Tuesday, March 10, 2009

3 Things to Know Before You Trade

Before you start trading there are 3 most important things that you have to know. If you go blind and open an account, there is the high chance that you will get burnt and badly at that! Wouldn't you agree that the best prepared trader is the most profitable trader?
The 3 things to know before you trade are, money management, trading psychology and a statistical edge. Let's explore in greater detail what these 3 important elements are and how they affect your trading success.

The first of the 3 things to know before you trade is a good working knowledge of money management. Money management is not about how to save your money in a bank account. The main focus of money management is all about making sure that you can grow your account consistently and profitably.
How it does that is that money management ensures a good risk versus return ration, it also limits leverage and margin overexposure and at times implement an exit strategy via a stop loss. Another key aspect of money management is position sizing. This is where a trader breaks up the account to diversify and positions the smaller amounts to the best advantage.
It is not easy to master money management, and many traders never bother to implement a money management plan at all. History has shown that these traders very quickly get run out of the business of trading within 6 to 9 months.

The second aspect of trading comes from the mind. It is all about psychology, all about how you as a trader handle your emotions, how you deal with losses and with gains. If you go to any trader's fair, you will realize that 99% of the booths there are for the ultimate trading plan. And maybe 0.01% or less is dedicated to the formation of a trading psychology. Regardless of what sort of trader you are, you cannot escape from your biggest enemy...yourself. To be profitable, a trader must first be able to control the emotions that lead to decision making.
The 2 most dangerous emotions that afflict a trader are fear and excitement. These directly influence the way a trader trades. If you are afraid of losing then you will give up a lot of good profit opportunities. If you are too excited or confident then you will not be able to stick to your trading rules which lead to a loss.

Psychology is not only concerned about just emotions, it is also concerned about the discipline factor. To be a good and profitable trader, discipline is crucial. Unfortunately not many traders can claim to be totally 100% disciplined. Luckily there are many ways to build a disciplined trader.
Lastly is a statistical edge or more commonly know as a trading plan. Most traders would have a semblance of a plan, but many actually do not have a well crafted trading plan at all.
I have seen some pretty half baked plans that traders try to use on the markets. There is a saying that trading is very much a 50/50 game, and that win or lose it is very much like a coin toss. This is theoretically correct but if you had the opportunity to increase the chances of wining, wouldn't you do so? I know that I would for a fact!

A good trading plan comprises of several components, 1) technical analysis, 2) fundamental analysis, 3) clear entry and exit signals and 4) secondary confirmation signals.
There is really too much to write in this article on how a proper trading plan should be structured. Just bear in mind that if you only focus on one aspect then your plan is flawed. You would be better off with the coin toss...
The 3 things to know before you trade are before you now. Since you have read so far, ask yourself in what area are you lacking? Then quickly get some knowledge on that area before you trade. The market is always there, there is never a hurry to throw away your hard earned cash due to a lack of knowledge.


[SigmaForex Bonus Revolution]

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You may now wonder and asking yourself how it can be done while we live the toughest time in our economic world. All imagine that we have reached the top of the crisis and will remain there for a cloudy time, which has been specified predictably by the economic experts.

But what if you have the key for passing by all that?

Actually the key solution is within your hands! But what happened is that you have got blinded with the shock of unexpected financial crisis that extends its arms to hold the entire economic world for a not specified time. All what you need is some confidence and a helping hand guiding you to a real bright path.
Almost all successful people have learned how to make their own interest even from their own loss! Just some confidence and resistance, and above all the choice of the right hit at the right time. It is a common goal for money makers to have a continuous ability of preserving their financial status. So, stop thinking of the goal only and start thinking of the way you are going to do it, and ask yourself how can I still make the amount of money I was doing before even in the worst time in economic history?
One of the most necessary steps in your thinking and performance is not to take a long time in thinking and planning to be able to catch the chances available in the market, especially at this time. This doesn't mean to be rash, but to be selective and have the deepest insight.

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3 Steps to Stop Losing Money in Trading

To start trading a trader needs to fund an account with some of his or her own money. That is called the initial investment. But even before you consider this step; bear in mind these 3 essential points.
The 3 crucial steps are namely 1) what to do if your funds fall below a certain amount, 2) how you will manage risks and 3) is this initial investment sufficient.
The sad fact is that close to 95% of new traders don't know about these 3 steps at all and most of these new traders end up losing money.

Here are 3 tips to help you keep afloat and solvent regardless of how bad the market is.

