Many people would like to take a vacation overseas. Yes it is true that you will be able to meet a lot of new friends when you are traveling abroad. It is a kind of experience that you can never get from the books. It is a very good way for you to learn other cultures.

One thing you may not know is that it can be very dangerous when you are traveling abroad. Here the notion of danger does not necessarily mean things such as car accidents. It is dangerous because you are in a place that you do not really know very well.

If it can be arranged, you are not suggested to arrive a place late at night you have never visited before unless it is all well arranged by travel agents. If for some reason you have to arrive your destination late at night, you may wait until next morning before you leave the airport.

Besides, it can be very dangerous when you are taking a taxi. As a result, you should make sure that the taxi is an official one. You should never take a vehicle which only looks like a taxi without any official identification of the driver.

As discussed, it can be very dangerous if you are traveling on your own. In fact, if it is possible, you should not travel alone. However, there are a lot of people who actually enjoy traveling alone. If you are one of those people, make sure you will pay extra attention to the safety issue.

If possible, you should not wear clothes which looks like very expensive. It is not the time to show off when you are traveling. It can be extremely dangerous if someone think that you are a very rich person.

When you are in the train stations, remember to take care of your luggages. This is even more important when you are trying to take photos in the stations. People may try to steal your luggages when you are taking photos.

Remember, your safety is always the number one issue to be concerned when you are traveling. As a result, you should bear the above in mind so that you can make sure that you can have a safe trip.

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As an example, if British Pounds are paying 6% on deposits and US dollars are paying 5%, with all other things being equal, investment funds would flow into the currency paying higher interest rates and that currency would strengthen relative to the other currency.

In the example given above we would therefore expect that the British Pound Sterling would gain in value against the US Dollar.

Of course, this is a rather simplistic view as for one thing the “other things” are never equal. At times it is even difficult to know exactly what the “other things” may be.

There are times when markets seem to ignore fundamentials completely and trade in a highly technical manner.

However, in making a judgement about the possibility of a market maintaining a long term trend one can not ignore interest rate differentials . A review of forex price movement charts will often show that a currency paying a relative high rate of interest will in fact trend higher against currencies paying lower interest rates.  

That is one important reason why forex traders pay so much attention when central bankers of a major currency nation have their interest rate policy meetings. Occasionally the central bankers will surprise the forex market with an unexpected change in the level of interest rates and spark a fast change of price levels.

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Well, after all I was a finance and real estate major. And I did read, or at least look at, a few other famous non financial publications of the day.)

Today forget about the print media. Forbes and other print media publications that have withstood the test of time have finally figured out that they had better have a sharp web operation to operate and stay afloat in the 21st century.

The Forbes web operation covers a good number of markets including currencies and commodities. As you would expect from Forbes there is extensive stock market coverage.

Take a look. The Forbes folks seem to have worked hard at putting together a creditable online operation.

See what you think.

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The cost of Reuters, Telerate, and other services could easily be several thousand dollars a month. There was also the problem of finding legitimate banks or counter parties for your trades that would accept smaller accounts. And by smaller I mean anything less then seven figures.

Even then many banks would accept a forex trading account only on an accommodation basis. Which meant that you had to have a sizable amount of other business and deposits at the bank in order to be accepted for forex trading.

There were forex dealers, mostly out of Asia, who catered to the smaller client but most of these were bucket shop operations and best to be avoided.

As you can tell the good old days were not so good for smaller forex traders. How things have changed in the past 25 years.

Now you can run a search online for “forex trading” or “forex trading system” or just “forex” and find a large number of firms eager to accept your account and forex trading business, even if it is small potatoes.

Your choice of a good forex broker or dealer is important to you. Take your time to research each firm of interest. The following are a few things to consider:

1.) Make sure that the firm is registered with the appropriate regulatory body in its country. In the US look for a firm to be registered as a Futures Commission Merchant and a member of the National Futures Association. In the UK make sure that the firm is regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

2.) Check out the forex trading platforms. You will find web based systems as well as software to download. Most firms will allow you to set up a free test account that will let you use the software before funding your account. Some of the software programs are so-so, some are excellent. Take the time to see what is good for your needs.

3.) Open an account with an established firm, one that is easy to check out. Again look for a firm that is regulated.

4.) Make sure that up to the second pricing is offered. The trading platform should make it very easy to make trades at current prices.

5.) look for a firm offering narrow spreads between bid and asked prices. With advances in trading activity regulated firms are now generally offering from one to three pip spreads.

6.) Look at the way accounts are funded and how withdrawal requests are handled.

7.) Make sure there is someone at the firm that you can talk to on occasion. At times the Internet may not be available to you due to a power failure, network problems, or computer failure. If you have open positions on when this occurs you will want to have a trading desk telephone number that instantly connects you with a real person. With proper stop loss positions in place the urgency of such a call will be considerably reduced.

8.) Closely examine the firms stop loss policy. Some firms will guarantee you a fill at exactly your stop loss price. This is a big plus in fast moving markets.

9.) Take the time to speak with a dealer or account representative at the firm. Getting to know the folks on the trading desk will serve you well as you move forward with a trading program.

10.) Carefully read the firm’s research reports and trading comments and if offered advice. The quality can vary significantly from firm to firm.

Like any investment you should complete your own research before jumping right in. Trading forex consistently at a profit requires trading skills and good judgement. When you trade with a firm that has the resources to help you develop as a successful trader your learning curve will be a lot more manageable and pleasant.

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You can greatly improve your chances of making money at trading forex by always trading with the major trend. While it may seem all too basic the old saying “the trend is your friend” has a lot of truth behind it.

What the statement means is that when you trade with the trend you can make a number of small mistakes with your entry points and still end up with proitable trades. Once the trend kicks in, and probably it will in short order, your poor entry point will look not so poor. You will be given your opportunity for profit.

Conversely, when you trade against the trend you had better be quick to take a profit if one is ever offered. In trading forex markets can and do experience rapid changes in price levels so a counter trend trade that is showing a profit can very quickly turn into a loss as the major trend kicks in.

What all of this means is that in forex trading following the major trend will almost always be profitable with any decent trade entry point.

We will discuss executing favorable entry points soon.

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