system with other systems and you will quickly determine the Forexearlywarning individual currency system is far more effective.

One of our individual currency indicators is below to assist with trade entries, it is called The Forex Heatmap®. This is obvious CAD (Canadian Dollar) strength on our real time heatmap pointing you to the correct pairs to trade. The heatmap works the same way for the top 8 most liquid currencies.

Forex Trading Tips For Beginners

When you see a forex website, make sure is has a lot of high quality content, and all details of an effective, complete trading system. A great forex website will have specific money management methods, along with high quality forex education articles and videos. We have this at Forexearlywarning.

Beginner Forex Traders Must Demo Trade

Whatever trading system you choose, make sure you demo trade the system to prove that the system works well for you at making pips. Demo trade the system to make sure you are consistent with profits and only small losses. If your forex demo account trading is going well, you can start live trading with 2-4 micro lots trade size with stop orders and practice your money management and scaling out lots. Learn the process of placing orders, setting stops, and scaling out lots on profitable trades. Learn to make $50 first before moving into the larger number of lots.

Evaluate your losing trades, even losing demo trades. Did you get stopped out and the trade eventually went in the direction of the major trends? This is why using trend based system works so well. Did you ignore something important in your trading system or entry management system when you entered your trade? Create a written forex trading journal to track your progress.

Beginner Forex Traders Need Education

Great forex education at no cost is available to beginner forex traders. It is not necessary to pay for forex education. There are a larger number of websites that attempt to charge forex traders thousands of dollars for training and education. There are also many forex website that might have some free education, but the information is faulty and mostly based on technical indicators, which are worthless time wasters.

What traders need is great information about how to trade the forex market, either free of for a very low reasonable cost. We invite all traders to check out our illustrated forex lessons package, which is totally free. We can teach beginner forex traders the right way to trade across 8 currencies and 28 pairs.

What Makes Forex Pairs Move

As a beginner forex traders you must understand what causes currency pairs to move.  Without fairly strong price movement up or down daily or weekly, traders cannot make any pips or profits. Currency pairs move because one currency in the pair is strong and the other one is neutral or weak. Another possibility is that one currency is weak or the other is neutral or strong. Strong versus weak always wins in forex trading.

Compare this simple reasoning behind why currency pairs move and you will immediately and completely avoid technical indicators and robots. Study parallel and inverse analysis and individual currency strength and trends well and you will always know why the forex market is moving at all times, and on what pairs. The Forexearlywarning trading system will help to get you there. See the example below.

Forex Beginner Tips

Forex Beginner Trading

In this example the Swiss Franc CHF is weak. Due to some slight New Zealand Dollar NZD strength, the NZD/CHF moved much higher on this trading day. Beginner forex traers need simple but effective live signals like the signals provided by The Forex Heatmap®  forex heatmap to succesfully trade, then they can start to practice trade management and moving stops. These signals work for 8 currencies and 28 forex pairs, including popular currency pairs like the EUR/USD.

Beginner Forex Traders Need To Analyze The Market

If you are a beginner forex trader, a great skill to learn would be how to analyze the market condition across the 8 major currencies and 28 pairs. We have some great tools for you to become a great forex market analyst. Check out our  forex market analysis spreadsheet for analyzing currencies. This professional market analysis tool will show new forex traders how to analyze individual currencies that compose the top 28 pairs. This great spreadsheet tool will give beginner traders you a picture of the forex market and get them pointed in the direction of the best trends available at all times. Better trade decisions and market understanding will then follow. LO

Beginner Forex Traders Need Trade Entry Rules

Beginner forex traders need a clear set of rules and guidelines for your trade entries, here is a short list. Do not enter forex trades randomly, even demo trades. Make sure you are following a entry management system, including high quality, real time trade entry management tools that are easy to interpret. For our trading system we use The Forex Heatmap ®. It works for 8 currencies and 28 pairs, plus gold.

Always trade in the direction of the higher time frames and trends, H4 and larger, that is where the pips are at. Scalping the smaller time frames will eventually crush any beginner forex trader due to the upside down money management ratios. If you want to know more about rules based forex trading and you need a set of rules for trade entries we can provide you with a set of rules for each and every trade entry.