1. Keep a separate account
Even before you start trading, you would have in hand a certain amount of cash, the amount would of course vary from trader to trader. What you can do is to keep half of the amount into a separate bank account
What happens is that you have just created a reserve account. This is held in reserve in case your initial account gets wiped out. The other reason for building such an account is that we have guard against our emotions. If you use up all of your account then should there be a need to transfer any cash over to your trading account it would take some time. During this time you get to cool off. There should never exist a need for you to touch your reserve account. If you lose the initial account. Stop and consider what went wrong before starting again. Take the time and effort to improve yourself.

2. Money management
The difference between a profitable trader and a loser trader is money management and psychology. There is now other way to be profitable other than to focus on money management and psychology.
A good guide to follow for money management is to use not more than 1% to 5% of your whole initial investment. How that works out is that if you happen to use 1% of your account, then you get to make 100 losing trades before you need to refund your account. Consequently if you decide to use 5% then the figure goes down to 20 losing trades. Depending on individual risk tolerance level you decide, but base that against the risk and returns of each trade as well.

3. Contingency Plans
This is your exit strategy. Let's face the reality, you will lose money, this is a fact. Unless you have a mentor to help guide you through the difficult starting stages of trading it is most likely that you will lose your first account.
That is why in the beginning you will need to split your initial investment into half. After you have traded and failed, then your next account will be a lot more profitable. You can read a lot of books, go for all the courses, but nothing beats the real experience of trading. After you have had experience in trading you will know how to handle your losses better. So set up a safety net, call it insurance if you like, just do it and you will thank me later.
The above 3 steps will help you to stop losing money in trading. Once you have stopped the out flow of cash, every trade you do brings in more profits to you.


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Trading Analysis Pitfalls

It is very easy for a trader to go wrong in the area of trading analysis, just because he/she happens to be one of those who believe that they must indulge in very complex analysis before they can catch that winning trade. This so wrong and very many find this out the wrong way as they loose their life savings and the sweat of their labour is wasted.

When carrying out your trading analysis you must first of all have one thing at the back of your mind...KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID (KISS). I bet you have heard that word before and simply overlooked it, but 80% of traders are found wanting when it comes to applying this concept. Trading can only be as difficult or as easy as you make it...you do not need a fancy graph with multiple moving averages crisscrossing each other like a bad network of roads before you can catch a winning trade.
There is no need for a complicated analysis because all you are trying to look at is simple human behaviour to demand and supply. There are so many decent books that will show you how to use indicators and overlays and how the compliment each other. Many traders do not understand that there is a way to group the use of indicators and they will be simply mirroring too many data and end up more confused than ever.

A simple trading analysis method that involves the use of stochastic, Relative strength index (RSI) and MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence) and with one overlay like Bollinger band works very well. So remember keep it simple and free of complications as much as possible.


[SigmaForex Customer Support Area]

Customer satisfaction is number 1

It's a well known fact that no business can exist without satisfied customers, Sigma support you with all your needs that have been chosen according to your demands.
Our slogan is to achieve the maximum level of satisfaction for our customers for that we built customer support which is availble 24/7 to be reached for all clients at any time.

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Funding Methods

Withdrwal Methods

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Discipline and Market Psychology

Discipline is required to birth habits and routines. What you do routinely, you perfect. A typical example is learning to walk. When you first began to walk you never imagined running but today to do. Right? Now, you do marathon, sprints and now you even want to believe that you are Usain Bolt. Wow! Have you noticed it wasn't like that at the beginning? You staggered, you fell many times but you got up. You kept on practicing how to walk. Today you have mastered your act of walking.

The same is true of forex trading. Currency trading demands that you have a plan. Focus and discipline of purpose could help you to co-ordinate your trading successes. You can't have it any other way. You discipline of purpose is important to your trading success. Actors and actresses train to master the simple things. Doctors learn too to master the simple things. Have you every asked yourself why? At first, it might seem monotonous but doing the same thing over and over again birth consistency and help to build confidence. Somewhere in the midst of that confidence, your genius will emerge. When I first began I felt the boredom of sameness exhaustive. Today it makes my trading far easier to understand.

You build discipline to help you go through times you may not feel like trading. You build discipline to help you identify moments of great opportunities especially when market ranges. In these difficult times winning become far-fetched in forex trading. But if you have a discipline in place you can still make handsome gains. If you never studied the market consistently those moments of opportunities would pass you by as they came. In fact, your ability to recognize those times is what changes your life for the best.
Trading forex profitably is not so much about what you do when its good times for everyone. But what you did to win when most traders could barely make gains is what sets you apart. It doesn't take Einstein to win consistently, but it takes a disciplined approach to trading. I have had many of those inspirational trading moments and the rewards were magnificent. You have to identify them to be able to trade and capture them. It is an impossible attempt if you have not been trained for it. This is why many lose in the market place. You could avoid becoming part of those statistics by doing things the right way.

