This past week the US stock market sold off sharply from record highs to finish the week with the worse performance in four years. Yet the US Dollar reversed its recent downward spiral and finished higher against all major currencies.

This seemingly perverted behavior was in fact forecast several weeks ago in a posting called US Dollar Strength Forecast.

As discussed in the posting the prospect of an old fashioned credit crunch springing from the Bear Sterns hedge fund disaster has spooked investors worldwide. The prospect for sharply higher interest rates in the US is now being considered as seriously real.

The foreign exchange markets will often focus on interest rate differential between currencies. As rates increase at a faster pace in the US compared to that of other nations look for continued strength in what from most viewpoints should be a seriously weak Dollar.

For more information about the developing crisis environment for stocks and US Dollar movements visit our sister site Investment World Today.

Tweet This Post

A very neat free service featuring live forex quotes and charts will be found at Tenfore Systems

Once on the page scroll down to the bottom half. You will see a forex chart along with a tool bar. The tool bar allows you to change the forex pair, time periods, types of chart, as well as to add technical studies, like Bollenger Bands, RSI,  and moving averages.

You can also print out your chart once you are satisfied with your modification.

This is a good service for determining the major trends of forex pairs and to determine trade entry and exit points.

Tweet This Post

A live forex data feed for the major currencies will be found at Saxo Bank. Please note that this link is provided as a service only. We are not associates with Saxo Bank in any way.

To receive live quotes on a frequent basis may we suggest that you open at least a practice account with one of the major online dealing firms. There are a number of them that will allow you to open an account and use their trading platform to see how well you like and perform using their system.

It’s a good way to get used to the forex trading software before putting your own money at risk.

You should also get a good idea as to the service that you will receive from the firm. If you are a new comer to trading forex starting out with a practice account is a very good idea.

Tweet This Post

The number one reason why so many forex traders fail to make profits over the long term is a lack of discipline.

Most traders make all too many trades. While this may be good for the forex traders brokerage firm it is probably not good for the trader.

Even though most brokerage firms do not charge commissions on forex deals they do take spreads. That is one way that they make money. While each spread may seem small, only one to three pips would be typical, the spread must be recovered on a trade or the trader will lose money.

A forex trader who trades frequently will have a lot of pips to make up. A trader who trades too frequently will also probably become confused and enter the market at poor entry points.

To trade forex successfully it is important to enter a market on corrections within the trend. That is if a market is in an uptrend wait until there is a meaningful sell off before entering the trade with a long position.

A forex trader who is always in the market is probably going to be a losing trader.

Trading discipline is the key to forex trading success.

Tweet This Post

Over the last five or six years the National Futures Association ( NFA ) has taken great interest in foreign exchange trading operations.

One of the primary reasons for the NFA’s interest was that with the growth of online trading companies there was for a number of years a large number of unregulated questionable operations, many operating outside of the United States,  that were involved more in separating their clients from their money than in legitimate trading operations.

The efforts of the NFA and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission ( CFTC ) have gone a long way to clear up the abuses that were all too common in the online forex trading industry only a short time ago.

However, as new traders are constantly entering the forex market and may not be aware of the potential for abuse the NFA continues to monitor the industry and publishes guidelines as to how traders can better protect themselves.

A very useful and informative Forex Online Learning Program is free to anyone online who wants to review the information. This is an excellent resource that I am pleased to recommend to you.

It makes for interesting reading even if you are an experienced forex trader.

Tweet This Post