Beginner Forex Traders Might Need Live Account Funding

Beginner forex traders always ask “How much money does it take to fund my trading account” In some cases the answer is zero. The first thing you will do is to trade a demo account, which requires no funding. Then, if successful at demo trading, you should consider a live trading account. But do not let not having any trading capital be a deterrent to having a forex trading career.

If you are a beginner forex trader, and you do not have any money to fund a trading account, it does not matter. Third party capital and funding providers are numerous, and funding providers will provide forex trading capital to fund your live trading account with up to $1,000,000 or more in currency buying power. All you have to do is trade well and profitably in a demo account and you will be ready to apply for funding. So as a beginner forex trader you should focus on trading accurately and don’t worry about the money, it is available. A forex career is a real possibility for anyone who has great trading skills.

Beginner forex traders trading tips, summary and conclusions:

Trading Tips For Beginner Forex Traders

Summary And Conslusions: Becoming a professional forex trader is a possibility for almost anyone. Having access to a great trading system and free education is s great starting point. Traders can demo trade their way to success. When you are ready to trade live, lots of third party capital is available for traders to get their accounts funded, if they need it. We hope that the tips in this article will convince beginner traders that the opportunity to trade the forex is within reach.

Forexearlywarning has an accurate currency strength meter with live, real time signals that requires no programming by the end user, and the strength readings are very easy to interpret. It is called The Forex Heatmap®. It detects strong and weak individual currencies in real time, and it has several built in alert systems for 8 currencies and 28 pairs.

What Is A Currency Strength Meter

A currency strength meter is a live, real time tool that tells the end user trader what currencies are strong, weak, or neutral in real time. So if the USD is strong or the JPY is weak, for example, the meter will show accurate, live readings reflecting this. The readings must be accurate and point the trader to a specific pair for possible or probable trade entry. The currency strength meter should be effective in the main trading session, but also give probable trade entry signals at other times during the day like during the Asian trading session.

The Forex Heatmap® forex heatmap is an example of a real time currency strength meter with second by second updates. It is a server/web based meter so the end user trader does not have to have any programming skills at all to use it. The heatmap displays on a web page or any browser, tablet, or mobile phone. This currency strength meter is not an app, it is web based, but works fine on Android and IOS mobile operating systems, like an IPhone or Ipad. The readings on this meter are accurate to 0.01% of the price movement, very high precision.

Currency Strength Meter – AUD Pairs

Currency Strength Meter – EUR/AUD Price Movement

Currency Strength Meter, Easy To Interpret

Here is a screenshot of one of the 8 currencies in our currency strength meter, The Forex Heatmap®. This is the Australian Dollar (AUD) pairs. The meter shown is for the main trading session, we also have one for the Asian trading session for each currency. Clearly, the AUD has consistent weakness across all 7 pairs on the meter. This meter also specified the EUR/AUD  as one of the the primary pairs to trade, since there was slight EUR strength also in the market.

Most forex trading signals are difficult to interpret, but with The Forex Heatmap®, even beginner forex traders can interpret how to buy and sell 28 pairs in real time. This consistent AUD weakness and EUR/AUD buy signal caused strong movement on this pair. Movements of 1% or more on any pair is a large movement, up to 100 pips on pairs like the EUR/AUD. Movement cycles of over 200 pips in one trading session are possible on many pairs out of the 28 listed on the meter.

The meter looks the same for the other 7 currencies, with seven pairs per individual currency grouping. Our currency strength meter/indicator works for 8 different currencies and a total of 28 currency pairs: USD, CAD, EUR, GBP, CHF, JPY, AUD and NZD pair combinations can all be traded with this meter.They currency groups are all stacked on top of each other so you can see all 8 currencies and 28 pairs on one screen. Basing the heatmap on the forex trading sessions and best times to trade the forex market is another big advantage. In the example above, the AUD weakness started in the main session and the movement progressed in the most liquid part of the forex trading day. This occurs often with all 8 currencies, almost every day in the main trading session.