Finally, to make any significant amount of money from your currency trading, your focus should never be on money even though that's your ultimate goal. But this should be canceled immediately. Zero your focus on becoming an excellent trader. If you could succeed in making that your priority, money would chase after you in abundance. To lead a life of independent you must first learn to think independence and freedom within you. Only when you see that image within, re-lived it over and over again could your reality manifest. To be an excellent currency trader you must first be one within. At this time when employment, job and long term investments seemed to be dwindling fast, learning to trade currency from the comfort of your own home seem a viable way of raising your income level. Don't be crushed by the punches of the economic crunch. You could still rise above the waters of these present times. Have a great day of trading.


[SigmaForex Withdrawal Methods]

To withdraw funds from your account Please make sure that you have sufficient funds in place to cover the the necessary margin required for your open positions, after your requested withdrawal.

No requests for transfers to persons other than the account holder will be processed.
SigmaForex may require further identification or documentation in order to complete your request.
Please Note that transfer fees and bank charges may apply, and depend on the form of transfer.
Please note that we try to process the withdrawal request quickly. However, it may take up to 5 business days, depending on the method of transfer.

Your withdrawal from sigma account will be in an efficiently, secure and fast, you can withdraw money from your SigmaForex account at any time.

Withdrawal steps:

1. Login to your web account
2. Choose your withdrawal method
3. Fill the withdrawal form and write down the withdrawn amount

Focus Your Emotion

Having a focused mind and purpose could only make you a better trader. In any trading day there are series of activities. Different pairs and crosses but do you trade them all at once? If you are learning to bake a cake you don't start with ten but you begin with one. As you master your baking, then you begin to add more dough to your baking tray.

The same holds true with currency trading. To master your trade you need to pick one pair or cross you think you could master. Study it and learn to trade it very well and quickly. Master this instrument until you become very proficient in both currencies involved. Learn more about what drives it. Who the key players are? Whose voices could drive that market? In fact be informed on that currency pair than anyone else you ever known. Seek to grow and be better at it everyday from your previous trades. Maintain this single handling until it fills your dream.
Another important aspect of your focus is your emotions. How you feel and act under trading conditions are critical to your forex trading successes. How do you act under pressure? How would you conduct yourself if you were making huge gains from you trading positions? Does your emotion run wild or calm? And how do you behave when you lose? Do you still maintain the same calm persona? Do you have distractions in your trading environment? All these could heavily impact your trades. There is a trading commandment called "Know thyself". It is an unwritten rule only you could define.

You know yourself better than anyone else. You know what sort of money your mind could handle before your heart rate start beat skipping. What you must do is to avoid the enigma of allowing your emotions to rule your trade.

As a trader you are obligated to have a balanced temperament at all times. For example, do you take to calculated risks or trade by instinct? What you want to do is develop yourself to the level you would have mastered your emotions to take those intuitive decisions in the market environments. But these answers won't come over night until you have built discipline to your trade and emotions. This brings us to the last and final part of your trading requirement.

[SigmaForex Funding Methods]

Safety of funds plays an important role in any type of business; we make our best efforts to ensure protection of customers’ money.

Minimum deposit required for funding new accounts:

Our accounting department is ready to help you fund your new account or add funds to an existing account. For Standard Dealing Desk Accounts the minimum deposit is $ 500, and for the No Dealing Desk Accounts the minimum deposit is $ 2000.
Deposit instructions:
You must open a web account and associate it with your live account to insure security of transactions in your account

How to do so?
1. Open web account
2. Login and associate your Live Trading Account with your Web Account
3. Login to your Web Account and click 'Make a Deposit"

Deposit methods
1- Bank wire transfer
A wire transfer is a transfer of money from one bank account to another. The actual transfer is done by the bank, and neither the sender nor the recipient of the money sees or touches the actual funds.
Deposit Time
1-5 business days SigmaForex does not guarantee deposit times in the event of a margin call

Fees
None
SigmaForex will not be held responsible for charges or fees assessed by going through an intermediary bank.

Withdrawal Eligibility
Immediate availability
Restrictions
The account holder name of the funds must always match the name listed as the customer on the trading account.

2- E-gold payments
Open www.e-gold.com- Create new e-gold account - Issue transfer request from your e-gold account to SigmaForex e-gold account.

Deposit Time
Immediate deposit SigmaForex does not guarantee deposit times in the event of a margin call
Fees
None
SigmaForex will not be held responsible for charges or fees assessed by going through an intermediary bank.

Withdrawal Eligibility
Immediate availability

Restrictions
The account holder name of the funds must always match the name listed as the customer on the trading account.

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