Another Currency Strength Meter Example Signal

Here is another example currency strength meter signal, and this time you can see how the pairs moved also. The GBP was consolidating, then started to drop in the main trading session. The other currencies were neutral on the meter, so every single GBP pair had nice movements based on GBP weakness. The GBP pairs are volatile.  The GBP/AUD sell off was about over 200 pips in less than 8 hours, and all 7 GBP pairs combines movement was over 1000 pips.

Currency Strength Meter

Currency Strength Meter Price Movement

This is the kind of results traders are looking for. Easy to read signals and lots of pips on the more volatile pairs, and 28 pairs total.

Combine This Currency Strength Meter With Alert Systems

The Forex Heatmap® forex heatmap currency strength meter can be combined with several professional alert systems, so you never miss a trade. This currency strength meter has 3 built in alert systems including push alerts to your mobile device that are based on the readings from the heatmap meter. The alert systems notify the end user when the heatmap meter signals are consistent in one direction for trading. The alert systems are also in real time and server based.

In the example below if you see an alert that says NZD strength (7), it means that all of the NZD pairs are moving based on NZD strength, and the strength is consistent across all 7 pairs. In this case you would check the heatmap meter to see what pair was best to buy or sell, along with the trends and time frames. For example, if the NZD/USD is trending up with no resistance nearby, that would be an excellent choice for a buy.

Currency Strength Meter Alerts

Currency Strength Meter Alerts NZD

Traders can learn more about all of our professional suite of alert systems including our desktop scanner and mobile app to keep you notified of when the market is moving consistently across one currency.

The Forex Heatmap® currency strength meter also has a second heatmap that functions as a fully redundant backup system. In case the heatmap has an outage, traders can switch to the backup system for seamless trading signals.

Combine The Currency Strength Meter With Trading System Components

This accurate, live, high precision currency strength meter will provide traders with better trade entries. Traders will likely increase their trading accuracy and pip totals. But if you use the meter to enter a trade on a pair that is trending, you now have a chance to hold on to the trade until the trend is over. Using the meter as part of a complete, trend based trading system is the best approach. If a trader analyzes the market carefully with multiple time frame analysis, they will know if any trade entry is an intraday trade (day trade), swing trade or position/trend trade. If you set up our free forex trend indicators for monitoring market trends , then you can categorize your trades by trading style.

When you enter a trade on a pair that is not trending, the heatmap currency strength meter can still give you a profitable entry, but since the pair is not trending it may only be a short term intraday trade or daytrade. By contrast some trade entries might be on pairs in  strong trends or possibly on new or developing trends.

Currency Strength Meter Conclusions

We believe that all forex traders should use aa accurate, real time currency strength meter on all of their trade entries. We believe that The Forex Heatmap® is the best currency strength meter available to retail traders, with the most advanced features. Also, the signals are easy to interpret, even for beginner forex traders. When a trader uses a currency strength meter as part of complete, trend based trading system, then it unlocks the full profit potential of 8 currencies and 28 pairs.

Forex big data applications and dashboards can provide traders with the information necessary to make profitable trade decisions in real time. Big data forex trading applications are available right now for any traders looking to turn their forex trading experience into a successful one. The components of a forex big data dashboard should curate, process and visualize the data. Then convert the data into actionable ideas so that the average person or average trader can always know the condition of the forex market in a matter of seconds.

Using algorithms to point traders to the market momentum across multiple currencies and gold, even cryptocurrencies is the ultimate goal. Then traders can take advantage of the large amount of steaming price information available for the largest financial markets in the world and convert the information into trading success.

Sources For Forex Big Data

Currently there are forex big data vendors available that can stream real time pricing data directly to your desktop, web application, or dashboard. Real time data is available to forex traders via price feeds and real time data providers. Most forex traders are currently using some type of big data application, like streaming price charts. This data is generally converted to price chart, open/high/low/charts, or candlestick charts for the most widely traded currency pairs.

Forex Big Data Price Charts

Most forex traders then add various technical indicators to assist them with their trades. You can also build custom applications with a web developer or an API provided by the data vendor to build forex big data displays and dashboards.  You would think that with access to so much information that successful forex traders would be everywhere, but this is simply not the case. So this is an opportunity for big data forex trading applications to be built.

Big Data Charting Solutions

Using applications like Metatraders you can produce the foundation of a great forex or gold trading system by customizing your charts:

Forex Big Data Signals

Forex Big Data Charts

You can right click on the charts and open the charts in a new tab for a better view.

Now you have alot of data on your screen but in an organized, intuitive way for watching the forex market. Forex big data can be overwhelming. Converting massive amounts of forex data into an easy-to-interpret user interface and charting system for traders is the goal. This setup is for the CAD (Canadian Dollar) pairs, but can be repeated for 8 different currencies plus gold.

Creating A Robust Forex Trading Dashboard

A dashboard for forex traders should have everything a forex traders needs to know for placing accurate trades at a glance. Look at the dashboard you see below:

Forex Dashboard

Right click on the image and open in a new tab if you like:

This dashboard has several components:

Link to written daily trading plans for 28 forex pairs

Link to Red Folder Forex News Calendar for the top 8 Currencies

Link to live heatmap which confirms trade entries, traders can scan 8 currencies and gold pairs in about 60 seconds for consistent momentum.

Link to backup heatmap in case of outages.

Market Summary Drop Down Menu telling traders what currencies are strong or weak in real time.

Example use of dashboard:

Just by glancing at the dashboard you can quickly see that the GBP is strong and the JPY is weak on the dropdown status menu.  You know to go check the signals on the heatmap for the GBP and JPY pairs. You can see that the the strength/weakness trading formula works and the GBP/JPY moved up strong on this trading day. The dashboard works the same way for 8 currencies, 28 forex pairs total, and gold.

Forex Dashboard GBP, JPY Pairs

Forex Dashboard GBP/JPY Chart

The GBP moved up 130 pips today and trading other pairs like the GBP/CHF was also possible. Forex Traders do not get results like this and are usually stuck chasing one or two pairs. We believe 28 pairs and gold can be successfully traded using a big data dashboard like this, and that pip totals can be substantially higher.

Conclusions: The goal of having a forex dashboard that consolidates all of the data from 8 currencies and gold into a meaningful display has been accomplished, and forex traders can benefit from this type of setup.

Today in currency trading the forex major pairs all moved based on USD (US Dollar) strength. This created excellent buy and sell opportunities on some of these pairs for forex day traders and swing traders. In the main forex trading session the USD was strong across the board, and pairs like the USD/CAD moved up and the AUD/USD moved down based on the USD strength.  From a support and resistance analysis, these two pairs are range bound, so we would consider scaling out lots and taking some profit, as we consider these to be short term or intraday trades.

The live currency strength indicator you see below is The Forex Heatmap®. It give live buy and sell signals on the forex major pairs, plus pairs from eight other currency groups, 28 pairs total

Forex Major Pairs USD Strength

Forex Major Pairs USD Strength

The forex major pairs are currency pairs that have the USD on the left or right, the base or cross currency. You can see in the heatmap image above that we trade seven major pairs total. The USD pairs are most popular forex pairs. They are also the most liquid and heavily traded, they have the highest trading volumes and liquidity. The is a valuable tool in that the signals you see are live and any forex trader can learn how forex big data can be utilized for successful trade entries, day after day.

USD strength can be easily detected with this great live indicator. In the example above the pairs with the USD on the left are all green, and the pairs with the USD on the right are all red, indicating that the USD is strong. The heatmap works the same way for 8 other currencies, providing real time trading signals in the main forex trading session.

The forex trend indicators and analysis of the EUR/JPY trends are shown below. This is the W1 time frame. Traders can set a price alert at  128.20 for a support breakout, see the yellow line. Below that price when the alert hits confirm any sell trade entries with The Forex Heatmap® forex heatmap. The target support area area is would be the 126.00 support area, shown by the bottom yellow line. This is great pip potential of 180 pips, which is usually the case when analyzing trends on the higher time frames.

Forex Trend Indicators EUR/JPY

The forex trend indicators we use are 5/12 exponential moving averages. You can set them up on any charting platform, and the above image shows traders how they look on the metatrader platform. Following the trends and ranging currency pairs on the forex market is our basic market analysis technique, using multiple time frames by individual currency. We prefer the higher time frames, H4 and larger,  but occasionally traders using our system can drop down to the H1 time frame.

When the moving averages indicate a trend or potential trend, we use The Forex Heatmap® to confirm any buy or sell entry. Then we can use support and resistance levels to assist with things like profit taking and price targets. Setting up these simple trend indicators only takes about a minute for each pair, and you should set up these indicators for all 28 pairs we follow. Once the trend indicators are set up, traders can set audible price alerts to notify them of any price movement so they know it is time to check the EUR/JPY signals on the heatmap. This same technique works on all of the pairs we trade.

We also have a forex video library on our website that show you various options for setting up these indicators, grouped by individual currency.

Forex forums and online communities for traders are basically designed for traders to exchange ideas and trading systems to help them profit from trading the forex market. Can traders actually succeed by following these forex forums? We think the chances are very small. We will present better alternatives and a clear trading system to follow.

Format and Layout of Forex Forums

Most forex forums are subdivided into categories like trading systems, trading discussions, basic training for new traders, expert advisors, broker discussion, commercial content, etc. Each category has threads for individuals to start discussions about more particular topics. This facilitates interaction between the users. This is called user generated content.

What Forex Forums Are Available to Traders

There are a large number of forex forums available to forex traders, a few of them are quite popular with thousands of traders. If you search the web for “forex forums” you will see some top brands like Forexfactory or Babypips. There are also large forex discussion forums on places like Reddit, Telegram, Facebook Groups and Quora.

Being one of the largest and most popular forex forums means very little. There are some articles on the web about forex forums like “best forex forums ratings” or “top forex forums” but at the end of the day these forums all have the same pros and cons. Many forums are not maintained at all by the website owners and are loaded with spam, along with lots of pop up ads littering the pages.

What Is The Objective of Forex Forums Owners

The people who run and manage forex forums  are only interested in click ad revenue from forex brokers, or having you sign up for a live trading account through one of the click ads. If you open a trading account through one of the broker ads the forum owner gets paid on all of your trades as an introducing broker. Forex forum owners are not interested in anything other than this revenue. They have no interest or motivation to make anyone a successful trader. Some forums have so many click ads embedded in the pages that it destroys the user’s experience. Any course for sale for thousands of dollars the forum owners gets part of the fee as an affilliate. Any discussion of a competing commercial signals or alerts service on any forex forum will likely result of you being removed or banned from the forum.

Ideal Scenario For a Trader Using a Forum

In a perfect world a new forex trader would come to a forum looking for a great forex trading strategy, then would find the strategy fairly quickly and use the strategy to make positive trades. Or a trader could post questions and look for someone to help them with their questions. Having a discussion board for traders, posting messages, and having a place to find quality forex education resources is a great idea, but the reality is much different.

In reality most of the traders on forums are beginners, and most of their questions go unanswered because there are too many of them. In some cases beginners are looking for someone to program a robot with their untested ideas. This never works because nobody is willing to do this for free then guarantee the programs will work. Anyone looking for a trading system might find one but it will be difficult. Some trading systems on some forex forums have over 1000 pages of posts on just one system so you must wade through all of this just to see if it is a trading system you like. This is on top of the fact that there might be 2000 trading systems on just one forum. All of this starts to cause conflict and confusion on the forum users. An entire year can go by with no progress towards successful trading.

Most forex forums are open and unmoderated, it can become a huge problem. This creates alot of content and lots of repetitive questions.  On top of that is that forum participants cannot get their questions answered. The sheer size of the forums and the amount of information means that traders can read for days and months sifting through large amounts of information looking for a cohesive trading system that either require no programming or is ready to use.

The discussion of robots and expert advisors is a prominent part of most forums, however expert advisors do not work at all, and 99% of forex traders can’t program anyway. Many forex forum members request or seek help programming an expert advisor or script. These requests go almost completely ignored. Even if a request is filled no programming results can be guaranteed in any way. Lots of forum members want something programmed but very few good programmers are willing to fill their needs.

Experienced and profitable forex traders have no real reason or motivation to be on a forex forum. They are too busy trading and making pips. Most forums do have a few successful traders who are willing to answer questions and share some or all of their trading systems. But most of them get beaten down by the new traders asking them questions they eventually abandon the forums.

There is almost no unique information on any forex forum, none whatsoever. All of the information on most forex forums is available elsewhere.

Can Traders Find A Profitable Trading System On A Forum

Forex forums are completely dominated by technical indicators. So when a forum member makes a post about a new trading system, it is just a combination of existing off the shelf technical indicators. The problem with this is that we all know that forex technical indicators do not work and are completely unreliable. So on top of the fact that you must sift through hundreds of “Trading systems”, all of them are based on flawed technical indicators, or some combination of indicators. This can result in several months or even years of lost time for traders looking for a valid trading system. You can find some good trading systems on forex forums but the sheer size of the popular forums makes it nearly impossible to figure out which trading system is strong and profitable. Demo trading 100 trading systems you found on a forum is not the answer.

New forex traders can get led in the any one of 1000 wrong directions with the technical indicators discussion. Almost nothing is verifiable and no true and complete trading systems are available on forums. You can waste months and years on forex forums and not learn how to trade at all.

We think forex forums and trading communities are a good idea, but they always get crushed under their own weight. Having hundreds of trading systems confuses traders. Inability to get questions answered or get help creates frustration, and this can boil over to conversations getting nasty and flaming each other.

How Much Information on Forex Forums Is Useful ?

The huge volume of information on most forex forums dilutes the helpful information.  After looking over many of the popular forums, we would guess that 1-2% of the information on these forums is helpful. The rest is all “filler” comments, opinions, random conversations, or repetition from other threads. The sheer volume of information bogs everything down.

Better Alternative to Forex Forums

As an alternative to forex forums for finding a profitable trading system, we invite all forex traders to evaluate the Forexearlywarning trading system. This is a trend based trading system that focuses on the higher time frames. All of the documentation for the trading system is clear, well organized and easy to find in our 35 forex lessons, which is a series of illustrated articles fully detailing our trading system. We also have a complete video library. Both of these resources are free. We believe this trading system is substantially better than any trading system found on all forex forums.

Here is an example trade using the Forexearlywarning trading system. The USD is weak on all pairs based on our live indicator, The Forex Heatmap® forex heatmap. Due to some NZD strength in the market the NZD/CAD made the strongest intraday movement. This is what traders need. Clear, simple systems that ae easy to interpret for making trade decisions. If the NZD/CAD is in an uptrend on the larger time frames, then more pips are possible beyond the strong intraday movement cycle.

Forex Forums, Do They Improve Traders Success ?

Forex Forums, Do They Improve Traders Success ?

These live indicators and simple trend indicators work the same way for 8 different currencies and a total of 28 of the most popular pairs. Having a trading system like this with all of the documentation well organized on several web pages is what traders need. Our trading system includes probably the most powerful chart setup available to forex traders.

On a typical forex forum, it could take someone several months or possibly years to piece together a profitable trading system. Sifting through hundreds of trading systems and disorganized documentation for each system based on technical indicators  is a huge time waster. This can delay a forex traders’ success time line by several years. All you need is one effective trading system that is fully documented, and you have eliminated the need for forums altogether. Any questions about our trading system is an email away.

Conclusions About Forex Forums – If a trader wants to be part of a forex trading forum and their goal is to find a successful trading system that is well documented, they will likely be very disappointed. We suggest checking out the Forexearlywarning trading system first. Then if you believe a forex forum has any additional value you can move forward with becoming a member of one or more of them.